16669/Twas the Night Before You Know

Twas the Night Before You Know
Date of Scene:	25 December 2023
Location:	Barbara's Penthouse (Clocktower - 25th Floor)
Synopsis:	Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, Damian was bleeding like a wee stabbed lil mouse.
Cast of Characters:	Barbara Gordon, Kate Kane, Damian Wayne, Phoebe Beacon

---

Barbara Gordon has posed:
There had been a small get together at the Wayne Manor earlier in the evening, present exchanges, dinner and such. It had wrapped up a bit ago, however, and Barbara was returning to her Clocktower. Stepping out of the central elevator in to her open floor plan penthouse, Babs removes her black peacoat, and turns to drape it over the coat rack hook beside the lift doors. Dressed in a tight black sweater, black slacks and black leather heeled boots, the redhead adjusts her hair as she lets out a sigh upon arriving home. She calls out to her AI system, asking it to activate the Christmas setting, which instantly adjusts the lights to a nice dim level, while the Christmas treet on the north side of the room has its bright lights become the focus of the apartment. Soft Holiday music starts to play as well, along with the large television on the eastern wall turning on a classic Christmas movie in black and white.

Babs heads toward the kitchen, her heeled boots softly clicking on the hardwood floor as she makes her way toward the kitchen cabinet to gather up a glass. Her fridge is opened up, and the egg nog is retrieved from within the Fallout-style sci fi themed refrigerator...

Turning toward her central island counter, Barbara reaches for the bottle of smoky whisky she has waiting for her there.

" Tis the season..." She announces as she makes herself the mixed drink.

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate decided to tag along with Babs to come back to the Tower, smiling over at her, "It definitely is." Kate, meanwhile, is wearing a black turtleneck with white slacks and shoes. Really, at this point all she needs is a beret and glasses to start reciting some really bad beatnik poetry at a local coffeeshop.

Since there's not one of those nearby, she instead grabs the egg nog from the fridge, pouring herself a glass... though skipping the whiskey for the moment. "Please tell me that isn't Die Hard, though that is properly a Hanukkah movie, not a Christmas movie." She grins slightly, taking a sip of the egg nog as she looks over at Babs.

Damian Wayne has posed:
Damian had been at the party and gift exchange. He'd even given Barbara a gift. A Nuka cola watch from (what he assumed) was her favorite game, Fallout. Aunt Kate had gotten a crystal decanter and glass set. Phoebe, well, his player is still thinking on what she gets.

But he had drawn the short straw in the patrols for the night. And he had an assignment - to follow a suspected mutant trafficker from the days when Genosha was known for such things.

Something, apparently, has gone horrendously wrong - because Rook has sent out a distress call over the family frequency. The Clocktower was the closest location to where he had made the signal from and it is there where he heads.

His arrival at the tower is not graceful. He crashes in, tumbling on the ground. A push to his knee, his cape tied around his neck to staunch a wound, a knife stuck through one of his wrists.

He tries to speak, but his voice is cut and raspy and only a wheeze of air manages to escape. He's clearly pale, showing the palor of someone that has lost blood. And most likely still is.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe was the home-made gift type. This year everyone got lavender-and-chamomile beanbag eyemasks in matching colors to their costumes, with their names hand-embroidered with little flowers ranging from daisies to roses to a red iris for Jason's. Something that she had worked on in classes when she wasn't half falling asleep between patrols.

    And she had been antsy during the day -- so the night she was patrolling, and chatting via her Balm domino when the alert came up that Rook was having a bad night.

    >>Balm en route. Keep him alive.

    and she turns, changing direction and coming in fast.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
As it so happened, Babs was wearing the wrist watch on her left wrist, and her left hand went to her hip as her right held her drink up to her lips. Her eyes went from Kate, toward the television screen on the far eastern wall. She let out a light laugh, and lightly shook her head. "That's A Wonder Life. Don't tell me you can't spot it immediately in the first second?" She asks of the other woman, mere moments before the alerts go off around the apartment, and the television monitor switches to a live feed of Damian on his way in over the external balcony that rests beneath the northern clock face. The balcony double doors spread open, allowing Rook to fly right inside, and take a hard landing on the floor just inside the doors. The floor is raised up, with a railing that overlooks the Christmas tree, and the rest of the living room beyond it.

Babs sets her drink down, hearing the comms from Phoebe, as she rushes toward the handful of steps up to the balcony area that leads outside. Stopping short, however, she crouches down to look at Rook, one hand moving toward his shoulder. She sees the knife.

