15448/Last Man Standing

Last Man Standing
Date of Scene:	09 August 2023
Location:	Streets of Gotham
Synopsis:	The Five Families have declared war on the Red Hood, who willingly springs their trap.
Cast of Characters:	Huntress, Red Hood

---

Huntress has posed:
EARLIER:
"So we are agreed. The Red Hood has declared war on us. So we must declare war on him." Santo Cassamento, Don of the Cassamento family and current leader of the Five Families, claps his hands together.

Everyone stands and shakes hands, pleased.

Only one figure isn't, Helena Bertinelli's dark features furious. Her consigliere leans forward to murmur to her: "Not here."

There is silence between them until they reach the car. "Orders?" Helena's looking out at the dark night of Gotham, knowing it's going to be a long night. She sighs. "You hurt one of the Bats, they all come for you. It is a lesson Santo ignores, because he is greedy. Because he thinks he can-"

-blackmail Helena, hold her in the palm of his hand, /control her/-

"-see the outcome. I see the bloodshed. We will weather this. I will not let it destroy us." Helena looks down at her phone. His name is saved under 'Dave'. There's been no messages between them since her invitation to dinner, weeks ago. She starts to type: /Please. Leave. It's not safe./ Her finger hovers over sending, then she deletes it.

He won't listen to her right now, and she knows it. Instead, she sends just a simple sentence: /They're coming for you./

NOW:
Rumor in the Gotham underworld spreads like wildfire. A meeting of the major representatives of the Five Families of the Nosa Costra? What self-respecting vigilante could resist the chance of a target rich environment, even if they might suspect it was a trap?

Those in the Bat-family, after all, excel at escaping from traps -- after triggering them on purpose, of course.

The location is a mid rise building, the outside fairly bristling with soldiers of the Cosa Nostra. Red Hood recognizes several major players from the Inzerillo and Beretti family. No surprise there's not as many Galante after his efforts of the last few nights. There are Cassamento soldiers present, also, but no Bertinelli ones.

But there are always gaps to be taken advantage of. Scouting the building from further away will let the Red Hood determine the meeting itself appears to be held on the fifth floor. Though they're astute enough to close the curtains one of his drones can hear them arguing over numbers -- numbers of men to put into a joint venture. It sounds like an argument that's been going for a while.

There's a slightly higher building he could potentially zipline from to the roof, which while it does have a couple of figures, doesn't appear to be a considered a potential vector of attack.

Red Hood has posed:
Listening is a virtue in short supply right about now and it cuts both ways.

Once Red Hood left the Velvet Club, he went to one of his own alternate safe houses. The last thing he needs is Huntress showing up. Or any of the mob finding his place under the church.

There he began preparing. He knew what he was getting into. He knew what his most recent visit would be seen as. He knew what was coming.

The message eventually chimes while he was taking inventory of his tech and weapons. It wasn't going to be pretty. But one way or the other this was going to come to an end.

Looking at the message, he forces himself to wait. Forces her to wait. Five minutes. Then he responds.

/Good./

That isn't probably the answer that was preferred but it surely isn't any less than could have been expected.

/Stay out of my way./

That might have been unexpected.

Now: He stood atop a highrise several blocks farther away and watched. Counted and marked the guards, forming a mental image of lines of fire and blind spots. He was well armed and he was walking into a trap.

That's the thing about traps. It also lets you know that everyone around you is a target.

Transitioning to the taller building near the target location takes a moment. Someday he needs to invent a glider.

Landing on the opposite side of the building's roof, he disappears into shadows and scans for guards.

Huntress has posed:
None of the Red Hood's many sensors indicate anyone comes for the Church. Not even Helena.

She knows where to find him. He knows where to find her. Helena isn't about to push on that. There's too much in the balance right now. Truthfully, she doesn't expect a response it all, so when it chimes up with 'Dave', her heart skips a beat. She reads.

Helena doesn't want to admit it, but it hurts to see it anyway. "Stop the car," she tells her companion. "And give me your gun."

