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Post by dana2 on Jul 13, 2009 12:19:35 GMT -5
S.H.I.E.L.D were everywhere, not the best of agents but a strike force of about 20 men, a team designed for apprehending mutants who used their powers to the detriment of the human race, criminals who wanted to use abilities and skills to rob banks, end lives and persue greater domination of the world. Today this team were hunting a magic using vigilante, the tensions were high after an unconfirmed report on what had happened on the last occaision where this person had been involved, the result had been that the 'victim' had to be scraped off the walls of the building where he had been blasted with magical concusive force.
The truth behind the encounter was that the 'victim' had been and extra dimensional being, feeding off of psionic energy latent in all humans, a sort of 'psychic vampire'. The vigilante had hunted him down and vanquished in the only way that they knew would work; intense crushing force. However an eyewitness only saw a human looking being killed by someone who might have been a mutant. It wasn't good for public opinion if S.H.I.E.L.D knew about this and did nothing, so a pressence was needed and this free styling vigilante needed to be captured.
On the 6th floor of an appartment building in Queens the task force was geared up, checking their automatic weapons and readying for a firefight they looked to their leader, a female agent without a helmet on but a combat suit with the S.H.I.E.L.D symbol on the shoulder.
Without a spoken word they burst into a room, throwing in gas grenades and flashbangs to startle whoever was inside. Following with shouts of 'get down' and 'hands behind your head' they searched the appartment, but as the smoke cleared and all became clear there was no-one, not even any furniture in the appartment. Looking to each other confused they didn't see the figure outside.
Seraph watching from across the street from a rooftop, looking down through the window she sighed in a regretful tone.
"2 appartments in two days. The sources they are getting are useless at best, not even the right street so far, but its still advisable to watch each raid just to be sure that they don't run into any trouble," She spoke outloud, seemingly to herself, but Seraph was talking to the entity within her head, an entity that spoke with a reply no-one but herself could hear, "Why? Because I am not a monster nor a villain like they are lead to believe. Besides, the best of us need a gaurdian to watch to make sure that we are safe don't we?"
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Post by Iron Man - Tony Stark on Jul 13, 2009 18:08:53 GMT -5
"I agree with you. There's just one problem with your assessment - the one watching over those SHIELD operatives down there... is me." Iron Man hung silently in the air behind her, not far off the roof of the building, suspended on the vectored repulsor field that surrounded his suit. He had his hand held out towards her, and the lens in the palm was glowing orange, signaling that the repulsor beam was active and charged. A faint whine accompanied the glow as it appeared, and the eye slits in the helmet glowed as well as his synthesized voice cut through the air between them.
"You, in contrast, are wanted in connection to a murder case. And that means, like it or not, you're going to go with those agents over there, even if you managed to send them on a wild goose chase. So exactly how ugly do you want this to get?"[/font]
He'd been watching the SHIELD team from the air, so he'd seen the woman on the roof watching - and a quick check of the raid files had told him she matched the description of the suspect... which meant it wasn't exactly a difficult leap to make, after all. So even if SHIELD hadn't managed to get her, that just meant it was up to Iron Man to pick up the slack - and that was exactly what he planned to do. He stood a much better chance of surviving whatever she'd managed to do to crush that other person against the wall than the agents did anyway.
In truth, however, he truly hoped he wasn't going to have to blast her off the roof with his repulsor. He'd had quite enough on his mind of late, what with the Hood's taking of Captain America's shield and his subsequent news broadcast. 'You're Next, Tony Stark' indeed. He'd just see how the Hood liked it when he tried to back that threat up....
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Post by dana2 on Jul 13, 2009 18:17:34 GMT -5
Turning to look at the Mighty Iron Man the vigilante's gaze was firmly fixed at the eyes rather than the glowing orange haze in the palm of his hand. The suit of armour that faced down at Seraph was truly amazing, the height of human achievement with mechanics and machinary, the invention of such a thing had lead to the invention of Hulk-busting robots, defence systems and numerous rip offs world wide. However it all came back to one design. This one right here.
