16201/Early Halloween for Mania and Batwing

Early Halloween for Mania and Batwing
Date of Scene:	28 October 2023
Location:	Abandoned Warehouse
Synopsis:	Batwing and Mania team up to deal with some arms dealers. Pleasantries (as want between two kids their ages) were exchanged.
Cast of Characters:	Damian Wayne, Andi Benton

---

Damian Wayne has posed:
While they may not be in Gotham, it is still a dark and stormy night in New York City. As the rain prattles down on the glass panes of the windows of the warehouse, inside, there is activity. The warehouse has been closed down for several years but is seeing new activity.

Several delivery vans marked with a generic delivery company from Gotham are parked at the loading docks. Inside, crates are being opened. Weapons, large caliber guns and missile launchers are being inventoried. A well-dressed man is talking to a colleague and grins. "This is guaranteed to even knock a Bat from the sky, my friend."

Stepping from the shadows is a large man, wearing a suit and tie. He's one of the smaller crimelords in Gotham, a small fish looking to make a splash in a big pond. "Good, I'm gonna knock down some Bats and other freaks with this stuff."

Up above, in the rafters above, a figure in black and red makes his way along the rooftop. New York is not usually a place where a Bat goes, but after getting a lead on this arms shipment, Batwing was on his way to try to intercept it before it can get into Gotham proper.

Andi Benton has posed:
Rain is rain, no matter where it is. It isn't any more dreary in one city compared to another. Or is it? Depends on one's perspective.

Some people are only happy when it rains, so the famous song goes. What makes Andi Benton happy? Hard to say. Mania loves chocolate, and they've both taken well to their routine of patrolling New York City. In fact, a lot of things have been easier to deal with ever since having The Talk with Andi's old man, rather than keeping everything a secret.

Rain also doesn't bother Mania, sliding off the vigilante's body without anything to really get absorbed into. It creates an even more sleek, shiny look in the darkness whenever a light source reflects off of her.

Utilizing weblines to traverse the blocks of buildings, she comes up on a warehouse that's usually darkened. The fact it isn't tonight stands out to her, since it's along one of her normal paths.

<<Mania>> Someone's home, Andi.
<<Andi>> And what do you want to bet they don't belong there?
<<Mania>> We wouldn't bet any chocolate on it.
<<Andi>> Smart. Let's go see who needs to be smacked around.

En route, there's no sign yet of anyone else already present, but the figure lands silently atop the roof and creeps toward one of the ceiling windows for a peek.

Damian Wayne has posed:
Down below in the warehouse, the transfer is going smoothly enough. The crates are being unloaded and then being repackaged in delivery boxes so that they can past a casual inspection if a truck was pulled over for any reason.

A couple of goons that are working on patrol glances up at the cieling, "Man, it's really coming down." he mutters to his companion.

"Yeah..." he says, just as lightning flashes, bold and bright, followed by a crack of thunder. The goon suddenly yelps, slinging his gun up.

"What!? What?!" his companion yells, just for the second goon to declare, "I saw a figure up there!" He keeps his gun trained up.

The first goon slaps the weapon down. "There's nothing up there, your eyes are playing tricks on you."

From her vantage point, Mania can make out at least eight goons. The two ring leaders. The two on patrol. The remaining four are unloading and repackaging the weapons.

And it is about that time when a birdarang flies down, smashing into the breaker box and plunging the warehouse into darkness. Batwing's visor illuminates as he makes his way down, heading to flank the packers as panic starts to set in among the rest.

Andi Benton has posed:
Briefly, a strange-looking head is illuminated by the flash of lightning in the sky. Too quick to make out the oversized white eye shapes, but there's a spiky sort of 'hair' one of the people might notice if looking at the right moment.

The thing about thunder is it can be very loud. For most people, it isn't more than a rumble because of the distance they are from a lightning strike. The next bolt hits..too close. The crack of thunder is loud enough that it rattles the symbiote for a moment, and Andi too for that matter.

<<Mania>> Do not like..
<<Andi>> I know. That was a loud one. Just focus. They're..

At which point the lights go out. It'll be a moment before Mania can adjust, but while that's going on a tendril slithers out from a clawtip to snake through a small gap in the frame, allowing a latch to be undone so she can open the window and slip inside.

From some undetermined spot - especially because there's nothing there by the time anyone shines, say, a flashlight upward - a couple blobs of webbing come down to go splat on two of the ones moving the weapons. Face, hand, whatever. It'll be a surprise.

