View source for 5068/Cloak and Dagger: Time to meet Hell's Kitchen most Powerful Man

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2021/02/07
|Location=Abandoned Rectory - Derelict Church
|Synopsis=Cloak and Dagger finally meets the boss of Hell's Kitchen. Maybe Ty and Luke will start a bro-mance.
|Cast of Characters=379,1464,762
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:379|Tandy Bowen (379)}} has posed:'''<br>The old abandoned church sits ignored in the ravaged streets of Hell's Kitchen, tucked away in the shadows of broken sidewalks and broken dreams. Where neon lights flash signs for bars and strip shows down the street, no light touches this once place of worship. <br><br>The Holy Ghost Church lives up to it's namesake. A Ghost. <br><br>After a night spent in Hell's Kitchen rescuing a handful of girls from a gang that calls themselves The Misfits, Tandy is now sitting in one of the pews, working her way through a candy bar and a bottle of water. Her left shoulder is bandaged and stitched together from taking a stray shot from a lucky revolver. The information they gathered took them only one step closer to their mission, and this injury is going to set them back a few days. Luckily, one Doctor Henry McCoy was at the clinic that night to stitch her up and create a new ally. <br><br>"Ty, we're gonna have to steal some pain meds I think." She says softly with a sigh in her throat as she stares at the half-eaten candy bar in her hands. It's one of those protein kind. "I'm out of cash and those jerks last night didn't have much on them. Just enough to get some more water and wipes." <br><br>When you're young runaways from life, you live frugally. Not every hero has a Quinjet or a Mansion full of gifted youngsters. Some of them get by on the crumbs left behind in the cracks on the street.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:1464|Tyrone Johnson (1464)}} has posed:'''<br>"I can see to that." Says one Tyrone Johnson - aka Cloak as people are calling him given his namesake appearance - from the end of the pew. He's not eating. The tall, shadowy-figured man is standing there and looking out towards the main area of the derelict church and to the alter with its crumbling, dirty marble facade. "Anything else you need? I'll head out, you can stay here and rest. I'll do a sweep of the area too and make sure things are quiet."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:762|Luke Cage (762)}} has posed:'''<br>The front doors of the church swing open and, backlit the streetlights, the massive figure of Luke Cage looms. He wears a yellow windbreaker with a hoodie, trimmed in black, black pants and a pair of size 16 Dwayne Wade sneakers. The big man reaches up and draws back the hood, revealing his bald head as he steps inside to look around.<br><br>"Word on the street is, there's some spooky mofos hangin' around this church. I watched enough Scooby Dooby Doo growin' up to know that usually just means folks in masks puttin' the scare on. Don't get it wrong, though - I'm still the scariest man in these here parts."<br><br>He sees the pair in the church and cocks his head. "You're shorter than I expected."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:379|Tandy Bowen (379)}} has posed:'''<br>As the doors swing open with a loud creak of protest on old hinges, the support beam that they had set up to keep intruders out is lobbed to the side with ease. Luke Cage is obviously no whimp.<br><br>Tandy rises up swiftly as the candy bar is dropped to the ground, a pair of long glowing blades forming in her hands to light up the pitch black church. The crescent moon over her eye forms in a sizzle as she narrows her blue eyes at the large man. Long legged and lean, compared to Tyrone, she is obviously the 'quick' one. As she steps into the middle of the rows of pews, she bends her knees a bit. <br><br>"You come here to kill us?" Her voice rumbles out with an edge to it, dropping the soft exterior she wielded a few moments ago. She doesn't spare a glance towards her partner, for she knows he'll move as planned. A perfect synergy between two bound by the soul brought upon by a dark fate.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:1464|Tyrone Johnson (1464)}} has posed:'''<br>Granted, it was probably a rotted piece of board anyway.<br><br>"Good. Being shorter means we're closer to your throat, and I don't see your dog." Cloak remarks as he turns to face the arriving man, the impression of his posture suggesting pulled back shoulders and a lifted chin. That much fabric tends to make body posture difficult to discern, especially when it seems to be rippling without a breeze to move it. He moves up alongside and slightly in front of Tandy in a defensive position.<br><br>He doesn't add anything additional on to his partner's question. His severe, scowling expressions seem to indicate he's prepared for that being an affirmative.