2012-08-15 Treachery at Three Mile Island

Justine Gatlin, slams the door to the nice 2 story home in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. Her husband, Jim, backs out of the driveway with a sigh and pulls out onto a lonely side street as the rain continues to pour down.

There's the *reeeep* sound, the telltale sign for needing new wipers. But right now Jim's mind is on his wife, his mortgage, and the question of what constitutes success. What does, in fact, make someone's life meaningful? Surely not a divorce and a crappy relationship with your son.

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As our heroes make their way to the nuclear facility in question, all is quiet on the outside. No vehicles. No signs of distress. No scientists gathering about. Nothing.

As folks begin to gather Spider-Man looks around. "So. . .uhm. Since the Oil Can isn't around. . .who's leading this shindig?" He points to Sharon, "I vote for the blonde, but that's a personal preference thing. I don't know you guys from Charlie. And I don't happen to know any Charlies here right now because all of the Charlie's I know are older. And. Not here." Pause. "Right."

Thor glances over a shoulder as Rhodey's voice sounds in his ear. He comes to a gentle landing at Spider-Man's side. As the Spider votes him as leader, the blonde god shakes his head lightly.

"Thy confidence is mine abilities are appreticiated, however it remains a fact that I am unfamiliar with the technology in the area," Thor replies with a faint smile for the younger man, a smile which is followed by a rumbling sort of chuckle. "Though should it be required that I go first, this I can most certainly do!"

Curious that everything looks so... quiet, when Coulson pulls up in the sedan, picking an out-of-the-way spot to leave the car. He slips his earpiece into place as he approaches the others, jacket open loosely in the breeze. "Do we know what's going on yet?" he asks, skipping greetings.

"I'm fine with Agent Carter taking the lead," War Machine acknowledges, somehow managing not to laugh at the mix-up. "She's the one who brought a SHIELD team for backup. I just have guns." He triggers his gatling repulsor and it slides into place over his shoulder. "As for what's going on, all I got was a general distress signal. Soldiers and mechs invading the facility. We should probably destroy them."

Coulson gets a bit of an upnod from Sharon but the brunt of her attention is on Spider-Man and Thor as leadership roles are discussed. "I'm more than fine with taking lead but the god can take point. War Machine can take up the rear and the rest of us can stick to the middle and provide cover fire if needed." Casting a quick glance to Rhodes, she considers something before grunting. "We probably should check and see if we'll need radiation gear, I suppose. I don't want to come out of a battle glowing in the dark."

As Jim continues on his 20 minute commute, he passes by a family in a mini van. Rusted out, broken down, and worse for wear, the old red vehicle sits on the side of the road with its hazards on while three family members are out in the rain with the hood up, trying to guess what might be the matter.

Jim wants to stop, wants to stop terribly. But rules are rules and being tardy to his job is an automatic write up. Everything works on the clock there. Each day, the shift begins at 9 am. Each day the shift ends at 5 pm. The routine is the same.

Jim idly wonders what kind of a world we live in where showing up late to work is more important than helping someone in need and as he pulls into the drive way a handful of minutes later, he's full of regret. Not just for the family but for the relationship with his kid, for his crumbling marriage, and for his life as a nuclear physicist. He's not sure what he's going to do, but he's sure he's going to need a change.

A few hours into his shift, fate intervenes and Jim Gatlin's life changes forever

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"I meant," Spider-Man lifts a finger about to correct the Asgardian, but takes a look at his muscles and thinks better of it. He decides letting the ripply one go on thinking whatever he's thinking is a good idea. His attention turns to Coulson. "Not yet. There was just an emergency call. No intel in or out, I guess. Looks quiet. Too quiet."

Spidey points and nods slowly, before speaking even more slowly, "Deestroy them, this one says. Okay. Wait. Who are you?" His hands go criss cross as if he's confused as to whether that's Tony or not Tony or just who that is. Someone didn't read their handbook.

"Oh yes!" Spidey says, "I'll follow the pretty one." He turns to Thor with a tilted head. "No offense. You're pretty too. And strong and godly and all that stuff too. Is it hot out here?" Spider-Man looks Thor up and down and tugs at his suit nervously.

Thor laughs heartly at Spider-Man's confusion, his mind tickled by just how quickly the youth changes subjects. "No offense taken, my friend," he replies, reaching out to /gently/ clap Spider-man on the back. Hopefully it doesn't faceplant the man! Turning ot Sharon, Thor nods to her and gives Mjolnir a brief twirl in his hand.

