8084/Gotham: The Deep Freeze

Gotham: The Deep Freeze
Date of Scene:	28 June 2019
Location:	West Chelsea Hill, Old Gotham
Synopsis:	The Bat-fam has to respond to a crazy Mister Freeze who's attacked a armored convoy in Fort Clinton! Lots of chilling puns are told and there's quite a few explosions! Its that time of year after all.
Cast of Characters:	Oracle, Spoiler, Robin (Wayne), Nightwing, Red Robin

---

Oracle has posed:
A number of heavily armored trucks had been running convoys into and out of Gotham all week. A private security company was the owner and proprietor of these vehicles and what they were doing, hauling or preparing for hadn't been spoken of publicly. Five convoys had come in to Gotham's tech industry zone and five gone out.

Today is the sixth convoy and its setting to leave the central midtown island via one of the many busy Gotham City bridges. Right on schedule at 7:30 PM the convoy is headed toward the on-ramp that will eventually take them up to the bridge, but before that they have to pass through a section of emptied warehouses and office buildings that have been left over since the early 2ks Web Boom Fallout when tons of small businesses based on the internet shot up, and almost instantly died.

The trucks are rumbling down the street, heavy cargo trucks with big treaded tires that splash in the filthy water pooling in the street's gutters.

The men inside the trucks are casual about this operation. They'd have no problems what-so-ever up to this point and they were eager to just get the job done so they could go and enjoy the rest of their night. Casual banter, laughing and levity is within some of the hired security team, while others are still stoic and serious about their work watching skylines and monitoring the traffic.

What none of the men can be prepared for is what sadly befalls them however. As they pass between an usually large collection of fire hydrants along the streets, eight hydrants in total, the four vehicles are suddenly slammed into by the bursting of said hydrants and the chaotic chilling effect of violent spouts of freezing cold liquids that begin to assault the vehicles from either sides!

Men within the trucks start to shout, orders are sent over the comms. Chaos starts to break out on this otherwise quite industrial Gotham street!

Spoiler has posed:
Stephanie Brown is working out in the Batcave. It's one of the places it has been easiest to find her during the summer term when she hasn't had any classes. Since Bruce took her into the group and showed her the cave and its facilities, Stephanie has been making as much use of it as she can.

She often wears her Spoiler outfit while training, and today especially as her outfit is a little different. What has always just been a costume of cloth, now has some body armor beneath it. It's not up to the level of what the rest of the team wear, but the old armor removed from one of Barbara's early outfits when she was on her own, is a tremendous upgrade for Stephanie. Modified to her colors and costume, Spoiler is practicing in it to get used to the different feel, and how it affects her movement.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
Damian is currently sleeping finally as it had been a few days over a week since he last slept. Currently in the bat cave slooped over the Bat-Computer is Damian cowl set next to him some information beeping about a match detected. He really could sleep, but long ago learned to key all emergancy mission alerts to give a small shock, and even found while awake for a while it helped prevent sleep.

He is dressed in the Robin suit ready to go, and looks like he was planning to leave after the computer finished its scans. Strangly enough he has a blanket put over him most likely Alfred as it was not often Damian fell asleep down here, and with the multiple investigations he had been running a bit crazy. So while there were good ice puns to be had Damian slept not even hearing the person work out behind him.

Nightwing has posed:
    With Bruce currently otherwise occupied and missing from the eye of Gotham, Dick has, once again, made the shift from focusing on Bludhaven to Gotham, the closest thing he's ever known to a hometown. While he might refuse to don the cowl unless it is well and truly needed, for fear of getting lost in its shadow, the sleek figure of Nightwing has afforded enough fleeting glimpses of himself here and there to make his presence known.

    Right now, the costumed vigilante is winding his way through the streets on the back of a superbike. Like the form fitting costume that he dons, the bike is the image of sleek and sexy, in glossy black with electric blue lights and highlights. The whine of the turbocharged engine is high pitched, screaming of performance and function, even though he paces at a casual speed, weaving through traffic with the effortless ease of a well trained driver.

    Nightwing had just started to think that the night was going to be a relatively quiet one. Perhaps a mugging here. A break in there. At worst, he might catch fleeing suspects of some sort of gang fight. He's content to just revel in the wind in his hair, and the rumble of the motor between his legs.

    And then he hears the sounds of chaos erupting. His bike screeches to a halt, power sliding at the curb of a nearby corner as he scans his surroundings with eyes hidden behind fogged white lenses, trying to determine if he might locate the direction, and thus, the likely location, of the disturbance.

Oracle has posed:
Due to the nature of the convoys themselves, they were already being monitored by Barbara's systems inside of the Clocktower. An automated A.I. was tracking them with an 'eye in the sky' drone camera and when the chaos started to unfold it immediately sent a signal back to the Tower.

A few moments later and a call was going out to everyone on the Bat-family channels. The computers in front of Damian come to life and the sound of a female's voice speaks over them. Its not Barbara, its the A.I. that she's dubbed Oracle. "Alert. A dangerous chemical attack is being conducted upon a convoy of private security vehicles. All available respondents please move in on the corner of 5th and Kane in south eastern Fort Clinton at once."

At the convoy itself...

