8540/Undercurrents: Mashing Magia

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Undercurrents: Mashing Magia
Date of Scene: 27 July 2019
Location: Lower Manhattan, Manhattan
Synopsis: Summary needed
Cast of Characters: Aquaman, Shadow, Fiona Glenanne
Tinyplot: Undercurrents


Aquaman has posed:
Anton's is a Little Italy staple. Good food, big portions and long lines. The Zanette family had owned the place for three generations in different locations on the same block, and it was going strong.

It was also the favoured hangout of Lou Cattaneo, the nephew of New York Maggia family boss Christian Cattaneo. The Cattaneos are a drug family, first and foremost. Focus, ruthlessness and a decent political aptitude let them secure rights to most of the Maggia's large scale drug importing and mid-level distribution in New York. It came at the cost of staying out of other lines business and being looked down on for doing 'dirty' crime. But it sure was profitable.

Lou like Anton's enough that he bought the two floors above it for his own operations in Manhattan. He was a mid-level dealer, moving cut product in sizeable volumes to street level networks. Right now that meant Hook, Hook and more Hook.

The restaurant closed over an hour ago and only a few people are left inside. The only access to Lou's floors is through a set of metal fire escape stairs in the back alley, the windows or down through the building through the roof. The other doors were long since barricaded.

Senses, intel or good observation show there are two armed men at the top of the fire escape stairs smoking and joking around in Italian. Three more are inside the second floor with a couple of women used for re-packing drugs, bundling cash and satisfying urges. Lou is on the third floor, converted into his apartments, with his wife, two daughters and a bodyguard. With the chaos lately, it would be reasonable to expect handguns, shotguns, an assault rifle or two and body armour. The two on the staircase have an AR-15 leaning against the wall behind them.

Shadow has posed:
    The Maggia tend to run a tight ship where information security is concerned -- almost everything is done with in-house talent, communications are face-to-face, or face-to-proxy-to-proxy-to-face, wherever possible, and everyone involved is intimately aware of the price that snitches and leakers pay, so even when some of their numbers find themselves arrested they know better than to talk to the cops -- and in many cases, the cops they could talk to are themselves owned by the Maggia...

    But 'pretty tight' does not cover every contingency -- and their regular setbacks in Gotham serve as an annoying reminder that there are some vigilantes out there who can make even the most hardened mook cry and squeal like a pinched canary.

    It was not, however, Batman who caught Jason 'The Iron Pumper' Luciano when the latter was on his way back from a supply meeting with some of the local dealers, far too recently to be missed by his superiors -- especially since he'd already called in his "Job's done, I'm calling it a night" code for the evening.

    They don't know it took less than two minutes for him to start talking in a desperate attempt to appease the terrible voice that seemed to dig into his soul - or that he named the Cattaneos, and Anton's in particular, as a source for the Hook spilling into lower Manhattan.

    They don't know that The Shadow Knows...

    Still, time is of the essence - sooner or later Jason /will/ be missed, and either security will be scaled up or they'll evacuate entirely; possibly both. A quick call on the Birds' operating frequency summons any active and available members to the area while Oracle downloads building schematics for them to peruse.

    Rendezvous is the rooftop one roof over, well out of any lines of sight...

Fiona Glenanne has posed:
Fiona's here, she's been here for a few moments with a duffel bag packed with guns, stun grenades, and actual grenades. It's....got enough to please a micronation, really. She looks impressed, then opens the bag. There's handguns, a sawed off shotgun, a carbine rifle or two and plenty of ammo...and that's before Fiona gets to the grenades she's stashed in the bag. None of it's truly legal. It's.....her way of doing things.

She's on the right rooftop. She's smartenough to stay out of sight and remembering things about being in the IRA. Fi's silent, watching things, paying attention. She's not even got a gun yet.

Aquaman has posed:
A white Mercedes rounds the corner into the alley and drives up slowly to the bottom of the stair case. A man gets out of the passenger side, looks up and down the alley, then heads up the stairs with a gym bag. He is stopped by the men at the top who check him over quickly. The man goes inside. Thermal optics or special senses would show him checked over again by another inside. He stops for a bit and moves as if putting down his bag on a table. The smaller heat blooms, the women, unload and load it. Then the man makes his way out, down the stairs and back into the car. The car starts pulling away.

