Summary:A stakeout by the docks bring some interesting information Log Info:Storyteller: None |
Related LogsTheme SongNone |
    |
Daisy's investigations into the bio-phage weapon has led her to the docks of the New York. Someone is importing heavy metals from an African nation known as Murkatesh and according to her sources, there's a shipment arriving this afternoon.
As for Shayera her sources indicate similar but she's also got a lead on the bird people.
Isis prowls alongs the dock, towards the warehouse where Daisy is expecting the delivery to be made, when a winged figure swoops over head. It all happens so quickly. One moment, she's there walking beside Nick and the next she's bolting along the dock trying to catch it …
Nick might be thinking, not again.
Daisy, or 'Skye' as she knows herself as, doesn't have much of a plan worked out today. Tucked underneath a heavy wool blanket with a Thermos full of hot tea she sits nearby to the docks in the back of a rusty powder blue van from the 80's. Her attention is focused upon several monitors where she's gained access to various bits of electronic security overseeing the area.
With no powers of her own and no one else to call on for fire support she's working more as an investigator, watching and listening for anything which could either be used as evidence or lead her in the right direction. It might be a long shot but with such limited resources to work with any opportunity is one worth pursuing. Especially on a matter as deep as this bio-phage stuff. She's determined to see it through.
Maybe one of those cameras happens to catch sight of the winged figure, or the familiar feline lady suddenly giving chase…
Having contacted Nick and Isis when she found her lead on the bird people, Shayera Hol accompanied the investigators to this dock area, though separated from them fairly early on. She'd been scouting ahead and staying on the ground in case there were bird people about that would be alerted by her flying, and the habit of watching her peripheral vision UP as much to the side catches the figure swooping overhead.
Of course, she sees Isis chasing and with a faint curse in her native language gives up on what she's been looking at and takes off after the catgirl and her quarry. They also have predators' wings, this will make outflying them a bit more of a challenge. But Shay is nothing if not well trained and determined.
"Not again…" Nick groans. The shipment isn't the sort of thing that just gets offloaded by workers at the docks. It's not legal. It's a smuggling operation. And for that reason folks will be spooked if they see something like, oh, Isis jumping on the back of a bird-person.
Rather than chase Isis, though, he moves along the edge of the dock concealed to most but in full view of Daisy whom he doesn't know is there. The cat-woman is too far ahead of him. Hopefully she doesn't get dumped in the Hudson. Though if she did that might teach her a lesson.
See, Nick totally thought not again. Isis bolts after the shadow but seems to pull up just as she passes a camera. The cat eared woman slides into the shadows and glances back to Nick. She'll make up for that … later.
The winged being lands in the shadows of the warehouse - though Daisy will get a good look at them. They're joined by one more from the inside and several denim and leather clad thugs. "The truck will be here soon. Is the stuff ready?"
Skye's just starting to mutter "Alright, guys. Someone do something noteworthy" at the monitors when she catches the sight of—
"Nick? Isis?"
That can't be..is that really..? "Okay..! That's pretty noteworthy."
So much for not having any fire support in the area. The next few seconds in the back of the van are a frantic blur as the hackerette grabs a hat, a tablet, a phone, then searches for something that could possibly serve as a weapon. What she ends up with is a tire iron. It's brought up in her hand and quickly looked over before she decides "Sssuuure…"
Before she can go to the sliding door the winged figure comes up in the eye of another camera. Skye about hits her head while diving back to the keyboard.
Is it recording this feed? Yes. Yes it is. She swipes the feed onto her tablet then rushes outside into the cold. Do the others know what they're about to walk in on? They really probably should! They should know and she has a chance to catch up to them before things might get -super- awkward.
Shay breaks off from the chase when Isis does and quickly lands to hopefully avoid being seen by any other bird people in the area. She slips into the shadows alongside Isis but then keeps moving to get eyes on Nick again.
She can hear the voices somewhat nearby, but not well enough to make out what they're saying. She knows Nick will be able to, though, so she uses something she brought along as a subtle way to get the canid man's attention. Pulling it from a pocket, she carefully unscrews the cap of a container of a dark broth, releasing the meaty and salty aroma of bovril. To her own senses it's undetectable from more than a wingspan away, but she suspects that's not the case for the investigators.
And yes, she'll let Isis claim the container for a drink if she insists.
"Let's hope that our cover isn't blo-" Nick's ears twitch as he hears the rather distinct click-rumble of a van door being opened. Yes, his hearing is quite good. He turns to see…
"Skye?" He remembers Skye, naturally. She had come asking some very interesting questions about. "Oh. Shayera."
