2015.02.23 - Blüdbath: Hot Potato

OOC NOTE: The following news articles provide a bit of context: [] and []

Place: Blüdhaven, Deathstroke's Warehouse Base

Time: A Sunday night, during the VSG patrols' shift change.

"Easy with the cargo... we don't want to rough her up too much before we dump her body in the harbor. We're not savages, after all." Deathstroke gently scolds his latest underlings as they dump the trussed-up body of the crime fighter formerly known as Batgirl into the back of a nondescript white van. With her hands tied behind her, and a hood over her head, there's little indication whether the girl is still alive or not. However, she appears to still be bleeding, so that's always a good sign.

"Sure Boss. We'll make sure she's nice and comfortable. We gotta protect our reputation." One of the thugs answers in the same spirit, using sarcasm to try to disguise his nervousness. After all, this is his first big job for Deathstroke, and if the man's reputation is to believed, he'd better hope everything goes off without a hitch.

"Goodbye Barbie. I'm going to miss having you around, hanging from the wall. You really brightened up the place. I guess I'll have to get a painting now or something..."

He turns away from the van as the door slams shut. The driver and front passenger get in their places, joining the small group of armed guards already stationed in the back of the van. The engine starts up, and the headlights turn on.

"Okay people, listen up! Tonight is all about sending a message, and if this doesn't go off smoothly the only message that will get sent is that we're retarded. I will not have my good name sullied when I'm trying to piss off my enemies and terrify Blüdhaven's taxpayers. So, we review the plan..."

He turns away from his troops, toward the four motorcycles idling next to the van. "We've already done our equipment checks, vehicles are fueled, and we've each had exactly 1.5 kilograms of raw steak. Now that we're prepared, we'll be shadowing the van all the way to its final location. Stay close enough to interdict any opposition, and do not allow yourselves to be sidetracked. If any of the bat clowns show up, and they probably will, the main effort will remain with the cargo van, and you will be dispatched individually to eviscerate our enemies."

Deathstroke begins pacing back and forth, the excitement in his voice apparent despite his attempts to sound professional. "Once we get to our location, I will execute Miss Gordon in an extremely colorful manner and one of you will post the video on the Internet. Now, if there are no questions, saddle up!"

Another former Batgirl - this one all in black and with her features entirely hidden by the cowl she wears - stands close by, standing as Deathstroke's majordomo tonight. Where Slade goes so does she, a shadow that listens intently while he explains everything although she is not really needing a refresher on the plan. Cass never once had a problem absorbing information, even that given in large quantities at once, the girl smart as a whip despite the few 'learning disabilities' she has.

When it is time to go she gets into the van, an imposing figure even if she is no where as bulky or tall as Slade is, her own intimidation factoring in how she carries herself. Posture rigid, head held level, her face held in a scowl although that goes unseen by the others here.

Well, there's one mercenary thats much smaller then the others, and has no weapons...Dark Caliber sighs a little bit, as she looks at Deathstroke. She nods her head as she gets up on the motorcycle. One of the thugs look at her, and snerks. "Looking a little light there, girl. A tight ass, and a fine body doesn't help against clowns in this area.", he says. DC looks over at Deathstroke.

"Can I kill that one? Please? Just to send a message?", she asks. The thug laughs. The woman shakes her head, and gets on her motorcycle. "I still wished you would have allowed me to rig the van with a bomb.", she tells. The woman takes a moment to start the engine. DC shakes her head, and lets loose a feral growl though as a headache hits her. "Lets just hurry up and gets this done. I'm hungry."

Click. Safety off. The high powered scope moves slowly, watching the mercenaries move their bundle into the van. The Red Hood has been tracking Barbara and waiting for the right time to strike. His cross hairs rest on Slade for a moment...But no, Bruce wouldn't want that. He squeezes off a shot, the anti-material barks loud enough to echo all over Bludhaven and the bullet streaks for the van's engine block. Jason doesn't wait to see if the shot connected. He's off the roof and down to his own bike, that roars off to Deathstroke's position.

