7868/Don't Blink

Don't Blink
Date of Scene:	17 September 2021
Location:	The Narrows
Synopsis:	Bluebird takes on a group of bad people doing bad things. Other bad things happen, and Orphan steps in as backup.
Cast of Characters:	Harper Row, Cassandra Cain
Tinyplot:	Rainbow Revenge

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Harper Row has posed:
It happened again. The Row apartment was attacked while Harper was at work. Its been months since Batman intervened in the attempted street on Cullen and his sister and so at this point the homophobic toughs have apparently become emboldened in the passage of time.

Harper comes home to find the door was kicked in. Stepping in she finds the living room in disarray and in the kitchen pots, pans, utensils and even food litter the floor.

"Cullen!" Harper's first reaction is fear for her brother. He should be here. School lets out before she gets out of work. Calling his name, she's afraid the worst has happened. Then she hears him call back out from the bathroom.

Eye already blackening, a bloody and broken nose, a split lip. He's attempted to care for himself and she does some additional first aid.

Once the first aid's completed she imposes on a trusted neighbor who was at work themselves when the assault occurred. She then, using the claim of cleaning up the apartment, departs and gears up for a hunt in anger.

Face 'hidden' behind tinted shooting glasses and hair swept up into a purple and blue fauxhawk, Harper's in her vigilante gear. Armored vest is worn under a blue leather jacket. Denim jeans in pistine condition. Steel-toed boots. She looks ready to kick ass

She found a couple of the gang members that have been terrorizing her brother and engaged them. Unfortunately, they weren't as alone as they initially seemed and now she's out numbered: six to one. She's been holding her own but with the numbers turning so far out of favor for her she's about to be overwhelmed...

Cassandra Cain has posed:
With weapons swinging at her, Harper may well be starting to rethink the logistics of this particular outing. She'd be smart to do so, but nobody said that being a vigilante was safe. And that's what she's doing, so she's as like to get this particular lesson now as later on.

Great time for Batman to show up and save the day again, though one really shouldn't go getting used to expecting that to happen. Even in Gotham, a man can only be in one place at a time.

A moment later one of the gangers has the upper hand, and things are looking pretty bad indeed. A baseball bat held over his head, he's about to decrease Harper's IQ by as much as he can manage under the circumstances, surgery not being an option, and he looks very much like he's about to do so when his war cry turns into an oddly truncated yelp.

The man/youth/idiot looks confused, his bat having vanished from his hands mid-swing. "What the eff?" he says, but without the censoring. Then he seems to leap backwards away from Harper, slamming into a nearby brick wall. Entirely by accident, since he'd never do that on purpose.

Cue Batman! Except nope. There doesn't appear to be anyone there, and the gangers are confused of a moment. They check on the guy, they pause. So when Harper feels a hand on her shoulder, it might be a surprise.

Asian girl?

Harper Row has posed:
This action is less planned vigilante and more active revenge seeking. Blocking a punch with an awkward looking 'wax off' and then turns toward the idiot recently disarmed of his bat as he flys backward and then she looks around as the others pause to check on their 'friend'.

And then the hand on her shoulder. She jumps. "What?!" she cries out as she turns as if to defend herself from a surprise attacker only to see an Asian girl. "You're not with them," she observes idly as she turns back towards the toughs to see if they are coming back at them, drawing one of her stunguns out of her pocket with a hand that has a bloodied knuckle that, should one look at the gangers close enough, matches up with a patch of recently split eyebrow on one of the young men.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Harper's words get a raised eyebrow from Cassandra, for this is she, and she looks up from the girl to the incoming attackers. She makes a little side-to-side motion with her head, then upnods at them. It takes all of two seconds, and eats up pretty much their entire breathing room. Not a word though, which is likely to be super weird.

She doesn't leap into action though. She instead leans back, allowing Harper to re-engage as she likes, and actually makes a bowing motion to indicate letting her go first.

Bit odd, but clearly she's not terrified. So that's nice.

Given the shouts and sudden attack of the incoming gangers, she might want to be terrified.

Harper Row has posed:
One man down, apparently at the hands of the Asian girl. At least one other injured to a degree. Harper targets the largest of the gangers with her stungun and pulls the trigger as he takes a step toward the two women.

