1180/Mr. Berl's Last Hurrah

Mr. Berl's Last Hurrah
Date of Scene:	28 June 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Ares, Gun Bunny

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Ares has posed:
    The job had come up through channels from a few trusted sources. It had been put out to the mercenary community in the tri-state area, flagged with a high bonus and offered with all the tags stating that if a body is left behind that the right organizations will be paid off. It's the closest thing to a carte blanche kill that comes out there with it just stopping short of being an assassination and demanding assassination money.
    The header was a simple snatch and grab, low to no intel however. Just an address was given in King's Point New York, one of the better to do suburbs of Manhattan west of that city yet south of Gotham. The mark was John Aaron, a bio up came back that he was a single man living in the double lot at the address. One son, ten years old, away for Summer Camp supposedly.
    Then there was the objects to be grabbed. Several images of them are provided. First one is a pitted old blade that looks positively ancient, usually stored in a wooden container and sealed. It had the honor to be part of a set, a Roman Gladius from roughly 105 BC, a prototype blade for when Gaius Marius implemented the Marian reforms. The matching scutum is shown in a few more pictures, a large shield, wood preserved remarkably but otherwise large and heavy.
    The price was set high, with some bonuses thrown in. Definitely a juicy thing. Definitely worth the time of some of the hitters in the area.
    But tonight, one particular operative had seen the contract and followed up on it. From a good angle someone could espy that fenced in compound, not too large, perhaps four or five acres. The house isn't that big, just two stories and a basement but a few additions are made to the cape style building. In the back there's a wooded area with a few nature trails leading between the other homes that are there. The place looks immaculate from afar, with the only hints that the place is occupied being perhaps a small garden that's seen better days, and a few toys in the yard left probably by the kid.
    Currently a few lights are on in the home, and at times a shadow moves past a window.

Gun Bunny has posed:
    The distant grunt of a poorly maintained engine comes to an end as the rented van puts to a stop a few blocks from the address. A few quiet minutes pass before the van rocks, then rocks again. The back door opens and Gun Bunny slides out of the vehicle. She's big, an armored form definitely designed to resemble a female figure. The amazonian suit of armor is easily eight feet tall. It's slender and almost graceful for the height, thin shoulders, broad hips, powerful legs. The suit's feet seem formed into platform heels, detailing denoting foot and heel. The calves are exceptionally long especially compared to the torso.
    At the moment the mercenary seems to be packing it light for this job, a backpack strapped to the suit, several grenade like cannisters secured to the front and sides. A pair of machine pistols are tucked under each armpit and an assault rifle is strapped to the backpack. In her arms she carries a Franchi SPAS shotgun, spare shells stacked in a clip along the top rail. She considers the night air for a moment, her body twisting to scan. Then a pair of antenna, posing as an armored shell falling from the back of the head swing up. The 'ears' swivel intently, scanning the area before she starts moving quickly towards her target. The ears tuck down as she sprints, quickly moving off the road and into grass. About a block away from the house she leaps. Thrusts peek out from the hips and there's only a small burn as the mechanized legs spring her forward.
    She lands with a quiet thud well inside the fenced area. Ears flip up again to check things out as she moves towards the house.

Ares has posed:
    There's relatively little electronic signatures from the house, barely a conventional wifi? But the network is mostly open but there are no computers connected to it at the moment. Any other electronic noise is minimal, it might also be surprising there isn't even an alarm system of note.
    Then she lifts off and lands with that light thud, her sensors swiveling and seeking some hint as to her surroundings. There's a doghouse some distance away, but no sign of a dog. There are still some lights coming from inside the house, perhaps the faint static hiss of a television projecting its signal. But little for her to go off of.
    The dossier she had listed the guy as some decently well off construction worker, but this... it's just this side of suburbia. She might almost be expecting to see a mini-van in the driveway. But... nope, a black SUV.
    There's a faint /whirrr/ of sound as the sliding glass door on the back porch opens, her sensors triangulating it almost instantly, then the sound of footsteps upon the wooden surface of the deck.

