1478/Birds of a Feather

Birds of a Feather
Date of Scene:	15 July 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Red Robin, Aqualad, 87

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Red Robin has posed:
Nowhere in Gotham is ever truly silent, but tonight is, for now, a quiet night out on the China Basin Docks. Unfortunately that's more or less owing to the Triads effectively sealing off a large portion of the docks, armed guards turning away anyone coming too close to a set of three warehouses on the waterfront.

The warehouses in question are bustling with activity, Triad grunts shifting crates from all three into waiting vans and carrying replacements back /in/ with some haste. Watching over all the proceedings by a black SUV is an interesting pair: A tall, elegant man in a very crisp, handtailored suit accented by a bright red tie. At his side is an old woman, bent by age and leaning on a thin, ancient looking staff. The grunts seem to be avoiding their gaze, but every time they pass, they move just a bit faster, at least until they get out of sight. The pair is surrounded by a trio of armed guards, each one looking like they were built out of bricks, their heads shaved completely bald.

They are not, however, the only ones watching. Unseen -- at least for the moment -- Tim Drake perches atop a rooftop across the street, peering down on the group with narrowed eyes and a grim look of contemplation. After only a few more moments of watching, he steps away from the edge, turns, and sets his back against the lip, settling his arms on his knees as he slides into a low crouch. "I see three different approaches."

Aqualad has posed:
Kaldur examines the scene as well, his sharp vision narrowed to intense focus; Atlantean eyes are perhaps more sensitive to the light, but they're extraordinarily keen too, given the murky waters they so often penetrate.

He nods, finally, agreeing with Tim's expert assessment. "The direct approach would be swift, but require maximum violence," he remarks. "A flanking option might be best; to draw them from their vehicle, and lure them into ambush."

He looks at his allies. "In war, one hopes to outnumber an adversary by two to one. Three to one is better," he remarks. "These odds are.. less than ideal, if any of them have metahuman talents," he says, in his low, even voice, a bit of rasp at the back of his whispered baritone. His clothing is dark; a black vest with thin red stripes and black pants, a subtle bit of camoflague but effective enough for some discretion, anyway.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
There is no-one next to Robin and the Atlantean, until there suddenly is. Vorpal coalesces out of nothigness as his invisibility fades away. "We need the boxes in the vans for evidence, sting the two big fish over there," he nods, pointing his binoculars in the vague direction of the two observers, "And three objectives to win this level, too. We need to have enough of a distraction to keep the henchies occupied. Is that what we're looking at?"

The cheshire cat seems to realize that his fur coloration might make him visible, and a thought changes his fur from orange and bright red to pure black. Even the cheshire grin logo across his broad chest vanishes from sight.

"I can use my illusion powers to lure isolated groups into an ambush. Sort of thin the flanks a little before we go all out? That's an option, too." Vorpal looks over to Robin, pretending to be cool as a cucumber... but he does give off the kind of vibe an over-eager student might give off during a class presentation, clearly trying to nail an A, or even an A plus.

Red Robin has posed:
"Only one according to my information," Tim answers Kaldur's concerns, his hand instantly falling on his gauntlet to press a pair of buttons before he draws out a small handheld device from his belt. His wrist begins to project the face of the well-dressed man onto the roof in front of him as he controls it from the device in his hand. "Sun Zhang. Capable of low-level suggestion. Spend long enough in his company and he could convince you of just about anything. He's also got some minor reflex and strength enhancements, though we think those might be drug-enduced. Supposedly in the middle of a twenty-five year sentence in Black Gate. I'm sure the Warden would be interested to know he's taking a vacation in Chinatown."

With a few keystrokes he eliminates the projection and turns to peer back over the edge of the roof. "You're right though. These numbers with this wide open space? We've got to him them smart and fast." He turns back away from the edge as Vorpal speaks and nods slowly in consideration. "It's worth a shot. Can you draw a few of them into three different groups and bring them somewhere isolated without their bosses noticing?"

