2015-09-14 Welcome, Player One
This scene is rated Everybody
Warning: N/A
2015-09-14
Players: Clint, Natasha
GMed by Triskelion (NPC: Miss Locke)
Title: Welcome, Player One

** Continued from Frackin' Sassers
Part 2 of the Murderworld TP **

It's an overcast day in New York City, as the sun starts to cast it's final rays over the city, as people hustle home to settle in for the evening for their dinners and entertainment. SHIELD agents have watched the location of DeCara's Electronics and Amusements for the last 36 hours, and there has been nothing coming from within the business. A 'Closed' sign hangs on the door, and from between a pair of shutters, one can barely make out a grouping of machines and a desk beyond.

Clint actually really digs stakeouts. It's an excuse to break up the normal routine, eat lots of takeout and play some solitaire while not on watch duty. That, or binge watch Archer on Netflix. That's what Clint is currently doing. He's wearing big stereo headphones and is eating gummi bears. He just finished his shift watching the building about twenty minutes ago. He's got all his gear here, but he's currently clad in a blue t-shirt. No sense sitting around in constraining body armor.

Stakeouts are the most boring thing since fishing shows. For Clint, it's all kinds of entertaining fun. For Natasha, who's actually having to watch the place just now, it's mind-numbing. It's definitely more diverting when there's someone to talk to who /doesn't have headphones on/. She, too, is dressed down in jeans and a nondescript shirt, and as she fiddles on a pair of heat-sensitive goggles, she murmurs: "So. Trap?"

Stakeouts can be really boring. It's a good thing they didn't bring Steve along - he'd done smashed in the door and charged in - because he has no idea how to be patient, after all.

But the Stakeout starts to pay off as a long-legged brunette comes around to the side of the building to open the alley access door. She unlocks it, and as she does, she looks up towards the fire escapes and roofs, as if looking for something. She doesn't notice the SHIELD agent that has already taken her picture and is processing her information through the database.

Image: http://www.muscleandfitness.com/sites/muscleandfitness.com/files/erin-cummings.jpg

Name: Locke, (First Name Unknown)
Occupation: Unknown
Location: Unknown
Powers: Unknown
Skills: Highly Trained Martial Artist, Expert Marksman
Rumored Associates: HYDRA, Arcade, AIM.

Sliding open the door, she steps inside, closing the door behind her into the darkness beyond, shifting a bag over her shoulder as she does so.

"Totally a trap," says Clint. Her words must have gotten through between quips in Archer. Either that or he's keeping the volume low enough that he can still hear if he's needed. He shrugs, cause hey, what're you gonna do? They couldn't not follow up on that lead. He chucks a gummi bear at Natasha.

For once she actually doesn't snap her head back to catch it in her mouth. She snatches it out of the air instead, twiddling it between two fingers as she peers more closely at the door. Jabbing Clint in the ribs, she straightens up a bit to take the picture. It's uploaded to the database in seconds, and she passes the laptop over to her partner as she continues to observe the building. He can look the woman up while she watches to see where she's going in there and what she's doing. "Better send a message so if we die, they know who killed us." Natasha, cheerful. She pops the gummi bear into her mouth.

Clint pulls the headphones down and takes the laptop from Natasha. He watches as the dossier is brought up, then shows it to his partner. He does the same with the petty thugs. "There's totally death inside that place. Full of countermeasures designed to attack us directly. Because they totally know we're coming." He sighs, then hits a few keys to send off the information to HQ.

"Yeah." Natasha seems a bit distracted as she watches the game machines get loaded into the back. "Yeah, you're right. That's why we're going after the truck." She pulls off the goggles, handing them to Clint too as she starts the car. "There's someone in one of those consoles. I got a heat signature off it, and not just because someone was playing Asteroids ten minutes ago." She's great at driving casual, which is probably just as well.

The truck makes it's turn and heads into traffic, on it's way to some unknown location. As that's happening, a news chopper descends down over the scene. Hovering just over the roof of the store, Miss Locke comes out of the roof access door and leaps up, catching the railing of the helicopter and gracefully swinging herself up into the side door where she slides on a pair of headphones and gives a thumbs-up for departure.

