Welcome to Gaia! ::

Robert stopped dead in his tracks as he walked along, he could smell smoke and hear sirens but in this city sirens, horns, and noise never stopped. The city that never sleeps. The city that never quiets. He felt a sense of purpose swell up in him and a link to some older days, days behind him, days never written. His briefcase did not hold papers though it was the same briefcase he had carried with him throughout college and during his time working in Chicago and now, here, in New York but now it was different. He knew he was a sentimental man but his job at the Museum of Natural History had been his life, his purpose, dusting off old bones and picking them tenderly to the wide eyes of children and telling them about where the bone had come from and that it might yield answers to important questions, writing articles for the community, giving speeches… my life. Robert looked down the ally and then saw a Starbucks, he jogged across the street and pushed hard into the shop. I love coffee, he thought quickly, enjoying the smell of it as he went directly into the bathroom and dropped the briefcase, unlatching it to reveal his costume, a costume he had not yet chosen an identity for. But it is changing me, it is… by God, my Lord, I feel it changing me. I’m this healer when I put on this costume, its not silly, its not anything I thought it would be. It makes me a good person. It makes me. He drew it up and clenched his jaw. “Avengers assemble.” He said softly, to himself, in the bathroom stall and began to change.

Once changed, Robert stood in the bathroom stall before he decided to stand up on the toilet when there wasn’t any other noise to indicate anyone else was in the bathroom with him and slide his briefcase up into the ceiling tile above the toilet. I’ll have to come back here later and get it, I sure can’t take it with me, he found his situation awkward but frowned at himself, his body hidden but for the lower half of his face in a very Captain America style costume only of a completely different design and coloration. A white cape that came to his lower back and then stopped but continued on with two long banners as if forming an astral-like tail hovered down behind him and thick white boots came halfway up his shins. He felt tight and secure within his super hero cocoon. I am such a rookie… he smirked and touched the gauntlet-like protection stretching from his wrist to his elbow, Petre had said it was programmed to have a computer interface for contacting others, sure enough, over the white a blue grid appeared, one he recognized as having a familiar Stark-tech look to it. “Uhm… hello?”

“Hello, this is Avenger-INT.”

“You’re the artificial intelligence programmed into everyone’s costumes, right?”

“Correct.”

“Well… alert the team, there’s a terrible fire *location* and I’m here, well, I’m actually in the bathroom at a Starbucks but, I’m going to the fire right now.” Robert said awkwardly, trying to keep his voice down.

“Signals sent to all Avengers.”

Robert paused, “What do I do then?”

“I am not programmed to give personal advice.”

“It’s not personal advice its-” Robert grunted some annoyance. “Never mind, uh, thank you, turn off or… shut down, please.” His arm guard turned back to solid white and he hesitated in the bathroom, picturing himself suddenly bursting from the bathroom and running across the Starbucks and out into the street. Well, Robert gathered himself. Gotta do what I gotta do I guess, my discomfort is hardly worth those innocent people burning to death. He thought of fire, of smoke, of children afraid, or the pain of it and unlatched the bathroom door and ran out, ran through the Starbucks lobby (much to the gawking and looks of absolute shock on the coffee drinkers faces and people in line) and out into the streets, at a full-stride run towards the fire.

“It’s one of the new Avengers!”

“Avengers Assemble, yay! Awesome!”

“Save those people, heroes again, heroes again!”

The people, they want us! They want us to succeed, they want us to help them! Robert felt resolve fill his chest. He felt invincible. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven, Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

{{I'm gonna have Vince observing this}}

A large white stretch limo sat across the street from the burning building. In it sat the Multi-Billinaire Vince Shaw.
He sat in the Limo with the window next to him rolled down.
He was smoking a cigerete and he saw Gambitts child running towards the fire.
"interesting.",he mutterd.
He observed the preacher type costume on his and chuckled.

"Of course the avengers,ever the saints.",he took a long drag on his cigerete before defusing it and fliking out of the window.

He opend the door and got out the limo. His blue eyes glittering in the light of the fire before his slid on his black shades.
He leaned agaisnt the white limo and slipped his hands into the snow white slacks he had on and observed the scene with interest.

Sylvia had been taking a shamefull midday nap when she got the alert. It wasn't that she had stayed up so late last night, the sun in this chair was just so warm... At first it seemed surreal that she was being called to help with the very thing that she excelled in. Dealing with fire, it felt good for her to be able to help with such things. She got so excited that she nearly jumped out of the window without putting on her outfit. She really liked it, it suited her. It was mostly made of a darkish gray material that gained silver highlights in the sun, with red highlights and orange trim. she had her "a**-kicking boots", belt, and gloves, made of the same fireproof material, they had tested it to make sure. Her outfit was very minimalist but Sylvia had said that she didn't wany any extra things handing off of her. She would only get annoyed. Thankfully She had also remembered to ask for a fireproof hair tie.

