6601/City Fall: Enter Karai

City Fall: Enter Karai
Date of Scene:	21 February 2019
Location:	Gotham - Monari's Restaurant
Synopsis:	Shredder sends Karai to take care of some business - and she runs into some of the local vigilante life.
Cast of Characters:	Red Hood, Shredder
Tinyplot:	City Fall

---

Red Hood has posed:
Maroni's Restaurant has been a staple of West Chelsea for over fifty years. It was an open secret that it's owner, Salvatore Maroni has his hands in most of the crime around Gotham City. Or at least he used to. In his heyday, he was a force to be reckoned with.

But then came the Penguin. And Two-Face. And Joker. And the other rogues. And the Bats - the damnable Bats that battered and broke the back of his organization. Most other crime families leave him alone out of pity. Most of the rogues leave him alone because the small amount of power he holds left isn't worth the trouble. He's an old man on his way out. Like his restaurant. Decorated with pictures of actors and entertainers with their autographs from a different time and age. The color has faded in the red and white checker-board table cloths. The red hurricane lamps with the candles burning within them on the table, with wax grapes draping down that haven't been dusted in months. Glasses that still are etched with a long-defunct cola company. It all is old. Run down.

But he's an old man that refuses to see that truth. He still acts as if he was at the height of his power. It is why he set the rules for the meeting tonight. It is why as he sits at the table with his bottle of wine and big plate of spaghetti napoleonti as he looks across at the girl that is half his age that he scoffs.

"When I was told that your boss was going to negotiate with me, I thought he would bring himself. Not send a dame. Not even a very attractive one to talk to me." he comments dryly as he dips a piece of bread into the sauce to eat it. "It disrespects me, and I do not take well to those that disrespect me."

Outside, there is movement on the rooftop and along the shadows. Red Hood had heard reports of a new player in town - it wasn't that hard to get information on the meeting at the run down restaurant, now it was on him to figure out exactly what was going down within and get that information out to the others.

The white lens within the helmet flair as he moves to the side of the building to look down. Maroni only has a couple of hired goons out - a couple of men that are still loyal to him after all of this time. Men that he knew as children. It's sentimental. But sentimentality doesn't mean anything in this line of work.

Shredder has posed:
    Karai's face is stone. She's young, and if she were a college student, she likely would not have yet finished. She's small, only 5'3". She's a lightweight, nothing impressive to the casual observer. She wears a black uniform, black leather armor over black tights, and a red scarf hangs from her neck. Her eyes narrow at his bravado.
    "Mr. Maroni, you are being extended a courtesy," she answers his insult. Despite her skills, one thing that she is not skilled in is masking her contempt. "This has started without you, and it can complete without you. My master has little regard for fools, and less for useless fools. He has tasked me with gathering those who would be useful to his plans, and your record suggested a marginal utility at best." She glances slowly around the room. "You sit in squalor. You once may have commanded the crime in this city, but you live in ruins of your own refuse." There is a certain sneer on her lips. "You can choose two things, and remaining in this depressingly impotent operation is not one I am offering you. You can join something greater, and have the resources of a global network to assist you," she says, lifting her left hand as holding the option. She lifts the right. "Or I can kill you, and remove a potential pebble from our road so that we don't stub our toe."

    Outside, the quiet is inhabited. Not only is Jason watching, but several black and gray hooded figures sit in the shadows, waiting for an order.

Red Hood has posed:
Sal sits there, listening to the child speak to him. So brashly. So bluntly. The anger in his eyes is obvious as this /pup/ dares to insult him so blatantly. "You petulant brat!" he sneers, his fist slamming into the table. It spills the remains of his wine glass and tilts the spaghetti plate. "You come here, you make remarks, and you threaten my life?!" he cries out. "You need to be taught a lesson!" And with that- he attempts to reach out and backhand the young woman across the cheek.

Outside, the Hood picks up on a figure in the shadows and he frowns. It's a setup. Maroni's men are all in the middle of a trap - and they don't really have a chance. Not that the Hood has any great love of the old man or his gang - but it's always easier to deal with the obvious ones then these recent upstarts.

Coming up on one of the of Foot soldiers, he tries to get the drop on him and smash the butt of his pistol into the back of the Foot soldier's head to take him down. "I'm your relief for the night." Little does he know that where there's one Foot.. there's several Feet.

Shredder has posed:
    The hand flies, and Karai responds as if she was picking up a glass of water. A catch of the wrist, a twist to break, and her other hand comes up with a kunai, stabbing into the palm on the table. Blood pours out, and as she releases the blade used to nail his hand in place, the same hand reaches to grab him by the scruff of his hair, and slam his face down into his plate, spattering wine and sauce across the table.She holds it there, surprisingly strong for her size.

