4039/Tidepool: Coming Home To Roost

Tidepool: Coming Home To Roost
Date of Scene:	11 March 2018
Location:	A reasonably nice neighborhood in Cincinatti
Synopsis:	SHIELD takes Fred Warhol, aka 'd00mwr34k3r' into custody, where he'll be quite eager to talk. Meanwhile, Vintridr is invited to accompany them to headquarters for a conversation that probably should be had regarding intentions. Because SHIELD.
Cast of Characters:	Hawkeye (Barton), Vintridr
Tinyplot:	Tidepool

---

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
The connection was shitty. "Whoa where are you guys, up the devil's asshole?" Frank 'd00mwr34k3r' Worhol said to the three losers on the glitchy video chat.

"Pretty much," said the one he knew as ZeroPain. "Best we can tell we're in Chad, the dude that snatched us left us here then Momento bailed on us. You got to help us man."

Frank smiles, "Sorry, man I don't know you, must have got the wrong username I don't have anything to do with that Moemento chick from the news," Frank says while eating noodles from a take out box. The denial was for the sake of SHIELD and the NSA, video chat was less than secure, and the three losers calling would know that if they were more than code-kiddie assholes.

He drops the chat, muttering assholes as he folds up his laptop. He didn't know how the fuck they found him but he was going to have to hid deeper now, odds were good those three would be found by someone and when they did they'd absolutely give up this contact. Fuck, and he sort of liked this place too.

Vintridr has posed:
    It's about at this point that the doorbell rings. A quick glance outside shows a bored looking woman in a Fedex uniform holding a box in one hand, looking down at the signature scanner in the other. Kind of cute, with those sleeves rolled up and the jacket open, enough to wonder what she looks like under that cap.

    "Package for a Mister Doomwreaker?" she asks in that vaguely polite voice of someone who's being paid just enough to faithfully deliver packages and pretend to care but not enough to actually mean it. It's a routine he's likely seen a dozen times, and the sheer familiarity of it means it takes him almost thirty seconds longer than it might have to realize several things:
1. She used his online handle, not his assumed name.
2. Those sleeves aren't rolled up, and that jacket isn't open for the heat, but because it's two sizes too small.
3. He *has* in fact seen that face before, but the last time he saw it was when he helped post her INDEX file to the internet...

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Frank rolls his chair across the floor to the monitor he set up for the door cam. There is a quick, frown when she uses his handle, and blinks. Shit, he was already too late. He's up out of his chair, grabs his laptop, then stuffs it in his go bag. Before the bag is zipped up, he pulls a pistol out of it and racks back the slide, then bag gets zipped and he's headed for a window, it's two stories to the street below but he's got one of those rope ladders for escaping fires set up just inside the window.

Vintridr has posed:
    Vintridr smiles slightly to herself as she hears the noise from inside. When you live out the centuries, you take your petty amusements where you can get them. She reaches for her hip...

    ... And several hundred miles away, in Jane Foster's lab, a device with entirely too many antennae and sensors suddenly pings as a pinpoint Einstein-Rosen Bridge forms, ever so briefly connecting two points between different realms of existence...

    ... And a sword that was forged before Erik first crossed the Atlantic Ocean slices through the deadbolts like so much tissue paper a moment before a kick rips the remains clear off the hinges and down the hallway. At his best guess, he's got maybe ten seconds before she reaches the room he's currently in.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Frank is at the window when the door gets kicked in. He yanks it open. Second one. Grabs the ladder off the floor. Second two and three. The thing got tangled, he yanks at it to untangle the ropes. Seconds three through eight. He drops it out the window. Second nine. He hears footsteps at the doorway, he turns and raises his gun. Second ten.

"Stop! I will shoot you!" he demands, clutching the pistol tightly but nervously. The man is not a pro.

Vintridr has posed:
    As if in response, the door to his room shatters as a foot slams into it, and before the debris quite finishes settling Vintridr steps through. The Fedex uniform is gone, replaced by something that eight hundred years ago might have been mistaken for chain mail and helmet, but will almost certainly laugh at any bullet he might be able to fire.

    Vintridr definitely seems confident it will, as she does not appear to take notice of the gun.

