January 23, 2018:
The Black Widow strikes in Madripoor. She meets unexpected resistance in her escape.
Characters
NPCs: None.
Mentions:
Plot:
Mood Music: [*\# None.]
Fade In…
Madripoor
Hightown
The Crystal Hightower over Madripoor stands a glistening spire apart from it's fellow skyscrapers. Intentional as its supposedly one of the most expensive motels in the world. Right now it's lit up with gun fire on one of it's upper outdoor pool platforms, a shot bouncing off hard surface to rise in to the Heavens above. So far above the world below the sounds won't be heard, the police will not be informed and any sort of trouble of this fashion? Usually handled in house by a very private and professional security team there solely for the sake of the hotel's residents and clientele.
It's not a large group of armed men, one private wearing all white ducked behind a table and the other two wearing the gaudy silver-on-black and peach colors that represent the Crystal. Small arms fire, 9mms between all of them and they're firing at the far side of the patio where an assassin is holed up.
Two men, strangled to death with razor wire now lie expired inside of the suite itself, Omi Nadau a genius inventor and former HYDRA agent and Davis Meisel a heavy munitions cyborg and former ranked officer of HYDRA both turned private military and seeking to share secrets they should not hold, now, they're two less threats.
Natasha had dropped two explosives into the pool moments before she'd been spotted and well, her plan had kind of gone south… She'd meant to create a distraction that would get everyone running around dealing with the chaos and let her just sort of slip out of the door and into the night… But instead, they'd caught her. Clearly they were going to catch her even she hadn't done the explosives thing cause they'd discovered Omi's body sooner than she'd wanted them too (Should've put him in the shower and turned the water on! That always works better!)
Natasha was behind a stone plant potter right now, exchanging gunfire! ONE SHOT, TWO SHOT! DUCK!
She hides behind the cement cover and exhales sharply. If she could get closer quarters on at least one of the men she was fighting she could easily down them, that much she was sure of.
After waiting for the rounds to pop off back at her she shot up again and limed up for another two shots at the most exposed foe in front of her, aiming down the sites of her handgun she squeezed the trigger again!
The closest security man of the Crystal goes down with a cry, clutching his side as her shot pierces and hes rendered incapacitated. The other two men proceed to rattle off quick firing pulls as she keeps herself hidden from direct line of sight, shes the better shot, they're just outnumbering her.
A second of Black Widow's bullets hits China White's guard, the man falls back without a noise hitting the ground immediately and lying still.
The suite's pool facing door opens up and Taskmaster, full regalia of black chest armor, blue undershirt, fatigue pants of grey, combat boots and two pistols leaps out, slides up behind a slab of stone that is ornamental, meant to round the pool and look 'stylish', "No where to go but down." He says loud past that skullmask, his voice hoarse. "You just wrecked a really good paycheck for me." He is annoyed. "Black Widow, right? I recognize you under all that shitty makeup."
More dialogue is cut off in a sudden EXPLOSION of grenades popping off in the pool, it's muffled at first, the geyser of water that shoots up spraying in all directions then the sound is expelled followed by an odd thunder rumble, a pop-crackle and metal creaking… The water that was there? No longer in the pool its now sliding down, a floor below, pouring perhaps tons of it upon the lower level, washing out and revealing a wreck as that pool overflows and starts to pour yet more water, a daisy-chain style effect. The floor below at least not giving way, only drenching a party in screams, wetness and spilled fun. A big party from the looks, all glitz, glamor and probably some celebrities.
"Yeah?" Natasha called back over her shoulder as she heard the man's words spoken out to her, she had her back pushed up against her concrete cover. Natasha expelled the ammo magazine from her pistol and then slid another one in… she only had one more.
The grenades went off and the explosion was pretty epic, the water flowed everywhere… splashed into the cover she was hiding behind and some of it went down overtop of her. She could hear the screams from down below on one of the other party floors.
"I'm pretty good at wrecking things!" Natasha shouted back over the cover to Taskmaster.
Back on her feet now she started rushing toward another piece of cover while she aimed her gun and set off with another round of shots to aid her in her run! She didn't have her gadgets, so she was going to have to find another way out of here… The front door was the most tastey way, but also the hardest to get to.
