13193/The Reavers: Running Short

The Reavers: Running Short
Date of Scene:	26 October 2022
Location:	Horizons Research Facility, STAR Labs, Manhattan, NYC
Synopsis:	Justin goes to Horizons to meet Cecily. Cecily gets deputized and some cyborgs get wrecked.
Cast of Characters:	Justin Pierce, Cecily Winters
Tinyplot:	Reavers

---

Justin Pierce has posed:
A cold, light rain drizzles over New York, turning the sidewalks into a sea of umbrellas. Justin slows his black Yukon down, signals, and waits patiently for a break in the flow of pedestrians.

"I gotta go, I'm at Horizons. I'll lose you in the underground" Justin says. "Just let me know if the demon kid turns up."

"He better, I'm supposed to go to the wife's Halloween party tonight," comes Sawatzky's voice over the SUV speakers.

"Say hi for me," Justin says. He hits the button to hang up the call, spots an opening and pulls through into the parkade of the Elmont Building. Justin parks in one of the 'police only' stalls, puts an FBI placard on the dash and heads for the elevators. He does up the front buttons of his black suit to cover over the firearm and cuffs on his belt.

The elevator chimes on the 27th floor. The letters on the wall proclaim that the airy, glass and wood reception area with big windows looking out over the city belong to Horizons Research, a division of STAR Labs. The sign on the wall by the elevator behind Justin says the three floors above this one do, too.

"Hi, Special Agent Justin Pierce" Justin says pleasantly to the rather polished looking young man at the reception desk. He shows his badge and tucks it away. "Is Cecily Winters in? I heard she might be in the office today."

Cecily Winters has posed:
    "If it's not one thing, it's another," comes a voice from down the hall. Feminine, but agitated. "I submitted the report, yes. Yes, everything is completely accurate. No this isn't the first time someone tried replicating Stark-Tech. Yes, the collateral damage was entirely the fault of the perpetrator..."

    Her voice carries but so does the sound of her kitten heels on the hard floor. "...you know even I can't simply lift the roof off of a building..." she sounds incredulous, and then she's there in the reception area before the man behind the desk can really actually respond. All he can do is point vaguely in the woman's general dirction.

    She's impossible to miss with those long legs, cute fox ears, and of course, nine fluffy tails. As sharply dressed as the Special Agent but not hiding her sidearm, and wearing shooter's gloves. Unfortunately, she doesn't seem to really notice the goings on as she's rubbing her temples with one hand, holding a cell in the other, and making her way towards the recently-closed elevator doors. "Tony's already aware, and the Metropolis branch has the security footage... no I don't know if anything was stolen, I was busy herding civilians and putting bullets in awalking boilerplate."

Justin Pierce has posed:
Justin raises an eyebrow and takes the woman in at a glance.

"Got it, thanks," he says.

Justin turns from the desk and joins Cecily waiting for the elevator. The elevator car is still there, so the doors open as soon the button is pushed. He gestures politely for Cecily to go first, then goes into elevator car with her.

Justin looks faintly amused as the elevator doors close.

Cecily Winters has posed:
    "Yes, we're still on for Gotham on the weekend," Cecily states as she slips into the elevator. It's going up. One of the other lab floors. "Right, talk to you later," the fox nods and ends the call. It's last year's model of StarkPhone but it's still as sleek as one would imagine. It vanishes within an internal vest pocket and she smooths out her clothes slightly.

    Finally, off the call, she addresses Justin with a curt nod, "Good afternoon," she greets. She's polite, and doesn't seem entirely too distracted now.

Justin Pierce has posed:
"Afternoon," Justin says conversationally. "Sounds like a busy day. Must keep you busy around here."

The elevator slows to a stop after the short trip between floors. Justin offers for Cecily to go first again then follows out after her.

"You on the way to a meeting, or do you have a couple minutes?" Justin asks.

What sounds like the lead in to another bad attempted pick up at the office is put into context when Justin holds out a business card for Cecily, then offers his hand.