Her consigliere slows, but stares at her. "Helena-"

"There are contingencies in place. Lock everything down, keep those teams in the places I specified." She holds out her hand, and this time the man yields and gives her the gun. "Go," Helena says, as she shuts the door.

Nighttime in Gotham isn't a great place to be alone, unmasked. But at least she's not armed, even if it's not her preferred weapon.

Up on the rooftop, Red Hood locates the two guards. They're lounging near the stairwell door leading into the building, one of them smoking. They look pretty relaxed, assault rifles hanging loosely down, neither of them aware of the danger as the Red Hood joins them on the rooftop. There's only a single camera out here, pointing at the door.

Red Hood has posed:
Red Hood studies the situation and remains where he is for the moment. Deplying one of his drones over the side of the building, he steers it around to the target building across the street. The seemingly obvious room being the target of the drone's surveiling primarily of audio but the video is still sending, just the closed blinds.

Then he goes into motion. His pistols have been fitted out with silencers this time. There will be a time and place to go loud. Just not yet.

Drawing his guns he fires twice at each guard. The rounds strike their chests with muted thuds.

There was a time a week ago where he would have shot to kill. Where he did shoot to kill. He'd lost himself. Angry and confused.

Then. He decided his fate for himself.

The time to get angry was over for now. It was time to get even. If Helena Bertinelli is going to 'go bad' or sell going bad to those on the outside, he is going to sell his one man war. The sooner this all ends, the better it will be for everyone.

But choosing not to kill is sure going to make this a lot more difficult.

Huntress has posed:
The two guards go down, twitching -- unconscious, but still breathing. The worst they'll have when they wake up is a sore chest and head, which, given they unknowingly faced Red Hood, could have been a lot worse.

In the building opposite, he can see more figures on the rooftop. There's a pair actively patrolling while a couple more stand near the center. He can time his approach, but there's a decent chance he might be seen unless he's very quick about it.

"..already lost a lot of men down at that warehouse. I'd already paid in blood, and now you want to put my back to the wall and squeeze my balls?"

"Better me than the Red Hood." There's some laughter, the ribbing of one proud Don to another. "I expect you to send fifty men. I don't care if they're kids on the street you stuff a gun into the hand of and promise them the world. The only way to deal with these vigilantes is with overwhelming force. Let them know if they come at any of us again, they'll get the full force."

So things are going well it seems. Who would've thought the way to bring the mafioso together was to paint them a common enemy.

Red Hood has posed:
Red Hood doesn't take the time to reflect on the degree of trouble he is stirring up. Being stubborn and cavalier about being a target isn't the best of combinations.

After disabling the camera and the two guard's weapons, he does study for patterns of those guards on patrol. This is where the lack of a cape is a hassle. But never let it be said that Red Hood copies trending fashion. Even unto personal detriment.

Pulling a grapple line, he waits for the guards to pass again and then fires it off. Once secured he clips then steps off the edge of the rooftop, quickly sliding across. As the guards come back around, he is ready, both guns draw and he fires at each when they are within range.

Huntress has posed:
Red Hood will notice there's rain in the air as he crosses silently over the streets of Gotham and over to the other building. Not raining quite yet, but it will be soon. He's still mid-air when he shoots at those two guards and they go down with no time to react. One causes a slight clatter as his rifle hits the ground, bringing the attention of the two remaining guards.

They're already swinging their rifles around, alert, looking for the source.

One starts to lift a radio to his lips just as his companion notices Red Hood and swings his rifle up to fire.

Red Hood has posed:
It can't be helped.

Batman would say it wasn't properly planned for. He would probably be right.

Red Hood just keeps firing as he lands on the building's roof. The one with the radio is aimed at first, three rounds sent his way before sending three more toward his companion. Holstering one gun long enough to unclip from the cable, Red Hood prepares for the warmest of welcomes the Five Families most certainly have in store for him.

Huntress has posed:
The guard with the radio gets as far as depressing it before the first round lands and his fingers reflexively let go of the radio; it hits the ground a second before he does, and several seconds after that his companion joins him in a dirt nap. Though the line was open for a second, it doesn't seem to have triggered any response.