    "That." She says, "Was the last mistake you will ever make." The opposite hand releases the hand, and starts to reach back for the ninj-to on her thigh.

    Outside, the Foot soldier was focused enough on what was in front of him, he didn't even see the Hood's approach. The clack of the pistol against skull draws the attention of two other soldiers, one on the fire escape, and another behind a mailbox.
    They waste no time, but burst forth, the one at the street level bearing sais while the one from on high leaps down, a quarterstaff in hand as he lands in a crouching position.

Red Hood has posed:
Outside, with one Foot down, Red Hood finds himself face to face with two more. "Shit. Someone shopped at Ninjas R Us. And me without my beating stick." the man in the helmet draws. He's not going to fire, that's going to draw attention. But both pistols are brought out. Then he charges at the quarterstaff soldier. While the twin pistols may not be knives or swords, they work in defense against the strikes of the staff Foot as he swings a roundhouse kick at the other Foot that joins in the fray.

Inside, Sal screams in pain as he feels the bones in his hand snap and then the kunai pins it down. "You bitch!" those may very well be his last words as heis slammed face first into the plate of pasta. "MMRPHG!" He flails against her hand, his free hand grabbing aagainst her arm, smacking at it with a ham-sized hand as he tries to get himself freed - something that won't be coming.

That is until from outside, there's a pair of gunshots that ring out from the rooftops that may grab Kairi's attention currently. The doors from the kitchen bust open, the boss's goons running in. "Sal, there's men firing on the rooftops! It's a setup! BOSS?!" one of them yells, seeing the man in a compromising position - well. Not one that he wanted to be in.

Those gunshots? Jason got tired of playing around with Foot. "So what strip mall dojo did they pull you from?" he asks, as he fired a pair of shots into the kneecaps of one of the Foot clansman. "Kobra Kai? Did you get free lessons with a purchase of a combo plate?"

Shredder has posed:
    Karai's attention shifts to the incoming mobsters, only to have all of them distracted for a split moment by the gunfire on the roof. An unknown factor, one that was not anticipated. She changes her strategy, driving her knee up into the table as she stands to her feet, flipping it over with Sal so that it lands on top of him.
    She spins with the ninja-to, not designed to be a thrown weapon, and ends the spin with a slap of one wrist against the other, loosing the blade toward the chest of the first of Sal's reinforcements before pulling a trio of shuriken from her belt, flinging them at the second.
    The quarterstaff catches in the pistols, followed by a spin toward a sweeping strike as Jason makes the roundhouse kick.
    That kick lands, nonetheless, and the sai bearing ninja is knocked away. During the next few exchanges, the quarterstaff ninja finds a shot critically injurying his knee. Unlike most people, however, he doesn't make a sound, not even a grunt as he goes down, gripping the injury. Ninjas three and four join, one with a pair of kamas, and another with a pair of nunchaku. They land on the same side of the roof, and the one with the nunchaku flings a shuriken with her free hand, spinning toward Jason. It wouldn't be enough to kill, but the objective is to distract it long enough for the ninja with the sais to come in with a stabbing blow.

Red Hood has posed:
The table crushes Sal against the ground and he lies there, unmoving. It's not immediately clear if he's dead or not - but he's clearly not going to be responding. The two goones go for their pistols. However, one of them never gets the gun out of his jacket as the blade slams into his chest, ripping it open. Wide eyes look down at the wound on his chest, before the ripping away of the blade sends him backwards, stumbling into a booth.

The other goon /does/ manage to get his gun out, but before he ever gets a chance to aim, those three shuriken slam into his chest. They didn't wear body armor - that was a fatal mistake. He goes falling back to the floor, his pistol firing several shots as his muscle memory kicks in the last moments of his life, sending a round into a framed picture of Sal with Tony Shalhoub, 'To Sal, Loved the Lasagna, Tony'.

Up on the rooftop, it seems that every time Red Hood takes down one foot, another appears. "Like a damn fungus. Good thing I'm a pretty fun-gi." he grunts as he swings up his arm, catching the shuriken in the side of the arm. The point doesn't quite penetrate the armor and leather that he wears. "Not much of a conversationalist either. I do enjoy a good banter."

But he finds himself having to bring his arms to defend himself against the strikes from the sais as he manages to end one of them off, but another gets through the thinner armor at his sides and strikes. A grunt of pain comes from Red Hood as he slams his helmeted forehead against the ninja's face to force him back as he swings the pistol around to fire at the shuriken thrower.

Shredder has posed:
    The Sai ninja is knocked back, reeling from the hard helmet that struck him in the head, while the one with the kamas and the one with the nunchaku dart forward. They are fast, covering half the distance of the roof like a world class sprinter. The firing of the gun causes not one, but both of them to veer, making themselves harder targets, though the burst of red from the ninja with the nunchucks shows that she just took a significant wound to her left tricep. The one with the kamas rolls to the side, and then throws one like a tomahawk at the red vigilante.

