2014-04-11 AIM A Little Higher
2014-04
Players: Logan Sue Mike Tony Stephen
GMed by Fancyfox
Title: AIM A Little Higher

Life is hard in the Ghetto. And it was just made a little harder by the terrorist acts of the renegade science group, AIM. Unfortunately for them, absolutely everybody arrives in record time to hurt them until they can't hurt no more.


New York City really doesn't ever sleep. Not that it's very late yet, but the sun is down and the streetlights have begun to glow all along the streets. This spring evening is cool and crisp, but not quite cold. Unfortunately, it has brought with it something that has set civilians screaming as they flee in terror, and smoke suddenly begins to rise from a sleek-looking building. Looks like there's something especially nasty brewing. Obviously, it's hero time.

The familiar sight of the city's red and gold protector can be seen above the rooftops, darting along and carefully avoiding the taller buildings. In this area, though, most of them are at least not skyscrapers. Tony purses his lips as the heads-up display alerts him to the smoke…and fire? It's not just a building fire, that much is obvious. People don't run screaming like that from those. He pushes his boot-jets to faster speed and flies downward.

The familiar sight of the city's red and gold protector can be seen above the rooftops, darting along and carefully avoiding the taller buildings. In this area, though, most of them are at least not skyscrapers. Tony purses his lips as the heads-up display alerts him to the smoke…and fire? It's not just a building fire, that much is obvious. People don't run screaming like that from those. He pushes his boot-jets to faster speed and flies downward.

Nearby enough was a certain blonde Avengers ally, out for an evening stroll on the way back from a meeting with some old, academic friends. She could hear the screaming, see the crowds running, and heads over in that direction. How could she not try and help?

Where there's smoke, there's either a bar b que, trouble, or a combination of the two either of those are reasons to draw one's attention and being that Mike doesn't have anything scheduled for today. Eeehh, yeah he can take a look. Having taken to his Raveny form, he flies overhead towards the commotion, the sleek purplish black of the feathers not doing as much attention grabbing as a certain hot rod of the superhero community might. Actually, he's probably not drawing any attention at all. Just how many people in this area actually know what type of birds are commonplace in the city and which aren't?

Elsewhere in the city of New York, specifically in Greenwich Village, the Sorcerer Supreme sits in his Sanctum Sanctorum. The mage's eyes linger on a crystal ball, watching the scene unfold with several key figures rushing in, though a sense of dread still looms over Stephen. With a couple of gestures, the sorcerer closes the ball into his globe like home and summons his red and golden cloak to him which he snaps around his neck with a shimmering amulet. In a few moments Doctor Strange is in flight towards the building with speed to rival that of any avenger, prayers escaping his mouth that he all involved will be safe.

Logan had been laying face down on a table nearby, while an old buddy from '75 was turning his muscles into goop and forcefully putting his spine back into place, and with that unbreakable adamantium coating them, it took serious power that only Oglaf there could provide.

The screaming distracts them just as the big man shoved Logan's shoulder back where it needed to go, and a handshake later, Logan was out the door. And seconds later, the five foot three Canadian was in full costume, running straight toward the building as fast as those legs could carry him. He gave a sniff, smelling and getting a feel for the area, and trying to figure out what in the hell was happening.

The building wasn't a natural fire, and it becomes clear as the heroes draw closer that there isn't just an elemental tragedy awaiting them: it's a giant robot, at least 15 feet tall, with an impressive array of armaments that it appears to be unleashing on the building itself. Near and around it, insectoid robots — also armed — skitter around and in general spread menace.

Last but not least of all, a number of personnel in yellow suits that cover their entire bodies, heads included, remain close by the robot. A group of them works to carry a number of packages from the building.

Tony gets closer to street level and assesses the situation.

"Oh great. It's AIM. Hopefully not too much to ask that maybe it's just some flunkies—" He trails off abruptly. Nope, not even that lucky. A giant robot. As it's AIM, it'll probably be very well built. But they haven't noticed him yet, so he sets HOMER on assessing its weak and strong points. No need to put himself at risk without some advantage, right?

