17516/Paths Crossed

Paths Crossed
Date of Scene:	29 March 2024
Location:	Old Gotham - Founders Island
Synopsis:	Batgirl meets the Shadow in a dark and rainy alleyway!
Cast of Characters:	Barbara Gordon, Tyrone Johnson

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Barbara Gordon has posed:
It's a rainy night in Gotham City, what else is new. The rain is light, at least, if that counts toward anything. With the sun having set only about 30 minutes ago, the night is still in that state of being fresh. As fresh as night can get in this city.

Batgirl is out on patrol tonight too, recently having left a hidden alcove in a parking garage connected to her Clocktower, the lightly armored -- Formula 1 style Batmobile that she drives in, rumbles down a back alley. She had gotten word of a gangbanger coming in to Gotham of some notoriety from New York. Because of this, she was on the hunt. Up in the sky, Batgirl's Bat-drones are scanning the streets below, observing the faces of those that fall beneath the optical eye of their advanced camera systems. Collectively, the flock of Bat-drones is sending back their findings through the Oracle AI system to Barbara's displays inside of her two-seater cockpit-style vehicle.

"He's meant to meet with his contacts tonight, near the Ruby Rose Nightclub." Barbara reminds her AI, which adjusts the flight pattern of some of the drones above.

The Batmobile roars down an alley intersection toward the club not too far away, the displays inside the cockpit softly illuminating Barbara's masked face as she pilot's the vehicle through the dingey urban landscape.

Tyrone Johnson has posed:
Gino was not exactly enjoying himself on this little haunt. Constantly having to keep an eye on his six, looking for that darkness-spewing freak, and then running up into Gotham. Land of costumed freaks. He didn't like it at all, no sirree, but at least he had the merch with him. Keys of good Colombian nose-candy, uncut and ready to be parcelled out and sold to rich party animals. He knew that Fat Tony had told him that somebody'd be along to take the product and give him a few days of clean living until the heat died down, then he could make his way back to New York and start makin' some money. Losing the profits from the kilo was gonna _suck_ but this vigilante whateverthefuck wasn't exactly known for lettin' entrepreneurs like him continue to breathe.

Behind the gang-banger's car a patch of darkness - of Darkness - swelled into being. From inside it stepped a cloaked figure before the portal faded back into the rainy gloom. "Hey, Gino." called the cloaked man with a strong Bostonian accent. "Yer done runnin'."

Barbara Gordon has posed:
It starts as a distant rumble on the wind, but it is not long after the shimmering shadow appears that it is challenged by extremely bright flood lights from the arrival of a very loud vehicle. The vehicle's lights aim directly for the gangbanger looking to make a quick buck by bringing down Gotham a little further toward the depths of addiction and despair.

The vehicle's lights are eye-blindingly bright, and its engine rumbles loudly off of the walls of the urban canyon landscape. With the rain drops falling through the conical beams of white light, the car they belong to remain bathed behind them in darkness.

In the backdrop the rhythmic thumps of the Ruby Rose Nightclub add to the ambience of the area, with the glow of the club's crimson exterior lights adding an element of blood-like glow to the streets and alley around it.

The Batmobile shines its lights upon the locale of the would-be-nare-do-well, while a silent pair of drones flutter past in the sky high above...

Tyrone Johnson has posed:
Gino, in a word, panicked. No sign of his Gotham contacts, the shadowy freak just showed up behind him - he was starting to think he might be just a little bit screwed. And then there was somebody with frickin' _drones_ blocking his path and shining a literal light on things. Welp, when times got tough, the tough started shooting. He ducked out of his car, using it for cover as best he could, and then he pulled his nine from the small of his back. "Oh, fuck this." he said as he tried to draw a bead on the floodlights.

Cloak concentrated for a second and the billowing Darkness that comprised his body boiled forth, beginning to envelop everything around him in a band of Stygian blackness that light refused to penetrate. "Gino. You've tried this before. You should have figgered out that you can't shoot me." he said calmly, all the while he and his Darkness advanced slowly on the panicking dealer.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
The rain continues to fall in a light shower down from the dark skies above. The lights from the low-riding vehicle continue to glaze against the backdrop behind where Gino, and his vehicle are. When the man's gun is drawn, and he begins to dangerously wield it, there comes a motion from the shadows opposite of where the ganger's enemy speaks from. Another bit of motion, the whirling of a double bladed Batarang sweeps out of the darkness across from the back wall of the Ruby Rose Nightclub!

the dangerous tool twirls through the wet night, and aims to slam right in to the handgun of the man who'd drawn it, with the intention of ripping the weapon right from his threatening grasp!

It would seem that one of those Gotham costumed 'freaks' might indeed be on-site for whatever showdown is about to take place here near the thumping club's back alley.