Yes. Shayera is here. Skye is here. And a bunch of probably fairly well armed smugglers are about to be here and…
Um…
"Where'd that other bird person go?"
Because THAT person might have seen Isis. Or Shayera. And if so…
It's days like this Nick wishes he actually used weapons.
Isis' nose twitches at the scent from Shayera's container, she leans in to sniff and sniff some more. When the container is passed over, she sips from it, blue eyes opening wide and sips some more. That's got her settled for a moment but she does gesture to Nick and Skye.
Over there
Wait, the winged being was over there. Where are they are now?
The sound of feet above Nick and Skye answers that. "And just what do you two think you're doing?" Comes a voice from above them. Just before they're engulfed in wings and raked at with talons.
Shayera can see the other winged person heading towards them. Wings flared carrying what looks like … a sword.
Oh yeah! Werewolf guy, right? Of -course- he would have known Skye was approaching before coming into view. This doesn't stop her from stopping short with dark eyes wide and no real effort made to hide the fact that..yes..she's holding a tire iron in one hand.
"Hi—!"
Nick's question about the other bird person would have been Skye's cue to reach for the tablet and get him caught up but it seems that the opportunity to do so is already gone. The winged one has already gotten the drop on the visiting team.
It's a very different experience being targeted by one of the winged warriors after only seeing pixelated footage of them back in Montreal. Things just got real and in about an eighth of a second Skye has concluded that she should NOT be here at all. Her defense involves an "AAH!" and both hands coming up to shield her face, one still holding the iron. This could get very bad for her!
Well, good thing Shayera's back in the habit of carrying her mace and shield, this time having worn more of her armor than previously. Not the helm, though. That's for SERIOUS situations. Having taken the little container of bovril back from Isis after letting the catgirl sip at it, she is about to recap it when the winged person approaches again, this time with a sword in hand.
Do you know why Shay prefers a mace? Nothing takes down a flyer faster than breaking the bones in their wings. If this winged person is anything like the natives of Akah Ma'at, he won't be any different.
She turns and squares off against the swordsman, flaring her wings only slightly and mostly to block his view of Isis, giving her the chance to either run away or plan a sneak attack. And, as soon as he's close enough, she'll throw the remaining bovril in the other flyer's face and follow it with her mace.
Nick is quick enough to put himself between Skye and the avian, punching the woman hard in the solar plexus. Her wings bat out, hitting Skye hard. Not hard enough to make her drop that iron - but it hurts none the less.
She's got enough room to bring that iron to bear … and maybe save Nick a pounding.
Shayera is engaged, her opponents wings flaring out - seriously, these two look like they might be trying a mating dance or something. That is until the scalding liquid is thrown in his face, then his wings beat out quickly to try and knock Shayera over.
There's no sign of Isis at the moment.
Skye will have time to think about when she last had a bruise as big as she's going to wake up with sometime later..hopefully. Who would have thought that a WING would be so powerful of a weapon, honestly! Another abrupt yelp comes out of the girl as she's battered but not completely put down.
Nick's got his hands full and does a great job of keeping the avian lady occupied. It's like the universe is telling Skye to step up and -get involved- for a change.
The strike is untrained. Totally amateurish. She's not strong, she doesn't know what she's doing, but a couple of extra pounds of bare steel in the hand might leave a lasting impression in the avian's wing. Cripple her ability to fly and she should be a lot less of a threat, right?
Also..the wing is the only part of her Skye can get close enough to take a swing at. Little steps!
"Get..OFF of him!"
Just like in the games and movies, girl! Don't stop hitting until they stop moving!
A big part of Shayera's combat training with her city's defense force is using wings to both defend and attack. Grounders will WISH that Canada geese never learn any of these techniques. Using both her wing and her shield to deflect the battering attack, she lashes out at the swordsman in kind, the mace aiming to break the blade as her other wing swats at the swordsman's face to further distract and confuse him.
She doesn't stop to think about where Isis has gone, but she can hear an unfamiliar voice somewhere nearby yelping and then yelling angrily. She can only hope it's someone on their side, and not another flyer about to make their lives worse.
With Nick keeping the winged being engaged, Skye is able to get in a couple of good hits with that iron. She can hear the wing bones crack, see the wing start to hang uselessly. That's when she snaps out a punch at the hacker.
It's a wing slap fight that Shayera engages in, enough to let her swing her mace with deadly precision. It connects with the sword, though the guy is able to slide his blade and push the mace away - his wing coming around aimed at Shayera's temple.
