8289/Corporate Espionage

Corporate Espionage
Date of Scene:	17 October 2021
Location:	Business District
Synopsis:	Cain robs a tech firm, fights some law enforcement, then temporarily takes Emma Frost hostage. It all works out though.
Cast of Characters:	Cain Marko, Emma Frost

---

Cain Marko has posed:
     It's late night in the business district. The majority of people are home at this point, other than security guards and custodial engineers. The former are important in this world, with the sheer number of supervillains running around. Still. This particular building is pretty much for companies that are still getting their start, and don't have the resources for really elaborate defenses. There's a guard at the front desk, the glass doors to the lobby locked.

    In the distance down the street outside a figure can be made out approaching. It's hard to tell their exact size until they draw closer, but the outline suggests a very broadly built person of some sort. Then they pass under a streetlight. They're very tall, around nine feet something, and wearing a distinctive set of crimson armor with a dome helmet. While not everybody would recognize him, you don't have to, to realize that trouble is probably coming.

    The guard inside the building, however, isn't really paying much attention. Leaning back in his chair, idly scrolling on his phone. He doesn't get paid enough to be super attentive. Suddenly, there's a knocking sound on the glass doors. He looks up in annoynace, then freezes when he sees who's standing out side, bending over so he can stare into the lobby. The Juggernaut glares at him, pointing at the locks. The guard responds by raising a shaking hand and pointing towards the CLOSED sign. The villain snorts at that, then just pulls the door open, the lock breaking off. Walking in, he makes his way slowly over to the desk. The guard shrinking down in his seat more and more the closer he gets.

     Finally coming to a stop in front of him, the Juggernaut leans over and rests a huge hand on the counter. "Hey, buddy." "Y-Yes?" "Which floor is Omicron Engineering?" "Um..." The guard is still somewhat frozen, even while frantically hitting a silent alarm on the underside of the desk. "T-Twelth floor?" "Alright. I suggest you take a break. Probably not gonna want to be here soon." Then he just stands up, and lumbers his way over to the door to the stairs, pulling it right out of the frame to make more room and ducking inside.

Emma Frost has posed:
The luxury sedan's motor makes a soothing purr as it crosses one of New York's bridges. The lights of the bridge cast alternating bands of light and shadow into the car that are ignored by the woman in the back seat. Emma Frost has a tablet out, attention focused on the day's corporate reports.

The car's speakers play Vivaldi's Violin Concerto In F Minor, though the soft music seems to be doing nothing to soothe the woman in the backseat. "They are lucky that I am running the company instead of my father," she murmurs aloud. "Though why I put up with this," she says, shaking her head at the report and typing out a note that is short and terse, and perhaps the more impactful for what she doesn't spell out.

The driver glances into the rear view mirror. "We'll be passing by the exit for the Chef's Table. Shall I stop and get the scallop and burdock root, Miss Frost?"

Emma doesn't look up from the tablet. "Yes. Yes, excellent idea," she replies. The driver turns on his blinker, moving the car over to prepare to take the next exit, which will take them into the business district.

Cain Marko has posed:
     Once the huge musclebound villain has disappeared into the stairwell and seems to have stomped his way up a few floors, the guard quickly responds to the rest of the security team, who had been trying to message him about the front door suddenly being forced open and the silent alarm. "Metahuman intruder! I don't know who it is, but they're big. Engage at your own risk." And then, apparently taking the warning from Cain to heart, he high-tails it out of the front door into the street. His mind radiateing barely contained panic, glancing back at the lobby before racing down the sidewalk to make some distance. He's heard of too many cases of building coming crashing down when superhumans fight to want to risk anything. The image of who he's fleeing from is in the forefront of his mind.

     Cain stomps his way up the stairs rapidly. The only sign that he's controling his strength that he's not actually breaking the steps as he walks on them. This sort of thing was so much easier when all he needed to do was destroy someplace. Actually stealing stuff was much more of a hassle. He steadily makes his way higher, when suddenly the door on the seventh floor bursts open, and a security guard points some sort of laser pistol at him. "Freeze!" Cain doesn't slow down at all, ignoring the paniced shot that bounces off of him when the guard realizes this, and casually backhands him in passing. Sending him tumbling down the hallway of that floor, into a group of other guards that are racing to join them. Knocking them over into a heap of groaning and tangled limbs. "Idiots."

