9420/Stayin Alive

Stayin Alive
Date of Scene:	04 October 2019
Location:	Robert Goldberg's Penthouse, Manhatten, NYC.
Synopsis:	A fight breaks out in a penthouse
Cast of Characters:	Zorro, Berri Sundae, Nikias

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Zorro has posed:
It was night time in Manhatten and the Kingston Hotel was busy with the sounds of chatting, classical music, and the occasional sound of the service bell. Into this scene walked in Zorro, as Hector Rodriguez of course. He was in this ritzy, five-star hotel for one reason, to bring a new target to justice. This time, it was Robert Goldberg, the former Chairman, CEO, and head Producer of Century Records, a big time record firm based in Atlantic City. In his tenure, he had made and breaked many careers, especially that of Sally Starburst, real name Sally Stanson. This star made Century Records millions of dollars, but her falling out was just as legendary, with her alleging that Robert screwed her out of millions through a cleverly worded contract. This lead to a legal trail where Robert was acquited through what some people suspect to be a coruppt jury. Zorro was sent after him after two more of his victims, the Danson Twins, came up to him and brought to his attention what he had done to them, which invovled blacklisting them from other companies, thus ruining them for dearing to speak out against him. This brought him to Zorro's attention.
    
     Hector, once he was sure that no one was looking, slipped into a empty elevator and pressed the button to the top floor, to where Goldberg's penthouse was supposed to be. As the elevator ascended, Hector started to swithc into his Zorro persona. Luckily, he was smart enough to bring his rapier a day earlier, hidden in a guitar case, and hid it on the top of the elevator. e hoped it was still up there in the case.
    
    
     Robert Goldberg's penthouse was best described as something out of the 1970s. The old man, who viewed the 1970s as his "glory days" went to great pains to make sure his retirement home had the same feel. All over the Penthouse one could find memorbilea of the long gone decade, that included vintage records and a record player, a disco ball, a water-bed, and leopard skin sheets. This look also extended to his wardrobe, which consisted mostly of colorful polyster suits, with his "hired security team" wearing the same thing. Due to years of death threats from "bitter clients" he had taken to hiring street thugs as security from actual threats. Recently however, he was urged by his head of security, a Irish gangster named Pat to hire someone he once worked for, someone called "Berri". The old man was heistent, but changed his mind once another death threat was issued from Count Philips, a old heavy star and one of his clients from the 90s who threatened to hire a hitman. This got him paranoid enough to send Pat out to find Berri and hire her for a price, which he manged to do.
    
     Robert was sitting on a couch in the center of his penthouse, a oxygen tank on stand-by due to smoking ruining his lungs. Three of his plyster suited goons were sitting around a table playing cards. Two more were leaning out the balcony, smoking a cigar. A heavier set one was rumaging through his fridge, probably looking for a snack. Pat was doing guard outside of the penthouse and Berri was God knows where. The old man let out a grunt as he pushed a buzzer, which was meant to summon Berri.

Berri Sundae has posed:
People like this? They were worse that the standard criminal. Sure, Berri and most of the people she had worked for had commited violence, extorted money and all sorts of mobster-y ideas...but this guy made her skin crawl. Still, a contact was a contact, the money was good and the record itself might work as a resource for laundering money in the future. Plus she might get to meet a singer or two she liked.

The 'icecream' colored mutant arrives at the door without a word, a blank expression to hide the annoyance of being 'buzzed' to be summoned. It just seemed too condescending for her taste...at least if it was happening to her. She was already begining to understand why someone might want to harm him, and she doubted -they- had to put up with hearing his surface thoughts.

With a glance to the goons she hadn't hired herself, she moves forwards towards the desk and tilts her head. A question in silence from the girl about why exactly she was being called into the room.