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:762|Luke Cage (762)}} has posed:'''<br>Luke Cage gives a hint of a smile, "Don't get too heavy on the special effects. If I was here to hurt you, I'd have just knocked this church down on your heads and picked you out o' the rubble. I have a habit of bustin' gangs around here myself. I figure we're on the same side. Still, always worth checkin' out who's shaking and bakin' in the neighborhood,' he says.<br><br>"My name's Luke Cage. I protect the people of Harlem and Hell's Kitchen. Not the only one, but the biggest and the baddest, that much is a fact. Who're you two supposed to be? Night and Dark? Black Ice and White Fire?"<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:379|Tandy Bowen (379)}} has posed:'''<br>"Cloak and Dagger." <br><br>Tandy's hands continue to glow brightly as she clutches the pair of light blades in her palms. With Cloak at her side, she already knows what the gameplan is in case this gets heated. By now, the two of them share the same hearbeat when it comes to a skirmish. <br><br>"We know about you. Everyone knows about you and The Devil." She continues to bounce a bit on her ankles slightly side to side, trying to keep loose despite the tense look in her face. <br><br>There is a slight glance upwards towards Cloak, then back towards Luke as she puts her hands slowly down as the blades flicker away. "We're after those who seek to spread their cancer and poison in this city. There is an evil that has injected itself into the area recently. Those who steal girls and sell their bodies on the open market by boat. We look to bring them the pain they are owed."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:1464|Tyrone Johnson (1464)}} has posed:'''<br>"An old story and sin, but one we intent to remove block by block." Supplies Cloak to Dagger's more eloquent rundown. "By whatever force that's necessary. Sounds like you have similar goals, then, and you know the area. Heard anything about 'em?"<br><br>He doesn't particularly relax even when it seems they're all aligned towards similar goals. Or maybe he just always looks that irritated and stiff-backed. "Quicker we learn where they're operating from and through who, quicker we get them off of... your streets."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:762|Luke Cage (762)}} has posed:'''<br>Luke Cage flicks his tongue against his teeth, "Damn, girl, you talk awful pretty about some pretty nasty shit," he says. "Like I said, I ain't here to ruffle your feathers. Just gettin' the lay of the land. I try to keep track of who the players are, good and bad, around these parts. Sounds like you're after the worst kind of scum, the kind I'd like to punch bloody. Makes us simpatico, I reckon."<br><br>Luke rolls his neck, vertebrae cracking audibly, like muffled gunshots. "Sounds like the docks would be a good place to start. Figure out where they're bein' offloaded into the ocean, then backtrace 'em from there. Detective work ain't my strong suit, but it dooesn't take a bloodhoud, I'd figure."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:379|Tandy Bowen (379)}} has posed:'''<br>"Pier twenty is where the girls are being brought to. They do a shipment every three days from what we were able to squeeze from the Locos." Tandy says as she retakes her seat in a pew, sinking down into heavily, followed by a wince at the sting of her shoulder. She grinds her back teeth a bit. "Elektra and Shadowcat tracked us down, as well as The Ghost Spider. They want in on some of this action. We're not really .. team players.. but.." She gives a glance to Tyrone before looking to Luke. <br><br>"We're willing to make exceptions for those who want to help us take them down. We are not .. gentle in our methods. We are not heroes. We are no one's role model. What we plan on doing is resolving the issue indefinitely through whatever means." There's iron in her voice as she glances down at her hands, watching her fingertips glow. <br><br>"Our innocence was taken away by men like these a long time ago. They turned us into this. We can't let this happen again to anyone else. Someone has to defend those who can't protect themselves."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:762|Luke Cage (762)}} has posed:'''<br>Luke Cage raises an eyebrow, "Not team players? Gosh. And here I was gonna get us all matchin' outfits," he chuckles. "You do what you wanna do. Only problem you'll have with me is if you hurt someone doesn't deserve it. You gonna shoot for the throat, you best make sure it's the right throat. Else you answer to me."<br><br>"I'm sorry about whatever happened to you. That shit's messed up, no doubt about it. Doesn't give you or anybody else license to murder. But like I said - I'm not gonna sweat your conscience."<br><br>"These smugglers seem like they need a size 16 shoved up their ass. I'm more than happy to oblige. With or without you."