2012-12-28 A pretty strange world we live in

Montreal, Quebec

There are points when the SHIELD and X-men venn diagram come together and members of the team either step on each other's toes or work together. On example was Latveria. Another example is today.

For months, SHIELD has been tracking an Asad Abdul-Khaliq. He's a mutant extremist and an assassin by trade. He's able to, literally, blend in with the shadows making him a hashashin the middle age Syrians would have been proud of. Late in the day, a message goes out that Abdul-Khaliq is working on a job in Montreal. It's not clear but the Prime Minister is meeting with Quebecois representatives and it is felt that that might be the target. Liz Sherman, agent on duty is sent to deal with the task.

Likewise, Cyclops of the X-men gets sent by his superior, Professor Xavier, as Abdul Khaliq is picked up from Cerebro. Cyclops, also known as Scott Summers arrives shortly before Sherman and has been able to track the mutant down into an abandoned parking lot not far from the governmental center. The meeting has gone late into the evening, giving Cyclops some good cover with his dark suit.

But not good enough. Abdul-Khaliq sees him and begins to fire rounds from his semi-automatic handgun. Cyclops dives behind a car.

Quebec.

Anywhere north of the border, Liz Sherman wasn't tremendously fond of. It wasn't so much the people or the culture or anything like that. But more the sheer, gripping cold that can linger about these places in winter. Not that she can talk too much about that, being a New York sort of person, but still. There was a need for an agent in Quebec, and beyond the usual protestations, Liz wasn't going to fight orders. Overmuch.

Didn't mean she had to like it.

So here she was, wearing a scarf around the lower half of her face, the rest of her body covered with a black trenchcoat worn over a 'festive' holiday sweater that was thankfully hidden behind the closed trench and a white blouse, heavy black pants, and combat boots. And a holster, with a gun, of course.

She had been tipped off about this meeting, and had shown up, with the intention of just listening in, but, well. It looked like she wasn't the only person to this particular party. And then come the sound of bullets. Liz bites back a curse, flattening herself against the wall and fumbling with her coat a moment as she glances out from the cover of the alleyway she was in.

There was Asad. Gritting her teeth, Liz steps out from the cover of the alleyway, and starts moving to a car that would provide cover from Asad's position, likewise squeezing off rounds at the assassin. She wasn't a /bad/ shot, but nothing in the leagues of, well... half the SHIELD agents, so she was likely to miss. But hey. She could get lucky, right?

Sherman's rounds bounce all around Abdul-Khaliq, narrowly missing his face. He looks up, shocked, and suddenly goes defensive. He backs up a step, enveloping himself in the shadows of the parking garage.

"Thanks for the assist," Cyclops says as he pops up from behind a Volvo. "You SHIELD?" he asks, a realistic assumption since they'd be the most likely group after this international terrorist. "See which way he went?"

Liz narrows her eyes as Abdul-Khaliq disappears, her jaw tightening. Her hands, covered with fingerless gloves, dip down to her coat to lift a clip up, Liz ejecting the first clip that she had nearly expended. "Don't thank me yet," she says, voice muffled through the scarf, giving her head a little toss to flip her hair out of her eyes, as she replaces the clip and loads the first round by pulling back the slide.

"Yeah, I'm SHIELD. What are you? I'm hoping a friendly, caught up in all this, and not like... some backwater terrorist that rubbed our guy the wrong way," Liz says, bringing her eyes up to level upon Scott. She pauses. "Nice glasses. And yeah, I saw him go into the shadows. You have any idea what this guy can do, or are you just blindsiding it?" Liz says, lifting herself up from behind the car, pursing her lips tighter as she glances through the shadows of the parking garage.

Her next move would be to shift - there probably wasn't much light in here, at this time, but if she can get nearer to one of the overhead lights... that might be a little safer, right?

