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It's late. It's real late.
Out amongst that fog from the sewers and the pimps and ladies of the night, a terrible scene is unfolding. Some may rationalize, others might just never see what's really happening. Either way a group of goons is loading an unconscious woman into a van. The whole operation is rather quick and they shut the door on the white vehicle before anyone on the lonesome streets can even point out what's happening.
Eventually, the van begins to pull away from the curb. Where they're going doesn't take long to get to, that's for sure.
*
Ava is restless. It's not anything new for the girl, really. It's just that her restlessness now takes the form of looking for things. Searching. Sometimes a specific target, sometimes just for the next thing that needs her attention. She doesn't stand out on the streets, just another homeless waif in a hand-me-down, oversized coat with a knit cap pulled down over her hair and fingerless gloves. Nothing to notice, really. Except that she's usually doing the noticing.
*
The young girl sort of blends in so well that these evildoers don't even notice her as they pull up to the curb. It wouldn't arouse any suspicions, at least not until the back of the van opens and these mugalugs seem to be pulling an unconscious person out of the back of the van and into a door being held open by someone with a lab coat. Most peculiar.
*
That is certainly the sort of thing that Ava notices. Hands deep in her pockets, she pauses as she rounds the corner to see something decidedly questionable going on. A few, slow steps take her back around the corner, where she can watch more closely, counting the men, checking the license plate. Watching for her chance to follow unobserved.
*
Teddy was just flying by, minding his own business. Course, his business is beating up bad guys but that means you have to find them first. He's low enough to the ground that he can see what's going on and the van is… just a van. He's not even noticing it till the movement of people getting out gets his attention. Minor attention. Until there seems to be a body with them. As they head into a building, he looks for some windows.
*
The door closes behind the scientist now that all four thugs and the victim are inside. There's a dark film over the entrance, as if the glass door has been treated in some way to make looking inside difficult. Ava will hear a tell-tale click implying that the door has been locked behind them. Meanwhile, Teddy will look in each of the windows above ground, but oddly they seem to be simple apartments on the two floors above the main floor.
*
Locks. That's cute. Ava slips around the side of the building, digging into her pocket for a set of picks when a simple tug doesn't open the door. Teddy's shadow passes overhead and she looks up, letting out a soft whistle when she recognizes the other would-be hero.
*
Teddy hmmmmmmmmmmmms. Apartments. No body. Makes sense. Evil doers always have their secret hideout underground. Or in volcanos. Which probably counts since the ground is just really high. Flying toward the door, he pauses in a hover as he spots someone else there. Lives in an apartment perhaps. Too late to avoid being seen, he lands near her and gives a smile. "Don't mind me. Would you mind letting me in? Then you might want to go get pizza."
*
It doesn't take long for Ava to trip the lock, a few deft twists of the picks and she's inside the building. "Teddy," she says, looking up from the picks with a faint, wry smile. "Convenient. Did you get enough of a look at the men to pretend to be one if you need to?" She's careful, not to let the door lock behind them - no sense in leaving a trap if she needs to get out in a hurry. With Teddy dealing with the residents, she pulls a piece of paper from her pocket, folding it up and wedging it in the way of the door latch so that it will open when she needs it to later.
*
"Oh, it's you. You look different from above." Teddy follows her in, the wings shrinking and being reabsorbed back into him. "No, I just saw a body when I was flying by. All the windows lead to apartments so they're probably in the basement. Or the sub sub basement since there's always a level below the obvious one. C'mon."
*
The entrance is separate from the apartments it seems. Though there is a stairwell that goes up, it's clear that the action is down below. Teddy is right, the first basement is just a normal looking storage area, but it doesn't take much to see the "hidden" staircase that hangs out behind a few cardboard boxes. As they turn the corner there is a light on below and stark white tileperhaps the whitest in recent memoryflashes every so often with what looks like a strobe light.
*
Ava casts a sidelong glance toward Teddy at the idea that she looks different from above, but decides it's best not to ask just how unless she really wants to hear the answer. Instead, she moves quietly along the hall, watching each corner. "They took a girl. If they run into us, you're bringing me in," she murmurs, pausing when she sees the flashing of the light. "You would think that these people would bring on qualified electricians."
