14223/A trip down an alley

A trip down an alley
Date of Scene:	23 February 2023
Location:	Alley
Synopsis:	Flamebird comes to the aid of Molly. The muggers are probably better off.
Cast of Characters:	Bette Kane, Molly Hayes

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Bette Kane has posed:
Midtown Gotham as the sun sets is still a lively place. Plenty of people walking, traffic, and activity as the daytime business winds down and the nightlife begins to spool to life. The night is, however, home to other things. Less savory sorts of things. Even just yards away from the bustling lights and the material wealth of the rest of Midtown.

Why, if one were to get turned around and walk down the wrong alley, bad things could happen. Just another statistic in the morning paper. Just another file for the overworked police.

Molly Hayes has posed:
    Maybe it's a little of the danger, or maybe Molly is hoping to run into some friends again, but the hat-wearing girl is poking around Midtown. A place like Gotham has such a nice variety of shops, though! And she can certainly find more hats for her collection! In fact, she's wearing a cute backpack over her winter coat. It's a pretty normal dark blue backpack but it's got a bunch of sweet pins on it! Like rainbows and animals and memes.

    Her rainbow sneaks carry her into the alley as she tries to find a shortcut back to the hypertube to NYC, frowning at her GPS. "Ah... tortoise tubas... where..." she shakes her phone as if it'll help her get a better signal. It does nothing. "..maybe if I keep going.." she looks to the far end of the alley where it opens on another section of town, and wanders onward.

    Today's hat of the day: A sky blue Rainbow Dash cap with the magenta eyes and a mane-like fauxhawk of rainbow hair. Such a colorful gal!

Bette Kane has posed:
It's quite strange as Molly goes further into the alley. It's like the sound of the busy Midtown behind her seems to fade away into an eerie silence. It's strange, but Molly might not notice. The lights fade from the garish brightness of the street into buzzing, dim things. All the easier for someone, or someones, to meld out, seemingly having found their prey.

Five men of varying degrees of largeness somehow had hidden themselfs amongst the detrius of the alley. A couple have pipes, one a chain, another a worn baseball bat. They all loom over Molly as they form a semicircle to block her progress.

"Cute hat," one snickers. "Just throw your cash and phone on the ground, and you can walk."

Above, another presence lurks unseen, narrowing eyes at the unfolding drama below.

Molly Hayes has posed:
    Of course Molly doesn't notice. She's got her eyes on her phone and is humming a little tune. A happy song as her head bobbles back and forth. She'd seen that the path ahead was clear and unless she hears something liek a trash truck, she doesn't need to look up. The voice speaking up gives her pause, though, and she stops, rainbow shoes pressing together as she blinks.

    "Huh? Awww bug juice, no way..." she grumbles. The girl can't be any bigger or older than a high school student, surely, and she puffs out her cheeks. She starts to step back, glancing over her shoulder back the way you came. "Nuh uh, I don't have any money. My girlfriend gave me her card so I could get lunch an' buy a couple of things..!"

    As she speaks, she puts her phone in her jacket pocket. "An' I dunno how to get back home without my phone an' my train pass is on it!" she stomps her foot on the ground indignantly. "Sooooo that's a no!"

Bette Kane has posed:
The muggers look at each other and laugh. "Isn't that cute. She's got a sugar mama." They puff themselves up, the shadows making it seem like they truly tower over Molly. The two with pipes take a step forward, slapping them in their palms. "Then we're just gonna have to take 'em. Nothing personal. Life is hard."

A pipe is lifted high, muscles tensing in preparation when he's hit in the face from above. Something, rather someone in flame reds and oranges swings down from above, planting boots in his face, their cape ruffling the rainbow mane of Molly's hat.

The figure, a woman, rolls with her momentum after planting the man to the concrete below. She comes back to her feet, cape billowing a bit, and she turns towards the others. "Picking on kids now? I thought you guys would have more pride than that." She glances to Molly, blue eyes flinty behind her mask. "You should probably get out of h--"

She's cut off as the guy with the bat takes a full swing, blasting the barrel of it into her abdomen. The others seemingly forget Molly and swarm the woman, shouting "Get the cape!"

