April 26, 2014:
An armored truck just outside of Metropolis is targeted by a lone mercenary. Three hero sorts come to intervene. (Mild language)
Stanlee Bridge, north of Metropolis
Recently opened, this mighty suspension bridge crosses the Delaware River and connects the coastal highway between Gotham and Metropolis.
Characters
NPCs: None.
Mentions:
Plot:
A Dark Hold
Apocalypse: Only the Strong
Blood versus Family
Bones Of The City
Breaking the Universe
Cyberdata War: First Strike
Dangerous Esterikos Wonderous Mystikos
Dark Gods & Times
De Oppresso Liber
Demon Lord of New York
Diaz de Muertos
Don't Tell Thanos The Babysitter's Dead
Empire of Tears
Escape from Sakaar
From the Ashes
Gateway to the Stars
Genosha: Rebirth
God Of The Dead
Hacker, Sass-Mastah, Engineer, Spy
Himmel und Hölle in Bewegung Setzen
Mood Music: None.
Fade In…
Saturday afternoon is always a good time for movement. Tourists tend to take public transport in and out of the various cities, keeping their cars safe and sound. As a result, the bridges that span between the tri-city area are a little less traveled; a little less congested. Mind, all traffic hasn't disappeared, but the car lanes are less densely populated. The same can't be said for the truck lanes, however. End to end, this is when the lull in traffic is taken advantage of.
All manner of trucks, then, span the large suspension bridge. Semis pulling double weight, mail trucks, armoured cars and some pulling construction vehicles as well as the smaller delivery trucks hauling such necessities such as beer and bread can be found.
Now, there are some less pleasant missions that Clint Barton could have been sent on. Really. But in the cosmic scheme of things, this one is pretty nice. Weather is clear and bright, warm.. and there is a reasonably comfortable vantage point at the top of one of the spans (his 'nest', yes.), and so with dark glasses, bow and arrows, he's got a nice spot to overlook the passage of vehicular traffic.
*
Evelyn has been assigned to working with a Duty Officer today. So she sits, waiting in the passenger seat of a police cruiser as they try to navigate between the trucks and armored cars. As per code, she's wearing a standard officer's uniform, blue top and dark blue pants. Unlike the officer beside of her, she's also wearing a composite vest over her uniform, though it's nothing particularly fancy. Looking over to her company she says, "I-77? Dave was patrolling I-77? Really?" There's a hint of disbelief in her voice. "Come on, Steve. You're joking."
*
(Just another day in paradise.)
Just northeast outside of Metropolis is the recently opened Stanlee Bridge, a massive and beautiful work of modern construction which links the southern-most city to Gotham with a more direct coastal route. It's also a very long bridge, which happens to share something fairly unique to bridges and tunnels in that traffic will only ever come at you from two directions instead of many. This is why Domino's chosen the bridge for her next hit.
Lying prone atop the box trailer of an eighteen wheeler, the albino merc's armor has been completely recolored white so she almost vanishes along the blank roofline. If not for the speck of black hair she'd be extremely difficult to spot. Now she's just 'difficult.'
Which is really nothing new for her.
Large semis tend to run slower. Armored trucks a little quicker, particularly with sensitive information riding within. All she need do is wait for one truck to begin to pass the other then roll to the edge of the trailer, time the jump, and hop on over. Goggles help shield her eyes against the heavy gusts of highway and coastline wind battering about the road. Magnetic gloves and kneepads help keep her anchored to the vehicle.
Shaped charges will help her get into the back of the truck.
*
"I know I must do what is right," Reed Richards says-sings as he cranks the wrench and peers at the gear shaft up underneath the Fantasticar. "Sure as Kilimanjaro rises like a Empress over the Serengheti."
Another breath and an exhale. He's got machines for this. All of them do. Tony Stark. Hank Pym. Reed Richards. They all have gizmos that can do this sort of thing for them, but sometimes it's just cathartic to get down underneath and use your hands a bit. Especially since the last time he and Johnny took out the FCar they had to put it down in the middle of Central Park. It'll be a few days until this thing is in order, much to the Four's chagrin. But at the end of the day the Fearsome Four were put away and all was well that ended well.