*
Teddy nods at the suggestion and shapeshifts into generic lab coat wearing scientist whose name tag reads 'Dr. Kildare'. "Who says it's not intentional?" he asks and holds up a finger to wait before continuing on. He wants to see if the flashing is regular or not.
*
It's not regular. Indeed, it seems to come from something drawing out the power downstairs. The lights flicker on and off and there's a feeling, an ambient feeling, of a whole lot of energy going on down there!
*
"Science should be done properly, or not at all," Ava grumbles with all the certainty of someone who grew up in a lab - even if she was one of the lab rats. The feel of electricity has the hairs on her arms raising, a faint, answering spark behind her eyes for just a moment before she locks her powers down hard. Stepping forward once more, she searches for another exit.
*
Teddy just nods once it becomes obvious they need an electrician. "If it was real science, they wouldn't be in a subsubbasement of an apartment complex stealing bodies." Being vewy vewy quiet, he inches his way closer, head cocked to listen for noise.
*
Teddy will hear, as he descends the steps, men talking and the sound of a high pitched electric mini-saw. The kind you might hear at the doctor's office or at the dentist. Whatever is happening, it's coming to a head pretty quickly here.
*
"That is not an improvement," Ava murmurs, though it's a cover for nerves. She does know these sorts of surroundings all too well - the last time she was in one, she was hooked up to a machine, wires everywhere, bait for a trap. She remembers. Remembers just enough.
*
Teddy shakes his head. Not an improvement at all. Screw the lab coat, he shifts back into his muscled green form and rolls his shoulders. "Whatever they're doing, it's not good. Stay behind me." Making less effort to be quiet considering the noise, he hurries forward.
*
But no one seems to notice Teddy. The thugs are standing around yet another guy in a labcoat who seems to be rushing into his surgery upon the girl. As of yet, he hasn't drilled into her skull, but that's certainly coming. Behind them are four large cylinders filled with green liquid. Three of them are empty, but inside one, an outline of a person is floating inside.
*
"Teddy," Ava warns as she peers around his bulk, a spark of electricity popping between her fingers. "I don't know if this is flammable, but I have to assume it could be." Reaching behind her back, she draws the sabers that hang beneath her coat, snapping her wrists to extend the blades without channeling any electricity into them.
*
"An explosion would be bad." Teddy agrees. At least he assumes that was the gist of her comment. Folding his arms across his chest, he states quite clearly "Do you have a permit for all of this? Otherwise I'm going to have to shut you down."
*
"Do you really think Dr. Warren is going to approve of you makin' a clone for your own play-ting?" asks one of the thugs to the man with the labcoat. "What Dr. Warren doesn't know won't hurt him!" exclaims the man in the labcoat. But just then, Teddy makes his announcement.
"Oh shit!" the thug exclaims, frozen in surprise, and unsure of what they can do they just sort of stand there.
*
Ava wants so very badly to start hitting these men. There's no question that they'd deserve it. But if there's a chance that they might be able to get this girl out of here without a fight, without taking the chance they might injure her, then she has to take it. Her grip tightens on her sabers behind Teddy, a careful breath taken to brace herself.
*
"Put the saw down." Teddy tells the guy in the lab coat. "And everyone go stand in the corner. That corner." he amends, pointing to the one furthest from the girl. "We can wait for the police to come take you away. Or you can try to fight." Pause. "You don't want to do that."
*
The "Doctor" isn't a doctor at all. He's just Larry, another one of the thugs, who has been working for the real Doctor, watching how he does his work. Watching how he makes his clones. He has no taste to want to fight, knowing that whatever Teddy is, he's going to beat him senseless. The thugs and the "doctor" back into the corner as asked, and make no moves to start anything.
*
As the men start to shuffle over to the corner, Ava quietly hooks the sabers to her belt beneath her coat again, trading them out for her pistol. She might still put them down, but it's probably for the best that she stay prepared in case action needs to be taken.
