15184/Moving The Product

Moving The Product
Date of Scene:	05 June 2023
Location:	Abandoned Warehouse, West Side, Burnley
Synopsis:	Huntress and Ravager pop in to Scarface's Weapon Smuggling Operation to say 'Hello' and also stop the whole thing. Some product gets away, but otherwise the day is saved from cigar smoking puppets.
Cast of Characters:	Ventriloquist (Wesker), Huntress, Ravager

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Ventriloquist (Wesker) has posed:
You've gotten a tip that the mob boss 'Scarface' is moving something illicit from an abandoned warehouse in Gotham. It's meant for another location and it needs to be moved before it becomes a liability anyways. What it is, is up for debate, but it's most likely weapons or drugs if folks know old Scarface's MO.

Right now it's near midnight and darkness has set in, save for the telltale lights of a truck parked off the old abandoned warehouse. People, dressed like old mobsters, complete with fedoras are moving boxes, slowly into a truck that claims to be hauling fish product. Overhead, on a gantry, stands a figure in shadow, who is most likely Arnold Wesker, because the person not in the shadows is a puppet hanging off the gantry and looking down at the affair going on. "You mugs getter not drop the product. Imma take it out of your hide otherwise." Scarface says.

On the exterior, there's a few similar dressed men patroling about, some are obviously holding tommy guns, while others are not, but proabably packing sidearms and the like, as they move around the outside of the warehouse irregularly.

Huntress has posed:
The Huntress has been spotted only once in the last month, so there's certainly no reason to suspect she might be present at the docks this evening. She's not as hooked into the wider criminal network in the way she was three years ago, but her ties to the Cosa Nostra ensures she overhears whispered comments from them, with little thought given to the fact that the Italian woman might be the person behind the purple-masked vigilante.

The Huntress takes her time to park her motorcycle out of sight, but close to the warehouse to enable a quick getaway if needed. She'll wait in the quiet shadows for Rose to join her, patient as she scans the outside of the warehouse, taking note of those various patrols.

Whenever Rose joins her, there's a smile for the woman that has a predatory cast to it. "How do you feel about heights?" she asks, gaze flickering upwards. There's not a nearby rooftop, so they'll have to slip between the guard patrols to climb.

Ravager has posed:
For one of the newer vigilantes the last few weeks have been quiet, though given Ravager's track record this becomes far more meaningful. The wrecked subway platform is probably back up and running by now! Since then the Birds of Prey have been keeping an eye on her to make sure she stayed out of trouble, which..has mostly happened. Mostly.

There are times and places to get messy. Dealing with Scarface and his mooks away from the general Gotham population is perhaps an ideal time for it.

Tricked out in her scale mail and leather armor with a half hood covering some face but not doing anything to hide long white hair, the short scrapper finds Huntress who has the right sort of wickedness to her smile for Rose's liking.

"I do better with them when not being thrown out of sky trains." Ask Batman about that one. The rooftop in question is noted with a nod. "Gonna use one of those fancy Bat-Toys of yours or is this a 'bring your own parkour' night?"

Ventriloquist (Wesker) has posed:
None of the patrols seem to notice the two approaching, so that's good. The loading of the seafood truck with guns or drugs or what have you continues so that's bad. Really, the night is quiet and otherwise there's a resounding crash inside as old machinery left behind by the former owners is tossled about. "Sorry Boss!" says a voice. "You'se getter be careful, you mook!" says Scarface.

One of the well dressed patrol members comes about around the point you guys might plan to enter and stops a moment to take a smoke break. He appears to be paying no attention now as he lights his cigarette and pops his thompson underneath an arm.

Huntress has posed:
"Noted," Huntress says, with a smile to Rose. "That's not really my style. Though I have kicked some goons out of a train door before. That was uniquely satisfying," she confesses. Her brow lifts at Rose's words. "Bring your own skillset, for certain. If you want to show off, go nuts, though I don't know that my opinion will give much weight to your ambitions." She means joining the Birds of Prey. Funny she admits that -- funnier than she seems to think it true.

"Meet you there?" with a lift of brow. It's a challenge, for sure. She wants to see what Rose is capable of.

