3286/Go home you angry jerks!

Go home you angry jerks!
Date of Scene:	01 December 2017
Location:	Gotham City
Synopsis:	There is a riot in Gotham. The Bat crew and Power Girl are on scene to deal with it.
Cast of Characters:	Batman, Power Girl, Oracle, Batgirl (Cain), Robin (Wayne)

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Batman has posed:
    The night has been long and filled with knives. A man lies dead, victim of an assassin's bullet and the world has grown wild. The rule of law is tested, fires burn in the city of Gotham as people have been pushed past what they feel they can tolerate. For nights on end they have taken to the streets, have voiced their anger and rage to those who only listen when their words turn to violence. It has been a dark and trying time, and the halo of light above the old great city is red with burning as opposed to the brilliant white of its skyline.
    Now, in the old town of Gotham, a great sweeping tide of humanity is rushing forth down the street. Businesses are destroyed, cars are set afire, and anyone on the street is either a rioter or injured and at times both. The police department has been tested and tested hard. But it is perhaps thankful on some level that in Gotham there is more than just the police force.
    Facing a mob, a crowd, it no longer becomes an issue of fighting people or taking down individuals. It becomes facing aspects of danger and that rage. Rushing across the rooftop, the dark silhouette of the Batman is not seen. He is the hidden hand that tries to steer the mob, that steps in as quickly as possible when tragedy rears its ugly head.
    At one side of the street a man raises a molotov cocktail angrily and readies to throw it into an old apartment building... only to find his hand suddenly pinned to the wall by a sharp object and then when he turns to face whomever throw it a large boot steals his consciousness away from him.
    A car tips over almost onto another man, only for a grapple line to catch it and whirl around the base of a streetlamp, stopping the vehicle from crushing the man even as a rough arm pulls the man free and a gravelly voice growls. "Get inside." And he's shoved into a doorway.
    It is all a steady stream of moments. Just moments that stop an instant before tragedy even as the night roars on with the strength of its own rage.

Power Girl has posed:
    A fire goes out, on the skyline of Gotham. A small bit of the red just... Disappears. Immediately following, is the crack of a whip, but it happens from the sky, echoing across the strets of Gotham.

    This happens again and again, though not to every blaze- some have people in them, some don't. The ones that do go out, with a sound almost akin to loud firecrackers on the horizon.

    In the street, there is a man whose entire life is flashing before his eyes. Maybe a mutant, maybe not, he's in the wrong place, at the wrong time. A crowd descends upon him, looking to vent their anger and hate in the way only Gotham knows.

    Then, in the next instant, he's just... Gone. There is a rush of air, and that same loud BANG from the sky, this time so much closer. The noise of it reaches that same man on the rooftop seconds after Power Girl deposits him there, wordlessly. She can't take time to banter, or even talk. There's so much to do.

    There's a Kryptonian in Gotham. It sure is getting Metropolis in here.

Oracle has posed:
Half a block west of Batman's location, Batgirl the Elder has her own hands full. A diner's plate-glass window shatters inward onto the patrons, and screams can be heard as fire licks several booths. She whips a grappling line around the thrower, and as she hoists him high up a lamp post, three men start clambering up to the edge of the window to evacuate the people within. Batgirl shouts to a woman standing paralyzed just a few feet from her own position, "Call it in! We need fire and ambulance!" Pausing only long enough to make certain that the woman is actually reacting to the order, the redheaded Batgirl is on the move once more.
    "Yancey's is burning," she reports into her sub-vocal comm. "People are helping the diners get out, but there's another wave headed east on Durant, Batman. They ju--"
    Her report cuts short, the wailing of a siren heard clearly in that direction. But the black-and-white cruiser can't get through the mob. There are hands all over the car, and they're rocking it back and forth in an attempt to overturn it. Her grappling line wings its way around a buttress that juts out above the street and she's airborne, heading to help the officers.

