2012-12-02 YAL: Becoming Allies 3

Along U.S. Route 9, not too far outside the city limits of New York City is a warehouse.

By day, this warehouse looks pretty much like any other warehouse. Big rigs pull in, drop off or pick up trailers, trailers are parked right up against the side so product can apparently be loaded and unloaded, and people even drive too and from it in their own cars, apparently to help load and unload those trailers.

But after the sun goes down, this warehouse becomes something else. The parking lot is filled with not just cars, but fancy and expensive cars. People go into the warehouse wearing fancy clothing. Armed guards stand at certain discreet points. And as of late, a school bus is parked near the entrance.

To those that don't know what's going on, it might just look a bit odd. But to others...

Well, after a spell by Wiccan to find a location, a group of teenaged heroes started to spring into action. They decided to make a move. And while some allies who were at the action in Central Park a few days ago were called in, the group didn't really call in anyone else.

And the plan? The plan is simple. It involves two groups. One group is here, but not in costume. One member, Hawkeye, is in a high end designer pants suit (with her sunglasses still over her eyes). In other words, she's wearing an outfit that just shouts /money/. And she's carrying a briefcase as well. Those with her likewise shouldn't be in costume, since that group is accompanying a 'high roller' in the form of Kate, especially as she exits a /limo/ with her 'entourage' right outside the warehouse. And all it takes is one glance at what's inside the briefcase... Stacks on $100 bills, to get the whole group ushered inside without even a check for weapons.

The other group is entering via... Other means. Their job is simple. It's to use the stealth approach, or even brute force to make their way inside.

And if that wasn't strange enough, inside the building, there's two other teen heroes, ones who had some bad luck earlier this very day. but what exactly is going on with them is best left up to their plays to say...

For obvious reasons to himself, Scarlet Spider is out with the costumed group instead of in the limo. Part of him just stares at the long ride with jealousy. He wants to be in a limo one day. Then again anyone living paycheck to paycheck would love to have the means to afford a limo without it wrecking the grocery or rent bill. Sighing inwardly Scarlet looks back to the rest of the costumed group. "Hopefully this will go better than last time," the hero thinks to himself as he waits.

It turned out to have gone something like this; It was Dad's Weekend with me, so I was up at Connecticut. Sorry I've been out of touch. Which to those who know him, is the only indication Robbie's given about his parent's marital status. He doesn't like to talk about it. He heard some bits of what was up on his way home, and he was itching to help out...

Then he heard someone came in and kidnapped Axiom. Speedball's never bounbced home so fast in his life, and it was an effort of will not to level things until Eddie was found. The others have A Plan (tm), and safety is paramount. More than hellacious amounts of ass-kicking.

When given the choice, Robbie opts for non-stealth. He'll even admit. "I'm in a mood to spit nails; sneaky is not in my cards." Which is very serious for the usually jovial bouncing lad. He arrives with Kate...and apparently, he has some money of his own. The suit is clean, but obviously not-bought-an-hour ago; he wears it like he knows how. Dark blue with pinstripes, black dress shoes polished so bright they gleam, and just how much were those sunglasses. He follows Kate to her right side; not arm candy, but he's that bored tagalong rich kid, from the way his hands are in his pockets and that look of ennui plastered on his face.

Nimble, quiet and quick, Speedy is with those sneaking their way in. Her costume, normally bright red and gold, has been exchanged for a similar outfit in shades of dark crimson (which fades into shadow better than pure black), with a hood, and no strips or scraps of fabric hanging away from her. Her bow is a collapsable number, strapped to her back along with her quiver. The arrow symbol on her chest, normally bright gold, is instead the only bit of slightly glossy finish on an otherwise matte armoured tunic. She stands not far from Scarlet Spider, adjusting her leather arm guard one last time before they need to head in.

Wiccan is with the group that went no costume. Or at least no superhero costume. The clothes he is wearing though are certainly moer of a costume to him than his Superheroing gear. All it took was a few little spells and they were perfectly set up to infiltrate. For himself and Tommy matching sets of clothes, stylish and while opposit colors to play up on him having black hair and Tommy white both being perfect compliments to Kate's clothes. While he won't admit to it, Billy may have slgihtly tweaked his spell that keeps his face from beign recognizable despite not wearing a mask so that both him and Tommy look a bit more...well they are playing the part of arm candy so enough said.

Well, well. Seems Hawkeye has a limo. Or enough cash to rent one. Not one of the homeless crowd, guesses Tommy. Well, he doesn't even have a costume (although he is working on it!) so he volunteered to go with the archer. Billy's spell has given him fancier clothes he usually wears, or at least they look fancy, he is not sure it they are real or an illusion. Regardless, he follows Kate's lead trying not too look too impatient.

