9949/Gotham: Human Trafficking Rush Hour

Gotham: Human Trafficking Rush Hour
Date of Scene:	02 February 2022
Location:	The Narrows - Miagani Island
Synopsis:	Heroes stop human traffickers from snatching refugees from Manhattan. The Foot make an appearance, but it doesn't go how the bad guys hoped.
Cast of Characters:	Stephanie Brown, Helena Wayne, Alexis Carr, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Leon O'Malley, Austin Reese, Shredder

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Stephanie Brown has posed:
The wire tap on Anthony Capenzo's phone had revealed the man's Gotham Maggia crew were preparing to fill a big order from human traffickers. Refugees from Manhattan had flooded down to Gotham as fast as the HyperLoop could bring them. Mayor Lincoln March had ordered that derelict buildings which had been slated for demolition as part of his Narrows Revitalization Project, be hastily converted into emergency housing.

The result was better than sleeping in a tent, but it also created a situation that Gotham's seedier element had preyed on. Drug dealers, loan sharks, thieves and prostitutes had descended on the area, more than the strained Gotham police presence could keep out.

With many refugees who were alone and knew no one in Gotham, it was a particularly rich hunting ground for Capenzo's men to conduct abductions. The Bats had put out word to the allies, but the information on when it was going down had come in at the last minute, leaving people scrambling.

Capenzo's men are focused on a series of four run down buildings that collectively hold hundreds of people. They've spent the last week scouting out those they wish to abduct, marking their locations. Now they have brought in extra manpower to make the abductions under the cover of darkness, and take them off to vehicles waiting to transport them a short distance away. Gotham PD have been paid off, enough at least that the police won't be enough to stop them.

Helena Wayne has posed:
The information came in at the last minute, but Huntress is used to last minute. So once again Helena Wayne finds herself on a roof. In Gotham. At night. But at least it's in a bad part of town. Capezo's men are expected to swarm in for a pick-up, and she's on top of one of the buildings scanning for arriving vehicles. She's already picked the lock on the door that leads inside, in case the hoods pick this building.

<<This is Huntress on station. I'm on a roof and watching for the guests of the evening. Who else is out there?>>

Alexis Carr has posed:
    Alexis had a special place in her heart for humanitarian works. And a bat for the people who disrupt them, from the last time she hung around the camps and had to take matters into her own hands to stop more fighting.

    So she was wearing a dark gray hoodie over a jacket, layered against the cold. She wore a scarf up and over her nose as she comes around the corner. Last she knew, Kaydee Small was holed up in one of these buildings, separated a bit from her family who had been sent to a different part of the camp.

    Her dark hair was in a bun and under a pompom hat, and the woman of short stature was delicately picking her way around the snow. In one of the alley ways, she alley-oops herself up to a window, crouching for a moment, and pulling it open. She figured the doors would be locked, and chose a side-entrance instead.

    She's armed with a maglite with a red lens and a baseball bat that has a suspiciously blued-in handprint on it -- without having coms access, hard to determine if she's alone in her investigations tonight.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    Nightwing is observing the area from atop a nearby building, watching for any suspicious vehicles entering the area. It's almost certain that the kidnappers will be using vans or delivery trucks, anything you can shove people into and nobody passing will be able to see into. The problem, of course, is that such vehicles are not an uncommon sight in any populated area.

    Switching his mask's HUD over to the feed from the drones he has circling the area, he's able to observe far more than he'd be able to see himself. A couple of vehicles catch his attention so he marks them and shares the locations over the Bat-Computer's network, making them available to anyone who has a link to it.

    <Nightwing in place as well. Got some suspicious vehicles, but nothing definite yet. Keep your eyes open and let's clean this mess up before they get to traumatize too many of these people.>

Jason Todd has posed:
Jason has been hanging around the refugee camp a lot in the past few weeks, both in and out of costume. In it, he lurks in the shadows and has stopped more than one attempted mugging (or worse). Out of costume, he's been volunteering in the food line, making sure these people have enough to eat and maybe a little semblence of normalcy.

Tonight is anything but normal.

The Red Hood has secreted himself into an alley near the front entrance of one of the tageted buildings. He is very good at not being seen when he doesn't want to be, as befits one of the sons of the Bat. He lurks, watching and waiting, but he just can't stop his right hand from flexing in its glove with a kind of eagerness.

<<Red Hood, present.>>

Tim Drake has posed:
    Since the day of the Heavenly invasion, Tim has been a very infrequent presence in Gotham. Even less so as Red Robin, who hasn't pulled a patrol shift in nearly a month. There are definitely rumors about his disappearance among the criminal circuit, with at least one or two low-tier villains trying to claim that they're responsible for his absence.

    The truth of the matter is that he only makes it down from New York a few times a week, and most of that time is spent at the refugee camp at the stadium. He helps out there for a while, hits up a few Bat-caches for a resupply, and then heads back to Manhattan. Maybe he grabs a couple hours of sleep in an actual bed, but it's never enough.

    Not that Red Robin had exactly been the type to maintain a healthy sleep schedule beforehand.

