1965-05-19 - Planning the Next Assault
Summary: We will get the big green headed greeny head, we will.
Related: None
Theme Song: None
vic teddy-altman billy kaleb kellan noh-varr 


Team Meeting!

Billy has catered; in the central table where there are usually maps are now four different large bowls of paella. A seafood paella, with shrimp and mussels; the 'standard' valencian rabbit paella; a chicken paella; and a vegetable paella. This is set out along with a very large pitcher of daiquiri and a case of beers.

Billy is already helping himself to the seafood paella and a daiquiri as he waits for everyone to pile in.


Kellan is drawn across the floor toward the table at the smell of paella and he has a plate in hand and is scooping himself a scoop of each of the four different types into a quadrant on his plate to try. He grabs a fork, a napkin, and one of the beers before he finds himself a seat. Thus armed and fortified, he finallly says, "Hey. How's it going?"


Noh-Varr tried a spoonful of each to see which he liked better then filled a plate with the Valencian, choosing a daiquiri to wash it down with. "We need to plan how to defeat the Leader." he says, getting right into it. "And to do that, we need to plan how to destroy those robots. Fortunately, as a Kree warrior, I'm a skilled tactician and strategist. But I also need to know more about what each of you can do in order to make use of all your abilities most effectively."


Teddy is right there with them while food is procured. He has a less-than-neat arrangement of paella on a plate, though it's collected with such confidence as to suggest this is not his first Spanish rice rodeo. As he walks to find a seat, he eats a few bites, ignoring the beer for now. There's a little wave to the group as he listens to Noh-Varr and settles in.


Kaleb came in rushed, and still putting himself back toegether. He didn't run but that walk was brisk and he was busy walks while tying his tie back on. His voice spoke without need of his body greeting them, "Oh good, food. And I see my mother supplied the libations." A small wink was flashed to Billy but boots carried him over to his brother and murmured, "Lellan I left something on your dresser for you."


"What can I do?" Billy shrugs and shakes his head, focusing on the food more then anything else, "I don't really know. Electrokinesis— though with their shields, that seems useless. Telekinesis strong enough to lift a car, also useless. Personal short-range teleportation. Then… reality warping. Whatever that means. I can't really define what I can do with that."


Kellan glances up and over at Kaleb, tilting his head a little to the side at the murmur and then nods, studying him curiously for a moment or two. Then he says, "Okay," when he's done chewing. He takes a swig of his beer and points at the paella, "They're all good. Try some of each." He has apparently passed his verdict, but seems to favor the seafood. Then he looks back over toward Noh-Varr and says, "Yeah, and figure out how to destroy them without making more iterations of them that are worse." He then pauses and says, "I make copies of myself, communicate via a limited sort of telepathy outside of my own reflections, but with complete ease between them. I'm also really good at figuring out probabilities."


"The Leader is obviously going to adapt his tactics to what is used against him." Noh-Varr says. "Which means that our next attack has to be the last one. We need to figure out how to take out the robot and maybe two or three others that have adapted to what we used on the prior models. Teddy, exactly what are the limits of your shapeshifting? Can you do liquid matter states? How small or large can you be? Billy, can you teleport a bomb or acid into the forcefield and on top of the robot? Kaleb, we have pieces of robot here. The electronics might have been destroyed but it's the metal that's important for you. It could hear us and we could hear it so so sound passes through the forcefield. Find the resonance frequency of the metal skeleton it's made from so you can destroy it that way. Kellan, can you create a duplicate inside the forcefield? What happens to you if a duplicate dies? And can you duplicate a bomb you're carrying or some other object?"


Vic sneaks in. Stealth isn't one of his slated powers, but sometimes he's just there when he wasn't before. He heads for the paella, helping himself to generous portions, as well as a beer. Then he sidles over to Kellan. "I'm strong," he mentions, "and fast. Billy and I were thinking about doing that thing, do you remember, Billy? Where I give you energy and you do something with it? Also, as far as we know, I can't be killed." He shovels paella into his mouth, munches, then clarifies, "I can be killed; I just don't stay dead."


