5575/Murderer's Row

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Murderer's Row
Date of Scene: 13 March 2021
Location: A series of abandoned warehouses on the outskirts of New Jersey, close to New York City
Synopsis: A variety of badasses beat a variety of lame-asses on live streaming television
Cast of Characters: Slade Wilson, Albert Rothstein, Alopex, Neena Thurman, Cole Cash




Slade Wilson has posed:
The call went out in a variety of different ways. For those of a professional bent, a contract went up for 100K through a variety of agencies, bookers and mercenary networks - simple kill of a man called Diego de la Muerte, a drug dealer said to be making a major deal somewhere in a strip of abandoned warehouses at six o'clock this evening, right at dusk. To the more heroic types, a 911 call gives similar details, letting it be known that a major drug bust and potential gang war was about to break out. Civilians would be few and far between, but you never know, especially among the homeless population. Regardless, bad guys would be here in droves and said to be heavily armed and dangerous.

At first, though, everything looks quiet, peaceful. The rows of warehouses, eight to ten in total, range from old shipping stations to canneries to a chemical distillation plant. Slade Wilson has arrived early, setting up shop atop the roof of one, an automatic rifle sideslung on his body as he scans the locale with his single eye, looking for trouble...

Albert Rothstein has posed:
Albert Rothstein heard about issues in the area, and decided to head out to try to box up these thugs and try to limit the headcount not only amongst the homeless but the goons as well. He is wearing the classic trench and fedora to hide his costume, as he makes his way to the area, heading for a rooftop. "They always make this look so easy." He says as he climbs up an old fire escape having to duck a bit as he does.

Alopex has posed:
    Just a regular night. Just a regular patrol. Industrial areas like this were always on Alopex's map when determining just where to go for a single night. Just before reaching the large buildings she had stopped off, traded in some cash for some food, and now was hopping along air conditioners and air ducts with a street burrito of sorts in one hand, nothing in the other in case it was needed. Parkour is dangerous, folks.

Neena Thurman has posed:
    Neena wasn't planning to kill anyone, but, well, her -last- purloined bag of drug money has run low, and she was out and about anyhow when her cell chirped, and... okay, and no one answered her calls on a Saturday and she doesn't feel like moping around home. Because moping around's not as fun now that the aforementioned duffel of cash is running low. And so once more, she finds herself wandering through dim rows of warehouses in a long overcoat, collar tugged up as she hums softly, muttering out. "Heeeeere dealer dealer deeeealers... come give Neena all your moooooney... you don't want someone else to get that bounty! They're not nearly as charming as me!"

Cole Cash has posed:
So much money is going to draw a lot of gunslingers, including Grifter, who rarely kills people for money. But he makes exceptions for real scumbags and this might be the case.

Still, not going to kill anyone without some research. So, Cole might end up saving lives. But his conscience is always at war with his wallet. Such is life. It also means he is down on the street. Armed, but not flaunting it, the mask in his coat pocket, and looking for this Diego guy.

Slade Wilson has posed:
The cops are still farther out, assembling their swat teams and being generally more cautious than the hero types. Lucky for them, at least for now.

The first explosion rips through the building upon which Deathstroke is perched, almost knocking Slade over the edge as the windows blow out. A car parked down near the fire escape Atom has selected blows in its own right, sending a fireball to consume the alley. Gunfire erupts from another set of windows across the way, automatic fire rapidly blasting at Domino and Alopex from different angles.

In front of Grifter, a pair of doors blows out and a man steps out wearing combat armor, studded with pouches and weapons. He has a high-powered plasma rifle in his left arm, a grenade launcher on his right and a pair of katanas crisscrossed on his back. His face is hidden behind a darkened face shield and there's a twisted crown capped with blades at the points on top of his helmet.

"HELLO TO ALL OUR FANS, I AM KING MURDER AND THIS...IS SLAUGHTERHOUSE LIVE! PLACE YOUR BETS NOW BECAUSE THE KILLING IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!"

A soft whirr goes up as dozens of observation drones launch into the air from different buildings, HD cameras trying to capture every moment of the action.