*
Counting cars. In moments of sheer boredom, the ONE thing that archers tend to do is work out targets and trajectories for the littlest things. 'Can I hit those lights in that police cruiser?' or 'That truck's cable is loose, so if it's doing 55, can I get an arrow off to tack it down before it's out of reach?' Or even…
"What the hell?"
Apparently Hawkeye is absolutely no different in that regard. Each car, each truck is eyed with the thought of it being a target until such time as a potentially -real- target presents itself. And that's not the armoured car that is -actually- his main focus. (Plate XHS-94V.)
Rising from his spot, presumably to get a better vantage, an arrow is pulled and loosed in a single fluid motion. The shaft flies through the air on a trajectory so neat and clean that it lands exactly where it's supposed to and sinks right in front of Domino's face. Surprised?
*
"Aye? The lad's right crazy, he is. Got tidy after he saw that Tony Stark, they're so impressionable when they're young," chuckles Steve, glancing towards Evelyn for a moment.
Evelyn laughs in return, "Stark is pretty cool, I guess." The radio buzzes for a few moments with chatter from the dispatcher, it's nothing quite so important. Looking from Steve to the passenger side window, just missing the arrow thunk against the roof of the vehicle in the lane over. "The water's so beautiful today. I'm going to roll the window down, do you mind?" The driver shakes his head, so the window is rolled down to give a nice breeze to the car. Awesome.
*
Anyone could lean over the edge of a trailer and reach for the doors. Dom sticks the soles of magnetic boots to the roof and rolls herself backward until her shoulders are resting against the doors, hanging upside down and watching traffic from behind.
There's a -very- surprised commuter in their lane. She shows a toothy grin and waves before grabbing two sticky charges and slapping them onto the outside hinge of each door.
Then an arrow is sticking to the vehicle's armored hide. Right beside her head. A quick glance is passed by the arrow. (That looks kinda familiar…) Its trajectory is calculated. Then a fully automatic pistol is swiped out from beneath an arm, spitting out 9mm bullets at an insane rate of fire in the right general direction of Hawkeye as she reaches her other hand out and sticks it to the vehicle, flipping and rolling herself around to the side. Hopefully out of his line of fire.
She's highly unlikely to hit him, but she doesn't need to at this point. The guy -is- SHIELD, after all. It's more of a 'I see you too, now screw off' act on her part. She's got work to do, leave her be!
It's also timed just when the window on that squad car happens to be rolling down. It's close enough that they might see shell casings raining down onto the hood.
(Ah, hell.)
*
Reed wipes some grease from his brow and considers lunch. Though he's thinking a hamburger sounds tasty, he can just hear Sue complaining about his choices in food. Instead, he reckons to have a banana, avocado, bowl of rice, and-just as he's about to think through his perfectly nutritional, but totally inane meal decision making, H.E.R.B.I.E breaks his concentration.
"Sir, remember those satellite cameras we have patrolling the East Coast?"
"I do."
"Well, there's something peculiar going on down near Metropolis that might bear our attention."
"Metropolis? Silly, machine, Superman's probably got that covered."
"Negative, Dr. Richards. Superman has not been seen in quite some time."
Reed peers at his artificial intelligence. "Peculiar. Lunch can wait."
With the FantastiCar out of commission, Reed runs for a small embankment at the corner of the room. A flip of a switch and the corner folds away to reveal short bench, which Reed sits on and straps himself into. He grabs his communicator and begins to check the weather. The door shuts quickly and a countdown begins along the wall of the cramped, white space.
"3. 2. 1." All of the sudden Reed is shot upwards with an incredible velocity. So much so, that as he looks upwards, his face begins to ripple out in tiny waves, a product of his power. Outside the Baxter Building a tall rocket is flung up into the air, about 3 times the height of Freedom Tower before the flame kicks on and sends the rocket southward.