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:379|Tandy Bowen (379)}} has posed:'''<br>"I don't think you'd look good in a white leotard with a sword cut out in the front of it." Tandy says with a slight scoff in her voice as she gives a glance southwards along her own costume. At least she's wearing a jacket over herself to stay somewhat insulated during the cold New York winters. She does cut a distracting image though which she uses as her advantage in the field. <br><br>"We don't go after innocents. Only the most vile who have long thrown away their humanity in exchange for drugs and greed. This is a war we have waged and in any war, sometimes there are casualties. Though if it makes you feel better, we do not go out of way to take a life." <br><br>There's a glance upwards at Cloak's low rumbling from the dark recesses of his floating folds of fabric. "But what we do ensure is that we show them the error of their way. We show them the sins that live within their souls and inflict the pain upon them that they gave their victims." As she gives a motion towards the swirling darkness that makes up Cloak's non-existant body, she says, "We all see our true selves within the dark when you are stripped of your light."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:762|Luke Cage (762)}} has posed:'''<br>Luke Cage nods, "Sins, huh? I heard enough of that as a kid. My daddy was a preacher. Fire and brimstone, wrath of god, whole nine yards. Didn't make him a good man. I ain't sure I even believe in god anymore, unless you count Thor and some of the others runnin' around in tights. And even them I'm a little bit skeptical about."<br><br>"Be careful talkin' about war, though. War does have casualties, yeah, but almost always, it's the innocents that get caught in the crossfire that pay the worst price. I approve of your mission and all. But you also seem like zealots and zealots have a habit of goin' scorched earth. Made that mistake myself a time or two. And got burned."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:379|Tandy Bowen (379)}} has posed:'''<br>There's a slight glance to the hanging visage of Jesus upon his cross in the front of the church as Tandy studies it for a long moment in thought. "I don't believe in God. What God would take two teenagers and inflict this upon them? This curse that some consider to be gifts. My powers are burning me up inside. One day I may actually explode. Cloak's powers drives him to eternal hunger that can't be quenched. He feeds off of my light, or the light of those he draws into him. Without me, he would starve himself into insanity and become a monster." <br><br>"Without his darkness to cool my flames, I run the risk of burning to death. We were strangers, now bound together. The same people that hurt those innocents with their drugs? They stole us from the streets, took us to our own personal island and injected us with experimental heroin. All the other kids on that island died in the most painful ways, but it was us that survived, though barely. It turned us into these monsters. So, yes, this is a war. A war on those who think they can continue to turn innocent people into monsters of their own. Addicts. Slaves to posion. Slaves to their body." <br><br>Tandy squeezes her hand tighter as light bleeds out from her fingers, then solidifies into a blade as she turns it around in her hand. "I don't care what label gets applied to us. We will hunt those and continue up the ladder until we strike down those at the top who profit the most from everyone's pain." Lifting her free hand upwards, she brushes it beneath her cheek, leaning in a bit towards Cloak's folds as the light she holds in her palm gets slowly pulled away into his hungry chasm.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:762|Luke Cage (762)}} has posed:'''<br>Luke Cage listens to all of that, his massive arms crossing over his wide chest.<br><br>"Y'all heavy, you know that, right? I agree with all your sentiments, but maybe try dialin' back the intensity a little bit. Have a cheeseburger. You're still allowed to be a person. And you ain't monsters. You got powers and hungers an' shit, but that don't make you not people."<br><br>"And don't go talkin' to me none about slavery, ya dig?"<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:762|Luke Cage (762)}} has posed:'''<br>Luke Cage says, "Some neighborhoods around here, talking like that will get y'all whupped."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:379|Tandy Bowen (379)}} has posed:'''<br>"You realize that when I talk about slavery, I'm not talking about boats and rednecks with Confederate flags, right?" Tandy says with a snort in her throat. <br><br>"I'm talking about those who are bound by their addictions. If you bend knee to those vices and you are unable to break free from them, it's a form of .. you know.. whatever. Just forget it." There is annoyance in her tone as she rolls her blue eyes upwards and to the side. <br><br>"Yes, we are heavy. Heavy as fucking boulders. We don't have anything to go back to besides this. No family. No friends. No one to love. Just us. It's .. whatever. Live or die, it won't matter. Nothing matters anymore." She says as she mumbles the last few words off her breath.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:1464|Tyrone Johnson (1464)}} has posed:'''<br>There's a noncommittal sound from Cloak's throat, perhaps as much acknowledging one's thoughts on the matter as it is the other. Or he's just got something in the back of his throat. If he has one of those. Guy looks only a bit more tangible than Casper the ghost. Past the face, there's only shadow and fabric.