Endgame

[meowminx]

WHO: Selina Kyle, Norman Osborn, and a surprise guest star!
WHERE: Dark Avengers tower
WHEN: Tuesday, Jan 5th
SUMMARY: Selina has one last plan for getting even with Norman Osborn. Unfortunately for her, Norman Osborn isn't a total idiot.
WARNINGS: Blood and violence and a very long fall
FORMAT: Para

This was it. Once she'd finished this last job, she was done with Osborn. And not a moment too soon. She was getting sick of this whole idiotic facade.

Osborn was off with another dinner with Sarah. As much as Selina appreciated the Skrull's willingness to help, she didn't like putting her in this situation. Some of the guilt for getting Teddy hurt still twinged in her gut. Still, at least she was handling the most dangerous part herself.

Dressed in a maintenance staff uniform, wearing a long blond wig and thick glasses, Selina made her way through the tower, avoiding cameras and residents with an unconscious ease. The security was tighter around the lab, but nothing that she couldn't handle.

It wasn't hard for Selina to find the armor. Iron Patriot. The pretentiousness of it was sickening, really. Plenty of things about Norman Osborn were. But the armor itself? She had to admit it was impressive. Maybe it could do with a new paint job, but it was quite the piece of hardware.

She approached carefully, cautious of any security measures. There didn't seem to be any. She stopped a few feet away, reaching out to trace the smooth metal lines with her gloved fingertips.

It had been a while since Selina stole something this interesting.

Comments

[osreborn]

He took a moment to breath, hissing in sharply as the pain ebbed away in pieces. Then Norman leaned out from the window briefly to examine the damage -- and make sure no fliers had come around to catch her. The last thing Norman needed was any more drama, and witnesses on top of it.

The damage on the sidewalk would probably have to be taken care of, it was suspicious. But not immediately. Norman had other things he had to take care of first. He couldn't tell if she was dead or not from this height, and because of that he needed to get the first word on the events that had transpired.

Norman's head was still throbbing, blood and adrenaline hammering their presence against his temples. The rarity of these moments made them almost more precious -- Norman could feel the Goblin's presence most strongly there, pulling him and urging him back towards it. It was dangerous in how satisfying it was. She had tried to steal from him -- tried or maybe even succeeded in sabotaging him, and he had broken her like an egg. Norman hadn't been planning on ending their 'partnership' quite this soon, all told, but things didn't always pan out to the letter.

He whipped out his communicator, making sure he was appropriately calm enough to detail his spin of events, before he got Hand on the line to replace the window.

[liverletdie]

Satellites watched everything. There didn't need to even be dedicated satellites for watching for Tony to keep his presence in them, and when sensors tipped off that there was a lot of damage happening over near Oscorp, his eyes were on it in an instant. He did not want another altercation like the last time, but he wasn't going to just let the other man keep at this game either.

Red flashed into his eyes, his mind, his awareness.

He missed where she came from, but the trajectory wasn't hard to calculate. From the building, shattered glass, and he was already changing his own flightpath, zeroing in on the prone body lying on the sidewalk.

Selina. It was so obviously her. Despite the blonde wig, he knew that face well enough, and his thrusters kicked into high gear, sonic booms echoing behind him as he went faster and faster, and then when he slowed down, they echoed back at him.

Swooping down, he kneeled next to Selina, not quite ready to touch her. He didn't want to hurt her if it would make her injuries worse, but he needed to get her out of here, get her someplace safe. The sidewalk in front of Oscorp was not safe. He started taking inventory of her injuries, monitoring her heartbeat and breathing. How did she survive the fall?

Why had he even come? He was trying to come up with every reason imaginable, but he had known it was a bad idea from the get-go. He had told her as much, but now she was paying the price of dating Norman Osborn. Hadn't he told her? If he were a petty man he would leave her, but he couldn't. Not like this.

"Selina? Oh come on, let me know you're alive, at least!"

[meowminx]

It took her a moment to register the voice, another recognize it. And the moment after that was when she realized she'd been holding her breath since before the impact. In and out, the exhale turning into a cough.

"Yeah," she muttered, pushing herself into a sitting position with her good arm. Her limbs felt far too light, rubbery even. The pain of her broken arm was faint and distant now. Part of her registered that that probably meant shock, which wasn't good. But it didn't seem that important.

Another cough. "Need to..." The thought drifted off and away as she tried to pull herself to her feet. Too much too fast; the world flickered and faded as she pitched forward, unconscious.

[liverletdie]

He reached out to catch her, the faceplate of the helmet popping up on a quick mental command to look at her with actual eyes. Despite the fact that the view was just the same as through the satellites, and through his helmet that it was through his own, it was still different. Perhaps it was just the fact that he wanted it to be, but he refused to acknowledge it. He constantly warred with the side of him that thought it would just be easier to succumb and become wholly the machine.

No, he wouldn't let that happen.

He lifted a hand, and opened one eye, examining it, mentally scanning, before he let it flutter back closed.

She needed medical attention. He knew she wouldn't want to go to the Hospital. They often asked too many questions, but when he reached around to try and pick her up, the glass was brought to his attention.

Dammit. He couldn't pull them out without the proper care. He picked her up gingerly, and held her in his arms, trying to avoid the shards of glass. Avengers Mansion. Much better than his damn penthouse, despite the fact that she was working for the enemy. He had a feeling that tenure wouldn't last.

[osreborn]

When Norman returned from his office -- out of his armor and in a nice clean suit, network post made -- he strolled by the broken window in order to head back to the lab, cleaning up the scene in there. He put his armor away carefully, placing everything exactly as it had been. Security footage had, luckily, been disabled in this area beforehand.

After he had taken care of the 'scene of the crime', he wandered by the window once more to clean up any glass that had fallen to the inside. His eyes flicked towards outside the window again, and then he frowned, darkly. The crater where Selina had landed remained on the sidewalk like the hole in the window, empty like the window pane.

Now, where the hell had she gone?