past prologue.

WHO: Phil Coulson, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton (with a May cameo)
WHEN: Sometime after the Avengers team meeting
WHERE: Delta Team Dive Bar. aka, a dingy dive bar in the East Village
WHAT: Agents who drink together stick together Phil wants to check in on his former agents. And he's not comfortable doing that in the Tower.
STATUS: Complete
Warnings: All the sad feels.

( just like old times )

WHO: Avengers
WHEN: Sunday, December 28
WHERE: An Avengers-only conference room in the Tower.
WHAT: Time to clear the air and decide on where to go next.

It's time for the Avengers to clear the air a bit, I think, and especially, to decide on where they ought to stand with SHIELD going forward.

(And to deal with some of their Issues, because they don't need SHIELD to have plenty of those already.)

Comment in the various sub-threads with what your character does/says. Go IC as necessary, if you want.

[ TOWER RESIDENTS/AVENGERS ]

I haven't been around for Christmas since 1944. So thanks.

[ STEVE ]

You were right. All it needed was a good shock.

Who: Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff
What: Discussing life as a wishbone
When: Overnight, December 21-22, following the Obelisk raid
Where: On board the Staten Island Ferry
Warnings: Language

( So, looks like we just became the center of a fight between two sides who decided they can't play nice and share their toys. )

[Skye]

New Task: There's been a raid on old SHIELD storage facility in the frozen north. I need all evidence of it wiped from servers - including military servers. How quickly can you do that?

[May, Fury, Barton, Romanoff]

Good work, today. Any hiccups I need to know about before we debrief?

Suggestions on how to proceed with Rhodes?

WHO: SHEEPs (May, Fury), Avengers (Barton, Romanoff), & HYDRA (& Rhodey!), oh my.
WHEN: Today.
WHERE: The oldest SHIELD storage facility in a classified location.
WHAT: They have the map, now it was time to procure the key. It never goes easy, does it?
WARNINGS: The usual action/violence that comes with HYDRA clashes. The Obelisk gets a little horrifying action too.
___

( This is Colonel James Rhodes, US Air Force. My men have this building surrounded. You are under arrest for trespassing in a federal facility. Put your weapons down and your hands up. )

Who: Natasha Romanoff & Fandral
What: Fandral has questions and Natasha has answers; also Natasha has questions and Fandral may have answers.
When: The day after Natasha's return from Amsterdam (BACKDATED)
Where: Avengers' Tower
Warnings: N/A

( In these Nether lands, were there marauders to vanquish? )

[Avengers, SHIELD]

I'm going to go check out the last kidnapkidnapping victim's school. The kids that followed Nat when she was taken might know her, which means maybe they go to the same school. It's almost Christmas break so we're running out of time, there. I'll watch the place, look for anything unusual, and ask around.

If anyone there objects to a grown man talking to the kids, I would like to be bailed out before they put me on an episode of To Catch A Predator.

Well, it's good to be back.

[AVENGERS + SHIELD]

I'm back. It seems there are no lasting effects apart from the broken wrist which should be good as new in a few weeks. I'd like to take this moment for apologize for the past few weeks and to thank you all for your efforts in containing the situation in the cafe and taking care of things the last few weeks.

Onto business:

• May's briefed me on what I've missed from SHIELD's standpoint. Anything else I should know?
  
• How can we coordinate a response to these kidnappings? I don't know if we have records on all these kids, but SHIELD's records are open to the Avengers.
  
• It turns out the carving was meant to be a 3D model. JARVIS has digitized the model and it's uploaded on the servers, so you should all have access to it. The search for this city is a high priority. It's what the Kree are looking for.
  
• I'm not the only one who was injected with this drug, so it's possible HYDRA's looking for the city as well. We need to beat them there.
  

[Steve]

Captain, if you have some free time, I'd like to speak with you. I owe you a debt of gratitude.

[Skye]

Care to explain to me just what the hell you were thinking?

[May]

Dinner. Out. I owe you a thank you.

I dislike reading headlines like the ones I have seen recently. Not about Black Widow's girlfriend - I don't care who's dating who - but about the kidnappings. New York may be a bit city, but as concerned citizens, we should take care to do what we can to improve it.

[Avengers]

Can I do this? Is it like a bat signal?

