15595/Heist at the Gotham Royal Hotel

Heist at the Gotham Royal Hotel
Date of Scene:	11 August 2023
Location:	Gotham Royal Hotel
Synopsis:	Out on a routine patrol, Spider-Man (II) and Atom Eve stumble across a heist-in-progress at a Gotham Royal Hotel ancient artifact exhibit. With the help of Starfire, the Shadow, Osprey, and even Batman, the they are able to subdue the members of THE GILDED HAND... all except for ELARA THORNE, who escaped to pursue her coveted Obsidian Scarab another day. For what purposes? Perhaps The Shadow Knows...
Cast of Characters:	Eve Wilkins, Natasha Cranston, Miles Morales, Koriand'r, Bruce Wayne, Austin Reese

---

Eve Wilkins has posed:
Above Gotham's dusky skyline, Atom Eve drifts beside the web-swinging form of Spider-Man (II) with a glow of pink energy around her hands and feet, bathed in the faint light of the urban landscape below. In a city filled with historic, gothic architecture, each building tells a story, and tonight, the Gotham Royal Hotel seems to whisper of a tale yet to unfold. The city's elite had gathered there, tempted by the allure of a display of ancient Egyptian treasures on display for one night only. A crown jewel amongst them all - the Obsidian Scarab. An artifact drenched in myths that range from raising the dead to granting dominion over the minds of others.

As she floats, lost in thoughts of the city's dark underbelly and the potential threats that ancient artifacts might attract, a sudden change in Spider-Man's movement catches her attention. She knows that sign - his Spider-Sense, an uncanny forewarning of imminent danger.

The mood below has shifted. Inside, the gleeful, soft tinkling of champagne glasses is replaced by sharp, panicked screams. Guests, adorned in their opulent evening finery, pour from the entrance in terror. A few mention the Gilded Hand in hushed, quivering voices.

A shiver runs down Atom Eve's spine as she settles on the top corner of a ten story building adjacent to the Hotel, the pink glow around her extinguishing. The Gilded Hand has been a mere whisper in Gotham; a new, amorphous threat with intentions veiled in shadows. Calling cards had been left at a few crime scenes in the past, all valuable artifacts and most taken by force -- gold-plated fists that stood as the symbol for their enigmatic order.

Amidst the fleeing crowd, a security guard, bloodied and bruised, staggers out, clinging to a light pole. In the distance, there's the sounds of sirens.

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    The main problem with tracking a secret society is right there in the name: secret society. That said, in modern society such 'secrets' are much harder to keep as secret as one might like -- especially when its leadership decides they want to be feared more than they want to be a secret and start leaving calling cards.

    The pattern in the thefts was fairly obvious -- artifacts, antiques, and other items purportedly of mystical bent. Natasha has made a mental note to consult with an actual specialist in the mystic arts as to how magical said items actually are, but whether they are or not ultimately matters less than whether the thieves believe they do.

    The "Obsidian Scarab" exhibit had been widely publicized, on public display for only a single day.

    Sometimes the Shadow doesn't Know for certain, but some bets are surer than others...

    Getting into the museum was easy enough; finding a place away from prying eyes to change was comparatively harder. The Shadow is already making her way back down to the exhibit when the Gilded Hand makes their move...

Miles Morales has posed:
"My mortal enemy...hotels."

Miles can count far more instances than is likely appropriate for how many times things like to happen EXCLUSIVELY at hotels with a lot of rich people. There's always an art thief or a jewel thief or a kidnapping or a back room with a heckin' heck-ton of weapons.

But this time he has backup.

Spider-Man swung on his webs alongside Atom Eve as they arrived together, landing on an adjacent building. His suit was a natural camouflage against the dark ambiance of Gotham City.

"Okay, I spy with my little eye somet-"

Tye back of his neck practically crunches as his Spider-Sense goes off. Danger approaches and it approaches fast! As soon as people are screaming, Spider-Man nods at Eve. "Come on! That's my cue." He leaps off of his place on the building and he descends rapidly towards the venue with a few careful THWIPS.

He has to get inside!

Eve Wilkins has posed:
The Gotham Royal Hotel, an emblem of affluence and grandeur, was abuzz with excitement that evening. With its high vaulted ceilings, opulent chandeliers, and marble-clad interiors, the hotel was an ideal location to display a rare collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts.

The expansive lobby, with its plush carpeting and grand staircase, was filled with a veritable who's who of Gotham's society. Men in tailored tuxedos and women in glittering gowns sipped on champagne, their conversations a blend of laughter and intrigue about the night's event. No one expected the night to turn as it did.

The main entrance doors, a set of massive oak double doors, had exploded inward in a flurry of splinters and smoke. Guests screamed, dropping their champagne glasses which shattered upon impact, their sparkling contents mixing with the shards on the floor.

