Players: Quetzal, Summoner, and Texas Twister
Summary: Scarlet Beetle attacks Salem Center and SHIELD shows up to stop him.
Date: November 12, 2010
Log Title: Scarlet Beetle
Rating: PG-13
Westchester - Salem Center
The parking lot that serves Salem Center is expansive. The mall building being the largest in the area, most of the traffic is aimed for there. However, there are a number of independent buildings along the edges of the parking lot and across the street. Benches dot the sidewalks that line the buildings, along with trash cans, bushes, trees and lamps. There is a large archway that leads to the mall entrance.
It is a surprisingly warm afternoon in Salem Center, unfortunately, a small section of the city has been torn asunder. People are running and screaming as SHIELD has cordoned off a one mile radius. A human-sized insect has been ravaging and attacking the city and leading an army of insects to tear the city apart. SHIELD has responded to the local authorities and as such, A higher-level SHIELD Agent, Dum-Dum Dugan stands ready to debrief some agents called in from Barnes to deal with the menace.the mighty menace of Scarlet Beetle!
Having responded and seeking some action from being bored and bottled up at Barnes, Texas Twisters was quick to offer his services and quickly flew to Salem Center along with any other agents who wanted to come with him.
Another SHIELD agent to respond is Agent Quetzal. Dressed in his blue and white uniform and bringin his firearms with him, the linquist has reported into Dum-Dum Dugan to find out what's going on. He's got Verde with him whose currently in the form of a large wolf he waits for his orders before he acts. There's a nod to Tex as he notices his fellow teacher here. He's happy to finally get out for a bit.
She'd stepped off the bus around the corner, thinking happy thoughts at the chance to finally get out of the Mansion for a bit and enjoy some proper free time. Her intentions were simple; go to Coldstone, buy some ice cream, sit down with a book to eat. But as she wanders toward the parking lot, the sights and sounds of utter chaos bring her a figuratively screeching halt. All she wanted was ice cream, and now giant bugs are tearing up the city. Grinding her teeth, Rashmi mutters something under her breath in Hindi, darting toward the nearest gas station to change into the personalized training suit that had been given a more or less permanent home in her bookbag.
Seeing Quetzal, Agent Drew Daniels smiles, "I could have given you a ride up here." He tips his hat, "Well, pardner, looks like we got us some action." Dum Dum sighs and screams, "Stop with the chit chat. We got an army of ants and other fucken bugs down there, bugging the hell out of the residents. The cops couldn't handle it, so we are here! This requires super-human intervention and the rest are busy or don't give two shitsso it's up to us!" He pulls out a small video of a giant sized insect, Scarlet Beetle lifting cars and throwing them at buildings and small regular sized insects attacking random passers-by. "This is the Scarlet Beetle, not sure why he is here. He's fought Ant-Man in the past. That bug is bugging out! Take him down and the other insects will stop their attacks. Think you two clowns can take down a beelte!" Texis Twister offers, "Well shoot. That critter ain't nothin'!" As Rashmi exits the gas station, she will find herself attacked by a swarm of bees. They are hissin
They are hissing overhead and about to swarn down on her. In the background everyone can hear a loud rawr and the head of the Scarlet Beetle.
Quetzal pulls out one of the two handguns he has with him and switches the clip so that it's armour piercing rounds. He thinks he might need it with Scarlet Beetle fellow. "Alright well let's get to this Scarlet Beetle and show him that he can't be messing with shit here." He says letting a bit of his 'rowdy' self take over. Verde roars in agreement and starts to look around for this giant bug.
The gas-station bathroom door slams open, and in a flurry of hair and cloth, Rashmi emerges in the black Kevlar-Nomex composite bodysuit Barnes has paid for, fiddling with the bracelet securing one end of the scarlet-edged brown sari in place. At first, the student is so busy getting herself into place, she completely misses the swarm looming overhead… but a piercing shriek that carries across the parking lot a few moments later tells the whole world when she *does* spot them. Before the last echoes can be buried under the sounds of screaming insects and general mayhem, she can be seen pelting across the blacktop towards the SHIELD agents, a half-dozen glowing blue spheres whipping frantically above her head, swatting away at the cloud of bees above her.
The Texas Twister looks to Quetzal, "Alright. I can see the creature's head above some of the roofs. How about I hit em high and you hit em low?" A large cycle of wind surrounds the Texan SHIELD agent and he is completely enveloped and lifts up high into the air zipping quickly within seconds he is a whirling blur in front of the large insect.
