2012-07-31 Charge it to Gambit's Card

It is night in the city that never sleeps. That moniker holds true for Hell's Kitchen this evening. While motor traffic is sparse, there are people moving along the streets. Most seem to be heading to an old Irish bar named Flannigan's. Back in the day, it was an IRA bar but with peace brings a disregard for the past. Still, others have moved into the vacuum left by the Irish.In the back room, there is a healthy haven of illicit activities. Poker, black jack, and the horses from over at the Belmont keep the money flowing. Where there is money, girls of the night follow as do the bootleggers as they smuggle in the drinks that may not exactly pass inspection at customs. Towards the back there is another door. To either side of it are two figures in robes and hoods which hide their faces.Outside, Daredevil sits on a fire escape just overlooking the bar. He tilts his head as he listens to what is going on. Card players. Thick Louisiana accent. Couple of folks outside. Same muffled heartbeat. He knows that one. There...there is the hum he is waiting for. The hum of an electronic weapon being powered up.
Seated at one of the poker tables with a precariously tall stack of chips in front of him, Gambit looks... comfortable. This den of iniquity is filled with thieves, con men, rogue agents, and worse. In short, the Cajun is right at home."Card," he requests simply, his red-on-black eyes impossible to read as he slides one of his own to the dealer. Without otherwise breaking his stony expression, he winks, accepts his card, and leans back to lounge lazily in his chair.
"...just walked right in, calm as you please," Kit is saying to Sue, relating a tale of an odd encounter with a tiger outside of his home of Mawitaan. "If it weren't for the Jungle Patrol, I don't know /what/ would have happened." He walks alongside Sue, hands in his pockets, grinning. He hadn't really had the chance to tell any stories about his home yet; though, really, what can really compare to the fast-paced hustle-and-bustle of the three cities that are leaping into the future?After their "meal" at the hot dog stand, they'd walked around, and ended up in Hell's Kitchen. He knows the area's reputation, though this is the first time he's been here--he hadn't really /planned/ on coming here, though. They just sort of--ended up here. He /did/ find it interesting that she doesn't seem all that concerned about the area.He looks up at the bar as they pass, arching a brow. He's never understood the appeal of using spirits to appease the soul, himself, but differences are what make the world go 'round, he supposes.
Sue Storm smiles and nods to Kit as he regales her with stories, also walking with her hands in her pockets. She knows that no one can so much as touch her without her permission, but as they pass Flannigan's, she glances at the building a bit uneasily. Not for her own sake, but for Kit's. She's heard the news reports about this being a rough part of town, and any bar here would be an epicenter for trouble. "That's all so... fantastical to me. I've never seen a live tiger, even in a zoo."
Daredevil pulls his billy club from its holster and fires the grappling hook across the alley way to catch another fire escape. The clatter is sure to attract attention from outside, but he is not really that bothered by that as he is about to make a big enough impression otherwise. He swings from his perch, feet extended, and crashes through a window into the gambling room. No window into the further back room as well as the walls back there appear to be enforced as sound was having trouble getting out it.As he hits the window, his hand triggers his billy club to retract to him as he enters the building. Immediately his senses are hit with increased heartbeats and a scream or two from a few of the women present, but as he hoped, they are slow on the reach for their guns. He can smell the sweat off many and the booze already present. Except for the two in the back. Their heart rates haven't changed.As he lands on a poker table sending the chips falling in a cascade of sound, he calls out, "This place is closed. Get out of the Kitchen!"
Though he's capable of a perfect poker face, Gambit doesn't bother. The bare wisp of a smile tugs at one corner of his mouth as he shoves his entire pile of chips to the center of the table. "I'm feelin' pretty confident, me," he says, eyeing each of his competitors in turn. "Besides, you almost outta money. Why don't we call it a night, no?"Then the world explodes, both figuratively and literally. Gambit's earnings are sent flying in all directions. There's broken glass everywhere. Having ducked and covered at the sound of the window breaking, he regains his feet and brushes off his jacket. "Dat was some entrance, mon ami. Where you get dat?" Smiling in a lopsided, casual sort of way, he chucks a thumb at the billy club. "I want one."
