12612/To Steal or Not to Steal

To Steal or Not to Steal
Date of Scene:	05 January 2021
Location:	Upper West Hill, Old Gotham
Synopsis:	CatLady strikes again! Fortunately team Bat is on the case! Meanwhile, Catwoman and Spike take advantage of the confusion..
Cast of Characters:	Catwoman, Spike, Oracle, Sparrowhawk, Red Robin

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Catwoman has posed:
It's an early evening and the sun just went down. The winter holidays have come to an end for most people, although some of the richer folk in fashionable Old Gotham are on extended vacation.

Which is just perfect for this little opportunity, as Catwoman was running low on cash, and this particular rich man's mansion was just full of lots of delectable and priceless artwork, not to mention a safe full of lots and lots of cash.

She and Spike had broken in no problem, as this guy, rich though he is, had a security system that was not clever enough to outwit the likes of the Cat. Plus, with Spike's raw muscle, she was able to break down some harder to get into places.

Too bad the rich man, Mr. Frank Prenshaw, and his lovely and wealthy wife Mrs Greta Prenshaw, had returned from their vacation a couple of days early. As they drive into the parking lot however, they are greeted by a certain vicious cat-burglar look-alike, and about five of her best goons. Oh, and the second half of the cat twins, the quick and lethal female mutant known as Snow Leopard, feline mutant with white spotted fur, snarls and bares her claws at the wealthy couple while the goons point their guns at them.

"Alright, dearies. Hands up in the air, open the mansion and them disarm the alarm. We're taking all your money and if you protest or call the police, you'll be sorry!"

Spike has posed:
While far from a saint, Spike never was a steady burglar before Catwoman, he is honing the craft as only he can. A natural talent for learning new things, he does mostly heavy lifting and the like. Money is good though and it's not like he has a /lot/ of traditional values or too many black and white ethical standards.

His hearing is better than most, so he does hear the car pull up and glances towards Catwoman, raising a brow,"I think the owners managed to come home early." He frowns and adds,"There are voices, too many to be the couple and one sounds...familiar." A scowl and he slinks towards a window to look out at the front,"Bloody Hell." he mutters darkly.

Oracle has posed:
There is no such thing as routine field training. That's probably why it often gets called on the job training or being thrown into the deep end.

Tonight Batgirl is out patrolling with Beacon, helping mentor the newer member of the Bat Family's activities. Cruising along the streets, the redheaded Bat talks quietly over comms to her partner. "How has your training with Tim lately? He isn't going easy on you, is he?" she jokes. As if that would ever happen.

As the duo turns onto a cross street during their patrol, a chirp is heard in Batgirl's earpiece. "Oracle. Go" she instructs her AI pet project for when she isn't in the clocktower herself. A synthetic female voice reports, "Private security panic button has been pressed at the Prenshaw estate. Security units have been dispatched."

"Thank you Oracle. Update patrol routes for Beacon and I. We'll check it out. When security units are within two minutes ETA, let me know." She disconnects and glances to Beacon, "Ready? No telling what we'll find. It's one of the perks of the job!"

Sparrowhawk has posed:
    Phoebe, so far, has been keeping up -- mostly. As to be expected for someone in the first year of training with the Bat Family.

    "Pretty sure Nightwing is taking it easier on me than Tim." Phoebe replies, brushing the shoulder of her armor off a moment in a playful gesture. The gray with the orange slashes at the shoulders, reminicent of the smallest bird of prey, catches a moment as a chirp comes over her domino as well, and she draws her hood up a little closer.

    "Let's be off then." Pheebs takes up her grapple, white-out screens from her domino showing.

    "Could be something interesting."

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake has taken the role Bruce would on a night like this. He is not in his normal Red Robin suit, but a solid black stealth suit. He put a up electronic counter measures as well. He keeps high and a bit away, so he can watch the ladies on patrol. The young man maybe stalking, but stalking with a purpose taught to him by the bat himself. See what the ones your training do when they think your not watching.

Catwoman has posed:
The good news: The wealthy couple managed to alert the private security company, and within a few moments, a black car drives up stealthily sticking to the shadows. Three men in black security uniforms get out, pointing their guns at the four thugs.

