ArchivedLogs:Top Shelf

Top Shelf
Dramatis Personae Anette, Joe	2014-02-15 Joe and Anette make friends, and some crime!
Location Kingpin Lanes, and elsewhere
Kingpin Lanes is a bowling alley built into a converted warehouse in a corner of the Bronx right off the Bronx River. As a matter of fact the back of the building backs up right /to/ the river, though that fact is almost certainly irrelevant. Out front, so far from the heart of the city, customers of the bowling alley can come and go in relative privacy. Speaking of customers, it doesn't seem like that many people come out here to bowl, but the place seems to be doing well enough. The building is in good repair and all of the letters in the sign still light up. Inside the door is a counter where one can pay for lanes and rent shoes. There's also a bar serving drinks, but you have to get yours in a plastic cup if you want to take it over to the lanes. And tucked away towards the back of the bar, past the bathrooms and the video games, is an innocuous little door that just says, 'Employees Only'. It is to this bar that Anette has been summoned. Polite, yet burly young men came to present her with an offer. Let them cover the bail she posted last week (with cash in a thick envelope) just for coming to speak to their boss, and he might be able to offer even more. Upon arrival, there is just one older man bowling by himself on lane 13. In the bar are half a dozen burly young men, all having varying degrees of quiet conversations, drinks, and watching the basketball game on the big screen. Also here is a curious-looking older man who doesn't look like he fits in. Joe is wearing a fairly nice gray suit, with vest and wing tip shoes. His hair is slicked back, and he's sitting by himself at the bar, swirling something dark amber in a high ball glass with no ice. Anette walks in, kicking snow off her heeled boots in the doorway before shutting the door behind her. She looks around carefully, pushing a strand of dark hair out of her eyes. She wraps her leather coat tighter around herself as she walks inside. She makes her way to the bar, never taking her jacket off despite the warmth. Sitting down at the bar, she motions the bartender over, making herself comfy while she waits. Anette had indeed taken them up on their offer. Granted, she wasn't particularly trusting at first, getting as much information out of them as she possible could. But...free money was free money and all she had to do was show up. What's the worst that could happen? Joe turns on his stool at the bar when Anette comes in. He glances around at the 'fellas' and nods when they don't react to her. She must be alright. Joe nods and waves her over to the bar. "Hey, I'm guessing you and me are called in for similar reasons. Lemme buy you a drink. The big man never rushes and he's got someone in his office already." Anette looks over Joe, taking him in before making her way over. "Sure, rum and coke. Hm, I'd say yes, probably similar reasons, but I barely know why I'm here. Other than to take care of some...personal difficulties." She sits down next to him, instinctively pulling on her jacket again, before glancing over to Joe. "So...do you know the 'big man'?" Nodding at the bartender to put Anette's drink on his tab, Joe says, "Yeah, Fisk has a way of making himself 'useful' at just the right times. I was in pretty much the same boat once upon a time. Can't say I know him /well/, but I've done some work for him before. He's not bad. He's just not the guy to try and screw around with, you know?" Joe shrugs and sips at his drink and Anette's drink is slid onto the bar. Anette chuckles softly and takes a sip of her drink. "Ha, my life's goal. I'm sure we'll get on beautifully then. What kind of work, if you don't mind me asking?" She asks, watching Joe curiously, unzipping her jacket slightly and letting it sit loosely on her shoulders, though still covering her back and the wings hidden beneath. "I just don't know all that much about what's going on and I don't know if I like that." Joe finishes his drink and says, "Nothing legal, I can tell you that much." He chuckles and shakes his head. "But he also doesn't call me in for violence, so we can be reasonably sure he hasn't called us in for anything like that. I'm mostly useful as a B&E and man. I'm Joe, by the way." He extends his hand for Anette to shake, and then turns when Fisk's door opens. A scantily clad woman in ridiculous heels and too much makeup leaves looking slightly disheveled. At a guess, almost certainly a prostitute, probably just clocking out. She walks through the bar and one of the goons gets up to walk her out. Joe raises an eyebrow when Fisk raises his voice from inside the office, "Zerah! Ms. Eccleston! Get in here!" Joe shrugs and hops off his bar stool to lead the way into the tiny office. Inside, Fisk's massive bulk rests in a tortured swivel chair behind a heavy oak desk. The desk looks expensive, and