5944/More distant and more solemn than a fading star

More distant and more solemn than a fading star
Date of Scene:	15 April 2021
Location:	The Narrows - Miagani Island
Synopsis:	Bobbi and Lance track Babs to an abandoned complex in The Narrows, Gotham. There they get the attention of Nightwing. The three of them together take on Babs and her traps, eventually taking her down to be handed off to ARMOR.
Cast of Characters:	Bobbi Morse, Lance Hunter, Dick Grayson

---

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    It seems impossible to visit Gotham without sampling its heavy oppressive rain. The Narrows were hardly anyones tourist destination, but it is where Lance had tracked Babs. Bobbi's doppelganger from another universe, who has lost her partner Lancelot. A cornered animal is twice as deadly. If one thing seems to be true of these two worlds - it's that the love between Bobbi and Lance, Babs and Lancelot, burns just as bright. Only now Babs thinks she has nothing to live for but revenge.

    There were more skeletons of homes, abandoned due to structural damage - fires, explosions, toxic materials, than there were occupants in this particular set of buildings. A great place to hide out. A great place to lay traps.

    <<I'm a bust in Coventry Lance, any success in the Narrows? I'm going to head your way regardless. If she's not there we can grab a bite to eat and enjoy that whiskey bar I found>> Bobbi says over the shiny new SHIELD comms.

    Though, Bobbi looks more vigilante than SHIELD agent today. She has been The Mockingbird more often in her outings. Plausible deniability - Dr. Morse in the public eye, Mockingbird in the crime fighting eye, SHIELD in the shadows. Also May can't complain if she's out as Mockingbird in her personal time.

Lance Hunter has posed:
Babs was dangerous before she was cornered and desperate so Lance crouches on the rooftops grimacing as the rain gets into the collar of the experimental exo-frame he wears. The way for an average bloke like him to hit like Captain bloody America. << Well one way or another I could do with getting out of the rain >> he says before adding. << Though, not going to lie, I sorta want to give this frame a go. >>

He rises shaking the rain from his hair before he continues his patrol, goggles on to provide him with night and thermal vision for scanning the multitude of dark alleys and wrecks of buildings surrounding him.

Dick Grayson has posed:
Nightwing was guided in this direction by Bat family assets who became aware of some unusual activity in the area. He's currently on a rooftop overlooking the Narrows, trying to decide if this guy in the bulky frame is a threat or not. Given the area and the fact that there's not a lot around to be committing crimes about, he decides that talking might be the best option.

He fires a line over to a water tower on the same roof Lance is on and swings over to it, crouching on the edge of the tower overlooking Lance. The man will hear a voice drift down from above him, "Maybe we should talk for a minute, what do you say?"

Looking up will reveal a figure in a black suit with blue highlights and armored looking vambraces with a stylized bird pattern on the chest. He has a domino mask on his face, partially concealing his features.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Babs had truly lost it. Whether or not Lancelot was dead he was certainly not free any more and no doubt being sent back to their hell of a world. That means she needs to secure her position in this world to get the resources to retrieve him.. somehow. May be there is a Fitz she can twist the arm of to open a portal for her.

    A small alarm flashes a light and she grabs her binoculars and peers out through a broken bit of wall and window to a nearby rooftop and there she spies not one but two people. Damn vigilantes - Gotham's Narrows was meant to be a quiet place to lay low.

    Babs grabs her machine gun and checks the armor piercing rounds, then flicks a switch to activate the trip lasers and moves deeper in to her maze of traps. Heat signatures start to light up and move around - she rigged up hot elements on wire tracks just to add to the confusion so it wasn't obvious where she was.

    <<I'm pretty curious myself. But I'm glad you've got extra bullet protection which is why I suggested it in the first place.. so.. you know, try NOT to get shot at>> Bobbi says with a smirk in her voice as she starts making her way across Miagani island toward the Narrows, swooping between buildings.

Lance Hunter has posed:
Turning at the sound of Nightwing's voice Hunter draws and the slightly odd looking sidearm on his hip and aims it in the vigilante's direction. "Bloody hell," he says, his accent suggesting he's from across the pond. His eyes widen when he sees who he's dealing with. "I'm good with talking," he says. "Going to lower the weapon, and we can do that."

