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The Quicker You Start, The Quicker You'll Finish


Ecalsneerg

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It was good to get out of that cesspit B&B in Southside, John reflected as he sat on a bench near the Boardwalk. He'd left his costume and weaponry in the bushes behind him, ready to assume his othef persona when the sun went down. But for now, at least, he would sit and watch the sun set on Freedom City.

It was a tall task he'd set himself. The Freedom City mob's existence continued despite intervention from many superhumans over the years, and were smarter and more ruthless compared to their UK counterparts. But they weren't invincible, if he could find the chink in their armour...

Sunset. Darkness falling on the land. The Arrowhawk awoke and John Fraser stalked into the bushes. Loose black clothing was supplemented by a long black cape and hood. A domino mask with red lenses glinted menacingly from beneath the shadows cast over his face. And on his chest, the white symbol of a hawk flying. The symbol Freedom City's mob would come to hate, come to conspire against, but most importantly come to fear.

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A master of stealth, Arrowhawk crept along the rooftops of the casinos along the Boardwalk. He'd been here a few times before, in civilain guise. This had been recent, maybe an informant he'd been told of was still here. A man named Lenny, with ties to the mafia around here, he frequented the Boardwalk.

The night was young, and he found him just outside a local bar. He swung in from the rooftops on a grapple line, but the man was obviously used to capes and didn't look impressed in the slightest. "I'm new in town," said Arrowhawk in the low voice he assumed in this persona. He held out a gloved hand, palming a fifty. Expensive, but it would hopefully be worth it. "I guess you know the type of people I'm working against." No use insulting the man's intelligence by implying even in the slightest that it wasn't blindingly obvious.

First post/thread, hope I haven't done anything 'wrong'. Lenny was mentioned here, thought he was a great starting point.
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The night was young, and he found him just outside a local bar. He swung in from the rooftops on a grapple line, but the man was obviously used to capes and didn't look impressed in the slightest. "I'm new in town," said Arrowhawk in the low voice he assumed in this persona. He held out a gloved hand, palming a fifty. Expensive, but it would hopefully be worth it. "I guess you know the type of people I'm working against." No use insulting the man's intelligence by implying even in the slightest that it wasn't blindingly obvious.

Lenny looked at the hand for a moment and then up at the obvious hero. "Yes, you are new in town, aren't you?" Lenny looked upand down the boardwalk before gesturing to the alley next to the bar. "Come on off the street. I don't need people seeing me talk to you."

Lenny walked briskly around the corner and into the darken alley. Once Arrowhawk entered the alley, he took out a cigarette and lit it. "You want a smoke?" he asked as he held the cigarette out to the hero.

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"I don't smoke," said Arrowhawk. That was true, no sane person who spends their time insanely running around rooftops is going to damage their health that way. Anyway...

"I am Arrowhawk. You may have heard of me, I was here on business a couple of years ago, taking down drugs runners who'd fled the UK. You were commended to me as a man who knows things, I want to put that commendation to the test."

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Lenny shrugged his shoulders and took a drag on the cigarette, "Suit yourself."

As he smoked, he listened to Arrowhawk introduce himself. He smiled when the hero was finished. "I might have heard of you after all. So you're back in town, huh? And someone sent you to find me."

The informer takes another drag on his cigarette before dropping it to the ground and stepping on it. "So what do you want with me? What are you looking for this time?"

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Lenny gave a quick laugh, "Ha! You really are new in town. Everyone knows who the Dons are. You just can't touch them unless you want to be hunted down yourself. Besides, why should I give you information on mob activities? Though I'm not a made man and can never be one, I'm still smart enough not to cross their path."

Lenny takes a moment to study the hero silently for a while. "But, I think I might know something for you. There seems to be a small faction with little power these days. Depending on how well you can clean up their mess, I might have a little more information for you next time. You interested?"

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He was trying to get under his skin. It'd work if he hadn't spent years with people doing the same to him. Why oh why do people feel the need to irritate the loon running around in the Hallowe'en costume? lamented Arrowhawk silently. Oh well, I need to get the information from somewhere.

"I'm interested. Who are this 'small faction'?