The bees continue to dive both individually or in small groups trying to sting at the Indian student, but find the blue spheres impassable. Finally coming together and forming into the shape of a one giant bee. The bees seem to have a collective hive mind and look down as Rashmi reaches the other SHIELD Agents.but the sound of a large chunk of metal may get her and Quetzal's attention as a clawed hand from the Scarlet Beetle reaches down ripping a car into two halves. One chucked at Rashmi and Quetzal, the other into the air at the buzzing wind in front of the creature.
Quetzal nods to the Texas Twiser and starts to move forward as quickly as he can, which isn't with the speed he used to be able to. Verde is getting there a lot quicker than he is and in midrun the animal spirit transforms into a large polar bear so it can ram itself into one of the beetle's legs with his large bulk. Quetzal though hangs back and when he gets in decent range, he ducks down to one knee behind a building and takes time to aim at, what he thinks is the knee, and fire off several armour piercing rounds at the giant bug.
"Oh God oh God oh God bees bees *get away from m—* CAR!!" Hurling herself behind the protective bulk of a huge, ugly Hummer, Rashmi curls up against the tire, shoulders hunched and hands pressed to her ears as the spinning hulk of metal crashes back to earth. Momentarily, the question surfaces in her mind of why this always, *always* seems to happen when she wants ice cream… a thought quickly banished, as she scrabbles between vehicles toward the reassuring bulk of Dum-Dum Dugan. "What in the *world* is going on, sir…?"
Half of a black sudan flies past the agents and crashes into the side and through the wall of the Coldstone Creamery. No one will be getting ice cream there anytime soon. Reaching Rashmi, Dum-Dum stares at her with a What the Hell are you doing here look, but then "Oh yeah! Look around you, girl! Insects're going crazy!" He points to the giant Beetle that is making its way towards the agents now. The small swarm of bees grouped together to become one large bee keep Rashmi in their sight and then fly down towards her, Dugan, and other agents, but a round of fire from various agents cause the large insect to break apart and once again break into smaller groups of 100 or so. And a swarm once again rain down on Dugan and Rashmi.
The Scarlet Beetle begins to teeter a bit as Verde rams into him. A few shots from Quetzals weapon pierce the beetle's natural armor as it lets out a loud rawr and starts to fall over some more. It lashes about attempting to kick Verde off of it and hurls a chunk of a nearby roof at Quetzal. The half of car that was hurled at the Texan hero suddenly stops midair and is sucked into mini cyclone and then hurled back at the creature's head, "Anything you throw at me, I'll throw right back!"
The bear is able to take a bit of the kick but Quetzal also feels it to the same degree that Verde does. It hurts but it's not enouogh to stop the bear from standing on all fours and lashing out at the beetle with teeth and claws. Quetzal though has to duck the roof being thrown at him and his agility isn't what it used to be. He dives back behind the building and hugs himself against the wall so the building can sheild him. He exhales a breath as the roof just misses him and just waits for a bit before taking fire.
"*I noticed that!* …Um, sir. Just…" And the gunfire roars all around her, prompting Rashmi to squeal, duck for cover, and skitter away. "I'll see what I can do, sir!" is the last thing the redheaded pre-law student says to Agent Dugan, spheres swatting at the swarmlings that seem to have taken an interest in her, as she picks her way toward — despite her every instinct screaming at her not to — the rampaging Scarlet Beetle and his ballistic scenery.
The half sudan hurled towards Texas Twister and then hurled back at a greater velocity due to his winds at Scarlet Beetle collides with the insect's face. A chuck of his eye hangs down, but damn while that would kill a human, it takes a lot to kill any insect, especially this one. The insect lets out a loud yell as Verde bites into another one of its legs. Reaching down, Scarlet Beetle attempts to pick up the polar bear and hurl him away, while Quetzal recoups.
The bees swarm down but continue to get batted away the blue spheroids protecting Rashmi, on the ground as she runs she may hear small squishes as ants and ladybugs and other various walking insects have been covering the ground and attempt to crawl all over the Indian mutant, literally and quickly , she will be covered in creep crawlies!
Tex watches all the insects attacking SHIELD agents and takes a moment to summon up small individual gusts of wind to blow them all away, But doing so, he still remains in the air and away enough from Scarlet Beetle should it attack him directly.
As Verde is tossed the bear turns midair from a bear to a bat that way it can fly to a safer spot, just as that building quite a few feet away that doesn't have it's roof torn off. While Verde is off doing that, Quetzal again pops around the side of the buidling for a shot at the Scarlet Bettle, making sure to have as much cover as possible as he fires. This time he aims for the other leg that he didn't shoot before, unloading the rest of his clip and then reloading to unload a full second clip into the giant bug.