<< The target's on the move. >>

"Thank you, Agent Keller," Captain America murmurs into his comlink. There are some missions for which the Avengers should assemble. There are some that are best handled by SHIELD. Bludhaven isn't the kind of place you come into in force. It's the kind of place where you have a delicate balance that has to be nudged, adjusted, slowly moved to something better. It's the kind of place where, to be frank, you generally leave things to the Bats of the world. But for reasons they haven't even shared with Steve, SHIELD wants to be very sure Miss Gordon is rescued. He doesn't even question why there's a tracker on her. Instead? He powers up the Harley, moving through the side streets. "Give me a good intercept, Kelly," he murmurs, following the guidance of the analyst. Swinging the bike through a turn, he's now powering towards the van. Of course, there's a "shield" of minions between him and them.

"I don't really care if you people embarrass yourselves, but if you make him look bad..."

The newly re-christened Ravager's eyes dart between her fellow agents, a resolute scowl fixed to her features. There are still so many things that she doesn't know, but since receiving the Gift - since seeing Deathstroke again - she can take comfort in the constants that guided the chunks of her life she still remembers:

Even when he's barking about eviscerating people, her father knows best. Even when he's putting her through hell to guarantee her loyalty, he's the only one who really cares about her.

So after issuing her implicit threat, she makes sure to point to her eyes then sweep those fingers towards the other cyclists before mounting her own bike, just to make sure they know she means business.

"There's still a Robin, right?" Her expression and tone both soften considerably into girlish excitement as she pulls the cowl of her orange and blue chain mail into place. "Because one of you other jerks is on Robin duty if so! I want one of the good ones!"

With that, she revs her engine.

Barbara Gordon is silent as she's loaded into the van. Unmoving, seemingly unconscious... She's glad for the hood; her captors can;t see that she's awake and aware, silently tracking where they're taking her. She shifts, ever so slightly, until her hands are at her waistband. Then she stills again. Waiting was the worst part...

Assets were limited. They always were, in Gotham. Should have been perfectly fine for the theoretical mission scope, but it was a cesspit at the best of times, so the theoretical aspect of it went straight out the window. Things thinned out further still when it became an infiltration of a mercenary filled red zone to rescue what was, on paper, the daughter of a municipal official. This is something that should have been handled by the vigilantes with nothing better to do.

The problem was that what research said Gotham hung on a thread. Anything damaging to the police force, like a dead daughter of the one honest cop in the GCPD, threatened that. Made the job much harder. Which meant that certain action would need to be taken.

A voice comes through Cap's communications system. "Captain, this is Geiger. Pleasure to meet you. Official position is unimportant, but I'm lead this operation. Target is codenamed 'Clocktower'. Operational objective is to recover, and fall back for extraction, Primary or Secondary. Utilize any and all necessary force against combatants to accomplish this. Capture or neutralization of HVTs is secondary. Repeat, secondary to operational objectives. Confirm receipt."

And, down the street, separated by a number of feet and each having there own job, were six people. A couple, of course, holding together tightly for security. A courier, clutching a package. A slinkily dressed woman, eyes looking for a john, and the john she finds, blushing and smiling as they walk on. And one last man, in the middle of it, black cap over his head. A dockworker trying to blend into the scenery, and avoid the mercenary patrols. They all knew were they were headed. They all knew that this might be a trap. But that was the job.

Some distance, barely over the rooftops of Bludhaven an invisible (and bored) flying saucer is doing then nth sweep through the city. Inside, a white-clad man speed reads over rather old files his technorganic partner, said flying saucer, has recently decoded and put for him on a screen.

This being Bludheaven, gunshots are expected, and in fact it is not the first one they hear today. But Fantomex is quite sure Deathstroke will move tonight, and he wants to watch, and maybe interfere. So the invisible aircraft shifts its path and speeds towards the source of the gunshot.

