This is getting out of control, Carol thinks, but let Tony deal with the young lady. It literally couldn't get any worse than that and as long as his mouth is operating, at least she can get to work.

Utilizing her military training, Carol is able to parse the map and images quickly and accurately. She knows what to do and letting She-Hulk do what she does best, Carol starts digging for the other body. She pulls and rends the heavy materials, using tiny pinpoint energy beams to cut and melt the material. Having learned a fair bit of Search and Rescue during her time in the service, it seems that having been in the Air Force is of more relevancy today any having ever been an Avenger. But it's no longer time for recriminations for herself or her compatriots, there's a life to save.

Keep digging, Carol, she thinks, maybe there's something about today that won't be a total loss...

Tony, hearing a commotion behind him, looks back to see Captain Marvel joining in the rescue operation. I should be helping them, not playing crowd control.

"Look...", Tony starts, turning back to face the young, supposed journalist, gesturing behind him with a thumb-over-the-back gesture, "we really don't have time for talk. We have our friends to unbury. You could aide us best by leaving the area, so we can get to work."

Jessica tries to get by Tony, going up on her tip-toes to see over his shoulder.

"Is there a restroom still standing?  I have a feminine matter to uh, take care of."  I just need somewhere to get out of these Louboutin heels and change into my Under Armour Spidey-Wear . . . they actually might need my help.  I could use my Spidey-Sense to scan this rubble for their two friends.  If only he would get out of the way.....it doesn't feel right here at all.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:08, Sat 16 July 2016.

Tony's left momentarily speechless by the latest words from the diminutive reporter. A truly astounding feat.

"Right," he starts, the pause in his speech mirroring the blankness of his mind, "a...restroom." His words hang, as if floating into the conversation by parachute, before snapping back to his usual self: "Again...I think I would recommend the T-Mobile store, or perhaps a 7-11. There are quite a few of them here in New York. Now, please, move to a safe distance. Our friends need us to help dig."

Tony continues to block her view & intended path, but turns to look behind him to see what progress She-Hulk & Captain Marvel have made.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:00, Sun 17 July 2016.

When Tony turns around, Jessica clicks away as softly as she can over to a tall pillar of rubble that is out of the way of where everyone is looking for their friends. Just like looking for a place to pee when you go out camping or on a long road trip.  Somewhere that you can keep an eye on the path, but they can't see you.  I would kill for even a grungy 7-11 bathroom at this point.  Not like the good old days when a partially see through phone booth would do the trick.

When Tony turns back around, she is out of view and to his obvious relief the reporter is gone, although he is unsure how she got away so quickly.

Opening her bottomless purse, which seems to be a superhero advantage but really comes standard with every female, she digs out her sensible, yet very fashionable Spidey outfit.  Folded into an easy carry square, just like all of those grocery bags everyone has to carry around these days to be empathic to the landfills.  Actually, hers does function as a shopping bag in a pinch, too.  Of all of her skills, besides her fashion sense, which she suspected was augmented by her Spidey-Sense, her skill to change outfits quickly and showing the least amount of skin was the one she used the most.  Great to use when needing to change from a work outfit to an all night party outfit in the car when you have run out of time because you had to kick some villain ass along the way.

She shoves the dirty pencil skirt and blouse into her purse, hangs her shoes on the outside by inserting the heels in the pen pockets, and hides her purse among the rubble.  Hopefully, another explosion will not happen so that I don't lose my purse.  I had to use my Spidey-Sense to it's full capacity last time to find that Prada bag when it fell out of a helicopter into an ice crevasse.  I bet Tony's suit is full of handy pockets.  It's so unfair that the men's suits are much more versatile.  Mine just looks fantastic on my T&A assets and prevents chaffing while wall climbing.

