14966/An Unusual Request

An Unusual Request
Date of Scene:	28 May 2023
Location:	Old Millwright Warehouse
Synopsis:	Inque sets fire to a warehouse to capture the attention of the bat family. When they answer, she has a strange request for them.
Cast of Characters:	Inque, Talia al Ghul, Phoebe Beacon, Barbara Gordon, Tim Drake, Cassandra Cain

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Inque has posed:
    It's never a dull night in Gotham. There's always something going on to keep the Bats busy. Tonight is no exception. The police radios blare that there has been an explosion at the old Millwright warehouse. It //could// have been a historical landmark, having been one of the earliest warehouses built in Gotham if it wasn't for the fact that it's barely standing and so dilapidated.

    It is also currently on fire.

    It's kind of amazing that it hasn't spontaneously combusted in it's long history of being a rotting hulk of a building up until now, but one supposes that it was only inevitable. It probably wouldn't have been of much note if it was just a regular fire, but an explosion? Somebody must have *set* the thing on fire. On purpose. Loudly. Additionally, there are reports that the nearest fire trucks have been disabled. Somebody sure had a grudge against this building.

    The only other thing to note is that this warehouse has been a hotbed of gang activity of one sort or another for nearly 100 years. Currently it's in the Grey Skulls territory, which might explain //why// somebody had a grudge against the old Millwright warehouse.

Talia al Ghul has posed:
Why is each of them with the other? Why are they tolerating one another? But, as if some sort of pact (willing or not) Talia Al Ghul has done the best she can to stay in the general contact with Cassandra Cain. Which means staying by the girl. This has no doubt annoyed Cassandra - but with the concern from everyone in the Family (of which she is not exactly a part of), it has hopefully helped to give a general sense to the others that Cassandra is observed - and hopefully to Cassandra the relief of letting them know that she's watched.

Talia has her own dark suspicions on what exactly is going on with the girl. Voiced to no one so far. But, as the explosions go off, and everyone heads in that direction.. Talia follows

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Gotham City. Of course something would be on fire immediately after Oriole was trying to get a mid-patrol donut.

    Pastry abandoned, the gray-and-orange batling had hopped astride her bike of the night, and aplied speed on her way to the scene.

    <<This is Oriole. Coming in to the scene of the fire. Has anyone set eyes on it yet? Who's responding?>>

    It would make sense that the child of a slain firefighter was making her way with all haste, her domino's signal pinging through the city streets.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Batgirl was on patrol tonight. Well, she was about to be. She was in the process of stepping toward the exterior launch platform of the GGE Blimp, that hovers high in the night sky above, when the call came in over her AI systems that a fire was blazing at a warehouse not too far away below.

"Isn't that a active gang site?" Batgirl asks her AI system, which confirms quickly with her question. "Great." Babs adds as her cowl is slipped on over her head, holding her fiery red hair down behind her shoulders. "Tell everyone within the city who is on active duty tonight, let them know something is going down. If the Fire Trucks are disabled, let them know someone might be trying to create a raging inferno that could take down a whole block, if not more."

Moments later, Batgirl steps up to the edge of the Blimp's exterior balcony ledge, she takes several quick breaths of air before she steels her nerves, and just drops. She vanishes over the edge of the balcony, her cape rapidly waving to her sides as she falls.

Seconds later, and Batgirl soars across the sky, headed in the direction of the burning building...

Tim Drake has posed:
    It's only a few precious moments after the fire is reported across the wire that Red Robin pulls up on his bike, having been in the area by some stroke of luck. Good or bad it remains to be seen. He idles in a nearby alleyway, the glow of the projected hard-light computer display illuminating the area around him. Fingers flying across the keyboard built into his left gauntlet, he doesn't pause in his quest for the warehouse's blueprints as he responds.

