2015-08-16 They Say to Never Meet Your Heroes...
This scene is rated R
Warning: Language/Violence
2015-08-16
Players: Mindy and Steve
GMed by Who GMed?
Title: They Say to Never Meet Your Heroes…

[* New York: Hell's Kitchen *]

Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton and Midtown West, is a neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City that includes roughly the area between 34th Street and 57th Street, from 8th Avenue to the Hudson River.

This section of NYC is a bustling hub of traffic at nearly all hours of the day, but its notorious for its dangerous nightlife. Those that prey on the helpless stalk the alleys and side streets of this district, using the shadows as refuge to stalk their victims. Hell's Kitchen is not known for being friendly to those who take their safety lightly.

The streets themselves are not particularly dirty, but not particularly clean either, the district is somewhere in-between these two levels. However, the alleys that reside between the aging buildings are definitely on the filthy side of things, where homeless gather and loiter in their own makeshift homes.

Brownstone apartment complexes, old warehouses, low income commercial shops and storefronts… these are the buildings that make up the contents of this city district.

Hell's Kitchen is constantly under pressure from both sides of its denizens, the lawful and those who would break the law for personal gain.

Players:
Hit-Girl
Captain America
NPC: Unknown Thug

Hit-Girl ground the heel of her boot into the back of the gangbanger she'd thrown down to the ground. "I told your fucking boss that I didn't want to see you scumbags in this neighbourhood again. Do none of you understand English? Guess I'll just need to speak a universal language.". She kneels down, pressing the round of the silencer at the end of her 9mm to the back of his head. "I suspect you'll get to see a lot of your friends after I do this, your sort never listen.". Her hand caresses the trigger as she seems to ponder what she's about to do in a grimy alley in Hell's Kitchen.

Hell's Kitchen is not part of Captain America's usual patrol route. It's a sad fact, but true - with the whole planet needing protection, sometimes, the small areas get mixed. However, after the fiasco several days ago at the United Nations, the Captain decided he just needed to get out of the mansion for a bit and just handle something far more on his level. There's no war to go fight in, and politics and bodyguarding is not his thing. But street-level bullying and crime? He grew up with that not too far from here. As the kid from Brooklyn crosses rooftops on his patrol, he hears the sounds of a scuffle from a nearby alley. As he approaches the edge, he can make out the female form grinding down on top of the gangbanger and holding a weapon to his head.

Only having a moment to react, he leaps from the building and lands with a loud enough thud in the alleyway hopefully to catch the assailant's attention. "I don't think you're probably properly licensed to carry that thing, miss." he offers, shield held to his side at the moment as he looks to the gangbanger and back to the young woman. "How about you ease off a little and we'll discuss this."

Her gaze shifts from the barrel of her pistol to the individual addressing her. Mindy sighs, not moving the gun or her finger as she eyes them with visible disdain. "What's a pretty, pretty hero like you doing in the dumps like this? Shouldn't you be stopping a nuclear war or something like that?". She knew him, any hero worth their salt knew him. She, however, wasn't intimidated at all by his fame. She'd been through a life that stripped that sort of hero adoration from you, because most of the time they can die just like you.

Captain America holds his shield to his side loosely, but if it's any indication of his reaction times, it is probably a loose bluff to keep Hit-Girl calm that he's not going to come in swinging. "How about you put away the weapon, we let up the guy you have pinned down and then we can discuss what I'm doing here." he offers as a counter-offer to her question. "Right now, I'm trying to prevent you from making a mistake that could ruin the rest of your life." Exactly as advertised, a real life walking, talking, after-school special.

Hit-Girl snorts, her nose wrinkling demurely. "if this is going to ruin my life, I'm already so far into a fucked up life even a save a life hero like you can't drag me out. If they don't die, more of the fuckers will show up, likely trying to kill me, and then what? Somebody might get killed just for looking like me, or being my age. Or hell, maybe even just because. If you give shitstains like this an inch, they'll take a mile.". She spits a piece of gum beside the head of the gangbanger.

