8036/Checking for Leads

Checking for Leads
Date of Scene:	28 September 2021
Location:	Sunny Rose Antiques <Closed>
Synopsis:	Frank talks to April about current affairs, and his past... and about why he can never stop The War.
Cast of Characters:	Frank Castle, April O'Neil

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Frank Castle has posed:
It's been a while since Frank reached out to April. The man has been busy, it seems. Still, when that flip phone receives a text message, it does so at late night.

'Outside, side alley.'

April O'Neil has posed:
From the back door to the old antique store, there comes the sound of barking and yipping that is definitely not dogs. The old green painted door opens and the faces of two Hyenas can be seen as April holds them back and pushes them back inside before shutting the door to keep them locked inside the stairwell.

She's wearing short exercise shorts of white and black hue, along with a bright yellow and black hoodie that is zipped up to mid chest level. She steps out in to the alley and looks to where Frank can be found, offering a wave and a big smirk as she walks toward him.

Frank Castle has posed:
Normally, Frank wouldn't be seen out in the open like this, but April seems to have earned a slight amount of trust. He is indeed in the alley, his trenchcoat and black bodysuit easily visible as he leans against a wall, arms crossed. "Do they do they for everyone?" Frank asks, his eyes looking behind to where April came from.

April O'Neil has posed:
April walks to where Frank is leaning and stops a few steps away. Her hands go in to her hoodie pocket and she exhales softly before looking back over her shoulder at the door that the Hyenas are kept behind. "Preeeetty much." She replies to him as she looks back at him with a small smirk. "Except me, and Harley, I guess." She adds then before her right hand comes out of her pocket to sweep through her dark auburn hair behind an ear.

"So whats up?" She asks him then as her hand goes back in to her hoodie pocket again.

Frank Castle has posed:
There's a long moment as Frank looks that way, before his eyes look back to April and he frown a bit, "I was hoping you could tell me about this." Frank brings up a photo of a man from a pocket.

April would recognize him; he's a thief that was caught on camera robbing a local store a day ago and managed to get away. "There's a bounty on his head from one of the local crime bosses. I'd like to find out why."

April O'Neil has posed:
April takes another step toward him to look at the picture he offers. She tips it back a bit to get it under the light shining down off the edge of the building, her right hand held against it softly.

"Oh yeah. This guy. I read a bit about this last night." She quickly says before her eyes go up to Frank's. "I can dig deeper in to it. Reach out to my contacts around the neighborhood. See what they come up with?" She shakes her head side to side then once. "If the Big Bosses want him, then he's definitely hiding somewhere deep. Its not wise to be on the Police, /and/ the crime boss wanted lists..." She idly comments.

Frank Castle has posed:
"My partner thinks he tried to steal something from the store under cover of a basic robbery, and now he has it." Frank adds, "I need to confirm what it is. I only have theories right now."

April O'Neil has posed:
April's arms cross over her stomach now as she listens to this. She dips her slim pointed chin in a couple quick little nods before speaking again. "Sounds like a pretty stupid thing to do." She says with a hint of a grin touching her visage. "Well. I'll see what my people have heard. If its something valuable, then this guy is probably trying to shop it around. He might be hitting black markets and the like very soon, unless he wants to lay low with ... whatever it is. See if he can't get some of the heat to bleed off of him before he comes out of hiding..."

Frank Castle has posed:
"The store had a safe with controlled weapons. Someone gave the thieves the combination, because it was open. It was a small stash that the store owner was legally allowed to sell. Police have no leads; the insider had the security system looped and they used wipes on the lock." Frank takes out a tablet then and starts to thumb it, "Unfortunately for the thieves, Microchip is a miracle worker for this sort of thing, and I have two perps."

Those icey eyes regard April, "I just need to know if they make waves, I can track them from there."

April O'Neil has posed:
April looks down the alleyway toward some homeless people throwing some trash cans around as they argue with one another, they're a good 75 yards away though and don't seem like an issue for either of them...

She looks back to Frank and nods her head at what he says. "I'll do my best to keep my feelers out, so to speak." She says with a faint smirk, as her right hand goes up to brush some loose strands of hair away from tickling her nose.

She eyes his tablet in his hands, curious as to what all could be on that thing. "Is there anything else you need help with?" She asks then, her eyes on his. "Tips on where to get the best sushi?" She asks with another little grin.

Frank Castle has posed:
"I have small tracking projects all over the world. The question is; can you stay low key enough that you don't become associated with me?" Frank asks, his eyes serious, "Microchip knows how to stay off the radar, so I don't have issue with him working with me regularly. You? You're a reporter, your job is to be seen."

April O'Neil has posed:
April watches her joke fly right past the gruff man's head like a well timed bullet dodge. She just lets her stupid grin fade out and she shakes her head. "I don't care if people know I'm associated with you, Frank." She says more seriously then. "It might help keep some of those assholes off of my back, in fact. I bet those ones.... in the warehouse back there would've thought twice about nabbing me if they knew you might come and... do what you do."

She smirks at him then. "But yes, I am associated with a lot of people who nobody knows about. Some who are... green... with envy at some of my connections." Secret pun intended.

Frank Castle has posed:
"I do." Frank tells her, matter of factly, "If I have to monitor you on top of everything else, it leaves me less time to actually wage my war, or for Microchip to do his job. I have a /lot/ of enemies, kid. You don't want to get on their radar."

Frank puts the tablet away then in the utility pouch it was in and leans against the alley wall. "I chose this lifestyle a decade ago, and one day, I'm going to be killed in this war. I have no illusion in that. This war is going to be my death. if you get caught up in it, it'll be yours too."