    "<<Red Robin here, I just arrived on scene.>>" Then he's on his feet, moving swiftly towards the fire. The growing heat and light lead the way, and he allows a momentary pause to consider the disabled firetrucks before he faces down the burning building. "<<Might be foul play.>>"

    A circuitous path around the building allows Tim to scout for potential entrances, or signs of life inside needing rescue. His eyes rapidly move from point to point as he scans the exterior, looking for a sign. Any sign, of anything.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
<<Batgirl. Check for life signs inside.>>

Nearly everyone is on comms, and would hear that voice. It's not one that you normally, if ever, hear in response on comms, so it might take a moment for anyone but Talia to pin down who, exactly, is speaking. But it comes up on the HUD as Cassandra/Orphan. And she sounds serious.

The thing is, she's got Talia moving fast. If the older woman wants to stay with Cass, then she too is riding full-tilt toward the fire's location, having swung the bike around in a tire-burning squeal when she heard the explosion. Tearing toward it, she glances back at Talia, trying to keep up.

Then she stands up on the motorcycle, adrenaline rushing. She spots Oriole's blip on her heads-up, the helmet being one of the good ones, and puts a foot on the handlebar to wind the bike up to full.

<<I'll be inside, direct me to them.>>

Red Robin gets to see it, and it's one of those moments. When Cass bunches up, then leaps off the bike, leaving it to explode against a wall, as her momentum sends her hurtling through a third-floor window into the fire-engulfing warehouse like a cannonball. She doesn't like to waste time.

Gotta hope she can back up her hype, there.

Inque has posed:
    "Oh, don't bother," a sardonic voice says from behind Red Robin, as Inque pulls herself up from the shadows. "The warehouse was empty. I made sure of it." And from what Cass can see as she makes her way through what she can of the burning warehouse, Inque is telling the truth for once.

    Details come into shape and features form as Inque reshapes herself into her human guise, making it easier for people to read her body language and expressions. Which, right now, is that of lazy amusement. "Come, now. Let's gather up all the little batlings together. I have a job for you."

Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia isn't on the level of Cassandra. So all she can do is push herself to her not-quite limits to keep up. She goes to just let the girl go ahead of her and then quickly looks about as she's racing along at full sprint. She doesn't have the gadgets, nor does she have the agility that Bruce has trained to everyone. She can't do this feat straight.. But she's not ever going to play something fair. At a full sprint, she goes to leap fully ahead and sommersault.. Then from her side she goes to yank out a large bullwhip that.. Looks very much like the type Ms. Kyle uses. Same leather, same scent of oil used to keep it limber and smooth..

Whip snaps out, wraps around emergency fire escape rust that's already on the way of falling on down, using the arc to twist herself forwards, hitting the window that Cassandra had just jolted through and cleanly landing. She's not on the comms network either, so knowing exactly what is up is somewhat beyond her. She doesn't know however that Cass is being talkative.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    SKREEEEE...

    Oriole is still straddling her bike. She looks Somewhat Aghast (TM) at Orphan not only talking, but also destroying a bike. She's still working on that part of the Bat Team -- the funding part.

    She pushes back the visor of her helmet, the lenses of the domino glowing and illuminating her face blue before she peels off the helmet, looking suspiciously at Inque as she speaks up from behind Red Robin, shoulders stiffening a moment as she reaches for her own staff and rolls her shoulder in her armor, eyes narrowing behind the lenses as she looks to Red Robin.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Batgirl's downward glide is fast, her angle steep, as she comes ever closer to the rooftops of the neighborhood surrounding the burning warehouse. She hears the others on comm, and speaks softly back whilst in flight. "Batgirl on approach." She alerts the others as her experienced flight skills are put to the test, the adrenaline of the glide one of the better parts of 'the job'.

At just the right moment, she pulls up out of the steep slope, the air washing over her body catching the stiffened material of her cape to pull her out of the high velocity manuever right as she glides across the rooftop of one of the neighboring buildings. Her legs come up, and out, as her shoulders kick back, her cape now effectively vertical, which reduces her speed to next to nothing before she kills the electrical flow to the material causing it to go soft again, and Batgirl drops the rest of the five feet down to the rooftop where she lands down on one knee, her right gloved hand out to brace herself on the edge of the roof's border wall.