Emma Frost has posed:
The sedan pulls up outside of the chic three Michelin star bistro and eases into a parking spot. The driver climbs out and heads inside to pick up the order, leaving Emma in the backseat.

She puts aside the business reports, switching over to the fashion news. A finger idly taps at the screen as she looks through some of the Fall collection for an up and coming designer. "Too much color," she says under her breath as she she swipes past a few designs. A white, lacy bustier with pants and jacket catch her eye, Emma sitting up straighter unconsciously as she imagines herself in it. The top similar to what she's wearing now, though with a white pencil skirt.

Flashes of red and blue lights herald a pair of police cars. They do not have their sirens going, but they fly past in a hurry, causing Emma to turn and glance their direction. "Metahuman activity," she murmurs at the thought skimmed from the mind of one of the officers, nervously loading a shotgun in the passenger seat of one of the cruisers.

Inside, her driver suddenly gets the urge to return to the car even though the order is not quite ready. As he climbs into the car, Emma says, "That way. Follow those police cars."

Cain Marko has posed:
     It doesn't take long at all for the Juggernaut to reach the fifteenth floor. The occasional attempts by security to stop him on the up barely even registered with him. The latest ones to try sprawled in the hallway behind him, one of them halfway through a wall. Pretty shoddy construction, that. He glances around once he recahes a certain point, muttering to himself. Then he fishes a piece of paper from somewhere in his armor, peering at it. Raising his eyes, he connects whatever is written there with where he is, and makes his way over to a lab in particular. Pushing the security door open with one hand and peering in. Spotting a machine on a table with various wires and tubes connecting it to power sources and other secondary systems, he walks over and unhesitantingly grabs it, ripping it free. It fits easily into one hand. Admitedly, those are very large hands. Closing his fingers around it protectively, he makes his way back to the stairs to descend again.

     The sound of sirens approaching outside makes him snort to himself, not bothering hurrying in his descent. It seems like either they've run out of security guards, or they gave up coming after him. Once he reaches the bottom floor, he checks the area in front of the building, noting the law enforcement screeching up and assembling there. He rolls his neck briefly, then steps out. Raising his voice, he booms out, "Alright. I'll give you guys the chance to just turna round and leave."

Emma Frost has posed:
Up ahead, the flashing lights of the police cars guide Emma Frost's driver in to the destination. Two more cars have joined the ones that passed her, parked in arc out front. Each car has contributed two policemen to the cordon they have set up around the entrance, the men armed mostly with shotguns and pistols, though one has an assault rifle.

Even as the sedan is making the final turn to take it down the road to the office building that is the source of the disturbance, a pair of helicopters fly past overhead, the sides bearing the letters MRD in large white letters. They circle the area once and then move to hover over a nearby parking lot. Ropes drop down and armored men begin sliding down the ropes, futuristic looking weapons on their backs.

The sight of those letters presses Emma's lips into a hard line. "Pull over here," she tells the driver, her eyes glued to the sight of the standoff as an immense armored man steps out of the building. The chaotic thoughts of the police and Mutant Response Division soldiers take only a moment for Emma to sift through. But it does cause a few moments before she realizes, one figure on the scene doesn't seem to have any thoughts she can discern. She frowns, and as her sedan pulls to a stop, she climbs out, hands smoothing her white skirt and bustier without thought as she watches from a few dozen feet behind the police. The MRD are assembling in a parking lot that from Juggernaut's perspective, is both beyond the police, and on the far side of the sedan and the platinum blond woman who just climbed out.

