8224/Birds of a Feather

Birds of a Feather
Date of Scene:	13 October 2021
Location:	Gotham City's Internet Infrastructure
Synopsis:	When an Indian hacking group tries to take over the whole of Gotham's internet to steal credit card details from everyone and sell them in a fire sale to the highest bidder, Oracle is right behind and sends the Birds of Prey to the four corners of Gotham to protect the internet. They succeed and Oracle gets a long list of names to track down and punish.
Cast of Characters:	Barbara Gordon, Harley Quinn, Stephanie Brown, Helena Bertinelli, Natasha Cranston

---

Barbara Gordon has posed:
<n3cr0b1dd3r1337 you have been invited to chat room f1r35413_3>

Babs swivels from one screen overlooking Gotham to the other. One of her darkweb personas has managed to infiltrate the bhagavaan kee pakad's customer list. Fire sales. When hackers take over physical assets thanks to the digital age and then rapidly sell them off to the highest bidder.

The first was a small town in India named Yomkahn. The second was a failed Bulkan city named Jetkistan. Oracle enters the chat room and watches with keen eyes. An alert raises for the pier internet exchange at Port Adams. Her eyes look over the map and available assets. Lots of boots on the ground tonight, that's always good to see.

"Batgirl, we've a break in at the internet exchange, Port Adams. Big facility, lots of servers. That's where the big undersea cables meet Gotham. Check it out..."

<Oracle has entered #f1r35413_3>

<Welcome bidders. Tonight's delicious fire sale stars a giant dung heap of the world: Gotham City. We shall start the bidding at $7,000,000>

Bab's heart misses a beat and as she stares at the screen. She quickly sends a message, "Batman. Something big is going down. bhagavaan kee pakad, Indian cybercrime gang, is attempting to hack all of Gotham."

She opens up the Birds of Prey app and sends an area wide, "Gotham is under digital attack. To do that, they need to control at least four of the internet exchanges in Gotham. Batgirl is en-route to the Port Adams facility..."

Her eyes roam over the list of people in the area, near the fashion district. Harley Quinn. She keeps claiming she's turned over a new leaf. Time to see if that's the truth or not, "Harley Quinn, the Falkers building in the Fashion District, floor 7, is actually a massive internet router - head there."

She pauses as she sees a name on the list.. one she hasn't vetted yet, but others have interacted with. Natasha Cranston. How she does what she does.. it's still a mystery to her, but tonight she gets an invite too. And another - slightly more vetted but sometimes a bit wild - Helena Bertinelli aka Huntress. She messages them both.

"My name is Oracle. Gotham needs you tonight. Head to the internet exchange building near Novick Tunnel. It is a major traffic node between Gotham and the rest of the USA."

Oracle slips out of the chair and walks over to her armored batsuit. If the bhagavaan kee pakad really believe they can pull this off - there's one place they absolutely must go. The headquarters for the Internet Border Gateway Control in the Upper west side. Time to suit up.

Harley Quinn has posed:
Why is Harley back in Gotham tonight? Well, it's not like the Harley Hole will fix itself! With the Harley Hole being this decrepit warehouse full of old carnival stuff that Harley has been getting fixed as of late. And by fixing we mean delegating, because of course she got a few henches to work for her in exchange for having a perch here when it got fixed. Of course that all comes to a pause when she checks the message on her comm.

"Oh, look at that, it's Miss Law and Order!" she waves at the henches sweating out on the place, "Hey, you got the night off guys! Go celebrate or somethin'! I got places ta be!"

And off she goes to fetch a few pieces that will certainly help on this venture:

Her little bag with a few nice bombs inside and who knows what else.
An USB pen with a windows Vista install (it's full of malware!)
A small handaxe
An RPG launcher! Errr, she leaves that one behind.

<So what's the deal here? A Digital attack? The fortnite nation attacked or something? Whats going on?> She is typing a message while making her way over to the place.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
"So in summary, what have we learned here today?" Batgirl asks her pupil, who seems rather apt in paying attention to her small lecture.