She lets out a exhale, and her locks of red hair fall around her shoulders.

She rises up to her full height then, and her two-toned cape of gold and black falls around her shoulders down to her knee-level.

"Any signs of gang activity?" She asks the others then, one foot going up to the building's ledge, hoisting her up a foot or so to allow Batgirl to stand on the edge of the building, and peer down at the flames of the burning fire within the structure.
She stares for just a few lingering seconds before her left forearm comes up, her holo-computer already being brought up to check on the GCFD progress of getting here to the scene.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Any other time and Red Robin would visibly start at the sound of that voice across the comms. Right now, though, his brain is too busy being engaged by a myriad of other things. Still it gives him some mental pause, and his pace slows slightly.

    Which means he has the perfect front row view of Cass being catapulted directly into the flames.

    "<<Potentially no one,>>" Red Robin reports for Orphan's benefit, rather than react immediately to Inque's presence. He does turn after, though, staring her down for a long moment. "<<I haven't seen anything yet, Batgirl, but Inque is on the scene>>" is what he says next, finally a verbal acknowledgment of her presence.

    Following it is a sigh that transmits across the comms. "<<She set the fire. Claims there's no one inside. And apparently has a job for us.>>" His arms cross over his chest and the tilt of his head adjusts ever-so-slightly, suggesting his attention has temporarily shifted from Inque to Oriole behind, before it returns to Inque once again.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
The tap to the comms that everyone has come to expect from Orphan is her entire response to all the chatter. She acknowledges, then gets to searching inside. What, trust a supervillain's word that nobody is inside? Are you insane?

A: Inque could be telling the truth. Buuuut...
B: Did Inque personally search the entire warehouse to make sure? Is that even likely? WE CHECK.
C: Inque could be lying. We don't know. We check.
D: It's good practice.

So, with her oxy-mask slipping into place, her fire-retardent hoodie and pants on her body, she's already moving around inside. She keeps an ear on Talia, but frankly the woman made her own choice to come inside.

I mean, seriously, how often do you get to walk through a wall of fire? She can hear what Inque says, whenever the flames aren't being too overly loud. Go on with the talky part.

Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia has taken the time to just get a rag, soak it, and then ties it around her face. The smoke is rough but not particularly dangerous over to her - she's been through far worse in her training and conditioning. Thank her father for putting her through that. And the League. The whip is coiled over and then switched to her side once more as she goes to keep Cassandra within her general line of awareness. She's not on the comms and she's unaware of Inque in the area thanks to the heavy smoke blotting out all else.

She goes to sweep along, getting the intent that Cassandra is looking for survivors, sos he goes to spread out several meters away from the girl to inspect. She's not going to help necessarily save anyone.. But she'll be there just in case so she can point anything out. Really. She has her own reasons - and they don't necessarily include being a good girl like the rest of them. It's still eerie though how she seems to walk through the intense heat, smoke, and all of it without seeming to need to breathe and still able to see.

Inque has posed:
    Inque folds her arms, with an amused expression on her face as Red Robin communicates with the others. She peers over the ledge as Talia and Cassandra go into the warehouse to check to make sure there's nobody inside. "Go on," she says encouragingly. "Check. I'm not lying. I figure it'll be another fifteen minutes before the GCFD figure out that I duct taped the distributor caps to all their trucks to the ceiling. Plenty of time to let this eyesore burn to the ground and for me to give you my proposal."

    As it is, she isn't moving to initiate combat or anything. Just... standing there with a smirk on her face. As for the warehouse itself, it is, indeed, empty of all life. The rats and racoons have long since scattered, or died in the explosion, but, really, those are the only loss of life one can see. The only other thing of note is there's the remains of a safe, blown open, and most likely the center of the explosion.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Rats and raccoons are a valuable part of the urban ecosystem.

    Oriole, though, keeps her arms crossed as her head tilts a bit to the side, looking at Inque with an expression of both exasperation.

