15602/Angels We Have Heard On High

Angels We Have Heard On High
Date of Scene:	13 August 2023
Location:	Robinson Park - Miagani Island
Synopsis:	An art installation at night is the perfect place for a trap to be sprung.
Cast of Characters:	Tim Drake, Talia al Ghul, Jean-Paul Valley, River Banks

---

Tim Drake has posed:
    Art installations aren't anything new for Robinson Park. With Chelsea a direct neighbor, the artistic folks of Burnley Harbor (often called "Little Bohemia") tend to make use of the big green spaces available in the park for their newest works. In fact, on the other side of the park there's a new pop-art installation that encourages kids of all ages to add their own colorful stamp to the work via chalk, with the surfaces washed off and primed for new artists every evening.

    It's trending on various socials with #chalkitupGotham.

    The statues that have mysteriously appeared in Morrison Plaza are trending too, but for very different reasons.

    There's a quartet of them, placed at the cardinal points, each bisecting the pathways that lead into the plaza. At first observation they're beautific works, angels poised in benevolent supplication, their hands pressed together primly.

    But once you're inside the plaza, the statues tell a different story. The opposite faces are carved in the shape of fearsome gargoyles, even more ghastly and looming than the ones that dot Gotham's skyscape. There's something almost leering about them, as if they're primed to pull themselves off their pedestals and attack.

    During the day it's unsettling. Images have appeared on social media, some questioning who thought this was an appropriate place for such things, others saying that Gotham is a little bit *too* appropriate.

    At night, though? They're something else. The shadows make the gargoyles' fangs and claws seem longer, more threatening, and the expressions of the angels are particularly tragic without the touch of daylight to brighten them up.

    So far tonight at least, it's quiet. Aside for an attempted car theft over on West Flower street in one of the Urbarail parking lots, at least. Maybe a mugging or two, depending on how many thugs are lurking in the park. A cold breeze whips through the pathways and plazas, chasing away the warmth of the summer day as night descends on Gotham City.

Talia al Ghul has posed:
There's no signs of Puck, and while the Gargoyles move at night, there's at least no castle rebuilt from the Viking eras on top of a skyscraper to truly bring it's own sort of separate wretchedness to the world. That, in one sense, lets the breath go a little easier. Or not. Such things are in the steamy past of another place, another time, another experience. Not here, not now.
    And Talia Al Ghul is walking through Gotham City, a large copy of The Onion unfolded in front o fher as she reads. It has a giant picture of J Jonah Jameson on the front ranting, and a headline that reads 'THAT MUSTACHE, THAT MENACE' on the front with a smaller tagline of 'Symbiote Hitler Stache Declares Intent to Conquer World' as she skims through the headlines otherwise, paper unfolded and moving from page to page as she dodges in and out of traffic with the ease of a courier on roller skates.

Jean-Paul Valley has posed:
Jean-Paul Valley barely has a place to sleep at the moment - he can't stay in shelters long, they see him talking to himself and, worse, sometimes they seem threatening. Even if they mean well, if Azrael takes offense, they'd all be in danger. He's got a room for now, but it's just a week to week. He's hacking his own trust fund and stealing from himself so the Order doesn't track him down. Even doing it that way feels dangerous, but he's close to broke again. Just a little at a time, so they don't even notice.

He's overdressed for the season, head ducked down in a hoodie, carrying a heavy bundle that he hugs under his left arm. His long blonde hair is loose, spilling down just to his shoulders and he looks at the various art things in surprise. He hadn't even known, hadn't even really paid attention to where he was going. Just walking and thinking. Sometimes Gotham could surprise him in a good way.

River Banks has posed:
    And jogging through Robinson Park is one River Banks. Former bank robber, encouraged to reform via taser rounds from Red Hood, and weirdly now living in Gotham City. Funny how things work out. She's got a pair of ear buds in that aren't connected to anything, wearing a pair of blue jogger pants, a T-shirt with some local bank's insignia on it (she has a sense of humor), and was jogging with a scarf down about her neck, easily raised in case of dust storm, bees, or heroics.

