5798/A Little Damage Control

A Little Damage Control
Date of Scene:	30 March 2021
Location:	Brooklyn
Synopsis:	Steve Rogers checks out the location where Colossus and Venom broke up a gang shootout and then fought each other. April O'Neil lives close by and comes to check out the scene as well.
Cast of Characters:	Steve Rogers, April O'Neil

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Steve Rogers has posed:
It all started with a shootout between two rival gangs. The Lo Boys and El Posse. The initial spark isn't clear at this point, the next morning, but whatever it was, a gunfight broke out between the two gangs. Five members on one side squared off with four on the other. Though having one fewer gunfighter there, one of the El Posse members was armed with a shotgun, while everyone was else was armed with handguns, equaling things out.

It also meant a lot of wild shots in the area as the combatants had moved from one bit of cover to another. It all took place right outside an apartment building, with occasional screams of people inside when a bullet came through their window or wall.

Thankfully no innocent bystanders were hurt. Though there is blood in a few places. And then comes the major property damage. One car has the whole side caved in and is missing a door. Another is missing all sorts of parts of it. Doors, roof, and the like. The missing pieces litter the area, each having traveled some distance from the cars themselves.

The police forensics unit is almost done and the police are taking down their tape. A truck from Damage Control has pulled up. Another person is there as well. Steve Rogers stands in civilian clothing, surveying the area.

April O'Neil has posed:
April bikes her way in to the area, and dismounts the yellow and black bicycle when the aftermath of the chaos gets far too obvious... she knows she's arrived. Stepping off of her bike, April holds on to the handle bars as she starts to walk it along..

April is wearing a yellow and white bike helmet, and her dark auburn hair is flowing back behind her shoulders in the cool Spring breeze. She's got her yellow leather jacekt on over a black hoodie and a tshirt with a Beetles album cover on her chest, blue jeans and black & white running shoes on her feet.

April's also got her messenger bag on over her body and is using one hand to reach inside it and pull out her phone.

She walks right past Captain America in his civies without thinking about it, her eyes on her phone as she raises it up to start snapping pics...

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve Rogers's brown leather jacket over jeans and a white striped button up shirt don't make him stand out. At least in regards to clothing. He doesn't have on his baseball cap though, so people might actually recognize him today.

There's a detective standing over near Steve, who apparently did. Or as likely, Steve introduced himself. The detective looks over at the crime scene, as the forensics examiner is bagging a pair of tennis shoes. They are bloody and torn up with a few ragged holes in them.

Steve glances at the beautiful young woman who goes past. She tends to draw a few eyes, including the detective. Though Steve draws the man's attention back as he says, "So no idea who he was?" The detective shakes his head. "No, we'll run DNA and hit up the streets. One of the El Posse we think, given the placement. And the only gun we found near to the shoes was the shotgun, so that was likely him. We'll find out his identity soon enough. Things like losing someone, the rest of the street hears and we get word eventually."

April O'Neil has posed:
April pauses about five or so feet past Cap and the Cop. She's letting her bike lean up against her right hip while she wields her phone with both of her hands now in an effort to get a few pics of the bullet holes inside of the near by building.

The wind is gently blowing her hair while does this and while the two men speak not too far from her. Its then that April zones in on what they're saying and she turns to look their way.

"There's way more damage here than anything the El Posse has done before." April chimes in to their conversation. "Whatever did some of this was definitely new to their ranks, if it was even with them at all."

She then looks to Steve and he'll see it, he'll see she recognizes him. She stammers a moment becuase of it...

"I... I mean... w-what... else do you guys think happened here?" Not the reporters best question, but Cap is right there!

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve surveys the area, hands on his hips. Though he's focusing on the aftermath of the fight, as if maybe reconstructing it in his head, there is a look of disappointment on his face. As if seeing the results of what inhabitants of his own home town do to each other is upsetting to the Brooklyn native.

He eyes an apartment door with holes that are obviously from a shotgun. "No one in the apartments or other people were hurt?" he asks the cop. "Nah, a few near misses, but everyone was ok. Besides the shoes and that big patch over there we're pretty sure was the same guy, there's three other spots with blood splatter. No one showed up at any emergency rooms so they must have found some street doctors."