Tyrone Johnson has posed:
Gino cursed loudly as the Batarang, expertly aimed and thrown, knocked his nine out of his hand and sent it skittering across the wet pavement. "Fuck!" he screamed and then wildly looked around, trying to spot the thrower. But the Dark was creeping up on him and he'd seen what happened to anyone it pulled inside. Not gonna happen, not if he could help it! Time to go see if his piece still worked and then maybe Jesus would smile on Gino and a little spray-and-pray might convince the thrower to come out and play. Or maybe, the thrower would start some shit with Darky McDarkfuck back there and he could take that time to get the Hell out of here.

Yet more reasons to hate Gotham.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Batgirl was trained by the best at staying in the shadows until there was no other choice. It gave you an advantage of being able to watch a situation unfold. Was Batgirl as good at Batman at it? No. But she was still pretty damn good, especially with the modern tech she employs to aid her in her native habitat...

There come the softest of sounds, little clinks against fire escapes mounted on wet brick walls. Something small tumbling down in to the stacks of trash pushed against the base of the club's facade... but are tthese related to the source of that thrown weapon? or are they merely a side effect of the poor weather here within the city tonight.

The engine of the low-riding car suddenly roar, aimed at drawing attention to it, and when the attention is garnered, that is when the Batgirl slides out of the shadows!

With her cape rigid behind her back, Batgirl glides on the wings of the wet rainy air, her armored boots extended outward, brought up in a half-circle sweeping fashion, meant to deliver a double booted kick directly in to Gino's chest before he can garner any additional weapons from his own ride!

Tyrone Johnson has posed:
Gino didn't even see Batgirl coming - he was so panicked and scrabbling for his piece that he didn't even realize the vigilante was up in his personal space before her combat boots collided with his chest. Grunting, Gino was thrown backwards by the force of the kick, hitting hard against the wall of the alleyway. He staggered back to his feet, wheezing as he tried to get his breath back, but even with all that he still managed to grin at the costumed woman approaching him.

"Wanna play, little girl?" he taunted around heaving breaths as he tried to get precious air back in his lungs. "C'mon, let's play!"

Behind them both, the Darkness still approached at an even still pace, the boiling blackness devouring light and leaving nothing in its wake. Another half-dozen steps or so and the leading edge of the cloud of darkness would be moving over Gino's car.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
There is absolutely no reason for Barbara to have to fight this guy in hand to hand fashion. Absolutely none. She has all manner of stunning takedown equipment on her person, on her vehicle, and built in to the drones that are silently flying around above their heads. there is utterly no reason other than... she likes to fight. She was raised fighting in close quarters combat tournaments. She has all manner of trophies from her teenage years back home, and she's developed her skills for a long time... sans the 8 or 9 years she spent in that damnable wheelchair. In the past 3 years she's continuously refined her skills, however, now that she lives back upon her feet again.

In the moment, the Batmobile kills its lights, bathing the alley in darkness again, and in the transition, Batgirl takes a moment of advantage to swipe her body toward the man left in shadow now, save for the red lights from the Ruby Rose.

A powerful leg kick is sent to Gino's left knee, before Batgirl delivers a haymaker toward his chin!

The rain falls down around them, pattering off of her cowl and cape, her long red hair laid down behind her shoulders, as the 5'11 female vigilante engages in a bit of fisticuffs with the thug from another city!

Tyrone Johnson has posed:
Gino is no match for Batgirl's hand-to-hand prowess. She had her entire childhood to train, Gino had nothing but the school of hard knocks. The strike to his knee buckles it in ways it wasn't intended to bend, causing Gino to scream in pain. The next strike - the haymaker - connected and shut Gino up as his body flopped backwards and consciousness fled entirely. She got a moment to enjoy her victory before pseudopods of Darkness, so black they stood out against the rainy night, shot forward from Cloak's cloud of Darkforce. One thick pseudopod grabbed Gino by his now-bad leg and began to drag him back towards the center of the cloud while the other clumsily swatted at Batgirl, hoping to distract her and/or take her by surprise.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Batgirl drops the thug with little fanfare. She shifts her body weight, her hips sweeping back around to prepare for another round of attacks, but before she's even moved, he hits the deck with a wet thud on pavement. She smirks. She steps toward him, her cape gently flowing around her female form as she shakes her head ever so slightly. Rain droplets fall from her as they tumble down from the sky, and a second before she was about to pull a pair of binders from her belt, does the shadow that doesn't belong enter her peripheral vision!

It sweeps at her, it pulls at the thug's body to tug it from her vantage point. She jumps backward, clipped by the shadowy tendril that struck at her. Instantly from above, the Bat-drones turn on conical light beams that shine down like illumination from some UFO movie, while the bright beams from the nearby Batmobile come online again.