Nikias has posed:
Nikias sits in his room on one of the low rent floors, finishing off a cigar and preparing his kit for the job at hand, pistol, check, assault rifle, check, balaclava, check, sword and dagger, check and check, bribe paid to the hotel security to be conviently unavailable tonight....Oh dear, seems he forgot that one. No matter. After a good hour of prep work, Nikias gears up, and takes to the vents, crawling his way up several floors before needing to slip out and risk causing a ruckus to continue progressing.

Zorro has posed:
As the elevator reached the top of the hotel where the Penthouse was, Zorro, was a impressive leap, manahed to reach the mantinence panel of the elevator and reached in, grabbing the guitar case from yesterday, luckily no one had foud it. As the elevator door opened, Zorro had barely opened the case to get his sword when he was suddenly greeted by a fist to the face. Crap, he forgot to consider the idea that the bastard had security waiting at the front door. Zorro was sent sprawling onto the floor. But, before the man had an opportunity to strike again or pull out his gun, Zorro lunged for him and punched him square in the face. The man jerked, his head flying back. The man then charged Zorro, who suprisingly flipped him over his back, a trick he learned from Captain America, the goon landed on the ground loud and heavilly. As the man fell into unconciousness, Zorro let out a swear, they probably heard that. He then started to look for an alternate way in. He then noticed a window with what appeared to be a narrow ledge. Zorro grinned as an idea came to his mind.
    
     Robert looked at Berri with a blank look on his face. Before Robert could speak to her, he suddenly started having a heavy coughing fit, which was cured by a quick puff through a oxygen mask connected to his tank. He then turns to her while readjusting his wire-rimmed glasses and said to her," I wanna go out tonight! Make sure you make those idiots know whats-"
    
     Before he could finish his order however, the sound of heavy thudding could be heard from the outside. The old man's eyes widen as he turns to Berri with a frantic, paranoid look on his eyes as he says," Someone's here! Get ready and have that fat slacker David get my car ready! David, of course, was the man going through the bosses refridgerator earlier."

Berri Sundae has posed:
Truth be told, she heard the violence before she sensed it, but that sudden mental loud 'rush' that comes from someone locked in combat had her whirling on the door. She hadn't been quite alert or listening close enough to 'detect' Zorry, after all the crowd had her very deliberately muffling her telepathic perception for her own sanity, but she was already reaching out to try and sense what the heck was going on out there.

A snap of her fingers, suprisingly loud, is made to draw the gaze of the mooks before she gestures towards the door. It was an unspoken command, but one 'pushed' towards their minds to interpret before she turns back towards Robert and points at him, then towards the floor. Best he get down.

Nikias has posed:
As he straightens up from the vent crawl, a sudden thudding up above draws Nikias' attention. He pauses for just a moment before breaking for the stairs, decking some poor security guard who made the unfortunate decision at that moment to wander dowm from the penthouse floor and was now whispering sweet nothings to the floor. Not a care is given to the camera on the stairwell catching all of this, a heavily armed masked man assaulting a guard, as Nikias rushes up the stairs, rifle unslinging as he goes.

Zorro has posed:
Zorro hears the footsteps rushing around inside the penthouse, no doubt they were getting ready for him to show up through the front door. Zorro however, had a different idea. He slowly and quietly opned the window outside the penthouse's front door and slowly started to simmy along the narrow ledge, leaving the unconciouss body of the front door sentry. They would never expect a entrance from the balcony of the penthouse.
    
     The mooks all seem to nod in unison as they see Berri's command, no doubt her mental pushing helping the matters. All of the guns in the room seemed drawn to the front door as David rushed out to get the car, not expecting to be nailed by a certain hitman on the way out. The old man struggled to get down on the floor, but eventually did, breathing heavily as he did. One of the mooks for some reason remained on the balcony with his gun, a Uzi trained on the door. He was quite oblivious to the threat approaching from the ledge until he was quite literally bashed on the head by the hilt of a rapier. Zorro had finally managed to make it to the balconey and knocked out the guard stationed on there. As hte guard fell down with a thud, Zorro pulled out a throwing knife and hurled it at a second mook, burying it into his shoulder. As hte rest of the mooks trained their guns on Zorro, he shouted in a deep, booming, but slightly accented voice," Robert Goldberg! Zorro has come to bring you justice!" The men then started to open fire, but Zorro rolled out of the way and took cover behind a rather ugly looking couch.