*
With the *ping*ping*ping*s of the bullets whip past him, and lodge into the poles of the bridge, Clint takes (obviously) evasive action. Ducking out and to the side, he gets the most out of the least bit of cover before he's popping up again, arrow nocked and ready to loose at the next target that presents itself. And that target is…
"Oh, really? You did this to me before!" comes out of the archer in complaint. "Not again…" Not that he truly expects that anyone can hear him- not even homebase.
The arrow is loosed, and flying straight and true, it lands a good distance in front of the truck in question, leading it by enough such that Hawkeye can take the express way down… and he does. Using his line that comes from the arrow as a zipline, he's streaming across traffic, landing on the truck in question in a crouch, and he's looking to get his vantage. (Great. When did traffic get heavier? And.. even better. A marked patrol car… great. Just.. wonderful.)
*
Evelyn's lackadaisy expression fades quite quickly when her vision just catches the glitter of shells from the back of the nearby truck, combined with the echo of gunshots. It's not enough to give her conviction of the idea of something going horrible wrong, because she oh-so-strongly wants to believe it's nothing. Nothing is happening. "Brakes, Steve! Slow down right now!"
"What?!" Steve says back.
"Do it!" Evelyn commands again, and thusly the squad car slows down enough for the android to get a good solid look at the woman hanging from the back of the truck. Her eyes widen for a moment, before she says softly, "Call dispatch, look at that truck." As Hawkeye arrives, Evelyn leans a bit out of the window.
"What are you on ab-" Steve says as he glances over, "Oh, hell."
"Get closer, call dispatch, Steve!" Evelyn shouts again, and Steve reaches for the radio, but not before lighting up the squad car's lights. The siren immediately clicks up as the red and blue lights illuminate traffic.
*
It's all in the timing. When the unwanted Archer comes zipping down and lands on top of the armored truck, there's Domino stuck to the side in a crouch. Looking up at him through those goggles.
"Missed me!"
An open palm slaps against the side of the truck, immediately followed by a -WHUMP!- as the doors get blasted off of their hinges and fly outward into traffic, sending a jarring shockwave throughout the vehicle and scaring the crap out of the two armed officers riding in the back..right about when the roof of that squad car gets its Cherries and Berries lightshow going on. Outside and only a short distance away, it's -loud.-
Loud is distracting. Distractions are starting to find her in excess. If the severed doors aren't enough of a discouragement she attempts to hold up that squad car with another quick burst from the pistol, one sweeping pass across the hood and front fender to try and pop one of the tires. Just gotta get rid of 'em. Much like Hawkeye.
"This doesn't concern you, Katniss!" she yells back to the SHIELD man, hoping to 'roll' her way from the side to the interior before he gets his act fully up to speed.
(Spiiider-Dom..spiiider-Dom…)
*
Once Reed gets to the perquisite height, he begins to flip levers inside the rocket and is jettisoned out the side. The rocket continues to climb, but gradually begins to break up and incinerate into biodegradable ash.
Out on his own now, Dr. Richards hurdles towards the Earth and the bridge in question. Then, with little warning, his body expands out into a gigantic parachute like apparatus, perhaps the size of a football field. The draft slows him down dramatically, though he's easily seen from above, descending downwards at a much slower race, heading straight for the car.
*
Lights and sirens. Now there's a way to grab attention, and it's all Clint can do -not- to physically facepalm. True to form, of course, cars and trucks begin to try and work their way to the side, causing minor fender-benders and crumpling quarterpanels in the process. (City-type traffic, on a bridge and in some cases, over-enthusiastic drivers.. oh yes.)
"No, as a matter of fact, I didn't miss you." Okay, maybe Clint's taking her words in a slightly different context, and he's yelling over the sound of the air passing. (And the sound of the siren!) "You really need to stop this."
The shudder of the vehicle makes the one NOT using magnetics scramble to catch a hold on a bit of roof, the area just behind his feet now sheering off and smoking. The doors of the truck blow off and into traffic behind and to the side, smashing into a passenger car that is trying to get out of the way of the squaddy. (It would have been so much worse if the car had fully been there, and not moving!) As it is, the doors are crumpled of the sedan, and glass is shattered, spidering the windscreen.