Sleeping in uniform was a defense mechanism for Xavin; with the way most of his fellow street dwellers tended to react to it, he figured that it would be sufficient to ward off most would-be assailants, and up until last night, he'd been right. Those few not swayed by the sight of spandex quickly changed their minds when their victim burst into flames or sprouted a rocky hide; it was a good enough system. Not unlike sleeping rough in enemy territory.

Unfortunately, no system is perfect; his unique garb marked him as prey for a predator unlike any in the streets of Suicide Slum, and before he knew it, he was drugged and driven away to... here.

.Wherever /that/ is.

His tiny cell is furnished with a blanket - cleaner than the one he was dragged here in, remarkably enough - and nothing else. Now that whatever that horrible boy in the scout uniform dosed him with has more or less worn off, the former soldier sits cross-legged on his blanket, He's well past trying to break himself out; nothing he's tried - from inhumanly strong blows to finding a narrow seam in the door to force himself through to melting his way out - has had much success, and so he's resigned himself to saving his strength for what comes next.

His captors may have constructed a room that can withstand them, but whether /they/ - or whomever is eventually placed before him - can do the same remains to be seen.

Axiom had bad luck alright. And he only mad it worse by being himself. Sure, he could have been in a holding pen and kept quiet. But that's not his style. Axiom spent the whole time he was being held captive doing his best to keep the spirits of the other captives up. He's been working to inspire hope of escape and rescue. That's gotten him dragged away for a...sit down...with some of the 'management'. And when he refused to stop, Axiom got roughed up. Further defiance got him tosssed into the fights. And that's where he is now, awaiting whoever he's going to go up against while trying to find a way out.

And as the 'High Roller', her twin arm candy, and body guard enter the warehouse, they find it set up in an almost interesting way. Simply put, any and all walls inside the building have been removed. Utterly and totally ripped out. A literal pit has been dug in the floor. Said pit is roughly the size of four wrestling rings. There's a ten foot tall ring of what looks almost like Plexiglas (but considering what some of these fighters can do, it might not be that, and instead is something tougher) around that. Then there appears to be bleachers set up a good ten feet away from that, with enough room to hold a couple of hundred individuals. But this is /NOT/ some rag tag setup. Everything from the pit itself, to the seats on the bleachers shouts /MONEY/. Like a /LOT/ of money was put into it. The chairs look brand new and plush. The ring looks somewhat polished and gleaming, despite it being a pit. heck, even the people sitting in the stands look like they could buy a country or two.

Which is why, as they enter, Kate glances at the trio that she's with, before motioning towards what looks like the betting booths.

"I'll take care of that. You guys go find us some seats. Translation: 'Lets scout this place out'.

Of course as the costume group maes their way to the building, they will encounter a flunkie or two here and there in their all black costumes, but they're easily dealt with. All though, if they were to make it up onto the roof, they would not only find a skylight, but one that is directly above the ring itself.

But off to the side, the door to Xavins cell opens and a pair of 'thugs' as well as a woman wearing what looks almost like a hockey mask, and holding a giant axe motions for him to get out. "Listen waste. You're up. Time for you to fight, and maybe die."

All though well within eye shot of Xavin are rows and rows of cages, the kind used to house dogs. Cages that are stacked on top of each other, five high. And each one has a kid in it.

"Make even one wrong move, and you're dead."

And as Eddie prepares to fight, a voice can be heard echoing through the building. A female voice. Possibly an older one. But one that sounds not only devoid of mercy, but also like she may be enjoying what she's saying.

"Place your bets ladies and gents! For our next match, we're having a four way free for all to the death! Two of my own 'Hunters' have failed me, so they'll be fighting one of the people they disgraced them, and a pyro we picked up earlier today! So place your bets!"

And yes, as that's said, Harm and Kid Karnevil appear in the ring directly across from Eddie.

Having agility and flexibilty makes it easy for Scarlet to put one person in a hold that sends the guard to dreamland. Looking back to the stealth group before he attaches himself to the wall. "If you need a lift get on my back," he says quietly then starts to move up the building. Normally the webbing would have done alright but the landing makes noise. Although slower, this way is a lot quieter.

Once on the roof Scarlet peers into the widnow from the shadows, "Do we have a means to remove the window?" he asks quietly not sure who could do what. Some people are magical, others are tech savy, so any possiblities could be on the table in his mind.

Speedy takes a glass cutter out of her quiver, offering it to Scarlet Spider. "You mean like this?" She may not be a Bat, but she's still a gadget-y type hero. She then takes out a glue arrow, and secures it onto the center of the window, so they have a means to pull it away- much more secure than a suction cup or similar device.