From the thick veil of smoke, a group of figures emerged, their entrance coordinated and menacing. Each one wore a dark, tailored suit, their faces obscured by sleek black masks. But what stood out most was the gleaming pin on their lapels -- a gold-plated fist -- the unmistakable emblem of the Gilded Hand.

There were twenty of them in total. As they fanned out across the lobby, some drew weapons -- sleek black firearms that gleamed ominously under the chandelier lights -- while others began barking orders, asserting control over the stunned crowd.

"Everybody out!" a large and particularly well armed shouted, his rifle clearly the biggest (which was obviously important to him), his voice muffled by the mask. Then he leveled that gun at a few of the uniformed museum exhibitors and hotel staff who had begun to flee, but suddenly cowered in fear. "Not you." Another man moved up to zip-tie them in place.

Behind him, gunfire erupted, fired into the ceiling, and smoke grenades began to go off, filling the lobby and the ballroom with a haze of noxious fumes.

Gasps and murmurs of disbelief rippled through the crowd. Women clutched their pearls and men reached for loved ones, all of them forming a stampede towards the exit. The harmonious setting had shifted into one of palpable tension and fear. Amid the smoke and chaos, a slender, feminine figure clad all in black with a Gilded Hand pin on her shoulder moved cat-like, ignoring the general tumult and headed straight for the exhibit.

At the far end of the lobby, leading to the hotel's rear exit, stand a few members of the Gilded Hand, their faces obscured by masks. They're methodically securing the area, communicating with earpieces, their words indecipherable amidst the surrounding cacophony.

Draped in shadows, along the peripheries of the grand room, there are silhouettes of other figures, more members of the Gilded Hand watching, waiting, and guarding. Most entrances at the ground appear to be covered by a Gilded Hand member with a rifle, and it's clear they expect company.

But just outside...

"I was supposed to be keeping you company while you busted some muggers! Not... whatever this is!"

Eve's pitch had gone up nearly a whole octave out of the sheer adrenaline, but even before she's finished speaking (complaining?), Miles is off like a spider-ninja cutting through the evening, and she sighs.... and jumps after him.

There's a sudden flare of pink around Eve's hands and feet, flying Iron Man style after Miles as her hair an cape flutter against her back.

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    Sylvester quite likes the shadows. Shadows are convenient. They tend to pool in secluded locations to provide ample cover, concealment and a good view of the area. Ideal when you want to keep guard on an area without being too obviously visible, getting the best result with minimal risks.

    Sylvester has, unfortunately, failed to remember that 'minimal risk' and 'no risk' are two different concepts. He is forcibly reminded of this about half a second after he finishes his status report, when mist and shadow seem to solidify around him and he's grabbed from behind, one hand over his mouth while an arm clamps around his throat to block any sound he might try to make.

    He tries to struggle, but the leather-clad hands have him in a vice grip and it's getting harder and harder to breathe, and then everything goes dark.

    Natasha quickly relieves him of his radio, takes another moment to remove the firing pin from his weapon, and stashes his body deeper into the alcove he'd picked out, where he won't be found until they start actively searching. She moves on, down to the exhibit area, listening to the radio conversation...

Koriand'r has posed:
Koriand'r wasn't -exactly- a stranger to the idea of high society, she was a princess after all, even if it had been quite a while since she'd been around any who regarded her as royalty. Still, her 'day job' as a model did open some doors to the odd gala or fancy soiree now and then.

But it wasn't any of that that brought Kori here today, it was that sound of gunfire that summoned Starfire.

It had been a visit to a friend, a night in Gotham catching up with some fellow heroes, she even had a small milkshake she'd picked up for her flight home she'd been sipping from when that tattle-tale noise had the lazy path home redirected in a bright flash of green.

Starfire was many things, but subtle might not be the best, still hopefully the bright orange alien with glowing green eyes and near-flaming hair appearing by the lobby made one heck of a distraction.

Miles Morales has posed:
"I'll cook tonight to pay you back!"

Spider-Man calls back to Eve. While he wasn't necessarily expecting Eve to actually provide support - given that she's blissfully retired - seems pleased that she's right on his tail as they approach the scene of disaster!

"Got a big guy with a bigger gun."

Twenty gunmen. They fan out, taking hostages among the hotel staff. Most likely so they can access their trophy. It won't be so near a clean getaway though as Spider-Man swings inside, attaching himself to the ceiling and suddenly turning invisible!

"Yep....Yep...yep yep yep..."

He's marking targets. He even notices the strange figures watching from shadows. Welp, time to give them a target.

And one arrives in the form of Starfire into the lobby! Brilliant aliens make brilliant distractions!

He attaches himself to a web and starts to descend until his head is right next to the big guy's own.

"You know, I'm a web guy myself. Rifles just don't work with my fort well."

Then it's wild!