His head twitches with the telltale sign of getting traffic over an ear mic. << Will try not to, or be beaten up, slight change of plans," he mutters into comms before continuing. <<Come find me ASAP. Local trouble, Babs may have to wait>>

Dick Grayson has posed:
Nightwing nods, "Well, we're off to a good start, at least. I'm Nightwing, I work with Batman. Let's start with the basics.. what are you and your friend after in Gotham? If you're not criminals, I can probably help. Are you part of an organized group, or just taking up the rooftop life on your own? If so, you should know that Batman doesn't generally like outsiders taking things into their own hands here in Gotham."

For the moment, he's staying where he is, not knowing the capabilities of the frame the man wears and seeing no reason to put himself any closer to it until there's a better idea of exactly what's going on here.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    The central cache of weapons Babs has collected includes all kinds of things. One of them being a javelin missile. She picks up the heavy weapon, loads, it, then moves quickly through her maze of safe pathways to gain access to the roof again. She aims and looks down the scope of the javelin computerised display at the two figures on the roof top not too far away.

    It can only lock on to one of the two heat signatures, so she goes with the hotter one - Lance - and listens to the fire tone before pressing the trigger.

    From a roof top not too far away a missile suddenly launches up in to the sky, straight up. At its peak it begins to turn and locks back on to the heat signature targeted and begins to fall. Four fins expands to control its descent and maintain its trajectory toward the target.

    Babs disappears back down in to the building, leaving the javelin launcher behind. She can collect it later once these foes are dealt with.

    Bobbi replies to Lance <<Working on it, it's not that close even by the crow flies. Villain? if one of the top ten back off.. don't let them see you>>

Lance Hunter has posed:
For a moment Hunter almost says he's SHIELD before sense gets the better of habit. "I'm independent but not looking to step on the Big Bat's cape," Hunter explains. "After the woman across the way, she's a doppleganger, trying to bring her in for the reward?" What reward? Who knows! He just made it up. "Wanna lend a hand, there'll be some green in it for you, buy yourself an even fancier wardrobe," he says wryly before he catches sight of the missile and leaps from the rooftop, shouting "Get out of here!" and hoping he drops faster than the missile can compensate. As for the landing? The suit handles that, landing hard with the suqeal of metal as the shock absorbtion rig screams in protest at the abuse.

<< Bat but now bloody Babs has a rocket launcher, gonna need you to step on it Bobs we can use the backup. >>

Dick Grayson has posed:
When Lance mentions a doppleganger, Nightwing curses quietly. He thought they had finished that particular disaster. He starts to ask, "Any idea whose doppel-" when Lance yells and leaps. His body language isn't 'I'm trying to distract you' it's 'Oh crap', so Nightwing reacts accordingly, throwing himself backwards and off the far side of the water tower, clearing the area as quickly as he can.

As the missile roars down from the sky, he ducks down behind the base of the tower to avoid the blast if it impacts the roof rather than following Lance down off the building.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    <<Which Bat?>> Bobbi asks and then hears the explosion, as does half of Miagani Island no doubt. Like a signal pyre drawing her near, Bobbi can see the large explosion ripping through abandoned apartments in the Narrows. Tactical jumps to life on her goggles as she activates it and she spies the nearby heat signatures. There's Dick.. there's Lance.. there's several people in that other apartment.

    <<I'm here>> Bobbi says over comms and lands on top of the apartment complex where the javelin missile launcher has been abandoned. The wings on her back are extended and glowing an eerie purple distorted by the heavy rain crashing down around them. The fires from the missile strike are starting to self extinguish. Thank goodness for Gotham rain.

    <<Are you okay honey?>> she checks as the wings tuck in and she drops down in to the ruined building. The floor is covered in moss where age and rain has given it a chance to grow. The floor boards are cracked and creak as she walks forward.

    Her foot catches on a trip wire, "Shit!" and a crossbow bolt is suddenly fired at her. Her suit tactical warns her before she can even see or hear it and she dives to the side. The distinct sound of a a grenade losing its pin is heard and she pushes off the floorboards in a leap around the corner. The grenade explodes as Bobbi's hard landing collapses part of the floor and drops her down a level. <<There's traps!>> she exclaims catching her breath <<I'm okay!>>.

Lance Hunter has posed:
Lance dives for cover as the missile hits, debris raining down into the street, he covers his head with his arms.

Once it's stopped he answers << Nightwing, and I'm alright so far, bloody missiles... clearly Babs is a bit miffed we sent her man home >> before he hears about th traps. << Careful Bobs,going to confirm Nightwing's still with us, then I'm on the way to join you >>

Calling aloud he shouts, "Hey, you still alive mate?" using the frame to leap back up to the damaged rooftop to look for the vigilante.

