2635/A Gift Unlike Any Other

A Gift Unlike Any Other
Date of Scene:	26 July 2020
Location:	Belvedere Castle
Synopsis:	April and Vanessa investigate a gift shop that might be involved in smuggling.
Cast of Characters:	April O'Neil, Vanessa Carlysle

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April O'Neil has posed:
A series of clues had lead April to deciding it was time to check out Gibson's Gifts. It's a small shop not too far from Central Park. It sets on the corner of a rather busy street, it's a hell of a location really.

The first tip off came from a caller to her Podcast who said they'd email her the details about a suspected smuggling operation in Manhattan. They'd sent her a thing all right. It was about a box of Snow Globes, one of which broke open, and it had diamonds inside of it's base. Actual, legit diamonds, about five of them. They broke open the others and found more. They were afraid of what to do with them.

The next clue came when she reached out to someone to do some research for her about this stgre, and they found out that they were selling cabinets on their website that were marked up to... $125,000. This lead them to believe this was a human trafficking scam!

So, April thought she'd check the place out. She'd called the store and gotten friendly with the person on the phone, they'd eventually told her when they closed up and that they left the back of the store around 9.

It was 9 when April asked Vanessa to meet her. And this is when April was hiding behind a dumpster, with a pair of binoculars to look at the employee as they came out of the store.

"One. Seven... Five. Six... Four..." April says softly as she reads the numbers on the security pad that the employee taps in. A few moments later and she's ducking behind the dumpster as they get in to their car!

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Vanessa Carlysle arrives at the area, having parked a rental car at the other end of the block and approached over the rooftops. She's wearing black jeans and a dark grey top that do well in the dark for not standing out, without looking like you're going about dressed as a burglar. She has a telescoping metal weapon in a pocket with a slit in the bottom so it'll fit out of sight.

She checks out the gift shop from above, watching as the employees leave and enter their car. Directly below her, it's easy to spot the form of April O'Neil hiding behind the dumpster. Vanessa waits until they are in the car and won't be able to hear her when she gives a soft, "Pssst" from above. She waves down to April if the other woman looks up, but waits for the car to depart before she scampers down from the roof, dropping down from one window ledge to another until she's near to the ground.

April O'Neil has posed:
April has her back up to the dumpster behind her. She's wearing a black tshirt with Robotcop's picture on her chest, holding his gun up with the caption 'Your Move, Creep' beside his face. Blue jeans and black tennis shoes make up the rest of her outfit, but she does have her messenger bag with her slung over her shoulder too.

When she hears the 'Psst' from above, the young reporter looks up to see her friend up there with makes her smile and wave. But the headlights from the car cause her to lower her waving hand down to grab a trash bag of what feels like paper. She lifts it up to shield herself as the car drives off down the alley and turns out onto the main road.

The trash bag is tossed aside and April moves to stand up. She looks up to Van again. "I'm gonna go inside, I got the security code!" She glances down at the fancy binoculars she's holding still. They were designed by Donnatello, and were digital in nature, along with other fancy features. She smiles at them and slips them into her messenger bag as she starts to hot-skip-jog across the alleyway to the store's backdoor.

In a rush, the young woman just glides riiiight on up to the keypad to flip it's panel open and then to start typing the code in on the panel's buttons!

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Vanessa makes her drop down from the rooftop. She can't help but think to herself this is almost like a reverse salmon ladder, albeit minus the bar. She drops to the alley and moves over to join April at the back door.

"Look at you all Jane Bond like," Vanessa says with a grin. She looks at the keypad. "Rigel 5700. Usually comes with cameras and motion detectors," she comments of the security system. "Good thing you got the code," she comments as she turns her attention to the alleyway instead, standing watchdog for April as she secures their entrance.

"So... the stuff you said they might be into... these could be some bad dude," she comments to April as she keeps watch. "How do you work something like this? Find the evidence then call the cops and tape them making the arrest?" she asks.

April O'Neil has posed:
April hears the click on the lock disengage which makes her smile. She glances back to Vanessa. "Please. You came in from above. If I'm Jane Bond, then you're Bat... woman, or whatever." She flashes a grin then and moves to open the door. She strides on inside into the dark and reaches down to grab her flashlight. It's on in a click.

"We're definitely on cameras. I'd hope to find their camera system and erase the footage, but I don't know if that'll be easy to do or not." She says as she sweeps her beam around the interior of a small storage area in the back of the store, filled with boxes.

