15535/Arms Dealers

Arms Dealers
Date of Scene:	07 August 2023
Location:	The Grey Bloc, Tallinn, Estonia
Synopsis:	Following up on information of small arms leaking into Gotham City, some Outsiders (Impulse and Phantasm), some Bats (Osprey, Nightwing, and Red Robin) and a new friend (Essix) accompany Balm to stop the flood of arms at their source, and come across a metahuman arms dealer shipping arms in arms!
Cast of Characters:	Phoebe Beacon, Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, Michael Hannigan, Essix, Bart Allen, Austin Reese

---

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    TALLINN, ESTONIA

    A Port city located on the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea, cool with the promise of ocean rain on a cloudy night, the orange and white lights of the city casting reflection to the skies above. Elts Tamm, the man the Outsiders are after tonight, arrives at the site of their sting; a brutalist building bloc, formerly apartments and open spaces for gatherings in the cold winter months, turned into a gathering place for the criminal underworld to socialize in the approximation of the Rich in the West.

    Coming into the open space, one could find a variety of services; drinks and food, certainly. Small arms marketing. Larger arms marketing.

    And Elts passes by all of this, giving a wave of dismissal as he decends down a dimly-lit stairway and into a basement level of the Bloc building, and from there looks out over piles of crates, marked NEW YORK, BOSTON, PHILADELPHIA and of course, GOTHAM CITY has the largest pile marked with the word for DANGER and EXPLOSIVE in Russian.

    That's the target for this evening.

    Phoebe had done some of the tracking after running afoul of some of Tamm's goons in Gotham City weeks back. That lead to tracking where the goods were being sent from, the little-known capital of Estonia, manufactured in various areas of Eastern Europe and dispatched with violent intent... but she couldn't figure out in what form they were arriving. That was half the mystery.

    She'd tipped the Outsiders on this job, since it was out of The Batman's regular jurisdiction, and one wrong move could land a body in a whole lot of hot water -- after all, Elts Tamm was not only a major arms dealer... he was also a minister in Estonia's government body. Anything less than perfect evidence could be dismissed in international court or worse, start up a political crisis.

    So the Outsiders arrive via the air, onboard a borrowed ship, and with the need to operate Dark Mode.

    Which is why Phoebe was not wearing any highlights to her armor as she dropped down from the ship on a line.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    Despite not officially being an Outsider, Nightwing was waiting for them when they arrived at their transportation. As to how he knew, all he would say on the matter was "A little bird told me." He's got a new person with him as well, whom he introduces as Essix.

    "She wants to help people the way we do, so I'm training her in all the important skills. She hasn't quite gotten brooding on a gargoyle quite right yet, but that's a fairly advanced subject." Changing topics, he continues "So we're going to violate international borders, from what I understand. I do hope you all thought of ways to keep covert."

    His armor has been modified a bit, the blue pattern and highlight all covered with non-reflective black paint.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Tim's been pretty hand-off on this investigation for the most part. Members of the Outsiders are, of course, free to do their own thing in their own time, when not called up on missions to serve the overarching purpose of the team: keep metahuman villains out of Gotham.

    When Phoebe gives them the deets on this mission, though, he's happy to join in. And Nightwing's addition, with his plus-one, is accepted with a smile. "Welcome to the team, Essix," he says, before they board their transport for the night.

    "Stealth mode from this point out," he calls while they're still aboard the ship taking them into Estonian airspace. Like Dick, his own uniform is primed for that, lacking most of the usual red in favor of blacks and greys, and with no visible symbol to trace him back to the Bats. He sets the ship on autopilot, which will keep it in a holding pattern nearby in case they need rapid evac.

    He nods to Phoebe as she takes point, and then looks back at the assembled team, taking in a quick breath before he nods to them as well. "Expect resistance once we're on the ground. Stay safe and stay quiet." And with that he drops, cape flaring out to slow his descent until his line catches and he drops to the ground.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Mike is not an Outsider, but he has on occasion been called in for some of their activities. Conveniently enough he was over in Sweden doing promotional work for his movie so, at least the group got a rest stop out of the deal when picking him up. Considering the nature of the request, he's wearing the bare minimum requirements of a costume. Easy to get a hold of, comfortable, nice dark tones, covers everything, hood, fabric that block out the entire face, plus gloves...

Highlights?

Hah! Nope!

