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Post by aquarius on May 10, 2023 12:59:34 GMT -7
Marie had been having a lot of fun just talking with people - still a little bit of a novelty for her to do so on such a large scale - chatting about various characters, costumes, posing for a few pictures and so on. Another voice from the crowd spoke a compliment over her dress and she turned with a cheerful expression, ready to acknowledge it as her brain began to register that she'd been called by name, just in time to recognise the voice - and indeed face.
"Ms Blaire! Thanks! I spent a lot of time on this one, possibly as long as all the others combined. Easy, just time consuming. I brought my other ones with me too, I might change into some of them later of course. So far I've been just having a look around at all the stalls, enjoying the crowd, costumes... everything. Probably I'll slow down in a bit and find somewhere to sit down and have a rest or something. Could have sworn I saw a friend earlier, too. But they were gone in the crowd before I could get close enough to tell."
She'd only met Patrick once, during the X-men / Avengers trainees cross dimensional scavenger hunt. But she'd quite liked him, and he was far better mannered than just about any of the guys (or indeed girls) at the X-mansion.
"What about you, miss? Are you here for fun, or are you performing or something? I bet the tickets are all sold out if you are..."
Given that Dazzler was her music teacher back at the Institute, Marie was not worried about getting to see any performance that might be taking place. She was muddling through teaching herself the guitar, but when you had a glam rock superstar like Dazzler coaching you on singing, you got way better than a middle of a crowd seat at a concert. Some of those music lessons had been as good as any other time she'd spent at the mansion so far.
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Post by aquarius on Apr 29, 2023 12:23:10 GMT -7
Ugh. It seemed this mountain of blubber was just as smart as his mangled words earlier suggested. He could see someone flying around throwing portals left and right and still needed help to figure out who she was talking about?! Nico pointed briefly with a simple "her" and turned her attention back to the mess of extinct creatures and civilians doing their panicked best to avoid becoming extinct.
Where did they come from, though?... Wait! That was it! The spark of an idea that a spell could form around. She let the thought take proper shape in her head, building up to what she knew would be the necessary incantation. where did you come from?...
"Cotton Eye Joe"
A sudden flurry of soft white spheres flew from her staff, impacting with the feet of each and every dinosaur she could see. Once they connected, these balls began rolling - all backwards from their respective hosts. They gathered together as they moved, forming into something resembling tumbleweeds, moving onwards in the direction the dinosaurs had come from, even turning the corner at the intersection at the end of the block.
"There you go! That's where they came from!"
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Post by aquarius on Apr 23, 2023 1:56:18 GMT -7
Marie had heard about conventions in general, and Comic Con in particular had been held up as an example of these at their best. Being her first chance to attend one she was naturally nervous, but had put a lot of effort into multiple costumes, having found herself unable to choose between them. Currently she was in a self made Princess Peach outfit that was surprisingly decent quality compared to most of the other cosplayers she'd seen so far, though a few were absolutely breathtaking.
Somewhere around she knew a few of the X-men were signing autographs, and whilst there were a few Avengers doing so as well she wasn't much of an autograph hunter and was therefore using the time to instead simply wander the convention and drink in the atmosphere for herself. This convention was her first real chance at pursuing a hobby in person and she wasn't going to miss one second of it!
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Meanwhile across the hall, Squirrel Girl was already 'on duty', signing autographs and chatting with fans of both herself and the Avengers in general. This kind of work was absolutely her favourite, since it involved no senseless violence but instead socialising - her real superpower. The past record of these events was known to her of course, and there were a fair few of her squirrel scouts around the place, keeping an eye out for trouble and ready to alert her when if anything super-villainous did occur.
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Post by aquarius on Apr 16, 2023 6:41:18 GMT -7
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Post by aquarius on Apr 16, 2023 6:34:06 GMT -7
Faiza was normally kept busy with the Avengers, but today she had some time off. Not for the usual reasons, but because today they were giving everyone on their active roster a refresher course in emergency first aid. Given that Faiza was a qualified doctor with powers of healing to boot, it was agreed she didn't need to go through the course. Since they already had someone to teach it, she was free to do as she wished.
Whenever she had any such free time, it was always spent the same way. In her head at least, she was 'on duty', so time was to be used as Excalibur, not as Faiza. Whilst there was no way of predicting when and where villains might strike, Excalibur could save people in other ways. And so, she headed to the nearest hospital.
