Nightly Activities

A week later Ibrahim had sent a message to Mariah requesting her assistance with yet another mission. There had been a string of attacks on some of his businesses and he felt Mariah would be a good fit to try and track down the assailant. From what Ibrahim could tell from those who weren't arrested or injured terribly was a single individual had begun to attack the outer fringes of his workers. From there he figured someone started talking and the assailant was climbing up the ladder. Rumor mill was the guy was looking for somebody involved in a mugging some time ago. They knew it wasn't a cop or one of the goody good heroes given the severity of the wounds...

Ray wasn't really a fan of this task. Most of their work had a finite amount of work but this one was going to require some legwork. Not to mention what this guy was doing to the underlings. There weren't any photos but those who were able to talk described him wearing a strange suit and wore a mask. And best of all wasn't afraid to use a gun or, oddly enough, electricity to extract information. This time he was informed ahead of time that Mariah would be joining them.

"Well at least she'll come in handy, SHIELD's pretty good at tracking people." He said. They had driven out to the grey quarters and found a quiet place to park. He figured Ibrahim wanted them on this job because of how close these attacks were occurring near Ibrahim's base of operations. "Well for the most part, you're not going to try and start anything with Mariah are ya honey?" Ray asked with a smile looking to his lovely wife.

OOC: Sorry, meant to include that James is the one thats tearing through Ibrahim's people trying to find the guy that hurt Mariah

OOC-I kinda figured that out lol. I'm assuming she isn't going to figure out it's him though since we want to keep the fact that she is working with Ibrahim a secret until she is caught later on when he sends her to kill Falcon.

OOC: I figured they'll come across a recent scene or maybe Mariah misses him. Also might get Ray hurt in a scuffle. This would also bring in Falcon because of the damage would catch SHIELD"S attention. Maybe Falcon starts sniffing around more in that area and Ibrahim uses Mariah to take out the known possible threat

OOC-My only thought is that I was hoping to drag this thing with Ibrahim and Mariah out a little longer in the general storyline (we could skip over most of it honestly) in order to make the rest of the Avenger's team aware that there is someone out there new to them that is working with him. That would cause much more drama when they realize it is actually Mariah.

OOC: oh no im sorry, i didnt mean for all that to occur now. I mean thats how Falcon starts to get a bit more involved is because of the slowly increase in activity. Tonight is just the spark is all. I'm not even sure if we want James or Mariah to see one another, like they keep missing each other in the chaos or something like that.

OOC-Ok, I got it now. As for James and Mariah seeing one another I would say they don't. My thought is that James is just as surprised about what Mariah has been doing as the others are.

IC-Mariah and James had stopped by the next morning to meet their nephew, Finn. The pair stayed close to one another to give each other emotional support and they even held him briefly. Mariah was genuinely happy for her Jayden and Zoe and it was strange to see how careful and gentle Jayden was with his son.

Alex, Andrew, and Steve were all worried about Mariah though. Since the attack she hadn't truly grieved. Instead, she held in her emotions like the trained super soldier she was. Those emotions were going to come out at some point and the three were worried about how she might react when that finally happened.

Mariah and James were both so busy lately that Mariah hadn't taken notice of James' night activities and so when she received the call from Ibrahim she had no reason to think it was him. James was out and so she sent him a text to let him know she was going out and would be back later.

Kiara sat in the car in the passenger seat next to her husband. She was dressed in all back, causing her flaming red hair to stand out even more. She eyed her husband when he teased her about Mariah. Kiara would never admit it, but she was jealous of Mariah. While Kiara was confident in her looks, Mariah was admittedly gorgeous and could fight like no one she had ever seen.

"I can't make any promises," she responded as Mariah's car pulled up.

James phone was tucked in his bag that he had hidden away some blocks away. At the moment he was sneaking into a building where a tipoff lead him. Inside was a money laundering business. Each place he hit he learned a bit more, unknowlingly he began to unravel a growing branch from downtown. But his target was involved somewhere and James wasn't about to stop hunting...

Ray looked to Kiara knowing his teasing would have caught her attention. Her mood was an easy button to push but his smile tended to keep him out of trouble..most of the time. Ray wouldn't admit it aloud but Mariah was an absolute stunner but he loved Kiara, not to mention her ability to change her appearance was appealing and kept him on his toes. Made it hard to even think about cheating if your SO could be the person you're hitting on after all.

Caleb saw Mariah's car pull up and just simply said what he and Kiara were thinking. "I dont like her." He said just barely loud enough for Ray to hear.

