Avengers Mansion NPC

NPC Character blog for the Avengers Mansion RP Group

[dr-betty-ross]

Back in Chains || Thaddeus & Betty

Betty looked up from her reading when Lil’ Gil started to growl from his position on her shoulder. Growling was not necessarily a weird thing from the little Hydra but he normally had a reason for it. Felix was sound asleep beside of her so it was not them fighting. HWSNBN was currently resting on top of Felix, grooming the cat so it was not him either. “What’s a matter little one? The last time you were upset I had brought home a snake skull.” He glanced at her with one of his heads, the other trained on the door.

Well, that wasn’t comforting.

She carefully set her book down, shifting so her feet were resting flat on the ground. It was oddly silent now that she was paying attention to her surroundings. Normally there was the screaming of children or the cooing of pigeons outside of her window. She stared at the door a bit longer, hand reaching out to grab the staff that rested beside of her. She had heard rumors that their people were selling out the resistors but…who. Pepper would rather claim ignorance then tell on her. She swallowed roughly, trying to even out her breathing.

She was just being paranoid, that’s all.

Betty waited a few tense minutes before rising from her seat, freezing when there came a knock. She swallowed again, heading towards the door with staff still in hand. If nothing else she could run. They could track her down but she had studied. She had learned how to go on the run. Bruce had sparked her interest but the other girl had cemented it. Her hands flex, trying to loosen up in case the other girl had to come out. She reached for the handle and pulled open the door with her left hand, keeping her right side hidden for the most part.

“What are you doing here?” 

[avengers-mansionnpc]

Thaddeus thought he had heard everything he needed, but he was wrong. For weeks he had been hounding Hill, asking her to give him names so they could start building a database of potential problems. He didn’t anticipate his daughter, his Betty, being on that list of people.

He didn’t even grab his coat before he headed out the door. He needed to hear from her that she was enhanced. This is something he should have known from Day 1. Had he really been so disconnected from Betty that she would keep something this big a secret?

When he arrived at her apartment, he quickly sent a text asking for some officers to be on stand-by. He shoved his phone back in his pocket and basically ran up the steps to her apartment. He didn’t want to wait for an elevator. He knocked hard on the door, and there was a long pause. There was some movement inside. Then the door opened, and she hardly looked surprised.

“Who did this? Was it Banner? It couldn’t have been Stark - he wouldn’t betray our old family trust like this,” His voice was quiet but demanding. He didn’t want neighbors to come out.

“I need to know everything about your...condition.”

[avengers-mansionnpc]

In Her Defense | Magneto

“As mutants, we must protect ourselves in this trying time,” Magneto’s voice rose above the swarm of mutants standing below him, all of them cheering.

Mutants were the focal point of the news once more, and this time it wasn’t his face being shown. It was his daughter’s. She betrayed him when she went with the Avengers, leaving him and their cause behind. For the year following, he stayed completely out of her life, but he could no longer sit idly by.

He stared directly into the camera set up before him. Not but five minutes earlier, he hijacked every major news station across the United States and what global news networks he could acquire. The government would hear him speak whether they liked it or not.

Magneto’s hand rose and the crowd quieted down once more.

“The Brotherhood refuses outright to sign anything documenting us as superhumans, mutants, or whatever sub human category you wish to place us in. Hear us and know that if you plan to force us to join in this regime, we will not go blindly. We will fight for what’s ours, and what’s ours is the freedom to merely exist. If you try take that from us, we will take that from you as well.”

A smile crept over his lips. “This Registration Act is a sign of fear. You have a right and reason to be afraid. This message is a warning, and a threat. You know what we are capable of. If you believe this is the worst, you haven’t seen the true destruction that can be brought upon humanity.”

Another cheer boomed from the crowd below. This time he let it ring. His brothers and sisters needed to be heard across the globe. The world needed to know that he had followers and that they were not afraid.

“For any mutants who wish to join our cause, come find us. We will welcome you with open arms. Fight for your future with the Brotherhood at your side.”

He would have gone on, but the feed was cut. The cheering continued as Magneto began heading back to his living space. Even if the feed wasn’t directly from that location, he couldn’t risk the Brotherhood being caught. Soon, they would be finding a new place to camp out. Possibly somewhere closer to the action.

[howlingwintercommando]

Sharper in Winter | Bucky, Sharon, Remy, Sam, Rhodey, Strucker

[comeuphard-blog]

It was worrying that the portal hadn’t shut down with the machine. Sam double-checked, but could find no reason as to why that might be. Then again, while Sam was good with tech, he was definitely no Stark. He listened to his new orders and checked the machine one more time (in case, unlikely though it may be, something had suddenly changed in the minute or so he’d looked away; nothing had). “On it.” Sam abandoned the machine, taking hold of the nearest living agent and dragging them to the side room Barnes had indicated. Given the choices these people had made and the side they’d chosen, Sam was less inclined to feel all that charitable towards them, but that didn’t stop him from working with Rhodes to sort through and stash the agents that had survived. Once they were finished, he regrouped with the rest of his team, ready to follow Barnes back out and into whatever mess the Avengers were dealing with outside.

[justatrainingexercise]

He’d expected covering Wilson to be a easier – maybe deck a guy here, shoot a fellow in the knee there. Instead, Rhodes was almost doubled-over with the weight of an alien on his back, apparently trying to liberate him of his M134.

