20/Moths to a Flame

Moths to a Flame
Date of Scene:	09 April 2017
Location:	Queens, New York City
Synopsis:	Gypsy Moth battles the Slayer Faith and the vigilante Red Hood
Cast of Characters:	Gypsy Moth, Faith Lehane, Red Hood

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Gypsy Moth has posed:
It is Sunday evening in New York. Now below, the city does not sleep. Cars rush and are stopped in traffic, signs glare on the corners. Up above, many of the offices are closed. The Labs of Ace Chemicals host only a few late workers and security gaurds. Outside the closed windows, a fair of silken wings adorn a figure flyings up to land on the ledge of one particular laboratory. Gypsy Moth wouldd be hard to see from the streets below...but others prowling the rooftops may be another matter.

Faith Lehane has posed:
Faith wandered the streets at night. She was told to prowl the streets, instructed that this was her calling in life and that it would lead her where she needed to go. She had to remind herself to listen to these words once spoken to her by the teacher that was now gone from her life.

With hands stuffed into the pockets of her black half-trench leather jacket she walked at a casual pace down a dark and dirty sidewalk, her brown hair was loose about her head and gently swaying about her face as she walked along minding her own business.

She spied two men standing outside of a apartment complex and they called her over for (whatever) reasons. She figured she may as well go along with it, after all, she was a curious young lady.

Standing with them, it didn't take long for her to bum a cigarette off of the one who was smoking and she leaned toward him to have him light it for her.

Red Hood has posed:
This is not Red Hood's turf. No at all. This is Queens, not Gotham. But he has been getting restless, and felt the need to stretch his legs. He is only within sight of the winged hoodlum because he is a few rooftops down, having just tossed a drug dealer from the rooftop. (He landed in a dumpster, don't get your panties in a twist. He might walk with a permanent limp from now on, but that is the price of doing business.) He yawns beneath his helmet as he looks down at the small wad of cash he took off the man, counting it to himself before he tucks it into a pocket on his jacket.

He notices the brunette getting a light for a cigarette on the street below, first. Let's be honest. However, his enhanced audio filters in his helmet pick up the odd sounds the Moth gives off, and he turns his attention just in time to see her fly into view a few hundred feet down the block.

"...Huh."

Gypsy Moth has posed:
Gypsy Moth has a more than casual interest in fabrics, so the textile division's recent announcement of a new fabric that was supposed to replace Kevlar in the market for personal armor had caught her attention. She landed on the ledge outside and began examining the area within. Not much light inside, but she does not really need light...she can feel every surface in the room, can tell the different textiles by touch. She finds what she is looking for, it feels different than any cloth she has manipulated before. It is in a safe, which makes sense, so she has her work cut out for her. First, to get inside. The windows on buildings this high generally do not open, and so she will have to rely on standard means for getting in. IE: Ctu the glass. First though, to disable the alarms and the cameras inside...That is a matter of moments...locating inulated wires and figuring out which one to pul free inside the camera and the alarm system...anyone watching her will see her just staring ff into the distance for a few minutes. When that is done, suction cups on the window held in place bu other cuos higher yo attached by cirds, then the glass cutter...

Faith Lehane has posed:
The Moth was pretty much out of Faith's range at this point in time. Since she was down on the main street shooting the breeze with a couple of older men that were just laying it on pretty thick for the teenage girl that looked to be a bit older in maturity than she was in years.

When the man was tossed into the dumpster though, she did hear the resulting *clang* and this made her look away from her two Boasting Braggarts to glance down the darkened alleyway that had one ornage light on doing a piss-poor job of illuminating said alley.

Faith stood there, drawing on the cigarette while listening to the two men and staring down said alley, but after a moment of seeing no movement she put her eyes back on the two in front of her.

Red Hood has posed:
Red Hood gives a subvocal command to his helmet, and the vision switches from normal to night. The outline of Gypsy Moth becomes quite apparent...stuck to the window like one of those sticky hands he used to get from a quarter machine at the cheap Mexican Food restaurant on the corner back home as a kid. He furrows his brow and reaches into his utility belt, clicking his grappeling gun from its holster.

He aims his gun up and fires off a shit. There is a *SNAP HISSSSS* and it springs out and connects with the rooftop over the criminal. With the skill of a former Robin, but with much more muscle, he swings from the rooftop. The sight of the armored, red-bat-chested, red-helmeted man swinging through the air might draw the attention of the Slayer down below.

