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s**t! Daedalus thought while he observed the scope hit and saw Alexi returning fire. The Stonewall assassin got grazed by a bullet from the Operative's barrage, as Daedalus rolled behind a boulder for hard cover. Whilst safely behind the boulder, the agent examined his wound tearing open the ruined fabric for a better look -- a flesh wound in his left bicep. The shot was a through and through.

Daedalus quickly grabbed a few items from his pack: an alcohol wipe and med patch. The assassin ripped open the packaging on the wipe and immediately cleaned the wound. Ignoring the sting of the alcohol, the next package was opened. Daedalus quickly applied an ointment to protect against any biologic agents within the SHIELD agent's shell, then slapped the patch over top to seal it.

The Stonewall operative thought a moment, resisting the urge to peek at Alexi's position figuring he'd just end up getting his head blown off, "Clever one, aren't you? Hmmmm.... Let's see how you like this...," the assassin pulled out a communicator, "Daedalus to Flight Control, I have a bit of a situation. We have an enemy sniper that I can't get at. He's already shot at our men on the ground. Could you please have one of your boys cook him? He's in grid F6 up against the large boulder, you can't miss it."

"Acknowledged Daedalus. We'll handle it. Raider Twelve, you're closest. Nail the sniper."

"Roger that. Targeting Grid F6." The I.O. Super Hornet breaks formation to line up on the boulder indicated by Daedalus, Raider Twelve, Fox One!" The I.O. pilot launches a AGM-65 Maverick at the location where Alexi Romanov is.....

.......................

As Arell shot down another Hornet, his HUD displayed four separate missile locks on his F-22 Raptor -- four AIM-120 AMRAAMs fired from four different Hornets. (I threw those because of the 'AIM' anagram on them. twisted )

Two Hornet where attempting to fight Rogue. Because she was so much smaller than the fighter jets, the I.O. pilots were having a difficult time getting a lock on her. And now, Rogue found herself constantly being fired on with 20 mm Gatling cannon fire, occasionally getting hit despite her dodging. While the shots didn't actually penetrate her hide; they DID hurt, "@$#%@#$% !@#%!@#$%!!! Hey, Oracle! When are we getin more peeps here. Ah'm literally gettin mah a** shot off!!!"


"Don't know what the hold up here is. I'll look into it."
.......................


Caitlin nodded at Wolverine, agreeing that she should stay put. She was about to shout a warning to the others in the merc landing craft, but the redhead happened to look up and see.... a translucent pink shield over them, "What the...." Then, Miss Fairchild saw several Maverick missiles strike the force field harmlessly.

Up above, one of the I.O. pilots finished their run on the canyon, shaking his head, "Sorry Ma'am. No effect. Strange as it sounds, that pink canopy over the mercenaries' L-Z is invulnerable to our Mavericks.... !!! That .... woman is still flying up here with a guy on fire!!! They're both too small for us to target, Ma'am."

.............................

Ivana Baiul stood in the Command Room pinching the bridge of her nose, "Alright Colonel, take your squadron and help Bravo squadron against the Hellfires and that rogue Raptor. Ivana out."

The I.O. director turned toward an assistant, "Pink shields.... Ferris. It has to be. What the hell is Star Sapphire doing attacking us!?!?"

The assistant spoke up, "Col. Talman did mention earlier that the 'flying woman' was a brunette with a white stripe down the middle of her mane."

At that Ivana, still in her evening dress, simply nodded, "One of the Kryptonians we've faced earlier. Fine. Send him out. Let's take out one of the alien supermen."

The assistant smiled, "He's ready to go with the options loaded for Kryptonian engagement...."

...................................

Green Arrow's shots knocked the last tank out of action; however, the Black Talons in the canyon where now fully aware of him. Roughly twenty Talons aimed upward toward Oliver Queen to lay down cover fire on his position, whilst one of the three M-60 fire teams setup their tripod braced on a busted tank beginning to fire...

Oliver could see that he does have plenty of cover to choose from and that he is in an elevated position compared to the Black Talons. He also heard Songbird shout over his shoulder, "Need a hand?"

.............................