That's when he's jumped from behind. A yowling, hissing, Isis hangs from his back, slim arms clasped around his throat and squeezing. It will give Shayera an opening, if she's quick enough. The winged male throws himself backwards, against a pole.
Oh -god- that is not a good sound! Whether the mere report of the wing breaking or the sudden realization that -Skye- is responsible for the damage, landing that last hit causes her to hesitate.
Then she's lying flat on her back, the iron clanging across the ground somewhere nearby as stars flicker within her vision. What the heck just happened..?
"Aah—!" she hisses while gingerly rolling onto her side. To her credit the lost iron is the first detail her eyes focus on and survival instinct is intact enough that she's reaching for it again.
"Just..go..AWAY!" Before the avian goes and kills them both! Ugh, how do the superheroes put up with this kind of abuse?
If Skye is somehow able to get close enough for one more swing it's going to be a two-hander and she's going to try like hell to go for the lady's head. She can feel terrible about it later but this fight needs to stop!
Isis' distraction of the swordsman is perfectly timed. The wing aimed at her head is a common enough attack, and she ducks enough to avoid the worst of it, but still sees stars for a moment after taking the glancing blow.
She recovers in time to see the swordsman throwing himself back to try and dislodge Isis, so she charges forward and aims to bash one of his wings with her mace, snarling something decidedly rude at the man in her native language. It's not just an insult, it's a test. Is he from Akah Ma'at? She is almost positive the answer is no, but this should remove those last few lingering doubts.
Nick knows Skye is still there. He's not looking so great. There's some blood visible even through his thick brown fur and clothes. But he's in better shape than he really has any right to be and he finally gets a hook in on the arm of the avian woman, trapping both shoulder and wing and spinning her around to hold her for Skye's coup de grace.
He doesn't need to tell the young woman to put this annoying bird down. It seems like she's already got that idea.
He'll ask where Isis went in a minute.
Nicks pinning the woman, gives Skye the opening she needs. The tire iron connects with the womans temple with a thud. The woman is out and is going to have to a hell of a headache.
Shayera's insult gets a surprised look. The response is not modern Akah Ma'at but something that is much ancient. Something that only scholars and priests might use.
Isis grunts as she's trapped between the avian and the pole but she doesn't let go of her grip. Shayera feels the wave of 'relax' that flows out from Isis - how she does that in a fight, is a very good question. The avian stumbles as his wing is smashed by the mace and he slowly suffers for air. He slumps on the ground not long after.
"Where's Nick?" Isis asks, glancing at Shayera. "And are you alright?" She remembered to check. That's good, right?
Skye just about falls over as well right after landing the hit, breathless and with numbed hands. If she wasn't still scared half to death the iron would have fallen from her fingers to be forgotten about. "Oh..ohmigawd..tell me I didn't just kill her… I didn't just kill her did I? I can't have just…" Gulp. "I think..I'm gonna be sick. Ah..Nick? Are you okay? Please be okay."
Cripes. This is one of the winged people from the video. Maybe one of the original five in the Montreal attack. And Skye just clocked the hell out of her with an automotive implement. She's not entirely sure how to feel about this!
"I was..TRYING..to tell you about the..this..her," she weakly motions toward the knocked out avian. "They're expecting a truck. We might..wanna find cover, or..something."
Shay is as surprised by the man's reaction as he was by her insult, and by the way Isis pours out the 'relax' vibes. That's… very different. She needs to remember to ask about that. Later.
"I think I heard him over there. Go. I've got this." She kicks the man's sword away and then mentally cringes at treating a decent weapon that way before hefting him by the shoulders to drag into the shadows of the alleyway. Once he's not laying out in the open, she pulls a set of Akah Ma'at style cuffs — restraints for both hands and wings — and trusses the man up. She's going to want to ask him a few things before that truck or whatever arrives.
Isis bounds over to Nick and Skye. "Nick, Nick. Are you alright…" She's checking him over while Skye is sort of panicking. That's not good because for a moment, Isis picks up on that and things get worse with her empathic broadcast.
Then she controls it … Skye should feel her concern and panic start to ease as Isis brings it all under control. Which means they can shift the other avian into the shadows with Shayeras.
It's not long before the truck does arrive. All four can see it and the humans that emerge. "Where's our contacts? They said they'd be here." The voices float over. Two men and a woman open the back of the truck and start to load it.
Are they going to intervene or just observe?
