nextgenerationmarvel | Nazi Bees and Modern Banks (Open to anyone who might be in NYC!)

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Nazi Bees and Modern Banks (Open to anyone who might be in NYC!)

Today was an excellent day. Why was today an excellent day? It was Friday. And it wasn't just any Friday. Oh no. It was the second Friday of the month! That meant payday! Believe it or not, SHIELD payed biweekly just like anybody else. Well, lots of anybody else's, at least. From what Eleanor had heard, they used to pay monthly, and then everybody pitched a fit. The true heroes of the modern age, and all that, achieving the major victories! And this was Eleanor's first paycheck since she'd been relocated from Miami to NYC. SHIELD tried to make out like other major cities were just as important and needed just as much manpower, but everyone knew that NYC was where it was at. This was where the tights fought each other all the time.

"But why? It's colder here. Spandex can't insulate that well..."

"Excuse me?" The man standing in line in front of her at the bank looked over his shoulder and lifted an imperious eyebrow at her. So many eyebrows around here were imperious. Ugh. Not that Miami was much better. Actually it was probably worse, if you were counting numbers of assholes. But at least it was warmer. Why didn't the heroes here wear flashy parkas and bubble jackets?

"Sorry. Just talking to myself," she muttered. He harumphed and turned back around. Soon enough they'd have her back in the direct deposit system and she wouldn't need to come to the bank, like, ever again.

The hidden earpiece in her right ear suddenly sprang to life. "All Agents in the lower Manhattan area, be advised, the villain Swarm is active and moving towards the Wells Fargo on 97th Avenue. Repeat, Swarm is active and moving towards the Wells Fargo on 97th Avenue. If you are in range, please respond but be advised that you are NOT to use lethal force. Technically, Swarm is covered under the Honeybee Protection Act of 2016. You may find yourselves preventing well-intentioned Heroes from harming him. Hold them off, protect civilians, and stall until containment can arrive. ETA is thirty minutes from now."

"Oh you have got to be kidding me..."

"What is it now?" The man in front of her was starting to actually look irritated. Bully for him. He'd be a lot more irritated in a few minutes.

"Bees. Nazi bees." She sighed with exasperation, puffing an errant strand of hair from her cheek.

"What?" Now he just looked angry, like he thought she was having some fun at his expense.

Eleanor, meanwhile, ran over to the nearest column and hopped up to it's little ledge so she could address everyone. "HEY EVERYBODY!!! YOU MIGHT WANT TO GET OUT BECAUSE I THINK THIS BANK IS ABOUT TO BE ROBBED BY NAZI BEES THAT DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW BANKS AND ELECTRONIC MONEY WORKS NOWADAYS."

Everyone looked around in confusion, but nobody took the short, perky little woman who didn't look official at all seriously. She thought she could hear the man muttering to a woman in front of her that "she's crazy". Well, she wasn't quite official as a hardcore agent yet or anything, and she was certainly nothing like the legend that Black Widow was, but she did at least have a badge, so she flashed it and shouted, "OUT!!!!" Still, nobody listened.

"Really? Nothing? You guys really are the most desensitized. Okay fine. THIS IS A STICKUP! I'M GONNA SHOOT EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU IF YOU DON'T SPRAY THE DOORS WITH OFF! ON THE WAY OUT!!" She whipped out a gun and waved it around menacingly. That got people moving. And what do you know, a few even sprayed a bunch of Off! as they went. Would wonders never cease. She also now had the attention of security. Balls.

...But that didn't matter, because suddenly she heard a loud buzzing voice go, "Off!? Really? That is for ze mosquitos, fraulein. I am most certainly not composed of ze mosquitoes."

"Here we go. And me all non-combat. I wish I had some RAID..."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This was New York City. You didn't get far without coming across another hero or two. In this case, Roxie Danvers had been at said bank, rifling through the safe deposit box she shared with her mother, trying to find an old thunderbolt-shaped pendant made out of some material not made on Earth.

She wanted to wear it for the next time she saw Joe.

Of course, the only thing she found was trouble.

She and the teller that she was with turned around at the sound of shouting. It was the words that "THIS IS A STICK-UP!" That really got to Roxie, though.

Is there ever a time that a superhero walks into a bank, and the bank isn't robbed? she thought to herself as she concentrated on her clothing. Two halos of bright light circled around her body as her outfit gave way to her Warbird costume.

"Stay here," she said to the teller, giving him a reassuring smile.

Then, she dashed out into the lobby of the bank, her hands glowing with the promise of photonic energy.

Honestly, Eleanor really should have expected a bonafide super hero to be in residence in the bank. Civvies were no excuse, all the heroes could jump into costume at a moments notice. Actually, that probably explained the spandex thing. It was easy to keep under the clothing. But it still had to be so drafty!

"Okay Ellie, keep it together. This isn't the time to continue composing your mental essay on the impractical nature of spandex in New York City..."

She half turned to the woman changing into costume and rushing into the fray...towards her ohcrap, why her, oh yeah, gun and stickup ohcrapohcrapohcrap. That was Captain Marvel's kid! Or...relative. Or something. Either way, A-List super hero. Annnnnd she looked like she was robbing a bank. Ugh. Her life.

"Oh hi! Um, Warbird something, right? This isn't what it looks-OOOF!!!"