Dick Grayson has posed:
Nightwing stands up from where he took cover and moves over to where Lance has ended up. "Yeah, it was aimed at you, looks like. I'm kind of used to dealing with explosions at this point. Given you jumped back up here, I'm guessing you're ok. Who's this doppelganger a double of? We've had a rash of the things past few months, some of them far more dangerous than others. I can call in help if we need it."

Looking up he notes the missile's trail leading back towards another building and adds, "Looks like your target is over that way, should we go take a look?"

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    "Attention Teacup and Snowflake," comes the sound from several bluetooth speakers strategically arranged around the place. It challenges the sound of the rain but can be still heard, "...you made a huge mistake hurting my Lancelot and I'm going to make you suffer. No more nice Babs. You've never had to fight for everything in your life, you're too weak to face me. Keep following if you want to experience immeasurable pain. If not, just wait - I will be coming for you all."

    <<Jesus you think Lance? We might have hit a sore spot. To be fair, I think I'd be this pissed if someone kidnapped you too..>> she says as she stands back up. She can see the blast pattern of shrapnel in the wall above her. Her eyes refocus down the dark corridor ahead of her. The carpet is old royal red but faded and the wallpaper has mostly fallen off the walls. The broken light fixtures and graffiti tell her local teens likely explore these buildings from time to time.

    <<Nightwing... good. I've fought with him before. We can trust him. I don't think Babs is going to go down easy. I'm going to try and find her, draw her fire so she's not focused on you two.. well.. that's the theory>> she replies.

    Her heat vision sweeps through the doors and she sees the first potential. A shoulder barge blows the door off of its hinges and she steps in to see a heat lamp on wires. She unplugs it from the battery and frowns, <<Decoys>>.

Lance Hunter has posed:
Lance tries to listen to both his comms and Nightwing all at once and is for once surprisingly successful at it. "Do you know someone going by Mockingbird?" he asks the man. "She seems to know you, she's the bird," he grins. "No pun intended, with the wings across the way, the doppleganger is of her, blonde, and even more annoying than the original," he says before making a face. "Goes by Babs if you can believe that?" he says as if that was proof of her irredeemable nature. "Anyhow, yeah, game to go if you are mate, seems like this double is ready to throw down hard."

And with that he starts heading for the building across the way. << On the way to you, going to come in through the roof unless you've got a better spot for us >>

Dick Grayson has posed:
Nightwing nods, "Mockingbird? Ok, good, yeah, I know her. At least the doppel isn't of someone like Superman or something. Mockingbird's dangerous enough as it is, but with three of us, I imagine we can manage to deal with her."

He also heads over, leaping off the edge of the building and firing a line over to swing to the building in question, quickly climbing to the roof and looking around. Seeing the spot where the grenade opened the roof and dropped Bobbi down, he heads over and jumps in as well.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    <<Come on in>> she encourages and then looks up as Nightwing dives in, not far behind Lance. She grins, "Nice to see you again Nightwing." She offers a hand shake. But then for Lance she gives a hug, even with his exo-suit on, "Teacup." She chuckles a touch.

    She points, "We've got heat signatures and we've got traps, and somewhere in here we've got Babs. She's out for blood." Pointing down the corridor she just came from, "We should split up, be wary of traps, try and flank her."

    "BABS!," Bobbi calls out loudly, "Lancelot is SAFE back on your world. Surrender and we will send you back to him!" Silence in return. Bobbi shrugs, "Well it was worth a try. I wish we'd brought a dwarf with us right about now."

Lance Hunter has posed:
"Should do," Hunter says about managing the one doppleganger. "But clearly she's not pulling any punches."

He leaps across to the other building and drops down behind Nightwing giving Bobbi a hug as he does. "Never goes easy," he says when Babs doesn't reply to Bobbi's offer. "I'll take point, since I've go all this," he gestures at the suit and its armour. He starts down the hall switching his optics to heat vision.

That doesn't indicate that there's floor missing under a rug though and he falls through to the floor below his arms and legs jolted by sudden impacts.

"Bloody hell," Lance calls up. "She put out /bear traps/" he says, "Well guess we know they've got Looney Toons on their world now," he says. "Keep your eyes peeled for coyotes with rockets strapped to them and falling anvils," he says before prying himself free of the traps biting down on his suit and leaping back to the upper floor.

Dick Grayson has posed:
Nightwing flips through several vision modes on his mask before carefully cracking a door to try and move around in the direction the others are heading without grouping up to make them all a nice target. The door is untrapped, so he peeks in and scans the room. "Things are a little less Acme in this room, but I've got it handled."

