Capital: Dante and Leena PT 2 Who: Dante and Leena What: Two vigilantes on the streets of the Capital Where: The Capital When: Recent Warnings/Rating: Violence, language.
"Tie them up," she repeated. Gun or not, the other woman's disdain or not -- this had been Bruce's way and Leena? She got why. If they started killing every goon, then they were just new goons with a mission, instead of goons for hire. Not killing? That kept things from escalating worse, but she didn't explain any of that. There wasn't time and this was very much not a talking time.
Nor did she explain why the cops would be involved. Whatever was in here? She didn't want to clean that the fuck up, and someone needed to before whatever it was -- guns or drugs, or both, ended up back on the street. Maybe the cops would be crooked, but she'd stick around, watch from afar to make note of anyone that did act squirrelly, and follow up later. Let them out themselves while cleaning up this shit and two messes were cleaned up.
However, the man lived, and she tried not to show her distaste of the gun pressed up against the only conscious goons back. Selina used guns, but this girl wasn't Selina. Her distaste she kept behind her teeth, and followed behind them a few feet, alert, and watching for anyone that might not be coming at them directly.
The fact that the warehouse was mostly empty was not making her feel any better, and as Spanish fired off between the two, she had a moment of woe. She'd taken French in high school, and then there had been her crash course in Czech, and she knew a touch of Russian and Japanese, but that was it for her language experience. She should add more to it -- later, when this was done and they were out of here.
The office looked like any office, in any warehouse ever. Stereotypical, with a short roof, and she went off to the side because the door would be the biggest window in -- and out. It was a chokepoint, and when they didn't know what was inside -- yeah, off to the side, away from the way the door would swing open. The other woman didn't wait, and Leena didn't expect her to, and she almost wanted to say something to save the guy's life, but she didn't have to. The butt of the gun dropped him, and there was the span of a heartbeat before all was bullets.
She growled as she was dragged to the floor and covered -- and it would work, except the walls were like fucking tissue paper. Reaching into her belt, she fumbled the grappling hook, but it was there, and after the other's attempt to take him out with a sparking brass knuckle, Leena grabbed her and shot the hook at the ceiling. Her shoulder protested their joint weight, but they rose all the same, and Leena stopped them when they were at ceiling level.
Dumbass was still shooting at the walls and the floor, and that was fine, because they weren't there. And he had to reload soon the way he was spending bullets. "I'll swing you in when he reloads," she said, as quietly as she could so he wouldn't hear, but she would. Swinging a little, she bounced her feet off the edge of the office, and sprang back, getting momentum for when he inevitably had to reload.
“Huuu!” The verbalized grunt was expelled before it could be stopped. Being hauled into the air was the last thing Dante expected and there was a split second between her gut reaction to start swinging and the realization that swinging right now was a horrible idea. Thankfully, the concept of it being a horrible idea kicked in fast enough to not cause a problem. The first thing the person would likely notice was Inferno’s weight between the suit and her leg there was easily an additional unexpected sixty to a hundred pounds in addition to her actual weight. Dante traveled as light as she could but the basic motorcycle gear she’d started with was already nearly twenty pounds before modifications had been added.
This dangling precariously from the ceiling with the other person being the only reason she wasn’t amidst a hail of gunfire? Fuck all of it.
Even with the deeply disgruntled realization that this position - as much as she hated it - was for the better Inferno quickly was trying to calculate just how fucked she was at this point. Between the gunfire - there would be cops soon because of it which was why she hadn’t started shooting earlier - and the ruined plans there wasn’t much time left to finish this and get out before anyone arrived. Then the fact that her life was potentially in this other person’s hands? Oh she didn’t like that: At. Fucking. All.
There was a moment of debate - would movement cause her to be dropped? - before slow movement would be taken to retrieve a baton. This was going to be a shit show so why the hell not bound into a crazy man’s space double wielding? The baton wouldn’t be activated yet but the gun was also retrieved again.
However, just as the other person predicted Katagawa would finally hit the point where the rapid firing halted and Inferno braced. At this point, between Katagawa being on the ground and Inferno having been hauled into the air, it was Artemis who was running the show.