Ray sighed resting his head against the window. "Listen, i know i get it. But you're looking at our situation all wrong, you have to see her as just a tool. We use her so we dont have to do all the hard work. And when Ibrahim's done with her we wont have to deal anymore. So dont get your hair all matted up over it" Ray said. Though the tool metaphor stuck in his head a little longer than he meant. Caleb huffed and stepped out of the car and watched Mariah closely his eyes peering out from the strands.

Ray turned off the car having gotten a text from a buddy. "Looks like our target took the bait and is heading to the next stop. Guy's a bit of a moron, should be simple to take him out and move on with our evening." he said looking to Kiara. He began to get out to greet Mariah on the chill calm night.

Kiara wasn't stupid. She knew that her husband had a thing for Mariah. She could see it in his eyes when he looked at her. That strangely didn't bother her as much as knowing that Ibrahim had a thing for Mariah as well. It wasn't that she was jealous, but more that she thought that ultimately Ibrahim might be using her for the wrong reasons. She didn't want to put her own neck on the line just because her boss was trying to get Mariah to notice him without a gun in hand. However, if Ray thought that she was going to shape shift into Mariah's form and have sex with him then he had another thing coming!

Kiara glanced at Ray when he said that Ibrahim was just going to let her go once he was done with her. "You really think that? You know he has a thing for her, right? He wants her...on his team...in his bed and he's not going to stop until he has what he wants. He doesn't really strike me as the type of guy to just give up."

She looked over at Mariah as she got out of the car and was irritated to find her dressed in all black as well...and she managed to look better than her again! She gritted her teeth and practically growled at her before getting out of the car. Mariah looked at Kiara and then at Ray.

"Where is the target heading?"

Kiara's words aboutg Ibrahim stuck in Ray's head. He hadn't put two and two together of Ibrahim's interest in Mariah being romantic. He highly doubted Mariah would willingly bed with Ibrahim but that did raise an idea in Ray's mind. If Mariah were to play Ibrahim she could twist that to her advantage, and getting on Mariah's good side would no doubt benefit Ray and his. He heard Kiara growl soflty and thought of how difficult it would be to win over Mariah. He loved Kiara and had made requests in the past but man nothing could really beat his firey haired vixen with that accent...

And then he saw Mariah and that kind of challenged Ray's thoughts on Kiara a little bit. The girls are keeping the claws in at least he thought. "To just a flophouse, used for money laundering. Just down the street really, only a few people know about the incoming guy so if lucks with us they'll have put him down by now." Ray said leading them along. The gorup walked the sidewalk until they came to a brightly lit building. Its windows were long boarded up and only a few drifters were walking about at this time of night.

It wasn't until they heard some shouting from the inside that things didnt seem right. "There should be 15 guys here, should be able to handle it." Ray said pushing open the door. Immediately to his left he saw a body on the ground with what looked like a knife in his shoulder. His overly large body was still smoking, "Unless this guy took out the muscle what the hell?" Ray asked moving inside to look for the others. Judging by the sounds there was fighting deeper in the building.

James had dragged a villain into another room and pushed him onto the desk. Taking a screwdriver he picked up off the floor he slammed it into his hand pinning the mans hand to the desk. "Give me a name!" James growled under his mask holding a photo of the man that harmed Mariah. The other men in the building were still regrouping after the alst scuffle and James came across this poor guy in the hallway. He had to start asking questions and had little time.

Mariah continued to ignore Kiara’s looks and nodded a little to Ray. She wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible and get back home. She didn’t need James becoming suspicious of her activities. To be honest it didn’t really sound like she was going to be needed if there were 15 guys in the building. This guy didn’t stand a chance in such a one sided fight, but Ibrahim instructed her to be there so she was.

She took out her black mask and pulled it down over her face as they neared the building. Even from out on the street she could hear the chaos and yelling happening in the building. Something wasn’t right. She cautiously stepped inside and immediately found a dead body with what appeared to be a large knife sticking out from his shoulder. There was an odd smoke rising up from his body as well, but she couldn’t smell anything through the mask.

“What do you want to do?”, she asked, deferring to Ray.

OOC-Maybe in order for Mariah not to see James, since she would recognize his suit, the cops come and neither of them see one another in the chaos of everyone fleeing the building.

OOC: Oh forgot about that, yeah sure thing

IC:

Ray gently nudged the guy with the toe of his shoe but it didnt garner a response from him. "Well, maybe 15 guys isn't enough. You check the main floor and i'll check up top. Caleb you do your thing and Kiara you stay back a ways." He said not willing to put her in harms way. Along the outer areas it was obvious there was a heck of a struggle, strange scorch marks lined the walls from errant electric bolts..