He raises his arm, pointing the armored vambrace at the wall of the room and there's a quiet *PHUT* of compressed gas. Though not obvious to the others, it has the desired effect. A small EMP pellet impacts the wall and detonated silently, frying the electronic detonators of the claymore mines implanted in the wall.

AP Mines disabled, he moves into the room and scans the doorway leading into the next room, expecting another trap given this 'Babs' track record so far.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi nods her head, "Don't die." She says it to both of them and then heads off in the third direction. It seems she chose wisely as there are no obvious traps. But there is, however, Babs.. with an M40 grenade launcher. Bobbi's eyes widen as the weapon makes its distinct *thmp* noise launching a grenade her way.

    Bobbi crashes through another door as the hallway explodes behind her. The wall then explodes and part of the floor. Babs fires a third time and Bobbi dives down through the hole in the floor. Bobbi takes a beat to catch her breath and check her heart rate monitor. The readouts indicate she's starting to get small spikes. She can feel it too.

    Babs moves quickly down to the other hall way and leans her shoulder in to the scoped rifle with armor piercing rounds she has pointed that way. Safety off, finger on the trigger, she slows her breathing down as she takes aim for Nightwing to walk around that corner.

    Lance leaping back in to the hall way can hear a disturbing sound, the sound of a weapon that causes some agents nightmares. An automated gatling gun. It beeps softly, each time it completes its search cycle. It's just down around the corner and has a great line of sight to rip anyone apart with its bullets. Autonomous weapons are outlawed in most countries for a reason.

Lance Hunter has posed:
Hunter freezes at the sound of the automated weapon whirring on a search pattern in the next hall. He moves slowly doing a full 360 degree sweep around him making sure there's no more of them around and in line of sight before he goes onto the comms << They've got bloody automated gatling guns in the hallways, watch yourselves," he says before he makes his move.

Circling to where there's a wall between him and the gun, he waits until he can hear the gun turn away on its sweep before he bursts through the wall Kool Aid Man style exo suit enhanced hands reaching for the weapon to yank it apart.

Dick Grayson has posed:
Nightwing moves into the next room, cycling through vision modes with the result that Babs heat outline becomes visible through the wall ahead of him. He nods and moves up until he can just spot the tip of the rifle barrel, then the wrist launcher comes unto play again.

The air launched pellet this time explodes with a bright flash and concussion, and he follows it down the hallway at top speed to engage her before she can recover from the flashbang.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Babs catches the flashbang right in the tactical goggles she's using. They're nothing like SHIELDs but they do protect her just enough that she pulls the trigger and immediately leaps up to fight the blue and black blur attacking her. Her vision is a mess and her ears are ringing.

    She fights like a scrappy version of Mockingbird and she has armor strapped to her fore arms and is using it to block the blows from Nightwing.

    The automated weapon turns back toward Lance in a snap when he exits through the wall like Ironman. The bullets begin to fly but only a few of them land and even then they hit armor before he can get to the weapon itself pull it free of its computerised aiming system.

    Bobbi jumps back up and chases after Babs in time to see her engaging him hand to hand. A puff of smoke fills the room as Babs drops a smoke bomb and rushes back through another door. Two more heat signatures that way mask which one is her.

    Bobbi looks to Nightwing and Lance as they all make it to what looks like a room with a small weapons cache. Lots of machine guns, a rocket launcher, another automated gatling gun not set up, grenades, plastic explosives. "Holy shit.. just what was she planning to do with all this stuff? What would _I_ have done in her position."

    She frowns and starts tossing guns out of the way to reveal.. a bomb, "Bomb." She grabs the device and charges at the wall, bursting through it and out in to the rain outside. Her wings snap back in to shape and she flies up in to the sky looking for a water source to dump it in -- the water tower will have to do.

Lance Hunter has posed:
Tossing the turret to the ground, << Mockingbird you alright? >> he calls hearing Bobs crashing through a wall after shouting a warning about a bomb. He starts to move in the direction of that crash exo suit's enhancement and armour letting him run through the trap filled structure. Or at least that's the hope.

Dick Grayson has posed:
Nightwing spots multiple heat signatures through the wall and door of the next room, so doesn't have as easy a time of it on this go. Instead, he backs into the hallway and presses a button on his wrist launcher, then sweeps it across the wall and door. Multiple pellets shoot out, each exploding like a mini-grenade as they impact, blowing several windows into the next room where Babs waits.