Robbie doesn't take off the sunglasses as he goes with the twin-no-not-really-but-they-look-alike arm candy to find them some seats. He's considering seats that are close enough to the action, but allows them a view of the plexiglass partition higher up; must be an office of some kind. There's a nice quartet of seats, and they're almost there, just as the woman makes her announcements. As he sees who is out there, he stops short, staring. His right hand curls into a fist, and it's like he's forcing himself not to react with the bouncing and the smashing. He's not in charge, and it's not his call.

"I'd say we are in the right place, what are we waiting for?" Tommy can go scouting, yeah. He leaves the seat-finding to Robbie and goes to find the ways in and out of the warehouse, try to identify all the thugs, local or brought by guests, try to figure out where they are holding Eddie, etc. It might take a while, since he has to move at normal speeds. But the place is not that large.

Billy nods at KAte when she sends them off for seats, and even says something playful and flirty about her taking care of them just to keep in character. He does everything he can to appear aloof, and like most of whats going on bores him since he is there to be Kate's arm candy. The announcement gets an eyebrow raised out of Billy as he looks to the pit. What Billy sees causes a sharp incrase in the smell of ozone around him. Oh yes, someone is in very very big trouble. If Robbie does not get to them first Billy is going to blast people into Neiflheim. "Eddie can handle himself at least. We wait until we find out who the fourth is, and make sure Kate knows whats going on before we do anything. But once we start, if anyone finds person in charge I get first crack at them, woman or not."

"I doubt it," Xavin crisply states, smiling a tight but genuine smile as the Persuader leads him to the arena. "But if you'd like to give me a try once I'm done with whomever you've chosen for me..."

The smile is gone by the time he makes it to the arena, though; bravado aside, he didn't run all the way to Earth just to murder innocents--nor did he come here to die. When he steps into the fighting ring and sees who he's up against - Kid Karnevil, another thug, and some unfortunate, petite hero - he decides to attempt a compromise.

"You, there," he hisses, turning his head towards Axiom. "Agree not to kill /me/ until we've killed /them/, and we'll--figure--a way out of this /mess/. Together."

His father would be /furious/ if he could see this.

Axiom tenses at the sound of that voice. He hadn't seen who'd owned it but he knew the woman had been in the room earlier when the other members of the 'staff' were trying to persuade him to stop being a troublemaker and help them out. Bruised and bleeding from a lip wound, he's a bit nervous about the upcomming fight. Especially when he hears the announcement. Two villains and a potential civillian to protect while trying not to get killed by. Great. He's not letting the nerves show though. He just stands looking as defiant as he can at the two villains. "Once I'm d-done here, I'm taking down the rest of this operation," he says with as much confidence as he can muster.

When Xavin is led into the arena, Axiom glances over and blinks. "I don't kill," he replies firmly. A smile forms on his lips a moment later. "Working t-together sounds great."

And as the undercover crew wanders, they start to grow 'tails' in the form of those flunkies in black outfits. Only the flunkies that are following them right now actually have /metal helmets/ for some reason. heck, one of them even goes so far as to walk up to Tommy and tries to tap him on the shoulder before saying, "Sir, you need to take a seat, the match is about to begin." All though this guy appears to pause, making it look almost like he heard Billy...

And while Robbie may be nearby, he has his own flunkie, in the form of a female flunkie who's up and starring at him. But then again, it's probably nothing to worry about there, right? I mean it's not like...

Not like she's walking right up to Robbie as she whispers, "You know... You're kinda cute. If you want, I have a special 'iron maiden' style costume that would look so nice on you that I'd have to try not to just eat you up..."

Kate herself on the other hand is actually grabbed by the arm by one of those thugs with a metal helmet, who then whispers something into her ear, which causes her to freeze in her tracks before she even makes it to the betting booth.

Meanwhile, up above, as that window is cut into, there's a faint movement not too far from Mia and Ben in the shadows. But what ever is up there, what ever is moving doesn't do anything overt just yet, not even as the pair make a way in.

Heck, scratch that, it's almost as if a couple of things are starting to move in the shadows up there, albeit a bit stealthily, and one or two of them might be a bit /too/ close to The Scarlet Spider and Speedy. Of course considering what's here, those shadows probably aren't a 'good' thing either.

That voice booms through the building again as the last combatant enters the arena. And sure Xavin may be offering a truce of sorts, but...

"Remember to thank goodness if you win competitors! This is the /BEST/ that waste like you can hope for! A chance at redemption, and /MAYBE/ if you're good enough, a chance to take on a Fury!"

All though as the voice booms through the building, noises can be heard from the wall of crates off to the side of the warehouse. The sound? Some of it is crying. Much like kids crying. From others it's the shrill cries of terror. But almost as soon as it starts, some of the goons, while staying in plain sight move over and start spraying the inside of the cages with a fire hose.

