13153/Running It Down

Running It Down
Date of Scene:	23 October 2022
Location:	Hell's Kitchen
Synopsis:	A group of SHIELD Agents and a member of the FBI respond to a ninja raid.
Cast of Characters:	Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, Tom McCarthy, Justin Pierce

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Natasha Romanoff has posed:
A SHIELD courier carrying a package had been dispatched through Hell's Kitchen to a meetup location to hand the package over. There had been a distress call from the courier, then silence. The receiver of the package had been sent an abort signal, then not checked in. That had been roughly twenty-three minutes ago as any available personnel within a scramble zone had been sent in to respond to the las tknown location. It was a dark, dreary, and muggy night about two am and the streets were seemingly deserted.

Clint Barton has posed:
Barton was dispatched by Quinjet to a relative position near where the last message was sent and deposited discreetly atop one of the multiple brownstone buildings that dot Hells Kitchen. With his bow unslung from his back, he takes up an overwatch position where he has a Hawks eye view of the potential Area of Operation. <"Barton in position."> He signals through comms and leans one raised knee against the lip of the roof to give himself a brace should things turn upsidedown.

Tom McCarthy has posed:
It had been a few weeks that Tom had taken off. Leave of absence, vacation - whatever they wanted to call it. He had a lot to sort out, after his encounter with Sara and the aftermath. Still, he had a job to do - so he was back on the scene. He was dressed in his standard issue SHIELD suit, sidearm still holstered and concealed. Near the end of the street, trying to blend in, he meandered a bit. <<McCarthy in position. No eyes on subject, yet.>>

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanoff would go to click over her comm <<In overwatch>> Clint could see from his position as he would sweep around the body of the courier in civilian attire over on the ground in an alleyway with a very, very large spear which had been shoved through his back and pinned him over to the wall. there would be no sign over o fthe package on him, at least from a quick glance.
    For Tom, there would be over along the nearby rooftops clear signs of small holes dug into them - likely by blades. Someone had just clambered right up them using small daggers as handholds.

Justin Pierce has posed:
Justin sits in the old green Caravan parked in a row of vehicles with the seat leaned back slightly. He sighs. Four hours of watching the storefront and nothing. Surveillance was not his favourite thing to do, and this was not endearing it to him. None of the others had any luck in the other spots they were watching. Wherever their target had gone to ground, it did not seem to be one of his known hideouts.

Clint Barton has posed:
<"Got eyes on one of our guys, spear through his back."> Clint says in a hushed tone, scanning the surrounding area where combat had clearly taken place, onesided though it clearly seems to have been. <"No sign of the package. Could have gone anywhere, but they'll probably be close on. Maybe one of the adjacent buildings?">

Tom McCarthy has posed:
Sharp eyes notice the holes in the wall. <<I think they went up. Looks like sharp pitons or blades were used to climb up.>> Tom responds, looking around the building for a point of entrance. Or a fire escape to climb. <<If we have eyes up there, take a look?>>

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanoff would frown. Pitons.. <<Who would use those in the city? THer'es plenty of things to use to climb with. We'll be tracking.>> Natasha is then going over to use a wrist grapple to launch herself up and over to the roof. Over by the old green caravan, Justin immediately notices several dark shapes running past him at high speed. The shine of large blades in passing gives them away. Bright in the darkness. Tom and Clint are likely able to spot them as well. wearing dark outfits that cover thier entire bodies.. Heavy cloth like gis.

Justin Pierce has posed:
"Well shit," Justin says to himself. Reflexively, he checks his holster is in place. He waits for the figures to get some ways ahead then keys his mic.

<It's Pierce. Got some.... ninja... running past my location. I'm going to check it out. One of you roll into the area quietly in case something goes sideways.> Pierce says to the rest of his FBI surveillance team on the radio.

Justin waits for the ninja to get a ways ahead then quietly opens his door. In jeans and a grey hoodie, his vest on underneath, he takes off running down the street when they get far enough they may not notice him. He tries to keep up but out of sight, stopping to check carefully around any corners they take.

Clint Barton has posed:
<"On it."> Barton answers Tom, bow slung over his shoulder in the same motion as him pushing off the wall to start towards the edge of the buildings running along the street. The leaps are quiet, controlled, and easy for him... Though he'll definitely be soaking in an ice bath for his knees at some point tonight. There could be some ibuprophen. The night is chilly, but between his SHIELD sanctioned armor and the beard he's now fully into growing (there's even some beads in it, he's going all in), he feels pretty warm! <"Well, they're using spears for combat, makes sense they'd be using climbing gear.">

It's during one of his jumps that ne notices the glint of steel and rolls up into a ready position near the edge of the building with an arrow already threaded, <"We've got company... Pierce says ninjas, but it looks like some Assassin's Creed fans. Did someone see if they're missing a ring finger?"> After a beat pause, <"On your word, Nat."> He draws back, ready to let fly at her signal.