Aqualad has posed:
Kaldur looks around. "There is enough water for me to be effective," he remarks finally. "A three pronged approach, then. Vorpal-- distraction and illusion, breaking them apart and sequestering them from one another. I can attack from the far side," he tells Tim, readying his Water Bearers, the runes momentarily glowing briefly to reflect his well-tempered excitement as the moment draws closer. "Started animals tend to retreat-- right into your ambush," he informs the athletic young masked man. "Then it is simple enough to crash them together like shells against the low tide."

Vorpal (87) has posed:
Vorpal nods, "Sounds like a good idea, Aqualad." How cool was this? He was being tested by *Robin* alongside an Aqualad. And the test was for real real, nor for play play. He had better not screw this up. Gar would smack him so hard.

"Remember that I can also open Rabbit Holes and bring objects to life. If something goes south I can use those very well to cause chaos."

He then looks at Robin, "I'll take suggestions on the type of illusion you want, or if you prefer to wing it..."

No, he didn't just intentionally make a bird joke. It just sort of came out like that...

Red Robin has posed:
There's a pause while Tim constructs his very best Batman Face. Then, slowly, he turns it on Vorpal: "Was that a bird joke?" Grayson was always better at the Batman Face, though, and Tim's very quickly crumbles into a smirk before he gestures Vorpal and Kaldur to join him at the edge again while he points out three spots. One is between two of the warehouses, close to the water, "Bring them there for Kaldur." He then points out another spot just behind the corner of the farthest warehouse, "I'll hit them there." Finally, he gestures to a third spot, more or less completely opposite from the previous one, positioned so that all three form a triangle of sorts and cut off all obvious escape, "And you take the third group there."

He glances to Vorpal and Kaldur in turn, nodding to each, "Hit hard, hit fast. Take out your group as quickly as you can and then close the net. Grab as many as the grunts as you can, but the main objective are the bosses and the vans. There shouldn't be any civilians thanks to our Triad friends, so we shouldn't have to worry about that. Clear?"

Aqualad has posed:
Kaldur looks lost at the joke, but-- he goes with it. His knowledge of topside zoology is a bit weak.

"Clear," Kaldur nods-- and with that, he's off and running. For his weight, he's swift and sure on silent, oversized moccassisn that cover his webbed feet; he slips around the containers and moves into cover, drawing up water from a nearby seawall overflow point and hardening it into weapons at the end of his water bearers. With a club in each hand, he eyes the triad, and nods at Vorpal his readiness as the cat slips into his own position.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"You can count on me!" the Cheshire cat says, and vanishes into thin air. Unshod, he moves quickly and barely makes any noise at all. He crouches into position and eyes the first target. The trick was to lure the first group to Kaldur's area without making them *too* suspicious, not suspicious enough to raise the alert.

The art of distraction was a subtle one- when you had the power of illusion, you ran the risk of going overboard with a distraction- like that old Star Trek movie his mom likes to watch, where they have Uhura dance naked in the middle of a desert dune to attract a group of Klingons... (who the HELL does that? Who wants to dance naked in the middle of the desert, anyways? You can get sand in places sand was never meant to BE in the first place, and then you end up having to walk funny because sand rubs when you move and ouch and... No. Just no.) No need to have a naked anyone dancing here.

He chooses that subtle but disturbing sound that comes over you when air is disturbed in a room by a presence. Like when you hold your hand up close to your ear so that you can hear it is there just by the disturbance in the air. That is the aural illusion he inflicts over the triad target. This is followed by very subtle hints here and there of a shape- but blurry, in the darkness, distant enough between the two warehouses that you can't be certain if it's a person or a trick of the light. It could be something and you should maybe raise the alert...

Or it could be nothing, and risk angering the boss over nothing. After all, isn't that why he's paying you/refraining from mudering you? So you can go and check those things out?

Vorpal weaves the illusion quietly, tugging here and there with another blur in an attempt to lure them in. If they start moving, he will stay until they are on their way, before going over to Robin's spot and repeating the illusion for them, too. If THAT is successful (wouldn't it be nice?) he can leave that area so he can go and set the trap for his own group.