Like the rest of his mini-Slades, Deathstroke mounts his barely recognizable motorcycle (it used to be a Hayabusa before he had it Deathstroked out). But just as he revs up the engine and begins throttling forward, an anti-material pierces the van's engine block before it even gets a hundred feet away from the makeshift base.

Unfortunately, this causes the inexperienced driver to panic, and he floods the engine with gasoline. The results are predictable, as the engine explodes into a fireball. The explosion is loud enough to be heard for blocks, and pieces of shrapnel spray in all directions. Poor Barbara Gordon... she was so young...

"Dammit! They had to pick tonight to be early for the first time ever..." Deathstroke practically spits into his helmet's headset. The radios of all of Slade's crew are linked, but for obvious reasons he prefers to avoid giving them too many instructions over radio. If his dealings with Oracle have taught him anything, it's that these sources are far too easy to hack.

"We're moving on to Plan Bravo! And you girls thought I was paranoid for lining the back of the van with Kevlar..." He turns his bike around and rockets toward the burning van. Without dismounting, he punches through the door of the van, and pulls it off in an over-the-top fashion, tossing it over his head and behind him. Reaching into the van, he grabs the target by her feet and yanks her out of the van about as roughly as possible. Slinging her over his shoulder he rockets away from the van just before it is engulfed in one last explosion.

"Fuck Tynan, you said you didn't plant the explosives! Now it doesn't matter if the VSG are changing shifts, they'll be all over our asses in less than fifteen minutes. We've got to accelerate our timetable!"

He pulls back the throttle with his one free hand, and peals out of the compound.

The van Cass got into stops and the assassin gets out, the exit from the vehicle quick as she will not do anything to impede its progression. In each hand is a wickedly-honed katana, the blades of which glint metallicly in the light, and upon her back there's a rifle that is eerily similar to those military-trained snipers use, the weapons ones she got on her person after she entered the van to go. Glancing around, she utters a single word into her subvocal comms device, the single word an order from her.

"Fight."

Before the van can exit the compound she climbs up onto its roof, barely having a chance to grab on, the force of the acceleration making that thrilling. By the time she's steady on the driver changes direction, trying to put them in the immediate line of attack.

Dark Caliber blinks. "Not my fault you hired cheap. He flooded the engine with gas.", she says. Ty mutters a little bit though. She didn't put that many explosives in there...Just for the doors. Stupid Cheap goon. The woman starts looking around, and then spots the spot where the gunshot happened. The woman sighs a little bit. For now, Dark moves to escort Slade. The woman keeps an eye on the objective. For now, protect the objective.

Jason Todd is roaring off after Slade. He was worried that someone would be stupid enough to try and drive a vehicle with a hole in it, but it was a calculated risk. He guns the throttle to attempt to catch up. The Red Hood has discarded the rifle in favor of a sawed-off shotgun. He slips it off his back. Anyone who has spent any time with the Bats can hear the trademark sound of the Red Hood's engine. You paged Captain America with 'Oh totally. Anything not played by a real person is totally group property.'

"Confirmed," is all Steve says as the bike roars out into the street ahead of the target.

<< I'm reading the target as destroyed. >>

Captain America basically is incapable of swearing. He spins the bike into position anyway.

<< Negative. Target still on the move. >>

Good. And then the first of the escorts show up. A flick of his wrist, and the shield goes flying, slamming into the lead two, knocking them and their bikes skidding across the roadway. Captain America lifts his hand to catch the shield on the rebound. What, you were expecting a bike? The more subtle work will be done by the other agents. He's the one letting them know he's there...and hoping to elicit mistakes.

Rose lets out, just, the loudest sigh into her radio in the wake of the explosion; she kept her head down as she sped away from the fireball, but now she's just scowling at it over her shoulder.

Anyone on the commlink can practically hear her eyes rolling.

