| Not Cool, Bro! |
| Summary: | Spidergirl and Hawkeye come across the burning problem in an alleyway in Brooklyn. |
| Date: | 2014-09-30 |
| Related: | None |
| NPCs: | Tracksuit Russian mafia |
| Scene Runner: | Mutual |
| Social/Plot: | Plot |
| Players: |
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Tuesday night, in New York City. While in normal cities, this is the time for people to return to their homes, in this city, it's one of the times where the city is the most lively, mostly with college students partying and enjoying the night. Most college students, that is. Atop buildings, a black-and-white figure swings from building to building with almost cat-like grace, "No, dad, I'm not at my dorm." the hooded girl speaks, seemingly to no one, though she does have a pair of earphones going into her hood, and leading into a light brown backpack she is carrying. "Well, yeah. Can't you hear the wind? No, I'm just doing a stroll around the park. Why? Just clearing my head, dad, and— No! No, nothing's wrong, dad, seriously!" Seems she is having a discussion with her father over the phone while swinging around town. Isn't there a law against that?
~
Tuesday night archery leagues at the local indoor archery range. The season is gearing up, what with bow season in full swing and all the compound-bow hunters either want to show their prowess, or get that father/son shooting in a fun environment. Once again, Hawkeye heads home just a little richer than he left only hours before. He's got a stick-bow (longbow) in a bow-sock, and some cedar-shafted arrows on his back, just because it's easier to carry them that way. Whistling as he rounds the corner, Barton slows near one of the many coffee carts that dot the avenue.
~
The alleyways of what would qualify as Little Moscow around here were typically filled with quiet, back alley deals that involved the less savory members of society. They did their best to keep to themselves, but there was always some spillage…whether it was blood from a broken man, or some drunken revelry reminiscent of the old country taken too far. Tonight, though, it was something else altogether. Scorch marks marked the entrance to one of the spaces between buildings and the flicker of flames could be seen from within. It was much too bright for some bum to have lit a barrel and there were far too many shadows. The screams were also a pretty good giveaway. A bright flash of light and one of the screams is silenced, and the smell of charred meat fills the air.
~
Still calmly swinging from building to building, Spidergirl goes on chatting with her dad, "-you saw how he acted, dad! He left me standing there to go play with his little expensive phone! I'm not going to give him another chance if I do meet him again, he had one and he blew it! And— WHOA!!" suddenly her danger sense flares up as it picks up on screams and fires in the nearby alley, "W-wha—? Oh, no, dad it was just, uh, a squirrel that spooked me. Yeah." she almost lost her grip on her web but manages to keep her dignity afloat. She lands on the roof across the street and looks down at the alley. "Look, call you later, k? Love you, bye!" she says then quickly hangs up her phone and pulls her earphones off, statching them in her backpack. Then after securing her backpack on that roof with her web, she jumps off the building, and throws a web to swing herself toward that alley. Nothing good comes out of fire adn screams….
~
'Bro, not cool, bro! That's not right!' Loud, heavily-Russian-accented words rise in the growing panic, but of course no one wants to even think about aiding them. These are the men who extort, sell drugs, and all around are a blight on society. (The Italian mob is so much nicer?)
The smell of burnt human flesh is completely different than, say, the burning of cow or goat, and the stench rises in the air, carried upon the breeze that is locked down in the steel and stone canyon known as New York. The stench when it first hits Barton causes him to turn around as he walks, the coffee cart all but forgotten as he makes one, two full revolutions in search of something. Apparently he doesn't find what it is he's looking for, so the next—
And the fire's light flickers from a side alley further down the road. Great, just… most people around here grill on their rooftops, not in the alleys.
Pulling his bow from the sock, it's easy to string the thing in a single step and stuff the bit of fabric into his pocket.
Movement always catches Hawkeye's attention, however, particularly when it's up, as that's where he usually is. Up. Ground is never good for him, mostly. Still now, he advances, keeping an eye on the sky as well as on the ground. Now, he moves with a little more caution, forward in a direction where other people are retreating, keeping his back, for the most part, nearest the buildings' walls.
