19298/The Midnight Ride

The Midnight Ride
Date of Scene:	16 October 2024
Location:	A dark and stormy Gotham
Synopsis:	Batgirl and Red Hood respond to reports of robberies. Performed by the, uh, Headless Horseman? Oh boy.
Cast of Characters:	Jason Todd, Barbara Gordon

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Jason Todd has posed:
Summer in Gotham was relentless. Hot and oppressively humid. Power brown-outs from everyone running fans, or A/C if they were fortunate, were all too common.

Fall arrived witha stunning fury. Lingering warm air off the Atlantic mixed with cold fronts coming down from Canada to bring powerful storms that have pounded Gotham and Bludhaven for much of the first two weeks of October.

Tonight, the storms have finally eased. The sky is still darkly cloudy, a cold rain is falling and gusts of wind still manage to send soaked leaves and trash swirling down the streets.

For those who monitor emergency freqencies and have illegally tapped into the 911 system (only for the most noble of reasons of course), a number of terrified calls come in: A small corner market was just robbed by.. none other than the Headless Horseman. The report remains the same from the shop owner whose call switches between broken and thoroughly terrified English and Spanish. The caller believes what they're saying. GCPD dispatchers and units in the area have a good laugh but a unit is sent to the shop to take statement and gather evidence.

In the wake of that call come a flood of others from the surrounding blocks. A pattern is forming. The reports all the same - A headless horseman riding through Gotham, robbing small shops and sowing terror.

Red Hood sits in his Car, listening to the reports and calls, frowning behind his mask. <<Uh. Anyone else catching these reports? Headless Horseman running amok in Gotham? I'm five minutes away. Going to go check into it. Probably someone just trying to pull a prank a few weeks early.>>

Barbara Gordon has posed:
It was Barbara's prefered time of year, maybe because her birthday represented the start of autumn, to her. Or, maybe just because it mirrored her hair color, and growing up a ginger, you'll take any chance you can get to enjoy some compliments paid your way, and they always came more in autumn. Pumpkin spice, right?

"I hear them," Babs could be heard replying over the team comm. "If they're actually robbing places, it is a really bad joke. But we're used to really bad jokes around here, aren't we?"

From her spot inside of her own vehicle, Babs is parked a handful of blocks away, having only recently stopped to wait on a contact that was supposed to meet her here to talk about ongoing situations with local crime families. But with this brewing? Her attention might get pulled elsewhere.

"I have my drones headed to the general direction of the mini-spree. Keep your eyes peeled though. if someone is actually on a horse? I'm going to start getting worried."

She activated her sleek armored car, and with a burst of flame from behind its single booster engine mounted on the back, the Batgirl mobile shot off down an alleyway, and made a sharp turn to the north.

"On my way, from the opposite direction you're in, Hood." She further said, voice confidently calm. "Try not to get hit by any flying pumpkins."

Jason Todd has posed:
Red Hood is already in motion, accelerating toward the Bowery district where the reports continue to come in.

<<Bad jokes are the only sort Gotham tends to offer>> he replies.

<<Got it. Meet up with you shortly, BG.>>

Slowing only a little as he begins to prowl the streets in his matte black Car. In the rain and shadows he is all but invisible as he rolls from one alley to the next, scanning along the streets.

<<Yeah. These reports sound like the witnesses are convinced of what they're seeing. Wonder if Crane is back at it again>> he muses as the next frightened report is sent out -

((All Units: Report of robbery in progress at State Liquor store number Fifty Three, Bowery District. Suspect is, again, reported to be a headless horseman.))

<<I'm a block away>> Red Hood relays as he drifts around a corner and closes in on the reported location.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
The heavy tires of the Babsmobile bounced through a trash strewn puddle as she made her way between the intersection of an alley set at the center of several tall buildings. Inside the cockpit, she saw the map on one of her displays that was showing specifically where she needed to go, and through it she navigated her heavily armored, custom designed, vehicle out on to the main streets.

"Be careful. You don't want to take a sharp turn and run right in to a horse." Leave it to Barbara, to be concerned about the horse.