Molly Hayes has posed:
    "Aww come on, can we talk about this? You wouldn't like me when I'm angry..." Molly warns. She's been doing her best to de-escalate things. She's in Gotham, after all! It wouldn't do to accidentally kill someone when she gets a bit over-excited. She especially doesn't want to disappoint Batwoman after she'd gotten to meet her and everything. "...cuz... cuz it's her card... and.. my phone.. and.." she's flustered as she backs up slowly. She could run, but her legs are a bit on the shorter side!

    And then... the kick! The cape! "...o-oh... also... um. This is.. Gotham City... and... there's.. lots of bats here..." she says quietly, wincing as the man hits the ground. "Wait... you're not a bat.. oh catfish whiskers is that--Flamebird! Whoa! You guys are in for it n..." and the bat hits Bette. "..ow." Molly just winces, seeing how the five armed dudes just. Start to move in on the poor fire-suited superheroine. "Hey... that's..." the girl frowns. She looks around the alley for something, anything, and finds one of those big blue dumpsters.

    Her small hands grasp the grabby handles on the side and with surprisingly little effort, pulls it away from the wall with a grinding sound as big metal wheels roll on the crunchy alleyway concrete. "...SO... NOT... COOL!" she grunts and does a mighty KRATOS KICK and with the loud *BONG* of shoe meeting metal, the mass of metal and garbage is launched towards at least one or two masses of *human trash*.

Bette Kane has posed:
The four remaining muggers get a few blows in on Flamebird as she's just overwhelmed. She's not the Batman, she's not a Robin or even her cousin Batwoman. She's in over her head a lot, because she's eager to prove herself. Today? She gets lucky with an assist before they can do any real damage.

The screech of the dumpster makes a couple of the guys look up from their attempts to thrash Flamebird. She, at least, has gotten her wind and is striking back, but four on one is still a rough go. The smirk a bit, and turn to go back to their grim task, when the gonglike echo rings throuth the ally.

They are not prepared.

Two of them move to try and intercept the dumpster, putting their arms out to catch it, but they are not ready for Princess Powerful. Joints pop out of socket as the dumpster hits and keeps going, dragging them down the alley until it crashes into another pile of trash where they lay unmoving, but groaning.

Flamebird uses this distraction to force herself free and drive an elbow at one of the last two's jaw, gritting her teeth through the pain of the undoubtedly heavy bruising. Kat's going to give her such a hard time when she gets home.

The last one growls and starts to whirl his chain. That's gonna sting.

Molly Hayes has posed:
    Molly hoots and pumps her fist when she gets two, "WOO! I should take up bowling!" She's enthused, excited! But there's still more bads to go. While she's entirely happy to be rooting for Bette. Er. Flamebird. There's still one more jerkbag with an improvised weapon. So the little lady with the colorful hat zips forward as fast as her legs can carry her. Not that it's super far with how close they were to begin with!

    She reaches her arm up, to stick it in the way of that spinning chain! The momentum carries it rapidly around her limb and the end of it.. smacks her RIGHT in the face. "Ack!" she makes a... sound that's far more surprised than pained at being smashed in the nose with a rapidly moving length of metal. Her eyes are clenched shut too, but... no bruise? No bloody nose? Nothing?!

    "I told you monkey butts we should TALK about this!" she squeaks out adorably before yanking her arm down hard enough to yank the man towards her. Right into the fist going for his gut. "...stupid jerks...!" she shouts afterwards and grabs the chain with both hands and just yanks it apart. "..huff... huff... stupid jerks.." she says in a quieter voice.

Bette Kane has posed:
The man Flamebird cracked in the face is stunned for a moment, and she finishes the job by using her momentum and pivoting, crshing a fist into the side of his head. He, too, tumbles to the ground in a heap. The vigilante takes a second to take stock, making sure all the muggers are down for the count. The popping of the chain is really when she notices that Molly is built different. The chain hitting her in the face was largely missed because Punching A Dude. Tearing it apart, though, that's something.

"Uh, just. Hold on a second," she says as she proceeds to quickly and efficiently march through the downed muggers and zip tie their hands behind their backs. She'll call it in when she leaves.

Now she moves back to Molly, wincing just a bit. "Are you alright, young lady? Not hurt at all?"

Molly Hayes has posed:
    Molly is making grumpy noises as she unwraps the chain from her arm. By the time Bette is there to talk to her again, she's finally gotten all of it off. "..stupid jerkbutts.." she grumbles, wiping off her sleeve. "Eeew I got, like.. bad guy cooties on my coooooat now..." There's a long sigh and her shoulders slump.