Spider-Woman climbs up the cement rubble tower and then leaps down to where Jessica Drew had been standing.  Holy awesome, the red and gold glitter that I had Under Armour put in this new red suit catches the sunlight perfectly.  She smiles at the outstanding results of making a fantastic and fashionable entrance in her skin-tight red onesie with black patent leather (vegan, of course, having a special affinity to all creatures, especially the crawly type) piping under the breasts, around a golden arrowhead shape down her stomach, and outlining the appearance of eye blinding glitter gold boots.  Boots of the Nancy Sinatra made for walking type.

Hey fellas, and fellow super-star ladies!  I ran into a reporter down the block who mentioned that I should come check out the situation.  She said that some Hydra took a beating, but that you have some people trapped with no way to call an Uber to get them out of an unsavory location.

The Formerly Golden Avenger's head snaps back around in response to the voice in front of him, which sounds very similar to the voice of the young lady who was just here...but at this point in his life, most women sound the same to Tony Stark. That's a very...spidery costume. Does every -Man have a -Woman now? I wonder who my counterpart will be. Probably a teenager from a rough, urban neighborhood. That'd be kind of cool. I hope she goes to MIT.

"Wait...what? Uber does excavation now?"
This message was last edited by the player at 20:06, Mon 05 Sept 2016.

She-Hulk digs furiously for what feels like hours through the soft mess of dead bodies, down and down into them only to find more. The more she uncovers the more it seems she finds, then a slow avalanche of what she's already dug up to fill in the hole she is creating. If she could see herself she would see that she is covered in blood and gore and settled ash, her hair matted with even more of the stuff, her fingers caked with the remains of what were once humans. All these bodies, all these lives, snuffed out like they were nothing, all of these human beings meeting their fates here in this dumpy lot on the docks. No matter where they came from or where they were going or what they were doing, these were human lives, people with friends and families and hopes and dreams. Even if they were villains, there could have been rehabilitation or a hope for something more. At the very least, they didn't deserve to have to end this way. So many thoughts and so much confusion and anger to build as she pulls aside another pile of bodies only to find more. Who would do a thing like this?

"GRAAAAHHH" She-hulk yells in frustration. She wasn't getting anywhere. These.... bodies.... kept falling back into the hole she was digging. She was just moving the same ones over and over again. She needed some structure. Something to hold the bodies up out of the hole after she moved them. Where was an energy guy when you needed him?

"Somebody help me keep these damn bodies out of the hole!" she shouts. Not waiting, she stops treating the bodies respectfully and starts tossing them up and out of the hole. They land with wet squishes here and there around the surface of the rubble, twisting this way and that like rubber chickens.

Spider-Woman hears She-Hulk's frustration and is sympathetic to her plight, and the fact that it must be hard to find makeup and clothes that look good with that green skin tone.  She extends her left wrist as if ready to receive a passing perfume sample in the mall and a web netting connects from the top of two rubble towers.

"Swipe left and throw those Tinder loser dead weights up in my cobwebs to get them out of your way. "

Well, I guess She-Spider can't be bad if she's offering to help She-Hulk, and I think I saw her on TV a couple of times doing good things. Not seeing anymore journalists around, Tony returns to the map Friday prepared.

"Friday, put the map back up please, and give me an estimate of the readiness of the suit."

The map projection resumes from the suit's holographic emitters in the chest, and a smaller version displays on the helmet's interior screen. "The suit has sustained moderate damage, but the nanites are making repairs. Power is at 68.2% of maximum, and all systems are online."

Tony reviews the map, and sees that Captain Marvel is digging on a correct course to one of the life signs. She-Hulk, however, is off by a few meters. Time to rally the troops.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:25, Mon 18 July 2016.

Black Widow, standing completely on the other side of Iron Man from She-Hulk, looks up at the newly arrived hero, finally with a look of recognition on her face.“Agent Dr -- Spider-Woman.”

The two men look up at her as well. “Remember when we used to have secret identities?” Hawkeye says.

The Human Torch looks at the red-and-yellow-garbed woman longer than he should. “No,” he says in a daze.

"Agent Romanov," Tony turns his head, looking directly at Black Widow, "could you please ask She-Hulk to adjust the trajectory of her efforts. She's off by a few meters...and I seem to irritate her."

