18940/Firearms. Fire. Arms.

Firearms. Fire. Arms.
Date of Scene:	29 August 2024
Location:	Powder Keg Gunsmith
Synopsis:	The Bats intervene on an attempted robbery and arson on the Powder Keg Gunsmith in Gotham City. After an immolation, ample butt-kicking, and a flood street the threat is subdued.
Cast of Characters:	Dick Grayson, Stephanie Brown, Barbara Gordon, Terry McGinnis

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Dick Grayson has posed:
Gotham City is no stranger to crime. Despite the best efforts of its complement of vigilante crimefighters, some of that crime is still to this day quite flagrant and without reservation. Such is the case tonight with the alarms ringing out from Powder Keg Gunsmith. Mist seems to hang in the air, threatening rain but never truly committing to that shift in weather. The lowered visibility paired with the clatter of alarms screeching and rattling through the night is enough to create a rather imposing landscape.

The police are engaged with other crimes throughout the city, including a large brawl that's broken out on one of the city's rail platforms; reportedly between two, possibly three, different gangs. This has in turn occupied a good deal of the available police presence in the immediate area. Other units will take longer to respond.

The presence of a handful of Bats in the area may be the savior that the city needs in this desperate hour. They're their only hope.

The assault on the Powder Keg is already well underway by the time the Bats begin to gather for their own unconventional counter-attack. They potentially have just enough time to hatch a quick-and-dirty plan before they must engage in order to bring a little order back to the streets.

A number of thugs can be found gathered around a pair of town cars in front of the shop, shouting among themselves their simple plan.

"We can't get in," shouts one!

"You let him to us coming and he got the shutters closed, this is your fault," another growls back!

"Let's just burn 'em out," the first one suggests menacingly.

There seems to be a general concensus of agreement on the new plan, "Alright, get the cans and start dousing. We have to get in there before the law shows up," another commands. That command sends the nine of them scurrying to get into trunks, gathering up canisters of gasoline, and crack the formidable egg that is the Powder Keg.

It seems the numbskulls haven't really thought the idea through. Or taken into account the storefront's namesake.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
A wind blowing in off the Atlantic was not enough to dispel the fog's grip on the city. But it was enough to gently flap the cape of a young woman crouching on a corner of a building nearby to the gun shop that is under assault.

<< I'm counting nine with thermal. Unless any more are still inside a car. Fog making it tough to get a direct visual from up here. So what's the plan, Batgirl? >>

Stephanie Brown's gaze swings about the area, looking for any signs of civilians who could end up in harm's way, before turning her attention back to the men below who are beginning to pull out containers from their vehicles. << So did anyone tell New Guy about the first mission rituals he has to do? I hope he remembered to bring the chicken. >>

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Barbara had spent a decade in a wheelchair, almost every minute of her spare time spent on developing her tech skills, her tech production, from engineering, to all manner of mechanical know-how. When she'd finally gotten out of that chair, she'd gotten out like a proverbial bullet out of a gun... Several years in to being able to walk again, Barbara had perfected her Batsuit, making it a truly armored wonder, capable of improving her personal strength, while still offering agility, and a wealth of protection in the key areas most commonly effected by combat. But she hadn't stopped there, from her work on aerial drone support, to building her own armored Batmobile. Not as feature-rich as Batman's, but still very fast, very well armored, and capable of getting the Oracle-Batgirl where she needed to be, and with a fair amount of features to fight back against most Gotham City woes and foes.

Tonight, she was in that agile vehicle, as it bounded down one of the Gotham side streets. A wave of water was sent cascading away from its left side tires, as the engine of the vehicle rumbled and reverberated the windows of the quiet shops and storesfronts that it sped past.

Inside the two-person cockpit of the Babsmobile, her green eyes were regarding both the road, and the display screens that showed her information about the city's ongoing criminal activities tonight.

In the sky, above her vehicle, and the buildings on either side of it... a swarm of Babs' drones flew through the darkened night. They flew in a V-formation, and began to spread out, as police scanners picked up a few events taking place. The surveilence drones spread out to different city blocks, utilizing their scanning hardware to send information back to Babs within her rapidly moving car.

"We have a situation breaking out at the Powder Keg. I'm sending everyone the updated information on your various devices," Babs' voice sounded out over the team network. "I'm enroute."

Terry McGinnis has posed:
Terry can't just sit around. Even with things as nebulous as they are. Even though he doesn't have Real Permission to patrol, he does it anyway. At best, he stops a few more crimes that wouldn't get stopped and it gets piled onto the local Batman's scorecard. At worst, he runs into the local Batman and finally has to hash it out with the guy. That's not in the cards for tonight, though.