"Someone should tell him that this isn't Sleepy Hollow. Maybe all the tourists ran him off, though?" She can make jokes too.

In full costume, Batgirl navigated her vehicle right down one of the main streets, passing by a car with a family inside it, two children's faces summarily planted to the same window, as they were flabbergasted at the sight of THE Batmobile. Poor kids, it's not really THE Batmobile, but they don't know that!

"I'm directly in line with you, coming from the opposite direction. My drones are covering the other streets. We should be closing in on whatever is doing this... Keep your eyes peeled, we don't want them to somehow slip through."

Jason Todd has posed:
<<It'll have it coming if it's part of a crime>> comes the terse response. Only from Jason.

Rapidly decelerating, Red Hood brings his Car to a stop at the entrange to the parkinglot. The liquor store is in a small strip mall with an international grocery and a quik-i-loan shop (but it has thick steel bars over the windows and doors so it's gonna be hard to rob).

Outside the liquor store .. is a huge black stallion with all black riding gear. Its coat mangy and patchy. The eyes are glowing blood red, the mane and tail are ragged with balefire flames licking from the strands. From the flared nostrils, the corners of the mouth and from and from above the hooves, what appears to be red-black blood or ichor drips into small droplets on the ground where they begin to release black wisps of acrid vapors.

<<Uh. Batgirl, you're not going to like this. There's a horse.>>

The creature stamps a foreleg, making small sparks appear as its shoe strikes the pavement.

From inside the liquor a shadow appears in the doorway. Towering, the form emerges to stare at the idling Car with Red Hood inside.

<<Sending you the feed>> Red Hood adds as he steps out of the Car and stares down the towering figure.

At easily seven feet tall, the form has powerful shoulders. A ragged, torn cloak covers the figure, the hood pulled up and over a large jack o' lantern where a human's head should be. The expression is a sinister red-glowing leer. The cloak's sleeves hide the hands until it reaches to push the store's door open - revealing hands of bleached white bones with no flesh.

Stepping out, the black wispy vapor flows from the cuffs and hem of the cloak to swirl about the figure.

Without warning, it raises its left hand. A flaming pumpkin suddenly held in it for just a moment before it is thrown with great force and accuracy toward Red Hood. Then the figure moves to mount the terrifying horse which is spurred into a full gallop, flames and sparks trailing with each hooffall.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Barbara was a little further away from the store that was the next target for this mysterious criminal, so much so that Jason was given a chance to experience it first hand, on his own. At least up to the point where that rider mounted his horse again. Just before that, though, Babs was viewing what Jason's camera was showing her. She had her drones flying in from the east and west, formations of three aside, and her own vehicle roaring up from the south.

"What the Hell is that?" She asked, seeing it on the screen on the left side of her cockpit style dash. "that is some serious cosplay." Or the real thing. It can't be that hard for her to believe, she fought some Hell dimension beasts in Manhattan recently, and saw a goblin attacking a demonic pillar in a cave not far from the Batcave that same day.

But still!

As the Horseman began to ride off, sparks flying the wake of his mount's hooves, the Batmobile raced up on to the scene from behind it. she slowed her pace to watch the rider, and kept pace on his flank. "That is beyond unsettling." Her voice said, from inside the armored vehicle's cockpit. "You okay?" She asked, as she sped past the store, her vehicle's engine rumbling loudly, as she pressed a button on her controls to key up the canon mounted behind the two-person cockpit of her car. The cannon shot up, and spiraled its shiny black barrels to a non-lethal option, as she considered firing on the rider, and his mount...

She hesitated, though. "Should we follow him? why would the Headless Horseman be robbing small stores? why would he rob any stores?"

Jason Todd has posed:
Diving behind his Car, Red Hood tucks into a roll just as the flaming pumpkin streaks across the top of the Car's hood and through the space he'd just occupied. It continues another five meters before hitting the pavement and exploding. In addition to pumpkin husk, seeds and guts splattering everywhere in a ten meter radius (which includes Red Hood and the Car), a meter deep and meter wide crater remains behind to prove it was anything but an illusion.