"Mr. Storm," Tony says, turning to face The Human Torch, "would you please see if you can give Captain Marvel a hand? There's a lot to dig through, and two is better than one."

"T'Challa...you had a good idea, before we all got distracted. Please, do me a solid, and verify there aren't more life signs down there? The suit's a little banged up, and not quite at 100%. We should have three life signs, but I only count two."

"Clint, have a little chat with Blizzard The Clown and see what he knows. And then, maybe, just for fun, take him and Constrictor into custody, and deposit them at The Raft?"

"And you...blondie. What'd you say your name was? Half-Life? Why don't you and I have a little chat."

Tony's not the leader they would choose, not the leader he, himself, would choose either. Still, having run a trillion-dollar, international corporation from a young age, Tony is not adverse to coordinating efforts and making strategic decisions.

This is better. This feels better. We'll get them out.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:05, Mon 18 July 2016.

"You irritate everybody, Tony," Black Widow drawls.  "She's closer to your light-show than I am."

The Human Torch turns to Hawkeye. “Iron Fist beat you in a fight?”

The archer turns to him, his face becoming a scowl.  "He got a lucky punch.  If I had known -- “

The Torch chuckles.  “His fist is made of iron.  It’s in his name.  He’s a world-class fighter.  You’re a great archer and all but fighting with his hands is his thing.  What made you thought you could take him?”

“Cap and I were vetting him.  We were just seeing how tough he was.  Testing him.”

“You were playing around with a guy who has fists of iron?”

“It wasn’t supposed to be a big deal.  Then it got hi-jacked by some androids.  Not a big deal except that they took down Cap.”

“They took out Captain America?”

“Yeah, they put some weird thing on him and it just about knocked him out.  He’s been recovering since.”

Black Widow looks at her wrist, presumably her watch.  “Try to focus, boys.”

Hawkeye scoffs.  “What's the big deal?  It’s a bunch of Hydra goons and now they’re gone.  Good riddance.”

The glare the Widow suddenly snaps at the archer is sharper than anything she could say.  “Have some respect, Barton.”

Hawkeye’s disposition lightens.  “Yeah, yeah, I know.  They were human beings, and all that.”  He sighs.  “It’s just a lot to take in.”  He puts out his palms in surrender.  “I was just being a goof.  No need to start a civil war over it.”  He turns to Blizzard -- who isn’t there.  “Wha -- ?  Where -- ?”  He automatically grasps toward his back, trying to grab an arrow that was destroyed what seems like eons ago.  “Where the -- ?”

Human Torch takes an easy posture.  “Let him go, Hawk.” He motions toward the nearly-melted block of ice they emerged from.  “He saved our lives.  And we’ve got bigger stuff to deal with.”  Then he turns, flames on, and flies the short distance toward Capt. Marvel to give her a hand.

She wouldn't argue with me if I were Fury or Rodgers.

While Black Widow wastes time refereeing between Storm & Barton, Tony turns to the blonde man and says, "Pardon me, for just a moment. I'll be right back." With that, he cautiously approaches the hole where She-Hulk is digging...bodies, body parts, and former pieces of Hydra's reinforced warehouse still flying out of the hole at a regular rate. Yeah, let's have the empathy-challenged, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist ask the nice green lady to adjust her course.

Calling into the hole: "Pardon me, your emerald-ness...you're doing a great job...but you seem to be digging a bit off course. I have a map here if you'd like to look at it."

Tony then mute's the suit's external speaker. "Friday...highlight She-Hulk's position on the map in emerald green."

"Done, Mr. Stark." Sure enough, a green icon appears approximately 20 feet above, and 12 feet southwest of one of the life-signs.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:57, Wed 20 July 2016.

She-hulk hurls a large chunk of debris straight at Iron Man's head. He dodges it, but when he looks back he sees her standing there covered in gore, chest heaving, veins popping out like garden hoses, fists clenched at her sides, glaring up at him. If she had laser vision, he'd be getting seared right now. After a long beat staring a hole in him, she turns back to her gruesome task and begins digging again, this time slightly to the left of where she'd been working before.