Cain Marko has posed:
It's true that not a wisp of mental activity can be picked up from the enormous man. While that might usually indicate he's a robot of some kind, he doesn't really look like one. Well. Other than being especially solid looking. So, presumably something is keeping his thoughts from being read. He considers the array of police in front of him, and then the MRD in the distance. He narrows his eyes at them. Hmm. Suddenly, he charges forward towards the ring of police cars. Reaching one such vehicle, he bend down to grip the front bumper, planting a foot on the hood and ripping it off. Then he hauls back, and flings it towarsd the rotors of one of the helicopters dropping off more combatants. He figures that it's close enough to the ground there's little chance of the occupatnts actually dying if they crash. The chunk of metal whips through the air in a blur, monstrous strengh behind it when it finally hits the rotating blades and snaps one off entirely, sending it spinning to the side to embed in the side of a buiding.

He grunts, then ignores the aftermath to turn his attention to the regular police nearby, who are presumably shooting at him. The bullets, predictably enough, are doing nothing at all to hurt him. "You know, you guys are more likely to hurt yourselves doing that." the ricochet from one bullet fired at him goes at the right angle that it ends up taking a different police officer just below the knee, causing him to go down while crying out. The merc snorts and says, "See?" He shakes his head, than raises a foot into the air. Stomping down with enough force to make the pavement for a hundred or so feet around him ripple and basically errupt from the ground. Enough to topple some police cars on their side, and probably knock over the various officers. Afterwards, it looks like a bomb hit the area. Remarkably, he managed to do it in a way where there's very little chance of any deaths. Probably a lot of injuries though.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma's ice blue eyes watch as the heavy chunk of bumper flies over head, her driver who had gotten out of the car ducking. Though Emma just follows it in flight as it hits the helicopter. The men coming down the rope are near enough to the ground they drop off, while the helicopter itself tips over, descending, the smashed rotor working just well enough to soften the landing somewhat. Though that helicopter will surely never fly again.

While the MRD soldiers spread and and start advancing in the direction of the Juggernaut, Emma Frost turns back, eyes appraising the large metahuman in a considering way. She presses harder against what should be his mind, but finds nothing. "Surely not a robot," she murmurs to herself, though doesn't seem to know if how sure she is of that statement. A realistic looking one at least.

The display of the the Juggernaut's power tweaks the corners of Emma's lips into a smile. It's only broken as the shouts of the MRD soldiers interrupt her thoughts. One of the fires a sonic weapon of some kind, the blast hitting with the force of a thousand pounds. Emma's platinum hair is blown by the blast passing by, as she finally realizes she is between the unfamiliar metahuman, and the government soldiers sent to apprehend him.

The other soldiers shoulder their variety of weapons. One, the immense barrel begins to glow red in an ominous way, with energy crackling along it as if the weapon can barely contain the charge.

Cain Marko has posed:
Cain isn't bothering trying to dodge anything thrown at him. When the sonic weapon comes howling towards him, he just takes it. The sonic drone is the firs thing that's actually bothered him though, and he scowls and shakes his head to try and get rid of the temporary ringing in his ears. "Okay, that pissed me off." He focuses on the person that had fired it at him, and starts to charge forwards. Just smacking aside police cars, and policemen, in his way as he rapidly moves towards the MRD soldier. It's probably the situtation the guy would like to be in, seeing a mountain of muscle and red closing in on him. If he is a robot, he's not one with any ranged options built in. Other than throwing things. If he has noticed the giant glowing red barrel of the other soldiers weapon he hasn't shown it. Reaching out to snatch up the sonic wielding soldier, he shakes him until he drops it, then tosses him aside and stomps on it.

One thing he does eventually notice is a stunning blonde in decidedly not military garb watching the fight from a distance. It kind of stands out. He eyes Emma appraisingly, even while absently flipping over another car with the hand not craddling precious stolen technology. So far they're not exactly proving to be much of a challenge for him.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma's hair stirs in the light October wind as she stands, arms crossed beneath the breast of her white jacket worn over the bustier beneath. Watching how the man charges and takes down the highly trained soldier. Of the sort that can given even the X-men and others like them a challenge.

Other weapons start up. One shoots an electrified net. Another launches something into the air which then rains down three shots of some kind of super adhesive goop towards their nemesis, as if trying to capture him.

