when banner comes marching home again... OPEN

[pursuitofcappiness]

Who: EVERYONE INTERESTED INCLUDING YOU **If you want, we can handwave that Steve contacted everyone about it over the network but I don't want to spam the comm.**
What: RESCUE PARTY
When: After whenever Lydia posted to the network that Bruce disappeared, Steve asked her to tell everyone interested in finding him to meet up at the fountain.Where: Fountain!

Steve's at the fountain, checking his wristwatch in case anyone calls, making ocassional rounds because he's anxiously waiting to leave. He's carrying his shield, which looks rather out of place with his civvies.

He was at home, so he brought a couple bike helmets and some small weapons for people to carry into the woods, just in case.

Comments

[beenunmade]

His focus had entirely been on trying to locate any clue of who or what might have had the capability of taking Banner without him transforming was not good news in his opinion. Instead of meeting up with the Cap he had started his own search. He knew how to sneak around without a troop of people moving around him. It was half the reason why he didn't think so highly of being part of the Avengers. It was a directive and one he was sure he was going to be a part of at one point in his life. But from where the others had come from (and remembered) to where he had come from and remembered. He was only aware of being an agent of SHIELD that was brainwashed for half of the Avengers first their first get-together.

But he supposed that was all a thing of the past now. Clint could say he was just going through for a quick little jog through the forest, but it wasn't that. He'd already ran into one of the clunking bots that he had done what he could with what he had. Bola arrows to drop the bot followed by an acid arrow for good measure. Clint really didn't wait around to see if it was still functioning. Something about robot versus man that sort of made him cringe a little. Finding the others was not exactly a job fit for a master tracker. All he really had to do was follow the sounds as he slid into a stop, releasing an arrow as quickly as he had come to a stop.

The bola arrow exploded, wrapping around the bots legs to at least keep it immobile. "If you're gonna do somethin', I suggest you do it." And quit wasting time, not that he was aware of anything the others might have been planning. For all he knew, Stark had reprogrammed the robot already to be their serving boy.

[agentx13]

Sharon steadies herself against Tony and uses him almost as a pole, twisting around and using the ensuing force to launch herself back into the fray. Don't think about robot reinforcements coming. Just keep fighting. Don't give the order to retreat until you know it's hopeless.

And since she doesn't know for sure that it is hopeless, she keeps fighting. She misses the exchange between Loki and Tony, only noticing that the robot she's fighting is twisting its body parts around. It hadn't been doing that previously, and she wonders - hopes - that it means that whoever is toying with them considers them more of a threat now. If their captors can consider them a threat, there's a reason.

The robot's legs are suddenly immobilized by an arrow, and as soon as Sharon sees the arrow, she knows to whom it belongs. She jumps into the air and kicks the robot back, forcing it to stumble and fall to the ground. She surveys the other two robots for a moment. She's panting, and several hairs have come loose from her ponytail, but even though she's tired, she's careful not to show it. She has to let their captors think she has plenty of stamina left.

She glances at Loki. "One left for each of us. Tony. Try and take apart that robot on the ground. Do it fast. No way to tell how much time we have left. Barton, get upstairs. Tell me- us when we have company coming. Anyone else with you?"

And with that, she tosses her knife to Tony and then tackles the robot closest to her, grunting at the pain in her shoulder but also not caring. Top priority right now is to keep Tony safe while he figures out what the hell they're dealing with.

[manofiron]

They’re in trouble. It doesn’t take a genius to realize it. Sharon’s only human; well-trained and much better at combat than he is, but human. He’s a rich businessman with only half-hearted boxing lessons under his belt. Loki is their only hope, and even he looks like he’s having problems. They’re in trouble and Tony doesn’t know how to get them out of it. He’s not the tactician, Steve is, and Steve isn’t here.

Sharon’s heading back into the fray. A robot goes down unexpectedly, which makes sense a moment later when he hears Barton’s voice. But it’s still not enough. They need—

His thoughts are interrupted by Loki’s sudden appearance at his side and whatever he’s just said to him is lost on Tony as he turns and gets a good look at him. Now he understands the blue comment. But he’s not just blue, there are patterns on his skin and his eyes are so red. Tony’s never seen anything like it. It’s remarkable, and he’s just about to tell him that when the pain registers. It’s like reaching into a live current, like every nerve ending in his body is catching fire and burning him up from the inside. It’s like reacting into the heart of an arc reactor and watching everything dissolve into white light. It’s too much. Far, far too much. And it’s exhilarating.

