Jennifer Swensen sighed softly in relief as Connie
lead the two women out, the perky young lady already
chattering away to them about their building passes
and cutting them their signing bonus checks. Once they
were gone the redhead turned to Olivia Stane and
admitted, "I was scared they were going to turn us
down."
Olivia raised a nearly invisible eyebrow as she
walked over to where Jen stood by one of the office
windows, the complex spreading out below them. The
white-blonde haired woman smiled up at her, "Actually
I was confident they'd agree."
"You're kidding," Jen looked at her lover in
surprise.
"I did study their personality profiles and the data
that our various investigators gathered," Olivia
gently reminded her. "Jackie Lucas has dreamed of
being a hero for years, as well as laboring under
guilt for her actions as Bloodaxe," she took on a
remote look as she explained, "and our organization
fulfills both desires."
"And Carol Danvers?" Jen asked curiously.
"As a former intelligence asset with several
government agencies not to mention an one trime
Avenger she doesn't trust me as far as she can throw
me," Olivia said promptly, "but she does want to keep
a close eye on me and what we're doing. Therefore, she
joined."
"Actually, as Warbird she could throw you pretty
far," Jen noted.
Olivia waved that off, "You know what I mean."
"Yeah, I do," Jen chuckled softly. She studied Olivia
for a moment, "So how are you planning to win Carol
over?"
"I'm not," Olivia admitted.
Jen blinked in confusion, "Huh?"
Olivia laughed softly at the perplexed look on Jen's
face, but it was a kind laugh. "If I tried that I
think she'd be even more suspicious of me," she
explained sweetly, "so we'll just have to let my deeds
speak for me."
"Occassionally, love, I think you're too devious for
your own good," Jen said wryly after a moment of
silence.
Olivia was about to reply to that comment when the
soft whoop of an emergency alarm came from her desk.
"Oh hell," she muttered and ran over to it, Jen
following close behind as she sat down in her leather
chair and used the computer that was built into her
desktop to open up a miniture holographic viewscreen.
"This is car 236," the sound crackled with static as
location coordinates and other data scrolled by on the
floating screen, "we need immediate assistance for a
SPB incident, repeat, an SPB incident! All units...."
"Police band?" Jen realized almost instantly.
Olivia nodded, "I had a monitor installed shortly
after we started this project and SPB is the current
short form for Super Powered Being." She looked up at
Jennifer with eagerness in her eyes, "I think we may
be needed at last."
"I'll armor up," Jen said briskly as she bolted
towards a side room in the office, "call Connie and
get Carol and Jackie back up here!"
"Got it," Olivia smiled as she used the internal
communications system to page Connie and company,
feeling amused by the rapid shift her lover could make
from deferential business partner to a commanding
superhero.
It took less than a minute for Carol and Jackie to
make their way from personel to the penthouse even as
Jen emerged garbed in the black and silver armor of
the War Machine. Carol took one look at the armored
figure then in a flash of golden light she shifted her
clothing to her Warbird suit. "What's going on?" she
demanded.
Olivia said grimly, "There's a army of trolls
attacking LA."
You could have heard a pin drop in the room as
everyone looked at her in shock. "You're serious?"
Jackie finally said, pulling her mace from her bag.
"The local police don't realize what they're dealing
with just yet," Olivia said to them grimly as she
manipulated her data screen, "but the description
matches reports from New York police of encounters
between Thor and trolls."
Carol hesitated then looked over at Jackie and asked,
"I guess the mace didn't give you any knowledge
on...?"
"Sorry," Jackie shook her head as she admitted, "this
thing quite literally dropped on me out of the blue."
"We'll have to look into that, maybe," Jen said
crisply as she donned her helm. "We'd better hit the
roof and go," she ordered.
"Lets," Carol agreed as they headed to a elevator to
the side of the room.
"I'll download whatever troll data I can get to your
armor," Olivia said as they raced out, "be careful,
all of you."