He whistles. "Hey, short bus!," he calls out a milisecond before hopefully slamming into Gypsy Moth from the side, trying to yank her right off of the glass and take her with him.

Gypsy Moth has posed:
Gypsy Moth heard the impact of the grappel and pushes the rope aside mentally, altering the arc of the Red Hood's swing. She flies up out of the way just before he should smash into the weakened glass...

Faith Lehane has posed:
Faith had a tingling sense about trouble, she just couldn't shake it... So she took her leave of the two men, telling them that she'd be back in just a few minutes (Even if she didn't plan on returning, she'd learned that telling men that often kept them from following her).

Faith walked through the dark alleys, hands in her pockets and cigarette hanging out of her mouth... She looked up in time to catch just a glimpse of the Red Hood's movement above and then she could hear something going on up there...

The Dark Slayer chose to investigate, because... reasons.

Spitting the cigarette out of her mouth into a grimey black puddle of water she jumped up a good ten feet into the air and trabbed onto a fire escape railing, then began to scale the side of the building.

Red Hood has posed:
He is trained better then that. The movement does not throw the man off, too much. It does annoy him quite a bit, however. With a simple tug of his finger on the gun's trigger, it yanks him up and out of the way, so his boots can land on the metal between the windows. He lands beside the Moth, however, and with the skilled brutality he learned from the League of Assassins, he tries to lash out to connect his elbow with the mask of the woman. His elbow, beneath the leather jacket, is supported by an armored elbowpad. Strong enough to smash faces, certainly.

He has no idea the brunette he was checking out (Because telescopic vision in his helmet can be used to fight more then just crime!) is approaching. Player 3 is about to enter the game!

Gypsy Moth has posed:
This man is clearly stronger and tougher than she is, but he can not fly. Sybil jumps out of the way into mid-air, dodging the blow bu moving an unanticipated direction. If he turns to face her...she will give a sharp tud on the suction cups attacked to the cut window behind him...striking him in the back with the heavy glass.

Faith Lehane has posed:
Faith didn't have a problem scaling buildings, not with the strength and agility she'd been gifted. So when she reached the top, she did so in short-order and landed on the edge of the building in a crouched position...

She rose up to her full height then and her eyes locked onto the combatants... she was studying their apparent abilities and why they might be flying... Moth appeared to be the tougher of the two, but its possible that Red Hood may have more than meets-her-eyes.

For now though, Faith just stood there in the backdrop with her black leather jacket sweeping about her body in the nightly breezes.

Red Hood has posed:
Well, he didn't see that coming. Only a tiny handful of Gotham villains fly, so it isn't exactly in his wheel house. When she pulls back like that he turns...and his caught in the back of the helmet with the glass. It doesn't shatter, being the kind of glass you would expect a place like this to have, but it does send a dull thud through his helmet.

The man, because age is impossible to identify, loudly calls Gypsy Moth a very bad term that should never be said in shared company. With lightning speed he draws a pistol from beneath his jacket, and fires off several well-aimed rounds at the woman. They are riot-stopper rounds. So...incredibly hard rubber. They'll bruise skin and break bones, but generally not kill.

Gypsy Moth has posed:
Gypsy Moth releases herself so she drops like a stone and hits Red Hood with an arm cramp that pulls his aim off Upward. She upss out of her fall sixteen feet down and soars back up...even as she grabs a long rope from inside made of...well it feels a lot like silk...in any case she wrapps it aroing his feet and pulls sharply.

Faith Lehane has posed:
Faith stood there simply watching the two combatants, completely unaware of why they are fighting seemingly to the death like this. When the shots were fired and the silk was brough out to try to net the man up.. the Slayer dropped off the ledge on the building and landed on the roof on her booted feet.

"Damn!" She called out, arms swaying at her hips. "You two are all MANNER of worked up tonight!" She called out to them both. "Is this some kinda lover's quarrel?!" She put her hands, then, into the pockets of her leather half-trench and she strode at a casual pace across the gross rooftop of the old building.

"If you're gonna off each other, I'm glad I came to see it. But can I call dibs on the losers wallet? I need to get some grub before I head home and I am totally outta cash."

Faith stopped near a corner ledge and she hiked her butt up and sat down on the stone, to watch the fight.

