13817/Spritely Knightly

Spritely Knightly
Date of Scene:	12 January 2023
Location:	Midtown - Founders Island
Synopsis:	Pajama-by ninja kidnappings are sent against Sprite and it is confirmed yes, Gotham is weird.
Cast of Characters:	Talia al Ghul, Phoebe Beacon, Sprite, Mercy Thompson

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Talia al Ghul has posed:
It's about two am in the morning. There have been reports in the evening of 'pajama clad individuals leaping along the rooftops'. That could only mean at this time of the year and night, that these particular type of vermin that infested too much of the world like a perpetually renewable resource were afoot.
    Silently stalking the night.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Ninjas attack -- IN THE NIGHT.

    OK, so it's not really too much of a worry hearing 'pajama clad individuals', since on the odd occasion the armor is mistaken for pajamas. They even get the occasional crack about underwear on the outside of the tights, but in general she doesn't let it get her too much.

    Mostly because that's way more Superman than Batman's thing.

    The young Batling was hiding in the shadow of a handy gargoyle, on the lookout for ninjas.

Sprite has posed:
    Sprite, for her part, is not looking like a grim avenger of the night. She's instead more likely looking like a tempting target. Or bait. A redhaired teen in a leather jacket, out way too late for someone her age, and just meandering down the street, not paying /any attention/ to the area above her. Really.

Talia al Ghul has posed:
The ninjas leap through the night. Whatever thier intents or origins, whomever they're working for, whatever their purpose.. THey're darting through the air, the quiet fwoosh of silk and cotton on human bodies jumping like grasshoppers seemingly like they were in a video game.
    And now, Talia Al Ghul goes to watch from her position. She may or may not have anything to do with the ninjas, but Sprite goes to make perfect bait.
    Even as a half dozen or so of them go to drop down from the air to surround the spritely lass, moving in for the takedown.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Well, that can't be good. Far from being able to ignore the dark patches of night coming to strike the Sprite, one of the Gotham locals moves in, shifting her weight around and dropping down behind the crowd of martial artists, loopig to get the drop on the ninjas.

    Which is why she speaks up:

    "Did I miss the memo about the SCA in town?" she inquires, flicking her extendable staff open as her optical lenses glow blue.

    "I always miss the first weekend of the faire!"

Sprite has posed:
    Sprite watches as the ninjas drop down around her. Really, she's way too OP to be running around heroing in Gotham, but this just makes a fun opportunity to snark and be a pain in the ass, which is much more her stock in trade. So, since she's getting jumped by bad stereotypes, she decides to rock out her own bad stereotype. So she goes Damsel-in-Distress, and screams, a classic shrill scream. Very shrill, thanks to her illusion powers.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
    Mercy is in Gotham for totally unrelated reasons. Someone was just desperate to get the BMW fixed and had to have it ready tomorrow first thing. So they paid her insane fee to drive to Gotham and work until the job was done. This is why a tired looking Mercy is sitting on the roof of her car shoving a 24 hr diner's chili dog in her mouth and savoring in the cheap meat and cheese. Washing it down with a soda as she looks around. She wipes at her face with one of the pile of napkins in her hands just as the wind shifts.
    The wind pulls a scent she knows to her sharp nose. "Sprite?" Sort of curious she pushes off her old car and Mercy starts to walk toward the scent with her dog in hand and chewing away. That is until she hears the scream queen track. That gets her sprinting a bit faster as she drops her hot dog to cover her ears. "Damn someone has some lungs on them." Rounding the corner just in time to see Sprite surounded by.... sleep wear back up dancers? Gotham is wei.... wait. Nope those are ninjas. Gotham is still strange!