There's another camera on the roof he lands on, but he barely needs to pause to take it out.

Down one one flight of stairs takes him to a block of offices. There are two obvious ways down -- the pair of elevators at the center of the building, or an internal stairwell. The space is dark and a scout will quickly confirm he's the only one present on this top floor.

Red Hood has posed:
Assuming they didn't hear anything, or didn't think anything of a mic being cued without a message is foolhardy. He may be reckless but he isn't going to take it forgranted that the rest of the security or the Family heads are oblvious still. He wouldn't be.

After disabling the camera, he moves to pick up the radio and checks the frequency so he can tap into their comms.

Going down the floors is going to get messy and complicated quickly. Reloading his guns, he calls the elevator and then waits. When it arrives, he is not in line of sight and then steps around to clear the car. He doesn't intend to use it. Instead he enters and hits the All-Stop button long enough to place a smartphone sized device on the back wall. Activating it, he steps back and disengages the stop button. Then he proceeds to press every floor button down to ground level and steps out to let the elevator start on its journey.

Anyone who checks the elevator for a passenger is going to get a violent shock when they try to confirm the car is clear.

Moving to the stairs, Red Hood pulls a small stun trap and presses it inside the doorframe to cover his back. Then he begins to silently descent the fire stairs, guns aimed low and ready.

Huntress has posed:
The ninth floor yields nothing for the elevator. The eighth though nets two downed figures and the seventh two more. One of the figures there falls forward and into the elevator, stopping the doors from closing, they they attempt to close, catch on his unconscious body, and open again. He's going to be very, very bruised whenever he wakes up.

On the comms, Red Hood can start to hear reports that he's in the building, though they seem confused about which floor. "8th!" "No, he was on the 7th, took out two of my guys-"

Meanwhile, he descends down the stairs. The first resistance comes just above the seventh floor; a trio quietly climbing the staircase, and he'll readily get the drop on the first, though the third manages to get off a burst of upward fire that rattles loudly in the enclosed space and sets off chatter on the radio. He can hear feet pounding up the stairs from below, now -- but they're wary enough to set up in position rather than charge up after him.

Behind him, he hears a solid noise as one of his charges against the doors he's past goes off -- undoubtedly sending several more figures into unconsciousness.

Red Hood has posed:
Red Hood listens with grim satisfaction as the comms indicate his elevator ruse worked for a few floors probably. More than he could have expected.

As contact is made with the first team climbing the stairs, he waits until the last moment before opening fire. Still, he can't stop the third one before his burst of fire erupts with the amplified sound from the enclosed space.

Hearing the stun trap above, he keeps a mental note that it went off. As he pauses over the three unconscious men, he pauses to disarm them and set another trap for anyone coming along to try and revive the trio.

Hearing the ambush setting up a floor lower, he tosses down a flashbang. As it explodes, he ducks into the seventh floor. Slapping another motion trap on the door frame as he scans the hallway, preparing for resistence.

Huntress has posed:
The flashbang goes off and the planned ambush below descends into a chaos of cries of agony. Jason slips into the seventh floor, just in where he can see across the far hall the results of his work, the elevator still opening and closing on the shoulders of one of the downed soldiers.

They, however, were not the only two on the floor.

Given the radio chatter it's probably not a surprise they were making their way towards the stairs, the four figures caught by surprise when Jason appears. The two at the front simply raise their assault rifles and begin firing, while the two behind, a little more wary perhaps, duck into the cover of nearby doorways before they too, add fire.

There are doors to either side Jason can take cover in, though that still leaves him temporarily exposed.

Red Hood has posed:
Red Hood expected no less than aggressive response once they knew he was here. He stares the four men down for a half second before leaping into doorway on his left. The hail of bullets leave angry holes in the fire door where he had just been standing.

Landing hard, he looks down and confirms one bullet hit his armor but didn't penetrate.

Popping up, he flips off the lights in the room and in the one connecting to it, then he moves through the darkness to reset and gauge the next actions of the guards.

Huntress has posed:
"We've got him pinned down on seventh," one of the men reports over the radio, coming crisp and clear to Jason. They clearly haven't learned that cornering a vigilante is not a win. It's a danger.