    <<So she's pulling pranks and casual arson for our attention?>> she inquires on the sub-vocal, but she continues to watch Inque's movements and Red Robin's back.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
"Oh." Batgirl's voice replies over comms to Tim. "Great." She dryly adds.

"I'm putting in a request for an airdrop. Cryo weapons enroute." Batgirl states while tapping away on her wrist computer out on the ledge of the building across from the blazing warehouse. "Additionally, the closest GCFD vehicles are unable to deploy, so I've reached out to the airfield outside of the city to garner a Forestry Service helicopter to bring in a bucket. It might take some time."

From the GGE Blimp high above, a scramble is performed by the Oracle on-duty aboard it to put together a package for Batgirl and the gang down at the fire. It takes about a minute after Babs asks, for a drop to shoot out of the bottom of the Blimp's under-carriage. A drone delivery package that descends from the sky at a fast clip... headed right for the rooftop that Batgirl is perched upon the edge of.

"Cryo weapons inbound." Babs' voice chimes in for all on her team to hear.

Talia al Ghul has posed:
Upon seeing Inque, and then getting the immediate sense that Inque was not being hostile.. But also seemingly not noted in whatever brief access she had seen to the network of Bats that Inque was not marked as a friendly, Talia Al Ghul would go through the smoke over wiht the others and go to stand further away from the blotted woman.

"Seventy five thousand. Whatever this game is can stop now." She would muse idly for a few moments. "Because whatever it is will cost you at least that much in expenses if not more. Preparation, scouting, establishing a safehouse, a contingency, however much equipment.. You're operating at a loss. Seventy five thousand. Just stop whatever this is and walk away." Or slither, or float, or whatever. Talia was just simply attempting to make the system work a little faster.

Jus tpay the woman off though and call it a day to get a move on. That was far more efficient.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Red Robin doesn't acknowledge Inque's assurance that she isn't lying, which seems to be a running theme. Channeling the stoicism of the Batman in the moment, a passable mimicry on his part that only somewhat compares to the original. He is, however, tracking Orphan's position signal inside the warehouse on his domino mask's HUD, watching as she performs an efficient search pattern.

    "Whatever game you're playing, you won't win," he says, and he sounds more world-weary than someone of his apparent age ought to. The look that he levels on Inque is muted due to the mask, but the set of his jaw is achingly tense, no doubt due to his mind running through the many possible permutations of what, exactly, he suspects Inque is up to.

    He nods once up towards Batgirl, a subtle motion, but one appreciative of her, as ever, quick resourcefulness. It's only Talia's offer of cash that really seems to shake him out of his grim single-mindedness, and it's to just shake his head. Maybe in shock and awe, or maybe he already expects the offer to be turned down.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Cass, in the fire, is looking around. She can hear that cryo is inbound, and knows from training scenarios under Barbara how long they roughly take to be deployed. So she checks that Talia, who for SOME reason isn't on comms, gets out. Then she taps her headset (still wearing the advanced motorcycle helmet) that she's heard and will react accordingly.

With Talia out, though, Cass herself vanishes into a sideroom. Does some things, watches some netflix...

Not really. It's hard to tell exactly what she's doing in there, but moments later she hops quite calmly out of a first-floor window, smoking, and wanders on up to the group.

Cass only smokes when she's on fire. So, maybe that could be an issue.

She flips up her facemask as she's approaching, and frowns visibly. Then she looks around.

Few people really understand it, but nobody on the team or off has ever been able to successfully lie to Cass. She's got a sense for it. So, looking over the inky one, she frowns more deeply. Then she glances to each of the teamies and gives a small nod.

Apparently she's giving a 'yes' to the woman's words? Huh.

Inque has posed:
    Inque just laughs at Talia's offer. "Oh, honey. If money could have fixed this problem I wouldn't have needed to call you in." Her tone turns deadly serious. "No, it's not about the money. Not this time. And it's not something with my reputation can fix either. My involvement will only make the situation worse, which is why I need you."