Teddy finds a seat and settles into it. He's mostly quiet as he eats, but he does answer Noh-Varr as best as he can. "I can't do liquid," he says. "I'm sort of in the process of figuring this all out, but I can grow fairly large and morph parts of me. I could maybe mimic the Leader." He shrugs, shovels in some more Paella, and leans back to consider the others in attendance.


Kellan listens to the others as they talk, his attention shifting from one person to the next as he continues to eat from his plate of paella, making his way through all four different types. He makes a bit of room for Vic when he comes over to join him, and continues to eat until Noh-Varr asks him about his reflections, "So.. they kind of appear near me. I can sort of control where they pop up in a really small area. I can't like, make one appear down the street. They're usually within the same room. So behind a forcefield I could do if I was close to the forcefield itself. I can also disapparate them at will. But I share health with all of them. If a reflection dies, I die. And no, only clothing and stuff copies. Nothing metal." Which explains why all his buttons are ceramic or plastic.


Kaleb arched an eyebrow finally tying his tie and, yup, buttoning his vest. Now. NOW he was ready to be casually social. "Hmmmmm" OKaQuietly put upony he'll try the food. After a long moment it was clear they didn't have wait staff. So put upon he was. Looking to Noh-Varr he nodded. "I can see about that. Anything with a rigid structure can be torn apart. It's actually my weakest discipline, or rather least-controlled I suppose."


Billy shifts around to lean up against Teddy's side, because Teddy is there, and why wouldn't he? He shakes his head at Noh-Varr, though, "I have no idea. I told you that I can't really define what I can do. I don't know if I can teleport anything through the shields or not. I've been thinking… one thing I might be able to do— and I'm hesitant to try as its not something I can really practice— is disable the shield cores." He nods thoughtfully over to Vic, "That's worth a try; my normal bolts couldn't get through the shield. Maybe a Vic-charged one could."


Noh-Varr listens as each person answers, eating his paella as he does so. "Vic and Teddy, it sounds like you can't do anything to bypass the forcefield so your abilities are of limited use against the robots." Setting his plate down, he holds a finger out over his other palm. The fingernail grows about an inch then breaks off and drops into his palm. "Kellan, see if this will duplicate with you." he tells him and holds it out. "Kaleb, practice. A lot. Keep in mind a non-destroyed robot covered in synthetic skin will resonate at a somewhat different frequency so be prepared to alter it incrementally in the field till you find the right one." Pause. "Billy, don't do that. I want those power sources. Maybe you could just teleport the robot, forcefield and all, somewhere else. Into the sun would be good. Or if you need closer, an active volcano or the very bottom of the ocean."


Vic nods to Billy. "We should practice sometime and see what happens." He takes a drink of beer. "I can also short out electrical devices. I haven't tested it much. It's the same energy that I would feed to Billy, so maybe the electric shorting will transfer with it." More paella goes down the hatch. The boy knows how to eat.


"Okay, wait." Billy frowns a moment, "Noh-Varr, you're not in charge here, you need to back up and chill out by a lot. Stop giving orders. And don't tell people they're useless. Vic can supercharge me, that might be useful." He shakes his head, "The priority is to neutralize the robots, not get you equipment. Did you hear what he said?" He nods to Kellan, "The Kellans share health. I don't especially like the idea of him being in a force-field within ripping in half distance of a murderbot unless there is *no* other possible option. No one on our team is expendable. Finally, you're assuming _the_robot_. I'm worried about what happens if we face _twenty_ of them if not more around the Leader." He nods over to Vic, "We'll practice this afternoon."


Teddy is shoveling paella into his mouth as Billy leans up against him, one arm instinctively lifting to curl around the man as best as it can. His brow furrows at Noh-Varr when his name is mentioned, then at Billy when he speaks up. Clearing his throat, he unhooks his arm and sets his food off to the side. "I'm sure we can figure out a way for everyone to be useful. I know at this point I can't do much against the forcefield, but if I need to draw off a bunch of these bots for some reason, I make a pretty good distraction."


Kaleb shook his head pausing and then looking back to Noh-Varr, "For my away team I normally run comms and suppressstealth tactica. Also I have echolocation but… the problem is there's a 50-50 shot of me trying to sync waves to compress them to damaging levels that it'll also affect me. I'm… not entirely immune to my ability. Can I do it? Yes. But we'll quite likely need a medic as result but if we need it…" He paused and looked at Billy and back to Noh and went to sit with Kellan looking to him and ate while his voice spoke wihtout him, "Just have a medic's phone number or something on hand. I don't want to be any more deaf than I already am.." Not thrilled, but willing.