"Justin, pleased to meet you."

Cecily Winters has posed:
    A soft, but exasperated sigh does escape the vixen and she nods, "They do. Not that it bothers me too much," she says, keeping it simply conversational and not revealing any details as to what's got her so busy. "Haven't seen you here before," she then adds, and finally.. things add up when Justin follows her off of the elevator and hands her the card. She pauses, tails floofing out and ears lifting as she reads it over.

    "Aha..." she states, her smile growing a little more... terse. "...Special Agent Pierce, was it?" she asks, then shakes her head. "No, no meeting. Just king care of some loose ends.." A soft sigh is exhaled, "My office is on this floor. I do have a couple of minutes. Cecily, by the by," she then adds. "But, talk and walk. What can I do for you?" she gestures onwards as she begins to move.

Justin Pierce has posed:
Justin smiles his thanks and walks with Cecily towards her office. He looks around curiously as they go.

"Agent Greene transferred out. I think he touched base with you once or twice?" Justin asks rhetorically. "I picked up some of his 'liaison' duties when I came in."

It is always the same euphemism for keeping tabs on with the FBI agents.

Justin holds up a hand. "It's insulting, I know. It's not fair, and I don't agree with it," the senior agent says. "I promise I'll tick the box and stay out of your hair. Personally, I was hoping for your help with something."

Cecily Winters has posed:
    Her office is pretty sparse. It doesn't look like she spends a whole lot of time here. The desk is a glass-and-steel affair with a high-tech paper-thin monitor and an ergonomic keyboard. The chair looks comfy enough, at least. A few file cabinets are in here, too. No windows. No real decorations. It's like this room is just a formality and file storage.

    "Agent... Greene... terrible taste in coffee... nice enough fellow.." she says with a nod, gesturing to the chair across the desk as she settles into her own, taking care not to sit on her own tails. "I know, you do your job, I do mine. You're here to make sure I don't lug an anti-material rifle on a crowded subway car and open fire with it, and I make sure all of the permits and paperwork are signed, sealed, and delivered..."

    There's a small, exasperated sigh coming from the fox as she settles in. "Unless you need my help with something special? Usually the feds stick to their own numbers for special favors."

Justin Pierce has posed:
The agent takes a seat and crosses one leg over the other. He gives a wry smile at Cecily's characterization of things.

"Thanks for understanding," Justin says as he glances around, briefly, looking for any personal touches in the room.

"Normally, you're right, we keep things in-house," he says, carefully avoiding using Cecily's phrasing. "But I'm here, and professionally, you're an expert in this one. I'm not after company secrets or anything like that, but rumour has it Horizons is doing some advanced cybernetics research here."

Justin reaches into his pocket for one of his phones. It is a standard Luthor model that screams government procurement. He scrolls through some emails, pulls up a picture and puts the phone down on the desk for Cecily to see.

It is a shot of a three storey building in an industrial park. The building is half-collapsed, emergency services are all around. In the background of the shot, a man is tied to a fence.

"Heard of Harold Qing? He was blackmailing a medical robotics company into letting him run a body chop shop there," Justin says and points to the picture.

"That shop and two others got hit in the last three months."

Cecily Winters has posed:
    No personal touches. It's kept immaculate, though. Just the same as her outfit. She clasps her hands on her lap, crossing her own legs at the ankle as she sits. The chair, at least, seems like it's meant for her, too, tails and all. They don't seem to be getting stuck in anything. The mention of Horizons earns a curt nod, but she doesn't speak further on it.

    The picture, though, makes her ears lift and her eyes widen. "That's a lot of collateral damage..." she mumbles, lips pursed in a small frown. Those violet eyes drift from the phone to meet Justin's blues. "Any correlation and causation? You think these are somehow linked to each other?" she asks, leaning back, sounding more interested. Until she shrugs her shoulders just slightly, "What does it have to do with us, here and now though?" she asks.

Justin Pierce has posed:
Justin nods when Cecily looks over at him.