like it doesn't belong in this little office. There are two chairs on the other side of the desk facing Fisk. Joe takes one, but waits for Anette to sit first. Can't help but raise an eyebrow at the prostitute as she leaves, her eyes following her out. She half-assedly takes Joe's hand, temporarily distracted as she replies, "Anette. The girl's prettier than she sounded. Then again, her voice was muffled most of the time." She turns and takes a quick swig of her drink, just as Fink shouts for them. Setting the half finished drink down, she follows Joe inside, pulling her jacket about her as she sits down. She looks over Fisk curiously, remaining silent for now. Fisk nods as the two get settling into the chairs across from him and then addresses Anette, "Hey, you don't need ta hide under that jacket in here, if it's binding. I got nothing against muties." He frowns like he realizes that might not be the most complimentary thing to say to a mutant, but he doesn't apologize. "So look, you two are here because someone's got something I want, and they decided they don't wanna sell it no more. Joe, you get your standard deal. But I want you to take Ms. Eccleston here as back-up on account of you being just a pussy." Fisk turns to Anette and says, "And you. I'm guessing you got a unique skill set maybe we can put to better use than fightin in bars, am I right? That cash the boys gave you, that's for comin in, an I appreciate you comin. But you do this job tonight with Joe and I'll make sure you get top notch legal treatment to beat the assault charge they got you up for. How's that sound?" For his part, Joe just shrugs and rolls his eyes when Fisk calls him a 'pussy'. No point in arguing, apparently. He turns and waits for Anette's reaction though. Pausing a moment to consider Fisk's comment towards her jacket, she eventually replies. "Sorry, I've just learned to be...a bit protective of them. I usually try not to take them out if I don't need to." She apparently makes an exception however, slipping the jacket off her shoulders and revealing the brown, owl-like wings she had been hiding beneath. Leaning forward in her chair, she gives them a quick stretch before tucking them back against her body. She listens to the rest of Fisk's speech, nodding along slowly. "I may have one or two skills. If you need to reach something on tall shelves, I'm your girl," she chuckles. "Oh, and you might wanna have a talk with the two guys talking outside the door right now. One of them's been 'borrowing' money from you that I have a feeling you don't know about." She leans back against her chair and crosses her arms across her chest. "Am I allowed to ask what kind of information you're looking for?" "Now see?" Fisk says to Joe. "She's making herself useful already. You two send Vincent in when you leave. I had a feeling he was making some bad choices. We'll have to... chat about that." Fisk nods at Anette's question then. "Oh yes, of course. And honestly, I generally find secrets more trouble than they're worth. You'll be retrieving a necklace from a safe tonight. That's where Joe comes in handy. But! It /is/ on the 'tall shelf' as you put it. There's a penthouse on the 40th floor of a building in Morningside heights. It's all in here." Fisk leans forward and slides a paper portfolio across the desk. "Get that without any fuss, come back with the goods, and everybody gets what they want. We good here?" Joe nods. "Good on my end. Not sure why I need partner - no offense Anette - but it's your dime, Boss. I'm good either way." Anette turns to look at Joe. "Well...I could have had a prettier partner, but you'll do." She turns back to Fisk and nods, taking the portfolio off the desk. "Sounds relatively straight forward enough, I think we're good. Anything else we should know?" She doesn't seem to be one for too much chitchat, preferring to stay on topic. "Nah," Fisk says. "They probably got some guys hangin around to watch the place, but the people are outta town, and they ain't the kinda people to call the cops anyway." Fisk waits for them to get up and head for the door, calling out matter-of-factly, "Don't come back without the goods." Outside the office Joe hooks a thumb at 'Vincent' and says, "Boss wants to see you. Think it's about a raise." Apparently Joe has a dark sense of humor. He looks to Anette then too. "So how you wanna do this?" Anette holds the portfolio up. "I think this is as good a place to start as any. My concern is how to get to the 40th floor. I mean...I could fly in but you'd be on your own." She looks up and smiles as Joe sends Vincent in. "Oh yeah...he's real excited to talk to you." Once Vincent leaves, she turns back to Joe. "So what do you think he wants with a necklace?" "Those are the kinds of questions," Joe says with a wry smile. "That I've learned to let go." He winks and heads for the front door of the alley. "You wanna ride with me? Or did you drive. Can just follow if you want. As