6764/The First Rule of Fight Club..

The First Rule of Fight Club..
Date of Scene:	01 July 2021
Location:	Somewhere beneath the Hudson River.. sorta
Synopsis:	Sharon goes back into the fight club to look for the missing agent, Angelo. Turns out, Taskmaster was still in the building, letting lose. The two nearly go head to head, rehashing their past. Sharon gets the drop on him and leaves Taskmaster for dead.
Cast of Characters:	Sharon Carter, Tony Masters

---

Sharon Carter has posed:
"Where the fuck is he.." Sharon snaps at herself, running through the hallway, effectively dodging one broken body after another.

A few moments ago, the mutant known as X-23 was set loose, by a vial of something or other that caused her to go berserk. Bucky managed to get out with his guts near exposed, the child that they were looking for was safe in the hands of Sam. Mission accomplished, except for.. what appears to be a SHIELD agent, was left behind.

This wasn't a SHIELD OP, but.. she couldn't leave him there.

She was careful, running through the hallways, every now and then she'd tear a piece of her long, black dress away, she would even stop to check pulses of the guards and sneak ammo and steal assault rifles. It was best to keep quiet, even though the soft pitter patter of her bare feet could be heard on the floors below her.

Tony Masters has posed:
Tony Masters isn't being nearly so quiet or stealthy. He might, eventually, if the hunt grew more direct, but right now, he was having fun being a rowdy murder machine. He rarely got to simply cut loose, usually having a specific objective and an employer to please.

But tonight he was looking to please himself. He wanted to get h is hands on Sharon, yes, but he would also be quite satisfied merely to scare the living hell out of her. He'd get her eventually one way or another.

One of the few remaining henchman simply tries to run away, only to find the Taskmaster throwing a knife that strikes at the base of his neck, severing his spine and leaving him flopping and paralyzed in the wake of the skull-masked man.

"SHAAAAAAAAAAARON! I know you're still here, Sharon, you're too well mannered to leave without giving me a kiss."

Sharon Carter has posed:
It was strange. Sharon was peeling parts of her clothing away to get that murder-scent off of her, but she was also checking the bodies, rolling them over to make sure it wasn't that agent and friend of Bucky's she had seen earlier. None of them were him, and there was a slight worry that she had left him there to die. He was durable, but he was not a God.

But.. hearing her name being called out made her remember something.

The man with the hood; Taskmaster, and the sudden realization she was coming up on bodies that he happened to slaughter and leave upon the ground. "Fuck." She mutters quietly..

She looked near psychotic, two assault rifles, two glocks and a shit ton of clips stuffed into various parts of her bra. And most of it made a clanging sound as Sharon ducks behind a wall that would have allowed her to turn a corner.. slowly peering to see down the hallway she nearly walked into.

Tony Masters has posed:
Tony Masters had liberated a few weapons along the way as well. He had a sideslung Uzi on a strap criss-crossing his body, several pistols jammed into pockets and a machete in his hand. One of the hirelings had been a Haitian, formidable in his own right. Well, compared to most people anyway. Taskmaster left him with his head on backwards.

Taskmaster clangs the machete along the wall, then drags it there, slicing the wallpaper in his wake, "I understand you might be a little frightened. I admit, I do hold a bit of a grudge. I'm not a forgiving man by nature. But maybe you have a good explanation. Maybe you left me to die for a good reason. I'm listening, I promise. It might not save your life, but at least you'd get it off your ample chest."

Sharon Carter has posed:
Sharon could hear him, she could hear the scraping, but she couldn't pinpoint where. Was it above? Was it down the other way? Was it below? She looks around the area, then kneels upon the ground to drag the guard close to her. It was careful, the way she patted him down, feeling bulges within his pockets and upon his belt until she finds what she was looking for.

A radio.

Sharon rises, then takes off down the hallway that she peered into, empty save for more blood and quite possibly brain.

"Get the radio, Tony." It's been a while since she's used his full name. Or even spoken it outloud. Whenever he'd call her, she would either say nothing or hang up.

She was too old to hide.

But not too old to be afraid, which she covers by gripping the radio tight to hide her shaking hand.

Tony Masters has posed:
Tony Masters hears the voice coming from a dead guard. He pauses and kneels down, keeping himself on alert as he unsnaps the radio from the man's beltline. Could be a way for her to ambush him, catch him off guard. But he hadn't heard her voice in the air, only through the radio. She was close, but not that close.

"Sharon. Switch to channel 4 on the radio, then. Wouldn't want to share our intimate conversation with the whole guard force. IF any of them are still alive."

Sharon Carter has posed:
Sharon shakes her head, now rising to survey her surroundings. This place was nearly a maze, quite possibly built that way on purpose or to keep people disoriented. Since she couldn't find Angelo, she now has to backtrack, but in a way that Tony couldn't find her..