"I do. We found a few of the customers in the wreckage. They look a lot like the full-conversion cyborgs we've seen in some video out of Bushwick that have been attacking and abducting metas. Pretty sure that was a reprisal," Justin says and pockets his phone.

"Problem now, is supply has dried up and someone has some high end cyborgs they need to keep going. There are only a few places to go for some key components they're going to need," Justin explains. "That attack was almost two months ago. They're probably getting desperate around now. I'm wondering if you've heard anything. Or if anything's gone missing."

Cecily Winters has posed:
    The mention of cyborgs does make her head tilt slowly. But it's the talk of abductions that make her hiss through her teeth, making a sound that's clearly none-too-pleased. "/Really/," she growls. Her hands unclasp from her lap and she drums her fingers on the edge of the desk now, a rhythmic if muted series of thumps.

    Then she shakes her head, "...no. Not here. It's been quiet here. Hell I thought we'd seen the last of those a year ago..." Her eyes settle on Justin. "Not to be accusatory, but are you suggesting they might be stealing from Horizon? Or having someone provide materials? Or..." she purses her lips.

    "...perhaps wondering if we're at risk? If this is the same group that I'm.. intimately familiar with.. they're brash. Though I can't speak on their level of desperation if they're running low on materials. Magic and mutants seem to be a lot more commonplace around here than chrome, you know?"

Justin Pierce has posed:
"No, they were clearly getting supplies from Qing, that's a whole other problem," Justin says. "I'm worried will try... Do you hear that?"

Justin turns a bit in his seat to look at the door.

Raised voices from down the hall can be heard through the door. They are muted and indistinct to human ears, but the tone is panic. Fast footfalls. The door to the office flies open and the young man from reception is standing there, eyes wide.

Dr. Elise Mathers bursts through the door into the small office and closes it behind her.

"Ms. Mathers," she says in her precise British accent... in between heavy breaths. "We.... are being... attacked... My god. I hate running."

Dr. Mathers gestures in the direction of the floor's lobby. "They came up the stairs. I was just coming back from coffee."

The brown coffee stains on the woman's blouse are all that remains of her unfortunate beverage.

Just then Cecily's phone buzzes and flashes with an alert that someone hit the lockdown alarm for Horizons.

Justin gets up out of his chair, unholsters, and checks his sidearm. "Magic, metal or mutants? Want to bet which one?" he asks Cecily. He gives Dr. Mathers a quick look up and down, then satisfied she is not injured he turns and makes a cross sign in the air in Cecily's direction with a slight smirk. "Deputized, indemnified, try not to launch them out the windows," he intones. "Amen?"

Cecily Winters has posed:
    "Wonderful, and with him... /elsewhere/... it makes it hard to figure out if he's still supplying..." she trails off. Her ears lift. Sharp. Not just for show. "You've got to be kidding me..." she hisses through her teeth again. Just in time for the door to open. She's already standing, and quickly. "Mathers. Ethan," she addresses the both of them. "Where the hell is security?" she grunts and checks the alert on her phone. "Could be metal or mutants," she grumbles at Justin and swipes her fingers along a biometric lock on a file cabinet behind her.

    The drawer is yanked open and inside... is not files. No paperwork at all. Just a hard secure case with another lock on it. "...can't even have a day at the office..." she rapidly enters the code and throws the lid open. Inside is an MP7 and a tactical belt for mags she locks around her waist. "So I'm an FBI deputy now? No defenestration allowed?" she asks, smirking back at Justin as she slides her PDW's magazine home and pulls the bolt.

    "You two, stay in here. Lock the door. Don't *touch* anything," she barks at the doctor and the receptionist. "You'd think they have it out for me, they keep hitting my home turf..." she rolls her eyes at Justin, her tails fluffing up in a very agitated fashion.

Justin Pierce has posed:
Justin raises an eyebrow at the contents of Cecily's filing cabinet, is momentarily distracted by the tails, then shakes his head with a bemused smile and moves to the door.

