8023/Forget it, Kate. It's Chinatown.

Forget it, Kate. It's Chinatown.
Date of Scene:	28 September 2021
Location:	Warehouses - Chinatown
Synopsis:	No description
Cast of Characters:	Dinah Lance, Naria Shepard, Kate Kane

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Dinah Lance has posed:
Dinah, contrary to what some might think, isn't an airhead. She's impulsive. Emotional. Stubborn. But there is a head on those shoulders, and she does have experience in actual investigation, tracking, interrogation and other tools of the street hero trade.

And she has another advantage in this affair over Kate: she speaks the language.

This is what she's put to good effect. Hanging around in Chinatown incognito, listening in on conversations that foolish people thought she couldn't understand, questioning a few of those she overheard when they were alone (the questioning involved no small amount of pain), she finally traced the shipment (and more importantly, her bike!) to a warehouse.

Then the messages.

~Kate: I found the truck and my bike. Meet me at ...~
~Rave: I found the truck and my bike. Meet me at ...~

She naturally wanted to bring Rave along. She's so adorable in her newbie way! (And, yes, OK, also having a speedster helps!)

At the appointed time, up on the appointed roof, lurking in the shadows in her costume, she awaits the pair's arrival.

Naria Shepard has posed:
Patience wasn't always easy when you were an exciteable person. Pair that with the ability to cross the globe in under a minute and the wait for the call was near agony for a certain neon-bluenette speedster. She'd performed, she'd travelled around the city, she'd even gone out for a drink...still nothing. They -were- going to call her right?

Currently perched on the edge of a rooftop with her legs over the side, the young woman was nursing the soda she'd picked up as part of a snack and...was waiting.

It sucked....oh?! A beep!

Pretty much the second the clock ticks to the appointed moment the blue neon comet zoomed across the city, Rave arriving about as subtly as she ever did.

Kate Kane has posed:
Batwoman was out breaking skulls and crushing nards when the call from Dinah came over her HUD. Holding one leg up, mid punch into the inside thigh of a goon linked to the Castillo crime family, she blank stared down at the groaning thug when he went into pleas and instead answered the more pressing matter of a message from Dinah.

~ Give me fifteen.

The shadows cast across her red hair hanging along the side of her cowl pulled away as she turned towards her victim laying on the cement craddling his marbles. "Turns out we don't have any more time for playing around..." Pistol out, chamber racked, and pointed down at him. He doesn't have to know it's unloaded. "Talk."

He does, for those who keep track of things.

Fifteen minutes later, she's crouched on a roof acces behind Dinah with her arms resting on her thighs. "Where's the kid-... there's the kid." Stepping down, she steps over to look down into the are Dinah chose. "I'm proud of you for detectiving, by the way." To Dinah.

Dinah Lance has posed:
"Well, I'm not Batman, but I did actually learn this stuff!" Dinah says, half-pleased and half-miffed at the praise. Pleased at getting it. Miffed at the surprise being registered. "I mean this literally runs in the family! Third generation here!"

Rave's arrival gets a bit of a wince. She pinches the bridge of her nose, closing her eyes a moment, then gently suggests, "Uh, Rave, maybe next time come most of the way here fast, and go slowly for the rest. If I'd picked that site instead, your arrival would have been seen by the watchman right ..." She leans out and points carefully. "... there. These guys aren't messing around. There's more than a truck partially filled with weapons and my bike in there, after all."

She glances over the place, musing. "The kind of heat they've got on, actually, it's probably something big. Likely why they wanted the weapons. HQ? Drug processing? Human trafficking storage facility? I couldn't get answers on what's inside."

She leans back into the shadows. "Which is why we need to be on point today. We go in quiet. Assess and decide. Then either go noisy, or go ninja." A stubborn look crosses her face. "But we're not leaving without my bike!"

Naria Shepard has posed:
"Oh uh...right..." Akward, perhaps she'd been a little overeager, but Rave was here. Moving at a more natural and less 'glowy' speed, the speedster moves to lean down and look over the space and the gathering of mooks and lookouts visible from here. Without any fancy toys or even basic binoculars she can only sort of squint and try to take the details in before leaning back and out of sight.

Arms crossed at her midriff with a little sheepish look, the speedster exhales a breath.

"I'm not....super great at being sneaky. Between the glowy hair and all. I'd have to move at normal speed for it to not look like a lightshow."

Kate Kane has posed:
Batwoman takes a position to get a better view of what Dinah is pointing out, barely hiding a smirk beneath the bottom of her cowl at the blondes response to her playful jab. Rave draws the redheads attention, "So everytime you run, you glow?" Hard to see it, but her eyes flick over to Dinah behind the white out lenses of her mask, "That's going to be problematic. Going to have to learn to use something other than those abilities.."

Turning back forward, "I'll take out the lookout there." Pointing at one of the Chinese thugs standing barely concealed on the roof of the far warehouse. "That should give access there-" Pointing at a section of fence closer to where the trio is standing.

"Work slowly, knock them out... and we'll see what they're up to."

"Then get your bike back..." Added as she whips out a grapple gun and fires a line toward the steel crane used to load containers onto ships at the dock. She's gone in a wheeeee of realed line, throwing her up and into a dark silhouette glide towards her intended target.