"Of course it does!" comes soon after, and Clint begins the 'I have no real traction' crawl, pulling more from his hands as he makes his way towards the merc. His bow is a touch awkward in the position, but no less deadly should he want to go that route.
Domino's opening fire on the squad car now spurs the SHIELD agent forward, reaching for a handhold that'll give him some ability to steady himself to get another arrow off. One is pulled from his quiver, nocked, and in the next heartbeat, sent on its way towards the gun in an attempt to disarm. There's a small shape-charge in the pile, ready to give a big enough explosion to disable the gun and small enough to, well.. only take off a couple of fingers in the process if the person isn't smart enough to actually -drop- said weapon.
Of course, the shadow casted from the human (okay, not quite human) para-sail gains Hawkeye's attention, and now.. now.. he takes that second to facepalm. Oh, the report he's going to have to write. It'll be a 'no shit, there I was' if he's going to survive it…
*
The bullets penetrate the hood of the squad car, sending sparks flying as they punch through the engine compartment of the vehicle, sending in return a plume of white smoke. Steve swerves a bit to the right towards the truck a bit as per Evelyn's command as he talks on the radio. Poor Steve. He barely gets a call out before one of the bullets puncture the tire on the cruiser, preparing it to swerve out of control.
Given the number of cars that have given the squad car room, it's fairly trivial for it to swerve in the direction of the truck, with Evelyn still leaning out of the window, almost trying to climb out. The rubber finally breaks off the wheel, sending more sparks against the pavement as the metal rim grinds, sending the police car's front into the back corner of the truck. Oh this is going to suck.
Evelyn, in that moment of contact, somehow latched onto the handholds by the back corner of the truck, holding on for dear life given she just leaped from the passenger side window. Her feet dangle above the street as she quickly tries to gain footing on the back of the truck's fender. The two confused security guards likely regard her with yet more confusion as she clings and looks around the corner, "Surrender? Please!" She shouts over the noise of squealing tires and metal, the police car coming to a stop quite a far back in the mess of cars.
*
(Did it suddenly become overcast?) Because Domino could -swear- it was brighter just a moment ago… Not that she has long to think about it as an -arrow- takes the -gun- out of her hand. Then explodes! Right as she's latching onto the framework and swinging herself inside the back of the swerving truck, which also happens to be getting slammed into by that squad car, the small charge in that arrowhead blasts her pistol to pieces.
One of those pieces happens to be the slide, which happens to fly end over end -right- past her head only to catch one of the guards in -his- head, dropping him where he stood. The other guard, trying to keep his own balance, hauls a sidearm from his belt and tries to snap it toward Dom's face. Guns are also magnetic! A swipe of a now empty palm lets her yank it from his grasp, a foot coming around to stick to the far wall and another hand coming to stick to the roof so her -last- limb can come around and kick him in the back of the head. Down!
Of course, that leaves the albino mercenary in an entirely awkward position as she turns to look over a shoulder at the officer that managed to come up behind her. "Where the heck did -you- come from?"
And how the heck does she talk her way out of this one? No one has to die on this op, that's not what she's here for!
"Give me five minutes!" Until she surrenders..? That part isn't made clear as she unsticks herself from the walls. There's lockboxes in here. She needs to open one. The problem is a matter of figuring out what the -right- one is while cornered inside of a tough metal box with the Good Guys (ugh) now swarming her.
(Stay focused. Mission first.)
The stolen pistol's magazine drops as she tosses it aside. It's a little cramped in here for live fire and she needs to find her mark, not get happy-go-shootie on everyone!
*
Reed comes to a practiced landing upon the bridge dozens of feet in front of the truck in question as if he's done it hundreds of times (he has). His arms reach out to wrap around one of the giant girders that hold the bridge up.
Then, as cartoony as it looks, Reed's torso expands as his legs literally run across the bridge until they get across and begin to wrap themselves in knots around the girder on the other side. From there, Reed's stomach expands and thins out in a massive rubber-bandy, fantastical manner as he prepares to 'catch' the vehicle and bring it to a gradual slow and then stop. With his tummy. Yeah.