"I'm okay. Well. Ow. I'm mostly okay. And she's not dead. But we need to move. Come on." Nick reaches out, not grabbing Skye but motioning to her urgently. Those people she was expecting? They should be here any moment now if they're not already and they WILL be wondering where their buyers are.
Well… assuming this isn't just a drop. Which it might be.
"In fact there they are." Nick mutters. He glances over at Shayera and motions to her. "You two." He points to Shayera and Skye. "See if you can get con them out of the goods. They're loading, it must be paid for already. They just want someone to turn it over to…"
He and Isis can crouch nearby in case it goes wrong. If they CAN get this stuff… that's a big break in the case for them.
He'll watch Shay's prisoner while she does this. If she does this.
This is gonna be okay… Skye's gonna be okay. She can also wonder later why everything seems to be so okay. Is it bad that she feels this okay after smacking someone into the ground? Maybe it's like a runner's high or something. She doesn't know.
'You two.' Blink. Shayera hadn't come directly across Skye's attention before but now that they're both here the hackerette doesn't take long to figure out that THIS winged woman is very likely to be the same one she had caught in the traffic cam a while ago flying after Nick's truck. It's one more piece of a complex puzzle and now they're—
"Wait what?" comes her dumbstruck response. "'You two.' As in 'her and I.' -I- haven't done anything like this before."
The guys at the truck only want to offload it to someone? Well… She gives Shayera another look, starting to shrug before immediately regretting it with a wince. "Yah..okay. Tonight's just full of firsts for me."
Skye probably looks like hell. She's moving stiffly. But hey! Let's go secure some -cargo!- Hopefully Shayera follows because Skye seriously does not want to do this alone.
Shayera looks at Nick a bit flatly but promptly starts shedding her weapons and armor, revealing the rather commonplace looking jeans and (somehow) backless longsleeve shirt she has on underneath. Then with a look at Skye she pulls the crowbar from the young woman's hands and pulls her by one wrist, saying lowly and quickly, "Just follow my lead."
Striding out of the alleyway and toward the truck while still tugging Skye along, she says in an entirely normal conversational but still somewhat impatient tone, "I /told/ you there was nothing in there. It was just a couple of strays. Now come on." She lets go of the girl's arm when she seemingly notices the truck and continues straight toward the four Grounders there. "We're here. What took you so long?"
Isis crouches with Nick, looking up in admiration. He really is a quick thinker when it comes to things like this. "You'll be fine." She tells Skye in a very Isis sort of way.
The men and the woman look up when Shayera and Skye approach them "We're right on time, unlike you." Says the woman, bringing a clipboard over and handing it out to Shayera. "I thought there were meant to be two of you?"
One man just keep loading. It looks like they're going to get the shipment … easily. Well, maybe. The second man starts to head towards the alley. "What type of strays?" he asks Skye.
Isis puts her hand on Nicks arm. They might need to do something … maybe.
Nick picks up a discarded can and crouches behind a corner, watching. He peers over at the 'meeting' in progress and then turns to throw the can at a pair of seagulls behind them. "Yowl." He murmurs to Isis.
That should answer what kind of strays quite nicely. At least… he hopes they won't pursue that line of questioning much further. As for Skye and Shayera? They've got this, right?
Skye's not putting up any fight when Shayera pulls the iron out of her hand then leads her onward. Just like the other avian Shayera's got some strength to her! Though more importantly for the moment she has a plan and the confidence to back it. All that's left is to try and mimick her motions, finding somewhere to stand and carefully fold her arms together.
Yet again it's just like the movies. Try not to say anything. If she has to have a speaking role it's not likely to go very well—
"Cats," Skye quickly intervenes with a blank stare. A thumb hooks back over her shoulder, "They like the ..gulls…"
That seemed to go okay. She's got a pretty good feeling about it! Nick and Isis helped, of course. Whether she knows it or not.
Mentally rolling her eyes at Skye, Shay steps forward to take the clipboard and glance through the information on it as if not really interested. At the question about 'two of you', she replies in an offhand and almost bored manner, "He's out making sure there aren't any spooks. He'll be back in a bit."
She has no idea if she's being convincing or not, but she heard this on a movie, and it's actually true: act like you belong, and people will believe it.
Isis turns bright blue eyes on Nick, tips her head back and yowls. It's convincing enough that the guy with Skye shudders. "Damn creatures. Should be shot everyone of them…"
"Is that so?" The woman asks Shay, not really caring about the answer. Taking the clipboard back from the avian she gestures to her companions. "Alright. Finish up and lets go."
It's that easy. Shay and Skye have the goods and the others are heading on out.