    Not that she would say she's there to be heroic, that's generally *not* her bag.

    ... is Altruism transmitted by friendship? Is that a thing outside particularly colorful ponies?

Tim Drake has posed:
    Aside for a newspaper that flutters across the plaza in the breeze -- not from Talia's copy, this one is yesterday's Gotham Gazette -- Morrison Plaza is silent. Eerily so. It's just the sound of the wind rustling leaves in the trees overhead.

    The gargoyles sneer at the passing folks, their unmoving visage still affecting an expression of terrible violence.

    Underneath one of the statues, near the east side of the plaza, is a slumped-down figure. There's a certain stillness to them that those familiar with death will recognize, a lack of breath, pulse, and life. But there's little else to tell as they are wrapped up in layers, blankets and coats and jackets, so much so that any glimpse of skin is obscured.

Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia al Ghul goes to skim through the last article. "Far, far more accurate than any other drivel.." It's hard to tell if she's being serious or not - then again, with the news cycle, who knows? The paper is then yanked over from her hands in a burst of heavy wind that seems to come from nowhere. She doesn't pay particular attention to it - what's one more piece of garbage on the streets of Gotham going to be anyways?

Then she sees the corpse. Ahh. Some more homeless that didn't last particularly long. She goes to just look over at them. Long since innured to death. There's a completely detatched expression.

Jean-Paul Valley has posed:
Jean-Paul Valley is just going toward to take a rest, intending to sit at the bottom of the statue. He wasn't homeless, but was close enough and had been there oftentimes. He fit in, more than he wished he did. Sometimes he thought that was where he belonged, but that was the Angel talking. Full of self-loathing and aching for repentance. Repentance and blood.

He shakes off that thought, clearing his vision and almost stumbling into Talia, "Sorry," she says quickly, looking aside and then. Well. There's a dead body. He looks back at the woman. Then back at the body. "Huh."

River Banks has posed:
    Well, there is a rather attractive woman standing with a rather attractive man, and they're looking at what appears to be a Dead Body.

    "Uh..." she comes to a pause, looking over at Jean-Paul and Talia, and then she points down at the body.

    "Y'all call nine-one-one for this stuff, or does Gotham have a different phone tree for dead bodies jus' hangin' out?" she questions. She's not trying to be insensitive... Gotham's just Weird.

Tim Drake has posed:
    There's a soft rustle of fabric from behind the group gathered around the body.

    "Do you all just make a habit of hanging around corpses, or is this a special occasion?" comes a question, the voice thick with sarcasm. Red Robin takes a step forward and acknowledges Talia's presence with a quick nod and what is no doubt a suspicious look from behind the white-out lenses of his domino, but that can only be inferred from the subtle furrow of his brow, above the mask. The other two only get quick glances, as indicated by the tilt of his head.

    He crouches down, arms tucked against his chest as he conducts a visual-only inspection of the body. "Huh."

    And then he just reaches out and untucks the layers away from the body's face... only to reveal a mannequin head. "Oh, I get it. It's a trap."

    The leaves above stop rustling. Silently, several figures drop from the branches above. They are humanoid in shape but obviously modified, some with blades for hands, others with entire limbs replaced by mechanical prosthetics. Their faces are frozen in a rictus of joy, though fine cracks like the patina of china run through them.

    There are at least a dozen of them. And they do not hesitate before attacking.

Talia al Ghul has posed:
The presence of Jean-Paul Valley nearly hitting her has Talia doing a quick twirl and evade at the last moment. Making sure to not stand out too much over from it. "Just do take care to watch where you're going." Her tone having a flair of it to sound like Bludhaven. Of a woman that had spent a bit too much time doing her makeup to get herself to look flawless over. And she's about to speak about watching where he's going.. Right over as several things drop from the branches. She's caught by surprise and inwardly cursing.
    What the hell!? Reavers? Hive? These monstrocities look like something out of a 90's toyline. Talia Al Ghul goes to snap back over on the defensive, lashing out with two large katana that she most certainly had /not/ been carrying on her mometns before.