She switches to channel 4, waiting until she hears a sembliance of a connection, then presses the button.

"If you cannot find -any- reason as to why I left you for dead, look around you Tony.." Sharon looks up, then puts the radio against her chest so that she could listen for footsteps, or any other signs of light that were fleeing. "I couldn't fix you."

Tony Masters has posed:
Tony Masters laughs, "Fix me? Baby, ain't nothin' wrong with me."

He casually throws the machete in the air, letting it spin and flip a few times before snatching the handle again out of the air.

"Part of the problem with SHIELD, they teach you that you're good guys. Like that's a real thing. Got you wanting to be little superheroes. They don't even give you lethal weapons anymore, just those crappy ICER things. Hi-tech Nerf guns."

"And you know I only go on a real killing spree if I'm provoked. And what can I say, babe? You provoked me."

Sharon Carter has posed:
Now Sharon leans against the wall, now checking and racking her weapons to make sure that they were loaded. Eventually, the conversation had to end. Eventually, Sharon and Tony were going to be face to face with each other and someone wasn't going to walk out of the building alive. "No.. no no no no.." Sharon says into the comms. She wasn't angry, but she wanted to direct him.

"Don't blame SHIELD for this shit, Tony. What happened was between me, and you. I never claim to be a hero. I never claim to be good. But I could not, in good conscience, let you walk out alive." The radio was now hung upon the strap of her dress, which allowed her to be hands free as she slowly begins to stalk the hallways.

Fuck finding him. She needed to get out. She was -not- ready.

Tony Masters has posed:
Tony laughs, a little too long, honestly, a little uncomfortably long.

"Conscience. That's rich. When did you get a conscience? Because you and I both now all that hero bullshit that SHIELD peddles is crap and you know it because you ain't it. You're as ruthless as anybody I know. You'll betray whoever you have to, steal whatever you have to, kill whoever you have to in order to get the job done. Same as me. You know how I know?"

"Cause I know you gave a damn about me. I don't know about love, I'm not even sure what that shit is, but I know I meant something to you and you left me to die anyway. For your conscience. For some bullshit m orals. You don't get to do that. I'm not going to let you do that. Not to me."

Sharon Carter has posed:
Sharon stops as she listens to him, her face burning red, inhaling deeply as she looks up to the ceiling. Even as he speaks, she presses the radio against her chest, listening. Listening for that laughter. For footsteps. Anything. And she presses on, this time, speed walking.

"I DID!" She nearly screams into the radio. "But I am separate from that, Tony. You -never- saw that. You saw me as someone to corrupt; someone to join in your games and your directives. Someone to drag around and ..." She cuts herself off, releasing the button. This was so that she could move into the stairwell, with a slow push of the door closed so that the click was small.

"I am not you. I was not you. I couldn't do what you did. I cannot -thrive-." She purses her lips now, then begins to move up the stairwell. To the surface is where she needed to be.

"I probably did love you Tony. Probably. But I loved myself more and you could not handle that, you narcissitic fuck."

Tony Masters has posed:
There's a long pause before he responds.

"Huh." he says. Maybe he hadn't really believed it. He certainly hadn't believed you'd admit it. "You could've been. Why not? You can't stomach it? When have you even known anyone worth bothering to save in the first damn place. Cause I only met a couple and you were one of them. I don't hesitate, not on anybody, but I hestitated on you. I didn't trust my instincts, I didn't follow my own fucking rules, and I let you live. I let you in. I let you into my life. And you betrayed me. So who's the real narcissist here, Sharon? Me? I never lied about who I was, never pretended to be something I'm not."

"Would I have changed for you? I don't know. Probably not. But I might have tried."

Sharon Carter has posed:
The pace was starting to get quicker as she looks up and over the side of the stairs. It wound, and she could almost see the top and the final door. Maybe the one that would get her out of there.

"I couldn't stomach it, no." That was the truth. She had nightmares, still.. about Japan. So much so she'd probably cringe at a commercial that aired from that country.

"And neither did I. We had our separate shit, Tony. You promised me that we wouldn't mix it, and YOU did. Not me, Tony. I kept to my rules and my boundaries. But I knew that there was no turning back for you; you'd murder people and you would FORGET. You would have killed me within a second if you woke up one day and didn't know who I was.."

There was so many thoughts to this, so many feelings she felt. It was now being aired out on a private channel.

"Might. Might. You wouldn't have done it. So I didn't ask. And I regret that I didn't ask. I regret a lot of things.. a LOT of things that we did that night. But I do not regret leaving you for dead. Not one fucking bit."