Her sentence was cut short when Swarm formed into a large grabbing blob that picked her up and slammed her into the column once, twice, CRACK three times. That last one broke plaster/concrete/whatever and it came crashing down with part of the ceiling, burying her battered and broken body in rubble. Yep. This day was officially no longer awesome. She could feel the broken bones worming their way back together, and that was always the worst. Yeah, she'd just lie here for a bit and give the Warbird lady a chance to fight the nazi bees.

"Ah, it is a super hero, yes? Welcome to ze party! Now zat ze pesky so-called Agent is out of ze way, you and I can have some fun..."

...Except she totally had to keep the blonde super hero from killing the bees. Sigh. When her shoulder popped back into place, she'd start pushing rubble up off herself and hope it wasn't too late.

"I'm actually not sure what this is supposed to look like," Roxie said, her eyes wide. Okay, that was the Swarm. Roxie was up-to-date enough on her homework to know that. The girl, though, Roxie had no idea who she was.

She gasped as the ceiling fell on the girl and moved to help her, but was intercepted by, well, the bees.

"Sorry, handsome. I'm spoken for already." Had he said Agent?

Agent of what?

SHIELD? SWORD? HYDRA? AIM? An acronym she hadn't heard yet?

"Not that that's ever stopped me from having fun outside the home," she added darkly, before letting loose a blast of photonic energy.

While this wasn't the highest class of supervillain (SHIELD currently had him labeled as a Class D, actually), Swarm wasn't the easiest to deal with either. He had embarrassed more than one hero, and had actually caused Spider-Man to infused his suit with Raid to ward him off (true story). When Warbird fired off her energy blast, a hole just opened up in the swarm and let the blast go right through and hit the ceiling.

"Well, at least you do not need to be tutored in ze birds and ze bees, zen. I can focus on just ze BEES!!" He formed into an amorphous blob of bees and enveloped Warbird, then swung around and around and around, letting her go with the intent to fling her into the nearest wall.

"Aw crap." Eleanor felt several dead bees rain down on her. The blast hadn't missed entirely. "Ugh." She pushed as hard as she could on the biggest piece of ceiling on her and managed to shove it off. Thank goodness for healing factor enhanced strength. It wasn't exactly the strength of a million combined bees, but it did the job.

"Okay, A....you actually just used that awful piece of dialogue? And B...please try not to kill the bees, Ms. Warbird...they're kind of protected. Decline of the bees and colony collapse and stuff. I know, it's as lame as it sounds. How do you fight a guy made out of a threatened species of helpful bug? I mean, even if they sting us, they die. What do we do about that? And C..." She stamps her foot and frowns. "So-Called??? My badge is for real! I do actual paperwork and it actually sucks!!! Did you know that triplicate is an actual for real thing that exists?! It's worse than whatever bee farm prison they're going to put you in, that's for sure!!"

"Shouldn't you be dead, little girl???" Swarm rounded on her, and if a swarm of bees could look surprised, he did. He knew how much force he'd slammed her into the column with.

"I take multi-vitamins. You should try it some time. Now would you please come quietly? You're making someone with big energy blasts that can easily kill you mad, and I'm not supposed to let you die! You have lots of flowers to pollinate and honey to create...ew...I'm never, ever going to think about where my honey comes from again gross...and-"

"No matter, I shall finish ze job! You should have stayed down, pest!!!"

Since she saw it coming this time, Eleanor easily jumped and dodged and twisted around the angry swings of the Swarms formed appendages. She doubted Warbird would get swarmed again either. The trick wasn't dodging at this point. It was holding out till SHIELD containment technology could be transported to the scene. She didn't stop running her mouth at it though. There was one thing she came by honestly, and it was her mouth.

"-and you're calling me the pest? A man made out of bees is calling me a pest? You're the one with a million stingers! Please don't sting me by the way. I'm not allergic, but I want your innocent bee parts to survive. Um...you're under arrest by the authority vested in me as a SHIELD agent, you have the right to remain silent and not buzz and to get an attorney. Did I mention that? Maybe a lot of attorneys. I'm not sure if each individual bee gets an attorney."

"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT. UP!!!!!" The swings became more enraged, and one actually connected, sending Eleanor flying through the air to hit a wall herself. She slid down and blinked several times, healing away a concussion as Swarm barreled down on her. But hey, she'd distracted him enough that he wasn't watching what Warbird was doing...

Roxie collided with the wall. Hard.

Hard enough to collide with it, and then go right through it.

She scrambled to her feet, bits of wall and plaster and metal falling here and there. She reached up and shook her head, shaking the bits of wall from her head. "Urgh," she groaned. Sure, she had superstrength and all that jazz, but being thrown through a wall? It still kind of hurt.

She strode through the hole in the wall and watched the Swarm and the other woman. The one who was fighting him.

So, maybe she wasn't robbing the bank? The woman moved well - she was trained, obviously. But she was a new face to Roxie.

Okay, quick thinking, Danvers. You catch a fly with honey. How do you catch a swarm of bees? Damn, I wish the Wasp was here. Or AIM. Their outfits look like beekeeper suits...

Wait, wasn't there something about expanding foam?

Huh.

And so there she was, Warbird of the Avengers, with a fire extinguisher, shooting down the Swarm.

"YEERRRRARRRRRGHHH!"

Swarm, in a full fury now, rounded on Warbird. Several bees dropped dead from the extinguisher gas. Did he actually feel pain? Eleanor wondered as she held her forehead and pushed her way up the cracked wall until she was standing again. Or did he feel the pain of each little bee dying? But what would a Nazi psychopath care for the death of a bee?

