2012-08-23 Rapunzel

Oracle has been slacking. Just a little bit really, but for her it feels like a lot. She went to a Dazzler concert. She went on a sort-of-date. Tonight, she's bucking down at the Clock Tower and trying to reaffirm the fact that she's keeping an eye on the world.
Of course, that's what Babs told herself. But she's actually watching youtube videos because she's bored out of her skull. It's been a slow night for baddies in Gotham, and she's doing the internet equivalent of thumb twiddling. She's sitting on the couch, her chair at the end of it, in sweats and a t-shirt, watching vids on her S-Pad, and waiting for her online meeting time with Doug to play ME3.
"Y'know? You really should think about getting some better security."
That voice is unmistakable and totally belongs to Jason Todd. Except for the fact that stepping out of the shadows (there's always some shadows to hide in) is the Red Hood. There's probably a grin on that face beneath the helmet as he makes his grand entrance. There's no weapons in his hands, though, as he's quite content with holding his arms out to his sides like he's some sort of grand marshal and master of ceremonies!
"Oh wait. I forgot. I'm probably going to kill you in about six minutes so... maybe you won't need to worry about that, after all." Out of one of those gloved hands of the Hood's falls a pile of wire and a few pieces of some of the Oracle's security equipment. Just enough to make it possible for him to actually get inside. Less is more. Especially when you know what wires to cut and where.
"If I changed security to lock you out, and you wanted in, you'd just do more property damage," Oracle deadpans. She's careful to keep any tremors from her voice but she's worried. The Bats are occupied tonight which leaves, her Birds. Only one of them knows where she lairs. The rest of them still live under their various delusions of who the Oracle is. But if Jason intends to kill her, she needs to get them here to secure her data if nothing else.
"So is this going to be a complete clusterfuck?" she asks, loud and clear. Babs was never much of a potty mouth, it's why her security system is keyed to that code word. It sends an emergency alert text out to the Birds with the address of the Clock Tower and a warning that Oracle is under assault there.
"It doesn't have to be, Sis. I mean, I could've just sniped you." Maybe it's true. Maybe it's not. Jason is not really the sort to be worried about whether he could've got a shot off or not. "But where's the fun in that?" Jason actually takes the next moment to start making his way off towards a bit of the Clock Tower. He's mostly just wandering around, but staying close to where Oracle is. Just in case. He looks around and leans up against a random solid piece of the walls there.
"So. Do you wanna' do this with or without your chair? Either way, it's going to suck for you."
"Depends. Which one will haunt you more when you remembered you killed the closest thing you ever had to a sister?" Barbara asks pointedly. "That'll be my choice. It'll be more poignant when I come back to haunt your sorry ass." Her head is held high, her jaw defiantly lifted, as she doesn't take her eyes from Jason.
Sigh. Red Hood can't even really get into this. Not if she's going to be doing all this smarmy talking. So unfair. "Look. Your little psychoanalytical bullshit ain't gonna' work on me. Okay? Maybe you shoulda' remembered how 'close' we were when you and Bruce let the Clown roam free." Red Hood turns his back on Oracle for the moment, leaning against the wall he's chosen to stay close to. He's hesitating. Why is he hesitating. He never hesitates.
"... it didn't have to be like this." comes out next, in an almost confused whisper.
"Why? Because we wouldn't stoop to the Joker's level? Because we wouldn't become the monster to avenge you? It's not /all about you/ Jason. We kept fighting the good fight in your memory, the way you fought it, before you became this pitiful whiny violent somebody that I used to know." Uh oh, Babs has pulled out the Gotye. That's just rude.
And that triggers the Hood within the Jason that was attempting to creep out. Which is not good. Because when he turns around, he's got his knife out and he's practically lunging from the wall and off towards her on the sofa, aiming to stab that blade right into her shoulder... and to the sofa if he has to. "It's not about avenging me. It's about stopping a fucking psychotic murderer! Whom, if I recall, is still murderering people." Yeah, the heavy breathing just makes him sound even more psycho.
Barbara wasn't expecting the speed with which Jason moves, but she had enough time to get the stungun she keeps under the couch cushion. As Hood stabs her in the shoulder, pinning her to the back of the couch with a gasp of pain and a spray of blood, she uses her free hand to jam the device between his jacket collar and helmet to trigger the shock.
It's enough of a shock to have Hood jumping backwards from the effect of the electricity! Actually, it kind of shocks him OFF her! Leaving the knife in place, he hits the floor and rolls backwards, wincing. There's a lot of armor on him that tanked most of that, but with the weak spot between the helmet and armor being so noticeable... he growls. "That's the second time somebody noticed that. It's not happening again." He's still a little bit shaky, even as he goes for one of his guns, pulling it out and cocking it.
"I loved you, Barbara. I swear I did." The gun is raised slowly as if he's fighting with his own self about aiming it. Or maybe he's still reeling from the shock.