Tonight is to thwart a gun store ... robbery? Arson? Both? It's both, isn't it? Why is it always both?

Terry, blending into the dark of the night, clings in the shadows on a building nearby. He narrows his eyes, the binocular vision in his mask zooming in on the goons. Nine on one? He likes those odds, honestly. He shifts, climbing up the wall like some kind of spider man, clambering over the lip and skulking to the front edge where he has a good view of the perps. He climbs up and crouches, biding his time, waiting for the right moment.

That's when they start pulling out the gas.

The Batman leaps from the roof, retractable wings spreading to slow his fall. To make it -dramatic-. He lands between a couple of the guys running towards the building with cans of gas and their target. The mask, surprisingly expressive, raises an eyebrow. "Are those approved containers? I think I need to inspect them."

He straightens, wings retracting as he lifts both hands. Little disc projectiles launch from the back of his hands, aiming at the hands gripping the cans. "Transporting gasoline in unapproved containers is a felony, you know."

Dick Grayson has posed:
One Batgirl's monitoring unfolding events from the rooftop and thankfully a lot of shouting in the night is rarely a good thing in Gotham City, so most foot traffic that may have bumbled onto the scene has taken a detour to navigate around the matters unfolding outside of the Powder Keg. From her vantage point she's able to see a dark figure leap from another rooftop and after gliding down into the midst of the men wearing pinstripe suits, begins to launch projectiles at the men holding gas canisters.

The other Batgirl in her own custom Batmobile, rumbling down a side street that soon turns onto the street that the Powder Keg and its unwanted guests occupy. She'll be on the scene at any moment and judging by the custom vehicle's speed, she's going to be coming in hot and fast.

Meanwhile the other Batman has leapt into the fray without hesitation. The discs that he launches impact with a couple different hands and cause the thick plastic canisters that the men carry to thump and tumble to the ground. Meanwhile another who is armed with a canister steps forward, swinging his own sloshing canister at the recently appeared Bat. The cap's been removed too, so that swing brings with it a splash of gasoline being slung from it like a child starting a water fight on a hot summer day.

"It's the Bat! Get 'em," one of the men shouts. Another seems to answer with a little more sense and bloodthirst, "Light him up!"

Stephanie Brown has posed:
One of the men is lagging behind the others in grabbing the plastic gas cans from the trunks. "What, the Bat!?" he calls. But then his voice raises in a cry of pain as the trunk lid slams down on his arms while they are still beneath it. Courtesy of a female caped crusader who just landed on the sloping trunk.

"There's more than one you know," the blond Batgirl says. She cocks back a foot, obviously preparing to kick the goon in the head. "Ah nuts, you already paid didn't you?" she says of the man's arms that were slammed but good with the young woman's weight on the trunk door.

She grabs a device from her utility belt, prongs leaping from the stun gun to the man and shocking him into unconsciousness. "A touch of mercy to go with the justice," she says as she hops down off the car, allowing the man's hands to finally pull free as he slumps to the ground unconscious.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
From a narrow side street, the racer-style Babsmobile roars out of the gap between buildings. From its left flank, a loud pop launches a grappling wire that swirls rapidly around the metal base of a street lamp, as the heavy wheeled vehicle takes a hard turn toward the fight in-progress. The grapple line keeping the Batmobile from skidding right off the street, turning at such a high velocity. The cable is quick to detach, once the vehicle completes the manuever, and as it bounds forward, its high beam headlights shine thousands of bright white lumens upon the scene ahead. The vehicle roars down the larger city street, its brakes being applied many meters away, as it slows to a halt, the tires rapidly bouncing up and down as they gain grip upon the well worn pavement of the old Gotham street.

The car stops moving, its bright headlights just shining upon the Powder Keg's storefront, providing a rather large amount of illumination upon the otherwise dark landscape, but in the process it shines upon the enemies too, intending to blind them, should they look at the car that had just roared on to the scene.

But the Red Batgirl did not come from the vehicle, she came in from another direction, gliding upon the fluttering wings of her rigid gold and black cape. She flew down in an arc path, her gold boots slamming in to the back of one of the men who stared at the bright lights from the armored car.

Babs knocks the man forward, tumbling him over the curb, as she lands on either side of him, her boots on either sides of his hips, as she jams her fist down in to his back, and attaches a device that spreads its metal tentacles out, and latches them down in to the concrete, holding the man down.

Babs leaps back up to her feet, her cape swirling around her, as she rushes another man, one regarding her with wide eyes.

For him, she dives right in to him, shoulder first, her gloved hands going for his wrist, as she utilizes years of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu training to rip the man's arm behind his back, after getting him too, down to the filthy floor of the gunshop's front stoop.

