July 16, 2016:
Nancy stops by Jericho's safe house late to catch up and get some early birthday presents
Jericho's Midtown Safehouse
A nice apartment in Midtown Manhattan, overlooking the water
Characters
![class="image1"](http://cmbeta.wdfiles.com/local--resized-images//class="image1"/medium.jpg)
NPCs: None.
Mentions:
Plot:
Mood Music: None.
Fade In…
The address Jericho gave Nancy actually leads to a pretty nice Midtown apartment building that overlooks the river. Jericho is, apparently, up on the sixth floor. Unlike his loft, which Nancy never saw, this place is not inconspicuous because no one would want to look. It's inconspicuous because it's like everything around it. Nice, clean, almost suburban were it not in the middle of Manhattan. At any rate, it's getting late and Jericho is still up, drinking a bit of coffee and working on a couple of things. The furthest room down his hallway is shut, and most of the lights save the ones in the kitchen and living area are out.
*
Nancy looks around the apartment when she arrives, arching her brows in surprise.
"Okay, you can afford a place like this on a piano man's salary? Either the tips are downright awesome or you're using the money you make from killing baddies like Mama Wolf does."
She starts wandering about the living area, looking things over, picking them up and looking at them up close. "So… the room there with the closed door. I'm not gonna find Illy in there, am I? Exhausted from your "fitness"?" She asks, actually making the air quotes when she says the word.
*
"I don't usually, cause it's hard to launder in ways that can't be traced back to me, but yes, there's a fair bit of dead hitman money I've secured just to keep it from being used against me again. I used some of it to sit this place and several others up. It was a straight pain in the ass, but better than letting one of Parti's places get firebombed because I was there for too long."
He glances over to the door and chuckles. "I just… wouldn't go in there if I were you… and I'm fairly sure it's locked, but no, to answer your question I have never exhausted Illyana… or anyone else for that matter, with my fitness."
Brother Wolf does get up though to give Nancy a big hug. "Glad you could come by though. Hungry at all?"
*
Nancy hugs Jericho tight, smiling at him. She even takes her lolly out her mouth to talk to him, a privilege only people she really likes get. Oooh! Clear speech from the gothling!
"Yeah yeah. I saw the way you two were dancing. I don't buy that for a minute. And unlike Doug, who I was just teasing about being her boyfriend, I totally think you two are hooking up."
She pulls away from the hug to look around some more, looking at the view amongst other things. "So, what have you been up to? You know, other than the Chain Cutters Union and planning a raid on a hospital that is owned by Hydra. And if you think for a minute that I'm not joining you on that, you are sadly mistaken."
*
When Nancy breaks the hug Jericho goes to the 'fridge to get himself a fizzy fruit drink and Nancy one as well. The view? It's actually really damn nice. The water reflects the lights of the buildings on both sides of the river and from this high up the city has this charming, distant look to it. The way all cities look nicer from above than they do at ground level.
"Wouldn't dream of leaving you out of it, Nan." He slides the drink onto the coffee table for her.
"It has as much to do with you as any of us. More, really. As for me? I'm tracking a couple other Hydra projects and trying to stay alive."
He hasn't had as much time to work on cracking the cell that's been after him because he's been focused on the one that's after Nancy and the one that's creating a mutant bioweapon. "There's some guys making some pretty nasty stuff to use against mutants and I'm trying to shut them down before they can use it."
Nancy admires the view for a short while but turns to join Jericho on the couch, grabbing the fruit drink. "I heard about that junk. Three different kinds, third one uses cyanide? That's just… I can't believe they would resort to that. That's right up there with Hitler killing Jewish people. It's dumb, pointless, and just plain cruel for cruelty sake." She cracks open the can and drops the last of her lolly in it to make it sweeter.
"And count me in on that one too, and the one that saves your sorry ass."
*
"Oh, I promise you they're not doing it just to be cruel. Groups like Hydra always have a larger agenda in mind. That's one reason I'm so adamant about shutting down the N-series program. You and the others they made will only be the beginning and as much as I really do hate the idea of you being forced to soldier for them - or worse, made to want to in some fashion - can you imagine not twenty, but a hundred, or a thousand people being coerced or controlled?"