~
As the intrepid heroes get closer and closer, if any of them were well-versed in Russian, they'd understand the conversation going on…or what passed for conversation between yelling and such. Gunfire was added in now and the sound of bullets pinging against brick can be heard, followed by a sudden blast of heat and another scream is silenced.
"<You were so eager to take your tithes from my family when we came here from Russia…I still remember my mothers bleeding nose. Come now, you don't feel a thing after the first few seconds of agony.>" If they got close enough to peek into the alleyway, they'd see a young man in his twenties, a ball of fire in his hand, wearing a long overcoat that seems to be entirely too stiff to be made of cloth. Several bullets with flattened noses are stuck in it, and some small piles of molten metal are on the ground before him, likely bullets flash-melted. Several incinerated corpses lie against the walls of the alley, with two men left at the end, their eyes wide with fear as they are pressed against the alley wall.
~
Spidergirl's senses are flaring like hell as she swings in and lands, upside-down and with feet and hands on the wall, a couple stories above the cloaked man, "Look mister, I don't know who you are, or what your beef with these thugs are, but I'm not going to let you burn those guys down!" she says while at the same time shooting web at the spellcaster guy with both wrists, hoping to trap his arms and torso together and end this quick.
~
Russian is somewhat familiar in that it's one of the languages where he knows a few really choice curses. Conversational Russian, however, is limited to 'na zdrovie' and 'do svedanya, tovarich' (usually spoken when the target ceases all life functions). One, two words- on the outside. The pleading for one's life, and the anger in the tones of another's isn't missed, and as Hawkeye moves forward, he catches that movement from the air.
Not for a second does Hawkeye bring his bow up at the- what is it with people who walk on walls? But now, as he comes in, he's providing distinct backup for the now obviously a girl under that mask with an arrow (with a sad target pile at the end of it) nocked, but the bow isn't yet drawn fully.
"Okay, gonna say this once. Stop it. Put your hands down and quit burning trash outside of Fountain Avenue."
~
As the webspray flies down at him, Michael turns and frowns, and with a wave of his hand, a gout of flame incinerates the webbing in mid-air, leaving little more than raining embers. "If you knew what they had done, you'd be less willing to save their worthless hides!" The young man notes the arrival of the second person and he begins to evaluate the situation. Wall walking and webbing, some guy with a bow and arrow…which meant that with such an archaic weapon, he likely knew how to use it quite well. "Just go on your way and I'll rid the world of a bit more scum and be on my way as well."
During this time, the Russians managed to get their courage up again and one pulled an automatic firearm from his coat, which he shakily pointed towards the mage. "<D-d-die, monster!>" The rounds zipped through the air, peppering the walls of the alleyway and streaking out towards Michael, and by extension, likely Hawkeye, though the rounds don't fly high enough to bother Spidergirl.
"Tch. I will show you what a monster really is!" The ball of flame in the young man's hand grows and a great wall of flame erupts in the air, engulfing the path between himself and the mobsters, the flames burning an otherworldly green as they form a curtain of protection, denying the threat for the moment.
~
Spidergirl arches one eyebrow as her webbing is burnt in mid-air, "Oooo-kay, Ozai-domo, doesn't matter if I know or not what those guys did, nothing excuses them burning them to a crisp!" she says. Out of the corner of her eye she spies Hawkeye, and was about to do something when the russian goons decide to shoot. "Hey!!" she says as she shoots a web toward the guy's gun and pull it out of his hands, "Watch where you're pointing that thing!" she says, and a few quick motions and she has removed the magazine and the barrel, disassembling the gun. Then there's a wall of fire. Great. Since she figures her webbing is nigh-useless against this fire-weaving guy, she decides to create a diversion to give Hawkeye an opportunity to strike. "Hey! Don't you know if you play with fire you might end up getting burned?" she says to the sorcerer, while at the same time shooting more webbing from above, as many times as she can, thinking maybe he can't incinerate them all.
