15614/Claws in Gotham Nights

Claws in Gotham Nights
Date of Scene:	20 September 2023
Location:	China Basin, Old Gotham
Synopsis:	Robin encounters Laura Kinney about to look for some trouble. They end it together and decide to get to know each other better.
Cast of Characters:	X-23, Robin (Wayne)

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X-23 has posed:
Laura doesn't make messes around New York, not unless she has to, not anymore. She doesn't want any blowback coming on the X-crew because she needed to beat some recreational asses and went a little too far. She's trying to get less blood on her hands, but they just seem to crave it sometimes.

She's been wrestling her demons enough that she feels the need to indulge. So here she is, in a bad neighborhood in Gotham City. The kind of place where a young woman like her should normally stay very, very far away. She's wearing a pair of black tights and a light jacket over a t-shirt, her dark hair falling a bit in her face, arms wrapped around herself, huddled like she's come from a nightclub or had a fight with a boyfriend, a tear in her tights on the knee like she's fallen. Sneakers, so she can run, for all the good it'd do her.

She can smell them, hear them, even as they hide in the shadows. Maybe ten in the gang, pent up young men looking for violence and money and sex. They figure they can get all three with her. Well...one out of three won't be bad. She feels her heartbeat start to race and a grin on her face is hidden underneath that hair. C'mon, c'mon, she's a perfect little victim, come and get it...

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
This isn't New York City.

This is Gotham.

There are different demons that stalk the night, ones that defy all sanity and reason. But thankfully, it's not a night that's unwatched. Laura may be looking for a fight and in some ways?

Damian was too.

Dressed in black and red, Robin jumps across rooftops silent as the grave. His footfalls make extremely little or practically no sound at all. The League trained him well and Batman even more so. A hood covers his head while a cloak covers the rest of him similar to Batman's own style.

The shadows *listen*.

But the gang gets ready to pounce, Robin is perched. He doesn't interfere yet. She's...too ready.

Eother this is a game or she's hungry for violence.

Both.

X-23 has posed:
They rush in a crowd, not like in the movies, one on one, black ninja style. These are hoods in cheap clothes from the Goodwill store, hungry and lean, survivors and predators in one of the worst urban jungles. They live in the Batman's territory and so they know they are hunted. Thugs in Gotham are a different breed, tougher, wilder, meaner.

Just what Laura wants.

When they get close enough, she starts to lash out rapidly. She grabs one by the hand when he does the same to her and drives her forehead into his, breaking his nose. She keeps her claws in check at first, just to test her hand to hand, just to make it a little bit harder. With the claws, it'll go too quickly and she'll end up soaked in blood. Which is probably inevitable anyway. But not yet.

She's too distracted by all the close bodies and attackers for her senses to catch Damian's stealthy presence. Too busy driving an elbow into a sternum. Too busy snapping an elbow. Too busy putting her teeth in a man's throat and tearing open skin. They're piling on, bearing her down, though, sheer numbers making it tough. Well. Only for a moment.

SNIKT.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
NOW he's going to get involved.

Numerous pellets hit the ground and roll about, scattering between everyone, including Laura. Suddenly, they expel a thick smoke into the air, enough to fill the lungs and cause discomfort in the eyes.

Immediately after, Robin leaps into the air, spreading his cape wide to appear the shape of a bat while he was in the air, the yellow from his cape visible as well as the red 'R' on his chest over his heart.

He descends and kicks a goon in the head, an elbow struck into the larynx of another. A sword flashes into life as it's pulled from a sheathe, a long katana as his weapon swings for Laura's claws the first swing she takes, attempting to keep her from cutting a throat out.

"No killing."

X-23 has posed:
Laura Kinney pulls her claws up just short of the katana, baring canines for a moment, "No fun interfering," she spits. "You're lucky that's a nice sword. I didn't want to break it."

The thugs are coughing and still trying to lash out as they find a second assailant among them, "Take 'em down!" they yell, trying to barge in.

"Fine. Have it your way," Laura says sullenly as she drops low, her slashing claws taking out a few achilles tendons to the screaming horror of the recipients. She ducks low, rolling low to the ground to get some distance between herself and Damian, making two targets for the punks to work against. She throws a backfist, blood splattering from a split lip as a few teeth get knocked loose by her blow.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
No fun at all. "Remember what city you're in." Robin tells Laura, not afraid to bear his teeth right back at her. He was not afraid of the spawn of Wolverine, so much so that he saw fit to stand ground.

But alas, they can settle this matter once these goons are finished. Her agreement is satisfactory.

Damian leaps into the fray, sword moving into reverse hand as he focuses on pressure points and breaking bones. A foot cones sharply at an angle to snapped a knee, then he catches a fist and lifts his knee into the underside of the elbow to break that two.

Another is coming up behind Laura and he throws a birdarang - a blunt shuriken - that smashes into the large man's forehead enough to stun him!

Thugs. No training. All brutish mentality.

Easy pickings.

X-23 has posed:
Laura Kinney doesn't mind easy pickings. She's in the mood to inflict pain. Damian's a little downer in that regard.

"Not everybody worships the Bat,' she snarls, bringing her head forward in a fresh headbutt that splits one thug's brow open, blood pouring out over his face as he stumbles away.

