8643/Undercurrents: Cattaneo Catastrophe

Undercurrents: Cattaneo Catastrophe
Date of Scene:	03 August 2019
Location:	Cattaneo Estate, Hempstead, New York
Synopsis:	The Punisher assaults the Cattaneo estate outside New York and does heavy damage. Rave shows up to find out what is going on. A misunderstanding stalls the assault and everyone withdraws to let the police clean up the mess.
Thanks to:	Punisher, Rave
Cast of Characters:	Aquaman, Punisher, Rave
Tinyplot:	Undercurrents

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Aquaman has posed:
The Cattaneo estate in Hempstead is a large Italian villa on expansive manicured grounds. The estate is gated decoratively with black wrought iron. There are fountains and lovely gardens. The sightlines to the edge of the property from the two storey villa are clear. Tonight there are a lot of people there. Cars are lined up by the large garage and carriage home. Surveillance ahead of time shows there are four guys in slacks and dress shoes openly carrying assault rifles and wearing body armour over dress shirts wandering the grounds. Others come in and out of the back on the large patio to smoke. It is dark and the villa has had time to cool down so FLIR is useful again.

There are a couple of people working in what must be the kitchen. There are two clusters of five men with the partially blocked shapes on FLIR that suggest body armour in two rooms on the ground floor, sitting around. There are four above the garage in the carriage home, also armoured. Two are in the hallway upstairs. There is a knot of four people, only one in armour, sitting on a couch together in one of the upstairs rooms toward the back of the house. Ten more guys in armour are spread between two rooms upstairs, one group toward the front of the house and one to the back.

There is no traffic out here at this time of night. Other estates line this road and it is quite open. Probably why they chose it. Estimated police response emergency response time is about seven minutes. There are other Maggia homes out here, but none of the really important families, so none would have more than a couple of bodyguards that are not going to leave to help anyone.

Punisher has posed:
Of course, being on high alert doesn't matter to The Punisher in the least. He's taken his time to set this up. He's one of the best at this, and is very, very patient when it comes to his setups. It also helps that his partner is one of the better technologists and weaponsmiths around... with the distances involved and the strategic situation, it's meant that Punisher and Microchip had to go an extra mile to make sure this worked.

Drone operated grenade launchers with frag bombs were to be flown in around the Cattaneo estate. It was a pain in the ass to set them properly, to be sure... but given how many people were around for this one? Going in through the front door would draw far too much attention than it was worthwhile.

In a nearby two story building was The Punisher, having setup his sniper nest after sneaking in. A tricked out M24 with numerous vision modes and an angle/ballistic system tied into the overhead drones gave Punisher plenty of line of sights to attack, and the Battle Van along with a rigged up car were both on standby. If he needed to, he was more than happy to kick in the front door with that car bomb. With the way the 'Hook War' was going, it was a solid possibility.

Scoping out the area from afar with his rifle, Punisher had a headcount. While still looking through the rifle, he grunted, "yeah, these assholes are all setup for a war. The Fuckin' Foot weren't bad enough?" Punisher mused over the transceiver, "I know Frank, but something about this doesn't sit right. Suddenly everyones sucking at the Hook tit? Somethings going on behind the scenes, I'll bet you anything." Microchip replies.

"Only one way to find out. Hit it, Micro." Punisher ordered.

Time to go to work.

Multiple things happen almost all at once.

First, the power substation for this section of the city goes up in flames. Pre-placed C4 charges detonate, and a fireball lights up the night sky.

Seconds later, and multiple grenade launchers from multiple angles start getting dropped into the area around and near the villa. Flash, gas, fragmentation, concussive grenades start getting launched in a coordinated, overwhelming manner... it's a well coordinated attack, with the only rooms where the non-lethals hit being the kitchen and the room upstairs with the kids and woman... everywhere else that Punisher can get to with launchers is saturated with the sudden salvo.

Seconds after /that/, The Punisher gets to work, a silenced M24 starting to create new holes in the various guards he can find as he takes out the trash from afar.

Rave has posed:
Rave had gotten herself a little taste of the 'Hook' war last night, encountering the thugs of one party that had wanted to find a way to control the 'game' for himself. It had been confronting, it it was yet another thing that reminded her the drug was more than just something new for the club scene to be chatting about.

