4055/The Lion and The Raccoon

The Lion and The Raccoon
Date of Scene:	07 November 2020
Location:	Judge Matthew Hemworth's Estate, Long Island
Synopsis:	Lyle and Sally Pride team up to heist items from a corrupt judge
Cast of Characters:	Lyle Marston, Sally Pride

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Lyle Marston has posed:
Judge Matthew Hemworth was one of NYC's most corrupt judges. For years, rumors circulated of his ties to organized crime groups, crooked lawyers, and shady companies, but no proof has ever been found of his criminal behavior. However, those in the know in the "Mutant Community" knew one thing, Judge Hemworth was one of NULL's cronies, using his sway in the legal system to stop investigations against the corporation, and helps their various enforcers in getting their jobs done without any legal consequences. If Judge Hemworth were somehow incapacitated it would certainly cripple the company's hold in the city's legal system, and give Madame Null a massive headache in the process. However, the Judge had another enemy to worry about tonight, a certain gentleman thief named La Raton, and his raccoon sidekick

Judge Hemworth had recently "acquired" a rare Spanish military calvery sword and was prudly displaying it in his smoking room. However, that sword was acquired after the judge's crony, Hastings, swiped it from the family of a inocent man he sentanced to hard time in Sing Sing, as a final insult to injury. The man's family had contacted La Raton with one request, bring back the family heirloom, and La Raton intended on not only doing that, but also finding evidence that will finally get the Judge arrested for his crimes.

Judge Hemworth was currently holidaying in his estate in Long Island. His estate was a old, two story, colonial mansion that was owned by his family for centuries.

The house loomed in the distance, it's white paint seemingly glowing in the moon as La Raton observed from his perch on a massive oak tree. Sir Percy, his ever loyal raccoon was on his usual perch on La Raton's shoulder. La Raton was clad in his usual garb of a eighteenth century French Aristocrat, with a domino on the top part of his face, and a hat covering his long, brown hair, which was tied into a pony tail. However, a new feature clad his face near his well-trimmed mustaches. Recently, he had decided to draw "whiskers" on his face with charcoal to more resemble his "animal counterpart" and they were on full display tonight.

As La Raton observed the house, he saw men dressed in brown dress shirts and slacks, red ties, and caps with an arrow through the middle patrolling the property. La Raton hummed to himself and said in a hushed voice,

"Athena Security Solutions are here Sire Percy. It appears that the Judge has hired them to patrol his property every night, we must take great caution, their guards have been known to be armed."

With that, La Raton makes an athletic leap off the tree and begins to stealthily make his way to the mansion's grounds.

Sally Pride has posed:
With the Rat King situation having seemingly run cold for the time being and the Turtle crew focusing more on finding a new hideout so they could stop mooching off their human friends; Sally Pride had turned her own attention back to other important matters. While she had been out and about the Mutanimals had gotten some fresh leads on some old trails in NULL's dealings outside of providing iliceit weapon tech to goons like The Foot. And being the most readily mobile member of the group (being the one that can, you know, DRIVE) they decided it was best to send Sally to investigate. It was her or Mondo, and while the gecko had better stealth he wasn't much of a fighter if things eventually got ugly.

So with car parked somewhere out of sight but within relative running distance if she needs to leave hastily (probably more like when) the lioness was going about casing the target location. Being able to hear and see exceptionally in the dark was great for times like this. For as brash as she was Sally was trained as a spec-ops soldier, and knew how to take subtefuge into action. At least for the short term.

"Those are definitely men from the hired security firm they recently bought a chunk of," Sally murmured into a small somewhat old fashioned handset from where she was hunkered down to watch the guards patrol.
"NULL is probably trying to keep their connection safe while keeping their own visibility low. Logical, but not very concrete for evidence."
"I'll see what I can do about that, Ray. Going radio silent." Sally flicked off the radio and tucked it back in a pocket, watched the sentry patrol pass, and then snuck out of her spot and darted for the building proper.