Now, with her back to the Batmobile lights, Babs draws another batarang, her right arm held up with the weapon extended up toward the sky, her left out in a defensive fashion, as she scans the alley with her eyes.

"Who is there?" She asks, her voice modulated by technology that makes it sound like a feminine demonic creature.

Tyrone Johnson has posed:
Cloak grinned, not that Batgirl could see it. "I'm not here for you." he said as he continued to drag the unconscious body of Gino into the cloud of Darkness. The tendril resists the Batarang and pulses to rebuild itself before flailing at her once again. No real skill, no finesse, but highly distracting. "Gino needs to pay for what he's done, the lives he has destroyed. May his Maker take pity on his soul." Cloak said, and then grimaced. God, he sounded like such a _dork_ when he tried to get all pretentious. Still, this was Gotham. Land of heavy hitters. He'd heard the stories, the crude innuendos. But this was the first time he'd ever met a Gothamite costumed crimefighter. So far, he was impressed.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
The return strike is blocked away by Batgirl's left armored forearm. She dances off to the side, pushing her back toward the Ruby Rose, to keep the crimson hued lights that stream along its side behind her, keeping her in some measure of darkness, though the Batmobile's brights are certainly illuminating her profile in her black and gold form-fitting armored attire.

With the rain falling down around them, rolling off of her cape in rivulets, Batgirl eyes the shadowy cluster that consumes the thug she'd just taken down.

"He deserves justice for his crimes." That modulated fem-demonic voice counters. "Not whatever cruel and sadistic retribution you're thinking of providing him."

She doesn't KNOW what this 'thing' is planning for Gino, but she's making an assumption based on the dark theatrics of the shadowy one's presentation.

"Release him to me, and he will see real justice."

Tyrone Johnson has posed:
The pseudopod clubbing at Batgirl changes its structure, pulsing and remodulating in a very alien, very disturbing way. Now, instead of clubbing at her, it's looking to grapple. It is doing an excellent job of keeping her from preventing Gino from being pulled into the cloud of Darkforce. "God will judge the qualities of his soul and send him to his ultimate reward." he said. Gino, for his part, had been pulled into the Darkfoce dimension and he coould feel the thug's life-force begin to slip away from him and into him. He refused to consider for a second just how _good_ it felt. "Who are you?" he asked curiously before withdrawing the pseudopod of Darkness and cutting way, way back on the emination. Now it just swirled about his intangible form, the rain from above striking the cloud and passing through it - and him.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
The back doors to the club pop open with a metalic reverberation. The club's interior music gets a little louder, as a pair of club going girls bounce out of the interior in their little dresses. Behind them are a pair of larger men, wearing sunglasses and smoking cigarettes that they lit before leaving the club... they all freeze when they see the rainy showdown taking place outside.

Batgirl dodges the incoming strikes to her form again, once more darting back toward her vehicle, with its bright lights shining upon the southern corner of the alleyway. she draws something from her belt, this time, and with a snap of electric power, it thrums to life with a visible purple stunning energy that she dashes toward the next strike that tries to corral her!

With a sudden lunge, she shoots up in to the air, flowing over the Shadow and his Prey, as she drops a handful of electrical charged pellets meant to stun a target in to submission!

She lands on the first level of a fire escape that gently sways when she crouches upon its metal ledge, her cape falling around her form, shedding water in streams.

"Batgirl." She replies, her angry demon voice replies, releasing a heavy exhale, as the door to the club shuts, with the clubbers having gone back inside.

Tyrone Johnson has posed:
Holy shit. Holy _shit_. She was a _BAT!_. Cloak almost vibrated in excitement but then there was the partygirls and the two goombahs in good suits behind them. Batgirl had already swung into action before he'd really parsed what was going on and with Gino digesting he didn't really want to hurt someone else. All of the stunning pellets pass through him harmlessly, their electrical discharges sizzling against the wet pavement. Rude. At least the partgirls and their dates had seen the better part of valor. Which was good, Cloak didn't want anyone else to get hurt. "You're a Bat?" he asked, the goofy smile on his face now visible despite the Darkness that enveloped his body. "Wow. That's kinda awesome."

Barbara Gordon has posed:
The Bat-drones continue to fly in circular patterns above, their beams of light shining down upon the perimeter around the face-off. The rain continues to pelt the environment, but it has actually let up just a bit, leaving the world to just actively drip water down crusty, rusty, surfaces. In the distance, a GCPD siren can be heard, occasionally honking a horn to indicate there is likely an FD truck involved as well. At the far end of the alley, a homeless man is walking around a small alcove, holding a bottle of booze and singing a song to himself, lost in a drunken haze.

Batgirl stares down at the shadowy form that claimed Gina, and continues to hold him, her tests being analyzed for what effect- if any- could be observed from the electrical attack.