"Don't you think I haven't forgot about you. If you try and make a run for it while this walking action figure talks to me, I'll just shoot your knees out and let you live a life in the disabled mafia or something."

"You kiss your mother with that mouth?" the Captain sighs. It's not the first time he's heard this argument, but none as colorful as she seems to have laid it out on the line. "So when you murder him and another and another, when do you decide that it is over?" he asks her politely. "Does it end with the murderers? The rapists? The drug dealers? And then the users? The man that punches his wife, or the wife that punches her husband? When do you think that you will finally draw the line and decided that you have killed enough to balance the scales of justice to something that you see as reasonable? What did this man do that you have already decided he should die for?" he asks as he edges forward just slightly.

Already his mind is calculating trajectories for shield ricochets and shots should it come down to a need to disarm the angry young woman. He glances towards Hit-Girl's hostage and his free hand holds level and makes a calming motion. Hold your position and Cap'll try to keep you alive, dude is what it's supposed to mean as he turns his attention back to Hit-Girl. "I know, there's a lot in this world to be angry and bitter about, but ending a life is not the answer to how to handle this situation. You can turn him over to the police, and allow due process to take it's course."

Hit-Girl rolls her eyes as the old man drones on and on. "It'll be over when either they're all dead, or too scared to act. I kill the gang members, the rapists, the dealers, the mob bosses. Those who's hands are so thick in blood nobody else will stand up to them. People like domestic violence? An ass-kicking is fine enough, but if they do worse than just beat their wife? Maybe they don't need their balls anymore. Pew pew, gone. He acted like he didn't have them anymore anyway. Woman hitting her husband? Teach him to stand up for himself. Don't need to fight back, but restrain and say you won't take it anymore."

She looks over the gangbanger at her feet. "This one here? Nine women, nine nights with his friends. They brought in their dog too. Can you imagine what it's like to be raped by twenty or so guys, and then that… Then they dump you in an alley to die. The last one they left with a gun. Said they told her she might want to kill herself now. They want to play God? Why shouldn't I pass judgement on them?".

"And you feel that you will feel better if you pull the trigger and end his life? That his family will understand that you want to take an eye for an eye?" Captain America asks as he looks towards her and then shakes his head. "Put the weapon away. I'll call the police, we'll have this cleaned up and you won't even have to give a statement. Or, you can try to pull the trigger and I'll disarm you, and he'll run while you're busy trying to fend me off. The choice is yours." he offers to the girl, for the first time his hand visibly flexes against the shield.

Her eyes narrow, shadow casting a menacing figure for a moment. "Family? You think people like this have a family that gives two shits if they come back at the end of the day? I don't need to feel better if I kill him. I just need for the rest of them to get the message. Keep the shit up, and I blow your brains out.". She presses her right index finger tighter against the trigger.

Hit-Girl shakes her head. "You might be fast and strong, old man, but are you faster than a bullet at point blank range? Do you really think you can stop me before the bullet buries itself in the back of this scrape of shit's head?"

Captain America's response is non-verbal. As she's finishing laying out her threat, his arm moves, the shield slung from his arm towards the sky apparently - or rather, the fire escape above Hit-Girl and her hostage's head. It banks solidly off of the metal pipe to careen down towards the girl's hand. He knows that throwing the shield directly at her would most likely illicit a response of her pulling the trigger, so he wants to force her to throw her arms up to defend herself against the loud noise and metallic shield in order to knock the weapon away.

Hit-Girl is no stranger to broken bones, and doubts the good old Captain would really throw it hard enough to do anything else. She pulls the trigger, miscalculating by a split second when the shield jars into the arm holding the gun, shifting it so she blows the gangbanger's left ear off instead. She grimaces, dropping the gun but managing to keep her foot squarely on his back. "You fucking shit. Do you even know what you're doing?".