"I said /try/ not to," he says. He pulls his phone out and taps a couple buttons then pockets it.

Justin cracks the door open just a bit a peeks down the sliver of hallway he can see.

Superhuman ears already know what Justin will see. Two people, very heavy, turning out of an adjoining hall and moving quickly towards the labs. Unaware of the redundancy, Justin holds up two fingers for Cecily and points down the hall. What Cecily can hear but Justin can't see is the third moving more slowly at the other end of the hallway.

Cecily Winters has posed:
    "Oh, well then," Cecily manages a soft laugh, "No promises." Then she goes silent as the door pops open. She moves to stack up on the other side of it. Thankfully, with her room so sparse, there's enough wall space for them to easily get up against the door frame on either side. Her ears perk, twitch, and she frowns and shakes her head. Moving a hand off of the folding grip of her gun, she holds up three fingers and then one, pointing in the other direction of the hall.

    Then she gives one of her ears a little tug before she visibly sighs and carefully inserts a pair of plugs.

Justin Pierce has posed:
Justin mouths a quick 'thanks'. He gives a bit of a 'huh' expression when Cecily puts in her earplugs, then nods. There is a loud smash of glass at the end of the hall where the two were headed, most likely the frosted glass wall and keycard controlled door that leads to the lab area.

Justin takes a breath, brings his sidearm up and tucked close in, then button-hooks towards the third intruder Cecily warned him about. His back to the other two, it is the kind of tactics that put a lot of trust in the other person.

"FBI, on the ground!"

The lobby at the end of the hall in Justin's direction is a mess. Someone is lying on the floor with blood on his face, possibly unconscious, possibly worse. In the hallway and watching the elevator is a short man with buzz cut brown hair in nondescript black military fatigues. The man reacts so quickly. He spins on the spot and starts sprinting towards Justin.

One, two, three bangs.

In the other direction, an extremely athletic woman in her thirties with long blond hair and another woman with a black bob cut skid to a stop 30 feet from Cecily's office. Shattered glass is everywhere, it looks like they just ran right through the glass. Both are turning in unison to look back up the hall towards their rearguard.

Cecily Winters has posed:
    The fox might take a half-second to be surprised that Justin is putting that much trust in her even though they'd certainly just met. Still, she's not about to miss the opportunity to return the favor. She gets in position, knowing well the clearance required of her tails, Cecily getting as 'back to back' as possible for her to not distract the Agent with her errant fluffs.

    Were this any other situation, she might've taken a moment to appreciate the pair of finely built women standing before her. Instead, there's blood and broken glass, so all the pair get is a "tch" as gunshots go off right behind her. Even with the plugs in, her ears instinctively fold against her head. "STAR Labs Asset Protection," she announces, bringing the stock to her shoulder and training the laser sight on one woman's chest.

    "No hard feelings," she then adds as she pulls the trigger. Her firearm's report is a burst of six sprayed towards upper center mass, the rounds a potent enough armor-piercing caliber to punch through a kevlar helmet. She has a hunch she'll need them with these ... people.

Justin Pierce has posed:
The woman with the bowl cut is caught by surprise. Whatever she was expecting, it was not someone who moves at the same kinds of speeds as her. She is still setting her feet when the rounds find her chest. Her mass must be something, the woman isn't knocked back at all. But the rounds find their home. She sinks to her hands and knees, body shaking. There is no blood.

The other woman does not even spare her companion a look. She dives sideways, through an interior wall of the hallway into one of the near labs. Cecily hear her land, but not move.

Behind Cecily, Justin reacts how he was trained. Two center mass, one to the face. The man charging him takes the first two shots to the chest and shields his face with his arm. Synthetic skin is scarred, revealing corded metal muscle underneath.

"Shit..." Justin sprint at the cyborg. It is part experience and part blind luck that Justin drops into a slide before the cyborg goes tries to grab him. The human would not have been able to match the cyborg's speed. Thankfully for Justin, his attacker committed just a little two late. Justin slides under the grab, almost presses his pistol to the man's left knee and squeezes off three more rounds. The leg collapses, the cyborg falls to the group. It makes a grab for Justin and has a half-second to realize there is a gun in his face before it goes off. The cyborg slumps.