While not up at a high vantage point, Sue still gets a good look at the situation through gaps in the crowd she's pushing through. She shrugs off her long coat and tosses it aside, revealing the F4 uniform she has underneath it. She only vaguely recognized these jokers, but still, a giant robot? That certainly got her attention. She looked up at a familiar sound, smiling at her armored teammate flying overhead.

As the sight comes into view, the Raven's flight veers up slightly as he stops, practically hovering as his wings hold still for a few seconds. If that didn't destroy the illusion, the beak parts open, removing any doubt that the raven is anything but a bird, "-the fuck?!" Eloquence. Nevermore.

Zooming onto the scene, is a red and blue blur, approaching from Stark's six o'clock, Slowing down and stopping behind the avenger, Strange gives a greeting, "Good evening Iron Man." Who doesn't know Iron Man? Not one to give orders but one to do what he can to help the greater good, Strange informs Tony, "I'm going to get the crowds out of here, you focus on the danger." With that the Sorcerer Supreme starts invoking names and tracing motions in the air with his hands, disguising the robot and it's attackers as that of a giant inferno, will pushing the flight aspect of nearly everyone around the scene. Minus that of the heroes in the area.

The throng of people are running away from danger, from what they moments ago saw as madness, and what they now see as a raging fire. But the Mutant in black and yellow is rushing past the crowds, and knows better. Instantly he snarls at the sight of a bunch of idiots who brought their pet robots, including a big guy. As much as the Wolverine would love to take that threat out first, he knew that he'd have to close the distance, and so he went from a jog to a mad charge. Rushing past civies, he runs up a parked Accura and leaps off the roof of it, streaking through the air and aiming his fists out at a few roboreptiles. Aiding his fists, are six silver flashes of razor-sharp metal that pop out, between his knuckles. If these hit, he doubted the tin cans would stand much chance.

SNIKT!

"HRAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

Logan has made himself a target. AIM bots have shields, force fields, and while their bodies may be unable to stand up to those adamantium claws, their force fields are up to the task. Looks like there will need to be some teamwork here! Unfortunately for everyone involved, Logan's actions have drawn the attention of the AIM group. The human troopers fall back, unleashing a volley of laserfire at all the assembled heroes. Then the big bruiser shifts his attention from building demolishing…to hero demolishing.

Tony winces at all of the things happening all at once. "Sometimes I want to tell you not to do that, but I know you're right," he calls out to Stephen. "Always makes me feel funny." When he catches Sue waving, he waves back. Seems like he was pretty easy to notice, but then a red and gold suit of metal shouldn't really ever be assumed to be stealthy. "Okay, um, what I'm seeing here is that that big lug has about exactly three vulnerable spots, and they're all at least ten feet off the ground." And sure enough, there are little gaps in the armor's construction that could probably allow some serious damage. "I'm…thinking I might call in my friend Wasp. Gimme a minute."

Fortunately the bots aren't the only ones to have forcefields here. Sue grits her teeth and adjusts her footing as the crowd clears around her, slamming a wave of pure psionic energy at the nearest one.

"Come on, Tony," she yells into her earpiece, "We need a plan here. We don't have a minute for Janet!"

As the force fields react to the incoming Logan, Phantasm flies down, finding Iron Man and Sue. However, he's landed on the AIM side of Sue's force field, which is likely ill-advisable with his back turned to the enemy, "Just what the hell are they?" He asks, not noticing a stray blast of laserfire coming towards his back. It passes through him from behind with no visible effect.

The lasers being fired at Logan strengthens Stephen's resolve and fuels his spell, helping to quarantine the area so only the five heroes remain to combat the AIM invasion. For now that's what the mage does, focuses on saving innocent lives before shifting his focus to other grand questions. Floating in the air above a battle isn't exactly what most would consider a 'safe place to be', as the thought of getting to cover slipped Stephen's mind is quickly moved to the forefront of his mind as a trio of bolts are launched at the mage.