"Um, that crime doesn't pay. And that being nice is... um..."

Batgirl nods her head. "More rewarding," she helps.

"Right. Being nice is more rewarding. Money doesn't buy happiness. But having people like you and trust you... is."

"Exactly!" Batgirl says. "Now see, if you heed that advice you can have such a good life in front of you- Oops, hang on, have a call coming in." Batgirl pauses as she listens to the call from Oracle come over her comms. "Looks like I'm going to have to cut this short," she says.

"So, um. Do you think you could, maybe... get me down?"

Batgirl looks down at the 30 story drop below the member of Penquin's gang, as the hoodlum dangles from a gargoyle on the building's corner, listening to her lecture, his arms tied securely to his sides. "No. No I think maybe it's best to just let everything I said sink in for a little bit. GCPD should be by in... oh, two or three hours probably," she tells him. Which elicits a groan from the man who has sweat beading on his forehead from looking down at the long fall.

Batgirl jumps out into the night, shooting her grapple to another building and using it to swing down towards where her Batcycle waits. << Batgirl on my way. >>

Helena Bertinelli has posed:
The purple Huntress is not surprisingly ...in the exact area Oracle has "surveyed" and studied, so she's not wrong. A little bit of gang activity has been ass kicked and she's walking back to her motorcycle with disappointment, perhaps having warned most of them with her loudass engine which she kicks on again. The motorcycle takes off from the side of the street toward other parts of the East End.

Huntress pauses at a stop sign when she receives the major league distress, "What the f&#& for?" she says back into her comm exchange, "Yeah yeah, I hear you," she says dryly, "Got any more details, Net Girl?"

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    This... Was not expected.

Of course, realistically Natasha supposed sooner or later someone would figure something out, and Oracle's reputation for knowledge is apparently well earned. And if matters are this urgent, protesting innocence or pretending not to understand will only waste time that they may not have.

    A decision is quickly made, and Natasha nods at Benny. "Apparently there's work to be done still. Gotham, the Novick Tunnel, the Internet Exchange building -- and step on it, if you would."

    Benny knows better than to question when Natasha is in that kind of mood, and the cab accelerates with a screech of offended tires, pushing Natasha back into her couch even as she reaches for her hat and coat.

    "Traffic's light this late, should be there in fifteen minutes tops," Benny assures his boss. "Any idea what this is about?"

    "Not at this time," Natasha replies, putting her hat in place and reaching for her scarf. "I suppose we'll have to find out..."

Barbara Gordon has posed:
As the armor closes around her and the bat vision kicks in, she does a quick mobility test. She transfers her chat connection to her suit monitor and then takes the quick drop down to her bike. It's not a fireman pole but she did briefly consider making it one just for chuckles.

Mounting her bike she heads out in to the Gotham night. No rain. Unusual for Gotham and usually a bad omen. She keeps the light son her bike off.

Over comms she explains to the whole group, "It's called a Fire Sale. When hackers take over physical infrastructure, digitally, and sell it off to the highest bidder. The group in question is called the bhagavaan kee pakad. They've done this to two other cities already. But to take control of the digital, you do need to be physically at major internet routers in the city in question."

The soft whirr of her electric motors lets her glide almost quickly past the traffic as she weaves between the cars and forces the lights ahead of her to switch to green as if she were an emergency vehicle.

"If they take control of Gotham's internet.. the major banks? they'll be fine - but every person living here doing e-commerce is going to have their credit details stolen in the blink of an eye, sold off to bidders around the world. They'll sink the savings of Gotham's most vulnerable in seconds and send this city in to new depression."

"When you get there, look for workers who don't fit - they'll be cutting, splicing, installing new hardware, look for unconscious guards, the usual B'n'E tell tale signs."

Because the major online presences don't mandate strong enough encryption for regular customers on their phones, tablets, and PCs .. but that's a whole other mess to unpack later. For now, the people of Gotham need them and they don't even know it.