“Don’t think so,” he muttered, more to himself than the hostile, and pivoted on one foot to put the alien between himself (and Wilson) and the shots Strucker was firing their way. It was enough to loosen the alien’s hold, and Jim shook him, shot him, and then turned to Wilson as Barnes issued their new orders.

“On it.”

Jim stayed on Wilson’s six, focusing more on keeping aliens off their backs as he collected a few stragglers and helped Wilson stash them in a side room. Last in was Strucker, and at least Jim had the satisfaction of knowing exactly where he was as they locked up and headed out. Everyone outside must have been putting up a hell of a fight; the aliens dropping into the room were fewer now, with the bulk of them apparently acting as reinforcements.

“Tony, I’m on my way.”

[avengers-mansionnpc]

The final moments of his defeat were horrifying in their swiftness and mortifying in their mercy; the woman felled him and passed him off to be tossed into a supply room like a discarded toy. The days of cyanide pills andseppuku were long since past – they would all be taken alive – but Strucker would damn himself to hell long before he relinquished his plans, his intentions, or his technology, and long would any of his subordinates suffer if they thought to betray him.

That was, of course, assuming the extraterrestrials didn’t decimate his enemies for him. Perhaps this could work in his favor if he simply waited for his chance to spirit his machine away…

[howlingwintercommando]

Sharper in Winter | Bucky, Sharon, Remy, Sam, Rhodey, Strucker

[howlingwintercommando]

 He heard Strucker’s instruction not to let them leave, knew that it was inevitable that he would command that.  There was no way that they would want to let any of them go alive.  He’d expected no less.  Strucker’s shot went wildly awry as Rhodey fired at the ceiling.  

Bucky stared as the rubble came cascading down revealing exactly what was happening.  He’d seen the footage from New York, had seen what had come through the portal that had been opened then.  That it was happening now, again, seemed almost ludicrous, and yet it was.  He looked back to their enemies in the room.  

He saw Strucker take aim at him, heard the cold words, the tone of voice one that struck home far more than he would have liked to admit, the words still more so, taking him back in an instant to when that’s all he’d been.  Their asset.  Not human.  Just a weapon to be used.  A split second was all it took, more instinct than anything more, as Strucker raised to fire, even as he was speaking Bucky moved, enough that the shot missed by a fraction.  

The words burned into his mind but he listened instead to Steve’s instructions, forcing a slight laugh at the message from Natasha.  “Roger that.  Haven’t been shot yet.”  

He glanced to the rest of the team.  “Orders are through.  Secure Strucker, take him down.  We’ll take out the guards then we need to get outside asap and work as backup for the teams out there.”  

[justatrainingexercise]

Go time.

And it was almost as though they had practiced this; Sharon cut off Strucker’s next order for HYDRA to evacuate, then set about securing him as Remy and Rhodey covered Sam so he could shut down the machine. Unfortunately, Sam’s next report was that the machine was off, which didn’t bode particularly well…

“Hey, Sam, not to be that guy, but the portal’s still there.”

Jim paused to deck the nearest HYDRA guy – he couldn’t unleash too much firepower in this small a space without risking friendly fire – and switched to the private comm line with Tony and Pepper.

“I’m sure you’re seeing what I’m seeing, and we can’t seem to get it to go away,” he said, glancing back to check on Sam’s progress with the machine. He was about to warn one of them in particular about not flying anywhere near that thing without him, but he was interrupted by something large, heavy, and vicious landing on his back. He ended up swearing instead, and gee, wouldn’t that put Tony at ease –

“Shit,” he hissed again. Another hostile landed in front of him.

And it was a fucking alien.

[avengers-mansionnpc]

No. No. His men were not equipped for this, and he could only begin to imagine what may come pouring through this damned portal, and there was word of more Avengers outside, corralling his soldiers, dammit, dammit –

<<Our mission has failed – >>

Too soon, the woman was closing in, and before he could officially order an evacuation, he was engaged in combat with her. Hand-to-hand combat wasn’t his strong suit, however, and he was just on the verge of being overthrown when diabolic salvation fell from the sky. Hailing extraterrestials may not have been Strucker’s objective, but if this was what he had to work with, work with it he would, especially since the portal itself was likely all the beacon his men needed to evacuate.

<<Destroy the machine!>> he yelled at his nearest men, even as more alien monsters rained down around them. <<Do not let them leave with this technology!>>

He turned back to the intruders and began to empty the remainder of the clip at the woman who attacked him and the man who was tinkering with his machine. He would not let them leave with his work, even if it hadn’t quite turned out as he’d planned.

[howlingwintercommando]

Sharper in Winter | Bucky, Sharon, Remy, Sam, Rhodey, Strucker

[justatrainingexercise]

Out of necessity, Jim had to bring up the rear and cover their collective ass; he was two steps above useless in close combat while in the suit, and that was being generous. What he was good at, though, was making sure that no one tried anything funny from down the hall behind them and that everyone the rest of the team knocked down, stayed down.