Some of the men are able to get out of their militaristic cargo trucks, but some of these men... are instantly regretting the decision as the splash-off from the fire hydrants spraying them with a strange quick-freezing chemical are finding parts of their bodies, if not all of them, suddenly frozen where they stand. The ones who are fortunate (?) enough to only have the lower halves of their forms instantly frozen are doing the only thing that they can think of...

Fire their guns at the hydrants.

And this has a bad side effect.

A massive, blazing fire ball plumes into the sky as the lead vehicle in the convoy is detonated by the chemicals being triggered from the gunfire. Its flames shoot high up into the sky and almost anyone in Gotham would be able to look up and see them against the dark of night.

Now, everyone knows where this chaos is definitely going down.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
As the alert comes through there is a small 'zzt' and Damian stands quite litterally like had just been shocked. He has a shocked look on his face as his hand is already on his blade, though he had not pulled it out yet, he adjusted quickly to his surroundings finding himself in the Batcave he grabbed his Cowl. Putting it on he put a hand on his belt with a nod turning to walk towards his bike, and noticing Steph for the first time as he walked by without a word.

He got on his bike, and started it up letting it idle for just a moment when he turns to Steph, "Are you coming, or no?" holding out a second helmet for her. If she joins him they will take off to head towards the scene at speeds that are both unsafe, and unwise. Damian was in a hurry to get there, and he drove like it nearly taking off a few mirrors on the way.

Spoiler has posed:
The alert comes into Stephanie's earpiece, which she put in even though she was training. Train like everything is real, Bruce had told her, and so she was decked out fully in her costume. Even if she lacks the optics that the rest of the Batfamily have, they did share their communications gear with her.

Stephanie turns to run for the rest of the cave, calling out, "Training program off!" so the program and lights shut down in her wake.

She triggers her mike to say into it, "Spoiler responding from the Batcave," she says, and then spots Damian as he takes up his Robin guise and moves to the bike. "With Robin," she amends. Steph grabs one of Batman's little air tanks that are little more than a mouthpiece after hearing of it was a chemical attack. She then takes the helmet from him, slipping it on over her shrouded head. She's wearing the mask that only covers her up to the nose, leaving her blue eyes visible, today. She grabs hold of Damian as she sits on the back of the bike, leaning forward. Though she hasn't been with the group for long, openly, she's ridden like this many times before.

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake is coming from his base, as he got the message he also chose his bike, knowing it will be able to make it through Gotham traffic much easier. He will put on the gas and is zooming through the streets "Red Robin inbound" He adds an ETA and the direction he is coming in from. The toung man, heading towards the area, and a building that will give him a birds eye view of the scene.

Nightwing has posed:
    As soon as the fireball rises into the bruised darkness of the light polluted sky, Nightwing's baleful white glare rises, following its ascent to the heavens. His soft, pliant lips suddenly become a thin, bloodless straight line, terse and taut. The alert comes through at that same time through his earpiece, and behind the lenses of his domino mask, his computer is already pulling up the location, as well as the camera feeds of the scene.

    "Nightwing reporting in. I'm a few blocks south and closing."

    Nightwing cranks on the throttle, and his bike squeals bloody murder before lurching forward with enough torque to lift the front tire from the ground. He glides so effortlessly around corners at nearly impossible speeds, leaning down low enough that it seemed a wonder that he didn't just lose the bike out from underneath him. As he rounds the last turn towards the ramp to the bridge, the nimble crimefighter rises up, and carefully stands on the seat of the bike. Still moving like a bullet, Grayson leaps high, soaring into a backflip, even as he pulls the twin escrima sticks from their sheathing on his back. A line launches from one as he begins his descent, and he's jerked, zipping through the air and up to where the line had tethered itself on the top of a streetlamp overlooking the scene.

Oracle has posed:
This particular section of Gotham was once heralded as the 'future of the city' and it was built for such extravagant prices that that alone surely helped in the districts nearly immediate downfall. But what remains is a collection of early 2k tech that still can be utilized... if done by the proper minds.

Case in point, when Nightwing is the first to arrive what he comes to find is that the old 'giant television screns' on the fronts of the closed-down tech warehouses are all starting to blink on--all while the trucks in the center of the street between the building are continuing to be iced over by the chemicals from the hydrants--and each television display is flickering a picture into frame.

A picture of a man's face. Mister Freeze. Six televisions in total, though one of them is visibly broken and a spider-web of cracks distorts the image of the mad scientists dome-covered head as he looks into the camera so close that only his eyes are visible on screen.

"No. We can't have any more of that." Freeze's voice booms over loud speakers, and moments later, drones starts to descend from the sky like a flock of bats. But these definitely aren't bats. Little silver cannisters are attached beneath the drones, and they each start to fire down smaller-scaled streams of chemicals toward the guards who fired off their guns!

One guard screams as he's entirely encased in ice now while the others are starting to aim their guns up at the incoming attack ice drones!

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
Damian turns his radio for only Steph to do, and taps the side of his helmet for her to do the same, as at this speed with helmets on it was going to impossible to hear, and he didn't want to be overheard as they were getting closer to the scene, "Your not bad in a fight, but keep in mind we have a bit more experience, and tech.. So unless Oracle tells you different stay next to me or Nightwing, the rest I figure from last time they must of already told you." he is sure she prob has heard this before, but it was the first time he actually was going in with her so just wanted to be sure though of course he trusted Oracle to make the right call if she said to do something specific heck he would prob even do it.