<The silent bids are rolling in, current top bid is $17,000,000.. I see we have more people joining the chat, let the fun times roll>

Harley Quinn has posed:
"The what pakad? Man, they don't make villain group names like they used ta..." A nostalgic tone on Harley's voice as she replies on comms at Batgirl's explanation, "Okay, I am arrivin' theah." and indeed she is, her yellow jag cruising down the street leading to that particular building, she parking it by the curb (illegal parking too!), but it's an emergency. Jumping out of the car she adjusts her overalls before stretching, bag of tricks over a shoulder and ...., ooo, let's not forget the baseball from under the seat. And what is your problem with overalls? She was just working at her place!

She starts wandering over to the building on foot now, baseball bat against her shoulder, she whistling a nice little tune. Yet even with that more carefree appearance her baby blue eyes are already studying the front, the entrances and exits. Who is around that may or may not fit. Having been a criminal herself she has quite the insight about that after all.

Walking past the parking lot she then keeps to the shadows, not yet wanting to reveal her presence before she can figure out more of the place. Smart Harley!

Stephanie Brown has posed:
The Batcycle's electric engine makes its passage quiet enough that it has sped by in a blur before most people get a chance to get a good look at it, or at the heroine in eggshell and black on the back.

After about five minutes of high speed travel that would scare the bejeesus out of most people, but that Batgirl found exhilarating, she rolls up into the area of Port Adams and pulls into a parking garage, quickly navigating to the top and over to the edge.

From there, the expansive docks spread out before her. Commercial fishing vessels float placidly in their berths, waiting for the morning and another opportunity the harvest a bounty from the sea.

A pair of binoculars are pulled out and Batgirl turns her gaze towards a number of the buildings bordering the docks and warehouses. She locates the correct building, noting a panel van out front with the logo of a steam cleaner on it. "Late night cleaning. Or a late night cleanout," she mutters to herself, before cringing. "Ok, that one needs some work," she tells herself as she stows the binoculars. She sends a command to the Batcycle, which drives itself, heading down the parking garage again towards the street. Batgirl backs up and then runs at the edge, leaping from it and spreading her cape as she glides down towards the building housing the internet relay below.

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    Blue eyes narrow as the Shadow considers the situation. Very bad. "Drop me off near the building, then get yourself clear of the city. If this goes badly, traffic control may well be the first casualty."

    Benny looks grim, but nods. Not much later, an unremarkable cab passes by the Network Exchange center, slowing briefly as it rounds a corner, then drives off again... And only the very observant might notice a shadow flitting through the pool of light of a nearby streetlamp before vanishing into the night...

Helena Bertinelli has posed:
Huntress veers around and goes toward the location Oracle has warned her about, "Don't we have a frickin firefall?" she wonders. "I think the Exchange Building is locked up tight for the weekend," she comments.

The motorcycle lulls to a quiet whisper as Huntress flicks an interesting switch and allows her to glide up to the internet exchange building, an old ass building re-purposed for the digital age, as part of Gotham's supposed step toward tech advancement, "Correction---was locked up tight," she says as she glances up at the concrete building. Some lights can be seen moving in the dark, smokey windows, "These guys are already pissing me off," she says and frowns. The nerve of these crooks, walking in like they own the place.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Babs stands up on her bike as she approaches the building. She's been here many times before. After all, Oracle needs to cheat too and hacking Gotham's internet was something she did yeears ago. She lifts up a grapple gun and fires it up to a balcony.

Her body is whisked up and she perches there. The motorbike drives itself down around a corner and in to the parking garage. Video from between its headlights streams in to her cowl and she notes Hank's Electrical, which matches no company in her database. They're here.

"Be careful, their name means God's grip or.. hand.." Hindi is not a language she has the strongest grasp on, "...they have old roots this group. Expect violence. And Yes Huntress, we do have some wonderful fire walls, but they mean nothing if you control the physical exchanges."

She dislodges the air vent she likes to use and enters the building. Inside she immediately sees two men with machine guns. Oddly one has a whip of metal barbs on his hip and the other has a chakra. India has always had some of the scariest weapons known to mankind.