Steve nods at this information and turns back. Both men hear April then, turning their attention to her. The detective answers first. "Gang shoot out. They are long gone now, everything's safe," he tells her. And that's when the detective does a little bit of a double. "Aren't you that one reporter. August Neal or something like that?" he asks her. Steve doesn't say anything for the moment, though his attention is on April now as well.

April O'Neil has posed:
April recovers from the fact that the First Avenger is standing there in front of her, and just shakes her head at the cop's response to her.

"Safe." She repeats with a little nod. "Like the people of this neighborhood felt they were before--" April motions her right hand around them.

"Before all of this happened." She finishes her thought before smirking at the police officer.

"You know, we really should consider coming up with a way of stopping these things before they happen, rather than after. It's not just bad guy blood that ends up on the pavement after this stuff happens."

She smirks at his name offered to her. "That, is a porn star. But thank you, no, my name is April O'Neil." She shoves her bike up on to the filthy sidewalk and puts out the kickstand to let it rest on.

Steve Rogers has posed:
The detective bristles just a little bit. "That's what we try to do. We can only arrest them though, the courts have to be the ones to send them to jail," he grumbles. He turns and heads over to talk to the forensics examiner who bagged the shoes. Anyone close enough to see them very clearly, the feet were still in them.

Steve watches the detective leave, taking a few steps forward nearer to the scene to stop next to April as he looks at a car door, the hinges on it visibly torn as if something quite strong just ripped it off the car. And then give where it is, probably threw it.

"Being a little hard on him maybe?" Steve suggests without looking directly to April yet. "Most of the police I've gotten to know, are serious about doing their jobs and trying to help people," he comments to April, finally looking over to her.

April O'Neil has posed:
April stands beside her bike after the cop starts to walk off. She lowers her eyes down to her phone to reply to a few messages with quick taps of her thumbs. Byt he time Steve steps up to her and speaks she's looking up to see him there.

She stares at him for a few seconds before realizing he's talking about that cop... "Him?" She asks, looking after the officer before back to Steve.

"I..." April exhales. "I've had problesm with the police around here for a few years now. Some of them mean well, others really don't. It's jjust, personal at this point." April looks back to Cap and exhales.

"My apologies though, it's just..." April motions to the hinges on that car door. "This wasn't gangsters." She tells him. "Unless these gangsters are suddenly as strong as..." She motions at Steve. "You are."

So yeah, she ID'd him.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve crosses his arms, the expression gentle enough that he doesn't seem upset with April despite his comment about what was said to the police. "There was certainly someone here that was enhanced. Two of them," he agrees. "Which is what brought me by to check in on things."

He eyes the area before shaking his head. "I am questioning whether they were with the gangs though. It seems that when those two arrived, everyone else fled. If your super gang member showed up to help in a fight, wouldn't you stick around and provide him with support? Especially if he was himself facing someone else?" Steve asks.

He pauses and looks at the biggest blood spot. "Though maybe they were just plain scared I suppose." Steve shakes his head and then he turns to glance around the area. "So you live in the area? Miss, O'Neil was it?"

April O'Neil has posed:
April takes a photo of that red splatter that STeve had looked at while he speaks and she looks at it down in front of her before she looks over athim.

"There's rumors of all kinds of weird things happening around here these days. From werewolves in the sewers to ... mad men who can control armies of rats with a telepathic connection." April sighs and looks up and across the street to some of the damage over there. "I've been dealing with this, with my friends, intimately for over a year now. It's not good around here... it's like this area is filling up with worse and worse shi--- sh--tuff... every. day." Being around Harley has had April cursing more than she ever used to, but she caught herself this time.

She smirks at him then. "I was born and raised here." She stops again. "No, I was born outside of Boston, but moved here when I was really young cause htis is where my mother was from. Brooklyn is my home, I care about the people in it. I hate this stuff happening in it, more and more, so it seems." She then shows him a soft smile.

"Thanks for your efforts, by the way. I know you're one of the hardest working around for this kind of thing."

Steve Rogers has posed:
At the talk of growing up in Brooklyn, Steve Rogers gives April back a small nod of his head. "Me too. Though, well. The city was a little bit different then," he says, glancing around. "A few things the same. More changed than not. But a few at least familiar," he comments.

His eyes fall on the Sunny Rose Antiques up the street. "Pretty sure that used to be a cafe. They had a great sandwich. Tomatoes they'd sun dry up on the roof. And a cheese from..." Steve says, trailing off as he looks around. "Well, they sold it over there," he says, motioning towards a storefront that is now a pawn shop.

