9880/See the stars come out tonight

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See the stars come out tonight
Date of Scene: 02 November 2019
Location: New Lots, Brooklyn
Synopsis: The Shadow's investigation into exotic weapon smuggling turns deadly as the smugglers accidentally activate a hunter-killer drone. Luckily, Captain Marvel arrives on the scene in time to save the day.
Cast of Characters: Shadow, Captain Marvel (Danvers)




Shadow has posed:
    Being in command of Alpha Flight isn't always all it's cracked up to be. When you're not patrolling intrasystem space for inbound asteroids or extrasolar miscreants, you're up to your eyebrows in paperwork or having to sit down with indignant representatives of one country or another complaining that you exceeded your authority when you confiscated that crashed Duranite ship before they could strip it to bits.

    Of course, being Captain Marvel has its perks, as well - for instance, subsonic high-altitude flights over New York at night in a perfectly clear sky, the jetstream blowing through your hair, the city below a hundred million specks of light like a pattern of glittering gemstones laid out over a black velvet pillow...

    At this altitude, individual lights become hard to distinguish so you wind up interpreting patterns -- those slightly irregular stings of lights moving in more or less straight lines are traffic, those constellations lay out the Manhattan skyline, that brilliant light amidst an irregularly shaped blob of darkness is Liberty's torch welcoming all who come to Her shore, those intermittent bright flashes down there look like energy weapon fire and the occasional explosio-- Wait, what?

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
While Alpha Flight business never really 'slowed', the fact that the pressing threat of the Sentinels had now passed allowed Carol a little leisure time. A very, very small, almost nanoscopic amount of leisure time. She'd been in New York for a friend's birthday, and when the night had turned to drinking, she'd made up a quiet reason to excuse herself. As strong and in-control as she was, she knows all it would take was a moment of weakness with a highball and all that would go up in so much smoke.

So, she flies. She clears her head. Her bomber jacket and jeans having shifted to the more recognizable red and blue suit that identifies her as Captain Marvel. As she turns through the air, rocketing along at speeds that would make even some aircraft jealous, she almost misses the light show down below. In fact, it's only when she loops back around to give it another wary look that she realizes exactly what it is.

"City full of superheroes," she mutters to herself, all momentum leaving her immediately as she stops and hovers far above the firefight, "Yet why does it feel like I'm the only damn one?"

Still, complaint or not that doesn't stop her. Already she's descending, making no effort to hide the fact as she glows like a shooting star and rockets towards the source of the disturbance. She's got nothing to hide, and her remit isn't in stealth and ambush - she's an assault weapon, pure and simple.

Shadow has posed:
    As she descends, the sounds of the city rise up to meet her -- and so do the sounds of screams, gunfire, explosions and the distinct whine-hiss of plasma weapons fire superheating the atmosphere.

    At the epicenter of the disturbance an angular shape with too many limbs and the sheen of non-terrestrial alloys is trotting down the freeway, firing plasma cannons at a target that's hard to make out, occasionally pausing in its pursuit to fire on any car that gets too close - the probable source of the explosions, given the trail of flaming wrecks behind it...

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
Captain Marvel does not take too long to get the gist of the situation. Even before she could fly and wield super strength, she was a combat pilot trained to make split second decisions. To be fair, this was not one of the more complicated and vexing decisions she'd ever had to make.

The strange alien thing that plods along, blasting recklessly hither and yon, is her target. Whatever it is chasing she'll try to draw a bead on later, but the machine blasting cars apart is the true danger here. Who knows how many people have been injured in the explosions already?

As she descends from on high, the blonde Avengers puts herself on a trajectory towards the many-legged device. A look of brief realization crosses her face as she recognizes what it is, followed by an almost sadistic smirk.

"Hey, legs," she calls out, voice ringing even over the sound of explosions and plasma fire, "Head's up!"

And she darts right in, fist extended, a full-strength flying punch right at the middle of the whole mess.

Shadow has posed:
    Another thing combat pilots are trained for is situational awareness - the ability to take in the entirety of a combat theater even while their focus is on their target. As she closes in, and in those bare seconds before the hunter-killer's plasma cannons reorient to fire on the new priority threat, she spots something slightly off in the pattern of light and shadows cast by the remaining street lamps and blazing wrecks -- but then the hunter-killer fires, and even if the beam can't actually harm her, the blazing bright light of superheated plasma washing over her makes it hard to see...