Gun Bunny has posed:
    Time for the low and slow. Ears swing down and Bunny's head swivels, scanning. It's a quick sprint to make sure she's not got line of sight to the back deck. The swaying carry strap of her shotgun gets wrapped around her forearm as she slips the weapon into a nonready weapon hold. At that point she begins creeping towards the house. Nice and low if she must. Ears flick from time to time, extra sensory input is always appreciated. The suit's mottled gray paint job does a good job of being unobtrusive, but there's not a lot of cover. When she's by the house her ears get more active, flicking to check inside windows, trying to spot her target carefully assessing the situation as she moves around the side she's on, pausing for a moment so one eartip can just barely flick around the corner to peek at the deck side of the house to assess the situation.

Ares has posed:
    That little eartip whirs faintly as she shifts position, gets the angle on the feed. Right now it's dark on that back deck, there's a single light that gleams from above the two glass doors, one of which is still slid open and showing the light from the dining room. High above there's the moon that offers a hint of illumination to the yard, but barely enough to make out anything beyond shapes unless one had some particular form of night vision. Which she assuredly does.
    Her mark is there, she'll get an eyeball from that position, some forty feet away perhaps. The first thing she might notice is... he's tall. Perhaps not the tallest she's seen, but definitely a large broad-shouldered man. He's leaning against the railing of the deck, looking out across the yard and drinking from a bottle of beer that he lets dangle in between sips, holding it with two fingers.
    Around her she can only hear the faint sounds of the night, perhaps a distant door closing over at a far off neighbor's house. There's a scritching and scraping towards the garden, perhaps a woodchuck of all things. But she still has the situation in control, still has the op in hand.

Gun Bunny has posed:
    Bunny isn't exactly the most patient person on the job, but by the gods she tries. Sweeping back around she continues scanning all the open windows she can find. If there's nothing on the ground floor she'll emit an internal sigh. The girl slips a free hand back into the back and pulls out two small black spheres. A pin is flipped and one is hurled hard above and beyond the house, to the far side of the yard, at least a hundred feet away. It flops into the ground and the crack-boom! It's less than a M80 in explosive potential and just a little flash. But it's certainly loud and distracting.
    Now if the gentleman on the porch moves towards it, good. As soon as he seems to be getting close to it, another will be thrown even farther away and Bunny jumps, timing her landing to the same moment as the second explosion. If all goes well.

Ares has posed:
    That first explosion goes off and her sensors will display the man react with a smooth turn and his attention is drawn in that direction. But then his second reaction might surprise her for instead of rushing around to the corner he takes two steps and plants his foot upon the railing, then kicks /up/ and off leaping to snare the edge of the roof and pull himself up to gain some height to survey. It's up off the first floor roof and up onto the second story rooftop that he lands, hand curling around the base of the antenna there.
    With his approach upwards he's able to get line of sight on where the sound came from... but that might very well adjust her plan for the second explosive device.

Gun Bunny has posed:
    Well.... annoying. Bunny flips her shotgun back into ready firing position and tucks the sphere back in her pack. She leaps up and lands on the apex of the roof. Only one foot punches through but she recovers in a semi-graceful fashion as she shouts in a rather digitized and feminized voice. "Hey, you got some fancy sword and shield thing!" The power suit figure waves around shotgun, flipping off the safety. "How about you hand em over and I don't burn down your house and shoot at you?"

Ares has posed:
    The tall man turns to face the power armored being and his eyes widen as he points rather imperiously. "That. Is my roof!" His voice is a deep baritone, growling sharply as he looks down at it, then back up at the 'robot' eyes of the creature and its ears.
    Those dark brown eyes go from calm and curious to a blaze of something terribly primal as they widen and he scowls at her. "Rabbit Robot Creature, I will give you this one warning. You will leave here now, and I will not use your skull to plug the hole you made in my ceiling."
    And the way the guy /glares/ at her, it may seem that he pretty well means it.