He shakes his head. "Not on my watch. And yeah, if you want I'll keep you in the loop about the other things. I wouldn't blame you if you just wanted nothing to do with Hydra when this is over though. I'll make sure you get clear. They won't even know your name when I'm finished with the project."
After a few sips of the drink Jericho gets up and goes to the closet. "So I know you said you had a friend who could get you some pretty sweet nonlethals, but I put together a few party favors for you all the same. Interested in some presents from Brother Wolf?"
*
"Well, I had a theory about that. Well, if they have a way of making mutants and a way of killing mutants, it puts them in a place of a lot of power. Kill the ones you don't control, whether you made them or not, so the only mutants out there are in your pocket." She shrugs her shoulder. "I could be wrong. Hell, I'm not the brightest crayon in the box, but even a dead clock is right twice a day."
She grins at the mention of presents, her eyes twinkling. "Is it my birthday? Wait… actually, that's Friday, so it sorta is. Okay, bring on the birthday loot. And you're gonna have to talk Mama Wolf into letting me bring the Loogey Gun. I know it's not something she knows, but that's cause it's from a book. It doesn't exist. Not really. But it's soooooo awesome!"
*
"There's a saying in the Army, Nan." Jericho laughs as he breaks out a couple of large duffle bags worth of stuff and one small box. "It's easier to ask forgiveness than permission. Just bring it."
He sits down back near the couch and unzips one of the bags, breaking out a shotgun. "Okay. I know you don't do the lethal munitions thing, so let me just show you a couple of things before you get any ideas about what this is." He does hand the shotgun over to her.
"Though before I get too far into it, I should let you make sure it's the right size and not too heavy. Had to guess for you."
*
Nancy smirks at the idea of asking forgiveness. "Don't know how well that will work with Mama. She's likely to check all my luggage before I'm allowed to play. She's worse than customs!" She winks playfully and holds out a hand as she stands up to take the offered shotgun. She checks if it's loaded first, not because she thinks it is, but because one always checks first, before she aims it at the window. She looks down the barrel and nods her head.
"It's nice. Just my size too. Good enough heft to it without being too heavy. You know me too well. So, what do you have to put *in* it?"
*
He has a good eye for weaponry if nothing else. "Ah, that's where we get to the fun part." Nancy can see there are boxes of shotgun shells in the bag that the weapon itself came out of. He reaches in and fishes out a handfull of loose shells that he had in there to answer just this question, placing them one by one on the table. "Okay. Rubber baton shell, beanbag shell, rocksalt shell. The first two are variations of 'put you on your ass'. They might crack a rib or two, and anyone you shoot is likely to wish you had killed them for a bit, but unless a freak accident happens, you shoot them in the throat or the eye, no one's gonna die. The rocksalt stings. A lot. Won't work on anyone who's real determined but it'll deter animals and hoods." Next shell up. "This is a twelve gage taser. This one will put you out." He doesn't say any more about it.
"The one disadvantage is that if your enemy is armored, these work a lot less. You might still get knockdown… but they might get back up. Which brings me to…"
The other bag opens and a large, single shot, break open grenade launcher comes out. Jeri hands it to Nancy to try for heft.
*
Nancy sits down to look at the shells one by one. She nods her head, smiling. She winces at the idea of the rocksalt shell, but more because she is thinking about how much it will sting then because she won't use it. She looks over at the taser shell and there is a devilish smirk on her face. "Oh, those should be fun. I could get those Hydra guys to do the Funky Chicken."
When Nancy sees the grenade launcher, she looks like she might be in love. She carefully puts the shotgun on the table and then reaches out to take the launcher and once again stands up to see how it will feel when in use. "Ooooh, heavier, but that's a good thing. Makes it feel more solid. And what are we putting in this?"
*
Out come the forty mm grenades. "I love grenade launchers." Jericho grins. "Okay. Smoke, teargas, flashbang and concussive. Gotta be careful with these because you can kill people if you use them in the wrong way, but I'll go over that with you in detail prior to the raid. And then there's this…" He pulls out a stingball grenade. "When this goes bang, it sends little rubber balls coated in pepper spray and teargas powder everywhere. They use 'em in prisons to break up riots." One more grenade type comes out. "And there's this. It's a really big rubber baton. Lots more put you on your ass factor. Probably crack someone's ribs through armor." Nan can see, if she looks, that there's hand thrown versions of all of these except the Big Baton in the bag as well.
