6622/Painting By Numbers

Painting By Numbers
Date of Scene:	23 February 2019
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Yin and Kestrel save a delivery van from an ambush by Painted Men.
Cast of Characters:	Yin, Carrie Kelley

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Yin has posed:
The text message read:

    11210 Guerney St.
    Wear your punchy clothes
    and extra ammo
    we have 27 minutes
    Huà nánrén

Not alarming at all, right? And so very descriptive.

Yin is looming on a low rooftop by a straight, half empty stretch behind a park. She checks her watch idly. Time is ticking down.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
It had been awhile since Carrie had heard from her sifu. Partially her own fault due to trying to fall in line with the teachings of the Bat clan that she had been brought into after the first few iffy months of her vigilante 'career' in Gotham. When the text comes she wastes no time at all to answer then as all else is dropped to head for the provided address.

Kestrel as she had come to be known, lands on the rooftop after jumping from another. She tucks, rolls, and comes to her feet neatly keeping herself low and in the shadows as much as possible. The brick red and black suit she now wore did help with camoflauge just a bit. "Sifu," she greets with a dip of her head politely toward the other figure.

Yin has posed:
Yin checks the time quietly, looking around. "Good to see you. You haven't seen a file on a certain Yóuqi Lingzhu, I guess."

She gestures at the street below. "In a couple minutes, there is going to be a delivery van driving through here. Plus or minus two or three. There is going to be an ambush and a robbery. Painted Men. I don't know if I want to be seen down there before the van comes, or they might change the plan. You can use all the force you want; they aren't really here."

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Kestrel tips her head curiously at the unfamiliar name before shaking her head at the question. "No, I haven't. I've mostly been getting grilled on proper patroling methods. Nightwing likes to keep me out of the fray a lot." Which really wasn't going to help her in the long run but so far she'd been humoring him when it wasn't going to cause issue otherwise. A small frown comes as her gaze sweeps out over the area taking in the lay of the land. Where the shadows were. Where there was possible cover. Such things are noted while she listens.

"Not really here, Sifu? I'm not sure I understand that. I'll take your word though."

Yin has posed:
Yin nods her head. "You'll understand when you see them." She scans the edges of the road. "Minus two. They're having a fast day." A delivery truck winds its way down the road toward us all.

At the edge of the road, some grass is pushed aside as a tarpaulin is pushed aside from below by.. a walking pale-white impressionistic painting of a medieval Chinese soldier, holding a similarly abstract spear made out of paint.

The soldier tosses two canvas portraits onto the road. The portraits are of boulders, which then become three dimensional and block the road.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Kestrel crouches down with one hand reaching out to stabalize herself as she watches the approach. Plenty of ammo was requested, so she does an absent pat-check of the pouches on her utility belt just to ensure she has everything ready to go. She knew she did, but it helps to pass the time until that van rolls in.

When the strange 'man' comes out she lifts an eyebrow at the sight. That was definitely not human all right. Now she somewhat understood what Yin meant by 'painted men.'

Reaching back she pulls out her slingshot and a handful of pellets to take aim at one such target. "Say when," she whispers to Yin. It was her show after all in this case. She was merely assisting.

Yin has posed:
Yin pulls out a small javelin. not her weapon of choice, but a couple of them seemed appropriate. "Go. We're going to offer to escort the van." She launches one at the paint man, then jumps down as more impressionist paintings start to uncover themselves.

The javelin goes straight through the painted man, leaving a hole that starts to crumble and peel into drying flakes of paint, slowly making him disintegrate. Not fast enough, though. He launches his spear at Yin, who bats it aside in a cloud of crumbling paint.

A couple of the Paint Men have longbows. They nock, turn to face Kestrel, and draw..

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Before the bowmen can release their arrows, Kestrel has already let her own projectiles snap free. It's a quick motion, two pellets thwumping into or perhaps even through the painted specters though she doesn't wait around to see if it worked or not. She was already moving to avoid being a sitting target. The shadows she'd spied before are sought out as she flips off from the building itself to land running. Another projectile is loaded to fire. A single hard shot as well as a smoke pellet to allow for the distance to be closed on any further of the obviously magical creations.

Yin has posed:
The van pulls to a stop, blocked by the boulders. Another portrait of a boulder is thrown behind the van, a little bit far to be visible in the rear view mirror, blocking it from moving.

The arrows fly through the spot Kestrel vacated, The Paint Men hit by the pellets start to slowly crumble as the spear thrower collapses into a small pile of paint dust.

These guys are slow. They're obviously trained, but not *well* trained, and they are sluggish on all their movements. Not quite 'zombie' slow, but not as quick as you would expect. All they have going for them is creepiness and numbers. They have numbers. And the complete lack of regard for personal safety.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
The numbers were the issue. Slow and steady was hard to keep up with when there were SO MANY targets to focus on in the first place. There had to be a way to stop it all at once and likely those scrolls were the means to do so.

Kestrel attempts firing a pellet at one of the boulders to see if it, too, would disintegrate as a test. It's the last shot she fires before simply dodging, and running, with her hand flitting over the pouches of her belt. There had to be something that would work. Something. Fingers brush over the pouch she used just for necessities. Advil. Tums. Female products. ... And a bottle of roll on perfume for when she needed to freshen up just a tad.

