281/Poking at a Hornet's Nest

Poking at a Hornet's Nest
Date of Scene:	05 May 2017
Location:	Harlem, New York City
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Captain America, Phil Coulson

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Captain America has posed:
     The streets of Harlem are aflutter with early morning traffic. To one corner of the city a small contingent of security personnel watch over an electrical team working to repair a horrifically damaged power box.

     The source of the trouble? A large moving van was crashed right into it. The van itself is only now being drug away as the electrical crew do their best to get work done fast as they can before moving onto their next job. This wasn't exactly a place they ENJOYED working.

     The buildings here are often littered with tags from various groups, broken windows and memories scattered in all directions.

     One building however stands as the target for this little investigation. Sandwiched between two buildings is the lone unmarked door of the SHIELD safehouse. Anyone in shield would know it as a safe place to stay if absolutely needed. Those with high enough clearance level would even know of the data storage that takes place on the hidden subbasement.

     For the people of Harlem however it was a slum among slums. Littered with roaches, and with rooms so small they're likely not legally able to be rented out to people. Studio apartments with barely enough room to move grandfathered in from long, long ago.

     No one in Harlem WANTED to stay there, but for the price there were a few who actually did. Even for all it's faults. Though none of them actually knew what might lie within, or more accurately beneath the building.

Phil Coulson has posed:
Phil is doing what he does best. Agenting. Off the clock. Later this morning he has to be at a law firm to take a meeting. Something about a possible Asgardian bank robber. Not really likely, but a good enough excuse to get himself assigned as Liason. Who knows what it really is, but for right now, everyone thinks he took the Bus up early for coffee and bagels. Sure, that'll happen. As soon as he checks this little slice of home out first. He sits in a non descript rental, about a half block back, the traffic accident proving to be intriguing. Wonder if it'll actually affect the power to the building. Probably not, but it's enough to see if he can make any of the utility workers as fellow agents.

Captain America has posed:
     Most of this section of city seems to be completely without power still, from the accident last night. A trio of fully body armored officers stand waving traffic as the light is completely dead.

     Phil might not necessarily recognize them off the bat, but there's bound to be one or two agents in the mix to keep an eye on things.

     The man climbing the pole to rewire the electricity for instance would be one of the few people Phil could tell for certain was a SHIELD plant within the power crew. It's the little tells that are kept a trade secret for one agent to identify another just in case. Then again why would they ever allow civilians to work on their power systems?

     The front door of the SHIELD safehouse swings open, a haggard looking man with long unkempt hair and ragged clothing stepping out into the morning light. He wanders out towards the street, and the payphone of all things (Likely one of the last ones left in the city to be honest at this point) to make a call.

Phil Coulson has posed:
Phil continues to watch, and decide how to play this. He sips from a small cup of coffee he picked up a bit ago. If he can recognize one, there's more than that, because they never work alone in a situation like this. The question is, how to get into the building. He could go in, because he's Phil Coulson. But it might attract attention. Then again, they might think he's got the clearance for it. Being one of the Fury's favorites and a worthy agent, they might assume he has the clearance. The question is..what happens when they find out he doesn't. All he's gone on is what's in his pay grade and conjecture just to get this far. But hey..while they were sloppy..they weren't thorough. That's what started this up in the first place. The subtle tells. The imperceptible things not done. Not mentioned. He never once saw Steve sketch in the whole time he's been back. Not even carry a sketch book. No mention of the fiance? Not even once. Even if it's painful to accept the truth, he acts like it never happened. Which in Phil's mind, means a cover, and a cover means something is being covered up..and here we are. He decides to say to hell with it and in the time it takes to open the door and walk over, has a plausible cover cooked up his own self. They don't know he knows, and that means they don't have to.

Captain America has posed:
     Cool as a cucumber Phil goes seemingly unnoticed as he makes his way towards the building. The door itself has already swung back shut but once he's inside he'll quickly notice this place is in one sorry state of disrepair.

     The white floral wallpaper of this lobby is peeled partially back the linoleum flooring itself warped and cracked. Roaches skutter their way about hiding in the cracks and the reception desk looks like it had been at one point retrieved from a junk yard.

     The only thing to give away that it might not be what it appears is the sheer fact of just HOW cheep this place looks, it's the kind of penny pinching someone has to try very hard to achieve. In many ways it's the same thing that gives away undercover cops to the keen eye, a bureaucratic obsession with the cheep.