As the gangbanger screams and cries out about being shot, the Captain's shield rebounds from the smack on Hit-Girl's arm, smacks against a wall and careens back to the Captain. As he catches it, he's already moving forward, looking to try to shoulder tackle the young woman and knock her off of her perp/intended victim. "At this moment, preventing you from making a mistake that will prevent you from being in class first thing Monday morning because you'll be at Strikers instead." he comments as he continues to rush forward.

Hit-Girl side-steps, her foot lifting off the back of the gangbanger. She snatches the pistol from beside him, before he himself can get his fingers around it. She draws it up, shooting at the Captain. "I never get caught, Marcus would kill me if I missed school. He'd also kill me if I got caught, I promised him I'd stop doing this shit.". She scowls, backing down the alley and away from the big brute of an American hero.

The bullets come down the alley as the Captain's shield comes back into play. They slam into the shield firmly, but oddly enough, they do not ricochet off the metal. Instead, it's as if the metal stops the bullets cold and the spent rounds fall uselessly to the ground. Cap himself barely feels the impact of each of the bullets as they smack into his defensive weapon.

Now if she had just gotten up and walked away? The gangbanger would have been taken into custody, and there would be no more issue - Hit-Girl would have been free to go. But she shot the gangbanger - and is trying to shoot him. A solid kick to the side of the gangbanger as he passes by, and the Captain makes sure that the criminal will not be going anywhere as he continues the dogget pursuit of Hit-Girl.

"You should probably write him a letter of apology, then." he comments as he presses forward, pursing the young woman.

With her boots smacking onto the concrete of the alley, Mindy throws the empty pistol towards the Captain's head and turns to sprint quickly down the alley. She knew this area, all the books and crannies. She'd known it since she was a kid with her dad, as he taught her all the areas in all the major cities, training his little girl to kill criminal scum without batting an eye. She turned into a small alley, one barely a foot wide inching herself sideways into it.

If this were Brooklyn, Hit-Girl would be at a complete disadvantage at this point. But this is her home turf. As she ducks down into the alley, Captain America pauses at the entrance and frowns. He glances to see where the next block over is and starts to sprint back down the alley, seemingly to head towards the next block.

However, he stops about halfway down. He realizes that Hit-Girl wants this gangbanger /dead/. And if she lures away the Captain, she may backtrack to come back and finish what she started. So instead of giving into the pursuit, he climbs up into the fire escape and shadows and waits to see if she decided to return instead of continuing to flee.

Hit-Girl didn't care about the shit anymore. He might pass her message on even better alive and without an ear. He might not have heard her that well though. She sniggers as she opens a door in the small alley and walks through a Chinese restaurant, drawing stares from the chefs and then from the patrons as she walks through and out into the streets. Seemingly costume-less now though, as Mindy'd stripped bare and changed in the alley.

After a few moments of assuring that the costumed vigilante would not be returning, Captain America reaches up to tap the communicator in his ear. "JARVIS, contact the precident nearest my location. Have them send a bus. One wounded to be sent to County Hospital.." he looks down at the small wound that is on his side from where a bullet grazed him. His shield didn't catch them all after all, and he knows it will sting later once the adrenaline calms down. He considers if he needs stitches for the wound and decides to bandage it later. "…in the meantime, I need to contact the Frank Castle Fan Club and see if they have a new member."

JARVIS responds, "Beg pardon, Captain?"

"It's nothing, JARVIS. A joke. I think." Cap says with a chuckle.

There's a pause, and JARVIS responds, "Judging from your vital signs, Captain, I believe that you have been injured."

"It's nothing, JARVIS. I'll be home soon. Just contact the police, please." Cutting off the communication, Captain America hefts the unconscious and wounded gangbanger to his feet to drag him down the alley to where sirens are starting to wail in the distance.

Meandering down the street, Mindy thinks back quietly on what it was like to meet one of the heroes her dad had always said she should aspire to be like. After a moment or two of deliberation she decides it was worse than meeting Kick-Ass for the first time, back when he thought two batons were the sort of things you could fight crime with.

FIN.

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