Not that the combatants down in the pit can see that (but odds are everyone else could). Instead Karnevil and Harm glance at each other, as they both laugh.

"It looks like we have the same deal then." is said by Harm, before Kid Karnevil, without so much as the word 'Fight' being said, just charges right at Ediie, his fist pulled back as if he's ready to punch the teenaged hero.

Then in turn, Harm draws his sword and starts to slowly walk towards Xavin as the word "Fight!" echoes through out the building.

Nothing is going wrong in Scarlet until something makes all of his nerves stand on end. Spider Senses tingling would be an understatement. They are screaming and doing the limbo at the same time. Turning on the ball of his foot Scarlet starts to lance out streams of web behind him hoping to strike the source.

"Compromised. Extraction, now!" are the three words he says firmly but still trying to keep silent. At this point he decides to fend off any roof followers. He would have the strength and speed, but others would be need to extra the rest of the group.

"Stay frosty," Robbie whispers to Billy and Tommy, though his own self control is wavering. His best bud is down there, with Karnevil and...yeah. "Kate'll give the signal..." And then they're interrupted by their tails. And his...well. He smiles, turning on the not-as-good-as-he-thinks-it-is charm. "Well hello," he says, but is ripped right out of flirting by the offer. "Uh...a what? You know how utterly stupid that sounds, right?" He edges down the steps, closer to the ring...

Ok, forget what Wiccan said. The moment that the hose is turned on the kids in cages something inside of him decides doing things the smart way is just not worth it. He cuts his eyes to Kate as he grinds his teeth just in time to see her stiffen as someone grabs her arm and whispers in her ear. Yeah, thier cover is blown.

Wiccan looks over his tail as he is told to sit and then shrugs. "How about you first?" He says with a smile before *Krakoom!* Lightning arcs from Wiccan's hands right for the thug. "Cover's blown!" He yells out before chanting. "Iwishwewereincostumes, Iwishwewereincostumes, Iwishwewereincostumes!" As he finishes the spell the Illusions Wiccan cast earlier fade and other things start to happen. There is a brief glaow around Wiccan, Hawkeye, and either Robbie or Speed if they agreed to trust Wiccan's magic to suit them up when things go bad. For Wiccan and Hawkeye thier fancy clothes are replaced by thier normal heroing costume, and that breifcase of money ends up someplace safe while Hawkeye gets the special weapons she discussed with Wiccan for this fight.

Now dressed and ready for the fight Wiccan sticks his thumb and pointer finger into his mouth and lets out an ear peircing whistle. "Axiom! Were here, now do your thing!" He yells out cause he gets the feeling that tongiht,t hey are going to need a boost from him.

Tommy snorts at the guard poking him. "Get lost, thugboy, I will take my seat when my boss... ah, there she is." He has seen Hawkeye's expression, and gets closer to her quickly. Something not good is going on. And yeah, Eddie in the fighting ring. He saw. He can be there in a second, and maybe he should. But he will give the brunette archer a heads up before charging. But he never has a chance, since Wiccan goes ballistic first. "Wow, and they say I am impulsive." Okay. He closes the scarce distance to Kate in a blur, and tries to push the thug off her. He is far stronger than he looks, so if the thug is a normal human chances are he is going to go flying against the wall.

"Ah," Xavin replies, nose wrinkling. "How unfortunate; I do."

And that is all the warning that Axiom will receive before Xavin /joins/ the Kid in charging at him, even going so far as to dive the last several feet; he wants to pile on the smaller boy /quickly/, but more importantly--he wants to do so as Karnevil does. Despite the sudden ferocity of his attack, he won't do much more than scuffle, and perhaps roll along the ground with Axiom, all in the name of looking like he wants to bring the boy down and pin him there--though if Karnevil happens to be in reach, the alien might throw a few wild swings his way too.

Fighting with the Kid is no more his goal than fighting with Axiom, though, appearances aside. Appearances can, as they say, be deceiving, and none moreso than Xavin's. As he scrapes and flails, he also changes: brown skin lightens, form-fitting spandex loosens into a rust-coloured tunic and dark pants, and a domino mask spreads across his eyes.

And just like that, there are /two/ Kid Karnevils near Axiom, and one of them - briefly wearing a self-satisfied smirk along with his neckerchief - decides to abandon his attack on Axiom to dive at the other.

Axiom jumps, pretty startled. "What?" he squeaks. First there's a villain coming after him and then Xavin is turning on him. He could handle the Kid, he's sure. But both, he gets tackled and goes down with another squeak. He flails a little during the scuffle, not sure what Xavin's up to. The sudden change in appearances and double Karnevil gets Axiom staring as he scrambles back and gets to his feet. "Whoa!"

