2584/The Goshawk Hotel

The Goshawk Hotel
Date of Scene:	23 July 2020
Location:	New York
Synopsis:	Claudius gets critical intelligence from Ark with some help from Rogue.
Cast of Characters:	Claudius Aelecto, Rogue

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Claudius Aelecto has posed:
Claudius Aelecto received a tip from Morbius about a lead he had on the people who had killed his gang....frankly it was the ONLY lead he had and he wasn't going to let it go. It had taken quite a bit of stake outs but Claudius could be meticulous when he needed to be. Initial results hadn't yielded anything. For weeks he had been stumped but then he tried teleporting little all weather web cams all around the hotel to scout it out and finally caught the guy coming in and out. Now he was prepared to do a little more than scout it out and sat, waiting in the lobby of the seedy place for Ark to come walking in, checking his web cams on a tablet as he did.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue had been in the city for a few hours, she'd been called down by a former Brotherhood friend. That friend had told her about 'things' going down at this place and given her a vague address on where to find it. The Belle was doing sidework like this to try to become a more notable superhero, call it the Carol Danvers side of her mind these days. So here she's arriving, floating through the sky and coming down to land on a nearby rooftop. With a green and gold suit on, a leather jacket on over her shoulders and a pair of long boots up to her knees, the young woman peers down and observes quietly, her hair flowing in the wind around her face.

Claudius Aelecto has posed:
Claudius Aelecto is wearing a trench coat with a hood to hide his obvious physical differences. Rogue might notice a web cam on the ledge pointed at the hotel suddenly teleport exactly twenty feet to the right right before her eyes as Claudius, unaware of her presence, moves it to get a better view as Ark and two thugs with actual violin cases walk towards the front door. Ark himself is in his twenties, dressed in a suit that looks way too expensive for a guy with his idiot grin and comes in to the clerk at the hotel desk and says, "I get any calls?"

Rogue has posed:
For Rogue, this was still a bit of new territory. She observes the odd behavior with the teleporting camera, then the man walking up and inside the building. She can't hear them, but she watches them as best as she's able. "Hmmm." The Belle mutters. "Strange place." She mutters to herself.

Rogue glances down and drops off the ledge of the hotel to float down to a neon lit sign's top where she touches down and reaches out to place her hand on one of the metal support beams that hold the sign to the building. She's not entirely convinced yet that this place is even the right one her friend had intended her to check out...

Claudius Aelecto has posed:
Claudius Aelecto is not expecting anyone else to interfere, but he stands and moves towards Ark, fully prepared to unleash hell if he needs to. He's tried subtle, but Ark seems to have been tipped off that trouble is coming and looks at him and immediately seems uncomfortable. "Ark.....I have a few questions for you about the death of my crew...."

The guys with the violin cases look at each other and begin undoing latches. Just that fast.

Ark looks nervous as the clerk immediately sinks behind the counter and Anvil pulls back his hood staring down the sandy brown haired fool with his cobolt blue unnatural eyes.

"Er....crew?"

"Yeah, about a year ago. Mutant Town. Massacre near the pier. The Sagepits....ring a bell?"

Rogue has posed:
Rogue can see them talking across the street, but she can't hear them, she doesn't have super hearing... very good hearing, but not that good. So she drops off of the neon sign and quietly lands behind a bus stop bench and booth. With her hands going into her leather jacket side pockets, Rogue walks around the other side of it and moves toward the street walk. Crossing to the other side she starts to walk toward the building. She glances in the front windows and starts up toward the entrance. She doesn't have a lot of fear in her, after all, so she pulls the door open and just move son inside. If they look her way, she'll raise a gloved right hand and smile. "Hey, can ya'll tell me what hotel this is? I didn't see a sign outside." She's just making small talk.

Claudius Aelecto has posed:
The Clerk, from behind the counter, gurgles, "It's the Goshawk Hotel Ma'am and you might want to...."

The two goons are astonished to find their violin cases to be empty. Gee. What could have happened to the guns inside?

Ark walks a step back and holds up his hands, "Hey man, I dont want any trouble...."

Two large actual anvils drop beside Claudius and they keep dropping...and then appearing at the top of the ceiling and then redropping...approaching terminal velocity, "Yeah I thought you might say that..."