<And it looks like Gotham's defenders have turned up - as promised - live video feed available here at hindiwatch.com/?vishnu=9f889dkj34aa>

Babs follows it and sees herself from behind. She dive rolls out of the way as a barbed whip lashes it and snaps through the air. Two more there - one holding a camera and the other with one of those whips. "Dammit, they're expecting us and are making a spectacle out of it for the bidders."

<Best current silent bid is.. whooa boy, that little show is bringing in the doe! $41,000,000>

Helena Bertinelli has posed:
Huntress listens to Oracles news about this conspiracy, "Shit," she says with disgust at the internet attack, "I think they have me on camera," she mutters and is confronted by two men while she gets off her motorcycle. The two men are walking across the lawn toward the motorcycle at the edge of the street. They've spotted Huntress somehow even though she's been quiet .

Huntress frowns and motions them on without asking questions, "Come on, assholes." She sends one head over heads onto the pavement and kicks the other one below the waist, then plants his head in the ground. "I'll go around back Oracle. Are you sure this line is secure? Can you do something about the cameras? This is gonna be a long night otherwise," she tells her, "We could just get explosives," she muses.

Harley Quinn has posed:
Calm enough of a place ... if it wasn't for all the red FLAGS like a bad date with serial killer (yes, she knows those too). First it's those tattoos in sight on a security guard at the entrance desk. The blood she sees on the man's knuckles most likely from the security officers that resisted. And those guns the two at the front are sporting aren't legal!

And this demands a soundtrack. Which is why she puts on a pair of earbuds and music starts blasting in.

'I ain't tryna', I ain't tryna'..'

One of the men at the door is kicked on the chest, thrown the front glass at a strength way above what a normal human would produce. The other? She spins around, the baseball bat hitting the machine gun before the man can bring it up and knocks him on the head.. good night!

She walks in through the break in the glass front, "Good evening! Multipass!" she announces to the poor guy at the reception, moving at a run to him and jumping over the table to drop kick him like she was in some kind of WWE match.

'I'm a bitch, I'm a boss' the music continuing blasting on her ears.

The scuffle continues with another pair of men near the elevators. Punch, kicks, giving and taking! But eventually Harley prevails, cleaning some blood from the side of her mouth and she presses on the elevator button to go up.

'I'm a shine like gloss' And she steps into the elevator before the music is over.

"Going to the seventh floor now!" she announces on comms.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
<< Well it wouldn't be fun if they weren't expecting us. Would it? >> Batgirl sends as she glides towards the building. Down on the street there is movement on the roof of the steam cleaning truck. A panel pulls back and a man pops up with a weapon his shoulder. At first it looks like a rocket launcher to Batgirl, but then she registers the device has a tip more like a harpoon than a rocket.

But that's all the time she has for observation, as the man fires. The harpoon flies up towards her, spooling out a line behind it. Batgirl banks, but gliding only goes so fast, and the harpoon rips into her armored cape, the head lodging in it firmly.

The man down below hits a switch on the launcher and suddenly the line starts to reel in. Batgirl is tipped over, the gliding cape already losing its shape just from the impact. She begins to tumble down out of the sky, out of control, towards the street below!

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    Helena finds herself less outnumbered than she thought -- even as another group approaches with weapons drawn, a black-gloved hand seems to materialize out of the darkness, wrapping around one thug's wrist and yanking him off balance before spinning him around an unseen pivot to slam into his compatriot.

    Shadows shift and flow, pooling together and seeming to rise up from the ground, solidifying into a dark-clad figure that lashes out with a quick punch to the jaw of the remaining attacker.

     "I believe you are the one called the Huntress?" the Shadow asks, sketching an abbreviated bow. "I fear we've little time for introductions. There will be more guards inside. Shall we?"

Barbara Gordon has posed:
"Well, I can focus on taking down their video feeds.. or saving the entirety of Gotham's savings," she muses over the comms chat. As she rises up the guard with the chakra has thrown it and it clunks in to her forearm as she blocks. The sharp blade has dug in to the armor and stuck there - but not penetrated deep enough to actually cut her.