Okay...clearly...still not happy with me. Heh...that reminds me of the story Thor told us about Banner punching him during the Battle of New York. Must be the gamma.

"Thanks...we appreciate your efforts!", Tony calls into the hole, hoping to broker some good will. No response is heard, but debris begins flying out of the hole again.

"Mr. Stark, She-Hulk is now on a direct path to the first life sign. She should reach it any minute now, and Mr. Storm appears to be assisting Captain Marvel."

Yeah...this is better. We're gonna get them out.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:55, Mon 25 July 2016.

Carol is still digging as the Human Torch flies over. In previous meetings he's been JOHNNY STORM, an obnoxious hormonally-charged overgrown infant. As he arrives, there's pain in his eyes and a weariness that most people not named the Fantastic Four have rarely seen. Sadly, it gives Johnny a rare gravitas that is both heartening and depressing.

He lands and flames off, visibly exhausted. Carol slows her excavating but doesn't stop, "Rest for a few, Johnny," She says with genuine concern for the poor guy, "I've got it under control for the momen--"

Carol feels a reverbation of movement not far under where she's delving. The surprise cuts through the weary resignation that has been building as she has been digging. It gives a shock of adrenaline and burst of hope. Her eyes light up and she scans the debris with renewed purpose.

She finds it: a large slab of concrete and titanium, sundered in half but not so destroyed that it couldn't be used as shelter for quite possibly the luckiest whatever on the planet. It could be her imagination, or a hallucination, or maybe a last Hydra trick designed to kill them all.

So, of course, she reaches down...

Grips the stone and steel with fingers so strong that they dig in by centimeters...

And hurls the slab up and away...

Capt. Marvel's heart sinks that much deeper when under the steel and stone she finds only more carnage, more burnt and crushed and obliterated bodies. Yet this time, she uncovers the severed head of the robot Von Strucker, its mechanized jaw still moving, though so slowly the effort is feeble, but fortunately with no sound. It lies at the top of this mound of bodies, affecting the world in no way, its existence impotent, mirroring the wasted lives around it. For them there was truly no escape. In joining Hydra there never was, but even the most vile person did not deserve this fate.

With the proper guidance from Iron Man and some light from the Human Torch's flame, She-Hulk redoubles her efforts to keep digging through the bodies toward those that may still be living. The bodies and faces of the Hydra agents and the lives they once had become a blur, seeing them necessary in trying to save those last two that could be rescued. There is no time to think about the living things this human debris once was. As Iron Man steadily leads She-Hulk while monitoring his hologram map, even if it is only noting that she is heading in the correct direction, the colors of the life-forms that were once vibrant enough to stand out against the drab colors of the inert matter around them fade, until finally the colors disappear.  Yet She-Hulk still digs. And digs. And digs. While Marvel hauls aside the bodies piling up around the hole as it becomes deeper, the Torch melts the inorganic material around them to make room. The only sound is the once-living matter and surrounding material slapping against each other and the jade giantess grunting in her effort, the crowd keeping their distance and respectful silence on the edge of what was once the warehouse.  Iron Man’s Friday shatters the quiet: “Mr. Stark, the life-forms previously identified are no longer living.” If it is only Stark that can hear the voice inside his helmet, somehow the other heroes in his vicinity get the same message. Marvel and the Torch slow,and even She-Hulk does the same… until she starts again, with an even greater and intense purpose. Her arms burns with the strain and repetition, her heart sore with disappointment, but still she digs. Marvel and the Torch and Stark and now the Black Widow and Havok, who have also approached, lower their eyes. Again, only She-Hulk is the source of any sound against the silence and Black Widow steps forth as she regretfully begins to say something.