One of the two guys in shades with ark picks up his phone and makes a call.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue stands in the doorway with her hands back in her jacket pockets, holding her leather bomber jacket closed over her torso. She stares at the man who responds to her, but he's soon cut off and... well... things start happening. Her eyes dart up to the anvils as they appear and then the men looking inside of the violin cases. This makes the Belle tilt her head in a curious sort've expression stared toward the men. "Ya'll know how t'party at this place, huh?" She asks, observing the madness for the time being, considering she's a gal with very little fear due to being very nearly invulnerable.

Claudius Aelecto has posed:
Claudius Aelecto doesnt know she is but has no immediate desire to see people get clobbered by anvils at terminal velocity, and not knowing she is a mutant he adds, "Yeah the clerk is probably right miss...these guys are in for a bit a surprise in the immediate future you might want to ...not be here, no offense..."

He heads towards Ark, the anvils now at terminal velocity teleporting around him back and forth as they fall and then reappear in the ceiling only to drop again and he moves closer and closer to Ark, "Memory getting better?"

The goons back up but one pulls out a pistol and begins to aim at Claudius.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue doesn't show the slightest glimpse of being interested in leaving now that there's this guy porting the big hammerheads around (She doesn't realize they're anvils yet). Based on Claudius advising her to get lost though, she assumes he's here to do basically as she is... heroics. So when she sees the man draw the pistol and take aim at him, she reaches out to her side and grabs a circular table by its edge, then whips it across the distance between them at the man, throwing it like a frisbee, it swirls through the air toward the man aiming the gun!

"Guns ain't nice, sugah." She says after sending the table on it's way, her eyes glinting over toward Claudius again. "Course, neither are those hammers you're wieldin'." There's a brief pause then. "Someone wanna tell me what's goin' down here?"

Claudius Aelecto has posed:
Claudius Aelecto says, "Sure. This guy," he points at Ark, "Works for some kind of conspiracy that snuffed my entire gang in Mutant town and he's my only lead. I know, not suspect, KNOW, he is involved and he's the next rung up the ladder to whoever is involved in killing my crew and, I suspect a lot worse stuff than that...nice throw by the way."

Ark takes out a gun himself and fires point blank six shots at Claudius all of which are immediately redirected at his lower leg. He shrieks in pain.

A few cars can be heard in the distance."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue's eyes go from the man explaining the situation, over to the other whose reaching for the gun. When he fires off a few rounds, she reacts by leaning forward and flying across the room with her fists forward to battering-ram the man back on to his buttocks! "No guns!" Rogue shouts once she drops down out of the air and back on to her wedge-heeled boots. She staggers her weight from one foot to the other, and glares at this 'Ark' fellow. "You got any info for this man?" She asks him. "Time t'spill it..." She glances back to Anvil then. "Are ya okay? Did ya get hit?" She then asks him.

Claudius Aelecto has posed:
Claudius Aelecto says, "Bullets...dont do well with me," he grins ferally and teleports one of the spent shell casings from one hand to the other. "Ark here is a finance guy, launders money for bad people. Bad taste in suits, booze and friends, but he seems to have some goons to back him up.

Several cars outside pull up and the sounds of car doors opening can be heard."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue turns then when she hears the noises outside, she walks back toward that direction and passes by Claudius on the way - looking toward him - she comments. "Better get what ya need outta him, then. I can hold the thugs off outside. Bullets don't scare me none." The southern gal says, strutting her way across the room toward the front entrance. She throws the doors open at the same time and stands out in the center of the doorway with her hands on her hips now. "Hello, boys!" The Belle says to those arriving. "We're closed!"

Claudius Aelecto has posed:
The guys in the cars look at each other and, guns blatantly displayed attempt a warning. The leader looks her over and says ,"Get out of the way or get filled with lead." Is this a 1920's gangster movie? Something odd about these guys...

The two with Ark attempt to jump Claudius but immediately jump back as one nearly gets smashed by an anvil orbiting around him and another smashes the hotel counter to splinters as the twenty pound anvil impacts it at terminal velocity as Ark shrieks in fear.

"Now Ark.....tell me what I wanna know

Rogue has posed:
On the doorstep, the Southern Belle smiles brightly at the men threatening her.

"Ya'll don't know me, I understand, I'm still fairly new around these parts." She raises her left hand and lays it over her chest. "I'm Rooogue... and I'm the woman that doesn't fear a damn thing about any of ya." That same hand then points a finger out at them. "Those cute lil guns'a yours? Yeah, they don't do nothin' t'me. Here, lemme show ya a bit'a what I can do...." The Belle then reaches for the two doors she'd thrusted open and... yanks them right off of the doorframe!

With both hands, she whips BOTH doors out at the men and their cars, the doors whirling end over end toward them!