Berri Sundae has posed:
The sudden arrival of Zorro was certainly that, sudden. The mook is down before even Berri can detect the threat...and he certainly makes a good distraction. Berri was looking at no cameras with this many gunshots going off and she wasn't concerntrating enough to hear the immortal's thoughts on approach. She had no idea Nikias was coming!

That much gunfire also meant the woman can hardly make her own attack, she very much doubted the mooks were accurate enough to shoot around her and she doubted their intelligence even moreso. Instead the young woman simply, gracefully, hops her behind onto the desk and sits, opening her parasol behind her and resting it over one shoulder as she interposes herself between her despicable client and the swashbuckler like she were completely carefree.

Perhaps he was already dead, she doubted the couch was bulletproof after all.

Nikias has posed:
As all hell begins to break loose with the arrival of Zorro, Nikias stops at the door, cocking his head with some confusion at the muffled proclamation, muttering the name in disbelief under his breath before shrugging it off and kicking the double doors in, tearing one free of it's upper hinge. Without skipping a beat, he begins striding into the room, coldly shooting every gun toting guard in sight, starting with any who hadn't yet turned to see the more flamboyant intruder.

Zorro has posed:
Zorro had been lucky that none of the bullets had hit where in the couch he was hiding behind, but it was only a matter of time before one of these mooks did hit him. So, in either a bold move or a act of stupididy, Zorro dashed out of the cover he was in and ran towards another large piece of furniture to hide behind, but not before throwing another knife at the string holding the dsco ball, causing it to fall on two of the other mooks. Suddenly, the door is kicked opened and the rest of the goons are gunned down by a miliaristic looking man. Zorro looks on with his mouth hanging open. No doubt to Nikias that the man looks familiar. He then points his rapier to him and says in his acented voice," Who are you amigo and why have you killed these men!"

Berri Sundae has posed:
There's not fear on Berri's face, at least not outwardly...but she does look a little suprised! Certainly, Nik's approach wasn't nearly as showy as Zorro's and there he was going to gun down the threats. Outwardly, she hadly looked threatening...but a lack of fear or obvious weapon combined with her 'odd' appearence? That might have the more savy cautious and she wasn't going to risk it. Instead? She's rolling off the desk and exhaling a breath.

There's a pulse, telepathic and general, rolling across the room towards the minds still around her. Disorientation, confusion...and she's trying to 'vanish' from their perception even if she couldn't physically turn invisible.

Nikias has posed:
Nikias stops as the disco ball drops on two of the mooks, letting out a jovial laugh before shooting one of the remaining thugs as he ducked out to aim from behind a lamp in no way big enough to actually protect him. He then turns a glance on Zorro, tilting his head to the side, "Huh...Hey, pretty good impression, man. I'm impressed, almost had me fooled." He says in an unsettlingly friendly way before turning back to the room at large, "Ok, Robbie, the bullet or the window, yer choice and make it fast, I'm hungry and yer holdin me up!" At the jump up of Berri, Nik twitch aims at her, but twitches his aim away just as fast when he discerns she's not, at least not obviously, armed. This proves a bad time to show not-being-a-psycho, as the disorientation hits him and he staggers in place a bit, "Ugh, Ro-Robbie!...Dont make me, ugh...Dont make me ask twice, now...."

Zorro has posed:
Zorro, with his sword still pointed at the mysterious new man, tilts his head upon hearing his comment. What did he mean impression? Before he could ask, or make a comment about his threat to Robert, he sees a teenaged girl roll out of the desk. Before he can do anything, he starts to feel disoriented. He grabs his head and starts to stumble about while saying<' What is happening. It fees like i just got of a roller coster at six flags."

