nextgenerationmarvel | The Hit(men) Just Keep Coming

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The Hit(men) Just Keep Coming

It took a bit of scouting to find a rooftop with the right vantage point for the job he was employed for. One Marcelo Alencar da Silva had a big price on his head. Bullseye meant to collect on it. He had been contacted by Assassin Nation after one of the regular stable of killers failed.

The man dressed mostly in red wasn't the first one to have this moniker, but he planned on doing better than his predecessor. He set up his rifle on a rooftop a half mile away from the mark's penthouse apartment. Bullseye sniffed at the hot New York City air as he sighted the killzone. There were very soft metallic clinks beneath his flowing red overcoat.

He had strict instructions to leave the mark's wife unharmed. As she was a mutant, Bullseye figured distance would be the best buffer he could use when he blew da Silva's brains out. It gave him a chance to prepare at worst or the time to disappear at best.

He chambered his specially designed cartridge. Bullseye looked down his telescopic sight and waited. The happy newlywed should show up soon. The assassin had seen the mark's wife pass by the killzone not too long ago.

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After he got stitched up and made a large cash donation to the clinic, it was time to get food. Marcelo let Stephanie drive since he was still a little loopy from the pain meds. The whole not operating heavy machinery sounded real good, so he knew he was not supposed to drive. They picked up Ethopian food and headed home.

"Querida, I have something to ask you when we get home," Marcelo said without preamble a couple blocks from their building. Even if he could put the pair of them in a silence bubble, someone could be out there reading lips. With what he had planned a little paranoia was called for. "And I promise it's not about taking the last cookie. Though maybe we should order some ice cream donut sandwiches to be delivered..."

Stephanie had been very quiet most of the ride home, clearly a lot being in her mind. She was half-starved, but she barely noticed her stomach growling. The horrible feeling of knowing her husband had been hurt by someone hired by her father was giving way to cold rage. Had the man presented himself in front of her, she would have been sorely tempted to kill him.

"... yes, sorry." She replied, trying to cast her attention back to him. "Ice cream donut sandwiches. And talking. Yes."

Edited 2014-10-17 01:51 (UTC)

"You're going to walk fast when we get out of the car, aren't you?" He knew Stephanie's habits. Particularly when she was a bit too thoughtfully quiet.

"You'll have to give me a piggyback ride while I hold the food then."

"... probably. I'll try not to." It sounded like Stephanie was going to laugh for a moment, but it seemed to die in her throat. She wasn't in much of a laughing mood.

When she had parked the car, she remained there silently. It looked like she didn't know whether she wanted to cry or destroy something more. After about twenty seconds she pulled herself together enough to get out of the car.

He quietly waited in the car with her. He wasn't sure what that look on her face meant. If she was going to cry, he wanted to be there to comfort her. If she was going to destroy something, he needed to know where the blast radius was going to be.

When she moved out of the car, he pulled himself out and grabbed the bags of food. He straightened up with the bags crinkling in his hands.

"Come on, Stephanie. Let's get home." He paused. "And maybe get you a hug, too."

Stephanie nodded. "Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything crazy. Yes, let's get home." She looked at him, suddenly feeling a little ashamed of herself.

"How are you feeling?"

She went to grab the door, so he didn't have to struggle with that and all the food.

"I'm fiiiiiine." He gave her a big toothy grin. In fact, his side still hurt a little. But it wasn't so bad he couldn't ignore it.

When she got the door for him, he sketched a bow. "Milady."

He went inside and used his butt to hit the elevator button.

She was pretty sure he wasn't quite as all right as he was acting. But he wasn't keeling over either. As they got into the elevator, she kissed him impulsively.

"If you need anything, you tell me. No ignoring your needs, okay?" Stephanie looked at him seriously for a moment. "The least I can do is pamper you a little." She couldn't help but smirk just a tiny bit at him using his butt to hit the elevator button.

She leaned against him the rest of the way up.

"Yo' hubby got back," he announced at the successful butt button push of 2012. He took in a breath and looked at Stephanie.

"One of my biggest and primary needs is to make sure you're okay. I have to look out for you and your happiness." He shifted a tiny bit. Though he was careful not to move away from her. "You've had a whole lifetime of no one doing that for you."

"He does. A very nice one, too." Normally, she'd be tempted to grab that 'back' as if to demonstrate, but she cuddled up to him generally instead.

"I'll be okay." Stephanie replied. Using the present tense would have been a lie. "I feel the same way about you." Again, she'd normally poke him or something, but that felt inappropriate. "Love you." She finally murmured, staying close to him for a silent moment or two before the elevator door opened.

He was touched Stephanie felt the same way, but he would never admit his childhood was worse than hers. Despite the one horrific event in it, he had grown up surrounded by people who loved and supported him.

He placed a soft kiss on her temple. "I know. I love you, too. And trust you."

He nudged her toward the open elevator door. "Which is why I think you need an outlet for all this. And I think I have one."

She'd grown so used to simply dealing with her childhood as it was that it was hard for her sometimes to acknowledge just how awful it had been. She'd never been materially deprived, but certainly, everything else.

"I trust you too." Stephanie murmured softly, but then when he mentioned something about an outlet, her interest perked up. "... when we get inside, I want to know all about this."

She had a feeling about what he meant. Or perhaps it was more of a hope.