    "Do you remember my warning, oh Wreaker of Doom?" She asks, almost conversationally. "The choice I offered you? Have you decided on your answer? Asgardian justice, or Midgard? Which will it be?"

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Frank wasn't planning on firing, not really but his hand was already pulling on the trigger, like I said, not a pro, and when the door bursts his hand jumps squeezing the trigger the rest of the way. The gun kicks, the slide biting his hand, drawing blood while the bullet flies to flatten itself against the woman's chainmail looking armour. Frank goes white.

"Yeah, I heard you, w-what's the Asgard version?" he asks. He knew what the Midgard one was, he's likely to end up with a life sentence for cyber terrorism. The US attorney was intent on throwing the book at every Rising Tide member they could find.

Elsewhere, at the Triskelion, 911 calls are flagged and listened to and the team sent to track Vintridr is alerted to the location. They are on the way.

Vintridr has posed:
     Vintridr takes another step forward and snatches the gun out of his hands before he actually manages to injure someone with it, a brief squeeze rendering the entire thing unsuable. "You really should understand the customs of someone you're preparing to wrong before you do so. For an offense like this, the usual recompense is either weregild or an honor duel, if the wronged party declines to accept the offer." It's entirely possible that she didn't intentionally shift the angle of her sword so that the blade catches the light when she mentioned the duel. "If the offender can't pay and is too cowardly or too infirm to offer battle, thralldom was commonly acceptable, for a number of years determined by the lord of the land the offense took place in."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Frank swallows hard at the mention of a duel. Yeah, he didn't like those odds, the rest, he frowns at. "How much would the weregeld cost? In American dollars," he had accounts, maybe he could cover it. "And if you need a new ID I can do that too."

The SHIELD team is closing in.

Vintridr has posed:
    Vintridr smiles. That is to say, her teeth are showing. "I already have two IDs that SHIELD never found. And I do not intend to accept money that never belonged to you in the first place."

    Vintridr moves and the next few moments are a blur of noise and pain and the sound of a window shattering, and suddenly he's dangling out over a multiple story drop, held at arm's length with no apparent effort.

    "You see, I've met quite a few rebels, revolutionaries and would-be freedom fighters over my time here. And I've also met your brand of rat quite often. You call yourselves rebels, but for all that you yawp about sacrifices and cost, you never intend to be the ones paying in blood or suffering, and the only true problem you have with authority is that it isn't you. /They/ lived and died to resist what they thought was wrong; you just put on a stupid mask and smash other people's things, then tell yourself they deserved it because you could do it."

     "I am one of Odin's Choosers of the Slain, 'Wreaker of Doom'. I weighed the hearts of heroes and cowards when your ancestors were grubbing in the dirt at some petty arl's feet -- and scum like you aren't worth my time."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Frank doesn't see the attack coming he just feels the pain then finds himself hanging in the open air while his leg screams in pain for holding the whole of him now.

"Help!" he shouts. "Help! Please somebody help me!"

His cries drown out Vintrdr's words but he gets the gist, "Please don't hurt me, I'll do what you want."

The SHIELD SUVs arrive, four of them, two up front two at the back, the agents get out most of them in tac gear, Agent Davis is the exception, the man just wears his suit and shades. "Take positions," he tells his team over comms. "I'm going up to talk to the subject."

Frank sees the teams and shouts. "Help please, I'll surrender, just help me."

Vintridr has posed:
    Vintridr tilts her head. "Ah, good. I admit, I was almost worried I'd given SHIELD's agents too much credit."

    She pulls Frank back inside and almost gently tosses him into his favourite couch. "They should be here shortly to take us both into custody, but just in case you harbour any thoughts of getting out of this, I recommend you look up what the Viking code mandates be done to oathbreakers, and ask yourself if you truly believe there's anywhere on this planet that I can't find you..."

    With that admonishment, she walks over to an unbroken chair, the armour vanishing in a blaze of light, leaving her in an ill-fitting FedEx uniform as she seats herself and leand back to wait for Agent Davis.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Agent Davis makes his way to Frank's apartment slowly, coming up on the door with his ICER still in his holster. It looked like Vintridr's victim was handled and an ICER vs an Asgardian wasn't a winning proposition. He steps through the broken door and into the apartment, glancing at Frank, he says, "Are you alright?"

