14518/Luck be a Lady (with a big gun)

Luck be a Lady (with a big gun)
Date of Scene:	27 March 2023
Location:	Financial District
Synopsis:	June Connor is hired for a job. Unfortunately, some other criminals want that job. And even more unfortunately, those goons run into Lady Luck herself. And Harley Quinn with the RKO out of nowhere! Bah Gawd, they've been broken in half! Also, set on fire. The criminals totally also get set on fire a bit.
Cast of Characters:	Neena Thurman, Harley Quinn, June Connor

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Neena Thurman has posed:
New York City. The city that never sleeps. The city by the bay. The city where honest-to-god Nazi robots show up and wreck public property and less than 24 hours later, venture capitalists, cryptobros, and diamond exchanges are back in the swing of the dance of capitalism. It is two of those three things, and arguably it might be the third because Neena's pretty sure at least some of the coastline counts as a bay.

Everyone's lucky lady missed out on the Nazi robots though, a previous engagement that involved a mid-air transfer from one jet to another to take out a cartel boss.

Real typical Sunday afternoon shizz.

And now Neena's on her way to withdraw the wire transfer that's burning a hole in her hot li'l pocket.

She's oblivious to the world, black wireless earbuds contrasting her all too pale skin and filling her head with music that has her strolling down the block. She's given up on not drawing attention, a leather duster over a black tanktop and black combat fatigue pants, with a slip-buckle military belt, and a pair of equally black thick soled combat boots with side zippers.

Add in the acoustic guitar case she's got clutched in her left hand and she practically looks like she's up to no good.

Even when her steady pace stops as she walks up to a sidewalk cart for a soft pretzel she looks like it's all part of some coordinated mission.

Because Neena is lucky. Real lucky. But sometimes that luck bites back to make up for the good luck. Sure, she always comes out of things some level of okay. But she's pretty sure most mercs don't run into so many gunfights on their day off. It really makes listening to the sulky stories at the Bar With No Name grate when she runs into more trouble than them on a grocery trip.

And so as Neena engages in both Pretzel-based and paycheck-based capitalism, she has no clue what's coming.

She's unaware of the dueling contracts put out by shady criminals to hit a diamond courier this morning who's carrying seven figures of ice.

The three work vans, all decaled for legit businesses and all stolen during the weekend don't even register.

And while those vans are full of armed, masked robbers with automatic weapons, they don't know they're running late. And that the competing tendrils of organized crime are coalescing into a soon to break tidal wave of ridiculous violence.

Neena is unaware of all of this, because she is getting her pretzel if it kills her.

It won't of course. Probably just a bunch of other people.

Harley Quinn has posed:
Where was Harley while New York was being attacked? Probably doing nefarious deeds with April somewhere! You know, like in a shopping spree getting some more yellow jackets (ugh) for the reporter. But today? It's a brand new day!

A day to continue looking for potential prospects for the TEAM.

It's why Harley is here so darn early! (It's probably afternoon but that's early in Harley-time). Driving her nice yellow convertible jaguar. It's also why she HONK HONKS at one of those work vans, "Hey, get a move on!" her head sticking out the window, "I am trying to make livin' heah!" typical Gotham-Brooklyn accent to create Harley's unique brand!

Another HONK HONK and then Harley puts the pedal down on it, driving past to come to a stop not too far from where Neena is walking by. She parks the car (illegally) and gets out, a stack of papers in her hand.

"Some people ...., I thought plumbers didn't work weekends ..." she grumbles, moving to a wall to glue one of the announcement papers. Bold letters announcing THE BROOKLYN QUEENS ROLLER DERBY TEAM.

June Connor has posed:
    June was given the contract, it was hers! She's not some team of knuckleheaded meat for brains team. She was going to do it quick and quiet. Well, mostly quiet. She didn't need a whole machine gun entourage. At least she didn't think she did.

    The courier's stop was expected as the young firey-haired thughas her own ear buds in, wearing a rather non-descript gray hoody and a pair of shredded blue jeans, and a backpack. Tactical. Maybe it's a style choice given her many piercings on her ears.