He immediately tries to press a thumb over his wrist, firing off numerous webs in multiple directions, aiming for weapons in particular.

If he can tag firearms, he'll give it a strong tug for hopeful disarming!

Eve Wilkins has posed:
"We got company!"

No, that wasn't Sylvester -- poor shadow-loving Sylvester, who's wife and three children will mourn the the loss of their beloved criminal patriarch, brainwashed into coming little more than a goon for the Gilded Hand... Anyway, enough about Sylvester, who sacrificed himself to selflessly (if unwittingly) to better equip The Shadow with intelligence about the group's plans as they move about the hotel. On that radio, everything is transmitted in the clear. The positions that they're taking up, including the progress towards their ultimate goal, which they call 'The Scarab.'

The guard that /had/ yelled (his name is Bob -- well, Robert J. Simpson, but everyone just calls him Bob) was one of the guards assigned to guard the front door, where there currently floated a... well, Bob had never seen anything like Starfire, before. He should have been pulling the trigger of the rifle he had trained on her, but instead he was just staring, jaw slightly agape (and was that just a little drool?).

As if that wasn't enough for poor Bob, a /second/ flying redhead appears directly beside the first, though Atom Eve's costume suddenly looks significantly more... childish... than her actually flaming counterpart. It's basically a pink romper with a cape and an atom on the chest... because she designed it in elementary school and the modifications since have been fairly limited. Notably, she'd ditched her old mask entirely.

"Hey." Eve's tone is almost conversational as the pink glow from the bottom of her boots allow her to simply hover beside Koriand'r. "Cool, uh.. cool costume." So, yeah, maybe there was a /little/ jealousy in her voice, but she still had a pleasant smile on her lips. I mean, come on. It's understandable, right? It's not like Eve's even a princess of anything.

There were still people flooding out of the front of the museum underneath where the two women floated, but the crowd /was/ dispersing.. except for those staff and security guards that had been quickly taken as hostages.

"Shoot them you moron!!" came the voice of a female guard next to Bob, who was significantly less awe-struck, but no less intimidated by the prospect a flying, flaming, Amazon-esque super woman destroying their entire plan.

And then there's even more chaos. Eve holds up her hand, a faint glow around it creating a large, translucent pink barrier between them and the goons as a hail of gunfire erupts towards Starfire and Eve. Remarkably, it seems to stop every single bullet, absorbing them like ballistic gel instead of sending them ricocheting off into the crowd. It was great, but it was only going to last a few seconds taking that much fire. Gel wasn't indestructible.

"Thoughts?" Eve asks. At least they were serving as a /really/ good distraction.

Farther inside, Miles has webbed up five of the goons with the single press of a button, taking down most of the guards that had apparently been assigned to protect the lithe, dark-clad burglar that was cutting through the smoke-filled room and approaching the case that held the Obsidian Scarab.

"Spider-Man's here!" the big man Mile's head had been next to roared into his headset, jerking his giant rifle away from the incoming webbing just in time. Vincent "Viper" Martell, the Gilded Hand's top muscle, wasn't as easy to prey upon as the others, and he wheeled on Miles, sending a spray of bullets in his direction.

A computer display on the side of it secured the bulletproof glass on top, and with it bolted to the wall, there was little hope of just ripping it away and taking the entire thing without some super-powered help, which they were woefully lacking. Instead, Elara Thorne, the group's top thief, set to work on that computer terminal.

"Get me the curator," Elara whispers into her mic.

Bruce Wayne has posed:
When it comes to Gotham's elite, there are a number of names on the list, but one often appearing at (or near) the top is the scion of Gotham's wealthiest family, Bruce Wayne.

It seems to take a bit of coaxing to get Bruce out and about for anything but the highest order of affairs these days, but something about this particular function managed to get it onto his social calendar.

And so, when the explosive entrance was made, Bruce was standing a glass of champagne in each hand, resting on the outside of two actresses? Models? Discussing one of the latest endeavors to bring cleaner water to the city with a few members of the city council. But clean water took second place to survival, as his companions scattered with the arrival of the Gilded Hand.

The last thing his two former pieces of arm accessories saw before they dashed out was Bruce looking rather shocked, frozen in place as one of the Gilded Hand members charged at him. For a brief moment, they consider trying to help as they see Bruce going down to the ground, but with the smoke coming into play, they decide they will just read about it on the news. There is still notoriety to being one of the last people to dance with Bruce Wayne!

Austin Reese has posed:
There was always somebody from Gotham's Bats around somewhere in the city. So naturally when the first police reports about explosions and gunfire at the Gotham Royal Hotel had gotten Osprey to swing his bike around and start tearing across the city. He hadn't been close enough to be there right away, but as he whips past a police car that's also headed to the scene, chatter starts to go up on the GCPD frequencies about one of the Bats headed that way.

