5383/Changeling: Invitation Accepted

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Changeling: Invitation Accepted
Date of Scene: 16 September 2018
Location: Unknown
Synopsis: May goes as Skye to meet the man behind Clint's kidnapping, things are learned and May makes a quick escape.
Cast of Characters: Arnim Zola, Melinda May




Arnim Zola has posed:
The alley entrance to St. Molly's is a narrow and filthy stretch of detritus strewn asphalt squeezed between two brick walled buildings and ending in a dead end.

The door to St. Molly's is on the left most building, plain, sturdy, with several layers of tags sprayed across it by various punks and gangers over the years.

There is a group of men in black suits, leaning against a car and smoking, gangsters, obviously armed but mostly with melee weapons. Though it looks like one of them is packing under his coat.

They don't seem to be so much on look out as are they are there to point the way, given their casual stance and general disregard for their surroundings.

Melinda May has posed:
Expecting a far less than cordial welcome, May leaves her car a few blocks away and walks to the pre-arranged location, doing her best to imitate the way Skye walks. She's got her hair pulled forward over her shoulders, the hood of the hoodie under her jacket pulled up, her hands stuffed into her jacket pockets, the photostatic veil mask in place. To anyone who doesn't know Skye very well, it's likely a passable imitation.

She steps into the alley and picks her way through the detritus until she's far enough for someone not combat trained to notice the group of men, and stops abruptly as if surprised. Then, after getting a good, several seconds-long look at the gangsters by pretending to be startled and unsure, she feigns taking a deep breath, then continues toward the men.

Arnim Zola has posed:
The men look "Skye" up and down, muttering some unsavory things about her in Cantonese. All stuff May can understand but Skye wouldn't. Though their leader, the guy who's packing, cuts it off, "You want to be torn it two?" he asks them. There's a bit of fear there, like he's not the one to be doing the tearing but is afraid someone else might be and include him as well.

He gets off the car, tossing his cigarette to the wet street. "Welcome, he's waiting for you at the bar," he says, then, unexpectedly, he inclines his head respectfully.

The others scoff quietly.

Melinda May has posed:
The trash-talking gangsters will suffer first. May pretends to look at the men as if unable to understand them while mentally deciding on the fastest way to remove every last one of them from the gene pool.

The leader then stops the rude comments in a very interesting way and directs her to 'the bar'. She's read the reports about this unique pathway to Madripoor, but not ever used it herself. But as Skye already made it seem like she doesn't know about the portal or whatever it is, her own ignorance will likely be dismissed.

Thus, it's not entirely faked when she looks around the filty alley then back at the man before saying in an attempt at Skye's snark, "If this is a bar, the decor sucks."

Arnim Zola has posed:
The leader rolls his eyes slightly, gesturing towards the door on the left most wall. "That door, open it and go in. He's waiting."

His men snark amongst themselves at the apparent confusion.

Melinda May has posed:
May has to remind herself not to give in to the urge to knock some skulls together, and after looking at the leader a moment longer turns to the indicated door. She HATES turning her back on enemies, but knows Skye is still new enough to let that kind or mistake slip once in a while.

Then she's through the door to the other side. Moment of truth.

Arnim Zola has posed:
The room on the other side of the door is full of cigarette and more illicit smoke, May finds, the resin heavy tables are seating a crowd of toughs and low lifes from all over, brought there by the row of magical doors like the one May stepped through, each with a name of a city and a clock above them.

A bar dominates one end of the space, and lower down to another side is some sort of fighting pit, where a human and two mutants are duking out.

Though, the fighting pit isn't the only draw for the eye, there's another at the bar. A tall, broad shouldered man with mud brown hair wearing an ill fitting suit. He glances back at the door in a fashion that suggests that's not the first time he's done that tonight. Then he sees 'Skye' and he turns more fully, doing a double-take because of the hoodie, before he grins and hurriedly turns back to the bar to collect what looks like long stemmed daisies wrapped in plastic, and a red tin of some kind. He moves towards May, shouldering his way through the toughs with ease, despite how out of place he looks. "You made it," he says, unable to hide his excitement. "You have no idea how long I've waited to be able to do this right."

The man isn't a hulking feral monster, but if May took more than a passing glance at the photo Skye brought back from China, she'd recognize the man as Cal Johnson, Skye's father.

Melinda May has posed:
May looks around the room, hiding her disgust at the amount of smoke in the air, the general thug lowlifes inhabting the place, and the pit fight going on over there. Then her eyes land unerringly on the man that does NOT belong here. Wait, HE is the boss those Triad thugs are working for? Her incredulity likely comes across as less than happy surprise on Skye's face. Think fast.