    She approaches as the courier opens the door with the daily delivery. Repaired rings, new merchandise, you know, the usual. Only the usual for a diamond store tends to be a lot of money in a small transportable package, and she makes for a casual intercept course as she walks down the sidewalk, intending to grab the bag with a quick cut of a knife to the strap to get it free and make a sprint for it.

Neena Thurman has posed:
Neena's content to chew on her pretzel, but then she realizes she's outta hands. One for the pretzel, one for the guitar case... no hands for her to tap her earbud to skip whatever song just started playing. Great. One of /those/ days.

But whatever song it is is quiet enough that Neena's shoulders hunch up at the HONK HONK from that yellow convertible. Eyes flick to the vans blocking traffic, and /then/ to that yello-wwwww... convertible Jag?

Nice. Real nice.

And as Neena consumes her treat, and Harley begins handing out flyers, there's a sigh from the albino merc as she drops her guitar case to finally reach up and pause her music so she can /hear/ the blonde who's handing out flyers with the enthusiasm of a street preacher.

Which is about the time June's angling in to do the ol' slash-and-grab.

And it goes perfectly! The strap cut, the bag easily grabbable. The courier's yell of alarm is about the only hint anything's gone wrong.

Aside from the BANG BANG BANG of double cargo doors on the vans fly open and... well, someone might say a clown car-like number of jumpsuited goons in halloween masks begin to peel out.

But as Harley's arrival just proved, clowns actually drive bitchin' sports cars. Also, none of those guys have clown masks, there's a lot of Frankensteins and Jasons and a couple of Darth Vaders, who seem to be struggling to actually _See_ anything.

The voices are muffled, but the 'GET 'EM!' that's audible and clear enough to understand can easily be combined with one of the masked men pointing towards June and the courier makes the meaning pretty clear.

But with what looks like a solid bakers dozen of armed robbers, that's not all they do, four running to get the target, while others begin spreading out to hold passersby at gunpoint and begin demanding valuables, about half a dozen of them in total as the remaining split into three pairs with military precision, short-stepped running towards nearby doors that clearly lead into various banking institutions. Well, they're sure ambitious.

A diamond heist /and/ a pedestrian stickup with a few more smash and grabs? At once?

Tacky amateurs. Neena's practically annoyed on professional principle alone, there's no careful planning here. Except she tries not to take asset liberation jobs anymore that don't involve liberating things from bad bad men.

So it's mostly personal annoyance they've interrupted her snack that's got those dark eyebrows furrowing into a sharp V and her hand balling into a fist to crumple the flyer she just got from Harley.

She'll grab another.

Harley Quinn has posed:
Harley's preachin' it alright. Specially with those shorty shorts and large round sunglasses on her eyes along with the bubblegum and fire-engine red lips.

"Do ya got a moment to talk about ...." ignored by the first person coming by. Then the second. "Sheeesh, tough crowd..." it's the financial district, Harley! She -does- spot the other pale one not too far though and approaches. "Well, hello there.." she greets with that casual Obi-Wan smoothness, handing Neena a flyer, "Roller derby, we looking foh-----"

And then people screaming... Goons stepping out of the vans. "Holy Crossover, Batman! That's my favs, IT meets Jason meets Darth Vader..!" eyes wide and a big grin on her expression while she watches...

At least until they point guns at them. The nerve of some people! "Really...?" she frowns too... "You guys should had kept to your lane..."

She chews on her gum a bit more and then spits it out casually, it bonking off the head of Darth Vader. She never forgave him for Luke's hand.

June Connor has posed:
    Without a hitch. Bag in hand June get's an entire step before finding herself nose pointing down a number of gun barrels. "Well. Shit." She freezes, gives a glance toward the courier she just lifted the bag from, and back to the team of cartoon characters that are taking her glory. Wait a second.

    "Hobbie?" she seems to recognize one of them, squinting at the masked man who gave the order. "You asshole." She nearly spits. "I told you this was my job. And you told Rick, you just couldn't resist, could you?"

    She drops her knife that had been used on the bag obediently. She doesn't resist, raising her hands, the bag of goods suspended to be easily grabbed. After all, they got her at multiple gun point. She doesn't look as much frightened as miffed, though. She shakes her head in disgust. "Is this about Abby? Because it ain't on me that you were cheatin'. That was one-oh-oh you."