"Oh lord, what happened?" She asks, as she looks toward Kate. "Run get the medical kit out of the bathroom, under the sink." She tells her, staying cool as a ice cube.

"Come on, stand up. Sit here..." Babs says, pulling a chair out of the table that rests beside the wooden railing, she'll usher Damian to take a seat on it then, and to place his hand upon the edge of the polished wood table.

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate blinks, "On it!" She was already running towards the medical kit, darting into the bathroom and moving quickly to retrieve it and head over towards Damian. "Knew that medic training would come in handy. Come on kiddo..." She looks at Damian, cracking open the medical kit as she grimaces at his condition.

"Okay, we've got a knife stuck in his hand, and guessing there's a pretty good cut on his neck. Lucky it only nicked the carotid artery at worst otherwise he'd have bled out already." She focuses on treating the kid right now, her Army training taking over as she works on getting Damian patched up. Who did this can wait until later. Right now, she needs to make sure that her nephew is gonna be okay.

Damian Wayne has posed:
The tree was nice. What little Rook saw of it before he crashed down face-first into the floor of the balcony. When Barbara reaches him, he accepts the help. No resistance, no fight. Reaching up, he tugs at the cape and exposes the second wound to his neck. The one that's much more dangerous.

He doesn't try to talk, that would be a folly if he did anyway and he didn't want to aggrevate the wound. Instead, he reaches up with his free hand takes off the domino mask to give to her. She can download the information she wants from it. At least, that's what he hopes he conveys as he settles his hand on the table.

When Kate joins them, his green eyes are wide. Shock. But he's still waiting to talk. He has to be patient. He heard Phoebe's comment on the comms, so Damian will just try to not make things worse as he just lets Kate and Babs tend to him.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    There's a flash of pink before Balm, in her gray and blue armor with that matte Rod of Asclepius over her left breast, is on the balcony railing before she hops off the balcony. Tearing her hood backwards as she joins the others in the room.

    "Nicked the carotid?" she asks, her eyes narrowing.

    "--looks like he bound it best he could with the cape. Smart boy." Phoebe states, taking a moment to catch her breath.

    "He's entered shock, Damian, let's lay you down okay? We'll get you taken care of." the healer whispers gently to him, reaching beneath one arm to help him ease down.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
It's true that Barbara wasn't the best medical tech on the team, Kate undoubtedly had more experience with it than she did. She yields to kate, and thusly Phoebe too, as she takes the domino mask from Damian. She flips it over in her hands before she lowers it down to her side. "Once he's stabilized, we can move him downstairs to the medical center." She states as she turns to step around the inner balcony level toward where it connects to her computer dias. "Oracle." She states to her AI system. "Call Doctor Morrison. Tell her I'm sorry, I know it's Christmas Eve, but we have an emergency."

The AI Oracle chimes up over the surround sound speaker system, acknowledging the request.

Leaning over her primary keyboard, Babs syncs the domino mask to her computer, and prepares to pull out all the relevent information from the night.

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate nods, "Yeah, you lead on this one Balm, I'll back you up." She looks over at Phoebe, "Alright, he's in shock already so..." She checks Damian's hand, making sure the knife doesn't have any serrated edges or other tricks to it. Once she verifies that... well, he's already in shock, so she pulls the blade out from him. With that removed, she rapidly wraps the hand up.

She then looks over at Phoebe, "Can you handle the neck injury?" Her voice is clinical enough, but there's definitely concern for her honorary nephew in her words. And a fair amount of finding out who did this and kicking their ass into the New Year.

Damian Wayne has posed:
With Babs downloading the information, the video feed is activated. Rook is overwatching a party hosted by a known mutant trafficker at the Royal Hotel and preparing for a takedown now that his security is low at his daughter's birthday party. There's a sudden flash bang and smoke, and a young woman in a little black dress and hoodie is on the attack.

Rook gets in close to her, trying to protect the mark and fend off the girl. Her skin is ashen white and her wild, spiked hair has a barrette in the shape of a coffin at its natural side-part. She's built athletically, though wiry. Typically she has shining black lipstick applied and dark black eyeliner in razors-edge wings , and white make-up evocative of a skull on her face.

But it's her fighting style that should invoke worry. She was able to anticipate Rook's attacks with ease. In fact, she could second-guess what he was doing and was able to be seemingly one step ahead. It was only when she thought that she had won, defeating even his sword play with her knives that he was able to land a surprise strike... and retreat.

The blade is yanked out. But it's an uneven trade. She got his blade from the League of Assassins in return when he dropped it after she stabbed him through the wrist.