Armor?

...Ok that one's not that funny to admit to but still no. The performer has been pretty quiet since he got picked up.

When Dick mentions the concern about remaining covert, he reaches a hand up to subconciously confirm the communication device underneath the fabric.

And NODS.

Essix has posed:
Essix is a bundle of sunshine in a black catsuit with aqua trim. Her face is concealed by a mask, just as her head is wrapped in a tight fitting hood.. no ears, she is after all not a Bat. Standing beside Nightwing she bounces a little on the balls of her feet before extending her hand to those present as she is introduced.

"Think of me as an information sponge," she states cheerfully, though softly. "Ready to aid and to learn."

She falls silent as Nightwing talks about the mission, of being covert. She was covert incarnate, but that wasn't helpful for others. "Excuse me Nightwing, but this is the part where I mention I can get into and out of anywhere without being seen, correct?" She asks as she looks to her mentor

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen was wearing his normal uniform up until they were ready to leave. Then in a... flash.. he is wearing a black and grey version of his uniform. This does not seem to be an .. impulsive act. No Bart's normal stealth uniform is a store bought ninja outfit where he makes Karate poses. This looks like something someone took time to make right. It even has some sound dampening padding in the boots, which has Bart lifting his feet and shaking them one at a time, much like a cat or dog getting used to the booties that protect their feet from cold or hot sidewalks.

Austin Reese has posed:
While not officially a member of the Outsiders, Osprey has come along on several of these missions, but never in the capacity that he'd joined this mission. Following directions from Balm, and with the drilling of learning multiple languages into his head by Batman, he has managed to infiltrate the storehouse, out of uniform, and has taken the liberty of putting Oracle HUD trackers on the crates. The crew should be seeing the GPS pings starting to come online.

At the moment, still posing as one of the guards, Osprey is patrolling on foot. He knows Balm will ping him in his earpiece when the team has started to make a move. His job is to ensure everything is marked, and to make sure he can actually keep the other guards away from the store room as much as possible. So far he'd managed to keep his head down and speak enough Russian to not get busted.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe gives a smile to Nightwing, and then to Essix.

    "Hello Essix. I'm Balm. Or Oriole. Reply to both. Red Robin, Phantasm, Impulse, and we have Osprey on the inside." Phoebe smiles, keping to the friendly-healer persona for the moment.

    The GPS pings come online from Austin, and she turns to the others, and gives a nod and a thumbs up. "Osprey's pinged the payloads. We need to open at least one box for Gotham to find out how they're getting into the city under everyone's noses. We can pass on the alert to the other cities from there for what to look for, and taking in Tamm." she sends a picture of a distinguished looking older gentleman, if a little gaunt, to everyone who has a domino.

    There's a bit of a rumble from the building, and cheering from far below.

    Those pings from Austin would come from the basement. Osprey, far down below, does in fact catch the attention of Elts Tamm, who makes his way over to him, dressed in a tuxedo and wine-red scarf, the older man asks him something in Estonain.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    Nightwing nods, "Looks like you have things planned out pretty well. Let us know where we can best fit in." He glances over at Essix, adding, "I thought this would be a good experience for Essix, and I'm fairly sure she's pretty tired of the cave. Good for her to get out and meet some of the others who keep Gotham safe."

    When the picture comes in, he moves it to one corner of his display so that it's handy for comparisons to the people he sees once they go in, but is also out of the way. "Ok, what's the plan for getting in? Drop to the roof and find an entrance, or do we have another plan?

Tim Drake has posed:
    As the HUD symbols linked to the crates appears in front of his eyes, Red Robin makes a soft noise, not much more than a grunt, to signal his approval. It's particularly Batman-like, that noise, an unintentional mimicry while sinking into memories of the Dark Knight's stealth training.

    But then he says, "Nice work, Osprey," over comms, which is more outwardly effusive praise.

    When Nightwing asks after the plan, Red Robin stands up a little straighter and nods. "We'll go through the roof. Fastest way in after that is the elevator shaft, so we're going that way. Backup is the stairs, but that's slower so more chance of being encountered on the way down. Once we're in it's like Balm says, we need eyes on the payloads so that we can take down Tamm without causing an international crisis. We lose the payloads, we lose the evidence, we lose Tamm."