Dinah Lance has posed:
"Hmmm... OK, Rave, if that glow can't be shut off, we'll have to work around it for now. I'll join Kate in a bit and scout for a way you can walk up. Can you ... like ... wear a hood or something to cover up the hair? Then you can walk over there, after me, once I signal, and be our Big Gun when things go South or when we find something that needs a frontal attack, OK?"

Dinah patiently points out a route Rave could follow that would keep her out of sight of the front guards while Kate and she took out the rear ones.

"Remember, don't join us until I wave!"

And then she, too, is gone. She doesn't have Kate's fancy gadgets, but for that she can tumble, run fast, and move like a ghost. And, as she suspected, at ground level, before the fence is even visible, there was a pair of guards, smoking and yapping, apparently not expecting any action.

The first goes down as Dinah leaps across the narrow alley from the second floor, landing one booted foot on his shoulder. The sickening crunch followed by the loud CRACK of his skull against the concrete slab wall takes him out of action (and consciousness (and likely circulation)) for a time. The follow-up kick to his companion knocks a weapon flying into the air, before a one-two-three combo of punches to the throat and jaw knock him down like a poleaxed steer. The AK-47 clone comes back down and is handily caught, mag removed and tossed into a shadowed corner.

Meanwhile, up on the roof, the THUNK of Kate's clawed grip attracts the attention of the thug who walks across to figure out where the noise came from. Looking up in the gloom where the claw gripped, his back to Kate, he falls easily to her arrival. It's a trivial body-slam-kick to the upper spine to send him sprawling to the floor and knowing no more. A handgun slips across the roof, however, before striking a pipe. The clang attracts the attention of the guards at the fence level who look up, trying to work out what's making noises up on there.

Dinah steps out from her alley and waves Rave across, getting her closer to the main point of action before slipping forward toward the fence pair.

Naria Shepard has posed:
"I mean, if I run any faster than like...normal sprint-y person..." she begins to explain, but Kate's exit has her giving a low whistle and shaking her head. "Hell, I don't even really have pockets on this outfit, let alone toys like that..." back to Dinah's explaination has her attention back, the girl was exciteable, but she was hardly an idiot. She could listen, she could understand the plan...and she'd pull her jacket hood up enough to cover her hair after tying it back as best she could. It would suffice unless she started actively using her powers!

The wave has Rave scrambling across at a decent but non-glowy pace...that felt like it took -far- too long for the speedster. When she reaches the Canary there's a light whince at the downed guard. That looked like it hurt!

Kate Kane has posed:
Batwoman is on the move after dropping the roof guard, vaulting over the wall down into the gap between the two warehouses near the fence. Her cape flares out like a parachute and slows her descent enough that when she lands on one knee, it's not with a hard thump. It's with a flurry of blows.

Right palm slaps out into one of the guards throat, catching his Adams Apple with the curve between her index finger and thumb. Her left hand comes up, pushing the pistol in his palm away from her with her finger between the trigger and the trigger guard to keep him from accidentally firing off a shot.

The other, kind of perplexed for a half second, catches a stomp to the inside of his knee. He goes down onto that knee when it crumbles beneath his weight and her kick. Long enough that she can yank the gun she'd pinned against the wall down, step forward, and twist the owner over her hip onto the cement. Twisting his wrist and elbow until he lets loose of the weapon... pushing his head painfully in the wrong direction with her knee against his jaw.

Once he stops struggling, she brings her grapplegun up and fires it at the goon trying to struggle for his dropped weapon. It hits him in the shoulder like a beanbag round from a mossburg.

Moving to snake her arm around the underside of his jaw, latched onto his back, to put him to sleep with an ever tightening rear naked....

Breathing hard, she looks around from beneath the goon snoozing ontop of her. A hand pushes him off so she can kip up and dust herself off.

Dinah Lance has posed:
Dinah, watching with Rave from the alley leading to the fenced zone, admires the economical brutality of Batwoman's work before tapping Rave on the back. "OK, let's get up there. Don't speed. We've got to get ingress, but that's my job. And once inside, there's probably more goons."

Joining Batwoman with Rave by her side, she continues the plan.

"I'll do the lock. Kate, you kick the door. Rave, you go inside and erase consciousness from anybody on the inside. Make sure there's no gunfire or alarms raised, OK?"

Without waiting for confirmation, she's at the door, crouched, lockpicks in hand as she ever-so-silently picks the locks, opening the door just a hair for Kate's kick.

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate stacks up on the left side of the door, watching their six while Dinah works the lock open... Then moves around to step into a front kick that would send any door swinging off it's hinges. But it doesn't actually swing off it's hinges... it swings into what could honestly be considered a mountain of a man.

Possibly the biggest Chinese man in Gotham City catches the door against the curve of his massive chest and then catches Kate by the throat with a hand as big as her head. He doesn't choke her or try to lift her, he just shoves...

And she complies because he's that god damned big.

Tumbling backwards against the wall leaving him there ready for someone (Rave because she's next) to do something (beat him up, he's huge.)