    She waits for all to assemble before lazily walking around the small group of the Bat Family, swinging her hip as she plays up the femme fatale. "Oh, I think I will," she assures Red Robin.

    "What I want is simply this: There is a young woman by the name of Deanna Clay who is dating a member of this fine gang called the Grey Skulls." She smirks and gestures at the warehouse. "You may have heard of them. I want her to stop dating him. I want her to break her ties with the gang."

    "I thought about just murdering this boyfriend of hers, but at this point I think that would do more harm than good." She shrugs. "Besides, beyond this I can't get more personally involved." She steps up to Red Robin to playfully poke him in the chest with a finger. "Which is where //you// come into play. You all have a better reputation than I do, and you have a way of dealing with wayward souls that I don't." She takes a step back and folds her arms once again to look at the assembled group. "This is all I ask."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Oriole cannot :| hard enough at Inque's words.

<<How soon is that helicopter going to drop water on the blaze? Can we use it to take her out too?>> she questions, shoulders tensing as Inque prods Robin in the chest. She's definitely readable.

    "So you torched a warehouse, messed with the GCFD -- which is awful on its own I'll add -- to break up a relationship betweeen a girl and a gang member? NOt sure if you're familiar with the whole 'Romeo and Juliet' thing, but doesn't that tend to not work out for one or both pairs of people... especially when the foundation is arson?" she questions.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Batgirl remains outside of the warehouse, across the street, watching the fire as it develops from afar. She hears the comms, can hear some of what is going down, but her focus remains where it is. Behind her, the large air drop drone swoops in over the roof, not unlike Batgirl herself did minutes earlier. It comes down to gently land upon the rocky roof surface, before four metal latches click open, and it lifts off again with a thrust of power in to its quad rotor housings. Babs looks over her shouldr then at the crates it left behind, before she turns to move toward it with a second of a glance sent up to the drop-drone taking back up to the sky.

"Cryo gear has arrived." She announces to her team. "If needs arise, it'll be inside in moments." Batgirl tells her teammates before opening one of the crates, and peering inside at a bandolier of shiny metal spheres. Ice grenades, she kind of low-key loves these things...

Batgirl's gloved right hand reaches in to pick up the bandolier, holding it by the packaged grenades on its length. She eyes them with her green pupils as she hears the question, and turns back to walk to the ledge before the fire. "It's 35 minutes out. Not great for the status of this building, but it's bringing a heavy load with it. Nobody is going to want to be inside that place when it gets here." Babs says with the bandolier of 'ice grenades' at her right side, her left looking down at her holo-displaying wrist computer to confirm that information report.

Talia al Ghul has posed:
There's a 'harrumph' over from Talia Al Ghul as she would give a gaze over at Inque. Her expressionw ould read, from one supervillain to another, if one could translate the jabs and twitches of those that might go to the Bar With No Name together and could chug a glass of doom at the Villain's Pub..

'Really'? Then a low sigh and grumble that if one could translate supervillain/mastermind facial expressions to reparte. 'You couldn't even hire minions for a kidnapping? Or mind control?' Or maybe that all was kind of exaggerated! But, the proclamations of why nothing could ever be handled -simply- was there.

Talia Al Ghul would cross her arms, glance over to Red Robin and the others, then sigh with an 'I have nothing to do with any of them'e xpression on her face. And hopefully Cassandra didn't get a good enough look at her face while she was eyebrow-twitch monologuing over to Inque.

Also good she's not on the Bat-Comms. Oriole's replies get a sigh over from Talia with a 'taht won't help' expression that quickly is smoothed over on her face. If Inque's go-to wasn't having the other man killed, thrown in a meat processor, then the remains smuggled off planet it couldn't be that easy.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
This is why we can't have nice things.

So, anyway, after watching this entire thing including the repartee with Talia's eyebrows, Cass folds her arms over her chest. The act itself seems to be a comment of some sort, and not one that is exactly hard to decode.

She licks her teeth, watching Inque closely, and then closes the screen on her helmet with a snap. Then, she connects to comms again.

