Avengers: Wreckage
Chapter 19
As the afternoon sun blazed Warbird flew free, the blond haired woman twisting joyfully in the air high above LA. After her beating at the hands of Delilah she had been hampered, her body aching, but after a few days she had healed up fine. Even better she could actually feel her powers responding to the attack, building up defenses for the next battle.
Reluctantly the black and gold clad heroine straightened up and flew off towards Silicon Valley, eventually landing nearby the Stane Enterprises compound and walking towards the headquarters of Force Works. It was a squarish office building, at least on the outside, but the walls were armored and the interior set up like some kind of superhero club house.
"Warbird," May Scott's face appeared on a screen beside the door as the head of security noted, "you scan as fully recovered." The black haired woman smiled as she added, "I saw you when War Machine flew you in, so I'm glad to see you bounce back."
"Thanks," Warbird smiled. "Any more trouble from the reporters?" she asked. While Carol Danvers worked beside the two Herald reporters who had tried to sneak in, she hadn't been able to pump them for more information.
"Ah," May actually looked sheepish as she admitted, "Monica Stewart asked me to lunch, but other than that no."
Warbird laughed warmly as she cautioned her, "She's got a reputation for being fierce, but other than that you'll be fine."
"Gee thanks," May laughed as Warbird headed inside.
Warbird headed into the break room, where Jackie Lukas was reading the paper and sipping some orange juice. Jackie looked up with a amused smile as the brown haired woman complained, "If you're going to fight a army of mooks, do you want to at least invite me to join in?"
"They were C-Listers at best," Warbird waved it off with a laugh."They even had a guy in Frog Man armor," she told her.
"Frog Man?" Jackie looked at her in surprise. "There's actually a...."
"Yup," Warbird grabbed a coffee, "green suit of battle armor that lets him hop around. From what I remember, the guy who built it wanted to be a high rise thief."
"And most of the crooks were in battle armor?" Jacke looked thoughtful as she added, "Do you think it might be significant?"
Warbird sat down with her cup of coffee and took a sip. "That's... a very good question," she admitted thoughtfully.
"Maybe you should run it by Olivia?" Jackie suggested.
"Already sent her a report on the fight," Carol grinned, "there would be no way I'd be sitting here sipping coffee if I hadn't."
An alarm wailed and both jumped to their feet as tactical data came up on the view screen by the table. They brought up the police codes as they studied the data, Jackie blinked. "More c-listers." she noted, "but there's a lot of them."
"Call Jen," Carol said as they hurried out onto a launching platform Olivia had recently added, "then let's go!"
Jackie followed out a few seconds later, taking her mace and slamming it down to trigger her Thunderstrike form. The woman in Asgardian style armore reported, "Olivia says Jen is tied up. Apparently someone busted into a SHIELD facility and stole weapons and two Mandroids." She spun her mace and threw, grabbing onto the attached chain and letting it yank her into the sky as she asked, "What's a mandroid?"
Warbird smiled as she explained, "SHIELD's attempt to copy Irom Man, pretty much. They're bulky yellow suits of battle armor designed with flight, strength and various on board weapons."
The two women reached the city in a few minutes, flying at top speed, and they saw smoke billowing up from where a armored car had been attacked. Police fired from the safety of their cars but seemed unable to do much about the strange assortment of crooks who were unloading the van.
"Okay," Warbird quickly identified the players as they swept in, "the guy in the hard shelled green armor is the Beetle, the guy in the bear suit is Grizzly, the guy flying up there with green wings is wearing Vulture's gear and the black and purple guy with the bird emblem is Killer Strike."
"Is this a joke?" Thunderstrike shook her head as they landed, confronting the crooks. "Give up now and we won't hurt you!" she called to the crooks.
"I thought there weren't any supers in LA?!" Grizzly yelped.
Killer Strike gave him a look that nearly yelled, 'shut up.' He turned towards Warbird and Thunderstrike, his black cape swirling as he said, "We are the all new Force of Nature! Surrender or face our deadly wrath!"
Warbird gave Thunderstrike a slight smile, "Let's split them up evenly. I'll take Beetle and Vulture, you take Strike and Grizzly."
"That's fair," Thunderstrike grinned as she ran towards the two on the ground as Warbird rose to face the others in the air.