Damian Wayne has posed:
While Mania was not a fan of the thunder, it gave Batwing the cover he needed to launch his attack. His target is the two goons with the guns that are guarding things.

The guards flick on their flashlights, beams cutting into the darkness, even as the two boss goons are going to start to make their escape. The arms dealer is heading for a back entrance where a car is waiting for him.

The Gotham goon is running to get into one of the trucks, quickly intent on driving off in the truck before trouble can come raining down on them. Because it just opened the window.

One of the loaders, fumbling around in the dark gets out a phone and uses it's flashlight, turning to see a comrade -- who is getting a dark mass falling from below coming for his shoulder and encircling it. He screams in terror at the idea of being gobbled up by an alien! Probably seen too many movies.

Batwing, in the meantime, slams into one of the guards, pulling him aside to land into him with a flurry of punches to quickly take him down. His companion swings around and opens fire with the machine gun, sending Batwing back-pedalling back into the darkness.

"Come on out, freak!" the man with the gun calls out, firing a few indescrminiant shots whenever the beam of light lands on any shadow that looks like a human. Which may include Mania.

Andi Benton has posed:
First things first. Stop anyone from getting away. "Oh, we don't think so," Mania says mostly to herself, swallowed up by the echoing sounds in the cavernous building as shouts and yells dominate.

There's enough of a glowing effect to parts of Batwing's costume that she can keep tabs on him. Where the globs of webbing hit, they stick and create issues for anyone trying to pull the stuff off. On the hands? In the hair? A bother. It's goopy, hard to tell exactly what its composition is, but only lasts for a few minutes before it'll start to dissolve on its own.

As a distraction, it serves its purpose. 'Trouble' comes in the form of a pair of hands reshaping into sledgehammers, which batter against the windshield after Mania lands atop the hood of the truck. "Going somewhere? We don't think so."

That leaves the arms dealer with a possible opening, unless it's cut off.

Damian Wayne has posed:
The fact that the glowy parts also helps bullets find him is something that Batwing will make note of later. There has to be a way to incorporate the powersource for Oracle's gear better.

The goon with the gun fires at him again, and suddenly *klik!* the gun runs empty. Before the goon can switch magazines, Batwing is upon him, a sharp kick to the gut to double him over followed by a double-handed overhead slam to drive him into the ground, taking him out of the fight.

He heads up into the rafters to pursue the last arms dealer - the one that's heading out the back, though he may not intercept him before he's in the car.

At the van, where Mania has done a great job in securing the goons that were handling the weapons transfer and they are all tidied up and gooped like the poor civilians in Aliens.

The goon in the truck panics as Mania is suddenly on his hood. He yanks a six-shot pistol out of his belt and starts to fire large caliber shells into the symbiote, screaming the whole time.

Andi Benton has posed:
Each bullet slams into Mania with all the force one would expect. She staggers back a couple steps from the impact, which should be the guy's first clue that this isn't a normal thing.

The second is when she doesn't go down.

Third is when a line takes shape along her mostly featureless face, opening into a mouth filled with rows of too-sharp teeth, a long, slick tongue, and a grin the Joker himself might envy.

Then, after a little shifting around, hands reform and one is shaped into a fist. "Need these back?" Facing down, the hand opens and what's left of all six bullets drop to the hood, clanging and bouncing away. How did she...?

Before he can figure that out, she surges back closer to reach in and haul him out through the broken glass, holding him up close enough to catch a whiff of breath from her. It isn't exactly pleasant.

"We should eat you, but we don't do that. We are Mania, not Venom." Instead, she throws him off to the side where he slams against one of the weapons crates, then she hops off and fires weblines at him to tie him up. Just like Spider-Man would.

Damian Wayne has posed:
The man's screams is what draws Damian away from his pursuit of the arms dealer. A grapple line is fired so that he may quickly swing away from the man that is definetly going to be able to escape as Batwing moves up into and across the rafters.

He arrives above the pair just as Mania is making her speech after upchucking the bullets as they rattle on the hood.

For a moment, Damian is taken back to over three years ago, when on the docks of Gotham, he caught a glimpse of a creature very similar -- though clearly feminine looking -- pickup a gang-banger and devour him in a very messy fashion. And he is just about to use a birdarang to disrupt Mania's feast when she abruptly changes direction.

