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Summary: Eli and Teddy settle in for some fun and relaxation when they get called upon to deal with one of Captain Marvel's old foes.
Date: April 8, 2009
Log Title: Red, Blue, and Green?
Rating: PG-13
New York City
A nice, quiet afternoon and most people are out and about doing things. Teddy Altman's not one of those people. Sitting in the main living area of the Young Avnegers Headquarters, he's got a bit of an unusual set-up…paint, an easel, and some light rock playing over the base's intercom. He's shirtless, just in his jeans as the paint-stained shirt he was wearing earlier spins around and around inside the base's washing machine. "Really outta practice," the shapeshifter chuckles to himself, little flecks of paint on his face, chest, and arms as he works.
Elijah watches Teddy paint from the kitchen doorway. He's eating a slice of pizza and drinking a bottle of grape soda. Not the healthiest of fare, but with his metabolism, he's all right. "So, whatcha paintin' there, Teddy?" He grins as he stretches and finishes the pizza and soda. Wiping his hands and mouth with a napkin, he tosses it in the trash and wanders over to the sofa. He sits down and looks around.
Jumping slightly as he reaches to dip his brush into some painy, Teddy gets that faint blush before shapeshifting it away. "Hey, Eli," he greets, looking the canvas over. "Well…us. The Young Avengers," he admits. "Talking with you, Terry, and Dante about art the other day…I figured I'd pick my brushes back up and try to paint something and our team popped into my head."
Elijah nods, stifling a belch. "'Scuse me… That's good, Teddy. Always a good idea to improve one's skills and pursue a hobby." He stretches in the sofa. "So, how's it comin' along?"
Teddy smiles, shaking his head. "So far…not so good," he says. Turning the easel, he's got the basics sketched out and has Tommy fully painted and Billy halfway done. He's pretty average at best. "I haven't picked up a paintbrush for anything other than a wall since…well since I started basketball back on school."
Elijah nods. "Not bad, not bad… It's coming along nicely." He scratches the back of his neck and leans back. "I mean, I couldn't do better…" He chuckles.
That blush comes back to Teddy's face and he rubs the back of his neck, getting some red paint back there without noticing. "Thanks," he says with a smile. "Oh yeah, I finished installing that new gravimetric weight thing in the gym IronMan sent over for us."
Elijah smiles and nods at Teddy. "Awrite! We kin start some surrious weight trainin' now, son!" He claps his hands together once, then rubs them together. "Nice to git some sorta action once in a while, like combat or sumthin'… Pushin' eights around is fun and all, but nuthin' beats a good scrap, roight?"
Teddy jumps slightly and then stares. The teen blinks a few times before the corner of his mouth curls into a smirk slowly. "You know, if you're looking for some action while we're waiting on the supervillains to act up…we've got wrestling mats back there. You and me could go a few rounds," he challenges.
Elijah eyes Teddy. "Dem's fightin' words where Ah come from… You sure you wanna pry yoself from yer paintin'?" He gets up and pulls off his hoodie, revealing a sleeveless t-shirt. Apparently, Elijah still has somewhat of an accent after returning home from his tour of the south. "Ah promise to go easy onya…" He grins with a chuckle.
Setting down his brush and moving the paints aside, Eddie stands. He cracks his neck before 'Hulking Out'. "Sure I'm the one that needs someone to go easy on them?" he jokes. The alien hybrid returns to his human appearance and grins. "I'll go pull out the mats and you can get changed if ya want," he offers, cracking his neck.
Elijah pulls off his workout pants and is wearing bicycle shorts underneath. "Nah, I'm good…" He blinks as he watches Teddy. "You gotta point there…" He chuckles as he wanders back to the gym area to help with the mats.
Teddy takes a moment to check Eli out, nodding in approval. Quickly shapeshifting himself into similar garb. "Don't worry, I won't hulk out on ya," he says as he follows along. Just as Teddy steps into the gym and follow Eli to the mats, a sound that hasn't been heard in the warehouse in awhile goes off. An alarm. And a few seconds later, the Identicards start going off as well. The 'YA' symbol's flashing on screen. "Looks like our epic battle will have to wait…" Teddy trails off, moving towards the console in the wall to turn off the base-alarm and find out what's going on.
