Chapter 8
"Kaillie, you're up!" Tamarina yelled to her older sister. After getting a nod from Alex, the oldest of the girls loped over and collected her weapons and started working with the wands experimentally. Clara walked over and removing one of her gloves ran her hand lightly over the piping. Quickly she pulled her hand back and shakes her fingers vigorously, as if she had received an electric shock. The older woman then curses over the alarm before putting the glove back on. Alex walked over to her and asked, "What's wrong?"
Distracted Clara actually gives him an honest answer, "This metal is an alloy, so I can't work with it." Seeing his look of confusion Clara realized that she had said more than she intended, but decided to explain anyway, "I'm allergic to most alloys."
Indicating the wiring on the tazer plate he began tearing off strips of electrical tape and attaching them to his shirt. Then he handed her the roll and she began to mimic his movements in the wrapping process. "You can touch this metal." He noticed.
"Yes what is it?" Clara noted as she continued to wrap more swiftly. "Steel plate." Clara shrugged and said, "Good to know but not exactly helpful in this case."
Chris suddenly cursed, Clara was about to call him on it, when he said, "Alex, tell Mom that Coulson is coming after her lab, with eight other agents."
"Not Phil!" said Pepper protesting.
"Damn it!" Stark replied, "What the hell is going on?"
"I'll let her know kiddo." Alex said reassuringly.
Clara looked at the floor where several smaller pieces of the sheet metal had been cut from the larger piece to make it more uniform. She studied them for a moment and then began to pick them up. Taking them over to another work table she also collected a ruler and a marker laying on the table with the tazer plates. Alex corralled several of the larger robots to help him move the tazer plate into the hall.
"Pepper." called Happy handing her the rods he had just finished taping before going to help Alex and the robots move the tazer plate into the hall. The executive immediately began practicing some of the things the twins had been showing her.
"U," called Clara, "come here." The robot bustled over to the woman who quickly indicated what she had drawn onto the plate pieces, instructing the welder bot to cut the pieces out.
Rhodie meantime was putting several of the grenades and the tripwire into a box and he and Stark squeezed through the door to the hallway, before the bots could maneuver the tazer plate through the door.
In less than a minute, Rhodie and Stark were back and announced the makeshift landmines were set up. They were soon followed by Alex and Happy who announced the tazer plate was in place. Clara was with another bot now giving it instructions as Chris continued to call out his progress with Jarvis. Stark moved to stand behind the teen and began directing him in how to read the building schematics and codes for the different areas of Stark tower.
"Aunt Clara," Bobbi calls, "these windows don't open. I can probably knock 'em out but somebody might get hurt below."
"Everybody get away from the windows. Chris time?" Clara yells over the alarm as she signaled to Fenris to move with the humans, the wolf led his pack to a corner near the door to the lab.
"Two and 30," the boy yelled. Then he grabbed his keyboard with one hand and Starks good arm with the other, and pulled him into a huddle with the others.
"What's going on?" asked Happy, as he continued to wrap tape around another metal rod.
Bobbi replied with a surprisingly evil grin, "Barton broke Rule #3. Aunt Clara is pissed, which means Barton is toast."
Then Clara gracefully raises her arms and closes her eyes. The group hears a roaring noise just before every window in the outer wall is shattered, and the glass is blown inward. The children and animals didn't even flinch as the glass explodes into the room and becomes caught in the vortex of wind, spinning around her.
A smile of pure contentment graces Clara's lips as the vortex increases in strength lifting her off of her feet to float for several seconds. Then she lowers herself back to the floor, the glass falls in glittering little piles around her feet. The alarm continued but no one spoke for several seconds.
Then U made his little bloop sound to indicate his job was complete." "I'm with Rhodie." Stark said breathlessly. "Who are you people?" Everyone in the Douglas-Wallace clan giggled, chuckled, or generally gave a little laugh in response to that.
Chris replied, "Don't worry Stark, in this case, we're the good guys." The boy clapped the older man in the shoulder as he said it.
"Chris, time?" Clara asks again, as she moves toward the work table U had been working at.
The boy looks down at his computer, "A minute thirty."
Dumping her messenger bag on the work table Clara quickly gathered the pieces of metal and puts them in the bag as she called, "Everyone ready?"
Affirmative responses sounded from the group all around including a few growls and a rather loud howl from Fenris was the response. The group broke from the huddle, with Alex and Rhodie both rechecking their guns. Grasping Chris' shoulder Alex said, "I think we can shut off the alarm now Chris. If they haven't figured out we know they're coming by now, they must be deaf."