And then… She-Hulk’s hands strike against organic mater that does not fold under her might: A massive hand connecting to an even more massive forearm, buried under the weight of the bodies and matter above it, now quickly cleared by the green Avenger and pulled free. The recovered Hercules, laid about at the bottom of the hole and not moving, but intact. His body is barely recognizable, as obliterated as it has been, with wide tracts of skin removed, an arm bent in a way not intended by nature, a face demolished beyond resemblance of any past features. Besides the immense, powerful body, impressive even in this state, his most notable feature is that he is not garbed in the green-and-yellow standard-issue Hydra uniform, and it is enough to identify him.  This is the Lion of Olympus, brought low by a mortal threat beyond much of what he has encountered in his immortal life. “Jen!” the Human Torch shouts, pointing to a part of the hole near where Hercules was recovered. “There!” She-Hulk quickly looks over and sees what the hotshot has seen: a sash, now covered in blood but with enough of a hint of gold color showing through identify as that off Iron Fist, the martial arts hero. She-Hulk scrambles again to recover this body and pull it from the compact pile, finally pulling it free and laying it beside Hercules. This one is in the same condition as Hercules, beaten and bloodied and bruised and broken, but the fact that it is only that bad is a miracle on its own. When Hercules was overcome by the enormous volume of Hydra agents, did he stay deep within that multitude to find and protect Iron Fist when the final wave of destruction tore through the place?  That fact that Iron Fist is as intact as he is, and only just so, would seem to bear that out.  Yet there is no time to consider how they came to now, only to recognize the current state and use that information to move swiftly to what needs to happen next.

"Jen, stop." Black Widow puts her palm out, an order to She-Hulk to halt before moving the bodies any more. Any further movement could cause more damage. She-Hulk stands panting, her gore-caked body heaving, her breath shallow and fast. The Widow looks around quickly, as if to find a solution with which to get the bodies of the heroes out of there, but, with the crowd of bystanders at a distance, the police keeping them out, and an immediate lack of ambulance sounds, hope may not be currently available.  So much effort to find their compatriots in the extreme chaos that this mission has become, only to lose them now?

The Widow stays still with the order standing, as if doing nothing is an action. Her face is urgent but she says nothing. She looks again at her watch.

The map projection shuts off, and a silence hangs in the air.

It can't end like this. Friday has to be wrong on this one.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:31, Thu 28 July 2016.

After Iron Fist and Hercules are set aside and Widow tells Jen to stop, she stands there with shoulders slumped and head down, dripping with gore. Then she falls limply to her knees and starts sobbing. She'd never felt so tired, so numb, so empty; it wasn't physical - she could move 200 pound weights all day.

"Hercules is immortal. How can he die?" a coarse whisper escapes her lips. She couldn't make sense of this. Despite all her strength and all her invulnerability, she couldn't do anything more. What good was super-strength against something like this? She was usually the life of the party and reveled in The Life, but such tragic, senseless loss has shaken her.

As if finally realizing her physical state, she looks at her hands. "I need a shower. A long shower." she whispers again. But she makes no move to get up and take care of herself.

In reply to She-Hulk (msg # 409):


Spider-Woman knows that many of the people here have extensive military training, although no one has taken a pulse yet.  She walks over to Hercules and bends down towards his neck, since his arms and wrists are mangled and bloody.  She listens and tries to hear if there is still blood pumping through him.

If there is one thing she knows, it is never to give up.  Your favorite Urban Decay silver glitter eyeliner may be discontinued, but you can always still find it on Ebay or the outlet store.  Plus, styles come back around again, people can, too.  Thankfully, Iron First and Hercules are much better use than a retro fanny pack.

Looking up at the Human Torch she says, "How about using some of that flame to cauterize these wounds and stop the bleeding where we can?  Then we can see what we are dealing with."

Seeing Spider-Woman do the sensible thing gives Carol a bit of hope, the first bit of non-exhausting emotional turmoil in what seems like hours. Carol casually flips the Strucker-head-thing at Iron Man. "Tony, see what you can get out of this thing", she says as IM catches the head.

Carol streaks up and away from the carnage and debris toward the gathered onlookers and emergency services typical at an event of this kind. She finds what she's looking for and lands next to an ambulance, one that's been sitting there for a while from the looks of the personnel loitering around it anxiously.