With the memories of rather brutal violence fresh in her mind and no performance tonight? Rave was taking a break to simply enjoy herself and 'run' the town or the streets. Unlike a certain spider? The open ground wasn't something that bothered the neon bluenette speedster. It wasn't a wall to run up, but it was certainly traversable.

That sudden explosion however? That has her skidding to a stop. The young woman in shorts and a hoodie over her crop-top didn't exactly cut an intimidating figure, but her attention certainly does draw towards the source of the blasts.

Aquaman has posed:
Grenades going in through most of the windows in the estate. Flash grenades go off in the carriage home above the garage and the second storey room at the back of the house with the Maggia men. On FLIR from a drone, they can be seen stumbling around in those places and starting to grope around. A frag grenade goes off in the second storey room at the front of the villa with five men in it. Three men just slouch over where they are, two fall to the floor and roll around. The man, woman and girls on the couch startle. The men in the upstairs hallway go in opposite directions to check on the upstairs rooms where the men were. On FLIR from a drone, frag grenades go off in the first floor rooms with Maggia men in them. It looks like one lucky SOB is unhurt. The others are dead or on the floor. The people in the kitchen startle and turn about in place as explosions go off.

Punisher has posed:
Damn, not nearly as many as he'd like.

"Too many stragglers still. Gonna have to thin the herd before I go all in." Punisher whispers over the transceiver. "There are at least a dozen on the feeds still Frank, with more on the way I'd bet." Microchip notes as he monitors the drones, "The one shots actually did quite a bit of damage. I don't think they were expecting this sort of attack all at once, which is good."

"One Batch." Punisher whispers as he fires a round at the one outside he can see, aiming right for the temple. "Two Batch." Slight adjustment, *pop*, another round to the head to one window. "Penny and Dime." *POP*, another round flies through the night air against another head.

It's only been seconds, and already the villa looks like a warzone.

Rave has posed:
Holy. Crap.

Off in the distance, the explosions had drawn Rave's gaze, but after a few moments she's left standing outside the burning explosions and blood. What the hell had happened here? She's left to consider the chaos she's left looking at and ponder if she should be calling the cops or diving into the chaos for herself. More gunshots start blasting out into the night and the girl gives a muttered curse before she makes to follow her way into the front door and try and get a glimpse at what was going on.

Aquaman has posed:
The last man standing on the first floor falls, as do the man in the window in the carriage home and the man out front drops to the ground with a hole in his head just as Rave arrives. She sees it happen.

Microchip sees from the drones that the guards on the sides of the villa are running for a back patio door, as the guard at the back.

Microchip can tell the three remaining men in the carriage home are still recovering from the flash grenade, as are the five in the rear upper floor. The man in the hallway that checks on the front room stops when opens the door. The man man checking on the flashed room is gesturing. As soon as she goes through the front door, Rave can hear that man upstairs yelling in Italian.

Microchip can see the man with the woman and kids is ushering them into an adjoining room.

Punisher has posed:
"We got everyone we could out here. Micro, I'm going in. Switch to perimeter monitoring." Punisher grunts out slightly as he jump down from his position, the rappel rope grabbed as he climbs down effortlessly. Soon, he's dashing along towards the villa, going for the large bush with his close quarters kit stashed for a switch out, even as he keeps an eye out with his rifle for anyone coming out.

It's gonna take him a moment to get there...

Rave has posed:
A speedster does have -one- advantage at least, it didn't take all that long for her to search through the building. The downside? It meant that she could see all the death in long slow motion. Moving room to room, her glowing wake is easily visible enough for Frank to spot through the darkness.

Coming to a skidding stop, she ends up at rest right before the yelling men upstairs. "What the hell is going on here?"

Aquaman has posed:
"Che cazzo?!" the Italian man in front of Rave yells when the woman appears. He is in his 20's and nicely dressed, aside from the assault rifle and ballistic vest. He jumps back and brings up his rifle. "Who the fuck are you?" he demands in accented English.

The man at the other end of the hallway turns and brings his rifle up as well. He is pointing it at Rave's back from 20 feet away. Professionals would never create crossfire possibilities like this.

Punisher makes it to the curb across the street from the villa.