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
While Carol may notice the certain other things happening around her, she's only one person and even empowered by super-speed she cannot be everywhere at once. She maintains her focus on the walking battle drone, intent on demolishing it or at the very least diverting its attentions away from the cars and things that happen to get close enough to trigger its violent mechanisms.

The plasma fire strikes her, but it's the sort of burning energy that her empowered form chews up for fuel. As it strikes her body, it seems to dissipate in small clouds of vapor. The glowing halo about her seems to grow just a little brighter as a little bit of fuel is added to the metaphorical tank.

"Thanks," she calls out, "What's your return policy?"

Then the fist, raised to strike the machine, begins to glow for a moment before a lancing bolt of photonic energy is fired right back at it.

Shadow has posed:
    Few people /like/ the Zatrexi very much -- as a species/empire they tend to be opportunistic and manipulative, with a habit of manipulating their rivals and neighbours into warring with each other, then selling their weapons to both sides of the conflict -- but people do grudgingly acknowledge that they're excellent weapon designers. This particular model of hunter-killer drone comes with both shields and armour in impressive amounts for an infantry model unit.

    It's not nearly enough to stand up to a direct shot from Captain Marvel's photonic blasts, but to be fair to Zatrexi manufacture, very few things on this scale are.

    There is an audible snap as the shield bubble pops under the strain, and the energy beam lances through into the drone itself, slagging one of its cannon barrels entirely and fusing two of its leg joints.

    It lurches wildly for a few moments, its remaining functional legs scrambling to redistribute the center of mass while the remaining plasma cannon attempts to track the flying woman and return fire when a gunshot rings out -- ballistic, handheld, pistol, high caliber, if Carol is any judge -- and sparks are kicked off the edge of the barrel as the bullet impacts on the inner edge and ricochets down deeper into the barrel proper.

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
Carol's head twitches just slightly at the sound of the shot, but her focus remains fully upon the drone. She won't risk it getting off any more destructive shots before she puts it permanently out of commission. Seeing the plasma cannon unable to fire on her, she takes the opportunity to dart in close. Both hands reach out to grab one of the drone's still mobile legs, attempting to wrench it free of its housing in an effort to pummel the thing into submission with its own severed limb.

But her brow furrows, glancing for a moment in the direction of the gunshot. Where'd that come from?

Shadow has posed:
    This close in, the bot's remaining cannon can't deflect far enough to fire back at the woman busy tearing one of its legs off, so it resumes attempting to track the source of the gunshot, a task not made easier by the repeated impacts of its former leg against its primary sensor cluster.

    Busy as she is, Carol can't /quite/ see what it thinks it has detected, but she /does/ hear the distinct ommminous HUMMMMM of the plasma cannon cycling up to fire -- followed by a much more generic internal explosion as the bullet turns out to have cracked the containment bottle.

    When the smoke clears, the drone is missing the upper left third of its torso, and Carol's next swing sends it tumbling down to the ground.

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
Once the machine ceases to move, Carol gives it one last whack with the severed leg before tossing the spindly thing down on top of the twisted pile of alien metal. She's already feeling the headache coming on. All the paperwork she's going to have to do, getting this technology squirreled away at one of Department H's black sites where nobody will be able to mistreat it. That's if she doesn't have to contend with SHIELD or some branch of the US government first.

She sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose with one gloved hand. There's still the matter of that gunshot, though.

Captain Marvel turns on her heels, peering into the smoke and flickering light of a few dying fires to find out just where it came from.

Shadow has posed:
    At first it's difficult to make out much, until she realizes that the smoke isn't just rising slowly - it's billowing /around/ something. Roughly human-sized, indistinct, approaching... And as it approaches the smoke and shadow seem to coalesce, gradually solidifying into a dark-clad shape.

    Black greatcoat, a black velvet-lined opera cloak billowing in the slight breeze behind it, a crimson scarf covering the lower half of the face, obscuring any features that the black slouch hat on their head doesn't shroud in shadow - except for a pair of blazing blue eyes glittering brighter than she's seen in a human face.

