15140/Beantown Counters

Beantown Counters
Date of Scene:	14 June 2023
Location:	Wharf District, Boston, MA
Synopsis:	When the Outsiders (and Michael Hannigan, in birb form) end up tracking some contraband items to be shipped out of Boston to Greenland, they have to get in and stop -- ... fake Batburger toys? They include: *'UPDATED BATMAN': Which is Nightwing with a cape and bat ears. *UPDATED BATGIR: Blonde variant *RETRO NIGHTWING: It's the Discowing Suit. *OSPREY: Except he's inexplicably blonde and also Robin-sized. *SUPERMAN: ... it's actually Captain America with bat ears and a cape.
Cast of Characters:	Phoebe Beacon, Tim Drake, Michael Hannigan, Austin Reese

---

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    BOSTON

    The newer Boston, anyway.

    Metropolitan area known for the adamant refusal to refer to the building the Bruins play in as anything other than Boston Garden, absolute refusal to let the Red Sox play in anything except the third smallest MLB stadium in the United States, and that Potatoes monument that isn't about the Famine.

    ... along with some other stuff.

    Tonight though it was Going Down in the Wharf District, which contrary to its title is not full of honorable Klingon security officers for Starfleet but indeed has a lot of wharfs, warehouses and some night life that's not quite on the up-and-up.

    Tonight's mission? Balm, while not on Bat Business, managed to secure information about contraband being moved up the coast and towards the Danish holdings of Greenland. It was going to be loaded up and shipped in the morning with the tides, and recruited a few stalwart companions to help retrieve the contraband without getting the Bat involved.

    Which is why she's wearing a more casual looking armor set than the orange and grays of her Oriole armor. Tonight? She was Balm. And everyone's Shipping Up to Boston.

    Yes. She has been humming snippits of the song on the way

Tim Drake has posed:
    The trip up here via the Outsiders jet was a short jaunt, just a ways northward, but that's still a significant change of scenery. Even going from one coastal town to the another, the city just feels different. A nice break from the ever-present Gotham gloom, though Boston brings its own particular feel, what with all the history packed into a city of not even a million people. The air's cleaner, at least. Or maybe that's just the lack of Gotham's murkiness weighing one down.

    Not here on Bat-business, though? Time for the stealth uniform, then, which translates to 95% of Tim's armor being black or grey. Even the utility belt!

    He stands at Balm's back, the white-out lenses of his mask keeping much of his expression hidden as he scans the area, ready to move out as needed but on his guard until then.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Mike has work attire as well. But this isn't a concert so the higher end clothes that are worn on stage have been left behind. Instead, in the spirit of working with certain masked heroes, the musician has donned his own heroic attire. Attire that fits in with joggers in Central Park with the hoodie modified to block the face. And considering how little has gone into it, it looks great.

If you could only see it that is. Having gotten notice of the general area to where they were going to meet, he had to resort to alternative arrangements which becomes apparent as a purplish black raven flies in and sets down upon Phoebe's shoulder.

No words are spoken but the wing that lifts into a wave is likely indication enough that this bird is a friendly.

Austin Reese has posed:
There were no markings on Osprey tonight, instead opting to stick with his darker suit that doesn't have all the yellow. He'd never been on the Outsiders jet before though. Since he was still on the newer side of the heroic endeavours, he'd mostly tended to stick to Gotham.

Except when Phoebe drags him to Manhattan to shoot angels.

Osprey is wearing a full face mask this time with a resperator. Maybe it's a commentary on the sea air of Boston. His voice is distorted by the mask though, <"So what is the contraband anyway?"> He probably should have asked earlier, as he scans through thermal and night vision to try to spot and mark targets.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Look sometimes you take your siblings on crazy things. That's what they do, and Phoebe knows she's always been able to count on Osprey and Red Robin to join in shenanigans.

    Balm adjusts for the Raven landing on her shoulder, and she gives a small smile, black-lipstick'd lips curling as she reaches up and just... gently pats the Raven on the back. "Good to see you too." she states, opting to not drop a name, but she comes to the top of the warehouse.

    "Nothing toxic or magic in this case." she replies to the question, looking back behind Red.

    She's been weirdly dodgy about the actual contraband, just that it was *important* to get.

    "There's three crates that are destined for Greenland. We need to make sure they don't get on the truck to the dock." she states, and takes a deep breath as she leans over, and looks into the warehouse floor. Thank goodness for the cheapness of natural light, it'd be so much less easy to look down without all the glass windows on the roof.

