7162/Doing That Hero Thing

Doing That Hero Thing
Date of Scene:	31 July 2021
Location:	Abandoned Warehouse - Chinatown
Synopsis:	Nightwing and Batgirl bust the plans of Punchline and some of Joker's gang to steal some chemicals.
Cast of Characters:	Dick Grayson, Stephanie Brown

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Dick Grayson has posed:
    As is the case almost any night, there are Bats making their way around Gotham, be it on rooftops or through the streets. So it is that when a call from a security guard is picked up by Oracle and relayed to Batgirl and Nightwing, neither of them are too far from the area.

    The report is of unknown activity in one of the warehouses by the docks where there should be none at this time of night. They both make their way to the docks, arriving within a couple minutes of each other.

    <<Ok Batgirl, let's move in and see what we're dealing with.>>

    Nightwing fires a line to the top of a crane, then deploys his glide wings and lands quietly on the roof of the warehouse, waiting for Batgirl to join him.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
On a tall radio tower down the block from the warehouse, a figure hangs, cape pulled about her to help break up her form if it should be glimpsed against the night.

<< I hope it's someone we get to pound. I am kind of behind on my cardio this week. >> Batgirl reaches down to her utility belt, pulling out her line launcher. She aims it towards the crane that Nightwing is currently gliding down from, and a line shoots out towards it while another shoots from the other side to lock onto the antennae. The result is like a tight rope. Batgirl activates the line launcher, hanging from it by a hand as it quietly whirs down the line, pulling her with it. Once she's nearing the warehouse, she lets go, doing a flip before deploying her cape's gliding form to allow her to land lightly on the rooftop beside Nightwing. << Maybe a few Maggia? Been awhile since I've heard groans of pain with an Italian accent. >>

Dick Grayson has posed:
    <<You know, if you need cardio, we do have a gym in the house. But let's take a look at what we're dealing with.>>

    Nightwing moves over to a plastic skylight, one of those opaque white ones you can't see through. It's locked, but that's only the work of a moment as he pulls lockpicks from his utility belt. Opening it just enough to slip in, he ends up on one of the structural beams.

    There are lights at one end of the warehouse that look like flashlights, not the normal lighting of the warehouse, another hint that the activity here is not business as usual.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
The second shadow slips through the skylight behind Nightwing, as Batgirl closes it quietly and then creeps along a girder over to get a view of a different area.

<< Probably just lost their car keys or something >> Batgirl says as she watches the lights moving about. She jumps out into space, catching another girder and using it to swing and launch herself to another vantage point where she can try to get a better look at exactly what the people are doing below.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    As Batgirl moves in and clears the crates that were blocking direct sight of the people, a far too familiar sight greets her. Four men wearing clown masks are loading large chemical containers onto dollies under the supervision of a woman. She has a painted face and is wearing a black jumper over a purple bodysuit. She has knives sheathed on her belt, and is urging the men to move faster.

    As Nightwing also moves up into visual range and takes in the group, he sighs a little. <<Joker gang again. You want the woman or the thugs?>>

Stephanie Brown has posed:
<< I'll take the boys and you take the girl, >> Batgirl offers. She repeats the gymnastics maneuver, positioning herself above the men. A line is quietly secured to the girder and Batgirl hangs upside down attached to the line.

When one of the men pauses with the container he's wheeling over, Batgirl drops down from above him like a spider. Facing the woman with the knives, they make eye contact as Batgirl says, "Marco!" and then grabs the man and is whisked back up towards the ceiling, cuffs already locking around the Joker gang member's wrists and the line secured to him to leave him hanging there in the air with her.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    Nightwing nods and fires a line to a support on the other side of the warehouse, then uses it to swing down, trying to swing feet first into the woman. She's quick though and avoids the attack. He releases the rope and lands on his feet, pulling his batons and taking up a fighting stance.

    The three remaining thugs pull out weapons, two with pistols and the largest one spiked brass knuckles. "Crap, it's bats! We gotta get out of here Punchline!"

    Punchline has pulled the knives from her belt and charges at Nightwing. She doesn't have much technique, but she's certainly enthusiastic about stabbing him. For the moment he's blocking her attacks, getting a feel for her skill level.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Batgirl lets go of the line, leaving her first opponent dangling from the line as she drops towards the ground again, using her cape to slow her fall as she lands in the middle of the three men.

"Get out of here this warehouse? Or get out of here, Gotham?" Batgirl asks as she pulls a small gold rod off for her utility belt. "Think of it like an IQ test. One answer is better than the other. Not that you're really showing yourselves to be brainiacs if you're following Joker," she says.