It’s like being back in that forest, standing at the center of Thor’s lightning strike and seeing his energy gauge maxing out at 400%. He can feel it in his chest, like his heart – both of them – is going to explode. Absently, he catches the knife Sharon tosses him, and in his mind’s eye, like the HUD of the suit is suddenly once more in front of his eyes, he sees the future play out in front of him. Lines of energy, mapped by channels of electrons and positive ions, fill the air around them, just like the threads of a spider’s web. Pluck one and all the others are affected.

“Everybody get back!”

He doesn’t wait to see if Sharon’s out of the way. If any of them are. He has to do this, and he has to do it now, before they’re all killed, before the fire inside him burns him up. So he runs, like he told Sharon he could, to the nearest robot and jams the knife into a seam between the plates of its arm. It’s forming the conduit that’s important, not the damage he can’t do with such a paltry weapon.

And through the hilt of the knife, he channels the energy coursing through his veins, falling back on his years spent piloting the suit, treating it like a repulsor blast. All of that power into one current that radiates through the metal of the machine, splintering out into the air in arcs of lightning from one robot to the other. Fry the circuits, knock them offline. For a moment, for good, it doesn’t matter. What matters is getting them down.

[laevisilaufeyson]

Loki is away. There isn't much more he can do now anyway, not like this. Not much but brace himself against a tree, ice patterning out on the bark where his hand is pressed against it, and breathe. Allow the muscles in his legs to be weak, just for a few seconds, before he has to be anything but again.

Such is the price of godhood – in name or in fact makes no difference; the expectations are still the same. The cost is still the same. One owes, and one never stops owing.

The least he can do is ensure that nobody sees – nobody but Barton, and Barton has already seen him weak. Not merely defeated, but sick, pliable, vulnerable. Loki doesn't trust him to keep his silence for long, but it won't matter in the long run. Now it does.

And so he pushes himself up. Away. And so he stands in the comfortable chill, and looks over what they've wrought. It's work well done, but it could've been less costly. Next time, perhaps, it will be.

“Cleverly done,” Loki says, mild, carefully forcing as much breathlessness out of his voice as he can. His face is a mask of perfect innocence, bright and smiling. “It seems Mr. Stark has been holding out on us.”

Why not imply? Why not tease? They've won, won at least enough time to leave, if that's what they're going to do.

"Though I feel we've little time to interrogate him on the matter," he adds with a regretful sigh. "Best we be away, before more come, no?"

[beenunmade]

The energy in the air was certainly different than it had been when he had arrived. When he had prepared to loose another arrow even if it would barely do anything but keep them distracted. Clint never truly missed a thing, he'd come into the mix when Tony was mentioning something about electricity before Loki touched him. Even a blind man could notice it was something Loki had done. Clint put away his arrow just as Tony was putting the robots out of their misery before looking between Sharon and Stark. There was very little concern in him if the robots were fried beyond repair -- somehow he didn't think anyone would weep over the electronics that their kidnappers had sent after them to keep them out of the woods.

"'m sure Coulson could get him to talk about it when the time comes." Clint allowed a smirk to form on his face. He might have said anything but his eyes had focused on Loki. It was all good and well when it came to the fact that they were just standing around when they should have been moving.

He waited for a moment or two before stepping over to check out the robots, kicking them a little. They were reduced to being a large pile of scraps before trying to focus a little more further into the forest as if he was trying to see anything else coming their way. The last thing they needed was to be overpowered before pulling his bow over his shoulder and starting to turn away. "I checked another location in the forest, I don't think Banner is that way if that's the reason y'all are out here." He was sure the robot was still disposed of over where he had come from -- or it was gone. Off to be repaired like the cameras in town.

He patted Loki's shoulder, not much a mark of concern but for understanding. "Loki's right...we should keep movin'. Dealin' with robots isn't why we're all here. There's still places we haven't checked and we're wastin' our energy dealing with this crap." They had definitely won for now. He wasn't holding out too much hope if more decided to show up.

[agentx13]

Sharon studies the three of them, assessing them for injuries, and she adds a kick of her own to Clint's. The move is mostly to buy herself time while she processes everything. Stark's sudden abilities that Loki might truly expect people to think are genuine. Their odds against more of these robots - and she's sure there are more.

Bottom line. Their odds aren't good. Time to change the rescue mission and do more to factor it into her escape plan. She'd gotten some intel - certainly more than she had before. Now it was the time to try and turn the tables, however slightly.

"We're heading back to town. Tony, salvage what you can. I'll help you carry it. Barton, cover us, let us know if something's coming." She moved to Tony and his robot, her body language conveying what she hoped was permission to direct her in the matter, and to do it quickly. If he really wanted the Iron Man armor, he'd need parts, after all. And she suspected she wanted him to have Iron Man armor almost as much as he did.

"Loki, do you have it in you to transport us your way, or are we walking?"