"If all we find are drugs and ... jewels. I'd send it to the Police and tell them I'm going public with it in a day or so. But if it's... people... they're stealing, I'd be a lot more insistent, so to speak."

April approaches a box of items and starts to lift the lid on it to peer around inside at the dinosaur statues it contains.

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Vanessa Carlysle pauses at the doorway before going inside, looking down for a moment. When she looks back up, she has a different woman's face. Just enough she's not recognizable as herself. "You focus on the evidence, I'll go work on getting the cameras erased," she suggests as she moves inside.

She pulls out her own flashlight and begins making her way towards the place's office, knowing that's the most likely place to find it. "So you think the cabinet price means they might be moving people? The amount too much to be paying off for other things?" she asks, not knowing all of the exact particulars, but having the gist of what April has found so far.

Vanessa moves quietly through the store, as if not willing to take for granted there might not be someone here to hear them. She pauses beside a box of open plushy stuffed animals. "These are kind of cute," she whispers, but leaves them for April to examine as she continues towards the office.

April O'Neil has posed:
April scans her light over the dinosaurs in their boxes but closes it up. "I don't want to break everything in the store, just to find out if there's contraband inside of them." She grumbles to herself, and Vanessa. Her eyes go to where her friend is with her own light. "Just remember not to shine the lights at the front of the store. Last thing we want to do is get people calling the cops on us."

April walks over to glance at the items Van is eyeballing and she grins. "They are cute." She comments quietly. "Rip them open, see if they're full of bags of heroin." She smirks then and starts to wander off toward the other side of the storage room. "Typically, the way it's worked in the past, is those items are marked up super high, and the info passed around through private networks. Nobody's gonna buy a hundred thousand dollar cabinet, unless they know what's inside of it."

April walks up to a suspicious wall and starts to run her hands over the cracks in the drywall. She glances down at her feet and... "Drag marks." She mutters, shining her light on the smooth concrete floor.

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Vanessa Carlysle grabs one of the plushies, a little bear holding a heart emblazoned with "I <3 NY" and takes it with her towards the office. "Cutest heroin dealer, ever, if so," she says quietly. She just uses her light as much as needed to navigate to the office doorway.

Her hand tries the knob. "Gift shop that locks the manager's office," she intones quietly. She pulls something out of her back pocket and then crouches down, using a set of picks on the lock. The lock isn't particularly high end and it takes her only a dozen seconds before she's repocketing the set of picks and opening the door and going inside.

"I should have brought some comms for us," she comments, lifting her voice just enough it'll carry to where April is examining the wall and floor. Vanessa looks around the office, quickly identifying the usual places that might hold the security system's recording equipment. The cabinet is a possibility, but more likely built into the wall in a reinforced enclosure. Like behind the painting of Central Park. She moves it aside. "Bingo," she says. Another lock though. The picks come back out.

April O'Neil has posed:
April can hear Vanessa, barely, but she's a little distracted by trying to figure out how to open this wall up... She leans forward to put her ear up against it and then taps it with her knukcles ... she can't tell if it sounds hollow or not. What do normal walls sound like?

With a frustrated sigh, the young reporter leans back and glances her blue eyes up and down the wall before shining her light around it's edge. Finally she just exhales in a frustrated way and turns around to walk toward where Vanessa was...

As she goes, she hears something outside in the alley from where they'd come. "Engine?" April darts over to the back door and opens it a crack to peer outside. A moving truck!

The door is shut and April starts running at full speed to where Vanessa is in the office, she busts her way in and swings the door around behind her. "There'samovingtruckoutside!" She says rapidly to the other!

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Vanessa wets her fingers, rubbing them together and then works the picks in the lock. "This took so long to learn," she mumbles to herself, knowing she's going to have master the skill on her own so she doesn't have to rely on the memories of another to do it. Unfortunately, training with those memories already in place has been proven already to be less effective than learning a skill without muscle memory already built up as often as not.

The lock gives way to the Green Arrow's borrowed prowess and she opens up the security system enclosure's door. She works the system, erasing the recording and setting it to not start recording again for an hour.

Just then April comes rushing in and delivers the news! Vanessa closes the door quickly and replaces the painting, then glances about. The building that once served other purposes before being turned into a gift shop has high ceilings with a pattern of beams across them. "Up we go," Vanessa says, lacing her hands so April can put a foot in them and Vanessa can toss her up to reach the beams overhead.

