4362/Inspiration

Inspiration
Date of Scene:	29 April 2018
Location:	Gotham
Synopsis:	Carrie Kelley has a close encounter.
Cast of Characters:	Batman, Carrie Kelley, Batgirl (Cain)

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Batman has posed:
    The drizzle that had been tormenting Gotham the entire weekend was still going, a steady patter and misting of water that had the streets thick with puddles and gurgling rivulets. Just enough water to change the sound of traffic from the dull whir of rubber, to the crispness of the water. For much of the country Spring showers are heralds of better times, small windows into what the warming of the seasons portend. But in Gotham. It just makes the dark wet and the shadows long.
    Most of the city is safe inside at this time of night, and the weather has driven even more people indoors than would normally find solace in such. The shelters are over-populated, and the streets are mostly empty. But some of that which haunts the old city never truly sleeps, and high above the streets upon the dark and muddy rooftops to some of the city's dwellers and its protectors... it is not a quiet night at all.
    Footsteps, hurried and rapid rushing across tar paper and grime. Figures in black rushing across the night's skyline. Four moving rapidly in flight, hands held to their backs as they flee. And behind them are two more, capes billowing behind them like some nocturnal birds of prey.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
    Carrie Kellley exits one of the old brownstones that had seen better days, half turning to lift her hand in a wave to one of the windows higher up. "Bye, Mrs. Schumann! Thanks again for checking in on my parents!" A small sigh escapes her lips as she turns back to face the rainy darkness. She'd stayed way too late this time reminiscing with the old woman, but it was hard to pry herself away at times. Mrs. Schumann was a sweet old woman who rarely had company so was the busybody of the neighborhood. When she had someone around to gossip with it went on for quite awhile.
    The redhead pulls up her collar around herself a bit, already feeling drenched, and she digs in her messenger bag to pull out an umbrella. It's popped open above her to help keep some of the damp off as she starts down the familiar street already hoping she hadn't missed the last bus.

Batgirl (Cain) has posed:
    They're fast. She'll give them that. The four are doing a great job of keeping ahead of them at the moment. Not that they'll get away. It simply isn't possible in the mind of Batgirl. She flips a batarang into her hand and prepares for a throw just as the target ducks behind some piping on the next rooftop. She has to continue holding the batarang for now, waiting for another clear shot.
    One thing that they have done from the moment she put on the cowl was learn the rooftops. She knows they are coming to a point where they will be forced to move to the next building on the left, as the one on the right will be too high to reach without the help of a grappling gun. Hedging her bets, she flicks the batarang back to her utility belt and pulls the grapple line, firing and leaping off the rooftop to cross the street to the opposite side, hoping to cut them off when they make the turn up ahead. In the process of her arc over the street, she passes above the redhead with the umbrella. For an instant, the world darkens as the flared cloak blots out what little light is coming from above. But it's over almost as soon as it happens and a glance up will show nothing out of the ordinary.
    Landing atop the opposite roof, the line is retracted even as she runs all out on her intercept course. She hopes. Otherwise Batman will be giving her that look later in the morning for having made the wrong choice.

Batman has posed:
    Meanwhile, up above, the four figures in black continue their eerily silent rush away from their pursuers. They each leap over the chasm between buildings almost synchronized in their movements even as the other two figures that are chasing them land and immediately take up the pursuit.
    Another batarang whirs through the air and imbeds itself in a billboard just feet away from its target, but serves to push them onward. Across that chasm, the grapple lines firing with whispers of compressed air.
    The rain continues to fall steadily if lightly, causing the faint 'tip-tip-tap' of footsteps to echo eerily whenever one or the other fails to avoid the puddles upon those old roofs.
    The quartet reach the other edge of their current building skidding to a halt for the briefest of moments. The four black clad figures quickly look at each other, dark eyes narrowing and flashing between them as if silently sharing counsel.
    Then, as one, they move. Over the side, three of them /flip/ straight off and over, dropping down... down down. While the fourth spins around and a blurring flurry of silver edged blades slice through the air towards the pursuers. Wickedly barbed death flies through the air and with his minute lead the larger caped figure steps in and to the side, his cape slashing through the air as sparks flare to life, the fabric of the cloak blocking the blades from himself and his partner, but it gives Batgirl the chance to close the gap that much faster.
    Only once they reach the lip of that building, they'll see that the four ninja were not simply fleeing. They were dropping down on either side of Carrie, their blades whispering from their sheathes, and one quickly tries to grab her and hold her at sword's point.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
    A little shiver runs through Carrie when the shadows overhead seem to shift causing a flicker of light in the process from the street lamps. For a moment she tips her head upward to peer at the falling rain. All she can see is shadow, and the light illuminating the fat raindrops that steadily fall.
    This was Gotham though. It was never quite safe, not entirely. Trusting that gut feeling of dread she picks up her pace moving from a fast walk to a light jog as the corner ahead comes into sight. Just a bit further. There were ways out of this part of the city she'd learned as a kid while growing up here. Shortcuts if necessary. All she had to do was get there.
    It doesn't happen as the dark figures drop down in front of her with blades drawn. Not the knives of the local thugs she was half expecting but actual swords. Feeling her heart leap into her throat with a surge of adrenaline she does what any frightened individual does when faced with danger: Flee, or fight.
    The umbrella is swung down, it's dark canopy shoved at the sword bearing duo so that it punctures through the nylon while, hopefully, blocking their sight of her. She releases the handle already spinning around to run--
    Directly into the one that had dropped behind her unaware of the third. "Crap!" There was no getting away from this one.