far as flying up, that might be a good choice. I'll come in through the ground floor, knock on the penthouse front door. You come in and hit the guards from behind." Anette shakes her head. "I public transport myself around this city. I'll ride with you." She follows behind, slipping her jacket back on, though now it's mostly for its warmth. "Any ideas for incapacitating the guards? All I have are knives and I've a feeling those will get a bit messy. Also, I'm not a fan of blood unless it's necessary." Hey, even criminals have some form of standards. "Or are we just looking for a good crack upside the head and send them into a nice nap for a bit?" "I'm glad to hear you say that," Joe says as they exit the building. He leads the way to a black, BMW sedan and unlocks the doors with the remote as they approach. "Unnecessary violence is by definition... well, yeah. Let's avoid any stabbings if we can." Once in the car her pops his glove box open and hands Anette a few little black spheres, each the size of a walnut. "Smoke bombs. They'll make a decent 'pow' noise, and throw some cover, but there isn't much flash. If you could hear Vincent's dumb ass from the other room, I'm betting all we have to do is disorient these guys a little and you'll have the upper hand in no time flat. Knock em out, and I pick up the goods." Anette jumps in, buckling herself up. She takes the smoke bombs, admiring them up close. "Alright, I can work with these." She slips them in a pocket and sets the portfolio in front of her. "So...how did you originally get suckered into all of this?" she asks, pulling out papers as she reads them over carefully. Joe gets the car moving, and all in all seems to be a remarkably careful driver. Maybe it's just because he's in his forties, or he's just extra careful, but he makes his way through the wintery city with care. "Ah well, it started a little different for me. I came here and I knew Fisk was the biggest name in... the biz. So I brought him a proposal he liked. He set me up with a regular gig, and I like the paychecks. So I guess it's pretty mutual at this point." Before long, the car has pulled to a stop several blocks from the building in question and Joe reaches under his seat. He comes up with classic, black ski mask, and a couple of ear-piece headsets. "I was saving these for if I ever got a proper bodyguard, but they'll do the trick for tonight. I'll radio you when I'm about to knock on the door." The ski mask is rolled up until it just looks like a warm, knit cap, and he pulls it on over his head. Anette nods along to Joe's story with a chuckle. "Well, that's much more interesting than me. I got into a barfight and Fisk is offering to help out with the legal expenses. Well...it wasn't so much a barfight as it was a deli-fight." For the rest of the car ride, she's focuses on the paperwork and doesn't say much else. When Joe pulls up to the apartment complex, she glances out the window towards the building. "Well, I think I know which window it is. So...I fly in, take out anyone inside the apartment, let you in, then we grab the necklace, correct?" As you hand her the ski-mask and earpiece, she gives you an odd look. "Aren't these a bit cliche?" she says, though she does put them on. "The classics are classic for a reason," Joe says with a grin. "Don't bust inside until I radio you. I'll knock on the door to distract them, then you can smoke bomb, and hit them from behind. But wait till I'm inside. I can at least make sure they don't have any weapons on them." Joe holds up his fingers and rolls his hand, revealing a card for a flash before it vanishes again in some excellent sleight-of-hand. "Just head up and wait on the balcony. Cool?" Anette nods along to the plan. "Alright, got it." She fits everything into place before watching Joe play with the flash. "You're going to have to teach me that sometime..." she says, before pulling the mask down and jumping out of the car. "It's all in the wrist." Joe winks and slips out of the car, walking toward the building. He manages to time his entrance just right, as someone else is exiting the security door, gently bumping them and coming away with their elevator key card, rolling his hat down into a mask before he can be seen by the lobby's cameras. In moments, he's through the lobby and into the elevator. Emerging onto the penthouse floor, Joe crosses and knocks on the door, rolling his mask back up into a hat so the eye hole can see him, but the hall cameras can't. "Building Security! We got a call about a disturbance?" Joe waits patiently until he sees the light behind the door flicker when someone looks through it, and he can sense the person's nearness. He nods as the door locks begin to click open, and Joe reaches up to click the ear-piece three times - the agreed upon signal for Anette to move in. As the door opens Joe teleports the guard's gun into his own pocket, and rolls the mask back down into place before crushing