The young red head hacker simply nodded his head and typed in a few commands, and announced that he had already managed to take out several of the enemy agents by trapping them in the elevators. Clara handed all four girls a pair of makeshift shurikens she had U make from the left over pieces of sheet metal.
Then showed several she still had in her bag. "Chris time?" Alex asked. As he came to stand in front of Clara, giving her his own smile of calm.
When the hacker replied, "Thirty seconds."
Alex gave the order," Bring on the rain, kiddo."
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Meanwhile back in the genetics lab Dr. Banner, or Bruce as he insisted everyone call him had reacted a little badly who insisted that everyone call him Bruce, had reacted a little oddly to the alarm. He had startled and flinched as had most everyone else and then turned a little green. Gabriella and her set of kids and animals, hadn't entirely reacted well themselves. The animals hackles were raised and they were growling low and harsh.
"Ah, G…Ms. Wallace, is everything all right with the animals, we don't want to have an… incident." Miriam said to her. Gabriella noticed the greenish tint to Banner's skin and figured loud noises make him a lot nervous and therefore a little ill.
Ivan glanced between the two women, Gabriella glanced at the animals and seemed to rumble soothingly at the group.
Benjamin suggested, "I think we should get ready for an assault on the tower." turning to Miriam and Banner, Benjamin asked, "Okay, Doc, who here has hands on training and isn't going to be squeamish if you have to fight. I don't necessarily mean hand-to-hand but mixing a glue type substance, tranquilizers, darts guns. tazer plates." He said counting things off on his fingers as he spoke, "How do you get to Stark's lab from here?" Then forcefully, "Who is willing to fight with us?" he said in his accented voice.
Bruce had obviously calmed a bit when he had the distraction of having to think or had something to do. She looked at Doctor Allen, then Doctor Banner, and Miriam. It was Jason, Russ, Yodie, Benjamin, Ivan and Irena who had their hands up with Miriam and Dr. Banner and a few others who said, "You tell us what you need; we'll try to make it for you."
"I've got this Benjamin. You go take care of the doctors who can't do this." Jason said, before Gabriella could open her mouth. The teenager stepped up and drew the attention of the adults as he began doling out tasks to each. "Okay let see, we'll need a lot of glue epoxy, after we catch them. Let's replace the cleaning agent with sleeping gas or NO2. Rip the metal tables top off and we'll turn them into tazer plates. We'll need rubber balls… gosh, I wish Bobbie was down here with her fastball…." He kept them hopping.
Bruce, Miriam, and another scientist were in the mechanical room beside the clean room. That area controlled the clean room that led into the lab, they were in the process of changing out the cleaning agents for an aerosol animal tranquilizer.
One of the burlier techs was beginning to take one of the metal tabletops and put it on the floor. Then he went to work trying to flatten the sides and corners.
Ivan was drawing out something for Russ that looked for all the world like a beetles carapace. Russ and Jason conferred for a moment Russ went to one of the work tables grabbed a tape measure, while Ivan put first Irena then Yodie on top of the work table, Russ basically took rough measurements of the two youngest and wrote them down. Then called over Zef and Warg and took rough measurements of the two animals.
Meanwhile Jason was examining chemicals on a rack gathering this and that, taking it over to another work table and mixing the various ingredients in a small barrel with what amounted to an oar. Russ had poured something into a deep tray table that looked like sand before scooping some back out, creating a shape in the sand.
Jason was lifting the barrel of liquid he had been working on with the help of Ivan and a trolley they trucked it over to the table where Russ had been scooping sand to the specifications he had written out. Then all three with the help of a scientist and a tech were carefully pouring into the scooped out areas in Russ's makeshift sandbox. When the material was in place the young scientists used the side of a lid to push the material around to coat the sides. When they were done, Russ poured sand in on top of it carefully.
Once Jason and Russ had done what they needed to at the tray table they went on to other things. Russ was putting together lengths of PVC and aluminum, while Jason was mixing up more chemicals in an even larger vat with a gargantuan mixer. "Coulson is the one coming for us." That was Russ who screamed to everyone, after passing Benjamin talking to Alex and overhearing the conversation. Ivan had Nikolai help Jason and Russ while he went and tracked down two of the scientists and began conferring with them quickly.
The four SHIELD agents who had been in the pool when they arrived, were willing to help fight the attackers. Benjamin was talking to the four SHIELD agents who had assured them they had nothing to do with the attack and didn't agree with involving themselves against civilians. The four had gotten back into their gear when the alarm went off. When they heard that it involved SHEILD agents and Coulson they were stunned but refused to fight against "Techs and civilians." They were checking weapons and with Benjamin conferring with Alex on the Sat. phone they were trying to work out a game plan.