"Reloading," Justin shouts. He glances over his shoulder.

"Okay... I surrender!"

The woman that dove into the lab walks back out into the hallway with her hands up. "Don't shoot!"

Cecily Winters has posed:
    The benefit of her PDW over a smaller firearm is the extended magazine holds thirty. Not that the Glock in her shoulder rig is any slouch at half that. The laser sight on the weapon stays trained on the fallen woman's head while Cecily draws her sidearm. It all happens so fast, and she takes a long, slow breath as she hears things ending behind her. "Good shooting," she remarks even as she trains the .45 in her other hand on the woman seeming to surrender.

    "You've got one chance to tell me why I shouldn't pull the trigger on you and your friend here," Cecily growls, voice going cold. The woman with her hands up would be able to see a blue glow deep within the barrel of the pistol--the vixen's chambered round not your average hollow-point. Her tails lash about behind her, clearly agitated, a sea of emotion that gives her away even if her expression is one of stone.

Justin Pierce has posed:
"You, too," Justin says. He exhales and stands with his sidearm at the low-ready.

The woman in Cecily's sights stands squarely in the middle of the hall, hands up. "I didn't hurt anyone, things just went bad, please don't shoot me," she... does not exactly implore.

"Doesn't seem like the giving up type to me," Justin observes. He takes a glance at Cecily's tactical belt but nearly catches some tail in the face instead. "Got anything flashy on your belt?"

"Please, arrest me, I'll talk, just don't hurt me!"

Cecily Winters has posed:
    It might seem impractical what Cecily is doing. Two guns at once is something saved for action movies and comics. Not a sharp-dressed bodyguard in the middle of a lab complex. But here she is. Glock in one hand, MP7 in the other, pointing at two different targets. It's clear she doesn't trust the one that's kneeling, and that goes double for the one that's standing and surrendering. "Flashy?" Cecily asks, tails flicking as she glances back over her shoulder at Justin.

    "I'm sorry, you'll have to be more specific..." she says with a frown. When she put it on, it was really just a few extra magazines for the automatic with the laser sight. No grenades or flashbangs or anything. Then her ears flick. The earplugs might be good against gunshots but aren't so helpful for situational awareness. "You want to try cuffing her or should I put a bullet in her and be done with it?" she asks Justin, sounding weary and wary at the same time.

Justin Pierce has posed:
Justin reaches into his pocket and glances at his phone. "Nevermind," he answers. "She's stalling, and her friends are closer than mine."

"Can you call an ambulance? I think she's hurt!" the standing woman says.

Justin exhales.

In the lobby the door from the stairwell flies off the hinges and across the room. One cyborg comes into view at full sprint, he has to push off the wall to make the turn, a second is close behind.

"SWITCH!" Justin yells and smacks the top of Cecily's shoulder. He spins around to face the two women. Justin fires two rounds at the one on her hands and knees and a third round into the 'smash in case of emergency' glass in the wall. The fire extinguisher explodes and sprays chemical fire retardant into the hallway between him and the standing woman. The hall is totally obscured. Justin runs forward a few feet then throws his back against the wall. The woman charges out of the cloud of white smoke right in front of Justin. She does not even realize her mistake before his gun goes off at her temple from beside her.

Cecily Winters has posed:
    "Wish they were like the last ones I dealt with. No bark, just bite," Cecily grunts, missing the silent cyborgs she dealt with a long time ago. "You've got friends coming?" she asks Justin. A perfect time for the door to be blown off. "Hells..." she curses, feeling the tap on her shoulder.

    The fox whirls around in a flurry of soft fur, tails flailing out around her. Just in time to bring her automatic up for the charger. It's clear she's had enough of this, her finger holding down the trigger and not stopping. No less than twenty-four armor-piercing rounds are spewed forth from the stubby compensator as she uses her other arm to brace it. The extended burst rips through cloth, synth-skin, and tears into whatever lies beneath with just the sheer volume of rounds. All into one torso and stitched up sternum to throat to head.

