Quest for the Nullifier (Heroes)

[Magneto- Erik Magnus Lehnsherr]

“Good work Insight… the cloak is perfect… in fact the ship is perfect would you not say so yourself Stark?” Magneto mused as he looked to Iron Man and his Avengers alongside the X-Men as they sat in the seats of the X-Men’s newest aircraft the aptly names: The Silver Hawk.

They had all come together finally. They were on the move towards what he believed to be the world’s greatest threat yet. This was the new X-Men’s first mission and he was sure that it was one they would not forget. “Insight, what is our position now and our ETA to Antarctica and the Savage Land if you please.” He was anxious to get their but they needed to brief before they did arrive, he did not want this to take long but they could not go into this blind either. The Master of Magnetism knew Mystique was now leading the Brotherhood and she was not one to underestimate. He knew her intimately as she did him, that made this encounter very volatile to say the least and if his intel was correct she had a few heavy hitters on her team and defiantly a few wild cards. Things were going to get ugly, just how ugly was the question and with the Silver Surfer in the mix, Galactus on his way and that blasted Sentinel supposedly working with them god only knew what was going to happen next.

Then there was the question of his current allies. Could they be trusted when all was said and done? The power of the Nullifier was greater than any they had yet encountered before or since the Fantastic Four first procured and used it to force the mighty Galactus to leave earth peacefully so many years ago. More than once it had caused the people of earth and the galaxy at large grief with its mere existence and now it was here on earth once more, in the hands of those considered villains by many and they, his X-Men and the Avengers were to fight those he once considered allies in the freedom of mutant kind. He was to trust the so called heroes. When all was said and done was he expected to hand over the device to Iron Man and his Avengers? Could they be trusted?

Yes it had been Iron Man at Xavier’s wishes who approached him with the offer or running the Institute, with the chance at a clean, fresh new start as a leader of mutant kind and a teacher of the next generation. Yes he had taken this opportunity somewhat grudgingly in the name of his fallen best friend. He still did not know why he had such a change of heart, it had, he knew, something to do with the last meeting he had with Charles. The meeting where his friend had shown him a world torn apart by the mutant Apocalypse, where Xavier himself had died year prior and where he led the X-Men as he did now in the hopes of freeing humanity and uniting homosuperior and homosapiens in peace. This vision had changed him… that was all he knew.

Yet the questions still remained… Could they be trusted and who should possess the Ultimate Nullifier?

[Aidan Veridan - Insight]

"Thank you, Headmaster..." Insight replied, sitting at the helm of the ship this time - it was HIS damn plane, so he'd kicked Nightcrawler into the copilot's seat for this one. He was still sort of miffed that they'd gone out on their first jaunt with it without him, three months building the freakin' thing and they go take it for a joyride while he was out visiting his family for a couple days... sheesh...

He couldn't quite shake the feeling the Magneto was trying to get under Iron Man's skin by pointing out how 'perfect' the craft was, though. Nothing was ever 'perfect' for Magneto, even the things HE built, so Insight very much doubted the man thought this craft was. Insight was quite positive that his baby was extremely well designed, and just as well built, and Magneto certainly thought it adequate (which was high praise by itself), but perfect seemed to be stretching it. Hell, he'd already run into six minor performance glitches he would need to tune up, nothing major, but he was an engineer. Nothing was ever perfect... always ways to improve.

Which was still ANOTHER reason he felt fairly certain ol' Mags was just trying to use him to brag to Iron Man, implying that 'his' tech expert was just as skilled as Tony Stark himself, widely believed to be the world's foremost expert on this sort of thing. Or, at the very least, top two - he understood that Stark and Reed Richards tended to compete for that title. He'd not really considered himself at their level... he was too new to this whole mess. Not, of course, that he didn't plan to be there sooner or later...