"I move for no man's pleasure, and I am certainly not entertaining the SHIELD unit with having to explain the unique nature of my supposed murdering of a human being. However withholding it from you would lead to a needless battle I suppose wouldn't it?" Looking finally to the haze of energy from the Iron Man armour and the blast ready to send her flying into brick and concrete Seraph starting thinking for a moment before coming to a conclusion, "But humour me. I haven't done anything with my expanded power for a while since I sent that demon on a one way ticket back to Hell."
In the blink of an eye Seraph activated a spell, the wind picking up around them and a bright orange shield of mystical energy surrounding her body the vigilante levitated up to the level of the Iron Man and with the greatest respect possible beckoned to him.
"No doubt you are a marvel of engineering but how do you fair against all the magic that will ever exist? Your choice Iron Man; leave me to go free or attack."
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Post by Iron Man - Tony Stark on Jul 13, 2009 18:33:23 GMT -5
Great. A magic user. When will I learn to forget warning people before I give them a repulsor blast? I could have avoided this whole mess.
Tony thought, dryly, as he watched her float up, wind and magical energy surrounding her. He warmed his suit's kinetic barriers up in case she did decide to lash out, but for the moment, he made no move other than to track her movement with his hand, keeping her in the line of his repulsor fire.
"All the magic that will ever exist, you say... well as intimidating as that does sound, you understand my responsibilities here. You're wanted for murder, miss, and I am going to find out what happened. If you're innocent, you'll be released as soon as we know it for sure. And if you're guilty... well, you won't be released. And don't think we don't have solutions for magic users... but I'm not going to strike unless you force me to. It's not how I operate."[/font]
Though I continue to question the wisdom of that policy...
"We're all bound by the law. Powers or no. So it's your decision."[/font] Of course, if she tried to use some kind of teleportation spell he'd have to intervene... damn but fighting magic users was a pain. Technological teleportation he could handle... sometimes he really missed having Strange around.
He shifted his stance slightly, prepared for any possible combat, and the gems in his other hand and chest took on a glow as well, charged for any necessary attack. Magic was powerful, but magical barriers fell just the same as technological shielding if one applied enough force... and his suit was well equipped to deliver plenty of force...
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Post by dana2 on Jul 13, 2009 18:46:55 GMT -5
Watching the movements and listening to the sounds of the suit Seraph knew that any battle with Iron Man face to face could be her downfall as the Iron Avenger was a master combatant and an open environment in mid-air would no doubt favour his talents and equipment.
"I did not murder a mortal Iron Man. I vanquished a psychic vampire, a parasitic demon type creature from another dimension who feasted off all the mental energy produced by both mutant and human kind alike. What I did could have been more subtle but I couldn't risk allowing the creature to go free, my lack of imediate knowledge on his species forced me to use a more...brutal tactic than a simple banishment."
Seraph continued on with her reasoning:
"Having heard the facts from my side of the arguement you are better equiped to choose your course of action. I'd prefer not to have to explain in company of SHIELD agents, I value my identity very closely for the safety of myself and those around me. That is all I have to say Iron Man, if you show any inclination to still press on with taking me in my next act will be to attack you."
Seraph bolstered her shielding to the front, it was going to be her main ally in this battle and it was well founded. The spell was a refined format of a spell created in the time of Authurian legend and allegedly the item that enchanted the scabbard of Excalibur to defend from harm. However enchanting an item and using the raw energy as a shield were different, the reason being that humans tended to be bigger.
In the palm of one hand Seraph readied a glowing hot ember, the heat of which when fired would rival that of a concentrated laser cutter, focused into a tight beam. All of which was just in case negotiations failed.
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Post by Iron Man - Tony Stark on Jul 13, 2009 19:04:33 GMT -5
His stance never wavered - in truth, he never even moved a millimeter, thanks to the suit he could render himself perfectly steady at any time, something not even the best-trained human could do. Her explanation, though... if what she said was true, it would mean she'd done what she did to protect people. And that was a different circumstance than a denial. But at the same time, it didn't change the fact that such an action was against the law, since she was evidently unregistered.