Naria Shepard has posed:
Following along, the brutal hand to hand displays from both brings another whince as she watches the Batwoman dispense with the pair. How the heck did she move like that in a cape?! Especially without the speed to rely on like she had. It would be pretty frightening if she was a 'bad guy' herself, but for the bluenette it was simply something to geek out over. Later, of course, because now was time to move.

The door had been kicked, the bad guy had grabbed Batwoman, clearly the time for subtle had passed and that fine by Rave!

A rush of blue light flows, but it wasn't Rave surging forwards, instead the girl was still standing there with her hand outstretched as the 'hard light' burst slammed into the man's chest with the force of a hammer blow. Probably better than burning a hole through him!

Then she was moving, that after-trace behind her looking much like someone waving a glowstick in the dark as she zipped upwards and jumped, throwing her weight into her feet as she drove both into his face.

She didn't have much mass by comparison, but there was plenty of acceleration behind the girl who lands heavy post-kick on her side with an audible 'Oompf!'

Dinah Lance has posed:
"Always a joy watching that symphony of destruction of yours in action, Batwoman," Dinah says to her companion as she slips in to deal dam...

Damn.

Blue Girl Group is VICIOUS!

With a very, very, very confused expression on his face, consciousness slipping fast, the large Chinese gentleman (point of order, he's Mongolian, and likely trained as a sumo before slipping into a life of crime) collapses to the floor as energy equals mass times velocity squared shows once again why we fire small bullets fast instead of large bullets slow.

Letting out a slight curse, however, she slips behind the guy as he starts his "timber!" routine and grunts as part of his torso weight hits her.

But then she lets him down to the ground slowly to minimize noise.

"Well done, Rave!" she says. "That's the kind of fire support I was picturing, yes. Now let's get in and find out what this place is for!" Beat. "And get my bike."

Shades of The Dude here, that obsession with her bike.

Kate Kane has posed:
Batwoman struggles to her feet, cape all ajar on her and twisted around her waist. "I'm good." She is, now back on her feet with a breath and a pistol in hand. "Alright... strong work blue." Up nod to Dinah. Ready to advance,

"Clear right, I'll go left?" To Rave, since Dinah is tied up thinking about her vehicle. Which is understandable since she raised it from a tricycle.

Naria Shepard has posed:
Back to her feet in a 'zip' of blue light since she'd esssentially fired a laser a moment ago, Rave dusts herself off a little and looking back between the two...alright, so she was grinning, clearly not above enjoying the praise from the pair.

Looking back to Kate and her nod she rolls her shoulders a little while light dances between her fingertips.

"Got it. I'll hold off on the whole 'Pew-pew' thing until I hear you yell or start shooting."

Dinah Lance has posed:
Dinah snorts at Kate's jab. "I'm head in the game, Belfrywoman. It's just there's two objectives: find out what this place is (and maybe shut it down) and recover my bike." Still the plan is sound. Just one modification. "I'll go with you, Blue. You and I will cover right, just, let me go ahead a bit because you're as stealthy as a musk ox. In heat. In the middle of a flower shop. On 'all pots half off' day."

Says the woman whose primary means of attack is screaming.

Kate's trip to the left enters a warehouse proper, stacked floor to ... well above the floor (but not to the second-storey catwalks) with boxes labelled in Chinese and only in Chinese (contrary to a lot of regulations). Workers are walking with purpose in their stride all over, but are clearly not expecting intruders and are easy to avoid. Especially if Kate goes up.

Dinah and LaserHair's trip to the right ends in a little cul-de-sac: a stretch of hallway with doors (six in total) three to the side.

"Huh. Admin area?" Dinah wonders aloud. She freezes then. "Shit. Camera." She pulls Rave back against the wall just outside a bend. "Can you disable it and be back without getting spotted?"

Kate Kane has posed:
Ha ha ha Kate makes a laugh face at Dinah without making any laugh sound, then wraps inside to the left to start clearing that section of the warehouse. Almost instantly she, yes, goes up. Landing on the catwalk where she's less likely to get intercept by some pleb ass dock worker just going through the routine of moving that box, to that spot, from this spot. For some other dude to put it back in a few hours like they're automatons.

Suffice that she has noted there's a lot of Chinese words on these boxes.

<<"If nothing, we've got them on a few hundred thousand dollars worth of customs violations.">> Said quietly to Dinah.

Moving with her gun up in a low crouch to present a much smaller surface area to be spotted.

Naria Shepard has posed:
"What the heck is a Belfrey?" Rave murmers aloud before they're moved on. Without a comlink of her own she'd not be able to hear the play between the pair once they're out of direct earshot, but none the less she's following along behind the blonde bombshell. The sight of the camera however? That has Rave glancing around, chewing her bottom lip. It wasn't like her 'glow' lingered for more than a couple of seconds, as long as noone came around the corner or out of those doors...

"Sure, I can figure something out..."

Then she's gone, a streak of light zipping so fast that her form was practically engulfed in that glow as she moves straight to the camera...and after a few moments in the ato-seconds of consideration, simply unplugs the device from every connection and cable attached from it before kicking back to normal speed leaving her standing below device giving a beckoning wave to Dinah.