xp_logs | Log: Remy/Wisdom

Backdated to the day prior to Remy's resignation.

While hunting down links to his dead agents, Remy comes across Wisdom in one of Shaw's concerns in Hong Kong. Their meeting, expected, doesn't end well.

Remy LeBeau crept catlike along the room, mostly obscured by the riot of neon lights and scaffolding that grew like technological kudzu along the tops of most of the buildings in Kowloon Bay. Fire had destroyed the oldest buildings; warrens of shops and apartments in chaotic squalor. But even the recent rise of new and bright shops along the bay failed to push back the seamier underbelly, and the bright new shops were quickly acquiring the familiar criminal patina of the old.

Remy had tracked Zashil Singh to Hong Kong, a place the man used as a clearing house for the goods he shipped through Laos. He was doing
business now with one of Shaw's creatures, whether a truce or transaction LeBeau didn't know. But he had tracked him down to an old complex, and watched from the roof as they went in. Security on the building was high, but no match for Gambit.

He eeled into the building and smiled from his perch on the roof. Below him, a spread of packed and unpacked technology lay arrayed. There were stacks of crates in all directions, marked with the bizarre sanskrit of the modern weapons market. Remy dropped down near the command centre, easily avoiding the guards. He worked his way around the floor until he got to what he wanted; a cache of high level explosives.

While not a demolitions expert in the traditional sense, LeBeau had a lot of experience with some of the more specialized elements of the
assassins business. He pulled out a slim roll of tools and went to work on the controls. A quick patch and he had himself a nice high yield explosive surprise for Shaw. Gambit smiled grimly as he stowed away the tools, but the expression was replaced with shock as he saw Pete Wisdom walk into the room.

Pete permitted himself a grim smile as he strode across the floor to the loading dock, ignoring the worried looks the guards were exchanging behind his back. Wearing the white suit had it's advantages, after all. As he reached the dock, a short man in a cheap suit jumped up to intercept him. "Mister Wisdom, we were not told-"

"Of course you fucking weren't." Pete snapped, not breaking stride. "I wasn't about to give you the time to cover your fucking tracks. Oh, and just in case any of you bastards gets any clever ideas about running away right now: I can kill everyone in this room by thinking hard, and they'll be the lucky ones. Any fuck with any clever ideas about making a run for it right now: I will find you, and when I do I'll make sure that you take weeks to die. So if everybody will just stand where they are, I can get this dealt with and maybe my associates and I won't need to be any more unpleasant about this than we really have to."

He lit a cigarette.

"Now, where're the fucking manifests?"

The short man paled, and then handed Pete a clipboard.

"Th-this is just today's, but I don't..."

"Either you're lying or you're very stupid. Someone in this building thought they could pull a fast one, skim a bit off for themselves. If you're really just stupid, then you might even get really lucky and keep your job."

Pete flipped sheets over as he talked, until he spotted one entry, and his eyes widened slightly.

"There. That one." He jabbed at it with a finger. "Show me."

Remy moved to his left silently. Wisdom kept turning, making it impossible to read his lips around the cigarette. The ambient noise was too high to hear what they were saying, but the intent was clear. He spotted Singh at the far side, talking low with another man and motioning towards Wisdom.

Obviously his sudden appearance was something of a surprise.

Gambit's patient silent steps had taken him close enough to the side of the building that he could slip up one of the braces, and he quickly lost himself in the shadows behind the lights. They were looking at papers on a desk by the wall. He tensed. If they moved away, he could get a hold of them, find out what Pete found so interesting.

Then he'd decide whether or not Wisdom should leave the island alive.

By now utterly terrified, the man lead Pete away into the stacks. "I can assure you that-"

"Look just shut up and show me the fucking shipment. Once I'm happy it's all there, you can show me the rest of the paperwork for it, and maybe you'll be able to continue your relationship with your kneecaps."