She stares at the man -- Johnson, if SHIELD's facial recognition placed the photo Skye brought back correctly -- as he approaches with FLOWERS, of all things.

"Dad? What the hell?" Boy, it felt weird to say that.

Arnim Zola has posed:
Cal makes his way over then when he reaches May, he doesn't know what to say, he just sort of beams down at her unsure what to do.

He chuckles a little nervously, "I've waited for this moment for decades and wouldn't you know I am tongue tied..." he begins, "But you called me Dad, that's a good start." He glances down at his hands and sees the flowers. "Oh, these are for you, daisies, like your name," he offers them over. "And I also brought almond cookies, I like them, I hope you do too."

He seems to only then catch up to the question, "I promise I'll explain everything Daisy, but this place is no place for a reunion. I know a great place for noodles, I heard you like noodles..." he says waiting to see if his information was correct.

Melinda May has posed:
May really does not want to accept those flowers, but does so with a reluctant expression, like she's seen Skye do to being handed paperwork. And then this truly disturbed man wants to go get NOODLES. Hell no.

"Wait, no. You had my boyfriend kidnapped," May says in what she hopes is still a good approximation of Skye's mannerisms. "I'm not just going to go eat noodles with you."

The urge to pull a taser baton and shock the man into oblivion is suddenly very present and very strong.

Arnim Zola has posed:
Cal's face falls when "Skye" rejects the noodle plan. He heaves a sigh. "Well that's very disapointing. They are very good noodles," he says casting arround the bar for somewhere to sit. Seeing a couple of thugs and getting up, he jerks his head towards the booth they just left.

As he heads that way he says, "Mr. Barton," the name is ground out through gritted teeth. "Is a spy and a killer I am sure he'll be fine, besides, I didn't kidnap him, I /borrowed/ him, for you, so we could get your gift."

Reaching the booth, he sits down putting the tin of cookies on the table.

"Sit," he says gesturing to the bench across from him.

Melinda May has posed:
May follows Johnson to that table and ... opts to not sit. She sets the flowers on the table though, and at his comment about Barton quips back sharply. "Newsflash, he's not the only one." It may not be entirely true about Skye, but it's completely true about May.

"And I'm not doing anything you say until I know that he's safe." She knows she's risking making this volatile man angry, but it's a gamble she'll have to take. She's here to buy Skye time to get Clint back on HER terms, not this lunatic's say so.

The only thing she's regretting in hindsight so far is that she didn't plan to get a comm unit capable of transmitting the distances needed to keep up to date with Skye's whereabouts.

Arnim Zola has posed:
There's genuine sorrow from Cal at that retort. "I know, SHIELD has used you terribly, made you one of them..." he says. "That business with the Rising Tide..." he shakes his head.

Then in a flash the sorrow turns to rage.

"They /NEVER/ should have taken you from me," he punctuates his words with a fist slammed into the table that nearly jars it free of the screws fixing it to the wall.

People around them turn and stare and Cal raises a placating hand and offers a smile. "Sorry, sorry, won't happen again..." he says with false cheerfullness.

"Mustn't lose my head..." he murmurs to himself, figiting with his hand.

He looks up to May. "Stubborn," he says offering something like a genuine smile. "Just like your mother. Maybe it would be better if I explain things. I needed to borrow Barton, to make a trade. SHIELD has something we need, and once we get them, then your..." he makes a face, "Boyfriend, will be free to go. The best part is I bet SHIELD probably doesn't even care that they've got them, found them years, and years ago, probably have them locked away in some basement," he says with a scoff. "Probably doing them a favour, saving on storage space."

Melinda May has posed:
This man is a complete lunatic. May lets her incredulity show on Skye's face through the veil as she shakes her head no slowly.

"SHIELD doens't work that way." If this were a situation that where she was honestly worried for Barton's safety, it's likely that he'd be disavowed instead of rescued. There's a reason why she acted so fast to get Skye on the way to get him back.

"They'll never give you whatever you're after."

Arnim Zola has posed:
"WHY NOT?" Cal says slamming his fist into the table sending the tin of almond cookies scattering across the floor.

"They're meaningless to SHIELD, but they mean EVERYTHING to me. They'll mean everything to you too, you're the one I want them for. We tried so hard to replicate them, we were SO CLOSE. The results were... spotty, and they were incredibly toxic to anyone not meant to be changed, but... we were close, so close."

His eyes go distant.

