13704/No Child Stumbles

No Child Stumbles
Date of Scene:	31 December 2022
Location:	Warehouse on the docks
Synopsis:	Batwoman and Oletha rescued some kidnap kids.
Cast of Characters:	Cinque Evers, Kate Kane

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Cinque Evers has posed:
@emit Auction

From the outside it just looks like another warehouse down by the docks in New York. But on the inside, there is a big difference once a person peers passed the large boxes and crates that hide the shady dealings that are being done here. There are some forklifts scattered around the warehouse.

On the east and west sides of the warehouse there's two different 'stages' set up with podiums. At each podium there is a guy in an expensive looking business suit just standing there, waiting for the 'fun' to start.

But what about the 'front' Well, aside from that being the point where everyone enters, there's also a large bar serving all kinds of drink alcoholic and non alcoholic, as well as a few other substances, for anyone who wants to 'indulge' a bit while they wait for what ever they're after to come up for auction.

There has been rumors on the streets and the darkweb of some homeless adolescents that have gone missing in the last months. They have been taken from a Gotham, Budhaven, New York, and other the surrounding communities. The rumor is that the majority of the children have some sort of superpowered ability, and they are to be auctioned off and smuggled out of the country tonight.

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate Kane, socialite, party girl, world renowned nouveau riche girl is out for another night on the town. It's just a different town than usual, and... well, actually it's a pretty typical night for her wardrobe if she were to stop and consider it. It's not her fault people aren't clever enough to put the breadcrumbs she's not able to hide together to figure out she's a costumed vigilante.

Actually, it /is/ her fault. But these are the sorts of thoughts she has when she's infiltrating a warehouse with shady goings on for the hundredth time in the last three months.

Anyone who's got more situational awareness than your typical, or even atypical, goon might notice the drone orbiting the area, or the dark-clad figure that's running along the arm of a nearby freight crane on the docks, only to leap into the air and glide towards a shadowed nook of the warehouse roof. She's sure there'll be an open window she can use. Or, if not, she can always break in through an unopen window. Stealth is definitely the way to go. Sure, it's trained into her from years of military training, and the typical Bat-curriculum.

But she's about to be dealing with a warehouse full of superpowered kids. Causing a panic seems like a good way for a teenager to eyelaser unexpectedly. And while Kate's a daredevil, she's not that much of a daredevil.

That's someone else who runs around in a cowl and leaps from rooftops.

She lands on the roof with minimal noise, and commences her infiltration mission. Why's she always struck by the urge to quip when she's working /solo/? Another thought to consider. After, Kate. After the mission.

Cinque Evers has posed:
Cinque pulls up two blocks away on his motorcycle. He pulls out his binoculars and counts the guards on the outside of the warehouse. "There are four guards on the outside, probably not to draw too much attention to what is going on inside." Cinque lets out a deep sigh, "That means that the majority of the security is going to be inside the warehouse."

Oletha peers at his watch and fires his grappling hook at passing truck. He rides on top of the truck for the last couple of blocks and jumps down behind a dumpster. "Pepsi Cola truck delivers was five seconds late. I need add that to my calculations next time." Cinque pulls down his infrared goggles and pulls out his EMI pulse, "It is time to even the odds." Cinque presses the button and the warehouse lights out as well as the guards communications.

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate slips into the warehouse, integrated low light vision in her cowl allowing her to keep track of guard movements, and the shadows of the rafters allowing her to continue further into the warehouse, making mental notes of the guards and their rough patrol routes. But really, the guards are a secondary priority, her main goal locating the kids and counting how many there are. She frowns thoughtfully, silently cursing.

Her motorcycle's pretty strictly at best a two person vehicle. And as far as she knows, there's no Bat-bus she can borrow.

And then the lights go out, and Kate shrugs helplessly, stepping off the rafter to land on a hapless guard passing underneath like a ton of bricks. Well, maybe not a ton... she doesn't break anything. And a headache's not /that/ bad as far as outcomes of encounters with Batwoman go.

This is going to be one of those plans that comes together as it unfolds, it seems. Well, that's fine. Less to remember.

Cinque Evers has posed:
Four shots are fired outside which brings down the guards. Oletha strolls silently pass the guards, pausing to kick a few into dreamland, "You are lucky that I am only using rubber bullets tonight." Oletha opens the warehouse and begins to navigate through the warehouse.

The guards are scrambling now. the person in charge is shout, "What do you mean the radioes and the internet are down? How are we supposed to du an auction!" The auburn haired man in his thirties pulls out a gun and points it another young man in his thirties, "You have five minutes to get the servers back up, or you are dead!" The man rubs the gun over his foreheard, "Someone check on the cargo!

From Batwoman's position, she can see a group of men heading towards the back of the warehouse where a large crate is located.

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate's in the midst of clinching a sleeper hold on another guard when shots register... well, four single shots isn't that bad. This is New York, so it's not even necessarily _not_ a vigilante. New York hasn't got a grumpy protector that takes a dim view of firearms... but it's also _probably_ not the Punisher since there aren't any explosives going off.

But it's a good motivator to pick up the pace, Kate rushing through the warehouse's maze of shelves and crates, another guard hit by a flung batarang that nails him behind the ear and knocks him out... but hey! He gets a batarang as a souvenir. Those things are like, fifty bucks on eBay!