Osprey pulls the bike into an alley about a block from the hotel, and fires a grapple line to get up onto the roof, moving up to the edge and scanning down at the entrance to the hotel, "What the hell?" The chaos unfolding below him is kind of a surprise, but there's no time for a stealthy approach now.

Firing his grapple line again, it slams into the stone above a window, above Eve and Starfire, and Osprey pulls himself towards said window. He releases the line as he sails above the two flying heroines, feet first through the window. They'll be able to repair it, he's sure.

With his dynamic entrance out of the way, and glass flying around him towards the guards in the lobby, he tosses a hand-full of smoke pellets, which burst on impact with the ground, filling the lobby up with smoke, as Osprey uses his grapple line to grab hold of the ceiling and drop into the middle of the smoke, getting low as he expects gunfire to start heading his way immediately.

Koriand'r has posed:
To be fair to Eve, Starfire's costume really was an example of 'less is more', but while some might wonder why one would fight crime in something barely more than a swimsuit, others who knew her people would realise a Tamaranian would find the outfit perfectly sensible!

Eve's arrival was unexpected, but it was welcome enough to see another hero on the scene...and she didn't know that she'd literally walked in on the mentor of one of her closest allies being here in his alter-ego!

Then there was Spider-man! But...not the one she knew, but Kori was hardly going to be picky, there was more immediate problems to deal with: problems that were shooting at them. In Kori's experience, as soon as the badguys realised bullets wouldn't stop a hero they tended to start threatening bystanders!

"My thanks friend in pink," she offers the Romper-clad Eve, before she lifts her hand towards the villains. "But I am bulletproof, focus your protection on the civillians and we can get them to safety!"

A step forwards, Starfire brandishes her hand glowing bright with that green starbolt energy.

"If you wish not to be destroyed, you will lay down your weapons and surrender!"

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    And this is why she sought out one of the thugs' radios. Natasha ignores - for now - the chaos in the main area as other heroes crash the party -- she might not recognize all of them, but she recognizes enough of them to be confident a dozen armed guards are not going to be a serious threat as long as the hostages can be kept safe. For now, the ringleaders have obligingly informed her who needs the most immediate protection...

    Joey 'Bag of Donuts' Maldonado isn't having a good day. This was supposed to be a simple heist. Blast your way in, suppress the locals while the specialists grabbed the goods, get out, quick and easy -- and then it went sideways when the spider and that redhead chick crashed in, and then ANOTHER redhead chick crashed in and it stopped being simple or easy.

    Still, at least he's got something to do that'll take him out of the line of fire.

    Finding the curator wasn't as easy as he'd liked either - the guy had taken the opportunity to hide under a desk - and by the time he finally spots him his patience is wearing thin. "Get the fuck outta there, old man, bosslady wants you to do something fo-"

    That's as far as he gets before a shadowy blur from the corner of his eye coalesces into a fist which hits him straight on the jaw, followed by a knee into the gut that doubles him over and knocks the wind out of his sails. He starts to collapse, and then a final blow to the back of his neck sends him into unconsciousness.

    The curator looks on in a state of mild shock as another figure fades into view and adresses him. "Presumably they're having trouble dealing with the security on the exhibit and hope to force you to deactivate it," the Shadow comments, offering a gloved hand. "Come with me."

    Wrapping another in the same notice-nothing aura that cloaks herself isn't easy but she's done it before. "Is there anything you can tell me about this 'Obsidian Scarab' that might have gotten their attention?" she asks, both out of curiosity and to help the man focus on something that'll let him keep the shock at bay.

Bruce Wayne has posed:
Despite the thick cloud of smoke, Bruce Wayne is not sure just how visible the matter may be, and so he resorts to a tactic he learned from Master Wong Fei Hung.

Tumbling back from the apparent punch to his jaw that his former drinking buddies watched, Bruce nimbly lands on the ground, having rolled with the punch enough to give the brawler the belief he landed a solid shut. His arms flailing as he goes, the clumsy billionaire "accidentally" kicks up, transitioning his momentum to the attacker, and somehow sending him directly at another of the Gilded Hand members, sending them both tumbling to the ground.

He scrambles backwards, waving his arms over his head as if in panic, catching a streamer in the hand, trailing behind him. He finds another member of the Gilded Hand and arcs away from the armed man with a sudden jerk to the side to escape, the trailing streamer wrapping around the man's wrist, yanking it to follow the escaping industrialist, the effect serving to pull it hard enough to dislodge his gun, which goes spinning onto the floor kicked by several other escaping socialites.

With so much danger, it only makes sense for Bruce to beat a fast retreat, but he does so tripping and stumbling as he falls into a nearby service elevator.

With the sounds of chaos ongoing outside, he quickly sheds the tuxedo for a different outfit he had stashed just in case, also in black, but far more appropriate to the exercises required. Taking a few moments to move through the ductwork, the Batman lies above the scene, ready to pounce.

