2012-08-29 Bad Day For Mugging

HERO - Black Widow - Wednesday, August 29, 2012, 12:38 PM
Evening time, getting close to night. Darkness comes early to some parts of the park, though. Between the sun being behind skyscrapers, and the surprisingly thick trees in places, it's easy to forget that one is in the middle of cilivization. There are fewer people out at this point of the day, because while civilization gets harder to see, it also gets harder to find, and the park is not always the safest place to be. That hasn't deterred one jogger, though. She's tall, near 5'10", and nicely built, with long black hair held back in a loose pony tail. She has on a sports bra and jogging shorts, though the fanny pack tends to detract from the overall effect somewhat. This is Greer Grant Nelson, sometimes known as Tigra, in human form.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier is high above, watching over the city from afar. Down on the ground though, two agents are staking out the Bethesda Fountain. Someone is allegedly passing off launch codes to a Chinese missile site tonight and the Black Widow is here to stop it. She's wearing her costume and is perched in a tree above the jogging path nearby, watching the fountain through binoculars. Intel was unsure of what countries the buyer and seller are from, so she's brought Cypher along in case she doesn't understand the languages they're speaking. No one has arrived yet.
The painfully average-looking blond guy with the warm jacket hiding his own uniform? That's Doug. Or Cypher, if one prefers. He's tucked away in the shadows on the far side of the fountain from the Black Widow, making sure they don't manage to miss seeing anyone coming. |"I'm glad television prepared me for how boring stakeouts are,"| he quietly mumbles into his comm, running a hand over his face. |"If they'd lied, I'd be very disappointed right now."|
Blissfully unaware of the stakeout in progress, Greer continues her jog. Also blissfully unaware of the stakeout are a pair of young gentlemen, college age, but certainly not attending any college, given their shady appearance and demeanor. Specifically, having spotted Greer, they wait in ambush, hiding at each entrance to a tunnel under a path. Greer enters the tunnel, and when she reaches the halfway point, one thug steps out ahead of her. "Stand and deliver!" he says as Greer stops. Behind her, the other thug says, "Man, I knew watching that history channel crap was going to be bad for you," as he moves to block her retreat. "Who's gonna take us seriously when you say something like that?"
|"All we're missing is a car, some coffee, and a bag of pork rinds,"| the Widow quips to Doug over the comm. Ah memories of long boring stakeouts of days past. Movement in her peripheral vision turns her head towards the tunnel. She switches the binoculars to night-vision mode. |"Dammit. We may have a situation. I think a jogger is about to get mugged or worse. Widow to the Argus, I need backup down here for the exchange. Crime in progress, leaving the drop spot. Ramsey, with me."| She leaps down out of the tree and heads for the tunnel at a rapid clip.
|"Or donuts,"| Doug notes with a smile. It's so nice to /not/ get yelled at for chatter over the comm during a mission. |"I do like donuts..."| He trails off as he spots what Widow spots, and he can't help but wince. Welp. So much for being bored. He's out of the shadows and sprinting for the tunnel almost before the order is given -- almost, but not quite. |"Right behind you, boss."|
"What's wrong with having a little bit of style?" the first thug says. "Make it a memorable night and all that."
"Dude, this night is going to be memorable already," retorts his friend.
"Actually, guys," says Greer as her hand reaches for the fanny pack. "It's going to be a pretty memorable time. For you." And then she activates her medallion.
Things quickly go off script for the thugs, starting with a shouted, "Holy shit!" which is immediately followed by the sound of a large feline's growl, and then cries of terror from our brave thugs.
Natasha runs alongside Doug for a few moments, hearing the growl and the screams. "Ok, maybe we'll need to save the muggers too," she quips, not needing the comm. "I'll take the other side, you take this one." She fires off a widow's line to haul her up and onto the bridge the tunnel runs under, then flips off the other side to the opposite entrance, landing lightly and stepping into the darkness cautiously.
Oh, that's not a good noise. Doug isn't sure who it's a bad noise for, entirely, but he knows it's not good. "Worse ways to spend an evening," he notes to Natasha with a quick grin, then nods once as she goes zinging off. He really needs a grappling hook. Grappling hooks are cool. For lack of one of his own, he just keeps running, eventually coming to a skidding halt just outside the mouth of the tunnel, and he leans over to peek inside. When it sounds like a big cat escaped from the zoo and is mad about something, you don't just go charging right in, even if the muggers are shrieking like banshees.
One of the muggers is running, well, half crawling for Natasha's side of the tunnel, trying to get away from whatever's inside. See her dark silhoutte, he cries out briefly in surprise, and then realizing that it's an actual person, hurriedly crawls closer. "Please! You gotta help me! There's a monster in there! She'll eat me!"
