7341/Trapping the Punisher

Trapping the Punisher
Date of Scene:	27 April 2019
Location:	New York City
Synopsis:	Punisher is attacked at an arms deal gone bad and takes the guns. Kitty responds a bit late and tries to talk Punisher out of his Crusade, and ends up with a number for regular contact.
Cast of Characters:	Punisher, Shadowcat

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Punisher has posed:
New York is never fully asleep. Plenty of people are awake for graveyard shifts, so the dockyards along the coast working overtime are standard operating procedure.

Most of the time, anyway.

Tonight, one of the dock warehouses along the New York ports has been cleared out. Arms dealers came in to do some deals with various customers, including 'Henry Harno'. Henry is one of the Punishers many fake identities, and the deals in question knows it.

It's around midnight as the transactions are taking place that Kitty can hear a massive gunfight suddenly start off in the distance.

Shadowcat has posed:
It was rather late to be out, but Kitty had spent much of the day up at Xavier's School, and only recently arrived back in her room on Bleecker Street. She'd pulled open her laptop and checked on a few standing searches that she had running. One was looking for ships coming into New York or Gotham harbors that had taken on cargo at the same Russian port that she suspected the Mark I Sentinels had come from.

And so the news that the Southern Star, with Bahamian registry, fit the bill and would be stopping over in New York, made it worth checking out. Kitty had slipped into her X-man uniform and then pulled normal clothing overtop of it before heading out for a subway ride over towards the port.

Sitting up on the roof of a warehouse, Kitty gazes out at the ship in question, watching to see how much activity there was before deciding if she should go for a peek into their cargo holds. Her contemplation is disrupted by the sound of the gunfire, still some distance away. The X-man immediately begins heading that way, moving from rooftop to rooftop, running through the air above any gaps or streets between them.

Punisher has posed:
It's a few 'yards' down, and by the time Kitty has arrived on a nearby rooftop most of the gunfire has already died down in the minute it took to get there. There's still a few rounds being shot, but it sounds like a duel now.

Well, it was... until the sounds of an automatic shotgun burn through the air. Completely unmissable inside the warehouse.

Silence.

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty goes around the outside edge of the roof quickly, intangible footsteps making no sound as she takes stock of the surrounding area, and in particular any vehicles that might be out. Once that is done, she jogs back over towards the center of the warehouse.

She leans down, sticking her head down through the roof until she can see the inside of the building. She moves about as needed to try to identify where the gunfire is, and see what the state of anyone inside the building is.

Punisher has posed:
The gunfire has stopped by the time Kitty is on the roof... and when she gets inside, the warehouse is a full blown massacre. Blood is everywhere. Bodies are either full of holes, or ripped apart, and there are crates open with visible firearms and other assorted arms.

Dead center of the warehouse is a man with a crew cut wearing a black trenchcoat and white skull emblem on his bulletproof vest, with an M1216 idling in his hands as he walks over to one of the crates.

Kitty would recognize the Punisher anywhere.

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty Pryde looks for any cameras first, going over to them and passing a phased hand through them to disrupt the electronics so there won't be any evidence of her own presence. Once that is taken care of, she lets her street clothes fall through her body to leave a pile on the roof. Wearing her X-man uniform then, she phases down through the roof, falling and then slowing herself and taking the last few feet to the ground as if she were walking down steps.

"Frank. There's got to be a better way to deal with these people," she says towards him, alerting him to her presence, and staying phased just in case he reacts negatively before realizing it is someone he knows.

Punisher has posed:
Kitty has probably seen fast reactions before from speedsters. It's nothing new in the 'superhero' community. But the seconds Kitty starts to fall from the ceiling and float down, that m1216 is aimed at her immediately; Frank has very good reflexes.

It's kept aimed at her all the way down, but so far, he doesn't fire. He's standing in place, watching her. "If I want a sermon, I'll go to a church, girl." Punisher grates out as he stays completely still, "only reason you got away with it with the Friends head is because I was after bigger fish. Here? You got nothin' to negotiate with." Punisher continues, "so you gonna try to take me in, or can I grab the guns and get out of this shithole?"

If Kitty has ever seem soldiers on the battlefield, Punisher has that 'high alert' demeanor going on, like he's expecting more trouble at any moment.

Shadowcat has posed:
The young woman looks calm despite the gun being pointed her way. Not so much a sense of invulnerability - she knows there are ways she can be hurt - as because her showing calm will hopefully help Frank stay calm.

"I'd happily take you to church if I thought you'd listen there," Shadowcat tells him. "When is it going to end for you?" she asks him, turning to look at the dead bodies. "You can't take out every last person out there that you think might deserve it, can you? Is it maybe time to try to find a better way?" she asks, her gaze swinging back to him.

Punisher has posed:
When she doesn't get closer or attempt to attack him, a switch on the side is flipped as Punisher changes the magazine to a non-lethal load... then he goes back to idle as he turns his back on her and heads for the crates again. He places the shotgun to the side as he starts to rummage through them. Rifles. Shotguns. Explosives. It's a fairly decent arsenal.