Miles Morales has posed:
Five Webbed!

"And the crowd goes Wiii-Woah man!" Spider-Man immediately gets moving as the big guy - one Vincent Martell - turned his gun on the Ultimate (wink) Spider-Man, causing the arachno-humanoid to immediately begin performing a myriad of dodging maneuvers that would make an Olympic gymnast blush, bullets flying past him as he spins and flips.

"Timeout!"

Miles makes a 'T' with his hands. "I think we can hash this out-" He THWIPS a bench, pulling with his arms to rip it out of the floor and straight up THROW it at the big guy.

"Heads up with a devastating argument!"

Then the Spider Lois up to see so many people coming to help! "Heck yeah! Man, these guys are toast. Atom Eve, Starfire, guys I don't even know-" He totally gestures to where Cranston and Austin totally are not.

"Man, I love this job!"

Eve Wilkins has posed:
"/That's/ how you make an entrance," Eve deadpans as Osprey swings over them and busts into the lobby with a crash... and probably some kind of super cool tuck/roll/ninja-pellet smokescreen thing that she couldn't see from her vantage point, but she just assumes definitely happened as she's holding that forcefield up (apparently more for herself than for Starfire).

He's immediately engulfed by his own screen of smoke, but he's not wrong. Gunfire immediately rings out towards that dark cloud, but there's a sickening sound of it hitting someone else across the lobby.

"STOP FIRING INTO THE LOBBY!" bellows 'Viper' through the radio when one of the bullets soars right past him and hits a goon that Spider-Man (II) had webbed up, leaving the already defenseless thug crumpling to the ground in a pool of blood. "YOU IDIOTS!!"

Meanwhile...

/But I am bulletproof.../

"Of course you are," Eve muses, green eyes cutting back over to Koriand'r. "I bet you have a fantastic singing voice, too."

Then the whole thing about protecting the civilians really registers.

"Uhhhh... I don't know if I'm really the right one..."

She /was/ one of the good guys, right? So why is Eve suddenly having an existential crisis about being responsible for saving civilians? The thought twisted her up so much she almost looked nauseous. Of course, just then, the first bullet actually bursts through that rapidly weakening gel barrier and flies between them.

"Fine. I can't stay here."

Without another word, Eve flies up higher and drops that barrier, allowing a shower of hundreds of bullet tips to rain harmlessly down on the ground below. With another flash of pink, she's covered head-to-toe in the same sort of glowing pink armor as that barrier had been, though it's much more rigid. That, combined with the pink jets at hands and feet, make her very reminiscent of an Iron Man (Iron Woman? Iron Girl?) in a clear pink suit, and she flies in through the open window that Osprey had left behind.

Of course, the gunfire doesn't stop. They're still pelting Koriand'r with rounds. If anything, they seem to be even /more/ focused on trying to shoot her than they did when Eve was there... focusing their fire and too terrified of the green starbolt she's holding to cease their attack.

Poor, poor Joey Bag of Donuts. As unoriginal as he is, he's was loyal to a fault (later ascertained via transcription from court proceedings where his mother spoke on his behalf). It wasn't Joey's fault, you see. It's corporate greed that's driven inflation and made it so that poor Joey couldn't survive just by working an honest job. But that doesn't matter, anymore. He'll be getting three square meals a day once the police are done with him...

"Oh th-th-thank you!!" The curator is a short, balding man with a stutter that seems to be driven more by the fear of imminent death than any life-long condition. He's scrambling for that gloved hand, taking it and following along without question.

"It-It's a historical artifact! A v-very p-p-precious and d-delicate artifact! It-It would be v-very v-valuable in a c-collection... th-there are m-myths about its m-mystical p-p-power, b-but it r-requires th-the obsidian d-d-dagger, which h-h-hasn't been sss-sss-seen in over five-h-hundred years..."

There's another crackle over the radio from Elara, who's still crouching next to that case, attaching her own device to a port in the side of it, fingers nimbly flying through screens.

"Where is that CURATOR?!" she hisses into her mic, increasingly agitated. Things were falling apart and they needed to get out of there. Fast.

It's funny how Spider-Man calling for a timeout always seems to get whoever's shooting at him to stop for a second... as if it's just so engrained since elementary school playground days that they have no choice but to obey. And so, when Miles makes the 'T', the shooting stops, and Viper stares as if waiting for some sort of grand proclamation...

...which comes in the form of a hurtling bench that hits him across the middle, breaking

Eve Wilkins has posed:
...which comes in the form of a hurtling bench that hits him across the middle, breaking in half and sending him flying backwards into a display case that breaks (apparently not one that had anything worthy of being behind bullet-proof glass in it). The gun drops out of his hands, but it doesn't leave his body, still strapped around his torso, and with a surprising amount of tenacity, he's already pushing himself back to his feet (looking a lot worse for the wear than a moment before).