    It's purely by chance that Tim is in the area when the word comes in about the trafficking operation, and he can't in good conscience ignore it. He was already in the process of getting into a fresh costume, so it's not long before his location pings on nearby Bat-HUDs. "<<This is Red Robin, approaching from the southwest. I'll be on-site ETA 45 seconds.>>"

    When that ticks down to fifteen seconds, he kills the engines to his bike and cruises into a shadowed alleyway to decamp. Soon enough he's little more than a vague shape against the night sky, moving from rooftop to rooftop.

Leon O'Malley has posed:
It had been a long and grueling investigation, filled with stakeouts, interrogations, brooding on gargoyals because that's just what people do in Gotham. But at last the eldritch duo had their mark, a gang of two-bit thugs making a snatch and grab. And naturally, all that work for the building they'd been staying in anyway. Because of course. Leon sits perched on the corner of the roof across the street, scanning back and forth for signs of activity in need of being scarred for life, "...I know it's boring, that's why it's called waiting, not action pole dance fighting extreme....No we're not doing that! Stop asking..."

Austin Reese has posed:
Austin Reese had been patrolling around the Narrows for a while now, even before he got the fancy suit he's wearing. He'd also been volunteering his time in order to help folks out, but this wasn't one of those times. Instead he had put on the suit that had shown up on his door with a bat logo on the signature, a hoodie and a pair of goggles.

He also still had the earpiece that Red Robin had given him on Halloween. So he's got that in his ear, assuming it's still active enough to pick up comms from the Bats.

He'd caught wind of the abductions while doing his volunteering, but he wasn't expecting this many potential hostiles. He's just glad he actually brought a weapon with him this time.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Capenzo's men have shown far more organizational skills than even Batman's crew had expected. Thugs had been arriving slowly throughout the day, spread out so as to not be overtly noticeable. They check the time on their phones or watches, and at 1 AM on the dot they start to make their moves.

A pair head down a hallway near to where Alexis is. One is carrying a small sledgehammer which he uses to slam into the door next to a lock, splintering it as the two rush in to abduct the woman inside.

At other locations in the four buildings, much the same thing is playing out. The men know which doors have locks, and which doorways don't even have doors. The heroes who are in locations inside can hear an occasional cry or shriek before the person is silenced. Those on the rooftops with sufficient optics can see an assault going down in this room or that, sometimes lit by flashlight, other times the men just flip the light switch on if there is a working one.

A few cars have pulled up down below, people coming and going. But upon looking closely, some of those people getting into the cars aren't really walking on their own. A thug climbs into a car with a captive, a gun at the woman's ribs keeping her silent as the car pulls away, driving off into the distance. Other cars are similarly pulling away, while more are coming in to make discrete pick ups.

Those on the Bat comms know that Batgirl, Misfit, Green Arrow and Arsenal are working on the convoy itself and should be able to intercept those vehicles that are already pulling away to go meet the vans. Stopping the abductions still happening before they get into vehicles that could each scatter on their own is the primary mission here.

Jason Todd has posed:
The violence begins, and Jason starts to move. He emerges from the shadows, moving like a slasher villain. With the speed he's moving, you'd swear he was running, but his gait never changes from a steady walk. He reaches to the small of his back and draws his crowbar with his left hand. At the same time, his right goes to his shoulder holster and draws a -very large- handgun. He flips the safety off as he starts to move up the stairs, following the sounds of terror.

He's going to add some of his own to people who actually deserve it.

His boots seem to echo in the old grimy hallways as he comes to a blasted door, muffled screams coming from the inside.

He just waits, tapping the crowbar on his shoulder.

Alexis Carr has posed:
    Alexis had been inside the building and came down a hallway about thirty feet, listening at the sounds of terror, before the first door opened, with a skimasked guy pulling a struggling woman.

    Not Kaydee, but definitely in trouble. Alexis and the Guy regard each other a moment, before she gives a vicious little smile under the mask.

    "You're wearing sneakers." she reflects, and then she raises her leg and brings it down hard on the man's instep, using the momentumn to bring her bat down behind her and then up, striking hard and fast at the two 'eggs' under his pants. Jeans won't save you now, bastard.

    A man's terrified yelp and squeal of breathless pain is added to the sounds of the night, a floor or two above where Jason might be chillin'.

Helena Wayne has posed:
<<I'll try not to shoot you tonight, Red Robin.>> Huntress replies dryly. Truth be told, she's still figuring out who, exactly, is even on the Bat-roster. Near as she can tell there are around 6 Robins and probably half as many Batgirls.

Then she spots the activity with her nightvision optics. <<Okay, we've got something going on inside and people are being taken to vehicles. I'm going in through the out door.>>

Huntress sprints to the edge of the roof and dives off. Half-turning mid-air, she shoots a grapple line to catch the edge and swing down quickly to the asphalt. As she descends, a thug and a woman leave the building together. He's holding the captive close with one hand, his weapon out of sight. The rapidly-descending figure in black and purple distracts him for a moment, then the crossbow bolt hits the hollow of his shoulder. Fingers go numb and the gun clatters to the pavement as Helena's booted foot hits him in the chest.