Or maybe they are aware, because they don't advance, not immediately. There's silence, and then... he hears a sound.

/Tink!/ Tink-tink-tink.

Red Hood's mask captures the movement even in the dark, the roll of the round object as it enters the room he's in. He's not the only ones with grenades... only this one isn't a flashbang.

Red Hood has posed:
From his position against the outside wall in a corner, he hears the grenade and knows instantly the sound. Reaching up he shoves the office desk over and drops behind it a fraction of a second before the explosion shreds the surface of the desk and blows the windows out.

Countering with a grenade of his own, he throws it right back at the direction of the men. As his grenade rolls toward them, he follows immediately behind it. The flashbang explodes just outside the door and Red Hood trusts his optics to filter the flare of light as he beguns firing back as he dives into a roll and pops up onto a knee in the hallway again.

It wasn't going to be an easy sweep and clean. He didn't expect it to be. But going at this with stun rounds is making it excessively difficult already.

Huntress has posed:
The two men that were in the middle of the hallway had, wisely, retreated further back into cover. It makes hitting all four tricky, but absolutely not impossible for someone of Red Hood's caliber, especially after ther flashbang goes off. One of the men even helpfully falls forward, writhing, while Red Hood steadies to one knee and targets each of them, dropping them before they recover.

Only mere seconds after the flashbang goes off, another explosion happens -- this time behind him, as the stun trap he put on the door goes off. The sound of bodies tumbling down the stairs might register, and then silence descends.

Should he look, he'll find two unconscious figures -- one immediately outside the door, one having tumbled halfway down the stairs.

Red Hood has posed:
Jason Todd unloads into two of the guards and a series of rounds chew up the doorframe where the third man had just been.

When the trap goes off behind him, he moves forward toward that third guard, both guns aimed and ready to fire a grouping of stun rounds into the man before pushing forward. There is little doubt there will be guards coming of the fire stairs. It was time to shake things up again.

Disappearing into another darkened office, he pulls out a device and sprays quickly expanding foam in a circle on the floor.

Knocking over another table, he detonates the explosive, blowing an opening into an office on the sixth floor below. Even before the dust and smoke settles, he is dropping through the hole.

Huntress has posed:
Even as he's descending, he can hear the pound of feet on the stairs: his exit exceptionally timely.

Down he drops... right into hell. It looks like the room he lands in was being used as some kind of resting or hangout spot. There's a little less than a dozen men in the space, a lot of them fortunately napping though snapped awake by the explosion.

There's that moment of stunned stillness after he lands. And then everyone goes for weapons.

The two nearest to Red Hood draw wickedly sharp knives and immediately lunge in to close combat. Others are scrambling for their rifles though they'd certainly hit their companions if they were to fire.

"Call it through! Get the door! Lock him in!"

They don't, apparently, know the old adage: Red Hood is not locked in with them. They're locked in with him.

Red Hood has posed:
If it were possible for his mask's lenses to narrow, they would. The aura of predatory danger radiating from the angry vigilante radiates through the room. He immediately shoots out the lights, plunging the room into near darkness but for what light spills in from any connecting rooms.

Even as the two with blades close, he fights back. His guns being used as melee weapons to block the blades.

The thing about stun rounds is that they still, very much, hurt. At point blank range? The rounds will penetrate anything less than full kevlar or composite armor. Most likely with non-fatal results but the amount of blood from the shallow wounds is no less deadly in appearance.

He unloads both clips into the knife fighters and swiftly reloads and keeps to the darkest parts of the room. This is a rare moment where his lenses have stopped glowing outwardly even as he has switched to night vision.

As he fights around the room more bodies pile up in the unconscious category. The sound of bones snapping and muted cries come from the room to assail the ears of anyone in the hall or connecting rooms.

At the end, there is another vicious cracking of bones before a body erupts out the doorway to the connecting room, landing in a slumped motionless heap.

Huntress has posed:
Everything goes dark.