"Aye, Agent Carter. I shall clear our path," Thor says.

Coulson seems to have no issue with letting Sharon take the leadership reins, checking the gear tucked away in his jacket. He pulls a sleek, strange pistol out of his jacket-- not any conventional weapon, this one, as it has little glowing blue bits here and there, and a small readout display that he checks instead of a magazine. Glad the trip to New Mexico had called for a bit more gun than usual, he slips it back in his jacket, quietly noting that "We should figure out what they're after. And deal with it fast."

"Geez. Fine. 'Pacify them.' That better?" War Machine can't effectively roll his one good eye with his faceplate down, but the tone of voice is there, even through his vocalizer. "'This one' is War Machine. You can call me Jim." There's a brief pause as he focuses his sensor suite on the facility, then processes the incoming data. "Place is absolutely crawling with hostiles. Most of them are some sort of mech. There are some humanoids, but I can't tell good from bad. They're clustered around the uranium. Which is intact, at least for now. We should get moving. We can figure out what they were after once we've kicked their butts."

"Alright, let's get going, then." Sharon vebally prods the small team moving and to near where the bad guys are, the need for speed getting her to put spur to butt, so to speak.

It doesn't take too long before they are just outside of where the uranium and those surrounding it can be found, the leader of the group signalling for everyone to stop. "Alright. Let's take a second and gather our wits. Be careful of where we aim if a firefight breaks out and whatnot, alright?" At that Sharon allows herself a few seconds, takes a deep breath and the signal is given.

"Sounds good, Jim." Spidey says with a nod, and as the information starts coming in from War Machine's scans, he gulps. "We better get going guys. We're wasting time out here." Spidey and the others follow Sharon and things are going pretty well. They get inside. They get towards the uranium. According to War Machine's scans, there are a bunch of dudes and a bunch of machines in the uranium fuel rod area, some spider-like mechanical creatures watching over the hostages, and still others working as sentries.

"Firefight? I'm not so good in a fi. . ." Oh no, Spidey. You need to knock on some wood. The first shot comes as a group of sentries pass the corner. Their first shot, a blue energy missile coming up from a sprouted cannon on their head, just misses a backflipping Spider-Man and hits a fire extinguisher behind him. The red metal tube disappears in a poof. No explosion-it's just gone.

"Do not let their magic blasts hit thee, friends," Thor calls out as, with a glance he sees the red tube vanish. Seeking to disable the robot sentries as quickly as he can, the Asgardian's hammer crackles to life with electricity and he flings a bolt at the first one even as he charges another. Thunder God getting medieval by putting himself in the center of things. Didn't he /just/ say /not/ to let this things hit you?

Coulson skids to a halt and goes flat against the corner when Spidey leaps out of the way of the shot and Thor goes hauling past. Of course it's going to be robots, and of course they have high-tech guns. Why wouldn't they? He sighs a little, and draws his weapon, letting the high-pitched whine of a charging capacitor climb the scale. "Could be disintegration beams... maybe a teleporter?" He edges around the corner and snaps off a pair of shots, catching another of the robots with crackling blue energy bolts. Glad he hadn't yet returned this one to the armory.

"PATTON, give me a quick diagnostic on the IFF," War Machine murmurs. "IFF and all other HUD functions are green," the AI replies. "Good. Let's shoot some bad guys." The armored cyborg takes up his position at the rear. When the first shots are fired, he retaliates with a triple-blast from his gatling cannon. "Two words," he shouts at the mech. "Mine's bigger!"

The SHIELD presence is kind of hindered. The men who came along for this ride are low on ammo thanks to their mission in the Middle East, making what firepower they have fairly limited. This is something Sharon came into this knowing and it has her a bit annoyed at herself for lacking the foresight to pack extra rounds.

The annoyance becomes full on anger when they start to be fired upon, causing her to have to take cover so she won't be hit. "Careful, Jim," she yells out, voice tight. "Don't need any stray bullets in a place like this."

Thor charges and takes out two, but things look pretty scary as another one is about to get a shot in his direction?

What happens to those who get hit? We're not sure yet, because War Machine's big gun blast blows the thing to a thousand pieces.

POP POP, Coulson's shots hit true as well. War Machine's is technically bigger, but Colson's does a good deal of damage. Take it easy, and if it's easy, take it twice. Twice is nice. A bunch of wreckage begins to build within the hallway. Unfortunately, a lot of noise too.