Leon O'Malley has posed:
"Heh heh. Showtime." Leon mutters as he leaps from the roof, landing hard on the upper back of a goon just rushing from a car, the man's spine only saved by a tendril latching to a wall in time to break the fall. Immediately losing their balance, Leon slips and falls on the panicking crook, paying him no mind as the man tries to wriggling from under the black mass atop him, Leon reaches out and grabs the front axle, tearing it from the car just as it begins moving to run them over. The result is a ruined car, a goon with a probably ruined leg, another goon with a broken nose from hitting the wheel, and a relatively nonchalant Leon standing up and dusting off as they suss out what to go after next.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    Between his drone feeds and the low-light and telescopic modes of his mask, Nightwing sees the assaults begin. He has his drones fire a tracker onto any car that is escaping with kidnapping victims, forwarding the locator feeds to the vehicle team. <<Batgirl, I've marked some vehicles you need to intercept. Moving into the buildings to try and keep any more from reaching vehicles.>>

    Extending the gliding wings from his armor's backpack, he leaps from the roof and glides silently across the street, headed for a window where he can see two men trying to get a woman subdued so they can get her out. As he approaches the building, he pulls the wings in, somersaults and crashes through the window feet first.

    Rolling as he hits the floor, he uses his his momentum, ending up between the two kidnappers. Somewhere in that roll, his batons were drawn from their sheathes on his back. They whip out to his sides, each hitting one of the thugs in the knee. Possibly not a disabling strike as it is, the electricity coursing through them drops one thug outright to spasm on the ground and the other to drop to one knee, almost dropping the sledgehammer he has just used to break in.

    Kipping up to his feet Nightwing moves in with a series of strikes. Either through luck or skill, the thug parries the first two attacks, but the next slips through his guard and slams home against the side of his head. It's not clear if it was just the strike or the strike plus taser level shock, but the second thug drops as well. Taking a moment to cuff the two thugs both hands and feet he tells the woman they were trying to kidnap that she should stay here, as there shouldn't be any more coming for her. With that, he drags the two out into the hallway and leaves them leaning against a wall as he moves silently further into the building.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Even knowing there are other people--other people he trusts to get the job done--going after the vehicle convoy, it's difficult for Red Robin not to follow. He fights down that urge, though, and instead toggles comms back on to answer with a dry-sounding "<<Much appreciated, Huntress.>>"

    He makes a neat three-point landing on an adjacent roof and from here has an excellent view of the streets below, as well as several of the buildings' exits. "<<I'll cover the south and west entrances, sweep up anyone that makes it out with a hostage.>>" Though immediately a pop of an air cartridge sounds as he leaps off the building and fires a grapple-line that brings him in a long, sweeping flight down to street-level.

    On the east side of the closest building. "<<No, there's nothing-->>" he begins to say in reply to some unheard voice. But then he goes silent as a man bursts out of a nearby door, grappling with a woman who is fighting with all her strength to wrench herself free. Red Robin helpfully clothes-lines the trafficker, and before he can do anything else the woman has turned to start kicking the now-prone man.

    Hard.

    If he had more time to spare, Tim would compliment her on her form. Soccer player, he suspects. But another two men come barreling through the door, each dragging hostages behind them. Red Robin faces them down, staff telescoping out in one hand. None of his usual quips accompany Red Robin's dash forward that gets him within striking distance as he swings his staff at the closer of the two men's head.

Austin Reese has posed:
Inside one of the buildings, Austin is listening to the Bat comms on his earpiece. It seems like they have things well in hand for the vehicles that are fleeing. Which is good because there's no way he'd be able to get out there.

He comes around a corner in order to find two of the thugs, who appear to have just kicked in a door of one of the rooms people are staying in, "Hey!" He calls out, as he points the metal ball bat he brought with him at the guys. The two of them turn towards him in response to him calling them out, but Austin rushes at one, smacking him in the gut with the bat as soon as he's within range, before he can react. The second guy starts to draw something from under his jacket, and Austin moves in to strike at him as well before he can pull the weapon out.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Those who are outside might hear a gunshot in the distance, off in the direction that the vehicles had been ferrying women. << Cop who approached them got shot. >> Batgirl reports. << Vehicle convoy is fleeing. We are pursuing with Spider-Man helping >>

Not long after, Batgirl can also be heard saying, << My cabbages! >>

In the courtyard outside, the thugs are starting to realize this isn't the easy snatch and grab they had hoped for as some of them see their buddies being assaulted. One of them grabs a radio from his belt, "Got some capes here! Call the extra security in!

Others who have managed to grab women without encountering heroes start to hurry out.

Jason Todd has posed:
Jason, standing at the door, mimes looking at a watch as a pair of men drag a struggling woman and, even more disgustingly, her daughter out into the main space of the apartment. This sight makes Jason grind his teeth and his body language immediately changes.

Before he saw the girl, he was going to be a smart ass and clown on these two. This is no longer the case. "You're not even worth my time."

His gun rings out twice, echoing through the dilapidated building. Alexis absolutely can hear it. He turns and starts to walk away when he pauses. The Red Hood holsters his gun, reaching to his utility belt and pulling out a colapsable baton. He tosses it to the woman.

"Give them what they deserve. I won't tell."

With that, Jason leaves. Inside the apartment, the two men are writhing in pain, each of them now having one lower leg that's only left attached by strips of ragged flesh.

The howls are maddening as the sound of metal impacting flesh and nearly exposed bone somehow seem to echo through the halls.

Helena Wayne has posed:
Huntress and the Thug (now with one good arm) go down together in a tousle, leaving the woman stunned but free. After some grunts and smacks, one of them rises; the one wearing the dark cape. "We'll stop as many as we can, but there will be more bad guys coming this way." she tells the woman. "You should hide."