The darts land firmly in the youth's center of mass and electricity courses down the wires into his body which begins to herk and jerk. With a gentle toss the gun is transferred to her left hand and another is drawn. Another shot, this one less well aimed (or better aimed?) hits one of the gay bashers lower than any man would like to ever think of leaving all of them wincing in pain. The other three, angered at the perceived disrespect, begin to rush the the two women.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Or there was three. The stungun actually makes the gangers a little bit nervous, and since the asian chick is apparently unarmed and kinda just standin' there, two of them grab at her! They struggle, looking for all the world like they're about to kill the little lady, when suddenly 'something' happens.

Even if you went back and reviewed it, it'd be hard to tell exactly. But what actually occurred, was Cassandra grasped them both by the wrists and then took a single step back and to one side, then turned her body around.

The action of twisting them together tangled the two up, and Cassandra wraps their arms around their own necks with a ducking motion that ends up with her standing between and in front of them, the two of them tied up behind her in a weird tangle.

It looks so ridiculous, but there's no way it happened that fast. And she appears to keep watching Harper work over the last guy as she stands there, her hands holding the guys rigid.

Harper Row has posed:
The remaining, uninjured, tough shows his true colors (yellow) by calling out, "It's a setup! Let's jet!"

All of them start to move away, some slowly others quickly. One replies, "Don't have t'axe me twice, bro!" as he clambers away.

Watching her brother's tormentors run, Harper looks about ready to givve chase even as she triggers the cables on both guns to begin to retract into their casing. "That's right, run you asses!" she instead yells after them as they depart. She then hides a wince as the pain in her side from a bat to the side from before the Asian girl showed up reaches the level of conscious awareness.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Cassandra, still holding her two, simply lets go of their hands and allows them freedom of movement. She steps back, then lets them make a decision. Do we want to continue this, or do we NOT want to do that thing?

Harper had been doing well, and some of the are already hurt. This new girl is basically manhandling them, and they have no idea what she did. So one of them decides to take a step toward her.

Half a second later, his friend is taking him under the arms and dragging him toward the exit, desperately scrabbling for distance. "RUN!" he shouts, nearly abandoning his friend in order to GTFO.

Cassandra apparently kicked the one guy, but damn it was fast. Then she's looking at Harper, shrugging amiably. Not, a, scratch.

Harper Row has posed:
Trying not to breathe heavily due to to the (hopefully only) bruised rib, Harper (wait, gotta remember it's Bluebird now), says, "Thanks, I... I needed the help," to the other girl and then, glancing around, adds, "I think that this isn't the best place for a conversation but I don't really know the correct protocols for this sort of thing either."

Cassandra Cain has posed:
The young lady looks at Harper, then points to her own mouth. She shakes her head, spreads her fingers, and then shrugs. She hasn't spoken, she isn't speaking, and that was very easily a hint that she may not be planning to speak any time soon. But she doesn't look as if she's in any significant rush to leave either.

A quick sign, pointing to Harper, then Cass lifts her gaze to look at the visible injuries, her eyes seeming to shift into concern. She tilts her head to the right slightly, then beckons to 'come closer'.

Harper Row has posed:
Frowning, Bluebird says, "How do I know I can trust you?" even as she moves closer. The Asian girl helped her in the fight after all so if she was truly a concern she'd've done something during the fight. "Are you... a part of the 'lifestyle'?" she asks, obviously unclear on the proper terminology for such things.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Unfortunately for the conversation, Cassandra only speaks around fifteen words of English. Lifestyle is so not on that list, and she simply looks at Harper as she makes sounds at her. The response is completely without any level of threat, though how well Harper can grasp that is up in the air.

Cassandra simply stares, waiting for Harper to come to a decision on her own. She offers no further evidence, but also no attempts to choke a bitch or stab or any of that fun stuff.

Considering how today started, that might actually be evidence!

Harper Row has posed:
Harper's stunguns, with their cables fully retracted, get pocketed into the jacket. She sighs at the blank stare she's getting from Cassandra. "You don't understand a word of what I'm saying, do you?"

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Cassandra looks at the face of the lady with the words, answering none of them. She looks at the alleyway, now empty of threats, then gives Harper a small smile. Not a huge one, but somehow she seems to convey...be careful? It might be something like that, though she does extend her fist to bump if wished. It looks as if she's leaving.

Harper Row has posed:
"You're leaving?" Harper asks, glancing over her shoulder in the direction the gangers ran off in. Then she turns back and the Asian girl is gone.

Finding a concealed place to get out of her gear is easy. Doing so with her injury, not so much.

Once home, an ace bandage is used to bind her chest and then she does do some cleaning. Neatening the livingroom and then disposing all the spoiled food. Dishes are gotten off the floor of the kitchen and then she retreats to her bed and goes to sleep with her kit tucked under her bed.