Bees overhead. Crawlies on the ground—CRAWLIES SWARMING UP HER LEGS. Another earsplitting, revolted shriek stabs through the noise and chaos of the battle, and now Rashmi is hopping-running-stumbling towards the Scarlet Beetle, frantically swiping at her legs. "AUGH! What is the *MATTER* with you people?! What do you have against *ice cream?!*" Probably not making a lot of sense, but the redhead is too weirded out, too scare, and too furious to care about what words come out of her mouth. The spheres swat and dart at the bees, keeping them at bay as she closes on the giant insect.
The shots ring out and squirt, more green-like insect blood pops out and explodes as the final leg gives out for the giant beetle, it lets out a loud yell and falls over onto its back and like a turtle on its back kicking up and screaming. The attacking insects seemingly stop for a moment and just drop or fly away from Rashmi and the other SHIELD agent. Landing next to the giant creature’s head, Agent Daniels ponders, “Now what do we do this?”
At Rashmi's scream the bat knows as Verde flies over and lands next to her as a lion and stands protectively in front of her. Both Quetzal and Verde think her scream was that she might have been hurt. The animal then speaks to her. "Are you okay?" Though Queztal still stays in his spot since even though he took out the legs, that thing is probably still conscious, in pain, but conscious and not dead. "Is it still alive?" He calls out to the other SHIELD agent?
"*No* I'm not okay," Rashmi all but snarls, flailing at her legs, bumping against a car and letting herself slow to a halt, now that the bug is incapacitated. "I'm covered in bugs and I'm going to have to take three showers before I can even *pray* I'll be clean and the Coldstone is wrecked *again* and and and…" Her voice trails off, as her frustration overtakes her vocabulary, then blinks sharply when her mind finally gets around to registering the talking lion asking after her. "…Oh. …. ….Hi."
Shaking his head, Drew Daniels sighs, “It’s still alive.” Dum Dum Dugan rushes over, “We will be containing it and studying it…for now.” Stepping away from the creature, Tex makes his way towards Rashmi, Verde, and Quetzal. “Ms. Franklin. You’ll be fine. And I believe Damage Control is already on their way to have the Coldstone Creamery up and running in no time.” Tex tips his hat not having met this student before, “Agent Drew Daniels, aka Texas Twister and teacher at Barnes.”
Quetzal doesn't get their as fast as Drew but he slowly makes his way over, limping a bit since he's left his cane behind. In the mean time the lion nudges affectionatly against Rashmi when she says she's not okay. Call it Quetzal's uncle instincts kicking in through the cat. "It's okay, I'm sorry about the bugs though. I'm Verde and that's Agent Queztal walking over." The lion says introduction. There's a wave from the man as he makes his way over.
Rashmi gives her legs one last, frustrated swipe, and straightens, blowing a lock of hair away from her face. As Agent Dugan approaches, making his assurances, she spins on her heel, opening her mouth to, presumably, educate the senior agent on exactly what is and is not fine about the entire situation, but visibly hauls herself back before a word can be spoken. Clearing her throat, she draws in a deep breath, letting it out quietly. "…Thank you, sir… Um… Good to, um… neet you all… probably…"
Smiling a bit, “I can clear some of that mess off ya, if you like.” Drew offers as he looks around at the dead insects and green insect juice all over the place, “Well, Quetzal, great job with this one. You beat the bug!” With that three small cyclones spin around the area and start sucking up some of the dead insects and the rest of the mess, “Well, we heroes always defeat the bad guys but never help with the mess…I guess I can do my part.” He tips his hat to Verde as he hadn’t acknowledged the animal yet.
Once he gets to the area, Queztal offers a hand to Rashmi. "I'm sorry about that, I'm agent Quetzal. Do you need help with anything?" He asks her as Verde runs off to get the cane that was left behind in the combat. There's a slight shrug as Tex says he beat the bug, he's not really one to be prideful on something like that. "Well I'm not a hero, I'm just a man in a uniform." He has no clue who Rashmi is or that she's a student at Barnes, unlike Tex.
As Quetzal downplays his part in taking down Scarlet Beetle, Drew speaks into a com that is issued to SHIELD agents, “Well, Quetzal, Rashmi Franklin, student at Barnes. Rashmi, we are two instructors at Barnes we arrived when you left to assist at the Institute. Please give our regards to their staff there and if there is anything we can do to assist we will.” Tex is only slightly aware of what has happened, but is not aware of the full story, “Quetzal, we have to head back to Barnes.” SHIELD finishes up cleaning the area and the cyclones that picked up the dead insects and mess has deposited them away in a junkyard. With that the Texas Twister takes off, “Quetzal, come on.” The two agents leave the area with the SHIELD agents and slowly life returns to normal at Salem Center.