    He unclips his grapple gun from his utility belt and looks left, then right, taking a moment to check each member of the team before he nods. "Sounds like you'll be an asset on this mission, Essix. Focus on getting to the crates. We'll keep the way clear if we encounter any hostiles."

    After a pause in case anyone has questions, Tim lifts the grapple gun, aims, and fires. The pop-hiss of the line shooting out precedes his rapid ascent into the air along the facade of the building, taking him up to the rooftop.

Essix has posed:
Watching as things pop up on the screen, Essix isn't entirely certain what she's looking at until the others speak about it. Knowing now what the pings and picture mean, she looks back to Nightwing. She's used to taking her cues from him, so when Tim speaks her head immediately snaps over and aqua eyes settle on him.

"You have good authority to your tone," she states to Tim with smile, no mockery intended at all. "You explain your instructions well, I could learn from you. I will protect the crates to ensure the evidence remains."

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Hearing Essix's comment about going in and out without being seen, Phantasm cocks his head curiously before looking to Phoebe, head tilting the other way with an unspoken question. As Phoebe provides the introductions, he lifts up a gloved hand to give an expression of greeting to the mention of the name attributed to him.

When Dick asks what to do, he looks back to Phoebe then to Tim as he speaks. "I'll likely be doing the bird route in.", He states. There's a bit of a shift of shadow to his attire as the fabric covering the face becomes darker, "Should get me down there a bit quicker."

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen looks to Tim, and says "Where do you want me Rob?" He uses the short for his friend's code name. May make others think his real name is Rob, but Bart is more used to calling him Rob than Tim to be honest. He bounces on his feet a moment and looks down the road both ways from the building, seeing if anything looks odd. He does see one of those restaurants mentioned earlier and his eyes linger a moment, but time for food later.

Austin Reese has posed:
For his part, Osprey has been trying to keep a low profile. Easiest way to keep from getting shot. Spotting the big man with the tuxedo, he comes to attention as Elts Tamm comes over to him. When the man asks him something in Estonian, he silently curses himself for not having that one down too. He takes a moment before he responds in Russian, "<Sorry sir, I can only speak Russian.>" He replies, after a moment, in the appropriate language.

There's a brief pause before he adds, "Or English." He knows Tamm speaks English, he's studied the guy's profile as he got ready for the mission.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Into the building the gang goes. The elevator shaft has room for three cars, the counterweights slowly going up and down make for plenty of room to move between cars and weights and cables. The shafts are lit by dully orange glowing lights.

    The one issue is that there is a car at the bottom of one shaft that is occupied. And the elevator shafts do not go down to the basement; the team will have to exit the bottom of the shafts and go from the first floor to the basement via the stairwell. A downloaded schematic is shared among the communicators and dominos. Really, those masks with the HUD and AR are SUPER FUN.

    Pheobe hangs back a little bit, clamped onto one of the cables, hanging upside-down, and her hands drawn up, ready to shield in case there's anything nasty on the other side of that door. Sometimes having a magical metahuman is also super fun on the team's side.

    The bird, Essix, and the team has no problem making their way down.

    Tamm gives a dark laugh, and reaches up to smooth back his salt-and-pepper hair, and gives a toothy smile to Austin.

    "I said that I have not seen you before. Are you one of Jagupp's boys? Look strong. You ever been on a ship, boy?"

Dick Grayson has posed:
    Nightwing lowers himself on his own line, leaving the elevator cables to do their own thing. Reaching the ground floor, he stands to the side of the door and unspools a fiber optic cable from one of his gauntlets. He works it through the gasket between the doors and relays the picture to the rest of the team so that everyone can see what is waiting for them out there. And it's not good for stealth - There are a good number of people out there, many in formal wear, some known criminals and the like.

    << Ok folks, this is the situation outside the doors. Also known as 'we need another way out'. There must be some ducts or vents we can sneak through, because otherwise we're in a combat situation the minute the doors open. >>

Michael Hannigan has posed:
As everyone makes their move, Phantasm leaps off with arms spread like wings. And he plummets. Considering the lack of grappling gun that's not too surprising. As the form shifts, arms becoming more wing like and body condensing down towards the appearance of a purplish and black corvid, there's a general reassurance to those who might have been concerned. It looks like the phantasm in question is NOT suicidal and actually planned for this. Or he's stupid.

Possibly both but hopefully just the former.

