3076/We're All Friends Here

We're All Friends Here
Date of Scene:	06 November 2017
Location:	New York City
Synopsis:	May pits Skye and Barton against Lara to some surprising results.
Cast of Characters:	Melinda May, Hawkeye (Barton), Quake, Lara Croft

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Melinda May has posed:
Now that Skye is officially a level 2 agent, the training sessions are becoming more varied and specialized. This time, she's being tasked with working alongside two other agents, one of them a WAND specialist. The large and open training area has been cleared for this training session, the usual sparring mats and accoutrement replaced by stacks of crates and boxes, the lighting dimmed to nearly full darkness with the occasional flickering bulb.

In the 'command' corner of the room, May is giving each agent their assignment. "Croft, here is your assignment." It's on a slip of paper so the others won't find out. "Skye, Barton. Here is your assignment." They get another slip of paper.

Lara's paper says, 'Use whatever arcane means are at your disposal to get from your starting point at the far end of the room to my location here.'

Skye and Barton's paper says, 'You are to work together to capture the opposing team uninjured. If tactics that would be considered lethal force are used, you will fail.'

May gives the three agents time to read over their papers, then nods to Lara. "You get a ten minute head start once you're in place."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
     Clint takes a look at the slip of paper handed to him, then gives a nod to May. "Alright," he says before looking over at Skye to see how she takes the instructions. The first and last time they met it hadn't gone well. Regardless though there was a job to do, he nods to a corner of the room "Strategy session?"

Quake has posed:
    Skye reads the slip of paper and frowns, her gaze lifted to Clint as she gives him a 'I have no clue' look. "Strategy session? Sure." She's a slow meander over to join him, hoping up on the nearest flat surface to perch and consider him. "So. Strategy. I'm presuming she means you don't get to shoot anyone? Unless you have more of those ass-painting shots." The words start out with tension, but end on an amused smirk. Nevermind it was Agent May who'd gotten her in the ass in the end.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara was putting on the last of her gear when she received her note and she read the contents on the slip before she tucked it away into the belt around her waist. She pulled her half gloves onto her hands then and reached up to take her black wool-knit beanie and slide it over the top of her head to keep her hair down.

Lara was in her full SHIELD-issued exploration equipment, which was a ballistic vest loaded with pockets and pouches filled with items she needed to survive in the wild, and all manner of gear she'd helped design the suit to be used with. It was rugged and worn-in, but recently cleaned too.

Lara paced back and forth on her end of the playfield, she was moving her lips and quietly talking to herself while she waited for the sign to go. Once/when it was given, Croft would bolt and begin to traverse the assembled terrain and hazards setup within this large exercise/cargo bay room. She was fast, nimble, graceful and skilled at obstacle courses like this.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
     Clint leans while Skye perches, snorting when she brings up the last training exercise. "That was May with the butt shots," he says with a grin. "And I've got a few non-lethal arrows I can use. How about you? Got any tricks we can use here?" he asks with an eye towards the course trying to eyeball which way Croft was going before she vanishes into the darkness.

Quake has posed:
    Clint gets something of stink-eye. "I know who shot my ass, thank-you very much. And do I look like I have any tricks that aren't connected to an ethernet connection?" Skye sighs. "I think my nose is being rubbed in a few things right now."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara's job was to study the arcane and the odd around all of planet Earth, and to go out... find it... and bring it back to SHIELD. They lived in a dangerous world where wild and unbelievable things had been happen for thousands of years, not just the past 100 or so like modern media would like to have you believe.

Rarely did Lara employ flashing methods of arcane powers simply because she wasn't a magician, she wasn't a veteran in that field. But she knew enough of the basics to use some of the simpler items that WAND had recovered, to help train people in scenarios like this.

Lara did disappear into the dark, but she could be 'heard' out there, manipulating the enviroment and ascending the obstacles that were setup in almost like a mountain within the large room.

A flash of purple lighting shot up the edge of a stack of large metal crates and then glided down a zipline toward another, the violet glow was trailing off of Lara's danling feet as she utilized said zipline.