Alopex has posed:
    Hop. Skip. Jump. Gunfire. Wait! Gunfire? Already? The half-eaten burrito falls away into a random alley as Alopex's leap turns into a dive, landing on her chest with a whump as all hell breaks loose. There's someone yelling, drones are everywhere, and it turns out that Alopex might be on TV? The internet? BOTH? Hood up, mini-scythes out, and the thought of getting a gun to better defend herself with becomes priority number one.

    The ninja has a good idea where she was getting shot from... good ears help with that. She'd stay prone, scoot across the roof, peek out, and given the chance, hurl a few smoke bombs toward the windows over yonder. While giving them a moment to work, she'll check herself over? Grazes? Hits? She didn't FEEL one but better to be sure than to buckle at a bad moment.

Albert Rothstein has posed:
Albert Rothstein blinks and has to jump to a dumpster as the explosion knocks the fire escape free. He makes a deep dent into the dumpster, but lands in at least a semi superhero landing. As he stands he removes the trench and hat looking around to see if he sees any actual goons. The firelight lighting up the huge man in red.

Cole Cash has posed:
"The hell..." Cole dives for cover as the (other) refugee from the 90s shows up armed to the teeth. As soon as he is semi-out of the way, behind a parked truck, the red mask falls over his face, and he draws two heavy handguns from shoulder holsters.

Spy drones are bad for him, so he just shots the half a dozen closer to him almost without thinking. Waller will skin him alive if he shows up in the Internet.

Neena Thurman has posed:
    Domino catches a glint just as the gunfire erupts, throwing herself backwards, practically doing a backwards somersault out of her coat... it saves her, but her favorite coat's got several new holes before she's bracing herself, reaching behind her lower back to grab at one of the machine pistols hanging off her combat webbing. She unloads a burst into the windows as she sprints and dives behind a nearby dumpster.

And that's when the maniac's announcing his plan... and one of the drones gets a view of her incredulous look up at it, "...Who? King Murder?! Oh you've got to be -shitting- me!" She aims and fires on the drone, only to look up at another one, even more indignant, "You know what?! Screw the bounty! I'm killing you on principal! That name is bad! You -deserve- to die!"

Slade Wilson has posed:
King Murder quickly proves not to be alone. Other figures emerge. A wild-haired redheaded man with a maniacal cackle comes at Nuklon, hands glowing with energy, "This one doesn't stand a chance against Captain Blast!" he squeals, unleashing bolts of energy at the young hero.

King Murder draws a bead on Grifter, "Leave those cameras alone, meatwad! They're documenting my glory! KNEEL BEFORE ME, PEASANT!" he yells, sending energy blasts towards Grifter that shatter the pavement around him.

Slade finds himself contending with a woman wreathed in flame and otherwise buck naked, throwing streams and gouts of fire in his direction, "The Burning has come for you, one eye!" she snarls, singing his shoulder and making him roll to put it out. "Irritating bitch," he mutters.

Alopex will hear a terrible thundering and suddenly she's being charged by a man on a massive mechanical horse, his legs seemingly welded into it, part of the same cybernetic machine as draws an axe from his back and attempts to decapitate her on a charge. Warhorse has entered the game!

And finally, Domino finds, of all things, giant wooden nails pelted at her from all directions, sharp as tent spikes, bouncing off the ground. The man who climbs up out of the sewer is clad in a parody of Bishop's robes, two cannons mounted on the back of each arm and firing spikes from tanks on his back. All he yells is 'CRUCIFIER CRUCIFIER CRUCIFIER' in an endless mantra.

Albert Rothstein has posed:
Albert Rothstein will roll off the dumpster, and looks over at Captain Blast "Well blast it all then." He says and with a big foot kick will send the dumpster slide/rolling across the alley towards Captain Blast. He does move to follow it in ducking a bit to limit the chance of being hit by one of the blasts.

Neena Thurman has posed:
    Domino shrieks, really more in annoyance than anything as she dodges flying... stakes? Oh noooo. Not this. She's not a goddamn vampire. People need to stop thinking she's a vampire just because she's pale, and wears a black bodysuit and carries a bunch of guns. She springs back and palms along her side to grab a second gun, firing back at Crucifier as she works to open some distance, "Hey! This is totally like... culturally insensitive! I'm -agnostic-! This isn't cool, man!" She doesn't need this. Triads, Cartels, hell, give her the mafia and their stupid fedoras. She's been -avoiding- the costume game just because of this kind of malarky. Total malarky.