     Yet to the untrained eye it would just seem to belong to someone who had every intention of making this place run on next to nothing in order to swim in the profits.

     There's a large pair of rusty elevator doors at the far end of the room, a lone stairwell door to one side, and a cracked recently painted unisex bathroom. In one corner of the room rests a cheep visibly plastic plant, a collection of rusted mail boxes on the far wall, and a few broken chairs with a number of holes littering their surface. The chairs themselves hold quite a few cigarette stains and burn holes along them.

     The room is devoid of people for the moment, which may not be the best of signs.

Phil Coulson has posed:
Phil continues to case the lobby. But he checks out a few things. The mailboxes. Looking to see if they're actually in use. Running a hand along the tattered wallpapered walls casually feeling for certain bumps, contours, that kind of thing. Checks out the chairs and the plant before looking in the elevator, to take a look at its controls. Keeping his eye out for the obvious and subtle alike.

Captain America has posed:
     Feeling the walls, well and truely feeling them would tell him all he might need to know about this place. It's not truly gotten this bad naturally. No that takes time. It's just been made up too look low enough quality to show this place is not the kind of place one might want to live.

     Yet as he's feeling around the elevator he'd notice a small switch, right on the side of the panel. It's not labeled, and it just looks another part of the panel itself, but as he's feeling it the switch depresses and the doors slowly start to close.

Phil Coulson has posed:
Phil sees the doors start to close, and knows that he has two seconds to try and get back through. But instead, he uses those two seconds to think to himself, "Well, shit."

Captain America has posed:
     The lift doors close shut and the elevator suddenly lurches for a moment before quickly proceeding to travel down, down down. It goes to the basement floor then keeps going. The old style display has already hit the bottom basement and yet the elevator keeps smoothly traveling its way downwards.

     As the elevator travels the lift itself begins to feel quite a bit colder, the air thick and heavy this far down. Phil would easily be able to already see his breath on the air as things have worn down to a sub zero chill.

     The elevator lurches to a stop, and the doors slowly begin to open.

Phil Coulson has posed:
Phil's training kicks in and he starts looking for sentries and guards. Anyone who might try to take him down just for being here, same team or not. But damn is it cold down here. Which means he was right. Or at least could be. Dammit.

Captain America has posed:
     The floor of this hallway is slicked with ice, the stuff flows everywhere, a small checkpoint has been set up down this long straight hallway and a set of three figures stand watch in the glass box checkpoint. The imposing figures are silhouetted on what appears to be... frosted glass? On a checkpoint?

     A lone .950 caliber turret has been placed in the middle of the ceiling hanging down completely limp. The light on the side to show it has power has completely gone out. Shell casings on the ground and bullet holes in the wall show that it had been fired. Fresh bullets run from the dual drums on either side of the turret.

Phil Coulson has posed:
Phil Coulson shakes his head. "Damn." he whispers and checks the turret out to see if it's fixed or on a swivel as he moves past it before it gets power again. Passing through, he continues to watch and looking around. Seeing where this leads..or who it leads to. His eyes take in, everything. Mind making running notes.

Captain America has posed:
     The turret is infact on a full swivel, built to take on tanks rather than people. The rounds themselves are massive, with casings that show just how absurd this level of security is.

     As Coulson moves closer to the checkpoint one thing would become clear rather then just the cold. The people at the security checkpoint aren't moving. They don't even move a single inch from their spot behind that frosted glass, the doors of the checkpoint left blocked open with a block of wood to keep them from flipping shut.

Phil Coulson has posed:
Phil checks out the turret and sees it's on a full swivel. That could be problematic. That's not a problem. Looking around, He looks for something opaque to smear the camera with. Cake it on, actualy, because if it can't see him, it can't shoot him when he makes his move to leave. Once accomplished, he'll move on to inspect the checkpoint proper. Man, this just gets weirder and weirder...

Captain America has posed:
     Inside the checkpoint are two heavily armed members of SHIELD. Their rifles are top of the line equipment, designed specifically for a failed line of weapons that were supposed to be able to take down invulnerable heroes if needed. Both of them have expressions frozen in place with one in the middle of firing a round towards the door. The bullet itself is frozen mid air, the mans expression one of pure terror.

     His Partner has his hand on the emergency radio and looks as if he was in the middle of speaking when he was suddenly frozen solid. The radio is held right up to his ear and he is in the middle of speaking.