"And who... are you?" Batgirl asks, as she perches upon that fire-escape, fifteen feet up off of the alley floor.

Tyrone Johnson has posed:
Cloak reddened in embarrassment, as difficult as that would be to see against dark skin and darker shadow. "I'm so sorry, I'm being rude. I'm Cloak." he said with some pride. "So this is Gotham, huh? No wonder the Knights suck so bad." he said with amusement. He kept the door to the Darkforce dimension open and his body intangible - he was not, despite appearances, a complete idiot, but he did walk forward a few steps towards her perch up on the fire escape. "Hear things about Bats. How they've got a self-appointed thankless task, trying to keep the people of Gotham safe. Mad respect, I dig that." he said, his Bostonian accent getting a touch thicker. "Me and my partner, we're trying ta do the same thing, ya dig?" he said. "Sometimes the scumbags run and I gotta hunt em down before they hurt someone else."

Barbara Gordon has posed:
It can be assured that everything he says, and likely does - that can be picked up by her drones - is being recorded. The Bats don't mess around in their city, especially when it comes to new blood dealing in the same work as them.

When he speaks, and says what he says, the Batmobile's lights turn off again, and the engine dims down... leaving the armored vehicle just idling at the far end of the alley to the north side street.

Batgirl drops off of the fire escape, her cape billowing out behind her as she glides back down to the wet pavement. She lands with a small crouch, then rises up to her near 6 feet of height, with her cape falling around her, and her wet red hair draped over her right shoulder in thick ropes. "Cloak." She says in that modulated voice masker.

"Be lucky that I found you, and not my mentor. he is far less kind to outsider operating in Gotham..." She states, trailing off for a moment before she raises her right gloved hand up, offering something to him. "If you are as you claim... Take this, use it to let us know when you are within Gotham's city limits." She states, clearly offering him a communicator device now.

Tyrone Johnson has posed:
Now Cloak had a dilemma on his hands. On one hand, hot white girl Bat was offering him a communicator! How awesome was that?! But in order to take it, he'd need to go solid. But hey, she was a Bat. He didn't think she was setting him up to take him down so he concentrated for a moment until he felt the reluctant solidity take over. Once he was sure he was solid again, he reached out to take the communicator from her hand. "T-t-t-t-t-thanks." he said, cursing as his stutter kicked back in with a vengeance. Not cool, Ty, to go all dork in front of a Bat. As soon as he could he tucked the communicator away inside of his cloak and started the process of losing his solidity and going back intangible.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Batgirl does not deceive him. But she does take the oppertunity to garner images of what he looks like in his physical form, via her drone, and her own mask camera. She simply stands there, hand out, offering the small disc shaped device. "Twist, push, talk." She explains of it, and the small button visibly spotted on its ridged surface.

When he slips back, and fades back out of corporeal form, Batgirl's chin dips just a little.

"Mutant?" She asks in succinct fashion.

At the far end of the alley, behind the Batmobile, a number of party goers meander past, not seeing the situation unfolding in the alley, as they are just grabbing uber lifts, shouting and being your normal youthful drunks, enjoying the city's night life.

A distant rumble of thunder offers a warning of further worsening weather on the horizon tonight.

Tyrone Johnson has posed:
Cloak bristled at that comment of hers. "You gotta problem with mutants?" he asked frostily. "Is that how the Bats roll?" he spat out, then took a step back. "Prolly a couple of kilos of coke in the back of Gino's car. Presume you got a way to make it disappear?" he asked as the Darkness that envelops him thickened, possibly in a reflection of his mood. "If not, I'll handle it." he offered.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
The question that he poses to gauge Batgirl's thoughts on Mutants, only garners a visible smirk that strikes across her pale pink lips, the ambient light within the alleyway glistening on the contours of what exposed skin she shows from the lower half of her mask.

At the question of the vehicle, and its contents. "Consider it taken care of." She notes, the drones deactivating their beams of light, leaving the alley just bathed in the red hue from the east, from the Ruby rose's exterior lighting.

"Make sure he sees justice for what he has done in life. Preferably with rehabilitation as the primary goal." She states, before she turns to the north, and begins walking toward Gino's car, her left forearm coming out from beneath her cloak to utilize the wrist-mounted forearm computer built in to her armor.

Tyrone Johnson has posed:
Cloak nodded. "He'll be taken care of." he said, then paused for a moment. As food to keep him alive, but hey. Feeding on the scum of this world was one way to keep things ... tidy. Although he doubted she'd understand. All cops are bastards, he thought with a momentary pang of loss to his childhood friend, gunned down by cops right in front of him. He was gonna have _such_ a cool story to tell Tandy! "And Batgirl? Good working with you." he said before he sank back into the Stygian doorway and closed it behind him to walk the few steps it'd take him to get back to New York.