2108/The Cat and the Shootist

The Cat and the Shootist
Date of Scene:	14 June 2020
Location:	A run down safari park in the wilds of New Jersey. The Pine Barrens rise in the distance.
Synopsis:	No description
Cast of Characters:	Thomas Blake, Floyd Lawton

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Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake grabs the chain link fence and quickly scales its 12 foot height. He flips over the razor wire topping the fence and stealths to a padlocked gate and begins picking the padlock. He is wearing a black, stealth version of his regular costume. "Okay, I almost got this... there!" The lock and chain fall and he opens the gate. He watches the moonlit meadow before him. There is movement in the bushes. He keeps his eyes on that. "Come in slow, make no sudden movements. No guns here."

Floyd Lawton has posed:
    Deadshot followed after, climbing gear carrying him over the fence. He keeps his AR close as he sweeps and clears. "Always gotta make things difficult." He grumbles, stowing the custom rifle over his back. "Alright, make it quick." He whispers. Whatever Catman has in mind, it better be worth it.

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake loosely wraps the chain around the gate giving it the appearance of still being locked. This done he stalks towards the nearest bush opening a shoulder bag as he goes. Two lionesses emerge and he stops and throws the meat he carries a little ahead of him. Two more emerge from a bush on his side, flanking him. The first two approach closer. They give the meat a sniff, but seem more interested the pile of human meat fate has gifted them.

Catman remains still, looking one lioness in the eyes. "Don't shoot... there's one on you. I've got this."

Floyd Lawton has posed:
    Deadshot -stops- in his tracks. He knows when someone has him dead-to-rights. Humans don't normally get this lucky, but animals are a nother story. He sees the cats flanking Catman and him. "No wonder you wanted no guns." He mutters quietly. "Okay...drop the meat and let's get the fuck going. I don't wanna be Fancy Feast."

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake reaches a hand out. "All that nicotine in you would be bad for them... and I don't tell you how to aim." Finally something unspoken passes. One lioness pops up very close to Deadshot and saunters by as if to say, 'I had you.' The four around Catman are lying down and he's sitting and pretty much mushing their faces and giving nuzzles and scritches. "Be through here in a minute. When beautiful here takes the meat, we go. Lousy... keepers... these cats are fucking starving! They may still feed them, in a special way."

After a minute the head lioness sniffs the meat, picks it up and she and the rest of the pride fade away.

Floyd Lawton has posed:
    "Tch." Deadshot just watches the pride saunter off, "Fucking shameful, that. Maybe we oughta call animal control or somethin'." He offers, before thinking better of that. It's a tense minute, the worst kind, the kind where anything can go wrong in seconds. But thankfully, the girls are sated.

    Lions. What kind of James Bond operation are they dealing with, here?

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake watches as the lions' saunter turns into a run. He dives for cover instinctively as a rifle shot splits the air where he was standing. He finds a rock to crouch behind and says, "Okay, you're up!" Another bullet spangs off the rock and Catman crouches harder, if that's possible. "We seem to have a sniper of some small ability."

Floyd Lawton has posed:
    Deadshot dives behind cover, drawing his rifle again. "Single shooter. Keep your head down, Blake." He growls, activating his eyepiece. He throws smoke, counting on his thermal optics to let him see through the smoke, and doubting the sniper has any of his own to use. With his rifle in hands, he stares where he saw the shots come from.

Thomas Blake has posed:
Blake does keep his had down indeed as the smoke goes off. The other shooter takes a hasty shot as the smoke billows out, easily marking him in Deadshot's eyepiece. Another shot comes closer through blind luck. "Hurry up before he phones this in..."

Floyd Lawton has posed:
    "Gotcha, bitch." Deadshot says, before snapping off a few shots at the sniper, the rifle recoiling against his shoulder softly with suppressed rounds. His optics give him all the ballistic data he needs, and experience teaches him the rest, compensating for wind and bullet drop as he tries to zero in on his target.

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake won't insult Deadshot by asking if he got the sniper. After a moment he climbs to his feet and is off looking for tracks. They were near a gate after all. He spies a trail and waves for Deadshot to follow. Hopefully Deadshot will follow before the lions get hungry again.

The trail soon leads to a pile of boulders and a concealed steel door. It's covered with a camera, tracking back and forth. Catman circles around and climbs atop the boulder pile to swat the camera out of line with the door, then drops down to begin picking the lock. "Shit. It's one of those keypad things. Got any thermite?"

Floyd Lawton has posed:
    "Plenty." Deadshot answers, following Catman as they make their way toward a few boulders and the door. He produces frame charges and gets to setting them, and makes certain to shoot the camera out with a few shots from one of his gauntlet guns, suppressed of course. Can't break stealth.

    Charges set, he motions for Catman to get clear as he does the same, and blows the door open promptly, averting his gaze to avoid being blinded.

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake enters a stairwell and quickly descends. If anyone was close enough to hear the breaching charges or was watching the sensor or the sniper stealth is useless. Surprise can still be maintained. Hit the responders quickly, build momentum, keep moving. He goes down a level, then another, then a third. He tries a door three levels down and finds it unlocked. "I sense this is more than I bargained for. I figured an outbuilding with test tubes and some nerds and lots of gear to wreck or steal. This is three floor deep already. He opens the door to a loud whine of machinery, explaining perhaps why their little boom went unheard. The place is obviously soundproofed. He peeks out the door and shuts it quickly. "Hey... who are those guys... wear uniforms that look like beekeepers?"?

