2013.04.04 - Thugs. Don't make em like they used to.

It's your classic heist in your classic shady area of town at the classic time and place.
There are a handful of goons sitting around a safe of some bank, and imperceptibly they've avoided tripping any of the normal alarms that would have brought the cops.
But this is Gotham. Who needs the cops? They're probably in on it anyhow.
Because of the architecture of this town, there always seems to be a skylight. It was most probably right around the time they invented skylights. In any event, a pair of binoculars looks down at the goings on. The white lenses in a black mask, almost seem to peer.
Speedy hadn't even really meant to be here right now. But one of her street contacts let something slip, that lead her one place, then another, then here. At least she'd been near one of her emergency lockers, and was able to suit up in time, /and/ there was a fully stocked quiver in with the suit and bow. Lucky her. Or unlucky. She's still kinda recovering from Roy accidentally knocking her the hell out with a chunk of ice. "Okay, wow, I... guess these guys are just really, really bad at keeping stuff a secret," says Speedy, upon landing on the roof, and seeing another masked figure already at the skylight.
Running across rooftops is an exhausting workout, but one that Stephanie Brown has slowly become more accustomed to. She is far from home, and certainly her typical patrol-grounds. But she figured if she is going to be serious about this, she might as well get to know the various areas so that she can traverse more comfortable. Thus as she comes over one location, she sees an unfamiliar bank, afterhours, with a not-at-all-suspicious van in the back. Huh.
"Huh," Steph actually says outloud before setting up a repeling line on the roof. Soon enough she's pulled herself down to ground level, pulling her nightstick out as she slowly approaches the entrance of the bank, on high alert for anyone who needs a whacking; if she doesn't spot any lookout guys, she silently starts to sneak into the building. Hey, she's just a concerned citizen; it would be irresponsible NOT to check out what was going on.
Training. Discipline. Sheer guts. These are the traditional tools of the Vigilante. Then there is..Dragnet, whom is relying on a rather sizable technological superiority to even out his shortcomings. Which, to be honest, have been less and less. Maybe something the ominous computer voice has been saying has been sticking. He actually feels...well, not exuberant, but competent. Like he knows something of how this is supposed to work. Whereas other heroes might descend from above or below, Dragnet opts for the Sunken Road: the road less traveled. For if heist movies have taught anyone anything, and his increasing knowledge of Gothams overlay has taught him that as there must be a way above, there is a way below. The sensory enhancement package, already set to a handful of times normal sensitivity is cranked up to its maximum, as he maneuvers under the cover of the AIDOS's dynamic camouflage. Now he just needs to find the right structural weakness to exploit. One of the advantages of having the options that superior firepower provides. They'll thank him, when someone else can't do the same thing one of these days. Sort of a Cybergothpunky sort of Iron Man, now that he thinks on it. Well, aesthetically anyhow.
Spoiler will see that there are two look-outs meandering just inside the entrance. They're smart enough to hang out /inside/ the building, but it's not clear how much smarter they are. They do carry submachine guns, though, which is troubling.
Meanwhile, Speedy and Nightwing look over the skylight and down at the robbery in progress. "Each year they get dumber and dumber. You're the one Arsenal talks about, right?" He motions downwards, knowing they're both going down. "You wanna break it, or should I?"
Down in the depths, Dragnet finds what it is he's looking for. And it's not even that wet down here. Luck is with him, today.
"I could be. That depends entirely on what he's said," says Speedy, watching the wannabe Oceans 11 guys start doing their thing. "Break it?" she says, looking at the glass. "Thought you Bats were all about the stealthy approach. Though, I admit. A town with this many skylights... the dramatic approach every so often's gotta be tempting." She's already backing up and pulling out an arrow with a heavy, slightly pointed metal tip- specifically designed for breaking glass. Of course, her family would be the one with a tool specifically designed for showy entrances.
The two thugs are assessed. As are their weapons. Crud. Pulling her stick closer to her in her right arm, Spoiler reaches down into one of the pouches strapped around her waist, pulling out a few set of small round pellets. Giving the balls a slight squeeze, she rolls them towards the two lookout guys, counts to ten and then makes her move as the balls cracks open and release a thick smoke screen.
If her plan goes accordingly, Spoiler should be able to get two quick cracks against the temples of her prey, knocking them out, followed both ziptied before she advances further in. If it goes a bit sideways, the might get a few shots off, hopefully harmless. Or at each other. Hopefully not here. Maybe she should have thought out this plan before she actually attempted it, but really, caution is for suckers.