Tony Masters has posed:
Not over the radio, there's an audible howl and a spray of gunfire as Taskmaster just unloads the Uzi in frustration, a rattling blast of gunfire shattering some glass. Followed by quiet.

"Well, good. I'd hate for you to die over something you regretted," he says at last.

"I wouldn't have forgotten you," he says. He's not sure that's true, he can't trust anything about his memory, but it felt true, it felt right, and that's all that mattered to him in the moment.

Sharon Carter has posed:
Gunfire. Sharon heard it loud enough that it causes her to duck. She doesn't move for a time, not until he speaks again upon the radio. For a moment, she almost fell right back into it. Tony had a distinct voice; it carried a timbre that she found pleasing, and soothing. Even if this current one was mechanical.

"Try." Is all she says, then finally launches the radio down the middle of the stairwell. Now she was booking it. Angelo was assumed gone, and without any contact with the outside world, she was left on her own.

She was used to it.

Tony Masters has posed:
Taskmaster hears the skidding of the radio and breaks into a sprint, tossing his own radio aside as he prepares to give chase. The Uzi has been shed, along with his suit jacket and his long-lost tie, left on the throat of a guard, his face gone purple from the choking.

"Little pig, little pig, let me come in...!" he shouts.

Sharon Carter has posed:
Sharon makes it to the top, her teeth gritting as she presses her hands against the door. But she waits, she could hear him calling out as he begins to give chase. She pushes the door as hard as she can to create the crashing sound, then immediately turns and scales down the stairs to the other door. Hopefully that slight misdirect would be worth it.

That floor below was mostly empty, if guards were meant to be there, they weren't. There was a chance that everyone in that building had died, and that little murder midget moved on to someone more potent.

"Not today.." She mutters to herself, gauging her way, then turning left to book it down the hall.

Tony Masters has posed:
Tony Masters is quickly in pursuit again, finding the stairwell and faulting over the side, balancing precariously along the railing and sliding down a floor or two in pursuit until he reaches the same floor, hearing her steps echoing around the corner.

"I'm getting closer!" he calls out, taunting.

Sharon Carter has posed:
Shit. He was .. no. He was ON the floor.

Sharon runs and smashes into the other door, but the door fought back. Barred from the other side by a body that she could barely even move, even as she put all of her weight into it and bears down with a near scream to give it strength.

Nothing. No..

Sharon backs away from the door, her fingers dug into her hair as her eyes begin to well up with tears, then takes in a deep breath with a shake of her head. Not here.. She was not going to be put down here.

She spins around, giving herself a little hop to catch the automatic rifle within her grip. She quickly kneels, one knee on the ground, the other propped upright so that her elbow could rest. And here, is where she patiently waits.

The final girl with the final stand.

Tony Masters has posed:
Tony Masters has the machete in hand, the grip loosely held. He'd mimicked machete wielders in the past, members of the Tonton Macoute, the legendary tribe of Haitian machete killers. Not to mention a thousand different swordsmen to teach him to use almost any kind of blade.

"I don't hear you running," he says aloud. "Time to stand and fight? Hmmmmmmmmmmm," he says. He's leaning against the wall next to the door now, finally pulling off that skull mask to show his face. He never shows his face, generally. But Sharon already knew it. Nothing to hide here. His face was probably scarier than any mask as far as she was concerned anyway.

"So...you've either got a gun waiting to plug me or you're off to the side with that knife of yours, the lucky one you usualy carry, ready to try and carve me up. Decisions, decisions..."

Sharon Carter has posed:
"Do you want me to run, Tony? Would that make it better for you? Would it get you off?" Sharon chides. She already knows that he was taking his time, wanting to make her twitch. Maybe get her to actually get up and run by the silence.

But like a tree..

She sways.

She slowly rises from that held position, keeping her knees crouched, moving to the opposite side of the hallway with one shoulder forever pressed against the wall. She was still at the ready, finger half upon that trigger, waiting for just the right time for his head to poke out so that she could blow it away..

Or maybe just carve a hole that was diagonal and use the indirect approach...

Tony Masters has posed:
There's the sound of a lighter as Tony lights a cigarette, taking his time and a long drag on the silk cut. The smell of it might even spark a memory or two, of late nights overlooking Tokyo, hotel rooms and flimsy drapes with open windows, neon horizons and the smell of champagne...

He remembers those nights. Maybe he'll forget them someday. But not yet.

"We'll always have Japan," he says. "Nobody knew how to get me off like you, that's true. I'm not sure, kid. Maybe I ain't ready to be done with you yet."

"Maybe I should just let you stew a little longer."

Sharon Carter has posed:
It was the smell that hit her nose first as she creeps closer; her eyes closing, her lips pursing with the bit of pain that carries with those memories. The food was amazing. The sounds. The laughter..