"Thanks for the...save. Oogh. My head. And not to sound ungrateful, but...careful killing...them." She shook her head to clear it. "We want to lock up his Nazi bones, but re-home the innocent bees into new hives."

Innocent bees. Seriously. See, these were the comic books they didn't write so much. Why? Because how ridiculous was it to be having this conversation over attacking evil Nazi bees? How silly was it to be fighting them in the first place? Geez. She knew she was just a low level SHIELD paper pusher in training to be a Black Widow spy type (Ha! As if she could ever be that good, even with a healing factor...but they did like to tell her they were training her to be the next Black Widow when then needed one. But for now she was stuck with the lame code name Reboot, if she ever wanted to suit up. Which up till now, she hadn't. She knew she sucked as a super hero. Nobody needed to tell her that.)

She checked her watch and mouthed, Five minutes, to the blonde heroine with the fire extinguisher. Hopefully she'd get the message. Wait, she could do one better, and so she did, holding up her badge and gesturing at it. Maybe she'd get the semi-charades of "Distract him for five more minutes until SHIELD gets here". Maybe.

"YOU CANNOT TAKE MY BEES FROM ME, INSOLENT CHILD!!! IF I CANNOT HAVE THEM, NO ONE CAN! TELL ME, LITTLE MARVEL, ARE YOU IMMUNE TO A THOUSAND STINGS?" And with that, the Swarm directed his swarming attention on Warbird...but this time it wasn't to throw, but to sting her so many times that a normal human wouldn't survive it.

"NO!!!" Eleanor reached out uselessly towards them, worried both for the woman fighting and for the thousands of bees that would die after losing their stingers.

"The bees are a weapon here," Roxie replied, as soon as the extinguisher ran out of...extinguishing stuff. Roxie tossed the thing at the Swarm's hooded, skeletal form. "I'll do what I can, but they're collateral damage, like it or not."

She nodded, then, at the mouthing of the time. Five minutes. Whatever agency she was a member of was going to arrive then.

Probably SHIELD. They tend to have their fingers in the most pies.

She moved to say something else then, but that was around the time that the bees came for her.

"Really?!" Roxie yelled. The bees tried to sting her, but failed. Sure, her mother was human. But her father was Ares, the god of war. That meant her skin was a little stronger than most other people's.

Still, it hurt a little, and Roxie was getting a little less amused. She yelled out and photonic energy braided with the red energy she'd wielded for those few months that she'd given up using the Kree side of her heritage.

As a result, the bees start falling. There were a lot of them. Too many. But she was doing what she could.

"Do you feel the poison working? I've had my swarm dipping their stingers in something a bit more potent than you're probably used to. My, but your skin is thick...but is it thick enough fraulein? What would you say if I told you I have felled even Thor with this particular mixture? Hm? Would that worry you just a bit?"

Of course, his villainous banter was interrupted by the explosion of energy. The swarm dispersed to try to escape it, but not before she caused a rain of bees. Swarm buzzed a furious yell. His form was getting smaller, weaker. But he was also calling in all surrounding bees from the area as backup. And they told him interesting stories. Stories of SHIELD on the way.

"Now if you'll excuse me, my business here is at an end."

Swarm made to leave, but as he did a force cage erupted around him. Harmonic resonances designed by Stark and Richards themselves agitated the bees until they fell to the bottom of the cage, unconscious but still alive. The Nazi bones fell with them to a sound of fury. But did the skull appear to grin? What had he meant by his business being at an end? He hadn't robbed the bank!

SHIELD agents poured in and started cordoning off the area. Several made for Warbird, but Eleanor waved them off. It might be surprising, but the agents deferred to what looked like your average young woman. Of course, most supers knew that appearances were often deceiving. Eleanor made her way over to Warbird to see if she was okay. That was the first order of business. The threat of poison that could "fell Thor" was worrisome, but who knew if Swarm was bluffing or not. Thor was pretty hard to "fell". But that didn't mean there wasn't poison here to be dealt with.

Trying to break the news that Warbird might have to appear in court over the dead bees was something that could wait until later. Upside was she'd most likely win the case. Downside was...well, nobody liked to go to court. Nobody.

The poison was working. Not as well as it might have, had Roxie not been who she was, gifted with the gifts she'd been given - the mixture of divine Greek and Kree DNA (or, as Roxie liked to call it, being Kreek) - helped stave off a lot of the stuff that a normal human would be susceptible to. This was part of why she'd never gotten mono (despite the many, many men she had kissed in her life before Joe Rogers had come along.)

Still. Roxie did fall to her knees, and the yellow-and-red-glow that had been surrounding her lessened as the bees died.

By the thousands of bees that had attacked her, she'd been stung maybe a few dozen times.

It had been enough.

Maybe it was time for her to redesign a costume with sleeves.

"Are you okay??" Eleanor knelt down beside the other woman "That's a stupid question. Of course you're not okay. You were just poisoned by a Nazi super bee. Or a super Nazi bee? Gaaaaah, your so not okay! AND you're going to have to plead self defense before a court of people who love bees and honey and fruit and pretty much food. But first you need medical attention, and I'm not sure shots can pierce your skin so it has to be SHIELD with specialized equipment and you might not like that because some people get weird about SHIELD operating on them. Dammit dammit dammit! This is only my second week in New York!"