Melinda May has posed:
The lights overhead flash once to indicate the beginning of the mission, then go back to the nearly dark with occasional flickers. And Lara is underway. May simply stands in her 'command center', the glow from her tablet's screen illuminating her face. "Skye, Barton, you're free to move at the one minute mark." Which means that Lara's ten minutes is actually only one. Changing the rules?

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
     Clint spreads his hands "You never know who has crazy powers these days," he says about tricks then asks. "What do you got on you?" he asks. "I've got my back up crossbow and a few icer bolts if you need something. A few throwable putty arrow heads too," he says as he looks through his own kit. "As for how we take down Croft, I know it's not a terribly detailed strategy but I say we stick together until we see what she's got and then wing it from there. Thoughts?"

Quake has posed:
    "Remind me never to come unprepared again," Skye mutters at Clint. "But I have an idea. Got a spare.. ah screw it. I know May's packing. She might not appreciate the manhandle, but it's not lethal, so it's still fair game. Once I've hit May up, I'll come to you. You get yourself in position wherever you think's best advantage and we'll wing if from there. Remember, I'm not the target this time, hotshot."
    At the one minute mark, she's off like a flash for Agent May, patting her down intending to relieve her of her usual ICER, and the commlinks she knows the other always has multiples of on hand. That and that tablet. It's not the best interface on the planet, certainly not Skye's preferred, but it will suffice.

Melinda May has posed:
Amazingly, May doesn't so much as utter a word of protest. Though rest assured, Agent Johnson, this will NEVER be allowed again.

The obstacle course seems sedate enough, but at the one minute mark, the air handling units in the ceiling kick on, adding a layer of white noise as well as positively frigid air currents begin criss-crossing and swirling around the room.

Lara Croft has posed:
While Clint and Skye seem to come at odds on how precisely to catch-up with Croft, let alone stop her / detain her, she's already gotten what would seem to be a fair amount of the way into May's training course here.

When the air chilling vents flush the room with an element of harsh coldness, Lara is at an impass at the base of a man-made cliff-face that seems to be deoivd of hand holds or levarage points... and the wall is created out of steel so her axes on her hips are of no use either.

Lara looked back in the direction of her 'oppononets' and then down to her hands as she dipped fingers into one of the pounches on her vest. She pulled out a pair of silver charms and wrapped them around her palms, lacing the silver bands around-and-around her palms until she stepped up to the wall and SLAPPED one hand onto it, followed by the next.

Lara's hands started to shimmer and then glow green and a moment later the woman started to ascend the mighty-wall with the use of magic gloves.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
     Clint snorts raising an eyebrow at the level two making with the orders, but hey, they made sense. "Shooting you didn't even cross my mind," he says with a smirk before he gives her a two finger salute. "Right-o, captain," he quips, before making his way into the obstacle course.

     finding a tall obstacle, he climbs it, flattening down against the top while he has a look for what he can see. The green light stands out. "Yeah, that's not creepy," he mutters to himself before being hit with a blast of cold air from a vent right above him. He gets up quickly, firing off a flash bang arrow towards the green light. He closes his eyes as it goes off with a bright flash that douses the room in daylight for a moment along with a boom that sounds like a thunderclap. Then his eyes open again and he fires off a couple of putty arrows, but he's firing blind at where he thought he saw the green light last. Regardless he jumps down to the floor after the arrows have flown.

Quake has posed:
    It takes her a minute to orient back to where Barton is, but Skye locates him, and by the time she reaches him, the ICER is tucked in the back of the wasteband of her pants, and she's got her comms in. He's handed one as she flattens down beside him. "Here. Use it. Right. Unless you have a better idea, thinking we want to keep her off the ground as much as possible. Don't let her use anything there for cover. We got anything to rig up netting or crosswires down there? Figure you should be able to pick her off better from heights, or at least keep her on the move."
    She pokes at the Tablet, trying to ascertain what systems she's got access to. "C'mon baby. Too much to ask this still has the main commands for this scenario on it?" While she waits for confirmation or denial of that, to see whether she needs to start hacking into the systems, she wonders aloud, "You know anything about here that I don't? Any value to my feet on the ground or in another location? Only have the ICER unless there's some stash of shit in those crates.."
    Which gives her a whole other thing to poke at the tablet for. She doubts there are any supplies, but stranger things have happened.