The first time she had turned up they had been alarmed at the sight of a sword wielding person walking in, but that had been sorted out quickly enough. By now their reception staff were just as used to the sight of her as their ICU staff were. Excalibur gave them a friendly wave as she walked past, heading straight into the trauma ward where the most severely injured arrivals were. A moment's interaction with the nurse in charge of the ward's administration and Faiza was able to get on with her work.
She'd come to an agreement with the hospital after her first visit. She would save lives, and they wouldn't charge for it. They would have the boost to their reputation and performance figures, and the patients would get to live, as well as in perfect condition, not the crippled for life that was the usual outcome of even the best medical treatment of such injuries.
The first bed she came to was a simple gunshot wound to the chest. This was by now a normal sight for her, an ordinary injury to undo. The man was sedated, and didn't even wake up. Faiza moved on to the next bed. A messy traffic accident victim, moaning in pain despite the painkillers their chart indicated they were already under the effects of. She leaned forwards to speak quietly in her ear. "Don't worry. I can fix this; the pain will stop."
A second later and the faint cries of pain did indeed stop as her blue aura calmed the agony far better than even the strongest medication could. Another moment or two passed, and the woman's body had been harmlessly opened up and returned to perfect condition, no trace of the horrible disfigurements left. As the various body parts reunited with each other, all in their right position, the blue aura faded and the patient could move once more, gasping at the sudden change in her condition.
"I'm... I'm not hurt? Oh my god, thank you! You even put my finger back?! I lost that when I was a kid! How?!"
Faiza had had this conversation dozens of times, and whilst it was familiar it remained without doubt the best part of her work. The exact opposite of those difficult conversations doctors usually had to have with the dying and with the families. "I have the power to heal, I'm an Avenger, and I'm a doctor. I'm known as Excalibur, and I'll be back to speak with you in a few minutes, once I've visited every other bed in this ward. I will be back though, you have my word."
Sure enough, Faiza went round each bed in the ward, saving lives, reattaching lost limbs, restoring proper quality of life to those who would otherwise live with their wounds forevermore. But once everyone had been healed she returned to that woman who she had promised, and spent the next half hour just chatting with her, before her comm card beeped an alert to her, signalling that the Avenger was needed, and the doctor's work was done for now.
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Post by aquarius on Apr 16, 2023 5:33:12 GMT -7
Every day Jeanne learned more about the world as well as the more significant people in it. This was more than just her usual thirst for knowledge though, it was prudence on both her part and on that of her instructors. Her fantastic capability for spotting patterns and connections as well as deduction meant that she was highly capable at detecting the plots of villains before they were carried out. Just a few weeks ago for example, she had noticed some unusual patterns in financial dealings in off shore shell companies that turned out to be signs of Hammer Industries quietly funding revolutionaries in several East European countries, most notably Latveria.
Whether anyone was doing anything about that, Jeanne did not actually know. To be honest she didn't care. Whether Doom was any worse than most other world leaders was a debate that even she knew better than to try and engage in. Despite its myriad flaws 'democracy' was incomprehensibly important to everyone, even though every country supposedly using it as a system spectacularly failed to actually end up with a truly democratic process, as well as giving equal weight to the vote of a scholar as that of a wilfully brainless fool.
Today though, at least the knowledge she'd acquired about Latveria previously remained useful. There were ongoing signs that Doctor Doom was interested in certain archaeological expeditions, various legends and myths that spoke of the worst kind of plan. One which involved magic - something which she had very little knowledge of, nor any real capacity to understand based on what she had been able to learn. But that didn't mean she couldn't deduce at least some of the plan, and that was what the screens in front of her were revealing, one new page at a time.
A report from the now old British department 'Weird Happenings Organisation' detailing the death of one of their citizen's deaths.
A satellite photograph of a part of the northern border of Latveria.
A basic training document - probably authored by Blade for use by SHIELD and the Avengers - detailing the strengths and limitations of those creatures he specialised in.
A variety of spiritual texts on the nature of astral projection.
Jeanne was still frustratingly short of enough information to reach a conclusion, but she was able to determine the gaps she needed to fill at least. She filled out a form which was rarely used, especially by trainees, to be passed along to her instructors. They would review it and (hopefully at least) take it seriously enough to pass it on in turn to Doctor Strange, as he was the only reliable source she was aware of for some of the books she needed. Not that she was even sure they were the right ones of course. If they weren't, she'd have to request an actual consult with him. The chances of that being approved were thirty percent at best, Jeanne believed. Strange, along with a few other senior figures in the hero community had been acting... suspiciously. Most likely they were planning something of similar significance to what had happened at the outbreak of the superhuman Civil War. Whatever it was though, Jeanne was unconcerned. Such things never really changed anything just complicated life for a while before things got back to normal.
