After Thanksgiving - New York

[Rachel O'Brien]

Rachel hurried after Cassie, part of her mind wondering irrelevantly why she hadn't been sent off with Elizabeth, part of her excited about kicking Doombot ass.

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan nodded, pointing to a room off of the living room they'd been sitting in. "Gear up, I'm going to go back up Cap," he said, giving her hand an affectionate squeeze as he hurried for a side door.

[Narrator]

Outside, all of them would find their way to the gate clear, as none of the doombots had made it inside the gates yet. Outside, there was a clear space for them to get through, as Captain America, and now Patriot and Ms. Marvel, were smashing at the Doombots.

[Rachel O'Brien]

Rachel skinned into a lightly armored suit in record time, and then grabbed a laser rifle and buckled and pair of pistols around her waist, then hurried after Ryan and the rest of the group. Once she was outside, Rachel found a position by the gate, and started firing at doombots who weren't already being dealt with by Avengers.

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan swooped in overhead, drawing the Doombots' fire and strafing the stragglers as he circled over them. "What's the situation?" he shouted down.

"They're robots and they're here to smash up our home!" Patriot shouted back.

"Good enough for me!" Ryan shouted in return.

[Byrna Cooper]

Bear skinned a blue and grey suit she had put together previously. It had a wraparound mask with built in visual enhancements, as well as a sleek backpack filled with her satchel contents.

Grappling up to the roof, she started pelting the attackers with her explosive charges.

"Hawkeye, eat your heart out!"

[Narrator]

The explosions Bear set off cleared a path in the Doombots, and Captain America was ready to make good use of it. "Patriot, take the left group with Ms. Marvel," he ordered. "Seraph, you're with me on the right. Circle around and cover me from the air. Closer, Nomic, fall in behind and attack at range behind us!"

Patriot blocked a blast with his shield. "You going to say it?"

Cap managed a small smiled as he hurled his shield. "It's all yours, son," he answered as the shield rebounded back to his hand.

Patriot got a steely look on his face as he rushed at the group on the left. "AVENGERS, ASSEMBLE!"

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan launched off the wall, flashing into a blinding white glow as he streaked around to the outside edge of the group. I'm with Cap. Cap's counting on me. Spinning to a midair halt, he unleashed a torrent of energy, sending a group of Doombots crashing to the ground, the backs of their bodies slagged. Good choice, Cap.

[Rachel O'Brien]

Rachel fell into position as ordered, pleased that Captain America knew who she was, although she pushed that thought out of her mind as she hefted her rifle and opened fire on the Doombots.

[Byrna Cooper]

Bear swung up, tossing metal crunching steel spheres interspersed with explosive charges, glad there was no reason to hold back.

Captain America.. Wow..

[Narrator]

There was a loud thump as Stature, now all sized-up, stomped down on a Doombot closing in behind Ryan. She grabbed another one in a giant hand, wound up and threw it, bouncing it hard off the pavement. "Watch your tail, Flyboy, I can't always watch it for you," she quipped.

Ms. Marvel, on the other side of the mass of Doombots, released a beam of energy that split when it hit the first Doombot, blasting through three others. Captain America and Patriot were smashing Doombots with their shields to great effect... but there were just a lot of them.

Meanwhile, there was an ominous thumping noise coming from around the corner from the mansion.

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Thanks for the save," Ryan called, swooping through and grabbing a Doombot under the arms. "Head's up! Let's get an assist!" he shouted as it was tossed up in a high arc over the group.

[Rachel O'Brien]

Rachel continued to fire, taking out several Doombots, but they were numerous, and didn't stop coming until they were totally crippled or dystroyed.

[Byrna Cooper]

"Thanks for the save," Ryan called, swooping through and grabbing a Doombot under the arms. "Head's up! Let's get an assist!" he shouted as it was tossed up in a high arc over the group.

Bear fell backword, tossing a special charge towards the flung Doombot- a special charge painted up with a happy face and a flower.

It impacted within the Doombot's superstructure, lodging but not stopping the robot in the least as it pulled itself up, advancing towards Bear.

Smiling, she pressed a button on her forearm console, and the robot shuddered, jerked, and burst apart in a green explosion, confetti dispersing around it..

[Narrator]

The confetti hung in the air for a second, then a green blur burst through it. "Who could ask for a better entrance than that!" Speed laughed as he snatched up a Doombot and smashed its head into a wall at super-speed.

"About time some backup arrived," Patriot griped.

"Hey, no complaining, this only hit the news ten seconds ago in Jersey," the speedster said, his hands a blur as he excited the molecules in a few Doombots, causing them to explode.

Ryan would soon find himself glad that he was working with Cap, as a huge chunk of concrete struck Ms. Marvel, knocking her out of the air. It was closely followed by an enormous robotic spider that smashed its foot down on the rubble, pinning her to the ground.

Cap was quick to shift the orders to accommodate the new target. "Seraph, Speed, on the spider! Patriot, stay with me. Everyone else, take targets of opportunity!"

Stature, closing on the metallic spider that came up to her giant-sized waist, feinted and grabbed at its legs, only to receive a powerful shock that drove her back to her knees. "D-don't touch it!" she gasped. Speed rushed in to distract it from his teammate.

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan swooped in on the other side of the spider, trying to divide its attention between himself and Speed. He blasted at its legs, trying to melt one off to unbalance it.

[Rachel O'Brien]

Rachel kept her position, and tried not to worry about Ryan, or the spider, and just focused on shooting at the Doombots, taking out as many as she could.

[Byrna Cooper]

Bear, meanwhile, flanked the opposite side of the spider, still taking out doombots. When she had an opening, she tried tossing a steel ball with all her might at another of the legs, hoping to shatter it.