"Sorry buddy, looks like I'm keeping your frisbee," she says and moves with a swiftness, tossing a bat-a-rang at the guy still holding the machine gun. The little bat sticks in to the gun and then explodes, destroying it. She throws smoke pellets at the ground and the area becomes her playground - and ruins the footage for those streaming.

"Explosives is a last resort. Ideally, everyone goes about their internet shopping none the wiser tonight. If we blow up the exchanges then Gotham goes without internet for weeks, may be months. That'd be a different kind of bad."

The sound of a bone going 'crunch' can be heard on the live stream as she sweeps one of the gang members leg and then elbows him at the back of the neck.

<Hold on folks, we've got more than one feed for you.. Here's someone wearing purple! and look, is it a bird, is it a plane? no, it's just another bat!.. just a bird on a wire! ...current best silent bid: $76,000,000>
<Oh.. Oh.. bidders.. bidders we have a special treat..> The live footage cuts to the elevator with Harley Quinn in it <The Clownette of Crime has Come to Curtail our Caper!>

Helena Bertinelli has posed:
Huntress nods to what the female Shadow says to her, "The Net Girl can't do shit to help us, so we'll have to fish this crap out of the fire ourselves," she says astutely, "I guess Gotham can't be without Amazon for a week so I gotta be on f##@@!! target," she complains. She walks along the grass past the thugs Natasha asskicked to the back door.

Huntress stands aside from the back door and motions to Natasha, "Stand back now," she tells her. She knocks on the door politely and says sarcastically, "Housekeeping! Open up!". The door is riddled with bullets in response, "This is slow as all Hell. Any suggestions, captain shadow?" she asks Natasha.

Harley Quinn has posed:
<Um dee dee, la la la> What's that? Is Harley seriously humming with the channel on? And is that ..., elevator music? Yes, she is humming alongside the very boring elevator music and on that live footage that the bad guys they can even see her doing a little dancin'. Hips to the side, a little twirl and she waiting until the elevator gets up there.

<Hope everyone is having as much fun as I am!> She calls out on comms once that ding of she reaching the seventh floor is heard. The doors open and on the other side there's ..., more goons. Well, shit.

"Parlay?" Harley calls out hopefully. But no good. They come at her with wickedly curved weapons. These ones clearly got the memo about no explosives, or guns either. No blowing up the servers until the deed is done. Which is good for Harley. Means she didn't just get shot.

And then all heck breaks loose!

POW! KAPOW!

<Encountering serious opposition heah!> pause, a scream from someone not Harley, <Hey, you can't touch me theah without buyin' me dinnah first!> more screaming.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
As Batgirl tumbles out of the sky, the cape suddenly detaches from her shoulders. It is left behind, still being hauled in, but falling slower than the costumed young woman.

Both hands reach to her utility belt, one pulling her grapple gun and shooting it at the tallest nearby building. The bat-shaped grapple head snags a protruding antennae on the roof and Batgirl's fall turns into a swing, though one that will bring her into the ground hard.

The other hand makes a throwing motion towards the steam cleaning van below. A number of flashbang pellets fly through the air, some hitting the roof, but others going through the opening. Loud retorts and flashes of light saturate the roof, and set the windows aglow from the inside.

A moment later there's a muffled whump. An explosion a bit larger than the flashbang pellets could account for by themselves. The doors open and two men fall out, coughing and bleeding from the ears, but alive.

<< Ah, that explosions rule. That only applies to INSIDE the buildings. Right? >> Batgirl says just before reaching the ground. She tumbles to absorb the impact that was lessened by her grapple, rolling across the pavement and finally rising to her feet. "Drat. It just messes with the whole mystique, not having the cape," she says. The two men at the van do not look capable of doing much besides lying there in pain. So she heads into the building.