The bad news? They're outnumbered, maybe even outpowered, as the thugs are carrying more powerful machine guns. As the thugs and security exchange firepower, the Catlady, Snow leopard and the two hostages are pulled out of the car, and shoved towards the house, forced to open the door.

"Uh wait, what's this? Looks like the security panel was already deactivated!" mutters Frank.

Catwoman sighs, scooping as much loot as she can into her backpack and pauses to peer out the window. "Oh great. Let's go through the back door..Come on!" and she's already hurrying out of the room.

Spike has posed:
Raising a brow he scowls,"The nasty demon panther is close too." he growls and looks around the area to make sure it isn't moving to get the drop on them. When she turns to make her exit he scoops up one more thing on the way out as well. No super vampire speed or anything, but he does move fast. The advantages of running from the sun and angry mobs.

He is only a step off her heels when she reaches the back door. He takes one last glance back towards the front of the house as the door opens,"They're in." he mutters softly near her head and doesn't mention what he might or might not have heard.

Oracle has posed:
As the bike accelerates across the city toward the affluent neighborhood, Batgirl replies calmly to Beacon, "That sounds about right" regarding Tim giving her a harder time than the others. She then tilts her cowled head, "Oracle? Go." The AI replies pleasantly, "The Security unit is two minutes ETA. The security unit has arrived!"

A silent sigh from Batgirl is followed by a murmur, "Acknowledged Oracle. Return to monitoring status."

"Guess there'll be more Alpha testing after all" she muses as the bike turns onto the street and races toward the mansion's grounds.

Sparrowhawk has posed:
    Look, if you keep reading your poetry to mobs, of course they'll be mad...

    Then there's a familiar little tweak at the back of her neck. She breathes out, and her eyes narrow as Sparrowhawk rides along with Batgirl, and she states quietly

    "I've got a bad feeling about this--"

    The younger heroine holds tight to the bike, knuckles beneath the gloves paling as her grip tightened.

    "Do you hear that?"

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake is monitoring the messages from Oracle, and while most of the Bat family my miss it, Barbra probably knows it and expects it, they do share the playing on computers after all. He sees them going in and will start to head to follow them, still keeping high, moving a bit past the place to get a different angle on whats going on below, and with the heroines.

Catwoman has posed:
Well, at least the security are not incompetant. They manage to take down at least two of the thugs, but as they close in on the last two, it appears at least one of the security guards is injured and eventually stumbles to the ground as the other two are also badly injured, one shot in the shoulder, the other in the knee.

Mrs. Prenshaw screams. "Someone help us!" she cries before she is also shoved inside. "Alright, lead us to the safe! Oh, and you two, finish off those security guards!"

And with that, the two remaining thugs slowly approach the three injured guards, moving in for a killing blow..

Catwoman meanwhile, grits her teeth as they rush down the stairs towards the back hall, coming face to face with a giant panther demon. It snarls before leaping towards Spike first, unsheathing those deadly claws!

Spike has posed:
"Son of a..." Spike growls and notes the movement of the panther. How many times with they have to commit to this dance? He contiues towards the pather until is leaps. When it jumps he side steps in a way to move Catwoman and himself out of the path of the leap and throws a roundhouse kick that lands in the creature's chest as it flies.

Of course he doesn't get away unscathed as the creatures claws slash at his leg in passing and cut him nicely. He spits what sounds like a curse in a language not English and puts himself between the panther and Catwoman as he looks around the area for inspiration. It isn't likely to fall for his coat over its head again, so a weapon of opportunity is searched for, ths periperally he watches the creature's landing.

Oracle has posed:
"Get ready. Fast dismount" Batgirl instructs Beacon. But what does that actually mean? See also, On The Job Training.

The bike races up to the front of the mansion grounds in time to see the thug closing in on the three wounded security guards. Aiming right at the two thugs, Batgirl locks the rear brakes of the bike and whips it around to use the momentum to propel her passenger like a human missile in the direction of the thugs.

That is. If it works, right?