With the man webbed up and everyone else subdubed, Batwing puts away his batarang as he turns his attention to the woman that went very alien like for a moment.

"I've seen one like you before." he says, his voice still youthful despite the grit he tries to put into it. "He was not so kind about eating someone. What makes you different?" he asks her. But he's got names now. Mania, Venom. Venom might have been the one he came across.

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania moves swiftly now, making sure others are subdued so no more weapons are fired. If one gets away, so be it. Hard to keep track of everything, even with enhanced symbiote awareness. Given the webbing's temporary nature, a few more secure methods of binding are found in the form of rope.

By the time Batwing addresses her, the more threatening mouth has faded away to nothing again, leaving a less menacing visage even if the shape and angle of the eyes tells a lot.

"Maybe like us, but not us. We are Mania and we have a much better balance than Venom." And other methods of sating a certain type of hunger, if it comes up. There's also a spidery pattern across the torso, front and back. A spiky, punk/goth style as well. "You're one of the bats?" A hand settles at one hip.

Damian Wayne has posed:
She's got to be young. What older more sophisticated symbiote would go complete Punk? Not that it isn't a bad look on her. The visor on Batwing's suit narrows slightly. "Glad to know that it can be controlled." The hunger? The symbiote? Perhaps both, if he knew of such things.

Crouched down in the rafters, he gives a nod of affirmation. "Batwing." he offers in way of greetings. And he is outside of Gotham, so he offers. "The buyer on this deal is a hood back in Gotham. I was hoping to figure out the source for the more powerful weapons that they have been using in a turf war."

"I assume New York is your usual haunt? For you and the ones like you?"

Andi Benton has posed:
Young enough, but evidently she isn't the only one. "We have an understanding," is all Mania says to the talk of control, crossing her arms now. There are multiple spiky protrusions, especially along forearms and shins.

Then, she webs her way up to put herself on an even footing with him up in the rafters, holding her balance by way of a hand to go with her own crouch. "Probably smart of them to try this here, but you found them anyway. Not smart enough. We summoned the police." That gives them at least a short time to cover the basics.

"Heh. Haunt. A bat and a spider. Right around Halloween." The eyes show, apparently, great amusement at this. "Don't know about others like us. Venom, sometimes. We don't talk much."

Damian Wayne has posed:
"Understandings are good to have. I have one of those as well." After all, Damian didn't go killing everyone either. Batman would have been so disapproving.

"They made the mistake of assuming that they wouldn't be persued here. I wanted to correct that error." Batwing says dryly, before his red visor meets the white of her eyes.

And then she makes her joke and the soft chuff of a laugh may suggest that it hit its target. "I will not try to pry too much, though you have me very curious about who and what you are. Are you an alien? Or a human in a suit?" NOT PRYING TOO MUCH.

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania's head tilts, the spiky hair looking like a cross between something of a costume effect and something more cartoonish. Maybe a nod to her actual hair? "We do what we need to stay right," she adds, looking back down as a flash of lightning illuminates parts of the warehouse again, otherwise back to dark but for a couple flashlights sitting around still on.

"We're sure you had it all taken care of," she adds, hard to tell whether or not there's any sarcasm there. The dual voice sounds almost as one, but not quite. Maybe she knows the reputation of the Bat Family.

"It is easier to call it a costume," she allows, saying as much through what she /doesn't/ say as through what she does. "We have a bond."

Damian Wayne has posed:
"Acceptable. And yes, I did have it handled, but I always appreciate the assistance of the locals." comes Batwing's response. Like hers, it's hard to determine if there's sarcasm there.

Outside, the sounds of sirens as /speaking of locals/ the authorities starts to arrive on the scene.

"I doubt either of us want to have a conversation with them. It was nice to meet you, Mania. May we get the chance to do so again."

With that, he fires his grapple, to use the same window that Mania came through so that he make his exit. His motorcycle is not too far away, and perhaps he can regain the trail of the arms dealer.

Andi Benton has posed:
"Yes, we can hear them. Maybe sometime we'll return the favor in Gotham City," Mania answers, tone flat. Tough to tell if she's that way by default, or just being guarded in some way. Aloof. "Good work." Or teamwork.

With Batwing taking his leave, she sticks around a few seconds longer to lob a few more bits of webbing at a couple goons stirring around, making it a little easier for the cops to find them with all the evidence. Then, she takes her own leave back into the rainy night.