"The war ends when there's no one left to be a cancer, girl." Punisher offers in reply. Another grenade. "or when I end."

One crate searched, he looks back to Kitty for a moment, "the corrupt assholes in the justice system will take them to jail, and they'll get out and go right back to it after a decade or whatever." His eyes narrow, "I've got no interest in that sort of bullshit, and I scare the assholes who might be thinking of going down this path straight." He pats the shotgun to the side, "I only take out the guilty trash. People might work with these people out of ignorance, and I let them go. People who knowingly ruin the lives of other people? Those are the only ones who have anything to fear from the Punisher."

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty Pryde walks to take her on a course that will end up over by where the Punisher is going through the guns, though it sort of spirals in so first she moves over to where he can see her as he's going through it, before actually moving his way. "How do you know that? That's a lot of bodies, just from tonight. How do you know they were all ok with what they were doing as a group? People sometimes get drawn into things they don't want to be in. Are you really that comfortable in your ability to be judge and jury?" the young woman asks him.

If he reacts poorly to her drawing nearer she'll pause for the moment, but otherwise would end up standing beside the crate on the other side of it from him. "I know you act out of what was a good place. But how long can you keep killing like this and still hold onto that?" she asks him. "Things like this," she says, pointing at the bodies. "It changes people."

Punisher has posed:
"Frank Castle just wanted to retire and be left alone. Then, the justice system failed him, and he died in a hospital bed." Punisher jabs a finger generally behind himself, "Microchip did facial recognition of all of the people who came to this meetup. Every one of them had a record with a few major crimes on it." Punisher notes, before he turns around and looks right towards Kitty next to him. He's not jumpy, but he does have that 'coiled' feel to him, like he's expecting Kitty to try for him anytime.

"If they don't want to get involved, they can go to the real police and get protection. Nothin' stoppin' them from not bein' assholes to their fellow man. They made the choice." Punisher narrows his eyes at her, "I've been through multiple wars over in the middle east, girl. This isn't anythin' new for me. The warzone just shifted." He looks back to the bodies, "granted, this one was self-defense. I came in here for some guns... and they tried to capture me."

Shadowcat has posed:
It would be a lot easier to just see Frank as a bad guy. That's probably how Bruce sees him. And for that matter, he is a bad guy. But even bad guys can be salvaged. Kitty is hoping that is the case, at least. She seems to be giving people who have tried to kill her in the past a chance to live better lives. At least Frank Castle hasn't done that to her, so surely he deserves that same chance.

The mention of the men trying to capture him causes Kitty's eyebrows to draw together and her forehead to furrow slightly. "Is that common from your enemies? I'd think they'd just want to take you out rather than risk a capture," she asks him. "Or have you drawn the eyes of something worse than gun runners?"

Punisher has posed:
"I don't know. I didn't have time to take prisoners, or we wouldn't be havin' this conversation, girl." Punisher notes in clarification, before he takes the M1216 back up, and ejects the magazine. Taking 12 gauge shells from the rows on his gear web under the trenchcoat, he replaces the shells he spent. A couple in each tube, before he replaces the magazine, turns it, and slings it around his back. Then, he turns around to regard Kitty, "Some of them want to capture me for revenge." Punisher nods to one of the bodies nearby, "That ones been on my list for a few months now. Doesn't like to leave his bar, and they usually have innocents mixed with the assholes, so I couldn't just charge in without makin' a mess. I know he had a bounty on me."

He turns to the crates, and gestures over them, "This was a fairly low key arms deal, some SMGs, couple of rifles and explosives. It was low enough on the totem pole the police didn't catch wind of it." He looks back to Kitty, "If I get bounty hunters after me after this, I can be sure someones coming after me."

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty looks over at the bodies. Though she is, unfortunately, not a stranger to death, the sight is not something she can look at as easily as the Punisher can. She looks back to him. "You know, if you wanted to leave this life behind, there's people that can help set you up with a new identity. A new place to start over," Kitty says, her tone making it seem more of an offer than just an idle statement.

"Someone with your ability could accomplish a lot of good feeding information to the good cops out there who will work to shut down stuff like this," she suggests. "And they are out there, the good ones. I know it's easy to not see past the problems with the system," Kitty tells him quietly.

Punisher has posed:
There's a long moment as Punisher looks back at Kitty as the offer is given. "If I wanted to disappear into the grid, girl, I could have done that years ago. I work with a computer specialist who puts together fake IDs for me on a daily basis." He gestures around with his right hand to the massacre around them, "this is who I am now. I'm an instrument of justice that cuts out the cancer that other people allow to fester. The psychopaths, the sadists. I /want/ people to know who I am when I come for them. I /want/ to inspire fear in those I hunt."

He squints his eyes at Kitty. The Punisher has a rage inside of him... everyone who bothers to look up his record, both military and police, will easily be able to find the videos on his work as a vigilante, "I have a white skull on my chest because I want people to know who I am when I'm hunting." The predator in those eyes is showing, "I want the sort of people who destroyed Frank Castles life to know who it is they've helped to create before I take them out of the world. I want them to know The Punisher is punishing them for their part in making our world a worse place."