Sparrowhawk has posed:
    "Fast dismount." Sparrowhawk confirms, and she releases her deathgrip on the bike -- and as Batgirl breaks, Phoebe is a human canonball, launched at the thugs. There's a flick of a wrist, and her own extending staff comes into being, lacking the distinct sound of Red Robin's, and she uses it to vault over the thugs, to the side, bounces off a wall, and begins with a cross blow with the staff, workign on keeping her distance from them -- any closer, and they'd start to heal as she was fighting. That would be problematic at best!

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake will mover, and now, he notices the movement inside the mansion. He wants to keep an eye on the fight but trusts Batgirl and Sparrow hawk. He will move a bit more till he can get not only a view on the evil clone catwoman and het thug, but the real and hers. "Well dang she was not exaggerating." He says to himself. He will start moving towards where he expects the two inside groups to come into contact.

Catwoman has posed:
Catlady snarls, glancing towards the shadowy figures at the back as Catwoman and Spike encounter her 'pet'. "Fools! Kill them, kill them all! Come on!" she jerks Frank's arm, shoving him towards the staircase, Greta following after them with Snowleopard holding her claws at her face.

Fortunately her minions each do their part to distract the others while she makes for the goods.

The panther demon snarls, crashing into an older metal statue of a knight complete with sword and shield as Spike and Catwoman dart out of its way. It lunges at them again, moving as a blurr of speed to knock Catwoman against the wall before she can react. "Gack!" she yells, before her head hits the wall. Oo that's gonna hurt!

Meanwhile, the two thugs are caught off-guard as Sparrowhawk lunges at them, instantly knocking one of them off his feet, with enough force that he loses his gun and growls, swinging a punch at her face. The other thug growls and aims his gun at her. "Back off or you die!" he snarls.

Spike has posed:
Oh look. Something new to teach the nasty kitty a lesson with. The panther loses interest in him for a moment. He grabs the sword from the fallen suit of armor and the shield as well. He gets a feel for the heft of the weapon and turns towards the panther.

It is pretty cliche', but he takes the sword and smacks the flat of the weapon against the shield a few times. He cracks his neck and comments,"Come on now kitty. Let's see how you like round two." He turns into a side stance, the shield hand forward.

Oracle has posed:
Batgirl follows Sparrowhaw into the air after the later launches herself. Soaring off the bike, her cape spread to enable a smooth glide, Batgirl aims to put herself between the two thugs and the three injured guards. As Sparrowhawk strikes first, she delivers a follow-up attack, sweeping her leg to knock the closer thug off his feet.

Sparrowhawk has posed:
    The gun is given a flick to the side, sending it beneath one of the security guard's cars and out of reach of the assailiant as Batgirl arrives, timely intervention to the second thrug.

    Now without a gun aimed at her, Sparrowhawk gives a grim look, turns the metal staff up and goes for a quick strike accross her thug's face to knock him out.

    "I can *feel* that dark--" she mumbles under her breath.

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake looks at the going on and sees the other threats are handled and while he wants to let the ladies handle this, he can't leave hostages like that if he can prevent it. He will find himself on a zip lining towards the window, and through it, to hit Snow Leopard, trying to knock her off the hostages, and get her attention on his.

Catwoman has posed:
It seems that team Bat is one step ahead of the thugs, as Sparrowhawk darts out of the way, expertly disarming thug no.2, who goes down with a yelp of surprise. Fortunately his gun doesn't go off as it gets flicked away from him. "Grr, ya freakin' B---!!" he snarls as he reaches out for his gun, but is struck across the face hard enough to knock him out a second later. "GACK!"

Meanwhile, Batgirl moves in quickly, swiftly intervening just in time to protect Sparrowhawk a second blow as she gracefully counterattacks him in the next breath then knocks him to his feet. "Gah!" he struggles for his gun even though it is pretty clear he is outclassed here.

Meanwhile, the three security guards groan, one of them climbing to his feet, tending to the other two. Good thing he's trained in first aid as he expertly rips off a strip of his shirt and stems the bleeding of the more injured of his two associates, tying it around his leg like a tourniquet. He's already calling 911.

"Thanks you two."

Meanwhile, within, as Catlady reaches the safe and waits impatiently with a gun aimed at Mr. Prenshaw while he works the combination. Looks like someone already disarmed the alarm though, but Catwoman was careful to wipe any fingerprints left behind. Oh, and gloves are super handy too!