As they get close he doesn't do anything near as fancy, just stopping in one of the multiple alleys that are near the scene. "We are here.." he adds over the radio as he holds up a grapple gun shooting it to the roof so he also could get a view, and perhaps a better position. Catching the end of the image he sighs to himself, even worse this wasn't just thugs, as he checked his heater fuctions for precatioun. He radios down to Steph, "Bring the air tanks.. They could be usefull."

Spoiler has posed:
Spoiler gives Robin a little pat. "New to the group, but not the job," she reminds him. He was probably ten when Stephanie first donned a costume to see her criminal father sent back to prison. But she doesn't say it in a harsh tone, just reminding him. "But thanks," she says as she grabs the tanks. Rather than take the time to throw her own grapple up by hand, Spoiler climbs up Robin's before he reels it in.

She darts over across the roof to the side where the attack is taking place, passing one of the tanks to Robin. Then she gets a look at what's going on. "Ok, different kind of chemical," she says, stowing the breathing tube in one of her pouches. Seeing the myriad of drones, Spoiler takes a moment to look about the area for anything she can use to take down a number of them at once.

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake will guide his bike up to a large garbage bin, and is heading up a fire escape for his view. He knows this area somewhat and will ask "Batgirl, can we back trace the signal?" As he gets to the top of the roof. he will start checking on his wrist computer, seeing if he can find the frequency the drones are using. If He ca put the breaks on them, that is a lot less of the thaw packs they will need to use. He does look up enough not to be snuck up on while seeking the right freq.

Nightwing has posed:
    "Yeah. Red Robin or Batgirl, see if you can take control of the drones," Nightwing's voice comes across the channel, as he speaks through his subvocal mic, making his voice seem raspy and metallic through the use of the modulator. He had already gathered a handful of small, golden capsules in his hand, drawn from one of the many hidden compartments on his gauntlets.

    "I'll run interference and distraction tactics. Robin. Spoiler. Can you run rescue on the men?"

    Without awaiting for the response, Nightwing is standing up on the railing that hangs out over the street, at the top of the light. Without hesitation, Grayson leaps off, spiraling and twisting in the air as he flips end over end. Somewhere in that dizzying display of aerial acrobatics, he releases that handful of pellets, which scatter in a wide splaying arc before him.

    And then pop off. Each crackles and pops with a loud bang and a flash of sparks. Not explosions, but just like firecrackers. Each one, however, leaves a near mist of metallic shavings that are swept about in the wind, glistening orange from the dingy warm glow of old street lights. Chaff grenades. Mostly meant for scrambling radar. He doubts it will do much to deter the drones, but it is an attention grabber.

    As is his descent that lands him in a perfect three point hero pose on top of one of the trucks.

    "Hey, Fries! Doing the Max Headroom thing now? Usually you tend to do your dirty work in person. What's the matter? Did you get cold feet?"

    A pause.

    "Get it? Cold feet because you're Mister... you know what, forget it..."

Oracle has posed:
Spoiler will have the eyes in the sky from her vantage point, able to see most of the chaos down below on the street where the Armored Trucks are being totally iced-in. The street itself is becoming a bit of an ice rink at this point in fact as the chemicals splash down onto the pavement and are freezing to it in a strange cascading wave-like pattern around each vehicle, its almost beautiful in a way really, if it weren't sort've ruined by the security officers who've been frozen in with it all!

Some yet remain still alive and unfrozen though, some inside the vehicles are shouting and trying to get out but finding their exits frozen solid, the ones outside that aren't covered over with the freezing ice are still aiming their guns up and firing, though one guard socks another right in the mouth. "You're gonna cause another explosion, weapons down!" He's screaming in a loud and gruff voice, struggling with his legs frozen up to his kenes!

Red Robin's scans will result in a bit of luck, he does pick up the operating signals that the drones are using, but its encrypted and scrambled. He can get it, but its going to take time!

Nightwing's arrival? It causes the television screens to all zoom in again on Freeze's face, he smiles big... his cold and dark face locked onto Nightwing. "Oh its the Bat-children. Come to play. You know you're right. I do have cold feet. I can't sleep without my feet being cold after all. But no, why do any work in the year 2027 when my toys can do the work for me?" He starts to laugh then before he glances down to something off-camera.

The drones that Nightwing throws those Flak Pellets at all scatter which does cause them to stop their assault on the guards, but now they're swooping around to fire their icey-beams at Dick!

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake will move to put his back to the corner of the wall, so he has cover, while he starts working on hacking the encryption. He keeps his head down for now, counting on the other three to keep things hopping while he works. Fries is a brilliant man, but computers are not his major. Tim is the builder of the family and possibly the second best hacker after Babs. ""Working on it Nightwing" Is his reply to the elder ex Robin. He will upload a picture of the drones to Oracle to get the base stats on the little bots.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
Damian takes what Steph said to heart not even giving any follow up instructions instead running and jumping off the side of the building, as he shoots off his hook to the side. He takes a slim swing to lower his momentum so when he comes down he can give one of the doors an impact to free a couple of the people as he looks at the blocked opening keeping the people inside giving a little "Go!" in a distorted tone that did not sound like it was asking. He pulls out a small torch, frowing as he can't use it there though it gave him an idea.