~
There's no logicking with the track-suit-clad Russian mafia of the area, truly. The -moment- one catches the fact that Barton is there, he starts cursing a little louder. "I knew you were part of this, bro. Da, you. You will pay.. Yuri will find—" and the staccato of gunfire erupts from the one that has found some of the courage to point the gun at the mage.
Hawkeye might be good, but he's not good enough to dodge automatic fire, but he's not stupid enough to stand still to let it all land dead center of his chest either. He leaps to the side, landing on his shoulder and rolling up to a kneeling position, an arrow loosed the -moment- the fire is set. Not only, then, does the lead melt but the cedar-wood shaft as well as well as the metal point on the end.
"Yeah, I know what they do!" is called back. "This isn't the way to do it. There will always be more. Then what?"
There.. perfect. Distraction is exactly what is needed. Reaching down, Hawkeye grabs a bit of a random broken bottle and heaves it at the guy, and in the next heartbeat, an arrow is sent towards it to break it, sending shards of glass at the mage. Webs, flying glass… and another shot is taken, this time aimed at the mage's knee. Take him down, give him something to think about!
~
"Then I guess I'll be busy for awhile then!" These two were going to let the idiots get away…bah. He didn't want to resort to the Embers in a situation like this. Too much potential for blowback. So, he'd have to improvise. The wall of green flame snuffs itself, alleviating its burden on the concentration of the mage before he is forced to try and defend himself from 3 separate attacks. The arrow and the webbing, then. The ball of flame in Michael's hand compresses for a moment and then forms a large shield to block the webbing from sticking to his person. The glass plinks harmlessly off of the reinforced coat of the young man, deflecting the glass as easily as it had stopped bullets before. The arrow is stopped as well, but the force is still transferred into the young man, staggering him as he is forced to hop sideways and lean against the wall. "STOP INTERFERING!" He wasted too much energy earlier toying with the mafia goons and a prolonged conflict was not in his favor.
"Fine, let them go! Let those they prey upon be on your conscience." The shield winks out of existance and the young Russian puts his hands in his pockets in surrender.
~
Spidergirl helped save the goons' lives, but that doesn't mean she'd let them away, scot-free, no. As the sorcerer apparently surrenders, "And where do YOU two think you're going?!" Spidergirl says as she shoots her webbing at the two remaining goons alive to try capture them and pull them up to her, while Hawkeye keeps an eye on the pyromaniac magician. "Hawkeye, do you know this fire-crazy guy, here?" she asks, hoping at least the other hero knows their opponent.
"Hey, bro.. you have convinced him to stop, bro? That is very good, bro. We will kill you last, da bro?" The nervous laughter sounds from those remaining Russians as a little more courage is gained. "In a less painful way that we will kill him, da?" A gesture towards the mage comes the moment the young man drops his hands. All isn't on their side, however, as Spidergirl enwraps them, and they start shouting in Russian, ending with, "Not good, girl. Not good. Bro! Tell her we put her on the list now, yeah bro?"
Hawkeye gains his feet slowly; fireballs from his hands, check. Shield-y thing, check. He's seen teleporters, big furry blue guys tear into people.. "Okay, hands out— no. On second thought, "Keep your hands in.
"Not a clue." Hawkeye takes a couple of steps forward covering the mage with his bow, "Name is good. We can find out, but we'd prefer to hear it from you."
~
"<Don't worry, I'll be along to meet Yuri later and when I've turned him inside out, you'll be next on the menu.>" Michael growls in Russian at the others before looking at the heroes who stopped him. "My name is Michael…and yeah, it wouldn't be too hard to find out. ID is in my pocket afterall." He looks…annoyed, to say the least, but he isn't being outwardly aggressive. "I'm hardly 'fire-crazy'. I had it perfectly under control, thank you. One of the few talents I've managed to refine over the years…and they're just going to get out on bail later. You'd be better off putting them in the river with weights on their feet."
~
Spidergirl pulls up the russian goons up to her eye level as she narrows her eyes at them, "Are you two threatening me? You do know that I could just let go of you two, right now, and let you two fall not to your deaths, but a very, very painful existence with broken limbs and maybe a broken spine, which would likely doom you guys from feeding through a tube?" she says, "So, if I were you, I'd be on my best behavior from now on." she says, before looking at Michael and Hawkeye, not worried at all about the thugs as it's very unlikely they'd be able to break her webbing. Her job now mainly is to keep the goons away from Michael.