And with that, Huntress reloads her crossbow and heads into the building. <<Heading inside now.>> she declares, thrusting it into the holster. Down the hall she goes, rounding a corner just in time to attract the attention of two guys with guns forcing their way into a room.

They shoot. She sprints towards them, launching into several handsprings to close the distance faster. Kevlar does its thing. Out of the whirling of limbs and cape comes a kick to the face. The thug goes down, and it looks like he'll be there a while. The other goes toe to to with her, moving like a boxer as he jabs. Huntress dodges the first, blocks the next two, then does a sweep kick to knock him down. The elbow strike lands with her full weight on his chest, cracking several ribs as he screams.

Picking up the two guns, Huntress opens the door and addresses the small group of refugees. "Stay here. I won't let any get past me." She drops out both mags, tucking them into her belt before tossing the guns aside. Then it's back into the hallway.

Alexis Carr has posed:
    Alexis definitely hears the howls of pain, and she turns her head in the direction. It registers as men. She thinks they're all right. She clears rooms as she goes, calling out "Kaydee? Kaydee Small? Has anyone seen a girl named Kaydee Small?" she calls into rooms, knocking politely, listening for the sounds of struggle.

    And she comes to the stairs amd she hears the scream and the sound of a body hitting a wall.

    She narrowly avoids a blow, the bullet going through the pompom of her hat as she ducks, her eyes going wide.

    She feels her hands heat up, and she grits her teeth -- keep cool, keep in control.

    The man wearing a ragged denim vest comes around, dragging another young woman by her arm who is nursing a broken nose.

    Alexis moves quick, the peteit woman reaching up and grabbing the man by the jacket, and with will, the denim lights on fire. It spreads, and he screams, letting go of the girl before he tumbles down the stairs to fall to the first floor, trying to put out the flames.

Leon O'Malley has posed:
As the first group rushing out make it to the door, their point man is rocketed back through the doorway, the black mass of Leon sliding through after him, still hunched from a literal hammerfist, their hand morphing back into...well, a hand, as they dart for the goon closest to the hostage.

    Said hostage, a small child, shrieks in terror at the sudden sensory overload, collapsing to the ground as the goon reaches to use them as a get-out-of-hero-free card. This extension proves...not fatal, but he may wish it was, as Leon takes the opportunity to impale the offending hand with a tendril.

    As the man screams, the bullets start flying from the goons who haven't been maimed, Leon pouncing on the kid to cover them while the tendril envelops it's victim's wrist and proceeds to use him like a flail, battering his associates with reckless abandon. When one of the goons realizes that shooting the spot that absorbs light isn't working and tries to run, the tendril finally releases it's broken bludgeon, hurling him like a javelin at the runner and knocking them both down the stairs passed the doorway.

    Horribly injuries successfully inflicted, Leon unwraps from the kid, tendril retracting, "Get somewhere safe, lock the door, hide in a cupbard or something, and cover your ears. Don't worry. This won't be much longer." he says in his own voice for a change, before turning and heading back outside to catch more runners.

Tim Drake has posed:
    The two thugs that Red Robin confronts coming out of a side door immediately abandon their victims to instead put up a fight. Neither of the young women they drop to the ground start getting back up immediately, which likely has something to do with the tasers that the men withdraw from their jackets.

    One of them doesn't get a chance to use it, because he's on the ground bleeding from a head wound and likely concussed from the impact of Red Robin's staff against his skull. The other, though, gets a cheap shot in, jamming the taser into Red Robin's side with enough force to be bruising.

    The suits are insulted, though. Red Robin grunts but slams his knee into the trafficker's gut, before he spins his staff around for another strike. And all it takes is a light tap for the electrified circuit in the end of it to discharge. The thug's jacket is smoking as he drops to the ground.

    "<<Sounds like they called for backup. Expect more hostiles incoming.>>" He pauses long enough to check on the two semi-unconscious women on the ground before he leaves them both in the care of the other would-be victim, circling at a fast clip around the corner of the building.

    He comes upon two more men already in the process of shoving a trio of children--no more than ten, at the oldest--into the backseat of a car, another climbing into the driver's seat. No time to close the distance between them, so Red Robin fires off his grapple line. It sails right through the window of the open door, shattering it, before the spiked end embeds itself in the shoulder of the driver.

    Then Red Robin digs his heels into the snow-slick pavement and pulls so hard that the man gets dragged right through the sharp-edged remains of the window and onto the ground, now a bloody mess of cuts.

Austin Reese has posed:
The guy who was drawing the gun doesn't get a chance to get it drawn all the way on Austin, before the weapon gets whacked out of his hand, clattering across the ground. The thug seems surprised, but he responds by punching Austin right in the face. The young would-be hero stumbles backwards, but he retains control of the bat, taking a huge swing at the guy with the bat, smashing it into his arm and shoulder with a sick crack, the guy yelling out in pain from the impact.

Austin follows up with several more hits, smacking the guy a few more times with the bat until the guy has stopped moving. The other guy that had been taken out by the gut shot was trying to get back up, and Austin kicked him square in the face, knocking him out.