Batgirl (Cain) has posed:
    There are more silhouettes on those rooftops tonight. Some are in other areas. Some are here, with their mentor, helping to try an contain chaos.
    The newest Batgirl, or Batgirl the Younger, flits through the darkness like a wraith. For her, this makes little sense. Some of the people in the crowd have a reason to be protesting. Some of them actually care about the situation that caused all this. Yet others, they are just there because of the violence. They want to take advantage of the moment and do things they would never get away with otherwise. She can see it in their movements, their expressions. While to others they may seem the same as the people they are with, she can see the difference and read it. Their body language screams their intent.
    Those are the ones she keeps the biggest eye on and she isn't wrong. A man on the fringe of the crowd makes holds a brick. He draws back his arm to throw it toward the police line ahead of them. His arm is suddenly captured in a grappling line, forcing the brick to drop harmlessly to the ground beside him. A moment later, a dark figure swoops past long enough for a strike to his neck sending him sprawling to the ground. Then the figure it gone, flashing back up to the rooftop rushing across it and leaping with another fired grapple.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Damian had been monitoring the mob from the rooftops, moving the group as well where needed. He offers a comment on subvocal comms. "These morons are going to kill themselves. I for one tend to agree with Darwin and allow natural selection to take over."

  Damian intervened as another Molotov was thrown into the crowd, using a batclaw to grasp it from the air, grabbing the burning rag from the bottle and stomping it out, giving a wagging finger to the man who'd thrown it.

Batman has posed:
    It is a tide of humanity that seems to flow forth from various neighborhoods in Gotham. The police lines are set up to try and minimize their progression, to try and hold them for a time so that they can spend their rage with roars of defiance as opposed to letting loose with violence. There are smoke and tear gas canisters tossed forth from the solid shield wall of the police line, even as the officers begin to march forwards, their batons thumping on their ballistic shields rhythmically.
    Standing atop the nearby building over looking Old Town, Batman's voice cuts across the comm line, angered yet controlled. "If the mob from the heights joins up with this one, they'll overrun the police line, injuries will soar."
    He turns, his cloak swirling around him as he moves quickly. "We need to divert them, lead them to the docks." A stride and then he /leaps/ off the side of the building, falling until his grapple line arrests his descent and snaps him forwards into motion. He swings across the streets, leaping upon the rooftop and running with a rapid stride.
    He pauses there, looking at the oncoming other crowd, frowning to himself. A quick glance is given towards Cassandra, with a nod he signals her to stick with him, but on the comm. "Oracle, keep an ear out on the police channel. Robin clear comms."
    For a moment he looked to the side and scowled, crouching on the lip of the building. "Power Girl, I'm going to need you to play shepherd. I have an idea." With that said he breaks into movement again.

Oracle has posed:
There's a moment's pause from the redheaded Batgirl when the name 'Oracle' comes through her comm. Its use has been on the down-low for months and she has not actually given the name of the identity to anyone but Nightwing. She should have known he'd ferret it out. To have it used on the streets like this, though, was not something she expected. She'll have to deal with that later -- there is no time to worry about that for now.
    Batgirl -- no, for tonight she is Oracle -- lands atop the overturned police car, her boots keeping her stable and one hand down on the side of the vehicle. The SIGHT of one of the Bats actually down amid the crowd is enough to at least cause a lull in the roar around her. And Barbara uses all of the authority of the Bat to bark out, "Get your asses back! You hurt the officers, and I *will not hesitate* to start crackin' skulls wide open!"
    She holds there on top of the cruiser, giving the officers time to kick out the windshield and get onto their feet. And she points her grappling hook at a couple of people who look like they're about to jump into the fray -- it's only two cops, right guys? "PG, I got a couple uniforms who need a quick airlift back to their buddies on your way to that shepherd gig."

Power Girl has posed:
    Of course he knows which Kryptonian it is. Part of her wants to think that it's just a matter of Comms IDs, that Batman has a HUD of some kind that tells him who is in range, and who isn't, on the short-range band. Part of her is pretty sure that Batman just -knew- when the fires started going out. Using the sound barrier like that is a little too flash for Clark, she has to admit.

    She's sort of devoted herself to crowd control for the moment, having separated victims from mobs to the best of her ability- which, admittedly, is quite impressive amounts of separation- before she hears Bats' orders over the comms. For half a moment, she wonders if he has a setting other than Tell, but that notion is gone in the wake of just how necessary whatever he's planning is.

    The next place she visits is the mob in Batman's area- though she doesn't know if it's this one he intends for her to shepherd, or the one from Gotham Heights, until he makes that call she can at least devote some time to slowing down this mob. She lands at its center, calling it to a halt. It's hard for people to justify walking on after a six foot blonde lands in their midst. Arms folded, she addresses the crowd.