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Post by aquarius on Apr 16, 2023 3:34:42 GMT -7
Being a Secret Avenger working for Nick Fury was an unusual job. Most employers gave you some decent idea of what you were actually meant to be doing, and were reliably contactable to allow for guidance or clarification. But not Fury. No, he was almost as difficult to track down as....
Them.
The small group of the Secret Avengers still had no definite Skrulls infiltrators identified, but with nothing much to go on, Gambit was actually in his element. Just about everyone was a possible suspect, and when you grew up in a Thieves' Guild then being suspicious of everyone was natural precaution. He'd made a list of all the most obvious targets for replacement, a few of which were better suited to his investigative skills than others.
Firstly was SHIELD. You'd need to be some kind of lunatic to try and break into one of the highest security Helicarriers, and Gambit wasn't quite that overconfident (despite appearances) but that didn't mean he wasn't going to try and do his job. Sure the Helicarriers were near unbreakable security, but there were many lower priority facilities that were less secure by far, and that was where his journey started.
A covert storage facility in the Queens area had decent enough protection for just about any mundane intruder, but not enough to keep a world class thief such as himself from sneaking in. Finding the entrance had been the hardest part, ironically. But he'd recognised an agent from a previous interaction he'd had with SHIELD, and tailed them until he found where they were working. After that, it was business as usual for him. Surveillance, getting an idea of the security and staffing levels, all the usual things a thief should concern themselves with.
Only a few days later, he'd decided he'd learned enough to make his move. Between binoculars and a carefully placed spy camera, he'd learned the passcode to the entry system, and acquiring the passcard from the guard on his way home was child's play. From there it was on with the disguise and in the door, quietly swapping the pass with that of the first other SHIELD agent he spotted (at some point it would surely be flagged up as suspicious activity and be suspended, so getting a different one was always a good idea) and before long he was at the mainframe. This was still part of his obfuscation of his genuine task, of course. Quietly adding an extra person to the staff roster - one whom Gambit of course would be able to use the identity of to infiltrate another facility - his misdirection began. This had to look like there was a purpose to the infiltration when it was inevitably uncovered. And so he downloaded the files SHIELD had on a random Hero he'd selected before he'd even made his first move. Jack Of Hearts. Just significant enough that it would seem plausible, but not so high profile it would attract too much scrutiny.
After less than a minute at the console, Gambit was gone. Avoiding notice by the people was simple enough, and by the time anyone even realised there had been any breach of security, Gambit was long gone, planning his next heist.
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Post by aquarius on Apr 15, 2023 11:36:20 GMT -7
It seemed Dracula felt the need to state that which Doom had already assured would not be an issue. A sign of his inferior intellect, naturally. "Doom stated he would not require anything significantly against your interests, and Doom is no fool. Taking as an enemy anyone I consider worthy of plotting against would be... significant. Rest assured, no such demand would be made. You are a politician as well as a force of... 'nature'. The value of a favour from yourself is far more likely to be political in nature than martial."
Doom had a few ideas for the opportunities that could best be furthered by Dracula's subservience, however limited such a state might be. But they would all take more consideration than a few minutes spent face to face with the man. Proper research as to which he could be most easily manipulated into doing anyway - thinking it was his own idea - would be Doom's normal response to any such situation.
"We appear to have no further details to address in such immediate circumstances. The rest can be left for another night, when we have both given the agreement the consideration it deserves. Doom leaves you with one final reminder. Approach my borders, but any who cross into Latveria without the word of Doom shall be forfeit. And I would be... displeased."
With that, Doom turned and walked towards the edge of the building. When he reached the edge, his green field began to shrink back in towards them. He turned to look at Dracula briefly, speaking one last time. "No doubt in a minute or two, there will be mundane security and heroes alike swarming all over this roof. I assume you have the means to leave no sign you were here."
With that said, Doom returned his gaze to the city, and with a final blaze of magical energies, he vanished.
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Post by aquarius on Apr 15, 2023 11:06:12 GMT -7
It was not the first time that Octavius had faced a new foe and seen the realisation on their face. The realisation that whilst his body might be roughly as intimidating as an inanimate object, his mind was terrifyingly dangerous. And with his tentacles being controlled by his mind... Well, it was like kicking sand in the scrawny kid's face, only for him to come back next week after joining the army, now calling himself 'Captain America'.