Then the Huntress is moving with a flap of her cape behind her. She's quick, moving from shadow to shadow, an awareness of the patrols stilling her until they're out of hearing. She has a grappling tool that she fires towards the roof and carries her like a leaping shadow up towards the rooftop -- right over the head of that smoking guy.

What are the chances he looks up, though? No one ever looks up, which is weird. After years in Gotham, people should know better. It seems like the Huntress avoids unnecessary confrontration -- that or she wants to see how and if Rose deals with the patrol, the bird crouching on the edge to keep an eye out.

Ravager has posed:
"These guys are so oldschool it hurts" Rose grumbles. "Where do you even -find- a Tommy Gun anymore? Like, who -are- these people?" she thumbs toward the warehouse with a screwy expression. "You BatBirds get to deal with an interesting cast."

These guys don't seem to feel threatened, either. Look at how casual that one guy is, lighting up a cigarette. ... Rose wants that cigarette. How long has it been since her last, maybe thirty minutes?

'Meet you there?' Huntress asks. "Sure" a distracted Ravager replies.

As Helena gets into motion and uses her own grappel gun (cheater), Rose has a slightly different idea in mind involving climbing up a nearby structure so she can throw herself directly at the idle smoking guard with every intention of smacking him against a conveniently solid nearby object. A wall, a pole, a crate, she's not picky! The important part is that she wants to steal his smoke THEN join Helena up high.

Priorities. That, and Rose is the sort to actively seek out confrontation.

"You guys always so calculating? C'mon, they're just waiting to have their butts kicked!"

Ventriloquist (Wesker) has posed:
the guy smoking a cigarette does look up. He's looking right at you, Huntress. His eyes go wide and he's about to start yelling about it when Rose comes up and smacks him upside the side of the hard warehouse building and he's out cold before we can warn anyone, cigarette for the taking, its just started to turn red at it's cherry, but otherwise is untouched, a worthy prize.

Thanks to Rose's intervention the intrustion seems to go without a hitch. There's catwalks and gantries and beams up there to walk along. Scarface and Arnold Wesker are on a much lower gantry with a staircase down, overseeing the whole affair as the truch gets loaded. Scarface is...smoking a cigar. How does that work? It even puffs. And like. smoke comes out his mouth. Still, the whole operation is going off and the truck seems about a third of the way full, otherwise, unless there's more packages to come out of hiding. There could be.

Huntress has posed:
Work smarter, not harder. It's a rule Helena's learned to live by. She doesn't get all the best toys -- she's tolerated more than truly trusted by many in the Batclan, but what she can't get she can buy. While she might live by what other billionaires consider very, very modest means, she doesn't skimp on her gear. It's amazing how many doors a sweet smile and the right money can open.

Really, Huntress isn't surprised about anything except that Rose steals the cigarette. "Did you hide the body?" she asks, with a tilt of her head. "Shock and awe is kind of the Bats' thing."

Her feet are light on the roof as she crosses, looking for roof access down into the warehouse. Hopefully a skylight! Those are always handy. Even if she says she doesn't do shock and awe, she does like to make a dramatic entrance. She drops silently onto one of the girders, and creeps forward, taking in the operation. The glow of the cigar brings her attention to... the puppet, smoking? The mask doesn't quite hide her crease of brow.

Given there's only the two of them, going after Scarfac... Arnold Wesker might mean risking the truck getting out, given the number of goons below. One of those quick priority assessments, and her gaze steadies on Rose. The lift of her brow seems to ask, 'Ready?' and presuming she gets a positive answer, she's going to leap down ontop of the truck, crossbow firing at the nearest figures holding weapons.

Ravager has posed:
Did she hide the body? "Sure" Rose so casually lies to Helena's face while the two move from above. She's more interested in finding a way inside to then eye up the people wandering about inside. Helena brings the finesse (the awe part) but Rose is really more of a sledgehammer.

Knocking one guy out is a nice start but Rose is barely warmed up yet. She hasn't had a good brawl in far too long! Already her knuckles are itching with the promise of some viole--

Is that a puppet?

