Summary:Roy is sent to spy on a meeting with MODOK - and comes across a ghost of his past. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Outside, it's an almost fall-like evening for New York. The temperature is pleasant, there's only a few clouds drifting in the early evening sky. Already, with night fallen, there's activity. Isn't there always in Staten Island, though? Tonight, there was supposed to be a meet and greet. One of the members of this meeting was rumored to be Madame Masque. A mover and shaker in the Maggia, she'd been trying to make her mark on Staten Island.
Tonight, she was rumored to be meeting a possible new supplier. Someone that was going to bring arms and armor, and up Masque's game. In the warehouse where they are supposed to meet, there's a few goons that are dressed in non-descript body armor and guns, moving around on a patrol while watching out for Masque's arrival.
They aren't alone. Dressed in the reds and blacks of his hybrid SHIELD/Arsenal uniform, Roy's taken into the rafters. He has out a small arrow that he's folded into a receiver, as he raises his bow, and fires a second arrow across the way, catching it on a steel support beam, and it deploys a second listening device. He's wiring the place for sound as he waits for the meeting to go down himself, reaching into his pocket to pull out a piece of beef jerky and chew on it.
It's no surprise that with movement like this on Staten Island word has filtered to someone elses ears.
Unlike Roy she didn't arrive early, tonight. Maybe she heard about it before tonight, wired the place. Maybe she just doesn't care about getting audio on the entire thing because she's not looking to rely on any kind of justice system.
Roy is up in the rafters when one of the windows in the ceiling opens quietly, shockingly quietly. A sign maybe someone was around before and WD40'd it so there wasn't any screech of metal. Then a figure dressed in dark clothes except a shockingly red helmet and mask beneath a dark hood from a hooded sweatshirt slides through that window.
As the players are in place, a van pulls into the warehouse. Turning off the lights, it turns into a clearing and then backs in. A pair of the armored men come around to the back and open the doors of the delivery vehicle. And from within, there's a soft purple glow as a … creature trundles out. The word creature is used loosely here because what it is was - and maybe is - once human.
He head is grossly large and wrinkled to the point of being misshappened. It's so massive that it's easily larger than the body it's attached to. A body so febbled and weak that it's being carried inside of a support hoverchair, large supports erected to keep the head upright. Around the head is a thick gold band with a singular large violet gem.
Coming from the back and floating along the ground, the creature looks around, and then frowns. "It seems we have unwanted attention." comes the grumbling complaint. His head twists, looking up into the rafters. "Are there bats in the belfry?" With that, a sudden burst of purplish light lances out, arching towards where Roy had taken cover.
'SHIT!' is the thought that races through Roy's mind. This wasn't what the archer had expected and as the blast explodes next to him, he tumbles off-balanced into the crates, landing on top of one with a 'WHOOF' of breath being knocked out of him. Shaking it off, he's pulling out an arrow. "Sorry, MODOK, did I interrupt your date?" he calls out as he fires the first arrow, just to create a distraction as it whistles through the air and then explodes in a brilliant flash of light.
First, Jacyn looks amused by the fact that Roy got noticed. Well, as amused as a faceless mask can look. But then she realizes just who exactly it was getting knocked off the beam.
Roy. One and only Roy Fucking Harper.
She doesn't leap in right away, instead she moves through the rafters, trying to let Roy eat that attention and keep everyone focused on him and the exploding arrow. When she gets herself closer to MODOK and the goons she reaches into the inside pocket of her jacket and pulls out a dark, gunmetal grey throwing knife, pulling her hand back to try and send one flying towards the neck of one of the goons.
With the explosion of the arrow, MODOK screeches. "It was NOT a date! It was a business meeting! One you're ruining!" Then he adds just as quickly. "Why, what did she say about me?" Like Roy is supposed to know the answer to that.
Rolling off of the crate, Roy drops down, firing another arrow, this one splitting into a net to snag a guard and take him off the ground and wrap him up. Non-lethal? Really. Unlike the newcomer. The guard she strikes goes down, and MODOK flails. "Tut tut! You didn't tell me you had company!"