He went inside their penthouse and headed straight for the kitchen. He set the bags of food on the counter.

"So, the food can wait a few minutes more." Marcelo turned around and offered his hand to his wife.

"Since the Hellfire Club... thing, I've been working on something." That was always how he referred to what happened at the Hellfire Club soiree. It hadn't been quite as devastating for him as it had for her, but there were parts that still made him ache.

"I know I can't take on your father. At least not on my own."

Stephanie took his hand, curious to see what he was working on.

When Marcelo started talking, she listenedd. No interjections, no sassy comments, just listened as her heart started hammering. She remembered that ... thing, all too well.

"No, but there are a lot of people who want him taken down. Good people, bad people. People we would be happy to work with, people we might fear in their own right."

She looked him in the eye. "Let's bring that bastard to his knees."

"Lots of people, but very few of them the right ones to do the job," he commented as he lead her to the stairs to the lower level. They had to walk through Stephanie's gym as well as their storage rooms to get to a a part of the building Marcelo had never converted from an apartment. It was accessible from their side as well as a hallway left to keep appearances that this floor was still apartments.

He opened the door; the room beyond whirled to technological life after sensing it was him. Massive screens with information on Shaw and his known lackeys, maps, camera views, and so much more blinked on.

Marcelo gestured to the room. "I asked Sage to help me. We're looking for a few trustworthy people to help us. Interested?"

Stephanie couldn't help but agree with that one. There were a great many people who wanted to see Sebastian brought down, but how many of them were trustworthy? When she walked into the door, though, it took a moment just to stop and stare.

"... yes. More than interested." She replied. "How long have you been working on this?"

"Since that night," he admitted after a pause. "I left the... thing and headed straight for a meeting with Sage. Which was balanced out by my own stupidity not long afterwards."

He stepped up behind her. He cleared his throat to move the explanation along. "I have no interest in your father dying. Since that doesn't seem to stick anyway. He wants superiority; he'll see I'm the one still standing while he has nothing. I do want your father to lose all his power, prestige, money, and lackeys." Particularly Crane.

"Everything but his life will be taken from him. And his business should go back to someone who deserves to have it." Namely Stephanie.

Stephanie looked at the screen for a moment. She didn't know quite how she felt about it being secret- she understood why of course, but feelings did not always subordinate themselves to logic. She shoved them aside, though, because there was work to be done.

"I ..." There was a part of her that wanted him dead. But she knew that was the part of her that was from him, dark violent urges that only came out every once in awhile. Just enough to make her doubt herself.

"Yes. It's better to take everything away from him than to kill him. Though he'll seek revenge." She looked at the screens for a moment. "Most of the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle are chomping at the bit to dethrone him. Weaken him in any appreciable way and they'll turn against him decisively, whether it's with us or parallel to it.

Shaw Industries's biggest manufacturing plant is in Pittsburgh. It's by far the largest industrial employer in Pennsylvania. And I don't even know how many senators and congressmen he has under his thumb in DC. Until his web of political contacts is destroyed, he'll always be able to bounce back to his place in society."

"Of course he'll seek revenge." Marcelo sounded like that was a foregone conclusion.

"I don't want much or anything to do with the Inner Circle. That game of thrones has already hurt us too much." He took a breath. "Though there is one person that's was Inner Circle but is not on the Lords Cardinal that Sage suggested I talk to."

His brow furrowed. "Well, having a politician under your thumb is often contingent on that politician being elected or not having a scandal crop up. With Sage, we can dig up the latter." The former would require more careful thought.

He swallowed. "I didn't know if I should even show you all of this. I know there's... complicated feelings as he's your father."

"There were." Stephanie replied. "But especially after tonight, my feelings got a lot less complicated." She reached out and took his hand. "When he was the only family I had ... it was different. But I have a family now.

I'm assuming you're thinking of Emma Frost? If so, then you should. She has reasons to go after him."

She squeezed his hand softly. "I need him out of my life, father or not. We'll never be able to really, truly move on until he can't terrorize us. Sometime, not now, but in ... maybe not too long from now, I'd like us to start a family. But I don't think that's possible with him looming over us like this."

"Yes. Ms. Frost. I can also talk business with her since whatever I have with Shaw Industries runs out at the end of their contracts. I'm not renewing any business association with the company until it's back under your control." Considering Brazilian business law, his company offered foreign companies a way to get into the booming Brazilian market. Shaw would be cut out where Frost could step in.

He looked down at their held hands and back up to Stephanie's face. His mouth went a little dry and his heart started hammering at the mention of starting a family. "We can do that. All of it."

He was also not one to deny Stephanie anything.

"Those contracts are important, too. I know from when I was on the board. They were also valuable because they deflected attention from just how much dealing he does with the Russians. And you know how popular the Russians are these days."

Stephanie looked up at him, and she could feel her heart beating faster too. "You're going to be such an incredible father. One day." She let out a small nervous chuckle. "Not right now, I swear."

"Those contracts were made because you were there, and we could trust you in our dealings." He grasped onto the business talk to keep the outright fear from having children close his throat off. The life he swore to live on his mother's grave put any children in a precarious place of losing a father.

He let out a breath. "Oh. Good. Alexa Stark just had a baby. Good to know it's not in Manhattan's water."

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The Hit(men) Just Keep Coming

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