    Below, Karai walks forward to retrieve her ninja-to, and looks back at the ceiling. Whatever is happening, it's not quiet. She wanted this quiet. She flings the blood from the blade in a quick motion, and resheathes it before briskly walking to the front door, opening it and marching toward the fire escape.

Red Hood has posed:
Up on the roof, Red Hood stops being a stationary target. The kama smacks against the Hood's helmet, flicking off of it, but inside the helmet, Jason winces.

Shit. There went communications. On my own. Nothing new there.

"What happened to the good old days when you guys came one at a time?" comes the quip as he starts to run with the other two ninjas, firing his pistols as he does so. The bullets smack against the rooftop and air conditioning unit as he leaps towards the nunchuck Foot. Bringing both of his hands up, he uses one of the arms to defelect the blow - though he feels the crack against his arm.

Bruised. Maybe a hairline fracture. Sloppy.

He drives the other hand palm-first into the Foot's solar-plexus and pushes up hard to literally knock the breath out of him. So he doesn't just know gun-fu, as he starts to use the Foot's own techniques against them.

Shredder has posed:
    While there is skill involved on both sides, it's clear that the Foot soldier is inferior to Jason's skill. The palm strike finds her chest. Yep, boobs there, apparently they are equal opportunity employers. she stumbles back, dropping her nunchucks to the ground, and coughs, giving a gasp for air. Her counter part with the kama dives forward in the meantime, slashing fiercely as he slides across the pebble roof, and apparently is less disciplined than the others. "Leave her alone!" he growls, his strike aimed at the rear of the Hood's calf. He sounds young.
    Reaching the fire escape, Karai leaps to grab the railing, pulling herself over the edge and she races up the rusty stairs, heading for the roof.

Red Hood has posed:
Boobs or no boobs, Red Hood is an equal-opprotunity asskicker. When he strikes her down, he doesn't get a chance to finish her off, because there's a strike to the back of his calf. A hiss comes from the Hood as he drops both pistols to grab the man's wrist and swings him around, much like a father would swing a child.

Except he's using the guy as a bat to swing him into the girl Foot. When the two of them collide, he grunts. "When you come to, go to a movie and make moon eyes at each other. You shouldn't be doing this shit."

I'm one to talk.

Then there was one Foot left. Yanking the kama from that foot, he flings it towards the stairs, aiming for it to arrive just as Karai does. "Sorry, this is a private party - did you bring an invitation?" he grunts, taking a few steps back, though he's clearly favoring his left leg as he reaches to his sides to get out his escrama sticks, snapping them to their full length.

Shredder has posed:
    The blow of colliding bodies knocks both of the remaining Foot unconscious.
    As Karai reaches the rooftop the kama whizzes at her head, and she only narrowly tilts out of the path of the blade as it nicks her red scarf on its path over the edge of the building. She vaults onto the building surface, one hand planted as the thigh blade is drawn again into her left hand with a backhand grip.
    "You interfere," she says coldly beneath the scarf. It covers her mouth loosely, only mildly hiding her face. Her eyes move to survey her downed soldiers. "Sal Maroni does not have the money to command someone with the skill to disable four of my soldiers. Who are you and why are you here?"

Red Hood has posed:
When Karai vaults onto the rooftop and dodges the kama, Red Hood pauses for a moment. So. It won't be that easy after all. He gives her a look over, his own leather and combat gear hiding the most serious of his wounds from her sight. Twisting the sticks around so that the longest part is supporting his forearms.

"Me? I'm just a concerned citizen. There's a lot of us in town. Don't really care about Maroni." he admits as he watches the girl, his helmet capturing footage of her. He can't get an upload of the data at the moment to try to find out who she is. But it's something that he can explore later.

"But I'm definetly against new scum replacing old scum. So how about you and your rent-a-ninja friends here surrender peacefully and tell me what your plans are, and I won't have to kick your ass, flat as it is."

Shredder has posed:
    Karai seems unmoved by the quip about her butt. "My plan is to kill you if you continue to interfere." She stands to her full height. Which...is pretty small, all things considered, the scarf catching a slight draft of the rooftop chill. She doesn't wait for him to contemplate whether she is bluffing, but suddenly darts forward in a full sprint, then leaps into the air so that she might deliver a downward slash with the ninja-to.

Red Hood has posed:
"You know if I had a nickle for every time that someone in this city threatened to kill me..." however, Red Hood doesn't get a chance to finish the quip as Karai rushes him, and he yanks up his stickes to defend against the ninja-to. Left over right. Left's the hurt one, after all.