    Then she peeks up at the costumed blonde, "Huh? Oh! Yeah! No! I mean...." Her wire cross and her brain juice mixes for a moment. "I mean, yeah I'm alright! An' no I'm not hurt! I uh. I'm indestructible.... so... they just. I told them not to! But they did anyway!" She kicks at one of the pipes that had fallen on the ground. It sails at a wall so hard it gets embedded in the concreate.

    She immediately puts both hands over her mouth, "AH! Grizzly bears! I didn't mean to do that!" she pouts and looks back to Flamebird, pointing at the wall. "That! That was an accident! I'm sorry! D-don't ziptie me too!"

Bette Kane has posed:
Bette tilts her head slightly, blonde hair falling to the side as Molly says she's indestructable. That's interesting. Not exactly surprising, given the world they live in, but not something you see every day. She just nods. "I get it. I wish I didn't have to swoop down here and, uh, get mobbed by four of them." She winces, clutching her ribs a bit. Definitely bruised. She groans. "K--Batwoman is gonna kill me," she mutters.

She jumps a little as Molly punts the piece of pipe into the concrete wall like a F3 tornado. She grins a bit lopsidedly. "Well, I'm not going to, though I don't think it'd hold if you didn't want it to. Let's get you out of this alley, though I don't think anyone's lurking down here anymore after that display."

Molly Hayes has posed:
    "Oh..." Molly says quietly. "Um. Just. Gotta be more careful, right? Sorry for.. uh.. getting you hurt cuz I was trying to find a shortcut or something.." she rubs the side of her head as she calms down some. The name-drop makes her blink up at Bette, though, "Oh! You know Batwoman too?" she asks, suddenly fishing out her phone. She holds it up proudly, showing off a couple of selfies she'd taken with Kate. And for Bette, she /might/ recognize the floor of Batwoman's bike garage.

    "You okay? You.. got a big hit.." she makes a cute frowny-face at the other heroine, then she nods, looking around before pointing in the direction she was going. "Oh, yeah! Right. I was going this way. Cuz. I needed some more signal and.. stuff.. happened.." she trails off, lightly tugging on one of the ears on her hat. "I'm Molly, by the way. Do you need help? I could totally carry you if you got hurt!"

Bette Kane has posed:
Bette can't help but smile at Molly's energy and general good cheer. "I'm fine. I've had way, way worse. I'll be alright, promise," she replies, trying to assuage Molly's worry. She resists the urge to ruffle her head. It's a difficult thing to do.

She just stares at the phone as Molly shows the selfies. She knows exactly where that was taken. She rolls her eyes, and Kate says -she's- reckless. "Well, I guess you know the secret, huh? That Batwoman isn't really as much os a b--as scary as she seems."

She starts walking slowly towards the other end of the alley. "You heading for the train or the tube? I can walk you there. Nobody will mess with you the rest of the way. ... Probably."

Molly Hayes has posed:
    It's almost as if Molly's indomitability comes with her attitude as well! "If you say so, Miss Bird..." she says quietly, nodding quickly. Her hat's mane waves in the process and those ears wiggle. "You were still super cool! Coming down from up high and walloping that dude with your kick! You were awesome!" she says happily.

    At the mention of 'The Secret', she blinks, then suddenly nods quickly, tapping her nose. "Oh, yeah! Well. She's super nice. And. It was super awesome meeting her. Then I met Starfire and her girlfriend is one of my girlfriends.. and.. now I met you today too! This week has been the best!" she titters happily.

    She's so happy she almost misses the question, following along with a bounce in her step. "Oh! Um. The thing that gets me back home to New York faster.... tube? Train...? Shoot, I don't remember what I rode.. my brain is full of hats!" she gives a goofy grin.

Bette Kane has posed:
Outwardly, Bette smiles a bit. Inwardly, she smiles maliciously. She's going to give Kate such a hard time about this when she gets home. It'll be fun for the shoe to be on the other foot for once. That never happens.

"The hypertube, yeah. It's not too far," she says, moving like she hadn't just been cracked in the ribs with a baseball bat. Her eyes widen slightly behind her mask. That is a busy week. And very cute. Her cape flutters a bit behind her as she walks out onto the adjoining street, people moving out of her way and staring or taking pictures. It's not too often that one of these Bat Folk are walking on a sidewalk.

"Also, that's a really cute hat. Rainbow Dash is the best."