He triggered a series of network uplinks, and started sifting through the reports - there'd really been no way to identify the body after what she'd done, but the SHIELD analysis had confirmed there was something definitely wrong about it. But she'd left little of the thing for anyone to examine... and that certainly made believing her story more than a little problematic.
"I wish there was some way I could verify your story. Unfortunately I can't, and that means I can't let you go, either. But if you don't want to explain the situation to SHIELD, perhaps you'll explain it more fully to me."[/font]
He gave her a moment to process this, then the glow faded from the repulsor lenses, and he lowered his hands, watching her face and her expression very carefully with his electronically enhanced senses, the suit's sensor systems merged with his nervous system thanks to the neural linkup he had with it. He was the suit, in a very real sense, thanks to Extremis... and even if she did decide to attack him anyway, his reaction time thanks to that was far beyond what any normal human could manage, and his speed as well... hopefully it would be enough to save him if his gamble on her was wrong.
"I happen to believe you don't want to fight me or those SHIELD agents. So no fighting. We go somewhere more secure, and you tell me why I should trust you. Then we can re-evaluate the combat option, if we feel it necessary. Deal?"[/font]
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Post by dana2 on Jul 13, 2009 19:13:00 GMT -5
"Deal."
Without a mention or another word Seraph disengaged any spells she had, the ember in her palm faded and the shield dissapeared. Looking to the Iron Man for a moment she felt as if she had actually found someone with a sense of logic of when someone is trying to avoid a fight. To Seraph it was a relief because one-on-one fighting would have been a deathwish, although it WOULD allow her to study his movements close up and practice them to copy later...if there was a later of course.
"Please remain still for a moment."
Raising one arm for a moment a red orb appeared in the air around them and slowly decended to a nearby rooftop out of range of the SHIELD task force. The orb around the pair was actually a cloaking spell, no-one outside of it could hear, see or sense their pressence making them invisible to the world and all of its noise.
"This shield is secure from anyone looking, it makes us invisible and sound cannot penetrate it, unless you have another idea of where we can talk without anyone worried about eavesdropping or seeing us then I'd be happy to oblige."
Seraph gave Iron Man a moment to evaluate the situation and what she had just told him. In truth she had no idea on how he would take being encased in a giant bubble by a girl the evidence said killed a being, some would trust her word not to fight, others would go berserk and Iron Man's response was key to what she thought his opinion of her was.
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Post by Iron Man - Tony Stark on Jul 13, 2009 19:42:34 GMT -5
He breathed a silent sigh of relief when she immediately agreed to his offer, and kept his weaponry powered down, though he kept his kinetic barrier fields active - most attack spells generated actual energy of some kind, which could still be deflected through 'normal' means. 'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic', after all.
"Alright then..." he said, glad that the voice-synthesizing apparatus of his suit kept the slight nervousness in his voice from being detectable. He'd kept it even after his identity became public knowledge for exactly that reason, in fact. Tony Stark was a nice guy... Iron Man was an Avenger. And that was that.
Which didn't mean he was exactly comfortable with magical bubbles surrounding him yet, despite his years of being a hero...
He stood still as she requested, locking the armor's joints in case that was a life or death request, and waited as they moved, making careful note of where they were going and how fast. Neither was alarming, however, so he breathed a slight sigh of relief - making sure the speakers on his suit did not transmit it audibly - and nodded as she explained its function. The imagery he got from the satellites above confirmed what she said - and the fact that he could send no commands from inside the bubble meant that absolutely nothing was getting out. And here she did all this so easily... she'd be a hell of an ally.
And a bad enemy, he imagined.
"This is fine. And since you're the one who wanted security, whatever you think is fine is the ticket anyway, right?"[/font] he asked, the voice over the speakers managing to sound rather pleasant after all this time, when combat was less than imminent.