Is that a puppet who is -smoking a cigar?-

Rose about loses her own smoke as a barely contained snort of laughter threatens to burst forth and give away their positions. "You MUST be joking. Is this some sort of test?" she presses Huntress, clearly not believing any of this even through her mask. "Just look at that little dude! He's bossin' so hard. Heh. Whatever, bombs away."

Oh that damn little Bat--she went straight for the truck! Ravager doesn't have any fancy way to control her descent so she eyes up a pair of mooks moving a crate toward the truck and chooses THAT as her crash landing spot. It's probably going to be a mess but messy is far more her speed.

Ventriloquist (Wesker) has posed:
Everything is quiet...

Then Huntress drops from the sky ontop of the truck and shoots her crossbow at the nearest figures holding weapons and they go down relativly quick in the surprise attack! This causes the men holding a crate to drop them and start fumbling for thier weapons when the men next to them get clobbered from the sky by Rose. This is now a problem and everything's still silent for a moment until Scarface mutters. "WELL WHAT ARE YOUSE ALL WAITING FOR, SHOOT 'DEM DERE GIRLS!" he says, pointing an arm as Arnold Wesker makes him raise it.

Indeed, the figures in the back start shooting thier side arms while one gets on his tommy gun and starts shooting as the shootout beings. The commotion starting to bring the patrols inside, to find out what in the sam hell is now going on.

Boxes fall over in the commotion, causing guns in racks to clatter to the ground-- not the classic ones that the mafia crew here is hauling, but expensive looking, dangerous looking, very modern ones, no doubt worth a ton on the black market.

Huntress has posed:
Is this a test? "Of course," Helena answers Rose in her best, /duh/ voice, the mask hiding a lot of the subtle nuance that comes with the answer. "He, however, is real. Tried to rob the Third Gotham bank a few weeks back." Once you meet the Condiment King and he spills some sauce on you, every other villain just gets compared to how less awful than that they are in terms of interaction.

"Wow, RUDE," comes Huntress' response to Wesker declaring they should be shot. Landing on the truck is a Boss move. Of course it means she becomes an immediate easy target, which isn't that surprising, and she's already diving off the truck. She'll try at least one shot in Wesker's direction, though it's more to try and keep the pupp- the guy distracted more than anything, given she aims for the cigar. Spit fire, take fire.

Landing on the ground, another near-silent /thwack/ of her crossbow rings out as she's moving. She's not adverse to going hand to hand, but she prefers to keep her distance, especially when she sights those modern guns with a hiss. Be real bad if one of the goons picked one of those up. Sure, her armor is bullet resistant, but that doesn't mean bullet /proof/. She focuses her fire on anyone near enough to the boxes who looks like they might be tempted, sparing a second's glance towards Rose with a grin.

Ravager has posed:
Aaah, now THIS is more like it! Mayhem in a warehouse, a bullet grinder as so many Thompsons light up at the two women in the center. Huntress probably has some decent armor but Ravager's isn't specifically rated against bullets and she's not one to play defensively. There's gonna be some mutual hurt.

One of the SMGs gets cleaved in half by the swipe of a sword, its owner quickly catching a foot square in the chest a brief moment after. A twist and handspring later leaves another mook being boldly yeeted across the warehouse toward a third.

When the first handful of bullets find the girl and twist her about with a hiss she -glares- at the poor mook who's just trying to do his best job here. In response she grabs one of those entirely fancy modern looking guns from the busted crate and flings it toward him. Even if he catches it's going fast enough to hurt!

She's genuinely trying to not get her stabby murder on here but she's not exactly holding any punches either. To Helena's grin Rose barks out a laugh, diving alongside the truck for cover against Yet More Bullets. Thompsons are the gifts which keep on giving.

Ventriloquist (Wesker) has posed:
"Mister Scarface! We better go...!" says Arnold Wesker, trying to pull his arm, but failing too, as if fighting the puppet who's staying right there. "I AIN'T AFRAID OF NO SHOOTOUT!" says Scarface, as the puppet pulls up his own thompson and starts firing widly into the fray of bullets.