Neena Thurman has posed:
Neena's breath escapes in a resigned sigh, her shoulders shrugging in, loosening that duster, and letting it flow down her arms to puddle behind her. It's not armored or anything, and she fought an actual demon cowboy for it.

She's not risking it for this pity patrol of goons.Her foot inches under her guitar case and with a soft grunt of genuine effort she kicks it up into the air in a spin along its long axis, hands reaching out like she knows it'll be at just the right height and angle, the sharp CLICK of the locks being undone... the lid swinging open to reveal...

An acoustic guitar. It looks like a cheap base model you'd buy if you were, say, just beginning to learn the acoustic guitar. The case clatters away as Neena grips the neck like a bat, winding up

When, amongst the screams, an excited youthful voice yells "BUT MOOOOOOM! IT'S HARLEY QUINN!!!"

Neena spins to glare back, "OH MY GOD! I AM NOT HER! JUST BECAU-" ...The kid is pointing _at_ Harley.

"Oh. Right."

That momentary spin of indignation us put to use for Neena to spin around in a full circuit and get momentum that she puts into the /throw/ of her guitar, crashing into a Frankenstine's head and shattering, knock him sideways into a Jason, who tangles with the Darth Vader Harley just spit gum at, delaying the swing of his Uzi towards getting a line of fire on the clown.

And as June surrenders for the moment, poor Hobbie is left sputtering and stammering and snarling out helpless wordless grumbles.

Because while he planned for this TOTALLY COOL HEIST, he did not plan for his fellow goons to be snickering and snorting as Hobbie takes critical _emotional_ damage.

But hey, at least he's better off than the Frankenstein who took a guitar to the head, because a moment later he's taking a combat boot to the sternum as Neena launches herself off the pretzel card in a flying kick, snagging the sling of his now dropped Uzi, swinging it up into her hand and jamming the barrel into the stomach of Jason and squeezes the trigger

It turns out that the mask didn't come with the cool horror movie zombie durability.

But the burst of gunfire means that those thugs escorting June are turning to look across the plaza at the angry albino.

But then, they aren't the best of the best, and she _is_ pretty distracting.

Harley Quinn has posed:
Oooh, goon drama. That's one way to get Harley's attention... At least for a few seconds considering how fleeting her focus can be and there's just SO.MANY.GOD.DAMN.SOURCES.OF.ENTERTAINMENT around! It's hard for a clownette to keep up, really. On one hand the goon drama. On another she's being recognized by a FAN. Which makes her arch her chest up proudly.

And then there's this cool ass pale sis distributing mayhem on the thugs.

Oh shit, they are at gunpoint! Not that Darth Bader ever finishes turning around with that uzi because Harley dashes forward, catches his head in a grip and ....

.... just RKOs him outta nowhere. The face hits the floor hard but the mask absorbs some of the impact, right? Right?

Her poor flyers are now all flying around though ... Clearly a littering offense!

"Don't try this at home, kid!" this to her number one FAN right over there. Springing back up to her feet. "And look away, this is about to go R-Rated!" it already did when Neena made a new hole on Jason's stomach.

"Cool moves!" She tells the albino.

June Connor has posed:
    June's attention is caught by the gunfire as equally as Harley's and the other goons, but unlike the others, she doesn't let it distract her.

    She moves to sling the bag to her shoulder, wait, the strap is busted. She drops it to the ground, and then goes back flat, falling toward the ground to land on it, and each of her feet kick out the two that have been distracted by the erupting violence, striking the side of their knees to send them to the ground. When they land she brings both legs around and back down in a laying-down axe kick to their faces. Sorry guys, nothing personal. Well, maybe a little. "See! See what you do when you're in charge? Dumbass!" Is she fighting or still griping? Belittling her acquaintence seems to be the priority at this point.

Neena Thurman has posed:
Neena's a little off-balance... oh, not literally. She's actually improving her physical balance when she lifts the boot that was pinning Frankenstein's face and Stomps it back down.

For balance. See?

And she's firing off shots with a level of efficiency and skill that's downright terrifying, as one thug just holds the trigger down and hoses in Neena's direction, that little tickle of her luck power surges... and she winces on reflex.

