Rest in peace, Chadwick Boseman.
Wakanda Forever.
**
On this roof you had surprise and height advantage, it would be a shame not to use them.
Those cars they were heading towards were excellent targets. Big and stationary, all that was missing was the bullseye. Still, better check something first.
You turned to Skye. "Hey, totally unrelated question, but your car isn't down there right?"
She shook her head.
"Perfect." Energy started to gather in your hands. "By the way, you should get off the roof. It's going to get a little hot up here in a minute."
Skye took one look at your glowing palms and decided not to argue. She speedily crawled to the far side of the roof. Far enough away from the action, but close enough to keep recording.
You narrowed your eyes and then internally shrugged. It would have to do. She was out of the immediate firing line and you didn't have any time to drag her out of here.
Pressing your back against the wall, you focused. In a couple of seconds the intensity of the light in your hands grew from a lightbulb to a stage lamp. You could've gone heart-of-the-sun, but you were trying to disable the cars, not blow them the fuck up.
Showtime.
Springing to your feet, you whirled around, took a second to aim and fired. You stayed up long enough to see your shots land before you ducked back down and modulated your blasters down to their minimum levels.
Standing back up, you looked down to see your good work.
Each blast contained enough concussive force to put a hole in a steel wall. Against glass, there was no contest. With a screech, the car windows cracked and shattered into a thousand little pieces. Most of which you assumed fell back onto the seats.
Good. There was no way they'd go inside those cars now. It would take hours to clean away all the shards of glass and if you had your way, they'd be lucky to get a few minutes.
The car alarms drowned out whatever the robbers were trying to say to each other, but their eyes worked just fine. The leftmost one pointed his finger directly at you. A couple of cuffs on the head and aggressive pointing later all four were staring at you.
Something green started glowing in the barrel of the big gun as rightmost one pointed it at you-
And you blasted him in the chest.
The gun slipped out of his hands as robber 4# crumpled to the ground, probably with a cracked rib (definitely with a hell of a bruise). Hopefully he would stay down. One shot would crack a rib, but two to three would more than likely break them. And that was a bit extreme.
The remaining three dashed into cover, two behind cars and one behind a small dark shape trhat you couldn't make out in the lighting. Guess there is no loyalty among thieves. You fired a couple of shots as they ran but only managed to hit the ground.
You lowered your arm. You couldn't see the two hiding behind cars, but you could still sense the Chitauri weapons they carried.
You turned your gaze to the one not hiding behind a car. The other two were out of your sight for the moment, but they weren't poking their heads out. So you would have to focus on the one you could still see.
Bringing your arm back up, you unleashed several low-powered blasts in wide arc. The brief flashes of light revealed that the last robber was hiding behind… a letter box? You chuckled. To his credit, it was an actual full box and not just a square welded on a metal stick, but still, that wasn't cover. That was raw panic on display.
With one hand you fired a stream of low-powered shots around the letter box, upturning loose gravel, and keeping the robber locked in place. With the other, you charged a slightly stronger blast. After a few seconds, you fired.
The letter box gave way with a tortured shriek, crashing to the ground, its surface warped and scarred. Leaving the third robber open and exposed.
He dropped the weapon and ran. Your arm followed. He made it a few steps but this time your aim was on point. He collapsed with a gasp as a blast of energy connected with his side.
And that's two. You quickly checked the spot that you left the first robber and noted that he was still there. You moved to try and get a better angle two remaining but before you could, you heard a familiar whine and instinct took over.
Chitauri.
Your shield materialised before you knew it, blocking the barrage. At the same time, you brought your blasters power up to 80%. Any less wouldn't pierce the armour of the Chitauri scum. Raw, surging power gathered in your hands and you fired.
It wasn't until the flash that you remembered that you weren't fighting Chitauri.
Ah, shit.
When the light dimmed, your gaze narrowed on your overreaction. The shredded remains of what used to be the engine hissed turbid smoke. You could see the two robbers frozen, sprawled over the ground, behind what remained of their cover.
The energy you just brought to bear was of a calibre you hadn't used since the invasion, except greater, because now you weren't using the equivalent of a box of scraps.
You took a deep breath and forced your hands to stop shaking. Even now, months later, the Chitauri still left their mark on you.
You brought your power back down and stared at the robbers.
In retrospect you shouldn't have been surprised by what happened next. So fast you almost missed it, they scrambled to their feet, taking off in a full sprint in opposite directions. With only one of them only having the presence of mind to grab their black-market gun before running the fuck away.