Up above...

From out of the shadows, not too far from Scarlet Spider, people start to walk out of the shadows. In fact, three or four end up being webbed, on by the feet, another in the face, one ends up with their hand stuck to a chimney, and the fourth actually falls off the roof as the web hits them. The rest though, and there's maybe a half dozen start to do things. One becomes semi-transparent. Two of them have hands that crackle with energy, energy that gets fired at the Scarlet Spider. And one even rushes right at his at a speed that is on par with an olympic athlete. But regardless of what they can do, all of the ones on the roof go right at Ben, as if they're trying to drive him inside the building through the skylight.

Speedy on the other hand doesn't get any attention from the combatants on the roof. Instead, she'd probably get the best view of those dog cages full of kids. Especially as some of them start shouting 'Help!' at the tops of their lungs, before they end up being sprayed by that fire house.

Down below...

That girl just stares at Robbie, even as he tries to move away from her. Only as he does that, she starts to glow with an odd red energy.

"Oh... But you could be my own personal penance..." is said in a voice that's started to shift from sweet, to annoyed, to possibly even pissed...

"I'm sure my boss would love to meet you and would approve of /that/."

Of course /then/ Wiccan reacts, and reacts in a way that anyone can understand. In fact, as the costumes appear and that thug goes flying due to the lighting, alarms start to go off. Hell, even that voice can be heard echoing through the warehouse.

"We have /INTRUDERS/. Deal with them!"

And with that said, every thug in the place starts to charge from where ever they are, towards Wiccan, Speed, Speedball, and Kate.

Of course as Kate appears in her costume, she has a few... Extras. Namely she has a gun, or something that looks like a pistol in a holster on her right hip, and a bandolier that looks like it's full of spare clips for the gun. And that's in addition to her regular bow, arrows, and staves. In fact this gun is drawn as Speed rushes towards her, thus by the time he goes flying thanks to the speedsters shove, she's already turned and fired a shot off at him. A shot that strikes home as a tranq dart ends up stricking into his kneck.

"Get the kids!" is shouted by Hawkeye at the mutant speedster then, if only because if things go really bad, it's probably best to get them out first. And Speed of course can do that faster than anyone.

And in the pit...

As the two Kid Karnevils fight, one of them shouts, "I'll kill you!" even as Harm chuckles and... Keeps rushing in? yeap. He even starts to swing his sword at /BOTH/ of the Kid Karveils, ignoring Axiom for the moment (which probably will turn out to be a big mistake in the long run, especially as he ends up turning his back to Eddie).

"Good!" Harm shouts. "I can send Karnevil back to Hell, and a shapeshifting pyro with it! The dark lords shall reward me greatly!"

Also on the main level, as the fighting breaks out, the 'paying customers' up and start to rush towards the exits, practically fighting with each other as they try to escape. Heaven help anyone, villain or hero who ends up in their way.

Leaping over the blast isn't too big of a deal. Thanks to the spider-sense anyway. As he lands the senses continue to blare at him. Barely seeing the olympic athlete runner charging at him Scarlet side steps then gives the man a light push to keep him going right off the roof.

Energy is brightly colored and gives Scarlet some sense of a target. A stream of webbing goes toward one and he pulls whatever, whoever he gets on the other hand. Hopefully they would be a good human shield and not someone that could punch holes in the roof. With the other hand a ball goes out toward the other one. The ball could be burnt to a crisp or dodged.

Speedy does what she can to cover Ben- firing arrow after arrow at the people he's fighting. When the kids below catch her attention, though, she has to cease fire, and hope he can hold his own for a few minutes.

The blonde archer attaches something to the rafter, and then hooks a line onto part of her costume- which has a harness built into it. A few seconds later, she's descending, upside-down, at a controlled rate via a line of cable, with her bow in hand. No, her arrows do not fall out of her quiver- they're all secured in there nicely. "Hold on a second, guys, and stand back!" She nocks and looses another few trick arrows- each of which contains a substance both adhesive and corrosive to metal, and it begins to eat away at the locks of the pens. "Uh, just try not to breathe in too much of the fumes!" she warns. "Those of you who just wanna get out of here- feel free. Anyone who wants a little payback is welcome to help us take these bastards down!"

With the invitation extended, she triggers her line to bring her back up to the rafter. And as her cable brings her back up towards the rafter, the young archer calls out "and may the odds be ever in your favour!"