Because while the trigger happy goon was focused on aiming at Neena, one of his coworkers saw Harley's number one fan being dragged away and thought 'Hostage!' And then he thought 'OHGODSOMANYBULLETSIWASTEDMYLIFE!' or something similar. This is why Neena works solo usually.

Harley hits the RKO out of nowhere and DOWN GOES VADER! ...The mask /does/ cushion the impact with the cement. By splintering like... well, a cheap plastic Darth Vader mask. And while Vader hasn't got the intimidating robot breath imitation down, he does a pretty good job of 'whimpering like someone who just has fifteen bucks of Halloween costume driven into his face'.

It's uncanny.

June pulls off a smooth takedown on two more goons, who discover that not only was their buddy's jumpsuit not bullet proof, but halloween masks are not kick-proof.

June's acquaintance lets out a growl, "HEY!! THIS PLAN WAS GOING FINE! YOU SCREWED IT UP! YOU ALWAYS SCREW MY PLANS UP WHENEVER WE'RE ON OPPOSITE SIDES!!"

That outburst is genuine... heartfelt... and still /really/ pretty dumb. But it's the stalking towards June unarmed while she's laying on the bag that's probably going to be his biggest mistake. Because somehow what she just did to the two escorts doesn't register.

Harley Quinn has posed:
So many bullets flying and ...., Neena just seems to be dodgin' them all. Like how they dodge in Roller Derby! Left and right, never getting caught. Her eyes sparkle enthusiastically and her expression goes wildly eager. Oh yes, those Tenderloin bitches will have no chance if she gets her hands on ....

"Oi! Hands off my number one fan!" One of the thugs that wasn't shot seems to think that hostages are indeed a good thing. And is making his way close to the kid and his mother.

Well, not on Harley's watch, they won't.

She reaches down to pick up the leftover remains from the smashed guitar. "'scuse me." she says to Neena about handling her guitar, then looks towards the scene again. The clown-masked thug is reaching towards the kid and then gets a piece of guitar smashing against it's head. "He's already got a clown to idolize and it ain't you, bitch!" and to finish it up she runs over and jumps, delivering a graceful double kick at the man. What, she is in a wrestling moves kinda mood today.

When the thug falls she looks at the kid. "Now get outta heah.. Oooh, and take this." Yes, she had one roller derby flyer in her pocket.

June Connor has posed:
    "That's the FUCKING IDEA!" June yells back with just as profound a level of emotional maturity as Hobby. They kind of deserve each other. She picks up her small knife, and unceremoniously clambors to her feet as he closes in, lugging the bag of stolen diamonds. She swings it at him, which lets him actually easily catch it. Terrible attack by June. She isn't much better than this lot herself. But she does take the opportunity to lunge forward, the rather small framed redhead smashing her forehead into his nose. She could have gone for a kill strike but...then there's all kinds of politics that go one in the underworld when you kill someone who is friends with one of your friends and...just not worth the drama. Believe me. So she instead gets to trade and take a knee to the diaphram. The exchange is a bit painful to watch. Back and forth they block smash at each other, until June comes in for another bag strike that is too close, causing the bag to break from her grip and go sailing into the air toward Domino.

    The frustration over the break on her hold gets her to tackle him, straddling the larger goon on the pavement and lettings out a series of punches until he is at least incoherently conscious, and she pauses, panting, and wiping a bloody lip.

Neena Thurman has posed:
Neena's gun runs dry just in time for one of the thugs to be aiming his gun at her when she takes inspiration from Harley, and just _throws_ it like a boomerange, clocking the gunman in the arm, and messing his aim up so instead he shreds the tire of one of the vans.

With their leader occupied with a personal vendetta, and some of the thugs who'd run into open doors coming back out, the loot-laden larcenists are piling into the front van and it roars to life. At the sound of the engine firing up, the remaining goons who can move begin trying to get out of dodge and get to the /rear/ van that can also still do the things you want your getaway car to do.

And June just knocks it out of the park. If MMA allowed you to hit your enemy in the torso with a bag full of jewelry? She could be The Champ. Look at that form!

Poor poor Hobby can't see that, because after that headbutt, all he can see is pain. And red. Pain and red.

It's actually just red, which makes it /very/ hard for him to try and brace for the raining punches as he's battered into submission.