Kate angles to do a stepping jump off a crate up onto one of the higher shelving units, reaching down to her utility belt on pure muscle memory, palming a couple of smoke grenades and priming them to throw towards the crate the guards are closing in on.

Cinque Evers has posed:
From inside the crate, the sound of children can be heard screaming for help. As Olethat makes his way through the warehouse maze, it doesn't take long for him to discover Batwoman's handy work. Oletha hmms, "It looks like I am not the only one crashing the party. I guess I better hurry up, so I can still find someone to dance with. A couple of groin kicks followed by knees to the faces brings down a couple of guards as he makes his way through the warehouse.

One of the guards heading towards the crate witht he kids pauses and raises his right hand in the air, "Wait, why is it so quiet? There is someone else in this damwarehouse. We already been paid. Let's eliminate the cargo, and bug out! Let the suits take the fall for this feck up," The other guards seem to be weighing the pros and cons of the the lead guard's suggesstion.

The lead guard heads to the cargo door, "You don't what type of powers these freaks have? Do you want them to authorities about us?"

Kate Kane has posed:
When Kate hears those screams from inside the crate, any reluctance she had about taking this operation down is washed away. It's not some low-level car theft ring or something. Those are definitely terrified screams of children. Smoke grenades are thrown with unerring accuracy, because the only thing worse than being an untrained thug in the dark is an untrained thug in the dark and smoke.

Well, okay, being an untrained thug in the dark and smoke with a vigilante who's decided you don't deserve the same mercies your friends have gotten might be worse. A couple of guards waking up with concussions? That's par for the course.

The guard who speaks up about getting rid of their cargo is the first to learn a valuable lesson... or, at least, the first to feel the purposeful impact of Kate leaping down to drive her heel into his knee, hyperextending it and shattering the knee cap, giving him enough time for the pain to register and him to let out an unearthly scream before she's hitting him in the face with the force of an angry truck.

Certain bat-themed vigilantes prey on the superstition of criminals, silent takedowns and leaving thugs hanging from gargoyles in Gotham to spook their comrades.

Kate's a little more direct. Why rely on superstitions when you can simply put the fear of sudden, focused violence into criminals? It's going to mean a lot of physiotherapy for guards, and there's no way they got paid enough to cover the medical bills that shattered joints are going to bring. But in a way, that just proves crime doesn't pay. As Kate mows through the guards she's focused on, she registers that she's only taken down six or seven, and there /were/ more... and their numbers are dwindling. Someone else is clearly on the job too.

Well, maybe /they/ have a bus or something for the kids.

Cinque Evers has posed:
Oletha's doesn't have a bus, but three months when the first kid started to disappear, his enhanced intuition led him to change his shelter's vans nightly schedule. His shelter's vans make nightly runs around the docks now, passing out blankets and collecting anyone who wants to back to shelter. The only problem is that they they will be here in the next ten minutes, so the children need to be out of the warehouse to be "rescued" by his unsuspecting workers.
Heix more shots bring down the guards and the auburn haired man with the gun. Oletha runs towards the smoke and the Batwoman. He does take a moment to place a device on the servers.

There are bunch of guards laying in a piles of agony and brokeness at Batwoman's feet. When the last guard falls, the powers comes back onin the building.

The returning power triggers the override switch on the crate door, and the door swings open revealing 13 kids chained to the walls.

Oletha holds up his hands as he approaches, "I am friendly. There are going to be someone to pick up the children, if we can there outside quickly. They will call cops." Oletha peers down at Batwoman's work, "I don't think anyone is going to escape, and all their misdeeds are on their servers. I will make sure that will not have the funds to buy their way out of this mess."

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate finishes sentencing to one final guard to months of intense therapy and physical recovery, turning her attention to the crate with the kids in it, and... stops. Full on freezes for a moment, lips pressing into a thin line. She's not out in anything less than full on Batwoman attire... dark suit, makeup giving her skin an almost shining pallor, blood red lips, blank white eyes from the cowl's lenses. She's practically a vampire. About to open a crate of terrified potentially superpowered kids.

Her hand stops in mid-air and she looks back to Oletha, leaping up to land atop the crate even as she's reaching for her grapple gun with one hand. She sketches a little salute to Oletha, and then points down to the crate as it opens to reveal the kids, bringing a finger to her lips in a classic 'shhh' motion.

She doesn't need the good publicity of helping the kids out, let him take the good press... she's happy enough to have rescued them from their fate. Oh, and to have beaten the crap out of the criminals enough the next group will hopefully think twice about trying to traffic in kids. As she launches herself up towards the roof, she calls out, "Oh, when they wake up, feel free to let them know I'll be waiting if they do get off! Prison might look like a better choice then."

Kate's definitely well-adjusted.

Cinque Evers has posed:
The children run out of the warehouse and quickly flagged down the Jamii Shelter vans. Oletha is long gone too. He can't have Oletha tied to his shelter's business. The only trace of him is the device that is wiping out the bank accounts of the people who threw this auction. As the police begin to arrive on the scene, one of the youngest of the children taking tugs on another child's arm, still in shock, "A dark angel saved us. Did you see her? She was amazing!"