Barbara knows what she's feeling right now is the beginnings of shock. She remembers the feeling from when she was bleeding out on her floor after the Joker shot her. She feels the heat of her own blood in sharp contrast to the cold she feels in the fingers of that arm beginning to creep upwards. Her green eyes flash defiantly though, even with tears welling in them.
"So what? Now you don't? Now you want to finish the job the Joker started on me, Jason?" Babs accuses, her body trembling with a mix of pain and rage. "He shot me, thinking it would be the cruelest thing he could do to me, and to my dad, to cripple me but let me live. And you know what? I beat that mother fucker by being better than I was before. By doing more as Oracle than I ever did as Batgirl. And you're going to kill me and give him his victory any way. You're a fucking coward. If you hate him so much, go kill him yourself, instead of killing the people who didn't do the dirty work for you."
"Shut up! SHUT UP!"
Red Hood is getting confused in the head. He's already not stable. He really isn't. And the helmet is not doing him any good. He really wants to yank this damn thing off but he can't. Not in here. That'd just be opening himself up to another one of Barbara's tricks. She has so many. He always admired that about her. Always.
"Listen. Don't you worry about the clown. I've got more than enough planned for him." The gun is finally lifted and held. There's only a slight shake to the holding of the weapon. Just a bit. And then he's switching again. It's so hard to keep up. "... I'm sorry it has to be like this. I'll see you soon." Yeah, Jason knows after he kills the entire Bat Family and Joker that there's no way Batman will be able to let him live. Or? Maybe he won't even give the Bat that choice. Either way, he knows where he's headed.
So why hasn't he pulled the trigger yet?
Barbara's gone a few shades paler from blood loss and the spreading stain on the couch cushion doesn't look so great. But she has one trick left up her sleeve. "Do you know what really sucks for you Jason?" she says as she hears a single chime, indicating her team has arrived. "You're alone. And I'm not. LIGHTS OUT!" The lights in the entire building go out and steel frames slam down on the windows, sinking them into blackness.
Babs yanks the knife out of her shoulder and rolls off the couch, hitting the floor with the bracing off her hands as quietly as she can, so she can try and drag herself under it and vanish before he can get his night vision operating.
Red Hood's night vision is pretty quick... but not quick enough. He can't spot the Oracle anywhere. Not yet anyway. But he's pretty sure that he's going to enjoy killing her now. Whatever Jason was left has vamoosed at this point and he's already yanked another one of his guns out with his free hand.
"Good. I was hoping this would be more fun." comes from the Red Hood as he backs himself up to the wall he was using before. Leverage.
The emergency text went out to the Birds and the Bats late, close to 2 AM. It is a preprogrammed emergency text that the Bats know about, but will be new to the Birds. It is a distress message, saying simple "ORACLE IN TROUBLE! CLOCK TOWER UNDER ASSAULT!" with the address in Gotham. The Bats know this means she also turned off her security systems, so they can get in and to her without having to stop for scans and codes.
The Clock Tower is in complete darkness, no lights on it at all. Whether Barbara cut them or whoever attacked her did, is anyone's guess. The doors are unlocked and the alarms are off. The bookcase at the end of the hallway is already slid aside, and the elevator is open, with the security system turned off allowing anyone to use it to get to the other floors.
As for Oracle, she's currently hiding under her couch, where she rolled after dousing the lights and removing the knife pinning her to it. That knife belongs to Jason Todd, the Red Hood. They used to be like siblings. Tonight he is trying to kill her. Only his repeated hesitations have given Babs enough time to get her alert out moments after he arrived, and stay alive to this point.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are!"
That would be the voice of Jason Todd, the Red Hood. He's totally getting some serious Cape Fear on right now as he sticks close to the wall, both hands on his guns. He's not even moving really, keeping his back planted against the wall and using the night vision of his helmet to make sure that he's got a good eye on everything. He's focused on making sure that he looks at the exits and entrances that he memorized upon entering the Clocktower, clearly ready to get the drop on anyone that may be coming to the aid of his former sister.
On his way back to the cave from another meeting, Robin is nearby when the alert goes off. He pulls the alert into the HUD on his motorcycle helmetand alters directions quickly. Bringing up his own comm to the Bats. ||"Robin here. I'm a minute and change from the tower."|| he reports, dodging traffic as quickly as possible without getting himself killed, cape flaring behind him. ||"We know anything yet? All I've got is the automated alert."||
As promised, Nightwing manned the fort while Robin was out...keeping in touch with the Titans as needed. He has made himself a large coffee to get him through the night but as soon as the alert came up he was on his bike and out of the cave. **Nightwing here. ETA about three minutes...coming from the Cave. Robin, hold down the fort.** He's pushing his bike as fast as it can go, swerving dangerously through Gotham traffic to get to the Clocktower.