Cole Cash has posed:
Cole left his energy guns at home because they are too expensive to charge up, and really, he thought Diego de la Muerte was a normal gangster. Now he would like to pay back to King Murder.

Well, no. He throws a flashbang grenade towards the general direction of the shooter, ducking in an alleyway to avoid the cameras and the shrapnel of the shattered pavement. Ow, ow, ow. "That is too big a title for your fist showing, dude," he yells to the King. "Maybe you could start with... Baron Homicide? What about Duke McKill?"

Alopex has posed:
    Tick Tock. Hissing smokebombs are doing their job, but Alopex is rudely interrupted by... man..horse? Robot Horse? Horse Man Robot? THUNDERHORSE? Plenty of names race by her mind's eye, but she can't really pay attention to them since the thing is trying to take her head off with a massive axe. "What the HELL is going on here?!" Slaughterhouse LIVE indeed. She'd remember that later. For now? Life is more important.

    She's on her feet in a flash, and lunging even higher upward after another moment, hoping to avoid the incoming axe. While she would LOVE to yank a drone and smash it on Warhorse's head, there isn't one close enough. Instead, as she's coming down, she's doing so with her mini-scythes brought forward, hoping to tear into the man-horse-robot-thing's frame. Anywhere. She isn't going to be picky since she had no time to plan this jump.

Slade Wilson has posed:
Captain Blast shoots at the dumpster and it does, indeed, blow up, but it doesn't really stop for all that, as a now-flaming dumpster hits the giggling loon and knocks him on his back, sending a few random blasts up in the air to blow out holes in the wall of the nearest warehouse.

With his shoulder doused, Deathstroke rises up and is clearly tired of The Burning and her bullshit, as he somersaults forward over a blast of flame and slices with his Prometheum sword, taking no damage from that flame as he slices the woman in twain, her guts already half-cooked as they fall out of her and she falls into two naked pieces onto the asphalt.

"THE BURNING HAS BEEN ELIMINATED. DEATHSTROKE THE TERMINATOR IS NOW WORTH DOUBLE POINTS."

The Crucifier takes a few shots to the arm, making him spin around as a random blast of pointy sticks still goes towards Domino, missing entirely. "CRUCIFIER SHOT OUCHIE OUCHIE UNHOLY BITCH!" he cries and then trips and falls over his robe, screaming as he lands on one of his own spikes. Bad luck for him, it seems.

"CRUCIFIER HAS BEEN ELIMINATED. DOMINO IS NOW WORTH DOUBLE POINTS."

The flashbang does a good job on King Murder, his shielded face whipping to the side to avoid the glare and impact, making him stumble off to the side. He raises his arm up and unleashes chain gun fire from a wrist mount, splattering at the side of the building. "This is my coronation and I'm going to anoint myself with your blood!" KM shouts.

The scythes rip through motors and joins in Warhorse's arms, making him unable to swing the axe and leaving he and Alopex locked together in combat, his metal parts trapping her scythes temporarily as the horse increases in speed and begins charging towards a nearby wall.

In the distance, sirens can be heard now as the cops approach, only to have a man in a longcoat and a wide-brimmed hat walk out. His face is literally a skull with glowing eyes and he tips back his hat and pulls out revolvers with barrels twice as long as normal.

"Dr. Coffin gonna be your huckleberry, officers!" he drawls, letting out oversized blasts from those six shooters, causing the first cop car to explode.

Albert Rothstein has posed:
Albert Rothstein will rush towards the blast fisted man, and grapples with him, taking a blast to the chest scorching him, putting a hole in his suit as he grunts deeply. He will move to grab a piece of the dumpster and wrap it around Captain Blast, trapping the man's arms with his hands under his own chin "I would not suggest blasting any more." He will offer towards the villian.

Neena Thurman has posed:
    Domino sighs and shakes her head, giving Crucifier's body a swift, firm kick as she walks past it. She's about to head deeper into the warehouse complex when she hears the sirens. Well, okay, the explosion -near- the sirens. And that distinct warble of 'My siren has stopped working because my police cruiser has exploded'. She grimaces... groans.. .and makes her way acrobatically up a stack of crates so she can start sprinting from rooftop to rooftop towards the arriving police.