Ray walked on pushing open a door finding a few more bodies, at least they were still moving. groaning obviously injured from various wounds. he leaned down and grabbed one of them and began to collect some information.

Before he could ask he heard someone yell in pain and the lights dimmed. Ray hurried up the stairs followed by Caleb. He pulled a gun and called out, "Whoever's in there best give up. We are not people to fuck with." He said with authority. The stairs simply led up to the 2nd floor where several offices resided. Stepped out into the hallway he began to follow the yells. Ray lifted his gun and approached one of the doors only to watch it be kicked in as James heard the approaching footsteps.

having gotten more information out the worker James felt it best to leave. Seeing Ray he lifted his gun up and simply pulled the trigger. Caleb's hair flew around Ray an in attempt to shield him but the bullet tore through the strands and struck Ray's shoulder. Ray yelled out in pain and fired wildly in james direction. The mutants eyes sparked seeing the hairs and knew who they belonged to so he immediately dodged and began to retreat. Ray fired until his gun went empty wracked in in too much pain to use his mutation. His left arm felt numb as the bullet tore into his shoulder.

Caleb pulled Ray back into cover and called down to the others.

OOC-I don’t have internet connection right now so I am having to type this out on my phone. Posts will be shorter due to that.

IC-As Ray and Caleb headed upstairs, Mariah remained on the first level. She checked the rooms systematically for anyone else who might be working with this guy but found no one. She was about to head upstairs when she suddenly heard gun fire and Ray yell out in pain. At the exact same time police sirens could be heard approaching the building. Mariah couldn’t be found here by the police. As Kiara ran up the stairs to find Ray, Mariah rushed out the door and down to her car.

Kiara ran over to Ray and she became upset when she saw he had been shot.

“What happened?!”

Ray gripped his shoulder in an attempt to stem the bleeding. "Some asshat in a weird outfit shot me!" He said trying to remain calm. His blood froze as he heard the sirens and Caleb wrapped his hair around him lifting him onto his feet, "We need to get out of here. I'll be fine, this entire place is hot." He said. The trio began to make their way down to the mainfloor hearing thoes sirens approaching.

Elsewhere James kicked out the window and leapt onto the nearby buildings fire escape taking his escape up onto the rooftops.

Getting to the door Ray noticed they were missing someone, "Where's Mariah?" He asked. Not out of worry or concern but out of unity. He didnt want any loose ends after all but it did sound like he was concerned. Caleb stepped outside but did not see any police cars arriving so they still had time to make their escape.

"We dont have time to look for her the police are getting close." Caleb warned.

Kiara felt a mixture of anger and fear when she saw Ray had been shot. It wasn’t lethal, but it would need to be dealt with by one of Ibrahim’s men. They couldn’t exactly take Ray to the hospital after all. Hearing the sirens Kiara knew they needed to get out of there quickly. She helped Caleb get Ray downstairs and didn’t care that Mariah wasn’t there.

“Bitch probably took off,” she said as they headed back to the car. “She’s an Avenger after all,” she added in a mocking, sarcastic tone. “I’ll drive. Caleb you text Ibrahim and inform him of the situation and tell him Ray is injured and we are on our way there.”

Caleb helped Ray along as they moved further and further away from the sirens. He didnt like that Mariah just abandoned them but he wasn't too surprised. She wasn't one of them afterall and he hoped Ibrahim wouldn't send her along with them after this. Their target got away and Ray got hurt, and whats worse he recognized that suit. Caleb felt guilt gnawing at him due ot his own failure to finish him off. But he didnt dare tell Kiara this for fear that she would send him away..

They got Ray into the backseat and Caleb did as he was told sending a message to Ibrahim. As Kiara began to drive Caleb received a voice message back from Ibrahim telling him to get back to base ASAP. "I told Ibrahim..he wants us back at base now. He didnt sound happy." Caleb said.

"Course he's not happy, this was supposed to be a simple thing. No one mentioned that the 'hero' has no problem packing heat and using it. The police are about to come across a big score of dirty money and we dont have anything to show for it." Ray growled holding his shoulder. "not to mention the Avenger went AWOL, that alone is going to irritate him."

As soon as Ray and Caleb we’re both in the car Kiara hit the gas and headed towards the base. From what Caleb said Ibrahim was pissed and she didn’t blame him. “I knew she was going to cause problems for us,” she growled in her Irish accent.