He crossed his arms, lowering himself to the roof and shutting down the repulsor field - he preferred to stand at this point. "Now that we've found a cozy rooftop... I suppose you know who I am. As for you... you've a story to tell, miss."[/font]
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Post by dana2 on Jul 13, 2009 20:10:15 GMT -5
Seraph stood opposite the Iron Man watching him for a moment she half expected Captain America and Spider-Man to swing by and begin a three man beat down on her, it had come from years of watching too much news and TV about the Mighty Avengers taking down some of the biggest threats that Earth had ever known.
"I believe I have things to explain then. My name is Seraph, I'm what you might call a 'mystic' or witch, I prefer student of the magical arts and my studies put me at odds constantly with a resounding duty to want to thwart the attempts of extra dimensional demons and creatures from attacking this realm." Pausing for a moment she gauged how much she should share and how much she should withold and came up with the idea of leaving out anything non-essential for now, maybe some trivia to make her seem less intimidating, "Days ago an article about unconfirmed deaths in some young people in the city got me researching, so I checked out the bodies for signs of magical interference. Using my archive of magical knowledge I decided that the creature fed on mental energies, so tracking it down I found and killed it. Because of my limited resources on the finer points of their species I dealt with it the only way I could; blasting it into oblivion. If I'd have waited he'd either have killed me or escaped to kill again."
For a moment she let this sink in for a moment it did SOUND incredibly far fetched but maybe he'd understand. Seraph to be fair had no evidence to back up her claims, however there WOULD be magical residual energies on the body.
"I have enough magical knowledge to realise now that there was an easier option to deal with the problem. I can construct a holographic image if you'd like me to but other than that you'll have to take my word for it."
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Post by Iron Man - Tony Stark on Jul 13, 2009 20:29:13 GMT -5
He kept still, watching her with what might have been an impassive or hostile expression - it's not as though anyone could tell behind the gold faceplate he wore - but he said nothing while she explained, instead watching the voice-stress-analysis program he was running, as well as a series of polygraph tests he was running, based on the faint sound of her heartbeat his armor was able to pick up. Everything she said was true, at least according to his systems, and he'd never seen magic that could fake that without providing at least some anomaly...
Then, the real kicker happened - he was monitoring SHEILD's frequencies, since they could pass into the shield but not out, and he finally got what he'd been waiting for.
"Helicarrier, this is Delta squad. We got the report back from that occult specialist - he said the creature was some sort of mental leech... potentially lethal on a grand scale. Whoever waxed this thing did us a favor. Delta out."
Tony let out another sigh of relief in his helmet, and shut off the polygraphs and voice-stress, and he uncrossed his arms.
"I believe you. I know you have no way to prove it, but you tried - and your story just got corroborated. But you need to understand the Registration law was put into place for a reason - and this is exactly that reason. If you'd been registered, you could have given a report on this, and I would have had more reason to trust you on this from the beginning. And don't think I don't understand your desire for secrecy - that's why we made the files sealed, only Captain America has rights to access the files. And I have my own oversight to the process as well."[/font]
He watched her for her reaction as he spoke, then he paused for a moment, considering.
"If you'd consider registration, there is an offer I can make... you obviously know about the Avengers. If you're willing to register, I'd like to offer you a provisional membership, if you're interested. You could protect people the way you seem to want, and you wouldn't be alone in so doing. Beyond that... well you wouldn't have to worry about SHEILD kicking down the doors of your apartment anymore."[/font]
Even through the voice-synthesizer, his grin was almost audible in that last sentence.
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Post by dana2 on Jul 13, 2009 20:46:08 GMT -5
Seraph managed to stop herself from sighing the biggest sigh of relief possible when he believed her AND that her story had proven to be true. This meant that she wasn't going to have SHIELD on her case all the time now, but when Stark moved onto the subject of registration and the Avenger's all thoughts of celebrating were halted immediately.
She knew that by registering higher authority would know all about her life, who she was and where she was born and such things. That was something that she would never be able to do, she had faked her own death years ago which was paramount to conning the government, in the eyes of the law Katherine Crawford was dead and buried, Katie Daniels, the person she pretended to be was a fake too, no-one noticed that up until a few years ago that the woman hadn't existed.