If only she could be as coldly mercenary as her LinkedIn profile. She's been reading too many of Xavier's newsletters about having to help humanity to gain mutant acceptance. And hey, maybe the cops'll cut her a break on those parking tickets she's been putting off. Those notice envelopes keep having more and more red ink.

Cole Cash has posed:
Cole takes the momentary lull of the dazzled KM to shoot down a few more camera drones. Then he climbs up a firescape to try to get out of line of sight of the crazy guy as well as ambush him if the man rushes to chase after him.

Kneecap shoots, mind you. He is still trying to be a good guy. -ish.

Alopex has posed:
    Well. She'll just .. get those later. As the mini-scythes come to a halt in Warhorse's frame, she finally just lets go, pulls free some kunai, and decides she'll have to fight with these next. WHY COULDN'T SHE JUST FIND A GUN?! Bleh. Seeing as he's RIGHT THERE and the two are wall bound, she starts stabbing, and stabbing, and stabbing, hoping to put a halt to the horse's run before she gets crushed.

Slade Wilson has posed:
Captain Blast doesn't seem to listen. Maybe because he knows something Nuklon doesn't: that if he fails to get even a single kill, he'll be cancelled. Which is to say, he'll be terminated with extreme prejudice and left not much more than a smoking husk. So he tries to blast free of the dumpster, only doing so causes it to fracture and split into pieces, the shrapnel sending a spike of dumpster metal through his eye and into his brain.

"CAPTAIN BLAST HAS BEEN ELIMINATED. NUKLON IS NOW WORTH DOUBLE POINTS."
Dr. Coffin is still letting loose, his pistols unleashing gouts of flame as bullets more like mini-missiles speed towards the upcoming cop cars, blowing another one up as the remaining cars and the armored truck swerve to the side and get out of his line of fire, even as the skeleton gunslinger turns to face Domino, "Hey there, little lady. I got a longshank bone just fer you!" he shouts.

The asphalt under Deathstroke opens up and a creature seemingly made of stone rises up out of it, wrapping arms around him and starting to try and squeeze and break his ribs, a face studded with gravel shouting in his face. Rockbottom has entered the battle.

Cole seems to have found one of King Murder's weaknesses - stairs. The armored figure doesn't have nearly Grifter's agility and seems to struggle to climb, firing up after him with shots that spang and spark around the fire escape. "Come back and let me murder you!!!" is shouted upwards as Cole manages to elude and get out of King Murder's line of sight.

Alopex's stabbing eventually hits the right set of circuits as the horse's legs go dead and the whole thing collapses, starting to skid along and throwing her free. Warhorse is technically not dead but is sideways and can't use its arms or legs at the moment, taking him effectively out of the battle. Still, no points are awarded since Warhorse is still alive.

FIVE MINUTES UNTIL END OF STREAM. FIVE MINUTES UNTIL END OF STREAM. SUDDEN DEATH COMMENCING."

All the remaining killers get shocks to their system and their bodies are pumped with supersteroidal performance enhancers, essentially making them rabid, the killers entering a frenzied state as they try to score kills before time expires.

Alopex has posed:
    Not dead? That's fine. Granted putting this guy out of his misery might be a mercy buuuuuut, nah, endure what you've done. "This is so bizarre," she grunts before moving to see what else she can do. Surely Warhorse won't get up after the system shock and steroids are pumped in, right? Naaaaah.

Albert Rothstein has posed:
Albert Rothstein winces a bit as he looks down at Captain Blast "Damn." He shakes his head and looks about. He sees Slade, and Rockbottom in fight and ponders a moment, which one he should actually help, but he knows enough of the Mercenary to know he would not be with goons like this. He will head over towards the duo and stops. He starts looking around for an antenna something that might be controling the drons or broadcasting a signal.

Neena Thurman has posed:
    Domino races forward, leaping off the rooftop and.. for just a split second, she feels bad. That poor Crucifier guy is dead, and now this chump's going to go down in history as some dumb cowboy wannabe. But hey, he's got a freaky skull and glowing eyes. Maybe he has actual powers. Maybe he'll just take her diving off the rooftop to wrap her legs around his shoulders and shove two machine pistol barrels into those glowing eye sockets like a taser. And maybe that's just special effects and a fancy helmet, and he's going to react to a dose of lead like most people do.

That's what's so great about this job. The -uncertainty-.