    "Is this really what you think is necessary? Is this how you want this to go? It isn't going to end well, not like this, for -anybody,- and it's not too late. You can still stop."

    In front of her, a man with a burning bottle seems to slump for a moment, looking at the lit cloth. He seems almost disappointed. Then, there's a loud crash, and Power Girl is on fire.

    She half-turns, looking at the man with perhaps the single most incredulous look on her face. She isn't even mad. She's just disappointed. A call comes to her over the comms, and she responds, still ablaze. As if the fire weren't even there.

    "On my way to you now."

    She spares the man another second, pointing to her eyes with two fingers, then to him with one. The speed of her flight afterwards puts out the flames, though for the two seconds that she's visible near BatgirlOne picking up the officers, she seems to be smoking all over for some reason, before she's off into the sky with the two officers.

Batgirl (Cain) has posed:
    At the signal from Batman, Cassandra changes her path. She had been shadowing the first mob, picking off people here and there as needed to keep things in some semblence of order. As much order as a mob can be. Another woman from the crowd picks up a trash can, sending it flying toward a storefront window. A line snares it in midair and pulls it back sharply, unerringly into the person who threw it and sending her to the ground. A moment later a batagang smacks the woman in the temple and she stays down.
    The idea of both mobs converging has her frowning behind her mask, the material that covers her entire face wrinkling up with the expression as she follows.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     "TT" A click of his tongue at Batman's directive miffs Damian. Robin grapples up to the rooftops, grabbing a couple gadgets from his belt. Freeze grenades, for quick fire extinguishing. A quick run and a leap from the rooftop, two are thrown to the street level, creating ice barricades that corral the mob to head towards the docks instead.

  The young hero in red and gold grapples and swings to follow the crowd from the air. "I got this one going to the docks."

Batman has posed:
    Some distance away towards the river that separates Gotham from its sister city, the horizon glows with a flickering red, a trio of storage facilities ablaze on the shipping docks, one of the freighters tilting dangerously on its side even as the flames seem to flirt with each brush of wind, threatening to close that distance. It's a blaze that taunts the river, glowing in its reflection even as thousands of dollars of merchandise go up in smoke.
    But its with his back to that blaze, his silhouette limned by the glow that Batman turns from his place overlooking it. A hand lifts touching his ear as he speaks quickly and precisely into the comms. "Oracle, update me if the situation changes there."
    "Good work, Robin." But then he steps to the side and meets Batgirl's gaze with his own, white irisless eyelets giving most no insight into the man behind but she can read him easily. He gestures with one hand to the side, sharply at a forty-five degree angle across the path of the moving mob that threatens to join up with the other crowd. "Intercept. Draw them. I need you to be seen." He tells her levelly, then with a nod sends her on her way.
    Turning back he again lifts a hand to the side of his head and lifts his voice, "Power Girl, I need you to scan the burning storage facilities. Make sure no one is in danger within. Then I need you to stay out of view. Do not, repeat, do not put the fires out. Respond."

Oracle has posed:
Once the officers are in the clear, Oracle's grappling line fires off. She swings over the heads of the group that rocked the cruiser right onto its side and lets the retraction line pull her skyward. On her way up, she uses a tactic similar to Robin's, launching several flash-bangs into the roadways behind and to the side of the crowd, forcing them down the road that will take them toward the docks instead of the direction they were going.
    Gaining the rooftops, she heads even higher, onto one of the skyscrapers. She lands on an iron railing and holds her position where she can see the entirety of the crowds below.
    "Routes north and south are cordoned off by SWAT and cruisers. Flashbangs have them moving in your direction now. They're breaking everything in their path, though." Car alarms start sounding as people with bats start destroying every car parked along the mob's route.

Power Girl has posed:
    Power Girl performs some necessary cleanup along the way- the car alarms make it a little bit more difficult to sort through the noise of the entire city for relevant things, and as a result, as people start taking bats to innocent cars that never hurt anybody, they're swooped up mid swing, finding themselves striking at empty air from positions on rooftops. It comes staggered- one word per perp, but it's audible enough to hear. "Could. You. Not?" she utters, before Batman's new request comes sliding in.