Suddenly, the little man stopped, looking at the shelf just ahead on the left.

"I-I don't- I-oh god- please-"

Pete scowled, as he stared at the empty space between two crates, then shot and arm out, and picked the man up by the neck.

"The rest of the paperwork. Right fucking now."

Now was his chance. Remy dropped down featherlight and snatched the pages, going back to the corner almost as fast. Even though Wisdom was
distracted, it was obvious that whatever he was looking for wasn't here any longer. Remy scrolled through the manifest quickly, easing himself further back.

Halfway down he found it. Z. Singh. Transhipped to Germany. Obviously someone had decided to make a little extra money and accidentally sold something that Shaw had plans for. Unfortunately for them, Wisdom had decided to take a personal interest. Remy grinned coldly. He tucked the pages carefully in his belt, and shifted the detonator into his hand.

And paused. Cain had talked to him about murder, and to set the bomb off now would be. Wisdom would be blown to bits, before he even registered the explosion. Great timing for a moral crisis, LeBeau thought, shaking his head. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't just kill Pete like that. At the very least, he should have the right to know he's going to die.

Remy put the detonator away and sidled along the rafters until he was at the right position. Three cards came easily into his hand. Three cards, across the lower back. It would hurt him, likely shatter his spine and leave him crippled. But he'd be alive, and Remy would have a shot at undoing all the damage Wisdom had caused. Remy forced himself to relax, charged the cards and let them fly in one sure, swift motion.

Pete was aware of a sudden warmth around his neck. Amanda's amulet from-- he didn't finish the thought, just threw himself to one side, as the cards sailed past.

"Of all the fucking times, LeBeau..." he snarled, answering with a spread of hotknives that the faster man avoided easily, but that did at least buy him time to bolt for a nearby door and out onto the street.

He sprinted down the alleyway, feet splashing in the puddles from last night's rain, weaving around stacks of boxes and piles of trash hoping to god he could lose Remy before anything went seriously wrong...

How he had dodged that was beyond Remy. He knew he'd made no noise, but something last minute had warned Pete enough to get out of the way. At least it made things a little easier. The professional in LeBeau decried the lost shot, but the man was glad that he'd face Wisdom on his feet. It felt cleaner that way.

The men scattered from the building as Remy pounded through the door and after Wisdom. There was no one next to his little surprise, with he triggered on the way out. The explosives went off with a 'thump', sending a wave of fire across the floor. The precious electronics, carefully stored weapons, and temperature sensitive chemicals were greedily gorged on by the flames, and many other smaller explosions followed the first, engulfing the warehouse floor. Whatever Shaw might have had in there was now lost permanently.

Wisdom was fast, but not faster than LeBeau who took a more aerial route over the piles of trash. He was further back, but closing fast. Too far to risk a card, but not for long. Remy concentrated on the man ahead of him, making sure not to lose him in a doorway or side alley.

Pete threw a hand out to his side, sheathed in energy, setting fire to a pile of trash as he ran past. Anything that made smoke, kept LeBeau's line of sight obscured. He ducked down a side alley, and then another, not expecting to lose his pursuer for a second, but maybe, just maybe he might manage something else.

Up ahead, he could see brighter lights, and the noise of a street market...

The smoke filled the alley, cutting off Remy's view of Wisdom. Height, that was what he needed. Remy reached up, caught the edge of a window and hauled himself towards the roof. It took every ounce of his preternatural agility to reach the roof, but it gave him a vantage point past the smoke.

Wisdom had abandoned his original path, and Remy cut diagonally across the roof, following the smaller side alleys. From the height, he had a clear view and caught sight of Wisdom at the end of a far alley, hurrying down another turn towards a bustling street market.

Remy's la parkour training wasn't wasted as he leapt from rooftop to rooftop, making his way towards the opening to the market. Being able to cut across the jumbled roofs earned him precious seconds, and he reached the end of the last roof just as Wisdom emerged into the open market square. Silently, Remy jumped from the building, plotting the sills and signs he'd use to cut his momentum and land behind Wisdom.

