14329/Shooting Them Dead

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Shooting Them Dead
Date of Scene: 06 March 2023
Location: Brooklyn
Synopsis: A shootout goes between two expert marskmen and a magical maven and her cybernetic assassin boyfriend
Cast of Characters: Natasha Romanoff, Wanda Maximoff, James Barnes




Natasha Romanoff has posed:
It was about three am in the morning. The spring rain had turned catastrophic, with flooding throughout a few neighborhoods. Made worse by severals ewers being backed up and partial blockages, leading tos ewage oozing over the streets two or three inches thick. It wasn't the type of thing that anyone wanted to be out in. Least of all the police.
    And going down the street was a man wearing a trenchcoat, holding an assault rifle slung over his back and another man wearing a black leotard.
    Two cops would advance towards them, guns focused over on the man with the assault rifle, "You! Put the weapon down!" Their guns pointed over at him as he would slowly turn around, holding his weapon up in the air. "Well.." The two guns aimed at his chest.
    Next to him his associate would grin, chewing on some bubble gum. "Two seconds."
    "Two? I can do it in three tenths." The two would banter.
    The two cops would yell, "ON THE GROUND NOW!" As they would make a point of pulling the hammers back.
    The one with the chewing gum would smirk. "Well.." Then he would blow a bubble. The gum would separate into two chunks, each smashing through the windpipe of an officer, snapping thier necks and leaving them writing on the ground, face-down in sewage.
    "... Fine, I'll spot you that." The man would hold his assault rifle up. "doesn't count on the score."

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
Brooklyn is probably no stranger to infrastructure failures. Things make a very ugly picture when ewer pipes older than Steve Rogers feeding into buildings mildly younger than his teeth -- and in far worse condition -- fail. The universe has a nasty laugh for the day to be one when Wanda wore her new boots.

Muck caking them above the ankles probably renders the footwear beyond repairable unless Tony Stark has a remarkable leather rejuvenator bot somewhere. Worth asking about it, in fairness, after the fact. She doesn't hesitate to mutter an incantation, among the most basic, and other spots of grime and dirt blasts away from her person in a Wanda-shaped halo that promptly hits several buildings. The blind courtyard flanked by three brick tenements boasts a displaced manhole cover and six dumpsters, a testament to pre-War (1, not 2) design here being more about cramming as many immigrant families in as they could rather than public health measures. She sidesteps and sweeps the brick walls above, getting her first breath of open air in a while. Not fresh though, the scent attesting to that.

Even worse are the nearby shouts; orders. Polizei. Easy to get her bearings on that. "Work problems," she hisses back, taking cover against the wall and peering down the alley to the sludge-ridden street. It makes a nasty creek for her and Bucky to follow if they feel like skipping. "I pull you out of the hole and now we are up shit creek. Did you bring a paddle?"

James Barnes has posed:
Bucky is as much caked in mud as Wanda is. His hair is kind of mucked solid, in fact, and as he runs his hand through it, metallic and stiff, it throws a bunch of muck onto the ground. Then he hears the orders, and he looks at Wanda with a long sigh, shoulders dropping a bit.

"You go high. I'll go low."

Mostly because she can fly. He takes off, starting to jog that-a-way.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
There's the sounds of a police helicopter flying on by. The man in the trenchcoat is grinning, "You get this one. I got the last one." He would give a thumbsup ot his companion.
    His companion would grumble, "Of course you take the easy one."
    "Hah! Look at what I did it with. You get two seconds and you have to do it.."
    His partner would grumble, "Fine, fine." So he goes to instead of the heavy assault rifle pull out a pisotl and then switches on his facemask. Which is silver and red with a blue optic upon it.
    From the helicopter comes a yell <<PUT DOWN YOUR WEAPONS!>>
    The man in the facemask goes to point the pistol over to the side, aims it up just a little.. Fires a bullet that shoots through the air to the side, bouncing off a concrete side of a building, across to ricochet off a flagpole, then through the front of the cockpit of the helicopter, striking the pilot with glass shards in the head.
    "NOthin' but net."

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
Bucky probably deserves a bath before he hits the streets of his old haunt. However that might help them hide in the steppes or at a mud wrestling contest, they aren't facing that sort of contest. She also enjoys breathing through her nose.

<Forgive me, but let me help. Be clean.> Her response, quietly tendered in German, comes with a neat gesture that produces a ripple of scarlet incandescence. It should take away the worst of the sewer sludge or dirt that got between the lamellar plates on Bucky's arm, the soles of his boots, and the ions between his hair. Really, learning to make do with a magic bath is probably Basics of Sorcery 201: Now You Can't Blow Yourself Up.

Out, then, into the troubled meander of Brooklyn. She lofts herself up, twisting force to get at least above the first floor and out of easy range. Police helicopters add to the situation, growing more chaotic, but let's be honest, that's where she instinctively works the best (and worst). The police hopefully notice someone floating around on their radios, but it's possible to get caught in the chatter or the crossfire. Which may just happen as she soars up to crouch on the edge of a building in time to hear the pistol retort. The shattered glass is incidental to her.

