Walking Gods

Chapter Five

"New York traffic is a bitch" Annabelle exasperated. The two girls whipped out of the underground garage of the tower only to come to the realization that it's very had to zoom around the city streets of Manhattan. 

Annabelle had caught Peter talking to her father about a place called "The Rusty Bucket" where known criminals congregated, so they thought they'd start their search there.

This place was really underground. Apple maps sent them all across the city only for them to end up at a Joe's Brooklyn Pizza. The duo was ready to give up until they saw a group of suspicious people walking down an alleyway next to the pizza shop, and they decided following them could be their best shot at finding the place.

"Oh you've been trying to find the Rusty Bucket? I could've told you how to get here!" Sleight said throwing her hands up.

"Well why didn't you then?" Annabelle questioned

"Well how was I supposed to know you meant this Rusty Bucket?"

"How many can there be?"

"SEVEN, ACTUALLY" 

This altercation drew attention towards the girls and they realized they were still wearing their super suits. Thinking on their feet, they dash to the thrift store down the block for something a bit more casual.

After collecting dingy outfits and paying the cashier, Sleight dragged Annabelle towards a department store next door. 

"What are we doing here?" Annabelle asked.

"Just trust me on this" Sleight reassured her. This was not Sleight's first rodeo at The Rusty Bucket. Annabelle blindly followed her through the twists and turns of the store until they found themselves in the formalwear section.

"You have Tony's credit card, right?"

+++

Sleight and Annabelle changed into their respective dresses and threw their oversized clothes over them so they'd fit in at the Rusty Bucket. Sleight took the lead and lead Annabelle into the crusty pub littered with drunks and bad smells. They sat at two open bar stools and waited for the old man who was the bartender to walk over.

He walked over slowly with a hunch in his back as he polished a cracked whiskey glass. Annabelle shivered, scared out of her mind in the place she was in. Never in her life had she been in a building so dingy and creepy.

"Why did the chicken cross the road?" The old man asked the two girls with a thick Irish accent. Annabelle was confused, what did that have to do with anything? What was going on?

"To get 7 for 27." Sleight simply replied. The old man nodded his head and gestured for them to follow him. The girls got out of their bar stools and followed the old man to the door that said 'Staff Only' in faded letters. He unlocked it and went back to the bar, Sleight pushed it open and let Annabelle go through first.

When she walked through the door, she was met by a bright light and changing rooms. Sleight nudged her into one where she took off her street clothes revealing the gold dress hidden beneath. Stepping out of the booth she was met by Sleight who was adorning an emerald green gown. 

"I don't understand what's happening, why are we so dressed up?" Annabelle asked. Sleight just rolled her eyes and opened the other door and pushed Annabelle through. She was met with fancy chandeliers, people in black tie apparel, and designer brands.

Everyone was an adult and mingling with one another. Some faces she recognized as high profile criminals in Tony's database which gave her a chill. She was in a room with high class killers.

"How do you know about this place?" Annabelle whispered to Sleight.

"Word get's around, I used to work here as a waitress and did a couple shows for them as a magician."

"You are so casual about all of this." Annabelle said as she looked around at the high class establishment. She pulled up the picture of Jane Doe on her phone and showed to Sleight again, "Keep an eye out for her." Sleight nodded and the girls started to weave their way through the mass of criminals.

While everyone was socializing and enjoying themselves there was one woman that stood out from the crowd. She wasn't wearing an evening gown like the other woman and instead was in high wasted black skinny jeans, a white button down, and a Michael Kors leather jacket with a pair of Johnston Murphy loafers. She was observing everyone behind a pair of glasses and held her drink in her hand with a firm grip. Annabelle recognized her as Jane Doe and motioned for Sleight to follow her.

Annabelle walked towards the girl with confidence, she assumed this Jane Doe would be someone of the utmost class considering the location they were in and what she was wearing. Annabelle was completely wrong. 

"What's cookin good lookin, you found me." Jane said as she kept sipping her Shirley temple and kept her eyes on the crowd in front of her. Annabelle was taken aback and her mouth was left open in shock. "What, never spoken to a professional hitman before?" Jane asked.

"Who the hell are you?" Sleight asked as she pushed past Jane and stood in front of the much taller girl before her. "How come your file doesn't have anything about you, it's like your life started when you were with Hydra."

"Shh!" Jane shushed her loudly and pulled the girls aside. "You can't just go around blabbing about my previous affairs in here, everyone in here might not be particularly nice but they aren't Nazi sympathizers."

"And you were?" Annabelle asked.

"Hell no! I wasn't raised in Charlottesville!"

"Then where were you raised?" Jane paused at the question.

"Look now that you mention it maybe I was raised there, but how am I supposed to know?"

"What? What the heckleberry do you mean?" Sleight asked as she whispered loudly.

"Okay first of all, what kind of word just came out of your mouth? Second, it's not my fault I don't know. Hydra perfected their memory erasure by the time I came around, damn Nazis threw my brain into a blender!" 

"So you can't remember anything?" Annabelle asked.

"Hell no, not past when Hydra created me, and there's even some blank spots when I was with them."

"Well do you remember beating up Spider-Man a couple days ago?" Annabelle asked with clenched fists and a furrowed brow, trying to look intimidating.

"Oh! Parker? Sweet kid but he got in the way of one of my marks. Thank god I took care of him before my window was closed."

"You still killed your mark?" Annabelle asked.

"Well yeah, you don't become the richest hitman in New York without killing a few people."  Jane looked around the bar and continued to sip her drink. A waited walked by with glasses of champagne and she grabbed two and handed them to Sleight and Annabelle. "Now I suggest y'all get the hell out of here before someone notices who you are."

"No! We came here for you bitch, what's good?" Sleight whisper-shouted. 

"And now you found me, what the hell are you going to do with me?" Annabelle and Sleight looked at each other.

There they stood, in a secret society club standing in front of the richest hitman in all of Manhattan, not a clue what their actual plan was. "Shit." Annabelle muttered under her breath. "I-uh-"

"Listen, y'all are just a bunch of kids and need to get the hell out of dodge before you get hurt." Jane said quietly as she looked at the other criminals around the bar. Luckily no one had noticed the two girls. She ushered them to the excite until they were out the door, then slammed it in their faces.

"What the hell?" Sleight said, Annabelle just sighed in defeat.