Koriand'r has posed:
Well...she -did- warn them!

But Starfire was here on Earth as a hero, not as the girl betrayed and given to the warlords of an alien world, learning their brutal ways. The Titans weren't supposed to actually kill people.

Even so, the lancing bolt of green energy that leaps from her hand and slams into one of the weapons, blasting it apart and leaving one of the mooks clutching a likely burnt hand didn't exactly tickle.

Speaking of tickling, the bullets that rained down on Kori did have her turning her head, one hand covering her face not because of a real risk of injury...but because bullet fragments getting in your eye -suuuucked-.

One step, another, then another and she was rushing forwards as Eve moved upwards, Spidey called for calm, Bruce 'stumbled' into getting the upper hand on a would-be hostage taker and...well, she didn't know Osprey, but he looked like he was here to help!

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    The Shadow nods as she digests the information. "I see. I will have one of my agents contact you about these myths at a later date," she replies. "Your expertise would be greatly appreciated." With that, she leaves him to lean against a car safely outside the perimeter where the police will find him, severely rattled but otherwise unhurt, and heads back inside.

    A smile crosses her lips underneath the scarf as Elara's displeased demands come across the comms, and she keys her own mic.

    A moment later, a screeching crackle comes across the Gilded Hand's comm network, only to resolve into a sinister, inhuman chuckling. "Heh heh heh heh... I'm afraid Doctor Higgins has chosen to decline your gracious invitation to join him."

    "You may want to hurry. You're running out of warm bodies to hide behind, and your masters will be cross enough with you for your failure as it is... Heh heh heh HA HA HA HA HA HA..."

Austin Reese has posed:
There are new faces every day in Gotham. As he drops towards the smoke, he makes note of Spider-Man and Eve. Those are the two he doesn't know. Starfire he knows through reputation, and of course, being friends with some of the Titans. Osprey also catches sight of Bruce as he fumbles and stumbles his way through the crowd, or so it looks to someone who hasn't had to try and fight against that style in the Batcave. It's remarkable how much it looks like he's in a panic and that those strikes and throws aren't completely intentional.

The younger vigilante does have more pressing concerns though. While the bullets fly, he switches into an alternative vision on his domino mask, marking multiple targets that are still firing, including the one that was unfortunately just hit by a stray blue-on-blue.

Or would that be red-on-red in this instance? At least from Osprey's point of view. Then, things go quiet. Quiet is very eerie in a gunfight. He lifts his head up when the gunfire stops, spotting Spider-Man giving the time out signal. Huh. That works? He might need to try that at some point. Still inside the smoke, however he can see the injured goon, wincing a bit, marking him to let the EMTs know, once the situation has been handled.

Then the bench goes flying, disrupting the smoke and slamming into poor Viper. Usually when people start throwing furniture, the goons stay down! Well, Osprey does have a cure for that, as he whips a knife off of his bandolier, aiming it for Viper's right shoulder, figuring that should take him out of the fight. And it won't kill him either, it'll just really hurt.

Osprey pushes forward out of the smoke, pulling a cryo cartridge out of his utility belt and slotting it into his right gauntlet, which starts to glow bright blue. It gives away his position through the smoke, but that hardly matters as he comes flying out of the smoke and towards one of the still-armed Golden Hand, swinging a haymaker uppercut, and releasing a blast of energy modeled after Mr. Freeze's own weaponry to freeze the guy in place, encasing his torso and arms in a block of ice that'll be easy-enough to thaw afterwards.

Miles Morales has posed:
Hey! It WORKED!

That bench cracks on that gigantic muscle head, sending him flying back towards the wall...except he was starting to get up. "Listen guy-"

Miles leaps through the air, shooting a web line that connects to the heads of two goons and he yanks hard to try and slam them into each other. "You got that classic GC moxie, but come on man, you can probably get out on good behavior if you mind the P's and Q's, Kay?" He stage whispers.

"Pssst, I have a dinner later. It'll be /reaaaaly/ chill if you stayed down."

Then there's a knife chucked into Viper's shoulder, which makes Miles /wince/. "Ohhhh oh man, oh man. I think that'll heal okay." He looks towards Osprey and lifts his hands in a shrug. "I was doing my talk-no-Jutsu thing!" Miles makes an anime reference and he's looking for other targets.

"Hey Atom Eve! You got this!" Spidey calls to Eve and he's soaring through the air. "Hey Nice-looking Thumb-" yeah, he's berating the bad guys. "Can one of you guys point out your boss? I'm trying to set a record!"

He notices Kori being a bullet sponge and his eyes widen. "You can throw LASERS?!"