The helicopter lifts off the ground to follow in pursuit of the truck as well, apparently set to follow it's route.

"Man, Asteroids. Now I wanna play. And Q-Bert." Clint tugs his t-shirt over his head and then clips on his vest and various guards.

Archer keeps playing on the laptop. There just happens to be a car chase sequence with Burt Reynolds. How appropriate.

Once he's geared up, he slides into the passenger seat of the van. He peers out the window and up at the chopper. "Nnnnever a good sign when a criminal seems to have media connections."

Half-distractedly, Natasha inquires: "Did you catch the station? I didn't catch the station." She glances up at the helicopter with a growing frown, but she returns her attention to the truck and keeps it there. Clearly she doesn't like this. "Can we get backup? Surround this truck? I think there might be a limit to what our flying friend wants to do to call attention to herself."

Alerting the local police isn't that big of an issue, after all, SHIELD vehicles have police scaner. As the helicopter keeps watch over the route, watching the truck and the traffic around it. It's marked as WTEN as it hovers there, it's cameras pointed down into the traffic. The truck isn't catching much traffic at the moment, having avoided most of the getting off-work traffic jams.

"The station's out of Troy. Just down south," says Clint as he peers up at the chopper. "Nat, I dunno if we should keep following this. We've got enough to take back and investigate." There is the matter of that heat signature in the arcade game, but he's understandably wary about the whole situation.

For some reason, though, Natasha just isn't breaking away. It would be the smart thing to do. She knows that. But it's bothering the hell out of her that there's possibly someone /inside/ one of those game consoles. "Come on, Barton," she says instead. "Where's your sense of adventure? Here. You take the wheel. See if you can get us out of the line of sight of the 'copter for a minute. We need to get right up on the ass of that truck."

The truck rounds a corner to start across the Ed Koch bridge. What they hadn't accounted for was that contra-flow would still be in effect that forces the truck onto the lower level of the bridge. The helicopter peels off and takes to the skies above, unable to follow the truck beneath the bridge obviously. It sets up for a perfect opening as long as the driver switch goes off without a problem and Barton can get the two of them close enough for ass-grabbing, as Natasha put it.

"My sense of adventure? Adventure?! Seriously? I got plenty of adventure sense. I also have common sense." Clint sighs and switches seats with Natasha with only minimal wheel wobble. "Hold on!" He sees his opening and maneuvers the van into place.

With the truck being open, a small light goes off up in the driver's compartment.

"That's the cue." Thug 1 says to Thug 2.

"Yep." says Thug 2 as he pulls the truck into the disabled vehicle lane right after exiting the bridge and turns on it's emergency flashers. Both thugs bail from the vehicle and make a run for it into the pedestrian lanes.

Inside the back of the truck, the arcade machine sits against the back wall, lit up and ready to play. It doesn't say Hogan's Alley, it says 'Agents of SHIELD'. Two pistol style weapons sit in holsters, waiting to be picked up and used.

The screen flickers to life and flashes: Welcome Player 1. Insert Coin to Save Agent.

The camera above the game machine watches Natasha impassively.

"Nat, what's up? Thugs just bailed," Clint says over the radio. He has no choice but to keep going a short while further before he too can pull over into the lane and jam on his own flashers.

"Clint, you should maybe get in here. I found our trap." Natasha stares up at the camera, pressing her lips together tightly. One hand dives into the pocket of her jeans and sifts around. "I need you in here with quarters. Maybe lots of quarters." She has at least one. But as she's pulling it out, she has to mutter: "Are you /serious/? What kind of comic-book-addled nutbar makes you play a video game…?" Clearly there's something else going on here. She's not just going to shoot some pixel zombies and get a kidnapped agent back, is she? Nevertheless. Coin in. Gun pick up.

Thugs are getting away, but Natasha seems to have found the agent and the trap all at the same time.

'Awaiting Player 2' the game flashes after Natasha inserts her coin.

** TO BE CONTINUED **

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