Cole Cash has posed:
Plasma blasts on the metal firescape are no fun and Cole is forced to jump inside one of the apartments through the closed window. Once he shakes off the glass, he peers briefly, mostly to make sure KM is still shooting. Yep.

Then he heads down to try to circle back to the maniac with the plasma guns. Not too quickly. He rather arrive just when his five minutes of streaming are over.

Slade Wilson has posed:
The shock and steroids make Warhorse jerk and shudder, trying to come to life but being defied by its own broken servos and ruined circuits, "D-d-d-damn youuuuuuuuuu," he manages to say at Alopex stepping away from him.

Deathstroke groans as some of his ribs crack under Rockbottom's squeezing, only for it to get much worse as he detonates a grenade close enough to both of them, ripping a bloody tear even through his own armor on the side as he destroys the rock-coated man's chest cavity, Slade's bloodied but breathing carcass landing at Nuklon's feet.

"ROCKBOTTOM HAS BEEN ELIMINATED. DEATHSTROKE THE TERMINATOR IS NOW WORTH QUADRUPLE POINTS."

Dr. Coffin's skull explodes from those guns shoved into his eye sockets, falling backwards and thrashing a bit even in seeming defeat, the bones of its body crackling and crumbling until he finally falls to literal dust with the longcoat and pistols laid out atop him.

King Murder is throwing a fit, destroying the walls around him, drawing out one of his swords and just hacking at some trash bags, "No, no, no, no! I will not lose! I am King Murder! I am Death! I am the Destroyer of Flesh! I will harvest blood from the guts of the inept and stand on a pile of bodies and piss on them all because there is no one better than me GAHHHHHHHHHH!" he cries, jumping up and down like a big armored baby.

"THANK YOU FOR PLAYING SLAUGHTERHOUSE LIVE. THIS STREAM WAS VIEWED BY 11,332 INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTS. BETTING TOTALED 174 MILLION DOLLARS. WINNERS, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR INFORMATION IS CORRECT AS ALL DATA WILL BE PURGED AT END OF STREAM. GIVE A ROUND OF APPLAUSE TO OUR SURVIVORS. HOPEFULLY WE WILL SEE THEM ALL PLAY AGAIN SOMETIME. SLAUGHTERHOUSE LIVE IS A ROB E. XTREME PRODUCTION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED."

Alopex has posed:
    A long glowering glare is sent Warhorse's way. "Sit. Stay. Good boy," she growls before looking back over the chaos that happened elsewhere. Much as she wouldn't mind finding out about the other players, she has a dinner that she has to replace and, well, she'll be finding out in a while that her 'sidekick' was watching the whole time. .. Oh no.

Albert Rothstein has posed:
Albert Rothstein will reach up swatting away any more drones he sees. He grows to about twelve to fifteen foot tall to get as many of the drones as he can, trying to grab at least a couple in tact.

Neena Thurman has posed:
    Domino stares at the dust... and picks up the longcoat, shaking it free of the dust and holding it up, "Hmmm... not really my size..." She frowns thoughtfully, "Plus... I mean, mercenaries don't turn to dust. ...Maybe he's just a pair of haunted guns." She eyes the coat again and frowns, "Or he's a haunted coat..." She eyes the coat even more skeptically, and then picks the guns up, wrapping them in it. "I'm... just gonna take these to... uhh... a scientist! Yeah!" She tucks the bundle under one arm and waves to the approaching cops with the other, "Uhhh... no charge! I've never killed a fiery cowboy before! It was fun! ...Those uhhh... those pistols are totally semi-auto! And I have a permit right over... byeeeee!!" And off she runs back into the maze of warehouses and alleys.

Cole Cash has posed:
Cole just shakes his head as KM goes nuttier from losing. Did he lose by being the only survivor of this team of morons? Whatever. He seems to have too much armor for Grifter conventional handguns, so Grifter is going to leave him alone. Or possibly some passing hero with more punch than he carries today.

On the way to the Griftermobile (aka, the old van he uses for work) he spots Slade's battered carcass and picks him up to drag him out of trouble. He will drop by Wintergreen or the Night Nurse, whoever of them that picks the phone first.

It is not he particularly likes what Slade is doing nowadays, but Team 7 is Team 7. Some loyalties transcend politics, morals and common sense.