Once this is done, he rolls backwards out of line of sight.. being able to see her means she can see him as well, and he has an aversion to being punctured. He shouts, "Careful, I just opened some windows to her!" in hopes that Lance is ready and doesn't set himself up as a target for her.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi flies up to the water tower and drops the bomb in. Its explosion sends out quite the shock wave as water comes splashing down over the abandoned apartment building. The tower is ruined and Bobbi tumbles back in the air. <<Yeah.. I'm good>>

    Babs takes cover as the wall explodes poking out lots of little windows. She returns the favour by making tiny tiny bullet hole sized windows back. They aren't randomly sprayed either, they start where Dick was and follow his trajectory and don't stop just because he disappeared. She tries to track him through the wall.

    The sound of her moving about and repositioning herself is evident. The gun she's using has a silencer on it.. but now that they've gotten a look in there it seems like this might be her last line of defence.

    Several explosions follow and knock Lance about. The exo-suit keeping him together and protecting him from the shrapnel, though not the percussive hits. Bobbi swoops back in through the hall in the wall and takes cover behind a crate. The sound of rain outside and the smell of the ozone fill the room. Bobbi catches her breath and whispers to Lance and Grayson, "Any ideas?"

Dick Grayson has posed:
Nightwing deploys a tiny drone from his armor that buzzes over near the holes in the wall and gives him a view of the room and Babs' location in it. Once he's got a good idea where she is, he takes a deep breath and takes a running start, leaps across the hallway, lands with both feet halfway up the wall and pushes off into a somersault down the hallway. Halfway through, the launcher comes into play again, another compressed gas charge sending a projectile though the hole and into Babs' neck.

The tranq dart discharges enough tranquilizer to drop an ox upon embedding itself in her skin, which, unless she has some way of overcoming the effect, will mosly likely result in her collapsing to the floor in a boneless heap. Nightwing lands on his feet and rolls, keeping moving until he's sure she isn't going to be shooting at him any more.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi counts for a few seconds as Nightwing takes the initiative. She draws her ICER and rises up from behind her cover and approaches the room. It looks like Babs is out like a light. She pushes open the door and then crouches down, kicking her gun away and checking her pulse. It's slow.

    "You got her," she says with a small breath of relief. Cuffs come out and she cuffs her hands behind her back. She picks up her doppelganger like she were a ragdoll, despite not having any obvious signs of an exo-suit of her own.

    "Thank you Nightwing. Looks like we owe you one," she says with a smile.. including Lance in that debt of gratitude. She steps out to meet up with Lance and Nightwing, "Babs and her husband Lancelot have been giving us a lot of grief over the last month. We caught Lancelot last week in New York just after Babs tried to murder a bartender in upstate New York. I'll get her in to the custody of ARMOR ... sorry for all the damage she's caused in your city."

Lance Hunter has posed:
Lance breathes a sigh of relief when Babs is taken down. He emerges from cover, and nods in agreement about the debt of gratitude, before making a face at his double's choice of name. "Lancelot, who would willingly go by that?" he wonders aloud. "Anyhow will be glad to get them back in their own world," he says. "And yeah, if you need any help, Nightwing, reach out to Mockingbird, we'll come give you a hand, least we can do for the trouble Babs caused tonight."

Dick Grayson has posed:
Nightwing nods and comes over, "I thought we were done with the doppelganger thing, apparently there's still some cleanup to do. Has SHIELD gotten any indication of new ones crossing, or are these just leftovers?"

He waves off the apology, "Our own supervillains do as much or worse quite often, so that's no big thing. But if you do come back in, contact me, will you? Not all the Bats are that friendly, don't want to see any trouble start. I'm always around to help out, and Batman will be happier if one of us is escorting you."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    "Well, I'm not exactly in the loop at ARMOR, but it's my understanding that we're talking about leftovers. Their world seems to have exhausted the ability to cross over.. that means the ones that are left are more tenacious than most," Bobbi says.

    She smirks and nods her head, "You got it Nightwing. We will figure out a way..." because it's not as easy as just phoning a friend when secret identities are on the line.

    She looks back to Lance with a grin, "We did it.. and dang that exo-suit works well. You were smashing all kinds of stuff." She glances outside, "Are you good for exfil?" Her wings snap back open, her exfil and transport of Babs is by air for the most part.. at least until they make it back to their SUV which they parked on the city edge.

Lance Hunter has posed:
"You got it," Hunter promises about giving the Bats a heads up before rolling into town in the future. Grinning back he says, "Well I know I'll be breathing easier," he tells Bobbi, before he nods confirming he's ready to go. "Later Nightwing," he says "Thanks for the assist." Then the agents are on their way.