Issue 1 Downtime

"Everybody ready?" Rachel asked as they walked into the Danger Room.

"I'm always ready," Maddie smirked.

Lumis nods to the third team as they head into the DR.

"Welcome, we'll get started in a bit, when you've had a chance to gather."

"Alright, this is going to be a short, straightforward combat scenario. Skrulls have stolen Tony Stark's teddy-bear, and he has asked us to get it back unharmed." Lumis smiles. "We could have used a piece of technology, obviously, but I'm hoping Tony will hear about this one since he's in town. Anyway, the important thing is that the object has value, is small, and fragile. You need to subdue the Skrulls and recover the teddy bear. The environment is an industrial dock. Are there any questions?"

"Will my power work on simulated Skrulls?"

"Everyone's powers should function normally in this situation. I think your power will work well on actual Skrulls as well though I haven't done the research on that."

"Well, I guess we'll find out." Rachel said, checking her knife, which was in a sheath on her thigh.

"This teddy bear at least has laser eyes or a secret message inside right?" he smirked.

"Seriously though, I look forward to kicking some green alien butt."

"I am putting Nomic in charge. Computer, load Scenario Ex Tee One dash Three dot 1."

"Loading in Ten... Nine..."

"Two.. one... Scenario loaded."

The scene changes to a dark industrial dock. It's night, and the place is lit by lights on equipment mostly. Almost nothing is moving right now, huge cranes are hanging over the area, and massive tankers sit at the docks. Shipping containers are stacked everywhere.

Off to the South, the sound of a ship's motor putting can be heard.

"Talos, can you spot the Skrulls?"

"Only if I've already seen the person they're copying can I possibly spot the subtle differences. I may be able to tell from body language but I've yet to test either on anything but simulations. Luckily this is a sim."

"Ok. New question, can you spot anyone on that boat? Or in the area?"

"I'll need a better vantage point."

Rick was present with the group; at this point, just sticking with them and waiting for a good plan to develop.

"Then climb up something." Rachel replied, "See if you can spot the Skrulls."

Maddie nodded and began quickly climbing a crane. Once high enough he scanned the area, zooming in on anything suspicious as he counted all moving bodies that might be alive or mechanical.

Madrox spots some right away, on a boat just a few berths down. It's not a large one, more of a tug, and there are at least 4 skrulls in view. Two in the wheelhouse, and the other two on deck.

"Ok." Rachel said, taking a breath, "Lets see if we can do this the easy way." concentrating, she reached out towards the skrulls minds. If her plan worked, all of them would start to fall asleep.

Rachel's power works, but it's not un-contested. The skrulls shapeshifting bodies have redundant systems, and they are themselves creatures with some minimal astral presence, so rather than the quiet knocking down that she hoped for, Rachel instead finds herself mentally in combat with four fairly wiley minds.

They can't throw her power off, given time, Rachel can push them down into sleep, but they shout for help, and start looking around for their assailents. In the meantime, Rachel doesn't have a lot of extra concentration left for doing other things, with her attention split four ways.

"Captain, I need you to bodyguard." Rachel said, her tone somewhat absent "Everyone else, watch out for reinforcements." Rachel kept going, trying to knock the Skrulls out as quickly as possible.

Madrox jumped down near Rachel and moved ahead fast, but not too far ahead.

Rick moved along with the rest them. "A teddy bear? Seriously?"

((and just NOW I see the reassignments, heheh.))

"I bet it has a cute little power suit."

Merle, bending his rebar into a long spear with a crook at the end, stands near Rachel. "Want me to get to the boat and smack'em up?"

The four skrulls up top continue to struggle against Rachel, it's a tough fight for her four ways, seems like it will take at least 10 minutes to put them down totally.

In the meantime, six more skrulls surge up out of the boat and go running down to the docks to attack the group.

Madrox somersaulted and with expert timing fired his hand-mounted repulsor to launch himself into the oncoming Skrulls. He would come in with a springing kick against the lead Skrull and then land in a crouch.

Merle nods. "It's Champion, Rach."

He tosses his makeshift weapon from hand to hand, clobbering the first skrull who gets in close. He's trying to keep a strong perimeter.

The rebar was actually flexible...it could be brass knuckles. Rebar knuckles. Merle watches at Madrox springs into action, a little jealous.

He looks over to see if Rachel's doing all right.
"C'mon, spacemen! It's time for some galactic diplomacy!"

"Banter later." Rachel said, trying to see if she could take the Skrulls out faster without killing them.

Rick decided now was a good a time as any to go tornado, bursting into a rapid spin before stabilizing himself within the floating vortex, feet hovering a few inches off of the ground. He then continued to move with the others, making a beeline toward the Skrull.

Madrox lands hard on a skrull, crushing it to the ground. The alien de-rezzes underneath him.

Rick's tornado attack knocks two more of them out of the way, but the other three leap up on containers and then down to where Rachel and Merle are. They're armed with crowbars, and look ready to rush Rachel and Merle.

Only one of the ones that Rick knocked down de-rezzes, the other one is getting up.

Madrox rose from his crouch and goes running after the three mobile Skrulls, who he was likely faster than. He tried to flank them. If successful he would use his repulsor to attack them.

Rick made as sharp of a turn as he could and drifted back towards the other three Skrulls, ignoring the one that was getting back up for now. However, he was a small distance behind Madrox, and therefore probably couldn't intercept, but would instead have to engage after the skirminsh had begun.

Madrox can get to one of them, but the Skrulls have split up so he can't reach them all. Rick is coming, but hasn't arrived yet.

Madrox's repulsor blasts a skrull, but the alien turns in time to only be winged by it. Still, the blast makes it spin in place, throwing it off balance and stopping the run.

Two skrulls converge on Merle and Rachel.

Madrox took advantage of the Skrull's disorientation and leapt into action, running up and spin-kicking the alien.

Rachel went after the minds of the two Skrulls who were approaching, trying to void their bowels and bladder. It wouldn't incapacitate them, but it would slow them down. However, taking control of six wily brains would make it almost impossible to concentrate on her physical body, although she did manage to stay on her feet.

Merle fakes a lunge with his left hand, then grabs for a skrull's neck. He attempts a caber toss, sending the alien high over Rachel and hopefully onto the other one.

Rachel simply can't affect the charging skrulls fast enough, with the strain of the other four she's fighting. One of the skrulls runs up to her, and hits her right across the gut with a crowbar!

Meanwhile, Merle discovers that it's not as easy to just grab someone by the neck as he anticipated, and finds himself wrestling with the skrull, with the two of them trying to grab each other and having limited success either way.

Rick's Tornado is incoming, though he'll have to be careful how he helps either Rachel or Merle, as they're now in close combat with their Skrulls.

Madrox's kick tosses that skrull off the dock, it de-rezzes as it goes over the edge. The skrull that was getting up has either found a gun, or the DR simply upgraded it to fight agaisnt Madrox effectively, and it takes aim at Maddie, about to fire.

Madrox spotted the risen Skrull and dove between two double-high stacks of shipping containers with a roll before jumping back and forth between them to the top. He then ran along the tops of adjacent containers towards the armed Skrull.