nextgen_holiday:

Each year toward the end of December people come together with friends and family to celebrate and exchange gifts. The atmosphere is light, merry and there is plenty of cheer to go around. Holiday music fills the air while bright colorful lights light up the nights. Mistletoe is placed in strategic locations and people are willing caught under it.

It's a time of celebration, even for superheroes.

nextgen_raid:

 It was supposed to be discreet. The government had gone to great lengths to have the prototype technology transferred to a local scientist for study, even keeping SHIELD out of the loop for the purposes of secrecy. It should have worked. The vehicle was nondescript and the accompanying vehicles were subtle in their position of guarding the important vehicle. By all rights it should have worked..but this was far from an ordinary world. Hover-vehicles of unknown design seemed to appear out of nowhere, actually using an advanced form of cloaking technology, and blocked the disguised convoy in front and back. Men in the blue-silver suits of RAID disembarked the hover-vehicles and quickly began to fire on the guard vehicles.

An Asian man with cybernetic enhancements stepped out of the lead-vehicle of the attackers. "Let us make this quick, shall we?" He withdrew a sword crackling with energy and sped toward the defenders, cutting them down both quickly and efficiently. Sheathing his blade he forcibly pulled the doors open of the van containing the device. "Take it and load it quickly. I trust I do not need to stress that you be careful." The RAID technicians nodded, grabbing the experiment and moved to load it.

valini_morse:

 Val walked through the hallway with the white "Thank You! Have a Nice Day!" bag swinging by her side, savory and tempting smells trailing behind it.  She didn't mind fighting dirty when she needed to get her way, she had to crack a very tough shell before even getting to the hard part. Reaching the door marked "Hoskins, J", she settled herself and knocked on the door. Everyone knew where he was, seeing as he refused to go to anywhere else since the service.  

nextgen_parent:

It took a few days after the Helicarrier crashed - a few days to drag the river, check the hospitals...Nikki Coulson was MIA, presumed dead. Sammy had seen her in the lower levels a minute before impact, they'd been over the area with every scrap of tech and every ounce of man power SHIELD could scrape up looking for signs of life, and found none.

It had been a long time since Phil Coulson had been to the Helicarrier, and he didn't think it would be to try to recover his daughter's personal belongings. She had been a private woman, and the job....it had consumed her life for the last 10 years, there hadn't been anything else, Nikki had put every ounce of her time and energy into becoming a better agent - and now there was a hole in the ground with an empty coffin about to be put in it.

Stoic as usual, Phil waited in the back of the small chapel in Norfolk to greet the mourners, to robotically thank them, tell them Nikki would appreciate that they were there before the quiet service was to begin.

onearmofhydra:

Things were going according to plan. Viper was quite please by the way things were progressing. Alliances had been made. Plans were laid and the attack against the RenTech factory had been a great decoy. The real attack had been on another RenTech factory where working Zero Point Energy Modules were being stored. Once she had her hands on an energy source powerful enough to power the weapon scientists had develop she could initiate the next part of her plan.

The weapon was almost powerful enough to blacken a large city, but Olivia had other plans. More important plans. The ZPEM was put into the weapon and the weapon was on a large cargo ship in the Atlantic a few miles off the coast of New York Habor. The weapon was powered up.

A blinding white light shot forth from the weapon and blazed a trail across the sky. The light slammed into the Helicarrier, SHIELD's flying fortress.

While the distraction of the impact of the ion pulse slammed into the Helicarrier, a small flying craft came in right behind the blinding white light. It landed on the deck while panic and chaos broke out on the flying fortress.

battle_shield:

 Working in Shield's intelligence division was a lot like his old job at the CSA, but it was a lot more frantic and hands-on. Not that he had any problems with that, but it wasn't a smooth transition when he transferred to ShIELD. He had a pack of files on hand, a list of various infamous mind-controllers. His superior wanted a comparative analysis of how their different abilities worked. While Josh could tell you what they did, and maybe even a little on how they did it, but the higher-ups wanted a more scientific analysis. So they sent him down to the genetics department to meet with a new, but talented doctor who recently joined the department. What was the name? Jessen? Yeah, that was it.