<<"How many guys did they bring? I've got two more down in building..">> He pauses for a second, <<"Three? I think this one is three.">>

Dick Grayson has posed:
    Turning up his audio pickups, Nightwing moves silently through the building. Mapping the screams and sounds of break-in's and fighting, he moves with purpose, from one attack to another. Leaving a trail of cuffed attackers in the hallways, he thwarts three more attempted kidnappings in the next ten minutes.

    As he dives through the next broken door and rolls to his feet, he finds himself in a larger room that had ben housing a full family. Dad is lying on the floor with bruises already showing where he had been hit before going down, and three kidnappers are trying to grab Mom and daughters towards the door.

    Taking in the scene, he raises his arm and points at the largest thug. There's a *PHUT* of compressed air, and a tranq dart embeds itself in the guy's neck. He gets to remain awake for all of about fifteen seconds before he falls to the floor unconscious.

    As he moves towards the others, they both shove the women over towards Dad so they aren't encumbered by them while they try and deal with the hero. Nightwing moves in on them, his batons still sheathed. He spin kicks one in the face, knocking him back and then to the floor, then closes with the second, throwing a series of punches that end with an uppercut to the chin, dropping that one in place. He looks over to the family saying "Stay here, we're taking care of things. We'll be bringing ambulances in once it's safe."

    <<<< Ok, looks like we've got most of these. Let's clean it up and get some ambulances in here. >>>>

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Anthony Capenzo looks down on the scene from a nearby building, standing on a balcony facing the four buildings where the abductions are happening. He'd thought to just watch everything going smoothly, and have a good view if it didn't. Though he didn't expect what has happened. Some monster attacking the men at the vehicles. Caped figures swinging around and the sound of his men reporting more heroes inside the building.

He picks up his phone and dials it. "Yes. We need you now. Get in there and cover our escape!" he says tersely into the phone.

The result doesn't take long to materialize. A pair of black vans pull up within a half a minute. The side and back doors open and out pile... ninjas.

Up in his vantage point, Capenzo grins. Hiring some of the Foot to serve as backup muscle cost him a pretty penny, but it looked like it was going to be well worth it. As long as the vehicles got out with the girls they'd already grabbed, and maybe a few more in the retreat with the ninjas covering them? He'd still turn a profit.

In the courtyard out front of the buildings, the Foot street soldiers advance, drawing swords, pulling out weighted chains, knives and bo staffs. They are the rawest of Foot soldiers, they have received enough training they are a marked improvement over the thugs that the heroes have been fighting.

The thugs who are still able to move, make a beeline for the vehicles to get out of there. There aren't many left who meet that 'able to move' criteria.

Jason Todd has posed:
The Red Hood makes his way back down to the courtyard at an almost leisurely pace. He arrives just in time to see the vans of ninjas show up. He tilts his head slightly and laughs. <<They sent freaking ninjas. To fight us. They have no idea what they're dealing with.>> Jason retreives his crowbar again, laughing still. He walks boldly towards the Foot ninjas, spreading his arms wide.

"Oh, you're approaching me?"

He holsters his gun and draws a wicked looking karambit from his belt and he wades into the ninjas. The crowbar swings, thudding against flesh, the knife whips through the air, drawing blood. He is reckless, taking blows to his body armor, raising bruises underneath. One rings his bell, cracking a bo staff across his helmet. The staff splinters and jason cracks some ribs with his crowbar.

<<There's plenty for everyone!>>

Helena Wayne has posed:
<<Roger that on the hostiles.>> Huntress replies, looking both ways once she's out into the hall again. If reinforcements are on the way, then they'll have to come IN through the way the others were leaving. She goes back towards the way she came.

Rather than leaving via the door, however, Huntress ducks into a room with a few broken windows looking out into the courtyard. <<Hostiles confirmed in the courtyard. Anyone order a plate of ninjas?>>

And with that Huntress slips out the window, half-rolling to her feet. She's not making any attempt to avoid detection, and several of the ninjas move in her direction. Reaching up beneath her cape in back, Huntress produces a two-foot long baton. With a twist, it extends out into a two meter staff.

Huntress rushes in, twisting and turning while the staff whirls. Block the sword slash, snap-kick up under the chin, dodge-roll to avoid the next thrust, sweep the feet with the staff, then slam it down onto the forehead. She doesn't stop or even slow down, leaving unconscious bodies in her wake.

Leon O'Malley has posed:
Leon stops midway down the steps as the ninja assemble, weird white wisp eyes blinking several times in rapid succession as they take in the sight, "...Ninja?...Really?" Leon resumes down the steps, fingers elongating into cartoonishly long razor claws, "We've always wanted to know what weeb tastes like." The pair say in a demonic overlay before pouncing at the probably just cosplayers.

    The ninja are definitely not cosplayers, expertly coordinating their movements and dancing around the duo's rabid swipes, all the while raining down strikes from staff, shuriken, even a weird gross rotten egg thing. As Leon whirls around, struggling to keep pace with the mere mortals who took some night classes, a trio of them wrap him with the chains on their kusari-gama, the rest pouncing in to savage him with strikes before the pair can break free.

    As Leon loses his balance, dropping to his knees, the symbiote starts to wriggle and writhe, suddenly sharply arching their back and letting out a piercing shriek of rage as the bullets fired into it from the previous group are ejected en masse, tearing through the unsuspecting ninja's mostly non-vital areas.

    Leon takes a few haggard breaths as they rise, the chains shattered from the exertion, "....So...How long did you know we could do that?....Whadda ya mean 'just now'!?"