His mind snapped back to reality at Magneto's question, though, and he held a hand up, tapping a space in the air in front of him, and a holographic display appeared - Silverhawk had manual controls and readouts for emergencies, but when it was working as intended, all the screens were haptic adaptive interfaces. Computers monitored the position of the pilot's hands and fingers at all times, and could project hundreds of readout screens for any number of purposes. Most people had a hard time coping with too many of them, but Insight had almost fifty open at the time - dealing with so many calculations and the like at once was sort of his thing, after all... one of the things his power had adapted him for. He quickly navigated to a screen showing their flight path, and called up an ETA window, then replied.

"We're crossing the equator now, about six miles up and running at a clean Mach 25... ETA is about thirty-five minutes." he said, smiling a little. The engine system had proven much smoother than he'd worried it might be... now if he could just get a decent system for inertial dampening running so he could get this baby to pull thirty or forty gees without pasting the crew...

[Iron Man - Tony Stark]

"Perfect? Trying to impress me, Magneto?" Tony asked, turning his faceplate to look towards the Master of Magnetism, smirking slightly behind his armored visor. Like Insight, he found it slightly suspicious that Magneto, avid perfectionist that he was, found the ship anything of the sort, but... "Ah well, too bad - because I AM impressed. Frankly when I first read the proposal for a laser pulse detonation rocket system, I didn't care for the idea of a pulsed-drive system. Using a stream detonation is an excellent workaround. And yes, the cloaking and such is nice, too. Leather seats and everything - I see the Institute still doesn't skimp." Neither did he, of course... leather just wasn't exactly the material that went best with the inside of a suit. Now his cars, on the other hand...

That, though, was beside the point. He pulled up his own positioning data for a moment, checking Insight's data, which was correct - hadn't that guy used to work for him? Another one lost thanks to Osborn... the idiot. Pity Erik had snatched the guy up before Tony had a chance to hire him on for Stark Dynamics... ah well. Couldn't get everyone you wanted all the time. But eventually... had to think long term, after all.

And that applied to the question of the Nullifier as well. The wisest option might have been just to hand it over to the Surfer so he could return it to Galactus... assuming, of course, that the Sentinel was being truthful. He'd be reserving his judgment until he actually saw the Surfer, he'd decided... beyond that, he supposed it would depend on what else happened. For the moment, though, he nodded, then spent a few nanoseconds uplinking with the Silverhawk's internal holo system before he pulled up an image of the Nullifier, then a map of the Savage Land beneath it.

"Alright people... we all know why we're here. We're going to retrieve the Nullifier from the Savage land. The reformed Brotherhood of Mutants is also after the prize, and we believe it may currently be in the hands of the Mutates, which makes getting in quickly all the more important. Most of you have worked with one another at some point, and even for those of you who haven't, we don't have much time for introductions. This, however -" He motioned to Mimic, " - is Mimic. He has more intimate knowledge of the Nullifier's location, so he'll be leading us to the Mutate's base." He left off at that point, either for Magneto to continue or Mimic to explain.

[Calvin Rankin - Mimic]

Mimic was a little taken aback by being called out so blatantly among this group of people. It was especially a more disconcerting because of the fact that there was supposedly another version of him, this worlds natural version, and that Mimic was a villain. He coughed and looked a little embarrassed but nodded in Iron Mans direction. “Uhhh thank you. As some of you may know I am Calvin Rankin. Many of you may know … me… as Mimic however I am not the Mimic of your world. I am what some consider an Exile. I was part of a team of inter-dimensional heroes who moved across the multiverse and righted wrongs in order to preserve it. Now I know that is a lot to take in but there is more.” He paused and looked around at everyone’s eyes, taking them in, some, who did not wear masks; he could see a slight bit of shock, confusion and disbelief in their eyes. Others seemed to accept it and those that did know him now like Thena and Stark were obviously not fazed at all.