*THUNK*

Batgirl's staff opens up and she whirls it in a figure out pattern about herself as she takes a ready stance. The three men look at her and then at each other, and then over to Punchline who is fighting one of the other Bats. "Ah nuts!" one of them says and points his gun at Batgirl. She throws something to the ground and a cloud of dark smoke erupts around her, disappearing into it with a whirl of her cape as the man starts opening fire.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    The thug that was aiming at Batgirl fires three shots into the cloud, missing since he can't see her, but he's at least smart enough not to waste all his ammo. The three of them spread out around the cloud of smoke to try and flank Batgirl when she is visible again. Of course, they don't actually know where she is, so their plan may not work so well.

    In the meantime, Punchline has been hacking away at Nightwing, actually giving him a little trouble fighting her. He finally moves to attack, trying to land a strike between blocking her attacks.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Batgirl had whirled away from the spot she'd been standing, pulling up her cape so the bullet-resistant fabric would add to her costume's body armor should any of the shots get lucky. Her cowl's eyepieces drop down and give her infrared vision as she continues the spin, using to impart a little extra energy to the batarang she throws.

It comes flying out of the cloud of smoke, smacking the man right in the forehead of his clown mask. Thankfully not a sharpened one, but it's enough to rattle his brains and knock him down.

Batgirl steps out of the smoke, motioning towards where Punchline is trying to stab Nightwing. "See, it's not always good to bring a gun to a knife fight," Batgirl quips towards the downed clown.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    Now that she's visible, the larger thug charges her as the other starts shooting at her. Only one shot hits, and that is defeated by the ballistic armor she wears. He has to stop shooting however, as the large clown blocks his line of fire to her. He starts running to the side, trying to get a clear shot on her. The big clown swings at her with his brass knuckles, but given he's just a regular guy in a mask, she can probably avoid it easily.

    Punchline is now on the defensive, and her lack of technique shows when she's not using her anger to attack. Finally, a baton connects, and the electrical jolt puts her down. Nightwing looks over at Batgirl to see if she needs help, but since it looks like she's doing ok, he takes a moment to cuff Punchline.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Batgirl dodges, using her movement to keep the one goon between her and the gunman. The spiked knuckles pass by exceeding close, ripping a few strands of blond hair where they spill out from the back of her cowl.

"Hey! Shooting is fine, but leave the hair along!" Batgirl complains towards the man swinging her telescope staff at him, the man turning to take the blow from the much smaller young woman on his shoulder, giving a grunt of pain but then swinging at her again.

The metal armguards of Batgirl's suit deflect the spiked weapon as she blocks it. She drops her staff and grabs his head with both hands, pulling it down as she delivers a flying knee. Face meets knee and the blood spatter even makes it out of the sides of the mask as he goes down.

The gunman finally has a clean target. He shoots again, Batgirl whirling to use the cape protectively again, and then stepping forward. Her boot hooks her staff from the floor and launches it towards the man. Surprised, he catches it, only to find Batgirl followed the staff, arriving a moment later to slam a foot into the metal weapon and drive it into his chest. He falls over backwards and she delivers a knee to his head to knock him out. "Apparently guns don't work in a staff fight either," she says, patting his head.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    <<Nice work, Batgirl.>>

    He drags Punchline over to where the other thugs are and helps cuff them and tie them together so they're going nowhere, then puts a call in to the police to come pick them up.

    "I don't even want to think what they wanted these chemicals for, probably a new batch of Joker venom, I imagine. So chalk another one up for the good guys."

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Once the men and Punchline are secured, Batgirl makes a dusting her hands motion and then pulls off a glove to check a watch on her wrist. "What!? Only 1200 steps for that fight?" Batgirl says, turning her gaze towards the secured henchmen. "Penguin's men give me at least 2200 most days." She gives a disappointed sigh and shakes her head. "Slackers."

The glove is pulled back on and Batgirl picks up the lock of hair torn from her by the spiked knuckles. "The bad men, and woman, are vanquished. Gotham is safe. So... um.... ice cream?" she asks, batting her baby blues at Nightwing.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    With a grin, Nightwing replies, "Sounds good to me, let's swing by the house and change, then we'll find someplace that's open. I think we can knock off a little early tonight, caught a lieutenant at least and derailed Joker's plans for another day."

Looking over to the tied up thugs, he adds, "See? when you do bad stuff you don't get ice cream. Remember that." With that dire warning, he heads over to the open doors of the warehouse, waiting for Steph to also come out before closing the doors and putting a note that says, 'Bad guys tied up inside' on the door for the cops.

    That done, his grapple comes out and he uses it to rise into the night towards the promise of ice cream.