"Then /they/ came," the raging replaced with a colder, darker sort of fury. "Hydra... oh we'll deal with them and their little dog Karl too... I know how he's been spying on you. Can't have that."

"They took your mother you know, that's why-" he swallows, his expression becoming sorrowful again. "That's why I wasn't there to protect you. They took her and I left you with friends that were supposed to protect you, but they DIDN'T, they let you get taken and..."

He flexes his right hand, balling and unballing his fingers. He looks down at it. "I promised myself I wouldn't cry," he says quietly, bringing his balled fist to his eyes to wipe away tears.

When they're gone he looks up at May reaching out to touch her arm, "I am so sorry I wasn't there for you, but this will make it right, this will make everything alright. And if SHIELD doesn't work that way, then we'll make it work that way. You just need to get what we're after and everything will be alright."

Melinda May has posed:
May forces herself to visibly flinch when the man slams the table again and the cookies scatter on the floor. She has no idea what 'they' Johnson is ranting about, but she can likely find out easily enough with a bit of research.

"HYDRA? Damnit." That's another honest May response that works for Skye as well, so she goes ahead and uses it.

And then, likely the first stroke of bad luck so far. When Johnson reaches to touch May's arm, it's right where she keeps a throwing knife strapped under the sleeve of her jacket. She'd resisted the urge to stay out of arm's reach as it isn't something Skye would do.

Damnit.

Arnim Zola has posed:
"Yes, /Hydra/," Cal positively seeths. "But don't you worry, they'll get theirs. We owe them for so much."

His eyes grow dark with rage again as he gazes off into the middle distance likely imagining just what he'd like to do to Hydra just now.

He snaps out of it with a shake of his head.

"Sorry, I was having a bit of a daydream," he says as his hand moves over the knife.

His eyes narrow, "A knife?" he asks. "I thought you were all about bows now."

His hand tightens on May's arm as he looks her in the eyes, "Daisy, I'm your father, you don't need to be afraid of me. I'll never hurt you, not ever in a million years," he offers a smile that is both sad and sincere.

Melinda May has posed:
Finally, May's reflexes can't be supressed any more and she pulls her arm away from the man's hand. And then she takes another risk.

"You already have, /Dad/. You took Clint. Remember how you felt when HYDRA took Mom? That's how I feel right now. In my mind, you're no better than HYDRA."

Yeah, she's totally putting words in Skye's mouth now, but she thinks she's not too terribly far off mark.

Hopefully.

But one thing's for sure, she's likely about used up her stalling tactics here and will need to get out and get away.

She turns to look at the doors to see what other cities are named there, blinking rapidly as she does so to feign trying to hold back tears. Please let Gotham be up there.

Arnim Zola has posed:
If "Skye" jerking her arm back from Cal, hurts him, the comparison to Hydra devistates him.

There may as well be nobody else in the bar.

He rises ripping the table out off it's moorings "I AM NOTHING LIKE THOSE BUTCHERS!" he bellows throwing the table across the room.

As he does, his coat opens revealing, something under his shirt attached to his side like an insulin pump.

The bar's patrons and staff take note of the flying table, ducking out of the way, or getting to their feet looking angry. The bartender reaches for something under the bar.

"THEY CUT HER TO PIECES. THEY DESTROYED MY FAMILY."

"Shut up!" someone yells throwing a bottle at Cal and it shatters on his head.

He reaches for that pump now, grimacing.

Good thing one of those doors has Gotham above it.

Melinda May has posed:
May startles back from Cal when he loses his temper and rips the table from the wall, of course putting herself closer to that Gotham door. She waits to see if he's going to turn his attention away from her so she can make a break for the Gotham door. If she can get to the other side, she can call for pick up or concealment or something from whichever Bat-type is convenient.

Now she just has to watch for that opening...

Arnim Zola has posed:
"We should go," he says. "It looks like things might get ugly."

Another bottle lands, shattering against Cal's skull without leaving any blood behind. "Yeah, freak," one of the patrons shouts. "Shut up."

The sound of the bartender racking a shell into his shotgun, gets Cal to turn, giving May her opening.

"Now, let's not lose our heads..." Cal warns, his hand hovering millimeters over his pump. "Not to steal another man's catchphrase, but you won't like me when I'm angry..."

Melinda May has posed:
There's the opening May was hoping for. She turns and bolts through the door labelled Gotham, and breaks into a full run. The moment she finds a place where she can hide, she does so. With any luck, she'll be hidden by the time Johnson tries to follow and he won't be able to tell where she's gone. And then May can get going to either catch up with Skye, or get back to the Triskelion.

She pulls the veil off of her face while running.