The added strain meant her shoulder went numb, and then it spread across her back and Leena knew it was only going to be a matter of time before this went really pear shaped. Or cat shaped, to be entirely honest. The girl was a lot heavier than she fucking looked, which only meant either she, or her suit, had some serious fucking hardware.
Inside the office, his UZI was click-click-clicking, trying to fire bullets out of an empty magazine. "Showtime," she whispered, and sprang back, taking the other vigilante with her, and as they arched forward, she hit the grappling hook to loosen it, dropping down in through the open doorway and not so much getting the drop on Katagawa as barrelling straight into him.
She released the gun as they all fell, the desk shattering under their combined weight, the empty UZI went clattering across the floor, and both women landed on top of him with a solid grunt.
She was back on her feet first, nearly bouncing there, one hand scooping at the back of the other woman's collar to get her back up onto her feet ASAP (she'd have to apologize for the rough handling later, sorry), her body turned enough that she could smack him soundly with the puff of her tail, loud enough to be heard, and hard enough that he cried out and rolled up onto his side.
At the word ‘showtime Inferno readied for what was to come, trying to assist if she could, and - Saying the whole thing was less than graceful was an insult to newborn fawns everywhere - barrelling in they went breaking crappy compressed particle board, ramming into Katagawa and all. It was a miracle that she’d somehow manage to keep ahold of the gun and the baton. The fact that Katagawa was underneath them was both infuriating and oddly perfect at the same time but any thought she started to have about laying all her weight on top of him and pinning him in place with the pistol aimed at his temple was immediately dashed.
God this was a fucking shitshow.
The urge to yell profanities at the other vigilante was barely repressed when she realized where the man-handling was fucking continuing to come from. Whatever the fuck the other person was doing didn’t matter.
“Get out of here.” Inferno directed at Artemis before immediately descending upon Katagawa, rolling the man on his back and placing her cybernetic knee firmly into his chest as part of her body weight pressed him in place and she leveled the gun at his head. It didn’t matter if Artemis stayed or not - Inferno much preferred if the other would leave - there was a conversation her and Katagawa needed to have.
“You know who I am?” Her finger remained on the gun’s trigger but no pressure had been applied.
“Y-yeah.” His arms had risen over his head the instant he’d realized the gun had been pointed his way.
“Were you expecting me?” The voice was even keeled, direct.
“We all expect you.” There was something haunted in the words.
“Good. Then you know why I’m here?”
“I got nothing for the likes of you.”
“Wrong answer.” The trigger was pulled and the shot fired was clearly aimed above his head as the bullet sunk into the floor before the gun snapped back to aiming at him. Katagawa whimpered and his body tensed. “Try again.”
“She’s supposed to be coming!”
“When?”
“Sometime in the next couple days!”
“When?”
“WE THOUGHT TONIGHT!” It was clear the man was beginning to panic under the pressure.
“Why isn’t she here?”
“We-we don’t know! We haven’t heard anything!” His words shook. It was obvious the man wasn’t in the know or he was a really amazing lair.
“What are the goods?”
“Weapons. Drugs. There’s-There’s some contracts. Black market stuff.”
“Where?”
“B-behind you.” There seemed to be a dawning realization as Katagawa spoke that he might have just signed his own death sentence.
“Who’s your connection to Spider?”
“I’m not gonna tell you that.” He’d seemed to regain some of his gall. Another shot was administered closer to the man’s head but still missing him and the dude nearly pissed himself. “I never had a name! Just a number!”
“Where’s your phone?”
Katagawa almost didn’t seem to comprehend the question. Pressure was applied to the gun trigger but it wasn’t squeezed all the way. It was a clear threat for now and the man froze in place with fear present across his face.
“Where’s your phone?” The question was repeated firmly and Katagawa’s eyes darted down towards his pants before looking back up at the helmeted head above him.
Fuck.