Red Robin has posed:
Vorpal's trick is a clever one. It draws the focus of at least four goons per group, all of them too cautious to raise the alarm, and they all wander more or less to the exact indicated position. The loss of twelve goons, however, is not something that will go unnoticed for long. Just moments after all three groups are in position, Sun Zhang is already looking around suspiciously as his workforce seems to thin out. The trio are going to have to move fast if they want to strike the first blow, and with that in mind, Robin, who had already made his way to his spot by way of stealthy acrobatics and a healthy application of grapple gun, leaps onto the back of one his grunts.

The man goes down like a sack of potatoes and before his nearest partner can say so much as 'what was that?', Robin launches into a powerful leaping kick to the side of his head, dropping him just as quickly. The other two, however, get their guns up in time to fire a burst at the spot Tim used to be, but the young caped crusader stays low and barrels right into the side of one while disarming the other with a batarang and putting them out of the fight by judo tossing the former into the latter.

He pauses very briefly to try and get the lay of the land from around the corner of the warehouse and to check in on the progress of his two allies, before he begins to sprint towards the nearest van, another batarang at the ready.

Aqualad has posed:
A tidal wave of force lifts over the cargo containers-- a literal tidal wave. It's at least fifty thousand gallons of water, controlled by Kaldur's wands, and he tensions across his shoulders to throw his muscles into the effort of his mind as well. His whole body contributes to the mini-tsunami he flings at the vans; spears of ultra-hard water impale tires and he hurls that force at the guns in hands, though it's almost unavoidable for Tim to get drenched.

A fair trade, though, as a swimming pool of water lands abruptly /right/ atop Sun Zhang and his cronies. Kaldur rides the wave down as smoothly as a dream, lashing out with his bearers in the forms of flexible whips that follow his every thought as his wrists twist and lash.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
Shots fired! Shots fired! The cat's sensitive ears twitch at the sound. He doesn't know if it is Robin or Aqualad, but he almost stops in his tracks for a second to go back and check on them.

No. Robin gets shot at all the time. He knows how to deal with this. As for the Atlantean...

Do they have bullets underwater? If they both make the team, that's one of the sixty-five questions Vorpal has thought of to ask Kaldur about his native home. He is also wise enough NOT to disclose this bit of trivia, just in case Kaldur might decide that not being able to join the Titans is a price worth paying for dropping the south seas on top of Vorpal.

The cat runs, invisible and noiseless, and rendezvous with his group- first making a quick stop to pick something up- a coil of rope- when he spots it near a warehouse door. With the shots being fired, stealth is more or less out the window and time and speed are of the essence.

"Give them a big hug!" the cat says, becoming visible and throwing a coil of rope towards the group of triads, releasing a burst of Chaos magic as he does so. The rope becomes animate, and flies and scurries towards the triads, zig-zagging between legs and arms and around necks and waists, tangling them up as they try to attack. "Yesssssss!" the rope hisses, through no observable mouth, "Many huggggsssssss!"

The cat moves quickly, blinking in and out of sight to avoid being shot by those who *did* manage to draw their guns and move out of the immediate area of rope-hug. When he reappears, he appears in more than one place at once, illusions all, causing shots to be fired and wasted, only for the real Cheshire cat to appear by the side of the shooter in time to deliver a strong punch to knoc them out.

Vanishing once the group is subdued, either knocked out or tied up, he begins to run towards the vans, keeping his ears out for trouble. It would be hard to detect, though, because they were still ringing from the shots fired in close proximmity.

That was painful. He's going to have to ask Robin if he knows of earplugs he can wear when dealing with guns. God, he hates guns...

Red Robin has posed:
Tim's halfway through a powerslide that'll take him under the van allowing him to cut all sorts of important lines on the way past when suddenly he's in the splash zone of a log flume ride. Now drenched, he comes up the other side of the van only to see it studded with spikes of hardended water (ice?). With yet another decent imitation of Batman Face, he stashes the unneeded Batarang away and starts sprinting towards the final objective, leaping over, under, and into any Triad grunts that get in his way, though there's not many of them left after Vorpal's distraction and Kaldur's mini-tsunami.