He taps the white skull on his vest, under the trenchcoat, "I am the surgeon, and Microchip makes my tools."

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty Pryde draws a slow breath. "It's easy to use the wrongs that have been done to justify death. It's one thing to kill someone in a fight," Kitty says, glancing at the bodies nearby as if she suggests this time, at least, that was the case. "There are mutants who view the wrongs done by humans who are prejudiced and full of fate for us, as justification they should take over and make the world into what they perceive as fair," Kitty says.

She shakes her head. "I can't believe in what those others do, Frank. I have to believe we people are better. That people can learn. That a good number, at least, are redeemable. Have you tried that? There are people who have done atrocious things but gone on to lead good lives."

Punisher has posed:
"I'm not trying to take control of the world." Punisher states simply. "My work is so the people who just want to live their lives can sleep easier at night." He takes a tablet from his trenchcoat, tracks a finger along it, and the sound of a muffled engine can be heard as the Battle Van autodrives itself into the warehouse... and right over everything, including the corpses.

It stops just to the side of the main crates, and Punisher puts the tablet away, before he starts to load the crates into the back of the Battle Van itself. "People who get into that sort of work have all the time in the world to not be assholes to people, and they do it anyway. Redemption is a word people throw around way too often to try and justify their own morality."

He glances over to Kitty, "They made the choice to get into this. They could have made the choice to get out anytime before I got to them."

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty Pryde watches the Punisher loading the weapons into the van. There are moments of indecision for her. She's considered several options from phasing the weapons into the floor to dropping a grenade in the box. If she prevents him from taking them, is that going to help matters, or just cause more bloodshed when he goes in search of more.

Living life by Xavier's Dream is not always easy.

"Frank... I may not be able to get through to you on this in a way you can accept. But I'm going to pray it happens, somehow. I know you're a good man in your heart and meaning to do it from a good space. But if we run into each other when you're hunting someone and it's not self-defense, I don't think I'm going to be able to stand by," the X-man tells him. Her tone makes the thought of having to fight him something she would regret. She worked with him before to save a life, not end one.

Punisher has posed:
Then, there's The Armory, a well kept secret known only to The Punisher and Microchip. He's got more than enough guns and other gear stashed in there that trying to keep him out of an arms deal a futile effort at best. He's got to put all that equipment he's taken from his targets somewhere, right?

"You do what you gotta do, girl. It's all anyone of us can do." Punisher notes with a completely neutral tone. Someone saying they're going to stop him is probably nothing new to the Punisher, after all, "You've got your war, I've got mine."

The back of the Battle Van is shut, "Seems likely the next time we meet will be handling those fucking Sentinels."

Shadowcat has posed:
"Quite possibly," Kitty says. "They are being improved. Not all of them. But... it's worrisome," she says. "And Trask is ballsy enough to attack the Avengers with them. One multiple occasions. Ignore the spin the news is feeding everyone. I've been there for a number of the incidents," she tells Frank.

Kitty glances around at the dead bodies. "What is the response time for the police around here?" she asks, figuring he probably knows it down to a few minutes. Not good to be spotted amongst the carnage, even if she is masked.

Punisher has posed:
"It's the night shift, and these people specifically choose a place where the patrols are light. Probably about five minutes more." Punisher offers, before he turns back towards Kitty and walks over to her. "I've been keepin' track of the stories, but I usually have to keep my focus on the war. Still, if they're going after the Avengers, that means it's worse than I thought." Punisher shakes his head, "That won't end well for anyone. I'm gonna have to start breaking out the AT weapons again."

"If you're looking for help with those things, I'll probably be able to offer some. Recoilless guns with AT ammo should be enough to take them down quickly, now that I know they're on the move." Punisher muses as he heads for the drivers seat of the Battle Van. He takes a phone from the front cabin, and tosses it in Kitty's direction, "Microchip has that under a VPN, so you can contact us anonymously both ways. For intel and asking for help."

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty Pryde catches the phone and gives a nod back towards Frank. "Ultimately, as long as the government is willing to keep buying them, and letting Trask have control, it is going to be a threat. To really deal with this, we need people to realize they are just creating a danger just as bad, and worse. But I think you're right there is going to be a lot of fighting before then."

She hefts the phone. "Thank you. I'd much rather be on the same side," she tells him, her voice carrying the ring of truth. "I hope for the best for you, Frank," she tells him. Her wishes and what she thinks are the best, probably differ from his own thoughts on the matter. But the Jewish girl means them well either way.

Punisher has posed:
"That's what they all say, until they don't like my methods and tell me to get lost." Punisher replies with a grating weariness, "There's a reason I usually work alone. Most people don't have the stomach for it, and those people who I thought might come close got the Bat in their head now, it seems." Punisher gets into the Van cabin in the drivers seat, with a glance to Kitty, "Who knows, I might be proven wrong with you."

A moment later and Punisher is driving off, into the night.