Players:
Summary: Envy releases the children after Patches presents her with the head of Stormwaltzer.
Log Title: Getting A Head
Rating: R
NYC - Docks
Off from the bustle and crowds of South Street Seaport, a small dock stretches over the east river, which was once convenient for fishes, now lays almost forgotten. The wood here isn't as polished as the rest of the docks as splinters can be seen here and there. At night there is an eerie shadow cast over the place from the tall ships docked several feet away.
The dock is so much more crowded then Envy had assumed it would be. Why would there be this many people near the docks at 11:30 at night? Oh yeah…Fleet Week. Luckily the majority of the people around here are drunken sailors returning to their ships for the night. Envy sighs and waves some of them along after what must have been the thirtieth cat call that evening. The woman pulls out a phone and presses a few buttons, sending her mysterious contact that the Embassy set her up with some more specific instructions for a meeting location. About five minutes later Envy is in that location, on top of one of the warehouses. There is a ladder for easy access, and none of the sailors are likely to come up here.
Soon enough, a beat up old Pontiac GTO arrives, with a pretty rough sounding engine. The vehicle, not driven entirely safely, pulls up to a screeching halt just near to where the base of the ladder is at; and moments afterwards there emerges one Tabitha Jones. The rat girl pauses to brush her fingers through her hair; she's clad in one of the belly shirts she favors, this one with some very small writing across the bust, and a pair of damaged jeans. She slams the door, and moves around to the rear of the vehicle, popping the trunk and pulling out a duffel bag. She slings it over her shoulder, and then applies herself to climbing up the ladder, with the soft ring of boots on hollow metal as she ascends.
Envy stops glancing out over the water and turns at the sound of boots. She decides to stay out in the open. The woman is wearing a black body suit with a long black trench-coat overtop. While it cannot be seen, her body below the neck is currently in diamond form. She is not ready to trust the embassy fully, though she does glance over at a neighboring rooftop, nodding briefly before looking back to the top of the ladder.
Tabitha soon enough crests the rooftop, and pauses briefly in a crouch. "Hi, Envy." She stands up straight, and shifts one hand to hold tight to the duffel as she saunters forwards. "You do remember me, right? This time? I mean come on, how many Gamma-class mutants do you really run into who are as good looking as I am." She comes to a halt perhaps twenty feet off; near enough that the blood splatter across her chest and the signed quality of both her clothing and her fur can be seen. "Classy joint. Do you come here often?"
Envy narrows her eyes at the girl. "Oh yes, I remember you. Little miss copy, right? I thought you learned last time that you can't take me out by copying my powers. Perhaps this time there aren't too many people walking around for me to threaten…Well except for that." She points at a docked naval ship a few blocks south. "Just in case you get any funny ideas." A pause, "The Embassy has sent a delegate to try and persuade me to let those children go…But then i heard that maybe someone has already solved the entire situation for me. Is that the case?" She glances at her watch. "Four hours. Cutting it kind of close, hmm?"
"Just one question." Tabitha sidles forwards, though her course soon takes her on a round-about sort of route, walking along the edge of the roof as she starts a slow circle around Envy, boots making a bit of a racket on the aluminum roof as she goes. "Just one — how do I know you're going to keep your word?" She pauses, and her eyes narrow as she comes to a halt once more, occupying a position opposite where she was before. "I suppose you haven't considered that some of those kids might be mutants."
Envy chuckles. "Consider that some of the kids are mutants? Maybe some day. They're too young now anyway." She steps forward and points down. "Well if I don't keep my word you have four hours to get someone over here…Assuming you're telling the truth. If you're not I'll just break the pillars now." Envy is standing right in front of a skylight. About two floors down the children can be seen in their cage. These warehouses were searched, but the area where the kids are appears to be walled in. It may not be accessable at all from anywhere inside of the building.
Tabitha pauses for a moment to gaze down the skylight, and shakes her head slowly. "You're wasting potential," she points out. "You never know, one of those kids might be a powerful mutant just waiting to happen, who gets bullied like hell, and then ten years down the road is your best ally." The rat girl shrugs, and backs off a step. "I could make my own pillars, but I already know my crystals can't stand up to you. Yet." The rat girl shrugs, and slips the duffel off her shoulder. She loosens the opening, and reaches her hand inside. "Fortunately for you," she murmurs, pulling out a severed head that certainly looks familiar; she holds it up by the hair for Envy to see, before tossing it through the air, to bounce cross the roof and come to a stop at Envy's feet.