Tom McCarthy has posed:
Even with the other agents, there's still another person with Tom. Digitabulum. The amulet speaks to him. ~This is a waste of time. They are distracting you. They have what they want and are escaping with it.~ Tom keeps nearer to the ground at that tidbit of information, relaying to the team.

<<Non-metahuman assassins. These... are a distraction. The package is getting further away. If you can get eyes on that... we'll be better off. If we focus solely on these guys, it'll be in the wind.>> Even so, he draws his sidearm - .45 and ready. <<If you're up top, Barton - can you see the package?>>

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
If one could see Natasha's face there would be a frown. <<They'll hav had time to go to ground. Try and leave some of them conscious if we can and we'll take them for questioning. They might know something useful. No response on the tracker from the package. And we have federal agents present.>> They'd likely disabled it. Which meant they had a good idea of what was coming, who was going to receive it, and how it would be delivered.

Lovely.

<<Engage.>> She doesn't micro-manage the team. They have their own methods and she trusts them. The FBI group in turn gets to get a good look of the ninjas going to a defensive position, rapidly deploying over in a roup and spread out. The FBI team.. However, has not been spotted. But the SHIELD team has been passed along their presence.

Justin Pierce has posed:
Justin gets to the corner of a brick building and quickly peeks around. He sees the ninja are getting ready for a fight.

"Yeah..." he mutters dryly. Justin pulls back and slips out his hoodie so his vest and the FBI across the front and back are plainly visible. He pulls his sidearm and listens carefully... Surely those ninja are not waiting for him.

<These guys are ready for a fight. Don't know with who. Keep a block or two out and wait for me to call it.> Justin says to his team.

<We're a good ten minutes out Pierce, don't get in trouble before we get there> Swatzky replies over the air.

"Alone on the street with ninja," Justin mutters to himself. He listens for sounds around the corner where the ninja are waiting for.....

Clint Barton has posed:
<"They've had a full fifteen minutes head-start. Unless they're sitting around ready to parade it infront of us, we're not getting that package back without finding out where they took it."> Clint is a senior agent, though he does often deffer to Natasha on missions to call the shots. <"So... you heard the lady, don't sacrifice them all to the blood gods.">

The first volley, if it can be called that, is one of the multiple trick-arrows in his quiver.

He takes a direct aim on moving targets, then sweeps his bow out a few feet to the right in the direction they're headed, rather than where they actually are. When the arrow sails, it does so in a wide arc, having jerked the bow slightly to give it a pitch when it flies.

Out, then down.. it collids with the concrete a few feet in front of at least one of the ninja clad individuals. Immediately releasing a noxious gas from two ports on either side of the solid arrow tip. It's not a thick cloud, but it should, in theory, be enough to give one of them a woozy drunk feeling should they be so unlucky as to pass directly through it.

Tom McCarthy has posed:
I mean, leg-shots are a thing! Tom keeps close to the wall, using it as any sort of cover. The pistol snaps off, once - clipping one of the ninjas in the knee. <<Got it.>> He responds, not wanting to go to hand to hand with a squad of murder-ninjas. With swords - or knives. Or whatever, really!

He moves from cover point to cover point, quickly as he can. At each station he pauses, aims and fires. Not all are hits, of course - but hopefully it keeps those ninjas from just over-running anyone.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
The ninjas are at least not expecting the immedaite flanking or hit and run over th TomMcarthy and they're moving to respond over to him.. Right as Clint goes to hit them over with arrows from his quiver. They're not expecting to be pincered that way - so it's a rapid, chaotic reorientation as several of them are dropped quickly as the rest spread out. There's an immediate volley of smoke bombs hurled around them for cover as they try and get to a positionw here they can't be victimized by pot shots. Their scrambling is indicative of rookies.

They've been dropepd here as fodder - no one very skilled is going to be sacrificed for a delaying action.

Agent Pierce is in a perfect position to move closer, unnoticed as smoke bombs go about.

Justin Pierce has posed:
Justin hears the shots and the commotion. He peeks around the corner in time to see smoke bombs going off and the ninja reacting in disarray. Against his better judgement, he slips around the corner and runs for cover behind a dumpster closer to the fight, outside the smoke, trying to make some sense of what's happening. He does a quick scan around but cannot see the experienced SHIELD operatives making their attack from above.