Frederick Jager is hard at work in one of his improvised lairs, limited as ever by the fact he will of course have to clear out in the morning. He has run out of ammunition too many times in fights, and his ability in a stand up fight has been a function of luck more than anything else. Currently, he is experimenting with the the possible use of electrochemical cells to conduct electrical current through the suit...right now it has no practical use, but voltaic weaponry might be a sound backup in the event of ammunition shortages. Of course, the path of scientific progress never did run smooth...and more than once, it has gone 'BOINK'. More accurately, he has been nearly fried and flung against a wall more than once in the space of an evening, so much so that an old mattress he has salvaged for a slightly more comfortable sleeping arrangement has been repurposed as an admittedly poor excuse for an airbag in case he goes flying ag......ZAP, THOOM!
Dragnet hates science. It hurts him. Why couldn't he just have gotten magical bullshit Kung Fu powers or something? It is only after shaking his head several times that he gets the message alert from the gauntlet he is still wearing, putting on the helmet and trying to make the birds stop tweeting. He shakes his head vigorously and switches on the comm and the voice changer though he probably still sounds a bit dazed. **Dragnet reporting. Ten minutes. Though..I'm not sure how much help I'll be.** It takes a little longer than usual to put the armor on, but to his credit, once his armor on, its like putting on a completely different person. He may still talk too much, he may still be a vigilante in progress, but he's Dragnet. He is becoming a semi-trained professional. Maybe he won't screw this up.
||"No idea here!"|| Spoiler shouts over a blaring truck horn. ||"But I'm coming off the highway now! I'm close!"|| The young crime fighter's lip is raw from the stress of her ride out from the 'burbs. She's pushed her little bike as hard as it'll go, and while it held up admirably as she narrowly avoided death on the interstate, it's belching thick clouds of noxious smoke as she turns onto the street.
She'll have to figure out the moral implications of hitting Oracle up for bike repair monies later, assuming they both survive tonight.
||"I'm--I might come in wielding a big chunk've motorcycle at this rate, just so you know..."||
"Helios!" Babs whispers into her headset as she clenches her eyes shut. All the lights on her floor flash on overbright suddenly, then out again, hopefully momentarily blinding Jason. She hauls herself with her one good arm to the end of the couch where her chair is, and reaches out to slide open the side panel and pull out her phone, escrima sticks and batarangs. She is not going down without a fight, dammit. She taps in her response in text on the phone, which gets translated into Oracle voice over the comm. ||"Red Hood. Stabbed. Has gun."||
Hood hears things. He hears movement. He also hears whispers. Not to mention his helmet is all sorts of awesomely tech'd out. Which is why he's taken to grappling himself to the ceiling in the next moment, just as those lights flash. His lenses auto-adjust in time with it to make sure he's not as blinded as he normally would've been.
He's already shifted into stealth mode, moving as silently as possible. It's almost as if he's no longer there. However, the rolling of a handful of smoke emitting marbles in random directions on the floor may help to impair the vision of the Oracle and/or whomever may be coming onto this floor to provide some assistance. It's always better to control the environment. Even if the environment is a foreign one. Batman taught him that.
Robin spots the clock tower looming up into the distance and sets the bike on autodrive as he whips out his grapple gun and fires. The line goes taut and the teen is lifted into the air. He lands with a slight grunt on the roof of the tower as the message comes in. ||"Damnit. I'm getting set for a breach entry. 15 seconds."|| Robin comms, anchoring the grapple line again and rappling over the edge of the building to set a small explosive charge agianst a smallish window.
He pulls himself back up, and then pushes off the building with as much force as he can. ||"I'm going in."||
Nightwing is about a minute or so behind Robin. He takes his own grapple line out and skids his bike to a stop before shooting the line up one of the adjacent buildings. He uses it to pull himself up to the roof, pulling out his binoculars as soon as he gets a foothold. He needs to assess before diving in and the smokebomb inside and charge that Robin set off will prove useful. He hopes. He takes a leap, throwing a line to catch on the roof of the Clocktower itself. He tries to land as quietly as possible before making his way around to the hole, soon to be created by the explosive.
Dragnet doesn't have the extensive training of the others in this scenario, but technology supplements for lack of expertise. Heat is trapped and disseminated through the ground. Auditory dampeners mask his footsteps and the arming of the canister launchers on his gauntlets. Environmental noise and visual distractions are scrubbed and cleaned before presenting the most honest picture of the environment that can be granted. He doesn't need to worry about a contest of skill, so he walks in through the front door and takes the stairs....LIKE NORMAL PEOPLE! *Switching frequencies. He knows who you are, but he doesn't know me....I don't think. The more I can keep out of his notice, the more of an advantage of I have.* Also, Frederick doesn't have the advantages of whatever hesitation that has kept the Red Hood from killing the Oracle. He doesn't know they are family, but he has gathered something has kept this a home invasion instead of a homicide. A stranger probably won't enjoy the same protections...
