2572/The Blood Orchid

The Blood Orchid
Date of Scene:	23 July 2020
Location:	St. Olivia's Botanical Garden, Long Island
Synopsis:	Lyle and Peggy team up to fight gangsters
Cast of Characters:	Peggy Carter, Lyle Marston

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Peggy Carter has posed:
The Botanical Garden's haven't actually changed all that much in the years since Peggy disappeared and returned. They've changed in the way that flowers and seasons do, but the architecture is the same. The location is the same. For a few minutes, Peggy can almost think it's still 1980 and not whatever year she's finally entered. Or maybe even 1960. Or the 50s. They've always looked mostly the same in this beautiful, historical place.

So, a vision in vintage glory, Peggy Carter is walking slowly through the gardens, keeping her neat green pumps carefully off the grass as to not destroy anything with the weight of her heel. She's in a matching forest green 1940s styled A-line dress with a white belt. Even her make up is a color from another era, and the soft waves of her hair. But, well, retro things were back nowadays, so maybe just's just really into those vintage vibes.

Lyle Marston has posed:
St. Olivia's Botanical Gardens was opened in 1945 by the New York Diocese. The Bishop at the time was a big fan of botony, and opened the Gardens not only to satisfy his hobby, but to help raise money for the church. Over the years, the plants may have changed, but the general look, architecture, and decorations haven't changed much over the years. Among the guests in the gardens currently was Lyle Marston, aka La Raton.

Lyle Marston was summoned to the Gardens by The Mole, his ever loyal information Broker. Mole had been contacted by a "concerned Parishoner" of a local church with a grim request. According to this contact, a Lithuanian crime boss by the name of Tomas Cinskas, the leader of a criminal group called The Baltic Connection, had his eyes set on a new flower in the Gardens, the supposed Blood Orchid, a very rare flower that has recently arrived in the Gardens. Lyle's goal, protect the Orchid if the Connection does arrive.

Lyle had hidden his La Raton costume outside the Gardens near his car, and he let Sir Percy, his ever loyal raccoon, loose in the gardens to wander around. Evnn if the tip turned out to be a dud, at least Percy would get some exercise.

Meanwhile, Sir Percy had been roaming the gardens, sniffing every inch of it, getting familiar with the scents, and ocassional begging scraps of food from toursts. He was currently in a bush when he saw a lady in green walk by. Thinking she had food, Sir Percy squeezes his slighty chubby body through the bushes and waddles towards Peggy, chattering and looking up at her, begging for food.

Peggy Carter has posed:
Racoon. There was a, seemingly friendly and clearly not starved, racoon loose in the gardens. Peggy jerks herself slightly out of her idle revere, staring down at thing and doing a double take to be certain she wasn't seeing things and no one around her was freaking out that a wild animal is loose in the gardens. This seems perfectly normal to everyone near so, apparently, there's been a few wild pets obtained by the local church in more recent years.

"Well...Hullo. I don't have any scraps, I'm afraid, but it looks like you are plenty well fed, young fellow..." Peggy's clipped British tones come smoothly to the animal, voice tinged with just a bit of amusement to be talking to a wild creature, but maybe she really was that lonely. Her dark eyes flicker across the creature again, making certain it has no signs of being rabid or the like. But no, simply friendly and in search of more food.

Lyle Marston has posed:
The Raccoon seemed to chatter something and went off back into the bushes. At that moment, a gunshot, and a cry of pain rings out across the gardens. This is shortly followed by more gunshots and the screams and panicked footsteps of people in the gardens rushing towards the exit intermingled with harsh, masculine voices yelling out in Lithianian, Latvian, and Estonian. Suddenly, the sounds of sprinting is heard and from around a corner emerges a man wearing a suit, with a black goatee, and long, black hair, weilding a Shotgun. He glares at you and says in a thick, Latvian accent,

"Get down on ground."

Lyle meanwhile, hears the first shot and rushes out with the crowds, and heads for where he hid his costume. He can only hope that he could get changed before the gangsters got to deep into the gardens.

Peggy Carter has posed:
Well, of course, Peggy does what any sensible secret agent does when gunshots break out on one's day off -- she starts running directly at them. She's hugging around the side of the path, keeping out of what should be a completely direct line of fire but also not trying to take too roundabout a way, in case there are already innocent civilians hurt. She's reaching into her jacket, pulling out a small gun, one of her newly assigned .38s. Not SHIELD tech, she didn't bring that out on her days off, but she definitely brought personal protection when she needed it.

The man with the shotgun is given the briefest of looks, a slight smirk crossing her lips as she begins to shift slowly downward, her gun not quite out of her jacket yet. She's keeping a careful eye in line with him, waiting for the proper shot at his shoulder, something essential to using a shot gun. The second she gets it, her gun is out and she's taking a perfectly targetted, sharp shot at his shoulder which keeps the aim for that thing in place. It's a hard shot, but she's a highly skilled marksman. She's propelling herself behind a tree within a second, just in case he does fire back.

Lyle Marston has posed:
The man screams in pain as his shoulder his shot. As he clutches his shoulder and begins to walk away, a second man, a angry looking Estonian man rushes up and begins to fire a Submachine gun at the tree, yelling out swears in Estonian as he did.

Meanwhile, Lyle, now dressed as La Raton, rushese back into the Gardens. As he rant, he took out one of his pistols and whacked an unexpecting gangster on the head with it, knocking him out. He knew they were after The Orchid, he could only hope they haven't reached it yet.