Josh made his way the lab and gave a knock on the door.

battle_shield:

 Josh was dressed casually as he sat in the New Orleans bar.  While he looked like just another patron, in truth he was secretly waiting to meet with a member of the Champions in order to discuss any recent significant events in the state. 

bio_nerd:

Coffee machine problems yet again. Sigh. Well that meant venturing out of the lab, and to communal coffee maker to see if there was anything in there, as terrible as the coffee usually was. But a girl had to have her caffeine. So...

valini_morse:

Since the weather finally broke from the spring chill and apparent desire to crawl back into winter, Val decided to have her coffee break outside in the sun in the manicured patio area. She had her note pad out, with both journals and cases loaded on it as well as that Tetris-crossword puzzle game, but she preferred just tipping her head back and basking in the warm sunshine for a while. Smiling at the sun, she sighed and opened her eyes to take a sip of her drink. Maybe she could move her desk out here...

sammyfury:

Without a best friend to hang out with anymore, Sammy had taken to spending her free time away from the helicarrier at a 24 hour coffee shop near her apartment. The coffee was plentiful, the wait staff friendly enough, and she could hold down a seat at the counter as long as she liked. Her version of the colonel's Fury Files were practically updating themselves with regular attention and caffeine shots. If she kept this up, her final papers would be written months before they were due.

Good thing she hadn't gotten around to buying plants for the apartment. Between the helicarrier and the coffee shop, she wasn't home enough to remember to water them. The last thing she needed was to be a plant murderer.

shield_legacy:

Lena would receive a package containing a few bottles of beer Tim brewed and a tee shirt that had the molecular formula for caffeine on it. In addition he sent a pound of Kona roast coffee. The card inside included an invitation to dinner on a night of her choosing.

shieldbratgirl:

The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. need some serious down time. The personal stresses were starting to outweight the professional stresses, and that was saying something. The answer? Copious amounts of alcohol, darts, and quite possibly kareoke. Nikki was down for at least two of the three as she got the first round of Patron shots.

battle_shield:

 He couldn't believe he was doing this. Still, he'd given his word. Josh steadily breathed in his nose and out his mouth as he headed for the lab. The more he thought about it, the more it did make sense..of course that didn't stop fear from nestling in. He reached the lab, knocking gently on the door. He then realizes she likely won't hear that. He knocks louder.

battle_shield:

 Josh had finally managed to get his work caught up to the point where he was able to finally accept one of Lena's invitations to have lunch with her. He made his way to the break-room.

nextgen_parent:

The S.H.I.E.L.D. field team would receive an urgent summons to report to the main briefing room.

girlspy:

Alice considered herself to be largely fueled by coffee. Actually, if anyone had to ask, she was probably fueled by about sixty percent coffee, forty percent of everything else that kept people going. Coffee was a very important staple, and she couldn't go too long without it. Especially in the mornings. And as Alice was not a morning person by any sense of the word, the first thing she did in the mornings was go straight to the mess hall to raid the coffee part. Most people knew to steer clear of Agent Dugan until she had a coffee cup in her hands.

After filling up her favorite coffee mug, the one with tiny Captain Americas chasing tiny Red Skulls on it, Alice grabbed a bagel and some fruit. She found any empty table and took a seat.

nextgen_holiday:


You are cordially invited to attend the 28th annual Maria Stark Foundation's Winter Charity event.

Four Seasons Hotel
57 East 57th Street
New York, NY 10022

Friday 21st of September
Seven O'clock pm - Midnight

Formal dress required.

Please bring a donation for Toys for Tots.


The grand ballroom of the Four Seasons Hotel on 57 East 57th street was festively decorated for the holidays. A series of lit candles on every table gave off warm light and the dulcet tones of a jazz ensemble filled the room.

People, the upper elite of New York society, Hollywood celebrities, musicians, politicians and even superheroes moved around the room. People sat at tables and talked, while some moved gracefully around the large dance floor.

Tables loaded with unwrapped and unopened toys lined one wall and at one end stood a very large decorated Christmas tree. Wrapped presents sat under the tree, but they were just empty boxes wrapped for decoration. Mistletoe hung from the ceiling near the tree and people stopped to kiss.

The air was light and the mood happy and festive.

treadlightly:

So, Anya talked him into hosting this year... so Avengers Mansion is all set up for a proper party in the main lounge. Extra couches set around the giant screen, plenty of food - ranging from the chips and soda to the pretzels and beer.

The front doors are left watched, but open, and invitations have been sent out to the guys on all the teams the Avengers are in contact with... so... potentially a lot of people.

shield_legacy:

The labrats, Tim included, loved the holidays. At least the ones where they were allowed to decorate. They had a ton of decorations and they took a day to decorate the lab. This year was no exception. The lab was decorated to the hilt. They had a fireplace, with a real fire, a recliner and a Christmas tree in the middle. They even had holographic projections to turn the lab into Santa's Workshop. Snow fell all around the lab and went from flakes directly to gas, not leaving any water anywhere.