[manofiron]

While everyone else sorts themselves out and Loki makes mildly amusing quips, Tony stands staring down at the robots. He feels wrung out, raw and hypersensitive, a little like skin left too long exposed in the sun. It’s not a wholly pleasant sensation, but it’s a new one, and much as he wishes that he could do it again, he knows that he can’t. For one moment, he was connected to something so much greater than himself, and he wants to jack himself back into it, feel alive in a way he doubts he’ll ever feel again.

But he knows he’s going to try to find it. Maybe he’ll spend all of his life searching, experimenting with technology far too advanced for most people to comprehend. And he’ll either reach that pinnacle again or die trying. Life’s certainly been lost in the pursuit of less.

“All of it.” He sounds a little scratchy to his own ears, so he clears his throat and licks his lips before trying again. “I want all of it.” Never mind that time is of the essence and that it’s dangerous out here. They can leave him behind for all he cares. But right here is the solution to his problem. Enough metal that, with a considerable amount of time, he could reshape and rebuild into a version of his own suit.

Turning, he looks at each of them in turn. Loki pinned the power on him; whether or not that’s believed by the others, Tony won’t give the lie away. But he wants to talk to him, and as he glances over them, he lets his eyes linger on Loki for a split second longer than the rest, hoping that he reads that desire to talk in his expression. But to them all, with casual nonchalance, he asks, “Think you guys can help me drag it back?”

[laevisilaufeyson]

Loki hums softly, considering. The threads of magic he has left in him are scant. If he were to draw on his own life force, pull the energy from his own body, perhaps, yes, he could accomplish all of this but that takes much, much longer to renew. It isn't worth it.

“I can take all of what remains here or I can take us back, but not both.” The ultimatum. Though not much of one. As long as they hurry, he doubts they're likely to be attacked again when trying to leave. That is, after all, the point of these things, he expects: to act as a deterrent, not simply a weapon. If that were not so, they'd have attacked the town already.

“Your choice.” Either way, he intends to take a nap once they get back. Preferably a very long and wholly uninterrupted one.

“I suggest you make it quickly,” he adds, head tilted faintly to one side as he listens for any signs of further activity.

Either is simple enough, banish the corpses of the robots to the place between things and call them back later, when needed, or banish all of them there and pull them out elsewhere. It's simply that trying to account for too many things at once is draining, and a deity Loki may have been, but he's organic, too. Not infallible. Certainly not invulnerable or omnipotent. Right now, mostly just sore and tired and feeling, for once, something of his age.

[beenunmade]

There was more of an annoyed sigh coming from Clint before moving over to the robot. He wasn't gifted with super-strength or anything of the like. But give him something to drag around and he'll yank it around. He didn't think they were too deep in the woods to at least try. Clint wasn't really looking forward to carting the robot back into town, but it was better than wasting their only magical resource they had down to their bare minimum at this point. He looked out for others, what could he say? Even if the other person was Loki and he couldn't very well say he was always looking out for Loki's well-being.

It sort of aggravated him.

"I'll help move it, can't be heavier than some things 've moved." Recently. Clint was pretty sure it couldn't be heavier than Loki was by any definition of the word. He supposed the robots could help Tony get in the air as someone formidable when it came to the people who'd captured them. But his mind was going to if Stark could figure out a way to trace them back to the people who were controlling them. If it had been something remote or programmed. He didn't know if Tony's mind had wandered to that. But his had certainly done so.

[agentx13]

Sharon doesn't say it aloud, but her line of thinking is in keeping with Loki's. So long as they retreat, they should be left alone. And she'd never held out much hope that they would find Natasha or the others. And yet...

She turns toward the barrier for several seconds, her hands on her hips. The urge to keep going, to keep trying to escape... But no. It would be suicide at this point. She needs to be smart about this.

She turns back and hefts parts of one of the robots. "Conserve your energy, Loki. You've done... We're grateful for what you've done so far. Stark, you okay to help? We've got to walk... How far?" She looks to Loki to check the distance. The question is twofold. She isn't just curious for the walk back, she wants to know to gauge the distance for how far they have to go if they try to escape before they reach the barrier.

[manofiron]

The last thing that Tony wants is for anyone to get hurt because they’re worried about the shit he needs to make himself useful. It’s not going to happen. He’s not going to let it happen.

“Save your energy,” he tells Loki, echoing Sharon as he hunkers down to get a grip on the robot in front of him. “We can drag it back.”

He looks at her, nods an affirmative to her question. “I’m fine. I can do this. You okay there, Barton?”

He’s not an invalid. And he is strong. Maybe not as strong as Steve or like the people who have been trained and conditioned for combat. But the muscles that he does have aren’t for show, and he’s not going to ask anyone to help him do what he refuses to do himself.