X-Men Mission: Roller Derby Queen

[x-dominion.livejournal.com]

Fred Duncan calls in Garrison Kane with a strange request.



“Hell of a thing to do, Fred. It’s Saturday, the Jays play the Tigers in, like, two hours, and you call me into work. What, did the Cubs lose again or something?” Kane groused, walking along behind Fred Duncan through the field office. The slighter man said nothing, waving them through into one of the interview rooms.

“The Bureau just cracked open the Secret Empire, Garrison. Two task forces supported by the NYPD hit them outside of Albany about nine hours ago. We’ve got George Bannerman, Huey Martinez, Dave Kolchek – pretty much the entire command echelon plus most of the regular riders up on RICO charges.”

“Seriously? Shit…”

“Done bitching about getting called in now?”

“Yeah, yeah. Although, why are you calling me in? I don’t work gang cases normally.”

“Oh, there’s something that’s right up your alley.” Duncan flicked the switch for the one way glass, and it revealed a young Hispanic woman with green skin sitting at the table. “This is Martina Olmas, who is better known as Pain Jane, a member of the Gotham Long Harm of the Law roller derby team.”

Boggled wasn’t the correct term for the look that Kane gave his superior. It was closer to the ’are you completely insane’ realm. Duncan nodded his head.

“Yeah, I know. Olmas is a mutant – the roller derby league is underground. Full contact, no holds barred, and most importantly, all mutant. We picked up the team with the gang, and at least half of the girls say that they were forced to compete through threats of violence. It’s nasty shit, Garrison. She told us she’s seen people die during matches.” Despite his almost comically mild appearance, Duncan was tenacious and unrelenting when it came to criminal threats, and he could see the steel flash behind his eyes.

“Jesus. So bikers are running these teams?”

“According to her. They run the gambling and the gate, and the girls perform. Apparently there’s a big championship going on in Texas next week and they’re in it.”

“So, we’re going to break it up.”

“It’s not that simple.” Duncan shook his head. “It’s not just some illegal sporting event, Kane. It’s a damn organized crime convention. Martina heard Bannerman talk about a high level meeting between some of the largest gangs during the tournament. About an agreement between them for Kick distribution.”

“What?”

“Still wonder why I gave you a call.” Duncan sat down, tapping the glass with his finger. “Right now, Kick is fairly rare, and territory is fought over pretty viciously. If they can hammer out some kind of borders, they’ll be able to able to open the floodgates.”

“Fuck. If Kick starts getting wider distribution, mutant crime is going to skyrocket.” Kane groaned, knowing first hand the problems that the drug caused, especially ramping the powers of people who had no way to control them. The potential for collateral damage was staggering.

“I know. The Secret Empire has an invite to the meeting; turns out their team qualified for the semi-finals. But there’s no way we can ask them to go in for us. Half of them would end up turning on us immediately.” Duncan said, and Kane had a sinking feeling he knew what was coming.

“I’m going to take a shot in the dark. The Bureau doesn’t happen to have a team of well trained mutant women with a passion for roller derby on tap.”

“No.”

“But you think that because I happen to know a group of highly trained mutant women, I can somehow talk to them about taking the place of this team.”

“Yes.”

“I fucking hate you.”