Gun Bunny has posed:
    "It's your roof, but you know we're gonna fight and I'm gonna use some of these grenades and then the whole house is going to be wrecked. So why can't we be reasonable about this?" The girly robot's ears flick back and forth as she speaks in an almost LA-girl fashion. Leaning back she considers the man before slipping her hand that isn't holding the grip of the weapon onto her hip. "Please? You seem like an okay Joe, and I really hate wrecking people's houses, but someone is paying a lot of money for your sword and shield thingy. I can't even imagine what other crap you got in this place and it'd be a shame to see it all go up in flames, right?"

Ares has posed:
    "My swo..." His brow beetles sharply, his eyebrows coming together like two angry caterpillars. But then he points at her, "Robot, this is my home. If you pretend to some possibility I will not defend it then you are mistaken." He straightens up and she can see him on some level straining against some desire he has to reach forwards and take matters into his hands literally.
    But then he says, "Someone is paying you to take something from me? I have been harassed for nearly a month by one particular man. If you can help me find him, help me end these threats to me and my family... I will double whatever price this man is paying you if lucre is what you seek."
    He looks down at the home, however, and then back up. "But some of what you say carries merit. It will do you no good to destroy what you seek to steal. We can move elsewhere and do battle if that is what must come about."

Gun Bunny has posed:
    "No skin off my nose. You pony up the cash and I'll drop a dime on him." Moonlight glides over the robot's shifting frame, looking fair and female even if it is mechanized. The woman considers the man carefully, her ears picking up what she can of his figure and form. With a leap she pushes off the roof and slams into the turf of the front yard. "Only problem is, you gotta have it here in twenty minutes, otherwise this gets ugly fast." The faceplate of the suit is an flat black opaque plane. It lifts up to consider him again as she considers the situation. The next move was his, she'd ceded the high ground.

Ares has posed:
    The man shifts his footing on the apex of that house, planting a foot and rising to his full height above her. He grimaces slightly and says, "My word is of worth," He tells her, but then he says. "I can offer you an item which when taken to a dealer who has wanted to buy it from me for some time will give you a fair price." He crosses his arms over his chest as he looks at her.
    "I am not able to get large amounts of money in cash assembled quickly. If that is what you seek..." He pauses a moment to gauge her silhouette and frowns for a moment.
    But then he gets a small smirk, "Besides, if I somehow betray you... it's not like you don't know where I live."

Gun Bunny has posed:
    The bottom portion of the faceplate suddenly pushes forward with a hiss and rises, covering the top half. It doesn't seem to impede the operator though as she continues to look up at her prey. She has a pair of rings piercing her lower lip, as well as a septum piercing through her mostly obscured nose. When she speaks, yep, that's pierced too, twice. "I'll need your seller's name and phone, now. Also need to see it. You've got five minutes."
    The girl grins as she lifts up the shotgun and rests it on a shoulder. "And it's not that I don't trust you, it's just that you've got a free money sign on your house. It's not going to take more than another few hours before you at least have some gang bangers riding up. Probably a shorter time frame than that before someone else with some actual hardware gets here. I was just lucky enough to show up first."

Ares has posed:
    That causes him to pause for a moment, his brow furrows as a scowl lashes over his features. "This... is not good." He looks at her askance, and then tilts his head to the side slowly until there's a short crackle of aerated cartilage while he ponders the moment. But then he looks back at her, "I suggest you refrain from giving me ultimatums. There is nothing in this house that I value /that/ much."
    But then it's his turn to smile, "Bide." He starts to walk towards the edge of the roof and pauses for a moment. "Maybe you can... stick to the shadows? The neighbors might see you." He gestures towards the back yard and offers, "You drink beer?" He asks her as he drops dwon onto the porch with a /wfumpf/.

