9328/No Show

No Show
Date of Scene:	26 September 2019
Location:	Piggott, AL.
Synopsis:	Sowa and Captain Marvel shoot the breeze on an op gone strange.
Cast of Characters:	Sowa, Captain Marvel (Danvers)

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Sowa has posed:
    You could probably make the case that Alabama sucks just in general, but right this second it -especially- sucks. Piggott Alabama was supposed to be the sight of a major trans-dimensional invasion though, they'd scrambled everybody who could get there in time without alerting the bad dudes. Some "Council of Disaster" or whatever, because of course thats what bad guys would name themselves.

    So Anyway Piggott Alabama, it sucks. Place died in the 80s, and the wildlife was trying it's utmost to take back the town. There were only a few roads left to speak of, and a dozen buildings full of weeds and critters left. Oh and an improbable amount of mosquitos, don't forget the mosquitos. The nutbags had rolled up to the old school house like hours ago, and by midnight there was supposed to be some sort of a situation. Yet it's like two by now, and command was still advising everyone to stay put and wait for the all clear which may or may not need to wait for dawn.

    Trans-dimensional bullshit isn't usually Berna's thing, but sitting still for hours? Well she'd been in the military her whole adult life, and a sniper for most of it. She was an -expert- on waiting around, it was afterall a pretty big part of what she was so famous for. So she lays as still as the fresh dead, sweating her ass off under a mountain of ghillie strands and combat gear. Then slowly, she rolls over onto her back. Panting into the humid air as she presses a finger to the transmit buttom. <<Did I get a bad brief, or are these guys two hours late now?>>

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
"Give me that," Carol, or rather Captain Marvel given that she's in full red-blue battle dress, snatches the radio transmitter from the hand of one of the SHIELD medium-wigs organizing the whole affair. He lets out a gasp of shock, leaning as she brings the cord just a few more inches closer than it's give will allow. She clears her throat, presses the button down with a thumb and speaks:

<<I'm gonna be brutally honest here,>> she answers, voice reasonably recognizable just by the sheer visibility of her costumed persona in public life, <<If they were coming, I'd have sensed it. But Agent Cuccia here doesn't accept 'cosmic awareness' as a viable source of intel.>>

Agent Cuccia looks at Carol expectantly, but it's clear she isn't returning the mouthpiece just yet: <<I'm gonna take a five. Whoever this Council is, they banged out if they were ever gonna show up.>>

The last sentence comes complete with a faint Massachusetts twang, mostly buried under several years of military plain-speaking.

Sowa has posed:
    <<Understand we're no joy, I need another set of eyes here so I can get some chow and coffee in me. Overwatch 1-1 out.>>So where was Berna exactly? She was squared away in the second story of what was once a general store, the floors of which were in a decidedly precarious position. She had however successfully forged a ceasefire with the improbable amount of spiders she shared the space with at least, she was a little too cold blooded in the literal sense to arouse much attention anyway.

    Slowly she rolls to her boots, taking a moment to peel herself out of that ghillie blanket she'd constructed. Her form covered still with a mixture of rubberized nylon and kevlar, designed to cloak her from IR illumination. It was also unfortunately, the sort've getup she typically wore for far cooler weather. She takes a moment to cynch down that bolt action and snag her P90, before slipping through the ruins in dead silence.

    She pauses near her pack where she'd stashed it, before leaning that rifle up into the corner. The owlish eyes of her helmet's face plate pivoting up, before the lower jaw portion is given a sharp tug and pulled free completely. None of the kit looks SHIELD of course, much less American because it's not. Semi transparent chassis rifles and P90s, almost fully transparent handguns, and of course a neat stylized owl on one shoulder and a SHIELD logo on the other.

    Overwatch 1-1, is somone exotic on loan then. Somone exotic from somewhere else.

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
As much as Carol retains her military training, there's no arguing that it's been a long, long time. For more than a few years now she's been someone altogether different, flying under her own power rather than in the cockpit of an F-35. As much as she likes to think of herself as a soldier, it gets harder when she sees her own somewhat outlandish ensemble reflected in the mirror sheen of top line military hardware. Still, she knows what it's like to be on assignment and bored out of your brain - that's the part she clasps onto as she strolls in Berna's direction.