Spoiler's eyebrows shoot up at the attacker's name and a dozen different scenarios begin playing out in her head, all of them chilling. She's seen how carelessly he kills; how much longer does Oracle really /have/, at this point?
After all, she's just some comptuer nerd, right?
When she arrives on the block in time to see Gotham's /other/ birds zipping up to the top of the tower, she sets those fears aside long enough to slam on the brakes and gawk up at them. Her bike pops loudly and emits a fresh black cloud in protest.
"How--" She slowly looks down at the grappling rope on her hip, then back up at the tower, a frown forming beneath her mask. "God/damnit/..." she mutters as she hops off and starts sprinting towards the tower. She charges through the front door not long after Dragnet, and the sound of his footfalls racing up the stairwell tells her that she might be better off with the elevator. Sighing, she mashes the call button, folds her arms, taps her foot and waits.
/Heroically/.
Babs hears the grapple line in the room, then the sound of the smoke pellets striking the floor from a height. She rolls onto her back in the tight quarters, and sucks in a steadying breath. The phone gets tucked into the pocket on her sweats, the sticks into her waistband, and she grasps a pair of batarangs in one hand. Then she shimmies partly out from under the couch to fling the bat-shaped shuriken upwards where she thought she heard the grapple attach. It's an effort to force the Red Hood to move and make a noise, to alert the others to where he is. Of course, it leaves her momentarily vulnerable.
Fortunately for Spoiler, it's a really fast elevator. Really fast. Like, hold on to the rails fast.
Red Hood doesn't move. There's no reason for him to. Granted, a bat-shuriken has just embedded in the ceiling next to his helmet but he doesn't feel that there is a necessary moment for him to actually make his presence known. While his smoke pellets have created a nice cloud of hindering smoke at the moment, he's more than equipped to handle things from this vantage point. He's only got one hand available, though, as the other one is keeping him up and planted against the wall, holding on to the grapple line.
His lenses have shifted into Bastard Detective Mode to allow for him to see whomever is headed into this particular area right now. Because it's about to go down.
||"Three....two...one..."|| Robin counts off over the comm. The explosive charge goes off, sending bits of glass and stone into the building heartbeats before Robin himself comes swinging in. Knowing that he is the distraction, Robin hits the floor in a roll, dive leaps over the couch in the center of the room, and makes a break for the far wall.
Hopefully....Oracle hasn't moved her furniture around too much or this might hurt, running pell mell through the dark. And hopefully, Babs will forgive him for blowing a hole in her wall. Not likely however. This just hasn't been Robin's day when it comes to making the woman in his life happy.
The teen drops into a slide at the last possible moment, angling his body to present the smallest posible target.
Nightwing lands right near the hole that Robin blew into the wall and waits for a count of ten, listening and doing his best to stay out of line of sight. He's also familiar with the layout of the Clocktower so at Robin's distraction, he then slips silently through the windows and leaps up to catch one of the crossbeams and pull himself up. He has a batarang in his teeth as he climbs, in case he gets a clear shot to throw it.
Dragnet has had a lifetime of signs teaching him that in case of emergencies, one always takes the stairs. In case of fire, earthquake, or gun toting madman, you always take the stairs, no matter how many flights of stairs are required. It also prevents him from having to risk himself to high level acrobatics that did not come with the armor instruction manual. The manual that fortunately, or unfortunately depending on ones point of view, Oracle knows Dragnet never had. The door is tapped, as if checking for any kind of countermeasure (perhaps installed by a hostile force. Paranoid soul that he is, if he had any time, its what he would do.) Now we see if the rock paper scissors between Bastard Detective Mode and AIDOS dynamic camouflage ends in Dragnet's favor. His own Bastard Detective mode is not without its share of tricks, and he cycles between visual and audio modes to try and get the most accurate picture of the 14th floor as he can. 'No Killing.' Right....of the fellow committing a home invasion. Handsome Doctor Man with big hands or not, he was beginning to suspect there is a reason Oracle sticks to the technical side of things.
To the benefit of Dragnet's moral compass, he doesn't shoot to kill. He can't see the Hood as clearly as he would the generic stooge running around quietly or with some tricks, but he has enough outline to know what not to hit. Don't kill. That does not mean that Dragnet is under any obligation to make the Red Hood's day pleasant. He may be a meek soul, but occasionally something like anger or indignation rears its ugly head. "Time to meet Friday, you homicidal prick." He spits in an angry whisper, as the mass driver powers up, firing the concussive blast far enough away so as to not be in any danger of hitting the Hood, but in ideal circumstances his ability to hold on to...well, anything has gotten a lot more precarious.
The dull roar of the explosion above barely gets Spoiler's attention; she's too focused on trying not to throw up as the clocktower's elevator rockets her to the top.