Eleanor worried at her lower lip, chewing away nervously. Well, she'd been thrown into the frying pan, all right. From Miami, which was pretty much a superpowered backwater (she STILL didn't get that) to the Mecca of super heroes. Somebody upstairs obviously had faith in her. Or maybe they wanted to watch her crash and burn. Either or.

"Okay okay okay. We can do this. I'm gonna have them put you on a stretcher, okay? I'm just and admin assistant, but they listen to me. And we're going to take you someplace that will probably look scary. Don't blow anybody up pretty please? They might be mad scientists, but they're good mad scientists. Not like, AIM or Hydra or Doombots. At least, I don't think they're Doombots. Or Hydra, for that matter. Or Hydra Doombots. We'll find a cure. You're not going to die. I promise. I hope."

She tapped her earpiece to activate it. "I need a med team at my location! Code Black Widow Beta!" It wasn't quite as much respect as "Alpha", but it sure did get attention. She'd been told to use it in emergencies. Even potential future Black Widows got the highest respect in SHIELD. It was like the Navy Seals, if there could only ever be one Seal at a time, and if that Seal were the baddest ass of all bad asses in the entire military. (This was why she thought it was kind of silly that she even be considered in the same class as that. There wasn't enough training in the world to get her to that level. Was there?)

[They want us because we are an us. Imagine a Black Widow that doesn't ever die, but that does change entire identities when killed. Think about it for a second, and for fuck's sake, stop with the inane self depreciation. You might not be the best, yet, but I am.]

"Sorry, sorry. You're awesome, I get it. Ugh." Eleanor had yet to fully believe in her voices as entire personalities that came out when she died, but SHIELD did. And they were convincing. Those were not her thoughts. Well, they were. And they weren't. She was probably just crazy.

In the time it took her to talk to herself, a stretcher had already been brought along with a med team that had been in the rear of the breaching SHIELD group that took down Swarm. They went to work packing Warbird up, and Eleanor made sure to stay close by.

"Call the Avengers," Roxie said weakly. "You need to call the Avengers. And Carol Danvers at Woman Magazine." Roxie didn't like the idea of being taken to a SHIELD anything, but her mother had experience with them. So did Roxie's boyfriend. She paused, then, and nodded weakly at Eleanor, glad that she didn't really keep a secret identity as Warbird. It would've made life infinitely more difficult for her right now, trying to keep both sides of her life separate.

"You did well...whoever you are." Because Roxie didn't actually know this woman. "But if they take my blood or any DNA samples or anything, I will destroy their entire R&D department." Just, you know, so things were clear.

Eleanor runs a hand through her hair. "Do you, uh, do you have their direct line? I mean, you'd think I'd have it since I probably look important right now, but I'm not really. I can get the number that goes to the answering machine that nobody ever checks, but I'm not authorized to have the number that people pick up because it's friends and family. And, well, people like me who are sitting over a poisoned member of the team."

She rocked back and forth on her knees. What people rarely seemed to get about people with healing factors was that they were the worst at nervous energy. The body was always active, and the energy levels were always at their peak, assuming proper nutrition. Lots and lots and LOTS of proper nutrition. The one exception to the nervous energy thing might be the Wolverine, and that was because the adamantium in his system poisoned him, so the healing factor always had something to worry at. Some theorized that was why Deadpool ran his mouth all the time. He was one of the few healing factors that hadn't been augmented with adamantium. Eleanor was one of those too. And if her rambling was anything to go by, the theory had some merit.

"Thanks...," she offered a weak little smile, "but you don't have to be nice. I know I suck. It's why I'm only a paper pusher..." Although if Warbird remembered the code she'd used to get the med team, and if she asked her mother or anybody with SHIELD experience about it, she might wonder at the paper pusher bit.

"It must be cool, being an Avenger. Lots of friends and stuff. Lots and LOTS of friends..." After all, at various points in history, the Avengers had encompassed most of the non-X-Men and even some X-Men besides.

"They probably will take blood and DNA samples. It's what they do. But I'll try and make sure those samples disappear in a way that doesn't involve exploding entire floors of the building."

She paused. It was true. Hardly anyone actually answered the 1-800-Avenger line anymore. "Just call Carol Danvers," she then reiterated. "She'll know what to do."

She smiled then. Roxie wasn't dying or anything, but she was spent, and in pain. But she could still smile, and converse a little bit. "I'm not being nice," she said. "Just honest." She nodded then. "It helps. I mean. You grow up in Avengers Mansion..." they did sort of become like a family. Though Roxie, with her hard partying ways and sometimes lewd behaviour, had sometimes been the black sheep of the family.

Which was what happened when you hit on most of the eligible men living under your roof.

"And thank you. I'd appreciate that. The world doesn't need any Clonebirds flying around." Too much oversexed energy, that.

"I did dodge a lot! Which I guess is saying something since it's bees. How do you dodge a bee? You don't. Unless you're awesome. So you and me, we're awesome minus like, two hits maybe. Gimme a sec."

She reached up and double tapped her ear piece. "Call Carol Danvers." The technology searched through all available numbers for Carol Danvers, then triangulated which phone she was most likely to answer based on sightings by traffic cameras and other security, and rang her. It was kind of neat tech, even if it was potentially extremely controversial in the public sector. Thaaat was why they kind of didn't tell the public they could do that. SHIELD learned from other government organization blunders. There had been more than one Edward Snowden in the years since his debacle, but notably no SHIELD Snowdens.