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Lenny nods his head. "Okay. It's the Mancini family. they've started a little casino of their own in hopes of taking power away from the Driogano Family. Unlike Don Doriogano, Don Mancini seems to be doing double duty at his place if you get what I mean. From there you might be able to get some useful information. And if you do manage to take them down, it might be just the stepping stone to alert the mob that they need to watch their backs."

Lenny smiles broadly. "they usually open their doors at night, only letting the high rollers in to get the biggest buck for their limited operation time. Usually their clients tend to be yuppie businessmen trying to impress their eye candy. They also have a number of more nefarious clients come to relax so perhaps someone there might lead you to a deeper level."

"There are usually two men at the door, checking all those that enter for weapons," says Lenny as he begins drawing in the dirt of the alley. He sketches out a rough diagram of a building, pointing out the features that he knows about. "There's a loading dock in back as well, but I don'T know how many people are back there. I try not to get too close to teh place as it would ruin my reputation with the other people of the Boardwalk. Any shady business the Mancini family are doing would most likely done on the second floor, out of sight of the normal guests."

Again Lenny looked up at Arrowhawk. "As the information isn't much, I'll give it ot you for free. Just my way of welcoming you back to the city. If you manage to do well enough, we start doing some real business."

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Arrowhawk nodded. "There won't be an if." He swiftly turned and fired his grappling hook upwards, disappaearing into the darkness above as he rolled and landed in a crouch. With practiced ease, he made his way over the rooftops and through the shadows towards the Mancini casino. Need to try to minimise contact with gun-wielding thugs, and find an access point. One without many people there, hopefully.

As he got to the building, he went straight to scouting it out. While he wasn't prepared to spend a few days planning one small raid, he still wasn't going to go off half-cocked. Making sure to stay out of the lights, he circled the building, scouting out second floor windows, the front door and the loading dock around the back in particular. Need to be careful here, innocent people get involved in these casinos. Yes, it's unsavoury, but it's not illegal to waste your cash of roulette tables and cards.

Skill Mastery in Notice and Stealth, 25 and 27 respectively. Would this scouting/planning qualify me to use Master Plan?
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Arrowhawk sets up on a nearby building and spends the next few hours checking out the building. At first glance, it seems that Lenny's information on the palce is right on. Two large guards watch the door and the people that enter the building. Neither have any visible weapons, but they are dressed in suits so Arrowhawk is sure that a small weapon could be hidden upon them.

Entering the building, he sees a few patrons, mostly well dressed men with a few women on their arms. He counts a total of ten people entering the building while he watches it. None exit the main entrance while he's watching.

After a while, he moves about the building trying to get a better feel of the location. The second floor has about three windows located in positions that he can enter fairly easily without being seen from the main entrance or anyone in the back. One is located on the east side of the building. From what little he can see, it opens into a bathroom. The second option is slightly north of the first window. This one seems to open into an unsued room. He can't make out what is inside it but there doesn't seem to be anyone inside. The last option for entrance on the second floor is on the west side of the building. It opens into a room next to one that seems to be a bedroom. Presently there is no one using it.

From the rear, which faces south, Arrowhawk spies three guards. One stands near a door while another paces along the loading dock. The pacer carries an assualt rife as he keeps watch on the area while the stationary man carries what looks like an uzi. The third man walks the small alleyway from end to end, watching the main road for any approaching cars. He doesn't seem to carry any visible weapons, but again, dressed in a suit like the men in front, Arrowhawk is sure that is armed.

A midsized truck pulls up to the loading dock and from out of the building, Arrowhawk spies three more men coming out ot unload the vehicle. Form his higher position, he is unable to get a look inside of the building, but he does hear voices of at least three more men. From the truck, the men unload five unmarked crates and take them inside. Once the crates are safely inside of the building, the guard at the door comes to the driver and hands him a thick brown envelop. The two men shake hands with the driver smiling widely as he checks the contents of the envelop before driving off.

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During his surveillance, Arrowhawk had been planning his raid upon the casino. His objective was to subdue all resistance before finding the ringleader for questioning. But there are civilians in there... he pondered. Crossfire could be dangerous.