"Well, true, but you've seen one sunset on the savanna, you've--" Kit starts, cutting himself off when the violence starts inside the bar. Always the luck, really, though he supposes he shouldn't exactly be surprised. Hell's Kitchen didn't earn its reputation ironically, after all. A glance inside, then he grabs Sue to pull her back toward the wall, behind him, when a chair comes flying through the window. Yes, he remembers her invisible "table" trick, and the brief explanation of what else she can do--but knowledge doesn't over-ride instincts. Of course, what just makes everything worse is there's no way for him to get away and change. His disappearing, only for the Phantom to show right up, would be about as non-credible as it could get.
Sue Storm very faintly hears a scream from inside the bar and stops dead, her eyes going wide. "Did you hear that?" she asks Kit... or she starts to ask just as he yanks her clear of a chair crashing through the bar's window. The chair clatters its way toward the middle of the street and with a gasp Sue throws out one hand to 'catch' the chair before it ends up in the path of an approaching taxi. In her reflexive reaction, she inadvertently crushes the chair as she stops it.
While there is that moment of stillness after Daredevil's entrance, it does not take long for the crowd to react. Many are just there for the booze, women, and thrill of trying to get another person's money. They panic and begin to bolt for the doors like the hounds of hell were on their heels. There are still plenty that refuse to budge. Beer bottles are shattered on tables to make weapons even as hand guns begin to appear in hands.The clicks of the actions on those weapons sound off like fire crackers to Daredevil. There is that thick accent he heard outside. He offers a quick turn of the head and a half smirk on his face. "Sorry. One of a kind. Came with the outfit." His words are cut off more as the place explodes in chaos. Daredevil leaps forward off the poker table into a tight ball and somersaulting so he can drive his feet into one thick biker looking attacker trying to bring a sawed off shotgun to bear.Outside, the sounds of what could be a battle can easily be heard. Shattering glass. Breaking wood. Most importantly, gun shots can be heard beginning to sound. No one is worried about the cops. They don't like to rush to the Kitchen if they can help it.
Gambit seems to be taking this pretty well, considering he had one of his favorite scumbag lairs crashed and his poker game interrupted. He glances down at his cards. An ace, king, queen, and jack. All hearts. The fifth card is a deuce of clubs.Then the bullets start flying and all bets are off. He produces a foot-long metal rod with a flick of his wrist and spins it between his fingers. It telescopes out to its full six foot length, and just in time. It catches a man swinging two knives as he makes a deadly lunge. Another spin and a low strike puts him out of commission and sends the knives skittering across the floor. Gambit stops one with his foot and bends down to scoop it up. "Hey!" he shouts. "I'm not even... I don't even know dis--"It doesn't seem to matter who knows who at this point. Men who stink of booze and cheap women are coming at him from several directions. The knife in his hand starts to glow, dully at first, then brighter and angrier.
"...wow," mutters Kit, flashing Sue a lopsided smile. "That's even handier than I'd thought." He doesn't make mention of the squishing the chair suffered. It's not exactly a a relaxed situation, after all, and she doesn't seem like she's quite as practiced in her art. The gunshots draw his attention, and he grits his teeth.Just wonderful," he mutters, stretching to just peek around the corner and through what's left of the front window. This might be a dive, but not everyone in there is a crook or a goon. That means there are innocents in there. "I really hope you can continue to do--that," he murmurs to Sue, then hurries to slip in through the window while no one is throwing anything through it. Or shooting anything through it, either, for that matter.
Sue Storm releases the chair from the shimmering blue force field that crushed it and at the sound of gunfire she does what probably seems completely counterintuitive. She moves to ENTER the bar. And rather than try to get in past the people starting to flee through the door, she simply clambers in through the broken window. The broken glass doesn't even come close to her, a blue shimmer showing where her force field protects her from everything. And she's anything but subtle or sneaky about it. Shimmering blue force fields appear and disappear here and there in the room, protecting people clearly trying to simply escape the now-violent bar, though there aren't ever more than about four forcefields at the same time.