He had the martial artist on the defensive for the moment, and Otto knew he had to keep the pressure up. Giving a smart opponent time to think was akin to letting them retrieve a dropped weapon, after all.
There were only so many options available to him, though. The Iron Fist fought with a few passing similarities to Spider-Man, but not enough for Otto to consider himself in his element. He had to learn how to fight someone reputedly one of the finest fighters in the world. No small challenge. Testing the limits of his opponent seemed prudent, therefore. Staying raised high in the air on two of his tentacles, Octavius withdrew his offensive pair and began to whirl them around in front of himself at intense speeds - soon generating intense winds, probably enough to hold the martial artist back unless he was more powerful than he'd let on so far. This was a distraction, of course, permitting one of his octobots to move into position at the far end of the arena, hopefully staying in the Iron Fist's blind spot as it snuck up behind him ready to close in the rest of the distance and wrap its flexible arms around Danny in a highly effective grapple.
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Post by aquarius on Feb 22, 2023 13:50:44 GMT -7
Tapping away at her custom tablet, the young redhead in the wheelchair and simple black dress confirmed her calculations were correct. The only way having to be here could get any worse would be if some idiot started a super powered fight. Something which she quietly considered to be over fifty percent probability.
She'd been picked as a representative of the Fire Department by some senior figure who had never actually met her before he turned up at the station to tell her, and thought Gabby would enjoy spending time around "other super heroes".
Gabby had almost quit on the spot. But after she'd finished swearing in a variety of languages (hopefully he didn't speak any of them, or she'd possibly be in trouble over that) one of the station crew who knew her fairly well who had been reading through the basic info packet she'd thrown aside said three words that had gotten her interest enough to reluctantly agree to attend.
"Who's Hank Pym?"
He knew, of course. And Gabby knew that he knew. But Dr Pym was one of the most brilliant minds alive, far beyond that weapons making ego on armoured legs Tony Stark, and as far as she was concerned probably an equal of Reed Richards. The possibility of getting to discuss proper science with him was vanishingly small of course, but people won the lottery each week.
Of course, the possibility of having to interact with the mass murderer Carol Danvers was apparently also very real. Someone who had not only killed the population of a town not all that far from Gabby's home in Texas, but also beat her best friend into unconsciousness, someone who SHIELD had denied any knowledge of, and had not been seen since.
So Gabby sat there in a formal outfit which had cost more than she normally spent on clothes in a month, something she'd probably never wear again, one hand tapping away on her tablet and the other holding a glass of water from which she took an occasional sip. Currently she was scrolling through the last few pages of Dr Pym's most recent paper on manipulation of spatial dimension energies. Stopping occasionally to update her notes in another tab, hopefully nobody without a PhD or a tray of food would bother her before she could get away with leaving early.
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Post by aquarius on Feb 10, 2023 15:40:53 GMT -7
Some more heroes had arrived from who knew where, and a load more dinosaurs. She was happy to leave them to each other, just as soon as she could be sure that Klara was safe, but it seemed the fat guy was seeking someone to give him a clue what was going on, as usual blaming the witch right away. She would give him the benefit of the doubt for now, but the moment she saw someone building a pyre to burn her on, she was getting out of there.
"Nothing to do with me, Incredible Bulk. How about asking the portal cosplayer who just flew in?"
Thinking up spells mid fight was never easy, especially when there was this sort of distracting conversation going on. Rather than a tactically ingenious hex which would change the flow of the entire combat Nico instead resorted to a blast of raw magical energy she'd acquired from her encounter with the Witchbreaker, sending a velociraptor flying backwards and skidding into the portal the flying robo-girl had created.
Glancing around she realised she couldn't see Klara. That was a concern for the split second it took to spot the plant growth around a nearby building. If she was inside, that was good. Dinosaurs were not known for opening doors. Except the ones in Jurassic Park of course, and Old Lace had not gotten the hang of that as far as she knew. If a genetically engineered superior intellect dino couldn't, then hopefully these ones wouldn't be able to either. Now she just needed to think of a spell to find out what the problem was, and work out how to fix it...
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Post by aquarius on Feb 4, 2023 5:15:37 GMT -7
Great. A robot with social skills worse than her own, and one apparently losing against whatever it was that was going on, too. Perhaps she'd have been better off on her own - too late for that now though.
'Focus on the goal, getting out of here' she thought, trying to remain calm despite the steadily increasing reasons to do otherwise. Bring this robot girl up to speed on Verity's ability, at least. That was a good start.