Alexis Carr has posed:
    Hey, you wanna know what really destroys rubber on cars?

    Fireballs!

    "Behind you!" comes a bright and very British voice from behind the Red Hood as a scarf-and-singed-hat wearing young woman steps out, and she takes aim for some of the escaping cars, raising her hands up and slinging a few, small, tightly-controlled fireballs at the car's rear tires to pop the rubber and take them out -- makes it very difficult to drive on just rims.

    The young woman looks, wide-eyed at the oncoming ninjas, and she brings up her baseball bat again.

    "It this *normal* for Gotham?" she asks the assembled heroes, since she's the odd girl out sans coms, and she starts just wailing on the ninjas that come at her with the steel bat.

    Strike one, across the shoulders

    Strike two, across the stomach.

    Three strikes -- and she's hit by someone else's staff, using the greater reach to their advantage as Alexis gets struck in the stomach.

    And she gets the breath knocked outta her!

Dick Grayson has posed:
    As he reaches a window as the end of a hallway on the second floor, he sees the ninjas coming into the courtyard and clustering around Jason. Since the window is already broken, he takes the easy way down, jumping out and landing with a roll to his feet. For these guys, his batons are out again as he moves in on the group around Jason. The first goes down, struck from behind. A number of other ninjas now take note of Nightwing and move to engage him as well.

    The next few moments are filled with the ringing of parried blows and occasional muffled thud as blows strike home on body armor or flesh. He does what he can to spread out the attackers as other heroes(?) come into view to fight the ninja attackers.

    << Looks like a ninja convention in the courtyard, but we've got the people to handle it. Anyone who isn't here already, keep making sure no more women are taken. >>

Austin Reese has posed:
Oddly enough, this would NOT the first time Austin has faced off against ninjas. But it seems that the courtyard party is full, so Austin rushes the ladies back inside, taking a moment to scoop up the gun that one thug had dropped and rendering it safe. He also scoops up a knuckle duster from the other guy.

He moves floors, finding some of the guys who are fleeing, who hadn't been harassed or beaten down by any of the heroes. He actually throws the baseball bat, aiming at the back of one of the guy's legs in order to trip him up, running past him with another kick to the face, "Hey asshole! Don't go out there, there's ninjas!" He yells at the other thug that's running away, who responds with some gunfire that sends Austin smashing through one of the windows above the courtyard and onto a fire escape. Hopefully there are no ninjas on the fire escape, or this might be awkward.

Tim Drake has posed:
    By the time the Foot clan arrives, two more battered thugs join their much more bloodied compatriot on the ground surrounding a would-be getaway car, now disabled via a concussive grenade planted in its engine block. The sound of that explosion is still bouncing off of the buildings, echoing in the still night air. Red Robin gets the children back inside the building just before the ninja surround them, and he plants himself in the doorway. "Whatever he paid you? It wasn't enough."

    And then with what is (for him) reckless abandon, Red Robin launches himself into the cluster of advancing ninja, electricity crackling from both ends of his staff.

    The first couple go down quickly, but he's swiftly overwhelmed, the red and mixed grey/black of his costume soon almost invisible amidst the swarm of moving bodies.

    He emerges a moment later, certainly a little bit more bruised than when he started and with a Foot ninja grabbing him in a chokehold as a grapple line pulls him upwards away from a swirling cloud of anaesthetic gas hissing from a capsule planted in the snow. It leaves behind a pile of unconscious ninja when it dissipates.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
The vehicles try to drive off, but after the fireballs, the horrible sound of rims on concrete result until they stop, and the remaining thugs bail out to try to run off into the night.

The ninjas are competent, though those trained by Batman will evaluate them as being trained, but far from elite. They do work together though, trying to create opportunities for each other as one will hold a heroes attention while another attacks from the side.

The fighting is eerily quiet on their side. No battle cries, and even when hit they give little more than the quietest of grunts. The air is filled instead with the ring of weapon on weapon or on body armor, with the occasional thud of one impacting flesh.

Helena Wayne has posed:
The ninjas aren't stupid, and it doesn't take them long to realize that the caped woman with the staff is better than they are. Tactics change. Swordsmen withdraw, and two others close. Chains lash out at Huntress from either side. She ducks to avoid getting tangled, but loses the staff in the process.

Rolling to her feet, Huntress is just in time to catch the sight of Red Robin riding the grapple line up while being choked by a ninja. It's an instinctive shot, draw-aim-shoot, and the ninja takes the bolt in the armpit. He'll manage to hold on a couple more seconds before he falls off.

<<Missed you again, Red Rob-...>>

Helena's words are cut off as she blocks a sword thrust with an armored forearm. Oh yeah, the ninjas. Pivoting -towards- him, a knife-hand strike to the elbow loosens his grip on the katana, which then becomes HER katana.

Whoever taught Huntress how to fight didn't leave out swordplay. The katana flashes quickly, her cuts and stabs enough to disable while somehow remaining non-lethal. The sword occasionally rings against steel in a brief flurry, but her progress through the ninjas continues.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    Nightwing doesn't find the ninjas as easy as the thugs in the building, which is pretty much as it should be. Fighting multiple opponents who have trained to work together is never simple, as shown by the various gouges and cuts in his armor, as well as a couple hits that are going to bruise spectacularly later.