It's not a far place to look when the very floor underneath of Natasha, Taskmaster and that remaining guard is cracking away, crumbling down and falling through in a slow ride, tons of platform colliding with the immediate lower.
"Good job, you broke the fucking building." Taskmaster shouts at Black Widow, clutching to that stone design he is hidden behind, he is fast but not fast enough to leap to safety, back towards the open door that leads inside the suite. No, they are all going on a wet gravity trip through debris downwards, hopefully these Madripoor construction guys made this thing stable. Jenga is not a fun game.
Next sound? The scream of the final guard as his leg snaps and he hits the lower floor, rocks crumble and something inside the pool buckles on this floor too, a crunchy noise that splits through, now its a real party, completely with a chorus of terrified howling and running people as yet another high suite pool floor starts to topple downwards, weight accumulating. There are nets out wide, thrust out on long poles catching free falling debris but it only holds so much before those nets snap too. Shooting at one another is rather pointless when the world is starting to crumble under them…
"Wouldn't be my first." Black Widow muttered back at the man, though no where near loud enough for him to hear her. She stowed her gun inside her pants and then braced for the descent. As things started to crumble she tried to climb, to keep herself from being buried!
Down and down things went, tumbling down upon each other and Natasha was scaling it all like a nimble rabbit! She tried to find a solid base that wasn't going to fall and prey that she hadn't somehow found the most perfect place to destabilize an entire skyrise…
When she found some solid foundation she peered around it to see where the Taskmaster had gone, he was the one she had left to fear with the other man's leg broken and… where did that one even gone? Was he crushed under debris?
Natasha peered over the edge the building, she saw the protective nets trying to catch anything that fell to keep it from going the whole way down… alternate escape route? She did bring a knife after all…
"Hmmm…" The spy mulled to herself, water and dirt caking her body now in those garments she'd hastily put on earlier.
Taskmaster leaps from one folding remnants of the bar that was above, now below. It's cracking in half and he's running along it, racing towards Natasha with a tightrope walkers balance and grace, "Be the last… " He says low, quiet but enough she'll hear a mumble from him. "I'm probably going to kill you if this fall doesn't." He intends to actually, that's a lot of money she just screwed him out of and is making his rep take a hit.
The structure itself is still standing heavy, nice and tall. It's only the patios that stretch out like teeth or 'ribs' that are breaking off, crushing under weight from top to bottom, the fall is sporadic in FAST drop, to slow crack-break and FAST drop again, they're now almost three floors, an alarm is going off and in several languages the Crystal's intercoms are calling for evacuation, for people to leave the pools and find the center of the building, treating it like this is an Earthquake hazard.
Natasha as all too aware of Taskmaster making his way toward her like a circus freak. She'd known he was the one she had to worry about the most on this job, part of her was angry at herself for not incapacitating him when she had a more appropriate chance to do so… But, bygones.
Mere moments before he would be in range to get hold of her, she was gone… disconnected from the foundation of stable ground and sailing through the sky with her arms out and her red hair fluttering around her head.
Natasha free-fell, not to the first net down… no that one was broken… She slipped right through it and went on down toward the next net below where she landed and rolled over to her side, then onto her back.
Her gun came up, she aimed it at Taskmaster above and fired off two quick shots!
It's not a soft net. It is met for heavy things, a last minute safety, wide enough in places she may drop a leg through or even fall through if she doesn't splay out. Safe though, the fall drops her past the rumbling descent of this once beautiful architectural nightmare, several heavy blocks fall past her, a lawn chair, a plant, a body, she is safe though, at the moment. Until that is Taskmaster is descending with her, twisting in the air and snapping an arm out to catch himself on the net thats immediately above her, one floor, gun shots having slowed him to seek a closer vantage, not wanting to get hit.
"You're fucking nuts." He yells down at her, not afraid of heights himself at least but this, this is akin to suicide. They are stories above the terrified streets below, streets already being pounded by fallen Crystal hotel.