The SHIELD folks start blasting away and as soon as Spider-Man rights himself and looks like he's going to start fighting, they're all gone. He gives a pretend karate chop anyhow. "Take /that/!" After a second, he looks around. "Now what?"

But just then some red lights begin flashing. Containment has been breached. Whatever wanted the rods has gotten inside.

Standing amid the wreckage, Thor looks up to the flashing red lights. "This doth not bode well," he rumbles faintly, glancing to Sharon for directions as the first flare of his God Sense, that cry of 'Midgard is in danger' flickers against the back of his mind. "Point me the way," Thor demands of the SHIELD agents with him, waiting most impatiently to be told where to fly.

As the containment alarms go off, Coulson's lips compress to a thin line, and he looks up at Thor. "Hate to say it, but you'll have to be careful now. If too much gets smashed up, we'll end up with a radiation leak." He looks back at Sharon. "Your call. I didn't bring rad suits."

"My suit is sealed against hard radiation. I've got this." War Machine steps out of his tailgunner position and moves to the fore. "And luckily, the only rounds I have left should be safe to fire once I get inside. I think." There's a WHIRRR as the gatling gun folds back over War Machine's shoulder and out of sight. At the same time, plates in his chest slide up to reveal row after row of small tubes. Another TINK-CHINK and a flamethrower's nozzle pops out from under one wrist. "Anybody who isn't afraid of glowing, let's do the damn thing."

Jim is allowed to go in while Sharon moves herself, standing before Thor. "I don't know if you can handle radiation or not," she says with a shrug, trying not to get annoyed over Rhodey's choice in words since 'I think' is not something one should say when massively radioactive materials are involved. "Let's stand guard," she adds, this time looking at Peter and Phil. "Never a dull day," she adds wryly, her way of trying to inject a bit of humor into this entire messed up thing. "I'll go after the hostages!" says Spider-Man, ambling away in the opposite direction of the T intersection. "If you all can't handle radiation, gimme a hand. Or at least applause!" According to War Machine's readouts, it was up and to the right and there goes WebHead without a plan or an idea.

Meanwhile, as Jim moves forward he'll realize he's not alone. There are four baddies in contamination suits and four more of those things he just took on.

"I have my hammer, which can restore my vigor should I fall ill," Thor says gently to Sharon. Clearly the idea of radiating and making /others/ sick is a new concept to the aesir-born and there's probably no time to discuss it with him.

"I will accompany War Machine, and together we shall return to thy side," he adds before turning and moving after Jim quickly. No rad suit, no gas mask, nothing save his usual cloak, helmet, and armor. As he enters at Jim's side, Thor spies more of those robot things, and so charges. He's careful about it, however, as he flying dropkicks at one's leg to bring it down where Mjolnir can be brought to bear on the mechanical beast. The down ward force of his strike dropping him to a knee. A knee he doesn't stay upon long, for he stands out of the knelt position and underhand flings Mjolnir at a second robot.

Sometimes Thor makes Coulson wonder just how advanced Asgardians really are. But he would never say such a thing. Not professional. So instead he keeps his gun ready for straggling robots, and taps his earpiece to switch over to a S.H.I.E.L.D. frequency. "This is Coulson. We're going to need a decontamination team at the Three-Mile facility. Containment has been breached-- not sure how badly yet."

The contamination suits are armor enough that War Machine's baton and taser rounds will prove ineffective. Thermite, plasma, repuslors... All of these things could get pretty dangerous with radioactive material in the mix. Taking this into consideration, War Machine opts to handle these baddies the old-fashioned way. He picks up two of the rad-suited men, smashes them together, and tosses each of them at one of the remaining two.

Per Degaton strides through a back part of the hall while receiving reports. "We have the rods, boys" he announces to some of his men. "Wait. . .what's that? Who?" His face begins to match his ginger hair as he begins barking orders, "I want the full force of men to get to the containment field and get me those rods. I have some hostages to kill." He checks to make sure the dial he wears across his neck is at full power. In the middle of the medallion is a large blue interface of some sort. There's a whir as he snaps a futuristic pistol into place.

Meanwhile, in the room with hostages, Spider-Man is drawing a crowd. Men and sentries are firing at him with those cool looking pistols and cannons but aren't coming close. At least they're not shooting the hosta. . .*BAM!* whoa! A large ceiling light just disappeared. That was too close.