As he turns around, Robbie spots the woman starting to glow red. Billy's reaction is enough of a signal for him, and he slams his hands together. His costume and bubble-laden kinetic field appears. "Actually, the name's Speedball," he says. "Believe it!" He starts to bound towards the thugs. "Wiccan, rescue! I've got these losers!" Yeah, he's in a mood. He aims for the woman with what he sees as the weird iron maiden suit fetish thing. "You have no chance to survive," he says, aiming a kinetic punch right for her mdisection. "Make your time!" If he connects, he's going to try the usual rebound blitzkrieg to deal with the thugs.

Wiccan is the normaly quiet level headed one, which is why it's not a great idea to be in his way on those occasions like now where he goes off the deep end. As the mad rush starts Wiccan does the best thing he can do to keep from being trampled, he takes to the air. Ther ei snot as much room up there as he would have out in the open but the Warehouse at least is plenty tall enough for him to be out of the way, get a good birds eye view of everything, and make a nice target all in one. His eyes start to glow as he hears the kids in cages call for help, so help he will give them. The teenaged mage points his staff, which appeared in his hand when he cast the spell to get into costume, at the banks of cages and chants. "cIwishthecageswereallopen, Iwishthe..." He trials off as he spots Speedy drop in from the rafters and do with her trick arrows what he was about to do. "Well, that works just as well." Instead he turns to point his short staff into the pit and sets electricity crackling along it till he fires a lightning bolt at Harm. Or more precisly at Harm's sword since he is sure that would make just the perfect lightning rod.

"Looks like the others have the kids covered," replies Tommy. He trips a rushing thug and kicks him on the floor. "I amgoing tohelp Ed-Axiom. Berightback!" He dives into the crowd, pushing them out of the way carelessly. They are vicious sadists that paid to see kids getting murdered, so if he breaks some bones or some get trampled, they deserve it. Finally he gets to the fighting box and punches the glass. Ow, hard. Instead he places the palms on the surface and sends in a large kinetic charge. The cage shatters!

"You'll /try/," the other Kid corrects as he tries to get his hands around the original's throat. During his stew in the holding cell, Xavin had plenty of time to think about the leering, masked face that greeted him when he was disturbed in the Slum, and how he and a few circumstantial allies had prevented that same boy from getting away with a bus full of teenagers a few nights ago. Faced with him, rather than the Axiom and his refusal to kill, the Skrull sees no further need to /fake/ aggression: if he can somehow take the Karnevil out himself, he will; if not, he's sure that Harm will do it for him.

It's a solid enough plan, by Skrull standards; thankfully, Wiccan is right on time to save him when it nearly falls apart. The crack of mystical lightning sends Xavin scurrying to his feet just in the nick of time to avoid Harm's blade, and by the time the glass shatters, he's trying to put some distance between himself and the two kidnappers.

"You should /thank/ them for saving you from me!" he defiantly spits to the infernal scout as his own(human) shape reasserts itself. His hands go up in front of himself; if either of them want to come at him, he's ready for them.

It dawns on Axiom what Xavin's plan was as he watches the two Karnevils fighting. A smile forms on his face and he jumps when he sees Harm jumping and attacking. He starts to move towards Harm but it's Wiccan and Speed to the rescue. Lightning and shattering cage. Axiom lets out a squeak but it quickly spreads into a grin when it clicks just who's up there. "OH YEAH!" he laughs, turning a grin Xavin's way. "Hey, let's g-get out of here," he says, applying his boosting powers to Wiccan. Seconds later he's mimicking the magic teen, costume shifting into a combination of his own and Wiccan's. Before the change is even complete, he's thrusting his hands forward to send some blasts of lighting at Harm and Karnevil to make sure they stay away.

Up above...

Strangely enough, Ben is showing that the thugs, even if they do have powers, are falling rather easily. The runner goes over the edge. The energy blaster's end up being webbed as well. Or at least one does. The other gets a giant ball of burnt webbing to the face and falls off the roof as well. Which leaves the roof clear for Ben to do what ever else he feels he needs to do to help.

And as the call about the odds being in peoples favor echo's through the warehouse, a couple of the helmeted thugs try to shoot at the archer in the rafters with... Golden energy blasts?

On the floor...

Between Speedy's arrows, and Wiccans spell, all the cages practically burst open. And some of the kids start to climb out. Only to be faced with the person who'd been using the fire hose. Who turns out to be that woman with the axe from earlier. In fact as the hose is dropped she grabs that axe and waves it at the kids menacingly.

"You know who I am. You know my Atomic Axe can cut through /anything/. If you don't get back into your cages, you're /DEAD/."

And for some reason, some of them do climb back in. Maybe one or two, but the rest... The rest turn and start to run! They don't fight, no matter how much they might want to. They /RUN/. They just burst from their cages, and scatter in every direction, trying to make it to an exit. And yet despite that, there's also still some kids in the cages who just aren't moving.