It's not long that he can remain there, another drop down and hes coming for her, the mercs' own gun out and firing as he plummets, three rounds popped off in an unsteady plunge at the SHIELD operative.
'Tell me something I don't know.' Nat thought to herself while she saw him drop down and latch onto the net above. She started to rooooll across the net back toward the building then, grunting quietly as she rolled over debris laying across the net, she tossed the lawn chair past her and then felt him land on the same netting she was on.
Nat's green eyes shot over to him and she stared right at him as she brandished her vibro-knife… the blade glinting in the light.
A kiss was air-mailed to him with a moosh of her lips and then the spy cut the net they were both on! When it started to snap, go looser and looser it suddenly dropped them both!
Her hands gripped the loose net ropes and she held onto it while they sailed downward in a swinging arch now! But she wouldn't wait around to see if he'd held on or fallen to his demise, she started cutting her way through the net, a hole large enough for her to fit through, then her knife was put away and she started to use the still-taught net above her head like a jungle-gym, legs dangling, hands reaching out to grab one piece of rope and then the next… progressing forward along the side of the building.
"That isn't yours." Taskmaster warns Black Widow as she teases him with the knife, it's low-level hum barely audible. Sharp, stupidly sharp. Likely it can punch through his light body armor.
"Wha… " She cuts the net, they're both falling yet again, dropping past her he goes a lower down leaving her to swing around like an aerialist above, the gun he had in his hand still descending, lost from his grip. Now shes back on the building, the tower's patios not collapsing like they had been with earlier speed, it widens further out at it's base, the upper levels now being cradled in a heavy debris by the lower. It's a disaster but it's also not crushing down upon them imminently, she is more than free to escape inside the Crystal's suites.
Tracking her movements from below Taskmaster races inwards too, security now too busy evacuating or helping people out to remain on alert for Natasha, her only worry at the moment is Taskmaster in their game of cat and mouse.
Once she got to one of the solid foundation balconies she was climbing up the side of that. Some shirtless guys in their mid forties were reaching down to her from the balcony to help her, because… look at her, why wouldn't they? "Thanks." Natasha told the men with a sudden flash of a smile at them. "You guys better get out of here." She warned them though as she picked up one of the chairs off the balcony and turned around to throw it down at Taskmaster.
The two shirtless guys exchanged glances and then watched as the redhead turned tail and ran toward the interior of their skyrise apartment! She threw open the glass door and went running at full speed toward the front of their flat, hoping to get out the front door and into the hallway beyond where she could hear alarms and see strobe light emergency lights flashing.
The chair from above gets a sidestep and a backfist, it bounces off to the world below, tumbling down until crashing in a loud destructive thump in to someone's Saab.
"Bitch." He hisses out before disappearing, racing through an open loft to start ascending, trying to make up the difference, only pausing in the stairwell, where people are huddled or trying to escape, "Move, move MOVE!" He yells, the elevators not functioning bodies are pressed everywhere. The alarms only making people panick. In parkour fashion he jumps up kicks off the rail, wall and then lands on a higher stair platform, door kicked open.
"Widow!?"
Natasha was out the front door of the apartment skyrise and into the madness herself… Lots of people out here… but that was good, great, really. The strobe lights were going off and they added a whole different feeling of chaotic to the hallways. She was quick to stow her gun into the back of those pants she'd slipped on, they were baggy enough for it to easily slide in there, the knife was held by the handle with the blade up against the back of her wrist and she just made her way through the bodies, looking for the doors to the stairwell…
Since she found that, she was headed downward… but its not as though she was the only one doing that. She couldn't yet hear him shouting her codename, cause there was a lot of people talking at the present moment.
It's a tough game to play in a situation like this, the escape of Widow to the streets does not take long, the confusion allows for that freedom. Gives her openings to slip past Taskmaster and to the Madripoor proper levels, there will be unhappy people hunting her until she can extract, China White's empire has grown exponentially over the years and Taskmaster is personally feeling slighted, it's bad on him that his wards both got executed before money could transfer, a serious loss of face and in an almost amateur fashion, maybe he'll find a foil in Miss White's lack of security.
Any case… Madripoor's dusk settles down and the Black Widow strikes again…