Gun Bunny has posed:
    "Yeah, you're gonna grab stuff? I'm gonna be in your kitchen then. And don't threaten me with your don't threaten me thing, I know you got a great big swingy one, so do I." The girl shifts her shotgun in her hands, idly gesturing with it as she moves towards the deck. She's really big, but she can actually move indoors without scrapping ceilings, much. Especially if she stoops a bit.
    "And I'm in a giant mechanized suit ready to shoot people for money," she adds in an amused tone, "of course I drink beer." She trails off mumbling to herself idly, "drunk right now after all."

Ares has posed:
    "You are infuriating," He says, and she can tell on some level this man is striving to control his temper. But he has not failed, not yet at the least. When she moves onto the porch it does not buckle from her weight, so that is a positive. And then he pulls the glass door open a bit wider and... yes she most likely has to duck her head. There's a lamp hanging over the dining room table, and there's a kitchen there with an island for food prep. There's even a Viking fridge with a kid's drawing of a robot on it, holding some place of prominence alongside a paper that has an A on it written in red ink.
    He walks over towards the phone and picks it up, beginning to dial and should she not become upset at him doing so he'll speak into it. "Mr. Grey. It is Mr. Aaron, I am going to put you on speaker phone."
    He pulls open the fridge door and gestures to her to help herself to enjoy the contents. Then he continues, "It has come to my attention that my name has been brought up in regards to a contract."
    "Yes, Mr. Aaron." The voice on the other side is British, and seemingly upper crust British.

Gun Bunny has posed:
    The weight of the suit spreads out more as Bunny drops into a sitting position on the floor. An ear flicks over and scans the fridge before Bun reaches inside without directly looking and fishes out a six pack. Resting her shotgun between her legs she pulls a can free from the pack and tosses it towards her impromptu host. Another can is extracted from the plastic rings and cracked open. Lifting it to her lips she takes a sip as she half listens to the conversation. A few moments later and the suit's faceplate slides back down. A moment later the suit's faceplate lifts back up so she can sip again, only this time the filtered sounds of Norweigan AltaPunk Metal can be heard through the opening, probably filtering through her skull to actually be heard through the soundproofed helmet. Disturbing.

Ares has posed:
    The can is caught in one hand as he leans against the island there, he cracks it open and takes a sip, but then continues. "Mr. Grey, I would like this contract removed as early as possible. I know this is usually out of your purview, but I know you have sufficient contacts to make this happen and to make sure all of the parties who are affected are tended to."
    "That may be difficult, Mr. Aaron, but I can at the least get a moratorium placed on the matter. That will give time for us to handle the situation sufficiently."
    "That would be perfect," John scowls at the phone, "Contact me if you need something more from me."
    "Of course, Mr. Aaron."
    The phone clicks on the other end of the line and then John keys the hangup on his handset.
    He turns his gaze back upon the Robot gal and squints, "You will be paid, and I would have your aid in resolving the matter. The information on Mr. Berl, and if possible a meet. Do you believe you can arrange that?"

Gun Bunny has posed:
    When the call was made Bunny's suit sensors of course recorded the dial indicator tones. She's back searched the call and found an unlisted number for a cellphone that doesn't register as ever having been activated. Wonderful, very professional. The girl idly scans through random Youtube videos is one of her sub HUDs as she listens to a conversation she'll go over in more detail later. The wonders of modern technology.
    She powers through the bitter first beer and opens up another as John's attention shifts to her. She mmmmfs and nods with a thumbs up as well. "Sure thing bossman." The girl grins through the half opened mask and tilts her head to consider him. "So..." there's a pregnant pause before she asks, "mercenary or assassin? If you don't want to say that's fine, I can respect professionalism, not really big on it myself, but yeah." As she's having this conversation she's casually sitting on the floor of some random stranger's house in a suit of power armor packing asmall arsenal. "I suppose you could be mafia, but the powers would mean I'd probably know about you if you were organized crime. They have a hard time holding back with the heavy hitters."

