hotlittlehands:

Amiko, well wrapped in a flight suit, waited patiently as her brother carried her to the landing point near the Yashida compound.

They'd been paired together for a little while, handling various ... errands. It was good to work with him. Even if they were seeing a lot clearer now, as if a lot of clutter had been removed from their minds, they were still family.

Which led her thoughts to the ostensible mission here: to go after the sword Amiko had previously claimed 'on behalf of the sane side of the Clan.' And apparently, she'd been Confused at the time as to which side that was. Their obvious mission was to rectify that.

But so far, they were not being obvious. They were good at that.

"They'll know we're coming," Amiko reminds him. "They're not so lost and stumbling they won't have been able to find out a few things, and suspect what we obviously want. Just not direction or precise timing. And please keep Hajime off of me, Misha. I'm not concerned about the others. They'll hesitate, for old time's sake." Old times were hazy and vague in her head, but not so much so that she couldn't exploit them.

nextgen_misc:

Their first few targets had been acquired, but there were still a few more pawns that they needed to capture. Teams were sent out to capture the remaining pawns.

nextgen_misc:

It was a quiet autumn day in the city of New Orleans. Tourists wandered the streets and moved about their business. The local superhero team, The Champions, were enjoying the quiet and going about their daily routines.

Of course that was about to change.

It had taken many small jumps to get here, but the Winter Guard, some small subset, did suddenly arrive on the Champions' doorstep.

nextgen_misc:

Once the imprisoned Zodiac members were free, they didn't wait long to make a move. Mikel Fury directed the members to attack Leo and his Triads in San Francisco. Violence erupted in the streets in the more seedier parts of the city and the civilians stayed inside out of the way.

anyastark:

Anya sat in Amber India in San Francisco eating her dinner while she read over a report. She had a very early morning meeting tomorrow and had decided to come out to San Fran a day early. Getting off a plane and going right into a meeting was something she tried to avoid.

It was still early and the restaurant was relatively empty. She was engrossed in reading the report that she wasn't paying attention to what was going on around her.

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.

ngserpentsoc:

Vadoma gave the members of the Serpent Society instructions on what they were to do. They were being paid quite handsomely to do a small job. The job was to destroy a factory in the Boston area.

It was a simple plan. Get in and do as much damage as possible. Then get out before being captured.

onearmofhydra:

It had taken many months and very careful planning, not to mention promises and money, to get to this point, but Viper was quite pleased. Seven new lieutenants working for her and the criminal underworld slowly coming under her control.

The first obstacle had been her mother. Ophelia Sarkissian had outlived her usefulness and Olivia had her killed. Olivia had no real attachment to her mother and felt nothing when she poisoned the woman.

The second obstacle had been Temujin. Olivia didn't like the man, but he would serve her purpose well. Freeing him from SHIELD custody hadn't been easy, but she had managed it. Now he was indebted to her, just the way she wanted it.

The third had been the easiest. She reached out to the only blood relation she had left. Nicholas took a little convincing, but had agreed to work for her.

The fourth wasn't the most pleasant, but she had reached out to the Rumlows. Her father's followers, or anything dealing with her father, weren't her preferred choice, but they were effective. Olivia could use effective despite her personal feelings.

Matsu'o's spawn had been the easiest. All she had to do was promise him a shot at Wolverine's sons and foster daughter and he fell in line.

The others, Jigsaw II, the Serpent Society and the Espionage Elite just took some gold. Viper had plenty of gold and they had come relatively cheap.

Viper sat on the throne like chair and looked at the people gathered in the spacious room.

onearmofhydra:

Olivia was slowly building her forces and planning her next few moves. Jushiro and Shaw were already on board, but there were a few more key players to gather. Olivia wasn't in a rush, but it wouldn't take long for someone to figure out what she was doing. She'd like to have her forces in place before someone made a move against her, not after.

One such person she needed on her side was her own half-brother. She hadn't seen Nicholas in around ten years and it was time for a little family reunion. Their mother had a failure that led to Nicholas' capture by the US government and subsequent "volunteering" into the Weapon X program. Olivia didn't know why her mother didn't go to get her son back, but Olivia's mother wasn't exactly the one to do it out of motherly love for a child. Olivia was there to step up into Nicholas' spot so why taking the risk of getting captured to get one person back? Not that Olivia really missed her brother. Emotions were a liability and Olivia had none what so ever for her brother.

Now it was time to bring Nicholas back into the family fold. Under Olivia's control of course. She knew the perfect way to do it too.

She headed for New York to reunite with her brother.

onearmofhydra:

"He has regained consciousness," the small weaselly messenger said to Viper as she stood at the large window looking down at the lights of Hightown. Viper, her mother would hate her using that name, stood at the window when she needed time to think. The lights of the city helped her focus her mind.

"Excellent," Olivia said as she turned away from the window. "Take me to him."

The man turned and started to walk toward the door. Olivia followed. "Your mother wanted me to tell you that she wants him removed from the premises."

Olivia frowned at the man's back. Her mother was becoming more of a problem with each passing day and Olivia was going to have to deal with her mother soon. She had no qualms about killing her mother, the woman served some purpose, but now she was becoming a liability.

One thing at a time. Otherwise she would make a mistake and that would be the ruination of her plans.

They took the elevator down a few floors to a small medical facility. The best doctors money could buy and some help from other sources had made the man's rehabilitation possible. It would put him in her debt and just where she wanted him.

She walked over to the bed and looked down at him. "Welcome back to the world of the mentally functioning, Mr. Shaw. I have an offer for you that you'll find very interesting."

onearmofhydra:

Olivia Sarkissian walked confidently through the hallways of the prison. Bodies of the warden and the guards lay in her wake. The right poison was a wonderful thing. This one was derived from spider venom and had been engineered to be absorbed through the skin. It wasn't much to put a drop on the warden and the guards as she made her way through the prison.

She came to a stop before a specific cell.

"My, how you have fallen."