James Barnes has posed:
Bucky is too late to stop the shooting of the helicopter, but instead of doing something like reaching out helplessly and yelling 'no!' he redoubles his sprinting speed as Wanda's magic cleanses him and leaves him less of a fucking mess, and by the time he's vaulting off the roof of a car, his metal arm is _gleaming_ in the streetlights.

He's not a police officer. There's no warning. Just the Winter Soldier hurtling through the air with a knee out aimed at the back of one of the two psychopaths' head.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Deadshot is fast. But not that fast. He's knocked away by the strike, even as he goes to whip his pistol up to fire two quick shots to hopefully make Bucky have to duck or use his arm to block them. If not, the two shots would go clear through his shoulder and out the other end. THe shost were heavy AP ones. Which explained how they went throught he helicopter so cleanly.
    And Bullseye goes to dive to the side, "Oooh! I knwo it was you who did the killing! You're the one armed man." He would grin, and then goes to pop out with a.. Piece of paper? Fingers dextrously folding it into an origami throwing star in the midst of the battle. "You're gonna get arrested for the killing. So let's make you the no armed man so you could get away!" Origami throwing star hurled at the back of Bucky's neck!

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
If Bucky Barnes helplessly yells no, he's put half the X-Men and Wanda out of a job. She is contractually bound to perform this at least once.

Trusting him to negotiate a street and active shooters with the ease of a man unwillingly co-opted into a life of assassinations, her job is lurking like a small, remarkably unscary gargoyle inside the rooftop perimeter. Rule one, don't perch on positions where a casual slip on flypaper will knock you over. Broken necks are so passe. The speed of battle requires her to pay attention to who is where, but lifelong experience with a remarkable speedster -- if not Flash speedy -- has its advantages.

Tell reality no, and if it's Wanda asking, reality often /listens./ The rapid-fire calculation of an evil ninja star won't leave a fatal paper cut if it veers wide and sails helplessly over the building or ends up trampled on. Maybe, if she's really lucky, it goes right into the recycling bin for 15123 Shit Creek Avenue.

James Barnes has posed:
Bucky lifts an arm to block the gunshots even as he rolls onto the ground. As for Bullseye attempt on his life? Bucky acts a lot more recklessly when he's fighting alongside Wanda, and this because Wanda has his back. Every time. He all but ignores Bullseye, choosing to concentrate on Deadshot instead.

He dashes in, low, foot swinging out to try to catch Deadshot's feet and swipe them out from under him. Even if he doesn't manage to put Deadshot on his ass, he's already coming up to his feet for a spin kick.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Deadshoot goes to take the hit, and ducks to roll wtih it. As the same time even as he's being flung backwards to hit the ground, he goes to let out three quick rounds in a spread that are aimed right over at Bucky's head with the uncanny precision of the seemingly supernatural master marksman! It's going to be a tough fight as he makes a clean roll, whether or not the shots hit!
    And that leaves Bullseye facing off with the Scarlet WItch. Complete mismatch, perhaps? Bullseye goes over to take out a toothpick of all things, and brings it to his mouth. Then goes for a trio of marbles. "So how about we play a game? You and me?" Juggling marble in his fingers up in the air like an old term carnival entertainer. "You know? I used to play baseball. I think. Or maybe tha'ts Boomerang."

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
Total mismatch; one of them is a precision shooter capable of killing some of the world's finest combatants and the other one cries at sappy Starkflix K-dramas. One could go on about how he likes long walks on the beach and soaking streets in blood, while her greatest woe is being too matchy-matchy in all that red.

He gathers the beginnings for a pressure cooker bomb in a juggling performance. The witch gives Bullseye a golf-clap. She doesn't bother to speak, her rings cracking together softly. Bucky risks his life while she comes up out of her crouch, and it takes a keen eye to see the transparent fractal edge in front of her.

James Barnes has posed:
Sometimes Bucky wishes _he_ got a cool vibranium shield that he can just hold up and let it soak all the bullets so he can ram it into people and knock them into next week.

But he's not lucky that way.

No, he gets a metal arm and a century of nightmares.

It's fine. It's cool. No worries.

His hand comes up and Deadshot's bullets just hit his palm, doing absolutely nothing, because his hand is about four inches away from the barrel of the gun. Then he grabs the gun, squeezes it, crushes it, and looks at Deadshot.

"I hit harder than Batman."

And then he punts Deadshot in the groin.