Batgirl (Cain) has posed:
    With the block from her partner, Batgirl is able to close that distance. She takes to the air in a flying leap at the man with the blades only to find he isn't there. He's already moved out of the way, expecting a fight. She frowns behind her mask, the expression visible through the material that covers the lower portion of her face. The man in black swings but her arm is already there to block the blow. Another and yet again, it is as though she can see what he is going to do before he does. Perhaps she can read minds. It's more basic than that and more complex.
    He draws out a blade and the vigilante is already moving, a volley of strikes and kicks until his weapon is skittering across the rooftop until it stops in a puddle. A spinning kick to the head takes him down.
    She turns to leap off the building, firing her line as she does so only to see that they have a woman held below. Not one going quietly with their plans either. Spunky. But she is outnumbered and her weapon isn't nearly as effective as theirs.
    A flick of the wrist sends a batarang flying at the temple of one, slamming home and sending him sprawling to the ground. His sword lands with a splash nearby in the gutter filled with rushing rain water. That leaves two more. Another with a sword and the one that the young woman just ran into while trying to make her escape.

Batman has posed:
    The trio land and suddenly that umbrella is held before them, fouling them only for a moment as a steel blade slashes through the air tearing great rending holes in the fabric and striking against the haft to slash it aside even as she's turning and breaking into a run...
    Only to be captured into the arms of that assassin in black, his arm snaring around her throat and the tip of the sword coming up to point at her head as he snaps sharply in a whispery sibilant voice, "Ssstay back." He tries to secure that hold as he spins around, as if seeking those who had been following them... yet unable to find them...
    Above there's the short hup-hup-ha of the two facing each other, and then an abrupt /crack/ followed by silence... and no sign of the two that had been chasing them.
    There's a whir in the air and a batarang slams hard into the head of one of those ninja who had been brandishing weapons at her. He hits the ground and is out. It causes the one holding her to spin, the blade starts to nervously poke into Carrie's flesh. But then a cloaked figure seems to fall from the night sky and lands with barely a sound. At first it's just a pool of blackness, then slowly rises up to form into a long shadow. Only this shadow has eyes.
    "Let her go," Is the voice, a rumble, grim and intent.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
    Carrie's weight crashes into the man who then spins her around putting her further off balance. The lock of his arm around her throat catches her easily. Instinctively both hands rise to pry at his arm around her. It's the sudden presence of the sword which causes her to still knowing that this was a dangerous situation struggling may not work in.
    Every move the man makes spins her around like a rag doll as she works to keep her feet under her to ensure she doesn't choke on his arm, or else fall further into his weapon. When it presses in against her earning a prick of blood from her skin where it rests, she winces with eyes squeezed shut tight. No more comes though.
    As her green eyes open again they fix on the dark shadow that rises to loom in front of them and for an instant, just an instant, she feels what dread criminals might upon this sight. The corners of her mouth quirk into a look of near relief that she wasn't alone in this moment. Just as soon as that realization comes her eyes flare with the desire to fight again. Somehow.
    Pitching her voice to sound thready, and weak she lets out, "Think 'm gonna fa~int..." Abruptly her weight drops like a sack of potatoes, both hands swinging down away from the arm at her throat as her head drops forward.
    Just as her knees bend to a certain point the 'fainted' girl pushes up abruptly snapping her head back to try and crack the man in the face with the back of her skull at the same time she jabs one elbow into his stomach on the side his kidneys would be. It wasn't a super skilled move at all, but one based a bit on surprise from her 'faint' to this. Clearly she'd at least had a self defense class or two. Though she was likely to get a headache from that.

Batgirl (Cain) has posed:
    The man with the redhead is Batman's. The other one is still fair game.
    When Carrie makes her move, it's the opening that Batgirl needed for her shot without the other villain hearing it.
    The second man never even gets a chance to move as another shadow falls from the sky, behind the group. She comes down directly atop the man, letting her full weight impact him in the middle of the chest with both feet. As he goes down, she is atop him still and he takes the full brunt of her landing. She punches him in the face once, twice. Then she is moving off him, a rustle of material and a pfft of displaced air. She is back in the air, going up to the rooftop and out of sight.