April O'Neil has posed:
April looks at Vanessa's eyes, then down at her hands, then up at the rafters, then back at Vanessa's eyes. "Up?" She asks in a husehd voice. "I'm bad with Up." She's a bit of a clutz after all, Vanessa likely knows this about her... good as she means, the faster she moves the more likely she is to collide with something, or slip and fall.

When there's a thud in the other room though, April takes the offered hands and uses Vanessa to basically scale upward, wiggling and shimmying her way UP. One thing is for sure though, April's at least in damn good shape physically.

Once up, she turns and lowers a hand. "Come on!" She says, leaning down to try to help Vanessa UP now.

In the storage room, there's thudding sounds as SOMEone is entering the building from the same door they had!

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Vanessa makes a sudden move towards a corner at high speed, planting a foot on a wall, then her other foot higher up on the wall beside it, easily pushing herself up to where one hand can grab April's and the other can get hold of a beam. There aren't any problems pulling her up at that point, she deftly reaches her legs up, looping them around a beam and pulling herself up.

"Doubtful it's a legitimate delivery this late," she whispers. And then the door outside the office is opening and people are coming into the building. Vanessa reaches a hand over to rest on April's back, intending it to be a calming touch, not quite sure how she's going to be reacting to being in this particular little pickle they find themselves in.

April O'Neil has posed:
There's multiple voices, at least... two? Deep. Male. They're rustling around in the storage room until finally one of them throws the office door open and reaches in to turn on the light. The lights hanging from the beams that April and Vanessa are on come on, which... in theory would make it harder to see the two women up in the rafters. April looks back to Van, then down to the men entering the office.

"Put him there." One of the two men says, and the other throws someone forward in to the office chair. A small person, with a bag over their head and theri hands tied behind their back. It looks like... a kid?

"Take the bag off, tape too." The first man says as he steps around the desk to sit in the office's main chair.

The little person's legs are kicking wildly with a muffle dnoise from inside the bag over his head, until it's PULLED OFF, followed quickly by some duct tape across his mouth. He gasps for breath.

That is no kid...

"Stilts..." The main guy says, as his partner steps back now with bag and duct tape, to guard the door. "Stiltsy, Stiltsy, Stiltsy..." The main guy continues. "How could you do us bad like this?"

'Stilts' spins around in his chair with his stubby legs not reaching the floor. "Look, Charlie! I didn't do anything wrong! I didn't sell those god damn snow globes, one of your boneheaded moronic 'Zoomer' clerks did it! Don't put this on me!"

The main guy draws a gun and aims it over the desk at Stilts. The little man's eyes go HUGE!

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
As Vanessa is watching, she gets a thought. Her image blurs for a moment, changing shape but only slightly so it only takes a second. Where a moment before it was the woman with the altered face in black jeans and grey top, now there is the woman that April first saw in the warehouse during the ninja fight. Vanessa changes even her clothing to reflect her Quiver costume. Though apparently she can change her clothes, she can't create a bow and arrow.

She does have the weapon she brought with her though, sliding it from a pocket and keeping it in hand as she listens to what plays out.

Quiver's head tilts to the side slightly as she examines the man once the hood is removed. He doesn't match anyone she's studied up on, but then this is New York and most of Green Arrow's focus is in Starling City.

The gun that is pulled changes matters. There's a brief moment of decision, whether they would risk shooting the man in their own place of business. But the area seemed pretty deserted. Quiver can't risk it.

She drops down behind the men, saying, "Pardon me, I was wondering if I can order those plush bears with my own saying on them." Her goal is just to get them to react by turning towards her and in doing so, no longer aiming the gun at 'Stilts'. Quiver's metal wand snicks open as she gets ready to club the hand holding the gun once it is pointed away from the captive.

April O'Neil has posed:
Stilts raises his short arms and starts waving his empty hands around in defiance of the gun being aimed at him. "Woah woah woah, Charlie! Lets not get crazy up in here!" He shouts in his thick New Yorker accent. "I-I-I I'm just the /manager/ of the place. I can't watch these damn kids you got out there behind the counter every second of the day!"

Charlie keeps the gun aimed at him. "You weren't even here, Stiltsy boy. We have the footage of you leaving an hour before the merchandise was put out on the shelf and then sold a half hour after that. You... were down at the hotdog stand, flirting with the girl seling the /weiners!/"

This is about the time that Vanessa drops down from above and lands behind Charlie's chair. This makes Stilts and the door guard both tense up. When Van speaks, Charlie starts to turn around to aim his gun back at her--and stand up from his chair as fast as he can go!