Elijah follows Teddy to the console and looks over his shoulder. "What's up?"
Frowning as he pulls the data up, Teddy reads it over. "Supervillain attacking a nearby warehouse. Avengers want us to handle it. You up for some heroing?" he asks with a grin.
Elijah nods as he heads into his room, He comes out in a minute pulling on his boots and in uniform. He puts on his mask and adjusts his shield and pouch of throwing stars. "Ready when you are."
Teddy goes 'mean and green', costume shifting onto him as dried paint falls off. "Someone's gotta ask Cap if we can have a car or something. Billy's not around to teleport us all the time and Kate threatened to cut vital parts of our anatomy off if we touched her bike," he chuckles, shapeshifting some wings and offering a big green hand to Patriot.
Elijah accepts it. "Impressive. You know, most of us have to put on costumes and can't just shift into them…" He chuckles with a smirk. "Now, Avengers AWAY!" He poses dramatically.
Hulkling's cheeks get just a little darker green at that but he makes no more comments. He laughs at Eli's dramatics and with a few flaps, they're up, up, and away through the base's skylight. After about five minutes of flight with Hulkling holding onto Patriot to make sure he isn't dropped, the Young Avengers arrive at a warehouse with a gaping hole in the side of it. The edges of the concrete apeear scorched and there's a bit of melted metal. Inside, tearing through crates, is an odd-looking. In a chrome get up that makes him look like a male exotic dancer, is man who's body seems to be half-red and half-blue.
Elijah glances around as they fly to the warehouse, taking in the sights. He spots the warehouse and the gaping hole. He drops from Teddy's grip and rolls to a stop just outside of the warehouse. Looking inside, he spots the criminal. "Lemme guess, he controls fire or something…" He mutters under his breath. He clears his throat. "Stop your villainy at once, or we will be forced to engage you in combat before turning you over to the proper authorities!" He grips his shield, waiting for an attack.
Hulkling lands and shifts his wings away. Eyes narow and ths shapeshifter bulks up just a litle more for appearance's sake. "Hey that's…"
The shapeshifter is cut off as the villain turns and thrusts a hand at Patriot. "Mercurio does not take orders from children!" he exclaims, sending a rush of flaames at the teens.
Elijah rolls away from the flame and begins to head into the warehouse through the hole in the wall. He glances back at Teddy, "Hey, you know this joker?" He takes a glance around before taking cover behind a nearby crate.
Rolling out of the way of the fire in the oppisite direction, Hulkling nods towards Patriot. "Yeah. He used to fight my da-Captain Marvel and Thor. Sometimes the Avengers too," the shapeshifter replies, trying to get closer to the villain despite pang of annoyance in his chest. The opening is enough for the shapeshifter to get hit by a blast of ice and sent flying through a shelf.
"You children will no be permitted to stand in my way!" Mercurio rants.
Elijah rolls his eyes and spins out from behind the crate and rushes him, shield first. He tries to slam into him and pin him down to the ground or against a wall. "STOP CALLING US KIDS!"
Mercurio ends up slammed into a wall by the shield-tackle, growling slightly. He's dazed for a moment before shoving hard and sending an icy blast at Patriot. It'll likely coat whatever it hits in ice.
Meanwhile, the block of ice frozen to the shelving unit rumbles and then breaks as Hulkling frees himself. Hefting a crate over his head, Hulkling calls to his teammate. "Heads up, Patriot!" he calls right before tossing the crate.
Elijah ducks the icy blast, which coats his shield and part of his uniform in ice. He rolls out of the way of the crate and kips up to his feet, shaking off the ice. He follows up the crate with a swing to Mercurio's jaw with a right cross, followed by an uppercut with the shield.
CRASH. The crate shatters on the two-tone villain, sending packing material and electronics skittering around. It's burnt away a few moments later, Nercurio getting back up. There's another crack as Patriot's fist connects with half-alien jaw, the villain stunned again long enough to get smacked with the shield. He's apparently pretty tough as he recovers quickly. One red and one blue hand shoot out to grab Patriot and then throw him at Hulkling. The big, green Young Avengers just blinks as he sees his teammate headed for him. "Oh no…"
You page, "It's a backdated scene…taking place before Cody returned…we're just finishing it" to Elijah and Cody.