Made his job pretty easy until they reached a mightily reinforced door end of the hall; all it needed was a neon said announcing Strucker’s presence behind it. Someone up front must have found a subtler way to open it then what Jim had in mind, because it soon opened without a fuss, and they poured inside – just as Strucker flipped the switch on the massive machine in the center of the room.

Shit.

Jim’s first thought was bomb, followed quickly by gas, and then finally by but that doesn’t make sense when he saw that Strucker wasn’t wearing any protective gear and wouldn’t be detonating a bomb from inside the room unless he had a death wish (and very few terrorist ringleaders have death wishes, at least from what Jim had seen). Even if he was just arming it – what was his extraction plan?

Then, to even Strucker’s evident surprise, the machine whined, trembled, and then ejected a pillar of light into the ceiling – and then through it, as though the ceiling wasn’t there at all. Jim vaguely registered the comm connection dropping out, but he ignored it; he was more concerned with what that light was and where it was headed.

“Watch your heads.”

Jim fired a missile toward the ceiling, blowing open a hole that allowed them to see where the beam of light was headed – or, rather, where it ended, in what looked like an inky blot against the midday sky. The rubble falling onto the machine didn’t seem to phase it or the beam it projected, which was probably all the better considering what he was looking at.

“Um…what is that?”

As if he didn’t know. As if he hadn’t been watching the live footage three years ago. As if he hadn’t heard, in great detail and many times over, the risks certain people had had to take to shut the thing down and cut off the invading forces permanently.

Aw, man. Tony is not gonna like this.

[avengers-mansionnpc]

<<Delay them.>>

He was out of time. Facing just one of these masquerading monsters would have been a challenge; Strucker was not so naive to think his forces stood a shadow of a chance against an army of them.

Thankfully, he wouldn’t need to if their work had been completely correctly. In theory, the machine before him would transport itself and its operator through space-time to wherever Strucker desired.

He powered it on as the doors opened, revealing a team certainly beyond Strucker’s singular capacity to defeat. The machine, however, seemed to have plans counter to Strucker’s; it seemed to shrug off his command and instead projected a beam of light skyward. He recognized immediately what had happened: rather than a vehicle, he had, in his haste, created a doorway. What he did not know was to whence the door would open -- and now he had to face his opponents.

<<Do not let them leave,>> he said to the remaining guards. He then drew his own weapon, firing blindly toward the so-called heroes as one of them fired into the ceiling and rained dust and rubble down on him, until he was far enough away from the mess to take proper aim -- and at Zola’s pet project, no less. The lost asset.

<<Have you lost your way home, dog?>>

He sneered and fired.

[howlingwintercommando]

Sharper in Winter | Bucky, Sharon, Remy, Sam, Rhodey, Strucker

[justatrainingexercise]

All right. Cool. He’d barely hung up the phone with Rogers when he was suddenly taking off alongside a Quinjet full of people he’d heard about more than he’d seen toward Sokovia – and boy, was he gonna get hell for this when he got back to the Pentagon. With SHIELD gone and the military focusing on domestic security, the Avengers were calling the shots on this operation, which was all good and well until foreign diplomacy got involved.

That wasn’t his op this time, though. Rogers and Rushman – no, Romanoff – a few other had stayed behind to deal with the back-end, and Rhodey wasn’t a lieutenant colonel among these people. But he knew when he was in charge and when he needed to follow orders, and this was definitely the latter.

Still. He wasn’t particularly chatty en route, though he listened in on the planning happening inside the jet, and he waited until Barton dropped off the rest of the team before he landed beside them on the roof of the base.

“I’m just wondering what surprises we’re going to find waiting for us.”

Wilson. Retired pararescue. Rhodes already like him. Had he known him better, Rhodes might have jokingly countered by asking if HYDRA popping up throughout the military and government hadn’t been enough of a surprise, but he thought better of it and kept his mouth shut as he followed the team into the base. There’d be time for ribbing later.

[avengers-mansionnpc]

Baron Wolfgang von Strucker had anticipated that HYDRA would one day reveal itself, but not as soon as this. Having to withdraw their hold on the upper eschelons of US powers had cost them dearly, and it was only a matter time before other governments began their internal investigations -- not to mention the loss of Zola’s primaries data banks, though Strucker doubted that that would prove to be a long-term problem in this digital age.

What he didn’t anticipate was interference during his operations in Sokovia. Whoever let slip their location was going to burn for it later, but for now, he had a project to finish in the precious few minutes before the American superheroes stormed in.

If his scientists had done their job correctly, what he had before him was a device that should be able to transport matter through space and time at his command. All he had to do was finish calibrating it, and then he should be able to evacuate himself, the device, and whoever he felt worthy of accompanying him.

“Lass uns sehen.”

[avengers-mansionnpc]

Fighting Chance | Galactus & Fighters

[avengers-mansionnpc]

when-wasps-fly:

From her crevice, Jan watched as plasma cannons and Johnny’s inferno heated the giant so that he staggered under the strain.  His armor melted, and so close to him she could feel the heat radiating from his body.  Every step Galactus took seemed labored and painful.  Finally, a couple of well-placed plasma blasts knocked him down and he stayed.