The raven glides downwards, passing by the rest of the group as he ends up performing a bit of a corkscrew pattern before latching silently onto the frame of the elevator cab.

Damn birds just getting into everything.

The raven stills, listening to Dick explain the situation. "...Need a distraction? I can be that."

The bird gives an...unsettling smile.

Tim Drake has posed:
    The compliment from Essix gives Red Robin a moment of pause, before he lets out an uncertain, "Thank you?" that is followed up with a flash of a smile in her direction. "Lotta practice," he adds, which is half a joke, half the truth of the matter. Then he looks to Impulse. "Run interference for us. I'm sure these arms smugglers won't take long to turn what they're smuggling on us, and I'd prefer not to be shot if possible. You see someone with a weapon, take them out."

    Once he's up on the rooftop, it's not long before Red Robin has gained entry inside. Probably because who expects someone to try and breach the building from way up here? Now if this were Gotham, maybe things would be different. But for the time being getting in and to the elevator banks proves to be easy enough.

    He scans their surroundings once they've made it through and, finding only a single duct that's been barred to prevent precisely what Robins do best, he frowns.

    "Okay, here's the plan," he says.

    It goes like this:

    Essix and Phantasm (in his bird form) go through the grate and pop out the other side to (Essix) get to the crates and (Phantasm) create a distraction. Then Impulse takes point and does a sweep for armed thugs, while Nightwing, Red Robin, and Oriole come in and start engaging the disarmed thugs in hand-to-hand combat.

    This is all shown, via quickly sketched diagrams, on a hard-light display that hovers over Red Robin's left gauntlet.

    "It might be a little dicey, but given Impulse's speed, I have every faith that by the time we're all inside, any and all weapons will be accounted for," he says, nodding once to Bart. They've worked together for a good long while now and been friends for basically that entire time, so Tim trusts him with this.

    Then he turns to Phantasm. "As soon as you've caused the distraction, disengage and make your way to Osprey and the payloads to back Essix up. We'll make our way to you. Consider yourselves guarding the package until then."

    A pause, and a quick look given around. "Any questions?"

Essix has posed:
Unlike the humans who require grappling hooks and ropes to avoid falling to their deaths, Essix does not. She could in fact use them if she choose, but for her it was far easier to use a different method of 'getting down there'.

At the top of the shaft her human form melts into an aqua puddle of what looks like viscous liquid, perhaps five inches in diameter... with a Batcomm unit right in the middle of it.

A single tendril lifts to offer a wave before the entire puddle oozes over to the edge of the shaft and then slowly down the side of it, the color changing to completely black as she moves. She was still working on ways to communicate through the comm while in her natural form, but for now she could still 'hear' what was being said and that was good enough.

Into the room with all the crates, she takes a moment to observe the locations of each piece of evidence. It didn't really matteer how far apart they were, of how tall the stacks might be, she knew what to do.

The moment the distraction began the tiny black viscous puddle expanded out into a massive wall of some kind of matte black material and wrapped herself around every crate. Once she was in place, carefully protecting each box, the color shifted to look like solid steel.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Phantasm flies over to perch upon Tim's shoulder to better view the tablet as the plan is detailed out. As Tim looks to him, one of the raven's wings lift up, curling to give the look of a thumbs up with one feather protruding upwards. "Distract then go. Got it."

Hoping off the established leader of the mission, the raven quickly and quietly flies up through the vent. In a similar manner the bird exits, takes a glance around and then flies up to the rafters. Under the cover of BURD he makes his way the side of the room opposite from the desired crates. Finding some containers that do not appear to be stacked properly, the bird zooms down and proceeds to land behind the most precariously balanced one. A wing slides under the box before an unusual amount of concentrated force lifts, helping the crate tilt upon it's merry way down to the floor. Once the bird is sure the box will fall, the bird swings back in flight and circles around to join up with Essix.

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen nods to this and while the others are making their way down, he makes a superspeed trip down the road and is back, and with a bit of vibration is heading through walls, and finding the different men with guns. Bart is not the type to take something and not give something in return, so as each gun is taken a fish is put in it's place, larger long fish for rifles, short fat fish for pistols, and anyone who looks like they might be ready to shout orders, but not the actual boss will end up with a squid dropped down the back of their pants. Bart got all these fish from the local warfs and had already been fished up, so he has hurt no animals in his action.