While Nightwing kept the Drones distracted he used it out here where it was safe to heat up his blade, trying to hurry but giving it time to heat all the way through. He couldn't cut through it, he wasn't near strong enough, but enough head in a solid ice pack it would do most of the work for him, and no sparks to set off anything inside, he does radio, "I need time to get them out, let me know if they turn." as he is focusing on what he is doing on trying to get through the ice, and his salty mood wasn't going to help as he moved back towards the ice hoping it didn't blow up around him.

Spoiler has posed:
Spoiler looks over the situation from the roof's edge, staying crouched low to avoid being too noticeable of a silhouette even against the darkened sky. She sees the drones relocate away from the vehicles, gathering in a spot clear of Nightwing's chaff without anything important beneath them. "Will do. Got something for a bunch of those drones first," she replies into her comms.

Spoiler springs into motion then, a blur of black and purple as she runs down the rooftop until she's even with the spot the drones have deployed to beneath. The building she's on has a large sign which touts the merits of Deliver-A-Pet.com. There's a picture of a cute dog in the hands of a delivery man, being offered to a little girl at a door.

The brackets for it are rickety and ill-maintained though, streaks of rust visible where they have oxidized. Spoiler pulls out her segmented staff, jerking the segments together and then reaching down, stabbing the end of the metal staff into a bottom support and snapping it. The same for a top one. Finally she wedges the staff in against the back of the sign, using it like a lever as she heaves and knocks the huge sign free and out into space. It falls on top of at least some of the drones before crashing to the street, reducing the number Nightwing has to deal with.

The sign hits the ground and falls over, the image facing up, and the wreckage of one of the drones sticking up through the sign right near the cute doggy's mouth like he had grabbed it in a game of fetch. "Dat's a good boy!" Spoiler says in cutesy talk before turning to run back down the roof towards the section of street where the guards are being frozen. She plants her grapple, preparing to swing down to the street next.

Nightwing has posed:
    Perfect.

    Dashing Dick's Daring Diversion is paying off in spades. He figured that Fries wouldn't be able to resist trying to take out a Batbrat, if given the opportunity. As Fries boasts on the television screens, Dick rises up to his full height, shoulders back, chest presented proud. Puffing up. Looking heroic. All the world is a stage, and Grayson has always been a showman. But really... Really it all comes down to one thing. Looking defiant. Even down to the smirk on his lips. It's all to look defiant in the face of Mister Freeze. Get him heated. Make him want to wipe the smug smile right off of Nightwing's handsome face.

    And it seems to be working. As the drones turn their attention on Nightwing, the First Boy Wonder leaps off of the truck he his standing on. A flip. An aerial cartwheel. And a slide, as he touches down on the iced ground. He doesn't need to counterattack the drones. He just needs to evade. Evade. Evade. Evade.

    And put some distance between those guards who are exposed and vulnerable, and himself. He doesn't want to have exploding drones possibly injuring the guards. Those that are still alive, at least. And so, Dick's focus is on drawing the fire. The thing is, Grayson is a slippery eel of a man, with how his movements are all dynamic, bounding, and almost boneless in how graceful and limber he is. But, he is only a man. He is not perfect. Those beams do find purchase on his black suit, leaving it frosted and gray in splotches across his body, even with the super helpful assist from Spoiler in her attempt to keep him free and clear.

    One last barrel roll, and Dick lands on ice-slicked ground, on his knees and sliding backwards, facing the drones that have given chase. Flinging both hands out, a flurry of metallic blue wingdings fly forth from his fingertips, spinning like buzzsaws at the swarm, with flashing blue lights indicating proximity sensors. Once they get close enough to a drone? Explosions.

    "Way to go, Spoiler. You really made a clear sign that his drones aren't welcome."

Oracle has posed:
Red Robin's totally spectacular hacking device is keyed in on the right path, its numbers and letters ticking away as it tries to decipher the right code strings to get into the system that the drone's are using to broadcast back to their host site... its working, they've already locked in a few of the right code strings, but he's going to need a little more time... time that means Dick is going to continue to get chased by the drones with the mini-ice beams... similar to that of the much larger versions pouring out of the fire hydrants, only on a lesser scale!

The heavy sign that Spoiler lets loose does indeed fall and it does indeed clip a number of the outlying drones on the leftside edge of the flock that is pursuing the Nightwing, they don't explode thankfully but they do get crushed into little biddy pieces beneath the sign. One of them is sparking though, and its Ice Chemical Tanks are not far from where the sparks are shooting!!

Grayson's ability to dodge the the drones is an impressive sight, his athletic prowess is arguably far greater than Batman's even was in his Bat-prime. He makes a judgement call with his thrown objects though and it does have a very decisive reaction. It sets of a chain of explosions that rolls like a roller-coaster track up into the sky following the path that the aerial ice delivery vehicles had been flying rather majestically in! Its a series of ear-shattering explosions that leave quite the fireworks display up into the sky and anyone too close is going to get hit by some fairly powerful shockwaves!