She accelerates after Slade's bike after sharply reorienting towards it, peeking over her shoulder periodically to watch for threats. "How hard is it to set a stupid bomb?" she gripes to everyone and no-one. "I was--"

The engine noises hit her ear during a moment where her eyes are turned forward; as soon as they do, she snaps her head towards the newcomer and shouts, "Bogey! We have--"

-- two people down, if the shouts over the comms and crashing is any indication; it only takes a quick look around to reveal why. "What the hell is he doing here?" she spits, somewhere between shocked and outraged. "I--" The young killer's jaw snaps shut around whatever she planned on saying next and she just grinds her teeth.

And wrenches back on the accelerator.

"I'll keep him busy!" she decides as her bike darts between motorists and mercenaries on its way towards Cap. If she's allowed to get within ten or fifteen feet of the Sentinel of Liberty, that's about where she'll dismount from the bike with a back flip, drawing the swords crossed in her back in mid-air.

There's a swearing of the 'dockworkers' own. Below his breath, and, of course, easily mistaken as something else, but there when the reports come in of burning van wreckage. Either someone one Slade's side was a bloody incompetent, or their were other forces at work here. Probably another vigilante type. Not the Batman. Explosions weren't his type, and he was reportedly dead. The only good thing about this is that their own analysis had been correct. They were most likely avoiding VSG patrols and leaving themselves a margin of error with the shift changes. Which meant that the road they were coming down... was the same one that they would have expected.

As the star-spangled SHIELD slams into the bikes heading down as escort, there's a message that goes through the radio. "Target is high speed. Plan Mad Max. Go."

With a brief pause, the five people on the road rear into hidden hear, under dresses, inside coats, pulling masks over their faces. The dockworker pulls down his 'watchcap' over his head, and, as the bike pinging the GPS signal roars down the road, a cell phone is brought out. A few simple button presses, before it's sent skittering into the street. It was a small, focused charge, the electric burst meant to fry power controls and the computers necessary to run a modern vehicle. These were modified, though. No guarantee that it would work. But it had to be tried.

The weapons come out, then, machine pistols and SMGs, as the six people on the street group into two man fire teams. If Slade was stopped, he'd be approached. If he didn't, this plan was going to go bad in a /hurry/.

Barbara Gordon stiffens as a gunshot strikes the van. What was happen - oh no. No, she didn't want to die, not like this. Not burning alive, bound and helpless... Of course, Deathstroke is there, being a Big Damn Her- erm, Villain! A string of colorful curse words leave the normally polite woman. Getting yanked out of a burning van hurt, even IF she couldn't feel her lower half. A twist here, a bump there - and she;s activated her hidden ear piece. It's set to broadcast on a channel that Bat-family utilizes. "You want me dead anyway, Deathstroke." she states simply, sounding accepting of her fate. Of course, she's just acting. "You won't get away with this, you know that Deathstroke." she says calmly. "So what's the point of all this?"

E.V.A. is swift to take Fantomex to the warehouse area, and also to give a good overview of the events. "Sacre bleu... quite the crowd. Wait, and Captain America too?" Yes. E.V.A. confirms by putting the shield-wielding hero on screen.

Common sense indicates he should stay away of this. At least until some of the costumed characters have been removed from the equation. But common sense is not Fantomex' best sense. So instead he jumps off E.V.A. still about twenty yards from the ground, pulls his guns off and lands on the top of a parked sedan just a few yards ahead Deathstroke, shattering the windows on the impact. A normal man would have broken both legs too, but he didn't. "Bonjour, monsieur Deathstroke. I'd have words with you."

If Deathstroke is not polite enough to slow down the bike right away, he will shot several bullets aiming at the wheels.

"The point?" Deathstroke sounds genuinely flummoxed by Barbara's question, though he can only spare so much brainpower for conversation right now. After all, he's quite busy driving at extremely unsafe speeds and avoiding a shotgun-wielding vigilante. "Why does there have to be a point? Sometimes when you're an apex predator, you just play with your food because it's fun."