There was a surprising tenderness in War Machine's
artificially destorted voice as she answered,
"Always."
The elevator doors slid shut and they swiftly rose to
the roof. "Why didn't you change to Thunderstrike in
the office?" Carol asked Jackie curiously.
"I didn't think Ms. Stane would appreciate a burnt
hole in the carpet from the lightning discharge,"
Jackie said wryly as they exited to the top of the
building. Smoothly she slammed the handle of her mace
to the roof and in a burst of lightning she was
transformed, street clothes replaced by Asgardian
style armor and garb.
Almost as one the three figures took off from the
roof, soaring away from the valley towards the city.
Rapidly they flew towards the area where the
disturbance had been reported, soon hearing alkarms
and sirens going off in the distance.
"So how do we want to handle this?" Thunderstrike
asked, looking over at Warbird questioningly.
Warbird looked back at her in surprise, then realized
that War Machine was also looking to her for guidance.
"Hey, why am I suddenly in charge?" she asked as
burning buildings appeared, broken cars sitting in
wrecks by the side of the road.
"You have the most experience of any of us," War
Machine pointed out reasonably, "either as a superhero
or in a team situation."
"Oh sure, use logic," Warbird grumbled as they heard
the first gunshots and raised voices.
They came around the corner to a scene of chaos, fire
and smoke obscuring a mad battlefield. Trolls,
massive, orange furred humanoids in primative armor
rampaged through the commercial district, shrugging
off police bullets with contemptuous ease. Scattered
around were injured officers and civilians, people
fleeing for their lives from the violence unfolding in
the heart of the city.
"God," Thunderstrike murmured weakly.
Putting as much confidence in her voice as she could
Warbird barked, "We've got to contain the trolls, keep
them away from the innocents. Let's go!"
War Machine fired off her repulsers first, quickly
discovering that the trolls could easily shrug off the
plasma energies, but thankfully brute force worked.
With her superior strength the armored figure hammered
a band of trolls back, boot thrusters flaring.
'Why do they seem so scared of me?' Thunderstrike
wondered as she struck, her mace trailing lightning as
she blasted another group back. Catching it she swung
her mace in circles, the sky darkening suddenly before
thunder boomed and lightning exploded downward.
Warbird ducked under a blow, updercutting the craggy
faced beast before kicking him backwards. There were
dozens of trolls but individually they weren't too
tough, none of them able to match the three heroine's
in strength. Hammering another backwards she blinked
at a most unusual sight, 'What the hell...?'
Using the battle for cover a group of men and women
were robbing the stores, more specifically just
hitting all the jewlers. Mysteriously the trolls
seemed to ignore them, rampaging around while these
people stealthily grabbed the loot.
"Did you see that?" Warbird yellerd to the others.
"How the hell did they manage to conjure up the
trolls to help conceal the robbery?" War Machine asked
disbelievingly, her iron gauntlets pummeling a enemy
unconscious.
"I dn't know," Thunderstrike struck the ground with
the head of her mace, shockwaves sendinng crooks and
trolls flying, "but I'd love to find out."
Before they could do more the human crooks seemed to
wink out of existence, teleporting away with their ill
gotten gains. "Damn it," Warbird growled as the trolls
began to rally, "let's shut this down, people."
With a fury the three tore into the stunned,
disorganized monsters, eventually subduing the army of
trolls and containing them for the police to handle.
War Machine listened to a message from Olivia and
said, "These things are vulnerable to iron, iron bonds
should hold them."
"Let's go," Thunderstrike said once the police had
taken the trolls into custody.
"Anyone notice anything interesting?" Warbird asked
the others as they took off.
"Another jewelry robbery, like the Wrecking Crew
did," War Machine said promptly.
"There's another thing, too," Thunderstrike was
quiet.
"Yes?" Warbird prompted.
"Both the trolls and the Wrecking Crew,"
Thunderstrike said softly while they soared over the
city, "are conected to Asgard."
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