Not ALL of the drones are destroyed though, mind you. Some have broken off and are now enroute to Red Robin's location! They've counter-located the hacker trying to break into their system!

All the while, Mister Freeze is just laughing on the televisions that are along the sides of the buildings. "Marvelous." He says to the caped crusaders. "Truly marvelous. You're really putting on a show for the people of Gotham tonight!" He seems a little happy for them thwarting his plans...

The guards that Damian free are all happy to jump from their trucks and slide down the incline of ice that has accumulated around their vehicles, they turn to look back to the Bat-ling and shout at him. "Get our guys outta there! They're gonna run outta air or freeze to death!"

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
Damian mearly radios "This is an open channel" as the puns pile in with a serious tone to his voice as in his mind they should be keeping their minds on the job more then quips. As he frees the people he moves to the next Truck to do the same, not saying anything in response to the people running away. In his head he tough about how everyone was a critic, he reached into his utility belt, and pulled out a small disk attaching it to people he ran past to get to the back of the truck.

The disks should heat the people back up, and hopefully when he freed the next truck they would be as he saw the reinforcements coming out of the hydrants he thought for a moment with a frown, he seemed a bit too happy, he sent a message out again, "Keep an eye out.. This seems too easy." as he started using his sword to melt the ice to free the people inside. Of course he had to use his heated up sword to do it, hopping to at least get a hole for air first if he couldn't just cut a hole to get them out of. He also kept a look for other signals, making sure this was what it seemed to be with the drones.

Spoiler has posed:
Spoiler looks at the frozen men and at her staff which can probably beat on the ice all day without getting one person out. "Seriously, I don't bring my hand warmer in /July/," she says sotto voce. Which is of course picked up on the sub-vocal mikes. Damn Batman and his super awesome equipment.

Spoiler sees the sparking drones and runs over that way, going from concrete to ice and then sprawling going sliiiiiiiding into the drone like a runner into second base, her foot sending it flying away from the freeze tank. She uses her staff to shove the two sparking drones that are less dangerous, getting them further away before rising to her feet again.

"Anyone able to check for alarms elsewhere in the city?" she asks. "Let's make sure it's not just a total diver-" Spoiler gets out before she slips on the ice, feet flying out from under her and depositing her on her backside. "Sweet Joseph Mother Mary," she groans.

Spoiler gets back up, moving off the ice and over down the unfrozen street a bit. She grabs her metal staff and wedges it in the hole of a manhole cover. She groans at the weight, but manages to just get it up and out of the way. "Going to check a hunch," she says, pulling out a light. She ties a line to the manhole cover and proves right those who say she jumps into matters feet first without thinking first. Spoiler steps off into space, falling into the open manhole, already starting to slow herself with the line so she doesn't break a leg when she lands.

"I hope this isn't a sewer line," she thinks halfway down.

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake will pull some smaller Robin-o-Rangs from his belt, these are copycat signal devises. He will take off, leaving one where he was as he throws three more off in different directions hoping to confuse the drones. He is thinking along the same lines as the current Robin, there is something odd going on here. "Oracle, what can you tell us about what is being carried, and who hired them to carry it." He will leap from one rooftop to another, catching a railing with one hand, and grunting as he pulls himself up. He will type onto his wrist computer another moment, before he is on the run again. He keeps working on the hacking job, but now, he is a bit slower as he is staying moving. He will start heading for the broken TV screen as he plans to check behind it.

Nightwing has posed:
    "That was all the explosives I've got," Nightwing's eerily intoned voice, laced with that metallic flange from his modulator, speaks across the comms. "We still need to get those hydrants turned off. Anyone have any ideas? I'm all ears."

    But even while he speaks, Dick is still in motion. His knee-slide on the ice is slowing, and he rises back to his feet, muttering under his breath, "Man, dealing with this was so much easier back when we could click our heels and have skates pop out of the bottoms of our boots..."

    That's broadcast across thanks to his subvocal mic.

    "Robin, it is a closed channel, but it is a shared channel. And you're not Robin'ing right if you're not quipping," Dick declares in his very best stern voice. When Steph's talk is interrupted, and she goes down, however, Dick's head snaps in her direction. The vigilante's entire demeanor gets tense, as if he might... but then she's speaking again. He breathes a sigh of relief, as his heart slowly sinks back out of his throat.

    "Obviously this is too easy, guys. But the one thing that we have to remember is that Fries thinks that we're here doing the grunt work, while the Bat is tracking him down. We have that fear to use to our advantage. Meanwhile... Can someone see if we might track the stream he used on the screens back to its sou--"

    And then Stephanie is... literally jumping down a hole. With no warning.

    "Dammit."

    Dick makes his way to where he saw the blonde girl disappear. Without even so much as peering down into it, he just hops, bringing his arms across his chest and his feet together, to drop right down into it.

Oracle has posed:
As Damian lays down those discs that seemed to have been designed for the very purpose of thwarting Freezes-tech, the security officers encased in ice start to free themselves. Able to wiggle loose, causing the ice around their feet to break into shards, they struggle but get loose and start to walk toward areas of concrete not covered over by man-made ice. They start to form up, bunching up together to watch this madness unfolding on the convoy they were hired to protect.