What might throw Wolverine off was that this Sentinel was thrashing wildly, as if a man was trying to throw a monkey off of his back -- from trying to swat the X-Man off with it's hands to trying to squash him by slamming into the side of the canyon....

This is.... odd.

One thing that Logan would have spotted was the 'Stark Industries' emblem on the chassis of this Sentinel. Also noticed would be the hand repulsors and unibeam mount that seem to fit Tony Stark's design. Also of notice, Wolverine's keen ears would pick up the shouts of the pilot inside the head of this Sentinel.....

The Maverick targeting where Alexi Romanov was suddenly detonates before striking home. The SHIELD sniper ended up being showered in small pieces of burning debris. The explosion shook the canyon and rocks began to tumble and fall down on the Black Talons below.

"N.I. That's a negative impact. Premature detonation. I'll try another pass." Raider Twelve flew past the canyon in seconds. Then the Super Hornet gained altitude, banking on a long turn.

......................................

Melissa Gold smiled at the archer, while debris bounce harmlessly off her projected shield, "Yeah.... I think it's time to play.... Whack-A-Mole." Songbird peeked over the ridge, as a huge translucent mallet appears over the I.O. troopers -- several of which are trying to wave clear of the voluminous smoke that Green Arrow sent at them. A few of them did happen to look up and see the mallet coming down at them.... again.... and again.... and again.

Many of the troopers ended up being either knocked silly or planted into the ground unconscious -- Melissa wasn't a killer. She would do what she could to prevent unnecessary loss of life, but she'd protect herself, her teammates, and those kids that I.O. was experimenting on.

Adding to the mess unseen was Jinx, several judicious concussion grenades. Within quick order, one-fifth of the Black Talons in the canyon had been accounted for from the assault by Alexi, Green Arrow, Songbird, and Jinx...

Arell thought he was flying high until . . . wait, that ain't just one . . . not two . . . but . . . FOUR AIM missiles! Oooooh s**t, this doesn't look good! he thought as he decided to make one futile last run. If the missiles got him, he'd try to make his last run a kamikaze charge against the base! Going into the turn, he put the afterburners on as he aimed the plane towards I.O. base, the four missiles hot on his tail!

However . . . as soon as the HUD showed they were there . . . they were redirected . . . towards Raider Twelve!! Dundee accidentally hacked into the AIM's targeting system in an attempt to take over the missile silo by him! In a few key strokes, the missiles flew away from Arell's plane . . . but the big Cajun and the F-22 were already coming in hot! All of a sudden, the canopy popped open and something (Dun' couldn't tell what it was on the ground) popped out . . . the plane coming towards the main I.O. building at a good clip. Dun' put the laptop away and hauled a** out of there as fast as he could to prevent getting hurt from what Dun' could imagine was the collateral damage about to come off that jet.

Bobby watched the jet before hurling a pair of big damn fireballs towards the Hornets that had Rogue bogged down. "Look out! It's about to get a few degrees hot around here!" he said as he threw the fireballs towards the Super Hornets. He had to think quick, and while he was already angry at I.O., the fast way he threw it, gave the fireball a little backspin.

Meanwhile, over by that dune over there . . . is that? Oh GOD! I thought he was dead! C.J., did you set him up on this?!

*Shrugs* "Wasn't me! I'm just here to watch the fireworks, bro! I thought YOU got him here!"

((You two friggin' idiots . . . now I have to announce him: Enter Jonah Hex from ??? *smacks C.J. the character and C.J. the narrator*))

A figure, dressed in all black . . . his face badly scarred . . . and by the looks of him . . . he was NOT looking to particularly happy. He, undaunted by modern technology, walked RIGHT past Wolverine fighting the big Sentry, seeing the oncoming footsoldiers from the base, looked at them and proceeded to bust a few caps in the poor, unfortunate uniformed bastards coming from the big building. <********' sons-a-bitches remind me of Yankees!" he growled as he opened fire.

Meanwhile, the five that USED to work for I.O. . . . tried to sneak off, despite still being cuffed, they just wanted out of there. The big b*****d that they fought before got his wish . . . all hell was breaking loose!