Melinda May has posed:
May steps back to wait against the wall as the pair against Lara get going, touching the comm still in her ear to keep up the goings on via Ops Central.

The tablet had been on an incongruous email application that closed the moment Skye took the device. Looks like it's not going to be THAT easy to use it to her advantage. But still, a computer's a computer, and it does have at least some way to interact with the Helicarrier's systems.

Lara Croft has posed:
Larw was about half way up the giant wall of stacked crates that had been too smooth-sided to climbe with her hands and feet alone... when Clint's light explosion arrow landed about fifteen feet to her left and up about another ten!

Lara shielded her eyes against her forearm when the arrow detonate and the light burst out into the room. It exposed her position quite openly to her opponents, they'd see her up on the wall with her hands glowing green still and she looked like a stunned spider stuck to the wall when the lights literally came on.

After a few seconds, Lara looked again and now she started to frantically slap her hands against the containers, needing to get to the top for PRECIOUS COVER before they could pick her off somehow... at least Clint couldn't one-shot her, right?

The explorer was working at a slight disadvantage from her normal climbing speed, not getting to use her feet (which were dangling) and instead relying solely on magic-assisted upper body movement to ascend the wall!

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
    Clint takes the com unit and slips it over his ear while he says, "So your SO always let you lay out the plans?" he asks with a bit of a grin. "'Cause usually the suits around here like to go by number and rank," he says, though he's teasing more than chiding. "You're right about keeping her up and out of cover though, not sure I have enough in the quiver to deny her the ground entirely, but if I can get eyes on her, I can make her immediate area hard to get around." He pauses to look up at the vents and the duct work connecting it before looking back to Skye. "I think I can find myself a vantage point, if that thing has the scenario controls on it, then you're probably best sitting back playing god, if not, then you can help me flush her out from the ground."

Quake has posed:
    "Have to ask my SO about that. So far nobody's called me on it." Which isn't a lie. Any time she's taken charge it's been in just such situations, and nobody has questioned a word. "Why, your manhood taking a beating over this?" Skye smirks at Clint, sparing him a moment of her attention before her glance is back on the tablet. "Fuck.. okay, this avenue is going to be harder than I thought. Going to see if I can backdoor into anything. No joy on the scenario controls. But I might be able to find something useful."
    "Nothing lethal allowed, but if you've got an extra weapon, toss it my way. Might be able to run interference ground level if she gets close to anything. She does look up then, "Got anything can take those ceiling fixtures down?"
    She's dead serious with the question.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara was only a handful of handfuls away from the top of homemade mountain and once she got up there it was just a slightly perilous trek across a stretch of boxes and jumps/gaps that would make Mario and Luigi jump with joy.

The cold was nothing new to the explorer either, so the harsh winds may be slowing her down a litlte, but they weren't putting an end to her ability to ascend...especially with the magic gloves aiding her.

Lara grunted loudly as she slapped one hand after the other upward until finally she reached for the top of the metal mountain and started to pull herself up onto it!

Melinda May has posed:
As the scenario approaches the five minute mark, the air handlers are still cranking out arctic air full blast. But then the overhead sprinkler system starts up, making the entire place feel like it's been hit by a sudden deluge of freezing rain.

May opens an umbrella and smiles ever so faintly to herself.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
     Clint holds up his fingers a couple inches apart. "A little bit," he says about the manhood taking a beating before he smirks back.

     There is a frown for the tablet thing and he reaches down to one of his pouches and produces a five oblong metal balls and passes them over. "Putty arrows, throw em, they explode out with a ton of well, sticky stuff, like tar, will slow anyone down you hit." He glances up at the vents and nods. "Yeah, I can bring those down," he says. "But if I do, the deal is you get to tell Fury why I wrecked up his fancy new helicarrier. Let's get some altitude though," he nods to the metal cargo container they're leaned against. "Good to climb or do you need a boost?" he jokes before he jumps up and grabs the top of the container and pulls himself up. Once up top he fires off a couple of blunted arrows to ricochet around the course, just in case Lara thought they'd forgotten about her.

     Then it starts to rain. "Son of a bitch."