<<She loves other lady. In danger. Shit at asking for things, does not know why we upset about fire. Bit weird in head.>> She passes that on, very quietly, for the team to hear.

Then she glances at Talia too-cool-for-communicators, and shrugs. Someone will tell her. Cass does not repeat herself.

Inque has posed:
    Inque gives Oriole a helpless shrug. "Would you have come if I lit the Batsignal? Would you have taken me //seriously// if I had? Besides..." she gives her a little smirk. "If I remember correctly, both Romeo //and// Juliet died by the end of the play. This is a fate I wish to spare my Juliet." She shakes her head. "Nobody ever seems to remember that Romeo and Juliet is a //tragedy//."

    Amusement sparkles in her eyes at Talia. "Oooh, I like her. I could have hired minions for a kidnapping." She pauses. "No, that wouldn't have worked. You would have just rescued her without asking questions." She waves a hand in dismissal. "And I don't trust that mind control stuff anyway. Too many ways it can go wrong and seriously damage her. I wish her very much //not// to be damaged."

    "Besides. I've already won," she grins condescendingly at Red Robin. "I've given you a name. I've stated my interest in her. You'll follow up on that regardless of whether you believe me or not, and you, being the soft hearts that you all are, just won't be able to help yourselves in helping her."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Aaaaah... that was my point. They both died." Oriole paused a moment.

    "From lack of communication, in fact. Does the girl even know your intention? Or your feelings on the subject?" she questions, her arms crossing, and she raises her eyebrows. "Glad my AP English in middle school is finally paying off."

Talia al Ghul has posed:
There's an irritated twitch to Talia's eyebrow that if Cassandra is looking over at her and reading body language can be translated as 'stupid theatric' and then several more best left untranslated due to the inability of a minor twitch of the human features to express obscentity via secondhand.

Talia at least does bother to go quiet at this moment and leave it to the Bat-Family to negotiate over things. She's made ehr point here and the pitch. SHe's offered to pay Inque off, that was denied. The rest of the group will probably try and attack her while Inque flees or has some sort of contingency and then of /course/ they'll all go on to immediately investigate and followup what Inque has talked about.

She is also at least moderately impressed for, monologuing included that Inque has gotten everything so fully lined up. It's quite impressive. Even if it's too theatrical for her tastes. Pfeh.

At least there's no mad laughter. But, they haven't tried to attack Inque yet so it could be when she fades away. Talia is going to then make her way outside from what will either be a melee starting shortly or the authorities arriving.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Red Robin has taken all this in without so much as a budge of his posture. It's closed off, unaccepting, but there is one thing Inque is right about: she's laid down the path for them to follow, and with a name, there's little to no chance that at least one of the Bats won't follow up.

    And if curiosity kills the cat... well, then Tim might as well be Selina Kyle's protege.

    "You know we're going to follow up on this," he agrees, because there's no use beating around the bush on this one. "You care about this girl. That's admirable, that you want her out of harm's way." Pause, here, for impact.

    "Or is it that you want her in your harm's way instead?"

Barbara Gordon has posed:
In the warm wind of the night, Batgirl's cape flows around her form as she watches from her perch atop the neighboring building. "I'm on standby with the cryo gear." She reminds the team inside the inferno. "You guys are going to want to get out of there pretty quick, that whole place is looking rather unstable..." She also warns before her eyes look to the east where the chopper with the water is supposed to be coming from.

"Additionally, we shouldn't do any business with Inque. Either we take her in custody now, or we prepare to do it later and try to track her tonight. But this is some serious arson, and we can't let it go unpunished." Babs says as she paces for a moment, her yellow boots crunching on old concrete, the bandolier of grenades swaying at her right side gripped in her right gloved hand.

Inque has posed:
    Inque's eyes turn hard as she faces Oreole. "Then you see why I want her to break ties." She shakes her head. "The girl doesn't know who I am and it needs to stay that way."