As mooks get shot by crossbow bolts and thrown across the warehouse, all hell is now loose as bullets are flying back. Huntress moves to the ground which makes her a harder target. Luckily, the mafia members aren't dumb enough to shoot their own, which is stifling the firefight some.

As one of the weapons flies across the room and smacks the mook in the head, another mook gets the bright idea to take one out and load it, and starts firing the more powerful, probably armor piercing weapon across the way as he drops his precious thompson to the side for a moment onto the ground with a clatter.

"GET THEM!" yells Scarface. "Oh my..." says Arnold Wesker, who adjusts his collar nervously. "Sir, your blood pressure!"

Huntress has posed:
There's no real attempt by Helena to hide the fact that she enjoys the violence... maybe as much as Rose does. In that they have similarities, so by no means is the Huntress a good role model for entry into the Birds of Prey. Particularly since she herself is rather... flexible... on the whole killing thing. She usually saves that for the Cosa Nostra and worse criminals though. Some guys carting around weapons? Not so much.

The Huntress takes the time to line up the perfect shot on Wesker when there's a break down on the floor, knee resting against the floor. She squeezes the trigger... just as a bullet slams into her side, her aim going wide as her finger jerks on the trigger. She slumps sideways, breathing hard, reaching... no blood, but damn, that hurts. The crossbow gets aimed at the goon in question, and she unloads right into his chest. One could survive such a thing, maybe. As long as they don't move too much.

Struggling back to her feet, breathing hard, she spots the figure whose taken up the proper weapon with a widening of eyes. They had to get at least /one/ intelligent guy. "Watch out!" she lets off an abortive warning as she dives behind the truck, bullets plinking off the surface as she and rolls underneath it. She waits, watches -- and when she gets a clean shot, fires at the guy's ankles. Even if it doesn't take him down, it'll leave him distracted enough that Rose can get close.

Ravager has posed:
The cargo truck makes decent cover..until it doesn't. A mook wised up and upgraded his arsenal which results in a string of bullets passing straight through the truck, narrowly missing Rose!

Wait, why is she taking cover again? The fight's out there.

And Huntress is back here beside her. "Find your own cover!" she teases (probably teasing) as Helena gets creative with firing at the guy's ankle from under the truck. It's a good enough excuse for the white-haired girl to lunge across the front of the truck and dive-bomb the same guy while he's dealing with a crossbow bolt. If he doesn't let go of that gun real soon he's going to have some broken bones. It costs her another shot or two to a calf and through the scales there's signs of bleeding but her healing factor's holding its own so far.

Once the assault rifle guy's been dealt with? Rose wants to turn the barrel toward the catwalk and give the adorable Scarface some return fire. Who knows how a puppet is firing an automatic weapon! However it works she's pretty sure she caught a few of his rounds.

Ventriloquist (Wesker) has posed:
Scarface and Arnold Wesker get shot at. One of the bullets smacks Scarface in the chest, causing a large block of wood to explode out backwards from the puppet. "GOYS, I'VE GEEN HIT! GET THESE GALS OUTTA HERE!" he yells as Arnold Wesker finally gets Scarface to backwards into the dark and into an office door. Arnold Wesker and Scarface dissapear from the battle, for now at least, as the mooks continue their attack.

The one that was smoking the assault rifle gets downed with a shot to the ankle and Rose dive bombs the guy.

With Scarface gone, (and his strange charisma.) the mooks are floundering a little and some escape out the back door- as one of the good guys has the better gun suddenly.

Some are making for the truck to try to start it and get the truck moving with what's loaded already if they can't get it all. It looks like a retreat in half at least, as mooks are still firing thier guns at the group, though there's less and less of them as many are downed, out cold, or dealing with bleeding from being shot with crossbows- it's not nearly a bullet hell as it was earlier.

Huntress has posed:
"Sharing is caring," Huntress says breathlessly in response to Rose. "Also, try to stop getting shot." There's a super useful tip! And probably more sage if she hadn't just been hit herself, though granted her armor is much more protective than Rose's. The other woman still seems more than spry though, so Helena's going to roll free of the truck, leaping to her feet to shoot down the last goons while Rose fires at Scarface.