With that, a chain gun snaps into place from within the chair and starts spraying a line of fire towards where the hooded figured ducked too. "No need to play coy, my dear!" he calls out to her menancingly.
Wait. Someone else? Roy is quickly checking the comms to see if SHIELD had sent backup. But finding none, he frowns. There's only few other options it could be. But he said /she/. So. Really, only slightly fewer.
"Can't be Spoiler, ain't heard a quip yet." Batwoman, Batgirl, or the other new one.. Orphan?
That list is pretty small to begin with, and really only gets smaller when Jacyn steps back out into view. It's a rather calculated move, even if it might not look like it to outsiders.
Right out onto that rafter, standing up straight arrow straight despite the bullets flying in her direction. Then she takes a step forward off the rafter to drop fast and hard towards the floor. It's not for a super hero landing, though. The sound might be familiar as she drops and the fast whizz of a metallic line spinning out behind her is heard as she comes to a sudden stop a foot from the floor to hang there like a big, bright target.
But on the way down she drew two guns, which are very not normal for anyone that might be on that short list. Instead of aiming at MODOK himself, she's aiming at that chair as she squeezes the triggers.
That does narrow the list. Significantly. When Jacyn goes all out to put on a show to get MODOK's attention with the goons, Roy fires off another arrow, bolo-wrapping another one and taking him down. But his lips pull into a frown.
He only knows one Batling that's that dangerous and showy. Well, two. But one of them is male and doesn't wear the obvious Bat-symbol anymore. The other?
She's dead.
"Don't know who you are, but didn't know the Bat was taking franchisees, can I be Bat-Arrow?" comes Roy's quip at the figure as he notches another arrow to fire. "Not that I'm interested. I still owe him a punch in the face." He doesn't say why, though as he fire towards MODOK.
Who in the meantime is throwing up shields to protect himself from the attack. "Did I interrupt something? I'm SO NOT SORRY!" He throws out a telekentic wave to throw both of the heroes off of their feet, and Roy goes back sliding with a grunt.
"This ain't gonna work. We need to distract him, get him to lower his defenses." he notches another arrow to fire. "He's a romantic, thinks all the women swoon over him." he rumbles, not that it helps Roy at the moment as he fires an arrow skywards, starting to form a sheet of ice on the rafter above MODOK's head. He has an idea, apparently.
The release is hit, allowing her to drop the last foot without risking breaking a leg from the fall, or throwing her aim off too much. What does throw her off is the wave that hits, and she digs her heels in to try and not get pushed too far back, or thrown over entirely, her head tucking in instinctively against the push.
Romantic?! Thankfully Roy can't see the face beneath the mask, but maybe he can feel the rage radiating out of her when she turns her head towards him. If he's expecting her to play along with some crazy plan that involves flirting with MODOK he is clearly mistaken. Clearly. So. Mistaken.
Not a team player, maybe. She lifts one of those guns up and takes a shot at MODOK again.
He was so /not/ suggesting that she flirt with MODOK. But, she reacts in a way that he totally expected, and as MODOK is focusing all of his attention on her, Roy's free to work. "When they said that you were meeting a masked woman, MODOK, I was expecting Madame Masque. Slumming it?" he calls out as he fires a second ice arrow, snagging another support, causing the roof to creak slightly. "Or do you just have that whole 'air of mystery' thing going on?"
Roy is totally throwing the Batling under the proverbial hoverchair. But hey, it's working. Because MODOK is too busy dealing with the vigilante shooting at him than to notice what Roy's got going on. And between deflecting bullets, he hrms. "I do admit she looks /nice/ body wise. But the helmet? The mask. Ah, so alluring, so much mystery. Is there scars? Beauty? Perhaps she is just shy?"
Feeling around his quiver, Roy finds an arrow and frowns. Pulling it out, he gestures towards the new figure and points up at the ice. Hopefully she'll see that he's holding a grenade arrow and gets the idea. Frozen supports should shatter easily, right?
The more they talk about her like she's not there, the more angry Jacyn actually gets. Which just means that she keeps shooting at the one of them in effort to get them to SHUT UP.
Which just helps Roy, so who cares. Right?