“I arrived in this world mysteriously after being, for lack of a better term, killed. I don’t know how I got to this world or how I am still alive but I do know that I found myself in this world’s Savage Land when I came to. I spent some time there… felt like months but may have just been weeks… I don’t know. All I do know is one day not too long ago a flaming object fell from space and landed in that prehistoric valley. I tracked it to where it came down and found a crater and in the middle an object protected by some sort of energy barrier… like a dome… “Again he paused and took a breath letting this all set in. “Now the falls people took this as a bad omen and so after forming a brief partnership with Ka’zar, Zabu and Shanna we took to guarding the object and making sure none of the evil inhabitants of the Savage Land got their hands on it. Eventually though it fell to the hands of the Mutates and Sauron. We fought them but my allies fell in battle against their power and against their cyborg mind controlled dinosaurs. I was only narrowly able to escape using Brainchild’s escape rocket. All I can really tell you is the object, which seems to be the Ultimate Nullifier is now in the Mutates hands. They have it sealed up in their compound which is guarded by powerful weapons, the aforementioned giant lizards and the Mutates themselves. After my escape I guess I made it too New York with great luck and got in touch with the Avengers, now here I am.” He shrugged. It didn’t sound all that impressive, not very leader like but it was the truth. He could at most help them find the base and fight their way in other then that he was not much more use.

As he went silent he took a minute to now look over at Thena, his first friend in this world. He was still very sorry for inadvertently putting her in this position. He would not have been surprised if she didn’t talk to him again after this. He felt bad and he hoped to make it up to her if they all survived this fracas. What did surprise him however was the man who now led the X-Men in this world. He did not know the history of this universe, he did not know if this Magneto had fallen down the dark path most seemed to. He had, in his adventures indeed his very first with the Exiles, met good Magnetos. By that very thought he had met evil Xavier’s. Yet still it surprised him every time he saw a heroic Master of Magnetism. They were rare and this one… this one seemed very different for some reason… but he could yet put his finger on it. For now though he would need to trust him as he did these Avengers and these X-Men. This world depended on it.

[theguardian]

Jamie was checking all the medical equipment over and over again, sitting to the rare of this flying object he eventually packet and compressed everything into a large storage object that fitted onto his back naturally, almost like a ruck sack. Setting it beside him he listened to the people around him
'Mutates', 'Giant lizards', 'cyborg controlled dinosaurs'.

It sounded rather far-fetched and he wasn't sure what he was exactly up against.
Nudging the person next to him he whispered in a low tone.
"So what are we up against, Komodo dragons and Jurassic Park?
Is there going to be poison from these creatures?"
He asked nervously but assertively.

[Valkyrie - Hjordis]

Valkyrie was not enjoying the ride.

Not that she was making it terribly public or anything, but she sat very straight in her seat and she stared forward without truly seeing anything. Oh, and the grip she had on the sword at her hip was strong enough to crush stone, though the only evidence of it was a set of lightened knuckles.

She didn’t mind the flying part, and she wasn’t afraid, persay. She just didn’t enjoy stuffing herself inside the metal belly of the flying contraptions that were so prevalent in Midgard and that everyone always turned to when travel was required.

Hjordis would have preferred to transport herself to the Savage Land, but Tony Stark had made a good point; she had never been there before and they didn’t have detailed enough footage of their landing point for her to accurately get there by utilizing her connection to the Land of the Dead and teleporting there in an instant. Still, having an advance scout would have made strategizing their plan a little easier…

Her lack of interaction was not broken as Tony Stark and the one he called Mimic began talking. Were she asked, she would be forced to say that she understood very, very little of what Mimic said. Her understanding of Midgard…Earth…was growing each day, but the more she learned, the less she felt she knew. She wasn’t worried though. She had what she needed; the location of the Nullifier.

Valkyrie’s goal was simple. Get the Nullifer. Nothing else particularly mattered, though knowing what they were up against was helpful on occasion.

Where the informational speech drew little reaction from her, the man beside her did. He’d been spending most of the trip organizing and re-organizing his pack until finally he set it down to listen. All of which she’d ignored successfully until he nudged her.

Blue eyes slid to the side as she looked at him without moving her head.

“Dragons, perhaps, but this will be no “park walk”,” she replied to Jamie, a little tightly with not one hint of humor to soften the currently hard lines of her face. “It would behoove thee to assume there will be poison.” For a moment she seemed to pause on that and she looked thoughtful. “Mayhap lots of it,” she added, apparently unconcerned with the prospect of poisonous dragons.