He keeps the throttle pulled back, his engine more than powerful enough to keep his lead, at least for the immediate future. The dial on his speedometer reads nearly two hundred miles per hour before everything suddenly goes to shit. He has to swerve to avoid an incoming superhuman figure at the same time that some SHIELD tech disrupts his bike's electronic systems. He completely loses control of the vehicle, which is literally the worst possible outcome that could have been hoped for during a high speed chase. For the second time in less than five minutes, Barbara Gordon is all but dead...

But even though Slade has decided she needs to die, he apparently doesn't want her to die 'here.' As the bike skids out of control at speeds far beyond what would kill two normal humans, he leaps off of the bike with his hostage still on his back. As the bike falls and skids down the street, it takes out two of the SHIELD agents, turning them into street pizza before it slams into the side of a restaurant, killing a family of four who had 'just' gotten their fish tacos.

But Slade is determined to take as little damage from this accident as possible, twisting around in the air like a skilled gymnast. He pulls Barbara in front of him as he soars through the air, and rotates her away from the direction of damage. He slams back first into a delivery truck, his armor absorbing most of the damage. But Barbara probably could have done without the extra trauma.

"Ugh... I'm starting to think that your friends want you dead more than I do? Maybe I should just give you to them?"

Dark Caliber blinks. S***! She's got Frenchie, SHIELD, Red Hood, and Cap...Wait, that could work. "Deathstroke, we don't have the forces. Tactical situation is very much against us. Drop the woman.", she says. The woman looks at Fantomex. The woman gets off the bike, and looks at him. There's a second before she picks up the motorcycle and throws it at Fantomex. Then she does a quick motion with her hand and suddenly there's a shotgun in her hands. A 12 gauge slug is shot at the motorcycle, blowing it up.

Of course, there's Red Hood, who gets a double dose of 12 gauge slug fun as DC backs towards Deathstroke. The woman though, leaves an open lane for Cap to drive through...The woman is focused on Fantomex and Red Hood. You paged Cassandra Cain with 'At least they showed up...'

Cass is about to get on her way and meet up with the others where this whole thing's supposed to get wrapped up in a slightly-messy-but-still-kind-of-tidy bow but then something unexpected happens. Somehow Cap gets a good aim at her while she was contemplating which route to take and his shield actually hits her in the shoulder. If it wasn't for the serum that would have broken something, but all it does instead is hurt for a while. Gritting her teeth, Cassandra decides she has had enough and, with the clichéd smoke bomb drop, the petite ninja assassin disappears.

Jason Todd guns the throttle. He ignores Fantomex as a simple curiosity for now. He is focused on Barbara. As Tynan turns his direction, he pulls back and pops a wheelie on the bike, attempting to catch the slugs with the bike's undercarriage. He can always get another. "Oracle," He says into his ear piece. "If he so much as touches you, he'll wish he could die." Jason doesn't even acknowledge Tynan, he's just here for Babs. A quick toss of the shield...and the female with the swords retreats. "Engaging the escort. Two down, one retreating," he informs. Chatter across the comlink...two agents are down permanently. These guys aren't messing around. There's an explosion, but Captain America ignores it. Instead, he powers the bike forward, taking out another thug in passing. The guy gets a solid hit on him, but it's not enough to knock him from his bike.

A quick toss of the shield...and the female with the swords retreats. "Engaging the escort. Two down, one retreating," he informs. Chatter across the comlink...two agents are down permanently. These guys aren't messing around. There's an explosion, but Captain America ignores it. Instead, he powers the bike forward, taking out another thug in passing. The guy gets a solid hit on him, but it's not enough to knock him from his bike. Then Rose comes slamming in from the side. He powers forward, but she catches his rear wheel in a blow. The Harley goes spinning. Cap rolls to his feet. Now he's not giving SHIELD any more running commentary, but rather crouching behind his shield, regarding the female mercenary. The women are often the more deadly...

Ravager comes out of the crouch she landed in sprinting, blades swept out to her sides as she charges after her riderless bike.