His breathing was slow.  His armor crumpled off of him, and his limbs seemed to stick to the ground.  Jan waited a moment, then another.  Finally, she spoke.  “Do you think he’s down?”  She grew out of the crevice and flew to the giant body.  He wasn’t dead, but he didn’t seem in a hurry to move anywhere, either.  Heat radiated off of him and prevented her from getting too close.  She sent another sting at his exposed face.  Galactus screwed his eyes tighter and twitched like someone half asleep who wanted the sun out of their eyes without so much as rolling over.  “Because I’m pretty sure he’s not going anywhere.”  Jan hoped it wasn’t premature to let out a sigh of relief that the fight was over. 

Jan dropped to the ground and regained her full height.  Her legs shook.  As she took a step to steady herself, she almost tripped over a piece of rubble.  Dust and hunks of marble littered the floor, making it slick and uneven to walk on.  Shake it off, she thought to herself, you’ve done this countless times before.  

Jan turned around to the other assembled heroes.  “Right, I think our first priority is to contain him in a prison or other holding unit while we decide what to do with him.  Hopefully Asgard has somewhere which  will de-power him as well, or he’ll break out as soon as he’s regained full strength,” she said, looking to Fandral.  He’d be able to organize that.  Then she looked around at the rest of the team.  “Who can fly?  Thor?  Johnny?  The three of us should look for any accomplices or backup he may have.  Galactus usually has a harold.”  Was there anything she was forgetting?  The rubble under her feet.  The royal family would have that taken care of in due time.  

Shakily, she took another deep breath and looked around at the sky.  Now that the roof had been torn down, the bright sunlight in a perfect blue sky shone in.  Another perfect day if only it hadn’t been for the supervillain.  “Everybody clear?”

Cannon fire rained down upon his face, and prickling arrows torched his back. He could have fought them off if the whirling firestorm hadn’t clouded his vision. His body was getting so hot he could feel his armor melting to his skin. His ear was in pain - he could feel the trickling blood drying against his face in the heat. Asgardians were formidable opponents. He may have not been gravely injured, but he knew when to admit defeat.

Galactus had already gathered enough food to last him a long while. The deaths of millions throughout the nine realms would sustain him for a couple years - at that time, he would return.

“You win this time...Asgardians,” His voice rumbled and echoed around him. “Take care of my stone. Keep safe from harm, or you will regret facing Galactus.”

He lifted himself up to his feet. He sized up the tiny folk standing before him before looking out at the setting sun in the distance. Galactus levitated a few feet off the ground before rocketing into the sky, out of their atmosphere.

Maybe it was finally time to let the universe know that Asgard has another Infinity Stone.

[backwardsandinhighheels1945-blog]

Wrath of Rama Tut (Peggy, Fandral, Karla, Steve, & Stephen) 15 June 2015

[stephenstrange-sorcerersupreme]

“I don’t believe anything terrible ever became any members of Howard’s team, no disappearances.”

The group was entering one of the main rooms now, and Stephen quickly disabled all of the wards within the area. It was as dusty as ever, occupied mostly by stone fixtures that previous explorers had been unable to move. He’d never really spent time in this chamber before; anything of value to the Sorcerer Supreme was housed in a hidden lower level, beyond one of the many seal doors. And sightseeing on his way through the pyramid had never been one of his priorities. 

“Nothing to their physical forms, at least,” Stephen murmured, examining the faded hieroglyphs on a nearby wall. Not all curses simply killed those they were placed on; there were far worse, and far more creative, punishments than death.  Besides, disappearances would only serve to draw more attention to the tomb. It seemed counterproductive to have local authorities rummaging around like it was a crime scene. 

The sorcerer wiped some of the dust away, recognizing the inscription as a series of prayers. A sort of last rites for the dead, blessing them before their judgement in the afterlife.  Nothing that was necessarily important to their mission.  “I highly doubt it,” Stephen replied to Peggy, but Fandral answered before he could explain further.  “Yes, exactly,” he said, visibly pleased that someone else knew what he was talking about. “There’s far too much mystic energy in this area. Sorting through it could take days.” 

And then, of course, somebody touched something. 

Karla yelled, and Stephen looked over in time to see Fandral handling a chalice from one of the tables. “What in the name of the Vishanti do you think you’re doing!?” But it was too late; the chamber seemed to spin until it became a blur of colour, engulfing the group and depositing them who knows where. “What. Did. I. Say. About. Touching.” The sorcerer growled, before focusing his attention on the man who stood before them. He was absolutely furious with Fandral, but right now they had more pressing matters to attend to.  At least Steve had his shield, because it appeared as though they would need it; there was no way Stephen would allow some time traveling mad man to have completely control over the earth. 

“The Sorcerer Supreme will not be bribed by your petty offerings, time traveler. I am the protector of Earth, and you are going to have to go through me.” 

It wasn’t until Captain Rogers referred to him as Nathanial Richards that their captor wiped the fake smile off his face. Whoever that was, the mere mention of their name had thrown this ‘Rama Tut’ over the edge. 

Stephen floated into the air, knocking back a wave of soldiers with a burst of red light from his hands. “Rogers, do you know him?” he asked quizzically.