"They got you in the snivel gear, too?" she asks, a bottle of water still frosted and fresh from the makeshift commissary in each gloved hand, "Ouch. Here."

She tosses the bottle towards to sniper, upwards in a slow and lazy arc, before lifting a hand to break the seal on her own bottle. She doesn't mince words, swallowing down a cool mouthful and letting out a sigh of relief.

"I'm Carol, by the way," one slightly-damp glove is brushed against her thigh before she extends it in Berna's direction.

Sowa has posed:
    "Sowa, is my working name right now."The bottle is snagged casually as she takes a seat head bowing for a moment before she cracks the thing open to guzzle down at least half of it. "It means Owl, in English."Water lifted in mock toast. Her face though, well it's not visibly scarred or anything. It's just that there's stoic, and then theres being completely expressionless. She doesn't even seem to blink regularly, incidentally.

    "Radar absorbant, thermally adaptive, Infrared non-reflective. You think only fighter jets get stealth?"And not so much as a sneer, though she does sling across a cliff bar. White chocolate macadamia nut, because only the best obviously.

    "Unfortunately that means to match ambient, it is like wearing a heater. I was told there was going to be a sophisticated sensor suite I would need to evade, but briefing when I got here seems to indicate this would be idiots with pick'em up trucks."Theres a little shrug there as Berna finally lets her shoulders sag a little. "Is this always how SHIELD operations are run?"

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
"Thanks," Carol snatches the snack out of the air, looking down at it for a moment to tear it open, "Whoever rigged this whole thing didn't give much thought to how much energy someone firing photon beams outta their hands might actually need."

The blonde takes a grateful bite of the snack, lifting a hand to her mouth to rub at the corners just in case any melted chocolate should linger there. She chews as she listens, smiling with closed-lips through the mouthful. She waits until she's swallowed before she speaks her piece.

"I wouldn't know," she admits, lifting her shoulders in a slight shrug, "They don't typically call me unless they're expecting something about thirty feet tall and made of fangs and flesh-dissolving saliva. I'm guessing it's either bad intel, or the Intern wants to get booted from the program in the most extravagant way possible."

Sowa has posed:
    "I have been in the field for, weeks or something. I got a hot shower, and was most excited to have a clean bed at my disposal."The rest of that water is drained in a single pull, and still not so much as a frown. "Just so I can lay on a moldy wooden floor and make friends with brown recluse."

    Theres a glance back towards the window and a pause, before she reclines oncemore. "They told me I would not need an anti-material rifle, but I am very confused as to what we could possibly fight where we need both of us at the same time. I have little confidence we share a similar threat index, though I was most honored to share an operation with you. This is my first time working with a big American hero, pity it's gone this way. Big feral hog out there though, we could have a BBQ I suppose?"

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
"Big American hero," Carol's lips part into a broad smile, "I like the sound of that. I might even think about changing my name, but I already have Captain Marvel monogrammed on all my stuff."

Her expression grows a little more earnest, eyes drifting up to the window that until recently housed Berna and then back out to the great mess of urban decay that was to be their battlefield: "Well, whatever it was, I'm glad I had you watching my back, Sowa. It might not easy to dent me, but I still don't like it when some skid tries to cold-cock me when I'm not lookin'."

She finishes her own water, squashing the bottle slightly between her fingers as she bites, chews, and swallows another mouthful of Cliff bar: "Hold out. I'm pretty sure I can swing us a night at the Marriott in the interest of future cooperation. They probably want to make sure I actually turn up next time after they cried wolf."

Sowa has posed:
    "I am happy to have been of assistance, though it was mostly drone who did overwatch."Theres a slow inhale there as she finally rolls upright, slowly working out the kinks in her shoulders. "Notice raven on church bell tower, three hundred eighty yards distant? Notice that it has remained motionless for the entire operation?"

    There is indeed what looks like a big Raven perched ontop of the old church, it's head swinging slowly too and fro in perfect time. It's shape just barely too angular perhaps, but hey at a glance it looks pretty good right? "It's watching school house now, there is still no sign we have company beyond a large feral pig."She gives that helmet a snap foreward, swinging those goggles back down into place.

    Mechanical irises snap open to reveal a subtle amber glow, before narrowing back down. "I propose we should examine the school house, to insure we have not arrived a day late. Look for evidence of previous visits, maybe be somewhat productive?"