    Still, the Bats are well trained in fighting when they are outnumbered, since that's pretty much the norm for them. Dodging or blocking more blows then he takes, he finds the time to launch another tranq dart into one of the ninjas still attacking Jason.

    With his mobility, he has thus far avoided various poisoned missiles, preferring to take the weapon hits that he can mitigate, but it does mean that although he's taken a good number of them down, there are still more ninjas on their feet.

Alexis Carr has posed:
    Alexis bites her lower lip. She's not a bat. She's a freaking ballet teacher... that's happened to have some combat experience. But hey, Ninjas aren't precisely high in her experience in fighting things -- so she does the next best thing.

    She flame-broils them. The scarfed girl brings her hands together, and starts slinging fireballs like Oprah giving out Cars.

    YOU get a fireball!
        YOU get a fireball!
            YOU get a fire -- no that's Red Hood, he's beating up ninjas too.

    She slings another couple before she has to take a breath. Her poor diaphram after getting hit with a bo staff is gonna be Hella Bruised.

    "Oosh. Your tourism department... is going to hear about this...."

Tim Drake has posed:
    There at the end, in the milliseconds before Huntress's crossbow bolt embeds itself between the ribs of the Foot ninja hitching a ride up towards the roof, Red Robin was closer to passing out from lack of oxygen than he'd like to admit. Close enough that he felt his grip slipping on the grapple gun, which would have sent them both plummeting back towards the ground.

    But then he feels the impact of the bolt through the body mass of the ninja against him, and then he's free of that additional weight, free to take a sucking gasp of breath in.

    It's some time later--long enough for him to take a quick jaunt across the rooftop--before he's capable of saying "<<Thanks for save, Huntress,>>" across comms without sounding strangled. As he comes down on the other side of the building, the spread of his cape steals enough momentum that when he lands on top of another Foot ninja trying to flank Red Hood, it doesn't shatter the bones in his legs.

    The guy he landed on, though? Probably got some broken bones, yeah. "Red Hood. Nightwing." Alexis gets a quick glance as Red Robin straightens up, withdrawing his staff once again as he sinks into a defensive stance. "Uh, new person I don't know. Hi."

Alexis Carr has posed:
    "Ah..." Alexis pauses. "Ignyx. How do you do?" the 5'2 young woman introduces herself, though she sounds pretty pained.

    She looks around at the grouping.

    "Should I have had an invitation?"

Jason Todd has posed:
Jason whoops as he bursts out of a pile of the Foot, the ninjas giving chase. He stops suddenly, pivoting sharply. He flips the crowbar, angling his wrist so that the hook end buries itself in the bicep of the unfortunate Foot who is closest. With a howl of pain, Jason continues his turn and throws the hapless ninja into a nearby dumpster. It rings like a bell.

"Present."

Austin Reese has posed:
Austin manages to not run into any of the ninjas on the fire escape he's on, which is lucky for him because while he does have a suit provided by Batman, he doesn't have any of the training that comes with it yet. He's doing this on his own. He climbs back through the window and goes after the guy who shot at him though, managing to catch him at the bottom of the stairwell.

He throws him into the wall, and the two of them get in a very close quarters fight, trading blows back and forth until Austin manages to land a blow that knocks the guy out of the stairwell door and their fight spills out into the courtyard.

Shredder has posed:
    Where exactly he came from may be never known. On the roof above Capenzo stands the Shredder himself. He's flanked by an Elite on either side of him, silently standing in their rice hats and demon masks. His crimson cloak catches the wind behind him, and he calls out into the night with a voice to command.

    "Hai! Teishi!"

    It doesn't matter where they were. It doesn't matter what they were doing. Every last Foot soldier to a person freezes. If it means they take a hit, they take a hit. If it means they pull a punch, they pull a punch. They turn toward the roof to look at their master.

    The Shredder stands for several seconds, surveying the status. He looks particularly toward those who had been burned by the fireballs. "Kaifuku!" He points at his more damaged family, and several of the foot soldiers take the cue and go to tend to the wounded. The master's gaze shifts, down to Capenzo directly beneath him. Even though his face is obscured, one doesn't need to see it to know that he is pretty royally peeved off.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Capenzo frowns as he sees the Foot soldiers stop fighting, and then he turns towards to look above him where that loud, authoritative voice came from.

"What are you doing!?" he fumes up at Shredder. "I paid for protection, and they are getting their asses handed to them!" he says, talking with his hands flamboyantly as if trying to embody the Italian-heritage stereotype.

Capenzo points over across the street at the sight of the fight. "Get over there and take those assholes out!" he demands.

Shredder has posed:
    The Shredder drops down to the balcony before Capenzo. "You paid for protection," he agrees. "For a goods transport." He steps closer to Capenzo. "Human lives are not goods. The Foot is part of many things, but we will not be part of dehumanizing human souls. My soldiers draw blood. They kill. They die, but each life is of value, whether it is spared or it is sacrificed." His right hand snaps out with his tekko-kagi claws, and catches him in the right shoulder. He lifts the man into the air by the shoulder.

    "Your life has value as well," he says, narrowing his eyes. "The value is that it shall be a warning to everyone who witnesses your demise, and to everyone who hears of it by word of mouth, or by report, or by the nightmares it instills in their sleep. You do not make a fool of the Shredder."