The ever capable little Damian Wayne's heated up sword is also able to cut enough ice away to let the men inside the truck out and they all quickly step out, leaving the last truck the only one that hasn't been tended to. The men that he sets free also move to slide down the ice and out to their comrades who're gathering up along the sides of the streets...

When Nightwing speaks of shutting the hydrants off, its almost as if thats all he ever had to do. Because suddenly the loud squealing ice-beams shootinhg out of the many hydrants--suddenly stops. For a second, there's just the sound of Gotham's ambiant noice, as well as the crackling of the ice all around the street and the trucks...

That second is replaced by Mister Freeze on the televisions returning into view. "I'll just do it myself then!"

While NIghtwing is moving to look to where Spoiler had gone, two large headlights flick on down the street, lighting up the darkness. The sounds of a large vehicle's engines can be heard rumbling as a city bus appears driving at high speeds down the street toward the icy madness!

Tim's decoder flashes green and beeps repeatedly, he has control of the remaining Ice Drones. Oracle responds to him. "This Laboratory has been publicly testing a hazardous weather control system for Gotham's skies. They've been sending multiple weather balloons up into the atmosphere for secret tests for the past four months. Its unknown what their results are to date."

---

Stephanie? She lands in the darkness of the sewers. And will likely have trouble keeping her footing! The whole sewer tunnel is an ice-covered mess! More-so, two beams of light raise up and aim at her. Its two more of the security guards from the convoy up above?

"They've found us." One reports over a radio. "Engage them.

All the men on the street start to raise their guns at the heroes! The bus is hurtling toward them and there's a blue light swirling on top of it, it has a FREEZE CANNON mounted on its roof!

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
As larger ones are coming up from the ground, and both Nightwing, and Spoiler are now gone Damian sighs to himself.. "I had to say easy." and pulls out several small devices from his belt after cutting through what ice he could. He tinkered with it now that he could see how thick the ice was, he could use the right sound to shatter the ice.. theoreticly. He grabbed one of the free men and shoke him looking him in the eyes glowing red, "Put these on the back of the other trucks.. Now!" and with that he shoots his hook out, and moves away from the trucks moving towards the bus.

His plan was simple he was small the gun was large, so it gave him the edge, as long as he kept moving forward, maybe drop some explosives as he passes by, and let the reaction do the rest. He radio's to Tim, "How long on that hacking, can you turn them?" as he is moving forward thinking those drones might not be so bad to have after all.

Spoiler has posed:
Spoiler's voice comes over the radio. "They aren't guards, they are-" and her transmission is cut off by the sound of gunfire. The others won't be able to see, but Nightwing will as Spoiler drops to the ground as she does a spinning leg kick. Her foot sweeps into the gunman's feet from behind, the ice helping sweep them out and deposit him on his backside.

Even as Spoiler dispatches him with a backfirst to the face, her other hand is grabbing... is that a batarang? Or, it looks like it's supposed to be one anyway. It comes out of her utility belt and she throws it hard towards the second guard. It doesn't fly nearly as true as a batarang, but the sharpened edge sticks in the man's gun hand, causing him to fire one more time as he drops the gun and cries in pain.

Spoiler climbs to her feet and moves over to the injured man. "That was supposed to stick in the barrel. So sorry!" she tells him, then kicks him in the face to knock him out.

Spoiler turns finally, retrieving her light and shining it about to see what the situation is here in the sewer under where the trucks were attacked. It's then that she sees Nightwing landing, not having needed a line to make the drop safely. "Guards are in on the heist," she tells him, and sending that out over the radio as well.

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake calls out "Just got it, and as he does he turns the bots back onto the guys who were setting the trap. The men with the big cannon are the primary target, as he can's get to the ones under the street. He worries about Spoiler, but he has worked with her more than the others, and he knows she is capable. He will continue his trip to the broken screen, to see if anyone or thing is there. The bots all but one back to work on freezing the "guards" He brings the one drone to himself planning on removing it's power supply to make sure it survives the fight.

Nightwing has posed:
    The headlights actually stop Grayson just as he was going to leap down into the darkness after Stephanie. Like a deer, he looks up, into the approaching lights, as he's now faced with a dilemma. A real, true, honest to goodness split decision. Does he dive into the darkness after Stephanie? Or does he stay up topside to defend Damian? His heart can't decide.

    But gunfire does.

    As soon as Stephanie is cut off, and gunfire erupts from down below, Grayson resumes his course, plunging into the darkness of the sewers.

    "Robin, remember Jack be Nimble. Keep in cover. Attack from stealth."

    Grayson's indecision brings his landing just after Steph has dispatched the two "guards" that had found her. He immediately rushes to her, placing his hands on her shoulders and looking her over to see if there is any indication of injury. Finding none, he breathes a sigh of relief, placing one of his black and blue gloved hands atop her head.

    And then he looks over her shoulder. And see more of the guards, using a ramp of ice to unload the last truck of the convoy. He gives an upnod to Steph, and then cocks his head in their direction, before he moves off, sliding into one of the dark patches of shadow, where only the faint, shimmering blue of the chevron of his suit might be seen.

