11986/Chasing a Cat(woman)

Chasing a Cat(woman)
Date of Scene:	12 August 2020
Location:	Port Newark, Newark
Synopsis:	A contract to 'recover' a stolen painting leads to a new....ally? Enemy? hard to tell
Cast of Characters:	Silver Sable, Catwoman

---

Silver Sable has posed:
Silver and the Wild Pack hunt down criminals and retrieve stolen things if the pay is good enough. Tonight, at just past one in the morning...it is. It's also a tough two in one job. Capture a thief. Retrieve a stolen item. Not always in that order. Given Port Newark's whole thing of being, well, a port, Silver knows she's in a race against time. If she slips up, both the criminal and the item could be on a boat for who knows where and that'd put Silver and the Wild Pack on the back foot.

So, tonight. It's a simple look around. No guns, no fighting, in theory. Just get into the area and start looking for both the thing she's been paid an advance of a million to collect, and...bring in a criminal. Admittedly after the last fiasco in Hell's Kitchen, Silver has got all the information...which leads to a painting that was sold to a Symkarian aristocrat and went 'missing' before it could be shipped to Silver's home country.

Paintings aren't normally something Silver jumps at the chance to retrieve. Instead. It's the patriotism angle that's got her on the hunt for this and whoever was unfortunate enough to steal it. Because...really, if it wasn't connected to her homeland, Silver wouldn't realy care. It'd fall to one of the other mercenaries, or the police, or....

But she's here, dressed in the guise of a dock worker, feigning checking the manifests of the giant ships in the docks while surveying the area. She's studied the habits and routines and can blend in very, very well, really and hands off the manifest to one of her mercs, who hands it along, and that gets handed finally to the foreman, who goes over it and hands it to a member of the ship's crew. Everything's in order with this particular freighter, it seems. All the while, Silver is, yes, surveying the area and waiting for a chance to move and check the warehouse she's in front of. It's an average one

Skylights on the roof, a maze of passages inside, guards patrolling the warehouse interior and dust evrywhere.

Catwoman has posed:
Ahh yes, paintings are so quaint, aren't they? Especially when they're worth so much. Of course, Catwoman had no desire to keep the elaborate decoration in her apartment. She'd much rather sell it on the black market for a sizable profit..

But it seems that even this early in the morning, she has picked up an unlikely and rather tenacious tail that she cant quite shake off.

Oh yes, she notices the bustling around in the nearby ship, even at this ungodly hour of the morning, where it's still pretty dark and easy to slip into the warehouse in her night tinged clothes.

Silver Sable has posed:
Silver's in there a moment later, undre the guise of bringing paperwork in. In reality, once past the guard, she's looking around taking notes and seeing how it compares to the information she's been getting.

So far, so accurate. Look up, and...wait, was that a boat horn? Alright, the freighter she was moving paperwork from just left port. That changes things.

Silver's got the layout of the warehouse in photos back in New York. RIght now, it's all about thinking on her feet.

And looking around, keeping her head on a swivel, and not getting caught where she shouldn't be. Technically, she shouldn't be anywhere past the first guard, but...

Catwoman has posed:
Catwoman wasn't expecting anyone to return to the warehouse, not when it looked like that ship was leaving, not staying and she frowns softly at the sight of the worker down below. Still she retains her position in the rafters, frozen, melting into the shadows as best she can.

The average worker would not even notice but this person is apparently more keenly aware and she holds her breath, frowning softly as she considers. She could knock out the woman and flee, or wait it out. For now she chooses the latter, sitting tight and watching, waiting..

Silver Sable has posed:
Silver can't shake the feeling she's being watched and looks up, after hiding herself out of an easy glance. Just get out of sight of the guards. And if you need to, Sable. Climb up the shelves to get to...is that a statue up there?

Odd place to store a statue. maybe it's really valuable and they are afraid whoeverr comes in here will steal it? Or, more likely, somebody's up there and Silver's staring right at them. She gives a tiny narrowing of her eyes as if saying I see you up there, silently.

Catwoman has posed:
Okaay, definitely more clever than she gave her credit for. Eyes narrow as she peers at her through the near darkness and..Realky, there's no reason to hold back any longer. She doesn't want to be taken off-guard.

Still, as the other woman climbs up the shelves it positions her just rude for Cats to get the upper hand on her. With a yell, she swings from the bar she's hanging onto, and attempts to kick Silver off balance.

Silver Sable has posed:
Silver moves when Catwoman does...and she's scaling back down the shelves again to floor level. Alright. Want to swing at Silver? Game on, mysterious statue woman.

Silver rolls through the shelves and springs to her feet in one move, ready for a fight. Oh sure she's not able to hide her katana in this guise, but she's got her chi and quite a few other weapons hidden on her, a few pistols, a few throwing knives, and a knife or two, then she's got her hands and feet.

Which is to say. Silver's dangerous, and she's well aware the guards heard the yell, and....the resulting scrabble down shelves.

Catwoman has posed:
Catwoman snarls as she leaps to the floor to face Silver, crouching into a defensive stance. "Who the hell are you and what do you want?" she practically ours, "If you leave now, I won't have to hurt you, although I wouldn't mind 'playing'.." she smirks.

Silver Sable has posed:
Back up the shelves Silver goes to get a height advantage on Catwoman. "There's so much stuff in here" Silver calls out, and...there really is. See, Silver's impressed by how many things a ship can hold. And how much a warehouse like this can hold, she went over the manifest earlier that stated the ship Silver 'helped' unload was carrying cargo worth over 4.8 million US dollars. Well....the warehouse is at least double that, she estimates and keeps her eye on Catwoman the entire time. "I'll cut you a deal" Silver calls. "Whatever you got over your shoulder isn't worth much. Forget about it, put it on the floor and if you're here to steal things, take something really valuable from the ships out in the docks"

Silver's a go getter. See. She's no positive ID on Catwoman being the thief she's contracted to bring in. Or if Catwoman even has the painting in question, but...the painting's the priority. Patriotism is a bitch at times...and Silver is well aware of this. Do the right thing for Symkaria.