Terry McGinnis has posed:
Terry is a full blown cheater. His suit heightens his reaction speed to (slightly) superhuman levels. Even so, he can't defeat physics. Which is to say, he evades the swinging gas can, but the sloshing gasoline does, in fact get all over him. He groans, rolling his eyes. "Ugh. It's going to take ages to get that smell out," he grouses. "I can't get this thing dry cleaned!"

He surges forwards, swinging his torso wide around a swing of the can. He reaches out to grab the goon's wrist, giving it a tight clench and twist so the can drops, spilling even -more- gas on him. He ignores it, keeping his grip and pivoting, whipping the man over his shoulder in a judo throw.

His arc sends him sailing towards the shuttered window of the gun store, the impact echoing through the streets and denting the metal as he slides down to land on his head, his feet touching the ground in front of him.

"Next?"

He's still covered in gas and now standing in a puddle of it. Sure would be a shame if someone set him on fire.

Dick Grayson has posed:
The man with his arms trapped by the trunk lid starts shouting and hollering incoherently. While the Batgirl may have some witty remarks to make, all he's concerned with right now is the pain. A pain that may offer some reformation down the line on account of the trauma of it. Only time will tell. Then she's springing away and leaping further into the fray as headlights suddenly blaze through the night and illuminate the area before the Powder Keg. Some of the men turn abruptly, some calling out that the cops had arrived in their confusion.

Then the Other Batgirl's arcing from seemingly out of nowhere as the Batgalmobile screeches to a halt and sends another man to the ground, attaching a device to his back that pins him there. "Hey, what the..." he cries out in alarm, struggling to free himself after the pair of blows and attachment of the device by Batgirl.

The other Batman has been fairly thoroughly doused in gasoline at this point and the thugs seem to sense opportunity. Like pack animals they begin to shift and move, some moving to engage the other Bats after their initial surprise has been shaken off. One of the thugs begins to fish around in a pocket and produces a vape pen. Cigarettes and lighters are just so old fashioned.

Which is fortune that one of the thugs is approaching in his middle age and sneers at his counterpart, "Moron"! The insult is coupled by the man reaching into his pocket, flicking open his Zippo and the flame sprouts to life as he hauls back.

The man's arm flashes forward, hurling the lighter toward the Batman.

Others begin to spread out, rushing at both Batgirls with numbers lending to their own advantage. Some of them have produced brass knuckles and in a couple cases old trench knives.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Way too late to be of any use to Batman, the blond-haired Batgirl calls out, "Be careful not to get any gasoline on you!"

But then two men are charging her in unison, coming out of the bright white of the fog lit by the Batmobile lights. Batgirl pivots, ducking low and flipping one over her hip. Though that gives the other man an opening and he lands a brass knuckle-hardened punch on her shoulder.

Stephanie rolls with the hit to lessen it, flipping over backwards acrobatically. "Guess the brass knuckles is why you need to raid a gun shop, yeah?" she asks the man. Reaching down to her utility garter belt, she grabs hold of a gold colored tube, which extends into a full-sized bo staff.

The bo staff is given a whirl, swirling in a figure eight pattern as the two hoods square off with her.

Terry McGinnis has posed:
"Now this is more like it," Terry exclaims as he gets mobbed. He moves, splashing in gas and generally just being as annoyingly evasive as possible. He grins to himself as he hears the lighter slide open and flick alight. He could get away. He has a grapple built into the suit, he could haul up and away and not get set on fire.

But this will be hilarious (to him) and terrifying (to everyone else).

The Zippo<tm> strikes him in the back, and the gas goes up in flames. From black and shadowy to a towering inferno, flames rocketing ten feet in the air. As he's engulfed, he howls in agony, flailing around as he ineffectually tries to pat himself out.

Then he just stops, still on fire, and turns to the thugs who did it. "Oops. Suit's fireproof. It's my lucky day." Future tech is awesome as hell.

This is how an on fire Batman wades into the goons again, using the flames as a deterrant while he throws punches and kicks. At worst they'll just start running the hell away, and Steph and Babs can collar them. At best, he gets to punch some dudes while on fire and looking metal as hell.

It's a good night.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Babs was applying the same ground-based grapple weapon to the back of the man that she had just dislocated the arm of, when two more men come up on either side of her, and begin bashing down on her back with armaments. One of them is hitting her with metal knuckles, while the other is slamming some broken metal bat down upon her shoulder. With hard hits coming in strong, from both beefy men, the autumnal haired Batgirl is knocked down on to the man she just attached to the pavement.

It hurts, but her armored suit is absorbing a fair amount of the kinetic energy, just as it was designed to.