Well. That didn't work. And it was a first, the claws of the Wolverine not slicing into what he aimed at, and instead feeling those claws instantly recoil from the invisible force surrounding his quarry. And traveling so fast and so hard like a three hundred pound adamantium torpedo, his own momentum was used as a weapon, as he went flying backward to land hard on his shoulders, neck and the back of his skull.

He was back up only to notice those weapons aimed at him, and he brought his claws forward to try and 'deflect' and negate some of those high powered lasers. Still, most of them got past that and ripped through the black and yellow material of his uniform, almost 'slicing' clean through his body when it was just skin and meat and muscle, bouncing around and refracting slightly when it encountered his adamantium ribcage and spinal cord. This did NOT feel very good, and Logan started gritting his teeth at the fresh pain.

Sue really makes an impact on all those robots with the force fields. By now, the human AIM troops have all but entirely retreated, but that isn't necessarily a good thing: the giant robot now turns its focus to the assembled heroes, letting loose a volley, a spray of energy projectiles designed to take them down as quickly as possible. It's like real life bullet hell! But the smaller robots are also still around, at least a few of them, and they're not making life any easier.

Sue grits her teeth tighter and winces as she expands the forcefield around her and anyone caught nearby, especially her allies if possible. "Too….much….gah…" she grunts, the strain visible on her face as she absorbs the damage they're throwing at her, her hands up and pointing towards them and trying to strengthen her defenses.

Tony frowns behind the mask. "Why is it my responsibility to tell everyone else what to do? You're all grown-ups!" But first on the docket is definitely what he does first, which is to push himself between Stephen and the bolts fired in his direction. The Iron Man suit can handle it; he's not sure if Doctor Strange's mystical prowess can shield him. The shields around the suit pulse and ripple, restoring energy levels slowly and steadily. "Why don't we just try to…I don't know, why don't we see if you can compromise one of the weak spots. I'll try to draw off the little buggy ones with the hairy metal guy down there."

Phantasm mutters, head tilting up to watch the Avenger fly off. He turns, starting to fly towards one of the robots, adding something uncomplementary in reference towards the brightly armored man. He flies full tilt, closing his eyes as he nears the large robot. If he can't SEE the field, he can't unconciously hit it. When he thinks he may have passed it, he opens his eyes again, all the better to accordion up from the impact upon the robot. This does not appear promising to the average viewer.

Strange recoils backwards as the blasts are fired at him, the spell of concealment forgotten in that instant as he raises a hand all too slowly to block the attack but is saved at the last moment by Iron Man. He catches his breath as his heart flutters at the close call, the wizard notes, "Thank you," As he looks around to the dispersed crowds and then to the fleeing agents. Taking a deep breath Steve collets his brain and moves on to what he thinks must be done. He swoops down low and fast zipping above the reach of the smaller robots and arcs around the largest before cutting a few AIM footmen off in an alley, landing in front of them, "Running off so soon?" The mage asks, his hands raised and waiting for the mental command to create a shield to protect himself.

Well, he took down a few yellow suits with those deflected blasts before he was dropped to a knee, that was something. But with these robots having the protection they did, his being here amongst them was useless. And as Logan started to re-evaluate the situation, he noticed the other people flying around, doing what they could to help just like he was doing. And especially seeing that red and gold armor fly around, he figured that one in particular knew how to handle these robots, so he just focused on going after the men in yellow, doing his best to go for minimal damage, and to neutralize rather than disembowel.

Still, they were dangerous gunmen who could be putting lives at risk. And the choice between a civilian's life and a dirtbag's arm, leg or even ability to walk weren't no choice at all to the Wolverine.

"Awright ya flamin' idiots, the first guy who shuts down them robots gets ta keep his legs. Limited time offer!"

