alnifolia | OPEN POST;

[ The knife skitters towards Peter when Hock drops it, and he doesn't even pause -- he stomps on it, shoves it to the far corner of the room away from Hock. The man himself is drawing a gun from the holster beneath his coat, sending Peter an outraged look. ]

Imbecile! She'll kill us both if you don't help me.

[ But Peter ignores him. After that little exchange, Peter's pulse had pounded his ears, tinged his sight red. He hasn't been this angry in a long, long time. He had been so careful to keep his lives separate. He'd been so careful to keep a little private part of himself, where he could pretend he was still the little Petey Quill that his mom raised, that he hadn't turned himself into a fucking monster who didn't blink at the trail of bodies he left behind him.

Then Hock went and smashed down the barriers he had built. Reminded him of the family he'd left behind and the lives his lifestyle risked.

Star-Lord does not appreciate it. ]

Listen. I'll pay you double. [ Hock's nervousness, his fear, is showing through the longer Star-Lord's mask stares at him, terribly impassive and silent, the longer Kasumi stays clocked, hidden somewhere in the very same room. ] What I said earlier? A bluff. And consider the records on your background erased, my good man. Just keep me alive and I'll see to it you have everything you could want.

[ Still, Peter stares at him, watches the man squirm. Sure, Goto could turn on them both -- and in a way, he still kind of expects it to happen, that once she gets her revenge on Hock, she'll cloak and literally stab him in the back, too -- but he's getting a sort of satisfaction from watching Hock sweat. He deserves it, threatening his family the way he did.

He also deserves it when Peter steps toward him, drops Kasumi's Phalanx to the ground (sorry, man), and grabs Hock's wrist. He squeezes, pressing just so against the pressure points Yondu had taught him. The gun drops from Hock's hand with a clatter as he screams, as Peter twists, and then he shoves Hock into the chair Kasumi had recently vacated.

Peter grabs the man by the collar. ]

You will not touch my family. Do you hear me? [ His voice is low, almost a growl, something heated and animal and oh, so angry. Hock tries to get a word in, tries to reassure Peter again he was merely bluffing, but Peter yanks on Hock's collar then slams him back into the chair so that his head smacks against its back. ] You will not get that chance.

[ He steps away to press his back against the door, blaster trained on Hock in much the same way it had been trained on Kasumi only moments ago. The statement is easy enough to discern: this is the only way out, and it's through me. ]

[ (oh my god you did not just drop my favorite pistol to the ground.)

After all that, Kasumi reappears beside Hock and the chair, her hood safely back to its usual position, her arm draped casually across the back of the chair. Quill's knife in hand, she gladly reciprocates Hock's earlier act and uses the tip of the blade tilt his chin up so that Kasumi can properly glower down at him. ]

Did you really think you could buy a man back after threatening his family like that? Tsk, tsk, Hock. But you know, desperation suits you.

Also, taking my hood off? Not cool.

Playing the role of scorned lover is beneath you, Kasumi. If I had my way, I would be making sure you felt twice the pain that Okuda ever did before you die. His death was merciful--

[ No, it wasn't. He dug his knife into Keiji's skull and carved out an opening to personally pull the graybox out with his own hands. She presses the knife into his skin, letting it draw blood. ]

If you were hoping to get off on seeing me cry while you talk about Keiji, then you, sir, are horribly mistaken.

[ She moves the blade, now holding it at Hock's throat, and casts Star-Lord a glance. ]

If you would be so kind and hand me the gun you so graciously dropped, Star-Lord?

[ For his part, Peter slides the toe of his boot beneath the Phalanx, tosses it up to catch in his free hand. He flips the gun so he's holding it by the barrel, so that Kasumi can take it by the grip.

All this done silently, of course. At this point, he's only here for the intimidation factor. ]

[ She nods at Peter gratefully, taking the gun and pressing the end of the barrel flush against Hock's head as she retracts the blade on Peter's knife. ]

Unfortunately, I don't have time to do this the merciful way, as you would say.

[ Also, long and excruciating deaths isn't her style. In fact, killing isn't much in her style, but for Hock? She'll make a special exception. ]

You'll never get out of here alive.

[ She grins at him. ]

Please. You know better than most that I always do.

By the way, this pistol? Stole it from your armory on Illium. Now that's what I call poetic justice.

[ And at that moment, Hock opens his mouth to retort, but it's too, too late, Kasumi dispenses a bullet into his brain, the spectacle of which is quieted by the silencer on her pistol. ]

[ Peter waits, listening in for any alarms that Hock might have been able to trigger immediately before his death. Seems they lucked out, for now, but Hock does, at least, have a point -- it's going to look suspicious if they leave without the man in question.