And terror descends in the form of the Red Hood. He is uncompromising, but he aims not to kill -- a thing that, later, these men might remember and wonder at. Or maybe they won't, and just decide that the paycheck isn't worth it.

Several bullets are fired, and some even manage to strike the vigilante -- while others slam into friendlies. It's a frenzy of terror from which only one man escapes when that last body falls.

When he finally steps into that connecting room, Red Hood sees one figure, a bookish older man with glasses, mouth open in fear. "Please- please, don't. I'm just an accountant," he stammers out.

Red Hood has posed:
Walking up to the man Red Hood nods, "Of course you are. That's why you're going to give me everything in the next twenty seconds. Because if you don't and you're still awake when the rest of your boys show up - do you think they're going to believe you that you didn't tell me what I want to know? Your best hope is to be knocked out with the rest of this fools."

A scan of the room while he speaks, making sure they're alone. The door to the break room is closed and trapped. The door to the hallway equally rigged then he looks back to the man. "Fifteen.."

As time ticks down, he reloads his pistols and checks on how much spare ammo he still has.

Huntress has posed:
"I- I don't know-" that denial lasts for maybe ten of the alloted twenty seconds the accountant is given, before he hastily stammers, "Wait, wait! I- I might've overhead them saying it was a trap."

Not really news.

"None of the bosses are down on the fifth floor. It's all being relayed from elsewhere. I don't know where, I swear! All I know is there's a large group waiting to ambush you in that conference room down there."

And like an afterthought: "Oh, and that girl boss too. I don't think she was supposed to be there at all, but no one's willing to tell a Don no. Not even a girl one. She's kind of mean, you know?" As tactics go, eliciting sympathy is probably something the accountant is used to getting him out of scrapes.

He might have misjudged the Red Hood though.

Red Hood has posed:
The blur of an armored glove flashing out to grab the fingers of the man's right hand makes it seem instantaneous. Those fingers begin to slowly bend backward.

"You haven't given me anything worth saving your life. Ten seconds left."

The pressure on those fingers continues to build. "Be awful hard to do accounting when you have to hold your pen in your teeth" comes the dark threat, so very close to being delivered.

Red Hood is only half listening to the man. He's controlling his drone outside. Moving it around to get better views on active threats, he looks back to the man one last time in case he decides to try and save himself. And his fingers.

Huntress has posed:
"I don't know anything else! I swear! Please! I've never hurt anyone." It's a view. It's probably a deluded one. Money goes places, buys things -- drugs, guns, people -- and they certainly kill. But the man is so far removed from that, and he's convinced himself he's not a part of it.

Even under extreme duress. "Please!" All he does is sob.

At first, the drone shows no threats. Then it finally glimpses a pair of figures at the elevator -- arguing in increasingly loud whispers. One seems to be advocating for joining in the fight, "There's like a dozen guys there! He's done for. Don't you want credit?" While the other, slightly smarter guy is like, "Fuck, no. I'm out." And he's heading -- running -- for the stairs, though that'll take him past the door of the office where Red Hood is currently holed up.

Red Hood has posed:
"Time's up, sport." Fingers snap and a stun round greets him in the chest. About that time the panicked gunman is running down the hall.

The door to the office where Red Hood has ended his interrogation erupts off its hinges and out into the hall, slamming into the ineffectively fleeing thug.

Turning back, Red Hood looks for the accountant's phone, taking it. Turning it off, he tucks it into his armor. Seeing a laptop, he opens it and takes out a small USB fob that is small enough to fit flush and be nearly invisible. As the system boots up, the program interrupts the process to root the system, before letting the laptop continue to boot normally. In the background the system connects to any normal Wifi networks it has been joined before in the building, and its entire contents begins to dump itself to a nondescript IP somewhere out in the Dark Web.

Seeing the accounting book? Yeah that's going. It is also tucked inside his armor. Armor which is starting to show signs of damage. In the darkened room he'd taken a few rounds to the chest but continues to ignore the pain.

Wasting no time, Red Hood moves to the other side of the hallway, into the room above the alleged board room now right below him.