Phil Coulson has posed:
The state of the checkpoint tells Phil everything he needs to know. How could they be so stupid not to have the power backed up here somehow? These men froze to death. There was some kind of leak. Had to be. This place was obviously outfitted to keep things cold. He shakes his head at the agents senseless deaths. He doesn't touch anything so he's not detected. That's probably too late. But at least he can keep his identity out of it for as long as he can. He moves on through the sublevel.

Captain America has posed:
     The squeeze through the doors is a tight one. But once phil is through he finds himself in a large central chamber. There aren't any servers here, but there is a bank of computers in one corner of the room, a large cylindrical chamber in the center with cables hooked up to a small box in the center.

     The displays show things like heart-rate blood pressure, blood sugar, all the information someone might need to know about the subject at the center of it all. Here it's colder then anywhere else on the floor, and it looks like this place was built to stop almost anything from getting out.

     On the far end of the room is a small viewing platform where one assumes the people in control of this base would have watched whatever happened in this room.

     All manner of excess medical equipment lines the walls, including enough equipment to complete a full blood transfusion if needed. The far wall holds a number of vials with dates on their surface kept perfectly cold by the room they're in, yet from the looks someone went through and smashed every single vial.

Phil Coulson has posed:
This doesn't bode well. Not at all. He checks out the vials, then equipment monitoring vital signs. Before looking over at the chamber, and trying to take a peek inside.

Captain America has posed:
     Vitals are clear as day. S. Rogers in the corner of the display. A general log of activities has been left up from someone prior who had taken the time to download information from the computer setup. Prior blood drawings and examinations of the man inside the chamber.

     Yet the cryo chamber in the center of the room meant to keep whoever was there frozen seems to have been pilfered some time ago, left behind in its place a simple computer hooked up to the wires giving feedback on the vitals to keep the alarm system from triggering.

     As Phil looks around he'd eventually find them, the scientists once manning the station... hanging from the cieling with looks of terror on their faces. One glove missing from one of the scientists holding a single arm outstretched towards the ground.

Phil Coulson has posed:
The name was all Phil needed to confirm what he'd suspected for a while now. Steve Rogers was still on ice. The man posing as him, is in fact not him. And now the time comes to decide how to play this. He could leave and figure out how to take care of this later. But that time would never come. If he was going to act, and it had to be now. He starts looking around at the computers, trying to figure out which one activates the chamber. Or at least gets it going to thaw it out to get whoever is in out and away from here to get down to the question of who the hell is posing as Steve, and are they HYDRA?

Captain America has posed:
     While flicking through the footage, and checking things down eventually Phil does come across one file. A van with a red hammer on the side of it. Stepping out from the van are a group of people dressed in full exterminator gear, masks and all, with the logo on their upper shoulders.

     It's at this time the power kicks back on. Lights shift back on, a light surge of power causes the screens to flicker, and the entire place lets out a low humm of energy. The defrost process starts the entire room beginning to grow warmer. Left behind in ice that had been broken away is a single bright red combat boot, right beneath the computer that had been hooked up to send a feedback loop of information to the main computers.

Phil Coulson has posed:
Well, this is gonna get interesting, Phil thinks to himself. It doesn't stop him from trying to start the process. He bets once it's going it's not going to be reversable. Especially once it hits a certain point. He examines the boot closely, trying to figure out what to do with it. Who knows where it'll lead. He doesn't have all the answers. But hell, who does?

Captain America has posed:
     Closer examination reveals that it's... well actually it's plain as day to an avid fan of the Captain. This is Captain america's boot from his 1945 uniform. If the records are to be believed it SHOULD be currently inside the museum in DC, and yet here it is laying half frozen in a pod where it seems to have been knocked off of someones foot.

     The moment the computer starts to sink cables are pulled off of it, water falling down to either side. Alarms go off as the pulse rate dies down the water from the process completely frying that little home made computer that had been set up to fake everything as normal.

     "Alert, level four defrosting procedure is now in effect." A chirpy female voice calls out as all the ice in the room begins its slow melt draining down into the floor grates, the temperature finally raising enough that it can be almost bearable.

Phil Coulson has posed:
:is going remain calm. Not touch the boot or anything else. And calmly waiting for whatever is about to happen. Intent says a lot, and he's got some rep in the bank. They maybe willing to give him the benefit of a doubt. He might also be able to buy some time by giving a run around or smokescreening.