CRASH! They are interrupted by the sudden appearance of Red Robin as he expertly ziplines through the window. "Dammit! Get---!" no sooner are the words out of her mouth, than Red Robin has already knocked Snow Leopard off-balance, and she snarls, baring fangs and claws, lunging towards him with several well-placed slashes.

"Ugggh.." Catwoman groans, hitting her head enough to create a small bump on her skull. But not enough to knock her out, fortunately. Good thing Spike's got its attention now, as the Panther Demon snarls and lunges towards him, leaping into the air as it attempts to tackle him to the ground. But while its momentarily distracted, Catwoman lashes out with her whip, snagging it by the leg, tugging it off-balance and sending it flying into a large marble bust.

WHAM! And it shrieks as it goes sprawling, churning up dust. "Spike, c'mon, we gotta jet! Looks like the cavalry's here." She had handed him some smoke bombs earlier, just incase. Hopefully they can get out of here before they're spotted though.

Oracle has posed:
As the fight begins to shift elsewhere, and the two thugs are dispatched, Batgirl looks to Sparrowhawk, "Help me with these guards. They're going to lose a lot of blood before EMTs can arrive." She sweeps a glance around the front lawn for any threats before moving quickly to one of the badly hurt guards and begins a mental triage of his injuries while pulling a tornequette from a belt pouch. "Hang in there. You're going to be okay."

Spike has posed:
     The leaping pather gets a scowl as it leaps at Spike. Catwoman lashing the leg with the whip makes the animal a little easier to follow up on it. The shield smashes the cat with a nasty kinda wet sound that knocks it cross eyed for the moment.

Knowing killing it takes something special, Spike pauses long enough to cut the back leg where a human hamstring with be,"Good luck chasing now kitty." he growls and drops the sword and shield and follows after Catwoman,"It's never a dull moment with you love." he muses and tosses two smokers to cover their exit. How ninja like...or something.

Sparrowhawk has posed:
    There's a moment that Sparrowhawk looks a little hesitant, and then quietly she makes for the two more injured guards. As Babs begins Triage, Sparrowhawk does something a little more unusual -- but is definitely going to alert the Lady and the Panther of her presence.

    She kneels down, her fingers touching each of the guard's shoulders. Light gathers at her fingertips as she breathes out and focuses her power, the Baby Bat with the healing light letting it be known that she was there.

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake normally would bring out a smoke pellet, but they are in a dark room, and he is wearing all dark, he dives back, and shutters close in his mask. Left behind is a flash pellet, left to fill the room with a bright flash of light to blind people, it does not last long, but long enough and as it is fading Robin's lens come back to normal. He will throw a robin a rang at each lady's legs trying to slow them down.

Catwoman has posed:
THOK! Spike deals a brutal blow to the Panther demon and it shrieks, staggering to the ground. Ouch, that's gotta hurt! Too bad this is no ordinary panther though, and it only takes a moment for its wound to at least partially heal, but it's bought the two thieves enough time to flee.

Catwoman nods to Spike, fleeing out the backdoor, while the various Bat heroes do...Heroic stuff. Meh. She should probably help out but...Not with all this loot in her bag. Besides, both Sparrowhawk and Red Robin *should* still have a bit of the antidote left to heal Snow Leopard.

Meanwhile, outside, the guards blink in surprise at Sparrowhawk as she starts to heal them with white light. One in particular watches her in wide-eyed awe. "Woow lady..Are you an angel?"

And upstairs, as Red Robin pulls out a flash pellet, Snow Leopard shrieks in surprise, totally caught off-guard and momentarily blinded, lashing out blindly now at him, just in time to get knocked off her feet by the Robinrang.

Unfortunately, Cat Lady managed to turn her head away just in time although she stumbles away from the safe as a Robinrang is tossed her way as well. "Damn intruders!" she snarls, lashing out her whip at Red Robin, sending out tendrils of electricity around the room with each slash.

Sparrowhawk has posed:
    The masked girl teeters slightly, and puts a finger to her lip at the gentleman who asked her precisely what she was. The guards aren't healed all the way, but can be considered 'triaged' quite handily and will make it to Gotham General with no problem now... they're still injured, and will be Hella Sore in the morning.