From Dragnet's perspective, its not all that dumb. Then again, he was a mook himself, if one of the less traditional and slightly more promising ones. Before Shit Got Real and well....it ended up with anonymous, self-imposed community service. His fingers press against the wall, the omnitool chirps and data floods his screen. He checks his gauntlet, removing one of the sabots from the confines of the gauntlet. Hard to believe something not so much larger than an assault rifles bullet can contain so much horror within. Its the weapon that has always troubled him. Everything else about the AIDOS seems designed for stealth, for suppression. What reason could hardware like this have to exist on the platform? There had been other weapons, other munitions that had been stripped, but this one, he had kept. There was something about it that seemed...iconic about the AIDOS.
Slowly he slips the sabotted round back into the gauntlets feed. Yes, it was one of the technologies that might have held a clue to its true origins, but sometimes its just useful. There is a high pitched whine as the round with its high energy yield 'plastique' for lack of a better word is forcibly ejected. The jacket gives it direction, singular purpose before it is consumed by the reaction that expands, grows more powerful with each passing second until it blows the structural weakness to high heaven. He makes his way through the crack, slowly phasing into visibility. Gold and tangerine circuitry visible as the camouflage is temporarily suspended. He hits the ground running though, expelling two gas canisters towards some of the outlying thugs, aiming to pen them in, those that do not move fast enough no doubt having only seconds, moments of consciousness as he moves to attempt to dodge the oncoming firestorm. "Points for effort. Did some things really well. Take it from me though gentlemen, this does not go well for you. There is no good outcome. And thats assuming I am the only one you have to deal with tonight..." Hell, even his voice modulated brag has improved. Go him!...sort of. The inside of his mind, his self preservation instinct, mercifully goes silent. Its decided its the better part of valor not to fight him on this.
Nightwing raises an eyebrow at Speedy before a grin slides across his mouth, "Well, it was all complimentary, I assure you." He leans back as Speedy goes to town on the window. As soon as her effort is finished, he's leaping downwards through the opening and firing his grapnel gun at the last possible second.
As he floats through the air, there is no fear. He's back in the circus again, flying and free. Once the line catches hold, Nightwing swings through the air, legs extended, and crunches one of the thugs heads against the side of the safe. OUCH! That's a concussion!
Spoiler's smoke attack catches the thugs by surprise. They'd been knee deep in a discussion about paper towels and whether or not Bounty truly was the quicker picker upper. Are they dense or just bored? Probably both if they're the ones who are chosen to be look outs. In any event, Spoiler's attack works according to plan. Their temples are thwapped and just as they are losing consciousness, they can feel the zipties wrap around their wrists.
Dragnet, meanwhile, dips right past where Spoiler is, taking out the four guys guarding the side entrances and plods in past her. AIDOS may detect a few more thugs between them and the main show.
"Okay, noted, you're the dramatic type," Speedy says, and quickly follows behind Nightwing, sending the soles of her boots into the shoulders of one of the criminals. Crunch. Oooh. Broken collar bone. Ouch. She tries not to think too much about what Arsenal might have said about her.
With Operation: Smoke 'Em a wonderous success, Spoiler dips deeper into the bank, still on high alert, adrenaline pumping and senses primed for attack. She catches in the darkness another body. Reaching for another smoke bomb, she stops just short as she notes some other clearly baddies strewn across the floor. Hmmm. Deductive reasoning suggests that this mysterious stranger may be on the same side as her. She lowers her stick for the time being and simply approaches, allowing the other gent to take point, swooping in if/when she has an idea of what side he might be on. Okay, maybe caution isn't for suckers.
The smoldering, spent sabot is ejected, practically annihilated by the display of force. The circuitry weave continues to pulse and illuminate, and already he is becoming harder to detect again. Dragnet turns toward Spoiler, his supreme helmet of Stigness nodding up slightly in acknowledgement of her. "Lovely night, isn't it?" Its a deep, rich baritone for the evening. Suggesting old books, Old World Class, Masterpiece Theatre ambience. "Stick behind me. We still have few more to go before the real fireworks start, and I can pick them out before you can." Also, he seems to have a lot more options than she does. Its not castigation, its no attempt to assert leadership. More of an attempt to be helpful, to mitigate her risk ever so slightly. His step picks up, the dazzlers mounted beneath his gauntlets activated, swung in an arc to blind any who might come forward. Hypoventilation is still a real concern, especially in close quarters. A bit of temporary blindness might be a good thing.
As the melee in the safe room begins, Nightwing still finds the time to answer Speedy. "You have no idea. I use to catch a lot of flack from the older guys back in the day." The boy was in the circus, after all. He brings a knee up into the groin of one of the men, followed by a downward strike from an escrima stick to the back of the head. None of the thugs have gotten to their weapons yet in all the surprise, but that definitely won't last for long.
Just off in the hall, Dragnet and Spoiler fight their way towards the back of the bank. As Dragnet takes point, his readouts will tell him that there are four thugs in the long corridor, and two more who are hiding in side offices. They're reading themselves, and two of them are looking for something to shoot at, with their eyeballs already in the sights, and safeties off.