    A wingding is thrown, this one embedding into one of the crates that they've pushed down into the sewers. It immediately releases a loud POP and flash of light, while Grayson's line launcher shoots out to wrap around the neck of the nearest guard. A quick jerk slams said guard into the crate, forcefully, while Grayson launches himself into a side rolling aerial kick at the next. Rolling on the ground with a somersault, Nightwing comes at the third with a flurry of blows from his escrima sticks, withdrawn from his back, targeting joints first. Knees. Elbows. The clavicle. A good strong knee to the chin should finish him off.

Oracle has posed:
Tim's ability to hack into the drones is a severe assistance in this moment after the security team seems to have been a double-cross to the would-be heroes who'd come to save them! The icy delivery drones all seek out the members of this unit who're still street-level and they start to blast at the men with the concentrated light ice beams! The men have to alter their targets now and start to aim for the drones! "Don't shoot the cannisters or you'll blow us all up!" One of them is shouting to his cohorts. Gunfire is peppering the atmosphere now as the streets continue to be a chaotic cluster-f!

The drone that Tim tinkers with deactivates and powers down, it seems to not be rigged with any sort've bomb other than the volatile chemicals kept inside those metal cannisters.

Down below, beneath the icy covered street, the men are all being engaged by the two heroics of Spoiler and Nightwing, they weren't prepared for the two to find them down here, thinking that there was surely enough distractions up above to keep them busy by the sounds of it! But lwo and behold, the men are caught and the crates are there--marked with the science lab's logos and technical jargon scribbled across the surfaces of the boxes.

But this leaves Damian to face off against the city bus rocking its way at high speed toward the convoy. Inside the bus is Mister Freeze himself, he'd custom rigged the entire thing for this job, to recover this equipment. The driver's seat of the bus itself was no longer off-set to the left side of the vehicle, its instead dead-center in front of the windscreens. There's a faint blue glow inside of his helmet, underlight the lower half of his face as he drives the vehicle ahead, engines roaring!

As Damian prepares his plan, there comes a crackle over the comms of the whole team. A voice trying to talk through, female.

"Don't*****splovies!" The voice continues to break-up over a weak signal. "Bu***is rigg***!" Its frantic, it sounds familiar too.

From a side alleyway off of the street that the bus is coming, a sudden burst of motion is seen! A whole mess of boxes, garbage and even a green metal dumpster is sent flying out into the street just inches behind Freeze's City Bus! And just behind all of the debris and alleyway trash, is a half-frozen Batmobile!

Its the light-sporty version of the Batmobile. Its the very that Barbara drives! It screeches out onto the street behind the Bus, shedding white hazy mist and chuynks of ice behind it. The vehicle is heavily damaged, as it sweeps across the concrete but continues to roar ahead after the Bus!

Over the comms again. Coming in clearer. "The bus is rigged to explode! Its filled with Freeze Cannisters!" Barbara's voice says. "We have to stop the driver or it'll take out half of Fort Clinton!"

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
Damian whips around a corner to break line of sight as some shots go wild around him from behind, he thinks this is what happends when he follows instructions though doesn't say anything. Catching the cable on the corner he bends it to propel him up, and he does a small flip to land on the roof-top again as he runs hoping he is too high for the large gun to aim. He runs silently, looking to find hopefully one of the drones Tim sent with him to attack the tank with.

He hops, and dodges jumping over to one of the other buildings, he grabs the drone on the hop carefull with the container it is carying so he does not get any on him. "I am borrowing this." he tells Tim, as he tosses the drone away taking the canister. He wasn't sure what was driving it, but he was going to find out, as he approached the bus he modified the canisters despensor to give a light spray, throwing it at the window of the truck though jumping right after. With the modifications the spray should super-cool the glass, and taking into consideration impact speed.. Damian grined, the math lines up as he tried to break right through the window, and subdue whatever was driving the bus.

Spoiler has posed:
Spoiler watches as Nightwing dispatches the three remaining guards with flair. She trots down the frozen tunnel to where the crates are, checking on them. The purple-and-black costumed crimefighter hears Batgirl's voice come over the comms. "And here I thought you were taking the night off," she replies back.

Spoiler glances at the ice ramp up to the truck, and back to where Nightwing is at. She throws a shoulder into the crate that's in front of the ice ramp, pushing and clearing it out of the way. "Well, don't just stand there looking all gallant and stuff. Go be a hero," she says, putting her hands on her hips and then stepping out of the way, blue eyes flashing warmly towards Nightwing.

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake frowns as he hears the big from Batgirl. He will call two of the drones over, one the one Robin took the container from and another he quickly removes the container from while the majority continue finishing off the Thugs "What's with the good squad and buses lately, did they teach commercial driving last quarter in Arkham. He shakes his head and thinks "Hey this works for Mr. Miracle, and he will move to step up having one of the drones under each foot, and starts to head towards the bus on his drones shoes, with a bit of wobble at first, but then a woo that it is working Hey Tim can still find fun in this as he flys to head towards the bus.

Nightwing has posed:
    After Spoiler gives him the "pep talk", Nightwing flashes a lopsided grin, and gives a nod of his head. "Damian's probably already in the bus like a rabid chihuahua..."

    Grayson walks past Steph, reaching out his hand as he does so to brush his fingertips across her side, her abdomen and then, to gently take her hand within his own until their fingers trail from one another. With his other hand, he whips his escrima out before him, the tip aimed up, into the hole that the guards had been using to unload the goods. His grapple line fires off, latching on to the inside of the truck, and literally reeling him up the ice ramp, sliding on his feet at breakneck speeds up and through the hole.