Microchip sees the men in the carriage home are starting to recover. They are hunched down and picking up their rifles. They move like drunks.

Rave (standing right at the doorway) and microchip can see the five men in the upper floor room who were flash banged are also starting to recover. They are getting to their feet, grabbing rifles. Some are holding a hand to an ear and taking it off, as if testing their hearing. They also move clumsily.

Microchip also watches the man upstairs with the woman and girls open a door where a wall should be and vanishes from FLIR. A repositioned drone using low-light sees only a wall with a lamp on it. The room is the master suite.

Punisher has posed:
It takes a few seconds, even for the seasoned vigilante... but the rifle is exchanged, swapped out at a large fake bush near the curb. In its place comes a custom designed man-portable microgun, his traditional trenchcoat and white skull vest, and a gear web loaded for war.

There's no mistaking The Punisher as he walks clear into sight, using his head gear to keep an eye on the windows and doors as he starts to head right for the Villa.

Rave will easily see him too. The Punisher isn't trying to hide anymore as he approaches, the ammo drum on his backpack feeding into the microgun at his side making his intentions clear.

Rave has posed:
There's a gun pointed at her, Rave's hands come up reflexively. There's even a sudden flicker in the lights as she does so. "Whoa whoa whoa, I'm just trying to work out where the hell the explosions were coming fr-..." she begins, but there's a sudden pause from the girl. She hadn't seen Frank or the impending hell of the minigun, but the armed men and the bodyguards has her eyes widening a little.

She'd seen enough movies to make an educated guess. Had she just ran right into the damn mob's house?

Aquaman has posed:
"Inside, right now!" the man in front of Rave says. He waves the muzzle of his gun into the room with the five other Maggia men.

The one at the other end of the hall lowers his gun and runs to the stop of the sweeping staircase into the front entry. He uses a corner of the wall for cover and takes aim. The three men that were outside and came through back burst into the lobby as well. One looks up.

"Where is he?" the man asks.

"Safe room? How the fuck should I know?" the man doing overwatch on the entry snaps back.

One of the men in the carriage home peeks out of the window carefully and ducks back. Safe bet those four know Punisher is coming now.

In the distance, a lone siren starts up.

Punisher has posed:
Well, he's dead.

The Punisher had been waiting for someone to peek their head out (the longer he could wait before firing, the closer he got, after all), and when they do, he opens fire right for the head... then for the lower half of the carriage as the high RPM of the microguns .50 caliber rounds begins to simply shred right through the carriage. The sound of the gun -and the material being destroyed- is loud and obvious.

He keeps right on walking towards the Villa as he fires, watching for anyone else popping their head up.

Rave has posed:
Was it concern? A redeeming quality, or perhaps the thug was hoping to use her as a hostage. Either way, the shouting from the Mobster has Rave opening her mouth to speak only to suddenly gasp as the shattering of drywall and concrete brought on by the rain of .50cal bullets forces her perception into hyper-focus.

There was so many of them flying through, too many for her to safely move people out of the way...instead she disappears in a brilliant flash of light between the individual sounds of each shot, only to reappear beside the man in black and then a sudden bolt of laser energy slams into the barrels of the weapon. "Alright what the hell?"

Seems she hadn't recognized Castle just yet.

Aquaman has posed:
There is no sound or movement from the carriage house above the five car garage.

The sound seems to bring the five stunned men upstairs out of their torpor. They run out of the room through the space Rave was just a second before. The man who was pointing his gun at Rave stands there, too surprised at her disapperance to move.

The man doing overwatch of the foyer stays where he is at the top of the stairs. The men in the foyer split up. One takes the frame at the edge of the blown out window on the right of the door, and the other two take the left. They all open fire with assault rifles at Frank and Rave.

"Punisher!" one of them shouts, but nobody at all hears him over the sound of them shooting.

In the distance, more sirens start up. Elapsed time is about 90 seconds.

Punisher has posed:
There's no sound, no raging scream as he destroys the carriage. There's only the focus of a man on a mission as Punisher walks on.

Then, Rave gets in the way, knocking him and the microgun to the side, sending stray rounds all over the place as Punisher is immediately unbalanced and is knocked over onto the ground, the wind half knocked out of him from the ground /and/ the sheer weight of the gear on him crushing his chest.