April... shrieks and loses her grip on the beam, and starts to hang by her hands from it, her feet dangling a few feet above Stilt's head. This... causes Stilts to look straight up at April hanging above him.

"Ya got DAMES FALLEN OUTTA THE SKY IN HERE, CHARLIE!!" The little man shouts.

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Quiver slams the metal weapon down on the gunman's hand. "It's forever raining women," she confirms to them as the gun goes skittering away across the floor, thankfully not going off as it hits.

She gives the weapon a flourish, rolling it around her hand like Obi-wan getting ready for battle. It's meant just to intimidate and try to keep it from turning into a bigger fight than it already has. "She points the metal baton at the man not clutching his broken hand in pain. "Now sit back down," she tells them, a foot kicking the gun further away out of reach.

She glances up at April, making sure she's not about to hurt herself. Quiver realizes she can't shapeshift into having a voice modulator. The little things about her power she's having to learn along the way.

April O'Neil has posed:
Charlie is disarmed by Quiver's quick reflexes which makes him start to step back until she gives him an order to sit back down. He looks over to his doorguard who ... he fled. He's not even in the room anymore! That could be good OR bad, depending.

"Look." Charlie says, glancing up at April hanging from the ceiling, but he looks back to Quiver. "I don't knwo who you are, doll, but this is above your paygrade."

April YELPS! Stilts SHOUTS!

And in a second the reporter is sitting on the little man's lap with her auburn hair all strewn about her face wildly. As she reaches up to adjust it and get it off of her face, the little guy she just landed on is grumbling - until he looks at April. "Well hello there." He says to her.

April exhales, a "Hi." And then moves to stand up quickly. "You're under citizen's arrest!" April says, pointing at Charlie!

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Vanessa Carlysle realizes she has no cuffs or other equipment that she'd normally have on her costume. What seemed like a great way to do a quick change to deal with such a moment is proving to be less effective than she'd first expected. But she doesn't let that stop her.

She glances out the doorway looking for signs of the other man, lips drawn into a line when she can't spot him. She turns back in time to see April drop into the lap of Stilts. "I really don't think this is the time for that. Maybe you could just get his number instead," she suggests in a wry tone that belies the soft grin showing beneath her domino mask.

She focuses in on Charlie and Stilts. "Looks like we did you a favor, Stilts. These guys weren't leaving without a pound of flesh. More than a pound. And now that the police are on to this little operation, they'll no doubt want to make sure they silence any leaks," she says, eyes on Charlie as she says it, weapon at the ready.

April O'Neil has posed:
Charlie, back in the manager's seat, is looking to April, then to Quiver. "How the hell are you people anyway?! This is a big damn mistake. This property belongs to someone you sure as shit don't want to deal with."

April glances to Stilts and then back to Vanessa, who gets a smirk at her comment. She runs her hands thorugh her hair quickly before she's about to speak up, but the sound of the truck's engine turning on --- and the truck starting to clearly pull away, makes her smile at Charlie. "I think your friend is leaving you here. And who owns this place if not you?"

Charlie glares across the desk at the reporter. "I know you..." He says, now aiming a finger-gun at April. "You're that reporter broad who goes to the flower gardens and jumps on trampolenes, yeah yeah, me an' the boys are always talkin' about you." He starts to boom a laugh as he eyes her up and down.

Stilts hops to his feet, and peers over the table at everyone. "Look. People! Lets just all go our separate ways and pretend we never saw each other, kapeesh?!"

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
The telescoping baton cracks down on the desk suddenly, liking making most of the people in the room jump. She picks up the remains of the duct tape that once bound Stilts and holds it out to April. "Secure him," she says with a movement of the baton towards Charlie, staying near enough she can react quickly if he tries something.

"Sorry Stilts," Quiver says. "This place is shut down as of now." She looks back between Charlie and Stilts. "Clerks who know there are items they aren't supposed to sell, the two of you, plus your buddy. A lot of people capable of telling a lot of stories. The main question is which of you is going to choose to talk and keep from going to jail," she tells them.

April O'Neil has posed:
Everyone in the room jumps when Quiver slaps that thick metal baton down on the desk. Even Charlie. He looks over and up at the 'Super' and then over at Stilts and April. He just smirks. "You don't know what you're bitin' into, Ladies." He mutters in a threatening sort of way.

"Yeah, why don't you tell us all about it." April says, in a moment of trying to sound very serious as she leans over the table and puts her hands on it's edge, to give Charlie the 'bad cop' stare.

A second later and there's the sound of an engine again, only this time it grows very louder, very fast, until SMASH! The entire back wall of the building is smashed inward!