Soon enough, the cab lurches to a halt and Spoiler stumbles her way out onto the smoky 14th Floor; she manages to catch herself against her wall, but as much as she'd like to lean against it and catch her breath, the smoke won't let her. There's nothing but fabric between it and her, and the best she can do is through her cape over her nose and mouth and try not to cough too loudly.
Her head snaps towards Dragnet's warning shot; her mask lacks a 'Teenaged Vigilante In Over Her Stupid Head' mode, so her teammate's mass-driven slug is the first real clue she gets to what's going on up here. She quickly fumbles with her belt, trying to find a light, pepper spray, /anything/ to give her the edge in this environment before Oracle dies. On her third pouch, she hits--
--firecrackers and a lighter, from the feel; they'll have to do. She nearly drops the latter in the process of swiping it across the fuses, but she manages to hurl them somewhere between the shooter and the ground beneath where the slug impacted. Within moments of hitting the ground, they begin popping loudly and filling the air with white sparks.
Blond hair streaming wildly behind her the Black Canary ran full tilt down the street to the clock tower. Her eyes were narrowed in worry as se sprinted to the tower, noting the hole in its side with mild panic. Dinah made her way to the entrance weaving past regular folk and bystanders with a brisk "Coming Through!" The sight of a figure slipping into the windows. She makes her way to the ground floor enterance. When the cannon gun noise sounds she throws her back to the wall and looks around sharply. Her chest heaves as she catches her breath and she slips into the building heading for the stairs and tailing Dragnet.
Babs is really not happy. Not only is she bleeding badly from her shoulder, which has her down to one really useable limb, she had a cyber date tonight with Doug to play Mass Effect 3. How can she explain missing their scheduled time? Oh, hi Doug. I'm really a vigilante sort of, and I was being killed by my former batshit crazy little brother at heart, who got resurrected by an ageless madman whose daughter popped out Batman's kid. Sorry I couldn't shoot things in the head running around Firebase Hydra with you!
To add insult to serious injury, the Teen Wonder just blew a hole in her Clock Tower. Gah! She hears Robin leap over the couch and stretches out her hand to grab his ankle, whispering, "Me," so he knows it's not Jason. "He's topside." Code for in the rafters.
Controlling the environment is always a good thing. Not to mention being trained by the Batman. So this is why he doesn't move... when Robin slides into the Clocktower. He knows a distraction when he sees one and considering the wide reach of the Oracle, Red Hood is betting that she's probably called more than the Teen Wonder to her aid.
And his vantage point gives him Nightwing. Which is perfect. Oracle's bat-shuriken is pulled from the ceiling and hurled in a wide arc off in a random direction for misdirection and possible computer monitor destruction, whilst his body disengages from the ceiling's grapple. There's a smirk beneath the helmet of the Red Hood as he drops out of the way of concussive blasts coming from a location that is now attempting to be decoded by the high-tech specs within the helmet. Honestly, Jason's drop was just lucky. He could be splattered against the ceiling right now.
Hands go out immediately to grab onto the beam below and Jason uses that swing himself around and back up into the air, angling for a kick towards the Nightwing, whom BDM has a clear visionary lock-on. "Who the hell invited you assholes?!" comes from the Red Hood, in the midst of what should be a pleasantly violent surprise to the Nightwing.
The intent is to keep moving. Red Hood already knows that there are way more people here than he's going to be able to handle. So he's actually trying to kick -through- Nightwing so he can get himself to another beam to crouch on. Even while firecrackers and what not are going off down below. Which are not of his own ilk.
He just needs to get some space between himself and however many hostiles he's got on his ass right now. He needs some /room/. To work.
... or Flee.
||"She's under the couch"|| Robin comms softly, ||"And he's in the rafters. Double check your targets, Nightwing is up there too."|| Robin takes a moment to look around, switching his vision mods around trying to track Red Hood through the ceiling. 'Classic control the enviroment' Robin thinks, before whispering down to Oracle. "Are you hurt?"
"Damn," is muttered as he gets that Jason's in the rafters too. The kick connects and Nightwing uses the momentum to roll to one side, wincing from the kick. However, two can play at that game. As soon as Jason speaks and confirms his location, Nightwing swings from the rafter, trapeze-style, to aim a two-footed kick at him. "You should know better than to mess with Oracle, Hood!"
Given that Dragnet's stealth cuts out with the use of the AIDOS's armaments, he takes cover behind the nearest thing he can, relying more on the size of whatever is available rather than it being more protective than his armor. Really, for all of its drawbacks, it has the advantage of people actually knowing its a friendly and not some additional assailant. He doesn't know Spoiler has mistaken him for a red instead of a green or a blue, so the fireworks are seen...as an unforeseen blessing? He tucks and rolls again, hoping that the sparklers draw the eye away from the now unstealthed Dragnet. Switching to gas canister ammunition, he peers out tentatively from his cover. Fortunately, unlike Rebecca Black, Dragnet only has so many Friday's at a given time he can call to use...the shaving and honing of a suitable shell takes time that his on-suit fabricator can't shorten on the fly. He knows Red Hood is a better fighter, a better shot, pretty much a better everything...he's basically an easy mark if he doesn't perform serious fake outs. Like giving the illusion of bringing a tank to a knife fight. He tries to angle the shot of his canisters to fall along Jason's most likely escape routes. The vector is not ideal, and the likelyhood that the Hood will stand still and breathe in the cataplectic gas and think about unicorns and rainbows and wearing Robin Tights again is astronomically low.