Talia al Ghul has posed:
The ninjas go to a defensive formation over as Phoebe goes to approach them. They all draw out a variety of weapons and move to a classical defensive formation. Blades out, shuriken drawn, nimble and fast. Going to dart about like they were some sort of precision ballet group. Everything so tightly choreographed. Weapons shining in the dim lights. Then there would be some sort of silent agreement amongst them. Tensing of body language, coordination..
    Then attack! Two of them go to charge over towards Balm, one wielding a katana, the other a pair of sai as they would try to do a series of tight sommersaults and flips to buildup momentum to attack her!
    Sprite is likely having way too much fun here, even as one of the ninja goes in voer behind her to try and drop her with a quick strike aimed over at her neck while she would scream!
    As Mercy goes on the approach over she's faced with one ninja that goes to casually gesture over at her in a 'get out of here' as they would go to draw out a large bo staff. In an 'or else' style.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Balm spins her staff a moment as she looks at the approaching ninja, and she sighs.

    <Really you may want to reconsider.> she states in Japanese, playing into type before she moves.

    First to go was Katana. She steps into the range of the blade, and she brings her staff down and between their legs, behind their ankle and then sweeps upwards, robbing them of their footing before she turns and WHACKS the other side of her staff against them with the follow-through, looking to send them into Sai Guy.

    "Don't you know that between Midnight and five AM there's a strict no Katana policy in place?"

Sprite has posed:
    Sprite /is/ having a lot of fun. She creates a full-sensory illusory copy of herself, making herself invisible at the same time and steps "out" of her illusory double. She lets the double get "chopped" in the neck, and flop over unconscious. She's curious what they're going to do with her. Do they know who she is, or just think she's a normal person? Meanwhile, she steps out of the way of the fighters, watching. Amusedly, an invisible container of popcorn appears in her invisible hands. But the scent of popcorn is in the area now.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
    "Oh! Nice staff." Mercy is small and almost always outweighed in a fight. But she's stronger then she looks and way faster. She also knows to fight dirty as she wastes no time doing a quick jab to the gut followed by a low kick to the side of the knee. She wastes no time reaching out to try and snatch the staff. She handles it like anyone who's handled years of martial art's training. Real stuff, not strip mall. She is going for a fast take down and disarm. Fortunately she has surprise on the ninja that isn't expecting late night hot dog eater to be able to handle herself. If she gets the staff she wastes not time in swinging it hard at the foe. "So... what is this about?" She tries to not panic seeing Sprite go down. No way is her friend KOed that fast.

Talia al Ghul has posed:
The ninja that has gone to chop Sprite over on the neck goes to then move to yank out a sack, which the not-Sprite is thrown into then with a bag over her body. Since when did ninjas do run-by muggings and/or kidnappings? Were they after her in particular? Had they mixed her up with someone else's possibly bratty looking child?
    The man with the katana charging over at Balm goes to get quickly handled, even as he's sent tumbling over into Sai Guy, both of them going to hit the ground hard in a slump. This is just the cue for another one to attack her, flipping a series of shuriken! Arcing through the air, blades bright in the night!
    And Mercy goes to whomp over the man that held up the weapon and then is quickly bypassed. Even as she goes to hit the one that was going to try and grab-bag the not-Sprite full on over with a WHONK that leaves him hard on the ground, looking like a pancake!

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    ShinkShinkshinkshink! Balm nimbly moves her staff to intercept the shuriken as she tilts her head a moment and gives a sigh in lieu of the sai.

    "It's like you're not even trying!" she complains, and she brings up a batarang with a small electrical charge on it and flicks it at the shuriken shonen!

    "Let me show you how it's done in Gotham!"

    And to Mercy she calls out "Thanks! It's my favorite staff! Not a clue what's going on but -- hey -- you can't just sack a girl in Gotham!"

    You have to buy her dinner first?

    And the smell of popcorn is in the air as Balm begins to move around more in the field, trying to get to the bagged girl!

Sprite has posed:
    Sprite continues watching. She'd applaud if it wouldn't ruin things. So instead, the bag where not-Sprite is begins to move and writhe about, as if there's a lot of...something moving around in the bag. Meanwhile, she hovers up into the air, still invisibly, looking around, trying to get more of a big-picture view. Does Gotham have random drive-by ninjaings?

