Storm looked up at She-Hulk. "Not really, no. Did you...didn't you see me get slammed into the wall after taking a...plasma blast I suppose? Square in the chest. That hurt." Hurt bad. Ororo was not moving nearly as fluidly as usual. A pronounced limp made everything that much more difficult. But hey, at least she could still fly. Even while walking she could take most of the weight off her bad leg if she needed to do so.

"I've had enough of this" Bishop finally stands up, still reeling from the experience. His companions looked alright. Ish.  So they could focus on the next priority – getting out of the crater and finding out what the hell happened.

OOC: Whew, that's a relief. I'll be spending that PP so as to avoid insta-death. Thanks for letting Shang-Chi save some face here. ;)

IC:
Despite his efforts to steel his nerves, Shang-Chi's mind reels from a barrage of the unfamiliar. A bead of sweat trickles down his brow. This golden man, whoever or whatever he is, seems to emanate a power far beyond anything he's dealt with before. And although some friends stand nearby, it is little comfort in the face of so much uncertainty. One man dressed in dark clothing particularly strikes Shang-Chi as an omen of misfortune, the massive cannon he carries giving Shang-Chi little reason to imagine that his intentions could be noble. He can't shake the feeling that whatever is about to happen next, violence is inevitable, whether sparked by the golden man or the one dressed in black. Although Shang-Chi remains outwardly calm, waves of uncertainty crash upon the shores of his inner mind, and he soon finds himself adrift in it.

"Where are we?" he asks, to no one in particular.

PP: 0
This message was last edited by the player at 06:37, Mon 03 Feb 2020.

"Agreed", growled Wolfsbane, taking her wolves form ... the better for climbing this Site Reduced To Rubble.
She then proceeded to bound on up the crater walls, using debris and detritus for purchase.

Add d8 to Doom Pool from Shang-Chi's Opportunities
Add d6 to Doom Pool from Machine Man's Opportunity

The Watcher automatically buys all player-rolled Opportunities. Assume that you will get 1 PP for all Opportunities rolled in a single dice pool.

The golden man at the center of the gathering of heroes suddenly makes one single movement: He lifts his head to look far up at the sky.

Doom Pool: 2d6 +d8 +d6 = 3d6, d8

The golden man raises his arms above his head, then flies upward so quickly that it appears as if he disappears. He vanishes into the sky, both from traveling so fast that he is far gone instantly, and from fading into a sky that seemed cloudless because it's an expanse covered in a thick, dull cover of filthy air, hanging low and languidly, as a dirty, ashy fog.

All the man leaves is a quiet whoosh as its rapidly exiting form displaces the air behind it on its rapid exit.

"what the *censored*!?" Bishop, which has been blasted back by the shockwave of the golden man breaking the sound barrier, slowly got up to his feet.  His head was still aching, as was his body, from having every Bishop-atom pulled apart, and then back again
"Storm?" he cleared his throat "How you're feelin'?"

Storm took a deep breath and stood to her full height with She-Hulk's help. "Not so good, Bishop. Though I can still fly if you want me to try to chase him down." She looked up and noted the complete absence of the golden man, as well as the odd sky.

"But I think he might be a touch faster than I am." She paused, mostly to indicate different subject matter. "Any of you find the sky a bit odd?" The dirty fog overhead was actually begging for a bit of exploration.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:30, Fri 14 Feb 2020.

"Yea, that too" he looked around the sooty sky, then back at the crater, and the unfamiliar faces around him.
"Don't bother chasing him. Better we all get out of here and get our bearings first"

Upon reaching the lip of the crater, Wolfsbane took in the scene beyond.

She-Hulk relaxes slightly and releases Storm but stays close. "Probably a good idea to not run off before we figure out where we are," the jade giantess says. "Until we figure out wherever in the world we are. If we're still in a world." Her gaze wanders cautiously to Wolfsbane, scampering up the crater wall.

The Punisher, looking up at a different area of the ridges above, takes a step back.

With sensory processors and receptors operating in what could only be described as 'Safe Mode', X-51 extracts one of his 'eyes' and performs remedial maintenance before replacing it with a subdued *Schlock!*. Internal diagnostics confirm automotive functionality though restoration of X-51's broadband sensory array...pending. With what seems like a very human-like 'sigh', X-51 gazes about the localized area...devoid of ultra-violet or infrared spectrum analysis capabilities, X-51 mutters under breath with a tone that sounds like annoyance...

"Might as well be monochrome..."

Undeterred by his reduced capacity, X-51 continues to operate as if nothing had transpired, taking stock in the general area and those whom lie within his field of perception. As the glowing man ascends and vacates the localized area, X-51 can't help but wonder where was Spider-Man, and who were those currently present? Captain America issued the call, but only one registered as an Avenger - the jade giantess, She-Hulk.

"Probably a good idea to not run off before we figure out where we are," the jade giantess says. "Until we figure out wherever in the world we are. If we're still in a world."