Captain America has posed:
     For a place that's so low security the response time sure is fast when it needs to be. The first thing Phil would notice is the sound of some sort of sliding pannel moving to one side. Soon after would follow the sounds of people sliding down a ladder, as a small squad of SHIELD agents come running down the hall with a rather startling response time for a place supposedly so low on the clearance scale.

Phil Coulson has posed:
Because the first thing Phil would know, is that THIS level is NOT low clearance. He just stands in the room, passive. He takes out his SHIELD credentials, and doesn't pull leather. Hopefully that'll be enough to get their attention when they come in.

Captain America has posed:
     When the team blow down the doors, they're dressed in their finest top of the line mil spec armor. Each of them has that SHIELD badge on their shoulder signaling which group they happen to reside with. In their hands the latest weaponry their entry a flashy one that's intended for shock and awe as they fall into formation.

     "Two more corpses." One of the gas mask clad men calls out as he looks up to the ceiling. They sweep one last time before calling out "Clear, got Coulson here."

     They pause for a moment one of them pulling out a quick scanning device and holding it in the direction of the agent. A quick nod given towards one of his comrades before someone comes walking out from the darkness. He's clad in blue and red, Captain America in his modern day uniform.

     "What's going on here Phil, I got the alarm bells and came fast as I could." He's geared up just as much to the nines with his heater style shield held out in one hand. "Chase the perp in here or?" He trails off looking about the room for a moment.

Phil Coulson has posed:
Phil Coulson shakes his head, "No, I got here after. While they were working the power issue outside. Whoever got here ransacked the place. I caught the video of them pulling up. Red Hammer symbols all over the place." he motions to the boot. "This should be in DC, but here it is..so something is definitely suspect." he says, playing it cool as a cucumbers.

Captain America has posed:
     Cap makes his way over the small hit squad, because let's call it exactly what it looks like. The high end armor, that even high end shield units don't tend to bring out except to deal with the VERY big guns, parts out of the way for cap to come through.

     His expression is one of genuine concern at least on the surface. As he moves over he kneels at the base of the platform, picking up the boot with a single hand. "This is from my old suit." He starts off before coming back to a stand and looking back over to Phil. "Where did y-" He starts to say as but cuts himself off.

     "Any idea what this place might have been used for?" Asked with a seemingly genuine curiosity.. especially for someone who found their way down here that fast. "Thought we just had servers down this far..." Looking back over towards Phil as the rest of the unit start spreading out to check for other evidence.

Phil Coulson has posed:
Phil narrows his eyes, just a skosh, watching Cap. He relaxes his eyes a bit, and shakes his head. "No idea. I was actually coming through for a meeting later this morning when the bubble went up. I was on my way for Zabar's and was nearby so I came out to see what happened. Damage control was already underway so I investigated for further damage. Found the Fotress of Solitude here."

Captain America has posed:
     "Well whatever this place is, it's colder then a meat locker in here." Captain America rubs his shoulders for a moment thankfully no longer able to feel the frosty chill of the air so much that it makes his breath visible. "You manage to turn on the heat for this place?" Asked with a bit of genuine curiosity as something catches his eye... the platform.

     Cap moves past Phil for a moment, looking towards the ice block for a long moment before he moves back a slight bit. He can't help but just barely start to curse. "Son of a.." On the inside he knew full well what he should have expected here the cleanup job he would have needed to do, but instead now peaking out of the ice... a mannequin. Someone was here before him... someone was taunting him.

Phil Coulson has posed:
Phil follows Cap over, looks to the mannequin. Back to Cap. There's a joke, but no humor involved - "Just like looking in a mirror, huh?"

Captain America has posed:
     Steve shudders for a moment looking into those glossed over eyes as the ice melts from around it. A small postit note has been left right on the chest of the figure frozen in ice. "Better luck next time, HYDRA..." Cap reads it out loud his face scrunching slightly under that new age polymer mask of his, a single step taken back. "I'll admit, it crosses over into the uncanny valley."

Phil Coulson has posed:
Phil Coulson stands next to Cap, and says very quietly, "That's not what I meant. I have a meeting to be at. Liason duty. They're expecting me, wouldn't want to keep them waiting." he says, making his way to the entrance the RRT used to enter. That should cover his ass for at least the next few hours, so he can get back to the Triskelion.

Captain America has posed:
     As Phil walks through the lines of security Steve can't help but just look right into the eyes of the mannequin. His own focus just locked in place as he folds back up his shield stuffing it into his utility belt. A single hand goes up to the side of the block of ice and he ducks down his head slightly.

     Phil has no issue finding his way out to safety.