Frank lurches forward until Davis puts his hand on his weapon. "Please you got to take me away from her, she's crazy," he demands.

Davis looks to Vintridr, "Who is he?" he asks. "I don't recognize him from any of the lists."

There is a wry look from Davis, "Also, we'd appreciate it if you'd come with us, voluntarily, we've been looking for you for awhile now and we'd like to ask some questions."

Vintridr has posed:
     Vintridr shoots Frank an almost pitying look. "He's a very foolish man whose mother named him 'Frank', but chose to call himself the Wreaker of Doom. Your superiors will likely want a word with him regarding his activities with the Rising Tide, although I suspect he's now going to insist he doesn't know what I'm talking about and never even heard of them. His ilk really is pitifully predictable sometimes."

    She looks at Davis. "You seem familiar... Ah, yes. The Amtrak from Jersey to Boston, I believe. You boarded at the last minute, but so did a few others."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Ah," Davis says. "Then yes, Mr. Worhol, stay put, we'll deal with you in a moment," seems like while there wasn't a picture, the other Rising Tide members had fingered him as one of their associates.

Davis nods, smiling as she remembers him, "That's right. I am the agent in charge of your detail, so, are you willing to come in for a chat? We've had a good working relationship with your people and we can promise you, we've got no ulterior motives, it's just a chat."

Vintridr has posed:
     Vintridr nods, unperturbed. "I was expecting as much. It'd be no more than polite, after all." Her lip quirks for a moment with wry humor. "In fairness I must note that when I first arrived on these shores, I /did/ follow the immigration customs of the time... But if you want to see the paperwork you'll have to check with the exhibit in the Commonwealth Museum of Boston."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Davis chuckles, "Noted," he says about the paperwork. "We'll follow up, not because we doubt your word, but, well let's face it, it's really cool." He nods back towards Frank. "Going to cuff him now if that's alright, then we can head downstairs see him get locked up, and work out that chat. "Sound good?" he asks.

Vintridr has posed:
    "I offered him the choice between Asgard justice or Midgard. He chose Midgard," Vintridr replies, spreading her hands. "So by his own choice, he falls under your jurisdiction - unless, of course, he chooses to break his word and decline to confess."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Davis, smiles, crouching down next to where Frank still sits on the floor. "Well, what do you say? Still plan on confessing?"

Frank nods emphatically. "Sure, I'll confess, just get me out of here."

Davis, nods "Good," then sees Frank handcuffed on on his feet, "Ms-" Davis pauses. "What should I call you?" he asks, before continuing. "Ready to go?"

Vintridr has posed:
     Vintridr rises smoothly to her full height; she's clearly not actively attempting to intimidate, but at the same time something in her stance makes people want to either stand to attention or reach for a weapon. "I am Vintridr, formerly one of Odin's Valkyr. I have other titles, but none present know the songs that describe how they were earned, so they'd ring hollow in your voice. Simply 'Vintridr' will suffice."

    She looks around, then shrugs and places a Fedex signature scanner on the table, then removes her jacket and cap and places them next to it. "If you could arrange to have these returned to the Federal Express, with my apologies."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Frank shrinks away from Vitridr when she stands at her full height. Davis smiles, "Ms Vintridr, then," he says. "And sure we'll get them back to the company, hopefully there's no FedEx guy tied up somewhere we need to rescue," he says half-joking as he leads Frank out of the appartment, calling over comms for the team to secure the appartment to sweep for any intel that can be gleaned.

Vintridr has posed:
Vintridr shakes her head. "Nothing of the sort. I simply paid him $500 in cash for his jacket, his hat, the keys to his van and a promise not to call in the 'theft' for ten minutes after I left."

    She smiles. "... Of course, I was holding the first three already at the time, so he considered it a reasonable offer given the implied alternatives."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Davis smiles, "Fair enough then," he says of the uniform, considering a little bit of bribery fair play when it came to what Vintridr was doing. "Alright, then, after you, Ms. Vintridr and we'll go have that chat."

Vintridr has posed:
    Vintridr nods graciously and leaves the room just ahead of Agent Davis and the man formerly known as 'd00mwr34k3r' while behind them SHIELD's computer techs get to work on extracting information from the laptop, to see what other little fish almost managed to slip the net...