"Verity Willis, D7 class power, absolute perception of truth. So I know you are not alright. I have a phone if you want to call some Avengers or SHIELD or anyone. Beyond that, I doubt I'm going to be any use to you. If you are sticking around to keep losing whatever fight you're fighting, can you at least tell me a safe way to run away? I'm no hero, I just want to stay alive."
The Avengers were probably already aware of the situation, in all fairness. Explosions in the middle of the city, people tended to notice them and report them to the police. And of course the Avengers mansion wasn't all that far away from Central Park. Was it close to where they were though? Or was it right at the far end where they might take who knows how long to show up?
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Post by aquarius on Jan 11, 2023 15:11:20 GMT -7
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Post by aquarius on Jan 11, 2023 12:18:46 GMT -7
Finesse had been getting top grades in just about all her classes at the Avengers Academy. That 'just about' frustrated her, naturally. There were a small number of subjects which involved social interaction as a core skill, and whilst she could learn all about a culture, memorising a country's interests near instantly, diplomacy often involved far more than rote memorisation of data and customs. For all her skills, Jeanne had always failed to understand how to make friends with someone.
How could such skills be acquired, then? Someone at the Academy had arranged a 'special tutor', but been remarkably vague about their actual identity, only directing her to a specific bench in Central Park at 11:00, with civilian clothing. Jeanne had little idea exactly what was going on - a rare situation to find herself in - but was happy to go along with it. A trip to the park was a pleasant alternative to sitting in a classroom and learning nothing, especially when it might lead to more skills in an area which had until now frustrated her immensely.
And so she was waiting at the appointed time, wearing simple jeans and a simple dark blue shirt, all underneath a relatively long but lightweight coat to keep out the cold. Nobody seemed to be arriving though, and aside from someone briefly stopping to tie their shoelace things were quiet. After a few moments a faint noise at the end of the bench attracted her attention, and leaning over to investigate revealed a small creature attempting to find its way into a small packet of nuts, apparently dropped by the person who had paused there a few moments ago.
At her movement, the squirrel scurried backwards in alarm, leaving its prize unguarded. Jeanne considered the situation briefly, reasoning that whilst the food was technically the property of someone else, it was also meeting the legal definition of litter, meaning that disposing of it by reasonable means was permissible. And so she tore the packet open, letting the nuts fall to the snow covered ground before placing the packaging in her pocket to find a bin later.
That was when she heard a voice behind her. "Thanks for that. Tippy hates the taste of plastic, so always has trouble getting into them on her own."
Turning around, she saw the girl who had paused there before. With this new information, Jeanne was able to make a deduction which would likely frustrate a great many villains seeking the identity of this individual.
"Squirrel Girl. I take it you're the person I was told to meet here." The tone made it clear this was more of a statement than a question.
"Yeah, but call me 'Doreen'. Sorry about that, I wanted to see what kind of person you are. One who will help a wild creature without anything to gain from it seems alright to me! Seems like you've got the important part of diplomacy down already, to be honest - a desire to help others. I'm told you're... 'all brains, no heart'? Heck, I'm a computer science student, so I can work out something that'll help you, I'm sure. Come with me, I'll introduce you to a few of me and Tippy's friends, then we can go find somewhere a bit warmer to get to work."
Jeanne reflected on what she knew of Squirrel Girl. Her reputation was one of a frankly improbably capable combatant, only surpassed by her supposedly cosmic tier diplomacy. If she couldn't find a way to improve Jeanne's interpersonal skills, then nobody could.
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Post by aquarius on Jan 10, 2023 13:33:13 GMT -7
"Don't worry about it" Faiza replied. "You had good cause to be excited, and I would not have left the blade where you could reach it if there was any chance of you causing any harm at all. But it is an important lesson to remember. Learn to take a little more care in some things, otherwise I may have to visit you again."
From outside, the sound of a motorcycle approaching then slowing caused Faiza to turn her head slightly, then check her Avengers commcard. "It appears that is Finesse arriving to give me a lift back to the mansion. Gabriel? I'll have someone contact you to work out an exercise plan with you to make sure your legs get to full strength as quickly as possible. You'll probably hear from me and Finesse a few times over the next week or so. Robbie? Take care of yourself, and about Finesse... For all her talents she is terrible at expressing her feelings. But it's clear to anyone who knows her that she likes you. What you want to do with that knowledge is up to you. Anyway, I should be going now, unless there's anything else I can help with first."
With that, she double checked her sword belt was secured properly, reached out to ruffle Gabe's hair briefly, and turned to head out the door, glancing back as she did. "See you both around!"
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