Austin Reese has posed:
"Yes sir." Replies Osprey, as he makes eye contact with the man, knowing it's the proper way to show respect, but also allowing him to study the man's face. The picture they have on file might be a bit out of date, he thinks.

"Yes sir, I have. I worked two years on a cargo vessel sailing out of Novorossiysk." A lie, of course. Because he's never been to Russia. This is literally the closest he's ever been to Russia. Either this is a test and he hopes he just passed, or he's actually getting invited onto the smuggling ship, which is against like rule #1 of undercover work. Don't go to another location.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    It all goes smoothly. Essix puddles and oozes her way through the vents and to the boxes, marked for GOTHAM and BOSTON, the crates closed and stacked well -- and now protected by Essix Extraterrestrial Security.

    Tamm gives a smile, and pats himself down for a cigarette.

    <I have a ship leaving for Gotham soon. Could use a strong lad like you on-board and to make sure it's offloaded with no problem. I'm sure your higher-up wouldn't miss you much. I pay well. Drugs. Women. Money. You speak English, you'd fit right in--> he begins -- and then all heck breaks loose.

    Some of the boxes not secured by Essix and marked with EXPLOSIVE in Russian begin to tumble. Tamm catches the bird and the tilt and gives a cry out, moving to shove Austin back and away from the danger of a possible explosion.

    As the elevator shaft opens to let Nightwing, Red Robin and Balm out of the elevator shaft, there are many very confused men and women who raise... fish.

    One attempts to even fire the fish, but all he egs is some spins in his hands and a cut on his fingers before he throws down the fish and pulls from his side holster -- ANOTHER FISH?!

    And Bart is speeding around, replacing guns with fish until he gets to Tamm.

    Tamm who had been pushing Austin back and away from the possible explosion of the items he was sending -- and his eyes are *able to follow Impulse*.

    and he raises his arms up and attempts to grab Bart right out of his Run!

     -- not only am arms Dealer, but ELTS TAMM IS A SPEEDSTER HIMSELF!

    "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" he roars to Impulse, trying to slam the young Flash into the wall!

Dick Grayson has posed:
    Nightwing charges out of the elevator shaft with his batons in hand, already buzzing with electricity. He starts tasing his way through the fish patrol, leaving a number of people twitching and gasping on the floor, strangely, much like fish out of water.

    Not expecting Bart to have any troubles dealing with (supposedly) normal people, he concentrates on making sure nobody can reach a weapon to replace the ones they just had stolen from them. As such, he's more than a little surprised at Tamm's action, and turns to head over to help Bart out if he needs it.

Tim Drake has posed:
    A massive crash, as the crates come tumbling down to the floor. That'll be the distraction!

    No time to waste. The doors fly open to allow Impulse in so that he can begin his fishcapades, and coming right after him, hot on his heels -- okay, at a much slower pace -- are the Bats, Red Robin at Nightwing's side with his own weapon of choice out. The staff's end whips through the air, crackling with electricity, and hits one fish-wielding goon in the unmentionables. Then he's moving on, a quickly aimed kick to the knee bringing down another to just the right height for the upswing of the staff's next rotation to hit him in the chin, another knockout.

    "<<We have a speedster on the loose, Impulse you've got this!>>" Red Robin reports, mostly for the awareness of the rest of the team. He knows Bart himself is already aware of the problem. But some cheering from the back row can't hurt.

    There are still plenty of people in the way of Red Robin and the crates they're after, the HUD symbols updating with a rough estimate of distance between them. All Tim can focus on is clearing that distance, so each landed hit of his staff, of his fists, is focused on making a path between points A and B.

    Another guy, who has disarmed himself of fish and gone back to fisticuffs, approaches Red Robin from behind and tries to grapple him. But Tim is not so easy to pin down, and he throws his staff at the nearby wall to free his hands while he wriggles almost too easily out of the guy's novice grip, tumbling to the floor and popping back up just in time to catch his staff on the rebound. He thrusts it back and upwards behind himself and hears the snap-pop of electricity discharging as it impacts, just before the crumple of a body hitting the floor.

Essix has posed:
For all intent and purposes Essix is a steel box surrounding the evidence crates, prepared to stay that way until the combat is over. She has never seen a speedster in action and so she watches as best she can, more sensing his movements at certain points and unable to keep up. Lack of eyes doesn't mean the alien can't see, she merely interprets the world in a different way that humans do.