Looking away wasn’t an option so instead ears listened to try to determine if the other person was still about or not. Honestly, at this point, Inferno didn’t know if it was luck or not anymore that this other vigilante was crashing her party tonight but for the moment?
Fuck it.
“Get his phone.” Came the command and Inferno held position with the man pinned underneath her and held at gunpoint.
Getting the other vigilante off Katagawa was apparently the wrong thing to do, but she couldn't take it fucking back now. But leave? No, she wasn't doing that. They'd gotten this far together, and there were still two more men in the building and if she couldn't get eyes on them, she didn't want them appearing on the other woman's 6.
Wordlessly she went to the bank of monitors and TVs that had been behind Katagawa and brought them up, outside first, then inside. There were no new goons outside, but soon they'd have cops, and judging by the distance -- "5-0 ETA 3 minutes," she said in case the other woman cared.
Maybe she didn't. Leena did sigh as she turned around and saw that he was currently at gunpoint. It didn't matter if he lived through tonight or not, as soon as it was known that he squealed, he'd be dead.
She should care.
She didn't.
Turning back to the monitors, she searched the premises until she found the two remaining goons. They were advancing slowly on their location. Joy. "Two incoming," she added and started to head out to take care of them when the command was growled out.
"You leaving him or is he going to be an unfortunate casualty?" Stepping over, she patted down his legs until she pulled the phone out of his pocket. Burner phone, perfect. Reaching into her belt, she pulled out something that looked like another phone, except bigger with a cord attached. Attaching his phone, she tapped the screen a few times as everything began to copy over. It wasn't something Leena had ever used, but Helena? Yes, Helena had, and she remembered.
And because it was a crappy little burner phone, she went back to his pockets to find the second phone and slid it into her back pocket. If she had time, she'd copy that too, but the goons needed to be taken care of. "2 minutes, 45 seconds," she calculated, tucking the entire apparatus into her belt and heading out of the office, pausing only to grab her grapple gun and replace it into her belt.
Time to go hunting.
“Fuck.” Came out unbidden at the count down on the cops. Even if this was a shitty part of town she’d known as soon as guns started getting fired they were going to be on a timer. While sometimes it couldn’t be helped generally she tried to avoid them at all costs. If dirty cops or not the cops were an entirely different variable that Inferno quite frankly wanted nothing to do with if it could be helped. At least the other person was helping in a way that was actually beneficial now instead of just constantly getting in her fucking way.
“TBD.” Was the answer to Katagawa’s fate. Inferno would remain in place and wait until it seemed like the other was finished searching the man before slamming the gun upside his head to knock the man unconscious. She ought to shoot him. The man had a rap sheet longer than she was tall and most of it was… Well, Dante wasn’t interested in having anyone else read that list of crimes ever. However, with this other person here, if they decided to try to blackmail Inferno or had to testify against her… One was deniable. Two? Like this? No. This would be obvious murder. She couldn’t have someone with that much dirt on her even if the other still didn’t know her name.
As Artemis went for the goons, Inferno went for the goods and any sort of technological equipment that happened to be in the room with them. Which the biggest piece there? The computer and monitor setup.
Gloved fingers fell into keyboard grooves instantly and fingers flew through commands. The screens flickered and one switched to a camera to the nearest exit door, one flipped to the camera outside the office, one flipped to a camera two blocks away, one flipped to the door they’d come in through, one flipped to another camera in the warehouse in attempts to cover any blindspots they may have missed. The final monitor was left to sort through information however and the data flew by on the screen almost seeming like it was being uploaded instead of read. Calculations ran wildly in her head and the last commands were entered. They were easily down to 2 minutes, 15 seconds at this point and the program she’d set to run - one that would broadcast all the logged shady business going down here to both the cops and route it through a series of networks that would drop the information safely into her vault of data as well - was easily going to take another 1 minute and 30 seconds to assure it ran through.
Fuck.
There was nothing to do now but keep an eye on Katagawa and check through the supposed goods to snap some pictures and take inventory of exactly what the fuck they’d been attempting to do. A small notebook with a pen was retrieved from the inside of a jacket pocket and quickly Inferno began taking notes on what was there in the offerings to Spider so that she could try to make this make some sort of fucking sense at all later.
