The Hit(men) Just Keep Coming

[ngm_assassin]

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.

Comments

[pyroprincess]

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?"

[vesper_verde]

"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.

[pyroprincess]

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."

[vesper_verde]

"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."

[pyroprincess]

"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."

[vesper_verde]

"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.

[pyroprincess]

"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."

[vesper_verde]

"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."