"Call me a concerned party," Cyclops says, his mask only allows his mouth to be shown but he gives a bit of a wry grin. "We both want this guy incarcerated. You get him when we nab him. I'm not interested in credit." His black gloves reach up to the side of his visor, located near the temple and he rolls a dial of some sort that makes a clicking noise as he does it.

"He moves through the shadows, but other than he's just a good shot. He won't be able to attack us without revealing himself. And he can't jump between shadows. My bet is that he makes a run fo. . ."

And almost on cue, there's a movement in one of the shadows and Abdul-Khaliq springs from nowhere, bursting through an exit door-so hard it smacks against the stone wall-and leaps downwards.

"You like to run, Agent SHIELD?" he asks as Cyclops begins to chase after the perp.

"A concerned party? Like... a vigilante or something?" says Liz, a little breath leaving her, her eyes flickering towards the man as he says what he does, her lips pursing with suspicion. "...a well-informed one, at that," she adds, glancing him up and down. Just briefly, though, her eyes flickering back towards the shadows...

...right when those shadows spring to life. "Dammit!" Liz says, already vaulting over the hood of the car that was in the way, sliding over it and kinda haphazardly landing on her feet on the other side. Cyclops' joke causes Liz to cast him a stern look - it wasn't overly aggressive, more as annoyed - before turning her eyes back towards the exit door, starting to jog in the direction of that.

She would never be used to being called 'Agent', like that.

"Think you can keep up, masked man?" she calls back.

Through the door she steps - she would be careful, though, aiming her gun downwards after that man - if she sees him, great, she'd continue. If she doesn't, or all she sees are shadows? She would continue, cautiously.

"Or something," Cyclops says with a wry grin as he chases after her. He's pretty quick as his boots pad nearly soundlessly against the pavement as he tails her. "I think I can. I do a little bit of running in my spare time." When the pair get to the staircase, Liz will see him moving in and out of shadows as cover, eliciting a *poof* sound each time he appears and disappears. He's definitely making his way downward and doing it as quick as possible, skipping whole floors and gaining on both Liz and Cyclops. The latter grits his teeth looking down. "Well, here goes. . ." Over the edge of the railing goes Cyclops into a free fall downward in the space in between the railings.

Liz wasn't nearly so silent in her running. When she spies the guy poofing down, she grits her teeth again. "Look, guy, if you wanna help, get in one of those ca..." she begins to say, her eyes visibly widening as Scott throws himself into space between the railings. "... or that," she grumbles to herself. Liz, however, was far less acrobatic, and far more practical, throwing herself down the stairs in a controlled manner, her eyes carefully trying to keep an eye on her quarry. Although with the shape of the stairs, it would be hard to keep an eye on him.

Hey, who knows. Maybe this vigilante could get ahead of this guy, and they could trap him between them?

Wouldn't that be a peach.

That would be nice, but Abdul-Khaliq is able to get to the door at the bottom of the steps before Cyclops or Liz can get there and move on through the door and to beyond. Just after, Cyclops release a wire from somewhere in his suit that catches hold upwards and acts as a sort of bungee. With a grunt he comes to a stop and is close enough to the floor to just press the release. Plop. He pulls open the door and looks at the long hallway before cursing. As Liz makes her way down, Cyclops looks up to her. "He lost us. But I know a short cut."

Flying down the stairs, Liz kinda arrives at the bottom a little bit after Cyclops, her jaw tight as she glances down the hallway. "Do you?" she says, her eyes narrowing. There's only a second's hesitation before she says, "Let's do it then, I think I know a way to corner him once we catch up again," she says, a certain amount of frustration in her tone.

There had been this feeling, lately, whether or not justified in Liz's mind, that the BPRD guys were kinda a joke at the 'real' detective work. She doubted someone like Nick would out and out /say/ that, but beyond Hellboy...

"Yeah, we're gonna get him," she says, beneath her breath, more to psych herself up than anything. "I'm going to take a wild guess and say this shortcut has to do with your fancy glasses?"

Cyclops looks to Liz, then to the wall, then to Liz, then back to the wall. "Yes."

KABOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The wall gives way as the visor over his eyes give out some massive form of reddish force and blow the wall to smithereens. Beyond is a big wide field with the long hallway that Abdul-Khaliq disappeared down branching off into to directions after about 70 yards. "Shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Let's go."

Of course they're going to catch him, Cyclops would reply if the question had been asked to him. Failure is never an option.

Yeah, superpowers. The bane of Liz's existance. When the beam is emitted from the eyes of the man, she brings an arm up as if to ward herself, closing her eyes and twisting her face away as the wall is blown to absolute pieces, Liz bringing her eyes back up to look towards Cyclop's own face.

"Cute," she says, although the words were underscored with a hint of awe. He made it look so easy.

Not like her own powers, which would... you can emo out any other time in the universe, Liz. Focus now.

"Well, I always had trouble with math in school," she says then in her ever-present low tone of voice, pursing her lips as she wastes no further time in hopping through the hole created by the man, turning towards the doorway before herself - the hallway would no doubt feed to this door.

Struck with a sudden thought, she shifts her gun to be held one-handed, her other hand reaching for the flashlight at her belt - she hopes to lift it, to click on and shine on the door. "Although if I were our friend, I probably would have heard the explosion - watch the hole we just made, would you?"

"He probably did," Cyclops says as he looks over his shoulder and down at Liz. "He knows he's outmatched, but he's still heading to the job. I'm guessing he's more afraid of what happens if he doesn't succeed than if we catch him. He's afraid of whoever he answers to." Scott chuckles a bit at her comment about math. "Funny, in my day job I teach. If you're having problems with math it's best to use simple numbers first and apply the more difficult and bigger numbers once you have the principle down."

He does as she asks and looks back to her.

The grim woman gives her partner of the moment a level glance at the whole math bit. "Your day job you teach, and at night, you lazer-eye assassins, masked man?" says Liz, incredelously. Liz sucks on her teeth a handful of moments, looking back to Cyclops as she waits a moment more. "...if he's not here, we need to get to the Prime Minister right away, and with his speed..." she says with a grumble, taking a few steps towards the door, and bringing a booted foot up to kick it open - suddenly wishing that Red were here as a jolt of pain spikes through her leg. "One advantage we got, then... ooof! Is that he's scared, and scared people get sloppy."

Ignoring that newfound pain in her leg, she aims both gun and flashlight beyond, hoping to illuminate the shadows with the light in particular. Hopefully, she was right in her assumption that the hallway would kinda 'leak' out to this point. Although, one suspects he could have always taken a side hall to some stairs or something.

This time Liz is right on the money. The door gets opened, albeit with pain, and just afterwards, Abdul-Khaliq comes bolting out of the shadows and through the doorway. The light Liz shines takes away some of his hideability, and the surprise brings him out in the open. With a quick motion, Cyclops is at his visor once more, making odd clicking noises and opens fire on Abdul-Khaliq. This time the blast is different. This time it's less destructive, catching the assassin right in the side and knocking him out onto the snow where Liz and Cyclops stand.

"Nice thinking," Cyclops says as he looks over at Liz. "I also work on cars a lot."

"You wanna cuff him? Not sure if you guys carry cuffs."

The sudden rush of motion and lazer blasts causes Liz to react with surprise, the sharp swipe of her flashlight towards Abdul-Khaliq's head no doubt hastening the man's move into light. "Huh, nice," Liz says, after taking a moment for her heart to stop pounding. She didn't even have to put the plan she was halfway formulating into effect. Any chance she could avoid releasing her fire? She'll take it.

"Yeah, I have a pair," she says dryly. "I don't get to use them much, but I got them," Liz says. She actually had them moved to a position where she could grab them easily, with the hope of bumping into this guy like this. Holstering her gun, she reaches for those cuffs, and moves to the fallen assassin, hoping to move quickly, and work just as quickly, before he can be anything more than dazed.