"Hey, um, Ms. Danvers? Captain Marvel? Or are you General Marvel now? Admiral? Which of those is higher anyway? Oh, me? Sorry, I'm, ah, Eleanor Camacho, of SHIELD. We have Warbird here, and she's been poisoned, and she wanted me to call you and..."

And so the conversation went for a few moments before she said "Okay, cool" and hung up.

"She's on her way. She's gonna meet us at the medical lab." In the space of the conversation and the phone call, she'd been loaded up on an ambulance style vehicle and they were speeding away. "SHIELD doesn't really do clones so much. Robot duplicates, yeah. They love their robots for some reason. They'd probably just keep it as a "just in case she goes evil and we need a way to take her down so let's engineer her greatest weakness and keep it in a lab locker" thing. Because you know, when supers go bad, they usually go really, really bad. Your mom...she is your mom, right?...is classified as a Class One Omega Super. Did you know that?"

"Ms. Marvel," Roxie said weakly. "She never...upgraded." Though it always felt as though Carol should have. Still, Roxie was certain that Carol got a thrill out of being called any of those names. "And yeah, she's my mom. Biggest, baddest Avenger ever." Sure, a lot of Avengers fit that role, but for Roxie, it'd always be her mom.

"So," she added after a moment. "Black Widow, huh?"

"Whaaaat? Well, that's just wrong. Hold on."

Eleanor actually held her finger to her ear and told the system to redial the last number. She waited for the few rings, and then a somewhat confused Carol Danvers to pick up.

"Hey! Warbird says you're still Ms. Marvel and you never upgraded. So, by the power vested in me as a, um, really important SHIELD type person, I officially upgrade you to Captain Marvel. What? Oh yeah. I can totally do that. How? Well, I'm gonna start by doing a massive sytem-wide 'Find and Replace' on all SHIELD documents and change you to Captain Marvel! No, no, I insist. I'm doing it! So you just have to be a Captain now and sound cooler! Mmhmm. Yes. Exactly. I cannot be stopped. It's happening. Okay, okay. So it probably...definitely...for sure won't stick. And I'll most likely get yelled at. And I don't think even SHIELD can retroactively change your name for you. And there is another Captain Marvel already. Details!!! But..um...it's the thought that counts? You're totally my favorite. I'm going to fangirl you so hard when you show up. Yeah. Uh huh. Okay. Alright, see you in a few!"

She turned back to...the daughter. Yeah. That made sense. She could see the resemblance, and SHIELD files would likely back it up. Actually, her earpiece picked up the statement and had already cross referenced it and verified it as true. Being connected to that network wasn't like having a huge lie-detector, but it was like having the best Wikipedia ever always in your ear and sometimes eerily connected to your brain. Or literally? It wouldn't surprise her if SHIELD had that kind of tech and just kind of stealth used it.

"She sure is. Not many bigger or badder! So that must make you the new biggest baddest?"

At the Black Widow comment, she laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her head. "Ha ha haaa...ah...well. You heard that through the haze of poison, huh? It's...just a code word they gave me. That's not me."

Not yet, anyway. And it was hard to imagine ever. She glanced at Roxie, wondering if she knew of the legendary woman that had been her mother's teammate. Maybe friend? Hard to say. With Romanov, defining who she actually felt were "friends" always had been, if the files were correct. And it wasn't like anyone could ask her - true to her epic black ops hardened spy form, when she'd retired, she'd dropped entirely off the radar. That was probably very smart - she'd accumulated plenty of enemies as the best, and highest profile, spy ever. And it wouldn't be like her to trust SHIELD now. Hell, she probably hadn't entirely trusted SHIELD when she'd been affiliated.

((ooc: I'm playing fast and loose making up Black Widow and SHIELD stuff. If there's already game canon in either case, just let me know and I'll edit accordingly! :) ))

Edited 2014-06-24 05:39 (UTC)

Roxie couldn't help but smile, despite her pain. She liked this one. She had energy. And spunk.

She didn't seem like your typical SHIELD agent. Which was refreshing because Roxie wasn't exactly all that trusting of SHIELD. They'd tried a lot of stunts in their day.

And probably today, too.

"Not exactly," Roxie said. "There are others." Nicky was a bigger bad-ass than she was. So was Jay. Bruce. Joe.

Joe.

Roxie shook her head. She could think about her boyfriend later.

"Natasha and my mom weren't quite friends," Roxie confided. "She was always too cold. They were teammates, though. That was enough." Carol's closet friend had been Jessica Drew.

Jessica who, incidentally, had been a SHIELD agent. While Roxie hadn't seen Jessica in awhile, she was in touch with her son, Jesse.

He'd turned to her back when he'd first thought about becoming Spider-Man, and Roxie had encouraged that.

"No. Maybe it's not you...yet. But that doesn't mean it won't be, someday."

"Others." Eleanor twisted her lips up, clearly doubtful. "Says the daughter of Ms. Marvel and Ares. You're like, thirty-seven different kinds of badass, lady!"

The ambulance sped down into an underground parking deck. Roxie was wheeled out and over to an elevator, with Eleanor in pursuit. The med team hit a button, and the elevator rocketed downward. Yes, there was a building over this patch of land that ostensibly conducted normal everyday business (that was where Eleanor's office was), but the REAL business of SHIELD, at least in this location, took place underground. The underground building went as far down as the aboveground building went up. It was really kind of impressive.