The Italian hears the truck rumble to life and tosses a glance towards it. She's too far to catch it without possibly catching stray bullets in the process, so she mounts a different bolt onto the crossbow and fires it at the back of the truck. The tracking won't last for moer than twenty four hours, but then, the contents will certainly be gone well before then if they can't catch up.

"That puppet is real annoying," she breathes, as one of the mooks closes in on her, slamming a fist towards her face. She deflects the blow, barely, with her arm -- that'll leave a bruise -- and straight up knees into his groin. Yeah, she doesn't play fair. She was taught how to fight by assassins, brutal, quick and efficient, not artful or fair in any way. "Gonna call the GCPD, get them to claim this haul before anyone else does." Which means they're going to have to clean up the remaining goons real quick. Thanks to Oracle, the call can go through anonymously, as the Huntress spends her bolts generously on anyone daring to fire towards her or Rose. She doesn't try to stop those escaping out the back. Smart play.

Ravager has posed:
'Try to stop getting shot.'

"You're not the boss of me."

There may be time later to work out what Rose is witnessing with Scarface. It boggles the mind! If not for Huntress being involved she might wonder if it's a serum-induced hallucination. Still, there's something satisfying about a puppet yelling out it's been hit. Hard to put a finger on it!

Mook Leadership makes its (His? Their?) exit and the mooks left behind seem to lose some of their focus..though not all of them. There's still a functional truck which still has a fair bit of goods in the back. Ravager's first inclination is to fire off the remaining rifle rounds into the engine but most of its ammo has already been used up. Darnit! Plan B is to run right after the truck, she could easily beat it off the line in a drag race...

Before she can reach it another string of SMG fire catches the girl and sends her down, momentum carrying her across the floor in a seething cursing tumble. Helena still tags the truck so it's not a total loss, -and- she smacks the shooter with another bolt. Serves him right.

When the white-haired scrapper pulls herself upright and draws both swords it becomes a dare for anyone to try doing that twice. "Last chance to leave with all your pieces intact!" yells the bloodied former mercenary.

Ventriloquist (Wesker) has posed:
The truck starts and with a slam of it's doors escapes with a nearly fatal fishtail out of the way and speeds off, tracker intact as it gets away with it's incomplete load of cargo. Scarface is going to throw a little puppet fit later and insist he's surrounded by scrubs.

Not one of you will see that though (sadly...?) as mooks are making the right choices to escape and run away while the running's good as Rose yells out her dare- choosing to leave with all their pieces intact, as they scatter into the neighborhood outside. Looking perhaps, to just get back to home base or scatter to their favorite watering holes immediately for a 'I survived a job' stiff drink before seeking actual safety.

The warehouse falls quiet. Well. 'Quiet' is filled with the groaning of downed mooks. None of who are jonesing to get up to fight again right now, or unable to.

Huntress has posed:
Rose's threat is a good one! It might also be helped by the fact that the Huntress laughs, like this is fun and a good time and she definitely wants to make their lives way more painful. It's not Batman-levels of intimidating, but after the chaos the two have caused it's sure to send some of them fleeing.

"All right, this is just ridiculous." Huntress glares towards Rose. "If this is your way of trying to get the awesome armor, it's... kind of working." She'll take the time to reload the crossbow with several bolts before she reaches out with her left hand to give the other woman a little nudge to see just how stable she is on her own two feet. She's not a monster though, she'll offer a shoulder if needed.

"Let's plug your holes enough to get after that truck." Sadly, by the time they do that, the truck will be empty, AND they would've missed the fit. Huntress definitely would've enjoyed it.

Ravager has posed:
Ravager..might be a little upset no one's taking her up on her offer but she lets the feeling mooks flee. She got through the entire ambush without killing a single person! Although the way Huntress had been acting she's starting to feel like she had missed a golden opportunity to get more violent.

"You..." she lightly waggles the tip of a sword in Huntress' direction, "...aren't so bad." Bonus if it means Rose gets some better armor out of the deal but SO FAR she's looking stable enough.

She still puts the swords away before an unexpected fall leads to teammate impaleage. That'd just be embarrassing.

"Just get my butt to the nearest bar, I'll be fine. If this is what the Birds are like I might just stick around a while."