15431/A Bust Up of Mobsters

A Bust Up of Mobsters
Date of Scene:	06 August 2023
Location:	Apartment 1A, Meldoff Building
Synopsis:	The Red Hood crashes a Mafioso gun deal... only everything ends in bloodshed. Both he and Helena walk away, but barely.
Cast of Characters:	Huntress, Red Hood

---

Huntress has posed:
Word had reached Red Hood through the usual channels -- whispers and rumors and some strategically placed electronic surveillance -- of significantly large shipment of weapons being sold by the Galante Family to none other than the Bertinelli Family -- formerly the Panessas.

The deal is taking place in the warehouse district of Gotham, not too far from the docks. While the Five Families have agreements about how they do things that ensures there's no outright hostilities, there's always things that tend to cause tension and flare ups between them, the most recent, perhaps, being Helena Bertinelli's extreme and ruthless takeover of the Panessas.

A group the Galante family had a most beneficial arrangement with, before.

Mafioso are already here, set up as lookouts stationed around the perimeter of the warehouse, in anticipation of the shipment's arrival and the two families' representatives to arrive. Plenty of time for Red Hood to dispatch who he wants and set up a lookout of his own.

Red Hood has posed:
Things have not been great the past few weeks. To those who know him, few though they may be, Jason Todd had been happier over the last few months than he had ever seemed to be. Then, like a light switch, things changed. Not only was the 'old' Jason back, the 'old' Red Hood has come back as well. More violent, more deadly. Taking careless risks.

Tonight? He is on his own. Because there is no one else he can trust to let him work the way he wishes to. He doesn't need another Jiminy Cricket trying to play his conscience tonight.

The meeting is already down one of those look outs. There were no taser rounds, no zip ties used. The lifeless body lays in the shadows behind Red Hood's form high above the warehouse floor. He has tapped into their comm channels and listens in while waiting for everyone to arrive. Then it will be time for him to get down to business.

Huntress has posed:
Not long after he settles in, Jason hears talk burbling over the channel warning of the 'boss on his way', and soon after, a pair of dark SUV's pull up inside the warehouse. Jason recognizes the suited man who has the door opened for him: Vincenzo Galante, a twitchy cousin of the current Galante Don, and Capo in his own right. He checks his watch, nods to his men, and leans against the car to wait.

While everyone's waiting, Jason might observe an interesting thing indeed: one more lookout dispatched, not by him, but by a hard-eyed man in a tailored suit. One who, like Jason, merely takes his high perch, though unlike Jason, brought his own sniper rifle he sights down onto the floor with. He gives a single tap to his comms, a wordless, prearranged signal.

A second spurt over the comms: 'Incoming,' and another pair of SUV's enters and stops. Men boil out, all of them armed for bear, the familiar figure of the Bertinelli consigliere taking stock of the situation before he opens a door, and out steps Helena.

She's wearing a tailored dark blue suit, a dress skirt that touches her knees, and low heels. It isn't that often he's seen her dressed elegantly like this. More often in something expressly causal, or her vigilinante outfit. Without word, Helena walks to meet Galante. "I see you, Vincenzo, but no truck. There was expectation of a truck, and I hate to be disappointed," the Italian woman says, with a hint of too-familiar displeasure.

"There was some complications," Vincenzo says, hastily, hands spreading, apologetically. "I'm afraid we cannot deliver tonight. I am here personally as a good will gesture-"

"You call this good will? I call this an insult." Helena's anger appears genuine. "An intentional one." It is a throwing down of the gauntlet; an insult to a Mafioso boss is no minor infraction. Wars have resulted off such a thing. It's one of those moments where everyone is reaching for, or already touching their weapons in preparation for violence.

Red Hood has posed:
Surprises.

No one likes surprises. Not the mob. Not Helena. Not Red Hood.

Seeing the other lookout taken down, Red Hood makes the logical conclusion that this is part of Helena's contingency plan. She wouldn't show up in such a secluded place without some insurrance.

Too bad she still hasn't filled him in on her plans. For her sake.

It is only a matter of moments before the man who took the other man down.. is taken down by Red Hood and the new comms channel is added into his mask's systems to monitor.

As the scene below begins to go from warm and fuzzy to openly hostile, Red Hood picks up the sniper rifle, checks the rounds in its clip before moving to a better position where he can cover everyone. Except he isn't watching anyone except Helena for the moment.

Huntress has posed:
That sniper goes down without a noise, and Jason adds yet another channel to his group. The rounds in the rifle are armor piercing: no chances are being taken.

"Please, Hel- Don Bertinelli. Understand this was out of our control," Vicente stammers. While some men are given to disrespecting Helena merely for the fact that she's a woman, Vincente is the kind of person that respects authority and recognizes true anger when he sees it. He also very much values his own life, which is undoubtedly why he was chosen to front this bad news.

"And just what is Don Galante going to do to make it up to me?" Helena asks Vicente.

"He- that is, I, am begging your humble forgiveness, and we will throw in an extra case of the rifles."

"One single /case/?"

"Uh... I meant, clearly, an extra crate."

Helena makes a humming noise, appearing to consider. Before she can answer, one of the men that was standing on Galante's side just snorts. "Why are we even negotiating with some dumb femmina? This is an insult."

Helena turns her head just slightly, and behind her, one of her soldiers fires, instantly killing the protesting man. It's a move that could end all the violence and make her position clear, but in this case... does not. "You stupid bi-" guns are drawn from the Galante side, and bullets begin firing between the two groups and things descend into immediate chaos.

Red Hood has posed:
These things just never turn out the way they're imagined to, do they? Some tool just has to speak up and try to wave his dick around to impress the boss. Never works.

As the guns come out, the first one to get dropped is the tool. The second is Vincente. A headshot from the rafters. That might not have been the plan.