"I didn't say they were useless, I said they had limited effectiveness against the robot." Noh-Varr corrects. "That says nothing about their effectiveness in other ways. The robots are also merely an obstacle; it's the Leader we need to remove permanently. I also did not say Kellan was expendable. If his duplicate can bypass the forcefield and drop something then be dissipated a moment later - how long does that take?" he asks Kellan as an aside. "There is minimal risk as the first time it will be unexpected. Whether it is necessary depends on what else succeeds or fails. As for the number of robots, the Leader seems to be playing a game by setting increasingly difficult challenges. Overwhelming us with a horde of robots is a brute force approach which doesn't seem to be his preferred tactic." His brow furrows over what Kaleb says. Not immune to his own power? "Well, resonance depends on frequency not volume so you should be unaffected. It's not a brute force approach which likely wouldn't pass through the forcefield."


|ROLL| Kaleb +rolls 1d20 for: 1


Vic glances between Billy and Noh-Varr. He's quiet for a moment, then says tentatively. "If you need more than one distraction, I can act erratically, that is to say without a sense of self-preservation. It might give us a chance to do something once, if the forcefield can be brought down. Sentiment aside, there's virtually no risk." He offers Billy a small smile. "But we'll practice forcefield breaking first. It's just something to put on the table, is all. I think we all have something to bring to the table."


"I disagree with your assessment; in every prior situation he used overwhelming numbers of robots. I think this time he was overconfident in his shields, and justifiably. I don't think he's playing any sort of game with us: I don't think he cares about us one way or the other except that we're obstacles to his agenda of world conquest." Billy focuses on some food some more, "My take on it is he's making himself an army and we've been a nuisance or at least a foil to practice against to improve his models. He seems to be an overwhelming force guy." He nods over to Vic, "Yeah, distraction is good, at the very least." He looks to Kaleb, "I can heal, some. Its not the best but its not nothing."


Teddy glances up to Billy, then to Vic, then to his food. He decides on hitting the food again, frowning some as he starts to clean his plate. He stands and takes the plate with him, listening and considering what the others have to say about the plan. He heads for the beer that's on offer, standing by the table as he grabs a bottle and flicks the top off. "Any idea where we can find him now?"


Kaleb looked up giving a dry look to Noh Varr, "Look, guy, I get you're new here, and as a Kree? Sure I respect you. But we don't have a long time tonight to get into the oddities of Mutant physiology. I think I know my own body here. The problem is it doesn't have to be audible at all. I'll still hear it. we've been looking at a solution, But I…hear everything. All the damn time, man." Echo stopped and the sonic fell just completely silent. His molars squished together and he wasn't even going to fight on this point. He did scoot closer to his twin and looked to Billy and then Vic and then Billy, "It… might help. That and the helmet."


Kellan has just been eating and listening for the most part, but when he speaks up he looks at Noh-Varr's fingernail clipping and says, "Yeah sure, that would because it's not metal.. unless you're made of some alien metal." He doesn't actually need to try it to know. "As long as it's touching my skin and not metal… or rock, probably." Then he says, "Dissipating takes less than a second. But a head shot that would kill me instantly would .. kill me instantly before I could do it. But yes, I could create a reflection inside a forcefield and drop something and then dissipate."


"You might be right." Noh-Varr tells Billy. "In which case, having multiple ways to deal with the robots becomes even more important. We don't know if each successive model adapts or if other robots can adapt post production based on what happened to another." Picking up his plate again, he resumes eating. At least until Teddy asks his question. "Which brings up an important point: was he really where we teleported to or did he throw you off somehow?" Kaleb just gets a nod. Noted. "NO, it's not metal. But it does contain nanites and will explode when I want it to. If I give you several, it should destroy or seeverely damage it even if it's not directly over them."


Vic's brow furrows as he looks at Kellan. The talk of headshots doesn't make him all that comfortable. "You be careful," he says. He doesn't try to talk him out of it, though. He just offered himself up to die if need be (how's that for unpredictable behavior?). He shakes his head vaguely as Noh-Varr mentions… what are they, nan-ites? Never heard of them.