The goons with guns don't really seem to care who they are shooting at as many react with fear. As Gambit pulls his staff, he becomes someone else they can focus on. One tries to grab him from behind even as another swings a meaty fist. Neither pay much regard to the glowing knife in the man's hand.As Kit and Sue can see from the outside, doors from the back room burst open and panicked people are coming rushing outwards towards them. "The Devil! Oh my God! The Devil!" cries a couple of them as they panicly charge right at Kit and Sue. Trample, squish, crush, they don't care. They are panicked and just trying to get away at the moment. Most don't seem to notice the blue shields that snap into place, protecting them, as they run but are herded just the same.As Daredevil drives Biker to the ground, he hears a grunt to his right and ducks having felt the swish of a broken beer bottle coming through the air. As he rises, he grabs Boozy by his shirt and sends him tumbling towards that back room and towards the two men standing there who have not entered the fray. Even as Boozy comes towards them, one moves quickly pulling a long katana from under the robes and slashing down the front of Boozy who drops.
The glowing knife WHIZZZES through the air and impacts at the feet of a burly man wearing a leather jacket, leather pants, and little else. He's knocked off of his feet and thrown across the room, where he crashes into one of his fellows. Both of them tumble to the ground, groaning and clutching at new bruises.Thoroughly pleased with himself, Gambit makes a gun from his finger and thumb, raises it to his lips, and blows away imaginary smoke. "Sometimes is a burden being dis great."His overconfidence costs him. He's caught in a full nelson. His staff clatters uselessly to the floor. Once, twice, three times he takes solid hits to the gut. Another, this time a backhand across the face."Heh. Heh heh," Gambit chuckles breathlessly, now being supported as much as restrained by the man behind him. "Dat all you got?"
Well, at least they're trying to leave, and not trying to only add to the melee. Unfortunately, people running blindly into the street will only get someone run over--or worse. He'll happily get out of the way, though, and call out to Sue, "Can you create a--a corridor, or something that leads across the street? Let them get across safely?" Since they certainly won't be looking out for their own safety, he supposes they'll have to do it instead. If necessary, he'll pull her out of the way of the oncoming herd of panicked folk, though--somehow, he'd be half-surprised if he'd have to. As such, he's more focused on finding any wounded, including trying to get around the evacuating people to get to the back, where the ruckus seems centered.
Sue Storm continues concentrating on keeping people from getting shoved, crushed, trampled and so on as best she can while they rush for the door. She knows she's not getting everyone, but she's trying. People still fighting further in she'll deal with once everyone else is safe.When Kit mentions the people already outside, she turns to look, having not even considered that. "Uh... no. This is the best I can do." A shimmer of blue appears along the edge of the sidewalk, effectively keeping people from running straight out into the street for several yards to either side of Flannigan's. But, there's a price. Sue now has her back to the entire bar, having to stare at the wall just created to keep it there.
"Dis guy thinks he's tough, Joey," says the man behind Gambit in a thick Bronx accent. "T'ink we need to teach him a thing or two." The man striking Gambit laughs a thick laugh smelling of beer and pastrami. He goes to continue to rough the Cajun up. "Don't want none of you funny talkers up here any how."Daredevil makes his way towards the two men at the back door. Even as the one begins to draw the sword, Daredevil is pulling his billy club letting it extend into a staff to parry the killing stroke. The other guard, however, is just as swift as his compatriot. Without missing a heartbeat, the other steps forward to strike Daredevil across the back of his head with the handle of his own sword. The man without fear cries out in pain swinging wildly behind him as a sudden shot gun blast near by scatters his precise location.Near to Kit, one woman is caught from behind by a panicked man and is knocked to the ground. Boots strike her shoulder, midsection, and cheek bones before she manages to roll out of the crowd curling up into a fetal position and moaning in pain. Another man falls and while reaching to brace himself with his hands, slices them up badly on the shattered glass.People crash into Sue's unseen barrier and act like rats in a maze. They turn until they can run once more. The people are certainly scared and not really thinking about the fact that they seem to be running into thin air. Behind Sue, however, two less than sterling examples of manhood who are not panicked escapes notice the pretty young blonde and move towards her trying to grab at her arms.