"An astute observation, Ms. Walters. X-51 states as he picks his way through the site reduced to rubble on extensible limbs and approaches She-Hulk, "...one which I will have difficulty assisting at the moment, alas." X-51 accentuates his proclamation by palming the side of his head a few times before issuing forth an over-exaggerated grin as he gazes upon the others. "X-men...it's been too long, did Captain America get in contact with you as well?"
This message was last edited by the player at 19:48, Mon 10 Feb 2020.

She-Hulk straightens as she pulls away from Storm, still staying close to the weather mistress. She looks to X-51. "Cap called me and Bishop here. I'd assumed he called everyone else?" Not much of a question but she looks around at the others just to see who pipes up with a different answer.

"I don't think it was the Captain" Bishop repeated what he said earlier, back when they were at the Avenger's tower "I read a lot about him when I was young.  About how he lived, and died.  Asking us to kill everyone in the compound sounds nothing like him"
This message was last edited by the player at 19:05, Tue 11 Feb 2020.

X-51 strokes his chin and states to no one in particular, "Well, according to recorded human history...'declarations of war' seldom de-escalate into pillow fights. Still, it seems rather pointless to follow through with the initial protocol...apparently this is the compound, or more importantly - what is left of it. I suppose we could search the rubble, but the likelihood of finding organics among the debris is exceptionally small if we expect to find them living.

Tilting his head slight, X-51 gazes at Bishop with an expression that looks like confusion, "Speaking of violence - Who...or what...was the glowing man? You apparently knew him well enough to consider him worth shooting.

Without missing a beat, X-51 tilts his head towards She-Hulk, "As to your question, Spider-Man was among those who answered the call...though it does not look like he made it through what seems to have been a temporal convergence."

"At least that is what I am calling it...," X-51 states as he converts one of his hands into a series of electronic tools and extracts one of eyes and seems to be performing some kind or sort of maintenance work. "...I could be wrong." he adds with a humorless grin.

"Cap... has his reasons," She-Hulk says, though her voice is lower than it has been. "I mean... he's Captain America."

Wolfsbane could be seen standing at the lip of the crater, far above ... her back to those within as she surveyed the land beyond.

Storm nodded after a brief pause. "Someone identifying themselves as Captain America sent us out on this mission. Though as Bishop said, it didn't sound like him. And as far as I've been able to tell, no one received instruction from him face-to-face."

X-51 replaces his eye and looks glum, "One anomaly at a time, please...my processors took quite a hit during the localized temporal displacement. According to rudimentary geographical triangulation...we are still at the same destination prior to the violent altercation with the glowing man...so it's not really a question of where, but when."

Scuffing his boot over a bit of debris, X-51 concludes, "It would seem we were shifted forward along a probable future timeline...this SHIELD holding facility has seen better days, apparently fifteen minutes ago according to my internal clock."

Storm nodded. "Same place, eh? Hm. Well, time to take a look."

The mutant lifted off the ground and slowly rose toward upwards as her cape billowed behind her. Blue eyes surveyed the world around her as she gained altitude.

Bishop narrowed his eyes at the mention of time travel.  He didn’t like the sound of it, not one bit
”Are you sure it only been fifteen minutes?  Cause unless the entire city been leveled, I would have expected to hear sirens by now.  Right?”

"Approximately..." X-51 replies to Bishop, "...I am correlating my time index based upon the moment where you discharged your firearm at the glowing man - the ensuing energy cascade, and what appears to be some sort of localized temporal displacement which brought us to this moment, stems from that."

"At least I hope it was localized...," X-51 states as he picks up and examines a rusted bit of metal, "If the rest of the city looks like this...that would be problematic."

Shang-Chi listens in on the conversation ensuing nearby. Although the technical discussion of "temporal displacement" is quite beyond him, he has seen enough in his years of adventure to grasp the concept of time travel. Remaining silent, he tries not to show just how perturbed he is by these unnatural events.

Instead, he keeps his gaze focused on the Punisher, whose presence still makes him unwary. He knows a killer when he sees one, and the sight of him reminds Shang-Chi of his own violent past that he can never outrun. Although he tells himself he is keeping watch for his friends' sake, he knows the act really serves to calm his own nerves.

Storm floats upward into the sky, slower than she may wish, since it is a great effort to ignore the pain in her broken body enough to activate her powers. Yet she gains enough distance rise over the lip of the crater.




She-Hulk shrugs and looks at the top of the crater walls. "Welp, since we seem to be the only ones here, let's just climb out of here and get back to Avengers Tower, easy peasy."

Turning her head slightly, to see Storm rising from the proverbial grave, Wolfsbane looked down to see that She Hulk and the others were preparing to climb up to join them.


It was a curious scene, spread out before them here at the lip of the crater ... and Wolfsbane turned her attention back to the army of yellowish humanoids that was gathering in front of her.
Their spears, though pointed at her, were not yet being used for assault, and so she wasn't too worried about them.


Keeping an eye on the spear-wielding muties, though, she began to take in a better look at the war-torn, post-apocalyptic cityscape around them, wondering "How far into the future have we come?"