Envy quirks a brow as the head is thrown to her. She bends down and picks it up by the hair, turning it over in her hands. The woman's expression turns to one of extreme joy. "Oh yes! I can't believe that YOU of all people did this for me. But…Who's to complain?" There is an odd noise from down below. The cage seems to be rising. It comes up through the sky light with a shattering noise, but the roof construction of the cage is such that the children are not rained with glass. "And seriously? This woman was a threat to ALL mutants. She could have taken me down. I'm more powerful than any of these kids could turn out to be." The walls of the cage fall apart and the children are left looking confused. "Well? Run along. I got what I wanted." She holds up the head to show to the children.
"Don't show them that!" Tabitha raises her hand, and a small wall of crystla spikes burst through the roof, just between Envy and the children. "Come on woman, they're not old enough to watch R rated films yet." A rumbling from the ground beyond the warehouse heralds the raising up of a ramp, something suitably wide enough and safe enough to be used by children. "Look, I didn't get involved to do you any favours. It just happened that I hated that bitch anyway; I had my reasons." Her eyes narrow, and she fixes Envy with the hairy eyeball for a long moment. "Please excuse me for a moment." She backs off a step, and produces a cellphone from a pocket; a brand new, shiney phone, different from the one she had before. She dials a number, and waits only for a brief moment. "Hi, this is Patches," she murmurs. "I have the kids." She waits another moment and gives an address, before pocketing the phone once more.
One of the kids screams when she sees the head. Another one screams when she sees Tabitha. The others just make "Eeeew!" noises. "What do you mean not old enough? Miss Envy let us watch Full Metal Jacket!" Another kid, "That movie was boring! Why did we have to watch it so many times!" Another one, "Can I still have pizza every day?" It sounds distinctly as though the children were not locked up in a cage for a week. They also seem quite clean for not having access to a shower. The bus driver is noticeably missing.
Envy waves a hand and shatters the wall of spikes Tabitha put up. "Don't bore that woman with the details. If she gets too bored she'll…Eat you or something." Envy waves a hand dismissively.
"Oh Christ! I'm a mutant, not a savage." Tabitha sighs heavily, and rolls her eyes. "You kids don't know what a good movie looks like. Full Metal Jacket is such crap. Go home and watch Terminator and Alien, then start on the sequels." She turns her attention back to Envy, apparently not too interested in attempting to rebuild her wall of spikes. "I'm glad you've been decent to the chilluns, but where's the bus driver?"
"Can I have some more beer?"
"No. Go home."
"Is that dog lady really gonna eat us? She's scary."
"Shut up and get out of here, you little brats. Or I'll add YOUR heads to my collection." Envy glances up at Tabitha. "Oh? He's not real. Well, he IS real, but he's not really a bus driver. I found it interesting that they left that part of the story out of the news. That "Bus Driver" was a substitute. He works for me. And right now he's probably enjoying his time in whatever country he decided to run off to." She smirks, "And seriously? They're children. I mean, don't get me wrong. I WOULD have killed them. They're just easier to control when they're happy."
"I see you're a master tactician," Tabitha observes in a dry tone of voice. "I'm sure it's going to be a couple more minutes before the transport shows up for them. I'll be sticking around until it does." The rat girl sighs softly, and tilts her head towards the kids. "RAT! I'm a RAT, not a dog, fer… can't you see the tail?!" She rolls her eyes, and shifts her attention back to Envy. "No respect these days. Honestly. …Look, if you want to take off, be my guest. I'm not here to fight you again. I'm just here to offload a nogin off someone I didn't like anyway, and rescue some kids. What a hero, go me."
Envy laughs. "Don't let her trick you kids, she's a dog." Then to Tabitha. "Tactician? I do work for multiple crime syndicates. You could probably do well in the underworld if you were able to take out this crazy bitch. Not that I couldn't if she didn't have that stupid book on her. The book…Do you have it by chance? Not that it matters now I suppose." The woman waves her arm over her head. It looks like a signal of some sort. A moment later the woman is obscured by a heavy smoke. Once it clears both Envy and the head are gone.
Tabitha watches as Envy vanishes, and perks an eyebrow upwards. She steps forwards, moving into the space that the crystalline mutant had been occupying moments earlier; and then feeling satisfied, she turns to wander back towards where the kids are at. She casually raises a crystal palisade, enough to corale the rug rats and prevent any of them from wandering off. "Rat," she specifies, as she produces her cellphone once more. "I'm a rat, and I'm damn proud of it. Someday if you're all very good one or two of you might grow up to be just like me." She taps out a text message, and waits to make sure it gets sent before putting the phone back in her pocket. "Now everybody sit tight, and we'll have you back to your parents soon enough. And you can tell them that Patches said you can all have pizza for dinner and ice cream for desert every day."