Jean-Paul Valley has posed:
Jean-Paul Valley steps aside for Tim, the assertive young man going to investigate before Jean-Paul could respond to Talia's hostility. He had been raising his hands in a gesture of peace, intending to just quickly go away, when suddenly the ambush strikes.

Oh god. Oh god, No choice, no choice NO CHOICE BUT THE SWORD OF GOD

Jean-Paul Valley tears two items from his bundle, dropping at his feet. One is the mask of Azarael, the symmetrical simulacrum of a knight's helm, blood and black in color, his eyes narrowing behind the lenses of it. The other is a hilt, extending a full broadsword with a flick of his wrist and then, with a twist of a thumb, the blade becomes ignited in flame.

"Behold, Sinners! The Avenging Angel comes!"

River Banks has posed:
    "Hey man, Ah ain't from around here!" River protests, and she looks up and down Red Robin. "... ain't you a little short for a /Bat/?" she questions, and then the mannequin head appears. The leaves rustle. The humanoid shapes drop down with their blades, their faces frozen, and she looks at them with both surprise and an odd sense of terror briefly on her features.

    Up comes the scarf around the lower part of her face, and her shoulders relax.

    And then Azarael makes his appearance. and she just sort of looks over to Talia, to Red Robin, adn to a freaking transformation like one of her brother's toy cartoons had come to life, and she turns back.

    "Uh. Right. For Justice Ah Guess!" she states, and she draws out three balls of water from the fountain behind her, eyes drawing narrow in concentration before she launches one of the balls outwards, with great force and fury as one leaps at her!

Tim Drake has posed:
    The short comment only earns another tilt of Red Robin's head, more puzzled than anything, before his focus is taken up on the body. The body that is not a body at all, as it just so happens.

    Like the others with blades and, spectacularly, mentally controlled balls of water, Red Robin arms himself. The staff he snaps into one long piece from where it was folded on his outer thigh is possibly the least dangerous of the weapons on display here tonight, but with a subtle flick of his thumb the ends crackle with electricity.

    He only allows himself long enough to say "Well, that's a new one," to Azrael's sudden appearance before Red Robin is launching himself into the fray, staff swinging to knock away a bladed arm from coming down on his head.

    One of the figures advances on Talia, bladed limbs gleaming in the moonlight. Another comes at Azrael, seemingly ignoring the whole flaming sword thing as it lashes out with a quick one-two punch from down low, where it clambers around more like an animal than a person.

    The one that gets knocked back in midair by a blast of water is soaked and on the ground, but another takes its place, running low to the ground and scythe arms swiping at River.

Talia al Ghul has posed:
Oh, lovely. It's a religious lunatic. She glances at Red Robin with a 'one of your's' expression on her face and moving to keep ehr katana in front of her. She darts to the side and goes to try and bait the attackers over towards Azrael. He seems far mor eenthusiastic on the matter of dealing with corpses - and she's not sure her own weapons will be effective. If these are the type that are rather reinforced against damage - or they can just reach down and pick up slashed off things. She'd seen the Hand make abominations that took losing chunks of their body like an inconvenience.
    She moves to dart along, heading in a quick arc to try and draw the attention of the one attacking her.. And any others that she could.. Over towards Azrael. It seems the best idea to keep -herself- alive and also try and let the one who no doubt is the best equipped to deal with the horde of attackers coming from nowhere with the least amount of interruption.
    And thus Talia Al Ghul is damned to draw aggro towards the tank.

Jean-Paul Valley has posed:
Jean-Paul Valley leaps into the air up and over the low attack from the blade-limbed thing. He lands easily on his feet and spins to lash backwards, testing the edge of his blade against one of those limbs.

"Damned things!" he howls angrily, lashing out with violent strength at the attacker. He breathes heavily through it all, without thought entirely, The System which powers his movements, programmed him like a machine, functioning almost on autopilot as he seeks any advantage.