They even had a remote controlled Santa with sleigh and reindeer flying around the lab. Once in awhile it would buzz close to someone's head and then zip away. All of the labrats wore santa hats or elf ears. Humorous Christmas songs played on the sound system.

Someone had even put some mistletoe over the main entrance to the lab.

nextgen_parent:

Charles Xavier, head of the Xavier Institute of Higher Learning and mentor of the X-Men, had been busy in the recent days. Together with an old friend, Erik Lehnsherr, the two of them pushed the anti-human groups into action. Attacks on humans started happening all around New York City.

In Times Square the MLF appeared and started attacking the sea of people in the "Crossroads of the World". They also targeted the nearby Police and fire stations to hinder efforts to control the chaos they were creating.

Down on Wall Street the Brotherhood started attacking the bankers and investment brokers.

Leading the attacks on humans were Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr.

Mutants attacking humans prompted responses from anti-mutant groups such as the Friends of Humanity, the Church of Purity and other pro-human groups.

The streets of New York quickly became a battleground between humans and mutants.

nextgen_holiday:

All Hallow's Eve, or Halloween as it has been come to be called, is a popular holiday with children and adults alike. It is a holiday that had its roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain or Summer's End. Samhain celebrated the end of the "lighter half" of the year and the beginning of the "darker half".

On this evening the barriers between this world and the Otherworld were believed to be thin and the spirits, good and bad, of the dead could pass through. The spirits of the family's ancestors were welcomed in while evil and bad spirits were warded off by the wearing of masks and costumes. The costumes and masks disguised one as a harmful spirit and avoided harm from others.

It was also a harvest celebration and time to take stock of food stores for the winter. Livestock were slaughtered and the meat prepared for storage. It was the final harvest of the year and the crops were then stored for the winter. Celebrations included bonfires and tales of the family's ancestors.

It was a celebration of the dead and of the harvest.

Today we dress up in scary and not so scary costumes and masks and go door to door for candy or attend costume parties. It is a night for revelry, pranks and fun.

bio_nerd:

Carrying a rather large box with holes, Lena rushes through the hallway, walking at a very brisk pace and trying to catch that elevator just as it closes. Normally there was someone who did this part but they were out so she kept having to leave the lab to run around the place with things for the experiments.

girlspy:

Two more minutes on the treadmill and then she'd move on to lifting weights.

Alice was a good portion into her daily after-training workout session. Her iPod was on shuffle and she was getting up to a pretty good speed, and found herself burning nearly twice the amount of calories that she'd burnt yesterday. She was starting to work up a bit of a sweat, but after she'd stretched a little, she'd be ready to lift weights for an hour before calling her workout wrapped for the day.

It wasn't that she was a workout addict or anything...she just liked to stay in shape. How else was she supposed to move on the field if she wasn't in tip-top condition?

The treadmill slowed into a cool-down and Alice slowed her pace down. When the machine came to a stop, Alive looked down at the stats before hopping off the treadmill, wiping it off with a rag before pausing her iPod and taking a sip out of her water bottle.

shield_legacy:

Tim was horrible with dates unless they were a deadline and it was normal for him to miss things. Thankfully he set up reminders for important things like birthdays. The only one he ever remembered without a reminder was Sammy's.

When the notification came in for Josh's birthday Tim took some time in the morning to head into New York and get him a gift. Tim wasn't exactly sure what to get him, but he did find a few things. He left a wrapped copy of Sun Tzu's Art of War and a gift card to Barnes and Noble on Josh's desk in HQ.

battle_shield:

 Director Fury was calling for an update on various operations. Josh's job was keeping track of developments from various criminal organizations and superhuman threats. As such, he was among those called.

bio_nerd:

Getting her out of the lab was an achievement itself. Getting her out of the lab to go to an amusement park? That was even more of a feat.

shieldbratgirl:

**BAM** **BAM** **BAM**

A Smith and Wesson 686 Plus.

**BAM** **BAM** **BAM**

A Glock G22.

**BAM** **BAM** **BAM**

A Ruger Blackhawk...and finally her favorite.

**BAM** **BAM** **BAM**

The Walther PPK was warm in her hand as she watched the smoke clear in the small private shooting range deep inside the helicarrier. There may be better ways to spend a Saturday night..but Nikki Coulson couldn't think of many as she put the firearm down and flicked the switch, bringing the silhouette of the vaguely threatening man closer to check her grouping.