"Cars, huh? What do you ride? And you might as well give me your name, or I'm just gonna call you 'masked man' every time I see you. Even if it's a fakey heroic code name, to try to sound cool," she says, rolling her eyes then.

As Liz goes to cuff him, Cyclops attempts to be helpful by putting a boot in the center of the man's back. "My name is Cyclops," he says just as dryly as her earlier comments. "I apologize that it's a fakey heroic code name to try and sound cool." He tilts his head at her and shrugs his shoulders slightly. "Will you tell me your name? Even if it's a fakey heroic code name to try and and sound cool."

Liz just kinda gives him a look as he turns her words right back on her, staying quiet as he sets his boot on the back of the captured mutant. After he is good and restrained, she flips her hair a bit. "Cyclops, huh. You know, I helped someone kill a cyclops once," she says, glancing back to him. "He was a bit bigger than you," she says then. But hopefully chases any threat away in her words with a short laugh, mostly in the back of her throat.

"And a lot meaner, too. Thank you, Cyclops," she says, reaching out a hand to offer it to him in a shake. "I'm Liz," she says then. Whether or not he accepts the handshake, she brings a phone up to her ear, before speaking into it, "Yeah, this is Agent Sherman. I got the target - it's near... uh... the parking garage that is kinda near the hotel that we thought he was at, but he wasn't. If you could send a couple guys to pick him up, that would be great," she says.

"Guess I'm lucky that you're not with him. And that you're in a better mood tonight than you were when you killed that Cyclops." At the comment about him being bigger than he, Cyclops responds with a chuckle. "I work out. Even during the holidays."

Cyclops shakes her hand and gives her a nod. "It was my pleasure, "Liz," he begins. "Not a very creative nickname, but it still sounds pretty cool." He looks down at his wrist and taps at it a few times. "Sounds like that's my signal."

As she gets her own acknowledgements, Liz nods her head, keeping a foot on the small of the mutant's back as she dips a hand into the inner pocket of her trenchcoat. Pulling out a pack of cigarettes, she pulls one deftly from it, offering the pack wordlessly to Cyclops. Although Liz looks to him with mild bemusement, shaking her head, "Naw. We wouldn't hurt you. So long as you stay one of the goodguys," she says.

Although the second thing said leads her to a laugh. "It /isn't/ creative, it's my name. I don't do the fancy crap like you guys do. You don't like it, blame my mom for naming me something like 'Elizabeth', when it isn't like 1792 or somethin'," she says. Whether or not the offer of a cig was accepted, she tucks the pack back into her pocket, pulling a lighter from it. She'd offer a light, if he took a cig.

"Well, thanks again, Cyclops. You have a good night in your Supercave or wherever it is you are headed off to," she says, drawing a drag off of the cig, and her shoulders immeadiately kinda falling with relaxation.

"I've been one of the good guys for a long time, Liz. Elizabeth is a nice name. Not sure why you're not fond of it." Cyclops says with a wry grin, but waves away the cigarette. "No thanks. I don't smoke." After a pause he adds, "I'll save you the lecture."

Cyclops smiles a bit wider and nods, "I'll do my best. I have to find a telephone booth soon to change out of these clothes.

As he finishes talking a loud engine sound can be heard in the distance coming closer and closer. After a few moments, Cyclops presses down an X emblem on his belt and a loud WHIZZZZZZZZZ rings out. A split second later he's taken up into the sky by a line of somesort and disappears into the sky along with the noise of some unseen aircract.

"Good that you avoided the lecture; I'd have to get all teenage rebellious on you," Liz says, breathing out a puff of smoke, away from Scott. With his exit, Liz freezes - she then takes a long draw off of her cigarette, eyes widening, but she was attempting not to look too overly surprised as whatever it was swoops in and draws Scott out of there. Turning her eyes down to look at the still-unconcious assassin, she cants her head just so to the side, and frowns down at him. "Pretty strange world we live in," she says quietly to him, breathing out a cloud of acrid smoke.