The woman who was glowing is bowled over by Speedball, as are several other thugs. Or at least one helmeted just doesn't fall, no matter how hard Robbie hits him...

"Bad boy!" the overly tall and muscle bound looking thug states in an eerily calm voice. "You waste! You fight here! Not go to Orphanage in Brooklyn! No go to the Asylum! No be Fury!" before he turns and /SLOWLY/ tries to charge at Speedball so he can try to slap him with a giant beefy hand.

Worse, as the thugs fall they end up being tramped by various 'patrons' of this establishment as they continue to rush for the exits.

Heck, as Speed finds the right frequency to cause that entire transparent barrier to shatter, they're given even more incentive to run!

Hawkeye on the other hand doesn't do much that could be considered fancy. At least not at first. Instead, she just keeps aiming her tranq gun and keeps firing at various thugs as they try to do things to her friends and allies. More often than not her shots are hitting, and in some cases it's even taking thugs out before her friends and allies even know that various thugs are going after them!

Down in the pit...

Lightning strikes Harm, or to be more exact, his sword, causing him to drop it. But he doesn't let out even a cry of pain. Not as he turns and starts to look for the source of the bolt, causing him to shake his head.

"This isn't worth it." is muttered by the demonically powered villain, right as he gets blasted a second time, this time by Axiom, causing him to fall to his knees and mutter two words.

"I surrender."

Kid Karnevil though between the combined efforts of Xavin and Axiom, ends up falling to the ground. And when he lands he just... Doesn't move. He appears to be breathing, even as debris from above falls on him, but he doesn't move at all.

When he finally touches down, Speedball is standing about ten feet away from the big guy, who no matter how many times he slame into him, refuses to go down. That's a whole lot of immovable object, right there. But, if it keeps him from attacking his friends (I have friends? That is so awesome!), all the better. "No, no, you brain-dead slab of granite. Not Fury. Speedball." And with that, he's backhanded. He'll be okay, but that's a whloe lot of kinetic energy and Speedball bounces up against the ceiling, and over the arena, landing in the seats opposite, where seats scatter and crack from him constantly rebounding into them.

Wiccan shivers a little as he feels the boost from Axiom and can see him changing as he copies his powers. Yup, bad guys are in serious trouble now. As Skippy and his Sword Weilding friend go down in the pit Wiccan pulls out his trusty zip ties. "Bindthehandsbindthefeet, Bindthehandsbindthefeet, Bindthehandsbindthefeet!" He chants tossing a number of zip ties twords the two felled fighters. With luck, when the animated zip ties truss them up they will still be there when the cean up phase starts. seeing the woman with the axe wiccan growls a little too himself. "Speed!" He calls out, "Get the kids in the cages." He has plans for the axe weilding chick.

Wiccan zips over close to the woman with an axe chanting, "Trapherinaforcefield, Trapherinaforcefield, Trapherinaforcefield! You can cut through anything? Are you sure?"

"Yeep!" Speedy cries out, swinging to the side as she ascends to try and avoid the energy blasts, protecting her face with an armoured forearm. Once she's in the rafters again, she starts making with the cover fire again- the first volley of arrows going towards the axe-bearer threatening the kids. She keeps moving as much as she can.

The kids are out of the cages, sheesh. No need to yell at him. Tommy is more worried about the axe-wielding maniac and the super-tough thug that just backhanded Robbie all over the warehouse. However, it is a good idea to get the prisoners out of here, and since the crowd of spectators is clogging the exits, he runs through the wall a couple times, disintegrating a large way out right there. "This waykids!" He yells.

"Of course you do," Xavin states, cracking his knuckles in his palm. The conjured zip ties bind the two young villains before Xavin can make it more than a couple steps towards him, though; frowning, he tentatively lowers and uncurls his hands and resumes his approach. All he'll be doing /now/ is trying to scoop the unconscious scout up and throw him over a shoulder for safe-keeping.

"Shall we?" he wonders of Axiom, gesturing towards the way they came with his head. "I imagine you'll want to grab the bouncing boy, too."

"Of course," Axiom replies. "Speedball is my friend and there's n-n-no way I'd leave him behind," he declares. Of course that goes for the whole team, especially after this. With Wiccan's powers, Axiom lifts off the ground and heads the way Xavin indicated. There's people to rescue and villains to beat up. "Hey, Wiccan! What's the situation up there?" he calls.

"EVERYONE HERE WASTE!" That 'giant' bellows at the top of his lungs as Speedball goes flying away. That is before he notices the spell casting mutant, and starts to lumber towards Wiccan.

Of course speaking of Wiccan...

The arrows Speedy fires don't only hit around The woman with the axe, The Persuader, but one even srikes her in the shoulder. And that's right before Wiccans forefield envelopes her. Thus some of the arrows end up bouncing off of that.

