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| Civil Asset Forfeiture; Open | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: May 15 2018, 01:49 PM (202 Views) | |
| The Mandarin | May 15 2018, 01:49 PM Post #1 |
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The Man of Iron sniffed the air near the car. It was quite an expensive looking car: a 1950's Thunderbird that someone had restored to mint condition and pimped out with modern enhancements.![]() "I smell marijuana,"said The Man of Iron, "I'm afraid we'll have to confiscate your vehicle under Civil Asset Forfeiture laws." The Man of Iron, more commonly known as The Mandarin, smirked at his fellow Thunderbolts: Hawkeye, aka Bullseye, the Black Widow, aka Sinthea Schmidt, and the Incredible One, aka the Juggernaut. "This is bullcrap!" said the man in the car, "there's no way you can prove that in a court of law, because I've never used marijuana in my life!" The Man of Iron smirked, "under civil asset forfeiture laws, we don't have to prove it, we just have to suspect it. Now get out of the car, or we'll throw you out." Edited by The Mandarin, May 15 2018, 01:53 PM.
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The Mandarin
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| The Thing | May 17 2018, 10:42 PM Post #2 |
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Benjamin Grimm had decided to take a walk, since it was a nice day, and he didn't even bother trying to go incognito. The orange-skinned behemoth strutted through the downtown streets of Manhattan, not really having any destination in mind. He swung by a hot dog stand first, for something to eat, and then by a cigar shop afterwards. It was his only real remaining vice, and so he didn't listen to anybody who told him not to smoke. Besides, with everything he had seen in his life, if it was the cigars that did him in, then they deserved it. All things told, he was having a pretty good day, at least until he saw a classic Tbird, and its owner getting hassled by a bunch of other capes. Ben decided that he would step in, and straighten things out. Despite his size, he was pretty light on his feet, and quicker than most people would believe, so he quietly walked up on the quartet of other heroes before speaking. "Hey, aintchu guys the Thunderbolts?! Mebbe youse can sign my autograph book." From what he knew about the Tbolts, which wasn't a great deal, they were newer heroes, government run, prolly the brainchild of Gyrich or some other yahoo. Not that Ben had an issue with the government or following orders, he had been in the military, after all, and understood the need for it. But it didn't mean he had to like any of it. Peering around them, he looked at the owner of the car. "Must be some supervillain I ain't never heard of, to have this much muscle on you for some imaginary reefer." Blowing out a lot of smoke from his stogie, he then took a sniff at the air. "Yeah, all I can smell is my cee-gar. Must be what youse newbies wuz smellin' too." Looking around at the other four, he spoke again. "So don't go throwin' no taxpayers outta their cars on yer first day out in the real world, kids." |
| The ever-luvin', blue-eyed idol o' millions! | |
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| The Mandarin | May 18 2018, 02:00 AM Post #3 |
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The Man of Iron considered whether he should kill Grimm. He was so grotesque that killing him might even be a mercy, as well as purging the world of a freakish genetic abomination. It would be so easy, too: just shout "he's got a gun!" and then jump him. In America, the simple claim of someone having a gun allowed law-enforcement to get away with murder, even if the victim proved to be unarmed. All that mattered as the cop's ability to convincingly lie on the witness stand and say that he believed he saw a gun, not whether the victim actually possessed a gun. However, killing Grimm would likely anger Richards, and The Man of Iron had always avoided Richards just as he'd avoided Doom and for the same reason: they were both mad scientists of the most dangerous sort. That's not to say that he was afraid of Richards or Doom, but rather that he considered them fools playing with secrets man was not meant to know. As such they would inevitably blow themselves up while exploring dimensions where 2+2 equaled purple and parallel lines intersect. Why risk dealing with them when they were certain to blow themselves up in some lab experiment sooner or later, probably sooner? The Man of Iron himself had always restricted himself to saner, more solid forms of knowledge: weapons engineering, finance, politics. Even the form of magic he'd studied, chi-mysticism, was a simple, solid form of magic that enhanced the strength and savagery of the body, nothing like the insanity-inducing dark magical secrets Doom insisted on plumbing. He fully expected to hear word that Doom had been sucked into Hell from a botched magical experiment any day now. So, he was not afraid of Doom or Richards. He most certainly was not afraid of them. But simple common sense demanded that he not draw them towards himself while waiting for them to blow themselves up. "Move along, Mr. Grimm, we are duly authorized agents of the government. This is a crime scene, and a civilian like yourself can be charged with obstruction of justice if he insists on remaining after being told to leave" said The Man of Iron. |
The Mandarin
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| The Thing | May 28 2018, 09:03 PM Post #4 |
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"Obstruction of--yeah, I'd like to see youse try and make that stick." Ben kept puffing away on his cigar, supremely unworried. He then glanced down at the feet of the four 'government operatives'. "S'funny. I thought thugs like youse wuz supposed to be wearin' jackboots before ya started tryin' to strong arm the citizens. 'Specially not with some knockoff wannabe Hawkeye 'n Black Widow. Youse two I don't know, and I know them. We go back a ways." Looking down at the Man of Iron, the Thing smiled. "Youse want yer little strong arm operation here on the news? Ya think there's a TV news crew in this town that won't take my call? Mebbe I should start recordin' youse on my phone. Less ya wanna go scurryin' back under the rock ya came out from under, Man of Iron." He pulled his cell phone out and held like he was using the camera. "Youse guys ain't gonna believe it! I met alla these real life heroes goin' after a guy smokin' a joint. This is gonna look awesome on YouTube. Or mebbe the national news." He gave a shrug, like it didn't matter to him. "So its up to youse. Bunch of hired guns against the word of the Idol of Millions." |