Another look at him had her relaxing just a little, one corner of her mouth lifting in a shadow of a smile. “Worry not. Most beasts can only poison that which they bite.” As if that was supposed to make him feel better.

Then again, a Viking warrior seemed a fitting opponent against dragons and dinosaurs.

[Thena Eliot]

This certainly was far from what Thena had planned for this weekend and she only knew most aboard the craft from newspaper clippings so needless to say she felt out of place amongst these heroes. She glanced to Mimic as he was asked to explain what he knew of the device they kept referring to as the Nullifier, the device they were going to retrieve before it fell into the wrong hands or Galactus destroyed the world. Even though she herself was certainly not powerless she felt small in comparison to the others, where they were used to flying off to defend the world on an almost daily basis Thena didn't have that experience....well she did but she barely remembered it. Her position within the Eternals still fuzzy although she did understand more about how she came to have her powers than she did before.

She sat quietly with her head bowed as she listened to Mimic tell them what he knew, this wasn't going to be easy and she didn't like the feeling she had in the pit of her stomach. There was something from her past...something from her other life that niggled at her, images of warped people, darker beings that worked towards destroying the balance of good and evil, beings they had come to wage war on and some of these beings resided....in the savage land. This was not good, not good at all especially if she was recognised, it would put the rest of the team and their mission in jeopardy. Not to mention it was an added risk to her own life and she didn't want to die not when her son had only lost his father a couple of months before.

[NPC]

Peter felt antsy. He still felt weird as a member of the Avengers. He was used to being a part time crime fighter alone, swinging the skyscrapers of New York, beating up some bad guys and being him, usually, in time for dinner with Mary Jane. Jumping on jets and running across the globe and even sometimes beyond was still a little hard to handle. He also know that MJ was very upset with him for continuing this, especially with… He paused in his thoughts. He did not want to think about that right now or he knew he would feel worse about his coming along then he already did.

“Yes this is one shiny spit fire you got here Maggie, your boy does good work but you aint seen what Tony has built lately. It would spin your mind.” He sneered at the former villain with his usual cocky attitude. He had to act this way, especially now with so much on his mind. Never the less when all was said and done he was going to have to talk to Tony. He needed time of, MJ needed him now more.

Nightcrawler laughed as he ported from one end of the Silver Hawk to the other leaving only the compressed air burst many had come to call a BAMPH by the noise it made and the smell of brimstone in his wake. “That is where I think you are wrong mein alter freund. You see I have already piloted this craft once and I can tell you I have felt nothing better yet. It is truly a grobartig piece of art.” He grinned to Spider-Man as he hung above his head, upside down from the ceiling much as the wall crawler would do. A cocky fang filled smile of his own etched across his blue face. “AKK!” Kurt then cried out as he felt his tail pulled hard causing him to fall back into one of the seats. “Quiet ami, this is not a time to be starting fights.” The cool Cajun accent of Gambit hissed at his team mate as he glared sternly at Nightcrawler with his black eyes. “We are all partenaires on this little fredaine. We don’t need any one-upmanship right now Kurt, we will have enough of that when Gambit and Wolverine begin the games again.” He smirked and shuffled a deck of cards in his hands while Kurt sat up straight again and adjusted himself in his seat, glaring a little at Remy for pulling his tail.

“You’re lucky he just pulled it… I might have cut it off…” Laura Kinney aka X-23 smirked a little sadistically as two adimantium claws sprung from her right hand at a mental command having seen the outrage in the elder X-Mans eyes. She among them all was the wild card, she enjoyed hurting, enjoyed killing, perhaps even more so then Wolverine. She was ready for this; she wanted this to happen… Savage Land, Savage Heart as they say. Deep down her teenage heart beat with excitement at the prospect of finally being able to let loose. “Please Laura… contain yourself, you have been taught better than that. You do not threaten your allies. “Storm scolded the young woman which only gained a low animal like growl from the teenager. Storm continued to glare at Laura for a long moment for she did not fear the child, she had lived long with Wolverine, and she had seen him at his worst and survived it. At the elder mutant’s harsh looks Laura did, after a bit more grumbling, nod with a slightly defeated sigh.