But the guy with the red barrel seems to have something other than capture on his mind. He points the weapon towards the Juggernaut and hits the trigger. The resulting blast makes a concussive sound just leaving the barrel. It streaks past Juggernaut, missing him and hitting the ground behind him. A huge swirl of red energy expands and then implodes before finally exploding in a terrific blast that leaves a crater behind large it might even give the Juggernaut pause about getting hit with the weapon.

It's shot fired, the barrel starts to slowly charge up back as other MRD soldiers work in unison, moving to protect him so he has time to recharge for another shot.

Emma staggers back from the explosion, dirt and dust landing on her and making her scowl as it hits her white skirt suit. She glances towards the MRD as if considering something, but then looks back to the metahuman as if to see what he is going to do.

Cain Marko has posed:
     Cain also gives the X-Men a challenge. More than one at times. Cain's attention is drawn away from Emma back towards the soldier when the electrified net gets shot at him. He grunts in annoyance when it wraps around his massive frame. But it doesn't seem like the electiricty is actually harming him. He just flexes his muscles, and bursts out of the confinement. "Okay, you guys are starting to get a little..." He turns towards the MRD soldiers as the next one rains down that adhesive slop to hit him. The first one manages to hit him right in the face, and he stops as the other two blasts hit him as well. Coating his arms and legs. It looks like they might have actually gotten somewhere! At least, until he raises one of his arms, tearing free of the adhesive with little effort and gripping the mess on his face, ripping it off. He glares at them. "You think this is a damn stag film? What is wrong with you?"

He tears his feet free of the mess next, then is rocked forward when the red blast hits the ground behind him, then explodes. He pauses, then turns to consider the crater. "Hmm. Now that popgun might be more interesting." He clenches his free hand, knuckles popping like gunshots. That one could potentially destroy what he's stealing, which would reduce his payday. Definetly bet to avoid it. He leans forward, and again starts to charge, racing towards the group trying to protect the guy with that weapon. No matter what they throw at him he doesn't swerve, and they'll no doubt soon realize that if they don't get out of his way, he's just going to trample them into the ground. His stomping feet leaving craters in the pavement. They'll only have a few second to make their choice, before the behemoth barreling down on them sweeps out a forearm to knock them aside, focus on the man with the cannon.

Emma Frost has posed:
The soldiers stand their ground like they were trained to do. Weapons fire, a mixture of lasers and bullets bouncing off the Juggernaut's armored body as he charges in at them. It takes him time to deal with them all though as they spread out to keep him from being able to get more than one of them at a time.

Though taking them down the metahuman is able to do quite easily. Still, the immense weapon powers up again and the wielder turns to take the shot. But one of the others calls out, voice with an electric crackle from within the man's helmet. "Wait! Civilian in the area! Get clear before taking the shot!" he says. There's a painted bar on his shoulder that might be some kind of rank insignia.

The red barrel keeps glowing, but the soldier manning it looks over to see the woman in white standing there. She's within the blast radius now, or close it, based on how big the last shot was. He back pedals though to put room between himself and Juggernaut, while more MRD move to intercept the metahuman to keep him from the weapon that seems most likely to have some chance against him.

Cain Marko has posed:
There's the occasional thump or crash as various MRD soldiers are sent flying through the air, landing on the street, on cars, or sent through the glass fronts of buildings. The JUggernaut is gradually getting closer to the man with the red blaster when he hears the shouting from the apparent level of authority among them. He looks from the soldiers to Emma, then back again. Hmm. Well, that's one way he can leave quicker he supposes. He sneers at the soldiers, then turns and rushes towards where Emma is instead. Reaching out to wrap a big hand around her waist and lift her off the ground. "I'm gonna be going now. Shoot if you want, I guess. No skin off my ass. Though it might be off hers." If you stay here I'll let her go later.

He soon leaves both the military vehicles and Emma's own personal vehicle behind as he tromps along the street, building up to a good clip. Not full speed, that's too hard to stop. But as fast as a car would be. The wind whipping by them as he moves elsewhere in the city. "Don't worry darlin. I'm not going to kill you or anything. Just getting those pests to leave me alone. Normally I'd have just stomped them. But I'm aimin for a payday. You know how it is."