Rising up, covered in pumpkin guts, Red Hood mutters, <<Yeah. I'm fine. He fucking slimed me>>

Getting into the Car, he mashes the gas and gives chase, working to catch up with Batgirl and the BabsMobile.

<<Makes you wonder, doesn't it? Maybe he's stuck with child support. A bunch of baby gourds and angry farmers with pitchforks coming after him>> comes the muttered sarcasm. He has no idea at this point but he's pretty sure the thing is real. To some degree of real.

As Batgirl pursues, the black wispy vapor swirls behind the Horseman and his Steed, thick enough to make the flames and sparks of each hoof fall and the flames of the horse's tail and main almost entirely obscured. The horse is -fast-. Batgirl will find she's reaching in excess of 45mph to keep up with the apparition.

As she chooses to deploy her guns, the Horseman turns, another flaming pumpkin in hand. There is no hesitation before the flaming bomb is thrown back at her vehicle.

Just as it is thrown, the Horseman cuts his steed sharply to the right, hooves kicking up sparks as they fight for traction on the wet pavement.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
"Yeah, this is tooo legit to be fake..." Barbara muttered under her breath, as her drones were gathering additional information from the sky above, utilizing various camera sensor equipment that was being fed to her dash displays. "Why in the world would something like this just show up, out of the blue, and start jacking liquor stores?" she has to ask again, as she sees Jason's high performance vehicle catching up with her from behind. When she looks forward again, she's watching the smoke, and sparks, coming from behind the rider and horse, billowing over her own black armored car, as her vehicle keeps itself profile low to the ground like a Formula-1 racer, on steroids.

"I'm going to take a net shot." She announces, "If it topples him, try not to run him-- and the horse-- over."

Just as she states this intention, the incoming flaming pumpkin is thrown back at her, and Babs is forced to cut to the right, so it doesn't slam right in to her glass bubble canopy! The pumpkin clips the edge of her armored car, and smashes to flaming pieces, some of which remain attached to the black armor elements, while others are just plain destroyed under Babs' beefy tires! It all leaves a mess behind for Jason to roll right over, no less.

As Babs corrects her course, to keep herself from slamming in to cars in the other lane, who are undoubtedly confused by everything happening here too, she veers back in behind the horseman, as he takes a turn.

Babs whips her vehicle hard to the side, her Oracle AI system adjusting traffic lights to keep the intersections clear of innocent vehicles, while her car skids around that turn, and puts on speed once she's turned through it.

"Lets try that again..." She mutters, as she zeroes in her aiming reticle on the back of the rider, and squeezes the firing trigger of her rotary turret cannon! "I don't have any magical defenses. Lets hope for the best..."

The turret bursts out a puff of smoke and a bang, as it fires off a capture net, aimed directly for the rider and his devilishly Hellish steed!

Jason Todd has posed:
<<No promises>> Red Hood grumbles at being asked to not run over the Horseman or the Horse. The thing slimed him and Car with punkin guts. This is personal now!

Regaining ground he is close enough to see the Horseman turn sharply to the right even as Batgirl veers out of the way of another smashing pumpkin. Problem is, Red Hood and the Car are behind the BabsMobile. It explodes in the air after grazing Batgirl's ride - the concusive blast rocks Red Hood's Car and again splatters punkin guts all over the hood and windshield. It causes him to overshoot the right turn.

<<Missed the turn. Going over a street and will try to get ahead of him>> he updates as he takes the next right and buries the throttle to greatly exceed the posted speed limit in an effort to get ahead of the chase.

Those drones get all kinds of great video and sensor readings. It'll be cause for much chin rubbing and head scratching later for sure.

As the net fires, the Horseman cuts left with the skill of a proper wrangler so that it, instead, effectively nets a taxi that was waiting for a fare not far beyond the horseman.

Another flaming pumpkin is conjured and thrown back toward Batgirl, this time aimed toward the road to try and blast a crater she will have to swerve around.