In minutes, they were rolling her to a medical bay, and setting her up with various monitors and drawing blood with needles designed to pierce Asgardian skin. Because they were, you know, from Asgard. Doctors were relaying information back and forth and her vitals were appearing on a projected screen. The primary doctor frowned and tapped his chin.

"This isn't a poison native to Earth."

Eleanor gaped. "But...Swarm is a really low level villain! Where would he have gotten something not native to Earth?"

"Clearly, he's being supplied." Eleanor turned to see the new voice, who was the current Director of SHIELD. (I'm going to go with descendant of Coulson? Unless there is a canon director in the game?)

"What?"

"He's being supplied, and you're going to have to get the information out of him. Consider this your live test in Interrogation. I hope you've been studying the videos we've given you."

Eleanor swallowed. Ugh. They really were serious about all of this. Fortunately, she was nothing if not studious, and she had been studying. Those videos, and everything else she could get her hands on. She was really kind of a geek about all of this stuff, and found it so interesting that it wasn't even really work. Hell, she probably knew half of the details in their various databases about known superhumans. The videos he mentioned were of Natasha Romanov's interrogations. She'd been tasked with studying them, learning her techniques and strategies, and committing them to memory, and, eventually, practice.

"Don't worry, Ms. Danvers. We will have you better soon. This is one of the poisons we have antidotes for. The antidote will feel worse than the poison, unfortunately, but it will pass and you will be fit for Avengers duty in roughly three days. Your mother, on the other hand, will be here in about twelve minutes. If there is anything I can do to make your stay easier, just let Eleanor know. She will be your contact while you remain here." The Director nodded to both of them, and stepped out again as quickly as he'd popped in.

Eleanor, on the other hand, was still mulling over Warbird's thought that she could be Black Widow, someday. Did an actual super hero really think that based on seeing her dodge a few bees? Well, a few million evil NAZI bees, but still. It was flattering, and more than a little intimidating.

"You really think so? Um, that it could be, some day? Me? Black Widow?"

Roxie grinned. What could she say? She’d grown humble as she’d grown from a teenager into a young woman. There had been a time when she’d considered herself the biggest bad-ass on the team. Now she saw that they each had their own strengths and weaknesses.

She listened intently to the Director of SHIELD, finally changing out of her Warbird costume back into the jeans and silk top she’d been wearing before the Swarm had attacked. Her navy blue eyes flickered between the Director and Eleanor.

“Well, someone has to be,” Roxie smiled. “And Natasha isn’t going to live forever.” Plus there had been Yelena Belova, who had long ago given up being a Black Widow and was instead an international party girl and charity/fundraising maven now instead. She shrugged. “Why not you?”

"I think, even retired and OLD and geriatric and mostly off the grid except when she doesn't want to be, she's probably a million times better than I could ever be..."

She worried at her lower lip. It really was a bad habit, but who was going to tell a regenerator not to do something like that? It wasn't like she was hurting herself. Saying Natasha was OLD might have gotten her a dirty look from Carol if she were here yet, if only because the women were likely close in age. That was a far greater concern than what she could do to her lip.

"I don't think I could do the name justice. But I would do the black body suit justice, at least." She offered a little smirk at her own joke about her looks, which she was generally confident in. "Besides, Black Widow was an Avenger, too. Could you really see me as an Avenger? I mean, look at you! I can look at you and know you can hand me my ass even in your civvies."

The doctor walked up to them and sympathetically smiled a little sad smile at Roxie. "I have the antidote ready. You might prefer to take it after your mother gets here, but it's up to you. It will leave you in quite a bit of of pain and perhaps a little incoherent for a while after taking it, and a comforting presence might help. Unfortunately, the cure for something that can affect Kree and Greek God DNA has to be bigger and badder than the actual poison. But...just let me know when you're ready."

Eleanor waited for that exchange to be done, then glanced down. "Thanks for saying it though. I...want to help the world. I want to rid it of the bad people that would hurt a girl like me for no reason at all. Or for bad reasons." Something flickered in her eyes, an old, deep pain - a psychological scar that would never leave her.

But as quickly as the darkness was there, it was gone and replaced by a grateful little smile as she took Roxie's hand. She didn't know the woman, but she knew enough to want to offer her comfort before the antidote procedure if she could. Eleanor gave her hand a little squeeze. A few moments later, Carol Danvers swept into the room, her eyes finding her daughter quickly as she moved to Roxie's side.

((ooc: I'll let you NPC Carol if you want! :D ))

Roxie smiled at Eleanor. “Well, that serum that’s kept her young all these years has certainly done wonders for her.” Just as it had for Nick Fury and Captain America. Carol’s aging, too, had slowed down considerably thanks to the fact that she was half Kree.

“And yes, you would rock that black leather suit,” she grinned. “But we both know that taking on a legacy has less to do with the outfit and more to do with the skill of the person in the outfit.” She chuckled, then. “Well, to be fair, I’ve been learning how to find since I was a kid.” You didn’t have Carol Danvers for a mother and Ares for a father without learning lots of self-defense from a young age, or getting your pilot’s license as soon as you were the right age.

“And…” Roxie paused as Carol swept into the room. “Uh. Hi, Mom.”