*
Teddy nods approvingly as they all go stand in the corner. Pause. Pause. "Umm, want to go call the police?" he quietly asks Ava.
*
The young girl on the table begins to moan as she tries to regain consciousness. As she does so, the man in the labcoat is looking rather guilty. "We weren't gunna hurt her none. We just needed some of her bodily fluids."
*
Ava makes a face behind Teddy when the man speaks, knuckles popping on her gun as her fist tightens. Oh, how she would like to shoot him right now. "Shout if you need anything," she murmurs to Teddy. "I didn't see a phone, it might take a minute."
*
"With a saw." Teddy comments, sounding dubious and looking over at the body in the glass tube. "So you're only guilty of kidnapping and… murdering whoever is in the tube?" Ava gets a nod. "I've got it covered." he assures her. "They don't want to start something with someone who can poke a hole through the wall with a finger."
*
The "doctor" looks confused and shakes his ehad. "We didn't murder that guy. That's one of the Professor's. And he ain't dead."
*
Ava disappears into the facility, moving purposefully in search of a phone. She's not against catching other information as well - it's not like she trusts the police to know what they're looking at here - but priority number one is getting professionals here in a timely manner.
*
"Then you probably won't be in jail for life." Teddy tells them. "Point in your favor. You might even be able to make a deal by ratting out whoever the Professor is and telling the cops everything you know. Sounds like a smart move to me."
*
The "doctor" looks to the others. They're noncommital and completely worried. And they show it. Meanwhile Ava finds a phone in a back office of the laboratory.
*
There are times when it's convenient to be a SHIELD agent, junior or no. Ava calls in the site to the police, providing all of the appropriate inter-agency codes to make sure that it gets treated as more than just a joke, then heads back toward Teddy and the captives.
*
Teddy seems content to just stay quiet and watch his prisoners. Though just in case they're thinking of anything, he does poke a hole in the wall with a finger.
*
It takes a few minutes, but the police arrive shortly after Ava's call. The first officer down the steps, a Lieutenant called Robertson, takes one look at the scene and seems absolutely confused. "What in the hell am I lookin' at? We better get the forensics in here to start tearing this place down." He looks to Ava and Teddy, "Looks like we owe you some thanks." Meanwhile, the thugs begin to get cuffed.
*
"And an ambulance." Teddy adds, motioning to the girl who's been coming out of whatever they drugged her with. "And they say whoever is in that tube is still alive so I wouldn't unplug anything." Pause. "I don't suppose you'd have any idea either. Want us to give SHIELD a call and have them send a science guy down here?"
*
"It was the right thing to do," Ava replies to the officer, though she watches the men being cuffed with a grimace. Even though shooting them would have felt more like the right thing to do. "Did your people have any idea of what was going on here?"
*
"Hell, that's not a terrible idea. What did you say your name was, kid?" Robertson asks. "Well we appreciate it, young lady." He shakes his head sadly at Ava, "Not a clue." Robertson goes over to the tubes and inspects it. He leans in, close, to try and see through the green go.
Robertson nearly has a heart attack when the hand comes out to slam against the glass. Inside, the body begins to thrash madly.
*
Kid? "Agent…" Pause. "Hulkling." In training but they don't need to know that. Watching the cop move over to the tube, he frowns as the body starts to move. "Guess they were telling the truth about him being alive. Is he supposed to do that?"
*
Ava knows better than to bother correcting the officer - she's a woman, and a young one at that. No one's going to buy her as an agent anyhow. But when there's movement in the tube, her brows furrow with concern. "That doesn't seem like a supposed to sort of thing to me."
*
SHIELD is called, and the entire time it takes for them to arrive, the figure inside is thrashing around, splashing green goo over the top. The Science guy makes the determination that he won't be able to do anything here. Instead, he wants to take the entire device back to his lab. The entire process takes a few hours, and, after a while, the body inside the goo goes more dormant. Eventually, however, the body is brought back to SHIELD so they can begin to do their tests.
*