Red Hood has posed:
    "Like I'd date someone with such a lame costume?!," the Red Hood calls out in reply. He grunts as she knocks his arm aside and the rubber bullets bounce off of the building across the street. His gun his holstered and an incredibly sharp knife is drawn in a speed that shows the man has incredible training. He lashes at the netting, his knife far stronger then one the average person would have. He cuts through to free himself, but instead of grabing his grappling rope again...he wraps himself around the masked criminal and clings. Hard.

Gypsy Moth has posed:
The man in the red hood jumps towards her, which is pretty crazy really, she certainly can not carry that much weight, he could get them both killed. She reflexively pushes against him...forcing herself back as fast as he ir approaching. She stays out of reach...but starts falling again since she can only do so much at once. Her wings do act to brake the fall slightly, but they are not actually functional. Fortunately she can start flying again as soon as she is at a safe distance...though what he can do is another question.

Faith Lehane has posed:
Faith cracked a grin at the man who replied to her before he and the Moth went down in a heap together. Faith pulled her cell phone out of her pocket then and started to thumb around on it while they fought. "I kinda am of the mind that all costumes are lame." She muttered outloud after she let his words bounce around inside her head for a bit.

"Except Wonder Woman's. That lady is, literally, the definition of Hot As Fuck." She looked up then at the two of them whilst they were no-doubt still scrapping with one another. "If you know... that was a word that actually needed a defintion, rather than three separate words that each have their own defintions." Faith would then clear her throat, look left, look right, and then go back to looking down at her cell phone's screen on her thigh.

A second later though and she'd speak again. "So why are you two fighting then?" She'd ask in a disinterested voice.

Red Hood has posed:
Red Hood has been called crazy before. Like by the entire staff at Arkham. When she pushes him back like that he grunts, and he rolls back into a backflip. An electrical shock surges through the gloves he wears, and they become magnetized. He catches the wall by the skin of his teeth, and he clings with one hand and braces a boot against the wall as he follows the movement of the masked person.

"Because she was being shady as $hit! Clinging to the window like some big fly or something! I have a thing for beating up crooks! How else can someone with such a troubled past get his jollies?!"

He catches the dangling rope from his grappling gun and yanks it down, catching the gun and winding back in with a swift WHIRR. He then takes aim and pop off a shot, aimed with his HUD in his helmet, to shoot the Moth right through the leg with the grappling hook.

"I'm Red Hood, by the way! We should get a drink sometime!," he calls up to the girl watching. "I'm hot, don't worry!"

Gypsy Moth has posed:
Gypsy Moth smiles at the other two, "If the two of you waht a three-way some time, let me know." She has, however decided this was getting too hot for her. Unless she wanted to seriously harm someone, she can not really fight two people this good. Well, she may be assuming about the woman being good, she has not done much yet...but it seems a safe assumption. Sybil waves and says, "Enjoy explaining to secutity why you are outside the broken window." Then she flies off.

Red Hood has posed:
"Screw security!," the man calls off after the fleeing villain, his grappling line clearly missing her. He has no good rep to save. Honestly, most of Gotham thinks he is a horrible villain. Instead, he watches Moth go and turns, rappeling up to where Faith is seated. He climbs up beside her and holsters his knife.

"Cops'll be here in no time, beautiful. Fan of burgers? Chinese? Mexican?"

His voice is partially altered through the helmet. Enough to hide is identity without making him sound like a robot.

Faith Lehane has posed:
Faith looked up when the Moth flew off and she watched the woman go. Flying powers... why wasn't she given those? Her phone was stuffed into her jacket pocket just as the Red Hooded One appeared on the ledge aside her.

She glanced over at him. "All of the above, of course." She told him in her husky voice, giving him a head-to-toe once-over now that he was up close and personal on her. "So that weirdo was just trying to bust in? Find a closet to nestle into and what... chew on all the clothes?" She smirked at herself, having based that comment off of the wings that Gypsy had been wearing, right?

Red Hood has posed:
"Who knows what gets the weirdos all riled up? For all we know she was trying to steal all the tater tots from the office cafeteria. Others can investigate. I spend my time breaking bones...and hearts." Even through the voice alteration, the tone is clear enough for the last bit to be playful, and not a legit attempt at a serious (And terrible) line. He isn't that full of himself.