"The hell is going on?" he says from a crouch with his sidearm at a low-ready and looks out from around cover to try and make sense of it.

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint is up on high with a vantage above the battlefield, which is absolutely perfect for raining down arrows like the Persians before Thermpolyae. Another is let loose, this one flying with a concussive blast capsule on the end set to detonate at the press of a button on the grip of his bow. He can't actually SEE the ninjas moving around in their rookie fashion, but he knows battle... and he's got a sixth sense.. hitting said button just as it would connect. It sends off a WOOP of explosive energy that's low enough yield not to rend flesh, but high enough to really mess up someones eardrums. A lot of someones if they're too close to the blast radius.

Take that Ninjas.

<"We've got someone else down there, you see them?">

Another arrow lets loose, then another. Rapid firing his non-lethal arsenal from his perch atop the building.

Tom McCarthy has posed:
<<I see someone - hard to see with all the smoke.>> Pistol still drawn, Tom tries to loop around to get closer to the non-ninja. Without him thinking, a blade appears in his free hand. Digitabulum is ready, even if Tom is focused on aiming. Thankfully, he's drawn on the ninjas, not Justin. "Hey, get clear - it's dangerous." He calls over, over-simplifying what's going on.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
The exchange of fire builds up, even as Clint goes to bombard the ninjas with arrows, and Tom goes to pick off more with his pistol. Natasha goes to speak over the comms while taking potshots from the rooftops <<If you're close enough to do so safely, use ICERs. I'd rather they not get a chance to use suicide pills>> Some ninjas were well conditioned enough to do that. Given they didn't know who or what they were dealing with.. Whether they were zealots or not.. Better safe than sorry just in case.
    The ninja ranks are thinning - most are down or disabled. But at least one has gotten the location of Tom and Justice, and is going to charge at the two with a massive polearm!

Justin Pierce has posed:
Justin peeks around cover again in time to see one of the ninja with a polearm charging at... someone.

<Shots fired, shots fired> Justin calls over the FBI radio.

He levels his pistol and squeezes off two rounds at the charging ninja, then covers again and scans the rooftops, trying to figure out where the attacks /against/ the ninja are coming from.

Clint Barton has posed:
At least one, which is hecka unfortunate for the unassuming ninja charging at Pierce with a polearm, is about to have a very bad day. Another arrow is pulled from the quiver on his back, this one tipped with a blunted edge. Clint pulls it and lets loose, whistling the arrow right over the long shave of the polearm, aimmed for the birdge of the ninjas nose.

He's wearing a lot of dark clothes up there on the roof, but he's also firing a lot of arrows.

So relatively speaking, not hard to pick out. Since at least one of them had a blinking red light on the end. Perfect for making him a visual anomoly amidst the darkness of the rooftops.

<"The irony of a bunch of ninjas getting shot at with arrows is not lost on me.">

Tom McCarthy has posed:
Oh, hell. Tom's clothing on the left arm, the one holding the blade, shreds apart. Wicked metal armor flows over his limb, even as he parries the incoming polearm attack. The shots fired by Justin and the blunt arrow from Clint drop the ninja. "Keep them alive." He calls over to Justin, hoping the man has a method for temporarily disabling the attackers. "We need answers!" We? Who's we?

The polearm is kicked away from the downed man, even as the SHIELD agent swaps for his ICER. A dart is fired into another ninja, who was trying to advance on Justin from behind.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
The last of the ninjas is down now. none are conscious, alive, or capable of further combat. So they have several in a state upon revival that they can question to get whatever information they have. It will likely be minimal beyond their names, their affiliation, and other small identification. Perhpas there will be some ability to backtrack to where they were trained or their celloperated from. But those locations will logically be abandoned by now.
    Natasha jogs on down and lets ou ta sigh, "Agent.." She would gesture at Tom, "Debrief him." She would gesture at Justin.
    whomever took the courier package will no doubt be much better than this fodder. They've had twenty three minutes, seventeen seconds since the distress call went in to get out of there and go to ground. An eternity. so there's two dead agents, a missing courier package..

Justin Pierce has posed:
"Alive? They're..."

But then he sees the armour on Tom. The blinking red lights of the arrows catch Justin's attention and he looks up and sees and archer. Then one of the heroes of New York walks into view when the ninja are downed.

"Ah shit," Justin says. He stands up and holsters his sidearm.

<Stand down>

<Boss, are you...> Sawatzky protests.

<Inter-agency thing. Hold off, do not come over here.>

"Look, I'm sorry," the FBI agent says, coming over to Tom and Natasha. "I didn't know this was an Avengers thing. Agent Pierce, Metahuman Crimes... You... Need a hand? An ambulance for these guys? Or am I getting flashy-thinged?"