“Ms. Marvel, Why is Captain America, you’re the other Co-leader of the Avengers not with us. This is unusual is it not? Such a desperate mission and the hero of heroes is not here and frankly has not been seen in quite some time.” Emma finally piped up from her seat near the head of the jet just behind Magneto. She to the woman who sat immediately to her right and then up towards Iron Man as If waiting for an answer from one of them while in truth she did not really care. This however was her way of pointing out, in words, what many all around were thinking in the back of their minds. It was the former White Queen’s way of pointing out an apparent weakness in the Avengers ranks. Above all it was her way as second in command to the X-Men to show all aboard, X-Man and Avenger alike that in this they needed to be unified. Her ways were subtle; they were not the ways that gained her many friends but more often than not the most successful of ways.


Translation
mein alter freund – my old friend (German)
grobartig – magnificent (German)
ami – friend (French)
partenaires – partners (French)
fredaine - escapade

[theguardian]

Jamie looked at Valkyrie in a strong seriously look that doctors normally used to keep their feelings hidden and their appearance somber.

He rummaged into his neatly stored gear and pulled out a few empty tubes and viles.
"These may come in hand then." He state checking the glass for cracks before placing them back into his backpack.
"If i get enough samples i may be able to formulate a syrum or vaxeen for the poison, less may die from it."

Jamie sits back feeling anxiety get to him as he continued to fidget with his fingers and thumbs.
This felt soo terrifying, not knowing what to be up against. He shook lightly trying best to hard it.

[peterparker]

Peter was indeed nervous about all of this. When he'd learned that he would be going to some place called the Savage Land, he'd been excited at the prospect. But when he'd learned that the fate of the world might be resting on his shoulders he'd almost balked. He respected Captain America and Iron Man too much to back out though. This was especially true if the world itself was in danger. Real danger, like end of the world trouble. It was all sounding far too serious to make excuses for, even if he did have a trigonometry test tomorrow morning. Maybe he'd have felt better to have had Cap here, or so he suggested to himself silently. He was friendly with Tony Stark and had this nifty new uniform, so that was good.

He wasn't sure whether or not he could trust any of these other people yet, outside of Tony and Steve - it was still really strange to think of iconic figures like Captain America and Iron Man as people with first names. The ones who didn't seem nervous as he was, all seemed cocky, especially the woman in all white. While he understood how that could benefit a person from time to time, Pete knew that heading blindly into situations could end badly - not that he had any idea if that was what she was feeling or thinking, she just looked like she was stuck on herself. He had to wonder if the talk was true about Magneto, thinking about another member of their party. He didn't know if it was possible for a man to change so much. He'd really like to believe it, but the man was old. Old people were usually set in their ways by the time they reached his age, and not always in good ways like his Uncle Ben or Aunt May.

"If i get enough samples i may be able to formulate a syrum or vaxeen for the poison, less may die from it."

He could compare him to someone like himself, or perhaps more fittingly to someone like Norman Osborn. Thoughts of Ol' Gobby just filled him with the warm fuzzies...yeah, no, nothing even close to that. More like cold chills, especially when he thought of leaving MJ and Aunt May behind for this mission. There was no telling what kind of trouble might befall the city in his absence. Clearing his throat, as if that could also change his thought processes, Parker looked out through the small portal like window beside him, he responded to the idea of being able to get help if he was in fact poisoned, "That's comforting." Pete said with a sigh as he gave Guardian a look before cracking a smile, "About as comforting as the knowledge that even fancy planes like this fall from the sky." His eyes fell to the fidgeting fingers of his teammate before he began to whistle. The thing about the Savage Land, if you looked at those huge dinosaurs as something of a scientific marvel, then it was a really very interesting trip.