Claudius Aelecto has posed:
The goons are impressed. But not bright. A few dodge out of fear and one guy, the smartest just immediately runs away. The rest, however, do what people do to superman even though its pointless and open fire at full auto as bullets just bounce off.

Inside, Ark sweats bullets of his own and says, "OK, OK what do you want to know?"

"Who do you work for? Why was my crew killed?"

"I dont know man! Its a dozen different shell companies...they paid me to hire some guys to take them out, that's all I know, honest..."

A table is smashed by another anvil, "Not good enough

Rogue has posed:
What can be heard outside - while Anvil does his questioning - is just gunfire, and screams, along with a mixture of metal crushing sounds. Because, well, Rogue is taking one of the Gangster's vehicles and smashing it into a ball. She's shouting at the thugs, toying with them really, as they tried to pepper her with bullets only the bullets literally do nothing to her. Her suit is even designed to take very little damage from the average ammo round from most small arms.

"Hope ya didn't like this car!" Rogue shouts as she crushes it down to the street's surface, then kicks one of the tires that pops off, sending it end over end at one of the remianing gunmen! She's literally just having fun with the men outside, and preoccupying them for Anvil to have time inside!

Claudius Aelecto has posed:
One of the guys reaches into the car and takes out a rocket launcher...and sneers, aiming at Rogue. The problem is, he is kind of slow at it so its relatively easy to take or dodge. As it is, he carefully tries to point at her and pull the trigger.

Claudius is very patient, smiling at the sounds of mayhem outside the building as the two goons rush out and point pistols at rogue joining the others and shooting at her. Ark, meanwhile jibbers, "Seriously man, that's all I know."

"Give me your phone." It isnt a request and he takes it then looks at it being locked and hands it to Ark.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue's eyes sweep over to look at the man fishing the Rocket Launcher out of the trunk of one of the other cars, and she grins. With her green headband flowing in the wind along with her brown and white hair, the Belle sweeps toward him -- but he gets the shot off first -- only she doesn't try to dodge the rocket, she instead reaches out to intercept it, and thrust it UP in to the air!

One thing she also absorbed from Carol Danvers was a 'Sense Sense' that gave her advanced reflexes when danger was coming her way, and this she often used to try to defense herself, but also others... so her goal is to send that rocket straight up into the sky where it hopefully blows up out of harms way!

"Not cool!" Rogue shouts then as she flies toward the man now to try and rip the launcher from his hands!

Claudius Aelecto has posed:
The guys eye's practically boggle out of his head as he sees this and he shouts to the others,"Retreat!" He drops the rocket launcher and throws it away hoping she will go after it. The others dont stop pointlessly firing a combination of pistols and full auto machine guns at her hoping to get lucky. The sheer Chutzpah is frankly, amazing. The others patiently continue.

Ark, meanwhile is eager to get the whole thing over as quickly as possible and puts his face in front of the phone and enters his pin. Claudius immediately mirrors the phone to his and begins to copy numerous numbers and documents. Ark might not know much but his phone is a treasure trove of leads

Rogue has posed:
Rogue watches the man toss the launcher away, she smirks at his reaction and lets him run. But the others start to fire on her, which makes her duck just out or reflex because she doesn't /like/ bullets even if they don't hurt her. She ducks behind the vehicle that the man had pulled the launcher from and reaches up to grab on to it and just pull it right over on to it's side so its underbelly is now facing the gunment...

What they'll find next is that the car is moving toward them, as Rogue is just pushing it and letting them shoot at it liberally, peppering its under carriage!

Once she's close enough, she juups up on to he side of the car and stares down at the men. "Run away, or I'm gonna crush ya'll inta little gooy puddles!"

Claudius Aelecto has posed:
A few of the others are smart enough to run away at this point. No amount of money is enough to pay them to fight what they literally can't even harm, and two cars drive away. There are more rocket launchers, but frankly they dont really like Ark that much. But that still leaves no less than 15 guys who unload entire clips at her, firing again and again in grim determination that somehow the definition of insanity will produce different results.

Ark gurgles as Claudius lifts him up with one hand, finally finishing copying the phone and getting the entirity of its contents; a veritable treasure trove of leads, smashing a few other objects in the room just because he can making Ark cringe in fear as Claudius smiles.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue sees fifteen men all aiming guns at her from different places of cover or non-cover on the street and all she thinks is 'The Professah wouldn't want me killin' any'a these bastards. But boy do they deserve it...'

But she owes Charles Xavier a lot, so she plays by his rules...