[backwardsandinhighheels1945-blog]

All around them the guards began to close in.  She reached for her bag.  Inside she had a switch blade.  Not much against real weapons but it was still something to outweigh her hand-to-hand ability.  But as soon as she had reached around an Egyptian man close to her registered that she was reaching for a weapon and shot her a warning glance.  If she grabbed for her knife he would likely cleave her with  his axe.  The knife wasn’t an option.  Hand to hand would have to suffice but there were so many of them.  An entire royal guard against the five of them.  Only four of whom were trained fighters.  They needed a plan and quickly.  

She glanced behind her to the others inside the shrinking circle of guards.  They had yet to attack.  Peggy continued to back up as she thought.  Steve had just rushed and several guards met him head on.  “Bloody hell, Steve.”  Peggy cursed under her breath and immediately hoped nobody had heard.  And she caught a glint of the god’s sword.  The clang rang out of metal on metal.  Their numbers were too great.  Another soldier grabbed her arm.  Reflexively she turned on the spot and lashed out against him.  Knife or no knife she could throw a mean punch. The man fell down and she grabbed the cycle sword he brandished.  A guard thrust a pike her way and she caught it in the blade.  

There were too many guards.  However many in this room and they didn’t know how many more outside. Attacking wasn’t going to be enough.  They had to be smart about this.  “There’s something special about the throne.  He hasn’t moved from it.  And how else could he have controlled the time travel?”  But she wasn’t an expert on such scientific matters.  The sorcerer was.  “Sorcerer,” Peggy wished she’d caught his name earlier, “see what you can do about it.”  She hoped he would know something about its operation at least to turn the tide of the fight.  And then there was the matter of covering him while he worked.  “Fandral, you cover him.”  He was a little closer than Steve was and seemed to be faring a little better against such weapons and fighting style.  It was all Peggy could do to keep fending off attacks now that they were coming.  She pulled an axe from another soldier’s belt and then struck him across the back of the neck with the handle.  He fell unconscious.

[avengers-mansionnpc]

Nathaniel watched from his throne as the five heroes from his past attacked his guards.  The army was the finest in the entire ancient world, and between their sheer numbers and the technological advantages he’d given them, there was only one way this skirmish would end.  Naturally, he felt some remorse that it had to be his army who defeated the heroes he’d known, fought alongside and looked up to.  But it was their choice.  He’d given them a choice and they’d chosen to fight him.  It wasn’t the way he would have liked to do things, but such times called for such measures.  

Captain America was the first to attack–Nathaniel had foreseen that.  Always the one to call for justice and all that.  Wasn’t peace and stability enough?  What he hadn’t foreseen was how much more effective they became when they started to organize.  “I see now why the five of your could have been trouble for me had I tried to conquer your time period with you there.”  He put his hand over his mouth and tried to conceal his amusement at their attempts to overwhelm such a large army.  “I wish we could have done things the easy way, that you all could have yielded and we might all live in peace in our respective eras, but you chose war and violence.  I must say, this isn’t the 21st century I would want to live in.  The one I will create will be in my ideal image, where people can live in peace without fear.”  

The Avengers had many strengths, but peacekeeping wasn’t one of them.  Every war they fought only led to another war.  What they lacked was the willingness, or maybe the ability to see these things through to the end.  His own ancestor, Dr. Doom, had been able to do that. He had mastered a peaceful nation of Latveria  But he shouldn’t have stopped there.  He should have done the same to the entire world, if these heroes hadn’t worked so hard against him.  

“I hope you see now that your resistance is futile.  My army outnumbers you one thousand to one; the rest are close at hand.  Please, I don’t want to hurt any of you, I wish we could talk this through rationally.”  They wouldn’t take any persuading, Nathaniel could see that.  He turned to the captain of the guard who stood near his throne and ordered him to, “bring in the reserves waiting outside.”  Maybe then the heroes would understand that there really was only one option.

[backwardsandinhighheels1945-blog]

Wrath of Rama Tut (Peggy, Fandral, Karla, Steve, & Stephen) 15 June 2015

[backwardsandinhighheels1945-blog]

The tomb wasn’t quite what Peggy had remembered it.  There had been more things inside than this last time and though the decorations on the walls and the things which remained were magnificent and unspoiled in the last nearly one century passage after passage and room after room all felt empty by comparison.

“Not everything is like Indiana Jones.”  

Peggy smiled at that remark.  “Not even Indiana Jones was like Indiana Jones.”  He’d been in Egypt while she had been in Italy and France with the S.S.R. and they’d met after the war in Germany around the same time Peggy was working on the Obelisk.  He’d found a similar artifact to (which had been similar to but more complicated than) the one which was portrayed in the movie and had been a valuable asset in their ongoing investigations.

Steve still hadn’t said a word to her and she could tell she was avoiding her eye contact the same as she was avoiding his.  That had been fine while they were outside but now things were beginning to heat up. Steve had his shield summoned for him and danger in one form or another seemed imminent.  She had to say something.

What though?  With each step they took the sounds of boots and armor and and Karla’s sandals bounced off the walls as they advanced through the passageways.  After a moment’s thought Peggy drifted over to him.  She spoke softly.  In the near-silence her voice traveled and she became even more aware who else was listening.  “You didn’t have to come here with Karla.  And I’m surprised you did.”  Peggy could only guess at Karla’s motives for doing that.  There were things that she wanted to ask.  Things she wanted to apologize for and attone for.  But not now.  Not in front of everyone and not while one wrong move could prove disasterous.  