Sue gives a shove back against the robots, hopefully knocking a few of the smaller ones near her down and the guys around them. Not enough to put them out of the fight, but enough to give a pause for a moment. She runs towards the group, mentally projecting a sheet of psionic energy that attemps to sweep the ones infront of her to either side. With any luck, she's getting close to Logan now, at least.

The insectoid robots continue to run interference though, and Logan will find himself faced by a few of those on the way. But distracted as they are, they're not hard for him to get rid of, even with their force fields by now. Especially since Sue is knocking them apart like an ocean of metal. The larger robot continues to draw closer to all the others, and it lets loose smaller shots this time, intended to scatter or knock them out. The AIM troops fall back to larger armored transport, which would seem to be outfitted with arms as well. Maybe they heard about the HYDRA disaster and didn't want a repeat of it.

Tony zips around to take a few shots at the larger robot. "Keep trying to hack the system," he says to the AI of his own suit, not broadcasting outside. "Maybe we can shut it down without having to take so much risk." Of course, it would probably be easier for someone like Sue to hit one of the vulnerable points, but she's got her hands full. Tony glances around, just for a second. "Come on, Jan. Where are you…"

The AIM agents in front of Strange all level their weapons and fire at the same time, and all the blasts hit an invisible wall before the sorcerer before he moves a single hand and two of the yellow clad men are sent sailing out into the street from where they came. One remains and Stephen mystically pries the weapon from his hand and tosses it behind him, the wizard stepping forward, "Tell me what you're after in this building. Why attack with such noticeable force?"

As the big bertha of the robots moves forwards, the smear of bird starts to move too into the form of something a bit more fluid, running along the side of the robot as it travels along the sides, lingering around the underside of the right arm joint of the robot. The puddle o' polly starts to seem smaller as it starts passing through.

The Wolverine cut a swath of carnage on his way toward the blonde in blue. Now that he understood the odds a bit more he leapt and ran past lasers and attacks, utilizing his great agility and reflexes and letting the brainless bolts attack each other in their attempts to catch the ex-ninja. And when he got close enough that he could look up at the relatively normal looking woman(she had three inches on him, after all), he grunted and spoke as he casually swung his right arm around nearly behind him, reducing a yellow suited man's laser gun to pieces, and causing him to hold his now stained red hand, crumping to the ground and crying. (The brochure hadn't said it was gonna be like this!)

"I figure either you or the big golden scrap heap up there know what's goin' on better than anyone. So how in the hell do we shut these suckers down?!"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out!" Sue yells as she blocks some laser fire towards them with a small forcefield centered over her forearm. "We need to find a weakpoint and exploit it." Her other hand goes up to her ear, "Tony, you got something for me yet, honey?"

Most of the AIM troopers are in their armored transport, but the ones that aren't are quickly targeted by the robots for rescue. The one wounded by Wolverine is picked up by a skittering spideroid, and the one in Strange's grasp gets him the giant robot swatting at him, to say nothing of some shots fired by the insectoids below. The giant robot doesn't even notice the former bird infiltrating its body at first, but soon it detects a discrepancy and begins to send pulses of energy along its body, to drive the intruder out.

Tony tries to focus, tries to get a bead on that small opening. "Two at the arms, one closer to the head!" He calls to Sue. He fires once — misses — again, and it deflects off the armor, and the third time it's disrupted by the energy pulses. He curses in a rumble of robotically-distorted speech.

Without a sense of feeling, the glob of bird is unsure what the little things pulsing are, but he assumes it's probably not a nice thing and so the thought process fills in the gaps in an odd manner as the glob starts to gather itself, becoming less tangible in the process. Balling up, it rolls towards something that 'looks important' and shifts into it. Once in position, a fanged smile appears upon the ball before giving a focused expression, forcing itself to become tangible again. Oooh Artery clogger.