Behind her mask, Spoiler blinks a few times. Seriously need to work on your ninja-sneak, Steph. Still, she simply nods and gives a "Sure, okay, whatever you say," at a tone barely above a whisper. She sneaks fairly close behind Dragnet, squinting just slightly at the readout. She is quick to spot the two, hidden for an aggressive ambush. "On the twins," she mutters before glancing around the closest area. Using some nearby furniture, she scrambles her way into a person-sized air-duct, disappearing relatively quickly within the shaft. Reaching into her bag of tricks, she sneaks up behind the two goons. Pulling out a healthy handful of firecrackers, she tosses the poppers behind the pair of gunman and actually ducks and covers. The pop should be loud enough to startle the pair, especially from the direction it's coming from. Hopefully the pair will fire off their rounds, giving her an opening or at least pulling them off their guard.
Speedy is less hesitant about her weapon. Just as she sees one of them starting to reach for a gun, an arrow catches his sleeve to pin it to the wall behind him. Then, she nocks another one, this one resulting in a bolo wrapping itself around the man's midsection, pinning his arms at his waist. "Showmanship. I like it." She frowns, then. "Just how many of these idiots are in on this thing? I think I hear someone else coming."
Indeed, since he is doing work for two, he has spared an additional set of data on the omnitool, the other flashing before his face behind the faceplate. He is no stranger to tight spaces himself, but he seems to be the muscle in this operation. With weapons unfired, the stealth mode asserts it still move, at least long enough for him to be significantly harder to spot. A shadow even in the brightest light. Lets see you pull _that_ one off Batman! "Great. Twins. That leaves me with...all of them." Taking cover behind the wall, he leans out just slightly to gauge distance. Spoiler doesn't seem to have any protection against gas, so its probably best that he avoid deploying them in such a narrow space. The Dazzler's are deployed, rapidly shined into as many thug eyes as he can gain, one of the tasers fired off...now he just has to get close enough to incapacitate the thugs that he has effectively tried to blind, shock, and awe.
Spoiler's attack is both creative and effective. As she plops down the firecrackers she scares the holy bajoobies out of her attackers, who leap and yell and begin firing madly downwards at first and then behind them. It's shocking that they don't hurt each other.
Then comes Dragnet's shock and awe which is both pretty shocking and also pretty awesome. The thugs are blinded and even when the flashes end, their vision is still marred by splotchies and inability to focus. In one fell swoop, they disoriented all 6 of their foes. Easy peasy.
The arrow makes that funny little waggle as they tend to as they strike their mark. The thugs is pinned against the wall and it'll be a while until he can disrobe and get himself out of this particular mess. By that time, the battle will be over, certainly. The next one is equally subdued by her efforts.
"I hear it too. But if there's fire it means it's the fuzz or friends. I'm okay with both." Nightwing delivers a snap-snap of escrima sticks, almost like he's some 70's glam rock drummer aiming at moving drums. The dance he does kind of look like a graceful Stevie Nicks waltz along the stage too. Showmanship is right.
By now, the thugs are thoroughly getting their butts kicked. Nightwing imagines they'll only need about another 6 seconds of this. Or however long a round lasts.
"Annnnd now you're just showing off," Speedy points out. "Fine line, Twinkle Toes," she points out, using her bow to crack one of the men upside the head when he gets too close for her to nock a shot at him. "Fine line." She does, at least, look amused.
The sound of gunfire is always unnerving, but at least Spoiler meant to cause it this time. She waits a few moments through the gunfire before she can reposition herself, using the echoing sound to best position herself directly above the crooks then using what smalls pace she has to hop, forcing herself down on top of the shooters, their soon-to-be-knocked out bodies breaking her fall, even if the sudden impact does cause her to gasp for air.
"Hokay. That...was pretty dumb..." she eventually gets out as she staggers to her feet, limping slightly towards the dropped weapon, quickly unloading them. Two zipties later, and she's peeking out of the door, seeing if her partner (hey! She has a crimbusting partner!) is still doing his highly impressive tech-wizardry thing.
Dragnet surges forward, a few well placed strikes, a few flips of criminal folk onto their backs, confiscating their guns in the process and leaving them in a neat, orderly pile. All unloaded, of course. The tasers are retracted, yanked back into the gauntlets housing. The armor shimmers and glows with the expenditure of energy, the glowing weave of circuitry trying to reassert the AIDOS's seemingly natural state of invisibility. It is, more or less, completely safe for Spoiler to enter. Still, she might catch a glimpse of the armored vigilante doing something...unusual. He is emptying out the magazines, feeding each one into the roughly circular housing of the omnitool. Employing it almost as a kind of woodchipper. "Recycling. Raw materials shouldn't go to waste." He says, as if it explains everything. Yes, he's still around. He also glances at Spoiler's limp. "Need medical attention?" He asks in modulated tones, and already the omnitool is whirring again, producing the requisite sundries for basic first aid.