The cross hairs move and for a fraction of a second, they line up on Helena's head before two rounds slam into the concrete barely inches in front of her.

Shifting aim, the next armor piercing round goes right through her consigliere's left shoulder before taking out one of her guards behind the man.

The final shot in the clip is fired through the radiator of the SUV Helena arrived in. It may not have the penetration of a .50 caliber, it may not destroy the engine block. But given the puddle quickly forming, the radiator is terminally hit and the around probably did damange deeper into the engine compartment.

Someone is sending a message. If she happens to spare a glance to the darkness of the rafters, a familiar pair of angry red optics are looking back at her. Just before Red Hood drops to the floor and begins unloading decidedly -not- taser rounds on the Galente contingent. Is he helping her or just not targeting her. Yet.

Huntress has posed:
There /were/ plans. Evidenced by Helena's consigliere snapping, "Mario, what are you doing?" over the comms. Mario's sleeping on the job right now though, so it can't be him that puts a round through the man's shoulder.

Helena spins, just as two bullets land at her feet.

She recognizes it as a warning, and she's moving immediately. She grabs the non-injured shoulder of her consigliere and /pushes/, keeping him between her and the shooter. Did she see the eyes? The tension in her posture says /yes/, and her ire when she sees the terminal round he puts into her engine block is real, brimming as she snarls, "Get out of here," pushing her companion ahead of her.

Some of the mafioso are firing on each other. Most are turning to fire into the rafters, recognizing there's a third player up there that's shooting both sides. Still, there's contention:

"We've been told not to engage with vigilantes."
"What?"
"Yeah. Apparently it's bad for business, or some shit."
"Fuck that!" One of the Bertinelli men leans out to fire towards Jason. "This new fucking leadership has to GO."
"Amen, brother."

It's absolute chaos, and in the thick of it, Helena's looking to escape with her skin intact. She's not the only one, others racing for the exit rather than face a trained shooter.

Red Hood has posed:
Helena will have to be sure to thank Talia al Ghul later. One, for bringing him back to Gotham as one of its living. And two, for training him thoroughly as a member of the League of Assassins. Nothing like teaching an already deadly, partially unhinged man how to be one of the most deadly killers in the world - after sending him for a dip in a Lazarus Pit which fucks with the sanest of minds on a good day.

The gun shots are split between sides even as a smoke bomb erupts and conceals the center of the meeting area. A few glimpses of those angry optics can be caught but the flash of muzzles and the bullets flying at both sides are probably the most noteworthy thing. His smart weapons are linked to his mask and he is letting it find targets with the enhanced imaging on each weapon. Little 'id' boxes pop up. Showing him each mob member in a little profile.

Every time one of the guns targets Helena, the 'id' flickers with a red X and moves on to the next target. The only lull is when Red Hood has to eject spent mags and reload. But it is a lyrical process perfectly choreographed to minimize movements and time between shots.

Both sides are taking injuries - and Red Hood has taken at least four rounds to his armor but the large vigilante is still going.

Hell hath no fury..

Huntress has posed:
It's a literal bloodbath, and when the smoke drops? It only gets worse. It's impossible to tell friend from foe.

While Red Hood is working to avoid hitting Helena, others are not so mindful -- and in fact might even be shooting in her direction deliberately. She stumbles for a moment, her hand tightening on her consigliere's shoulder for balance. He starts to turn towards her but she shakes her head, lips pressed together. "Go," she utters again, as they head for the door, the Italian woman visibly limping as they disappear. She wants to look back, but she doesn't, filled with the certainty this is her fault. He refused to kill, before. That he is now can't be a coincidence.

Behind them, bodies are dropping. A spray of bullets carves a path near Jason, more accidental than deliberate, until finally the room falls quiet.

Or almost soon. Everyone left is either dead, dying, or groaning in quiet pain.

Red Hood has posed:
Red Hood takes his share of rounds out of that last wild burst. He has armor, sure. Most of it, however, is focused on his torso. Like Batman, his personally stylized Red Bat logo has the most armoring. A subliminal red flag to lure criminals to aim there, at the Easy Target.

His cargo pants? Yep. Kevlar and other weaves too top secret for even the Specialist of Forces to be using But even that isn't enough for large caliber rounds.

He isn't certain exactly where he's hit as three rounds strike him and spin him around, slamming him hard onto his back.

No time to check, either. He rolls over while reloading and then promptly unloads those very rounds to silence the last of the visible opposition.

In the slowly dissipating smoke, the final melodic 'ting' of bullet casings hitting the concrete and rolling can be heard. There are doubtless a few moans from not-quite-dead-yet bodies througout the warehouse.

Red Hood drags himself upright, teeth grinding behind his mask as he refuses to limp or show injury.

The Mystique is what keeps criminals afraid of Batman.

How much more Red Hood now that he is willing to use deadly force?

Huntress has posed:
Everyone is dead, or gone. So there shouldn't be any noise on the comm channels; shouldn't be the sound of breathing: of a slow breath, inhaled and exhaled, like someone trying and failing to find the right words to speak.

Sixty feet away, at a distance that is growing rapidly wider, Helena's head rests against the side of a window of a car accelerating at speed. Away from the blood bath. Away from him.

What would she say that wouldn't give her away to the injured man beside her, driving the car? There's nothing, really, except:

"That was a fuck up," her tone flat. Annoyed. "That's on me. All of that. All of those deaths."

"It's not," he hears faintly.

"No. I got us into this. And I'll get us out."

The sound of a breath...

...and then static, as the comms go out of range.

Red Hood has posed:
In the warehouse, just before the comms get out of range, the sound of screaming can be heard on the Bertinelli channel at almost the same instant. A survivor trying to bargain for their life.

A gunshot grants the mercy the man was seeking.