Steve draws a deep breath and lets it out. "A lot of changes," he confirms before focusing back on April more fully. "I think this is the first I've heard of armies of rats. Like New York didn't have enough of those already," he says, frowning. He glances April over more fully. "I know you mentioned issues with the police, ma'am. But that doesn't sound like a situation it would be good for you to get involved with," he says, a note of concern in his voice.

April O'Neil has posed:
April looks up the street to what Steve motions at and a small smirks appears on her lips again before she regards the pawn shop and then back to the man before her. "That's my house." She tells him with a faint smile. "The antique store. Well. I mean. That's to say my apartment is over it. It was my mother's pride and joy, up until she passed away a decade ago."

"And the garden is still up o nthe roof, I still grow things in it." She adds in a moment of shared nostalgia.

But the talk of the rat king and the rats in general has April sighing and looking away. "I'm already involved." She tells him. "They attacked some of my friends, tried to kill them, tried to kill all of us for that matter. But, I mean--" April shakes her head side to side. "I wouldn't expect this to be on your radar, you've got ... I dunno, bigger issues to worry about than armys of rats marching in the swers."

Steve Rogers has posed:
The forensics team has finished up and the men from Damage Control start forward. This is a pretty minor scene as far as the sort of things they handle. Moving some sheet metal that used to be part of one car or another, cleaning up the broken glass where one of the windshields was shattered by an impact.

But they only get a glance from Steve, his attention focused on April. As she finishes, he reaches into an inside jacket pocket. "Well it's on my radar now, Miss O'Neil," Steve Rogers tells April as he offers her the card. "If you notice whoever is responsible active again, give me a call and I'll do what I can to assist," he tells her.

He glances towards the roof of the antique store, shading his eyes to see it better. "You don't say? Still growing things up there? Well, it's nice to know that some things are still the same," he tells April pleasantly. "Does this person who was after you and your friends know this is your place? Or are you safe there?"

April O'Neil has posed:
April's eyes go to the cops again for a moment before they return to Steve as he is offering her the card with his contact information. Captain America's contact info. Wow. She tries to play it cool though (not even realizing she still has her bike helmet on so that's not really possible!)

"Thank you..." She says quietly then before she looks up from the card and back to him. "Oh, uh, here." She reaches in to her yellow jacket inner pocket and pulls out HER card, cause IT'S JUST AS COOL and offers it to him.

"If you, ever, uh... need something reported on?" She questions/flirts badly, then instantly regrets it and laughs softly. "I mean, I host a podcast too, it's agbout super powered heroes, villains and all the people that all of it is effecting every day. IT's about them more than anything. Cause, well, I'm one of 'them'." She huffs a little laugh again.

"No powers here." She states with a faint grin. "But uh, yeah, I'm realtively safe in my place. I got a... roommate. She... well, not many people want to mess with her. So that helps."

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve takes the card when April offers it, giving her a grateful smile and then reading it. "Podcast," he repeats. "That's one of the..." he starts to say before realizing he's not entirely sure he knows what it is enough to describe it. "One of the internet things, right?" he asks her. If he's embarrassed by his lack of knowledge it doesn't really show, just a bit of a self-deprecating smile instead as if he realizes it's not a question that most people have to ask.

He gives her card a tiny wave as he says, "You never know, I might need that some day," he tells her as he takes out his wallet and puts the card inside of it, then slips the wallet back into his back pocket.

Steve gives a small sigh. "A lot of people get caught up in the troubles that happen. Cars, beat up," he says, looking over to where Damage Control are loading up the pieces of torn apart car into their truck. "Or worse. Hurt," he says with a little regretful shake of his head. "So what is your perspective on it, as someone who gives it such focus?" he asks April.

April O'Neil has posed:
April hasn amused grin come across her face as she hears him struggle to understand what a podcast is. she slowly nods her head because it all adds up, this guy is technically older than her parents would be if they were still alive after all.
"Radio show." She tells him. "Sort've." She's a young woman, but she was raised in an antique shop, she knows quite a bit about the 'old ways' of doing things.