    Inside the last truck, Nightwing kicks open the back doors. A smile crests his lips as he sees Damian... has already done it. And Tim? Tim is trying to be the Green Goblin. He's not sure what's up with that, but hey. Leave it to Tim.

    Grayson? Well, Damian's opened up the bus for him. So Grayson leap up, casting out the line from his other escrima stick, and launching it into the bus' broken windshield. He is zipped along, practically flying towards the speeding bus. His free hand clenches into a fist, depressing a small button that makes the blue, metal knuckles on the back of his fists crackle with sparks and arcing electricity. As he nears the yawning maw of the broken windshield, Dick plans on sending his reinforced fist straight into a punch backed up with the power of a 100,000 volt stun gun.

Oracle has posed:
The battered and iced-up Batmobile continues to roar its way down the street after the bus, coming up on its right side now as its more nimble and faster faster.

Further back down the street from the same alleyway that the Batmobile came from, a whole row of GCPD Squad Cars burst onto the scene! Many of them are caked over in shards of ice as well, suggesting that this whole line of newly arrived vehicles has been dealing with a completely different icy situation within Gotham's ever wild streets.

"Never a minute's rest." Babs replies over the comms to Stephanie, wherever Stephanie is as Batgirl cannot see her outside the Batmobile's viewscreen. She does see Damian sweep by, followed by a flying Red Robin. "Be careful!" Babs warns over the comms. "Disable him and stop the bus from crashing, we can't have this stuff erupt!"Batgirl sees Nightwing, but only for a moment as he kicks himself free of the rear vehicle in the convoy and then makes his wild lunge toward the bus!

The punch from Nightwing smashes right through the front windscreen of the Bus and into the snarling dome-covered face of the Ice Tech Wizard! The shocking punch sizzles against the man's suit and he just leans forward, glaring at Dick through the shattered glass! He slams his hand down onto a button and the cannon atop the bus COMES TO LIFE!

Its aimed downward in front of the Bus, covering the street in a new and thick sheet of slippery fast-freezing ice sheet--covering over the manhole that Staphanie used to get down into the sewers.

But as Tim and Damian both crash into the bus, Nightwing's fist continues to shock and electrify Freeze's suit, until the light inside his helmet blinks off. His angry scowl vanishes and he looks down. "No!" He shouts, slapping Nightwings fist away from him, then trying to reboot his suit! "Nooo!" He loses control of the vehicle as it reaches the icy road he just made and it slams over into the Batmobile which is very nearly run right over!

"Get control of that bus!" Babs shouts over the team comms!

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake will come in from the back of the bus, and will spin the seat under Freeze, planting two feet in the man's mid section, and falling back to throw the man towards the back of the bus. He spins to get back to his feet, and says "You can drive Nightwing, I will put him on ice." He looks over to Freeze, and says "Don't make this hotter on yourself."

Nightwing has posed:
    Alright.

    Damian and Tim are busy mollywhomping Victor Fries about the back of the bus, now that his suit has been disarmed and powered down. This leaves the bus swerving across the road wildly with no driver, and so Grayson does what he does. He takes the wheel. He's always been a vehicle enthusiast, taking to driving and piloting skills faster than most of the other things he was trained in. While larger vehicles like this bus might feel heavy and cumbersome to him? He still knows how to work it in a pinch. The only problem at hand is the ice.

    Dick doesn't try to make a dramatic turn. No, instead, he guides the bus past the frozen trucks, skimming past them as deftly as he can manage, so that the steel siding of the vehicle scrapes against walls, and the vehicle teeters on its side dangerously, due to the build up of ice on the trucks to the side. Only after he's past them, and back on non-iced pavement does he hit the breaks hard, bringing the bus to a screeching halt.

Oracle has posed:
The boys on the bus go smack smack smack, whack whack whack! Or something.

Victor is truly laid upon by the two heroic Robins! Pummeled to the point where he's knocked to his knees and left in a scrambling heap toward the large silver cannisters! "My plan!" He shouts through the now broken glass on the front of his helmet. "Years of toiling away on these projects! You fools! You're going to see your ends for this!"

When the bus comes to a screeching halt, Tim and Damian are left standing there looming over the fallen Freeze villain. He's scrambling to connect the hoses of his suit to the cannisters so that they can reinvigorate the chilling effect within his body to keep him from essentially melting away.

Outside of the bus the GCPD is starting to circle around it as much as they can, their squad calls all pulling into place at high speeds.

The Batmobile had sped ahead of the bus and after it was pulled to the side and driven to a sliding halt, Batgirl zoomed on past the frozen security vehicles and the soldiers beside it that the drones were swarming around, having re-iced them into various positions along the sidewalks.

There's a lot of questions to be answered here, a lot of clean up to be done to this otherwise forgotten district of Gotham. But the threats seem to be falling into place, being secured.

Victor lays on the back of the bus now, hooked into one of the cannisters, breathing heavily as he just stares up at the Robins, then forward at Nightwing. "This isn't the end." He says, his voice reverberating out of his damaged helmet's vocalizer.