And the other person had the fucking phone.
FUCK.
Leena had both phones and no intention of keeping either one, but that was neither here nor there as she mounted the nearest set of industrial shelves. The last time she'd seen her two goons, they had split up but they were walking down the rows of shelves one on either side. They'd been looking back and forth too, but it wasn't quite good enough because they hadn't been looking up and with her tail waving behind her, she walked lightly down the top shelf, the metal under her feet blissfully silent.
It almost made her want to hum. Some little ditty, maybe, in a sing song voice as she neared her prey. She didn't, as that would be a good way to give away her location, but she stilled, almost half-way down the row and waited.
The device in the belt gave a little vibration, and she quickly swapped phones to make a copy of his real phone while the goons crept closer.
Two minutes, twenty seconds.
Five seconds later, she swung off the top of the shelf and landed with an oomph and the wet smack of head on concrete floor.
"Jimmy? Jimmy! That you man? Jimmy?" Jimmy was out cold under her boots, and her tail gave a little sway. The guy was about to panic, Leena could hear it in his voice and before he started shooting everywhere, she ran forward, sliding over one shelf and tackling him with a grunt. Her tail knocked his gun wide and with a low snarl, her finger sank into his face and she smashed his head into the cement until he was no longer complaining.
Only then did she roll him over and hogtie him with a set of zip ties. Goon number one got the same treatment after she removed his weapons. One minute, thirty seconds. Leaving them behind, she went to go see if Katagawa was still alive or if the other vigilante had decided that death was the only answer for him.
Inferno continued checking through the items, taking an extensive inventory as quickly as she could while also keeping ears open on the door and Katagawa always in her peripheral sight. A few clips of ammo had been taken out of the loot and slipped into a jacket compartment and the Uzi had also been picked up, and clipped to her waist along with any easily findable Uzi ammo. Anything of significant benefit to Inferno - assuming it was small enough to be easily concealable without obvious tell that she'd taken something - was pocketed even if it wasn’t much. Like that grenade for example. Oh yeah, that belonged to Inferno now. There had to be a reason why the goons were specifically offering Spider this set of loot. Spider never seemed the type to do anything without reason and if she was supposed to have been here tonight? There was something she wanted here.
Yet all of the searching of the pile - realistically she was only about half way done with it - would reveal little by the time Artemis got back. From current assessments it seemed to mostly be small arms, ammo and drugs. There had to be something else in there. If only Dante knew what she were looking for then….
An idea struck and hands pocketed the notebook and pen. Instead Inferno moved back to the console, switching the monitor with the camera showing immediately outside the warehouse office to start rewinding through footage at rapid speed. Masked eyes flicked back and forth assessing the footage as it speedily zipped by until it was abruptly stopped on a frame from when the men were bringing the goods into the warehouse and Inferno leaned in, eyes squinting at the monitor for a moment before she turned back towards the other.
“Time?” It was barely a question - and she was pretty sure she knew already, probably around a minute even if she hoped for more time - the way it was stated and Inferno moved back to the pile of goods, beginning to rapidly pull the pile apart without throwing anything just in case something else explosive might have been stashed in the stack.
Whoever the girl was, she certainly liked to bark out her orders, but it didn't happen in such a way that grated on her nerves, for once. "One minute, five seconds," Leena told her. Perhaps she was a little pleased to see Katagawa still alive, but mostly because that meant she hadn't opted for killing him and there was still a part of Leena that didn't want to cross that line until it had to be crossed.
"Do you want to give him his phones back? He'll have a new burner as soon as he's out on the street again." Speaking of, she pulled his other phone out of her belt to check the copying process. All it needed was his passcode to complete, and after a minute of checking, she simply held it up to his face until the facial recognition was done.
And this was why she didn't use that feature on her own phone.