| The ever-luvin', blue-eyed idol o' millions! | |
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| The Mandarin | May 30 2018, 07:00 PM Post #5 |
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The Man of Iron almost snickered as the threat of news reporters. Six companies controlled the news in America, and all them where either owned by Temmy Sartak Borjigin, or owned by other oligarchs with a vested interest in him succeeding at his little project in Hell's kitchen. That project being gentrification. He would use Civil Asset Forfeiture to seize the homes of the poorest and least powerful in Hell's Kitchen. Those whose homes weren't seized directly would be frightened into selling their homes. And when the smoke cleared, the poor would be completely pushed out of Hell's Kitchen. And then the gentrification would start. Family businesses demolished and replaced with posh corporate franchises targeting the rich. Homes replaced with mansions. A new Hell's Kitchen, made by the rich for the rich. Squashing any news reports Grimm tried to create through corporate mass media would be easy. YouTube was a minor exception: it wasn't under the control of Temmy or his allies, but the millennials who frequented it were powerless and had the attention span of goldfish. At most, they'd stage a few inconsequential protests and then get distracted by cat-videos. Truly, the Fantastic Four were fools with no idea how the world really worked. They lived in their little bubble of ignorance, too busy exploring irrelevant dimensions where two plus two equaled five to concern themselves with what was important in the real world: money, power, and the exploitation of humanity's innate tribalism and desire to believe that authorities were acting in their best interests. That last especially was so strong as to make police almost immune to prosecution. He was tempted again to kill Thing. It would be so easy. But even as he fantasized about murdering Thing, he thought again of Reed Richards. Stupid, ridiculous man, always delving into pointless esoteric secrets man was not meant to know. Richards was ridiculous, but as dangerous as leaky nitroglycerin. Why couldn't Richards and Doom just blow up? It was so obvious that they were destined to blow up sooner or later, so why couldn't it be sooner? But until then Richards needed to be avoided, and killing Thing would bring that ridiculous pile of leaky nitroglycerin barreling right towards him. The car was trivial. The homes were his main concern. It grated him to think it, grated him so much he clenched his fists until his fingernails drew blood from his palms, but logic dictated that he let Thing have his little win. He turned away from Thing, forced a smile, and looked at the car-owner, "I'm going to let you off with a warning, Mister Taylor, but don't let me catch you smoking pot on my beat again." |
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| The Thing | Jun 9 2018, 01:12 PM Post #6 |
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His beat? Since when in the blue hell did supers have a beat? "Good to see that the City got some real tough guys screwin' around wit' civilians instead of bein' ready fer the next time Ultron shows up, or the Kree decide its time to invade. But I guess that's the difference between a superhero and bein' some employee wit' a badge that treats it like a 9 to 5." Ben said it loudly, making sure they heard his thoughts about them. "You oughtta go though, 'fore these yahoos threaten to change their minds." He had seen the oily, insincere smile from the Man of Iron. "Lemme give youse fellows a little friendly advice. Mebbe yer little badge makes ya think ya got a lot more power behind ya than ya really do, but a lotta capes ain't got my restraint. They mighta decided to do the usual hero thing, where we fight the first time we meet up, on account of somebody lookin' or actin' like a supervillain. Or some legalistic mumbo jumbo used to steal people's property. Mebbe next time its Thor that shows up, or Blue Marvel. Ya know, those guys that're so powerful that the government can't really do nuthin' about their comin's and goin's. We got an understandin', then?" Ben had been a hoodlum and he easily recognized the scam of Civil Asset Forfeiture that cops liked to use, and he knew when it was time to be the guy throwin' the first punch. If the City or the Feds was using some low rent wannabe capes to steal people's stuff now, well, he'd make sure to spread the word. "I'll be sure to let Nat 'n Clint know that youse two are runnin' around playin' dressup too," not forgetting the impostors. Come to think of it, the big guy seemed slightly familiar too, but then again, most of the superstrong big guys had a tendency to look similar. |
| The ever-luvin', blue-eyed idol o' millions! | |
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| The Mandarin | Jun 9 2018, 02:58 PM Post #7 |
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The Man of Iron made a mental note: as soon as Richards blew himself up, he'd hunt Thing down, carve out his brain, put it in a jar, and attach a device to it that would activate Thing's pain-centers permanently. The thought of Thing as nothing but a brain in a jar experiencing infinite agony forever was so pleasant that he became lost in thought, and only half-heard what Thing said next. The Incredible One had heard him clearly, however, and burst out laughing. "Let'em come," said the Incredible One, "I'm un, I'm incredibly strong, and I'll smash anyone who gets in the way of my paycheck!"
Edited by The Mandarin, Jun 9 2018, 03:42 PM.
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6:54 PM Jul 10