The room they had just walked into was the largest yet.  It held some materials but not everything she remembered.  Peggy immediately recognized three cats carved from red granite which  sat on guard.  She had always preferred dogs to cats for their loyalty and intelligence but these cats had the same quality.  They had struck her as noble when she was younger.  “But I’m glad you came.”  Peggy reached out her hand to trace the cat’s long leg and ventured a glance at Steve.

“Whatever it is we’re looking for which has caused this must be new,” she mused.  She took her hand away from the cat statue.  “I don’t believe anything terrible ever became any members of Howard’s team, no disappearances.”  The worst that they’d ever suffered was sunstroke and that was a very common ailment around here.  Of course, most of the team didn’t know what was original to each room and what was not.  And naturally, “even something ‘new’ could still be very old.”  And well hidden.  Otherwise the curators would have found it and removed it by now.  “Will you be able to detect the artifact with magic?” she asked the wizard.

[finestswordsmanfandral]

The tomb was such a musky place. The scent of old, stale air filled his lungs and it left a nasty taste in his mouth. Nothing looked extraordinarily old, which made sense with the time fluctuations, but it didn’t take long for dust to settle. Especially in the desert heat. How anyone could think that these tombs were so great had obviously never had to be in one. Asgard would never let their rulers and nobles rest in such a dismal and decaying place. It would be a great dishonor to them and their memory.

He walked in step with the blonde haired woman, whose name he still hadn’t gotten. She was a curious person. She tore the door open with such grace and ease, it was obvious she wasn’t a normal human. He didn’t know if she was another alien or just someone super special like the sorcerer. The whole walk he felt as if they were walking into a trap. Fandral didn’t know how Peggy and Steve would fare if trouble approached. They handled their own on Asgard, but they had heavy artillery on their side. Their strongest member was probably Stephen - unless the blonde could grow cannons for arms.

The group walked into a large room, bigger than the rest they had come across. Fandral’s sense of impending doom was still off the charts. He walked a little further in the room, past Peggy, looking at all the artifacts just laying around.

“I’m not a sorcerer, but magic of this magnitude may not be detectable through all of the existing interference.” That one he learned from Frigga. Too much magic can often cloud frequencies or something - he didn’t know all the details. “If you have been here before, it shouldn’t be too hard to find.”

Without thinking about it, Fandral picked up a golden chalice from a display table and examined it quickly before setting it back down. Regret didn’t set in until after he heard shouting at him not to touch anything. Something was happening, he didn’t know what, but it made him sick to his stomach. He took his hand off the chalice and finally turned to face the others again. Time was spinning around them, and the dust and age was washing off of the artifacts until he could swear they looked brand new.

On the bright side, his doom sense was subsiding. That didn’t stop his heart from pounding out of his chest; his body was burning with embarassment. Fandral just sent them all back in time, and right into the face of danger.

[avengers-mansionnpc]

Nathaniel Richards could tell his guards were beginning to lose patience, and faith in the reason he kept them waiting.  Clearly they underestimated the technology he had, which he had brought with him from the thirty-first century.  It had ended famine and brought years of peace and prosperity among his subjects, and still they doubted he could perform this last wonder--conjuring and entrapping the warriors from the twenty-first century which were destined to stand in his way.  “If I see,” his voice boomed through the throne room, “or hear, one more person cast their doubts, that person will be an example.”  That silenced them.  

But how much longer would it be?  How much longer until the quintet appeared?  Nathaniel was a careful man, and had been manipulating the time stream since he was a boy.  It was unreliable, but this was simple enough.  Today was the day.  

Just as he began casting doubts himself, there was a flash.  He stood up and his guards closed in.  As they faded into view, he recognized some from his childhood.  Steve Rogers, and he’d seen pictures of the swordsman, and heard of Doctor Strange.  “Nobody harm them,” he ordered his guards.  They didn’t stand down, continued to hold their pikes, cycle-swords, and axes at the ready.  

Nathaniel stayed standing at the top of the steps up to his throne.  “Friends, I welcome you to Egypt.  I hope the journey wasn’t uncomfortable for you.”  He paused for a moment to grin at his own joke.  Nobody else seemed to find it funny.  “I have to say, I’m sorry to take you by surprise like this.  If there was another way, I would have taken it, but when you can see both the future and the past the way I can, well, you just know there’s no two ways about it.  But I’m sure you’re all wondering what you’re doing here.”  Clearly they didn’t know what was going to happen, least of all the blonde man who had triggered the trap.  “Forgive me, I should explain.  You see, when I was a boy, I spent a lot of time in your century, and I developed a certain fondness for it.  In fact, I’ve been nostalgic for it, and if I could choose which century over which I rule--which, quite frankly, I can--it would be yours.”  He grinned again at a private joke.

“But you’re still wondering what all this has to do with you, I’m getting to that, I promise.  Being able to see the past--my past--I can see that the five of you would lead the resistance against me.  But with you out of the way, the others will fall in line.”  He frowned as he saw them cast looks amongst themselves. “You mustn’t worry.  You’re not here as my prisoners.  You’re here as my guests.  You’re to have every luxury available to this century, to live out your days in the peace I’ve created here.  All I ask is that you surrender your century to me, do  we have a deal?”  Once more he forced his smile, though he could already see that at least some of the heroes were in disagreement.  