River Banks has posed:
    "... damnit Hood did *not* warn me about these things when I'm out for a run!!" the girl in the blue scarf comments, but she seems to be well at peace with the fight, ducking nimbly to the side as she brings two of those water bulbs up, and then SLAMS them down on top of the one coming at her, which she uses as a jump point for a tree branch, swinging herself up.

    "SO uh HEROY-TYPES -- JUST WHAT THE /HELL/!"

Tim Drake has posed:
    Tim can only shake his head to Talia, as both Jean-Paul and River are both relative unknowns to him. But in the moment he's not going to turn down any help when it comes to fighting off whatever these things are.

    "I think I've fought these before!" he calls out as he drives the end of his staff into the back of one, having ducked and slid around an attack that would have otherwise sliced him in half, body armor or no. "They're reanimated corpses!"

    Which is likely why Talia's katana and Azrael's sword cut through them like butter when they strike at the non-modified parts. The joints above the mechanical limbs in particular seem most easily severed, but the blades and the metal limbs, not so much.

    Talia's gambit to lead some of the attackers towards Azrael rather than herself works, to a degree. They seem to be attracted to the sight of him like moths to a flame, which in this case might be partially literal. But another one bears down at her, fists clasped together to bring them down towards her head in a heavy slam.

    While Jean-Paul has to deal with a couple of them attacking at once, River has to make a choice: stay in the trees, where one of the creatures is waiting for her, its masked expression frozen in a simulcrum of the angels' faces below, or drop back down to where another is trying to jump for her, below!

Talia al Ghul has posed:
And Talia goes to just look over at Red Robin with an 'of course they are' expression on her face when he goes on about having fought them before. If she were the type to be more vocal, she might chime in with the 'I might have noticed'. But she is far from the type of the normal Bat-types to be able to engage with witticisms. Her own slashes are more defensive in nature as she goes to simply draw as many of them towards the perhaps literal avenging angel. She switches to a moment to speak in ASL while on the defnesive and retreating.
    'Stay away from the fanatic. I think that's Hellfire'. Her hands go through quick motions as she goes for sign language beyond just quick tactical gestures. The blade may or may not be it but it sings to her of things that she does not want to face if it is what she fears.

Jean-Paul Valley has posed:
More towards his path only seems to inspire Azrael further. He twists into a flurry of motion, time-honored techniques hybridized with the psychotic programming instilled in him. His glands mutated, his mind sharpened and then split into twain, the intellectual and shy Jean-Paul, the brutal and maniacal Azrael. Or perhaps Azrael really was an angel, buried inside the flesh of the boy. Even they didn't really know.

The blazing sword of Azrael spins, slipping from hand to hand, wielded ambidextrously, and growing more and more precise as he learned the weaknesses, the machine-like discipline of the System letting him strike true over and over again, untiring until...

"Hellfire? How dare you? I am Azrael, the avenging angel. I strike fear in the name of the one true God!" he says, thoughtlessly flicking away another attack and then returning to the fray.

River Banks has posed:
    "... well that's *charming*." WHAT THE @#$*.

    The young woman in the tree looks at the one that was waiting for her, and then she lets her eyes go wide before she swings down, and the water bubbles follow her, and she yells out "HEY AZRAEL! Batter up!"

     -- and then with her water forming a block, she urges the steadily icing balls at the one in the tree.

    Brute force knocks it.

    And then knock it into the one below her!

    And then launch both at Azrael!

     -- so they're either going to smack him or he'll cut them both up. Either way they are now no longer River Banks's problem!

Tim Drake has posed:
    Despite having some familiarity with these particular enemies, Red Robin is at a loss. On the one hand he has Talia, who is a known agent but also a potential agent of chaos, because Tim is too paranoid to think otherwise. On the other, he has Azrael, claiming to be an avenging angel, and the unknown girl who can manipulate water with her mind, whose accent suggests she's not from around here.

    So really, he's on his own. That the girl and Azrael are teaming up (perhaps not willingly, on Azrael's part) doesn't escape Red Robin, but it also doesn't put him more at ease. He jumps backwards as another one of the corpses tries to slice-and-dice him, batting it away with a spark of electricity jumping from the tip of his staff.