Berri Sundae has posed:
A hand claps over Roberts mouth, a frown and a shake of his head. Sure he'd already payed her, but she did want him to -keep- paying her after all! That being said, she was a slight young woman trying to drag a wheezy lump of a man through the space of two would-be assassins without getting detected while also maintaining her illusions and disorientation.

Nikias has posed:
Nikias staggers back a bit before planting his feet and taking a series of deep calming breaths. His rifle then suddenly comes back up, aiming scanningly in Berri's direction, "Dont think I cant hear you, Robbie. I may not be able to see too good right now, but I can hear a lifetime chain smoker through any drunken haze." He says right before blindly firing in the direction of Robert's wheezing, wildly spraying with little actualy direction other than 'that-a-way' until the rifle starts to click after about a dozen shots go off.

Zorro has posed:
The bullets unsurprisingly miss every shot, though one comes close to hitting Robert' who lets out a yelp of surprise. Zorro, who was still affected by the haze, tries to tackle Nikias. No matter how horrid Robert was, he did not want him dead, just suffering and paying for all of his misdeeds.

Berri Sundae has posed:
'Let them fight' wasn't just a tagline for a movie, it was sound logic right now. Of course, Nikais' call was concerning...but the bullets coming her way was far more so. There's a sudden flicker at one point where she'd be seen along with her charge like a distortion on an old TV before it's cloaked once more.

Zorro's tackle was a godsend and now there's an audible scrape as she starts to pull Robert forwards toward the door. Once he was in his car? She'd have done her job.

That and she didn't want to get shot.

Nikias has posed:
Nikias glances down at the rifle as it starts to click pulling it back to reach for the clip when he's suddenly tackled by Zorro. As the pair hit the floor, his muscle memory kicks in, overriding any jumbled thought, and he comes back hard with a backfist to Zorro's face, "Ugh, back off cosplayer, I'm workin here!" He grumbles as he swats the swashbuckler away and struggles to regain his footing and find his rifle.

Zorro has posed:
As Zorro tackles the man, he sees the illusion flickering on and off for a minute, revealing where his target was. Before he can do anything however, he is backfisted by the man and he stumbles back from him. He glares at the man, blood running down his nose as he does. He was about to try to stab the man when he hears the scraping going towards the door. Zorro immeidaltey rushes tiwards where the scrapping was coming from, kicking the man's assult rifle further away from him as he does.

Berri Sundae has posed:
Crap, Robert was simply just...painfully annoying at trying to let her do her job. The noise was loud enough to bring one of them running her way and she's left to hiss in frustration before she lowers her parasol and then thrusts out with it. It wasn't the blade, but running straight into a hardened casing of a blade in a parasol wasn't going to feel great.

She almost wished she could just yell at her client to run to the damn car already...such is the problems of being a mute!

Nikias has posed:
As Zorro breaks for it and kicks his rifle away, Nikias growls at him, "Pendejo!" As he staggers after the firearm, wasting precious seconds as the old man and probably not his granddaughter escape, with Zorro hot on their heels. However, once he's back on his feet and has his rifle re-slung, the Spartan is off like a shot, sprinting out of the room and down the hall after the trio.

Zorro has posed:
Zorro's persuit of the noise was stopped by him running into something hard, leg first. He grabs his shin and slutches it in pain. He then kicks at the area where he felt the umbrella, hoping to get it. He then hears the hitman coming and sighns before trying to throw a throwing knife at his leg as he gets closer.

Berri Sundae has posed:
She wasn't getting paid enough for this, that much was certain. As Zorro kicks out there's another flicker, an image of his opponent as the young girl's parry breaks her concerntration. Her parsol opens, hardened limbs, motion and shape allowing her to push that leg off-balance with an impressive display of skill and then she pivots on her heel and tries to bring her other leg up to kick the swordsman in his ribs as he drops his focus to aim behind him. No lethal force on her part yet, but this producer hadn't really been paying her enough to kill anyone. This was supposed to be a low-key job after all!