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    "Just the one," the Shadow replies, taking a few steps back, then turning and sprinting full tilt for toward the door. Between one step and the next a pair of guns appear in the figure's hands, and two shots ring out, shattering the door's hinges.

    One more step and the next shot likewise shatters the lock -- and then the Shadow leaps, putting their full weight and their speed into a kick smashing the door out of its frame and into the people behind it.

    Surprise will be fleeting, but moments are all the Shadow needs. A spinning leg sweep followed by a palm strike, and a leap away, blurring back into invisibility and leaving three still conscious and armed, but very disoriented guards in her wake for Helena to deal with...

Barbara Gordon has posed:
The whip cracks through the air with a whistle. A second whip does the same. Babs protects her head with an arm and the whip tangles with the embedded chakra. She strikes the chakra from the side with an open palm and snaps it in half, freeing herself.

She begins to move, ducking, weaving, jumping as she positions herself so that the two with the whips are opposite each other and don't even realise. A small smirk as she turns to the side, catching the first whip and yanking the whip and wielder toward her. She does a twirl behind him as the second whip cracks out and strikes his ally.

The unarmed guys rush in and she parries their strikes, kicking one in the gut, and grabbing the other by the shoulder and throwing him to her knee. As the smoke clears she has the last of them with her hand about his neck pushing him backwards on his heels in to the room.

Seeing her target - a lone hacker at a computer terminal, she looks at the alarmed man in her grip and then head butts him. Her cape billows and the remaining smoke swirls around it. Armored combat is cheating and she loves it.

<The bidding is heating up, we've just made it to $111,000,000.. this is for All of Gotham people, get your bids in quick, it's all about to go dooooown>

Harley Quinn has posed:
<<I am not suwah!>> Harley answers Steph's question, <<What if we awhe really, really good at explosions...?>> She ducks under the slice of a sharp, curved sword, sweeping the leg and delivering an elbow strike to the assailant, <<And I mean ..., reaaaaal good.>> We get it, Harley. You like to explode things up.

<<And anyway, who's all out heah tonight? I know we got Miss Law and Ordah..., I am guessin' the otha one is the Batgirl that's always lookin' at me like I ate her cat. I will let you know my hyenas awhe--->> all that chatting means she gets distracted and she gets picked up and tossed onto a server rack. Bzzztt. Good thing there are backups at least!

<Ow, that hurt...> She scrambles back up to her feet, rolling her neck.

"Alright, boys. Gloves awhe comin' off.." a delighted little grin comes to her expression, tongue briefly out, eyes flashing blue.

Helena Bertinelli has posed:
Huntress turns and looks into the room past the broken door amusedly, "Could work," she mutters. She steps in and kicks the nearest thug Natasha tripped up, putting her heel in the other as she turns about. She pings a crossbow bolt from her wrist into the third one as he reaches desperately for a weapon to shoot the asskicking girls. It's not so bad. She shot him in the hand, which sorta pins him in place to the floor, "He's not going anywhere," she comments.

"The server room is in the basement. That'll be where these scrawny jackasses will be," Huntress tells Natasha, "You know, I'd bomb this frickin floor and drop the whole damn thing on their heads but Net Girl said not to sooooo..." she smirks, "Oh I see a service elevator---convenient..." she tells Natasha and walks over to it. As she stands there waiting for the elevator, she sees it's already coming up, "Oh great, It's coming up, get ready," she tells Natasha again. She's bossy today.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Inside the Port Adams Internet Exchange, Batgirl finds unconscious security guards. She has the Batcomputer display blueprints of the building in her heads up display, and quickly follows a path to the server rooms.

The right door is easy enough to find. Apparently the hackers took the guard's keys, but did not know the security code to punch in on the keypad. Instead there is a Jaws of Life discarded in the hallway after it was used to remove the door.

Batgirl steps inside the room where there are rows upon rows of servers. Down at one end at a terminal two men are sitting, one enormous Asian man is watching the doorway, the other working a laptop that is plugged into it. The watcher nudges the other, saying something lost in the loud howl of the HVAC units that suck away the heat from the room. The laptop user turns, seeing Batgirl and waving frantically towards her before turning back and pounding on the laptop keys furiously. The screen next to the hacker shows a progress bar that is already at 60% and inching upwards.