    "I see a bunch of targets, some armed with handguns, at least one with an assault-style rifle. Some light body armor." she recounts quietly.

Tim Drake has posed:
    The raven gets a subtle tilt of the head from Red Robin, but he doesn't question it; a supernatural happening isn't something that's going to make him blink, not any more. Instead he steps forward to stand next to Balm and side-eyes her for her hesitance to share details, but his trust in her holds so he doesn't question it.

    Not yet, anyway. You can't keep Tim from asking questions for too long.

    "Sounds like fun," is the answer he gives to Phoebe's report of the hostiles in the area, and then... that's it. He glances back at Osprey with another head-tilt and waits, because this isn't his show to run.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
The initial pat of the raven ends up being less than satisfactory as Balm's hand sort of goes through the form of the bird. As the avian glances to the hand, there soon becomes a bit of pressure pushing back, simulating the presence of a body. This effect fades as Phoebe gives a bit of information to what they're doing there. The head tilts at the skimping of the details but he stares, waiting for her to provide more information.

Austin Reese has posed:
<"I'll get the rifle guy."> Osprey says, as he pulls that marker to his HUD and raises up. He doesn't move in yet, but he does stretch out a little bit, <"How do we wanna do this, Balm? I assume quietly, but you know, I do love making a distraction.">

He's more than happy to show some goons outside of Gotham what he's been learning lately, but he doesn't want to step on Balm's toes either.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "So much fun." Balm replies, and she takes a breath, she was half expecting Red to drop a plan on them, but it was a little refreshing (AND NOT SCARY AT ALL) the amount of trust both her 'brothers' had in her. She stiffens a moment, the Raven can probably sense it as she looks out over the unfamiliar skyline.

    "Os, Rifle, followed by marked with diamonds. Red, marked with hearts. I'll grab the spades, and ah..." she turns to the Raven.

    "I didn't pack a spare HUD-enabled domino. Think you can get the guys on the catwalk?" she asks of the bird, and then she sets the charge.

    Yep. She picked up something to do to keep her mind busy.

    And with the sudden breaking of the window above with the shattering of the charge and the drop of smoke, the bats have:

HEARTS: 7
RIFLE AND DIAMONDS: 7
SPADES: 7
CATWALK: 4

     And Balm leaps into action, drawing her staff out and letting it extend!

Tim Drake has posed:
    "Copy," is all Red Robin says, a quick agreement to the plan that Balm has laid out for them. And then he waits, up on his toes, for the signal.

    The signal in this case being the shattering of the window, which prompts Tim into action, leaping forward and down into a dive that plants his feet right into the back of the furthest heart-marked baddie. Down they go in a cloud of smoke, a cloud that Red Robin immediately darts backwards out of to start a flanking maneuver around the rest of the group.

    From cover, he tosses out a couple of taser shuriken to thin out the crowd, and then with a quick flick of his wrist his own staff appears in his hand and extends out.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
The bird doesn't exactly sense the tension through traditional means. But, where the feathered one lacks in senses, he makes up for in reading people. A wing lifts up, patting Phoebe on the head, which in restrospect probably doesn't add on to the authority figure persona she's trying to channel right now. But it's a reassuring motion either way.

Getting the assignment of those wandering up high, the bird nods before flying off. He has a bit more of a natural disguise going on so his entry into the warehouse may have been a bit earlier. Fortunately warehouses are not quite air tight things so a stray bird coming into a large structure is not really notable.

Even less so when the smoke and broken glass sound comes into play.

The bird moves fast, clotheslining those on the catwalk who start to turn in the direction of the other entrants.

Austin Reese has posed:
Windows breaking allows for dynamic entry. Dynamic entry is one of Osprey's favorite things. When the window shatters inward, he drops, firing his grapple gun immediately and pulling himself across to one of the catwalks. He plants a foot on it and then launches off, flying straight down towards the rifle packing guy.

He's still reacting to the sound of the shattering glass when Osprey hits him, catching him just below the throat with a forearm as he sails past, landing and rolling as the smoke billows around him and the diamond marked goons, <"Rifle down. Engaging now.">

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Ever seen a bird clothesline someone? Ka-THUNK! The Raven makes sure one guy's gonna nevermore his way off a catwalk via wing-to-throat contact! There is an appropriate Wilheim scream as he tumbles off and lands safely in a pile of largely empty cardboard boxes!

    Red Robin flanks, tossing a couple of tasers to thin out the crowd and gets started on some controlling the MOBs, kiting the bad guys, etc. As the shurikens hit their marks, they twitch and fall over, reaching out to try and grab the shurikens away before seeming to give up the ghost.