[Ms Marvel- Carol Danvers]

It was a rare thing for Carol not to have something to say or to ask but for once she sat quietly just taking in all that was being said around her or at least she did until a question was posed to her by the always charming Emma Frost. She turned to look at the woman, taking a moment to collect her thoughts before she answered. "I'm afraid Captain America was away dealing with another issue and it just so happened he was out of reach when the details of this problem came to light, however i'm sure when he finds out about it upon either his or our return which ever comes first, he will be kicking himself for not having been here."

It was the best answer she could give without going into detail or making it appear that the Avengers were far less close than they had once been. Even if that was the case, no one exactly knew the details surrounding Steve's departure but that didn't matter as far as Carol was concerned, if Steve had deemed it important to leave when he had then that was good enough for her. It was unfortunate however that he wasn't able to be there as a part of this mission with them because they could have done with the whole team being together. In reality though they would just have to make do and complete the mission hopefully with no casualties or at least as few as possible.

[Magneto- Erik Magnus Lehnsherr]

Magneto listened to Mimics story. It was incomplete and he knew it. Just as he knew this was not Mimic or more precisely not their worlds Mimic even before the young mad had said so. That both fascinated him some and worried him even as Talia had with her mere existence and tales of the Exiles. He had of coarse believed his interdimensional granddaughter as he did this young man but if the possibility of multiple universes was true and not merely hypothetical then that could very well mean that what Charles had shown him in their final meeting was real. A world where Mutant kind had risen to dominance by Xavier’s death and the guiding hand of Apocalypse and quite nearly destroyed said same world in the process. The thought made Magneto go pale for a moment but he quickly composed himself as his attention turned to Ms. Marvel.

“Yes I agree. It is unfortunate Captain America could not join us but whatever kept him away was undoubtedly important.” Erik had a great respect for Cap, even a slight, secret case of admiration. It had been Captain America along with Bucky, Colonel Logan who would later become Wolverine and the Soviet Army who had liberated the Nazi Death Camp of Auschwitz where he and his family had suffered so long. Though his parents had not been able to taste freedom he and his beloved Magda had and for that he was eternally grateful to Captain America. None but he knew this, none ever would but the tone in his voice would ever be one of respect for the hero of liberty.

“Emma does however lead me to inquire on the status of other Avengers. Primarily three, Hank McCoy: The Beast Former X-Men Member, Janet van Dyne: The Wasp whom I hear has turned against you…” The first two he looked to Iron Man to answer for and then finally turned his attention to Hjordis: Valkyrie for the final. “Lastly of Thor, leader of New Asgard. He has thus far ignored the summons of the United Nations and of the Meta-Human Council of which if I am not mistaken there is a shared seat for both he and Hercules waiting.”

Erik did not wait long for an answer concerning his inquiries as the Silver Hawks early warning system activated. “We have just passed McMurdo Station; we will be nearing the Savage Land soon. Is Wolverine’s locator beacon still active Insight?” The Master of Magnetism looked to his prime inventor, the creator and pilot of this magnificent craft.

[Aidan Veridan - Insight]

"Hey, don't make me pull this thing over." Insight said, looking behind him at the little scuffle that seemed to be centered around Nightcrawler, but he grinned slightly as he did, more cheerfully than he actually felt, in truth. He was confident enough, this was the most powerful group of people on Earth in any one place at this moment, but still... his power happened to be very, very good at reminding him of all the ways things could suddenly go wrong. Like that very slight kick in the LSRDS engine that could have started a chain reaction and blown them all away. Only a one in one billion six hundred and sixty seven million eight hundred and ninety three thousand two hundred and one chance of that happening, but he could still see it in graphic detail... he often wished he could get his brain to shut up. But then, if he did that, he wouldn't be ready for the worst as he was now...

He turned back to his console then at the same warning tone that had alerted Magneto, and pulled over another screen, looking at the map overlay of the Savage Land. "Um... Beacon's still active, but the standard Savage-Land-Plays-Hell-With-Technology rule is in full force today, it looks like. I have a decent location fix but only down to about fifty yards. I'm getting some nasty feedback on the cloaking system, too, for that matter. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep us running dark."