You blinked. Were they actually running away? Were they supposed to do that? You mean, you can't blame them. But this feels like its against the rules somehow.
You moved to follow but stopped. In between you knocking them down, their brief attempt at retaliation and you blowing them up, you'd forgotten that you weren't the only person on this roof.
You turned around. "Hey Skye, you okay back there?" You were pretty sure they were only aiming for you, but that didn't mean they couldn't miss. A graze from a Chitauri gun was just as lethal as a direct hit after all.
You hadn't needed to worry. You rolled your eyes when you saw her entire upper body over the edge, both hands holding her phone. You were pretty sure her eyes sparkled as she gave you a thumbs up before going back to holding her phone. "I'm okay! That was so cool!"
You turned away. Yeah, she was fine. "Glad you enjoyed it. Now stay here."
"Oh my god you're going to do the superhero landing- "You didn't hear the rest of what she was going to say as you jumped off the roof.
Your landing kicked up some dust. Before it could clear you were already moving. You may have taken down two, but this wasn't over.
"Stay down." You said to the downed robber in the middle of the street as you passed him by, though not before taking a moment to disable the gun at his feet. That now you were close enough, could see it looked like a twisted fusion of a rocket launcher and a machine cannon.
The decision on who to chase was easy. Making sure that none of those weapons stayed in the robber's hands was your highest priority right now.
In this armour you weren't quite as fast as a car, but you were close. And the robber barely had a thirty second head start on you. It took ten seconds to catch up, and another two to get in front of him.
"Fuck!" he said as you clotheslined him. Before he could recover, you ripped the gun from his hands.
You held the rifle like it was an old friend, giving it a once over for any imperfections. And you suppose it was really. Didn't stop you from wanting to break it down into a microwave though.
"You know," You pressed your foot down on his leg, immobilizing him. "I lost count of the number of these I used during the invasion. It must have been dozens in the end. But one thing I can tell, is that this gun wasn't one of them. So, tell me friend…" You bent forward and turned your helmets eyes red. "Where did you get them?"
His eyes darted to the gun you ripped from his hands and he swallowed. "O-Okay… look, we didn't make them. There's a number that we call. It's in the warehouse, in the desk draw, under a fake bottom-"
"I already know about the number. Tell me how it works."
He licked his lips and turned his head away.
"You tried to kill me," you reminded at his silence. You pressed down just a little bit harder. "Think about that."
"Okay! Okay I'll talk… please, just let go of my leg." He begged. You reduced the pressure on his leg. Thank god he gave up, because you weren't sure what you were going to do if he held his tongue. "Okay listen, all I know is we call the number to give them a passcode and what we want. Then they text us an address to drop the payment off and a couple of hours later they send us another text where the guns are."
"What's the passcode and address?"
"I dunno man, they change every time. Ask Leo. He's the one that hooked us up."
You took a quick look over your shoulder but couldn't see if the two you'd taken down were still here, but couldn't tell at this distance. You'd better take this guy back and sit on them until the cops showed up. "And which one's Leo?"
"The other guy behind the car with me."
So, the one that ran without his gun, which left you with no way of tracking him. Shit. "So, what you're telling me is, you know nothing useful and the only one who does is already gone." The gun clattered to the floor and you grabbed the robber by the collar of his shirt and hauled him to his feet. "So what use do I have for you?" You growled.
His eyes nearly bugged out of his skull. "
Waitpleasedontkillme." He whimpered. "The guy we brought the gear off was called Tinkerer. That's important right? Oh god, oh god, oh god. That's all I know I swear."
You rolled your eyes and dropped him. "Get a hold of yourself mate. I'm not going to kill you."
He looked so hopeful, even with the snot coming out his nose. "So, you believe me?"
"Yeah. I believe you." No, you didn't. Not a chance in hell. At least not before you get some independent verification off the other two first.
Still, now you had a name. One that you'd remember. Anyone who could make Chitauri tech work again was worth keeping an eye out for.
You picked the gun back up and slung it across your back. An application of your power clamped it. "Get up."
You waited for him to get to his feet and then pushed him back towards the street. "Come on."
Thankfully he complied. Shooting and dragging him if he tried to run would've been a real pain.
After escorting him back, you rounded up his companions. The robber originally carrying the rocket cannon groaned as you dragged him and set his back up against the wall, alongside to his other two partners in crime.
"Oh, don't be a sook," you said as you checked over his bruise. It was a rather nasty one, but he'd be fine. You'd walked off a lot worse during the invasion. "You'll be fine. Now…" A red glow showed the robbers sweating, pained face. "I have some questions."