*
Okay.. a female officer is trying to make the cross-over between two moving vehicles; particularly when dodging traffic, thanks to the sad sound of the siren now. It's not an easy maneuver, to say the least. Yes, it's done in the movies all the time, but when one actually sees the pavement up close and personal? It forces Hawkeye to reach out a hand to the daring Evelyn offering to give her an added anchor so she doesn't have to be all that 'up close and personal' with the asphalt of the bridge. "Barton. SHIELD." And in case she hadn't noticed, there is the small, round insignia of that particular organization on his shirt. When at work…
Now that identification is out of the way, and trusting that he won't have to dig into his pockets for his 'government' ID, Hawkeye flips over from the roof and into the back. Really, Domino shouldn't be too surprised. "Five minutes?" Remarkably, Barton doesn't have his bow steadied on the albino merc. Nope. Instead, blue eyes lock on those lock boxes, and he steps forward and towards those secured containers. "Nope. You're going to leave now or.." and he glances at the uniformed Evelyn before thumbing in that same direction, "…she'll arrest you."
Reed's appearance in the near distance is missed, but through the small window that is between the back of the truck and the cab.. and eyes widen. "Oh.. god.." and he takes hold of -something- to keep his balance so he doesn't go flying out of the back of the truck when it comes to a springy-stop.
*
Evelyn reaches up and takes Hawkeye's hand, "Evelyn, military," She mutters quickly as she pulls herself up into the back. Her hands barely leave the side of the truck as she glances back towards the quickly moving pavement below behind them, "No, right now." She declares assertively, though she doesn't grab the pistol holstered on her hip. She doesn't quite see Mr. Fantastic getting ready to stop the truck in its tracks. As Hawkeye thumbs towards her, she's already pacing forward to engage Domino, raising her elbow to strike girl in the spine.
(Cat fight!)
*
It feels like the truck is losing speed… In a most peculiar sort of way, too. No obvious mechanical failure. No application of the brakes. Domino could almost translate the sensation to a car getting bogged down in heavy mud, which is not the sort of thing any motorist should be experiencing -on a bridge.- This probably means that she's quickly running out of time. As in, more quickly than a second ago.
Dammit.
It hasn't stopped completely, however. It takes time using elasticity to stop something that weighs several tons while traveling at highway speeds, after all. When Hawkeye tells Dom that she's going to surrender, and the other woman goes for the first strike, X-Gene and instinct jump into high gear. Hands go up, palms open to slap and stick to opposite walls. One leg snaps up to catch the incoming elbow before it can hit something particularly fragile, though the block sends a sharp jolt throughout her limb as she strikes something ..clearly more than human.
The other foot snaps toward Hawkeye's chest as he's reaching for a good handhold. Dom doesn't have the luxury of time for dealing with these two, let alone any of the lockboxes. Maybe she had been a bit too hasty in dropping that sidearm, though she's got more! Now she's reaching for another one, if that's what it'll take to suppress this Evelyn then that's what she'll do!
*
Once the vehicle finally comes to a stop, Reed detangles himself from the knots he's made. Despite his unbelievable body, the maneuver was still painful. It takes him some time to wrap himself into normal proportions. Once that's done, he steals a few moments of breath before trying to figure out what's actually happening.
Things are so much easier when you have family members working as a team.
*
Well now, that makes the 'she'll arrest you' even MORE likely. Particularly as Evelyn, Clint's now 'pro tempore' partner, moves forward to do just that. Perfect in that he can actually get work—
*EERK*
The kick in the chest doesn't help much, and Clint falls backwards, particularly after the truck is coming to a slow but definite stop. Rolling out the back, there isn't much chance of getting an arrow off to stop the roll, but at least the truck is only doing a '20, 10.. mph glide'. He hits pavement and rolls, the dirt of the road digging into his flesh.. and there is the prayer that he doesn't get run over in the interim.