    He catches what Talia signs in his direction and also catches that yeah, so does Azrael, so he just no-sells the whole thing. The crowd of enemy combatants has thinned out considerably thanks to their collective work, with Azrael's flame-lit sword having definitely led the charge. There are pieces of people scattered all around the plaza.

    Above, clouds have started to roll in, blocking out the moonlight but replacing it with the threatening lash of lightning. A storm hangs heavy overhead, the air suddenly thickening with it, heavy and threatening.

    Red Robin leans against his staff, forehead furrowed as he surveys the damage. "I guess the question is: who was the target?" He looks from Talia, to Azrael, to River, and then back down at the once-again-deceased corpse at his feet.

Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia al Ghul would glance over at Azrael and speak, "Of course. So forgive me until I see Saint Michael himself annointing you that I'll take your commentary with wariness." SHe says this in full formal Latin, making sure to enunciate it just like they would at the Vatican.
    She can't tell exactly what the blade is, but she's also not examining it too closely. The thing will definitely cleave through her, and the man moves with far, far greater speed and aggression than she can match. She actually doubts she could take him over if it came down to it.
    Glancing at each of the corpses, she would muse.. Damnit, she was obligated here to speak up. "I'd call it a test run. The approach was too random and too public for it to have been aimed at a specific individual. They weren't tracking any of us or I presume they'd have been noticed." They didn't seem to be after River and Azrael was not particularly subtle.
    "So, to strike terror into the hearts of man or see how well they performed. Strip them for parts and see fi there's anything you can track from their scrap. It will have to be higher grade if they expect it to work in combat and more durable. There's also likely some form of transmitter in them used for control and deployment. Likely a drone that's been observing."

Jean-Paul Valley has posed:
Azrael thrashes the last of the corpse-cicles, tossing some of the remants of one from his blade, leaving it sizzling at his feet.

The blade quiets and stills, leaving only unvarnished, gleaming silver. "It is good and right to fear God. And Azrael is the sword of God."

His hand goes to his mask, as if to pull it free, but then the hand freezes, forms into a fist, "No. I am not done..." he says, but then the hand seizes the mask and yanks it off. Jean-Paul's blonde hair spilled out.

"Sorry..." he says, sucking in breath, "Sorry Azrael's an ass...but I...know a little something about...electronics...maybe I could...help."

River Banks has posed:
    "... you for serious right there?" River asks as she lands in an inexpert crouch, and she looks around to Jean-Paul, to Talia, and then to Red Robin, and then she gives a wave.

    "Uh... Riptide." she states, introducing herself. "Ah'm a friend a' Red Hood's?"

Tim Drake has posed:
    It's a mess. Tim nods over to Talia, considering her input, but he's silent. There's a lot to take in, between Azrael's... departure and Riptide's Hood-related revelation.

    Jason will definitely be hearing about this. Along with all the Bats, because this is too unusual an occurrence, but definitely Jason first.

    He crouches down, not all that differently to when he had first examined the not-corpse at the base of the statue, but this time there's definitely a body at his feet. And he turns it over, revealing the half-cracked mask, the pallid skin peeking out from beneath it, and a long-deadened eye staring upwards, unseeing.

    "We'll take these for examination," he finally says, as he stands back up. Jean-Paul gets a nod from Tim, but not an open offer to collaborate -- yet. Instead he asks, "Does that always happen when you put on the helmet?" referring to his seeming transformation into this Azrael person.

    "Red Robin," he introduces himself belatedly, for River's (and possibly Jean-Paul's) benefit.

Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia al Ghul would glance over at Timf or amoment, "Oh, and do remember to properly disinfect yourself after. These don't appear to be that fresh. So you might want to delouse afterwords just in case. And I do hope you've all had your shots." She's not offering ot help them with hauling away bodies for a reason! Nor is she going to tug at the things piled up. She's just giving her opinion.. And not moving in the slightest towards things.
    "The individuals won't be very useful if you do track down who they were." She means the bodies. "They'll be homeless, most likely. Grabbed off the street or simply taken from a morgue they bribed someone to look the otehr way on. It's very likely to be a fruitless line of investigation." They're not Hand, Kobra, Foot..