"I'd like Kellan duping into the forcefield to be a thing of last resort, and I mean _last_resort_the_world_will_end_." Billy says gravely, "The robots move pretty fast and those shields don't look very big. Its really dangerous." He looks to Noh-Varr, and blinks, "That… I've seen no evidence that the robots self-modify or adapt on the fly. You may as well say we don't know if they can spontaneously create a nuclear bomb. That's pure supposition. But when the last robot was going out of commission, it named itself iteration 108, and said that iteration failed." He looks over to Teddy, frowning, "I… don't currently have any ideas for how to find him. We can't use the prior method of scrying, he's onto me on that front." Then to Kaleb, he tilts his head, "I might be able to enhance the helmet a bit? If you explain to me what it does."


Teddy nods, sips a bit of his beer, then proceeds to finish off his food. He sets the plate down, then the beer and considers the group from afar. There are some solid plans being made, but also arguments that shed light on what they don't know. As he listens, he rocks a bit from toe to heel, looking unsure of where things stand. "Maybe I can help with locating him," he suggests with a shrug. "It sounds like we could use all the intel we can get." He eyes the wardrobe, then, and drinks a bit more beer.


Kaleb rallied with his food letting, for a change, Kellan make all teh sounds and jsut do all the talking. Finally he considered this and argues, "Billy, Max… built it. If we try to figure out what it does it may detonate for all I know. THere's still a 'don't-push-it-unless-you-reeally-really-super-mean-it button on it that is still not depressed after 7 months with this thing. So. Scope. We'll have to ask him." There was a pause and he looked to Kellan quizzically and back, "Nanites Little robo-bug things?"


Kellan leans over and bumps shoulders with Vic if he's still sitting next to him and says, "Kellan reflections in forcefields will be a last resort, but we should at least discuss what's possible, even if we decide not to use it." He nods in agreement with Billy, and grins at Vic, "I'll be careful." He looks at Kaleb then and says, "I said I'd be careful," as though his brother had just poked him again.


"To assume an enemy can't do something isn't wise. Plan for the worst, hope for the best." Noh-Varr states. Every race must have some variation of that saying. Max… Max… Oh, right. "I can take a look at it if you want. After all, their technology came from the Kree." At the question, he nods. "Yes, microscopic machine. They're in my blood and have a number of functions."


"Nanites," Vic echoes. Then he glances down at his own skin, as if trying to imagine tiny machines running around in the blood beneath the surface. Then he shrugs. It's no weirder than the pure magical energy that sustains him. That is him. So sure, nanites. He's on board. He finishes his beer, sets it and his plate aside, and clasps Kellan's hand in his one. "Okay," he tells him quietly.


"I can get you some metal detector glasses like I made Kellan, and maybe you can scout, looking for a bunch of human shaped metal." Billy nods to Teddy, "Then infiltrate, though let's make sure I put a mindward on. Set up a grid search, perhaps? Since we can both fly we can divide the city up?" SHIELD training is useful! Billy shakes his head at Noh-Varr, "That's crazy. There's absolutely no evidence to even suggest self-modifying and adapting. We've fought them repeatedly and each time they are more or less the same model capability wise at a given time, each time the model improves. Someone's doing that purposefully, there's _nothing_ to suggest the robots self-evolve. Planning for pure imaginary capabilities would end up with an endless series of plans, we'd never finish. The robot named itself *iteration 108*. That's a model number, not something that adapts on its own." He nods in agreement over to Kellan, "Oh sure, I'm not against the option. Just not as a go-to." He nods to Kaleb then, "Okay, fair enough."


Teddy looks over to Billy and says, "Now that's a plan I can work with. In fact, I think I'll go get started with it." He moves to set his bottle down, but seems to think better of it, instead holding it at his side as he makes a break for the wardrobe back home. "I'll let you all know if I find something, and I hope we're able to figure out a good plan of attack." He lifts his free hand to wave to the group before taking his leave, flashing a quick smile on his way out.


Kaleb nodded slowly and dug into the pallea. He poked at it in expierement. Hmmm Finally he said, "Yeah having little robots whirring around in my body is officially never permitted if it ever comes up." Lookingaround the room he sighed and siad, "Look This is importnat but we also all have other responsibilities. When we pulling the trigger to do this?"