What Anvil and Ark will hear outside is likely the sounds of more gunfire, mixed in with the sounds of men screaming, but Rogue is going to lunge-fly from one gunman to the next, delivering each one a punch, or a shove, or a knee to disable and disuade them from continuing to fire on her! She won't hesitate to smash any of their guns that she can get her gloved hands on to either! She may not be Flash or Quicksilver, but she's still pretty damn fast!

Claudius Aelecto has posed:
Anvil eventually lets Ark drop to the ground and heads outside, enough to spot Rogue smashing the idiots. What she doesnt punch, he makes the bullets turn around on and cause powder burns and flesh wounds such that between the fifteen who she doesnt get they are on the ground writhing in pain soon enough. He is grinning ear to ear at her performance and says, "Call me Anvil.

Rogue has posed:
When it's said and done, Rogue is pumped up and rolling with adrenaline, but Anvil arrives and calls out to her. She loosens her fists and straightens her stance to look back at him. She smirks. "Rogue." She says, glancing toward the men she'd disabled here and now, leaving a bit of the mess on the street. "Cops probably gonna be here soon, ya know?" She tells him as she looks back at him. She tips her chin up just a little. "Did ya get what ya were lookin' for?" She asks in that southern flavored voice of hers.

Claudius Aelecto has posed:
Claudius Aelecto says, "I did. I'll share what I learned if you like but not here." He motions towards the roof of the building nearby. He can't fly like she can but he seems to agree waiting for the cops is an ill conceived idea. "Nice to meet you Rogue, thanks for the assist."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue's eyes go up to the roof of the building after hearing his response. She then looks back down at him. "Right." She says then before offering him her right gloved hand. "Need a lift?" She asks with a soft smile. If he accepts she'll thusly then shoot up into the air angle her flight right on up and over so that they'll both sweep up on to the roof where she'll gently touch down and release her grasp on him. "That hammer stuff'a yours is pretty impressive, looks like a lot'a punch t'try'n control though." She pauses then. "Did ya kill him?" She asks. "That fat lipped fella inside the hotel." She speaks of Ark, of course.

Claudius Aelecto has posed:
Claudius Aelecto is always intruiged by fliers, so he definitely takes the offer, enjoying it and even not dropping anvils on the cars of the mooks writhing in agony from redirected bullets or fists as the cops arrive en masse. "Yeah its a nice trick," he smiles thinly,"I can teleport small objects, its handy but not deflection of bullets or flight. No, I didnt kill the idiot, but he deserved it.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue's hands go to her hips. She puts the bulk of her lithe weight on to her right leg so her left flares out to the side a bit while she stares at him and watches him. Summer winds sweep across the building's roof and carry with it the sounds of the police dealing with the stuff they'd left behind down there on street level. She glances in that direction, but from where she's at she can't see over the edge. So her eyes return to his. "So this guy gave ya what ya wanted t'hear then?" She asks. "I was told this place was a front for mobsters, said there was all kinds of shady stuff goin' on here. So I thought I'd stop by and take a peak myself... guess it was all true."

Claudius Aelecto has posed:
Claudius Aelecto nods,"Only lead I had really but I'm seeing hundreds of contacts, multiple financial docs and a dozen shell companies. It will take me weeks to sort through all of this. Well, he seems mobster enough for me, so yeah your contact likely steered you right. Ark is shady enough for the entire hotel.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue offers a single nod to him then, followed by a smirk. "Well, Heavy Hitter, glad I was able t'help you out." She lets her hands fall from her hips then as she glances toward the north and the buildings of New York's skyline. "I better get back t'where I belong though." She looks back at him. "You need a lift anywhere?" She then asks out of courtesy.

Claudius Aelecto has posed:
Claudius Aelecto beams at the comment about being a heavy hitter, "I dunno Rogue, I have a useful power but its not the superman suite. Still, I appreciate the lift up here. Flying must be nice. And I'll take a lift five blocks south, I think they're setting up a perimeter but not required

Rogue has posed:
Rogue shows a half grin to the man then and she steps over to the edge of the building to lean over and glance down, the headband's ends waving next to the side of her face as she looks. But when she looks back to him she'll offer her gloved hand again to him. "Looks like they got the situation in-hand down there, so I guess that's how these super-types do stuff downtown, so t'speak." She says that with a nice bit of happy enthusiasm and then -- with his hand -- she'll offer a. "Hold on, Sugah." And take to the sky again. The two fly up and curve their way into a nice high altitude, headed south, five blocks!