As Harley's protecting her number one fan, making him her number one fan FOREVER, and also ensuring that all his friends are going to attend the next Roller Derby via the viral advertising of 'Hey kiddo, saved your life, take a flyer', Neena is seething. Oh sure, she's just shot a bunch of criminals. Usually that improves her mood. But they were all incapacitating shots... okay, the first guy's going to need a trauma team pretty soon. But with the vans beginning to peel out, Neena spins around.

The Pretzel cart! She strains, growls, and manages to rip the propane tank out of the heating device. She's got to hurry. Rush. Think.

And get a little lucky.

The vans are speeding down the street, side doors still open, goons hanging on for dear life. The first van turns sharply a few seconds after Neena decides she's got the tank where she needs it, and she stomps down to snap the valve off... and the tank _WHOOOSHES_ like a rocket, flying into the air, pinging off a street lamp, grinding along the railing of a window washing platform in a shower of sparks.

Sparks that ignite the trailing propane vapors, so that tank is riding a column of fire as it tumbles down and smacks into the open doorway of the front van. Only to detonate and rock the van over onto its side.

Directly in the path of the other van that can't stop and crashes into the first van's underside. Where the gas tank is. And boy does that gas like that flame! It's like peanut butter and chocolate! If you ran around flailing and screaming every time you got covered in chocolate and peanut butter.

Fortunately, there's the ungodly WHOOP WHOOP of sirens from all around.

New York's Finest are, of course, out in force because of the robot attack. So while there are a lot of goons about to have long, painful recovery, they will get to consider the error of their ways.

And Neena has Roller Derby to look into. Maybe it is her lucky day after all.

Harley Quinn has posed:
Blood. Fire. Mayhem. Such destruction. Harley's eyes seem to mirror the flame in that flying tank that flies towards the van and explodes, sending the thugs tumbling over.

"Oooooh, I think I am in loooveeee..." Harley holding her hands against her chest as destruction rains all around. Ah, what a nice Sunday. It's perhaps a good thing that her number one fan has already fled the premises so as to not see her pining for such destruction. Yet what's true is that Harley indeed likes a little mayhem in her life...

It's why she wanders closer, "Brooklyn Queens Dome. Tomorrow afternoon. Don't be late." this said to Neena of course. As if it was a set deal already that she'd be there!

Spotting June over there she considers, "And you too! We need that kinda drama to bring people in for the games. You will be great for the show!" she is pointing at the thug that lived. Or rather, the thug that isn't a bloody mess on the ground. She needs tenacious gals that can take a punch too!

"Ooooh, I think this is the start of a great friendship." big pearly white teeth shining with her smile.

June Connor has posed:
    June glances up at Harley as she's spoken to. Isn't that the psycho clown girl from Gotham? "What?" she asks, a little swell forming on her left eye. She closes the knife and hooks it on her pocket. She spots one of the stray flyers that had fallen on the ground. "Roller derby? That's still a thing?" she asks with a slight daze from the beating she herself took.

Neena Thurman has posed:
As the carnage unfolds and Neena watches in professional pride, even if... well, the entire time the propane tank is careening she doesn't realize she's not hiding pensive bite of lower lip, skeptical squint... tensing flinch... /sympathetic/ wince as the twisted mass of steel and fire and... people... rocks to a stop. Just in time for Neena to /oof/ as a duffel bag smacks her calf.

She glances to her guitar case, now minus one guitar, and then at the duffel... and unclips the strap from the guitar case, clips it onto the duffel bag, and hoists it up. "I'm never gonna learn the guitar at this rate." She sighs softly.

And then Harley's just... voluntelling her for Roller Derby? Eyes widen, dark lipstick'd lips press into a thoughtful line. "Uhh... yeah! Sure... afternoon... like two? Two thirty? Y'know what? I'll just play it by ear."

Neena picks up her jacket, folds it over her shoulder... and jostles that bag a little bit. It feels... well, okay, it feels like it's full of jewelry or something. So of course Neena's got to make sure it has a good home. It's the responsible thing to do.

She shrugs to June helplessly, "I guess it's retro? I dunno... I mean, hey, what could it hurt to check out. See you girls... tomorrow?" Eyebrows lift at how easy that was to say as she wanders off.

Roller Derby is a go!