    He finishes The word Respond, and before he can remove his hand from the side of his head, her voice is responding, just not over the comms. "You realize that's like telling you -not- to break a leg, right?"

    The rush of air that accompanies someone arriving at just under the speed of sound washes over them, moments after she's spoken, and she takes to the air above them in order to start looking over the whole of the facility. "I've got two."

    She's off like a bullet, and were it any time for watching, one might never get tired of seeing a Kryptonian work. She folds the building's roof back upon itself like a napkin, taking care not to move through its by the minute ever-more-delicate bones, in order to retrieve a citizen here, or there- late night workers who thought that their occupation was not only -this- important, but also much safer than it actually was.

Batgirl (Cain) has posed:
    There is a brief nod from Cassandra as she sends another batarang out, pinning an arm to a wall just before the baseball bat within it hit another person the crowd. Be seen. Get in front of the crowd who are destroying everything in their wake. There is the faintest shift of her mask, as though her lips curl into a brief smile. An odd thing considering she is about to go on what some might consider a suicide mission. While others might hesitate, she doesn't fear the people below.
    She takes a run across the rooftop, sliding over a HVAC unit then leaping off the side of the building. There is no sound as her grapple fires, securing into the next building. She falls until the sharp yank as the line catches, jerking her shoulder hard but she's used to it by now. She swings in a wide arc, dropping lower as she does to make sure the front of the crowd sees her. Her cape billows out behind her, adding to the spectacle.
    At about ten feet above the ground, she pushes the button that releases and retracts the line. She hits the ground and goes into a roll, coming back up into a crouch about twenty feet in front of the mob.
    She stands there in the middle of the street, a slim figure in black against a screaming violent mob. Batgirl crosses her arms over her chest and faces them, the eerie mask that covers her features adding to the intimidation factor. She waits and watches as they approach, arms held at her sides so she is ready to react quickly.

Batman has posed:
    As Batgirl the Younger darts across the way, making herself seen by the raging mob, even as a group of men seems to be leading it on with all of them wearing black masks and carrying black flags with white lettering, it's enough to gain their attention even as the edges of the crowd are herded inwards and then towards the main path of progress.
    At first one of the men in a black mask lifts a hand and points down the street towards the dark shape of the young vigilante. "There!" He shouts, "There's one of them!" It's enough to cause another roar from the crowd, the people lifting their weapons and fists angrily as they're moved with a rush. Some people are pushed to the side, others are left in the wake as the more aggressive and animated of the mob move forth, looking to slake their bloody thoughts with an object of their anger.
    It causes that crowd to surge, to rush forwards around the corner as they burst forth from the t-junction of the street and towards the large open spaces of the parking and unloading area. At first that crowd rushes forth, seeking their prey...
    Only for them to not find it. And instead for them to face the horrible tableau before them. The blazing inferno of those storage buildings, casting everyone in a flickering grim light with their features lit like campfire ghouls.
    But it's only once Power Girl, like that speeding bullet of her elder Kryptonian kin, slashes through the building and then is away with those who had been trapped within... that's when his voice is heard again on the comms. "Roger. Standby. Don't interfere." As he says this it's not clear who exactly he's saying it to...
    But then he's dropping down. Down down off the side of the building where he lands heavily in a crouch upon the rooftop of a delivery van, his cape flaring in flight and then wrapping around him as he rises slowly to his feet to stand there in front of the now slightly quieter crowd.

Oracle has posed:
As the tide of humanity turns down the avenues they've orchestrated, Barbara activates her comms -- not to the Bat frequency this time, but instead to the Police Band. Her voice is calm and just slightly modified to maintain gender neutrality and hide er identity. "Gotham SWAT on Durant. Alter position half a block further south than your current blockade. You have an arm of the mob scene attempting to make an end run down Limner's Alley. You'll need to cut them off."
    There is much squawking over the Police Band radios as dispatchers lose their minds. Oracle cuts them all off. "Move now, or you'll lose the window. Batman's got lead."
    She then activates her Bat-comms and tells Batman, "You have a small band of 20 or so cuting through the park off Marshall. They'll emerge at the Front Street exit."