[Narrator]

Ryan's effort to melt off a leg would show him that the spider seemed to have an abnormally high resistance to heat. Bear's attack, on the other hand, would stagger it, deforming the leg where it hit it, limiting its mobility on that leg but not causing the loss of it.

The Doombots were thinning in numbers now, thanks to the efforts of Captain America, Patriot, and Rachel. They now had a handful each that were focusing on them alone, with Rachel's few firing as they rushed her position.

The spider seemed inclined to stay in place, since one of its legs still pinning Ms. Marvel to the ground and it seemed unwilling to lift it. Nevertheless, as it maneuvered around that one stationary leg, it seemed to register finishing neutralizing Cassie as a priority, extending two legs toward and discharging an electric blast.

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan switched tactics, firing at the main body of the spider on his next pass with blasts to scramble its electronics.

[Rachel O'Brien]

Rachel fired as rapidly as she could. Two of the Doombots went down, then a third, which still left two to continue rushing her position.

[Byrna Cooper]

Bear returned her attention to the doombots, aiming to finish off the ones aiming for her. Acrobatically flipping about, she attempted to get good ground before launching her charges.

[Narrator]

Ryan's blasts seemed to disorient the spider, and earned him a swat from its legs. Speed continued darting under it, trying to get a spare second to vaporize a leg. Under the stationary leg, Ms. Marvel gave a frustrated growl as she fought to free herself from the constant electric current the leg was feeding her.

The doombots now seemed to be leaving Bear alone. THe two charging Rachel suddenly fell as a shield smashed into the backs of their heads before rebounding back to Captain America.

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan let out a surprised cry as he was swatted out of the air, bouncing a little on the ground as he hit it. His glow intensified as he shook his head to clear it and started to push himself back to his feet.

[Rachel O'Brien]

"Thanks!" Rachel called out as the last of the Doombots went down. Not pausing for more than a second she turned, trying to get a clear shot at the spider.

[Byrna Cooper]

Bear launched her grapple ball, ascending to a higher point where she quickly scanned the spider, looking for any weaknesses she could exploit.

[Narrator]

The spider seemed solidly built, with several redundant, shielded systems. Even as the one Ryan shorted out went offline, another booted up to take its place. Even so, it wasn't terribly complicated for a Doom creation, it looked built to be sturdy but disposable. The legs, with their joints, seemed to be the weakest point.

[Byrna Cooper]

Bear gritted her teeth, drawing out another solid steel sphere and let go, aiming for the lower joint of the leg pinning Ms. Marvel to the ground.

[Rachel O'Brien]

Rachel fired at the body segment, trying to disable the body, while Bear targeted the legs.

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan didn't take off this time, instead, from his position on the ground, he blasted at the underside of the spider-bot.

[Narrator]

Bear's ball slammed into the leg, deforming it slightly on impact, but not knocking it off.

Speed, however, saw and caught on, rushing up to attack the leg. The speedster was a green blur racing around the leg, finally leaping into the air and crashing down onto the joint.

The leg came crashing to the ground, and Ms. Marvel gasped in relief at the sudden lack of electric current running through her. She took the opportunity to raise a fist and blast the spider, punching a fist-sized hole through its body.

Stature, on her feet again, picked up the detatched leg and swung it, smashing it down onto the robot. It staggered, the bottom of its body scraping the ground.

[Rachel O'Brien]

As Stature swung, Rachel fired again, hitting the spider's body. It shuddered once, then collapsed, disabled.

[Byrna Cooper]

And for good measure, Bear pinged one last ball off its metal head.

"Annnndd.. it's down!"

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan, with a slight limp, made his way over, shoving his fist insidethe hole in the top, discharing a bright golden blast inside, figuring the inside might not be able to take the heat the outside was. "And that's one for the books, gang," he sighed.

[Rachel O'Brien]

"Yeah, that was pretty damn awesome." Rachel said, giving Ryan a hug "Thanks for letting us play with the big kids." she added, smiling at Captain America.

[Narrator]

With no major injuries, the victorious heroes returned inside, as Jarvis made a few calls to get the debris gathered up. Captain America and Ms. Marvel, who insisted that she was fine, disappeared into the ready room for much of the rest of the day, often joined by Mrs. Gabriel, planning a response and trying to figure out what the cause of the attack was.

The younger Avengers, and the three X-Men, were left to their own devices, and Speed managed to come up with a stack of pizzas that the others knew better than to ask into the origin of, particularly since they all came from different pizza places.

By the end of the night, the girls and Ryan retired to his old room, though Ryan was pulled away by his sister soon after they got settled to sleep.

[Byrna Cooper]

Bear looked off into the New York skyline from Ryan's window, breathing in the night air as she smiled.

[Rachel O'Brien]

Sometime in the middle of the night, Rachel was woken up by her bladder. She carefully slipped out of Bear's embrace, and padded out the door, heading to the bathroom. On her way back, she spotted Ryan laying on the couch, his little sister curled up with him. She leaned against the hallway, smiling fondly as she watched the scene for a moment.

[Ryan Gabriel]

Rachel's fond smile wasn't exactly mirrored by Mrs. Gabriel as she entered from the other side, not seeing Rachel in the hallway as she stopped at the couch, looking at the two. She leaned over to pick Elizabeth up, causing the girl to squirm and latch on tighter to him. Ryan stirred, mumbling something, which his mother answered in a whisper. The exchange was repeated a couple times before Ryan finally answered, a bit louder and more clearly, "I said I've got her."

Clearly irritated, Mrs. Gabriel stalked off as Ryan dozed back off again.

[Byrna Cooper]

Bear came up behind Rachel, woken by her stirring.

Looking on at the scene in the room, she remained silent.