Worse still, is that Peter knows how headshots work -- it's never quite like it is in the movies. The bullet doesn't always exit through the back of the victim's head -- and if it does, it's with a giant splatter of bone and brains and blood. Messy as fuck. Failing that, a bit of blood can burst out from the point of entry, splash on you if you get too close.

With Hock dealt with, Peter's anger drains away, leaving his voice neutral. Professional. ]

Did you get anything on you?

[ she retracts her Phalanx ~~because mass effect guns~~ and promptly holsters it with a shrug at Quill. ]

A little bit. But probably plenty more where that came from. Security won't be too happy when we come out, yeah?

I'll need to break into his quarters to arrange your payment. [ and to gather what she needs to break into his vault. ] If you want to wash your hands clean of this past this point and keep your rep intact, you should leave.

[ Peter gestures up to the ceiling with a twitch of his head. ]

No cameras in here. If you haven't noticed, the shit Hock gets-- sorry. The shit Hock got up to in here, he obviously didn't want to leave any evidence of it. Suspect sound dampeners, too -- don't want the mics in the next room picking up what happens in here.

So I walk out. You cloak and follow close behind me. That shouldn't draw any suspicion. If you're as good as they say you are, and if Hock's as much of a twisted fuckstick as I think he was, you probably have an hour to do what you've gotta before anyone suspects something's wrong with the boss.

But once we step outta here, you're on your own. Get me?

Please. Remember who you're talking to. One hour is plenty enough.

[ With her gun holstered, she holds out the other hand to return his knife. ]

And don't worry. My lips are sealed about--you know.

[ His secret identity. Kasumi really has no business getting on an assassin's bad side, and she has nothing to gain from dispensing that bit of information, anyway. ]

[ He takes the knife and hands her back the Shuriken. He's turning towards the door when he catches what she says, and--

His shoulders go rigid. He's still pissed that Hock managed to figure him out -- and he has no fucking clue how. He had thought Yondu was the only one who knew, and as far as Peter knew, the man had no reason to blab.

Peter turns back toward her, both of his blasters holstered. ]

If I asked you to wipe all of his hard drives clean, how much would you charge me?

[ She responds almost immediately; after all, he's not the only one who had something compromised by Hock during all that. ]

Free of cost, if you forget that you ever saw what I look like.

[ There's no hesitation on his part, either: ] Done.

[ Didn't matter to him, either way. She was pretty, but he doubted the knowledge of what she looked like would help him, in the long run. He turns, to the door again. ]

Remember: you've got an hour. Maybe less. You're on your own once we're out of here.

You don't have to tell me twice, Star-Lord.

And--for what it's worth? Thanks. For this.

[ --just since Kasumi may be a thief, but she's not a total asshole. In any case, the moment they finally open the door to leave, she begins to cloak, and by the time Star-Lord has stepped through the threshold, it's like she was never there.

In the next hour (maybe less), she manages to infiltrate Hock's private quarters by tapping into his security's comm channel, and the first thing she does is hack into his private terminal, siphoning funds from his various off-world accounts (so as not to set off red flags by suddenly taking a huge chunk of money out) and funneling them into the account her would-be assassin specified, first, before taking some for herself. Then she wipes his hard drives of anything to do with Peter Quill or Star-Lord. She wipes any mention of Keiji's or her grayboxes, too, so no one gets the same idea if they come looking through Hock's files. She ends up taking data, though, mostly inventories and locations of Hock's various caches.

After that it's a quick waltz back to his vault's entrance, and she has everything she needs to enter. She'd already cut the power to the laser grid on the way to Hock's quarters, already had a sample of his DNA from--you know, being up close and personal when she killed him--and she already has the password and a recording of Hock's voice from his little spat with Quill.

(The day's password is akai bara, which Kasumi immediately recognizes as Japanese for "red rose," which is no coincidence in the least.)

So getting through the vault is easy. Finding the graybox inside the vault was easy. Getting out? Was fun. By then the mercs had noticed that something was up, and of course the first place they went looking were the exits from the vault.

Unfortunately for them, Kasumi has flashbangs. And a really convincing decoy. And an omni-blade. And also, the gun that killed two presidents, which she'd just stolen from the vault. And she hacks into a couple of their mechs, too, just for fun.

And her getaway vehicle? Hock's very own gunship. Yeah, they don't fuck with her after that.

The moral of the story is, Kasumi Goto is just fine on her own and with a little under an hour. There certainly would have been an easier way to do this, probably, if she enlisted someone else's help and infiltrated the joint at Hock's next soiree or something, but at least this way she's done away with Hock for good and crossed paths with a certain infamous assassin. ]

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OPEN RP POST ① Pick a character ② Pick a prompt (or DIY) (shamelessly and selectively pilfered from bakerstreet's Random Scenario Meme) ③ Do the thing!. table code by betterdolphin