"Yes. It can. But I don't have to." is said before she touches a band on her wrist, and in a sudden flash of light, she vanishes.

Speed meanwhile not only gets the kids out, but also the ones who didn't, or couldn't leave their cages under their own power.

Hawkeye meanwhile tries to fire her tranq gun at that last thug standing, that bruiser, but unfortunately her tranq darts just bounce off of him like they're nothing. Prompting her to shout, "Wiccan! Can you do something?!? I don't want to pull out something that could kill this guy!"

Yeah, she might not want to kill the guy, but he needs to be taken down. Somehow.

In the pit the zip ties restrain both Harm and Karnevil. Karevil is even scooped up by Xavin, but he still doesn't say, or do anything, or even try to move. Harm meanwhile doesn't move as Axiom and Xavin head off. And yet once the 'heroes' backs are to him, he suddenly fades away in a puff of smoke.

Speedy fires off another volley of arrows- but most just seem to go through thin air as several of the targets teleport away. "Crap! They're rabbiting!" she shouts, still trying to hit thugs and other baddies with tranq, tazer and other trap-arrows before they can activate whatever they're using to escape.

Wiccan grins when Axiom joins him in the air. "Speed is making exits, we freed most ot the prisoners but some are still in the cages too scared to leave them, the big...I hope thats a guy. The big guy there bounced Sppeball through a wall, and the ladies are keeping any goons they spot down." When the LIberator vanishes Wiccan sighs and lets the forcefield go. "Of course, all that noise about cutting through anything and does not even try. Ax, I got the big guy try you try and stop any more teleports?" The teen mage offers before he turns his attention to the giant hulk of a goon as Hawkeye asks if he can do anything. Of course he can with reality warping mutation powered magic the only limitations are imagination. "Iwantthatguytofallasleep, Iwantthatguytofallasleep, Iwantthatguytofallasleep!" He starts chanting before flinging an axiom empowered bolt of magic at the large probaby bullet proof angery guy. Considering his lack of decent grammer wiccan figures his weak spot is probably the mind.

"Everyone out, everyone out," Tommy ushers the captured teens out, picking up those too weak or injured to move and carrying them outside. The bad guys are fleeing, and that probably means they young heroes have won, but Tommy distrusts appearances. He makes a sweep through the place they were holding Xavin too, checking for super-powered prisoners. Once he is sure everyone is safe, he borrows a cellphone from one of the fleeing customers and calls the nearest hospital.

Since he was drugged when he came in here, figuring out how to leave is a rather time-consuming proposition for Xavin; soon, he's forced to double back the the way he came and find the others in the hopes that /they/ will be able to show him the way to freedom.

Along the way, when he notices that Harm is gone, he groans and mumbles an alien curse word beneath his breath before hurying towards the team.

"I still have one of them--for now," he informs them. "We should leave; I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm /quite/ eager to see what I can get this one to tell me."

Since he's taking to the air, it's easier for Axiom to escape. Especially since he catches fleeting glances of Speed and uses that as a guide to safety. In the air with Wiccan, he starts casting a spell of his own. "Stopthebadguysfromteleporting, Stopthebadguysfromteleporting, Stopthebadguysfromteleporting, Stopthebadguysfromteleporting..." focusing on keeping the remaining villains from rabbiting away.

And between Speedy and Kate, the last of the random thugs goes down.

Except for that 'Brute'. He takes something extra. Namely Wiccans spell. It causes him to actually yawn, before he falls forwards onto his knees, before he fully crashes to the ground. And on top of that, as he falls, the guy shrinks. He shrinks down to the size of a scrawny thirteen year old (at most) boy who /maybe/ weighs a hundred pounds. In fact, as he lands, this kids helmet falls off and rolls away. But before he can completely pass out, he mutters, "Brooklyn. Orphanage. Asylum."

And unfortunately Speeds search doesn't reveal anything major. Not really. There's a few old history books here and there, strangely enough about New York City, but no more prisoners. Either there weren't any in those rooms to begin with, they escaped already, or how ever the villains escaped was used to teleport the prisoners away too.

Strangely enough, as Eddie does his spell, Harm not only re-appears right where he was, but he passes out with a loud groan.

...Yeah. Looks like that teleport might not have been complete just yet.

Wiccan blinks as the guy he puts to sleep shrinks like cheap laundry. That...was not exactly what he was expecting but at least this way he is going to be easier to haul off. As Harm reappears Wiccan can't help but laugh. "Great Job axiom. Right, everyone grab who we caught and drag them to the limo to talk too nicely before we make sure they are good and secured and call the cops sound like a good idea?" When Xavin mentions geting out Wiccan just points at the hole int he warehosue walls that Speed made.