From above, the drones of the 'Tech Knight' swoop in, one for either men, and both fire off sizzling electrical pellets that slap against the back of the armed thugs!

An untold number of high voltage electric shocks are rapidly sent in to the bodies of the two men that dared to attempt to batter the red headed Batgirl, their bodies shaking violently, with the electricity streaming in to them from the pellets latched on the back of their clothing.

Barbara lunges back up to her feet, twirling her body around in a Question Mark round house kick, the back of her boot landing upon the side of one of the shaking men's jawline, dropping him in an instant.

The Second man falls down to his knees on his own accord, and soon garners a face full of Baabs' right knee, the blunted tops of her golden boots used as battering ramps right in to the man's throat and teeth, likely knocking a few chicklets out on to the pavement below.

Seeing the Bat on fire, Babs moves in, producing a chilling device, "Come on," she mutters, as she loads the cartridge in to her delivery device, aiming it toward Terry to help put out the flames with a spout of mist, that may or may not land upon him depending...

Dick Grayson has posed:
The melee breaks out in earnest. Batgirls are engaged by a pair of bruisers with their rudimentary, but no less effective, weapons. Meanwhile Batman's now aflame and after the initial laughter at his impending deep heralded by his own screams, that laughter quickly turns to shouts of alarm as the few thugs surrounding him begin to give ground to the Flaming Batman that surges toward them with punches and kicks dispensing fiery justice.

The gasoline leaks toward the Powder Keg on account of tipped and spilled containers. The flames of Batman kiss the gasoline's fumes and set it alight, sending a gradually growing trail of flame toward the storefront, whose sudden arrival is likewise announced by the small boom of so fumes alighting at once and the sudden growl of fire sprang to life.

Between the growing flames and the presence of the Batmobile's headlights, the street is full of steady white light and dancing orange glow.

Terry McGinnis has posed:
This is kind of fun, Terry thinks as he menacingly slow-chases thugs as he's on fire. His setting a trail of gas that heads towards the store alight was completely an accident. He stops, looking over his shoulder at it. "Shit."

It's about then that Babs hits him with the cryo-mist, dousing the flames and leaving him steaming in the night. "That was fun, but this is probably smarter," he says. The vocoder in his suit does a decent job of approximating Bruce's gravely tone, but he still sounds too young. "I'm plum out of fire suppressant," he says to the Batgirls. "If you two can stop the fire, i'll handle the rest of these goons," he says.

By way of example, he reaches into his utility belt, and pulls a Bat's Best Friend. A bola! He gives it a spin and throws it at one of the retreating thugs, tangling up his legs and sending him to skid on the pavement.

Both hands go into his utility belt and pull two futuristic Batarangs, They crackle with voltage. "We can do this the easy way, or my way," he calls out to the handful of remaining goons. "Make a choice. Fast."

Stephanie Brown has posed:
There's a bit of alarm from Stephanie as the New Guy goes up in flames. She doesn't really know what his capabilities are, apart from the sparring session that she sprung on him to try to confirm his claims. << You ok- >> she starts with, before hearing the screams turn to laughter. << Taking that as a yes. >>

The two hoods think they are doing better than they actually are. Batgirl fends them off a few times as they try to come at her from different sides, but she's just biding her time until she can spin the bo staff and the ends connect in rapid succession on an arm, a shoulder, another arm, a gut, a thigh, and then finally each man's head.

Rather pleased with that bit of staff work she takes stock of the situation. "Well shoot," she says, and pulls out her disk launcher and pops in a couple of explosive cartridges.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

She looks at the building, and then thankfully whirls to face the building next door, whose roof she'd been on. She takes aim at the water tower she saw there, and three disks shoot up, sticking to its side. Stephanie hits a remote and they all detonate. Water begins to pour out of the water tower, spraying out and drenching the side of the Powder Keg and the nearby street.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Babs got a front row seat to seeing that this mysterious Batman was doing just fine. She had a look of shock on what visible elements of her face could be seen, but she soon shifted gears. "Right... right..." She muttered, as she spun around, ejecting the chilling cartridge from her spray gun. She began dousing the flames with it, but it was a bit like fighting fire with a water gun.

Thankfully, Stephanie saw a better solution, and when the water rushed down over the building, Babs jumped backward. She stood just out in the road, as the water poured down over the sidewalk, and rushed over toward her thigh high boots.

"Destructive, but effective." Babs told Steph, before she slipped her device away, drew out a stunning batarang, and flung it toward a pair of fleeing men, the batarang twirling through the air as it spread its wings between them!