    There's just a moment more before she brings up her grapple gun again, and with the burst of air from the grapple, she takes off.

    "Red Robin -- front is secure. Guards will live. Ping location -- do you have eyes on the perps?"

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake mutters under his breath as the flash gave him away to the girls. He dodges from the mutant, but as he does the whip catches him with a bit of the electricity. The suit is grounded somewhat but he does grunt through the pain, this comes over the com followed by "I have Snow Leopard and Cat 2.0 in the main house, hostages are apart a bit, follow the light." He says since he thinks she saw the light. Now, he will throw a putty ball at the LEopard, to try to allow him to focus on Cat 2.0

Catwoman has posed:
By this time, Catlady has already got the safe open, and she does manage to grab a few handfuls of money. But with Red Robin causing 'trouble' and no doubt more heroes on the way, after getting nothing but static on her radio connected to her thugs downstairs, Catlady grumbles, peering around, "Obsidian, come now!" she orders.

A moment later, a swirl of shadows and darkness appears around Catlady, the brief flash of glowing red panther demon eyes before the two of them flee, leaving Snow Leopard to take care of Red Robin on her own.

Snow Leopard snarls, leaping nimbly out of the way of the putty ball - mostly. One of her feet gets caught by the goopy stuff, forcing her to move more slowly as she leaps at Red Robin again, long sharp claws unsheathed, moving in quickly.

RAWR!

Sparrowhawk has posed:
    Just like she's practiced, Phoebe mutters to herself.

    Just like in training.

    She breaks off the grapple. She switches out the grapple for the syringe dart with the antidote in it.

    Curl. Crash through the window. Tuck. She curls up, rolling on her shoulder, protecting the gun and the syringe.

    Aim at the fleshiest bit of muscle mass you can. Fortunately, that's going to be a butt.

    Aim. Deliver payload.

    It looks like a tranq dart. It has a fluffy feather tail on the end to mark it, and Phoebe launches her attack on Snow Leopard.

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake sees Phoebe coming in for the hit, he brings both arms up crossing them, counting on the padding and armor to hold up at least for a moment, and to keep Snow Leopard in one spot to make the shot easier. He keeps her busy as the shot comes in and then with a boot to the stomach he falls back and launches Snow Leopard across the room, using her own force against her.

Catwoman has posed:
Snow Leopard snarls, darting back as Red Robin blocks the first blow. Hmm, seems he's well armoured, although her claws are pretty damn sharp nonetheless. She tries again to hack and slash at him, but this time she's not ready for that powerful kick in the stomach.

Fortunately she's not as big and bulky as her brother, and the kick sends her flying across the room, slamming into the nearby wall. "GRAGH!" she shrieks.

She's about to bounce right back..But then Sparrowhawk has a clear shot and takes it. She shrieks, curling up into a pained ball as the drug takes effect. A moment later, her eyes are no longer glowing red. She blinks and groans, clutching her head, utterly confused. "Wuh..What happened!?"

Meanwhile, the shocked couple are cowering in a corner of the room this whole time, the woman sobbing into her husband's arms as some of the combat gets a little too close for comfort. The wail of police sirens and an ambulance can already be heard, on their way..

Sparrowhawk has posed:
    Phoebe looks to Tim, and she gives a serene smile -- teetering ever so slightly as she kneels down to Snow Leopard.

    "You've had a bad time of things... but the nightmare's over." she states gently. She turns her attention to the sobbing woman and the shocked man as she stands. "Police should be here any moment -- we should go...?"

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake nods, to Sparrowhawk, and looks over to Snow Leopard "Come with us, if you want the story." He looks over to the couple. "The one who attacked you was controlling this young lady and pretending to be Catwoman. Your safe now, but I would suggest upgrading your security system." And he motions for Snow an Shadow to come with him as he moves to leave.

Catwoman has posed:
The couple nods slowly, the man stepping forward and nodding. "Thank you..thank you! We will do that, yes.." The woman smile faintly, nodding in agreement.

Meanwhile, Snow Leopard nods to Red Robin, slowly climbing to her feet. "Do you know where my brother White Tiger is? We..We got kidnapped by that evil lady. She kidnapped a bunch of others too!"