Punisher wasn't expecting a speedster to get in the way, and in moments, it may cost him his life as his opposition open fire on him.

"FRANK!" Microchip shouts in distress over the transceiver, seeing the situation from above. Microchip didn't expect this at all. Nothing in the intel suggested there was a meta on scene.

Rave has posed:
"Wait. Punisher?"

Oh. Oh crap.

Now they were shooting at them regardless of the fact she was standing out there. They were even aiming at both of them! Clearly, she'd read things wrong and helped the wrong side.

Fast as she was, there was no way that the blue-haired girl could carry Frank out of the way with that Minigun strapped to him. Instead? There was another bright light and Rave was left standing there holding both hands raised towards the house, that same light seeming to strobe in time with each gunshot heading their way and forming a barrier to stop the incoming rounds.

"I uh...sorry?" Tonight was not Rave's night!

Aquaman has posed:
Bullets slam into Rave's shield. Encouraged by seeing the Punisher on the ground, the men on the ground floor call the others down. Six of the seven from upstairs start to run down the stairs toward the front door. The three at the windows keep shooting. There is a lot of yelling unkind things in Italian, about mothers, killing people and doing horrible things to Rave.

Punisher has posed:
"Still alive." Punisher croaks over the transceiver. There's an audible sigh of relief from Microchip that only Frank can hear, and Punisher slowly starts to get up, having gotten his bearings again.

The Microgun is adjusted again as Punisher double checks the feed and receiver assembly visibly. "You're obviously not a Maggia bitch, or I'd be dead." Punisher grates out as he looks to Rave, "as you heard, you can call me Punisher. Right now, we only have minutes before the cops arrive, and I need to finish this attack before they start bringing in the heavy hitters."

Punisher aims the Microgun again, "either knock them all out, or get us both to some cover."

Rave has posed:
"Or you could...run away...?" Rave manages to talk back, but the effort of keeping and timing the shield up was...more than a little bit. Finally, she gives one last little grunt of effort before she starts to walk -slowly- towards the driveway. "Find something to get behind then!" she calls over the noise of the gunfire. "I can cover you, but not forever!"

Aquaman has posed:
The Maggia men scent blood in the water. The six from upstairs pour of the front door. The first two start shooting toward Rave and Punisher. The others are spreading out to the sides to get room to shoot. The three men in the front windows run their clips dry and there is a lot of swearing. It seems they were not practising tactical reload drills on their spare time.

Sirens are getting slowly louder, but Microchip can tell Frank he still has about five minutes. Frank will know that is not enough time to crack a commercially built safe room.

Punisher has posed:
"Your shit cost me too much time. I can't get in their panic room without bringing in the ram now." Punisher grouses, audibly pissed off as he backs away back towards the Battle Van. Now that they're adapting, Punisher has to adapt too, and he drops the microgun, letting it hang from the harness as he pulls his backup MP7 from the gear web. A lot more controllable so he can keep suppressing people who try to get around the shield.

"Gettin' out of here now. If you want some answers, get in." Punisher grates as he heads for the street.

As they move, Microchip is already getting the Battle Van ready for them, moving into the drivers cabin and flooring it to go and meet Punisher halfway. He presses a button to set the turrets to standby as well, in case they're followed.

Rave has posed:
Rave knew who the Punisher was, or at least she knew the stories. There was some serious noteriety out there...but she'd still just had to witness the violence and get a close look at just what that sort of weaponry did to a human body. It was going to be another 'long shower and don't think about it' night.

When she's getting growled at and offered a lift? There's a moment of consideration before she shakes her head. Rides from heavily armed strangers and all.

"I'll run."

Those two words are given, then she's already wrapped in a corona of bright glowing light and then streaking away in a burst of speed out into the night.

Aquaman has posed:
The Battle Wagon screeches into the driveway and up to The Punisher. Bullets riccochet off the ground and Rave's shield. Then Punisher is in the van and the mysterious young woman is just... gone. The Maggia men keep shooting at the Battle Wagon until hits the street and peels away. Then they stop and stand there, stunned by the ferocious assault, the magical woman and the fact they are still breathing.

Minutes later the police arrive and begin to take stock of the warzone on their hands.