Still, between the two, they don't last long, Even holding back, Laura is a savage distillation of violence, a feral thing that sweeps them aside. Damian's skills, of course, go without saying.

Soon, the two are left surrounded by a few unconscious predators, the rest fleeing desperately. Laura has no interest in chasing them.

"Pathetic," she mumbles, kicking one while he's down.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
"We don't care for your worship. Our city, our rules. Don't like it? Go back to New York." Damian is well aware of certain highly dangerous individuals with the help of information that Batman had collected. The Batcomputer's dossiers are...

Extensive.

...and New York was an educated guess. Few people are brave enough to walk Gotham's streets at night. Most of them are New Yorkers.

But soon enough they finish these clowns off and a few of them straight up flee from the pair.

Robin narrows his eyes and turns to watch Laura finish kicking a poor soul while he's down. "GCPD will come and put them into custody." Robin kneels down and puts magnetic locks around the wrists and feet, going to each criminal one by one.

"Mutant or metahuman?" Damian asks her without looking at her, keeping to his work.

X-23 has posed:
Laura Kinney snorts, "Mutant," she says. "Not that it's any of your business." It also isn't quite as simple as that, but she's not about to get into her extensive and complex biography right in the middle of a back alley and certainly not with someone she just met.

"You can't own a city," she says. "Millions of people live here. If you call this living."

She pulls her hair out of her face, drawing it back and tying it into a ponytail. Her jacket is damaged and she tugs it off, leaving her in a wifebeater and jeans. Her knuckles are bloodied but, as Damian can see, the wounds have already started to heal.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
"Hnnh."

She's right of course, it's none of his business. "It isn't until you come to Gotham with the intent to kill people to express some pent up violence. Then it's my problem. I've experienced much the same." Kindred spirits? Maybe, except Damian doesn't have superpowers.

He does notice her bloody knuckles and how quickly her wounds heal.

'metal claws, material unknown. Healing factor, speed efficient, capability unknown.' His thoughts immediately retaining information. She has a powerful form and he's seen her fight. She's dangerous.

Very dangerous.

"We don't. We protect it. It's not perfect, but do you see Superman coming down here?"

X-23 has posed:
Laura Kinney snorts, "Probably because he doesn't think it's worth saving."

She crosses her arms over her chest, her brown eyes intense as she gazes at the costumed youth. She has a hard time gauging age - she, after all, isn't really her age, the age she appears or the age in her mind. What can she say about anybody else? But he smells and sounds young and he can certainly handle himself well.

She doesn't confirm New York, but she does say. "I have...friends back home who could be hurt if I lost control. Nobody knows me here. Here I don't matter to anyone. If I die in the gutter no one will notice."

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
"No one does, except those of us who live here. Doesn't make them any less worth saving - a lesson I learned the hard way." Robin gives some insight into his 'nature'. Similarly to Laura, Damian was raised to be a killing machine.

Only the efforts of Batman changed his way.

Otherwise, Robin seems roughly her age. Maybe a tad older or a tad younger. The hood and mask make it difficult to ascertain.

"I'll notice." Robin tells her. "Then I'd have to find out the how and the why....and eventually? Yiur friends would be hurt when they found out what happened to you. Life is precious. Even yours." Damian finishes cuffing the last goon and when he starts to stir, Robin kicks him /hard/ in the face.

His cape enshrouds him then, similar to his mentor as he turns to face Laura. "I admire your boldness."

X-23 has posed:
Laura Kinney feels a flash of guilt as Damian points out that someone might care about her. She doesn't want people to care about her. But she also isn't sure she could live without it. Pain either way.

"Well, lucky I didn't die then. Saved you some work."

She cracks the bones in her neck for a moment, gripping her chin and the top of her head, then lifts her nose to the air and inhales, "I smell cheeseburgers. Must be a restaurant nearby. I'm starving," she says.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
"And others some pain."

Robin remarks with a serious look on his face. Yet, she suggests that cheeseburgers are nearby. "There are several food chains nearby. Some of them higher end, others are 'fast' food and burger joints." After a moment, Robin looks at her and brings two fingers to his ear. "Anything?" If Laura's hearing is as on point as Robin might believe it is, she'll just hear static on the other side.

"Would you like company?"

Because something tells him she could use someone to talk to and Batman has told him in the past he needs to get out and...be social? Does that count as Robin?

Ugh.

X-23 has posed:
Laura Kinney had already started to walk away and finds herself surprised by the question. She doesn't look back over her shoulder, just standing still.

"Depends. Are you coming to get to know me...or are you coming to make sure I leave town? I don't need a babysitter," she says. "And just so you know, I can tell if you lie."

Well. Sometimes she could. It was more complicated than that, but she could guess pretty well. Regardless, doesn't hurt to say so.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
She's thinking about it.

Good sign?

Yet, Robin stands perfectly still. He's not moving either, not taking any assumptions and not trying to get too close to her to make any implications either. She asks if he wants to get to know her or keep an eye on her. "The former." He's not lying. Some part of him /wants/ her to leave Gotham City because it could be safer for both her and the residents therein, but the other part of him?

He won't deny an attraction, a like-mindedness between the pair of them.

"What do /you/ want. I will force nothing on you."

X-23 has posed:
Laura Kinney lingers for a moment and then nods, "Fine. Come on, then. You're paying."

She'll head on down the alley, following her nose and expecting that the young hero will catch up...