"No chance you'd be willing to fuck off and leave me in peace, then?" Pete shouted back over his shoulder, not stopping running, ducking as fast as he could into the market crowd, vaulting over tables, spilling produce everywhere. People scattered around and ahead of him as he piled headlong through the crush, hoping that the presence of so many other people would keep LeBeau from doing anything too rash...

The comment drew a slight smile from LeBeau as he followed. Wisdom was ducking and weaving, but that played directly into Gambit's powers. He edged a group of people, took a run straight up a ladder and threw himself high over the crowd. Pete cleared the stand of plastic toys just in time to have LeBeau stomp both feet into the back of his neck. Wisdom went sprawling as Remy tumbled sideways and to his feet.

The hot knife missed him by millimetres. LeBeau kicked up a toy from the ground and flung it at Pete, a nimbus of purple energy surrounding it. The older man ducked and went out under the stand and towards the road traffic on the street, leaving Gambit to try and catch up again.

"This'd all have been much easier five years ago" Pete muttered to himself. "Of course, if someone had told me five years ago that one of
the world's deadliest killers would try and do me in with an exploding plastic hippo, I'd have asked for some of their drugs..."

He dashed out between two cars, and rolled across the hood of a third, muttering curses under his breath, before taking off at a sprint down the road, ignoring the sounds of horns, and the cars swerving to miss him.

Remy followed Wisdom into the road, running up the hood of the first car that swung towards him and leaping to the next. The entire street
opened and unfolded to his spatial senses, trajectories and speeds feeding into his brain as he pursued Wisdom. It made sense. The more input Remy had to deal with, the more difficult it was to draw a bead on Wisdom.

"Dere's no running, homme." Remy called out as he cut across traffic, leaping on to the top of a truck that accelerated past Wisdom. He
tipped a set of the boxes out the side, lightly charged. They shattered and exploded as they hit, raining chunks of asphalt and flame around the cursing Englishman. He made a wild shot, the hot knife slicing out the axles of the truck, but LeBeau had already leapt from it; a long arc towards Wisdom.

Remy twisted away from the hotknife, but was moving too fast to avoid the kick that rattled his skull. He rolled as he hit, the second kick just brushing past his face. Remy landed a vicious liver kite on Pete, wrenching his face out of the way of the knife that shot past. A flare of them forced him backwards in a tight flip, giving Wisdom the room to get his feet under him and moving again.

Pete was off as fast as he could be. Hanging around people wasn't doing him any good, it was just risking too many lives. He dashed off down another alleyway, throwing a vast number of hotknives up at the fire escape on the side of one of the buildings, causing it to come crashing down behind him in a cacophony of steel and molten metal.

"Enough sodding about. Too much at stake here, Wisdom. You can feel bad later." he muttered under his breath, as he dashed toward the docks.

The side of the building nearly crushed LeBeau, coming to an explosive crash around him. The pedestrians scattered, which was a blessing. Wisdom was too damn dangerous to get distracted by civilians while fighting. Remy dusted off his hands as he watched Wisdom run.

"Dat's not going to help you." He muttered to himself as he started after him, but at an oblique angle. Wisdom could throw those damn hotknives anywhere, and Gambit's main defense was his agility. Stay high and fast; confuse him and hit where he couldn't guard. The rules officially were out the window. This wasn't a straight forward hero fight. This was two highly trained assassins doing their level best to kill each other now.

Wisdom sprinted down one alleyway, then another, and another, and another, twisting his route as much as possible, forcing LeBeau to take as difficult a route over the rooftops as he could. The raced on, each taking those shots with their powers that they could, forcing first one, then the other to dodge, or lose ground briefly. The puddles on the street reflected the red and gold light of their energy signatures, smashed to rippling fragments as Pete hammered through them, not slowing any more than he had to.