Carol Danvers was a presence unto herself. Dressed as though she’d just come from the headquarters of her magazine empire, worry flickering in her bright blue eyes. She set her satchel down on an empty stool and took her daughter’s other hand in her own, squeezing it warmly. It would be obvious to whoever was looking at them that Carol and Roxie were related, they looked so much alike. “Is there any place where you go that trouble doesn’t follow?” It was, Carol knew, a silly question. Trouble tended to follow her around too - especially back in her heyday as Ms. Marvel.

She looked up then, at Eleanor, and smiled warmly. “Carol Danvers. You must be Agent Camacho,” she extended her other hand towards the SHIELD agent. “Thank you so much for contacting me. And, I presume, your help out in the field.” After all, where SHIELD went, trouble also tended to follow. Put a SHIELD agent and an Avenger in one room together, and the universe practically begged for trouble to be brought forth.

“What antidote are they giving her?” she asked, suddenly wishing for Henries McCoy or Pym to be there. They’d be able to take a look at the antidote, make sure it was Kreek-friendly. Carol grimaced. Kreek. God, the things my daughter comes up with.

Still, she could trust SHIELD as far as the antidote went. They wouldn't harm Roxie for no reason.

Edited 2014-06-25 07:15 (UTC)

"Yeeaah..see? They should be spending more energy on keeping her around than on having me replace her. But then, I guess, serum or no serum, she deserves to step back and relax at some point just like everyone else. She'll just look a lot better retired than most old people."

That skill of the person in the outfit thing hit the nail on the head exactly for Eleanor. Having that kind of skill...it was a lifetime's worth of work. More than, considering all the life extending SHIELD liked to do. Of course, she'd been told that her regeneration meant she'd live longer than anyone could possibly estimate, which was intimidating enough in it's own right.

She was saved from her thoughts by the arrival of Carol. Hearing herself addressed as Agent Camacho was never not weird, but she still managed to hold her hand out and shake the living legend's hand without her mouth dropping open and closed like a fish. She also managed not to squeak, too, which was a feat. She'd just been thanked by Ms. Marvel for her help. What did you say to that???

"Thank you." Her voice sounded tiny to her ears. Also, did she just respond to a "thank you" with a "thank you"?! How lame and awkward was that??? "I mean..um...you're welcome." Wait. Did she just say 'you're welcome' to Ms. Freaking Marvel??? "I mean..."

Welp, foot was officially in mouth. Fortunately, a doctor stepped up to answer the antidote question. He knew far more about that than Eleanor, and he still retained his ability to sound intelligent in her presence. He also gave her the rundown on how rough the antidote would be. And then the necessity for it.

"This is a rare frost giant poison, Ms. Danvers. To Frost Giants, it isn't fun, but it's not the worst. To anyone else, however..." He cleared his throat and looked uncomfortable. Discussing what wouldn't happen due to the antidote was still bad if what would happen was as awful as what he was about to describe. "Let's just say that she may look like she feels fine, but that's only the beginning. It progresses to freezing all internal organs. They look like freezer burn. From there, the organs begin to liquify as the body's own immune system is compromised and used against them. The antidote will feel like being on fire from the inside out because, well, it is counteracting that. She is lucky that she was brought here in time. In about five hours, the process would be irreversible."

When Eleanor could stop gaping at the doctor's description, she looked vaguely sick, and then guilty. In a small voice, she said, "My job is to make Swarm talk about where he got that kind of poison."

Noticing that Roxie was saying nothing, Carol decided to forge on ahead. She set a reassuring hand on her daughter's shoulder . "You're welcome is more than sufficient," she said, almost as though she was reading Eleanor's mind.

Not that mind-reading was one of her powers or anything.

"Frost giants. We're getting poisons from Jotunheim." An eyebrow went up. Someone was going to be contacting Thor, that was clear. That someone being Carol. He had to know what was going on in one of his realms. She'd send a note to Niklas Thorson of the Avengers as well. He had a right to know what was going on.

It was convenient that Carol was forgetting about her daughter's ex-boyfriend, Vincent Amorason.

Different reality. He has no need to get involved.

She redirected her attention back to Eleanor. "Start with Loki, when it comes to the Swarm. Work your way down from there." Sure, obvious suspect was obvious, and there was every chance that there was an entirely different game afoot, but the girl needed a place to start. "You can do this, Agent."

Edited 2014-06-27 04:07 (UTC)

"Loki. Right. Loki."

Her voice was small as she said it. She could do this? No. No way. Loki was major league. He was training wheels off, final boss battle, hope you've leveled up all the way bad. And Eleanor? She wasn't even sure she'd started the game. Oh well. At least she knew that she couldn't die in the encounter. Not really. But boy would a guy like Loki sure get a kick out of her power.

"I'm glad you think so." She sighed and ran a hand back through her hair. It was becoming quite a nervous tic for her. That and chewing her lower lip. "You can call me Eleanor, if you want. 'Agent' still feels weird. And besides, if you do call me Eleanor, I get to tell everyone I know, which isn't really anyone, that Ms. Marvel is on a first name basis with me. I hope you don't mind if I fangirl you or anything, because if you do, it's already too late. Although if I wasn't in time to save your daughter, this fangirling may come to a sudden, tragic end where you hate me forever."

The doctor cleared his throat. "You were in time. By five hours. I've said that already."

"I won't believe it until my role model isn't pounding my face into the pavement for not taking good enough care of her daughter...," Eleanor muttered. The doctor just rolled his eyes.

((ooc: Apologies for some of the delays in replies...I've been out of town visiting my family so it's been dicey as to when I'd have time to write stuff!))