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
Carol nods her head, finishing the last of the bar and checking her gloves briefly for any errant chocolate that might have stained them. Satisfied, she tucks the wrapper into the neck of her empty water bottle and places it somewhere out of the way.

"When you say look," she asks, taking a few steps in the direction of the school house, "Do you mean you want me to fly over and take a look or you want to go for a stroll?"

She lifts a hand to run it through the blond hair that hangs over the shorn sides of her head, tapping two fingers against her temple, "I'm not sensing anything. Generally, if something's amiss I get something like warning bells up here. But, that said, it's probably worth a look. Maybe Porky'll have some answers and we won't have to call this thing a total loss."

That said, she starts walking in the nominated direction. The long, red sash about her waist trails on the asphalt, but remarkably doesn't seem to pick up any dirt or grit as she goes.

"So, can I ask where you're from?"

Sowa has posed:
    "Oh we should walk, fliers are very easy to spot. It is best we maintain some degree of operational secrecy, yes?"Face plate gets snapped back in place, backpack hoisted, some sort of wierd brown poncho pulled on and off she goes. Dropping down to the first floor as silent as a shadow, before slipping out through a broken window.

    "I will take point, if you please?"Her gaze sweeping the ground as she heads off to towards the school house. "I have sensors we need not specify, but it makes it easy to see things of potential interest. You are however, very -bright- to my sensors."Theres a pause at the question of her nationality, of course.
    She usually had a fancy document to refer to which specified who could know what, but she'd already said her name in her native language so... "Poland, I am GROM."She pauses a moment, glancing up towards that Raven as it mechanically extends it's wings and takes flight ever so silently. "We were killing Nazis before it was cool, as the saying goes. Nazis and the Russians both, though these days it's mostly traffickers and Jihadi tryhards. Working with SHIELD though, that is new."

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
To say Carol is bright is to put it mildly. Her body emits a sort of radiant energy, not typically visible on any spectrum the normal human eye can capture but still there. Here mere presence raises the ambient temperature a few degrees, the vast quantities of energy coursing through her needing to vent off in one way or another. She's something like a walking, talking star though much reduced.

"I'll hang back," she agrees, following Sowa through in her own novel way - by simply lifting off the floor and floating soundlessly out into the street. But true to her word, she lands several paces behind the soldier and lets her take point.

"I thought I picked up the accent. I've got a little German, but I'm afraid I've only picke dup one or two words of Polish. 'Sto lat' and, uh, oh - and 'piwo'." A pause, her lips creasing wryly, "I picked 'em up in a bar."

She talks a lot. A little more than she's used to even in her every day life, but Carol is a woman who doesn't cope with boredom easily - and it shows.

Sowa has posed:
    "Kurwa is the important one for soldiering."She offers casually as she stalks foreward, slowing occasionally to nudge something of interest with a boot before moving on. "It's like "Fuck" but better, because it's Polish. It has been the sidearm of every Polish soldier since the dawn of recorded history."
    And another pause to sweep the school building, before she slips in through a broken window and pauses in place to slowly sweep her gaze. Then slowly she crouches down to pluck from the deepest black, a cigarette butt. The filter may be yellowed but the paper cover is still stark white, A sniff and she passes it back towards Carol. "fourty eight hours, smell the tobacco smoke on the filter? I am retasking my drone out into a larger search radius, but I do not see any evidence of tire tracks yet."

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
"Kurwa, huh?" Carol tries it out, no stranger to foul language - not every Captain in the Avengers worries about such things, "I like it. I'll have to reserve it for special use, though. Don't think I quite have the smoldering Eastern European accent to pull it off."

Inside the school, her feet instinctively raise from the floor. She floats a few inches above it, disturbing nothing as she turns her head slowly. When the cigarette is produced, she peers at it critically: "Could just be kids using the place as a clubhouse or something."

She pauses, that familiar tingle - that sense of lingering danger somewhere, if not right here - pricks the back of her neck.

"Still, get the bird's eye view."

Sowa has posed:
    "Possible."She returns cooly, before sweeping that poncho over her shoulder and stalking foreward ever so slowly. Down trash strewn hallways towards the gym, or what used to be the gym anyway. Past terrible graffiti and spider webs of improbably size.