Realizing that Impulse is in danger, perhaps a great deal of danger, a wave of concern washes through her. He is a teammate, she should help him and she knows it but her assigned task was to protect the crates. What this means is she has to leave leave it to the others.

Even as a steel box, if any of the fish wielding thugs come near her, she will reach out with a thick tendril and thump them in the head. Once again she tries knock them out, or at least take them out of the fight against the others.

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen is yoinked, and caught by the neck. He normally senses other speedsters and the fact he did not sense this guy was a bit of a surprise. So, as he is slammed against the wall he ooffs abit and says "I got this." As he does this, he starts a new trick he has only recently learned. Stealing speed from another. He looks at the man in the eye and says "Hey Moe." And brings his hand up like he is going to poke him in the eye all three stooges style, but seems Bart has learned abit about real fighting and using both the flowing of the speed and hopefully the distraction of eye poke brings both feet up and kicks for the man's knee. Bart has had his knee shot and knows that type of thing hurts, and slows running abit.

Austin Reese has posed:
The movement as he gets shoved back is faster than Osprey would have expected. He sees why a moment later as a blur reaches out to grab another blur, before he's even hit the ground from being shoved. He does finally hit the ground, rolling back over and up to his feet.

It seems that all hell has broken loose. Which is exactly the kind of cover that Osprey needs to make his escape. Of course, they'll definitely need to talk about how this guy managed to have meta powers and none of them caught it. He ducks behind some of the crates, moving through and looking for the escape route he had planned for.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Considering the loud noises on the opposite of the storage area and the general shouts, the bird continues it's roundabout approach to coming near Essix. The bird's head tilts, glancing in the direction of Red Robin (Yum) for any additional signals that can't be conveyed through the comms.

The warning of another speedster gets a response from the bird. "Well, shit."

It wasn't a particularly helpful comment, but a comment nontheless.

And you know others were thinking the same thing. "...Yeah he's got it."

The bird swoops up, flipping before changing forms. The large bird grows, elongating and losing its feathers in favor of a coat of fur of a varied blend of gray, brown, and white. Landing beside the guarded boxes, the piercing blue eyes of the rather large gray wolf fixate upon any fish brandishing thugs that come nearby.

Careful. That's a protected species in Estonia.

The wolf bares its teeth guarding it's newly found territory.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Nightwing clears a path of electrified fish-holders, some folks floundering about, toerhs taking the mack-eral and deciding to make an exit before they come across Nightwing's motion, shore-ing up their escapes through back doors, front doors, or simply the safety of 'Not Here'!

    Essix holds her spot and actions, the rippling from the steel as it forms the parts for speech are seen by one security guard, who had been pondering the herring they were given, and decides, wisely, that he doesn't want to work for this particular boss anymore.

    Unfortunately he's picked up by a tendril and flung against a wall for good measure, shouting in Russian <NOT MY HEAD NOT MY HEAD!> as he's hit in the head.

    HUD symbols slowly disappear as bad guys are neutralized. A couple disappear through doorways or are pulled up to the ceiling and held there with foam.

    And Phoebe doesn't have electricity on her weapon, but she does have knock-out gas pellets that she launches into rooms to make sure no one's about to join the fight as she minds the back of the crowd.

    All Hell has indeed broken loose -- along with a wolf! Several fish-weilders are now running from a bird that has turned into a wolf, and they start screaming about the old gods and begging forgiveness! Of course, this is in Estonian so they may not translate well enough as the wolf guards its explosive boxes.

    And then there's Tamm.

    The speedster ducks and weaves around Bart's blows, and was bringing his hand up in a shark fin style to strike at that area betweeen Bart's fingers to try and dissuade the eye-poke, which definitely opens him up to the exchange of knees for speed.

    And he goes down, his eyes crossing as he gasps, and a round ring of a tattoo shown on the back of his left hand, glowing brilliantly. He curses in sopprano, in Russian, and kitls over to the side.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    Making his way over to Essix, Nightwing generally concentrates on keeping anyone away from the boxes she's currently protecting. It doesn't do to let your student get killed on their first mission. Not that she has much to fear from fish wielding humans, but better safe than sharkey.

    Just for a little change of pace, he connects the two batons into a staff and goes all Darth Maul on the few remaining guards who are either too loyal or too stupid to be leaving like the others.