Batman has posed:
    The young woman proves to be more of a handful than he cares, even as the bladesman struggles with her shifting weight and then suddenly she's dead weight entirely in his grip as she drops... and then surges upwards to crack her head into the man's masked face. It's enough to cause him to stagger back a step but it serves as a distraction...
    Distracting him from the near perfectly silent approach of the other shadow that suddenly appears and lands upon the partner to the man with the sword. He hits the ground, is struck twice, consciousness leaving him almost instantly and then that shadow is gone.
    But the swordsman reasserts his grip on Carrie and he growls again, even as he twists his arm to choke the woman in his grip while he thrusts the blade out towards the Batman. "You do not know how this works!" His voice is raspy, angry, "I will /kill/ her unless you let me and the..." He looks to the side, "The others..."
    "No others. Just you." That grim voice is heard even as that tall shadow moves forwards. In her eyes and in the discomfort of fighting for breath she might well see him as a gigantic creature of the night, or just a tall man in a long cape, or something else entire. But his voice, his words might well stay with her. "This is how it works."
    The ninja's grip on her tightens and Carrie can likely hear the hammering of the man's heartbeat.
    "You let her go. And this ends for you. Tonight."
    The ninja's eyes narrow, his breath catches.
    "You hurt her. And I spend the rest of the night breaking parts of you. And then in the morning... I give you to her."
    The Batman's head turns slightly to the side, as if looking past the man who held the blade. And in that moment his grip loosens as he looks sharply to the side.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
    "Huk!" Carrie's throat closes off from the pressure of his arm squeezing around her. It only took a slight tip of her head back to let enough air in to breath. There was more though to a chokehold than that. The ninja's arms were squeezing against her coroitoid artery making her head swim as her vision grows red, and hot from the throbbing of her own blood pressure rising.
    The motion she'd attempted before had knocked her glasses askew making the shadow of the Bat all the more imposing as he approaches offering the ultimatum to the man who had her. Short breaths are taken, forcibly drawn in, as her eyes droop and force open again fighting to remain awake, and aware. His grip was enough at the moment to still any further fight from her though. For now.

Batgirl (Cain) has posed:
    Out of that darkness, the smaller bat swoops from the darkness above. Her cloak is fanned out behind her as she swings down on the grapple line, intent on her target. He'd been given enough time. He had chosen not to let go of the girl immediately. She could tell the girl's blood supply was being cut off for the woman. No more.
    As she angles for the strike, a flash of something is seen as two more batarangs are fired. This time, the sharpened point finds flesh, digging into a nerve cluster at the jucture of his arm and shoulder, one on each side, just above Carrie's shoulders. An inch off and she would miss that critical point or strike the hostage. She doesn't miss. The arms go dead for him, forcing them to simply drop down to his sides like weights. It releases the hold on the redhead and brings the sword out of play.
    The arc of her descent has her boot meeting his face and knocking him backwards. She lands about five feet past him, spinning to see if he is still moving. When he doesn't get up, she stands as her cloak falls around her, hiding her slim form from view. Only that cloak and the mask with that haphazard stitching, the lenses in her cowl narrowed slightly.

Batman has posed:
    For a time the tall man in black stands before her, even as the one who attacked her is put down and put down hard. The man's grip upon her goes slack as consciousness is robbed from him by the palpable impact of boots striking flesh. She is free of the assassin's grip, and yet held up by one hand upon her elbow.
    "Focus. Breathe. You're alright." The intensity is still there, but not the malice in that voice. White irisless eyelets meet her gaze as the man in the cowl's brow furrows. Then he gives a nod to her.
    "The police will be here shortly." He straightens up, features twisting into a frown as something else seems to grab his attention. His hand lifts and then there's something apparently in that black gauntlet. The grapple line fires with a short snap and the whisper of compressed air firing. The line unfurls, snaps taut... and then suddenly he is in the air, cape flaring behind him like the giant wing of a bat.
    And as quick as that, it is over. The four assassins caught, bound, and distantly there is the sound of the GCPD already on their way, the blue and red lights shining off of the buildings down the street and growing brighter as they close.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
    As soon as the grip of the man is loosened by another, one outside of her line of vision, Carrie falls forward to catch herself in a crouch. Lifting a hand to her throat she rubs it gingerly sucking in deep breaths. Hearing his voice again urging her to calm she gives a nod in response. Slow, deep breaths, just let the fuzziness fade. "R-right. I'm... got it." Looking up again she watches as he vanishes. Or had he vanished already? Her vision was still a bit swimmy. She shifts to sit back and just wait.
    "No one is going to believe me."