<br><br>"It does what it needs to do. Talking nice and poetic to dealers never got anyone very far. Anyway, that's what we're about. Some methods aside, sounds like we're in agreement on what needs to be done. If you got people out there working against these guys, we'll leave 'em be. Long as we know who they are. Otherwise, we don't tell people what to do, long as they stay out of our way."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:762|Luke Cage (762)}} has posed:'''<br>Luke Cage sighs and runs a hand back over his scalp, "Yeah, you ain't, that's kinda the point...y'know what, you do what you gonna do. You gotta get your emo on, I get it. You're young an' all your feelings are all intense and eatin' you up inside. I was angry at your age, too. Still am, but got the wisdom to temper it. You'll get there, too. If you live long enough."<br><br>"I don't have any people, really. Just me and a few friends who do good when we see it. We pretty much do the same as you. Well, Daredevil might tell ya what to do, sometimes. He's a little bit of a boy scout."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:379|Tandy Bowen (379)}} has posed:'''<br>There is a soft sigh from Tandy as she shrugs her shoulders upwards for a moment, then places her hand over the wounded one to give it a light squeeze. "We plan on taking on these thugs at the pier tomorrow. Do you want to join us? I'm sure that we could use the help from someone like you. The task that we are taking on is large and I know that it'd be foolish to go at this alone." <br><br>Glancing up at Cloak once more, she reaches out to give a light tug of his fabric, wrapping some of it around her like a security blanket.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:1464|Tyrone Johnson (1464)}} has posed:'''<br>"Anger gets things done." Cloak says, as if the entire world make sense to him with that one statement.<br><br>"The spiders may come along. I don't even know how many of 'em are out there, but enough that they keep showing up and getting sentiment all over our business. But if they feel like cleaning up my trash, so be it. Once we're done with them, these thugs aren't much use to anyone that doesn't have a padded cell and one hell of a therapy program. If you feel like punching something, then I'm sure there'll be plenty of faces."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:762|Luke Cage (762)}} has posed:'''<br>Luke Cage nods, "I'll throw my hat in the ring, sure. Long as nobody in the neighborhood calls for me in distress. Got my responsibilities and all," he says. He's not sure how he feels about kids like this taking point on such a serious situation, but he figures that ship has sailed. He already feels like an old man next to these sober and fanatical young folks. "Spiders have a habit of reproducin' fast. But they're usually on the right side. At least these days."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:379|Tandy Bowen (379)}} has posed:'''<br>"I like Spider-Man. He's soft and squishy, but he's a good sort. He genuinely believes in us." Tandy says as she gives a nod of her head. "Then we'll see you tomorrow at the docks. I look forward to seeing you in action. Cloak is a huge fan of yours." She says as she puts her partner on the spot. <br><br>"Right?" She says as she lifts her brows upwards at Tyrone, flashing him a grin before she reaches for her candy bar and takes another bite of it after wiping it off.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:1464|Tyrone Johnson (1464)}} has posed:'''<br>"Rrmmh." Comes a noise from Cloak that sounds similar to a tiger's growl, when said tiger's mother was doing something embarrassing. Tandy gets a withering look and a scowl in the face of her grin, though there doesn't seem to be any actual malice behind it.<br><br>"If things go south, I can get us out. Getting in anywhere isn't a problem - one way or another. So, we'll see you then. Or we wouln't."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:762|Luke Cage (762)}} has posed:'''<br>Luke Cage pulls his hoodie up, "Sounds like a date. Pier 20, you said. A'ight."<br><br>He turns and walks back towards the door, pushing his hands in the pockets of his jacket, "Yeah, Spidey be soft and squishy, I agree there. Just remember I ain't. Keep your noses clean, kids," he says as he makes his way back into the night.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:379|Tandy Bowen (379)}} has posed:'''<br>"See ya later, Power Man." Tandy calls out to him as she gives a snap of her fingers, causing a spark of light to dance upon her fingertips much like a lighter being flicked on. <br><br>With a glance to Cloak, she gives him a big grin, nudging him as her voice drops, though loud enough for Luke to hear. "Dude, you got to meet fucking Luke Cage. I know you're shitting your pants right now. You should ask for his autograph after all this. This is so cool."<br> <br>
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