"You, and you"<Purple>, she says to the two EMTs by the ambulance. They're a bit stunned by her arrival, not every New Yorker is a jaded New Yorker, especially when it comes to superheroes.

<Purple> "Now!...Please. People are hurt." She doesn't yell as much as makes it obvious that this is a massively urgent affair. To their credit as emergency service workers, they recovered quickly and we're moving swiftly towards the ambulance before Carol finished her sentence.

They rev the engine and Carol has a shrugs to herself, more surprises for these poor EMTs as she lifts the ambulance and carries it into the air.

Precious moments later, Carol sets the ambulance down near the gathering of heroes. The EMTs climb out of the cab quickly, the man grabbing their medical bag and the woman coming over to administer immediate aid.

It takes a while to dig through the Greek gods’ muscles and exposed sinew but if there was a pulse to be found, it would have been.  Unfortunately, there is no sign of life in the hero.  The Human Torch activates flames in his hands but looks bewildered by a command to cauterize anything.

Suddenly, the sky explodes silently with blinding light and the site is flooded with illumination.  Seeming to appear from the thick air of the summer night sky, S.H.I.E.L.D.-issue flying cars descend from the sky, their wheel-wells parallel with the ground, then turning perpendicular like a standard automobile as they land, taking their places looking like a standard sedan, though ones parked on an immense mound of rubble.  From the car closest to the group of heroes, four S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in full regalia and gear emerge.  One agent, the most dashing, steps to stand among the heroes.  “Agent Romanov,” he nods to the Black Widow, before a short glance at Spider-Woman.  “Heroes,” he states to no one in particular.  The other agents, along with those stepping out of the half-dozen or so other enhanced cars scattered about the site, take to examining and scouring the wreckage with instruments straight from a sci-fi flick.

“Quartermain,” the Widow states.  “Right on time.”

The lead agent looks around in his own casual apperception.  “Typical.  You see, you come, you wreck the place.”

Across the way, a van-sized vehicle drops from the sky and lands near the heroes gathered around the bodies of Hercules and Iron Fist.  Another squad of agents erupts from the van, swiftly shouldering past the civilian EMTs with polite but impatient “Excuse us”s.  They crowd the prone bodies, their gear scanning and beeping, each of them working with the others in practiced concert to get a deep examination of the fallen heroes.

Really? I'm just the tech analyst? I lost all the kids in the divorce.

Tony is scanning the head when S.H.I.E.L.D. arrives, and by the time they've all made their Hollywood entrance is studying the results. Periodically, he looks over at the agents now studying or working on Iron Fist and Hercules. How can a demi-god be killed by a simple explosion, implosion, or building collapse? It doesn't make sense.

"Mr. Stark, the head has the usual electro-mechanical superstructure. It appears to be as sophisticated as a S.H.I.E.L.D. LMD, sir."

"Okay...check the back of the head for a processing core."

"Yes, sir." The suit's interior view screen rotates the MRI scan of the head, and zooms in on a microscopic region near the base of the metallic skull. Well what do you know?

"Friday, are there any nanites inside the head?"

"No, sir. I do not detect a single nanite, dead or alive, inside the head."

A small laser on Iron Man's right forearm pops up, and shoots into the skull, striking a very particular position near the processing core with pico-lithographic precision.

"Run a gas chromatograph on the fumes, and display the results."

By analyzing the chemical signature of the solder trace, this latest test should give Tony a clue as to possible locations the Von Strucker-bot's head could have been constructed.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:32, Thu 28 July 2016.

Spider-Woman seems unfazed by the sudden arrival of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.  She walks up to Iron Man and touches him on the shoulder to get his attention since he is so self-absorbed.

"Stark, check for a stamp on any metal parts of the LMD.  It's like couture, the person who designed that will have a big ego and want to put some sort of mark on it indicating their authorship.  It might be even a signature that only appears under certain types of UV light."