Jumping out of windows to get into the air had been her 'thing' sense Sylvia was little. So this is what she did, the others in her team would get used to it before long. Sylvia flew up, looking very much like a miniature sun in the sky. She didn't even need to consult the bot built in to her outfit, once she was high enough she could see the smoke. Sylvia knew a lot about fires and this one looked nasty. As she drew quickly closer she saw that her guess was correct. There might already be some structural damage, that would make her job harder.

She felt the adrenaline shooring through her viens already, this was what she was made for. Onlookers from below pointed at her as she went through the window. Sylvia couldn't see anyone in her immeadiate area, the smoke was too thick and she would have to deal with that, but she did hear something, banging of fists on the walls of the-

Oh s**t, the elevator. Wasn't that the first rule of fire safety or something, when there's a fire, USE THE STAIRS? At the moment though, Sylvia didn't care about the apparent stupidity and only cared about savine lives. WIth her hands coverd in flame, she began to melt through the elevator doors, and soon there was a hole forming. "Stand back, You don't want to touch this metal, don't come near me until I say so." She didn't get a reply and figured that whoever was inside would get the picture.

As Brian drove down the interstate highway he received the message; he pulled over and read it. High rise fire, not much for me to do other than to make popcorn, he thought, I can see the headline now, “All Avengers Die in High Rise collapse.” He arched an eyebrow at his own thought “All right,” Brian said just before he gunned his bike to match the speed of traffic. He weaved between cars until he arrived at the next exit; he took it and punched the gas to get next to a fire truck in transit to his destination. He backed off once it approached where the police and volunteers were blocked off traffic and bystanders.

He rolled the bike to the line and a police officer yelled at him, “Hey, you can’t get through here!”
“I’m parked”
The police officer yelled more at him, “It’s not safe here, you should go!” The police officer turned to the crowd, “All of you aren’t safe, please leave, now!”
Brian shrugged and remained seated on his bike which he turned off. Brian pulled his binoculars out and started scanning the building above the fire which was mostly obscured by smoke. Yup, there’s a fire, looks like it’s doing just fine to me. He then went about scanning the floors below the fire which were slowly evacuating. No, please, don’t hurry, just screaming flaming death coming to get you, no need for you to hurry at all. He then went about scanning the other buildings, the crowd and the safety personnel to get a sense of what had happened and what is going to happen.

“They’re already getting the hose extenders out; I guess water pressure ain’t what it used to be ‘round here,” he muttered to himself while watching the firemen struggle to pull out an extra long hose from their truck to hook up to a hydrant down the street from the fire, “No wonder it sucks to take a shower.”

Oho skidded to a stop after racing by the same call for help that Iron Punch went after.

Remember your breath.

He exhaled, took a knee and inhaled deeply from near the floor. Oho raced back and stopped just in time to see Iron punch get dumped on by the ceiling. Oho sidestepped with his unbelievable speed as more debris from the ceiling came down by him. This is unacceptable; a man whom races to save others should not be left like this. Oho peered at the wood beam that lay on the now unconscious man and thought about it while slowly releasing air from his lungs.

I do not have sufficient strength to remove that beam from on top of this man. I must channel my technique to deal with such an obstacle. Oho looked around inside of the room that Iron Punch was in. There is acceptable space.

Oho kneeled and inhaled deeply near the floor again before disappearing in a blur. Oho moved with such speed that the air in the hallway pulled into the room for just a moment like if someone had turned on a large fan. After racing in a blur around the room once Oho struck the beam with his baseball bat resulting in a loud cracking sound that was audible on the street that came from the wood as it rolled off Iron Punch; the metal of the bat resonated like a sound key that had just been struck. Oho exhaled before repeating the earlier process of inhaling fresh air from the ground and disappeared in a blur with Iron Punch.

Oho placed Iron Punch on the ground in the street before stepping away coughing from having inhaled so much smoke in his couple minutes in the building. The bat continued to resonate in his hand as the tattered shirt dangled off his body. Oho coughed a few more times before ripping what’s left of his shirt off his body. This left him standing there in severely damaged shoes, slacks that were beginning to fray, the sword in his belt and the ringing bat in his hand.

Robert found that being a hero wasn’t as dashing as he thought it would be as the team became split up, everyone acting independently to save lives. The mutant who could not do anything but heal was breathing hard, he hadn’t run that far in awhile. His chest felt tight and heart pumping and as three firemen carried a woman out who was badly burned. Robert nearly jumped in front of them and held out his hands, he felt warmth grow from his heart and move through his bones and through his fingers. There was no glow of yellow or sparkles, only a warmth that he could feel and the woman’s skin began to bubble and the black and open sores seemed to peel away into the air and healthy peach skin became more and more clear until she was no longer shaking but her burns healed.

“Thank you…” She murmured, still in shock. Robert nodded.

“You’re welcome, citizen.” He said, trying to make his voice sound more husky. “I am going inside to help my friends.” He instructed the Police at ground level, hovering around the main doors of the apartment where most of the people were coming out and firemen going in.