By the time recovers from the collision, she's close enough to drop into a shin-snapping baseball slide meant to keep him right there, with her, while Deathstroke gets on with killing, or interrogating, or--

-- actually, Rose is still not a hundred percent on whether or not Deathstroke really does intend to throw Babs in the river, but that ultimately isn't any of her business; trying to deal with Captain America is.

Incidentally: it should probably be noted that Rose is grinning like a goddamn lunatic the entire time.

Barbara Gordon can't see anything, what with having a hood on her head. She isn't sure if that's helping or not. She's certainly getting tossed around a lot. It's good that she doesn't have anything in her stomach right now... She yelps, and actually screams in terror. What the hell was happening? All she knows is that she's be hurled around several different directions, to end up on the hard pavement, coughing. Oh, that *hurt*. Her head is jammed at a horribly uncomfortable angle. She can't shift herself, on account of her being bound.

Martin was going to have to write letters to the families of dead agents. And, at the very least, he was glad he could fall back on 'matters of global security' so he didn't have to tell him that they died from a motorcycle carreening out of control after being stopped with a device he had thrown. The family would be another thing, and probably the only thing that was going to get him through it was the fact that Deathstroke was the one gunning a motorcycle fast enough to outrun a damned Apache.

"This is Geiger. Blood 3 and 4 are down, confirm on biometrics. Worry about that in the after action. Enemy is distracted and scattered by vigilantes- Someone record that goddamn flying machine-. Make the most of it. Captain, keep them off of us; we're going for the package."

The unit moves into a group of four, two covering the rear, two moving forward, all of them keeping to their sectors as they approach Slade and the delivery truck. "I want Gordon, Slade! Her heart stops, yours doesn't have long beating!" The loud yell is garbled by voice modulators, a machine pistol pointed forward. Perhaps expounding that Babs was a bit toxic to be holding on to.

"So let them have me; clearly I'm more trouble than I'm worth." Barbara grumbles, trying to sound snarky but mostly just sounding pained. "Face it Deathstroke; you die here, and no one will mourn you."

Fantomex never got a chance to shoot, as Deathstroke loses control of his motorcycle just before. <> Notes E.V.A. in his head. It tickles. But he is not listening, but calculating trajectories. Crap.

Someone is also throwing -another- motorcycle at him, so he jumps, ducks and rolls, avoiding shrapnel (most of it) and jumping to push out of the way of the wreck of some restaurant goers. It will maybe help to keep the dead count low, for Bludhaven standards.

Along the way he still finds time to shot a couple rounds in Dark Caliber's general direction. Mostly to try to get her to duck.

"Sacre bleu. They told me Bludhaven was boring," he comments, conversationally, coming to join Deathstroke. "Even SHIELD is involved. You are very lucky I am here, monsieur. I can provide you a quick, flying getaway." Just in case, he keeps a handgun pointing at the armored mercenary. The second one returns to the holster.

One hand on the holster of his UMP, the other on the handle of the sword on his back. Deathstroke stares down the oncoming SHIELD agents as if daring one of them to pull a trigger. "I've seen some botched rescue attempts but this one..." His muscles are clearly tense, even though they can't be seen through the layers of protective gear he wears. Things are about to go horribly south.

"You should have stayed home, all of you. But it isn't your fault that you all have to die tonight. There was never any doubt about the outcome of this big event I've staged. Maybe if your superiors had valued your lives they would have just had you sit this one out, or at least let you read some of those redacted files about me." But just when it looks as if Deathstroke is about to pull out his weapons and engage the SHIELDies in a firefight/swordfight/bloodbath, his new friend slithers to his side. He didn't really get a chance to make a proper introduction earlier, so he actually seems a bit surprised by the offer.

"You know... what the hell? It's been that kind of night. I guess I might as well see your helicopter, it doesn't look like my crew are going to be able to get here in time."