Some of you know me, but I just wanted to know if the string of kidnappings is on your radar and if there's anyway I can help. I have some skills

[Private to Natasha]

Natasha, remember how you told me during our spa date that I ought to help the Avengers out by using my shrinking ability for surveillance and what-not? I want to take you up on that offer and become an Avenger. I know you can use my skill set. I'm responsible and able to work as part of a team.

I came over to the Avengers Tower today to talk to Tony about joining the Avengers and you know what he did? He was a real jackass and told me I wasn't worthy, that nobody trusted me and that I had to get up at six in the morning for some sort of bullshit test where I had to run his stupid little gambit to somehow prove I was a team player. I told him that I wanted to speak to either you or Steve, and he just laughed in my face!

I'd like an interview, please. With somebody who isn't Tony, and who isn't so biased against me.

New York's always so pretty during the holidays.

NATASHA:

What do we do now?

Is it always like this? What you guys do?

JANET:

Hey. I'm sorry we How are you doing?

Charlie Brown, wow. (I'm burning through my DVR - all the Rankin Bass specials are next, so watch out.)

When you sit back and look at everything that one Christmas special gave to the world (and even though it's 50 in your mind, it's still pretty new to me) -- not only do you get a host of really good jazz, but we all get to sit on our laurels and be reminded that Christmas is actually about giving.

I remember
whe It's important, more than ever before, to remember each other. And it's important to put others first -- if we're all looking out for one another, I can guarantee that everybody's back is covered.

[AVENGERS]

Let's circle the wagons. You've had a tough few weeks, (days, months, lifetimes ...) and I want to hear about what's happened. I also want to hear about our next steps. We've been batting clean up to HYDRA too much and I'd like to get one step ahead of them.

So, that means sharing key learnings and re-molding our strategy. And Stark, I know that sharing really isn't your strong suit but give her a whirl.

[America]

Hey, you.

Who: Natasha Romanoff, Julie Power, Kamala Khan, Kate Bishop, and Eli Bradley
What: Where there's trouble, there are the Young Avengers.
When: A few days after the Avengers return from the Netherlands. (Now.)
Where: Midtown Manhattan, just south of Central Park
Warnings: (Superhero style) Violence, language. Kidnapping of a teenager. More Failvenging.

( The girl was young, small. She'd be easy to take, as long as they could get her off the streets fast enough. )

Who: Jan, Tony, Natasha, Thor, Sif, and Julie. + some nefarious Nefaria criminals, etc.
When: Immediately following this.
Where: Building D, Roeterseiland & Nieuwe Achtergracht, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. For the most part.
What: Janet goes to rescue her father, gets in a bit over her head. Fortunately the Avengers have her back.
Warnings: Violence, many many deaths. Failvengers.
___

( Who says I’m not ready? )

[ STEVE & NATASHA ]

Run the plan by me. Is it to keep me in this building forever?

Because: not possible. Sooner or later.

Who: Tony Stark and Natasha Romanoff
What: Checking out one of the places Janet's dad might be held.
When: After this.
Where: A fish processing plant near Amsterdam
Warnings: Superheroic violence. Stinky fish.

( She'd had plenty of guns aimed at her through her various careers but the combination of fish guts, heavy machinery, and high-caliber automatic weapons was a new and particularly nasty trick. )

[Filtered to Netherlands away team - Thor, Sif, Tony & Julie]

I'd say I have a live one. Unfortunately it's anything but. Security logs show that the entry codes used to get into the lab when they took Janet's dad belonged to one Peter Atte van Vilet, age 32, a scientist working at the lab. Van Vilet did graduate work at Columbia and he racked up an impressive set of student loans.

I went out to his flat and found him dead. Execution-style, single bullet to the head, matching the pattern Thor and Sif reported for the original kidnappers. While I was there, I took a good look through his things and downloaded some files from his laptop. No immediate leads based on the names, but Tony, I've got copies of his backups from his phone and his Facebook pictures, for facial recognition.

So, another dead end. Mostly. Sorry my news isn't any better.

[Thor, Tony, Natasha, Julie]

Greetings, Companions of Thor:

We have tracked down the location of the assailants responsible for the capture of Sir Van Dyne and encountered a discovery most disturbing: these five men had long since passed from this realm by the time we reached them and Sir Van Dyne was not on the premises.

I do believe a larger hand in the shadows is at work and deemed it necessary to cut loose these threads.

Looks like I'm trading one island for another. I'm back from Kona and looking for apartments for rent in New York. Nothing too modern, nothing too large, must have a balcony.

( This is NGC 3603, a nebula, constellation Carina )