He reached for the throttle and pulled it back, and the people aboard the craft would be able to feel the sudden deceleration, though he took it fairly easy. "We'll be crossing over the Mutates' territory in about ten minutes. If anyone wants to get off and fly on their own power, you should head back to the drop bay, I'll move in for a proper drop at the edge of their base for the rest of us." He looked back over to Nightcrawler. "Kurt, you want to handle that final bit? I can't get out of here and leave it to the autopilot quite as fast as you can." He chuckled slightly - that was an understatement. He had to climb out and run to the hatch, Kurt just had to 'bamph' out.

[Iron Man - Tony Stark]

"Carol's right. We were hoping to get him back before this happened, but considering we hat to step up our timetable..." Tony explained, shaking his head a little bit. He wouldn't exactly call things between them strained, but the Civil War hadn't exactly helped things, no matter how amicably he and Steve had come to terms with it all. And that wasn't even considering Tony's own nearly two-year coma and then just as sudden reappearance. Maybe Steve had just decided that he could leave him and Carol to handle things for a while. Wouldn't be the first time. But his friend's timing really did suck this time...

He looked to Magneto, then, narrowing his eyes just slightly behind his visor, but he replied anyway. People were being awfully nosy about his team's business... still, if they were going to work together... "Hank's on sabbatical, working on a project last I heard. Janet's underground right now, Thor's busy running Asgard and not really interested in coming back to Midgard any time soon, from what we're heard." He glanced to Hjordis as he said this... she was the last Avenger to have been thrown out of Asgard, after all.

He was actually glad to hear the warning - they could get off the subject of his team's politics. The Avengers had always been a bit more complicated in that regard than the X-Men, they'd always had lives separate from the team, coming together when they had to rather than spending all their time together... it wasn't something he'd change, but it did make their roster rather more fluid.

He listened to the talk about Logan and the plan from here out, and spent a moment updating his satellite navigation before he nodded, and started towards the back. "Alright, here we go then. Fliers who can handle high-speed to the back, launch and secure the zone for the ship and the rest of the group. Hero time, everyone." He grinned slightly, putting his armored hand on Hjordis' shoulder lightly - she wasn't really a flier unless she went all out, but he knew she'd be damned if she waited with the rest... wasn't an argument he was willing to have.

There was a hatch in the back that led to another, smaller compartment, not unlike a bomb bay, which Insight had built into the ship for this very reason - no need to make people who could fly take the regular door like everyone else. In fact, there were a number of handles to grab that would drop on a wire so non-fliers could exit quickly the same way, though it wasn't as useful while the ship was traveling at barely subsonic velocity as it would be on this first pass. He waited for the others, especially Ms. Marvel, to have assembled before he started - Magneto might come with them or wait for the other pass, either way, Tony was taking the lead for this part.

"Everyone check your communicators, I've sent you Wolverine's general location, we're clearing a space for Silverhawk to put down and linking up with him. Anti-air and Mutates with flying or ranged energy attacks are priority targets, and alert the rest of us if anyone runs into the Brotherhood proper. Hit them hard and fast, we've got the element of surprise here thanks to the ship's cloak, so let's make full use of it"

The green lighting of the room suddenly snapped to red, signaling that the bay was going to drop open, and he nodded. "Let's go get 'em."

Just a moment after he said that, the floor dropped out, the bay opening and angling back, to minimize additional drag on the craft, dumping the fliers out into the massive rush of wind, just below the still-invisible ship - it was a touch disorienting, as though they'd appeared out of nowhere, but Tony's visor superimposed an outline of the Silverhawk on his vision, while it shot off and started to come back around. Tony let himself and the armor free fall for a moment, then reached out, grabbing Hjordis' arm a little tighter. "HANG ON!" he called over the rush of air, then straightened himself out and kicked in the suit's bootjets, lighting a pillar of fire behind him as he shot down towards the jungle - and what appeared to be a fight already. Logan had apparently been caught somehow, and there were already groups of what had to be Mutates descending upon him... "You're up, Valkyrie!" he called, drawing his arm back with her - they'd done this before, she'd know what to do. With that, he launched her towards the ground like a javelin, straight for a number of the mutates descending upon Wolverine. She'd handle ground support... which meant these flying creatures...