He swung down from his perch, landing softly in a crouch. He doubted any of these thugs had the skill necessary to spot him. An arrogant view, perhaps, but it was true. The trick is to make them think the attack is from another direction. Perhaps from their loading bay, an area I'm not going to storm head-on. Heading in the front door will just alert them to my presence. Never good. He began to move towards the disused room's window. Smoke arrows. I fire them into the loading bay, both making it difficult to exit from that door and making them them think the attack comes from that direction. In the confusion, I head up and into that empty room, systematically subduing everyone inside with bludgeon arrows, aiming for head and groin to maximise the odds of taking them out in one shot.

He brought his bow out, and a smoke arrow. The arrow's tip, upon impact with a hard surface, would trigger an explosion of gas in a 100' radius. It took a minute for the gas to dissipate completely, and during that time he'd be in the building and dimming the lights. In the dark, they'll panic. I'm a figure of vengeance. In the light, I'm a man in a costume. Once everyone was subdued, he'd begin questioning people.

He ran forwards as quietly as he could, firing a smoke arrow into the loading bay and not even pausing to observe the huge cloud of smoke belching outwards into the sky. He'd grabbed his grappling hook from his belt and fired it above the window of the empty room, swinging up and crashing through the window. The grappling hook was quickly put away again in favour of a blunt-tipped arrow.

Crossing the floorboards, he kicked the door open and levelled the bow ready to fire at anyone in the hallway.

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Arrowhawk moved like quicksilver, his actions well cordinated and performed. It was only seconds before he found himself inside the building and in the empty room. Without paying any heed to his surroundings, he kicked the far door opened to reveal a corridor running north and south.

Unfortunately, the passageway wasn't empty. To the south, Arrowhawk sees about three women in party dresses. Two of which he remebers entering while he was watching the entrance. Just beyond them, the hero can see two men come into view with blaster pistols in hand. The women offer slight cover to these men as they are caught off guard by Arrowhawk's sudden appearance.

The hero takes a look to the north and sees three other men drawing their blaster pistols. The path to these three are clear but they seem to have been already in the corridor when Arrowhawk made his appearance. They are quicker to respond to his presence. It's clear to the hero that they are about to fire upon him. Just beyond the three northern men, Arrow hawk spies another door.

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The three guards to the north fired at Arrowhawk, hitting him.

The women screamed in panic and ran to the south, blocking the remaining two guards from getting a shot on Arrowhawk. The men end up pushing passed the women, unable to bring their weapons upon the intruding hero.

The women quickly turn the corner, leaving the area clear of just the combatants present.

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Again the men continued fire even as their comrade had dropped.

The northern gunman moved back to the door, increasing the distance between himself and the archer, before firing a shot just missing the hero. Now only 15ft of space was between Arrowhawk and the gunman. The doorway was just a few feet behind the lone guard.

The southern men moved forward as they continued to fire at Arrowhawk. Bullets continued to fly near the hero but fail to find their mark. Now they were 20ft from the archer and it looked as if they might give up trying to shoot him and simply overpower him with numbers.

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Even as he moved with the impact, Arrowhawk felt the bullet rip through his vest and bite into his shoulder, gritting his teeth to avoid shouting out in pain. It was all he could do to avoid the grasps of the men, hitting one of the men with a solid punch to the face. It wasn't quite hard enough to take him down, so Arrowhawk moved a few feet away to keep both the north and south attackers an equal distance away.

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The northern guard man smiled as he saw the slight facial change upon the hero. "He's hurtting boys!" he yelled in encouragement as he fired again at Arrowhawk but the shot went wide.

The remainig two men again moved in to grapple Arrowhawk, closing the distance further between the groups. Arrowhawk easily read teh movements of the first man and quickly sidestepped him. The second man, thinking that he had an opening, moved in for the kill, but Arrowhawk evade his assilant again.

Now Arrowhawk was within seven feet of the northern guard which limited the man's ability to use his gun. Moving closer would force the guard to join the melee.

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Arrowhawk moved passed the down guard and kicked the door in. What he saw was obviously an office of some kind. A desk took up the center of the room, a computer sitting upon it. Papers were strewn on the floor near the desk as if someone had recently rushed to empty it. Slight movement to his right draws Arrowhawk's attention and he just catches a glimpse of the bookcase closing on what appeared to be some kind of hidden area.

That was all the time he had to judge the interior of hte room as the two remaining guards rushed him from behind. Though manage to combine their attack perfectly, it still is not enough to get a hold on the hero.

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