Peggy Carter has posed:
A shot gun wasn't a big deal, especially not against her marksmanship and the .38 in her hand. The submachine gun, however? That's a bigger problem. Peggy only just gets back in time but there's definitely a chunk taken out of her dress sleeve and a deep graze to her upper arm. She's now playing ring around the rosie with the Estonian, trying to keep the heavy, old tree between her and the highly dangerous weapon. She won't be able to get a chance to shoot again until she knows he's out or he's reloading.

Meanwhile, she's not certain what they are after, so she's trying to keep eyes on the road but keep herself alive. She sees another go down and a form across the distance, but only has a few heartbeats to take in the cut of La Raton's outfit before the machine gun dies out and she's jerking around the tree, trying to take another shot at the man. Non-lethal is the plan but she can't be as neat as she was with the shotgun. She just needs him down.

Lyle Marston has posed:
The second the machine gun runs out, Peggy's shot hits true. The Estonian cries out in pain and collapses on the ground, clutching his side. By this point, the gunfire seemed to have died down, but accented voices still echoed across the Gardens.

Lyle noticed the gangster shooting at the tree and turned back towards where he was shooting at. Once he arrived, he started to cautiously walk up to the tree. If Peggy were to look, she would see a man dressed up as a eighteenth century French Aristrocat wearing a domino mask with long, brown hair tied into a ponytail appraoching the tree cautiously.

Peggy Carter has posed:
For one moment, Peggy wonders if some time experiment in SHIELD went horribly wrong as she just blinks at the strangely dressed, out of time nobleman. She looks a little retro. He looks straight out of the Met Opera. "...Do you have any clue why the Eastern European mob is in the Gardens or are you part of their... plans..." He wasn't dressed like the other trouble makers and wasn't screaming in Estonian. "Something about get blood? I couldn't get all of what he was saying." Yes, she speaks bits of Estonian. But not enough to piece the whole phrase together in the chaos. She also is keeping her gun in close, readied to aim and fire at any second. The safety is off.

Lyle Marston has posed:
Lyle notices the woman reaching for his gun and puts his hand out disarmingly and says in a thick, French, accent,

"Easy Mademosille, i am here to help. These monsters are members of the Baltic Connection. They are after The Blood Orchid, it is a rare flower that Father Deleno brought in recently. It is a very rare flower, possibly worth a fortune."

As he says this, he whistles, and the same raccoon from earlier comes out from a rose bush and is placed on La Raton's shoulders.

Peggy Carter has posed:
The French accent is enough to give him away as almost certainly not with the others. For safety, because most of those gangsters are going to speak English, Peggy drops into French just as easily as she spoke English. Still a touch of that British accent, she wasn't trying to blend in, just to be understood. "...Baltic Connection. That's new. Alright, let's... make certain the Father's Orchid isn't touched. You have info on numbers? I'll take west flank of the flower, you take east... soon as you let me know where it is."

The clipped nature of her language and utterly no nonsense attitude in the middle of a shoot out is clearly one of someone who's used to entirely too much combat in her life. That might be worrisome or helpful, but right now, she seems able to help. She also blinks at the racoon, trying not to stare too hard, but that puts her off her game more than anything. French noble vigilante plus trained racoon. And she thought she'd seen it all!

Lyle Marston has posed:
Lyle nods at Peggy, a look of surprsie on his face from her suddenly taking charge. He then says in perfect French,

"Oui, i believe there are 5 left in the garden. The Orchid hasn't been planted, so it should be near the end of the garden. Be careful, these men are not to be toyed with. There still may be Church employees or visitors left, do try to be careful."

Lyle then rushes off into the bushes, heading towards where the flower should be.

Peggy Carter has posed:
"...Get to the Orchid. I'll keep your back clear." Peggy clips out in fluent French, seemingly just as comfortable in that language as her own. Then, nothing else is need to be said. They both had a job to do and she was going to back up the strange man (and his racoon) while he came to finish the protection job he started. That means she's hugging into trees and heavy flowers, keeping her back as covered as possible as her unsafetied gun remains mostly pointed diagonal to the ground until the moment she sees someone else charging in his direction. She then jerks her weapon up and shoots with calm accuracy, for arms and hands, trying to disarm as she goes.

At one point, one jerks out of the bushes with Lyle between her and the figure, "On your 11!" She calls to him in French, really hoping that they still use that sort of descriptor in whatever school of combat training he comes from because she doesn't want to shoot him but she doesn't have a clear shot of that one.

Lyle Marston has posed:
As Lyle made his way through the foilage, he was surprisingly very steathly, and seemingly did not make any noise while going through the plants that made up the Garden.

Upon hearing hearing gunshots and Peggy's warning, Lyle quickly pulls out his gun and shoots the gangster through the leg. As the gangster falls to the ground hard, Lyle turns to Peggy and nods.

Peggy Carter has posed:
Two more to go. Peggy's slower now, because the Gangsters have realized they are outnumbered (or, at least, outclassed) and haven't been as eager to just be obvious as the first few. She keeps creeping up the path after him, moving between trees she can hug her back against with surprising efficiency for someone still in vintage heels and whose arm has been slightly freely bleeding this whole time. She'll worry about it after. Protecting the objective and this vaguely insane looking vigilante was the goal.

As she finally catches something else in the bushes, she jerks her gun in that direction and calls out in choppy Estonian, "If you think important freedom, you run now and the police do not catch up with you, because you are not going to finish getting this goal."

Lyle Marston has posed:
The Gangsters look around a bit, as if looking to see if any back-up would come. When none do, the gangsters flee. The second the gangsters are gone, Lyle emerges from his hiding spot and appraoches the Orchid. He examines it a bit and nods.

He then tips his hat at Peggy and fless as police sirens begin to fill the air.