Floyd Lawton has posed:
    Deadshot descends after Catman, stowing his rifle as they go inside in favor of handguns and wristguns. Rappelling downwards, he makes his way through the door. What he sees inside there gets him to torque his jaw.

    "Fuuuuuuuck." he says, "AIM." This is going to get complicated quickly.

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake gets his knives out and asks, "They got anything worth stealing; so this is not a total loss?" No sooner does he asks the question than the doors above and below them open and two squads of bucket heads converge on the two. "Never mind." With a rahr and snarl Catman leaps on the3 squad climbing the stairs, his tattered cape flapping behind him.

Floyd Lawton has posed:
    "Plenty of shit." Deadshot answers, he goes downstairs, leaping over the barrier and opening fire on the squad bellow with his wristguns. Automatic fire blazes away at the beekeeper goons, each shot expertly fired by the hitman as he makes his descent. By the time he's on the ground, he's ready to go into hand-to-hand combat, blasting guards point blank that didn't lie down and die sooner.

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake the second wave coming through the door gets a surprise as Catman slams into them, knives flashing. He leaves them bleeding or stunned and pushes through, leaving his near misses for Deadshot. The men descending fail to get a clean shot at either of the two criminals. He springs into the corridor and then yells, "Oh shiiiiiiiit! Bring a big assed gun!" their the slam of something heavy smashing into concrete. "Fuck!"

Floyd Lawton has posed:
    Deadshot takes cover, he's not an idiot. Body armor is good but not perfect. Following after Catman, he dives behind cover near the corridor to take a peek out at whatever his partner in crime is talking about, tossing a handgrenade for good measure as he ducks his head back to avoid getting it shot off.

Thomas Blake has posed:
The corridor is taken up by an agent operating a huge exoskeleton fully ten feet tall. A smashed section of concrete attests to one missed swing already, and the agent tries to make up for it sweeping an arm to cover the entire width of the corridor. Catman drops and grabs the arm as it passes, swinging onto it and then backflipping onto a shoulder and... and what? Knives and claws against armor plate is not a good match. He isn't Wolverine. He can flip his cape over the pilot's view port and hang on as the armor thrashes about.

Floyd Lawton has posed:
    Producing some detpacks, Deadshot takes aim at the exoskeleton and hurls one of the explosives at it. "Catman, get clear when I tell ya!" He calls out, returning fire at the other squad when they catch up. Drawing one of his pistols and a combat knife, he uses military-trained CQC to drop the goons, with point break shots, joint-locks, and stabs to arteries through those tacky beekeeper uniforms, trying to avoid armored sections. He knows for a fact you can't protect joints as much without taking away mobility, after all.

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake drops as the charge goes off and is shielded from the brunt of the blast. The armor is staggered and Catman throws himself against the man machine and is greatly pleased as it tips over and falls to its knees. "Most medieval knights died from daggers through their visor, did you know that?" He jams a knife into the cracked visor, but it doesn't penetrate enough to impede the man. "Oh hell no!" He delivers another kick and the armored man face plants with a sickening 'squick' as the visor cracks open.

Catman turns around and sees several bucket heads in white lab coats who turn and run. He springs after them with another snarl.

Floyd Lawton has posed:
    Deadshot is content to let that charge, and Catman, finish off the exoskeleton trooper. WIth that done, they finish off the guards. The scientists are pretty harmless without their muscle, and with that Deadshot grabs one of the researchers. "Drives, laptops, where are they?" He demands, shoving his pistol in the poor scientist's face.

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake spots a scientist leaving the group and slips away after him. The man triggers a secret door and is about to escape through it when he is grabbed by Blake. Catman throws him up against a wall and hisses, "Alchemax sends their regards. This is a polite request to cease interfering with them." He drags the man back with him. "Deadshot, how goes. We should leave in case they blow the place or something. I found an exit." He strips the bucket helmet and lab coat of the scientist and puts them on and as a second thought, slips his mask off under the helmet and puts it on the scientist. "Please, please..."

"Quiet Catman, you're making your escape. You get to go through the door first!"

Floyd Lawton has posed:
    Deadshot grabs a few harddrives and laptops, stowing them in his pack before he watches Catman do...something. "The fuck are you doin'?" He asks, before suddenly the lightbulb goes off in his head. "Ohhhh..." He leaves his mask on one of the guards, strapping his tactical gear on the poor bastard and donning a spare helmet and labcoat.

    Good enough to let people assume Deadshot was killed in the confusion. For now, anyway.

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake herds the scientists through the door, 'Deadshot' and 'Catman' in the front of the pack. As they exit the door there are several sharp cracks and the men fall wounded. The ploy doesn't work nearly as well as Blake hoped. The guards cover the group of men, "Hands up! Remove your helmets or be shot where you sta..."

From the darkness there is a coughing roar, followed by the full throated roar of a male lion. The guards suddenly lose interest in the scientists who scatter. the guards are more upset by the fact several of them are suddenly missing. Screams and more roars follow by a couple of shots. Screams continue.

Catman grabs his mask and  Deadshot's from the moaning men, "Remember, Alchemax... you pissed off Alchemax."

Floyd Lawton has posed:
    Deadshot follows, grabbing his mask back. "Well, shit. We'd better mosey before the lions find us and decide they want seconds." He suggests, eyeing the carnage warily.