Shadow has posed:
    Fiona is not, perhaps, /entirely/ surprised when she hears a voice from the darkness quite close to her. "Miss Glenanne, thank you for coming."

    The now-familiar figure materializes from the shadows, motioning her closer to the ledge that borders the restaurant. "It seems they're taking delivery of a new shipment at the moment. Our objectives here are to destroy it, neutralize all personnel on-site and make sure at least one of the scum in charge remains conscious to answer questions..."

Fiona Glenanne has posed:
Fiona's not entirely shocked to hear the Shadow's voice as she nods at her orders. Their orders. "Alright, I brought a few things to help" she says. And by 'a few', she means....well.....the gym bag full of bullets, weapons and explodeing things. All of which are useful, in the right situation. Not that she believes in less lethal ideas. She just believes in hitting somebody over the head knocking them out. Then again, Fi was told she's blowing up and neutralizing,her favorite things. If she ever rewrote My Favorite Things.....it'd sound very, very diffferent, and a lot more dangerous.

Fi begins sorting through the gym bag and smiles, nodding to the shadows. "Take what you'd like. I'm heading in with enough tact to do what we were told." she nods. Once she's got enough weapons on her to make sure she's dangerous.....Fi looks to the gym bag. She can't leave it there. Evidence. She'll just lug it with her. Worst comes to worst, it's makeshift cover. Or a moveable ammo and gun stash. Or.....if she gets really screwed over, a bomb waiting to go off. Fi's determined to bring it with her, or set it down and grab it on the way out of the building. She'll think of something better on the fly

She's watching the building, waiting on the Shadow to tell her to head on in. She's, at least, got her guns silenced. Fi's at least /that/ smart. Then again. Fi's done this before a few times. Get in, neutralize, knock out, drag the poor guy out of there, then level the building. Or something like that...

Aquaman has posed:
The man that went inside the second story comes back out, walks down the stairs and climbs into the passenger side of the car in the alley. The car drives off into the night.

Shadow has posed:
    Peering through binoculars, the Shadow makes a note of the license plate. "Oracle, run a trace and see where he stops. We'll catch up with him later."

    The binoculars are put away, and the Shadow peers over the ledge to take in the layout of the building, then turns back to Fiona. "Tranq shots only. Take out the external sentries when they're about to react."

    With that, they turn around again, take two quick strides to reach the parapet, place their hands on it and jump it in what would be a textbook Parkour sideways vault if parkour runners bothered with textbooks, flickering out of visibility in mid-jump until the only sign Fiona can see that indicates they landed safely is a twitching of shadows on the other rooftop moving toward the skylight...

Fiona Glenanne has posed:
Fiona nods and digs in her gym bag. She got a tranq rifle for joining up with the Birds. So, she's making use of it. The tranq rifle's in her hands as she's waiting for the cue and keeping a precise aim across the roof in a slow sweep, so she can snap the tranq rifle back to a target if the guards appear. She's focusing on where the twitch of shadows was, and she smiles to herself as she's an impressive markswoman. Besides, tranqing the guards will take care of the leave somebody alive, part.

Looking across the roof, Fiona waits, watches, her finger on the trigger poised to fire at the first sign of guards, like she's been told. For all her fiery tempr, she actually feels like the Shadow's given her a place where she fits in and belongs, a....home or family of sorts.

Shadow has posed:
It's only a moment's work to unlatch the skylight and slip inside. Of course, when you have the ability to cloud minds and render people unable to notice you it's tempting to skimp on your actual stealth, but Grandfather was adamant about not letting one's guard down. "Never rely exclusively on a single ability, Natasha. Sooner or later you'll run into an opponent who can counter it, and that's a really foolish way to die..."

    Natasha offers an ironic nod to the memory of her grandfather as she makes her way down. "The upper two floors are empty. Currently entirely unused, it seems."

Fiona Glenanne has posed:
Fiona swings the rifle down to spot the two guards on the fire escape. She pauses for a moment, figuring out the best way to take them out, Watching for a moment, or two...Fiona smiles to herself. She takes deliberate, careful aim. Firing, she snaps the rifle to the other guard and fires again. Given she'sa great markswoman, Fiona's watching, she snaps the rifle back o the first guard and fires again. Two guards. Four shots. She was smart enough to fire at the biggest bit of the target, too. She's waiting, watching and has a quiet, almost blank look on her face. She doesn't even say anything on the communications channel either, she's just deadly quiet, dangerous and is sweeping the gun from one sentry to the other.