Nikias has posed:
Nikias sprint is cut short by the sudden introduction of a knife to the back of his knee....Through the front of his knee. Which sends him sprawling and spewing pained profanity, as can be expected from someone who's just been maimed. After a quick roll onto his side, he rips the knife out, and whips it back at Zorro, aimed ruthlessly for his center-mass.

Zorro has posed:
Zorro sees the knife coming and, in a act of desperation, rolls out of the way, causing the knife to whizz over his head. But, what he isn't expecting is a kcik in the ribs, He flies into a wall, groaning in pain and gripping his ribs. He then gets up and says while clutching his ribs and grabbing his sword," Listen, I know you want to protect your Grandfather, But, he is a terrible man who deserves punishment. Now, please flee before i am forced to hurt you."

Berri Sundae has posed:
Invisibility had failed, things were simply too dangerous and stressful for that and Robert himself hadn't made the job any easier. As the knife whistles by, the girl is suddenly rather thankful of her lacking height and she's left glancing between the two. There's a raise of an eyebrow at the mention of her 'grandfather', a glance back towards the man before she pauses and lifts a hand to him. A jerk of her head, the two vigilanties are clearly indicated before there's a questioning raise of her eyebrow and then she rubs her index and thumb together.

If he wanted her to take on two armed people who'd destroyied the mooks -he'd- insisted on over her own thugs? He was going to need to raise the pay and pay it fast. After all, she was more likely to dodge bullets than block them for the scumbag.

Assuming a moment of consideration or stammering from the man, the girl with the icecream-themed appearances taps her wrist in warning before she lifts her parasol, snapping it closed and brandishing it in an 'en garde' position at Zorro.

Of course, it wouldn't help much if Nikias had another gun!

Nikias has posed:
And Nikias indeed did have another gun, produced from it's holster as he pushed up from the wall, the 1911 sighting down on the no doubt terrified old man and popping off a controlled burst of three rounds at him with none of the shakiness one would expect of someone who just had their knee impaled with a knife.

Zorro has posed:
As Zorro sighs and pulls out his sword to being fencing the girl, the sounds of three gunshots fill the air, impacting flesh. Nikias bullets did it's affect, and the crooked old man is lying their dead on the ground, a look of horro etched on his face. Suddenly, Zorro lets out a cry of rage and rushes past Berri and starts to thrust his rapier at Nikias angerily while saying," You idiota! I wanted him to face justice for his crimes! How can he do that while dead!"

Berri Sundae has posed:
A blink, a whince and a frown. Well crap, she'd sort of hoped that Nikias was going to be put out a little more by that knee injury. She should have known better. Shaking her head, she didn't exactly look like a grieving grand-daughter as she lifted the parasol to rest over her shoulder and looked between the two. A frown, she moves towards the body and starts digging for the crooked man's phone.

She wasn't calling the cops, she was looking to delete her details from it.

Nikias has posed:
Nikias' expression is hidden by the balaclava, but his eyes show all that need be said. Satisfaction and amusement. As Zorro rushes in, he reholsters the gun and twirls out a dagger, parrying the enraged thrusts aside as they come in, "Yeah, much better to get him arrested, where he'll make bail and die of old age six years before his trial. Clearly I am a horrible monster who deserves every last bit of your scorn." He says in a voice positively dripping with sarcasm. After a few more thrusts, he suddenly twists the sword forward, overbalancing Zorro and rolling past him. If the knee injury is bothering him, he's not showing it in the slightest. As he comes up, he sights down Berri, "Hey, kid, make sure ya wipe any prints off anything ya touch. They can find ya with those." He says as he spins back with another readied parry.

Zorro has posed:
The old man's cell phone of course, is a newest model. Unfortunatley, when you open it it, it is password locked by a number lcok. Meanwhile, as Zorro recovers from Nikias move, he thinks to himself," This diablo is skilled. I must think of a way to defeat him without getting to close to him." He then looks up and develops a small, sly grin when he see a hanging light fixture above him. Subtly pulling out a throwing knife, he pretends to charge the man, before throwing the knife at the rope holding the fixture, hoping to crash it down on top of him.