Lyle Marston has posed:
Lyle began to make his way towards the home, ducking out of the way of the occasional Athena Patrol. These men might be working for a corrupt individual, but most of them were just doing their job and he didn't want to have to harm them badly unless it was absolutely necessary. As he continued to make his way towards the house, he saw a second figure dashing towards the building as well. Lyle curiosity was piqued by this sight, was there another thief on the prowl tonight. Lyle, perhaps in a rather foolish move, decides to investigate the figure, perhaps they found a way in? Lyle continued to make his way towards the house, following in the same direction of the dashing figure, his feet barely making any noise on the moist, earth ground.

Eventually, Lyle peers his head around the corner, and lets out a light, audible gasp when he sees a humanoid lioness dashing towards the house as well. True, he has met Tigra, but this was on a whole other level. Suddenly, a Athena Security Guard rounds the corner and starts to approach the Lioness' position. La Raton suddenly makes a dash towards the guard, who only has time to gawk and reach for his walkie before a audible crack was heard, and he topple down to the ground, unconscious. Standing above his prone body was, of course, La Raton.

Sally Pride has posed:
Sally Pride knows one thing, that ground floor exits would be too obvious and likely steadily guarded. She continues along the exterior of the building, looking for a place she could possibly climb up to a second floor window or such. She is paying more attention to examining the structure and not noticing she's being trailed herself. Or the guard that nearly walks onto her position.

The cracking sound is impossible to miss though, ears twitching rigid at the sound as the lioness reflexively puts herself back against the wall... When no farther sound or movement comes into view she slinks a bit closer, one hand drawing blaster from its holster, thumb claw clicking off the safety.

And she finds the Athena guard already out cold on the ground, with another oddly dressed individual standing over him. She's been hanging out with ninjas and hockey stick wielding street brawlers as of late, so this is hardly an unusual sight at this point, other than the man's attire.

"I take it I'm not the only one out for crooked officials tonight." But for a moment the lioness' eyes aren't entirely on the masked man. The tech blaster is raised...

... and a precise shot over Raton's shoulder hits another guard coming into view behind him, possibly also hearing the sound, with a stun shock.

Lyle Marston has posed:
The guard who was shot just lets out a brief gaps before suddenly collapsing onto the well-manicured lawn, convulsing slightly from the shock. La Raton, who had dove out of the way to avoid the shock himself, looks towards the now downed guard, and gets up, Sir Percy leaping off his shoulders as he did. La Raton suddenly smiles slyly at the Lioness and takes off his hat before bowing politely. He then says in a thick, French accent,

"Merci Mademoiselle, merci. If it weren't for your crack shot my mission would've been ruined."

Lyle then clears his throat again and says,

"Oui, the Judge is the reason I am here tonight Mademoiselle. He has stolen something from an innocent family and I intend on bringing it back. Now, may I ask what the Judge has done to bring a woman of your caliber here tonight?"

He says this last part with a sly wink.

Sally Pride has posed:
"Nice reflexes," Sally comments on the dive, even though she was aiming past him rather than at him. "And you're welcome." A brow raises a bit at his accent, but again, this is hardly the weirdest she's heard come out of someone's mouth. The blaster is lowered back to her side, but still at the ready. While her gaze turns up at the building again.

"That's probably the least of the crooked dealings he's in," she comments. "He's in the back pocket of at least one corrupt corp that use his position to keep their operations out of legal red." It's a delicate balance of giving a potential ally enough information, and not too much detailed information off the start in case something goes bad. "But correlations aren't confirmations on their own."

Her tail flicks as Sally motions at the guard still unconcious at their feet. "Looks like part of the reason they bought into a large portion of Athena is to keep their own name off matters while protecting such... assets." The word is said with a sneering hiss, clearly disliking the layers of corruption and shade involved.

Lyle Marston has posed:
Lyle listens to Sally's explanation with silence, only nodding in appreciation once he is complimented on his dive. While he is listening, Sir Percy the Raccoon approaches the humanoid lion and begins to sniff her out of curiosity. Lyle then clears his throat and says,

"Ahh, so the Judge is in the pocket of more thant just organized crime. Well, that would explain Athena's presence here tonight. It appears Mlle Lion that we have a similar agenda. May I perhaps suggest a team-up?"