Taking the small device out again, he adds a new canister of the foaming explosive and makes three 18" diameter holes on one side of the room before quickly replacing the spent canister and making a similar circle just above where the doorway to the room is. This he fills in completely with the foam. Moving to the opposite side of the room, he makes one final three foot diameter circle and steps away into the corner as he begins to detonate the charges.

The trio of holes happen first. Blasting vertically down and launching debris and concussive force into the room.

A second later the second circle over the doorway detonates and rips a hole larger than its diameter, quickly ruining more rooms in the building.

His last flashbang and a smoke bomb are tossed down the second hole, adding yet more concussive and blinding insult to injury.

Last, he detonates his intended entry point, dropping in. The room is already a mess of drywall dust and the billowing of the smoke bomb. Switched to thermal vision, he moves through the chaos to begin taking down anyone still standing.

He fully expects these men to be up-armored and armed from the cannon fodder already. Not that he expects it to really help them.

Huntress has posed:
As warned, there's groups of men waiting in and around the conference room. When the second hole explodes and drops those two presents along with it, they're prepared for the flashbang -- kind of. Most of them are savvy enough to turn away and press hands over their ears to try and dull the impact of the concussive force when it explodes. Most aren't prepared for the smoke, though, and there's racking coughs as things descend into chaos.

This is what Red Hood lands into. It's a target rich environment. Several go down with barely a protest. By that time, everyone's zero'd in on where he is, and three things happen at once.

Gunfire starts to focus on Red Hood -- or where he was, if he's moving fast enough.

A familiar figure rises from the corner, Helena Bertinelli -- not masked, but wearing merely a business suit -- levels a gun and takes out two of the men about to fire Jason's way.

And a figure moves into Red Hood's vision with impossible quickness, the faint murmur of servo-motors suggesting some enhanced aid behind his armor, before he launches a fist at the Red Hood's head.

The man hits like truck.

The punch is solid enough that it shorts out one eye of Hood's mask, giving him thermal vision out of only one eye. That, or there's blood covering his eye. Either way, not a good start.

Red Hood has posed:
Moving through the first four still standing bodies. He won't shoot to kill - but that doesn't mean he is above using mafia gunmen as shields against their own guns. If they kill their own guys that's on them.

The powered armor wasn't expected. The mob doesn't usually run this way. But clearly he's getting to them and they're looking for viable solutions.

The blow to his mask knocks him onto his ass. In addition to the right optic going out, reason TBD later, he shakes his head to clear the cobwebs because, damn.

No time to stay down, Red Hood pulls his guns and rolls to the side to get clear of the armored gunman's direct attacks. Any more hits like that are going to be exceptionally bad.

Huntress has posed:
Helena has no mask. Her eyes are watering fiercely, but she doesn't stop. She strides over to one of the downed soldiers, claims his assault rifle, and lifts it. This is dangerous and reckless for so many reasons -- chief among them, if only one person leaves this room alive having seen Helena turn the gun on her fellow mafioso, she's done for. Not even the powers that be in Sicily would protect her.

Omerta is a code of silence, but it isn't /merely/ that.

/Blood cries for blood./

/If I live, I'll kill you. If I die, I forgive you./

Helena is not one to forgive. And she doesn't intend to die. She depresses the trigger, spraying bullets out. The unexpected attack from behind catches many of the floundering men by surprise, and they lurch and tumble to the ground.

Meanwhile, the Red Hood has problems of his own. He can only see out of his left eye, a thing the guy in powered armor seems to be aware of, judging by his harsh chuckle. "You are easiest target I have ever had," he rumbles, the thud of his boot barely missing Hood's chest as he rolls out of the way. "Come back here, little man!" the big guy taunts, the whir of the mechanics accompanying him as he takes another shuddering step towards Jason and aims a hit at the dead center of his armor.

Red Hood has posed:
Feeling the heavy weight from that powered stomp, it only confirms what he knows. Don't get hit. Or stomped.

The taser rounds slam into the armor, crackling but seeming to have very little affect. Rolling again and rising to his feet, Red Hood does one of the most reckless things he possibly can.

