1141/Cross-Purposes on Chambers Street

Cross-Purposes on Chambers Street
Date of Scene:	13 April 2020
Location:	Financial District
Synopsis:	Spider-Man runs into a focused assassin and finds himself out-maneuvered.
Cast of Characters:	Peter Parker, Martinique Wyngarde

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Peter Parker has posed:
Monday night, 11:15 PM

Welcome to the REAL Emerald City, AKA the Financial District of New York. The green is from money, the Yellow Brick Road is there for the rich to stroll along. The whole place smells like money, bay-by.

And if some of the smells came from the blood spilled, hey, everyone knows capitalism can be cutthroat...

Derek Waggoner, venture capitalist looked at the screen and frowned. "Mr. Fisk, I can play the shell game for as long as I can, but sooner or later the FTC is going to catch wise."

"Don't worry, Derek. By the morning, all transactions will be covered, and you will be on a plane to Caracas."
Derek sighed. "Yes, sir..."

"...yes, sir, Mr. Fisk."
Spider-Man smiled as he listened to the feed from the laser microphone. Another five minutes, and then he was going to pay Waggoner a visit. With th info he had, ol' Derek was going to be easy to cart off to Captain Stacy of the NYPD to have a pointed little chat. By the time this Fisk fellow knew what was going on, ol' Derek was going to topple a lot of Dominoes.

Martinique Wyngarde has posed:
Martinique Wyngarde runs into all kinds. Chinese old school gangsters. Slumlords. Now a Venture Capitalist. She's made it her business to take out shady dealers who have been exploiting refugees, and when she can, make a little money in doing so. Unfortunately for Derek Waggoner, he has enough enemies that she can make money in his case.

Getting into a high-rise building at night isn't the hardest thing. Walk in with a trenchcoat covering obvious weapons, Jedi mind trick the security guard to think she is housekeeping, and take his elevator card to get to any floor she wants.

So Spider-Man's microphone picks up an elevator opening up when there shouldn't be one opening up at this time, on this floor.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man tilted his head. A visitor? Derek worked alone, without oversight.

When his Spider-Sense kicked in, the real alarm set in.

In his line of work, the only ones showing up without appointments are ones he doesn't want to meet.
Spidey left the machine to record, and fired a webline.

Derek looked up as he heard the elevator doors open. That was odd. He tapped the intercom and said, "Vic? Trent?"

The two men in the front office, installed there at Fisk's request, looked up. "Yeh?" Vic said.
"Someone's at the elevator."
Vic sighed, taking a cattle prod out of his coat. "Let's go," he said to Trent and they went out to meet the newcomer.

Martinique Wyngarde has posed:
Martinique Wyngarde is obviously very much on guard. Trenchcoat left in the elevator, to be picked up for her exit. She has a large handgun raised, loaded, and read.y

She slips out of the elevator, looking both ways, listening. Reaching out with her mind to see who's here.

Sensing Vic and Trent, she projects into their minds the sense that it's a 40 year old immigrant woman pushing a large cart full of cleaning supplies, looking around for trash cans to empty.

Peter Parker has posed:
Vic looked from the "cleaning woman" to Trent. "I thought the cleaning lady came by already."
"Ah, let her work. She looks SOOOO skeery."

Derek frowned. What were those two lugs doing?
Derek picked up the phone to call when he heard someone knocking on the side door to his office. "Go away!" Derek said, opening the desk to pull out a small .380 pistol.

Then the door was pushed in, the door frame fracturing as the locks were "overridden."

Spider-Man stepped inside. "AVON calling."

Martinique Wyngarde has posed:
Martinique Wyngarde 'goes to empty the trash' in an office adjacent to Derek's. So that leaves Vic and Trent ready to go back to messing with their phones, watching videos of crazy Russian drivers, and having a good old time.

So, she takes that gun, holding it up and pointing it at the wall. She aligns herslef just so, glacning at the window, taking a few steps, and then just starts firing. Four powerful shots pierce through the thin office wall. Next, they pierce right through Derek's skin, and his organs. His computer and monitor, which he's slumping dead onto, also now have holes in them, and are emitting smoke.

She then starts striding away, weapon out, but quite calmly swiping the lobby guard's card and pressing the elevator call button.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man's eye-lenses go wide as four holes appear in Derek and his computer. He reaches down to yank the power cords, but the computer is dead.
Ah, crispy crap...
He pulls the side of the beige box, hoping against hope, that...WHEW. The computer CPU has a large hole in it, but the hard drive is still intact. Spider-Man begins to unscrew it. He doesn't do anything for Derek because he can see where the bullets landed.
Heaven or Hell, his worries about money are all over.

