Issue 1 Downtime

London at night.

The city that also never sleeps. The European New York. The Big Meat Pie.

There was always something going on in London. Always some big score going down.

Tonight, it was going down in front of some random bank that was always getting robbed. You know the type.

A few shady looking men carrying large sacks started loading them into a van.

"Police will get here soon," one of the goons said, "We should get moving."

"'Ey, din ya worry tha' lil' head," the leader said, "Ain't none of the coppers gon' take on The Bushwacker and 'is Hooligans."

"You're right. But it isn't the police you should be worrying about."

The man was dressed in white. It looked like a trenchcoat he was wearing until he spread his arms, the 'coat' billowing out into a close-fitting cape as a staff extended in his right hand, a wrist crossbow extending on his right. "First and last chance. Drop it and get on your knees."

A unusually, some might even say extraordinarily attractively plumaged, grey and pink cockatoo was in the air, just to the right of Justin's head. A careful observer might notice the metal attached to her talons.

An arrow fired, pinning one of the goons to the ground by his pant leg.

Standing on the fire escape in the building across the street, Mars loaded another arrow.

The goons cursed. "Shit, guys! It's Excalibur," one of them said.

"Well damn, there goes the peaceful method. And think again." He looked at the bird. "Think we need a certain number of us to say it?" he asked nonchalantly.

Chloe let out a squawk of amusement and prepared to dive at the nearest goon.

"Right. Avengers, Assemble!"

In a swirl of white cape, he leaped forward, a bolt shooting out from the crossbow that exploded into a shower of blinding sparks.

Chloe, meanwhile, dove at the head of the nearest goon, letting out a frightening squawk.

A woman dressed in a black and yellow jacket and matching pants, slowly and calmly walked down the sidewalk towards the van.

"I can't see!" The goons shouted in confusion.

"Get this bird off of me!" A goon yelled, swinging wildly as Chloe attacked.

"How the fuck does someone shoot an arrow through three inches of fucking concrete?"

"Enough!" The Bushwacker shouted, "I din' see any damn Iron Man. Or Thor. Or...'ell, the other guy. Captain Yank. Tha' one."

"So, it looks like y' are just t' bunch of pretenders," The Bushwacker said. "And I know wha' I do with phonies."

With a mighty roar, The Bushwacker's muscles enlarged to a ludicrous amount, turning him into a giant of a man. Picking up a car, he tossed it towards the Avengers (and Mars) general direction.

Justin leaped into the air, hovering just over the path of the car. "Flail ineffectively? Yeah, that's about what you do," he said. He dove down, taking a swipe at Bushwhacker's overly -bulky form with his taser-staff as he landed back on the ground.

Chloe easily evaded his wild swings, quickly slicing his head and arms.

"Throwing cars now are we?" Trish said as she approached the muscled man from behind.

Mars was dressed like a costumed hero, but she didn't quite have the grace as she scrambled over the edge of the fire escape just before the car hit the building. She fell to a crouch and somersaulted forward as the car hit the ground behind her.

"You know what isn't fair? No one ever says that X-Men are phonies for not having a bald psychic or a crazy guy with claws following them around," Justin mused as he rolled back, firing off a spread of three taser darts toward the goons.

"Feck 'ff!" The Bushwacker shouted, his words starting to slur. The electricity and slashes from Chloe's talons were doing damage, but he was ignoring it like an angry superpowered drunk, "D'n ye know that th' drinker ah get, th' str'nger ah get?"

Inside his jacket, there was some sort of surgical tubing carrying pure ethanol from a pack on his back into his body.

"Ah'm f'cking invincible. ye fuckpunches!"

The goons were crowding around, taking random swipes at people, and generally being dispatched easily.

"Who is the girl with the bow" Trish whispered into her communicator as she extended a ribbon to slap a goon approaching her back towards a building.

"Are you sure that's not just the alcohol talking?" She extends another ribbon and with the two she has out tries to slam Bushwaker into the ground.