    ONe of the Hearts is trying to pull a pallet jack with the crates towards the truck! He's stuck on a ziptie!

    Balm floow-sweeps her first enemy, turning to use her follow-through to strike their side before sending them into a support pillar.

    <They're trying to get the contraband on the truck!>

HEARTS: 5
DIAMONDS: 6 (Rifle Down)
SPADES: 6
CATWALK CLUB: 2

Tim Drake has posed:
    Tim darts back out again, spinning his staff in front of him in so that he can clock the nearest guy right in the chin with it. Then he's on the move, momentum pushing him into a slide as he drops to his knees across the warehouse floor to sweep the legs out from beneath the guy trying to move the pallet jack.

    He then has to dive behind some more boxes as the remaining heart-marked bad guys try to aim their guns at him. Of course he doesn't just roll to a stop, he keeps moving, the padded soles of his boots making the slightest of sounds as he sprints to the safety of a forklift.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
The raven takes all but a moment to make sure the one baddie that fell off the catwalk lands into the pile of conveniently placed boxes. But being there's thr- two baddies left, the bird is focused back on its charge. Take care of those left on the cat walk. But, after the first one, the others kind of catch on to the play.

Unfortunately that doesn't mean they're any better at dodging.

Two more goons end up landing in the pile of conveniently piled boxes.

Austin Reese has posed:
With the biggest threat down, Osprey decides to sweep through the smoke, grabbing the nearest goon and sweeping his leg out from under him as he throws him to the ground with enough force to knock the wind out of him and put him out of the fight. He throws out a pair of grey disks, one of which sticks to one of the diamond marked gangsters and bursts into a sudden, engulfing foam, which sticks to him and sticks him to the ground and maybe one of those crates of contraband.

The other disk sticks to the truck itself, with a small red light turning on, threatening to bursts when any of the goons get too close to it and cover them with that same sticky foam. With that proxy mine deployed, Osprey hucks a pair of taser batarangs at another pair of diamond marks, trying to bring their numbers down. Anyone getting near a crate is getting hit.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Tim Drake is now Forklift Certified, which means according to a weirdly wide variety of shirts also invoking God and the Second Amendment he is now highly desireable both to employers and women.

    ... we won't ask how he feels about that.

He takes out the knees of the guy who was pulling the pallet jack, who gives an 'AH GAWD MAI FRIGGIN' KNEES!' as he goes down and skids to the side, the hearts taking aim and popping another couple of shots that get absorb ed by the empty cardboard boxes. The keys to the forklift are in the forklift keys pocket, which is ziptied to the forklift (though it looks like there should be a second one -- wonder where it went?)

Ka-THUNK -- Ka-THUNK! Two more down for the Birdie as the Catwalk Club Closes for the evening. A couple of the spades begin to take aim at the bird and one of them grunts out a warning that it ain't a NORMAL bird.

    ... probably because it's a big ass raven that just clotheslined a great number of people into a pile of empty cardboard boxes below. Why are there so many boxes that are empty?!

    ... why are they all marked BAT BURGER?

    THe grey disks stick to the diamons, and burst out into foam. One of them cries out and flails, and is then stuck to the crate of contraband! The foam catches a second goon and sticks him to the first, so they have a pair of flailing sets of arms and weirdly only three legs.

    One of them had shipped up to Boston for a wooden leg. It fell off into the Dirty Water -- luckily, Boston is his home.

Tim Drake has posed:
    The shots go wide, because Red Robin isn't here, he's over there, far away from where the bad guys think he is. There is, however, a moment where he can stop to catch his breath, and that's when he notices the name printed on the sides of all the boxes.

    Huh.

    Batburger or no, there are still goons with guns out there, so Tim underhand-tosses a flashbang right into the thick of the remaining heart-marked baddies.

    The resulting bang is followed by a whirling staff impacting one guy on the shoulder, and another on the elbow, both hits aiming to disarm them of their firearms.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
To help second the warning about the raven not being a normal bird, it doesn't seem to worry about the guns aiming at it and instead walks along the railing back and forth like a target in a carnival game.

It's almost like the raven WANTS them to look at it instead of the people tasked to fight them.