April O'Neil has posed:
April had taken for granted others protecting her for the past couple years, so his words do somber her up some more. She nods softly two quick times. "Fair points." She says back at him as her hands go in to the pockets of her hoodie and push them outward some.

"I'll make sure not to mention that I have any idea who you are." She says then with a smirk. "Your name comes up quite a bit on my podcast, but I'll make sure I play dumb." She says with a light smirk. "And you don't /have/ to die in this 'war', you know... You could hang it up and... I dunno... open up a gun range, teach people who have no idea how to fire a gun, how to do it right. Gun illiterates like me." She grins lightly at him.

"You've done a lot to 'punish' crime in the past decade, Frank. You don't have to do any of this, let alone do it until your punch card is... punched."

Frank Castle has posed:
"Frank Castle is dead." Frank tells her matter of factly, his grating voice flat, "He diad with his family in a park massacre. I'm the Punisher now, nothing more, nothing less." He tells her. It sounds practiced... and probably is. "You don't understand my situation, kid." He pulls out his tablet again and start scrolling and touching the screen... he's going through something. Then, he turns it around and shows her a police record.

/HIS/ police record.

"Take a look, I can wait."

April O'Neil has posed:
April doesn't outwardly react to his words precisely. She does eye him over for a moment before she looks back up to his face. As he hands her that tablet computer she just reaches out for it with her right hand and takes it toward herself in to her left. She bites down on her bottom lip softly then as she looks down at it and reads. Her swiping left thumb keeps going as she holds it against her stomach.

Scroll scroll scroll...

When she looks up at him again she lets her lip out from between her teeth and just shakes her head. "Lotsa people lose their loved ones, Frank." She says as she offers him the tablet computer back. "I lost my mother to cancer when I was little. Lost my father in a fire just a handful of years after that." Her hands go back in to her hoodie pockets. "Look, you are who you wanna be. Which is fine. But are you who /they/ would want you to be?" She asks then.

Frank Castle has posed:
He takes the tablet back and replaces it again, "I had the skillset and the drive to /punish/ them for what they did to my family." Frank tells her, "the park was the end of Frank Castle. Waking up in the hospital and hearing what happened to them was the birth of the Punisher."

Suddenly, faster than April probably would believe possible, he quickdraws a pistol from a shoulder holster under his trenchcoat and aims it at a nearby dumpster.

It's the first time April has had a glance at his reflexes. He's /fast/ for a human. "I knew exactly who did it, so I went after them. Me and my family were bystanders, and the police did /nothing/ for them." His cold eyes look to April, "/nothing/. It was buried. A 'unfortunate mistake' in a botched operation by the DA. I was a witness to one of the worst mistakes of her career, and she couldn't just have me executed." He replaces the shoulder holstered pistol just as fast, "so she put a DNR on me and hoped I'd croak."

April O'Neil has posed:
April is just calmly listening to him and watching him when he draws that gun like that. It makes her jump! It startles her and has her exhaling sharply after she sees him aiming it at the dumpster. "Jesus." She says quietly there-after before listening to the rest of what he says.

When he re-holsters it she just draws in a breath. "I get it." She says quietly. "I'm sorry, but I get it. I didn't have a 'people' to aim my ire at for the death of my parents. If I did, I would probably be a very different person too. Maybe not... like... /you/ but still."

One of the homeless guys at the end of the alley shouts down at them. "No shooting guns!" Which draws April's attention. She shouts back at him. "We're not! Its a water pistol!" She says with a smirk toward Frank.

Frank Castle has posed:
The homeless man is ignored. He's no doubt been harassed like that in his time. "Cancer is one thing, but I /knew/ it was a massacre." Frank stares at the dumpster with dead eyes, seemingly. "Even if I wanted to go back to a 'normal' life, my original killing spree was officially convicted." He looks back to her, "if I tried, every policeman in the world would try to collar me to become a legend, and every hitman in the world would come after me with all the crime families I've pissed off after a decade of war."

April O'Neil has posed:
April's blue eyes just stare at the man's rugged face as he says this. She purses her lips and then raises a hand to brush her hair aside again in the wind coming down the alleyway. "I get it. You're in too deep now to even consider a 'normal' life. I'm sorry, about that too. There's a lot of people in this world who have bad things done to them by bad people, who never get the revenge that they think will 'fix' the wrong doing."

She lingers her words there before she speaks up again. "Do you feel you got the people responsible? Or are you chasing some kind of mythical dragon now..."

Frank Castle has posed:
"Revenge is an emotional reaction that had no place in my mindset." Frank tells her, "killing them wouldn't bring my family back... but it /would/ stop them from ruining anymore lives. Emotion has no place in my war. I pick my targets with an objective eye. I continue to wage war because no one else is doing the work that needs doing. Even Batman is too soft."

April O'Neil has posed:
April crosses her arms again over her stomach, tucking her hands in next to her sides and elbows. "Well... There are other crime fighters out there. But, the war you're talking about is pretty big. It's on all levels, from... homeless people doing crime, to the fricking politicians making the laws we're supposed to follow." She shakes her head then.

"Just do your best to try /not/ to get dead, okay?" She finally just asks with a light smirk. "I don't want to hear about it on my podcast someday and pretend like it wouldn't bother me."

Frank Castle has posed:
"You'd be the first in a while." Frank informs her. From anyone else, that'd be a bit of a quip... for him, it's just a statement of fact.

Then, he turns around and starts heading down the alley, "The only war worth waging is global. crime is not a local thing now. There are rivalries all over."

As he gets to the end, a van drives up to the mouth of the alley... and Frank hops inside the best, driving off a moment later.