Strange looks up as the man crouches and makes the large bot before him the most visible thing in the mage's sight. With the thought sent to his cloak at the very sight of the mech, Stephen is pulled away by his magical garb to avoid the swipe. The Sorcerer Supreme curses himself mentally as he is forced to let the terrorist free, for the moment at least, however the large behemoth has now made itself the mage's primary focus. "By the Vishanti you shall not best me this day machine." Stephen's voice booms out of the alley as he raises up, a string of mystic energy arching from both hands before lancing out towards a set of hinges in the robots legs. (The knees roughly)

With him over here, he realized that there was no way he'd get to it in time. So, the short little Canadian turned to Susan, standing up a little more straight, his claws retracting back into his forearms, right before her eyes. With his own eyes hidden behind those white eyelets that were built into his mask, something about him looked alien right here, even though his voice was as passionate and normal as anybody's.

"Ya can do stuff with yer mind, right darlin'? I've seen you do it on the news. What I need you to do is to use that and throw me as hard as ya can toward that big flamin' rustbucket over there. Don't worry, I can take it, but aim me fer somethin' good. Now! NOW!"

If that was done, the Logan would crash into that thing harder than anything, claws outstretched, with no fear or care for his wellbeing. Whatever happened, he would get over it, but he highly doubted the robot there could say the same.

If this all worked, anyway.

Sue looked down at Logan, eyes widening a little bit at the strange request. "Sure, but are you…I mean, I'm not that good at fine control of it yet…" She lets out a sigh and nods, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath to center herself. "Alright, but don't blame me if you get hurt." Her hands came up and he was seized in her psionic grip, then hurled at high velocity right up at it.

With everyone working together, the giant robot is made to stumble and fall, although Logan's likely to suffer some serious injury — and deflection — due to his dangerous stunt. It's unknown how the shapeless Phantasm will be affected by the fluctuating systems, although finally Tony does manage to hit something and do further damage. The mysterious once-bird struck a serious blow against the thing's defenses! Before it can recover, Strange's magic compromises its legs and then, the last move, the coup de grace: a shimmering dart like a firefly moving at mach 1 zips around the head, around the back, and an instant later to Iron Man. And then there's suddenly a petite woman sitting on his shoulder. The winsome Wasp!

Tony hit something! He finally hit something! But before he can make any other suggestions, the others are working together better than they've done the whole time. He can't help it. He grins behind his mask and settles down next to Sue on the pavement, waiting to see what will be the result of their teamwork. Once the thing is disabled, then he finds himself used as a perch. "Wasp! What kept you, sweetheart?"

Tumbling down, tum-tum-tumbling down. Phantasm is riding this bot to the ground. Woah woaah. He lingers inside, kind of wondering how the others are doing.

Logan was chucked and thrown into the air in an arc, and came down with the wind whipping past the 'horns' of his mask, filling his ears. His cheeks were pulled back from the intensity of the kinetic launching he received, and he thought he might have been screaming, but wasn't entirely sure. A second later that missile came down, fists and claws stretched outward, smashing right through the right shoulder of the huge, hulking monstrosity. He ripped out the other side, wires and shards of metal wrapped around and sticking out of him, and he hit the ground next to Strange in an absolute heap. If his bones weren't coated in adamantium they'd probably be liquified, and as it is they were probably powder inside their casings, though they'd recover in due time.

That. That really hurt. But moments later, the rest of that thing's right arm would droop and slowly sink to the ground, rendered absolutely useless, and circuitry inside it revealed and vulnerable. At the same time, the rest of the 'body' on the other side would start to cave in a little, just slightly enough so that the rest of the combined attacks to follow, hit with a ittle extra impact. The attack did the job it was meant to.

Eyes wide at the performance Logan just gave, Strange is caught gawking at the impromptu ally. The mage senses the life force still beating within Logan and surmises he wouldn't have done such a thing if he wasn't going to be alright. Stephen looks back to the mecha as it topples to the ground a scattered mess of body panels and tubes strewn about. Without taking a moment to enjoy the minor victory over the large bot, Strange lowers his hands and scans around, using all senses available to him, in search of the agent he was questioning a moment ago. "Ah ha!" He mutters before flying over towards the avengers, "Iron Man, our battle has yet to be resolved!" The Sorcerer Supreme notes rapidly as he sails over the scene in pursuit of the spideroid!