Grinning. Gambit is actually grinning. He hooks a toe under his fallen staff, ducks his head, and kicks upward. Launched into the air, his weapon smashes into the face of the man who has him pinned. The moment he's released, the Cajun levels his other assailant with a well-placed kick. "Take dat, fils de salope!" he jeers, snatching his staff before it can hit the ground.Then he's off, using his staff as a vaulting pole and clearing the width of the room in a single leap. He's chosen one of the sword-toting men at random and launched himself like a high-speed projectile. Still grinning, he leads with both armored boots braced for impact.
...oh, how Kit really wishes he had Devil, here. Devil would be more helpful than his nice Kevlar-weave suit. People tend to stop their shenanigans when a wolf gives them a Look. Unfortunately, he has neither Devil nor his suit. And he has only a split second to decide what to do.In one motion, he dives toward the woman, grabbing a broken chair leg and turning onto his back to hurl it right at one of the not-so-shining examples of gallantry. Specifically, the back of his knee. He /should/ go down, at the very least buying Sue the moment to realize what's going on so she can protect herself. While the old-fashioned manners Kit was raised with would have him do something--well, /more/--to protect her, he knows she can take care of herself. If, that is, she's not caught unawares.Either way, once the leg is thrown, he turns to grab the woman and cover her with his body--which makes him /prime/ stomping material--including some putz in combat boots getting really good aim and shattering his collar bone. The one that he'd /just/ broken, too. The one the magic-user had fixed. It makes him choke off a loud groan, so it "only" comes out as a high-pitched squeak--but at least that was one blow the woman didn't take. Or more than one blow, but whatever. Hopefully there'll be a lull in the flood of people, so he can get the woman out of the way. Somehow, he knows better than to actually hope for that.
Sue Storm hears someone deeper inside the building cry out as well as the people closer to her. Holding out one hand to maintain the wall blocking people from the street, she turns her attention back just in time for two men to try and grab her by the arms. She's startled, and as if in reflex her own personal force field expands abruptly, throwing the two men away from her as well as every chair and table around her. Frowning at the spike of pain in her head, she ignores the internal warning and creates another forcefield to protect Kit and the woman he's shielding with his own body as well as the man who's cut his hands on glass on the floor.
Daredevil is down on his knees after the blow to the back of his head. The first swordsman raises his sword over his head to bring it down onto Daredevil, but is caught in the chest by flying armored Cajun boots. The Hand soldier, for that is what he is, goes flying backwards against the wall he had just stepped away from. There is a hiss from the second Hand as he turns to face Gambit before he can recover. That hiss is enough for Daredevil to learn his location and intentions. A sweep kick causes the second man to crash to the ground loudly. "Appreciate that," Daredevil says towards Gambit as he regains his feet. The two Hand men do not seem quite out of it yet as they begin to regain their feet. However, the door they were guarding begins to open. The room inside is dark except for the sudden crackle of power and an energy bolt ripping towards the heroes.The woman that Kit covers cowers beneath him; shaking like a leaf. The man that struck Kit's shoulder falls forward knocking several people to the side and giving Kit that bit of breathing room he was hoping for even as the blue shield crackles in around them.The two attackers cry out as they are struck by Sue's shield and one by the chair leg in the back of the leg. He won't be walking again tonight as he crashes to the floor in a heap. The other man tries to get to his feet but dizzy from the impact with the shield falls over and overturns another table.