On the other hand the prospect of working with the Avengers was a mighty fine offer that wasn't thrown around lightly, especially in the wake of the alien invasion a year ago. But it conflicted with her anomynous needs to evade being revealed as being someone who faked their own death.
"I would gladly join the Avengers, however I openly opposed the registration act......But I want your word that no-one other than you or Captain America will know who I really am. Any identity I lead from there on you would confess to others as being who I really am. Can I count on that?"
It would be a media storm if the daughter of the woman who ran a vast number of news and media groups in America was revealed to have faked her own death and be living as a vigilante in New York.
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Post by Iron Man - Tony Stark on Jul 14, 2009 12:49:40 GMT -5
"If you opposed the Act on those grounds, I think you have been misinformed." he said, shaking his head slightly. "We're not going to put your identity on the Internet for everyone to see. Cap would be the only one with legal access to the information about your identity if you wish to keep it secret. If you want to put a false identity on the public side of the registration, we can arrange that as well. Otherwise it will just read "private" - that's your right and noone is going to question it. You wouldn't be the first person to request special security on their true identity, as it turns out."
He lifted his hand to his faceplate and it clicked as it disengaged, and he pulled it away, smiling slightly as he looked over to her. "Not everyone decides to make their identity public ever, much less right away. I kept mine hidden for years. But you might want to make sure you've got a mask, or another decent way to keep your face hidden, or someone is going to recognize it, Miss...?"
He could run her face through the federal databases if he had to, but he decided against it - he'd let her tell his name, or not, he wasn't going to mess with it any... yet. Unfortunately he didn't have the luxury of trusting people right away... he believed what she said was sincere, but he'd been bitten far too many times, as it were...
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Post by dana2 on Jul 14, 2009 13:26:39 GMT -5
Looking on the face of Tony Stark Seraph felt a light sense of honour that he'd unmasked in front of her, even though his identity was public taking off the mask face-to-face was a different ball game entirely. Closing her eyes for a moment her costume dissapeared with her normal clothing underneath, her face unobscured entirely she looked into the eyes of Tony.
"My name is Katherine Crawford, I faked my death years ago.....Thats the reason for my secrecy." Uncertain of what the man behind the Iron would do now that he knew her name was a daunting prospect, anything that Stark wanted to do to either her public life or revealing who she was to the world rested squarely in his hands.
((fail post, I apollogise))
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Post by Iron Man - Tony Stark on Jul 14, 2009 21:47:53 GMT -5
"Crawford... as in..." he said quietly, thinking back to the news reports... it had been a vaguely big deal. In his way, her father had been nearly as big as he had - media giant that he was. Even if he wasn't quite as wealthy or famous for his excesses... but still major, and because of his position in the media... his daughter's death had been something major. "I can certainly understand then why you want this off the record... and we'll have special dispensation on your file. Even SHIELD will be absent that name - we'll just have to make sure to set up a suitably elaborate cover ID. Not my first rodeo where that's concerned, so don't worry. Of course, I'll need to run at least your admission to the Avengers past the other Avengers - I'm currently the chairman of the team, but the Avengers have always decided matters by council. Perhaps, however, you saw the Hood's recent broadcast... it might occur to you that we could use someone with magical talents. Besides that... I think you fit the bill. We all start out more or less the same way... I've been chased by the authorities once or twice. Why don't we head to the towers then... I'll start setting up what's needed."<probably ending the thread after your next one, and we'll set one up at the Mansion for your grand 'ol induction>
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Post by dana2 on Jul 15, 2009 14:38:02 GMT -5
((Changed Cap))
Kate felt assured that Stark was going to take all the precautions that he said he was going to do, he had the power to do the thing that he said he was going to do.
"Thank you...I saw his broadcast yes, I have it under good intellegence that the Hood himself is a dangerous individual. I also am aware that you are next on his grand hitlist, it would be an honour to help bring him down with you."
The Hood, one of the more magically equiped villains in the world today and someone very close to Seraph's style of fighting, employing physical combat with arcane magics, although Seraph's physical style was copied mainly from other heroes to her own sort of fighting.
((Want to start a thread in the mansion first?))
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