Before you can say anything, Lyle hands Sally a a pair of suction cuffs, before putting another pair on his hands. He then says,

"No doubt the front doors are well-guarded, so we must climb to the second floor."

Sally Pride has posed:
"That's a little cliche, but not gonna turn down having some help." Don't mind her sass too much, that's part of the charm. Hopefully.

Sally does give the suction cups a peculiar look though. "Look, I know he's full of shit, but I don't think we'll get much unclogging his tolie--" Then he mentions climbing to the second floor. "--Oooh." She wiggles the sharp-tipped fingers of one hand. "Normally I'd just use my claws. But now that you point it out that would be a little incrimidating out here, away from all the scruffed up, soot covered buildings that no one cares about a few more dents in."

She straps them on, then glances down at Sir Percy. "I think your little friend agrees; we should get a move on before they start to notice guards not checking in."

Lyle Marston has posed:
Lyle doesn't seem particularly miffed at Sally's comment. In fact, a small grin formed on his face as he whistled softly. Suddenly, Sir Percy stopped sniffing Sally and rushed back to La Raton, who placed him gently back onto his shoulders. Lyle says nothing more as he walks up to the wall and begins to climb it, using his suction cups to great effect. He stops halfway up, gesturing with his head to Sally, telling him to follow him. Then he started climbing again. Eventually, he seemed to stumbled upon a open window, as he suddenly disappeared from view.

Sally Pride has posed:
Sally Pride takes a few moments to get going, having to adjust to how the suction cups work instead of her claws. But climbing in general she is good at, and it doesn't take her long to catch up and find the open window Lyle disappeared into.

The lioness enters as one would expect of her nature, ducking through the window into a low roll that brings her onto a knee, a low profile harder to notice, and... well she didn't redraw her gun because of the suction cups, but out of habit posed like she had anyways.

Lyle Marston has posed:
Lyle and Sally would find themselves in a study of some sort, as evidenced by the presense of things like a laptop, filing cabinents, and book cases. Lyle himself is leaning against a wall, Sir Percy resting on his shoulder.He begins to clap softly while smiling slyly as he says,

"Very good entrance mademoiselle, good entrance indeed. It appears we are in some sort of study. What I am looking for is obviously not in here. But, may I suggest a through search anyhow? Perhaps we will find something to finally knock the Judge off his pedestal once and for all?"

With that, Lyle carefully approached a filing cabinet and began to search through it, humming to himself as he did, as if he had done

Sally Pride has posed:
"I don't know about knock him off, but certainly put a few cracks in it." Sally watchs him rummage through the filing cabinet for a bit. "But he's dealing with corperate and organized crime. Enough stains start to show and they'll back off their support to save their own necks. Make it hard for him to hold onto that position."

No, that seems almost too obvious for this sort of thing. Sally strays over to a bookshelf and starts thumbing through it. A lot of these probably haven't been touched in a long time, if there's any holding secrets or hidden compartments they'd show the signs of being handled more recently.

Lyle Marston has posed:
As you shuffle through the bookcase, you would notice one book in potential, a old law book. Unlike all the other books in the case, which were all dusty and obviously old, this ne appeared to be more fresh and clean. If you were to pick it up, you would find that it is lighter than average, maybe there was something inside? At the same time, Lyle pulled out a file and looked at it, letting out an interested grunt, he might've found something as well. However, this is interrupted by the door suddenly swinging open.

On the other side are two Athena security guards. At first, they look shocked, not believing their eyes at what they see. Suddenly, they pulls out batons and charge the duo, one of them charges at Lyle, who catches him in a grapple, while the other charges Sally, and swings his baton at her.

Sally Pride has posed:
Sally Pride almost laughs as she pulls out the law book that feels lighter than it should be. And is definately less dusty than the others on the shelf. "Hah, I knew they never actually read these things." But before she gets a chance to pry it open they get the unwanted company of guards checking the study on their sweep of the mansion.