[avengers-mansionnpc]

Name: Erik Lensherr | Alias: Magneto | Affiliations: Brotherhood, Villain | Status: NPC 

First, Magneto sought to make all of mankind mutants; then he found an avenue to wipe humans out altogether using William Stryker’s replica of Cerebro. Both times, Magneto was foiled but his old friend Charles Xavier and the X-Men, and now he’s tired of working in the shadows. He has amassed an army and is ready to wage war, beginning with Worthington Labs in San Francisco -- or he was, until he learned that his children had allied with the Avengers. He has since returned to New York City and forged alliances that he intends to manipulate to eventually serve his own goal: the actualization of mutant supremacy.

Currently, Magneto is in hiding with Mystique in New York City, courtesy of Emma Frost.

Secretly, Magneto wishes to regain the loyalty of his children, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, and so they will be by his side when he resumes his righteous war against mankind.

[avengers-mansionnpc]

Name: Johann Schmidt | Alias: Red Skull | Affiliations: HYDRA, Villain | Status: NPC 

In 1945, Captain America reported the Red Skull dead after the Tesseract apparently disintegrated his body. In reality, Johann Schmidt had been catapulted through space and time to the present day location of where Captain Rogers had crashed the Valkyrie. He eventually found his way out of the Arctic Circle and back in touch with Arnim Zola, whose consciousness had been preserved in a computer during the Cold War. Revived by the knowledge that HYDRA had survived, Schmidt has resumed his place as the head of HYDRA with a renewed vision of a new world order.

Currently, Schmidt is in hiding amid the tendrils of HYDRA, biding his time for the opportune moment to arise.

Secretly, Schmidt is interested in regaining not only the Tesseract but in collecting all of the Infinity Stones to further his regime.

[avengers-mansionnpc]

Name: Loki Laufeyson | Affiliations: Asgardian, Villain | Status: NPC

For most of his life, Loki believed he was the son of Odin and Frigga, only to learn that he is actually the forsaken son of the Jötun king Laufey. Loki, feeling betrayed by his false father and resentful of his stepbrother Thor, renounced his loyalty to Odin and attempted to usurp the Asgardian throne, then, failing that, sought to establish his own reign on Earth. Since his defeat at the Battle for New York, Loki has escaped custody in Asgard and remains at large.

Currently, Loki is in a loose alliance with Doctor Doom and Magneto.

Secretly, Loki seeks the Infinity Stones to help him reclaim his birthright as king.

[avengers-mansionnpc]

Name: Victor von Doom | Alias: Doctor Doom | Affiliations: Independent, Villain | Status: NPC

Born in Latveria and educated in the United States, Victor von Doom quickly proved himself a brilliant scientist and businessman in the American industrial and military development market. He is ruthless in all of his pursuits, as demonstrated both by his bullying of rival Reed Richards into accepting what would prove to be a fateful patent deal and by his advances on Sue Storm. He was a member of the space voyage that granted the Fantastic Four their abilities as well as him his own: superhuman strength, superhuman durability, and electrokinesis.

Currently, he reigns over Latveria and continues to use his political and economical sway to protect his home and people.

Secretly, he is in a loose alliance with Loki and Magneto, but his ultimate goal is to harness the power of the Infinity Stones for his sole use.

[avengers-mansionnpc]

Fighting Chance | Galactus & Fighters

[when-wasps-fly]

Jan could hear Fandral’s voice in her com and the mess going on outside.  Her time window was quickly closing.  It was time to stop worrying about how she would get out if she slipped. “Give me just a few more seconds and I’ll have him down.”  Propping herself as firmly as she could in the ear canal, she held up one stinger-clad arm, jerked her fingers down hard, and ZAT! ZAT! ZAT!  She fired, the membrane visibly tore in front of her, and the floor she stood on jerked, and outside, there was a loud booming scream.  A sense of accomplishment filled Jan.

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[avengers-mansionnpc]

Galactus roared, once again feeling a sharp pain inside his head. What in the great universe were they doing to him? When did Asgardians weild the power to attack his great mind - to bring down the inexorable Galactus. It was preposterous. His anger was building, and he intended to tear them all apart piece by piece until the soul gem was back in his posession.

As he was rising to his feet, he saw projectiles coming straight for him. Plasma cannons. He narrowly avoided the first, but went right in the way of the second blast. It splat on his chest, and the bubbling plasma began to tear through his armor. Before he was able to think about what was going on, he felt something hitting his back. Explosives of some kind, he was sure of it. He was being barraged on two fronts, but they left him no space to move off of the bridge. The bombardment of plasma began to seep into the cracks of his armor and it burned his skin.

He went to lunge forward at the three Asgardians standing before him, but a tiny being began circling his feet. A ring of fire went up around him and though the attacks stopped, his armor was too damaged to withstand the heat of flame. He tried to push his hand through, but his glove began to melt.

[avengers-mansionnpc]

Fighting Chance | Galactus & Fighters

[when-wasps-fly]

Janet nodded to Fandral that she had heard him, and took flight again as the others started to head off in their various directions, each one tasked with the destruction of their giant intruder. “I’m on it.”  For a second, she waited for things to clear, and to wait if any more orders were forthcoming.  But Fandral and the others had begun to move onto the defensive.  