Gambit arcs and twists his body, but he's still grazed by the energy beam. His brush with it is painful, even through body armor laced with energy-resistant fibers. Though he's still on his feet, he's clearly favoring one side of his body. "Anytime, mon ami," he replies. "But if we don' figure dis out soon, you might not get to return de favor."No more talking. Winded and short on energy, Gambit starts grabbing up everything in sight. Beer bottles, empty glasses, bits of furniture, all are thrown at the two swordsman with the speed and accuracy of MLB fastball pitches. The projectiles aren't charged, but they're still potentially dangerous.
Shrinking back to its default location just over Sue's form, the force field leaves an open space all around the blonde woman and she takes advantage of it to step closer to Kit and the two fallen bar-goers. Their force fields merge into hers, reducing the amount of strain she's under. Well, until that energy bolt hits. Then the wall out on the street disappears as the force field around Sue and the three people at her feet becomes almost completely opaque. Inside the field it's become suddenly very silent except for the sounds of the humans contained within. Sue's hands press against her temples as if in pain, and blood starts to drip unnoticed from her nose.
Small favors. The break in the flood lets Kit shift his position, lips pulling back as a rush of pain once more courses through his chest. He really needs to invest in a full-time doctor, or something. The throb in his head makes him all but forget the outside world is even there--until it suddenly goes silent. "Eh...?" he mutters, looking up with narrowed eyes. "You really are handy." He realizes she probably can't hear him, so he's going to make the most of the time she's buying.Stifling a groan, he gets to his knees and, after giving a quick once-over of the woman to make sure she's relatively intact, he goes to gingerly pick her up in his arms and get her at least somewhat closer to the corner of the bar near the window--pretty much as far from anyone as there could be. He has to do it mostly with his right arm, as moving his left just makes the pain in his collar bone flare from excruciating to /incredibly/ excruciating. Still, if he can get her tucked away safely, that'll be a good start.
Daredevil dives to the other side of the door way from Gambit as the beam strikes outward. He can feel the air hyper heat as the beam lashes outward and destroys the opposing wall of the bar. Dust and debris fill the air, but luckily Gambit's throws were taken before the dust. The two Hand try to block the incoming projectiles, but they apparently have not been practicing at the High Speed Pitch Cages. Heads are cracked back even as the chest is struck as well. Both of the Hand collapse now to the floor.Daredevil goes to stand up and then limps as he suddenly is rocked with the charred pain of his foot that had caught a bit of the blast. The dust quickly fills the room, but he can hear the gunner reading another blast and locking in on heat signatures with the tell tell beeping. The sound moves away from Daredevil and towards Gambit. The Devil cries out, "Blast coming in on your two o'clock!"The woman now in the shield with Kit and Sue whimpers but she doesn't fight. She knows a rescue when she sees one. She stays still in Kit's arms as he carries her. The man who had fallen over Kit also remains perfectly still as if not fully trusting the protection around him, but scared to breath unless it falls.
Responding instantly to the warning, Gambit throws his body into a tucking roll. He comes to his feet with both hands buried inside his coat. When he pulls them out, he's holding two fans of playing cards, already charged and ready to throw. They're launched toward the sound of the beeping, each one a small grenade ready to detonate on impact. "Take dat! And dat!" he shouts. "Teach you to shoot at me, you lil' salope!"He's already moving again, not even pausing to see where his explosives land. He's learned to respect those energy beams.
The dome-shaped force field still fills about half of the bar in front of what used to be the window of the establishment, though it's returned to almost completely transparent again. Sue, now pale and shaky looking, looks toward Daredevil and Gambit and ... whatever they're fighting against as if trying to make sense of what just happened. She's very much just standing there like a deer in headlights.
"Little bit longer, Sue," says Kit through a grunt as he gets to his feet. "Just a little bit longer." Not that he's necessarily telling the truth, as he hasn't really been paying attention to anything but his immediate surroundings. Kind of hard to really think about much when one's chest is on fire, thus causing a throbbing headache. "As for you, bucko," he says, reaching down to grab the fallen man's lapels with his right hand, "you're going to have a rest right over here. Safe, sound, and out of the way." And with that, he goes to slide--as gently as the maneuver really allows, anyway--the man off to the side near the woman.