If the other girl wanted to give it back though, Leena walked over to the bank of monitors as she started popping the case off to put a bug in it. On one of the feeds, she saw the very beginnings of reflected lights on storefront windows that still existed. "Fifty," she added, finally glancing over to watch her demolishing the pile like she was looking for a diamond. She could help -- but she turned her gaze back to Katagawa as she placed the bug and snapped the case back in place. Either way, it could be beneficial.
What she didn't say? As soon as she found whatever she was looking for, they needed to split. There was more than one set of lights that she had seen on the monitors and she didn't particularly want to get busted by the Capital's finest. Or less than finest. Whichever.
Katagawa though? Leena grinned, a plan slowly forming as she wheeled the chair out from behind the desk and towards him. As much as she didn't want to be caught? That didn't mean she wouldn't leave the people in blue a little gift.
There was low cursing in Spanish as eyes flicked through item after item. Of course it had to be fucking buried under fuck all knew what. Just as Dante was starting to reach her wits end. The extra five seconds was oddly a boon, or at least calmed her nerves mildly, even if it wasn’t much extra time at all.
“No. Give them here.” The tone wasn’t inherently bossy but still firm and directing. If the other person handed them over or not was up to them but Inferno kept digging unless otherwise interrupted. A quick glance up was taken to check if the data was still speeding by on the monitor she’d started the upload on. It was. It needed another few seconds though and-
“Fuck.” Was growled at the knowledge that the police were almost here and her brain started to panic. Where the fuck was that da-
A hand rose victoriously with the book stuffed with other notebooks and papers grasped in it. All other items in the pile were very obviously ignored and Inferno slipped over to the monitors quickly. Placing the book close to her body on the table the keyboard was on hands fell to the keyboard, rapidly putting in new commands and the monitors quickly started blinking out.
“Time to go.” Inferno offered, no command in her tone but a statement of what her next plans would be. There was a moment of debate and she paused, body stopping from beginning to move out of the office.
“Should we leave them a gift?”
Per her not request, Leena left both phones on the desk for later, since she was about to be busy and the other vigilante was still searching. After a momentary hesitation, she reached into her belt for another bug, and hauled Katagawa into the chair. It was easy enough to use the zip ties to bind his wrists to the arms and his ankles to the wheels, and she pressed the bug onto his shoe while restraining his kicking feet.
"Keep it up asshole, I will take your knee caps out," she said and snapped her teeth at him, just in case he had his own ideas of how she might do it. Once he was immobilized to her satisfaction, she tore off a strip from his shirt to gag him with, then stepped back to look at her handiwork.
Good. It was good. Should she leave the cops a note?
She was still considering it when the other woman held the notebook aloft triumphantly and headed back to the monitors. Whatever she was after, it looked like she knew how to get it.
"Another one?" She asked, looking over Katagawa. "Sure, why not. I'm feeling giving tonight." Whatever she was planning, well, Leena wanted to see what it was before she agreed to it. After all, she could be thinking about blowing the place sky high, and she couldn't necessarily agree to it this time.
It was unfortunate that Katagawa had awoken so quickly but it was neither here nor there at this point. The other woman had him all tied up - it was enough to make her gag but she didn’t - and sitting pretty.
At the agreement to her question shoulders rolled before fingers fell to the keyboard again, typing incredibly fast but the monitors where changing even faster. It would almost seem like the speed of the monitors wasn’t quite the same speed as her typing - what was being displayed on monitors were moving faster than her fingers - and each screen cut out, dropping into blackness.
That blackness would only remain for a couple seconds before each screen began playing back a different stream of recorded footage and on each screen? A Different illegal activity. One screen showed them murdering and near torturing some of the homeless that had been trying to live in the abandoned warehouse before, another showed one of the subordinates getting mouthy and being shot dead in his tracks, another showed a discussion of all the hits that were going to be made once this gang had merged into the larger faction they were offering the goods to, another screen popped up with drug use before it quickly disappeared and began showing a man scraping serial numbers off of guns, one showed off someone inventorying the goods and identifying where they had come from and the cherry on top? That was the last screen. The last screen Inferno had master cut together all instances Katagawa had been on a camera and all the many - gut turning-ly awful - things he’d done since stepping anywhere near this building and those crimes? Even though it was only for the last few days? Were legion.