As Red Hood takes another hard right and then yet another hard right so that he is on the same street as the pursuit and heading back toward the two, the Horseman takes a left into one of Gotham's oldest alleyways. It still has cobble stones instead of pavement and dates back to the very foundings of Gotham. The other notable thing about this alley is that it is a dead end rather than a connection to the street Red Hood had just been racing parallel to them on.

<<Dead end>> Red Hood affirms as if Batgirl wouldn't know herself.

Slowing so he doesn't crash into Batgirl's 'mobile, he angles the Car's headlights down the alleyway.

The form of the Horseman astride his deathly looking Steed can be seen turned sideways as if having realized this alley has no way out. Only now the cloak's hood is drawn back and there is no longer a Pumpkin Head - because the much larger, evilly leering Jack o' Lantern is in his right hand, ready to be thrown as the two vigilantes have eyes on him again.

Rearing back on it's hind legs, the Steed lets out an anguished whiny as the once-head is thrown at them. Turning to flee farther into the darkness at the dead end of the alleyway, the Horseman chooses to leave Batgirl and Red Hood to deal with a flaming pumpkin head and make his headless getaway. Into a dead-end alley?

Barbara Gordon has posed:
IN her rear view display, Babs' had seen the Red Hood's car not make the turn, but she was quick to refocus her eyes forward, as her cannon fired off a shot, only to end up netting a taxi cab that was likely going to have one hell of a story to tell, and a souvenir of a Bat-net blossomed over his vehicle. Gripping her vehicle's control yoke, Babs pulled hard on it when the second pumpkin came her way, this one have an explosive reaction when it hit the ground, which caused her armored car to just narrowly avoid the damage it left in a plume of smoke and fire! She swept to the right, and rebounded back to the left, also avoiding running right in to a series of merchant stalls on the edge of one sidewalk, closed down for the night, but still a very bad thing to slam in to at such high speeds!

"He's headed down another side alley, I think we can corner him." Batgirl sounded out over their shared com network, as her car speed increased enough to catch up with the rider, but she killed it in time to avoid ramming right in to him. There was still a chance this was some real person pulling one hell of a trick on them, and definitely not providing a treat either.

The Babsmobile forward floodlights lit up the alley brightly as she drove the car over another quick impact of old cobblestones, and uneven ancient pathways through the city, her tires bounding over the wet pavement, and creating tidal waves of large puddles gathered up within the alley's confines.

Babs slammed on the brakes, as her progress brought her right up to the mouth of that dead end at the far side of the alley. she saw the mysterious rider come to a dramatic stop himself, and watched as he pulled that pumpkin from his head, falming and awe-inducing, making some inner section of Babs' psyche 'wow' at the sight of what she was seeing. "How is this possible?" She asked.

"I'm going to take another shot, with an electro-net this time." She stated, as her target locke hit solid green on the Rider, and she depressed the firing pin from a squeeze of her gloved hand.

Atop her car, her cannon once more came to life, and exploded a shot from one of its multiple barrels, causing the cannon to bounce back on its impact resistance springs, as it shot another net toward the rider, this one a brilliantly bright blue, as it spread out with electrical intensity!

Jason Todd has posed:
The net fires true. The pumpkin head flies true. The net meets the head and shocks the ever loving pumpkin-ness out of it only to result in a lot of flames and a huge and equally flaming explosion. It's as if the pumpkin head had been full of napalm or other highly flamable fuel instead of explosives as with the previously thrown gourds of doom.

The shower of flame and electrically crackling net falls to the cobblestones of the alley to create a flaming barrier that lasts for close to thirty seconds.

Beyond those flames, the sensors of Batgirl's drones, those on her 'Mobile and on Red Hood's Car show that the Horseman retreated farther into the darkness only to become incorporeal and disappear into nothingness, leaving behind only more of that black wispy vapor that slowly disolves into the cold Gotham rain.

On the cobblestones beyond the dying wall of fire are similarly flaming hoofprints that leave black sooty scorchmarks behind. The previous hoofprints did as well, but the steady rain has been inconviently dissolving and washing away.

Slowly getting out of his Car, Red Hood stares down the alley.

