13824/Soldiers

Soldiers
Date of Scene:	12 January 2023
Location:	Greenwich Village
Synopsis:	Captain America goes hunting for the Punisher and finds one of his safehouses. Frank just manages to skip out of his safehouse ahead of him.
Cast of Characters:	Frank Castle, Steve Rogers

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Frank Castle has posed:
Frank Castle punches in the code and opens the secured door of his safehouse, the thing sealing up again behind him. With the code put in, the booby traps are deactivated, notably the shotgun pointed right at the door. He heads down into the basement and rapidly strips his gear. Nothing too heavy, in terms of damage. He'll have a bruise on his ribs from jumping out of that window and landing on a car. His eyes are still bloodshot from the tear gas. Why the fuck does a street gang have tear gas?

He takes a shower and settled into his routine. Clean, oil, maintain. His guns are disassembled and re-assembled, each in turn. He does this every time, without question. Discipline. It's the only reason he's still alive.

He doesn't really want to be alive anymore. But he has work to do.

Steve Rogers has posed:
"Captain Rogers?" The disembodied voice of JARVIS carried its normal smooth, calming tones as it gained the attention of Steve Rogers. He finished lacing up his boots while answering, "Yes JARVIS, what is it?"

"There has been a gangland shootout in an alley bordering Washington Square Park. New York police bands are reporting sightings of Frank Castle, aka 'The Punisher'. You asked to be notified of activity relating to him," JARVIS replied. That had been enough for Steve to grab his shield and head down to the Assembly Room. A few minutes pouring over maps and having JARVIS plot activity was enough to generate something potentially actionable.

Thirty minutes later, Steve Rogers parks his motorcycle in a spot on the street. A kid is more than happy to watch it for him, though Steve passes over a few dollars to the kid for his efforts. Wearing a leather jacket overtop a sweatshirt and jeans, and carrying his shield in a case that is open for quick retrieval, Steve begins making his way through the streets in the direction of the area JARVIS deemed most likely to have a base of operations given the locations of the Punisher's activities of late.

Steve pulls out a NY Dodgers baseball cap and dons it pulling the brim low as he sets out to look for spots that could make good safehouses, vehicles that look out of place, or anything else worth investigating.

Frank Castle has posed:
Frank, of course, has no idea that Captain America is hunting him. Cap was Frank's childhood hero, the man who inspired him to join the military when he was a kid on the wrong side of the tracks. Steve's example put Frank on the straight and narrow, showed him what a man could do when he was determined and disciplined.

He finishes with his guns, packing them away in secure cases. If the place is compromised, they'll have a damn hard time getting to his guns. He knows he needs to sleep but his body's still racing. Adrenaline. Sometimes it makes you crash. Sometimes it just won't go away. Today, it's the latter.

No caffeine today, it seems.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Two blocks are examined by Captain America. One lead though it turns out to have just been some men moving some things out of their father's basement after he'd passed away. One of them had recognized Steve, resulting in a few minutes spent asking the brothers about their father and listening to a few tales they had of his from back in Steve's day.

But eventually he'd moved on, turning the corner onto the street that it turns out actually does have the Punisher's safehouse on it. Steve walks along the sidewalk, blue eyes taking in the mix of beat up brownstones serving as residential and apartment housing, as well as the businesses that line the street on the other side.

A carpet cleaning van, beat up and dingy, catches his eye. Though it's parked outside of NY Steam Clean which at least fits. Steve leans his shield's case against a fire hydrant as he rests his foot atop it, needlessly retying the laces to give him more time to look the place over.

An elderly woman is passing on the street and Steve lifts the brim of his cap a bit as he gives her a smile. "Evening ma'am," he offers. The woman smiles back to him. "If I'm not being a bother, I was wondering what the neighborhood is like. Is it pretty well settled with the same people who have lived here for years? Is there a lot of movement people in and out of the area?" he asks her.

Frank Castle has posed:
Frank Castle tends to eat out of cans or order takeout. He never gets delivery, for obvious reasons. The last thing he needs is some pimple-faced kid remembering his face from a new broadcast and telling Papa John that he just delivered a pizza to the Punisher.

