18800/Nightwatch, Nightwatched

Nightwatch, Nightwatched
Date of Scene:	10 August 2024
Location:	Alley
Synopsis:	Nightwatch encounters a trio of thieves attempting to steal a woman's purse. After she teaches them some manners, Nightwing delivers a message and an invitation.
Cast of Characters:	Dick Grayson, Zoe Mills

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Dick Grayson has posed:
It's late night in Gotham City and dark places of the city are as ever the festering hive of corruption and danger. One of the seedier side streets of the city has its poorly wrought peace shattered by a piercing scream as a trio of men attempt to wrest the purse from a woman simply minding her own business and on her way home following a shift at one of the city's many corner diners. They fail to snatch the purse from the woman in their first attempt. Which results in the early thirties woman turning and beginning to run, clutching her purse beneath an arm. To her credit she's something of a track star, because she leaves the three men trailing. Despite her lead, the men act as many a predator does when its prey begins to run: they chase. In a matter of seconds they are after her and when she cuts into an alleyway, hoping to become lost in the darkness; the three men follow. Their footfalls splash and thud across puddle and concrete as they chase after the woman, shouting taunts and jeers as the three haggard men pursue her. Another scream pierces the night as the woman flees, calling out for help.

One man has taken the lead, charging ahead of his fellows in pursuit of the purse and the woman that sprints away with it. His chase nearly concludes in success as he reaches out, attempting to grab at the back of the woman's jacket or even her hair. Just as his fingertips come into contact with something fluttering behind the fleeing woman, he lets out a sound of pain and alarm! He stumbles forward, seemingly unconscious, before his body simply goes into a ragged stumble. He flips and flops face-first across the concrete ground, before landing in a heap. The sound of something heavy and metallic clatters in the darkness, as though dropped onto concrete.

The alley's shadows are alive with movement as one of Gotham's nocturnal crimefighters moves to cut short the pursue of the cats after their mouse.

Zoe Mills has posed:
From up above, Nightwatch is running along the rooftops, keeping pace with the fleeing woman as she takes careful aim with one of the scavenged and repaired Batarangs she's appropriated from past battle scenes. The repairs make it a little heavier, removing its returning quality, but making it more of a flying blackjack, able to knock someone out with the right kind of hit. She gets a decent enough lead and turns, taking aim, compensating for the man's own running, then letting fly.

Direct hit! It clocks the man across the back of the head and sends him crumpling to the ground while the Batarang skitters off into the shadows to make a racket before slowly spinning in place on the ground. Nightwatch doesn't waste anymore time, there's still two more of these assholes to take down. She pulls the grapple gun she'd gotten from Batman, setting the hook carefully as she takes a running start and dives off the edge of the building. Firing it at the last moment, it pulls her into a swing that will let her boots connect with both men's chests, sending them flying ot the pavement as she whips past. Releasing the line, she twists in the air, tucking the grapple gun away just in time to make a three point landing, trusting in this new suit to absorb most of the impact.

Already looking towards the men and gauging how much fight they have left in them as she prepares to launch herself towards them once more.

Dick Grayson has posed:
The two men go tumbling away as Nightwatch careens in on the line that's fired a moment before she'd have otherwise struck the concrete below. The men are knocked aside like a pair of bowling pins. One of them a little more round than the other, his fall is at least a little more cushioned. The more physically fit of the two is quick to push himself up to his feet after taking the blow to the chest, but it's obvious he's a bit weary by the heavy blow of a boot landing in the center of his chest. The other thief seems a little slower to rise and not strictly because of his less physically fit stature, but because the blow to his chest had landed more soundly than his compatriots.

While the tall, fit one looks toward Nightwatch; the other looks toward their downed companion. "Is he breathing?" comes the question. The other answers it, "We'll worry about him after we take this one's boots!"

"Isn't that a Bat?" the pudgy one asks, even as he begins to root around beneath his jacket for something. "Cheap knockoff," the tall, fit one answers with some venom to his words. He begins to move toward Nightwatch with his fists up and ready, prepared to engage her.

Meanwhile the pudgy one finishes gathering his pair of brass knuckles and even as he begins to trudge toward Nightwatch on the flank of his compatriot, he's fitting them onto his fingers and fist.