The large Indian man strides forward. He's at least 6'8" and probably 250 pounds. Worse, he draws a wicked looking talwar, brandishing the saber-like sword as he and Batgirl advance towards each other.

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    The Shadow shrugs. "They're coming up to slow us down," she points out, then indicates the stairway entrance. "We don't need to engage them."

    That said, she kicks open the service door and heads down the stairs, taking them one entire flight at a time until she reaches the basement, smashing through the door at its end and looking around the server room, seeking the hacker trying to subvert it.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
The truth is, Babs misses the visceral violence of crime fighting. It does take a particular kind of personality to dress up as a bird and step in the way of danger. To face against thugs who genuinely want to damage or kill you. As Babs stalks towards the hacker, her eye on the prize, she notices out of the corner of her eye almost too late.

A big guy, a real big guy. And on his hands? gauntlets, with wicked blades sticking out of them. She turns on the defensive as he spams in to her and crashes her up against the wall, making a dent in the plaster.

A thigh blocks one stab from an arm blade, while her arm blocks the second. She punches his face and he stumbles back. Righting herself she takes up a fighting posture and moves in on him. The first blade is blocked again as the second hits her armor and sparks fly off of it. Thank goodness for the armor.

Babs does a leg sweep and the guy jumps, kneeing her in the gut. She sacrifices time to throw a bat-a-rang at the computer the hacker is using. A small explosion takes out the screen. He pushes back from the computer, now on fire, on his wheelie chair and laughs, "Too late. The script is already running."

A blade crashes down against her head and slices off one of the bat-ears of her suit. She dips to the side and punches the big guy in the solar plexes, then knees him in the crotch. She shoulder barges him and tosses him over her back and on to the ground, following it up with a hard punch to the temple knocking him out.

"Damn, they're in the network - don't let them plug any of their hardware in to _anything_." She leaps of a cubical and grabs the guy, patting him down until she finds his key fob. She chokes him out and lets his sleeping body rest on the ground, then moves to another terminal and sits: time to counter-hack.

<Looks like Gotham's Knights are out of Tiiime.. best bid just hit $234,000,000 oh yes people you best believe we are about to give you the keys to Gotham>

Stephanie Brown has posed:
The capeless Batgirl meets the rush of the immense Asian a dozen feet from the hacker who is worming his way into access to the internet trunks. The sword whistles through the air in an overhead slash, and Batgirl uses the saw-tooth shaped protrusions on the sleeve of her costume to block it.

The saber flashes in another swing as Batgirl pivots, blocking with her arm again. It's a form first learned by Bruce Wayne in Nanda Parbat, but later adapted by one Barbara Gordon for use by a woman against a larger, stronger swordsman. Likely if she had the benefit of being trained by the League of Assassins as well those techniques would have been taught rather than developed on her own. But they prove as effective for the blond-haired Batgirl as they have for her mentor.

Stephanie kicks the man in the stomach, though he's so thick-bodied he barely reacts to the blow. His sword stabs forward and the heroine has to block it aside while dodging to avoid the tip. Back and forth they go up and down the room. The man is huge, but faster even for someone smaller than his size.

Meanwhile, that progress bar on the computer screen keeps ticking away towards completion. 70%. Then 80%. Batgirl blocks a blow from the sword and the man throws a kick that sends her tumbling back before rolling to her feet. She sure felt it!

"Almost done," the hacker calls over his shoulder in excellent English. The larger Asian grins, situating himself between the hacker and Batgirl. He takes a step forward and swings a mighty blow.

Rather than block it as he expected, Batgirl jumps forward, spinning to channel more power into a kick, her foot slipping right beneath the sword to connect with the hilt right where the man grips it. The sword goes flying, right towards the hacker, slicing through his ethernet cable and sticking into the wall.