Eve Wilkins has posed:
*POW-POW*

Starfire's starbolt hits the goons gun and it EXPLODES in his hands, leaving his hand not just burnt, but sending bits of gun shrapnel spinning off in all directions, including hitting the two other guards at the front door whose firing faltered to give them a chance to shield their eyes.

Eve had been out of her last team of superheroes (Teen Team, because apparently all of the cool names were already taken) for almost two years, and she'd been out of the superhero game entirely for a year. It was... odd, being back in the middle of it all again. The bullets flying. The smoke. The smell of gunpowder. The sounds of screaming. It kind of felt very much like old times.

It's just that some of those times were /really/ good. And some of those times were really, really bad.

She takes a steadying breath, floating in the vast lobby for a moment and watching everything (including pieces of chandelier falling from the high ceiling) as if she were looking for something... and then she spots it -- a single guard standing on top of the reception desk and pointing is rifle down behind it. That's where they'd stashed the hostages.

Without even a word of warning, Eve flies over and extends her palm, shooting out a burst of pink energy that catches the unwary gunman in the back and sends him face-first into the wall. The thump he makes when he hits is quite solid, and he falls backwards, unconscious, just as Eve lights behind that half-counter.

A couple of the other goons in the lobby turn to notice her, but with a wave of her hand and a flash of pink, the open space that had existed above the counter vanishes, replaced by a floor-to-ceiling wall of steel.

"Okay, people.. listen up. I'm going to take off your bindings and shield you. When I tell you it's safe, you are going to make a run for the front door. You are NOT going to go until then, and you are NOT going to run screaming and panicking in some random direction. Am I clear?" Asked to a chorus of anxious nods. With any luck, Starfire would have that front door clear by the time they were ready to move.

...."AUGH!" cries Viper when the knife hits in in the shoulder blade, and the rifle he'd been trying to lift again gets dropped as his other hand clutches for the top of a display case. "WE HAVE TO GO! NOW!"

"We're too close!" Elara yells back, her voice heard clearly though the fight for the first time.

"NOW!" Viper yells back.

From Viper and Elara's perspective, the walls were certainly closing in on them. They were nearly out of cannon fodder to protect them, but Elara was hard pressed to give up on her prize, on the one day it was on display in Gotham, especially now that they would know someone had already tried to steal it once.

Exactly how were they 'getting out' at this point? Viper was making his way to the woman, staggering and obviously preparing to yank her up and drag her with him if she wouldn't come on her own. Still with a knife in his shoulder (and a now useless arm). This guy was an absolute tank. As soon as he got to her, he grabbed a handful of metal discs from inside his jacket and scattered them out across the room towards Miles and Austin. Each of them blinked red. And beeped. Faster. And faster.

If it had been a good guy? Probably flash bangs, right? But from a bad guy with a giant machine gun....?

Bruce Wayne has posed:
Walls _were_ closing in. So were ceilings.

As Viper is trying to figure out how to convince Elara to give up on stealing the and escape with him, he gets an unexpected assist as the tiles from the ceiling shatter, a cloud of dust and debris falling atop the display case, along with a dark cloaked shape that touches down just beside it.

The Batman says nothing, simply looms next to the pedestal upon which the Obsidian Scarab rests, as if _daring_ Elara to make a move to try to take it.

"Are you &*# kidding me?" barks Viper, skidding to a halt. Clearly, his loyalty to Elara only extends that far.

Elara may have been hard pressed to give up on her prize. This is a pretty hard press.

Muttering a curse under her breath, she scrambles back to try to make her escape, Viper already having reached the same conclusion.

Austin Reese has posed:
"He'll be fine!" Osprey calls back to Miles, hearing the response, including the reference. If the white LEDs on Osprey's mask could show a roll emotion, they would. He shakes his head after a moment, making a note to himself to keep this guy away from Oriole lest they bury him in references.

Then there's disks flying towards him. And blinking. Well that's never a good sign, "Get down!" He calls to Miles, turning and dive-rolling over the hotel's reception desk before the explosives go off. That's really going to ruin the decor.

With the arrival of Batman, Osprey knows he can focus on the last few remaining Golden Hand gang members, though it doesn't look like there's too many of the armed guys still standing. He hops back over the counter, sliding across it and back onto his feet, tossing a stun grenade at one of the few remaining Golden Hand that's still on their feet. He's fought the Hand. And the Foot. What is it with naming your group after appendages anyway? He'll puzzle that out later.

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    Viper and Elara share one last frustrated glance before each dashing in a different direction, hoping to be the first to get away and have time to explain to the masters how this debacle was the other's fault.

    Viper cuts to the left, trying to flank around the main melee and get through to an emergency exit and make his escape. With the heavy hitters probably distracted by the last of the minions scattering bombs around he should be able to--

    Two gunshots ring out, slamming impressive craters just ahead of his feet. He skids to a halt, glancing down to the craters instinctively -- and by the time he looks up again, the Shadow is fully visible right before him, blue eyes glaring at him over the barrel of two disconcertingly large pistols.