Charging at the power-armored man, he still has the advantage of quickness and he uses it. He dodges past the man, jumping on his back. His right arm wrapped around the man's neck, his final canister of the explosive foam is used directly on the armor's back plate.

TRying to hang on long enough to empty the canister, he almost succeeds before the gunman finally grabs Red Hood by the right forearm. With a growl of annoyance, he throws the vigilante toward the windows, intending to try and send him plunging to his death. But it's a board room in an office building not a gymnasium. Red Hood bounces mercilessly off the ceiling and then off the window, cracking the glass and a few ribs in the process as he hits the floor again.

Coughing in pain he just now sees Helena as the smoke is beginning to dissipate. He rasps hoarsely, "Duck." Then he detonates the explosives, hoping that it will take out the power source or the wiring for the power armor.

Huntress has posed:
Red Hood is too fast for the man. He reaches downwards, servo-motors whining as he makes a grab -- and misses. Red Hood's on his back and he flails once or twice before managing that throw towards the window. It's surprisingly good workmanship that the window doesn't immediately shatter under the force of that blow.

Jason lands and gets a front row view as Helena -- her mouth fixed in a set, grim line -- is now spraying the rest of the room in withering fire from the assault rifle. The magazine runs dry, and she drops and rolls for to grab a second rifle -- just as gunfire's turned their way. The slight turn of her head suggests she hears Jason, though whether it's his command, or the bullet that slams through her right shoulder that sends her immediately down isn't clear.

Either way, heat and light suddenly rush through the space, seemingly sucking out all the air for a few seconds. The heavy table that formed the centerpiece of the conference room half splinters under the force.

Silence.

And then a heavy thud as the guy in the power armor topples over. There's a few groans around the room, but most of the rest of the occupants appear to be dead or well on their way to it.

Red Hood has posed:
Oblivious passers by and any mob gunmen covering the street below are showered with shards of shattered glass as the windows of the boardroom explode outward.

Up on the fifth floor, Red Hood stands up, his face behind the damaged mask a visage of pain. Definitely some broken ribs.

But anger is a hell of a drug. Walking over to the still power armor-wearing man, Red Hood struggles but succeeds in lifting the man up.

From down on street level, all that can be seen after the explosion is the large form of the power armor wearing man verifying that gravity still works, plunging to the pavement five stories below.

That there won't be witness of anyone turning against the Families seems assured.

Dropping to his knees, Red Hood grunts and takes a moment to catch his breath before standing up, slowly.

Holding only his left pistol, he hugs his ribs gingerly with his right.

A look toward Helena is spared before he silently starts toward the door. He still needs to get out of the building before they send more up-armored gunmen after him.

Huntress has posed:
Undoubtedly the abrupt arrival of the hired thug that was sure to take out Red Hood is going to make several of those soldiers placed down around the base of the building think twice now about taking on the vigilante, so it does have that particular benefit.

The broken window's swirled away the last of the smoke and tear gas, leaving a mass of bodies behind. And one familiar one among them.

Helena doesn't get up. She doesn't even move.

There will be no witnesses to his departure.

Out in the hallway there is silence. If there was intended to be another force here, they've already turned tail and run. Not that it means there won't be resistance -- he can hear boots on the stair well.

Red Hood has posed:
Jason Todd hears the boots and slaps his last motion trap on the wall before turning to move for the elevator banks. Not the ideal exit strategy but the more he moves the more painful his ribs become. It was definitely time to exit.

Slipping into the elevator car, he pulls a key from his belt - a copy of the inspection key that overrides any elevator in the city. Turning it, he presses the lowest level of the building's parking garage and begins an express trip down that won't stop.

As he descends, he turns to recover the stun device from the wall of the elevator and then waits. Deep in the garage levels, one '67 GTO is parked back in a corner. As the elevator doors open to that level, the car starts and drives itself closer, stopping in front of Red Hood's more-slowly moving form. Almost dropping into the seat, he mutters, "Drive. Safe House Three." The car begins moving, quickly working to exit its way out of this rather hostile location. It didn't go as planned. But maybe it'll pay off anyway.