Nancy is grinning from ear to ear, chuckling happily as she gets the run down on the grenades. She nods her head. "I've been schooled in the basic types by Ingrid… Bianca… what is she calling herself now? And these ones," she says as she picks up a stingball grenade. "I think this is my favorite. I can't wait to use it."
She goes to give Jericho a big hug. "This is definitely the best birthday I've ever had. Hell, it's better than all my other birthdays combined!"
*
Jericho laughs and gives her a hug back. "This? This is all just gear you'll need. Your birthday present is in the box." And the box isn't that big. Fairly small actually. wrapped in plain brown paper. It did rattle a bit when Jeri was carrying it over.
"I'm fairly sure I heard you make a request the last time we were out together, at that concert."
*
Nancy breaks off from the hug to look again at all the gear. She is smiling a smile that he has probably seen on Partisan's face before, the one that says she loves her new toys. Upon being told that there is more, Nancy looks at the box. She picks it up and eyes Jericho suspiciously.
"If you have somehow managed to fit Eicca in here, I am going to have to scream," she warns him and then opens the box.
*
"I'm good." Jeri grins. "But not quite that good. Sorry." There's a set of keys inside the box. Car keys. Well she did say that her old one got sort of burnt up. This one, from the looks of it, belongs to a dodge charger. Like… perhaps… the black one she passed on the way up with the absinthe green accents? Sometimes it's really handy being a hacker. DMV records are so easy to get put into place and so forth.
*
Nancy sees the car keys and does a happy little dance. The car before might not have been awesome, but it was her first car and she actually really wanted to keep it. Stupid Hydra making her give up her first car. She hugs Jericho again, trying not to bounce and then backs away as she pretends that she is as cool as a cucumber.
"And with my fave colour of green too. Very nice. Hey, I get to take out Bobby in my car for a change. And that means Illy can't just pull me out without killing him. Or crashing my car. Double sweet!"
*
Jeri just grins. He's learned not to underestimate or take anything for granted where Illyana is concerned. "I'm glad you like it. There's a false floor in the boot. Might be handy for stashing things on occasion. That shotgun is completely legal. The grenade launcher… you might wanna keep that out of sight." He says with a wink. "Okay… so are you out and about more now? Or is this a temporary thing?"
*
"I've been told that I can go out as long as I don't do anything stupid and as long as I have back-up. You count as back up. And I think a grenade launcher counts as back up… " She grins impishly."
*
Jericho chuckles. "Alright. If you need a place to crash though for whatever reason just give Parti or myself ring, either one of us will be quite happy to take care of you. Not that I think you'll need it, just so you know." The hacker yawns. "Speaking of crashing, I need to. You can stay over if you like. Take the bed if you're gonna. I'll sleep out here."
*
"Actually, I'm gonna take my toys and my wheels out for a drive and then crash at a friend's place. He lives over in M-Town, so it's relatively safe there for me. Cause they're my peeps, yo!"
She makes like a rapper, doing the gang signs and other stupid stuff and then grins. "I should introduce you to Bobby sometime. Partisan didn't scare him off. She likes him. Maybe a big, over protective big brother can do the job."
*
Jericho hugs her. "Do you want me to scare him off?" The question is an honest one though he knows Nan is likely teasing.
*
Nancy hugs one last time and then sighs. "I don't know. I mean, I initially was trying, but … he sorta grows on you. He's like a fungus. Or a really bad rash." She hoists the duffel bags on her shoulders. "You have my number, call me any time. And keep me posted about the runs. I'm training with Parti every other night now though, so you can find me there too."
"I will. And hey, don't be a stranger. Pop on over any time you feel like it." He turns and starts to head back into the hall toward his room, then stops and half turns as Nan heads out the door. "Hey. It's nice to see you again." He says with a smile.
*
Nancy grins, "It's good to be seen. And trust me, you won't be able to keep me away. I'm not as bad as Illyana, but that's only cause I can't do the little floaty discs of yoinking."
*
Jericho grins back. "Glad to hear it." He says gently. "Night Nancy. Enjoy the new toys. I'll catch you again soon." And with that he disappears down the hall.