The pouch is flicked open, the glass rollerball vial pulled out, and it's loaded into her slingshot aimed toward one of the scrolls seeming to summon more and more of the army of painted men. It's let loose with intent to crack and spill it's alcohol based contents on the scroll work they'd set down.

Yin has posed:
The boulder is penetrated and starts to crumble away, slowly. Slower than the Painted Men, since it's not active, but it is definitely decaying.

The bottle shatters and dumps its contents all over the portrait on the side of the road. The effects are unclear, but nothing else seems to be emerging from it, now..

A pair of Painted Men approach the front door of the van, only to be met by Yin. "You belong in a museum." She does a quick step in and snaps her foot at the first, kicking at it's knee and guiding its axe around, throwing it bodily into the second one. Both begin rapidly crumbling. "Watch the back."

Two longbow painted men start nocking arrows, trying to target Kestrel as two more, one with a halberd and one with a sword, start trying to break into the back of the van.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
If Kestrel had a spider sense it would be going off when those bowman take aim toward her. Thankfully she was aware of where they were, and was keeping an eye on them. It didn't mean she was able to outrun arrows though--Instead she drops to the ground catching herself on her hands at the last moment so the arrows whiz over her head coming to a stop safely on the grass and not IN anyone.

She's on her feet again in a moment drawing the elastic cording of her slingshot back to fire solid pellets at the bowmen. One, then another, as she quickly reloads and reshoots within moments. It didn't require the full draw of a bow to do.

The target was behind her though, along with Yin and the others. Protect and escort the van was what Yin had said, so Kestrel runs for it. With a quick leap she lashes her arm out to catch the side of the van, and then pull herself atop it for a better view of the Painted Men. "Yin, the bolder is almost gone!"

Yin has posed:
Yin steps up into the van. She looks up at the driver with a peircing look.

"Go. We will keep you safe. Kestrel! Back door!"

She moves to the back, narrowing her eyes at the rattling of the back door of the van. She drops slowly into a stance..

One of the Painted Men pops open the back door of the van, only to be launched into the air as the door EXPLODES open from a solid martial push from the inside. The other one tries to swing back around the corner to escape notice, hooking the halberd on the roof.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Hearing the call, Kestrel turns around toward the back catching sight, just in time, of the outward kicked door. More importantly of that Halberd hooking the roof. She crouches low planting both hands on the rooftop for balance while one knee bends low. Her other leg sweeps out in a kick meant to dislodge the halberd from it's spot. "On it!" She calls out in response. "Let's get them going!"

Yin has posed:
The head of the halberd exploads into a puff of grey paint, followed shortly by the head of the halberd spearing up at you, then two painted hands and a foot as the owner starts climbing up onto the roof.

Yin fumes, unable to see what's going on, so she closes and latches the door and runs to the side door again, jumping up to slap the leg of the one on the roof briefly and start it crumbling. "One more, then we can go. Hopefully no other ambushes before you finish your run. If there are, we will protect you."

Carrie Kelley has posed:
There's a little yelp when that halberd comes up at her. So much for knocking it free. The soldier still had quite the grip on it. When Yin slaps the leg causing it to crumble she crouches low again and moves to swing into the van to join her.

"Sorry," she mumbles quietly so as to not seem inept to the driver of the van. Curiosity gets the best of her though. Even as she keeps an eye out for more of the painted men she glances at the van itself wondering at why they might have wanted to hijack this particular vehicle. "Where are they going, anyway?"

Yin has posed:
Yin shakes her head. "There's an artifact here that needed a secure transport. Somehow, one of the transport legs turned into commercial courier. I don't know why, it isn't my job. When I saw silver ochre and ruby mandrake orders coming up, I had my guesses. Lingzhu uses distinctive ingredients for his paint."

The van zooms out onto the road. "You can debrief with your new teacher; he seems nice. How have you been doing?"

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Some of what was said made sense. Others not so much. That was typical with Yin though as there was a whole world of other things she'd yet to learn. At least the mention of the plants sounds vaguely familiar. Her gaze turns out to watching the road and buildings pass by for further signs of potential danger.

"Well enough. I'd been meaning to catch up with you soon. He's a good teacher, but holds back a lot for fear of having me get hurt. Even his teacher knows that won't help me in the long run." A smile is offered as she adds, "So you've met him then?"

Yin has posed:
Yin nods. "He took me out for lunch and talked. vegetarian food, because we met dealing with The Chef. Ask him about that case. I'm not sure if it was an interview or a date. He's flirty. We get along well."

She hmms, "I'm happy to meet with him again. Maybe some others that we both know." She looks into the back. "Our stop is coming up soon."

Carrie Kelley has posed:
"He's like that. Flirty I mean. He's someone I trust, though," Kestrel adds with a grin. It fades as the mention of their stop is brought up causing her to nod in understanding. It was time to be alert again, and then head off if not needed. Absently she adds, "That'd be good. I should network more. I could help you meet some birds I know." Well. Being a bird herself even if she was a 'junior' member.

Yin has posed:
Yin nods. "I'd like that. Help me make sure they get this artifact, then we're both free to go."

The van pulls into a small, unmarked building, where security guards await. The actual transfer is uneventful, and an Ambassador thanks both of us, then the van flees with a terrifying anecdote and leaves us to our own devices.