Kellan lets his fingers lace with Vic's and he gives his hand a squeeze, reassuringly. He doesn't seem like he's particularly eager to throw himself face first into danger, nor does he have a death wish. "If the nanites are metal they might not replicate. I guess the only way to find out would be to try it and see what happens, though." He then returns to listening to the conversation, all the parts that he doesn't reply to directly, but that he takes in as they discuss the robots' capabilities.


Noh-Varr shrugs but isn't going to argue it. Instead, he changes the subject along the same lines of Kaleb. "Speaking of other responsibilities, Tony Stark asked me to join the Avengers and I'm considering it."


Vic's eyes widen. "Tony Stark? Like, on TV?" He looks around at the others. It's not exactly a fan boy moment, but guys, guys, this is important. This is someone famous. "Wow. I mean sure, you could… you could…" He rakes a hand through his hair. "You could be a liaison or whatever it's called, if the Avengers even knew we existed." He exhales, his cheeks blowing out. "Wow."


"We don't know where he is yet, Kaleb. There's no way to plan a 'when' until we have a 'where'. Teddy and I will do a grid search of the city to try to see if we can find them." Billy blinks over at Vic, shaking his head, "I sure as heck hope they don't know we exist. The secret being out would be… bad. Even if we're ostensibly on the same side."


Kaleb considered this for a while quietly and offered "You need help picking up signal I might be of use to you. THat aside? Avengers? Really?" Huh. He weighed that a bit and looked to Kellan for a long moment and finally told Billy, "Would it really be that different from me runnign ops withthe X-Men from time to time? I mean though it depends on where you want to put your focus. You got no loyalties here, I get that but, if they can get you one step closer ti being able to go home again? I won't fault you that, man." He looked from Noh-Varr to Billy with a shrug, "Wouldn't fault any of you that. Home's important." Who knew the angry little prat was so sentimental?


Kellan glances between Billy and Noh-Varr and then over to Vic, "Well, I mean, that's cool, right? Maybe being able to go home is a good thing. I figure it must be pretty lonely here without your people. I've got Kaleb." And any number of reflections, but that's not quite the same. "Dunno what I'd do being stranded on my own. I mean, if that's what you want to do — you should do it." He then looks over toward Billy and says, "Once we figure out where, we're going to actually need some sort of a plan, too, before we knowo when."


Noh-Varr looks curiously at Billy. "Ostensibly? Do you doubt them? And why would that be bad? In any case, I was not planning on severing my ties with you here. It should not be any more of a conflict that being an agent of SHIELD." Finishing his drink, he refills it from the pitcher. "I am not in a great hurry to return to my reality. My family and friends are dead and those left that I know are mere acquaintances. If your planet is under attack by Skrulls, subtle or otherwise, I should be here to stop them."


"This is a voluntary organization; what you do when not on a mission with us is your business, I didn't object to the Avengers. I just don't want to see us absorbed into their organization." Billy shakes his head slowly as he replies to Kaleb and Noh both, "Compartmentalize." And then he turns and _stares_ at Noh-Varr's mention of SHIELD. "That. is. not. generally. known." he says through clenched teeth. He breathes in, out, "I do not, per se, doubt the Avengers motives individually or collectively, but our methods and concerns will not always align."


Vic tells Billy, "Yeah, but they're the Avengers. They know things." Then he shakes his head, curls fwipping back and forth. "No, no, no, we're too small time for them. I can't see them bothering with us. If they try, we can always say no. We also don't have to tell them what we're doing. It's not like we're telling Mom or Dad what we're doing." He holds Kellan's hand a little more securely. Avengers is big important stuff, man.


Kaleb blinked and looked curiously at Kellan. Nooo. He looked to Billy with a squint, "Were you moonlighting for a covert government orginization and didn't tell us dude?" He didn't sound upset. Irked, sure, but that was evidently ont eh list of things that weren't public knowledge. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and said "Look, Noh-Varr, do what you gotta do. Don't do it at our expecnse and we'll support you even running for El Presidente. Whatever." Kaleb, not good with people, but hey, decently practical.