"He's not as terrifying as you would think," Carol said, from experience. "Tricky, yes. You really do need to watch yourself around him. But as far as bad guys go, they have worse up there." She reached into her bag and pulled a glass bottle of water out. If Eleanor was paying attention, she'd noticed the water had mint leaves and slices of lime in it. No, not alcohol - just flavoured water. Carol had long since given up alcohol after a years-long struggle with it.

Still, she smiled at Eleanor. "Roxie's friends fan over me enough. Believe me, I'm used to it, Eleanor. It never ceases to be flattering." She just hoped that Eleanor wasn't going to ask her to sign her bra or something. "And you did do well by Roxie. Believe me, it's not easy, this line of work you're in. During my earliest days as Ms. Marvel," once Carol had figured out and come to terms with the fact that she and the entity known as Ms. Marvel were one and the same, "my constant fear had been to do something that cost a lot of lives. Or even a life. It's a good worry to have, but I know in my bones that my daughter is going to be fine. She's made of stronger stuff than even me." Not that she would have said that out loud if Roxie had still been awake.

She smiled and stroked her daughter's head gently. Love and pride flickered over her face. Bringing Roxie up had been difficult, and for awhile, she'd moved her daughter to Avengers Mansion to give her some sort of stability. (Yes, even a Mansion that was regularly attacked was more stable than Carol's brownstone, which had very little protection.) But from what it looked like, after years of struggling with partying and drugs and sleeping with anything that moved, Roxie was finally getting some stability. And growing up. Who would have ever thought that something so wonderful could have been the result of Amora's curse?

"If you require assistance, the best person to turn to is probably Sammy Fury. She's the daughter of Nick Fury, and a hell of an agent. She'd be able to guide you through the right channels better than I could ever hope to."

((ooc: Oh hey, no worries at all! I'm sorry for this late reply, myself! I thought I'd already replied, but I think DW ate my reply last week, and I didn't even know. So sorry!))

One of the tics that was ingrained into any agent was a constant undercurrent of paying attention. Eleanor's mind absently picked up that bit of information and cross referenced it with the knowledge of her previous addiction. She wasn't surprised though. That her hero had kicked the habit was only to be expected. That she'd had the habit in the first place only made her more heroic; if you knew your heroes had flaws, then you knew you could aspire to be like them. One day. Maybe.

"The tricksters are the worst. At least you have a target to punch with the fighters." She sighed. "But I'm not an invulnerable, super strong fighting type, so I've gotta learn to play the role of trickster myself. Maybe I should hope for Loki, so I can learn from playing against him. Like Agent Romanova did." Not many humans could outsmart a trickster god. It was just another legendary trait of the woman that formerly wore the Black Widow mantle.

"Kree and Ares...," Eleanor murmured. The mix was staggering. The SHIELD files on Roxie were more than a little nervous. If that much power ever went bad... "I look up to you." She just suddenly blurted it out. Then she flushed, her cheeks going pink. "I mean...I just...want to be like you. You always do the right thing. I don't always even know what the right thing is."

"I've heard of Agent Fury. But our paths haven't crossed yet. Which I guess is weird considering what SHIELD wants me to be, but not as weird as you'd think. SHIELD is pretty huge, and everybody's always busy. But you knew that. Because you're Ms. Marvel."

((ooc: Aahhhhhh...I know that feeling so well! It's all good. I've done the exact same thing until somebody poked me. Worst feeling ever, but just a part of long form RP sometimes!))

"Well, I'm not sure how you're going to get him in here for questioning - and I'm not suggesting that either. But profile him, start from there, see what his contacts are - if he has anything to gain from this - and then move on from there. Chances are, it's probably not him. But the obvious suspects - the most famous ones - are always the best place to start." Carol was no spy. Not in the way that Natasha Romanov, Jessica Drew, and Sammy Fury were.

She grinned. "That's highly flattering, Eleanor." And it was. Carol liked to think that she'd inspired a generation of younger woman. "Though it's never not awkward hearing it," she added with a wry smile. "SHIELD's grown a lot. It was already big by the time I started working with them, of course, but..." it had grown exponentially since. And there were many groups who weren't fond of them - and not just AIM, HYDRA, and the other obviously villainous groups. There were groups on the side of the angels that had their issues with SHIELD as well. "Well. The world grows, and so do some of the agencies in it."

Edited 2014-07-11 21:24 (UTC)

Eleanor was nodding as she spoke. It was good advice from one of the foremost experts on the biggest bads. Also, even if it wasn't Loki, it was a good idea to do some research on him anyway. The bad thing about the immortal ones was that they never went away. The good thing about them was that meant there were files and files of information on them. Loki was by far the least predictable of the gods, but by the same token immortality had a way of making even the god of mischief more predictable than the latest insane lunatic on the streets.

"I know. I mean, I'm sorry. I mean...you're welcome. I'm sorry and you're welcome? I don't mean to be awkward. But...you've done a lot to give a lot of newbie heroes someone to look up to. Paved a lot of ways, and all that. Roxie is lucky to have you for a mom."

She stopped before she got so awkward that she said that she wished Ms. Marvel was her mom too. What a legacy to live up to, though. Wow. But at least Roxie had a legacy to live up to.

"Thanks for the advice. I will totally let you know what comes of it. If anything. Sometimes these villains can just be...random. As I'm sure you know."

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