    From outside the gym's roof sags visibly, the old AC unit has already fallen most of the way through. That mechanical Raven spares Carol a glance, before turning away and climbing to begin it's orbit again in the opposite direction.

    "Eyes on, Military aged male. Standing in the middle of the gym, facing west."And a pause as Berna slithers into a convient shadow, her gear slowly tweaking it's exact shade of black to optimize her sneakery. "He's ambient, wait one he's strung up."And indeed the poor fellow is indeed motionless in the direct center of the gym, his boots just a fraction of an inch above the floor. You'd have to look close to see the strings, closer still to see the spider."Hostile sighted, North Western corner of the ceiling. Some sort of giant spider."

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
"Sowa," Carol says quietly, floating forward through the air before coming to a landing at the Owl's side, "I think giant monsters is where I come in. Keep an eye out for any other hostiles and watch out for that ceiling. It's about a sneeze and a half away from caving in."

For all her subtlety while the soldier was taking the lead, when a giant monster comes into play, she suddenly becomes more conspicuous. Once more she lifts from the floor, barely a mote of dust disturbed by her passage as she flies into the gym and casts her eye up towards the corner the spider occupies. Her gloves make a faint sound as she clenches her fist, the faint prickle of her cosmic awareness now an incessant throb at the base of her skull.

"Hi," she calls up to the creature, a faint smirk creasing her lips. One hand raises out before her, already glowing menacing and solar-bright.

Sowa has posed:
    It has too many eyes, too many legs, too many mouths and well all together it's every terrible thing in the history of terrible things. There is ugly, and then there is whatever the hell that thing is. Carol's sudden approach produces a reaction alright, legs flail and mouths slobber and scream. It's yaknow what the sound the thing makes, it's every bit as bad as the way it looks. It does not however seem terribly co-ordinated, though it -tries- to take a swipe after Carol.

    "Understood, moving. Dance floor is all yours."and well she doesn't quite poof, but she does vanish down a hallway and leap through a busted window to get outside. Circling around to put herself into position to box the thing in, if this does become an outdoor fight.

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
Carol doesn't immediately engage the creature, her head partly turned to keep an eye on her new compatriot. Though there's no doubt Sowa can look after herself, she doesn't want to bring a decrepit old building crashing down on her head. When she's satisfied, she has the gym to herself, however, she turns just in time for the creature to take a swipe. One gloved hand raises with inhuman alacrity, catching it between hands strong enough to elicit a pained shriek even from the giant creature.

There's no witty one liner. No fancy catchphrase hurled off as she dispatches the creature. Instead she just heaves back, incredible strength flinging the thing through the collapsing ceiling with an almighty crash that brings half of the sagging wood and metalwork toppling to the warped wood floor. The spider-thing topples through the air, flung with all the momentum of a rocket breaking the atmosphere. As it flies, Carol tracks it through the sky with her raised hand. The glow in her palm glows, dim, white, and then too bright to see. A blast of photonic energy streaks through the air with a hissing sound, right at the creature.

It's almost like fireworks over the town of Piggott, Alabama. The blast hits the creature and it is engulfed in a bright flash like a second, fleeting sun. When it clears, there is nothing left but the cinders that rain to earth and the vapors that trail lazily heavenward. Carol lifts out of the ruins of the gymnasium, casting her eyes about for the Owl.

"Sowa? Sound off."

Sowa has posed:
    She peers over the rim of that ruined building, the irises on those goggles sweeping open for a moment before snapping back shut. "Kurwa, yeah?"She steps back casually, swiveling her gaze to watch the falling embers.

    "You know usually I'd insist on roughing it, because I'm so tough. However I very much am not a fan of spiders, much less enormous mutant ones. So I believe you said something about a hotel, yes?"Theres a pause there as she gives her plate carrier a hitch. "I could go for room service, not even going to lie."

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
"Kurwa for real," Carol agrees, looking up towards where the spider-thing vanished and then coming to land quietly on the ground by Sowa, "You know, I've been to space but that thing was ugly."

The sniper's question raises another broad smile from her, and she shoots her a quick thumbs up with one hand: "When I say hotel, I mean the very best. Agent Cuccia's going to owe us, anyway. They were about to pull the plug and we'd have trucked on out of here with a giant mutant spider-thing setting up shop in the gym."

She takes a few steps, beginning to walk with the Owl back the way they came, "And room service sounds amazing."