The second gun comes up, and she begins to take shots at MODOK, trading one for another so that it becomes harder too focus on anything beyond the bullets that are flying. If she sees the indication of the ice, or the grenade arrow, she doesn't give any indication of it.
Why does this all feel so damned familiar? When she shoots at /him/, Roy dives to cover. "HEY! Friendly fire doesn't get the right of way!" he snaps at her, but he rolls over and fire, launching the skywards, and it slams into one of the supports, causing an explosion and the roof creaks dangerously.
It's not enough of an oof to bring the roof down on MODOK, but it's enough to get everyone's attention, and the big-headed man is looking up at the roof now. "Oh dear." he grits his teeth, his attention divided enough now between trying to support the crumbling roof from trying to fall on him and Jacyn firing at him that now a bullet pings off of his hoverchair, the first strike for the woman.
It works well enough for her, and as soon as that first shot finally lands she focuses her full attention on MODOK to take three more quick shots. But unlike the movies, bullets aren't forever.
Soon as she's emptied the clips she's diving out of the way, rolling and coming to her feet behind cover as she ejects them, starting to pull extra clips out to reload. Clearly she expects for Roy to fill in the blanks on all this.
"You know, you're about as helpful as tits on a warthog." Roy's still a talker, apparently that didn't stop. But what has changed is when Roy shifts, he sets aside the bow and he lifts his right arm. It's sleek, black, and very much mechanical.
He looks over the boxes quickly and slams his fist into one of them and shatters it, pulling out the sleek tube within it. "Come to poppa." he smiles as he turns, arming and aiming the anti-tank weapon at MODOK. "Hey, Megamind, catch!"
MODOK swivels away from Jacyn, just in time to see the missile streaking at him. "Oh sh—" The explosion may have been deflected by the telekinetic shield that MODOK was barely able to get up in time, but it broke all of the concentration from the roof and it collapses down onto him, covering him in metal and tile and debris.
Standing up slowly from his position, Roy dusts off his hands and glances over to look for Jacyn in the rising smoke.
Wouldn't tits be very helpful on female warthogs?
JJacyn almost points that out, but she keeps her mouth shut as she slams the clips into the guns, preparing to stand back up when Roy pulls out his trump card.
Instead of joining in she waits, watching the aftermath and letting the smoke curl into the air before she gets to her feet, one of those guns starting to lift in Roy's direction. Maybe in some non-verbal warning.
"OH COME ON!" is Roy's response when Jacyn points a gun at him. "I just totally saved your ass and that's how you thank me?" Saved her from what? MODOK's unending affection, most likely. "SHEILD's gonna have agents crawling all over the place in about five minutes, NYPD's gonna be a couple of minutes after."
"So I'm gonna turn around, and I'm gonna monologue for a moment about how awesome I was, and I expect you to do that bat thing where you all disappear.." he turns around. "But for the record, if you're reporting to that big Bat? Though I don't see how you are with the guns and shit, so not him. He's on my crap in a hat list." he rumbles. "Let him know I still owe him for Todd. I ain't forgot." Nor will he, says the tone. Reaching up to rub at the bridge of his nose. "Turning around in three.. two.. one.."
And he turns.
Maybe it's the fact the big Bat is on his shit list that does it, or the use of her name as the reason. Maybe it's just that she needs to get swept up by SHIELD or NYPD about as much as she needs to die again that does it.
When he turns, she does exactly what he expects. Vanishes.
The reality is she heads back to the rafters and back out the window she came in through originally.
As he turns, he frowns. "Typical bat." he mutters, as Roy goes over to the pile and digs around. Shuffling through, he finds MODOK's dome, he knocks on it. "You awake in there?"
There's a low groan.
"Good, you're alive." Taking a seat on the pile, he sighs. "So. What you think. Masks, huh?"
Another groan.
"Yeah, me too. Weird, all of them." he sighs and takes a piece of beef jerky from his pocket. "Teriyaki?" he asks the lump.
"I hate teriyaki."
"More for me." With that, he starts to eat, and waits for SHIELD to arrive to clean up, so he can go home.