I.O. Special Agent Brian Mason had only recently returned to the Phoenix Base within hours of everything going to hell. This last hour alone had been prepping the hand-picked agent for using the modified Iron Monger Armor. The original creation by Obadiah Stane had needed upgrades to fill the role that Ivana Baiul originally placed on the armor -- to combat and take out certain superpowered heavyweights like Kryptonians.

The armor upgrades that had been behind schedule for two months, were finally ready -- and just in time judging by the sounds of battle on the I.O. comms.

The Iron Monger armor now sealed around its pilot ready for action. Mason immediately strode out onto the flight deck to join up with the squad of twelve armored men wearing the RAIDER armors. While the Cord Corp. creations were rugged battlesuits in their own right, they paled in comparison to Mason's Iron Monger suit fitted with enhancements from what was learned from the Mark VIII Sentinels I.O. had acquired -- improving the targeting and scanners in the HUD, self-repair systems, adjustable modulation weaponry, mini-missiles using Stark's proprietary repulsor technology, depleted uranium shells for the 20 mm M61 Vulcan cannon mount on the shoulder*, reconfiguring the unibeam using a Kryptonite crystal to boost the power of the energy weapon, and finally a Kryptonite-edged blade extendable from the suit's right arm -- to finish the fight against SPBs with armored or toughened hides.

( *taking a note from the War Machine armor. xd ... and I hope I get this right. Arell DID bale out right?)

As the hangar doors open, Brian Mason access the chaotic battle outside. Of immediate concern was the F-22 that Arell had already baled out of. Mason aimed his left arm at the incoming unmanned jet and fired a mini-missile to coolly dispose of the offending aircraft in a fiery explosion a safe distance from the flight deck.

"Gentlemen, time to get to work," Mason coolly ordered. As a Super Hornet launches from the flight deck, Iron Monger's attention was still upward with the suit's HUD informing him about the dead Raptor's pilot who was now hurtling toward the base's flight deck, "Parker, Edwards, deal with that annoying Cajun alligator with extreme prejudice."

As the pair of RAIDER armor troopers used their boot jets to fly to engage Arell as he plummeted toward the deck -- firing sonic cannons at the weregator, Mason makes note of the Hornet pilot Raider Twelve's demise from being ripped apart from.... Mason had no idea what Alexi had turned into, but he didn't like it. He was actually surprised to see four AIM missiles slam into what was left of Raider Twelve and whatever attacked him in the air. As that explosion bloomed outward above one end of the canyon where most of the fighting was occurring, Mason spoke again, "Taylor, Lopez, go make sure whatever the hell that was that physically took out our Hornet is destroyed."

"Yes Sir!" Both RAIDERs flew in that direction to investigate.

"The rest of you are with me," Iron Monger's boot jets fired off, flying up into the now darkening skies. The remaining eight RAIDER armor troopers flew upward to follow their squad leader. Speeding toward the canyon battlefield, Mason carefully noted the unusual storm which seemed to appear out of nowhere. A few minutes ago, the skies were bright and sunny with a dry heat. Now a huge thunderhead loomed overhead almost making the sky black with lightning arcing dangerously with a seeming angry fury. Waves of rain began to pour down, pelting harmlessly off of the airborne armored troopers. Mason began to worry about the fates of the Black Talons on the ground -- with the arid dry desert not inclined to absorb the coming rain, flooding was a real possibility, "Iron Monger to Ivana, I think the Rainmaker girl is bringing this storm to the party. We may have to worry about flooding on the ground, if she isn't found and stopped. We'll be bringing down that force field and then engage the Kryptonians."

"Proceed Iron Monger. Bring back the Kryptonian corpses, when you're done."

"Acknowledged Director. Iron Monger out. Gentlemen.... You heard the lady," Mason and the RAIDERs with him sped up to attack speed to rapid close the distance to their targets. Nine missiles were fired at Songbird's shield protecting the L-Z. The missiles closed and then opened up revealing ten mini-missiles powered by Stark's proprietary repulsor technology. All ninety mini-missiles struck the sound construct exploding in bright blue flashes which tore through the shield, bringing it down.

...........................