Shooting from those wings, stun darts shot across the men's shoulders, necks and the sides of their faces, dropping them to the crackling of more electrical shocking blasts.

With a glance of her green eyes toward her Batmobile, the lights dimmed, dropping down to aim their beams just at the street alone, and not at the situation here outside of the gun shop.

"What a mess..." Barbara muttered, the water up to her mid shins, and rapidly rushing in toward the sewer drains along the side of the road.

Dick Grayson has posed:
The assault on the Powder Keg seems to be broken as the Batman is extinguished and batarangs begin flying about, dropping their victims swiftly.

Water pours from the neighboring rooftop in a roar as gravity guides it down. It splashes heavily upon the sidewalk and quickly courses toward the front of the Powder Keg, over the curb, and gradually crossing into the street. Thankfully there isn't some electrified villain around to truly create further chaos. This time.

The flames across the sidewalk and clinging to the foot of the structure hiss angrily as they're extinguished by the surge of water.

While most of the thugs have been incapacitated, detained, or otherwise taken from the fight; three more rush toward one of the vehicles with a shout, "Face is going to kill us! We gotta get out of town!"

The engine roars to life a moment later as the trio prepare to make their escape.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie holds the end of her disk launcher towards her lips and blows on it after the accurate shot. She grins over at the redheaded caped crusader and points up at the result. "And the weatherman said no rain today," she quips.

Then the piece of equipment is being holstered, and a grapple launcher is pulled out. The tip whizzes out into the night, a line playing out behind it. As soon as it is secure, Batgirl launches forward, having it reel her in at full power.

She zooms over top of one of the fleeing hoods, releasing the grapple line and dropping down to plant a knee into his back. He does a face plant that is going to leave some road rash on his face, but no concussion thankfully.

"Oh no. You need to have a talk with Commissioner Gordon after this. He gets kind of stern when you light buildings, and people, on fire," she warns as the batcuffs go on his wrists behind his back.

Terry McGinnis has posed:
Terry looks up over his shoulder as the water tower blows, drenching the street, the fire, the trio of Bats. At least it might help get the gas smell out of his suit. Though it's just a little pollution. Poison Ivy's going to be pissed. Whoever that is.

The last three turn to run, and the Batman produces what looks like an old school batarang with a cable on it. He gives it a swing and hucks it at one of the fleeing trio. The cord catches him around the arms and the slightly weighty batarang spins around his body until

--WHACK

Right in the nose. With a pull worthy of a calf roper, Terry yanks on the man, hauling him through the air back to himself. Still smoking. Still cowled, he looms over the man on the ground. "Look at it this way. Your boss, probably, can't get at you in jail." He pauses for effect. "Or can he?"

Terry produces one of those giant zip-ties and binds the man with it before he unwraps the line and tucks it away. How he fits all that stuff in that belt and suit with no cape is incredible.

"All in a night's work," he says, taking a step back. "...You haven't told him about me yet, have you?"

Barbara Gordon has posed:
With this much water flooding the street, Babs has to react to the men that she attached face first to the pavement. She rushes over to the first one, who had been dropped the closest to the building. Quickly, she kneels down beside him, her hands working the locks on the device that was planted on top of his spine. She pops the device open, and lets it clatter to the ground, as her hands quickly utilize a zip-tie to seal his wrists together behind his back. Spinning him over, she yanks him up out of the water, and pushes him over, bending him over a nearby vehicle on the edge of the street.

She rushes toward the second, who was actively bitching about the filthy water rushing over his body, and splashing over his face.

"Stop moving, or I'll put you out." Babs growls at the man, her own suit's vocalizer lacing her voice with a demonic tone. She kneels directly upon his back, and binds him, before releasing him. He was bigger than the other guy, but her suit gives her added strength, and thus she hoists him to his feet by the same bound makeshift cuffs, and soon drops him on to the same old sedan that the first had been left on.

"Police are coming, chill out, or get knocked out." Babs' demon voice masker threatens the men, as she turns to watch her companions.

Green eyes stare at Terry, and Babs answers his question by simply shaking her head slowly from side to side.

Dick Grayson has posed:
The danger to the Powder Keg seems to have been thwarted.

The robbers and arsonists have been captured.

It's a great start to the night for the Bats!

Somewhere in the distance sirens can be heard approaching the scene. Police first to clear the scene and fire crews to follow. Fortunately, tonight the vigilantes of Gotham have prevented a catastrophe.

Those Bats attuned to local police bands heard of another potential matter of interest. A downtown parking garage seems to have a number of suspicious vehicles parked on its fourth level. Allegedly those vans are looking to exchange some drugs for people. Drugs and human trafficking.

It's going to be a busy night. It's not even a full moon!