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost shows a small bit of alarm as the huge man turns to rush towards her as well, if far short of screaming hysterics. The immense hand closes about her, fingers going practically all the way about her small waist. That he is able to lift her like she were a child being held by an adult shouldn't come as a surprise after seeing him throw cars around.

One of the MRD raises his weapon, though he lowers it again as Emma Frost fixes her eyes on him, even ahead of the MRD superior telling his men to stand down. "Let her go, Juggernaut!" he shouts, though Cain Marko is already retreating with his hostage.

As soon as he is out of earshot, one of the men says, "Sir, pursuit pattern Alpha?" There is a pause before the MRD officer says, "No, stand down, we won't risk the woman."

"But sir, our orders-"

"I said stand down, damnit!"

Emma's thoughts, "I said stand down, damnit!" finish being relayed into the officer's mind, the slightest hint of a smile turning up her lips as she turns her attention from the soldier's mind and towards Cain Marko. Again she tries to get at his thoughts. She reaches a hand down to where his skin is exposed, resting her warm fingers on him as contact helped, especially when she was still learning her power. But nothing.

Her eyes lift to his as he tells her not to worry. "You do realize the stains will never come out of this," she says, looking down at her garment, then back up to him. "But I do know how it is. So you're working a job. Interesting line of work you have there. Material acquisitions I'm guessing," she says, looking over at his other hand where he has the device held protectively. "Perhaps there might be future business I could send your way. Mr... Juggernaut?"

Cain Marko has posed:
Oblivious to the talk behind him, and the true source of some of it, the Juggernaut continues on his way. He doesn't even realize she's trying to get into his head. Which, honestly, is probably for the best. He can be a little touchy about that sort of thing. His skin feels... human enough. It still has the warmth and texture of skin, even if obviously it's far more durable. She can hear his breathing, and with the vast scale of him, even feel his blood pumping through his veins if she touches one. So, clearly not a robot unless it's one somebody went to realistic extremes to make seem alive.

When she speaks to him he glances down at her. "Hey, I didn't make you come spectate. And I didn't tell them to fire off that popgun." He takes a few moments to look her over more closely. Fancy clothes. Pretty lady. Very pretty, actually. He briefly wonders if she's a superhuman. It seems like most superhumans he's met, and basically every female, was ridiculously attractive. But nah. There are still pretty women in the world that don't have superpowers. Probably. "Something like that. Can't give you the details obviously. And what line of work are you in that you would need somebody like me?" He pauses. "Juggernaut's what I go by when I'm workin, yeah. Surprising you haven't heard of me. I go by Cain to my friends though." He grins down at her. "And others. What should I call you?"

Emma Frost has posed:
The young woman in her mid-twenties is taking being Fay Wrayed fairly well as the immense man carries her with ease as he continues to put distance between himself and the scene of the crime. She runs her eyes over him, noting his armored costume before looking back up to meet Cain Marko's eyes. "If I am afforded that honor then to call you Cain as well," she asks, before continuing, "I am Emma Frost. CEO of Frost Industries. Please, call me Emma. From time to time there may be... differences of opinion with competitors, or even partners. Where the negotiating room no longer becomes the expedient solution," she tells him.

Her hand gives the brawny arm a little pat. "You do have a remarkable skillset from what I have seen so far," she tells him. "While I don't have any need at this very moment, I can see myself in need of your services in the future," she tells him.

Cain Marko has posed:
At this point, there's a few miles between them and where they left the law behind. Cain slows to a stop, glancing around. Obviously there's SOME people visible. But nobody that's giving them enough attention to make him think they might cause trouble. He focuses on the young blonde CEO beind held in his hand like he's King Kong. "Emma Frost, huh. I might have heard of your company." There's so many of them though. He settles her dwnn onto her feet, then straightens again. "So occasionally you might want to hire me to wreck somebody that's giving you trouble. Sounds about right." From somewhere in his armor, he produces a simple card with just a number on it and offers it to her. "Though right now I imagine you'd rather get home than anything so... where can I drop you off?"