a smoke bomb under foot. Three clicks. With that, Anette quickly lets herself in through the window naively left unlocked. I mean, what are the chances of a mutant with the ability to fly silently would let herself in this way? Regardless, she slips inside, just in time to watch smoke fill the room. Just for fun, she sets off one of her own, thoroughly disorientating the guards. She runs into the smoke and, with the help of her exceptional sight and hearing, locates the guard. She quickly introduces the guard's head to a bare spot on the wall with a loud thud, leaving him a crumpled, groaning heap on the floor. Clever enough to hold his breath when he sets a smoke bomb off, Joe slips inside and closes the door behind him when Anette knocks the guy out, stepping quickly through the cloud of smoke. When the second guard comes running from the living room, Joe draws the gun and says, "Best to just get on the floor." He hooks a thumb over his shoulder as the guy slumped against the door in the clearing smoke. "He's not dead, and you don't have to be either. Give her your gun, and she'll knock you out to make it look good. Got it?" The guard looks like he takes a moment to consider it, and then just nods. He draws his handgun very slowly from a shoulder holster and holds it out to Anette, held between two fingers. "Just, hit me real fuckin' hard ok? S'gotta look good." Beating away some of the excess smoke away with her wings, Anette quickly twists her neck when she hears the second guard enter, looking directly behind her. She twists her body around to realign with her face as Joe gives his orders. Once the guard surrenders, she takes the gun and, pausing a moment to decide best how to proceed, she decides a black eye is the best option. She sends a good, solid punch straight for his eye and temple, sending him to the ground. "Well...that was easy. Though they're both going to have killer headaches when they wake up." "Yeah," Joe agrees. "Easy. Did those files say what room the safe was supposed to be in?" He starts looking around, idly noting that the opening scenes to Die Hard are paused on the living room TV, and a big bowl of popcorn sits out on the coffee table. The guards were having movie night? Takes all types. Joe starts down the hall, poking his head into rooms as he goes, running a gloved hand along walls. Anette twists her head about, looking around the room one last time. "Bathroom. Safe hidden behind a painting on the wall. Again, cliche, but effective." She follows along behind Joe, admiring the extremely expensive decoration and design of the apartment. "Think the boss would mind if we tipped ourselves while we were here?" she asks curiously. Joe snorts and shakes his head, detouring for the bathroom. "Fuck it, I say take what you want. Just keep a look out too, ok? We don't need the Thai food guy showing up or something, you know?" Freed of an audience in the bathroom, Joe takes down the tacky painting and puts his hand against the door to the safe, mentally cataloguing it's contents. When he finds what he wants, he teleports the necklace box into one hand and a wad of cash into the other. "Don't look too hard though! I think I got us a nice little bonus here." Joe emerges from the bathroom holding up his two big finds. Anette looks up, caught shoving some Rolexes she had pilfered from the bedroom into her pockets. "You know...I hate women's clothing. Never enough pocket space." She eyes the wads of money in Joe's hand, grinning happily. "I knew I liked you for a reason. Come on, let's get out of here." She pockets her goods and heads into the living area again. "So...door or window?" Joe eyes the sliding glass door, openly unsure. "Uh, can you carry me down? I'd rather not take the elevator to the lobby, but I also don't relish the thought of plummeting to my doom, you know?" Joe hands the wad of cash over while he talks so he can open the necklace box, double checking the ridiculous collection of diamonds inside. Looking down the balcony, Anette nods. "You don't look terribly heavy. Might be a bumpy ride but I should be able to at least coast down." She makes her way out to the balcony and turns, holding her arms out for Joe. "Hold tight," she says and, once they've interlocked tightly, she quickly jumps off the building. For the sake of entertainment, she freefalls down a few seconds before spreading her wings out, catching the air and coasting safely to the ground. Joe follows Anette out to the balcony, and embraces her when she's ready to go. It looks like he has something extra to say, but then they're in free fall. A choking noise is all he's able to manage when he panics in the drop, and before he can squirm into danger they're on the ground. "Holy shit... ok. Wow." Joe stands by the car a moment, bent over, hands on his knees. "Holy shit..." He takes a couple more breaths and finally straightens up again. "Right, well. I guess we should drop this stuff off, huh?"