Jean-Paul Valley has posed:
Jean-Paul Valley hugs himself, "I know a few of the homeless. I've been there. Not long ago," he says. "I have money it's just, ah, hard to access. It's complicated," he says. He looks down at the sword in his hand, as if he had barely any idea what to do with it. He tucks it and the mask away quickly.

"My name's Jean-Paul. You can just call me Paul. He's Azrael. He's not me. It's...complicated."

"I dunno, this is just...this is all bad stuff. If I can help, I wanna help. But you saw what he's like. I understand if you don't...want to deal with any of it..." he says, looking away.

River Banks has posed:
    "... do all y'all use Red as a qualifier?" River asks in curiosity to Red Robin, and she rubs the back of her head a moment, keeping the bottom half covered by the scarf.

    "Well. Ah guess if ah'm needed, Red Hood has my nummer." she states gruffly, crossing her arms as she tries to figure a way to not have to explain any of this mess to Jason.

    And she turns to Paul, and she shrugs her shoulders.

    "Buddy. You got it weird, not gonna lie, 'it's complicated' appears to be your theme." she gives a roll of her eye, and then reaches out to shake his hand, since weirdly Red Robin and the woman who didn't introduce herself don't seem like the hand-shakin' type.

    "Gotham City seems to be the weirdest place Ah've *evah* been livin' in."

Tim Drake has posed:
    No, Red Robin isn't going to shake any hands. That's a little too friendly, for a Bat. He also doesn't answer Riptide's question, choosing instead to level a look at her that lingers for a long moment before his head tilts, and the sensation of being examined disappears.

    "Bad news," he reports. "Someone's just called in a fight in Robinson Park and I'm pretty sure they were talking about us. GCPD is on the way. If any of you care about not interacting with the cops," and here Red Robin spares a glance Talia's way, "You should probably clear out. I'll take samples and try to deal with the police."

    Then he turns to Jean-Paul. "If you need help, go to Thompkins' clinic in Park Row. Tell the receptionist that Mr. Draper sent you. They'll know what to do."


    In the distance, police sirens bounce off of buildings, echoing in the manufactured valleys of Gotham City's streets.

Talia al Ghul has posed:
Talia al Ghul would shake her head and mutter to herself. Poor Jean-Paul needs an exorcism as far as she's concerned. That might almost be read on her face if one were looking. "Keep your head down. Azrael is rather.. Blatant." Whether it was a case of possession or dissassociative identity. She didn't have enough information to tell.
    As the sirens come, she rapidly cleans off her katanas, and they once more vanish as she goes to stalk out into the night.

Jean-Paul Valley has posed:
Jean-Paul Valley hears the sirens. But he also hears Tim's words. He'll remember both.

To Talia, he snorts, "You don't even know," he says and then quickly ducks down and starts to break into a run, wanting to be out of sight before the police show up. He didn't need to show up on any feeds or documentation the Order might be monitoring.

River Banks has posed:
    "... yeah stupid question Ah know." River replies to the look, and she immediately closes off, dropping the friendliness in her voice as she's declined a handshake from Jean-Paul too, and draws her scarf a little higher on her face. Why?

    Because she matches the physical description of a bank robber that got chased out by a Titan and someone wanted for questioning in a lot of old cons involving fake jewelry and pawn shop pass-offs that hasn't been reported in this area of the country for a long time. But OBVIOUSLY if she knows Red Hood she's someone of quality, right?

    ... let's not examine that statement.

    She just gives a wave, and jogs off in the direction in which she originally came, not willing to stay within line of sight for the police to match her up with anything either.

Tim Drake has posed:
    That leaves Red Robin standing amidst the corpses, contemplating how precisely he's going to explain this one to the cops.

    Hopefully whoever responds to the 911 call is a friendly. Because he suspects this is going to be a long night.