She slowly strafes to his side of the wall now, hearing the tone of his voice. She was a goddamned fool, of course, lowering her automatic rifle, inching closer to where he stands, not armed but.. right there.

She does expose herself, stretching her hand out, two fingers curled to ask for the cigarette that he had smoked. It's been a very, very long time since she's done it, and she only puffed it because of the smell and never inhaled. But.. sans drink, she definitely needs a pull.

Tony Masters has posed:
Tony Masters reaches out a gloved hand and passes her the cigarette, "Keep it. I got more," he says softly.

There's another flick of his lighter as he puffs on another one, holding the smoke long in his lungs and breathing out again.

"Maybe I loved you, too. I don't know. I don't remember what it felt like, the first times I fell in love." he says.

Sharon Carter has posed:
As he hands over the cigarette, Sharon now relaxes, one foot over the other, arm around her stomach as she smokes. Inhaling this time, taking it deep into her lungs, then blows it out of both nostrils like a raging bull.

"Probably what you feel like right now.." Sharon says quietly. There was a thump, her head hitting the wall as she looks up towards the ceiling. "This isn't going to end until one of us kills the other, is it.." There was a little hope, that he would just let her be. Just a tiny one.. after all they've shared.

Tony Masters has posed:
Tony Masters laughs darkly, "Ain't that true of everything? Like Clint Eastwood said in Unforgiven, "Everybody's got it comin'." he says. He didn't know how many times he'd seen that movie, but he loved it every time. Probably because he didn't usually remember it.

"Doesn't mean it has to be tonight. What do you say, babe? For old times' sake?" he says with a grin.

Sharon Carter has posed:
Sharon takes another pull of her cigarette, then lowers it to ash it against the wall. His DNA was on it, at least she could try to use that to pin him down into a few dozen crimes. Before he actually kills her, at least. The remainder was stuffed into her bra, then boosts herself from the wall. With a shake of her head, she keeps her arms about her as she rounds the corner to face him, pausing.

It has been -such- a long time since she's seen that face, and the way she looks at him was haunted. Instead of answering, she tries to take the easy way out, walking past him towards the elevator doors. At least that part was familiar, she could see herself out.

Tony Masters has posed:
Tony still has the machete. He could use it, if he wanted. Take a swipe, try to drive it through her pretty face, once and for all.

Instead, he flings it into the wall across from him, the 'tang' sound of the metal bending echoing a bit in the hall.

"Long time, no see. Well. Not this close anyway. And usually not from the front," he says, taking another drag on his smoke.

Sharon Carter has posed:
Sharon was about to press the button to the elevator, but she stops. Her head hangs low, but she does turn around to face him now, both hands upon her hips. Nevermind the thud of the machete that was thrown before she turns around caused her to jump just a little.

"Goddamn it Tony.." Sharon says, now turning to approach him.

She stops within arms length of him, just to get a good look at him. Both of them were older, but they both had aged well. Even though Sharon looks a little, naturally angry. "This is fucking crazy. We have to stop this. -YOU- have to stop this. Why can't we call a truce?"

Tony Masters has posed:
Tony Masters drops the smoke and grinds it beneath his heel, "I dunno," he says. He seems almost sheepish. Except, of course, for the fact that his black shirt is absolutely soaked in blood and that he's left at least two dozen bodies in his wake tonight. Thugs and hirelings, it's true, scumbags in their own right, but still.

"I see you and I go a little bit nuts. One way or the other. What can I say? You just have that effect on me."

Sharon Carter has posed:
Sharon cracks.

"..what?! A little nuts? A.." She shakes her head. "You're not going to put this o.." There was really no talking to him. And seeing him, face to face, brought up old.. horrifying memories with a mix of some good ones, and..

Without warning, Sharon lifts the automatic rifle towards Tony's center, squeezing the trigger in two quick successions.

*POP**POP*

Tony Masters has posed:
Tony Masters hadn't expected that. He probably should've. But he didn't. He stares for a long moment, blood splattered on the wall behind him as he slowly slides down it and onto his ass.

"Well. Guess you made your choice. Run now. Cause if you start to raise that gun at me again, I'm going to shove it up your ****."

He didn't say ass.

Sharon Carter has posed:
Sharon didn't expect that either. But he called it. She could be ruthless if she wanted to, and in this situation, she did. She didn't even flinch as she watches him fall to the floor, then takes that step forward as he threatens her, her hand carefully reaching out to brush a little bit of hair out of his face.

"I hope you die here, Tony. I hope you haunt these walls until they raze this goddamned building."

She stands, and actually does just that. She runs. She has a good idea of where she was now.. so getting out.. easy.