He lets out a cry of frustration, the screen showing his hacking program was interrupted at 96%. Before the larger man can react, Batgirl delivers a tremendous uppercut. That one didn't come from Barbara, it was all her own. She lays the man out, three of his teeth clattering on the floor.

She strides forward, grunting with the pain in her gut from the kick she took. The hacker takes one look at her and rises from the chair, holding up his hands. "I give up!" he says, moments before being put in an armhold and forced to the floor where he's fitted with a pair of batcuffs.

Harley Quinn has posed:
<That sounds kinky!> Is the response to not letting them plug their hardware and so. This while Harley is kicking the living crap out of the remaining thugs. Because no one sucker punches her while she is trying to talk to her FRIENDS over comms. (They are friends, right? Right?)

And there goes another server. Ooops! Harley just tosses the last thug against one, making the rack fall down, with an unconscious man atop. She wipes her hands together and whistles ominously while wandering closer to the back rooms where she is listening to franctic keyboard typing. "I can heaaar yooooouuuu..." she singsongs in the creepiest clownette voice possible. Back to her roots as the clown princess of crime.

"And you have been naaaaughtyyyy..." the voice gets closer to where the poor hacker is trying to hack into the main server. Poor guy. The door gets kicked off it's hinges, "Theah you awhe.., now..." and she cracks her knuckles. "We gonna get real personal now, unless you stop this." a big wide smile.

"And then we can go have drinks. I am thirsty." Of course Harley tries to make friends with the henches. They always take the short straw in dealing with the vigilantes!

Helena Bertinelli has posed:
Huntress busts in the basement door and is about to stomp the scrawny hacker's head in, when she realizes he isn't as scrawny as she thought. The huge man stands up from the computer and is masked like a Mexican wrestler, cracks his knuckles and SHOVES Huntress head over heels into the far wall. She looks up at Natasha, "Little help?" she asks.

The Masked Hacker looks back down at his console with a smirk, unable to finish doing whatever it is he's doing because Huntress and Natasha are sorta interrupting. He decides to sorta kick their ass so steps toward Huntress menacingly. ... .... uh oh.

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    Focusing his attention on Huntress was, perhaps, understandable -- her entrance wasn't subtle, after all -- but it was also a tactical mistake. He gets two steps before cold metal presses against the side of his neck and the distinctive sound of a pistol's hammer cocking into position is unnaturally loud in the sudden silence.

     "Do not move. Do not turn. Lower your hands slowly and get on your knees if you wish to see tomorrow's dawn," the Shadow warns him, then reaches for the comm with her free hand. << Oracle. The internet exchange is secure -- and we have the laptop intact. >>

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Babs pauses a moment as she quickly checks the progress of all the Birds of Prey. A smile spreads across her lips as her fingers type swiftly across the keyboard. "Good work everyone. Thank you Huntress and ...Shadow," she not quite sure what to call Natasha and certainly doesn't want to 'out' her over comms.

"You two will be hearing from me again. I have a group called the Birds of Prey - we help each other, out there on the streets. If you want to join that is, I will talk to you in a less 'exciting' setting."

She presses enter and smirks a moment to herself, "Harley, good job, GCPD is on their way. Batgirl, we'll discuss what happened to your cape later." Because she loves Steph and can't not be a hardass about her continued training.

<Oh yes bidders' we're at.. wait.. what's this? $10,000,000,000... well I believe we can close theU(()!_~__@$$#@!!!WikiAdmin (talk)>

The computer screens of the bidders changes to the logo of The Oracle, an eye watching them in a triangle. But so does Chandry Satuno's screen, the mastermind behind this entire operation. A personalised message to everyone there, a picture from their own computers and their name. ~This is The Oracle. You have failed and I know who you are. I will be coming for each and every one of you.~ Then their devices shut off ending the bidding war.

Babs glances over at the slumped bodies she's left behind to get here and lets out a small sigh of relief. "You all just saved Gotham from waking up ruined. No one will ever know what you've done except us. Thank you. Oracle out."