Power Girl has posed:
    To say that Power Girl is mildly perturbed by the theatricality of the Bat is to put it mildly. She is used to the Metropolis crowd, who will basically do whatever anyone wearing a red cape says. The lack of cooperation is something she knows of- but she'd never gotten a chance to get used to it back home... And still hasn't taken the time to do so here.

    Grumpily, Power Girl stands in the one area where she won't be especially visible. In the burning ruins of the storage facilities, she folds her arms and lets Bats handle his own people. So help her, though, if it looks like Batman might get overrun, she'll be out there among them in a way that they certainly won't forget.

Batgirl (Cain) has posed:
    It was a simple matter to stay ahead of them, flitting back down the street so that they followed as they cried out that she was one of the very mutants they wanted to destroy. Upon reaching the open area, Cassandra took back to the rooftops nearby as the crowd surged past below her. Just that easily, she ghosted out of plain sight. The mob is confronted with the blazing loss of property as he waits to see what Batman planned.
    His words cause her to frown, not liking the idea of not interfering. If things go south, she isn't sure she can follow that order. Yet, she trusts Batman completely. He knows what he is doing.
    She crouches on the edge of a roof, keeping him in sight and watching the crowd carefully.

Batman has posed:
    The crowd roils, seethes, like some sort of barely contained beast even as the people continue to fill the unloading area, that great sweeping parking lot coming to life with the bodies of thousands of people who are all on the streets with anger, with grief, with deeply held beliefs that have moved them to such a moment. Only for them to be brought up short at this horrendous theater of mayhem that rages across those docks, that is a testament to pure chaos in its most primal form as those flames lick upwards.
    It's with those flames behind him that the Batman stands there before them. To most of them he is a creature of urban myth, a being glimpsed in photos at rare moments over these last few years. But here he is, right at this moment, in the flesh. As they can see the ragged burn marks and torn fabric, the faint spatters of blood upon his dark uniform that causes it to glisten in that burning light. He answers the comms then, saying into them simply. "Batgirl. See to those twenty do not let them get here."
    Dropping off the roof of the van he lands in front of those at the head of the mob. A hand lifts from under the cape and points at one man. An older man, in his forties, his brow furrowed and face streaked with tears and the marks of smoke. He seems on the edge of both rage and utter despair. Only for Batman to tell him loudly. "There are containers and extinguishers in that hardware store. The water mains are cut. We're going to need to make a bucket line from this hydrant."
    For a moment the man looks puzzled, then towards the blaze, then back at Batman. His brow furrows in confusion, concern, surprise...
    But then one of the masked men steps forwards, "Fuck YOU man!" And goes to lay one on Batman.
    Only for his fist to be caught, twisted sharply, and then he's bodily thrown back into the crowd roughly but unharmed. But Batman does not stand still, he steps forwards now, so that the crowd is surrounding him even as they part for him. He looks around them, "There are always two types of people in these things." His voice is loud, severe.
    "There are the people who want justice. Who want to see what is right to be done. And then there are the people that want to see things burn."
    "I know why you're here. I stand for justice." His voice is strong, adamant in his tone. "You have been heard. But right now, you all have a decision to make. The water lines are cut. The fires are out of control. And if the fire reaches that ship not just this street. Not just this block. Not just this neighborhood will be lost. But all of Gotham."
    He turns to look at those nearby, "Now I'm going to do what I can to make sure Gotham survives this night. So tell me. Which are you? Do you want justice?"
    He looks pointedly at the man who threw the punch. "Or do you want to see it all burn?"

Oracle has posed:
There are always those in a mob who really are just kind of along for the ride. They're usually near the back and sides, and when called on their idiocy they're usually the ones who slink away before anyone really realizes they were there, feeling stupid for getting involved. In this instance, a half dozen men -- dock workers from the looks of them -- step off to the side of the crowd and head for the hardware store. One of them stops to look back. "He's not kidding," he calls out to several others. "That's the Arabian rig that docked today. She's still fuly loaded!" It galvanizes a few more people to at least start to work their way out of the crowd.
    Others are still angry and surge forward. "You can't protect us from mutie scum with powers! We got flying aliens, muties assassinating the President! This city -- this planet -- is ours! What're you gonna do to stop them!?"
    Still a couple blocks back, Oracle watches the SWAT team move, once Sergeant McGillicuddy barks into the comms, "GET YOUR ASSES IN GEAR AND GET WHERE YOU NEED TO BE!" She loves that man. Always has. The order for 'Batgirl' to cut off the group coming from the park, however, has her moving in that direction -- she's not used to being called something OTHER than Batgirl, so she instinctively reacts to the order.