You know what they say about cats and graceful. It does apply to the Big Cats too. Sally turns to the side to avoid the swing, and in the same motion swings her fist at the side of the guard's helmeted head for a whallop while he's off-balance from the baton strike missing. "Careful!" she calls over to her temporary team-up partner. "If NULL is supplying them with gear those things could severely hamper a mutant twice my size!"

Lyle Marston has posed:
Sally's guard is immediately floored by her wallop to the head. As the guard collapses onto the ground, Lyle grunts in affirmation, and let's out a slight gasp when the baton suddenly starts sparking up electricity. Lyle suddenly beans the guard in the gut. As the guard doubles over in pain, Lyle sends both of his fists crashing into the back of the man's head, finishing him off. Lyle starts to pant heavily, the fight obviously taking some energy off of him. He then looks at you, some amazement on his face as he looks at the koed guard you knocked out. He then chuckles and says,

"Well Mademoiselle, you are one of the better fighters I've seen in my lifetime, and very graceful as well. Which is quite fitting, considering you are one of nature's most graceful creatures."

Lyle then begins to dust off his clothing while saying," So, The NULL Corporation is the Judge's sponsor, and here I thought they made soda and trains."

Sally Pride has posed:
Sally Pride adjusts her jacket like it getting ruffled was the worst thing that happened in that short encounter. "Oh, you have no idea how deep that rabbit hole goes. Those are just the 'legal' business that fund all the black market dealing and ambigious science." She stoops down to retrieve the unusually light and undusty book. "They use corrupt officials like Hemworth to keep their reputation clean, when they make military grade weapons and experimental technologies and sell them to the underworld."

Sally stands, and tosses the book to Lyle. "They make things like -me-, intending to turn them into living weapons," she adds with an additional level of sourness to her voice, resulting in an almost animal-like snarl lingering to the words.

Lyle Marston has posed:
Lyle faces scrunches up in disgust as Sally describes NULL's activity. It would seem that NULL's activities were drawing disgust from the thief, which could meant that NULL has just made a new enemy. Lyle then hears the last part of Sally's explanation, and a looks of sympathy crosses his face. He walks up to Sally and places a hand on her shoulder and says, rather genuinely,

"I am so sorry Mademoiselle."

He then shakes the book, which he caught before apologizing, and shakes it, grinning as he says," I think there might be a CD-ROM in here. But, before we get cracking into The Judge's business, let's retrived what I came for."

Lyle then begins to make his way out of the office, Sir Percy starting at you from his perch on Lyle's shoulder as he did.

Sally Pride has posed:
"Oh, don't feel sorry for me." Sally's expression turns into that sort of sharp toothy smile you really don't want to see a predator make. "Feel sorry for the assholes that do this to others if I ever get my claws on them."

And then the moment is done, and she's back to the previous sassy action girl attitude as she steps over the fallen guards to follow Lyle out of the study. "So what did he steal that you're after, anyways?"

Lyle Marston has posed:
Lyle made his way out to the living room, his grin growing wider upon hearing Sally's threat, He was really starting to like this Mademoiselle. Lyle sighed at Sally's question, looking sad for the first time tonight as he said,

"Well Mademoiselle, the Judge recently convicted an innocent man to serve time in Sing Sing Penitentiary. He stole an important family heirloom, a Calvary sword, from his family. I was contacted by the family to steal it back, and I intend to. I live by a strict code Mademoiselle, "Steal That Which Has Been Stolen and Rob Those Who Rob Others."

After reciting this line, Lyle's face looks more stoic and serious-minded."

Lyle then approached a door at the far end of the fall, and knells down and begins to pick it. He then says,

"Please watch my back Mademoiselle while I pick this lock."

Sally Pride has posed:
"A thief that steals from thieves. Sounds karmatic." Sally snorts softly as she follows. Not really surprised the Judge had innocent people locked up because they probably didn't even do anything but one of his supporters didn't like them.

The lioness pauses as Lyle gets down at the door lock, then smirks a bit as she turns to look over the living room. "Not that your back isn't nice, but I think it's more effective to keep an eye on the room."

Someone's got to make the bad jokes to keep the tension from getting too bad.