    << Ok, we have what we need, have we ever covered how to help Impulse handle another speedster? If not, we should probably add a couple speedster training programs. >>

Tim Drake has posed:
    At one point Red Robin just vaults over a dude, leaving him behind... with his fish. He breezes past the wolf that was once a bird. Phantasm is given a quick glance, but he's doing a great job, no need for intervention here.

    It isn't until Red Robin is sliding into place next to the stack of crates coated in Essix that he realizes where precisely Essix has gone. He looks from Nightwing to Essix and then back again, and there's definitely a sense of an eyebrow raise happening here, what with the faint furrowing of Tim's forehead.

    But questions will be asked later! For now, he takes up a defensive position at the crates, and when a couple of guards try to rush him from that angle, he tosses out a smoke bomb into their midst and then dives in, staff leading the way.

    Over the sounds of grunts and cries of pain, Red Robin says over comms, "<<Probably not a bad idea, Nightwing... but in the meantime I have some cryo grenades?>>"

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Situated near Essix as well, one would think Phantasm would answer Dick's posed question but the wolf instead... Well, wolfs. Snarls, teeth brandishing, and advancing towards people demonstrating fishy business seems quite effective in chasing off several goons. And earning him a few fish.

The wolf spits out one that lands in his mouth before moving towards the one that threw it.

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen will look at the guy and says "What a Maroon." And with that he is is moving to tie the man up with what ever he finds around them. Garden hose will work if it is around. He does consider something and while he is tying him up he is studying that tattoo, seeing if he can feel speed force inside it and if so if it feels like a conduit or a battery.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Bart ties up the Bad Guy.

    The guards are neutralized by Bats and by being chased off by the wolf, and that tattoo doesn't seem to be emitting Speed Force... but seems to be a bit... dampening.

    That attracts Phoebe's attention, and she comes and kneels by him and looks somewhat concerned about it.

    The boxes are now unguarded, with their piles and designations, but mysterious of what is in them.

    But it appears, for now, the heroes are victorious. Bart's robbed the speedster of speed, and the crowds have cleared out. Luckily, the police aren't entirely keen to make their way up to the Block -- there's plenty of time to open those crates.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    With the field of battle firmly in the hands of the good guys, Nightwing says "Ok Essix, you can uncover them now, I think we're in pretty good shape."


Once she flows back into her humanoid form, he takes a moment to open one of the boxes to see what they ended up capturing. Hopefully something that makes a trip to Estonia worth it.

Austin Reese has posed:
For his part, Osprey has managed to get outside, having slipped past the other guards. His cover may actually be intact, should they ever need to infiltrate these particular gangsters again down the line.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
While things appear to have settled, for the sake of the goons who for some reason are still here and conscious, Phantasm retains his form for now, selling the wolf bit. Sitting down, his ears come up to about Dick's shoulder height as he watches the crate get open. The head tilt that was commonplace with the raven form still oddly suits upon the canine's features. The large floofy tail thunks against the floor.

Thunk.

Thunk.

Thunk.

Thunk.

Thunk...

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen looks over to Phoebe and says "I did not feel anything off him till he was using his powers. I don't know if he has powers normally or if that tattoo gave it to him and if it did does he have others?"

Tim Drake has posed:
    A pile of unconscious goons are left behind as the smoke clears, and Red Robin strolls back out, staff slung across his shoulders. He comes to stand behind Dick, body tilting to the side to peer... not at the contents of the box, but at the big wolf. Because he's big.

    And, like, only a few evolutionary steps away from being a dog. But Tim reigns in the urge to pet him, and instead goes over to the fallen crate marked EXPLOSIVES.

    A quick scan reveals the box isn't rigged to explode or anything, so Tim carefully opens it up.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    The crates are opened. And the Arms Dealer was dealing in...

    ... arms.

    Display arms. Wooden arms. Decorative metal arms. Poorly made prosthetic arms. Plaster arms in the EXPLOSIVE containers, which on chemical scan are made with explosive components, just have to get the electronic catalyst -- or smack them REALLY HARD to get them going.

    And inside all the other arms? Bullets. Small guns. Revolvers. Rifles that you can screw together.

    And as Phoebe looks at the tattoo, she gets a sort of sick feeling.

    "This is a muting tattoo." she states, looking to Bart, and then back to the tattoo itself. She takes pictures with her domino.

    "I know it... because I have one."