Power Girl has posed:
    The comment about Flying Aliens cuts to the bone, but then again, when you can stand in a building ablaze, and listen to every syllable of every word of a crowd a hundred feet or more away, while also listening to the police dispatch SWAT teams, she supposes they have a point. Power Girl floats back through the building, and then ducks behind it to use it as cover. Her presence would only diminish what Batman is trying to do. She's needed elsewhere. For half a moment, she pauses- as if the world is moving in slow motion, her perception working so fast that the time it takes for her to do this one deed won't even register on the clocks of those present. With a hand, she presses against the side of the lilting freighter. It's more than the citizenry can handle, she tells herself. They don't need to be worrying about cargo falling from its deck.

    It'll be unnoticeable, really, among the fire- but she rights the ship so as to keep it stable in the water. Then, she's gone, and not even a second has passed.

    She's still listening to the crowd, still waiting for their response, to see if they'll really throw down with the Bat, or if they'll start putting out the fire. She's an unseen smear upon the sky, with no sun available to properly highlight her presence.

    She might as well help the Batgirls with their assigned issue. Bats hasn't told her to do anything just yet.

Batgirl (Cain) has posed:
    She's gone before he even jumps off the van to the ground.
    Batgirl rushes across the rooftop highway they all know so well, those nights of endless patrols having prepared them. She'd thank Nightwing for driving them into the ground if she had the words for it. As it stands, she is to the park in mere moments, darting through the shadows and finding that the twenty there are the worst kinds. They want violence, anarchy, for the world to burn while they laugh. They have no care for the mutants or their anguish. For them, this is a night of enjoyment.
    Flipping into a tree, she moves across branches then waits as the group starts to pass below her.
    She doesn't wait for the group to be mostly past to drop behind. Instead, she drops into the middle of them, taking out three as she does so. Then she does that which she was created to do. She is a whirling dervish of pain, sending bodies flying or falling. A punch to a chin, a foot hitting another behind her in the midriff at the same time. A spin with the cloak flaring and interfering with them tracking her movements to go for a nerve strike to another. In moments, half of them litter the ground around her. Another swings a punch at her head but she simply isn't there, having moved before he could complete the motion. Her fist hits him squarely in the nose and he staggers as another comes in.

Batman has posed:
    Rounding upon the man who surged angrily forwards Batman doesn't step back, doesn't retreat a single inch. Instead he looks at the man levelly, toe to toe, and then his voice lifts as he says loud enough for his words to carry. "If they were here I would tell them..."
    His hands lift to grab the man by the lapels and pull him dangerously close as his voice shifts into that rage-filled growl that only the most severe of Gotham's underground have endured. "To. Grab. A bucket!" And with that he pushes the man towards the hardware store roughly but into the arms of some of his colleagues.
    The Dark Knight turns, his cape snapping with the movement as he himself moves towards the store and throws a batarang through the glass, shattering the outer display and then elbowing some of the glass shards out of the way so they can get access within, and unless he's interfered with he'll emerge with a stack of the containers and starts to hand them out to the men who agreed to join him in the effort.
    Quietly, he sub-vocalizes on the comm freq, "It's clear, Power Girl. Back to mobile support." Perhaps something akin to a thank you might be heard in that subtle tonal shift. Probably not.

Oracle has posed:
There are enough people who work the docks in the crowd that Batman is dealing with that the urgency of the situation is made evident in very short order, once he's made a couple of them see reason. The man who was grabbed, he's caught by his friends, one of whom slaps him on the head and mutters, "Dumb ass. Tha's the BAT. Never do that!" Because most of the folks here? They're just scared. And mad. And they want things to NOT be scary. The Bat informing them that he'd tell flying aliens and mutants to grab a bucket? Well... he probably would. And if the flying aliens and mutants were smart, they'd do what they're told.
    Oh wait. That means WE better help out too! And so order is very slowly regained on the docks.
    By the time Oracle/Batgirl reaches the park, her younger counterpart has already taken out half of the troublemakers. So instead of jumping into that fray, she keeps watch. Monitoring the police band, letting the uniforms know that clean-up is required on Aisle 4. Things of that nature. Every once in a while, something comes across the comms that Barbara re-routes Power Girl too. And by the time most of those hours have gone by, there's not a single one of them (except maybe PG) who isn't a bit bloody, sore, filthy, and reeking of smoke. But Barbara's tone remains calm, cool, and collected the whole night. "Power Girl," she comments as she heads for the rendezvous point. "Thank you. Your help tonight was invaluable." She'll say it out loud because Batman won't.