He lifted his hands, palms glowing as repulsor lenses charged, and started blasting them from the sky, making one pass at high speed before he flipped around, braking, and switched the repulsors to full-form, emitting a shockwave that blasted several flying mutates and a few riding something like a pterodactyl through the air... His computer threw up a warning, though, and he turned in time to see the massive dome of energy over where his map said the Mutates' base should have been pulse with an even greater energy spike.

"Wolverine!" he called, opening the X-Man and former Avenger's comm. channel, hopefully they were close enough now. "What's happening over there?"

OOC: All are free to post their own exit from the craft, it will fly back around and drop people off who don't fly, so you don't have to wait for Insight to post again

[Valkyrie - Hjordis]

The ship’s warning alert set a feeling of relief through her as well. Hjordis had little experience with the Avenger’s team dynamic; the last Valkyrie had been one of her sister-in-arms, not her. All the questions were a little unsettling, especially since she couldn’t give any answers. The last time she’d been back to Asgard, Thor had all but promised her death and/or imprisonment if she returned. Everyone kept expecting her to be the ambassador to Asgard, which she was more than willing to do, but being an exile of Asgard made that particular job duty a bit…difficult. All missives she’d sent to Thor asking for an audience outside of Asgard had been met with silence.

Not that she blamed him. Much.

Tony Stark had handled it nicely though. ‘Busy running Asgard’ was as good a reason as any and seemed much more subtle than anything she might have said. She’d nodded her agreement of it, glancing at the eyeholes of Tony’s helmet for a split second. It was as much thanks as she needed to say, at least right now.

At his hand on her shoulder, she gave one final look to Guardian (who’d started talking about things she had no knowledge of) and offered a small, what she presumed to be reassuring, smile. Then she was up and moving toward the back of the plane, following Stark silently, her face set into a hard mask.

Dragonfang sat at her hip, but she didn’t unsheathe it. Not yet anyway. No one knew how long this fight would last and she preferred not to put all her cards out on the table right from the beginning. So no, she couldn’t fly, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t leaving the plane as soon as possible.

Like they’d rehearsed it, she set herself at Stark’s side and they dropped together, her braids whipping out behind her as the wind buffeted them. With the rushing air, she heard Tony’s computerized voice only dimly, but she acknowledged it and stiffened as he gripped her arm, one corner of her mouth lifting in an amused expression just before he shot her out like a spear.

She flew through the air with a speed that forced her eyes almost completely closed. She wouldn’t have traded this landing for a safer one for all the gold in Asgard. The ground was coming up fast but she didn’t break form until just before impact. Then she curled into a ball and twisted forward, her arms held out to her sides to catch as many bodies as she rolled forward like a human-sized cannonball, leaving a rather deep trench behind her as she half slid, half rolled through the earth to lessen the raw force of her flight impact.

Without waiting to stop, she was already rolling up onto her feet, unsheathing her sword in the same motion. For the briefest instant, the sword's fury flared through her but she forced it down. Now wasn't the time.

Clumps of earth and grass and other foliage stuck almost everywhere on her but she was none the worse for wear except for a set of ringing ears. Perhaps a few scrapes. Nothing big.

There wasn’t much time to think about any of that though. She hadn’t forgotten she’d been thrown into the middle of a gang of Mutates and, though the element of surprise was nearly gone, she still planned to use what little was left.

Crouching, she sprang forward and engaged the three closest bodies to her, all Mutates, sword blade flashing as she dispatched them with relative ease and a blood-curdling war cry.

“Logan!” she yelled once, hoping to get her bearings on the X-Man’s location.