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[avengers-mansionnpc]

Everyone began to scatter, and he chose to continue following the three fleeing down the hallway. They were the targets that didn’t try and hide themselves away like cowards. He would teach them to run from Galactus.

As he ran, his shoulders slammed into pillars, and they tumbled down beneath his feet. He had no problem turning them into rubble as he stomped through the palace, chasing after the Asgardians. They didn’t even bother trying to fight back, they just kept going. He gained on them, swooping down to try and snatch one of them up - the one with the shield. But he evaded. Puny mortals; the only advantage they had was being small.

Something didn’t feel right once Galactus followed them down the grand staircase. It felt like a trap. Like in the few seconds they had to speak, they came up with a plan. It wasn’t the first time a planet tried to team up against the mighty Galactus, and no matter what they had in store, he would survive. They had his gem, and he wasn’t leaving without it.

The three Asgardians led him out through the front doors of the castle where he stood out on the rainbow bridge that led through the city and beyond. They all stopped before him, and that’s when he felt something in his ear. A sharp pain went through his whole body as he felt his ear pop and he yelled. What is this sorcery?!

He dropped to one knee.

[avengers-mansionnpc]

Fighting Chance | Galactus & Fighters

[supermassivenova]

Johnny had been invited to be a guard incase something showed up by Sue. He was kinda exicted but at the same time he was bummed. Though a week ago he took it and went with his sisters choice of ihm coming out. Today he was eating with a group who all seemed upset or saddened. No one was really touching their food, but not Johnny, He was grubbing. Though He only was eating because he burns through so much enegry. He needs ot eat a lot through out the days. He was getting some looks form some people.”What? the food is really good and I’m hungry.”, he said kinda ignoring them. Maybe he should kinda be more respectful about it.

He started eating a lot slower, but still was eating. As he kind ajust form time looked aorund at the other. Seeing that many people were just kinda thinking of something to say or almost speaking. It made him want to just say a joke or something to lighten up everyones mood. Though something that happened that surprised him any mant other, the Wall being blown up showed him. as he leaped into the air,”Flame on!”,He yelled as he bursted into flames as he floated there.

He just looked up at this guy and stared in amazement. It was really strange to see such a huge man just sitting there asking questions. He had no idea what was going on with the tree or the gem, so his info about it was nothing. Hearing about the gem just confused him,”Gem? anyone know about this? Either way, just give me the go on when to show Big and Purple here how fire feels”, he said looking back over his shoulder for a quick moment.

[when-wasps-fly]

Janet was on her third goblet of Asgardian mead.  Three goblets and very little to eat besides.  Between the overwhelming and crushing solemness that surrounded the table and the inane chatter from the one person seemingly unaffected by mood or social grace she felt she’d made the right decision.  To be on the safe side, though, she had been sure to scoop some of the strangely segmented fruit onto her plate as well.  It looked almost like cut pineapple but tasted akin to pear.  And went well with the drink.  

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[avengers-mansionrp]

The dust from breaking in managed to mask the tiny mortals, but he didn’t see them leave. He swiftly punched forward, knocking a few dining tables across the room. They weren’t hiding there. Just as he was about to knock away a few more tables, he saw a burst of flame out of the corner of his eye. It was a person. Asgardians as he knew them were incapable of such things - becoming pure flame.

"What sorcery is this?" His voice boomed. "Who dares stand before Galactus?"

He would teach them to stand up for themselves. They would bow to his whim, as soon as he taught them who was the true superior being in the universe. Their petty magic tricks and feeble strength were no match. He charged forward, pummelling his fist straight into one of the pillars in the direction of the fire-y man.

Rock and rubble sprayed everywhere, and as the dust cleared he saw the Asgardians making an escape. That just wouldn’t do. Their size would give them agility, but he was still faster than any being in the known universe. They would pay for disrupting his gem - his time to feed.

So he ran out of the great hall, quickly catching up with a small group of men.

[avengers-mansionnpc]

Fighting Chance | Galactus & Fighters

Galactus sat back on the mountaintop, watching Asgard crumble beneath the power of the infinity gem. It was too late for them to save their pathetic universe. From the moment he placed the seed within the roots of the tree, he could feel his hunger subsiding. Every living entity within the Nine Realms was having its energy drained and with every passing day they grew weaker and weaker. He applauded their effort, but it was no use. Once the gem had reached its capacity he would return for it and have food for centuries to come.

...but something was wrong. He grimaced. He could feel the energy of the gem all up until one moment, but from the exterior he couldn't see anything. Had he been found out? Had those puny Asgardians figured out how to stop his glorious plan? He waited - hoping that it was just a lapse in the energy radiation. But no. Nothing.

That just wouldn't do.

He grew in size, about the height of a tower, and he charged toward the castle. Galactus approached one of the walls and he punched through the wall, finding himself in front of a group of warriors sitting around a dining table. He dropped down on the ground with a thud, hearing the stone crack beneath him.

"You inferior mortals have disturbed my gem. Tell me, what have you done with it!"

No one moved. They all seemed stunned or scared, but he didn't have time for their insolence. He bent down to swing but the tiny beings managed to scramble away. Insufferable Asgardians.