Operation: Jungbrunnen - Take Down & Surveillance (backdated)

[x-deadpool.livejournal.com]

Marie-Ange, Artie, and Gabriel set a trap for Kravinoff.


Marie-Ange set down her phone in the cupholder of the cheap (so cheap) 500 euro disposable, cheap used car she'd gotten from a salesman in Berlin. "The motel is as clear as we can get it. I owe Boris a favour, but a little one. Fancy dinner for his wife, or cover for him when he is taking out his boyfriend, something small."

She shrugged - Boris was crude and a little bit of an ass, but he also got most of a motel empty on twenty minutes notice for her. "Recon first - Gabriel, our target should be in room 203, but if he is out, we wait, and Artie pretends to be the front desk manager." She held out several little plastic card all on a metal ring. "From Cypher's little box of magic universal motel keys. Him, I do not owe any favours. It should be the brown one, this is a terrible motel."

Her phone dinged quietly, confirmation from Wade that they'd set up a meet with his arms dealer contact so they could collect weapons.

"Yeah," Gabriel glanced around, then took the keys from Marie-Ange. "Okay." He wasn't sure what he was doing here, exactly, except that Wade had gotten him to Germany by tricking him in some way that he would interrogate later when there was time. And when Wade was actually standing in the vicinity. (That they'd split up had seemed all too convenient.)

For now, though, the mission. Gabriel flipped through the keys until he held the brown one between his thumb and forefinger. "Well," he looked between her and Artie, then shrugged. "Back in a flash." After one step away, he faded into kind of a blur.

Artie watched him leave and shook his head. Speedsters. He stepped behind the desk and waved a hand to Marie-Ange, catching her eye. "Do you want me cover the windows? Keep a facade up so that it looks like business as usual in here while we're dealing with him?"

If Marie-Ange had intended to answer, the sudden appearance of Gabriel cut her short. "Took longer than I thought," he shrugged, "but he's not here." He handed the keys back to Marie-Ange. "Left a lot of cash in his room, though. People ought to be more careful about that."

"Yes, some nice bartender might take it as a tip." Marie-Ange held a hand out, as if to say "I know you took it, share." She glanced at Artie quickly, and then the windows, and his illusions coated them smoothly. "Support your neighborhood artist, give Artie money."

"Is that how you roll? Because that was not in the orientation talk that I wasn't given when I was kinda tricked into being here." Gabriel shrugged, then pulled a wad of folded bills from his pocket and just handed it to Marie-Ange. "Not my fault you guys aren't more enterprising." He crossed his arms as he glanced around, admiring Artie's work as he settled in to wait. "So now what? This is my first time at the rodeo."

A few hours later, entering the motel, Kraven paused slightly at the three in the lobby. It wasn't normally this quiet, but lulls could happen. He headed to the stairs without giving them much concern. He had a job to do and they did not matter.

"Did that just happen?" Marie-Ange said, from behind her out of date fashion magazine. "Well." She waited until their target went up the stairwell and dropped the magazine. "He is not nearly paranoid enough for his career. Artie, do you want to cover window exits or go in directly and I can block the windows? I suspect this one is a runner, if he loses a few kneecaps to you and a rifle while trying to go out a window, so be it." She shrugged a short jacket on, and patted the pockets. "I can block the door and hallway, if you or Gabriel can confront him directly, or Gabriel can keep the hallway clear if this Kraven runs?" She glanced at the speedster and raised an eyebrow - clearly asking "Are you okay with that plan?"

Gabriel raised an eyebrow back at her and frowned slightly, then looked back at the stairwell. He was quiet for a bit as he stared at the door, the gears clearly turning his head. "Okay," he said, sounding a little hesitant. "I think - I mean, if he runs," his voice sounded more sure, "I'll be able to catch him. Might as well try to head him off first, deal with the the hallway if we need it."

Artie nodded in agreement, already heading toward the door. He paused, turning back to Marie-Ange, asking, "How much force are you comfortable with?"

"I would prefer he not have knees anymore." She shrugged, with an expression of distaste on her face. "If you break his knees, well, he cannot help abduct people's friends anymore, can he?" It was possible Marie-Ange was very focused on Kraven's knees not working anymore. She would've blamed Wade, but he wasn't there. "Then we make him take us to whoever he sold out David to."

Artie nodded again, before snapping out the extendable baton he carried. This was awful but - North and they already knew he wouldn't talk otherwise. He followed behind him on the stairs and one, two, three. For a moment, Kraven's head was encased in blackness. Artie hit hard, baton cracking into the man's kidney and then grabbed him, slamming him around against the banister so that he could crack it down on his collarbone and right knee.