Zoe Mills has posed:
Chuckling to herself at the back and forth between the two thugs, she gives a nod, "Yup... just a cheap knockoff.. absolutely nothing for two big strong men to worry about at all.." Because hey, an overconfident opponent is one that's already half in the bag. She launches herself at the taller one with the better reflexes, using a few jabs to soften up that jawline before she swings around, catching him around the throat with the crook of her elbow, using the momentum to turn and throw the man bodily at his pudgier friend with the brass knuckles.

Tapping the knuckles in her gloves together, she feels the charge of the tasers within powering up, "Brass knuckles are so ten years ago. Don't you keep up with the trends?" Then she's wading in to go full Mike Tyson on the man, swinging from the hips and throwing her shoulder into the punches, a pair of quick jabs to his face, a right cross to his cheek before coming back in with a lead hook. Each hit sending a small jolt of electricity through the man before she lands a rear uppcut to the shelf of his jaw that sends a larger taser shock ripping through him.

Without pause, she whirls into a capoeira style spin kick that brings her up and through the air to land on the forearm of the fitter thug before he can pick himself up, the other boot coming down on his other arm as she plants a fist center mass on him and releases the other taser charge in the twinned glove. As soon as both are out, she starts moving around, collecting the men up, zip-tying them to each other in a triangle that leaves all their wrists bound to one another. Sending a text out to a contact so the cops can come pick the men up, Nightwatch stands and glances around, making sure there's no other thugs coming out of the woodwork.

Dick Grayson has posed:
The two men try their damnedest to resist. They barely cause Nightwatch to break a sweat (if they do at all). After a series of impacting and jolting blows, the pudgier of the two is left curled up in a ball on the ground with his arms drawn up and around his own head. He'd be whimpering if he wasn't taking a post-run nap. The taller of the two doesn't last long following Nightwatch's display of tumbling prowess before she plants a fist in the center of the man's chest. That sends him jolting and twitch, along with the force of air from his lungs from the impact itself.

The three are bound and the woman they had been pursuing was nowhere to be found. She did the smart thing. She ran and she never once looked back, even when she'd almost been in their clutches.

A soft whistle can be heard from above and should a glance be given upward, one can find the lean and svelte form of Nightwing crouching upon the rail of one of Gotham's many fire escapes. This one overlooks the alley and from up there the half-shrouded silhouette of the former Robin can be seen on account of the glow of city lights emanating from the alley's mouth. The whistle seems like it was intended to garner the attention of Nightwatch. A subtle movement from Nightwing's silhouette is followed a moment later by a swish of sound. The sound is followed by the clatter of yet another object in the poorly lit alleyway as a Wing Ding skitters across the ground until it comes to a halt nearby Nightwatch's feet.

The Wing Ding appears as though it has had a carefully rolled note pinned to it by some sort of clear adhesive. The note reads simply...

'WILL YOU BE MY FRIEND? CHECK YES OR NO'

Beneath it are a pair of boxes. One with 'YES' prominently written over it. The other with 'NO' prominently written over it.

Beneath it all is an arrow, pointing toward the edge of the paper along with the word 'OVER' written in curving text beneath the arrow head's bottom point...

When the scrap of paper's turned over, the message present there is less bold and more naturally written...

'Just Joking! Good work! Themysciran Arts Center tomorrow night!'

The invitation has been extended and sometime during the brief moment it takes to comprehend those words, Nightwing's already on the move. He agilely leaps up from the fire escape, grabs hold over a railing for the level above himself, leaps onto the narrow lip that rings the building, and soon enough he's up another floor and over the lip of the rooftop.

Zoe Mills has posed:
Looking up at the whistle, she's not entirely surprised to see one of the Bat Family there. Entirely. There's still a moment of 'how do they DO that?!' to the level of stealth they all manage, but thankfully, her mask largely disguises her face, so it's mostly in the body that the moment's surprise shows. She lifts a wave towards Nightwing, and even the fact that he tosses something towards her doesn't seem to faze her. SHe knows them well enough to know they aren't ones to just knock her out for no good reason.

The wingding is picked up and there's a moment of amusement for the note attched to it. She even takes a moment to get a smudge of soot from one alley wall, drawing a small checkmark under the 'Yes' so he can see, then turning the note over to chuckle at the the rest. Looking up, she offers a thumbsup and tucks the note away. THe wingding is held onto until tomorrow, she collects her repaired Batarang and moves off down the alleys, cutting through backways and getting back up to the rooftops before the GCPD show up to collect their presents.

Tomorrow at the Themysciran Arts Center. Should be interesting!