Elijah twists in the air and grabs at a pile of boxes, catching himself and turning in the air. He lands with a roll at Hulkling's feet. He looks up and smiles at him. "Hi there." He gets up and brushes himself off. "Tougher than I thought…" He looks at Teddy and shrugs. "You've fought him before, any ideas?"
Hulkling lets out a breath of relief. He's still working on the 'catch teammate!' thing and didn't want to accidentally hurt Eli if he had to catch him. "I didn't fight him…I just read about him fighting Thor and my dad in the Avengers Database…and…" he pauses, a smile slowly spreading across his face. "Fastball spe…" another pause. "Patriot Missile?" he suggests, unable to resist the pun.
Elijah looks up at him and chuckles with a nod. "Sounds good." He hops into the air, waiting for Hulkling to catch him and give him a toss.
Hulkling kicks a crate foreward to take an icy blast from Mercurio and reaches out to catch Patriot. Adjusting his hold so he's holding onto Patriot in a way that'll make throwing easier, the shapeshifter waits a few moments.
"You're only delaying your fate!" Mercurio shouts. A blast of flame from the alien destroys the crate. The two-tone alien then pauses when he sees the odd sight.
Hulkling just grins before rearing back and sending his teammate flying at the alien villain.
Elijah holds his shield out in front of him, trying to slam into the villain. Then, at the last moment, he swings the shield forward, adding his own strength to the momentum of the throw. "Sweet dreams, sucka!"
A blast of fire from Mercurio misses Patriot but hits Hulkling, ruining yet another uniform shirt. Not like he wouldn't just shapeshift it back later. The half-red, half-blue alien's eyes go wide when he sees Patriot coming at him. and then…
CLANG!!!
Mercurio falls back, nose bleeding and out cold on the floor. "Oh yeah!" Hulkling exclaims, throwing one fist into the air as he pats out a few flames on his big, green chest.
Elijah rebounds off the far wall and lands on his feet. He looks at Hulkling for a moment, then looks at Mercurio. He looks back at Hulkling and smiles. "AW YEAH!" He walks over to Mercurio and looks down on him. "You just got knocked OUT, son!" He starts chuckling. Looking back at Teddy, he walks over. "Yo, that was AWESOME!" He cocks his head and looks over to him again. "I hear sirens, the cops will be here soon…"
Hulkling looks up, midway through dialing for the cops on his StarkPhone Indenticard. He chuckles and stuffs the device back into his 'pocket'. "C'mon. Let's give 'em the usualy statement and head off," he offers, heading for the hole in the wall they entered through. A few minutes and one police-statement later and Hulkling's offering a hand to Patriot as he shapeshits his wings back. "Let's head home before the media-swarm arrives."
Elijah nods to Hulkling. "All right…" He chuckles. "Deprive my public of my physique and charm…" He grins as he says this.
Teddy laughs as he picks Eli up and takes to the air. "Hey, I'm the one without a shirt right now. Besides…" he takes a breath, turning quickly to avoid a bird. "We're not good with the cameras, remember?" he mutters, remembering the media-swarm outside the church back when they fist met Kate.
Elijah nods as they fly back to base. "You've got a point…" He looks at the city as they're in the air. "Good to be home…"
"Yeah," Hulkling replies quietly. As they approach the base, Teddy glances at the clock on the bank they pass. "Looks like our match might have to wait. Got just enough time for a shower before dinner," he muses, predicting Billy's arrival with food from his parents' place.
Elijah nods to him and stretches. "All right. Thanks for the help!" He heads to his own room and gets ready for a shower and a change of clothes before visiting his grandparents.
Teddy nods, shapeshifting back to his 'human' form. He frowns when he notices how bad he looks in the toasted uniform in that form. "See ya later, Eli. And it was great getting out there with ya again!" he calls, heading for his room as well for a quick shower.