Dragnet can only rely on one advantage when dealing with Hood: Overwhelming, if non-lethal force. He can't brood and growl menacingly, but cannons and grenades often do a hell of a job of making you seem slightly more respectable running around with a glowing lines on black ensemble.
Spoiler quirks her brow at the news that Jason is above them and starts to turn her eyes to the rafters; thanks to all the smoke, it doesn't take her long to determine that she's wasting her time when she only has the eyes God gave her to rely upon.
||"I'm at the elevator,"|| she hisses as quietly as she can. She makes sure to keep low as she tries to feel her way around the area. ||"I need--*koff*--to know where the couch is--I'll cover Oracle!"||
Black Canary creeps up the stairs, slowing as she reaches the top. She pauses briefly at the top of the stairs to catch her breath and taps into her ear piece with a small jump when it activates. "All right Birds-B-Oracle, whats your loc? Girlfriend, get her out of here. Dragnet cover Spoiler, if thats you making all the noise." The Canary stood up and heaved a small breath before ducking into the smoke covered room, taking a momnet to try and locate the other people. Anxiety easing when she recognizes bright hero-y colors on Robin. She moves along a wall and prepares to climb up into the rafters.
"Yes," Barbara whispers back to Robin. "Stabbed. Shocky. Cold," she explains, all indicators she's lost a lot of blood. When the loquacious Oracle is down to single word sentences, you know she's hurt bad. "Spoiler and Dragnet can get me to a Hospital," she tells him. "Stop Jason." Then her grip on his ankle slackens and she passes out.
Red Hood barely has time to get to a crouched position and back up to his feet, balancing with ease... before he's knocked in the chest by Nightwing's feet. Wincing beneath the helmet and hitting his back against the metal of the beams, he rolls backwards twice to get himself away from whatever gas was just shot in his direction. The good news is that his helmet protects him from gas. The better news is that Nightwing is up here too and likely not as protected.
"Please. This is an A and B conversation. Time for you losers to C your way out of it." Jason's using horrible quips on purpose. Because he's taking the time to fling two pairs of razor wing tipped shurikens off towards whomever is down below. While somewhat of a marksman, the aim for these is off and mostly just meant to be something of a deterrent... and maybe he'll get lucky and hit Stealth Mode Man. If Robins or Canaries or Spoiler Alerts happen to get sliced up too? Bonus.
Hood's already running across that beam towards the Nightwing since he's closest and the highest threat right now. He takes to the air though, aiming to somersault over him and give himself a bit of room. Because as he comes down on the other side and turns to grab a balanced fighting stance, something cylindrical can be seen peeking up from the top of his jacket. Something that he places a hand on in preparation. He's going to need a moment. Or the 'Heroes' are going to have to escalate this. Either way, he's not attacking right now. Interesting.
||"Spoiler, straight ahead. Get low, the smoke isn't as bad near the ground."|| Robin snaps into the comm. ||"She's hurt bad, theres a medical kit sitting on the floor right next to her."|| He pulls the kit from his belt, and sets it right next to Oracle on the ground, before activating a flash light and setting it down as well. ||"Follow the light."||
Robin takes a deep breath, reaching over to lay a hand on Oracle's a moment, silently wishing her to be okay, before he looks up and fires his grapple into the ceiling and yoinking himself into the raters as well, just barely pulling himself past the batarand aimed at him.
Robin slips a rebreather from his belt, and slides it between his lips before pulling his collapsable staff. He extends half of it, knowing the full length would be pointless in this close of quarters, and moves in to assist Nightwing battle Hood in the rafters.
A gas cannister. Great. It's a good thing that the Bats come prepared. Nightwing pulls a rebreather out as well and shoves it in his mouth so that he can stay in the fight. Upon hearing that Jason actually -hurt- Oracle, he pulls his escrima sticks and rushes in to attack Jason, balancing easily on the beams. It's wider than a tight-rope at least. Talking is going to be difficult with the rebreathers in, so he'll just have to attack.