Finally, he broke free of cover, out onto the dockside, running along the quays, heading for the launch he'd left there earlier...

The Kowloon docks spread out like a mangled flower on the water; a slick of boats, people, and stacks of crates and refuse that built
up around the communities. Pete's sudden change towards it was obvious. Either he had someone waiting, or he had transport hidden in the
warren of boats. If he made it, even LeBeau's agility wouldn't be enough to follow him.

A spread of cards forced Pete to the right, and then again, pushing him back from the dock as the energy explosions chewed up the
concrete pier around him. He didn't need to turn, rolling away as Remy came down from his leap. The double stomp missed him, but Wisdom's return blow came up short as Remy cartwheeled forward, kicking Pete twice in the jaw as he did so.

Keeping Pete busy was the only thought on Remy's mind. Rattle Wisdom and deprave him the focus he needed to use his hotknives. A short
jab snapped Wisdom in the jaw, followed by a vicious forearm to the temple. Neither man was allowing the crippling shot the other was
looking for, but it would only take one mistake.

The bastard was just too fast. Wisdom wasn't slow himself, but he just couldn't match Remy's speed. And he really didn't want to cut loose with his powers, this time. He didn't want to hurt the man too badly, after all. But as he threw up block after block, and managed only a few good strikes of his own in response, he started to worry that that's what it would take.

LeBeau caught the inside of Wisdom's strike and pulled, yanking the Englishman off balance for a second. It opened him up for a vicious
kick that sent him sprawling to the beginning of the pier, with LeBeau now firmly between him and the boat. Pete's calculations hadn't gone unnoticed by Remy, and the separation was to give him warning on the hotknives. One of the weaknesses he'd catalogued was that Wisdom tended to use his hands to project them, which meant there would be a subconscious tie to their movement.

There was no talking. Professionals didn't trade quips in a deadly dance. Wisdom pulled himself painfully to his feet, chest on fire from the blow, likely a couple of broken ribs if he was right. LeBeau took his attention off of Wisdom for a split second, to toss a card into the launch Wisdom had docked at the end of the gangway. The entire pier shuddered with the explosion.

Remy drew three cards almost lazily, body and mind focused entirely on the other man. With a viperfast gesture, he drew back his arm.

Wisdom's hotknife was so far over his head that it couldn't have been a miss. He was aiming at something else. Remy looked up, and his spatial sense exploded. The hotknife had been for the joint of a crane holding a stack of goods above them. The same crane Remy had
used as the launch for the attack. Now the cargo was coming down in a shower of wood and steel, filling his senses.

Remy had once explained to Scott that his ability to dodge a bullet had nothing to do with the speed of the projectile. No one was fast
enough to dodge that. But what he was dodging was the speed of the hand pointing the gun and the finger pulling the trigger. His power
provided the path of the shot, allowing him to get out of the way even before the shot was fired. As he'd explained, under the right
circumstances or with the right weapon, there were times that you simply couldn't get out clean.

This was one of those times. There was too much falling too fast to avoid. Remy ducked left and tucked, avoiding the metal pipe that
smashed through the concrete beside him, but not the smaller crates. They slammed mercilessly into his back and drove him to the wooden
slats of the gangplank. More heavy canvas and rope followed, pinning him beneath the rubble.

LeBeau groaned as he shifted, feeling the debris refuse to move. He was trapped under the pile, and looked up to see Wisdom approach with
a speculative look in his eyes.

Pete winced as he felt his ribs gingerly with his left hand. "You should've just fucked off and left me alone. But we'll say this is for old time's sake, and if you're smart about it, we won't have to do this again."

He reached his right hand out toward Remy, fingers spread. There was a flash of red light, and suddenly the wooden dock gave way beneath Remy, tipping him and the debris into the dark water below.

By the time he had hauled himself painfully to the shore, Wisdom was long gone.