Austin Reese has posed:
Down to the last few of the goons, Osprey swings around and grabs one of them around the head, hauling him face first into the side of the truck and then throwing him into a pile of Batburger boxes. These sure seem a long way from home.
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He takes down the last of his goons with another pair of batarangs, before he grabs the one he'd taken down into the boxes, rolling him over and putting a knee on his chest, <"Hey buddy."> He says in the digitized voice, twisting the wrist of the guy he's holding onto, <"You seem to have picked the wrong cargo to smuggle.">

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    The shots go wide, over, under, ricochet against the floor and p-TANG off the metal I-Beams that act as supports as Red Robin catches his breath, and then tosses a flashbang. They're stunned! Blinded! Deafened! One of them is yelling obcenities to the heavens and cursing the Yankees before they're disarmed of their firearms!

    One attempts to throw a haymaker where he thinks Red Robin (Stealth Mode) is at. He smacks his friend in stead, who also gets caught in the foam.

    Now there are six arms, five legs.

    The bird darts back and forth like a carnival game. The two other Spades are trying to hit him. The bullets continuously pa-TING through them and ricochet.

    They're also double-knee'd by Balm from behind and then knocked out handily!

    BRU-SHONG! That's the sound of a guy with a lot of 80's metal hair in the world's second best mullet striking the side of the van, and then teetering backwards, the remaining goons batarang'd into submission before the last one stand... well, awake, mostly, is twisted in the wrist. "WAUUGH! YEAH! I HATE GOTHAM CITY! ALMOST AS MUCH AS I HATE THE YANKEES AND TD BANK NORTH!"

Tim Drake has posed:
    Red Robin sets to immediately securing wrists and ankles with zip-ties. It's important to make sure the area is clear of potential threats, after all, and while some of these folks have been tasered or flash-banged into temporary uselessness, it is... well, only temporary.

    He makes quick work of it, thanks to a whole heap of practice, and then he takes up a position behind Osprey, arms folded over his chest and a grim frown on his face, silent and looming. Still not as good as Batman does it, but with the whole stealth-mode thing, it does work more than usual.

Austin Reese has posed:
Osprey twists the arm a bit as the guy whines about Gotham and the Yankees. He can at least agree with one of those, <"Once we get these guys wrapped up, I suppose we should get BPD down here to clean up. Bet they'll be a bit surprised."

He cuffs the guy wit zipties, and then tosses him into the foam for good measure. After he gets whatever info he needs, of course.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
With his tasks already settled and persons being incapacitated, the raven swoops down, perching upon Phoebe's shoulder once more. All the better to get a hint to what the contraband is.

If this is some drawn out means to finish the figurine set...

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    The foam now has eight arms, seven legs, and an extra pinkie toe.

    Balm goes up to the crate (FROM THE NON-FOAM SIDE), and hefts the top of the crate open with some effort, with her shoulder available in case MIke wanted a good vantage point. She wanted to look EXTRA badass.

    Inside the crate? The secret Contraband?

    BAT BURGER TOYS -- Series III.

UPDATED BATMAN - looks like Dick wearing the Batman suit.
UPDATED BATGIRL: Blonde Variant
RETRO NIGHTWING: It's the Discowing Suit.
OSPREY: Except he's inexplicably blonde also and Robin-sized.
SUPERMAN: ... it's actually Captain America with bat ears and a cape.

    "... just as I thought. Fake Bat Burger toys."

Michael Hannigan has posed:
The bird looks to the items, looks to Phoebe and then to the incapacitated gunmen.

"ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!"

Austin Reese has posed:
<"Those bastards."> Osprey says, as he holds up one of the figures of himself, <"This doesn't look anything like me!">

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Yeah, I know, it doesn't even *LOOK* like Captain America. They should have used Nightwing's model." Balm comments, and she looks to Osprey, and gives a small laugh, hiding her head in her arms a moment and not realizing her hand's hit the edge of the foam.

    The foam now has:
Ten arms, nine legs, and an extra pinkie toe.

Tim Drake has posed:
    "That's hilarious," Red Robin says as he holds up one of the updated Batgirls. He's definitely saving this to give to Steph.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
The bird doesn't add much more commentary to the figures. Instead, a wing is raised and pressed against its forehead. "...I have no sense of touch right now but I swear I'm getting a headache."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    And so, a load of counterfit Bat Burger toys are stopped from being shipped out to Greenland, and from there all around the world to collectors.

The ruffians are caught and held in place by zip ties and foam.

    Balm eventually is freed from the foam.

    And after Mike gets his pick of fake toys, the rest are dispatched to the Outsiders' Roost, where invariably they're going to end up in houseplants and where all number of shenanigans, chicanery and malarky is going to happen involving the Discowing Nightwings.