    He flings the man from the balcony, and the distance forward he travels suggests that the strength of the ninja master must be at least mildly enhanced. Capenzo is flung forward, his head being turned forward to pitch head first toward the pavement below.

    There is no ceremony given from there by the Shredder. Just a simple command, an outstretched fist which opens. The Foot begin to flee, no longer giving any aid to Capenzo's men to protect them, and no longer willing to engage in combat at all with the protectors of Gotham. It's a full retreat. Only the Shredder remains with his two elites on the roof, overseeing the exit.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Batgirl's voice comes over the Batcomms. << Gotham PD have arrived to help the captives. Do you need any assistance there? Misfit and I can return if so. >>

The remaining thugs, which there aren't many who aren't down, see the ninjas retreat, and they stop and give up. Caped bats are bad enough, but monsters and women throwing fire are a bit above their pay grade.

Flashing lights and sirens indicate police and ambulance vehicles on the way, as officers not on the take respond to the calls coming in from people in the building, and from contacts received from the heroes.

Jason Todd has posed:
As Jason flicks blood from his crowbar, the ninjas start to flee. He frowns behind his helmet. "That's no fun."

He looks to Tim, and then Alexis. The latter gets the once over because Jason is, well, male. He gives them both a sarcastic salute before he bails.

He considered trying to pull a Bruce on Tim, but, well, his heart just isn't into it today. Maybe next time.

From down an alley, the roar of a motorcycle is heard, and then the screaming of tires. Soon enough, the engine noise fades, and Jason is gone.

Leon O'Malley has posed:
Finally recovering and removing all the shuriken and yolk, Leon manages to catch The Shredder's big display as he executes the gangster, "...Is that guy wearing a colander on his head?...No I'm not concerned, a fall like that, no way he's still alive...Ugh, fiiine, we'll go check on hi-huh? Cops...Ok, fine, make it quick."

    He says as they take a jogging start a tendril pulling them past the body as they begin to swing through the streets and alleys to avoid getting shot more, "Gonna have to thank that one guy, what was his name? Todd? Real nice guy."

Austin Reese has posed:
Austin ends up zip tying the last guy he had been fighting with, and then once communication about the cops being on scene comes over the comms, he bails. Time to get out of here before he has to explain any of this to the cops...At least it sounds like all the women are safe, which is the important thing right now, at least as far as Austin is concerned.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    Nightwing is defending himself against three ninjas when the commands ring out from the rooftop and the ninjas stop attacking him. It's a testament to their training that even the one he's swinging at has the discipline to take the hit in order to follow the commands of his master. The next moment, the ninjas are disengaging from all the fights they were involved in to carry their wounded comrades to safety.

    He watches Capenzo's assisted dive from the roof, then his eyes track back up to Shredder, imaging the man and his guards and feeding the info to the network to see if it can ID the man. He's torn between going after the ninja leader and making sure everyone here, hero and civilian are okay. Under his breath he mutters "Another day then." before turning away from Shredder to begin checking the wounded and unconscious, cuffing the thugs for the police to pick up now that they are on the scene.

    << No need from what I can see. Head out, the rest of us are about ready to vanish into the night. >>

    He looks over at Tim and Jason, managing to get out a quick "Good work." before Jason is gone. He shrugs at Tim and says, "He never does want to stick around. Nice work by both of you." He glances over to Alexis and nods, "Thanks for the help, but be careful with those fireballs. We don't want to burn things down." Raising one arm, he fires a line up to the roof, ascending into the night and vanishing.

Alexis Carr has posed:
    Alexis gives a flat expression behind the scarf she was using to hide her identity, and then she coughs, turning, and pulling the scarf down a little bit she very much ungracefully coughs again, and spits out blood.

    "Well, it's been incredibly cheery... should you come across a young lady by the name of Kaydee Small, *do* let me kn--" she begins, and most everyone vanishes. And she breathes out in a soft huff.

    "Completely bonkers, these Gotham kids. I'm just pleased I didn't see poor Cass among the ladies." she mutters quietly, holding up a business card that she's pulled from her pocket. Not like you can't trust a bunch of bats with your actual business, right?

Tim Drake has posed:
    "I'm sure it just got lost in the mail," is what Red Robin decides to tell Alexis, and it's not said unkindly, either. It's fairly obvious to him which side she's on, after all.

    He watches, expression inscrutable, as the Foot ninja freeze and then withdraw. Capenzo's death happens too quickly and too distantly for him to do anything about, but Red Robin still takes several steps towards the building across the street. Pointless, ultimately, and he turns away after the impact. There's still cleanup to do, and he comms Batgirl quickly to report "<<We have it handled,>>" before he starts making the rounds in the wake of Red Hood's exit stage right, doing a similar sweep of the area as Nightwing. "Antisocial tendencies? In *our* family?" he asks, then under his breath, mutters, "It's more likely than you think!"

    Before long, he's no more than another dark figure fading way into the night, off to nurse a few bruises and head back to New York after too little sleep.

Shredder has posed:
    The Shredder simply watches. He is evaluating the heroes of Gotham. One day soon he may find himself at odds with them. But not tonight. Tonight he was an unlikely assistant. He doesn't say anything, and he doesn't make any indication that he wants to. Finally, when he is confident that what he can learn is complete, he himself disappears back into the night.