Dragnet's falling back. He may be doing more harm than good, really. Using entirely more firepower than Gotham probably sees in a night...and relying on the Bat's to be prepared as he tries to compromise between helping and realizing that he is perhaps a greenhorn in what is increasingly looking like an episode of Family Feud gone wrong. He falls back to Oracle's position, gathering up Oracle and holding her close, downright tenderly. There isn't any emotion or rakishness here....the AIDOS is really only designed to stealth one, and right now she probably needs the benefits of being hidden more than him. He hasn't been stab....oh, hello shurikens to the shoulder. What is with Fred and sprouting sharp pointy things at socially inopportune times? He winces and almost drops Oracle 'Not a Handsome Doctor Man' Gordon (An image of a convention plays in his memory....), but he manages to persevere. *I got her. I can absorb more damage, and still have a gauntlet free.* He has the stabbed arm pointed towards the rafters as he falls back. He will freak out about this later, he knows it. For now though, got to put on your brave face Fred!
||"I know, I /know/! You aren't--*kof--the only one who's ever fire drill!"|| Spoiler snaps back. She's bent about as low as she can manage while still making decent time towards the couch. Spoiler makes it a few feet across the Floor before one of those razor wings *thunks* into the ground a little ways in front of her, and the soft whizzing sound - not to mention the terrifying moment when the thing flies mere /inches/ away from her cheek - causes her to stumble for a few steps.
Luckily, she's pretty close to the couch; years of after-school gymnastics training kick in when she lunges into the thing, and after planting her hands on the back of it she vaults over to the other side.
Where Dragnet already has Oracle in his arms.
She nearly hauls off and tackles him on GP, but she remembers that their opponent is on the /ceiling/ just as she begins to ball her hand up.
"Give--" She quickly ducks her head and flings her cape back around her face as she lapses into a brief fit of coughing. "--me--*koff*--a /gun/ or something!" she gets out as she drops to her knees.
Yep, Oracle is not a handsome doctor man, a CIA spook, a robot, or Batman himself. Surprise, little birds! He's a she, and a mild-mannered librarian at that. Oh, and the Police Commissioner's daughter, ahem. She's also unconscious from blood loss and unmoving in Dragnet's arms.
Hood's Rebreather is built in or something. Cool red helmets are always better. It allows for much cooler antics and the ability to drop some choice words and quips. It's all part of the image of the Red Hood, after all. And that image is something that needs to be maintained. Whatever will make Batman go to the edge of his morals and leap off.
That's The Plan.
In some kind of slow motion move, Jason catches sight of the Robin appearing on the beam behind him. and still manages to spin on his heels towards him and extends a boot to kick at Robin in the chest. It's a move that's meant to keep him at bay for the moment, whilst his hand pulls free a stylized sword that's been tucked into the back of his armor this entire time. With a quick swipe through the air, he brings it up to shink against the escrima sticks of the Nightwing.
Jason is good with playing the defensive role for the moment. Pulling back from one of the escrima swings, Jason proceeds to send that sword swiping at the feet of the Nightwing, pulling his foot back from Robin, spinning and backpedalling for just a moment to switch hands with the sword behind his back and extending his right hand to catch the staff lunge that he knows is coming from the Teen Wonder.
Robin gets a forearm in front of the distractionary kick and indeed strikes back, lunging with the staff as Red Hood predicted. When it's grabbed, Robin drops and footsweeps on the narrow beam, knowing full well that Jason will jump it, and then throws himself off the rafters, falling swiftly just until the other end of his staff finshes extending. Robin sets Jason up for Nightwing, hoping to get the former Robin off balance, as his staff is held in Jason's grasp just long enough to slow his fall, and prevent the Teen Wonder from landind awkwardly.
Nightwing easily jumps over the sword swung at his feet, landing on the beams and taking a step back to prepare for his next attack. As Robin pulls Red Hood off-balance, Nightwing takes that opening. He takes a couple of steps before launching into a handspring off of Hood's shoulders...grabbing at the fabric of his jacket on his way to pull him even further off-balance as he lands on the other side.
With a small grunt of effort the Black Canary hoists herself up into the rafters and has to pause again, clearing her throat quietly. Canaries need capes, she thinks with a grimace, there isn't time to pause in the gas however and this Canaray is seeing red. She stands on the rafter with a wobble before crouching quickly back down, okay-plan B then. Dinah squints and inhails a painful breath as her eyes water. The second Nightwing's feet hit air she is there with the assist and Cries down into the rafter beam holding on, watching for the shaking to spead across the beam.
Oh. The wheelchair. "Spoiler, fetch the boss's chair. I imagine she'll want something familiar when she wakes up with a nights worth of psychological trauma." Moving her is no issue given the strength augmentation of the suit, though the dead fish legs do require a bit of repositioning. Of course, this is probably par for the course for bat people, but having your home stormed by confused and angry psuedo-sibling is a good recipe for mental fuckery. He actually looks at her valiantly attempt the fire drill and makes a decision. Moving around Oracle /AGAIN/ (Yes, he's working on his 'carry out the wounded' trick), he actually takes off one of the gauntlets and tosses it over to Spoiler. "Put it on. You've got two canisters and a mass driver left. Without fire control, just tap your fingers against your palm for grenade, squeeze into a fist for the cannon. DON'T point it directly at anyone. Give about twenty feet or so." Because masonry and brick and iron are fixable. Bats take a dimmer view of spattered meat and bone. He cautions as he moves for the exit. He only has one grenade for himself, but at least Spoiler can feel more useful, even if she doesn't shoot anything.