Kellan glances between Billy and Noh-Varr, studying them both from where he sits. He picks up his beer and tips it back, taking another swig from the bottle with the hand that isn't occupied with Vic's. He returns the squeeze to his hand and smiles a little over at Vic. "Honestly, as long as we all can keep doing what we're doing together, and work on whatever other side stuff we've got, I think it'll all work out alright so long as we're all careful about what we say." He says, "We're going to be working on different stuff most of the time, I figure." When Kaleb looks at him, he shrugs his shoulders. He didn't know, but it doesn't seem to greatly impact him either way.


"This is what I mean by compartmentalize, dude. You just broke it. You made an assumption that this team needs to know all my business: no one here had any need to know that I'm an Agent of SHIELD. Are you going to go share all our business to the Avengers if you join them?" Billy sounds a lot frustrated, "You needed to know because it was possible I was going to turn you in, I told my _brother_ because he's my _brother_. No offense, K-Twins, but you and Harper and Keith just didn't need to know." He sighs softly at Kaleb, "No, I'm moonlighting _here_. I'm a full time secret agent. Its my day job. The internship was my cover. And if you're wondering, SHIELD doesn't know anything about any of you, I'm a spy but I'm not spying on the team."


Noh-Varr is about to respond to Billy when Kaleb says they hadn't know. Oh. "I thought you had told everyone. My apologies. As it's not the Avenger's business, I was not planning to, no." Whether it was the business of the team, he's not going to get into.


Vic nods to Billy, who did in fact tell him. "Who's Harper and Keith?" he says. Then waves away the quesiton. Not important right now. "So we just keep coloring within the lines and we should all be fine," he says. "This is the only group I'm part of, and I don't tell anyone about it. We just, like Billy said, compartmentalize. And we don't tell each others' secrets, of course."


Kaleb pinched the bridge of his nose and smirked back to Billy, not bitter, almost amused. What a trainwreck of a moment. "It's Okay. SHIELD knows more about me than my non-Kellans family does because of the X-Men situation. We… can talk later. If there's a file on us though I'd love to know." To Vic he shrugged, "Never heard of em before. Also what the hell does compartmentalize mean? In this context because I don't remember a membership guide, man. It was us fighting spiders and getting cafe au lait in portals to paris. Now we have secret orginizations and blood-robots."


Kellan shrugs his shoulders at Billy and says, "No offense taken. We've all got our personal business." He stretches then though and pulls himself up. "Okay, I'm going to think more about these robots and different ways we can come at them that we haven't before, ways that I can help.. and I am going to practice a little, seeing what sort of things I can create reflections of with me.. and try to run some probability analysis on what might be the next most likely developments that he would make to the robots based on what information he's gathered on us thus far, and while everyone's looking for him.. can get that done and then we can actually figure out a when once we have a where." He pulls himself up from his seat then, and goes about helping to clean up dishes for those who are finished.


Billy explains to Kaleb, "If you're involved in more then one organization, just.. don't share about the other. Keep what you know about the X-Men and their powers and activities to them, and us to us. Put the different things in separate boxes in your mind." Billy then looks to Kaleb, "SHIELD's files on the X-Men are not as exhaustive as you may think, but I can't tell you anything else. That's part of compartmentalization. I have responsibilities to SHIELD and some of that is respecting and protecting classified information." He nods over to Vic and Kellen, "Sounds good, let me know if you come up with anything."


"I'll be going as well. I have quarters now so if you need me for anything, I'm in the Baxter Building, number 17B." Noh-Varr tells everyone then follows with the phone number there. "That won't explode so don't worry about experimenting with it." he adds to Kellan.


Vic sets about helping Kellan with clean up. "I should get to work," he says, "maybe after some more paella. I gotta lift heavy things for the boss man… goat." He nods to Noh-Varr and says, "I live with the twins if you ever need to reach me. Billy, do you want to work on that energy transfer now? I can put Lambert off for another hour or two."


Kaleb managed a smug half grin assuring Noh-Varr, "Well if I can figure it out, maybe it will explode. He got up and let Kellan take all the dishes if he was adamant to do so. "Billy, we'll talk later. But I think that's manageable enough. Really though any help keeping hte M-word on the downlow the better. Now… I have a date with a hunk of metal and a tuning fork."


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