Coulson's call is received and almost immediately a contamination force gets ready in New York. They'll be here in moments.

War Machine and Thor make mincemeat of the men and machines, but more keep coming. From their vantage point it seems like the containment field has been breached but the rods are still in place. Must. Hold. This. Ground.

"We stand our ground, Construct," Thor calls out to Rhodey, even as he melees into the oncoming rush. WIth man, the THunderer is almost gentle, knocking them into each other or into walls with just enough force to rattle and subdue. The machines have no such luck, for Thor brings Mjolnir against them, refraining from any force of magic to defeat them. The might of his arm shall have to be enough. That and having a fellow warrior at one's back.

"You're somethin' else, Blondie," War Machine compliments his comrade. "Whoa, watch your--" he fires his entire payload of taser rounds at one of the mechs as it makes a creeping attack at Thor's back. Though designed to take down unruly gang members and similar ilk, a dozen electrified rockets is enough to get the job done. He's left his own flank exposed doing it, though.

It is not easy to just stand there and wait while others are off doing what they're doing to save the day. It makes Sharon feel impotent and she loathes feeling that way. "Sit rep, guys," she yells out, forgoing the coms. It's uncertain as to who will manage to hear her in all this chaos.

Degaton turns the corner and heads into the room with the hostages. There must be 40 of them. There are mass of evildoers and technobots too, all chasing after this crazed Spider-Man creature.

Spider-Man is swinging left, swinging right, just trying to cause chaos. But as he swings over one of the guards, he gets hit with the butt of a rifle and is sent sprawling on the floor.

War Machine and Thor continue rampaging in the room and continue hacking away. Just then the room shrieks with sound as War Machine lets loose on the weapon taking on Thor from behind. The machine is tazered with a ton of electricity, but moves no more. But as he noted, War Machine still leaves himself open to attack, and one of the final men left standing is taking aim.

"Hold him!" yells Decagon. "I don't know who you are, BugBoy, but you're going to pay for you and your friends getting in on our scheme."

"S. . .piders. . .aren't. . .bugs. . ." Spider-Man mutters defiantly.

"Well, arachnids and bugs all splatter the same." Decagon raises his rifle. "Say hello to the future for me," he says vaguely, but then something out of the corner of his eye catches.

Jim Gatlin had been having a really bad day. Jim Gatlin had been having a really bad life. And now Jim Gatlin was going to be damned if some dipshit from the future was going to prevent him from repairing his marriage, loving his son, or getting a new damned job. So, when Jim takes one of the fallen soldier's guns and aims it at Decagon, it would take most people who knew him by surprise.

"Human's splatter too," he says before pulling the trigger.

As he does, Decagon disappears immediately, but the medallion he was wearing upon his neck begins to short out. Meanwhile, all of the mechanical terrors come to a complete stop and the men working the guns have guns that are no longer working.

With Rhodey taking out the one at his back, Thor's free to see the one hoping to take advantage of the xposed metal flank. Thor's eyes narrow, flicker electric blue in the same instant the runes along Mjolnir do. The Lightning Bringer does as that name implies and flings a tight, blue-white zap of ball lightning at the man taking aim at War Machine.

"Nice, very nice," War Machine salutes Thor's shot. With the mechs out of action and the worst of the weaponry no longer functioning, mopping up the remaining baddies is more a matter of routine than anything else. After that, it's time for the cleanup crew to do what they do best. Rhodey is hosed down, scrubbed down, rubbed down, and receives about thirty other different anti-radiation measures before he's cleared to leave the room. When he is, he makes an immediate report to Sharon, their team leader. "Blondie and I kicked their asses. Containment is doing their thing. Spidey must've done his share, because I don't hear any hostages screaming. This place is locked down tighter than a virgin's--" he pauses and coughs into a metal fist. "Ahh. We have the facility locked down, ma'am."

"Don't you dare mention anything that might be tight," Sharon says with no humor to her voice. She's tired, hungry and down right grumpy, it coloring her tone a bit darker than normal. Peering about, she counds heads, trying to figure out who is where, coming to the eventual conclusion that she isn't seeing one person in particular. "Where is that scrawny guy?"

Spider-Man is getting dragged by Jim Gatlin into the room where the others are. "I think this guy is one of yours he says. He talks. A /lot/."

Spider-Man looks like he hurt his shoulder and his knee but is otherwise okay. "Yeah, well, it's easier when you've got a great conversationalist there, buddy." Pause. "Thanks."