Suddenly, Melissa fell to one knee from the feedback of her sound construct being destroyed. As Songbird started to recover, her other constructs dissipate from the lack of concentration, "Oh... Wow, I felt that."

The Black Talons began to resume their fire up at Green Arrow and Songbird, fortunately their hard boulder cover was still intact.

..............................

As Superboy joined Rogue and Bobby Lane in engaging the I.O. fighter jets, the lady X-Man smiled at the Titan, "Nice job, Kansas. Let's put a stop ta dese honkies.... Woah." Marie saw Songbird's shield go down below her. Rogue didn't have any time to mentally register what happened, because she was suddenly under direct fire from Iron Monger's Vulcan cannon. The depleted uranium shells hammered at Rogue's invulnerable hide. While they did not penetrate, they did serious concussive damage to the Southern mutant. The multiple hit spun Rogue in the mid-air, as she suddenly dropped in a out of control spiral -- landing hard on the upper plateau less than one hundred yards from Songbird and Green Arrow. As Iron Monger flew to finish off Rogue personally, the eight RAIDER armored troopers fired repulsors at both Superboy and Bobby Lane.

...........................

Jinx's concussive grenades became more frequent, as she was trying to keep the I.O. troopers away from the fissure housing Nightshade's portal. Despite using cover, the Titan did take a couple of grazing shots -- not because of the Black Talons' marksmanship, but the fact that they were firing as a group over an area. Jinx yelled in her communicator, "Cyclops, you have incoming!!"

............................

The Black Talons closed in on Hex and Wolverine on the flailing Sentinel despite taking casualties from Hex's gunmanship. The Talons fired as a group, trying to either bring down the gunslinger or drive him back.

The moving creature in the sky finished tearing away the jet, throwing away the pieces of flesh and metal that were stuck to its claws. However, he turned to see two Raiders coming in his direction and merely let loose a roar, shooting towards the Raiders and releasing from its jaw a torrent of black of electricity meant to execute and electrocute the men within the confines of their armor, Alexi diving low after releasing the blasts and attempting to rise from behind quickly, to attack them before they could turn around in what seemed highly immobile suits.

Songbird hummed a bit to test her vocal chords. While staying behind the large boulder, Melissa spies Iron Monger flying down to the plateau where Rogue crash landed -- whispering into the growing tempest around them, "Oh no you don't. Try this on for size tough guy..."

The next thing Iron Monger knows, a giant pink flyswatter appears in mid air and smacks him downward. The I.O. operative finds himself tumbling backwards in the air, slamming against the canyon wall. After bouncing off the rock face and beginning to plummet to the canyon floor, Mason clears the cobwebs out and manages to get his boot jets underneath him. Mason's jets activate and slow his descent where he ends up making a easy landing on his feet. Glancing back up where Green Arrow and Songbird are dug in, Mason patches in an update to Ivana, "Director, be advised. That is NOT a Lantern. My sensors are indicating that the power is sound-based, not light-based. I recommend that you switch to USWs to combat that woman."

As Mason assesses his situation, he is in plain view of Cyclops, Hex, Wolverine, Rainmaker, Roxy and Amber on the canyon floor, Green Arrow and Songbird from their perch....

.......

In the air, eight Raider armored troopers continue to fire repulsors at both Bobby Lane and Superboy.

When Alexi maneuvers behind on the Raiders facing him, the armored pilot cuts his engines to drop out away from the dark creature's attack -- before reigniting his jets. Lopez carefully locks on to the creature. And when his partner drops out of the way, he fires a spread of two mini missiles at the creature -- each missile launching a spread of ten blue glowing missiles....

Arell, meanwhile, receives repulsor fire from the two Raiders covering him. Edwards actually shouts, "I'm gonna get me some gator boots!"

Alexi would not have any of that. As soon as he saw the pilot begin to drop out of his attack, the beast of a man shot forward through the sky like a black bullet, aiming to tackle the pilot before he could reactivate his engines, recognizing the sound of projectiles chasing after him. If he grasped the pilot, Alexi would bite into the man's armor at the base of the neck while turning around, allowing the pilot to take teh damage from the oncoming missiles.