"What--" It takes Spoiler a little while to notice the faint glint of Oracle's chair amidst the smoke. One eyebrow slowly arches "--she's--?" Beat; she quickly blinks and turns her attention back to Dragnet. "--are you sure she doesn't need to go to a /hospital/?" she warily asks while hurrying to the chair. As soon as she makes it there, she hops on the back and wheels herself back to Dragnet, who has a present for her.
She starts to ask him if he's sure about that 'no aiming directly at people' rule, given the circumstances, but she decides it more prudent to just take the illegal ordinance and slide it in place. Once it's as comfortable as it's gonna get, she crouches behind the couch and sticks her head up just high enough to peer around the smoky confines of the Clocktower. All she has to do /now/ is find a target...
Red Hood is barely a match for Nightwing. So attempting to be a match for both Nightwing and Robin while on rafters and fighting them both at the same time? Not exactly his cup of tea. He's yanked off balance by the Teen Wonder and then practically pulled off the beam by the Nightwing... which is all well and good for those guys but not at all well and good for the Red Hood.
Red Hood is smiling and about to give his sword another swipe, stepping to lean towards the Nightwing... before a whole lot of shaking goes on. The Canary Cry catches Jason off guard and before he knows what's going down... he is. He slips right off the beam, losing his already barely there footing and starts to plummet...
Except for the grapple line that gets shot out towards the wall where Robin made his explosive entrance. There's still a hole there. A hole that he may be able to use. And thus why he's swinging in that direction. He has the grapple line in one hand and a sword in the other, so he lacks the free hand to cover up his escape.
THERE'S STILL TIME TO STOP HIM! ... Or blast him out of the sky with Massive Drivers.
Robin hits the ground and rolls, coming up with a pair of batarangs before all the screaming starts. He looks up, and just sort of blinks a moment. "Woah." he says, at the ceiling shaking. He blinks, and then throws the sharp blades at Jason, a heartbeat too late.
Nightwing leaps off of the rafters once things start to shake, tumbling down to land in a crouch, one hand out to help steady him should he need to make another immediate leap. He throws a tracking device at the escaping Jason...not that it couldn't be easily found, but it might give them a hint to his movements before he does crush it. Standing, he looks around at the destruction and those who also arrived to help. "Get her to the hospital," he nods. "You're her team. Go. We'll guard the place here."
Into the chair he goes, with the omnitool temporarily repurposed to monitor her vitals as he gets Babs the hell out. Spoiler is left to cover, he'll pick up the gauntlet from her later. Besides, it will put her on the to do list. 'Got to upgrade that girls arsenal, at least bring her utility belt up to speed. Who knows, maybe I'll slip into the armorer position for this getup. It might certainly alleviate any concerns of a man running around trying to not be noticed in an all girl group. If Oracle was Charlie, the Birds were her Angels...would that me Q?' At any rate, these thoughts distract him mightily from panicking that he must rush Redhead Down to a medico, and he sets about the job. POST HASTE!
Turning watering eyes out to the hole in the wall Dinah rolls off the beam and lands with a thump. Coughing heavily she turns to thunder down the stairs past Dragnet, fishnetted legs flying past as she continues couging into her leather jacket. Dinah runs down the stairs to exit the building and scans around looking for the Red Hood, following the rooftop lines.
When Red Hood swings for it, Spoiler gets the closest thing to a clear view of the former Teen Wonder she's had all night. With Dragnet's warning ringing in her head and the Canary's cry ringing in her ears, she squeezes one eye shut, straightens her arm and tries to get a bead on his grapple line. Even a miss would likely disrupt him if she did it right, assuming that the rounds are as powerful as her teammate implied.
By the time he's gone, her hand is maybe a quarter of the way closed. With a shuddering sigh, she yanks the gauntlet off, tosses it onto the couch and hurries to try and catch up to Dragnet.
Red Hood is gone. That's the thing about being one of the Bat Brats. Making exceptionally awesome disappearances when there's but a moment to do such things. It's all about making with the exits. And that's one thing that Jason Todd is really good at.
As for the tracking device? It's already been removed and is probably attached to the side of a truck or something by now.
Robin looks around and shakes his head. This place is gonna smell like smoke for a weak. He's worried. But no one is gonna get Babs to a hostpial faster than Dragnet right now, and he's not gonna be anyone help showing up at the hospital as Robin. So...he starts cleaning up. Since he installed most of this equipment, the least he can do it get the place back online and operatinal before Oracle gets out.
Category:Logs
Category:Events