Six feet before Sun Zhang, Robin's in the air, twisting in a graceful sort of pirhouette that maximizes the momentum of his heel as it speeds towards Sun's head, but the Triad boss narrowly avoids it before drawing a glock and attempting to draw a bead on his aggressor. Meanwhile, the as yet unnamed old woman is shuffling as quickly as her old bones will let her back to the SUV, not even sparing a glance to Sun as her bodyguards start piling into the car, one standing alone to open the back door for her.

Aqualad has posed:
"Vorpal! Aid Robin!" Kaldur shouts-- he can see the gun being drawn, and while it's probably not a Good Thing that the old crone's climbing in the van; the hard water spikes deflated the tires fairly thoroughly, which'll limit their departure speed.

But Sun Zhang is well out of his own range, and Kaldur's busy tying up loose ends with the men on the ground-- his water bearers lash and ripple like whips with sturdy, hard water on the end, denser in fact than ice and laying into the fellows on the ground like flails. He has the situation under control, but barely; to let up for a precious second would be enough to let the men recovering from their unexpected deluge access to their automatic weapons, which could swiftly change the battle from a single man with a single gun to four or five of them spraying lead all over the docks.

So he carries his weight, and trusts in Tim and Vorpal to carry theirs.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
And suddenly, just like that, Robin's life is in his hands.

Well, let's be honest here, it probably isn't. He *is* Robin, after all, but you try telling that to a Rookie with a major case of star-strike.

Vorpal's night vision lets him see that glock quite well, and for a moment he's not quite sure how to help at this distance.

And then he remembers that, to him, there is no such place as far away.

It's just a jump to the left, and the Cheshire Cat travels through the Rabbit Hole to reach for that wrist holding the glock. It helps that he is invisible, which should give him an edge. If it does, and he can grab a hold of that wrist, he will try to both push the wrist *upwards* to the sky so that gun can fire, because it's Rabbit season and not Du-Robin season... and to jam his knee in the man's Jolly Rogers.

Cats fight dirty, okay?

Of course, if this goes south, he is going to be very embarrassed....

Red Robin has posed:
Tim's just recovering to see the glock pointed his way when suddenly it's not. Two shots go extremely wide -- airborne, in fact -- while Sun looks extremely confused. Then suddenly he looks sick as he hunches over, just about all the fight taken out of him in a single hit.

Meanwhile, the fight between Kaldur and the remaining hench-goons is looking like a very violent slip and slide party, as drenched Triads struggle to get to their feet only to be lain out by ultra-hard water flails. It's a game of whack-a-mole, but one Kaldur is doing ver well at.

Not pausing to question what happened with Sun, Robin begins to sprint at the practically incapacitated gangster, leaps, and plants both feet in his back, both shoving him towards the ground and leaving him in Vorpal's tender care as he springboards towards the SUV that's looking like it's willing to ride on rims to get away from the action. He whips a handful of black and red pellets towards the hood, and before the SUV can get more than a foot, a series of rapid fire explosions rock the car and cause the engine to leap halfway out of it.

With a thud, the Boy Wonder lands on the roof with several batarangs ready, but with their escape cut off, their goons getting trounced, and their boss out of the fight, the remaining Triad guards come out with their hands raised in surrender, the old woman electing instead to sit in quiet anger in the backseat.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"Hey, dude," the Cheshire cat says, becoming visible as he tears the glock away from the crumbling man's hands. "Common sense 101. Wear. A. Cup."

His hand readies to give the man a whack with the butt of the gun. But then he stops. He looks at the Glock. Right. These don't have external safeties. "A cup, NOT a codpiece, because you couldn't pull it off." He settles for giving the man a foot to head as hard as he can to knock him out and tie him up before joining his teammates.

"Looks like we've got a couple of jailbirds in want of a cage here," the cat says to Robin, giving him a grin. He notices that he is drenched, and so is almost everybody else. Except him.

"You know, for being all wet, you guys didn't do half bad!"

The cat beams, glorying in how truly atrocious that line was, when he is splashed by a column of water. He is left sputtering and shivering, looking for all the world like he had just emerged from seeing the horrors of hell. Two green eyes give the approaching Altantean the stare of death.

"V-v-very funny, Aquadork."