Dark Caliber runs over, and grabs Barb. She takes a moment, and then looks over towards Cap. The woman mutters, and then tosses Barb, as gently as possible towards Cap. She takes aim, and fires a few more shots at Jason, purposely trying to keep Jason away from Barb. Her focus is on Jason. "This....I don't know what to say for this, but god...this is one of the worst I've seen in my young career.", she tells. Ty just simply shakes her head.

Jason Todd jumps off the bike, letting Tynan's rounds thud into it. He stands on the asphault of the street, pumps his shot gun once. He points it at Tynan and fires! Non-lethal tazer rounds leap from the barrel and straight for Tynan's chest. Cap drops the shield, steps forward, and catches Babs neatly in his arms. Almost as if he's practiced the maneuver. "Target obtained." Juggling her and his shield is going to be tough, though. For right now, he turns so that at least his (somewhat armored) body is between her and the shots being exchanged between Tynan and Jason.

Ravager slides right between Captain America's legs as he shifts to capture Babs. For most people, this might be frustrating, or disheartening-- morale-breaking, even, for the especially soft-skinned.

Rose just giggles impishly after coming to a stop on the other side of the Sentinel, and without really straightening up, she darts towards him and flashes her wickedly sharp swords towards the backs of his heels in slicing arcs, hoping to shred right through whatever armor he might be wearing in the process.

"'Oooh, lemme drop everything and catch the stupid cripple instead of paying attention to the girl with the swords!'" she cackles mid-strike in a mockingly high-pitched tone. "'I'm Captain America, and I'm a dumbass!"

This is ranking equal to the time Joker came to her home as 'worst day ever' for poor Barbara. She doesn't struggle as she gets tossed - not that she could, anyway. As she yet again goes sailing trough the air, she sighs. At least, that's what that choked sound was supposed to be. Arms encircle her, and suddenly she knows she;s safe. Even though she can't see who it is, she knows it has to be someone Tynan trusted to take her to safety.

She smells awful. Slade hasn't let her bathe - or other such civil things. Or even decent things. His treatment of her is written on her body, plain as can be seen. Her head's still in a black cloth bag, her arms still bound behind her back. "Please...home." she whimpers softly.

Martin's people keep their weapons up, after the mercenary grabs Babs, and tosses her over to Captain America. "I can see that." He subvocalizes over to Cap, a bit sardonically. The strange French man offering a ride over to Deathstroke gives him a way out. The main question is, does Martin let him take it?"

As they slowly start to pull back, Rose moves in for the attack, and the target at the rear sector yells out. "Engaging!" Before firing a few bursts toward her. If they didn't hit, they would hopefully drive her off. And, speaking of opportunity, Martin does notice one. As Dark Caliber moves to the right position, there's a one handed draw by Martin, pulling an automatic, and firing several ICER rounds into her chest, before one of his agents leaps forward to grasp her around the neck, forcing her in front of them as they pull back. "You're not getting away with what you think you are, Slade." He says, the unit moving quickly toward the door of a building, door being kicked open. Slade could pursue, but it would be close quarters, and the mercs couldn't be long coming.

<>

Helicopters are for amateurs. Real French Master Thieves travel in spaceships. Fantomex looks mildly surprised when the woman that was trying to shot him grabs the hostage and passes her to Captain America. Obviously there is stuff going on here at several layers. Now he is curious.

Not curious enough to stay and face SHIELD's wrath, though. Instead he tosses a few smoke grenades to the floor. A surprising huge amount of fog fills the street, obscuring vision for a minute. That the grenades and the fog are illusions does not help much normal people to see through, so the 'helicopter' comes down silently, picking up Deathstroke (and maybe some minions) and departs unseen.

Deathstroke can see the technorganic flying saucer, though. "My partner. E.V.A." He makes the introductions, nonchalantly.

As the imaginary smoke and fog begins obscuring the battlefield, Deathstroke should simply make the most of the opportunity to escape. But this is not what he does. Instead, he takes out his UMP and begins firing into the crowd of assembled SHIELD agents and heroes. Much of his fire seems to be focused in the general direction of the last place that he saw Barbara before he lost track of her in the fog.