Berri Sundae has posed:
It would be unfortunate...if she hadn't been a telepath in close proximity the last time he'd opened it. While the other two engage in combat? Berri herself moves to the desk in the lobby and sits herself down, drawing into the pocket of her own jacket and then tossing a stick of gum into her mouth and blowing a bubble of obnoxiously pink gum while she opens the phone to do her work.

It was almost comical how little she seemed bothered now that the other two were fighting and there was little reason to join in. The young woman even raises a mute thumbs up towards the man who'd offered advice even when he'd been shooting her way moments ago.

Nikias has posed:
As Nikias spins back around, dagger coming up to parry, he pauses in sudden confusion at seeing Zorro not attacking him. He looks up a bit just in time to be hit by the lamp, which explodes into a trillion tiny pieces as it crashes down on him. He holds up for a few seconds before just kind of dropping down into the wall, the only thing holding him up being the tensed muscles in his legs.

Zorro has posed:
Zorro grinned once he saw his foe weakned. Deciding to make sure the man could not be a threat anymore, Zorro rushes towards the man and tries to punch in the face. Meanwhile, the old man's phone is filled with random apps. The text and phone log is between an angry birds knock-off and a camera app. Upon clicking it, you will see another password bar. This time, it was a pattern password.

Berri Sundae has posed:
More tapping, more working, more mining through memories she'd technically stolen. Berri actually pulls both her legs up to sit cross-legged as the fight continues between the two, a furrow on her brow. It wasn't effortless to do this sort of thing after all, but she was the stubborn sort. There was a moment as the lamp shatters that she actually lifts her parasol with her other hand, the hardened material lifted to shield her from any possible stray shards.

Nikias has posed:
Nikias is easily punched in the face, as he is down and not moving. However, the gesture is wasted as he is clearly unconcious. If anything, the punch seems to stir him ever so slightly, with some groggy groans and aimless limb twitching resultant from it.

Zorro has posed:
Zorro, satisfied that Nikias was no longer a threat, started to head towards the girl with the old man's cellphone. if he couldn't get the old man to confess to his crimes, the least he can do is take his cellphone, it should have some evidence somwhere on it to screw over his former company. As Berri gets into the text messages, a new would get your attention. It is a text from a friend of the old man's from Florida. In it, he detailed a plan that involved taking a flight to Florida under the fuise of going for a drive on this very night to get away from death threats, but not before paying you a check that would bounce upon you cashing it in, due to the fact that he moved his bank account to some offshore bank in the Cayman Islands.

Berri Sundae has posed:
Good as she was, Berri very much doubted she'd be able to fleece from a Cayman Islands bank account in any great amount. She couldn't use her mental powers over the phone after all. Scrunching up her face in disgust, there's a few moments more taken to delete her name and number from the messages that had been sent to her. Even if she'd used a burner, it was mostly to just make her feel better. Zorro was approaching?

Berri just lazily tosses the phone a bit to his right, forcing him to dive for it and giving her a moment to slide off the desk and start walking for the door. Even if she wouldn't be talking, she didn't really want to be asked questions and there was really no point on taking revenge. Hell, she'd have stabbed him herself if she'd found that message sooner.

Nikias has posed:
Nikias grumbles a bit as Berri tosses the phone to Zorro's awkward right, slowly and unsteadily pushing himself up to his feet and looking around, his vision stopping on the nearby elevator before he begins staggering towards it, shaking his head in a clear attempt to alleviate the disorientation.

Zorro has posed:
Zorro leaps for the phone, managing to gran it before it hits the ground. He stares at the two fleeing and decides not to confront them, realizing that the cops might be coming. So, he takes the same elevator he came in on and starts heading down, redressing as Hector as he does.