    "Captain Marvel," the figure greets her. "My thanks for your assistance. Whatever that contraption was, its shielding was beyond my guns' ability to penetrate."

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
"It's a Zatrexian hunter-killer drone," Carol explains to the approaching figure, nudging the pile of decommissioned machine with her boot, "All kinds of illegal to use in a populated area like this, but then Earth isn't really party to any galactic-level treaties so it gets a little bit like the wild west out here."

Captain Marvel crosses her arms over her chest, frowning down at the battered machine. The puzzle of the figure appearing out of nowhere like that would have to be a puzzle for another time. Clearly this person in black means to help, and that's good enough for her.

"Did you see where it came from?" she asks, crouching down to get a closer look at the thing, "I'm guessing it got loose from somewhere. I can't think of anyone stupid enough to drop one of these on us without a follow through - even with Superman gone."

Shadow has posed:
    The Shadow points - almost unnecessarily - at the trail of flaming wrecks and carved-up asphalt leading to a warehouse that has a few more holes in the outer wall than normally the case. "My agents managed to put me on the trail of a group of black market operators that were promising 'an unprecedentedly big score'. That trail led here; when I went to interrogate them, some of the guards pulled out high-tech energy weapons and started firing. A shot went wide, hit one of the crates, and that drone came out, firing at everyone who held a weapon."

    A shrug. "Admittedly, this makes my work more difficult; none of them survived to be questioned. But I suspect their wares are more your jurisdiction than mine..."

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
"Maybe so," Carol agrees on the subject of jurisdiction, "But you're in it now, and I don't think I'd have known where this thing came from without you flushing them out. I mean, obviously the trail of destruction helps but it sounds like you have a line on some of these guys that might include any that didn't get fried when the drone went loud."

The blonde Avenger considers something for a moment, looking at the mysterious figure all in black for a moment before finally venturing to add: "How would you feel about working with me on this one? Obviously Alpha Flight has a bit of experience dealing with the masked set, and nobody is going to try and find out who you are if you'd rather they didn't. If this is bigger than a couple small timers getting lucky and finding some alien tech, I want to get to the bottom of it sooner rather than later."

Shadow has posed:
    The Shadow ponders the offer a moment before nodding. "From what I overheard before the shooting started, their supplier claimed to be able to provide more, as long as they could meet the price -- and there was some disagreement on whether that 'price' was worth it."

    They shrug, turning to head for the warehouse proper. "What exactly that 'price' is, they weren't discussing -- but there isn't all that much that Earth would have to offer that people who manufacture these kinds of weapons would not have an easier time obtaining elsewhere, and I don't like the implications..."

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
"You're right to be suspicious," Carol adds in a low voice, "Rare earth minerals are nothing to them - there's floating chunks of platinum out there worth more than Wayne Enterprises and LexCorp combined. Money is meaningless as soon as you get off-world. There's only a few things I can think of that some hood could offer a space-capable arms dealer - and none of them are good."

There's a sigh, and a shake of her head. It feels like things just got a great deal more complicated for her. So much for a little rest and relaxation in the wake of Sebastion and all his troubles.

"I'd ask how I can contact you," she offers, "But I think it's probably easier if we do it the other way around. I'm going to guess that if you can put feelers to the ground to track a black market operation, you can figure out how to get a message to me. I'm not exactly hard to spot."

Shadow has posed:
    The figure chuckles briefly -- not the most disturbing sound Carol has ever heard, but definitely in the top five of disturbing sounds she's heard anything human make -- and reaches into a pocket of their coat, pulling out what appears to be an honest-to-gods business card and handing it to her.

    At first glance, the thing appears blank on both sides - but a moment later, shadows flow and dart across the cardstock, briefly forming a phone number before fading away again.

    "Should you have need, call that number. The person who answers will be able to contact me."

    ... And by the time Captain Marvel looks back up from the business card, the figure seems to have vanished the same way it appeared, leaving her standing alone in the middle of a trail of burning wreckage, with a warehouse potentially full of highly illegal extraterrestrial weaponry, and sirens of emergency services already approaching in the distance...