Aquaman has posed:
When Natasha descends the staircase, she notes it's a normal affair with metal fire doors that only open into the stairwell. Normal, certainly nothing special. At the third storey door into the stairwell, Natasha can hear a television and some low male voices talking. At the second storey door in the stairwell, Natasha can hear some activity, people moving around. A couple of male voices are joking to each other about the ass on one of the women in the room they have in there working.

Fiona is a crack shot. Her rounds go exactly where the plans, center mass on each of the guards standing on the fire escape outside. The first guard startles and then the second one does as well.

"I got fucking shot!" the first one yells. The second wastes no time. He flings the door open and throws himself inside. The first guard grabs the assault rifle and does the same. There is yelling and running around inside the second storey now.

Shadow has posed:
    The Shadow is on her way down to the third floor when the shouting starts. She frowns to herself -- that wasn't the plan -- and taps her comm. "Report," she asks curtly as she moves down the hallway, keeping her senses alert.

Fiona Glenanne has posed:
Given Fiona landed her shots and saw their reaction, she's watching them all run inside. Fiona's looking to the roof. "Vests. They got one assault rifle at least" Fi says, "You want me to come over and bring a shotgun for inside?" she asks, already stashing the tranq rifle. Somehow, she's got to work out a way to get that bag, and her, to where she can truly help. Sure, she landed her shots, but they found vests. So she's looking around and dragging the bag with her. She's trying to find a way across the roof onto the roof of the restraunt building. If she can get to the fire escape, she can be more help with an actual gun, than sitting up on a far off roof with a tranq rifle.

Aquaman has posed:
"Who shot you?"

"I don't fucking know, I didn't stay to look!"

"Cops?"

"They don't shoot first dumbass."

"The fuck? They're not real bullets. Some dart shit."

"Darts? What kind of dumb shit is that?"

"Cover the fucking windows, probably some dipshit in spandex."

This and more is the talk going on in the second floor. Natasha can hear it if she is by the fire door for that floor in the stairwell. If she is up by third storey door instead she hears people up there reacting to word that there was shooting downstairs. "Make sure the fucking girls are safe, anyone touches them I'll fucking kill you with my goddamn bare hands!" comes a male voice from that floor.

Shadow has posed:
    "Understood, the Shadow replies tersely. The voice mask makes it hard to determine tone of voice, but there's a definite hint of we-will-/speak/-of-this-later in there.

    She perks up slightly as she hears the shouted orders. Ah, excellent. Nothing like a sudden crisis to identify the person in charge. She silently makes her way to the third floor.

    Shatter the skylight," she orders Fiona. "I need them to think there's an assault coming from above."

Fiona Glenanne has posed:
Fiona nods at the order. She's thinking, now and following along. If they want to get scared thinking there's an assault, Fi sets down the tranq rifle and has an actual rifle, albeit as small caliber as she can get away with. It's good for distractions and won't punch holes through half a city block. She flips the lever to burst fire. There's no silencer on this, so they should, hopefully, hear it over the noise of talking and such. Fi could just shoot over the building for a distraction, but......she has a plan. Instead of shooting, she's going to get creative. She manages to rig up a stand for the .303 rifle to sit on, aimed at the skylight. Pulling off her shoelaces, she ties them together to the trigger. Once she's on her way to the stairs with enough guns, she pulls the string, which pulls the trigger. Given she's been meticulous in setting this up, she's got her .303 rifle aimed at the skylight. she's put the .303 rifle back in the gym bag. Her plan's to carry it down to the alley and....go from there. Bag on shoulder, she's moving as quickly as she can now. If anyone's curious, she's got a story to tell them. Lost student waiting on a cab or an Uber and going to the gym. That explains the bag.

Aquaman has posed:
Shots go off. The skylight shatters. The men on both floors hear it and start asking each other where it came from.

Outside, one can see some lights flick on in neighbouring buildings.

Fiona makes back to the top of the stairs in her building this round.