"Oh don't be ridiculous," comes a voice that's recognizable as the woman's, though somewhat huskier now. "I don't eat people. And besides, I had a burger an hour ago." Moving towards him, stepping to where there is a bit more light, appears the figure of Tigra. In the same clothing as the jogger, if a bit tighter now, and carrying one of the thugs over a shoulder. She's able to see the Widow quite plainly, and absently shifts her stance, standing a bit more warily. "Not what it looks like," she says, carefully. "They're muggers. Well, wannabes."
The Widow opens a pouch on her belt to pull out a trio of glowsticks. She snaps them in her hands to get them going and tosses them into the tunnel, one down the center and one to each side. She is not going into this blind. The eerie yellow-green light of the sticks paints the tunnel in stark contrast. A TIGER! Oh, wait, a TIGRA! S.H.I.E.L.D. has a small file on the tiger-lady who has been heroing a little bit in the area. |"The one with the stripes is a good guy,"| she informs Doug over the comm.
As the mugger approaches her, Natasha grabs him by one wrist and yanks, spinning him so his back is facing her, and cuffs him with zip ties in one fluid motion. "You clearly picked the wrong jogger to try to mug, and the wrong S.H.I.E.L.D. agent to look for help from, comrade."
A light laugh comes from Doug's end of the tunnel as he makes his way closer, now that things seem to have shaken out. THANK GOD HE SAVED THEM. "Well, that's a relief," he calls towards Natasha, folding his arms behind his head. It has the side effect of opening his jacket enough to expose the uniform underneath, including the subtle yellow X that crosses his chest. He aims a smile towards the jogger. Because she still is one, stripes or no stripes. "I'd ask if you're okay, but it seems like a silly question under the circumstances."
The tail the jogger sports goes from nervous flicking to a calmer weaving about as Tigra realizes she won't be mistaken for their attack. "Wha--" says the one thug when Natasha grabs his wrist, and then grunts as he's very effectively manhandled and secured. Tigra sets the unconscious one down on the ground, none to gently. "This one's not hurt," she says. "Unless he hit his head when he fainted. Something about my smile, I think," she muses. She turns to grin at Doug, careful to not show off her teeth the way she did to the thug. "I'm okay, yeah. Thanks for the thought, though."
|"Muggers secured, Argus. Send the NYPD for a pickup of two at our location,"| the Widow says into her comm as she forcible sits the conscious mugger down, and moves to cuff the fainted one. "Are you all right, Miss?" she asks Tigra, just out of sheer protocol.
Doug seems completely comfortable in Tigra's presence. Granted, he was also very comfortable around the 'alien artifact' that turned out to be Warlock, according to Coulson's reports, so... it's likely that his childhood was a /little bit weird/. "You're fast," he notes approvingly, grinning as he looks between the two muggers. "You kind of outpaced our attempt to save the day. Not that I'm complaining." Just impressed.
"I'm fine," Tigra says with a nod to the Widow. "They never got a chance to do anything to me. I expected i'd get jumped at some point tonight, so I was ready for them." She leans down closer to the still conscious thug, and smiles broadly at him, toothily. "And I jog herrre a lot," she says with a growl. He decides to just give up, and slumps down, half unconscious now, himself. She straightens once more, looking to Doug. "Well if I wasn't able to save the day myself, I'd definitely have been grateful you two were here to do that. Kinda surprised to see SHIELD in the park, though," she says, the question mark left unsaid, but clearly left hanging out there where you put a coat on it.
"We were here for other business, but that's being handled by an alternate team at the moment," the Widow notes vaguely. Because that's what SHIELD does. Vague it up. She reaches into a belt pouch and hands Tigra a card. It's for the Avengers. "I also work with another group you might be interested in, as we operate out of New York. Give the number a call if you're interested."
Doug gives Widow a curious look. "Stark's outfit?" he asks, raising an eyebrow. Man, no fair. He never gets invited to go and play with the cool kids. At least he gets to live on a giant flying aircraft carrier, though, that's neat on its own. With a shrug, he flashes Tigra another smile. "Well, we like to be helpful. It's a character flaw."
The feline's tail gives an uncertain twitch, then steadies again as the Widow continues, saying an alternate team is at work. "Glad I didn't mess things up for you guys, then," she says. Or at least, mess things up too much, she hopes. Eyebrows go up in surprise when the card is handed to her and explained, and then eyes widen a bit when she sees what the card is. "Oh. Uhm, yeah. Definitely!" she says, tucking the card away carefully. Doug gets another quick grin. "There's far worse flaws to have," she points out.
"I'm going to go up and make my report. Can you stay with the muggers to let the police know what went down?" Natasha asks Tigra. "Ramsey, you can stay here or join me. Either way you can hitch a ride with team two when they're done. Hope to hear from you again, Tigra." With that, the Widow heads off.
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