Power Girl has posed:
    To be fair, it's a Kryptonian thing. By the time it's over, Power Girl has been set on fire six times- not counting the burning buildings she flies through- in addition to almost every possible attempt to spit on, scream at, or something worse- depending on how gross and depraved Gotham's citizenry is.

    Through it all, though, she looks pristine. To be honest, it's positively MADDENING. What is it about being able to hold up a building while also putting out the fire that caused its lower floors to lose structural integrity that makes you immune to the grime and muck that permeates this job? How is ANYTHING about PG even remotely fair- Either way, those thoughts, for anyone that has them, can be set aside.

    "I was in the area, and to be honest, the sound of it was making it hard to sleep. It was nothing." She's kidding- or, maybe, she isn't. When you can hear a city on fire from three cities over, maybe it does get a little hard to catch some shuteye. It -sounds- like a joke, but it's the kind of joke that merits the response of 'yes, haha, that is a funny not-real-thing you said.'

    Power Girl keeps Barbara's pace rather than setting her own. She's not here to show anyone up, and everyone always complains when she offers to carry them.

Batgirl (Cain) has posed:
    Cassandra isn't aware that Batgirl the Elder has arrived. She is intent on the people she is battling. Another swings and she ducks under it then gives a forward kick that sends him sprawling. Another tries to go for a spinning kick which she blocks, grabbing his ankle and flipping him onto his back. A quick punch to the head has him down.
    It's a few moments later when the last of the twenty is caught with a grapple line before he can run away. He is cuffed up with his arms around a tree, leaving him there with the pile of bodies. She taps her comm three times, a rapid rhythm that is her way of saying her portion of the task is done. Then she heads back out of the park, certain that the cops will be on their way to collect this bunch.

Batman has posed:
    That night goes on for hours, the fires are contained with no small thanks due to Power Girl. The mobs have dispersed for the most part, what is left are only a fraction of the strength of what they once where and now much more manageable for the GCPD to handle. Yet the damage to the city is immense and will take a fair amount of time to repair. So when the sun begins to slowly rise just over the horizon, its red, orange, and yellow gleam of light casting the world in a warm hue that defies the chill in the air... it rises over a city that is worn ragged from the night, but is at the least on the mend.
    It's in the shadow of Wayne Tower that the Batman finally takes a moment to himself to lower his head and rub at his eyes slowly. Atop the rooftop of an apartment building, the current vantage point gives a good view of the city, of the damage, and of what the city survived.
    His features are drawn and his armor marred with blood and burns, with the fabric torn in places with his own wounds visible if not severe. For now things are over. Until tomorrow night.
    On the comm his voice is heard, ragged, tinged with only a hint of exhaustion that he allows to creep into his words. "I'm clear. Meet at the rendezvous point."
    Then there's a pause, though the channel is still open. They can perhaps hear the faint sounds of the city awakening through his open mike, the distant sirens, the car alarms. But then his voice lifts again and they'll hear him say levelly. "Good work."

Oracle has posed:
Moving slower than she was earlier tonight, the redheaded Batgirl is still pretty quick on those lines. When she lands her feet atop the building they're using to rendezvous, she wobbles slightly though. Exhaustion is evident in her posture and the limp that caused her to bobble the landing is likely due to a gash that runs the length of the outside edge of her upper thigh. The blood is minimal, so whatever it was that caught her, the armor appears to have stopped most of it.
    Blowing out a breath, she lowers herself to the low cement wall that surrounds the roof, turning her face toward the sun and closing her blue eyes for a long moment. Sometimes those early morning beams of light are the only thing that let her know they've managed yet another night of insanity.
    "This is going to get worse before it gets better, I'm betting," she says quietly.