Quake has posed:
    "Fuck Fury," Skye says with a sweet smile as she continues to try and hack into the systems, the icy, pelting rain not her idea of a fun time, but it was something she'd have done if she'd have climate controls. It might hamper them, but it also would hamper Lara, and that was the whole point of the matter in the end. "Fury's May's problem. She's who said anything but lethal. She'll learn to set better parameters next time."
    The putty balls are taken, and Skye looks up. "Okay, you need to be mobile. I'm best stationary.. think this is still the best spot for me to keep her from target. Still have easy access to move back to target and detain her. We got comms. I get systems, I'm.. fucked if I know what I'll do, but something. Keep her either moving, or stuck to a singular spot. No ground if you can help it."
    She shakes off the offer of help up. Upper body strength was one of the first things they'd hammered into the junior agent when she'd arrived at SHIELD. It might not be pretty, but she could get herself up onto the cargo container.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara rolled behind cover at the top of the mountain when the rain came on and a blunted arrow blitz'd its way past her and slammed into the wall behind where she was. She quickly rolled behind cover as the water poured down over her and her breath became visible in the cold air. "Marvelous." The British woman quietly muttered to herself.

A moment later and Lara jumped up to her full height above the cover and she just started running! Long strides and a practiced motion to her body's movements as the Special Agent's boots were splashing in the water ontop of the containers! She was running for the series of gaps that would eventually lead to where May was!

Melinda May has posed:
Continuing to wait quietly, May watches what she can from her lack of a vantage point. The frigid wind and rain keeps up, very likely making all surfaces slippery on top of difficult to see.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
     Clint stares into the rainy darkness for a second hearing something moving on the containers across the bay from him. He draws and fires upwards first, at the sprinker above him and Skye, a putty arrow to gum up the flow, then running along the top of their container he draws and fires three explosive arrow heads up at the vents above where he hears movement. They're low yield but should be enough to drop vents and other crap down from the roof. Then as a final act he fires off a flare arrow into a container ahead of him to give himself some light to work with. Of course, that cuts both ways and lights up Lara's path as well.

Quake has posed:
    Not that she'd /meant/ to be on the move, but with Lara making a running trail across the containers towards May, Skye's judging the distance between herself and Lara, and the nearest pathway to getting in the other's road. Of course, she's got some of those balls. One well placed one should do a lot to slow hte woman down. And Skye doesn't have to hit Lara with it. She just needs to lay it down in Lara's path where the other won't see or expect it.
    A quick judgement call says the flare might be lighting up the pathway for Lara, but also might give Skye a second's grace to place the sticky crap in the other's path where she might miss it in the sudden burst of light and need of eyes to adjust. It's worth a shot... Skye lobs one of her precious handfull of balls aiming for the flare's vincinity.
    There's still the tablet, but she's distracted for the moment. Perhaps to Lara's advantage. Or perhaps the computer angle was always a blind hope.

Lara Croft has posed:
With the playfield getting all the more chaotic now that her opponents had a plan and were enacting, Lara knew that she needed to up her game to get across the finish line and since her rules were in the allowance of the arcane items she had on her person...

Lara's hand ripped a pouch open on her sleeve and she pulled out a scarf? A handkerchief? ... a blanket? it kept unfurling and unraveling until trailing behind the Tomb Raider was an entire stretch of silky-solve cloth!

Lara dodged to the side of a vent that Clint had taken down and she witnessed the explosion of the goopy-grenade that Skye had toossed, it was blocking her jump across a menacing gap...

But her response was simple... She whipped the black cloth around in the air and it swirled all around her body as she ran-- and suddenly the Special Agent was gone-- vanished into sexy air.