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint descends rapidly on an arrow fired cord and strolls casually towards where Natasha and Tom are handling diplomatic relations with the feds. The weathered old agent, casual Avenger, and the best beard this side of the street (it's new okay, he still needs to work on it), up nods to Justin. "Hey man." Like they bumped into each other at walmart.

Rather than stick around to do the talking, he slings his bow and nudges the groaning ninja with his boot. Smirking at the mention of him getting flashy thingied, "You're good, we don't do brain scrambles." He grips the ninjas jaw with his thumb and forefinger, turning his head side to side. <"This is Agent Barton, calling for a pick up of several captives and an extraction of three agents..."> Stepping over to have a relatively private conversation a few feet away over comms.

Tom McCarthy has posed:
With all the hostiles down, the armor just seems to melt back into the braclet around Tom's wrist. Along with the blade. That said, his shirt and suit arm are ruined. Tom looks his now bared arm with a sigh, shaking his head as he murmured in his mind to the Digitabulum. -You could have spared the shirt, right?-

~Your wardrobe is not of consequence, Thomas.~

Holstering the ICER, Tom offers a nod to Justin. "Uh..." Looking to Natasha and Clint, he turns back to the other agent on the ground. "Not specfically Avengers. We're working in tandem with them." Yep. Technically true, in this instance! He's working side by side with two Avengers!

"These assailants will be medivaced and taken care of." He even does a quick glance around for any potential life-threatening injuries on the downed ninjas. "What were you working on, Agent? We didn't want to bump heads with your investigations."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanoff would speak into her comm <<This isn't classified, so if the federal agent has questions, give him a quick summation if you feel necessary.>> A few minutes later there will be a Quinjet dropping in over with medical personnel and a team to help secure the area and sweep for any more evidence.

And to take the bodies of their own agents back for burial. No matter how one takes it, this still feels like a loss.

Justin Pierce has posed:
Justin raises an eyebrow and looks amused at the sheer nonchalance and surrealness of /the/ Clint Barton just walking in with the equivalent of a 'wassup'.

"Glad I'm not getting scrambled, I need all the braincells I got," he says dryly. Then he looks to Tom.

"I was doing surveillance up the block," he says and jerks his thumb over his shoulder. "We're looking for a kid... Might be a mutant, might be possessed. Keeps turning into this red demon-looking thing and getting into fights. Trying to bring him in before he kills someone. I wasn't expecting ninja... But I guess that's the point."

"Sorry this went bad," he adds somberly. "Anything I can do to help?"

Clint Barton has posed:
With the Quinjet on the way, Clint slings his bow and makes his way back over with his thumbs hooked behind the loops of his belt, "Turns into a red dragon and starts fights... isn't that just puberty?" He glances around, brow raised, "No?" He shrugs and lets the more informed handle the conversation henceforth.

Once one of the jets settles down to pick up hostages, he nods towards it. "That's my ride." Hand out to shake with Pierce, "Good work out there, I've got a bottle of bubbly and an ice bath in my immediate future."

Tom McCarthy has posed:
"It's rare to expect a ninja. We had a courier get ... well, terminated by these folks. They've made off with our delivery, unfortunately." There's a definite feeling of sadness from Tom - losing people was never easy, especially when he used to be a medic. "I think we're all good here - none of your people got hurt, did they, Agent Pierce?" He asks.

Fishing a card out of his ruined suitcoat, he offers it over to the other man. "If you happen to run across any more of these, or get a lead on your red-demon teen, let us know? I'd like to help out where I can - mission permitting, of course."

Justin Pierce has posed:
Justin shakes hands with Clint. "Enjoy," he replies. "Sounds better than the reports waiting for me."

Justin takes Tom's card and shakes his head. He tucks it into one of the pockets on his vest and hands one of his own to Tom.

"No, my people are fine, they didn't get here before it was all over, they're a block out. They shouldn't see a thing," he says to Tom. "I'll let you know if we get any leads, and if you need us, give me a shout."

Justin puts his hands in his pockets. "That's a nice ride," he says of the Quinjet and shakes his head looking bemused.

Tom McCarthy has posed:
"Good. Hate to see good people get hurt." Tom says, earnestly. "I am sure someone will be in touch with your folks to see if there's anything else we can do - or if there's anything of interest we can pass on regarding your case, Agent Pierce." A smile.

"Keep safe out there!" He offers, before turning towards the Quinjet as well. There's no want for Tom to walk back to base. Or Uber. He hates filling out expense paperwork.