And then do the rest of the contract, or something like that. Silver's got her priorities straight. Which involvess a whistle to distract anyone in the area, then making her way across the shelves and leaping to the ground again.

Catwoman has posed:
Catwoman quirks a brow as she peers at Silver warily. She's already pulling out her whip, digging her claws into the shelves as she pursues her upwards. Oh, it hasn't eluded her notice that this warehouse I'll of lots of, stuff but. ..

"Mmm, assuming the stuff here isn't simply worthless junk, what's to stop me from reading you and adding anything of worth to my collection, on top of this invaluable painting?" her eyes gleam greedily.

Silver Sable has posed:
Feet find ground as Silver's moving quickly blending acrobatics as she's moving fluidly. If she's getting chased...Silver can do her best to throw anyone off.She rolls through an empty set of shelves. "Because they came off of cargo ships" she says and keeps moving while she talks. "Think about it"

Silver is all about the bottom line, too...being a mercenary and SSI owner does that.

Pausing her movement by a shelf of valuable things (tm), she waits. It's valuable technology things really. Not quite gold statues, more unopened boxes of computers and phones and that sort of thing.

Catwoman has posed:
Catwoman follows Silver's moves with matched grace and speed, shadowing her as if they were dancing. She does seem intrigued by the prison that of stealing valuable technology although this could be a trap.

"Hmmm...Is that so?" she's still a bit doubtful, can she really trust this woman? Cats pauses a moment to tear open a box with her claws and nods appraisingly at the expensive pack of cellphones held within.

"Mmmmm...Intruguing.. " she purrs, "Except, how many of these techno gizmos would I need to steal to be equal to one priceless painting? Plus, one single painting is far easier to steal...What's your interest in this silly canvas anyway? You a fellow thief? Mercenary?"

Silver Sable has posed:
The 'mercenary' word gets Silver to spin on a heel and watch Catwoman closely. "What's it to you if I'm either?" she asks simply with her hands being kept free in case they are needed, but Silver's looking past Cats. "One painting can only be sold one time by you. More boxes of phones means you get a steady stream of money coming in through sales" she points out. Silver's good at business things after all.

"I will trade the painting for this entire shelf off boxes. You get all the boxes, and give up the painting and I won't tell anyone what happens. I was paid to find that painting by a wealthy aristocrat in my country, and I like finishing my contracts successfully" Silver says and gives Catwoman a careful, scrutinizing look.

Silver gets it. She gets the need to make money, but att the same time, Catwoman is a thief and Silver tracks them down. It's not black and white, though. Silver understands where Catwoman is coming from, more or less.

"You would make far more selling that case of phones you slashed open in that big box than the painting. Plus you can take the phones apart and sell them for parts"

Now she's just encouraging Catwoman to become a nerd, apparently?

Catwoman has posed:
Catwoman pauses a moment, relaxing her stance as she considers that thoughtfully. Her motorbike isn't parked far away. She could probably carry a single box, but.."Hmmm...It's an intriguing thought, but who is to say the owner of this warehouse won't return soon to collect the goods? Transporting such a large number of goods would take quite some time.."

Eyes narrow, "Unless of yourself you would give me regular access to this building, and turn a blind eye long enough to clear that shelf." she shrugs as she peers at said shelf. "Still...Not so sure a bunch of computers would equal a million dollar painting..How about the entire aisle?" yeah..She's pushing it, but...

Silver Sable has posed:
Silver considers it. "I can tell the guards you're working with me and we need to move the entire aisle to a waiting ship and then we part ways. You disappear with your computers. I get the painting. I don't know you from Adam, deal?" she asks. True, hshe's got no name, and 'woman in black' is common enough to not really raise an eyebrow. Plus Silver's not wanting to draw attention to the whole hey, I'm where I shouldn't be, side of things. "It's your choice, either you cleear this out one box at a time. Or, I get a dockhand to flag a truck down over here, and you get your associates to load up the trailer with all the boxes and take off. That's what I'd do"

It's not /quite/ what she'd do, but....close enough.

Catwoman has posed:
Catwoman ponders this, tapping her foot. Oh of course she realizes she is running out of time. Sooner or later someone is gonna come checking in on this place, but she is also not stupid.

This woman seems to be a very skilled combatant. That might be just instinct but Cats has been studying her movements and she knows enough to realize that this strange silver haired woman is potentially a dangerous adversary to have. "Mm...Very well.."

Catwoman unstraps the painting from her shoulder, but holds it close, not yet handing it over. "Not entirely sure I trust you or your deckhands however. I shall contact some of my own...Associates to grab these boxes. And for now, I shall grab a couple. As long as you keep em off my back, I'll be happy to hand this over to you..Tomorrow, when I grab the rest."

She smirks, knowing she won't so easily so easily trust Catwoman in turn however. "But I suppose you will want something as a token of good will that I *will* be back, mm?" she opens the poster case and pulls out a canvas, not the painting Silver is after, but another she had stolen, of much less value, about equivalent to the two boxes of expensive electronics she is about to take with her, "I will give you this now, and the other painting tomorrow morning when I return for the rest of these goods. How about it?"

Silver Sable has posed:
Silver nods and pauses, then...she's gone heading for the door. She's trusting a thief. But. She's got precautions and things in place...