He's eating a can of chili cold, out of the can, when he looks at his bank of monitors. He has a couple of his own cameras, plus he's spliced into the surveillance feeds of a few of the local stores. He sees the old woman talking to the man and would almost just ignore it. But the guy seems to be asking questions. So Frank makes the camera zoom and...

"Oh shit," he says, as he sees Cap's face.

Steve Rogers has posed:
The woman, who introduces herself as Sally Terwilliger, asks Steve, "Oh, are you thinking about settling in the area?"

Steve gives a little shrug of his shoulders and says, "I'm from Brooklyn, but thought it looks like an interesting area of town. Kind of used to seeing the same old faces year after year though, if you know what I mean?"

Old Mrs. Terwilliger gives an emphatic nod. "Yes, it's so much better when the neighborhood know and care about each other. It was like that here until, oh, I guess the late 90s and early 2000s was when it changed. There are still some families that have been here for years, but more places changing hands the last few years."

Steve Rogers gives Mrs. Terwilliger a look of commiseration. "Do you tend to see a lot of families moving in these days? Or singles? People that kind of stand out as opposed to fitting into the neighborhood?"

The woman thinks about it for a few moments. "Not a lot families anymore, no. Young married couples are settling over a few blocks down," she says. "People move in now and you maybe see them on the street, but they don't really become neighbors."

Steve nods to the woman. "I suppose the way things are these days," he says regretfully, "might sometimes be for the best, anyone in the area that kinds of, sets of your radar?" he asks her.

She glances across the street and points towards the below ground apartment where Frank Castle is currently watching the conversation on his camera. "Yes, like the guy who moved in there awhile back. Moved in a bunch of stuff then never saw him for weeks. Now he's coming and going late at night. Wouldn't be so bad but his vehicle gets parked right under my window so it wakes me up, especially when he's closing the doors on it and all."

Steve gives a small nod and glances over that way. "This guy, he wouldn't be big, about my height. Dark hair?" he asks.

The old woman puts a finger to her chin in thought. "I'd say probably. I mostly see him from my window."

Steve smiles to her and shakes her hand. "Well I won't keep you longer. Very nice meeting you, Mrs. Terwilliger," he says.

He moves to start over across the street towards the apartment, but the woman stops him as she starts asking him questions about Brooklyn. Polite, Steve stays to answer.

Frank Castle has posed:
Frank gets his bugout bag. Frank doesn't freak out. He's not scared. But this is a confrontation he doesn't want. Most of the time, he couldn't give a shit. Heroes, cops - they're part of the war, not civilians. He has no intent to kill them, but he doesn't sweat putting the hurt on them if they get in his way.

But he can't fight Cap. He won't.

He presses a button next to his computer and it magnetically wipes the whole damn thing at once. Not even an operating system left, just a useless hunk of junk. NOt that he kept much on there. But better safe than sorry.

He checks the monitor again. Just in case.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Mrs. Terwilliger is a persistent conversationalist. Steve can clearly tell that she doesn't have a lot of people to talk to. When she gets an audience she doesn't relinquish them easily.

Finally Steve makes his goodbye to her hearing of her difficult cleaning her son's old things out of a storage room and offering to come by another day to help her by carrying the things out.

Finally free, he turns back towards the apartment. His fingers deftly undo the clasp on the shield's case, and he slips his hand inside, gripping it's handle but keep the bag over it as he waits for a taxi to pass. He starts to step forward when a truck coming the other way blares its horn despite the later hour, gunning forward rapidly enough to send a little wave of slush that just misses reaching Steve's boots.

Finally the truck is past and there's a gap in the traffic, Steve crossing the street and heading along the sidewalk to see if he can see into any of the windows as he continues towards the alley alongside the building that the woman indicated was used for parking the man's vehicle.

Frank Castle has posed:
The back door leads out into an alley. Frank takes a moment to quickly deactivate a few of the traps - Cap would probably not have a problem avoiding them, given his abilities, but Frank's already burned the important things. The rest is just equipment. There are always more guns. This is America.

He pulls his own cap down low and closes his eyes for a moment. He hasn't slept in thirty six hours. Probably best to hit the main Fortress - no squealing old ladies down there. He stuffs his cash into the bugout bag and, after a moment, puts it back on the table and leaves a note.

"For Mrs. Terwilliger, the sweet old rat."