Power Girl has posed:
    Power Girl floats in alongside Barbara. The light of the sun hits her for the first time that morning and her response is a quiet and long intake of breath, followed by a calm exhale. "I needed that."

    Her attention flits to the various injured members of the Bat-crew. As pristine as she is, she's not sure if she should linger. She doesn't want to make them feel worse, somehow. Her arms are folded, and she seems to be practically reclining on the air, like it were some sort of bed. "You all were amazing. It's probably not over yet, in fact, it's certainly not... But after what I've seen, I know you can handle it. The light's at the end of the tunnel, and you're making your way there."

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
Robin's comms had cut out, at least his transmission capabilities. Once the order to rendezvous had been given, Damian had began to make it to the point. Battered and bruised, he'd been accused of being a 'Mutie lover' more than a couple times and had collected a couple teeth from a couple of people that thought they could beat up a 'pajama wearing ankle biter'.

  Damian had been through worse, but this had been the worst he'd gone through in Gotham. Damian approaches the rendezvous slowly, he's covering for any injuries he has. His face is bloodied, a band of blood clotted across his eyes this point. "Underwood was a $&+* anyway."

Batgirl (Cain) has posed:
    At the compliment, Cassandra smiles faintly behind her mask as she quickly moves over the rooftops. Even though the night is done, she is still pushing herself for maximum speed. Why? Because she can. Pushing herself to her limits, trying to better her times even now when a few hours sleep is actually appealing instead of a bother.
    She arches through the air on a line, flipping up over the edge of the roof and landing without a sound on the gravel rooftop. Her cape falls around her as she nods to those already gathered.

Batman has posed:
    As Barbara joins him, Batman meets her gaze and gives a single solemn nod of recognition. At her words he answers her with a simple reply of, "Likely." He folds his arms over his chest, looking stern as he considers the city. Then he turns to step towards her, "Not the same. But just as bad. Those who are of the mind to will organize. We'll have our hands full."
    But then Power Girl, Damian, and Cassandra make their entrances and they'll receive a nod as well as he murmurs. "Your help was invaluable tonight." But then there's a pause as he looks at all of them. "All of you. We couldn't have done any of this alone." He raises one gauntleted fist and turns it slightly as the leather creaks, then he murmurs to them. "Get some rest, focus. Will be back out and about at sundown."
    There's a pause, then he looks towards Barbara. "I need the address of that hardware store that I used."

Oracle has posed:
Pulling in a deep breath, Barbara looks up at Batman, her blue eyes behind the mask perhaps just a hint wary. "You'll have it by the time you get in," she tells him quietly. Her doings as Oracle are not ... the most up-and-up.
    Slanting a look toward the others as they join, though, the redhead can't help but smile. There are days when the Bats can do it alone. But given the very nature of the conflict right now, having Power Girl on their side has been a blessing. "Sorry to keep you from sleeping," she tells the blonde, truly amused.

Power Girl has posed:
    Power Girl shrugs. "I could have been doing other things, but I really don't think any of them were worth quite as much as this. I wouldn't have traded being able to make this much of a difference for the world." She's smiling, at that point.

    "Either way, you've got a lot of work ahead of you guys. I can handle some of it if you'd like, but I think you may want to personally look into why a portion of your city is frozen." She figures that they'd have heard about that over the various sniffers and info-routes they've got, but either way, she does gesture in the direction of Gotham Heights. "I can probably only give you guys about thirty-eight more seconds before I need to get back to New York and Metropolis."

Batgirl (Cain) has posed:
    The silent form of Batgirl doesn't move but there is a shifting under her mask, a hint of that smile there under the material. It's always nice to hear words like that from Batman. They get yelled at enough when they mess up but he also gives them that positive from time to time. Then the smile is gone, the mask going back to being neutral as she simply watches and listens. She doesn't leave the rooftop yet, waiting for the others.

Batman has posed:
    To Power Girl, "Give Superman my regards." He says with a faint ghost of a smirk, but then he turns away from them. He steps forwards, planting a boot upon the lip of the building and then says over his shoulder. "Get some rest, get bandaged up. Tomorrow is another night." And with that he turns back, reaching for the grapple line at his belt. He flips a switch to engage the compressor and then fires the line off, letting it catch the edge of another building. He takes a step forwards and then /swings/ off down into the abyss between buildings. And then is gone.