Mercy Thompson has posed:
    Mercy is trusting in all that Amazon training and her speed. She isn't even TRYING to get Sprite out of the bag, she smells the popcorn and actually tries to put herself so that smell is at her back. Focusing on the front of her and the foes that get closest. All her senses are up working fast only glancing to Balm. "Okay. That makes three players known."
    Mercys style of fighting is non-lethal, but it is far from nice. She has no problems breaking the limbs of anyone coming at her and being sure they go down. It's about stopping the bad guys fast and not messing around. She trusts in her speed and the weapon. "Someone owes me a new chili dog damnit! I'm hungry and tired from working all day." She sniffs. "This guy stinks! What the hell were you doing earlier?! You reek of a slaughterhouse."

Talia al Ghul has posed:
It's more of a pajama-by than a drive-by, but the point stands. Gotham does, apparently occasionally branch out into ninja kidnappings. The ninja that had the not-Sprite over in a bagis dropped down hard, and the not-Sprite is released from it, perhpas a bit dazed. That leaves most of the strange, pajama clad attackers down..
    Well, at least as Phoebe goes to flick the shuriken out of the air over with her batarangs, and then the thrown wire line yoinks through the air! hitting the last ninja hard as they would be electrified hard and drop down over to the ground, unconscious.
    And, somewhat in the distance, Talia Al Ghul receives her own delivery as she watches the proceedings. There's a puff of smoke behind her as a girl wearing a gi and a domino mask appears with a paper bag, blade at Talia's throat. Talia calmly goes.. "Ah, thank you. You were running a few seconds late." The female in the gi giving her a glare even through the mask. Talia would take the paper bag, go to pass over a stack of bills, then another,s maller stack. The girl would accept this, then go..
    "Ninja vanish!" Disappearign in a cloud of smoke.
    And Talia would go to open the bag, revealing a very large cheeseburger, which she would take a bite out of. The marking on the bag would be that of a cute'ified looking ninja star and a marking for delivery service.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    With Sprite released, and the ninjas largely... taken down, Balm looks around, sniffing the air for POPCORN, of all things for ninjas to smell like?

    "Hey--" she greets to the released Sprite-clone, "Are you all right, miss? You had quite the blow to the head."

Sprite has posed:
    The Sprite-clone smiles, waves...and the bursts into a cloud of popcorn, falling to the ground, while the real Sprite lands, then reappears, noshing her popcorn. "I'm good." She tells Balm with a grin. "Heya, Mers." she shortens Mercy's name as she addresses her friend.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
    Okay. Everyone seems down, and asleep. She holds tight on her staff and puts the end to one's throat and then goes to pull at the mask of one of these guys to get a look at him. "Oh she'll be fine," answers Mercy for the not-Sprite. She looks around and focuses with her eyes turned downwind as her nose can tell her what is upwind. "So was this targeting you for some reason or just they thought you were an easy grab?" Looking at the short young appearing redhead. "This is such a weird city."

Talia al Ghul has posed:
The pajama clad ninjas are all down. This was rather simple in the end! Sprite had fun. Mercy is confirming that, yes, Gotham is very weird. Balm is having a strange night no doubt with a young girl exploding into popcorn.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    ". . . well gotta admit, someone exploding into popcorn is just about the weirdest thing I've seen tonight." Balm states, crossing her arms.

    "And it's a great city. If you don't mind the constant garbage truck strikes."

Sprite has posed:
    Sprite shrugs at Mercy's question. "Don't ask me. Next time, take one of them conscious so you can interrogate them? But, thanks for the save, both of you. My heroines!" She flutters her eyes overdramatically, and then the redhead bursts into a shower of sparkles, disappearing, only an echoing giggle left behind for a few seconds.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
    "Ew," Mercy says to Balm's comment on what a garbage strike would be like. "Rather not have that smell just the same." She looks over at Sprite who does her vanishing act. She calls out, "You pick on me and I'll tell your car when you bring her in on a tune up!" Though she's grinning wide. She's happy to try and prank back at a trickster. She spins the staff a bit and looks around, "you're the local Balm. Do we like... tie them up? I guess we could call the police but I mean. They are ninjas who failed to kidnap a small woman." She tosses the staff she stole to Balm, "welcome to a back up if you want. I should probably be sure my car isn't being robbed."