    "... You're bluffing," Viper declares after a moment. "You're not going to shoot me. This is Gotham. The Bat wouldn't let you kill."

    "It's true that the Batman's position on killing is well known and inflexible," the Shadow agrees, but then chuckles as she shifts the aim of one of her guns downward. "On the other hand, his stance on the subject of kneecaps is much less well known."

    The hat tilts slightly, that gaze suddenly focusing on something just behind Viper. "Would you care to provide some clarity on that while we have you here?"

Miles Morales has posed:
"Hey! You should really stick around!"

Spider-Man calls towards Viper as he made ready to do something a bit more...violent. Not lethal, but this guy needs to know when he loses. Yet, those discs fly out and Miles throws his arms in front of him in preparation to get hit with something!

But instead, they got the wall, the ground, all around. "Uh oh."

"Pleasedontdotheredlightthing!"

They do the red light thing.

"Crap!"

Then he sees BATMAN. "HOLY CRAP ITS BATMAN! I'm a really big faaaaa-oh my god!" Miles hears Osprey's warning and with numerous web lines he tries to pull the bombs towards a focused point to cause hopefully the least amount of damage. At this point? That's over by him. Webs immediately are fired at the bombs en masse to make a vacuum cover to contain the blast radius as mathematical equations race through Miles's mind.

He knows the others can contain the rest, but his focus is the bombs! "I've got this!"

Eve Wilkins has posed:
"Freaking /Batman/," Elara curses, running at a flat-out sprint away from the scene. The slides under a table, parkours over a couch, rounds a corner, and in seconds, she's in the wind. Her lithe figure was fast and agile, and without the focus of one of the more-than-human figures around here, there was no way anyone else was going to catch her.

And all of the more-than-human people seem to be too busy to make her their center of attention.

Starfire had cleared the front entrance of the hotel from guards, and as soon as she did, Eve was on the move.

"Let's go! Stay together!"

There was a brief pink light from behind the (now steel-plated) reception area as Atom Eve rearranged the molecules of the heavy-duty plastic bindings they had on, turning them into paper, and as each one tore through their restraint, a translucent pink sphere appeared around them that followed them all the way out the front door. A dozen or more hostages in all, Eve waving them on as if they were running a marathon.

Gotham PD are just arriving on scene, the tell-tale sounds of their sounds and the flashing of the cruiser lights illuminating the building in pulses of red and blue.

And then.. *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

Underneath each one of Mile's quickly constructed domes was a sound like a /really/ big firecracker going off underneath a bowl. It was loud, and a couple of them cracked part of the webbing off the floor, but the blasts were thankfully contained, preserving not only the beautifully decorated lobby (save for a few bullet holes, broken glass, and smoke stains) but also anyone that might have been in the blast radius.

Namely, Eve herself, who had apparently been so busy focusing on hostages that she hadn't realized she was about to get blown up, herself.

She turns at the deep, bassy thud right behind her, the dome of webbing, and then looks up at Spider-Man with a playful work of her lips behind that translucent pink armor she's wearing. She was about to say something when she saw Viper being held at gun point (even if it was knee-point) by Natasha.

"I've got it," she calls over to the Shadow.

Another raise of her hand, a pink glow from her palm, and three sets of glowing pink rings appear around the big man, two at different heights around his arms and one around his ankles. All at once they /squeeze/, wrapping him up, and then the pink fades to thick, wide straps.. as if he'd been bound by securely ratcheted cargo straps, except there was no ratchet. If the police wanted them off, they were going to have to cut them off.

Viper starts to say something, but with another wave of her hand and flash of pink light, his mask has vanished and he has a piece of tape over his mouth. Apparently Eve had no patience for whatever was about to come out of it.

"Well... this was.. unexpected," Eve says towards Miles, pushing some of that red hair back from her face. And it doesn't seem to be until that moment that she /also/ realizes that Batman is standing there like a fricking Grue, guarding the Obsidian Scarab. /Super/ freaking intimidating. Enough so that, for a moment, she just sort of goes still.

"Uhhhh... hi?" Hopefully placating smile from the twenty year old girl that wasn't even wearing a mask. "Sorry... about your hotel?" /His/ hotel? Well, it was Gotham. By all accounts, it was /all/ under his protection.

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    Eve gets a respectful nod. "Your assistance is appreciated, my Lady," the Shadow replies, holstering their weapons, then turns toward Miles. "Excellent quick thinking, Spider-Man. Was anyone injured?"

    The Shadow walks slightly further into the room, but remains on the periphery, letting Batman take center stage. This is Gotham, after all, and the Shadow has no intention of turning this into a turf war...