~
Wait.. wait.. okay, Barton catches Yuri's name in all of that, and immediately his attention moves towards the young man, now identified as 'Michael'. "Okay, wait. You're not getting anywhere -near- Yuri Popovich." His tones have dropped to a much more serious note as he doesn't break his gaze on this new wildcard now tossed into the middle of (his) things. Who knows what the young man has been doing- he'll have to go back and check his intel records for any anomalies that may have passed his note. With Widow.
"Yeah, flinging it around and crispifying people. That's the picture of 'fire crazy' in the dictionary."
Hawkeye approaches slowly, ready to reach for the man's ID. "As much as I'd like to dunk them in the East River, it's too full of Italians right now. Dredging is slated for next year. So, it'll have to be our overcrowded prison system for them."
"It's not threat, girl. It's promise. Tell girl with mask, bro. We keep our promises!" The Russians aren't really very happy, and they fall now to talking amongst themselves, for all the two that are left. (Lots of letters to be sent home. Gregor. Ivan. Sergei. Antonin. Andrei…)
~
"As much as I'd like to stay around and chat and let you turn me into the cops, I'm afraid that I need to-…don't tell me what to do, thanks. If Yuri keeps it up, he'll find himself in a barbeque worse than these guys. I'm tired of letting my friends getting shot, beaten, and more or less screwed by him. I'll be sure to leave a note for you when you find him, though." A glance again to Hawkeye and then Spidergirl before she'd get that familiar tingle at the back of her skull before the young man takes his hands out of his pockets and then, in an instant, he suddenly disappears. The thoughtcasted spell was easy at this point and the cloaking spell wrapped him in a shroud of invisibility, which he uses to slip away.
~
Spidergirl just arches one eyebrow at the goons… and then lets go of her web, letting the two web-wrapped russian goons plummet down to the ground, but Spidergirl grabs the web again inches before the goons hit the pavement, "Now, you guys were saying…?" she says, but then her danger sense flares up, "Wait— watch out!!" she says, turning her head toward Hawkeye, "He will— disappear?" she blinks, watching as the sorcerer simply disappears, "Aw, great. Did he teleport away, or something?"
~
"You're gonna find yourself in custody right next to them, no better off than they a—" What the hell? The moment the young man disappears from view, Hawkeye looses an arrow exactly where Michael's leg had been. When the arrow skitters off the ground just behind where he thinks the target may lie, he lets out another curse- remarkably in Russian.
"That's it, bro. Yes. You sound good. Maybe you are Russian and don't know it, bro?"
"Shut. Up."
Shrieks sound the moment the net bag begins to fall, and is caught again. "Girl is grazy. Girl, you crazy!"
Hawkeye takes the couple of steps forward, keeping an eye for any hint of where Michael could have gone, and leans over to retrieve his arrow. Checking it for cracks, he sticks it back into his quiver when satisfied that it's unbroken. "Teleporting isn't my thing," is grumbled. "I dunno, but I'm going to put my stuff away, after these guys and I have a little chat." Hawkeye looks meaningfully at the pair of bagged Russians. "We'll find out who he is, and when we do, there's no place he'll be able to run to ground." Now, he sounds almost sarcastic as he adds, "Unless, of course, there's this interdimensional portal to another realm, yadda-yadda-yadda…"
Still, he has the courtesy, "I appreciate your being here. If I find anything out, I'll see if I can't get in touch and let you know what I find?"
~
Spidergirl arches one eyebrow at Hawkeye, knowing full well what kind of 'interrogation' this hero might put these two through. "Hey, you know I don't condone excessive violence." she points out, but, nevertheless, she places her web-sac full of two russian goons on the ground, "With that said, I have no way of knowing what you'll do to them if I'm not here, and I do have business elsewhere, so… have fun." she says, leaving the two goons with Hawkeye before web-swinging away.
(feel free to tag the log with character names of those involved!)