He backs toward the ship as he lays down suppressive fire. "Ravager, rally on my position. We're taking our new friend's... uh... spaceship." He does a quick mag change, and continues to back toward the living vehicles passenger ramp, Han Solo style. With his feet on the ramp, he holds the position for himself, his daughter, and his new ally.

However, he doesn't seem interested in letting at least one of his ally's board the craft. In fact, he shoots directly at Dark Caliber, aiming for center mass. With an SMG, and with his limited depth perception, getting a headshot isn't exactly an option.

"Oh, by the way Tynan, the guy from earlier was lying. Your ass isn't all that tight. That's not the reason I'm firing you, but I wanted to make sure we're clear on the subject. You're out of the club."

As the vehicle begins to lift away, he continues to hold the ramp, firing as many rounds as he can at the group, and even tossing a couple of grenades.

Whelp...There's pain, then there's Wolverine taking pain, and then there's Hell. And Ty is visiting the Frozen City of Dis right now. The woman takes two taser rounds to the chest. Normally that would put somebody down. But not super Ty! Then the ICER rounds. The woman grunts, and starts to fall down. Now those hurt like hell, and she's starting to get pissed off. And then her severance from Slade...She gets ripped up by the SMG. Jesus! Ty makes a mental note...She needs to have better contracts for this level of getting her ass kicked. The two holding Ty do get hit a few times. Ty coughs up some blood, and sends two notices. First one to Oracle. Contract fulfilled. And then one to Slade. A refund of his pay. Yes. Ty just gave Slade his money back. And a canceled contract bonus. And a small, "I'm sorry, but your contract violated the terms of my current contract and client.", meaning...Well, Slade likely will get it very soon...

Meanwhile, Ty removes her mask, looking at all the bullet holes in her, burns, and ICER stuff..."F*** me...", she says, before passing out. The interesting thing...some of the lesser wounds are starting to heal a little bit...

Jason Todd fires at the fleeing form of Slade, but hits nothing but air as the smoke and flying saucer help him escape. He drops the shotgun with a clatter and growls. He picks up the more or less prone form of Tynan and hoofs it over to the shield agents. "Trade you," He growls. "Merc for Commissioner's daughter."

If he hadn't been armored, Rose might have done Cap serious damage. As opposed to mild damage, but he whirls, hooks a foot under the shield and flips it up towards the mercenary that way. Hopefully that will be enough to convince her to leave. And yes, he does it without dropping Babs. "We need what she knows about what that guy's up to. I *assume* you want him caught? Plus, she needs medical care." He's polite enough not to say "and a bath." His legs are bleeding from where one of Rose's blades managed to get through the armor, so he could *probably* use a little bit of medical care himself.

When it was just Ravager and Cap(and Barbara), things were simple: two combatants, one objective. Two swords, one shield; hardly any variables to consider at all, especially for someone whose brain has been overclocked via exposure to a bootleg super soldier serum.

But thanks to Geiger's team, things are rapidly getting more complicated; there are bullets whizzing towards her! And still, the shield! And Deathstroke wants her to evacuate!

She manages to catch the shield against her crossed swords, and tries to push off from there to somersault E.V.A. with a minimum of lead penetration. Her estimation of the necessary angles is not quite right, though, so while she manages to make the ramp... she does so in an ungainly tumble thanks to taking a couple of rounds to the thigh through her armored costume. They don't get in there too deeply, but blood is definitely streaming freely down her leg as she briskly scoots up along the ramp.

Despite all of this, she still shouts, "Suck it, poser!" down at Tynan before the UFO closes up.

Barbara Gordon is rather bad offer, but she clears her throat weakly, "Red Hood." she says, softly but with strength. "Stand down. I'm safe with Captain America. Please, go home and take care of yourself." she implores the vigilante. There's a surprising amount of warmth; she must know and trust him deeply. "I'm safe now..." she repeats.