He manages to blink up to the three, acknowledging that they are there, but he's still trying to come to. Oracle comes back with a hit on an assassin named 'Flatline' with precious little information on her, mainly with the Yakuza. An entry in the Bat Computer where she broke someone's neck in an illegal Gotham fight club. And a more recent news entry of a girl matching her decision attacking anti-mutant terrorists at a showing of 'Wicked'.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "I can handle all injuries -- I'd like to think that's why Bruce keeps me around in case of emergencies." Phoebe gives a wan smile to Kate as Damian gets eased down.

    "Definitely has come in handy for keeping people up and fighting."

    And Phoebe breathes out. She brings both hands down, kneeling at Damian's head as she does so, her blue lenses unblinking, a few stray pink coils having drifted from the Dutch braids she'd worked in tonight as she places her hands to either side of his shoulders.

    And Phoebe begins to heal her 'little brother'. The tingling sensation as the pain ebs, nerves shutting down to relieve the pain. The closing of the wounds at his wrist and his neck, the knitting of severed nerve endings and dermal tissue as the feeling of cool water runs against Damian's arm and neck.

    "Just take a breath, Damian. YOu're going to be okay. We got you."

Barbara Gordon has posed:
As the footage begins to play back across Babs' multi-monitor setup, she straightens, folding her left arm across her stomach while her right hand goes up to pinch forefinger and thumb against her chin. She simply stares at the feed as it plays, and as it showcases the foe who apparently was responsible for this injury, she frowns at it. "This girl is going to be serious trouble." She mutters quietly, since she fully remembers the murder she committed at that Fight Club event a little while back.

When the footage moves on toward Damian's arrival at the tower, Babs leans forward again to set up a few key systems to analyze the footage, before she turns, and paces back toward the others. She arrives in time to watch Phoebe deal with the injury, and with a slight inhale, she speaks up again.

"How effective is that, Phoebe?" She has to ask the remarkable young mage. "Should I call off the Doctor?"

magic was a mystery to Babs, and though she was good friends with Zatanna, she hadn't ever gotten a full explanation on the ins and outs of how it all works, and what it can and cannot do...

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate flashes Phoebe a smile, "I figured, but I like to be sure." She nods, "Thanks for showing up when you did." She does, however, still tend to some of the other injuries of Damian, before looking over at Babs, "Considering she did this much of a number on Damian, we're going to need to up the ante, I think."

She makes eye contact with Barbara, and is clearly thinking that this might be something for the Birds.

Damian Wayne has posed:
With Phoebe's magic working on him, and Kate and Babs on the case, Damian allows himself to slip under. He caves to the need to heal, the gentle magic of emergency healing from Phoebe closing and knitting his wounds. The green eyes close and with it, he slips into unconsciousness.

Worst week ever? Girlfriend left to go help her sister. And now nearly killed by a too-cute Russian. Can it get worse?

Probably. He also lost his grandfather's sword.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Pretty effective. I've woken Amazons from cursed sleep, rebuilt Vorpal's spleen, Jason even once fell asleep mid-heal on the couch." Phoebe replies, and she gives a smile. Her eyes are closed behind the lenses of her domino. "I'm going to recommend he take two days off for full recovery. Two days with light duty to make sure everything stays in place. I've healed bullet wounds in his stomach before -- he always wants out before things are finished." she mutters in complaint, and she lifts her hands from Damian's shoulders as he passes out.

    "Let's get some of his armor off him and move him to a gurney. He's going to wake up and *really* want protein and need calcium and vitamin D." she explains from experience, and teeters just a little bit.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Babs' green eyes go to Kate, and she nods softly at her. "We need to find out who this girl with the spikey hair is. We shouldn't do it alone either. She might be a Mutant, which is not exactly something we train a lot for." How can you? Mutants are damn near unpredictable.

she drops her eyes toward Damian, then regards Phoebe. A soft smile is summoned upon her pink painted lips. "Thank you, Phoebe." She says softly to her. "I wish I'd known you a decade ago." For rather obvious reasons...

"Kate, lets go get the med bed. Phoebe, wait here with him?" She asks, as she starts down the five steps toward the main floor of her apartment's living room.

"Oracle. Let Doctor Morrison know the emergency is cancelled. Order her a couple of tickets to the Opera as compensation for the false alarm, and get her a fully paid for dinner at her favorite restaurant." Babs states to her always-listening AI system, as she grabs her drink on her way past the kitchen counter, headed toward the elevator doors, which are already open and waiting for those headed down to the medical lab.