Questioning them revealed nothing new. You weren't sure if they didn't know or just weren't telling, but you weren't willing to go the extra mile to find out. You'd leave that for the cops. They confirmed the first's story though. So, you were willing to believe what he said, maybe.
Though speaking of the cops, you should give them a call (assuming that they weren't already on their way from the explosion and energy blasts). But there was a couple of things you needed to do first. You gave the downed robbers a glare. "Stay down, or I'll put you down." Not waiting to see their response, you turned around and moved towards the separate pile that you'd put their weapons into.
The first thing you looked over was the rocket cannon thing. Giving it a deeper scan, you could feel the energy output coming from this thing and it was insane! It was putting out more power then you were to keep your suit running. A blast of this strength would've levelled the roof if you hadn't stopped it.
No way you were leaving this for anyone to find. You put your hand out. The cannon came apart, the internal circuitry showing mostly a bunch of wires and an oversized barrel, connected to a glowing green energy core. You took the core and then crushed the rest of the gun. Without the power core it was useless, but you didn't want to risk the chance of anyone reverse-engineering it somehow. That gun was so lethal it wasn't funny. You honestly weren't sure if your armour could've taken it.
You examined the energy core. You could think of a few possible upgrades to your tech you could use with this, or even some new tech you could make using this as a base. But this energy, you couldn't dilute it, not without making it worthless. This designer, this Tinkerer had created such an aggressive power source that any weapon you put this into would be lethal to anyone without enhanced durability. And unlike your blasters, you couldn't lower the output. But those were thoughts for later. You stashed the core.
You moved onto the next pile. The three Chitauri rifles took a lot less time to examine. None of them felt familiar, not like the ones you'd tampered with. You let out a breathe of relief. At this point you were sure – this tech had nothing to do with you.
Now what were you going to do with these rifles? This was three examples of working alien technology at your feet. They weren't as dangerous as the plasma cannon but this was still Chitauri tech. You weren't going to leave them just lying around. So, what should you do with them?
Would you like to deconstruct the Chitauri rifles or leave them here?
[] Yes, you'll find more use for them. (grants 9 Chitauri Materials and 3 Chitauri Crystals)
[]
No, let the cops have them. Oh, who are you kidding, leave it for SHIELD. A gesture of trust is probably more useful in the long term.
Decision made, you turned to grab one of their phones to call the cops on (because using your phone would've been a giant red flag) before you stop, as you sensed a familiar piece of tech leaving the building behind you, and with it a familiar person.
"Hey," Skye said, now with a backpack slung across her back. Full of her blanket and snacks you assume.
"Hey," you said back. "Enjoyed the show?"
She grinned. "Yeah. I got some footage."
You rolled your eyes. Of course she did. You gestured to her backpack. "You heading out?" Based on what she'd said on the roof, you figured she'd sticking around to see the aftermath.
She shook her head. "Not exactly. I'm going to find another spot that hasn't been shot at."
You nodded. "Smart." You rubbed the back of your head. "Listen, can you do me a favour and not post that footage online?" You couldn't care less if she posted video of the robbers getting arrested. Hell, if SHIELD actually showed up and got caught on camera without doing recon then they deserved to be caught. But the footage of you in action was a different story. You didn't want that circulated for a lot of reasons.
She narrowed her eyes. "Why?"
"Because I don't like bad guys knowing what I can do ahead of time." There was also the minuscule chance someone could work out something about who you are. You have no idea how, but if a couple of million people analysed the same video then someone was bound to pick up something. "I'll also owe you a favour."
Her eyes lit up. "Okay, give me your number."
You blinked. "What?" That's her favour, seriously?
She smiled. "I'm going to be in New York for a couple more weeks so you know," she fidgeted. "Call me if you wanna hang out or something. You could come check out my van." She frantically waved her hands. "Not in a creepy way or anything! Just if you want to talk to someone about… Hero stuff."
You laughed. This girl was something alright. "Okay. Take this number down."
Combat Encounter Completed.
Rewards: 1 Plasma Core added to inventory. New Upgrades Unlocked. New Tech Unlocked. New Action Unlocked. Increased Reputation with Skye. Skye now available as a social action for the remainder of the Arc. Power expertise increased – training action DC lowered by 40.
Successful Combat Encounter! One Skill Point has been unlocked. Choose a skill from the skill tree (note that only skills coloured green can be chosen):
[] Write in Skill
Sorry for the delay. You all know the drill.
Two hour moratorium.