She drove fast and they were soon at the base. She jumped out and opened the back door to help her injured husband out. She helped him inside and one of the medical team members rushed over to take him. As Ibrahim approached Kiara glared at him. “That bitch took off and left us there!”

Ibrahim was not happy to find that the police had discovered one of t heir laundering locations. And this vigilante apparently was more dangerous than previous reports. He had gotten off the phone with their benefactor wasn't in the best of moods. Now he wasn't necessarily mad at Ray Kiara and Caleb but he wasn't a happy man.

Seeing Ray was injured did calm him a bit. He listened to Kiara mention that Mariah had taken off. "And i have a few loose ends to deal with and thousands of dirty money gone in a flash Kiara." ibrahim said in a neutral tone. "So..our new troublemaker escaped?"

Kiara took notice that Ibrahim didn't seem angry at Mariah for just vanishing on them and that made her upset. Especially since Ray was injured and she hadn't been there to help.

"Yes, he escaped all because Mariah took off. If she had stayed maybe we would have caught the guy. However, I doubt you are going to call her out on it," she said, boldly suggesting his attraction to Mariah.

Ibrahim heard Kiara out taking note of her little jab at the end. He melted away into sand and reformed behind her. "Are you suggesting something Kiara?" He asked as Ray was carted away. "Admitedly i'll have to pull on her leash a little bit for this. I still find her rather useful, meanwhile your husband seems to be a bit..damaged." Ibrahim said a warning in his voice. They were expendable in his mind but he had no plans of cutting them loose. After all from how Caleb expalined things by the time they arrived the building was already lost more or less.

"Once i smooth things over with my benefactor i may call upon you three again. Word to the wise that man that..eluded you is still out there." Ibrahim said walking over to another assistant who handed him a file. "Finding him and putting him down would look really good for you three."

Kiara's Irish temper was starting to get the better of her. She clenched her fists as Ibrahim all but threatened them. "You know exactly what I'm suggesting," she told him in a low voice. She began to reign back in her temper as she told herself that Ibrahim was funding the three of them. They were living better than they ever had and she didn't want that money train to end any time soon. She also hated that they had been bested by that man in the suit.

"We will find him and terminate him. I give you my word."

Ibrahim looked to Kiara hearing that temper flare up. He understood why Ray was often the one who spoke to him. But it seemed she remembered that her little group had a leash as well so he pardoned her little attitude. And it seemed she was going to redirect it towards their new friend. "Good, i'm sure our benefactor would appreciate that. Now if you'll excuse me i have a few calls to make and i'm sure your husband is missing you dearly." Ibrahim said dismissing her as he opened up a file and dug his phone out.

Caleb approached Kiara and quietly spoke up, "I've run into that guy before..' He admitted feeling it best to let her know now instead of later despite the tense situation they face

Ray was carted to the back and placed onto a bed where a night nurse did jobs for Ibrahim on the side of his usual gig. He immediately gave him a shot for the pain. Judging from the wound the bullet didnt leave the body.

As Ibrahim dug his phone out to make his calls he would see that he had a text from Mariah. The text read: "Building was compromised when we got there. Before the target could be apprehended the police arrived. I had to leave before anyone discovered who I was."

Kiara was about to walk back to check on Ray when Caleb suddenly approached her. She blinked when he told her that he had run into that guy before. She grabbed his arm and pulled him over to a more private area. "What do you mean you've run into that guy before? When did that happen?"

Ibrahim sighed as he walked on seeing the text from Mariah. He figured she fled for that very reason. His little resource would be of no use if she were to be caught but he didnt need Kiara attempting to spread some sort of rumor. He began to text Mariah back, "So i've come to learn. This new player will cause us some trouble and given the lethality of their methods i'd imagine he's not one of yours." IBrahim texted back

Caleb jumped with Kiara grabbed him and was afraid shew as upset with him. "I-it happened before we met Ibrahim. A-after you sprung us and i went for that walk and saw him." he said explaining the fight he had with the man in the suit. He had won but obviously ahdn't finished the guy off. "I got tired near the end and threw him off a second story floor. I thought that would have done it." He said. Not to mention the number of times he slashed the guy.

“I can’t say one way or another since I didn’t see him,” Mariah told Ibrahim in a text. “When he shows up again I will take him down.”

Kiara listened to Caleb as he explained how he had encountered the guy in the suit some time ago. She wished he had told them about this before now, but there was little she could do about it now. “Well he doesn’t exactly blend into the crowd and we now know about him. What doesn’t make sense to me is that he left all that money. He clearly wasn’t there because of that.”