The sudden darkness was disorienting, which was of course its intent, but that didn't stop Kraven from defending himself. Without being able to see where his attacker was coming from, without hearing anything more than the movement of air, he was quickly defeated, crying out involuntarily as his knee gave way. The fuck was going on?!

"Hello, I thought you should be given a chance to surrender before..." Marie-Ange ducked a punch from Kraven as she came in along side of him. "I suppose no then?" The stairwell grew dark, walls of heavy rail and wood climbing out of nowhere to block ahead and behind them. "Facade? Ga... ah, merde, you need a codename, you both heard me offer, yes?"

"Yeah, yeah, let's be theatrical." Gabriel rolled his eyes. He'd been hanging back, since this wasn't exactly his way of doing things, but right now he was part of a team. And so, before anyone could say anything about it, he appeared behind Kraven and gave him a knee to the back.

"Fucking mutie bitch," Kraven spat, glaring at all three of them as best he could. "Should have died with the others!"

"And he complains about me being theatrical, when the gun for hire is loud and racist." Marie-Ange shrugged, and slid another card out of her purse. The crowbar that popped into her hand had all the weight of a real one, but was already smeared with red. "I really do not have time to persuade you nicely. You tell us where you took the German man you were hired to assault, and I will not beat you to death while my gentlemen friends hold you down."

The woman got her hands dirty? She was clearly in charge. Interesting. Weighing his options, Kraven made a decision. "In the phone. A text message."

That was almost too easy. But then - it was a rusty, blood-smeared crowbar and Artie and Gabriel were being as menacing as they could. Marie-Ange pulled the cheap burner phone from Kraven's pocket and then wiped her hands on her pants. "Oh. Oh, this was on Cypher's list too." She flipped her own phone out and texted out the address. "Facade, zip-ties please? I trust this man as far as I can throw a small elephant, he is coming with us. If it is an ambush, Mister Kraven here can become a... what is the word, a meat shield?"


Having relocated to be closer to the facility Kravinoff provided, Gabriel, Artie, and Marie-Ange set up surveillance.


Gabriel was trying to be a good sport. Really. But he was starting to get the feeling that Wade had purposefully obscured details of this mission from him, because this was all sounding progressively more complicated than rescue.

He was lost in that thought (and several others) for a bit before he noticed that Marie-Ange and Artie were staring at him rather expectantly. "Right, sorry. So – run this by me again? We've got these little cameras," he glanced down at his gloved hands, which were holding one of the gadgets in question. "And I need to put them places. Where places? Any places?"

Artie could have gone for the sarcastic response but he'd been Gabriel not so long ago. He tapped the table twice, catching Gabriel's eye and pointing at the the blueprint of the building before tapping a wall where an image of a camera appeared, grey shading crossing an area roughly 40 degrees wide. He tapped again, and again, showing the way the fields crossed over as he placed more cameras. He gave a final smile and pointed to the doors, windows and roof access, showing how they needed to be covered before raising his eyebrows, pointing carefully at Gabriel and mouthing understand?

Gabriel couldn't help the unamused look he shot Artie's way. "Yeah, fine. No need to—" He stopped himself before making a stupid joke about Artie's tone. "Enjoy the R&R. Just gonna go for a quick lap or 40." With that, he was gone.

"I like him. I will not even have time to play Bejewled on my phone before he gets back!" Marie-Ange said. "We should keep him."

"u only say that bc he makes u look like a slackr" The text floated across her field of view while Artie tapped at the laptop, tracking the cameras as they came online.

"He can place, you have, two dozen cameras? Yes? In the time it takes me to log into Doug's secure network and send him texts with our location. He would be a remarkably useful asset." All business until the text faded, and then Marie-Ange did tap out a series of texts on the burner phone in her hand. "He makes all of us look like slackers and he does not wear neon sports bras, unlike certain other members of our team."

With a slight whoosh, Gabriel reappeared. "Ugh," he wrinkled his nose, "sorry. That took forever, but like... it's done."

"See?" Marie-Ange was so delighted it almost showed on her face. She pulled another larger phone from her pocket and tapped out a longer than usual passcode on the screen. "Slackers, all of us. That would have taken me ages." She tucked the stylus from the phone-tablet-device in her mouth and used her free hand to send out a series of texts.

[Cameras online]

[G still needs a codename]

[Cypher you should have visual before all my txts get through]

[Confirm once you are enroute]