Quake has posed:
    "Fuck that noise," Skye growls, no longer worrying about running interference per se on Lara's path. "May's the target! I repeat, May's the target! Secure the target at all costs!"
    And she's off and running towards May herself. The task was simple: Stop Lara from reaching May. The rules didn't say how to achieve that, only that they couldn't use lethal force, and what Skye had in mind wasn't lethal...
    "Clint? I want you to secure May from the ceiling. Make it so she can't be reached. Not sure what the hell Lara did there, but unless she plans on reappearing in thin air and hanging off of May, that's the best chance we've got right now. She's got the same objective as us. We've just got less rules. Hardball, baby. Hardball."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
     "That's just cheating," Clint grouses before trying to turn on a dime and change direction towards May. It only half works, he turns, but his boot skids on the slick metal and he goes down in a baseball slide. Precious seconds lost, he springs up to his feet and sprints towards May, "What?!" he shouts back to Skye, but his hand is already moving. He grabs a net arrow from his quiver, puts it to string, and fires upwards. The arrow trails a slender cord behind it as it ricochets off the roof, through the gap in the support beams and down to hit May. The arrow explodes outwards with a wire net that wraps around the senior agent, binding her tight. From there he grips the cord, and leaps off the container, hauling May upwards as he falls.

Melinda May has posed:
With the crazy lights and simulated weather, the one thing May had NOT been expecting was a net arrow to launch at her from ABOVE. She can only gasp in surprise as the net snares her umbrella and all and abruptly hauls her up toward the ceiling.

It's the ten minute mark, and the sprinklers and air handler all abruptly shut off, leaving the room almost ear-ringingly quiet. And then the lights kick on.

Fully daylight bright. Possibly even a little brighter.

Lara Croft has posed:
About two seconds after May was pulled up into that tent like an Ewok Trap, Lara Croft appeared in the spot where May had been... The silken black cowl pulled off of her body and wrapped around her left forearm now, slowly curling the fabric up as she was panting and breathing heavily...

Lara's calm expression looked from where Skye and Clint were... up to where May was.

"Well." She said, still worn on stamina. "That was highly unexpected." She said then.

Lara looked down to the two opponents and she cracked a large smile at them. "I guess you win." And then she once more averted her eyes up toward where May was dangling. "And... likely lose also..." She said a bit softer.

Quake has posed:
    Skye's not reached May by the time the agent is hefted up into the ceiling to dangle like a pinata, so when the lights come up, she's left almmost within striking distance of Lara, who had /just/ missed putting hands on May.
    For a moment the junior agent looks confused, as though she's not certain the scenario is over. As to whether or not the house lights coming up signals the end, so for good measure she's got hands on the ICER. But when Lara declares their win, the young woman hunches over some, hands on her thighs, taking some long, steadying breaths.
    "Not what I expected. Lesson learned. All things can be a crutch. Got it." For the moment she could care less about the fact that she's likely going to get an earful about certain interpretations of 'anything but lethal force', though she'll stand by her calls when push comes to shove.
    After a moment, she laughs over the comms. "Hey? Barton? Those fingers of yours? Move 'em a couple inches further apart. That was fucking amazing."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
    Clint groans when the lights come on and he closes his eyes saying "May, you really want me to drop this thing?" Just for fun he let's the cable spool out six inches all at once before stopping it and then slowly lowering May down towards the floor. He's probably going to pay for that. As he lowers he opens his eyes and snorts a laugh in Skye's direction. "Thanks, I think, but what can I say, I was inspired," he lowers May to the floor and then goes to help her get untangled. "Give me a hand will ya, Croft. Good work by the way, what's the deal with that cloth thing?" When May is untangled he offers her a hand up.

Melinda May has posed:
Leaving the umbrella tangled, May uses the bit of extra movement space granted by the thing to pull a knife. She then uses the knife to slice neatly straight down the net, making the need to untangle her almost nil.

It's honestly difficult to tell if she's peeved or not, she's in full Vulcan mode.

"Go clean up. Debrief in fifteen."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara would show a grin toward Skye and Clint and she was about to say something whne Clint asked her for assistance so she moved to do just that, though when May brandished a knife she made sure to stay back and away from that just in-case while helping pull away the netting.

Lara put her brown eyes up on Clint and glanced at her arm where the black silk was wrapped. "It is the burial shroud of Abe no Seimei, a Japanese royal court Omyodo to six separate Emperor's." She said with a bit of pride in her voice for the artifact that was used there to cross unseen to May's once-location.

"Are you alright?" She asked May, not expecting an actual response though and wehn the order to go get cleaned up was given, Lara would simply nod her head and reach for her wet beanie-cap to pull it off her head and make for the exit.