"Fight dirtier, too."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
As Bucky goes to advance on Deadshot, he moevs to dodge out of the way quickly, his armor taking the worst of the groin shot, even as he's forced to withdraw more. "Well, that remains to be seen." HE would deadpan, even as his gun would be crushed and discarding it, "So, what keeps you in the game, Kid? You're supposed to be ancient after all." He would make casual conversation while the two would brawl, taking rapid steps back even as he would fling a small sticky grenade at Bucky's face. "So why still in it? Dying's supposed to be a young man's job." Drawing a fresh gun, going to shoot a bullet through the air tha twould ricochet off a building, aimed towards the back of Bucky's head while he made conversation.
    Meanwhile, Wanda faces off with Bullseye, the mismatch of the century. Bullseye goes to glance up and over at her, "You know, you seem the real random type. I can get that. Not knowing what voices in yourhead will tell you who to kill from day to day. No more this, no more that. Just you wake upand go to hell with it all." Moving to pop out with a trio of marbles, launching them through the air to try and hit her in the back of hte head as she manipulates hte reality of existence.

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
Trying to hit Wanda in the head may be a bit more difficult when the coruscating facets start moving quicker as Bullseye approaches them. The witch raises her right arm perpendicular to her chest, jerking her elbow smoothly to the side. Her hand sweeps in a vertical arc from nine-o'-clock to two-o'-clock, forcibly spreading the rooftop across the breadth of a soccer pitch. The marbles still travel but now they have so much more space to cover than they did before. Whatever force that Bullseye put behind them has to contend with the jagged bends and peaks formed when space behaves like an accordion-folded paper straw wrapper. It pushes her further away from him and incidentally up slightly as the ground jerks high and drops low in a series of successive stalagmites. None particular tall, and clear as glass, but they make footing treacherous.

"Do you think you'll be tired of your own voice after a week here alone? A year? A lifetime?"

James Barnes has posed:
Bucky doesn't bother with big moves when it comes to dodging. He knows what Deadshot is trying to do. He's been learning people like Deadshot's moves for long enough that it's second nature. In fact, while he may not be as good as Deadshot (or Bullseye, or Hawkeye), Bucky is a marksman himself.

So instead of rolling off to the side or whatever? He just reaches out as Deadshot tries his ricochet shot, and grabs the armored marksman by the wrist and shoulder, keeping him still, _right in front of him_...

...and then he tilts his head very fast, very far to the side, letting the bullet go right by him.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
The bullet is fast. And yet somehow Bucky is nearly as fast. Or at leas tknowing how it's going to move is just enough to let him get out of the way of the bullet goes odwn. Deadhshot harrumphs, "Fine, with age comes style." Even as he would be yanked hard.. And he retaliates with an attempted knife in his off-hand, trying to pop it out to hit Bucky over at the point where shoulder met cyernetic arm, trying to go for a disabling strike with the accuracy to hopefully hit right underneath layers of armor where nerves were!

Bullseye goes to end up in the mirror dimension, floating around, "Huh." Going to flick a pebble, seeing it vanish into infinity, "This sucks. I wonder.." He goes to pick up some other thing, and moves to skip it along, it ricocheting off into nothingness.

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
Space forms a fancy folded cage that keeps spreading along fractured planes, achieving the balanced planes and lines that Frank Lloyd Wright certainly enjoyed. Less waterfall and drippy house effect, more though, which improves long-term living.

Wanda stands within the islet guarded by crystal walls, the transparent dimensional space allowing them both to see out but not affect the real world. The whole principle of reach the end of the room when every step is half the distance of the last applies here. Mean girl.

James Barnes has posed:
As the knife descends, Bucky rolls his eyes and lifts his elbow, blocking the downward strike and then crossing his other hand, slipping it under the man's shoulder. He tucks himself back against Deadshot. Then he takes a step forward and flips Deadshot over his shoulder.

But this isn't any common flip. No. Bucky almost tosses Deadshot forward, his hands reaching out and catching the man by the head, and then when Deadshot comes down, Bucky knees down and brings the back of Deadshot's helmeted head on his knee, bouncing him off _hard_.

Then he takes a step back, and _punts_ Deadshot's head. "Stay down."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
There's a series of WHAMS as Deadshot is taken down. Deep in the muck. That leaves Wanda floating over with hte heinously bored Bullseye, even as he's treated along over to a ping-pong ball in an eternally ripping universe. It's a victory that might not have been a challenge but htat hopefully will last.

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
"Take some time to think on things." Wanda finger-wiggles and steps back. Colour floods around her, the prism edges of stepping through the breach in reality. The transition done so rapidly takes the wind from her lungs, and she has to stay rather still until sure of her balance. The spinning crystallized edges of the Mirror Dimension warp and shift her view of Bullseye same as they distort her, leaving an impression of someone at a great remove staring into the snowglobe.

Her arm outstretched in Bucky's general direction, she curls her wrist and offers her hand to him. "Clear?"

James Barnes has posed:
"Clear." Bucky steps on Deadshot's helmeted head and walks over to Wanda, sliding his hand into hers and pulling her in close, his arm sliding over her shoulders as he kisses her temple. "Let's go, before the cops decide to ask questions and stuff. I want an _actual_ shower before any peaceful human contact with anyone but you."