Lyle Marston has posed:
Lyle nods at Sally's statement about karma, she was right about that alright. As he begins to pick the lock he smirks slightly at Sally's joke and says while picking the lock,

"Well, I can say the same about yours. But, i am too busy picking this lock to keep an eye on it."

Suddenly, the door clicks open and Lyle lets out a grunt before slowly opening the door and slinking in. The room was a smoking room, and was recently used. The fireplace was lit, illuminating the room in a comforting glow. Above the fireplace were the stuffed and mounted heads of various animals, including a lioness. Under those was the Calvary sword. Lyle smirked and began to tiptoe towards the sword. Meanwhile, a sigh was heard coming from a nearby recliner. The source was a sleeping old man wearing a colorful bath robe, not doubt the judge himself.

Sally Pride has posed:
Sally Pride remains at the door, but that doesn't mean she doesn't take a glance inside. Ugh. Half of her regrets doing so. Half of her is glad it is her, and not one of the younger (so to speak) mutants that probably would not handle the situation at all well.

Especially when the snoring comes from offsides in the chair. Asleep in his private little horror show.. though if he actually hunted those or just bought them off likely poachers for his own amusement is debatable. Doesn't really matter in the end.

For a moment she does consider it. How simple it would be to take her gun and put an end to the problems caused by this sick sack of a human right on the spot...

But the blaster stays in its holster. Sally was not going to be that kind of mutant. That kind of anything.
Besides, it would be letting the fragger off too easy. Then he didn't have to actually answer for his crime in some way. To watch his little pompous ass fall from it's high horse, and get kicked on the way down, might take longer, but it would be more satisfying in the end.

Instead Sally just motions quietly to catch Lyle's eye, and indicate to not disturb the recliner. His lesser human hearing might not of heard the filth's breathing in the corner.

Lyle Marston has posed:
Lyle sees Sally's motion, and finally notices the sleeping judge. Lyle nods and slows down his pace and, with a well-practiced grab, snatches the sword off the wall. Lyle grunts in satisfaction and starts to make his way out of the room, motioning Sally to follow, whispering harshly," Come along, we must leave before they find out we are here." Lyle then begins to make his way back to the study, then back out the window he came out from.

Sally Pride has posed:
Sally Pride follows silently, her mood a bit more somber than before. At the window she glances out, and then forgoes the suction cups and climbing down to just jump and let feline agility handle the matter. She's fallen farther escaping crashing vehicles, a jump from a few stories of a house is just going to leave her a bit extra sore in the morning.

That and easier for her to jump down and overwatch while Lyle is making his way down.

Lyle Marston has posed:
Lyle sees Sally jump off the building, and gapes in shock and hurries down, making rather noisy plopping noises as he does. Once he gets back down, he rushes over to Sally, and seems relived that she is alright. He then smiles and pats her on the back as he says,

"I thank you for your help Mademoiselle. Thanks to you, this heist went great. Hopefully, We'll meet again, i bid you good night."

Lyle then tips his hat at Sally and rushes off into the night. However, Sally would feel something in her back pocket. If she were to investigate, she would pull out three things. The first was a crimson, dethorned rose, the second was 2 50 dollar bills. However, what stood out were the final two things, which were a pager and a note. If you were to read the note it would simply say one thing,

"See you soon Mademoiselle Lion."

Sally Pride has posed:
"I wouldn't doubt it, seems to be a thing that happens around he--" Sally pauses. Sighs softly. "--He's already gone isn't he?" Confirmed in that there's no one else to answer that. "Yeah, that's what I thought."

A sly thief takes things without being noticed. But a sly gentleman puts things without being noted. And did so sly enough that Sally didn't even notice until she eventually returned to her car and goes to sit down. Leading to a grunt of surprise and leaning to the side so she can reach for the back pocket that she rarely uses herself for just such an occasion.

Some money, a means of communication abiet one-way mostly, and ... a flower? Sally peers at it for a moment, before depositing the items in the cup holder and turning the ignition to drive away. "I'd think a guy that clever would know lions are carnivores... Eh, thought that counts."

Yeah one of the 'human sidekicks' will probably have to explain the meaning behind pretty flowers later.