"God dammit!!"
*
Evelyn doesn't waste any time! She backsteps a couple of inches as her arm is kicked out of the way. "Mmf!" Evelyn grunts in pain as her deflected arm swings back around to wrap around Domino's leg, and hopefully pull her down while twisting her leg in an awkward direction. She's not going to give up so easily. Her other arm remains raised in a defensive stance. Oof, from the corner of her eye she sees Hawk go out from the back of the truck but she can't quite help him at the moment. "Again, please surrender? I would really like that, miss. We have cookies."
*
And there goes the archer. (More of these things should have ejection seats…) Domino thinks before her leg gets nabbed by the peculiar female officer. The merc may have that pistol in hand though her aim's nowhere near ready when she gets slammed down to the floor, a grunt bursting from her lungs as the impact jars her hand enough for a shot to snap out like another explosion within the truck's interior. Shoulder to floor, Ow. Leg twisted in awkward position, OW. Random pistol shot breaking open one of the lockboxes and dropping its contents almost square into her palm…
(Is that..?)
1 in 97,216 odds.
Dom's got just one shot at this now. With the one leg caught she twists about and tries to send the other foot toward Evelyn's face, for what good it may or may not do. The critical point here is that she needs a chance to look at the inside of the folder which landed in her hand, just long enough to snap a picture of the top pages with the tiny camera perched above her left ear. It won't be ideal but it would give her something to work with later. So maybe she won't walk out of here with all of the data in her possession, she's worked with more difficult odds before.
One shot. Succeed or fail, she's backed into a corner here and up against the toughest cop she's run across in some time.
Oh yeah, and Hawkeye. ..And whatever happened to stop the truck.
"..I think I'll take those cookies now."
*
It takes Clint a moment to get to his feet, and thankfully the truck hasn't gone too far. He's moving towards the armoured car once again, but instead of bounding into the back, he's got his bow in hand, arrow nocked, and the string is pulled back.. all sighted in. "Come out of there, nice and slow."
Evelyn's aid is appreciated; let it never be assumed otherwise. Particularly as the woman is trying to subdue the albino merc with both a little bit of violence and a little bit of humour. (At least he's finding it amusing. Who wouldn't? Two women fighting?) And succeeds! Go team!
Looking up and to the side of the truck, there.. Reed Richards. Didn't Clint see a file on the guy before? Or… huh. That sort of stretchy thing certainly should be in the database, even if he didn't before. With the three present, assuming that Richards is on their side, Hawkeye steps forward, his bow lowered, and he clears his throat first. "I'll take that, and you're officially now in custody of SHIELD. We, unfortunately, don't have cookies. Dry, stale toast, sure. Cookies just aren't in the budget."
*
Evelyn moves to raise her arm to defend her head, but Domino's movements catch her just a bit awkwardly. "Doof!" One foot straight into her face, she tries to hold on to Domino, but the twisting motion sends her reeling against the side of the truck, a bruise on her face and eye tearing up and she reaches up to her cheek. "Fuck." Her jaw should maybe be broken, but she's a bit tougher than all that.
As Hawkeye climbs into the back she looks over to him, a couple fingers still on her chin, "She's.. All yours. Ow."
*
Domino knows when it's time to reassess a situation. She's effectively lost three sidearms, two of which had been her own. Which, amazingly, that's all she carried this time since an extended firefight wasn't being planned on. She's outnumbered, which normally isn't such a big deal but these two have proven to be fairly tough. But, the real kicker here is that Evelyn is releasing her into Hawkeye's custody.
And like HELL she's getting dragged back with SHIELD.
She'll play along. Let them think they've won. But, she's still got plans to make one last ditch effort for another highly improbable victory. Even if Hawkeye gets her into wrist restraints, which she's not finding any handy on his person…
Domino happens to be a very good swimmer.
"I know where to find the cookies," she cryptically replies before darting a closed fist toward Hawkeye's gut.
Then she's going to make a mad sprint for the edge of the bridge and imitate him falling out the back of a moving truck.
It's a long, long way down to the bay.