Sue gaped at Logan's flight, not believing it herself as she watched it fall over. Fortunately she had enough wits about her to throw her hands up and block any debris coming down near them. She gives Tony a tired thumbs-up as she slumps, too much energy drained. "Took you long enough, Janet." She looks up at the other strange one, "Ugh, there's more?"

Oh hey! There's some light! What makes for eyes upon the ball of Phantasm combines for quite a happy little round carrier of robot doom. With the robot now obviously out of commission, the scentless bundle of glee goes intangible once more, falling out of the wreckage to bounce along happily. . ' . ' . ' . '

The robot seems to be incapacitated, and the spideroid, insectoid smaller ones have all but skittered away. The one that took away Stephen's subject of interrogation is out of sight, but maybe it can be caught up to…it seems that nothing else is left at the scene of the battle but debris.

Jan wiggles her fingers to Sue, looking very comfortable on Tony's shoulder. "This isn't the only incident in town. Apparently there was a concerted effort by AIM to strike in two places at once, divide forces. Glad you could handle it."

Tony smirks, behind the mask, settling into where he stands, watching carefully for any hostile reactions from the big robot. But it seems like it's accepted defeat, if it had any more choice in the matter. "Typical. I notified the emergency services, they should be here soon enough. After the fire's out, we can try to find out what they took."

Strange appears as if he intends to find out now instead of waiting but he suddenly stops. At the edges of where the battle occurred, Stephen floats down to the ground and lowers his eyes, knowing it's best now to not rush into something he isn't prepared for, especially without anyone following him to assist should he require it. Also the spells he used moments ago have him drained and not at his fullest capabilities. It's very much a moment of choosing your battles.

Wolverine was up to a knee in that black and yellow costume of his, now mixed with red, and covered in blue green and red wires all around him, the occasional circuit board hanging off his shoulder. His back to everyone, his right hand came up weakly(the bones inside his adamantium in a bit of pain) and grasped at something. A slick wet noise as he pulled something from his body and let it clang on the ground, and only then did he struggle to his feet, turning around. His left hand was covering his throat, and his right hand was covering his right cheek. Both gloves were covered in blood, and there could be movement seen under the fingers of that right hand of his.

But, moments later when he dropped his limbs, the flesh underneath seemed to be fine, though there was a deep scar along his cheek that looked pretty bad. For those that paid close attention to it instead of averting their gaze, they might notice it not looking quite as awful(but still bad) after a few minutes.

"Don't suppose we know anythin' else about these knuckleheads? Other than the fact that they just got on my last nerve?"

The ball contiues it's bounce, coming to a stop near where most of the others have gathered. Upon nearing there, the bounce stops, causing for the round blob to wobble before rolling to a stop. With the face being upside down, the face frowns a little before it rolls a little more, righting itself. "Any relation to the group that dresses in green?"

"These are AIM, not HYDRA." Jan smiles down at the ball, leaning to the side and folding her arms to rest them on Tony's head. "They're a group that typically populates even the faceless underlings with super-geniuses. They've been a familiar annoyance to me as they were to my father, and to…Ant-Man, too."

Tony stretches a little, though he keeps himself careful not to pitch Jan off. Of course, it doesn't matter since she can fly, but he's a gentleman. Sometimes. "Advanced Idea Mechanics. I had to deal with them myself, in the past. Not the kind of people you deal lightly with. Apparently."

"Reed and I have had some dealings with AIM in the past. They are the worst things to happen to science and engineering in decades. Totally evil and wanting to take over the world."

Stephen has seemingly fallen into a trance like state, even though he remains standing up right, the wizard doesn't open his eyes or even seem to breath. (He is, don't worry.)

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