Vic and Trent both hear the shots, and spread out to find the gunman. Vic was carrying his cattle prod, and Trent came out with a sawed-off shotgun. "We get this guy, or we don't breathe another HOUR!"

Martinique Wyngarde has posed:
Martinique Wyngarde is leaning on the wall waiting for the elevator. When Vic and Trent get to work, she sighs. "Housekeeping," she says, and fires four more shots down the hall as soon as they round the corner. Any possible hope Spider-Man had of making this a clean, quiet retrieval of information is long, long gone, as three bodies are on the floor.

But, she just calmly reloads her weapon, and hits the button again. Most of the elevators are turned off this late, and even when they're all on, most of them don't even go to this floor.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man looked up. More gunfire. Great.

Then, success, and the solid-state hard drive is in his hands. A lot of information in there.

He gets the feeling there is someone very proficient out there. And that is serious trouble.

He goes to the window and webs the SSD in a protective cocoon before sticking it to the outside wall above the window.

Now, then...

Spider-Man leaves the room and moves along the ceiling towards the elevators. He can hear one of them coming up, and he sets the drone to move to a good place to take pictures as he closes in on the elevator door...and the woman standing there, without a care in the world...

Martinique Wyngarde has posed:
Martinique Wyngarde is in a dark green catsuit, with belts and shoulder harnesses containing a variety of weapons, ammunition, and utilities. She sighs, waiting for this slow elevator, and well, she pulls out her phone to mess with it. Eyes still alert though, so if that drone becomes too conspicuous...

Peter Parker has posed:
Jeez, she's like the lethal version of Black Cat. How many weapons does she HAVE?

Best not to take chances. Ready...aim...
Both hands rise up.
FIRE.

THWIPP - THWIPP!!
Two webshooters sound off as webbing covers Martinique's feet and lower legs.

Martinique Wyngarde has posed:
Martinique Wyngarde slips her phone back into a holster in one smooth motion, and as he fires his webs, she turns her gun, and aims it right at him. The uniform he's in is, of course, distinctive. "Let me go," she orders him softly, the second time she's spoken since coming into the building.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man looks down the barrel at the woman aiming it at him, but he does not act like his life could end in the next second.

"You killed a man, whoever you are. You need to be VERY convincing to talk me into letting you go." He points at the gun. "And I gotta tell you, you're not off to a great start."

Martinique Wyngarde has posed:
Martinique Wyngarde shakes her head. "I killed a man exploiting refugees who just had their lives shattered, and took money from another group of gangsters to do it. You're either working for him, or breaking the law yourself. Let me go."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man scowled at her. "And until someone blows the whistle on his whole setup, whoever's in charge will replace him with the next financial go-getter, and the machine will keep going on. Who hired you, Miss?"

The drone's had to have gotten at least six or seven good shots by now. The algorithm has worked flawlessly in the past...
Then flashing lights from the side access door. Cops? No...cops announce their arrival.

"Great. Your backup's here. Last chance. Who hired you?"

Martinique Wyngarde has posed:
Martinique Wyngarde reaches very calmly, methodically for a very sharp knife, and starts trying to cut herself free. The whole time, keeping the firearm leveled at Spider-Man. "I'm giving you a chance because you have a reputation. Don't make this difficult."

Peter Parker has posed:
They were getting closer, and he realized he had a choice to make. He could handle any bullet she sent at him, but a bunch of guys playing bullet pinball? He was good, but he wasn't THAT good.

Spider-Man pointed two fingers to his own eyes, then pointed them at her as the drone lifted off to return to the backpack. "I'll be seeing you..." he intoned...and then bolted back the way he came.

Spidey burst through the office, passing by Derek (or what used to be Derek) and sprung through the now-open window, grabbing the SSD as he did. It was the best bad choice out of a lot of bad choices.

Martinique Wyngarde has posed:
Martinique Wyngarde grunts as she works on cutting through that tough webbing. "Be seeing you, she replies, not having a hand free to give a Patrick McGoohan salute or any other. Once sfreed, FINALLY the elevator dings. She slips in, puts her coat back on, and makes her way out, using illusions to get right through unnoticed.

Peter Parker has posed:
Seven miles away, a man picked up a phone and listened. "Yes," he said simply, then hung up and called another number.

Wilson "Kingpin" Fisk picked up the phone. "Yes...?"
"Got confirmation. She was successful, but the hard drive was missing."
"Regrettable. Pay her the rest of her fee. Derek was getting too sloppy and the cops were closing in."
"Should we be concerned, sir? If the hard drive is missing..."
"CALM YOURSELF. Even if the police have it, they would need someone VERY smart to decrypt it. And trust me..."

Spider-Man swung away, SSD tucked in his backpack.

"...the cops don't have anyone THAT smart." Fisk smiled.