Isis waits for Nick to give the all clear before creeping out and over to the delivery that was just made. She sniffs at the boxes and looks back to Nick. "This smells like that stuff you said before. Terry Something …" Someone will have to open the boxes to see what's in there.
"Terrigen." Nick says with a nod and takes a sniff. "Yeah it does. Be careful with that, whatever it is." He takes a deep breath and lets it go.
"So, where are you two going to take that?" Skye will want to investigate it. Shayera will too and she has contacts in the police. SHIELD might answer if Nick called them but he's not going to do that. Not quite yet. He knows some people who can look at it… off the books.
If not for the calming effect that Isis has been providing Skye would have wanted -really bad- to punch the one guy when he suggests shooting 'all of them.' She's not sure whether he's referring to cats or seagulls but either way it gets under her skin. He'd better be glad that she isn't busy gaining access to his phone right now…
The thought passes through her mind quickly enough because their ploy seems to have worked. The delivery is made and that's that. For an extended period Skye's holding her breath..and committing the truck's license plate to memory..as they pack up and leave. When Isis and Nick step back in she's going -straight- to her phone to punch the plate into a new file. Any searches can be made later, the important bit is getting a saved copy before it's forgotten.
Terrigen..? They were delivering -Terrigen?- And Nick's asking where Shayera and Skye are taking it?? Her mouth hangs open for a couple of seconds, looking entirely stunned. "Isn't this stuff, like..rare, and super dangerous?" Which of -course- means that a part of her wants to hang onto a part of it. Would they just let her do that though?
"Ah..I have my van here, if..we need to move it somewhere?"
Crossing her arms and maintaining the 'I have better things I could be doing' demeanor until the truck leaves, she frowns as the others come in to check out the delivery. "Terry-what? What are you talking about?" Clearly she's never heard of the stuff before. At least not by that name.
When Skye mentions a van, she looks at the young woman. "That could be useful. I still want to talk to our friends back there, see if they can shed a little light on WHY this want this stuff." That being said, she starts back toward the alleyway.
"You should take it to SHIELD. They have scientists there…" Isis agrees. "Hank will want to know and I know he works there sometimes." Shays and Skyes question gets the slim mutant frowning. "From what I can tell this isn't terrigen but it smells like it, right Nick? And yeah, the real stuff is rare, like it's not been seen in years."
"I did some reading, Shayera." That will surprise Nick, no doubt. "This stuff was released into the air somewhere on Earth. It causesd all sorts of problems for some people. They … mutated or something, didn't they Nick? And the ones that didn't, died. Horribly."
Getting the van sounds like a marvelous idea.
"Dangerous, yes. In large amounts. Rare?" Nick glances at the crates. "Depends on whether or not what I'm smelling IS a large amount. Ever since that explosion years back the stuff gets around, but usually in crystals so tiny it's harmless." Every once in a while there's a larger concentration but that's utterly random. Unless, well, unless someone knows where to find some.
"So it could be terrigen or it could just be stuff contaminated by terrigen. Hard to say without opening all the crates up to take a look, which probably SHOULD be done in a safe, isolated area."
Shayera's question get's a curious look - why would she not know that? - but Isis has answered it nicely.
"Yeah. Real stuff isn't common at all."
The current discussion and copious amounts of adrenaline have helped keep Skye's mind focused on other matters. It's when she nods and turns to go for the van that the motion suddenly brings a sharp hiss of pain from her. "Oh right… Got my butt handed to me. Yah, I'll just..be a moment with the van. It'll be delivered to Hank." It seems like a safer option than her turning up at SHIELD headquarters in a very questionable looking vehicle with crates full of very dangerous materials.
Also she doesn't trust SHIELD. Like -at all.- But Hank? He seems pretty alright. She'll play UPS for the guy this one time.
Making it back to where the two winged people are trussed up and waiting, she checks to see if either of them are awake yet. If they are, she has questions. If not, maybe they can be delivered to these SHIELD people as well.
She doubts the woman is going to wake up soon. It looks like the young Grounder woman hit her with that metal stick.
When the truck is bought back, Isis helps Nick and the others load it up. They don't have the place to store this stuff and if this does contain Terrigen or anything like it, it's best that SHIELD get it than anyone else.
When the loading is done, Isis looks at Nick. "We need to get you seen too…" She's not going to comment about the bruise colouring her back. "Thank you for letting us know about this, Shayera. You did well, Skye, it was good working with you." That's what you say, isn't it?
Shayera has a bit of mystery to think on as well. Doesn't she.
With that, Isis tugs on Nicks' arm to draw him away.