Stilts suddenly takes his eyes off of the back of April and dives down beneath the desk, as April shouts and rushes to the far wall!

The wall of the office is smashed in by the front right bumper of the TRUCK FROM THE ALLEYWAY!

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
The sound of the oncoming engine gives Quiver just enough time, reacting as she realizes the sound is nearing and not stopping. She leaps away from where she's standing near the wall that caves in, diving back through the office's doorway and landing in the store room, a cloud of dust and debris washing over her.

She coughs as she gets back to her feet, wiping the dust from her eyes. The baton was lost in the collision, but she quickly moves back towards the office to see what the situation is and if anyone is hurt. She's on the alert, expecting whoever drove the truck to possibly be armed. The costumed vigilante steps through the door quickly, raising a hand against the glare of the truck's headlights.

April O'Neil has posed:
April and Stilts vanish behind the desk, Charlie had stood up and moved to the far back wall behind the water cooler. Vanessa was right about the man in the truck, the door guard who'd slipped out. He's in the cab of the truck and is grimacing at the discomfort of actually ramming a building like that... but ia also drawing a handgun and moving to open the driver's side door. He's trying to get out AND aim his gun at the same time!

Debris and dust are everywhere, with the truck halfway in and out of the back of the store now.

April calls out "Look out!" To Vanessa, as the Driver is now trying to aim his gun right at her, preparing to blast off a round or two at the 'Hero' in this incident!

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
The instincts that kick in are not her own, but that makes them no less effective. Quiver attacks, taking a running step towards the truck. One of the very beams they were hanging from up by the ceiling has come falling halfway down with the broken end lodged in the wall. It makes a perfect bar for Quiver to swing from.

She jumps and grabs hold of it, swinging her legs forward for extra momentum before slamming her feet into the door of the truck as the driver is emerging from it, gun in hand. It hits him and staggers him as he's caught between door and the truck's frame before the door rebounds.

He staggers out of the vehicle, firing twice wildly in the direction that Quiver had been. Though the woman had dropped from the beam and is nowhere to be found, the interior drywall ending up with a pair of bullet holes in it.

April O'Neil has posed:
Charlie rushes toward the truck around the desk and debris after Quiver vanishes under the vehicle. He couldn't see where she went, because of the headling shining on his face but as he gets on the other side of the beam of light he glances back to where April was peaking over the desk but just shakes his head. "Come on!" He shouts to the truck driver that Quiver had smashed between the door and the cab. "Lets get out of here!"

Charlie and the Driver start to move to the back of the truck then, using their hands to slide along it's side while they step over all the broken items and debris.

April, starts around the desk then and calls out... "Van?!" She asks. Not wanting to say the whole name. "Van!?" She calls out again, concerned for her friend. She'd heard the gunshots, but doesn't see Vanessa anymore.

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Quiver had dropped to the ground and slid under the truck to be out of the way of gunfire she figured might be following. Planning to slide beneath the vehicle and pop up behind the man, her plan is thwarted by debris that blocks her path back that way.

She hears the two men sliding past the truck and departing, resulting a very unladylike swear word uttered as Quiver pulls herself back out at the front of the truck. She bangs her hand on the hood. "What I wouldn't give for a bow right now," she mutters. "I'm ok!" she calls back towards April.

She stalks back over, climbing over debris to rejoin April. "This didn't quite go as planned, but at least we know there's even more to it," she says, looking around for Stilts.

April O'Neil has posed:
The two men disappear behind the truck as April is standing beside the driver's side door now, holding on to it's edge with her left hand. She jumps when Vanessa's voice is heard now behind her and she spins around to see her. April walks over to give Vanessa a hug then, her hair covered in dust and flecks of drywall. "This was /nuts!/" April exclaims then, her hands going down to Van's arms, before she lets go and turns back to glance in the other direction where the two men had gone.

"Wait, where'd---"

On the floor, there's an unfolded Amazon box that is slowly moving across the debris toward the main part of the store, out of the office's doorway which is still open into the hallway...

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Vanessa Carlysle grips April's arms and squeezes gently. "I'm ok," she says. She looks around with April, spotting the moving box at the same time. Quiver pulls out her phone and dials a number. "Yes, I'm in New York," she says as she walks over towards the box. "And I have this package that needs delivering, and interrogating," she says, putting a foot on the box to halt its progress. "No, I don't think we need any bones broken, but I could be wrong, he might not be as smart as I think he is," she ad libs into the phone.