And all left to play on repeat.
It was then that Inferno would breath an audible sigh of relief at the data upload having finished. The book was tucked under an arm and eyes went searching for the phones. Noting that they’d been placed down she’d snatch them up and slip them into a jacket compartment before starting to head for the back door of the office. One hefty kick from her cybernetic leg easily popped all the bolts, latches and locks that had been on it, nearly taking the whole damn door off its hinges, before a look was offered back to the other vigilante almost as a sign of collaboration.
“Time to go.” With those words a shock baton was drawn, activated and Inferno hopped out the back door with the document collection without a second thought as the cops would very likely be coming for the front.
Leena watched the clips play impassively, but on the very last one, she squatted down in front of Katagawa and smiled like a fucking harpy. "You don't deserve to live," she said very quietly. She wouldn't kill him though, those tallies were reserved for a special brand of her own past. Someone, somewhere was going to take care of Katagawa and the world would be better for it.
That didn't stop her from walking past him, and at the last second, her tail whipped behind her and that plumed, granite end struck him in the mouth, loosening and breaking a few teeth off, his muffled scream echoing behind them as she followed the other woman out. Maybe it was low when he was already trussed up and unable to defend himself, but plenty of the people on that video couldn't help themselves. What she did? Fair game.
The cops were probably going to come in the front, but if they were good, they were going to have someone on the back, too. "We should go up," she said, without taking her this time, but she did get her grapple gun ready. There were a few windows higher up, and they could go out those, and then move from roof to roof if need be. And Leena? She suspected the need was going to be very high. But she didn't immediately whisk the other vigilante off; she was more than capable of making her own decision.
The words the other shared with Katagawa - while Inferno was curious - would be missed. After his bail was paid she could ask him before blowing his brains all over the concrete. From all the data she’d gathered the cops were still approaching the front and hadn’t made it around back yet even if it was an obvious tactic they’d be engaging in soon. Theoretically they still had time before the cops were up in their faces though if the count-down had meant anything. Besides, even if the boys in blue did get close? Inferno had tricks. Just because she hadn’t figured out the full design behind the military invisibility cloak it didn’t mean she didn’t couldn’t cause a redirection of signals, run some interference with frequencies, causing body cams to act up and even more. Hell, she might actually be able to set off the alarms on their cars through enough effort and --
Honestly, the thought was incredibly tempting. She’d have to test her ability to activate the computer systems in cop cars more than turning the engines off later though.
“They’ll have to come around the building and then come around the back of the office.” Inferno countered. The words and tone didn’t seem defensive or combative though, it would ring more a statement of fact for planning than anything else. It was obvious her brain had been continuously assessing with how she spoke and moved at this point, aside from the fact that the other vigilante was probably quite familiar with the general air of someone who had expertise. With that Inferno would stop for a couple seconds as a hand raised and tapped at her helmet, freezing in place - dangerous really - before pointing into the darkness.
“Forward thirty yards puts us in the dark, and another yard puts up around a corner. Better to be out of range than hiding while they search.” Admittedly, Inferno had no idea exactly how fast the other person could move but the explanation of plan was all that would be given before Inferno launched into a sprint for the darkness at surprising speeds considering the weight the other person knew her to have.
Hiding was exactly what Leena wanted -- she wanted to be able to watch, to calculate who was likely dirty and who wasn't by how they moved and reacted.
It didn't surprise her at all that the other woman stopped to calculate, or what she said next. Out before the cops got in seemed to be a running desire with her and while Leena could understand, information was key. Besides, even if they got separated, she still had the bug in the phone that was currently in the other vigilante's possession.
Still, the woman could hustle in a way that Leena really did fucking appreciate, and she followed, the grapple gun coming out again to get her closer to the ceiling and one of the high windows. No cops yet, and she swung out and up, tail twisting behind her so she landed on her feet on the roof. A leap took her to the next roof over and she promptly sat, to watch, and to pull out her phone to follow her little bugs.