    As the white gas from the fire extinguisher fills the room, the sound of falling brass is puncutated by a sudden *WHUMP* of body to body. The second cyborg slams into Cecily at full tilt, body-checking her into the wall and from the sound, likely breaking more than a few ribs. Her PDW, empty, hits the ground as Cecily coughs and wheezes. "Hells...!" she spits a glob of blood on the floor and brings her sidearm up and pulls the trigger.

    One. Two. Three. Four shots. The first lights up the room, a purple-blue streak of a tracer cutting through the air as it -thunks- harmlessly against the cyborg's chest like painting a target. The next two, solid slugs, slamming into subdermal armor. But the fourth. The fourth is like the first. Only so much more intense. The line of flame is wider, brighter, dancing with a mind of its own. It burrows like thermite on the hood of a car into his body and starts dissolving him from the inside. Flesh and metal consumed by flame as he stumbles out of the fog of flame retardant not far from Justin, immolating from the inside out.

    Cecily props herself up against the wall, lance of supernatural flame pointing towards her like a beacon, the barrel of her gun blazing blue. "...fuck that hurt..."

Justin Pierce has posed:
"Jesus," Justin mutters as the cyborg stumbles past and then collapses. He looks over and sees Cecily against the wall. "Shit."

He crouches in front of her and swaps out for his last magazine.

"You shoulda seen the other guy," Justin says and jerks a thumb in the direction of the burnout cyborg.

"Backup will be here soon, but I think I was safer with you," Justin says with a half-smile, taking a moment away from watching for new threats to meet Cecily's eyes. "Are you the type that heals up in five minutes, or could you use a ride to get checked out?"

Justin's phone buzzes and he answers. "Yeah, shots fired. Cyborgs. No, clear it and check for injuries. Classified, nobody needs to see the tech in here or the bodies. Yeah, recover them."

"Justin hangs up. "Seriously, how're you doing?" he asks, turning his attention back to Cecily.

Cecily Winters has posed:
    Blood trickles down from the corner of Cecily's mouth, but she does manage to choke out a strained laugh at Justin's attempt at humor. It serves to speckle the floor next to her with more crimson from her lips. She manages to check her magazine, hands steady enough. There's a little bit of blueglow in the magazine, as if she has a little more where that came from.

    The question earns a lift of her ears and she reaches a hand up to pull the plugs out of them. "...n-nf.. feels like..." she leans back against the wall. The white of her blouse under that vest starts to show a little red seeping through, too. "...normally I'd say... somewhere in the middle..." she manages another chuckle before wincing. "...so let's.. err on the latter."

    Those violet eyes fall shut and her breathing is shallow. There's a Cecily-shaped dent in the marble facade of the hallway wall. "Not my first rodeo but getting gored by the bull every time it shows up is starting to wear pretty thin," she mutters, whiping her mouth slowly. "You okay, Agent Pierce?" she finally asks as an afterthought.

Justin Pierce has posed:
"Yeah, I am," Justin replies. "Thanks to you."

He taps something into his phone and tucks it away.

"It'll just be a few minutes," he assures her and looks her over for any signs of bleeding that can't wait. "They'd better give you the afternoon off after this."

Cecily Winters has posed:
    "Could've been worse," Cecily says quietly in that measured fashion one speaks with wnen they're in great pain. "...faster... stronger... more durable... but the pain receptors work just the same..." she grumbles out. "..still, without it, would've been dead..." she shakes her head.

    Then there's a small smile, "Oh I'm always on the clock, just depends on how busy things get..." she exhales in a warm, quiet sigh. "Thanks. Now you can tell Greene about your first day on the job," the vixen manages another chuckle. Notably, though, she's not trying to move. Internal damage assessment most assuredly gave her the conclusion of stay put.