Benjamin was now deep in conversation with Yodie and Irena giving each of them a quarter. Each of the children ran to the various closets and rooms looking for something.
Dr. Jones came out of a side room with rubber apron and gloves on and a carefully wrapped package he put next to the pool, nearby two other techs who were pulling their own gloves on, ready to put the material in the pool when the time was right.
Coming over to Gabriella. Dr. Jones, who introduced himself as Rick, explained the carefully wrapped package was dry ice and would make a very effective smoke screen, for the pool area and the tigers. While everyone would still be able to breathe without too much difficulty. Dr. Jones was pulled away by another scientist and the pair head into one of the smaller labs.
Benjamin was now gathering things from various areas and seemed to be working on two projects at the same time, while coordinating with the SHIELD agents in the lab.
On a whim and to try and break the tension a little bit, Gabriella yelled, "Benjamin?"
"Yes ma'am?" he replied rather distractedly.
'Was that a blow torch? Where in a genetics lab do you get a blow torch for heaven sake?'
The security specialist looked up still a little distracted and said, "Um, it's mine actually, why?"
"Aha, been watching too many MacGyver reruns with the kids I see." said the woman with a smirk.
If his hands hadn't been very occupied, Benjamin would have face palmed, as it was he knew he was caught but still tried to lie, "Uhmm, no." while avoiding eye contact by resuming his intense interest in what he was working on.
"If we get out of this, you and Alex get a raise."
His eyes flash up to meet her gaze and he gave a little smirk before answering, "Yes ma'am. I'll let him know." The boys laughed and Ivan harrumphed.
Dr. Jones came back out of the small lab and gave Jason and Russ each a rather odd looking over-size gun. Before Gabriella could protest the doctor came over to her and gave her one as well. "These are tranquilizer guns, non-lethal." he explained before giving her a rather sheepish look. "It doesn't seem right for you to be unarmed when the ones coming after us are probably armed to the teeth and beyond."
Gabriella was till a little reluctant but could understand the sentiment and replied gratefully, "Thank you."
The two younger children were now waddling toward Benjamin each with a bag that looked to full to carry. The pair were waddling along but Yodie stopped to whisper something to Irena. The grin the little blonde gave, set off Gabriella's maternal alarms. That grin meant trouble from her two little mischief makers. The pair gave Benjamin the bags and helped him begin to load the canisters he had created with what looked like rubber test tube stoppers.
The SHIELD agents were busy setting up a tazer plate. Jason had some of the tech guys pouring the epoxy he had just created near the entrance to the outside of the clean chamber. Then they put a board over it so that their SHIELD agents could get over the trap unscathed.
Ivan, Russ, and Nikolai were coming over to the two youngest kids and they were using straps to put semi-opaque plastic shields onto their backs as protection. When they were on their respective medi-pets they would be protected from everything but a point blank attack.
Gabriella looked up while telling Irena and Yodie that they would be playing hide and seek with the attackers, in the fog bank the doctors would be making for them. While having their pets use the slick tile to slide into the agents knocking them into the pool.
The alarm stopped and Benjamin called out to Gabriella, "They'll be here in just a few seconds."
The Ambassador ordered Thalia into the shallow end of the pool, and told the four tigers to get ready to run and slide, knocking the men into the pool. Yodie and Irena no longer stood next to her. "Oh crap! Somebody's gonna get hurt." said Gabriella softly.
Benjamin had asked Ivan to see if he could get more of the tranquilizer darts from the scientists. In the hopes of figuring out how to put a few of them in the Stinger grenades.
"I just gave some to the kids," Dr. Allen said dismissively.
"Which kids came and got the darts?" Ivan said with heavy suspicion.
The Doctor looked like he had been asked to make up the formula for something that doesn't exist yet. "I don't know…just kids…" says Allen shrugging, but recognizing the dangerous tone of Ivan's voice.
"Was it a boy or a girl?" The larger man said in heavily accented English.
The Doctor looked baffled "I can't tell the difference, they're kids."
"Now I understand why there are only two pregnant animals out of 18 females. You can't tell the difference between the females and males except under a microscope." Ivan said in a clearly annoyed way, "Perhaps we need a Russian to supervise or a prostitutka (hooker). Ha, I made another funny my little angel demon." Ivan called with amusement to Gabriella even though he looked like he was ready to strangle the good doctor, and then said, "Remind me not to let you do my lab work, as Kaillie says, 'as in never'."