At his question, April takes her eyes off of him and looks to the Damage Control people too. "Well..." She glances away, down again at the card still in her hands."I... don't like things like them." She nods toward Damage Control. "Now, before I say this, I swear I'm not crazy... but don't companies lik ethat unsettle you a bit?" She asks him. "Like, they show up to places like this and clean up the damage caused by super powered people... which is almost every day, every where. are they making tons of money off of it? Doesn't this lead to corruption and perhaps they're..." She shakes her head, laughs softly.

"It doesn't matter, I'm a curious person, it gets me in to trouble a lot." April says again with a smile before she puts his card in to the inside pocket of her jacket.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve Rogers seems to consider where April seemed to be going with it. "I'm sure they make money off of it," Steve agrees. "I don't know all the details of how such things work. How much is from the government, or if insurance pays for it sometimes?" Steve says, tone making it more of a question than a factual statement.

He glances over towards the workers, and then back to the beautiful young woman. "I suppose it's possible they could... what... be in league with some villains out causing destruction?" he says. "Though most of the things I've had to deal with, there was enough motive for what a criminal was doing without needing to resort to taking money for wanton destruction."

Steve looks back over to them. "But I really don't know, Miss O'Neil. You might know far more about that, than I do," he tells her. His head tilts to the side slightly. "It sounds like it's good that you have this roommate that people leave alone then. I'd hate to see trouble befall you," he tells her.

April O'Neil has posed:
April bites down on her bottom lip as he talks about Damage Control in response to her and she gently nods her head a couple of times before she reaches her right hand up to brush her auburn hair out of her blue eyes and. She lets her lip go and then laughs a little.

"I don't have any idea if they are or not, but that's the initial thought that jumps in to my head when I keep seeing them at these sites. It just--" April exhales, her shoulders slumping a little. "It's what has lead me to being a journalist. I work for Channel Six too, if you've ever watched. Though I don't do it more than a part time job these days.." She winces and smirls. "They don't like... uh... dedication... to uncovering facts over boosting their ratings."

April then smiles at his kind words at the end. "Thank you." She says quietly. "And hey, if you ever wanna get a burger and do a stake out on some Damage Control vehicles, I'm your girl." More flirting! She doesn't know about Janet! It's not her fault!

Steve Rogers has posed:
A soft sigh is released by the man as April mentions the stance of her news station that she works with. "That seems to be the case far more than I would have ever imagined," he says in a tone as if saddened by what he's seen. "I'll just hope that there are more reporters out there like yourself, Miss O'Neil, that maybe that's a trend that will reverse itself in time."

The flirting draws a small grin from Steve. "That does sound more appealing than the rats. Though I've already offered help should they come back," he says. Steve turns to glance towards the Damage Control people. He doesn't have any reason to suspect them of anything, and so they likely get the benefit of the doubt from him. Though it might stick in the back of his head, should he ever see anything to change that. "Would that include any of those sun-dried tomatoes?" he asks.

April O'Neil has posed:
April smiles at Steve, he's... a man out of time, truly, a man from when America had a deeper vision of an idealistic possible future. The actual future?
"It's a capitalist society, Captain." The reporter says to him as she steps back to her bike. "Unfortunately that's made the companies that are profiting off of it overly greedy to the point that they're willing to manipulate the little guy just to get a boon in their financial earnings."

April pauses then and puts one hand on her bike's seat. "But, you're right. Things can get better again, that's why I'm trying to not give in to it and keep my nose on the hunt for truth above profit. Which is why my air conditioner still doesn't work and summer is just around the corner." She grins at him again. "And yeah, we'll have the best tomatoes in Brooklyn, my mother passed on her gardening skills to me, thankfully."

April moves her kickstand up then and just grins at him before getting back on her bike. "I better get back though, I don't wanna take up all your time tierh."

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve Rogers walks April over to her bike. "Well, hopefully that isn't the case. But if it is, it sounds like you have a worthwhile story," he comments to April. "And that's what we need. People to stand up for what's right," he says, expression and tone both approving as he looks over at April.

The comment about the air conditioner gets a commiserating look from Steve. "Air conditioning. One of the better things about life today," he says. "I hope that you're able to get it working."

Steve glances back to the scene of the firefight. "I've probably learned about all I'm going to here. Hopefully I can get a bead on the identities of those involved," he tells her. "Please do take care of yourself, Miss O'Neil. I enjoyed speaking with you," he says, tipping his head to her as if he'd tip his cap if he had one on.