Cards explode on impact. The gunner is obviously staggered and falling. The gun barrel goes wild as the Hand holding it still begins to become dust after death. Still, one finger is around long enough to pull the trigger. The blast crackles and begins to glow.Off of his good foot, Daredevil leaps forward on to his hands and then springs leading with his strong foot to drive the energy rifle's muzzle into the ground before it can take a point blank shot towards Sue as she stands there; nearly frozen. The blast explodes the ground but overall the damage appears to be minimal. The two guards are also quickly becoming dust just adding to the atmosphere. Daredevil gets to his feet although he favors the bad foot keeping weight off of it. The dark lenses in his mask look towards the front of the bar where Sue and Kit have been taking care of casualties.Most of the panicked and most of the not so panicked seem to have gotten out or been contained. The two that Kit are watching remain quiet and just give him a slight nod. Partly thanks and partly shock at what happened.
Gambit has barely healed up from his last escapade and he's already bruised, scraped, and scorched himself again. One of his dodges took him behind some cover. After a few seconds of relative quiet, he peeks out from behind it, then emerges fully. He takes a few limping steps forward and brushes some dust from his bedraggled coat, then shakes his head to try and clear the ringing from his ears. "Merde. What a mess," he says, pausing to take in the wreckage. "Is it over? Everybody okay?"
Sue Storm sinks almost gracefully to sit on the filthy and glass-littered floor, her force field disappearing like a popped soap bubble. She asks in an almost dreamy tone of voice, "Was that lightning?"
It's only after getting the fallen man out of the way that Kit really stops to think about what just happened. More to the point, he has the opportunity to actually look around. "Cripes..." he mutters as Sue sinks to the ground. Holding his left arm tucked against his side, he hurries to her side and crouches next to her, sparing another glance around. Looks like whatever the heck happened here, it could have been far worse. "I hope it's over," he calls out in response to the Cajun, then says more quietly to Sue, "It better be. You don't look like you could have taken much more."
Daredevil comes walking towards the group albeit a hair slowly due to his foot. The crunch of glass under him lighting up in his radar sense enough to give him the layout and avoid the smoking ruins. "Sorry you guys gone drawn into that. Found out through a contact of mine that the Hand were using this bar to smuggle weapons into the city. Always been more of a direct action sort of fellow."
Gambit shrugs his broad shoulders, collapses his staff, and stows it back inside one of his many pockets. He's still shaking his head, but this time in an amazed sort of way. "Not to worry, mon ami. I never knew. I like to gamble, but I don't play wit' no weapons. Is good to have dem off de street. Gambit find somewhere else to play cards."
Sue Storm idly wipes at her nose with the back of one hand, then looks at her hand for a moment. "Oh. Not again." She looks up at the man in red and the man in a trenchcoat and can't help it. It's just who she is. "Are you okay?" She doesn't seem entirely aware of Kit's presence at her side, but she does lean toward him slightly without realizing she's doing so.
Looking up to the man covered in red leather, Kit says, "Hey, it's--it's not a problem. 'All that's required for evil to flourish...' and all, right?" He goes to put his right hand on Sue's shoulder, adding, "And maybe we should get you looked at, eh? Might be nothing, but a nose bleed can be a result of something worse." Since he's somewhat sure her question wasn't technically directed at him, he doesn't answer. Further, he's used to it. If he didn't have something broken at least once a week, he'd think he was getting too lazy.
"Nothing that won't heal," Daredevil says with a shake of his head. His head turns to his left and right as if surveying the damage once more. "I was hoping the bar itself wouldn't be destroyed, but I underestimated the power of the weapon. Going to have to try and track down the supply line." He turns back towards the heroes. "Thank you for the assist."
((Fade Out))
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