I'd have a million nickles.

"Let me guess, you don't wear the bag over your head because this is the boss fight." comes the grunt as he uses her ninja-to trapped against the sticks to roll, and try to flip the woman behind him as he moves to twist around to face her anew. "I wouldn't suggest the whole 'killing me' route, I'm a bad penny in that department."

Shredder has posed:
    "I've dealt with a few bad pennies before," she answers as she twists with the throw, rolling into a new ready position. Her right hand slides the second ninja-to from her back, and she attacks again, her left strike coming up from below in an attempt to force a block, her left foot following just behind it to try to strike where she expects the blocking hand to be located in the defense.
    "As for a bag over my head," she comments. "I do not fear my identity being known." A tilt of the head. "I suppose the same cannot be said for you."

Red Hood has posed:
"You only know ninjitsu? This is Gotham, you need to expand your horizons." Red Hood starts to respond as he moves his arm in defense of the kick - but it's against that fractured arm, and he loses the escrama stick there. He knows that arm's out of the fight, but he knows he's going to have to figure out how to use it.

"Eh, I'm shy like that." he says with a snort about the helmet. "Plus chicks dig the helmet." There's a few limping leaps backwards as he finds himself further seperated from his pistols, leaving them closer to Karai than himself. Turning his body slightly to protect the wounded side, he twists the escrama stick around to be a baton. "So, why don't you give me your name and your big plan for here? Going to open an Asian-Italian fusion restaurant? I'd get confused as to what's squid or linguini."

Shredder has posed:
    "You speak a lot, but say little," Karai responds. "I have known others like you. They usually die loudly." Guess she doesn't dig the helmet, or maybe she's playing hard to get. Either way, no phone number or name, very rude.

    She lets into a barrage of strikes, seeing her opponent's weakened state, High, from the right, from the left, from the right, from above. She has two arms to conserve stamina, while she knows that he only has one.

Red Hood has posed:
"Worst speed date ever." Red Hood responds. And then she's on the attack again. And for once, Jason's quiet. He knows this is bad. The girl is good. Very good. Even with his skills as an assassin and member of the All-Caste, he knows someone near the same level as well.

While strikes are able to be defended against, more of them are getting through. A fist to his side will draw back blood on Karai's palm - while she didn't actually hit him hard enough to draw blood - she found where the sai caught him earlier.

Another crushing blow catches his helmet, smashing the front of it. The lens flicker, but he's able to still see, but Jason loses the heads up display and such as he reaches to yank it off. Beneath it? He's wearing the domino mask. Sorry, no identity for you today, Karai. Tossing the helmet to the side, he's realizing that this is a fight that in his current condition he's not going to win.

But as she comes back in, he fights dirty. His knees are brought into play. Strikes that totally go against any type of code as he starts using his darker trainings to at least drive her back for a moment so he can start to back away.

Shredder has posed:
    Karai takes one knee to the ribs as he strikes, and she winces back, having become too overconfident in her advantage. She discards the ninja-to in her left hand, freeing it up, and reaches out to do something rather unconventional herself, namely make a grab for his collar, and bring her own knee up for a groin strike, an attempt to give herself a chance to recover from a rather painful blow. Hit or miss, she takes a step back, the blow having caught her pretty solidly. "You are capable," she confesses begrudgingly. "But this must come to an end."

Red Hood has posed:
That's it sweetheart - bring me close.

The strike to his groin causes him a powerful grunt - but any hero worth their salt knows to wear cups these days. "I agree. Time for this dance to end." When she comes back in, before she starts to step back, he tries to release his secret weapon.

Only to realize that an earlier strike had partially disabled the heavy duty taser in his chest plate. It partially fires, sparking between the pair of them and arcing electricty across the rooftop. And the resulting explosion from his chestplate blows him off the rooftop and into the alley below.

Hopefully he's bought himself enough time with that blast though to crawl off and lick his wounds. Attempting to get away from the scene, he reaches into his pocket, and hits a button.

Back on the rooftop, the helmet buzzes and then shorts itself out, smoke rising from within it through the eyeslits and beneath the helmet - he fried everything within it to make sure there's no salvage or tracing the tech.

Shredder has posed:
    Karai watches as the arc of electricity pulses, taking her by surprise and knocking her off her feet. She sneers at the pain, and scrambles back to her feet, quickly. The helmet's shorting catches her attention though, as she turns, expecting it to be an attack. By the time she realizes that it is just a defensive maneuver, it's added several seconds for the Red Hood to escape, and she dashes to the edge of the roof, scanning below for him.

    She slams a palm on the stone ledge overlooking the alley below, and turns around to her wounded allies. She has her own mess to clean up, no time to chase the intruder.