"Not sure. Keep an eye on her, she's just a kid," Justin whispered back as he started taking out goons unarmed to keep them from trying a sneak attack on Trish or Chloe.

Chloe dove towards the ethanol tube, trying to slice through it. This was an ideal chance to use her spurs, and show that she could be useful in the field, and she was going to make the most of it.

Mars loads another arrow and fires quickly at The Bushwacker's leg, trying to cripple him.

With The Bushmaster being contained by Trish's ribbons and an arrow painfully sinking into his shin, he was open to attack. Chloe managed to get past his defenses and take out one of the tubes, spilling alcohol everyone.

"F'ck m' thanking juice!" The Bushmaster slurred, stumbling around, "F'ck yeh bird!"

"Oh shut up," Justin muttered, sliding in under a wild punch to bring his staff into the hooligan's nose. "No more arrows!" he called over his shoulder. "Idiot's so tanked that he'll bleed out before he has the sense to give up!"

Mars seems to ignore him, loading another arrow from her quiver and pulling back the drawstring.

"Oh god damn it," he muttered. "Keep at him ladies, I'll make sure no one gets killed." He spun around, firing a blunt-tipped bolt at the hand Marcie was holding the bow with as he started toward her.

"Don't worry, we've got this. You go deal with the teenage wannabe Hawkeye."

She then extended a third ribbon and grabbed hold of one of his legs and pulled, while she pushed with the two she had on his upper arms and torso.

The bolt hit Mars in the hand and the arrow went wild.

"Watch it!" Mars says, "I almost had him, you idiot!"

Justin didn't relent, continuing toward her and going to disarm her. "Yeah, I saw how you were going to 'get' him. Guess what? We have him just fine," he said as he went for the bow.

The Bushmaster was down for the count!

And vomiting on the street. Ew.

At least he seemed to be getting smaller?

Meanwhile, Mars had other concerns. Like not letting these idiots take her bow. Right before Justin grabbed at her, she had a more close-quarters friendly skill tapped into.

"Not happening," Mars says, scraping an arrow with a red tip on the ground. It burst into flames. She brought it up to her mouth and breathed out, sending a blast of fire up in the air right past Justin's head. She didn't want to burn him, just blind him.

Maybe singe him a little.

"You just want to keep digging that hole deeper, don't you," Justin muttered, ducking under the blast as he moved forward inside her reach to give her an elbow to the gut. He didn't want to HURT her, but... well, he wasn't going to just let her breathe fire at him and keep maiming people.

"Stay down." Trish takes a step back but keeps one ribbon resting on Bushwackers back. She then looks around to see if all the goons are still down.

That is when she sees the fire breathing in a reflection in a car window and spins around to face Mars. "Really?"

Chloe sliced through the second tube, and then landed, shifting into human form. She was unhurt, but breathing heavily. "Nice bit of work." she said, smiling at Trish.

Mars was surprisingly nimble! She managed to roll out of the way of Justin's quite acrobatically.

"He started it!" Mars protests.

"Of course I did," he shot back, following through on the attempted blow to line up a shot with a tranquelizer bolt. "Trish? Little help here."

"You too." She said in reply to Chloe without look her way, as she was still focused on Mars.

"On it." She moved closer while still keeping Bushwacker pinned. Two ribbons to full length as extended as she attempted to coral Mars in.

Mars tried to dodge the ribbons, but they were keeping her from going too far. The dart glanced off her shoulder, cutting her a bit.

"You people are crazy!"

"No, we're Avengers," he said, "And 'crazy chicks putting arrows through people' makes the list of things we have to stop."

"You just shot a dart at me," Mars points out, starting to stumble and slur her words a bit, "And also lights. Shining. Shining...."

She falls over, sound asleep.

"And yet, it didn't leave a hole," he said, walking over to pick her up. "All right, I'll get her out of here and find out who she is. She's just a kid, no sense letting the police get wind of it."