What looked like a gargantuan job at the beginning, strikes Nightwing as much easier when he's got 3 more allies working with him. As the smokes begins to clear on the whole encounter, there are four heroes and a whole grip of villains on the ground, moaning unflatteringly.
Nightwing straightens and looks to Speedy. "Yeah, I get that from time to time." He jabs his head towards the door. "Let's go see what new friends we have." A moment later, he's emerging from the doorway at the end of the all, in the very same room as Spoiler and Dragnet. He gives a nod to Dragnet. "Glad you folks were here to take the six. That could have been pretty bad stuff had they doubled back on me and Quiver."
"Speedy." Pause. "Actually, Quiver kind of sounds cooler, doesn't it?" Handmedowns: never cool. "...Does kind of have some implications I'm not too big on, though. Right, anyway, hi. That would be Nightwing." She points at him.
Spoiler grits her teeth a bit, straightening up her gait some to hide the fact that her left hip feel like its got some major bruising. "Nothing I can't handle," is what she offers towards Dragnet, watching as he pours the bullets into the compartment on his omnitool. She doesn't say anything at first, merely watching the process before asking outright, "How much does kit like that cost a person? What are you, Bat-Bot?" As a rule, Steph assumes anyone not herself but still adventuring is part of the illustrious Bat-Franchise.
Speaking of, she looks over to see Nightwing and "Quiver" approaching. She pretty quickly takes one big step back, in the process reaggravating her hip, but merely biting down on her lips rather than groan, getting just a hint of the taste of blood on the tip of her tongue. "Hey, Spoiler here, glad to help. You called in the authorities yet?" Her eyes, while covered, do seem to flip between the group, from her "partner" to the other duo, then back again, standing several paces back from everyone and allowing her purple cape to obscure her actual outfit. Yeah, she's definitely hanging out with the major leaguers, and the double A at best.
Dragnet looks over at Spoiler for a long moment, then looks away. If she does not ask, he will not press. "Suit yourself." Though, if she continues to demonstrate signs of pain he might just insist. He leans back on his heels, the faceplate doing a wondrous job of obscuring his expression behind a shield of inky black ominousness. He does however laugh at the quip she makes. "If I had to give a number...I'd say two thirds of an Iron Man. A little more with some of the stuff I soldered on. I am not a Bat though. Very extended family, if you wished to be generous with the term."
Approached by the other vigilantes, the AIDOS gauntlets are raised fractionally, than lowered. "Dragnet. I think we have a...mutual acquaintance." Codename offered to all present, even Spoiler, who hath dubbed him 'Bat-bot'. He's actually maintaining visibility for now, all gold and black and tangerine of both the nano-kevlar and the skein of circuits that align it, then dull as they return to inactivity.
Nightwing looks as if he's just about to say something as the sirens ring out. "Well, ladies and gentleman, it's that time of the evening again. They're playing our song." He looks for his grapnel gun and after he gets his hand on it, raises it up back towards the skylight of his original entrance. "We should all get together sometime. Compare notes. Come up with secret handshakes. That sort of thing. Ta." *PFF* The jumpline gun fires, and takes Nightwing away with it in a WHOOOOSH
Spoiler continues to keep her distance, though she does seem to stare at Dragnet for a few moments when he admits the price of his outfit. She stops short of a wolf-whistle, mainly because those sirens do indeed pull her attention away. "Ahhh crap," she says as she watches the nifty grappling hook gun pull Nightwing out of the room with relative ease. "See, that. /That/ would make my life so much easier. I don't even need a batmobile, just a grapple gun." Sighing, she looks back towards the rear entrance she came in on, running out quickly, if a bit gingerly. All things considered, good night's work, even if sleeping is going to be a bit uncomfortable tonight. She quickly scales the side of a fire escape back towards the rooftops of Bludhaven, and then off she goes through the rooftops of the city.
Dragnet has been pretty thorough not being himself. Still, he has a little more to be concerned about if caught. Statute of limitations and all. The sirens cause him to wince, to visibly flinch. There is a faint shimmer of yellow as the stealth system is fully engaged. Just before Steph goes though, he does call out. "Good job, by the way." He offers. It....would have been if someone had told him that at the outset, it might have made a difference. Also, he makes a mental note. "Schematics for grapple gun. Blueprint and prototype." He says, and the omnitool chirps, slowly, methodically beginning its work. She pointed it out. He has a lot of time and money in his armor: someone elses...even if he suspects it may have been less than germane money or influence. The least he can do is try to provide for those who are brave with less than he.
"He's not much for chatting, I guess." Pause. "Thanks for... well, I'm not gonna say the help. You guys kicked as much if not more butt than I did. Here, maybe this will help." She hands Dragnet one of her spare grappling arrows, before firing another one off. Techie types always dig the trick arrows.
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