Grizzly faced her charge, the bear suit he was wearing pushing him up into the eight foot tall range. He swiped at Thunderstrike with a paw as he complained. "All I want to do is make one big score, then I'm putting the costume away! And I won't let you stop me."
Thunderstrike dodged by reflex, and it was lucky she did as claws hidden in the paw ripped into a lamp post. 'All right, not totally a joke,' she admitted as she stepped close then punched him hard, the uppercut rocking him backward.
Sparks flared from within the bear suit, the mechanisms having protected the wearer but also suffering damage. "Shit," Grizzly cursed as he back pedalled, looking over at Strike as he yelped, "Help me out, here!"
Killer Strike gestured, the heavy silver arm bands he wore glowing then he threw a bolt of plasma energy at Thunderstrike. He blinked in shock as she batted the energy bolt out of the air then fired off another as he huffed, "The Force of Nature is not so easily defeated!"
Thunderstrike slapped that bolt out of the way too as she thought, "I hope Warbird is having more fun with her two.'
Up above the city Warbird found herself feeling a bit of surprised admiration about the Beetle's armor. It wasn't all that powerful, yet the suit was still keeping ahead of her, if barely. Abandoning the chase she swept around, coming back to where the Vulture hovered above the battle.
"Oh no," the Vulture moaned weakly in fear, the brown haired young man grabbing at a weapon on his belt as she raced at him.
One shot whizzed by as Warbird reached him, then she swiftly slapped the gun out of his hands. Grabbing one arm she forced him to turn, grabbing at the hump on the back of his costume and tearing the power system free.
Suddenly dropping the Vulture screamed like a girl, "Help!"
Warbird let him drop for a few seconds then caught him, tearing off the flight mechanisms of his costume as she carried him to the cops. "Here you go," she said as she dropped him off with the police, "I'll be back with the other in a minute."
Seeing Warbird drop off Vulture, Thunderstrike decided to up her own game a bit. As Killer Strike fired off another bolt she swung her mace and bounced it right to the Grizzly, frying his suit electronics and sending him crashing to the concrete.
"Get this thing off me!" Grizzly squealed as the cops hosed him down with fire fighting foam as a precaution with the smoking suit.
"Shit!" Killer Strike yelped as he saw his only ground based ally fall. He turned and bolted with surprising speed down the street.
'Hitting him with the mace would kill him,' Thunderstrike thought as she took a few steps and leaped, her superstrong muscles throwing herself up high over him. She came down ahead as Killer Strike looked over his shoulder to see if he was being followed. Gracefully Thunderstrike moved into his path, he plowed right into her and knocked himself out.
Warbird closed the distance on the Beetle as she summoned up her energy powers, building up a charge around her hands. While she rarely used her ability to control raw energy she was still in practice, firing off a bolt of energy to make Beetle dodge to the right. Changing his course slowed Beetle enough that Warbird could catch up, grabbing hold of one boot.
"Give it up!" Warbird yelled loud enough to be heard over the rush of wind.
It seemed whoever was in the Beetle suit was smart enough to know they couldn't get away, slowing so that Warbird could get a better grip and guide the two of them down to the ground. Once they were down Warbird disconnected the helmet to see who was in the armor, only to see a unfamiliar looking face, a intense looking blonde woman with short hair.
"Donna Blake?" one of the cops blinked. "But you're a respected stunt woman. What are you doing this for?"
Donna gave him a withering look as she nodded to the busted armored car, "Money, what else?" She transferred her glare to the unconscious Killer Strike, "That idiot had the bright plan to hit a LA armored car, figuring there were no supers."
"Was he behind the attack earlier today?" Thunderstrike wondered.
"After he heard about your team he decided he needed a distraction," Donna sniffed as the cops lead her off, "guess it didn't work."
A older detective in a old business suit nodded as the police were carting off the crooks. "Officer Taylor," he introduced himself, "thanks for your help, folks. We woulda had casualties trying to take these mooks down."
"You're welcome," Carol smiled as the two heroines took off, "glad to help."
"What do you think?" Thunderstrike asked as they took off. "I noticed Beetle didn't mention the SHIELD raid at all."
"No, they didn't," Warbird agreed with a frown. "I wonder if both fights were just a distraction from a raid on SHIELD?" she asked.
"I hope Olivia knows more than we do," Thunderstrike sighed as they flew back to base.
To be continued....