    She raises an eyebrow at Tim and leans close to whisper playfully to him, "If I wanted to hurt her, do you really think you could stop me?" She takes a few steps back and claps her hands. "Well. It's been absolutely //lovely// chatting with you all, but it's time for me to go." With that she quickly dissolves into a puddle and quickly flows towards a drainage pipe.

Talia al Ghul has posed:
Well, lovely. Talia goes to take that moment while the melee will start and the fire department will arrive by going to jump off the side of the building to vanish over into the night, leaving Inque to be dealtw ith by the Bats. She's already made her attempt here and it's not her fight. Sos he's going to dive along and geto ut of there before they think to ask her just what she was doing keeping up with Cassandra..

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "You know, I don't think she likes me." Oriole states quietly, looking over to Red Robin and Batgirl, the missing place where Orphan once stood. "O, tell me, friar, tell me, in what vile part of this anatomy doth my name lodge?" she mutters, and then pushes her hood back a little bit and looks to the helicopter, the Batgirl, and then Red Robin.

    "So. Who's chasing Juliet, who's chasing the Power of Greyskulls?"

Tim Drake has posed:
    "<<Copy,>>" Tim says over comms to Barbara, just in time for him to turn his head and be uncomfortably close to Inque. They're face to face, so she's up close and personal and able to see the corners of his mouth twitch. "I've stopped worse," is what he comes up with, which is debatebly true depending on one's definition of worse -- but also probably not particularly cutting in the moment.

    He opens his mouth to reply further but then Inque is making her getaway, and immediately Red Robin's hand reaches around to the back of his utility belt for his staff.

    A flick of his wrist has it extended, a quick nudge of his thumb against a hidden switch activates the taser built into it, and then he javelin throws it at the moving target that Inque's puddle form presents.

    Should've requested those cryo grenades from Batgirl. He'll be kicking himself for holding off for a while after this, trying to use the Power of Just Talk rather than... well, the power of compressed nitrogen. After a moment, he adds: "I'll track down the boyfriend."

Barbara Gordon has posed:
"She escaped, didn't she?" Batgirl asks as she paces down the side of that building next door. "I'll run the names through my databanks, and see what it comes up with. If I get any pings on possible intel, addresses of interest, et cetra, then I'll make sure to send it out to everyone's devices."

There's a pause then before Batgirl's voice chimes in again. "Look. I dropped this stuff down here, everyone should come up and grab some of it. Lets keep some of these cryo weapons on our belts for now. Word is it's supposed to be a hot summer anyway, might as well have some extreme ways of cooling it down, if needs be."

Off in the distance, the tell tale signs of heavy thumping rotor blades can be heard as a rather large helicopter is coming in with a rather large container hanging from a heavy cable beneath its belly. "Looks like the party's about to start here. Everyone make sure to get out of that mess."

Cassandra Cain has posed:
So that's when you hear Cass giggling over comms. Why sneaky about it? Because sometimes people just don't like fun.

If she could do an evil laugh, she would be. The bombs she's gotten might be a lure, because it does sound like fun in there. She throws the first, and an entire area of deep flames changes. Already weakened girders shatter and the two powers combine and it actually seems like an ice bomb might make this entire trip worthwhile.

It's a happy moment, and really you gotta come try this. I mean, baWHOOM! Then you dive back, hiding from the spray of steam and impact, and laugh some more.

Kinda like a really idiotic snowball fight. Against demons.

Inque has posed:
    Inque screams in pain as the electricity arcs through the puddle that is her body, causing her to convulse for a moment before managing to form a hole around where the staff is to break the contact. Even quicker, she makes it down the drainpipe and disappears into the shadows. The only thing she leaves behind is a muttered, "Typical."

    Between the ice grenades, and the fire control helicopter dumping water on the building, they manage to contain the fire before it can spread. It isn't too much longer before the GCFD shows up, having found the distributer caps and plugged it back into their vehicles, and the fire is shortly put out, leaving the historic(?) Millwright warehouse a burnt out husk.

    All that's left now is to follow the leads that Inque has given. But where will it lead them? What will they find? Only time will tell.