<<Well. That was unexpected.>>

Barbara Gordon has posed:
The Bat-drones sweep by overhead, one group moving to the north, the other flying by westward. As Jason exits his vehicle, Babs' is up and out of her own, the glass bubble canopy gliding back shut behind her to keep the rain out of the interior. she lands on gold armored boots, her cape already trailing rivulets of rain water down its contoured design, her footfalls carrying her to the front of the Hood's car. she stands just before it, the lights from both of their vehicles criss-crossing over her lower half, as her cape, and hair flutter in a gust of wind coming down the alleyway and creating a small cyclone in the intersection they share. She watches what remains of the rider, the dying flames, and the whisp of smoke. Her green eyes look over at the Hood, her mask shaking back and forth, as she is in disbelief. "I suddenly miss Zatanna being around, a lot more than I normally do." She tells him, since magic, and the paranormal is far from her expertise.

A moment later, and Babs has her deactivated stun net rolled up in to a ball, and stuffed in to a black sack attached to one of the weighted edges, wrapping it all up perfectly once more. She starts to move in to the dead end area of the alley, where the rider and his mount vanished, one of her drones coming down to get better scans and video footage of it all.

"I'll get this sent to Batman, but we better spread out and be ready. Whatever the Hell that was, it may already be back out there hitting more stores."

She then begins to talk to the Oracle AI system back at the Clock tower, to get any updates on new activity, since a headless horeman is bound to make waves quickly. The AI assistant is already mentioning it becoming quite popular on Gotham social media feeds.

Babs meanders around the alley for a few moments, before she looks back to Jason. "Maybe it was a weather balloon?"

Jason Todd has posed:
Red Hood begins to slowly walk down the alley with Batgirl, scanning the walls and cobblestones for any sort of projectors or hidden passages. "A lot of these century plus alleys have had doors or windows bricked over." Meaning someone could have reopened one and concealed it.

"Not seeing anything.." pumpkin guts still drop from the jaw of his helmet and jiggle as he moves. It's probably a little distracting in all the wrong ways.

"Well. It worked in Roswell" he offers noncommittally. He's not convinced it was a weather balloon. Or a little green man. "Whatever it was, or whoever it was, has a flare for the dramatic. Doesn't seem like a Clayface sort of gig, though." He frowns, "Are there any other little Claylings running around I'm forgetting about?"

Barbara Gordon has posed:
It was just a pair of seconds after Jason last spoke, that Babs appeared beside him. She was staring at his own mask, and reached a gloved hand up to pick at a fried chunk that was some how attached to the material and texture of his covering. She stood there beside him, her eyes down upon it, as she turned it over in her glove. "It looks normal enough, but he was producing these out of nowhere..." She said, as the rain fell down over them both, running down her cape like a deflated umbrella wrapped around her shoulders.

"I better take a sample and run some tests on it. Maybe it is where Coffee Bean gets its pumpkin spice in seemingly limitless quantity..." She quipped, as she cast him a smirk.

She slipped the sample in to a spot on her belt, and placed her other hand on his chest, giving him a soft pat. "Lets go." She told him, as she moved to turn back toward their respective rides.

"Whatever that was, it may show up again. I'll leave a drone here over night to monitor this spot too, and run some research on it. Being that this is such an old part of town, it makes me curious what the history significance is."

She glanced over at his car, and smirked. "Gonna need a new coat of paint, I think."

Jason Todd has posed:
Red Hood looks puzzled as she studies him then takes a glob of punkin guts off his mask. He grunts, "Never know. Maybe they're working with Ivy? I thought she was trying to stay at least mostly on the straight and narrow though.." Villains change motivations with the wind in Gotham though. So.

He kneels down to study the few remaining hoofprints scorched onto the cobblestones. Taking out an evidence kit he, well, pries an entire cobblestone from the alley. Because evidience trumps historic value. He'll return it later. Probably.

"Yeah. Disappearing trick one way or the other." Catching up with her, he looks at his car and grunts again. Behind his mask he's scowling.

Maybe it'll just wash off.