Ares has posed:
    Squinting down at her he says levelly, "Girl," She has graduated from Robot apparently. "I am not inclined to share of myself with someone who so recently attempted to remodel my home with a rocket." He tells her as he pushes off of the island in the kitchen and then gestures to her, "I just need to know where you intended to meet to make the trade, and when. If he is not there assuredly his flunky will be and that will suffice."
    But there is something about her armor, the pure war machine aspect of it that does strike his curiousity. He lifts a hand to scritch at the stubble along his chin. "But..." He takes a deep breath as if trying to overcome his nature... which he is. He then adds calmly, "I do sometimes share words with a friend, but my friends don't usually come strapped into my house."

Gun Bunny has posed:
    "I'm not nobodies friend." Bunny replies easily. "I'm just some jerk shooting at other jerks for money." She waves her can of beer around lazily and adds, "But you seemed okay Johnny, so I didn't want to shoot your face in. Even got bean bags in the shotty in case you got snippy." Putting down the beer she slowly and carefully rights the suit, not wanting to wreck the flooring or anything else. She waggles a finger as she adds, "And the meeting is set for when your stuff is in hand. I go take a happy little picture of it and there's a little back and forth and then I meet up with someone somewhere. Not sure right now, I'm sure it'll be seedy and disreputable though, with lots of alleyways and neon signs. They'll suggest somewhere they already have a guy with an anti-materiel rifle, I'll suggest another spot where I could have someome set up. I'll suggest a third spot at least ten but not more than twenty blocks from their first spot and say to be there in ten minutes and then we'll be off and running."

Ares has posed:
    "Mighty kind of you," John says as he smirks a bit and leans back against the prep island, his arms folding over his broad chest as he considers this power armored figure sitting down on his clean kitchen floor. He cocks an eyebrow at her as he listens to her rattle off her procedure and then nods. "Then by all means, get what matters you can moving." He scritches at the stbble on his chin, and withdraws his phone. He holds it light in his hand and asks, "Can you see the photos on this machine?"
    Yes he calls his phone a machine.
    If she can she'll be able to flick through a few images of a blonde haired kid playing and performing at what looks like a school play, as well as a few other photos of some weaponry that is pointedly more modern than a sword and shield, but then she'll see three images that are of her targets.

Gun Bunny has posed:
    "Oh, I could probably do it with those, but to pull those photos you'd likely end up surrendering all the information on the phone to me. Either that or you can just take one of these." Reaching up she detaches the tip of one ear and offers it to Ares. "I'd just say let me see it but your house, your privacy, whatever." The lady shrugs and leans against the counter top as she considers the house again. In the midst of everything she still seems to be listening to music in her suit. "But no, I can't just take a picture of a picture and have it be believable."

Ares has posed:
    A slight smirk touches his lips and then he tells her, "I'll just bring them here. Bide a moment. Then we'll be on our way." And with that said, John turns and steps away from the power-armored figure, opening the basement door and turning on the light with the flick of a finger.
    Of /course/ it was in the basement.
    A few steps down and then he's out of view.

Gun Bunny has posed:
    Bunny waits till John returns with the toys and then just gestures for him to toss them on the ground near the sliding glass door. "Oh, hey, you'll tickle him if you just sprawl on the ground and have you limp, lifeless hand barely in frame for the shot." That's how she says it, whether or not he goes along she snaps off a few shots. "Alright, give me a second." Her faceplate closes again and the suit goes silent. She reaches over and grabs another beer. She cracks it open and lifts it to her lips in a perfectly synched opening of the faceplate. A sip and she's saying, "No, no, that's not going to" the plate is closed. A few moments more, again lifted to her lips, and the plate opened, "evidence lockup," sip, "if you're" it closes again. Finally a big old chug and a nod, "Fine then," it closes again.
    After a few more minutes she perks up with her mechanicized and much more girly robot voice as she says, "Deals set, give me my goods or I'm gonna be cheesed buddy. Problem is yours from here on out."