“Yea, buddy, you people are already pourin’ in here, so wateverh’ go get killed if ya want.” The Policeman sounded irritated.

“Thank you.” Robert gathered himself. Petre said this costume has some sort of smoke filter on it but I don’t remember how to activate it, well, I’ll have to do what I can but I won’t be any good passed out from the smoke --- well, perhaps I should see anyway! He jogged inside, there was little smoke at ground level but he could still smell it. A group of men were at the elevator, trying to get it functional and Robert took the stairs.

Stairs.

Stairs.

Stairs.

Until two people passed him, an oriental man with a bat carrying another who was unconscious. Rob was breathing hard, Lord, I’m out of shape for being healthy, he thought, groggily, white gloved fingers pressed on the arm protector. “Avengers, I’m on-” He gasped. “16th floor, making my way up, slowly, I don’t even know who is here or where you are. Over.”

His words came through to the Avengers who were there, through whatever area of their costume that their communication device had been installed. It was nano-tech and built into fabric on some and bits of padding on others, a link to the Stark’s computer system, which linked to the Avengers computer system.

“Should I just go outside, do you need help up there?” Robert asked into his forearm.

Petre’s voice came over their communication system, “Bob, press your forearm guard and request fire and smoke protection, I told you it’s smart tech… all of you have it. Just because you don’t have a gas mask dangling on your chest doesn’t mean there isn’t its equivalent already programmed into your costume. I haven’t been able to contact Veck, you should coordinate what you do based on your powers. Robert, go outside, heal the people who are injured. Sylvia is already on her game, thank being raised by Johnny Storm for that one. Brian, hurry up, and when you’re finished hurrying up see if you can pinpoint any suspicious activity, I’m monitoring the police and firefighters communication and they think a small explosive went off up there. Keep communication open.

Robert pressed his forearm guard, “Uh… fire and smoke protection.” He jumped when his mask seemed to elongate on its own as if a living creature and covered his nose and mouth. He felt his costume become a bit heavier, at least, he swore it did and he took a breath free of any smoke smell. Incredible.

He turned around, took a deep breath, and started back down.

When he got outside, he found the same tattered oriental man and the other that he had carried, obviously confused. The hero in white, a man of decent height and lean muscle stepped closer to them, trying to show confidence through his body language. “I’m a healer,” He announced. “If you’re heroes, you should go to Avengers Mansion and see about becoming part of our team, we’re new enough you won’t have much to catch up on and-”

He heard an explosion going off inside and the familiar metallic cutting sound that always went along with his father tossing some charge object. Cossette…? His heart skipped a beat, he turned away from the two new people, completely ignoring them to dash back into the main floor. Getting the hairy eye from the already irritated policeman a second time. He saw her, among a group of firemen, and thought the main floor was much smokier than it had been even a few minutes ago.

The building seemed to moan and Robert leered to the left as a rumble shook it, a few ceiling tiles on the main floor (lobby) fell out and broke on the stone floor.

Was that an explosion? Bob thought, feeling a sickness tightening in his core. This is some kind of deliberate attack, a terrorist attack? No… it couldn’t be! Not again!

Petre’s voice came over the Avengers open link, “I just scanned that building, there are small explosion rigged on the 40th floor and below, on the 10th and three under the main lobby. I got 4 minutes to blow on the 40th floor, 5 minutes on the 10th, and 6 on the main floor. I can’t tell what kind they are but none of you know how to disarm a bomb. I’ve sent emergency messages out, help people get away from that building. Scanned, there are about two hundred people in the upper half of the complex,” Pete knew there would have been thousands if this was happening after-hours but most people were at work, or out and it was a Thursday but that met a lot of the people in the apartment were the elderly and the very young. “I’m going to try to disarm the bombs remotely. Sylvia…”She paused, worried the young woman was going to feel the weight of this drop on her as she was the only one above the 20th floor. “Just do what you can.”

Another voice came over the open link, “Iron Man. I’m coming in, I’ll take the upper 15 floors, Sylvia, 20-30 is yours." His commanding and emotionless tone cut across the communicator. This was his world, he couldn't just leave these kids to flounder. I'd almost been driven to drink listening to my child trying to take command, he thought. On the ground people could see the golden Avenger go right through the window way up in the complex and almost immediately come out carrying three people, he put them down on the roof of the building on the left side of the apartment complex. His Extremis armor caught the afternoon light, he turned back, a master of his craft and pumped his repulsors to shoot him back inside. “Flood this building with everything you got, Petre. Every pulse, every scrambler. If these bombs have one screw of our tech, they’ll shut down.”

“Rodger that.” Pete answered. "Thanks Papa."

"Once an Avenger, always an Avenger. Now shut up." Iron Man was in hero mode. He was alive within his Extremis armor, everything running, an armor that would have taken a hundred pilots to make work operated by his hard-drive brain. To him... it was easy.