Summary:His identity revealed as well as his collusion with Victor Zsasz, Clayface seeks to hurt Batman where it counts - his protoge's, by calling them out, before he kills again tonight. Log Info:Storyteller: Cindy Moon |
Related LogsTheme SongNone |
    |
The last week and a half had - well, been slown down from the recent murderfest. The police, of course, had still been on the hunt for the Batman and the effort exhausted hadn't expired in the least - but, at least with no new murders there wasn't further rallying cries to bring in SHIELD, Avengers … or the Thunderbolts.
Tonight started out … quiet. Just the usual crime, the occasional muggings, bullying, beatdowns, illegal weapons deals, and mafia hits. A typical night in Staten Island for those associated with the Bats.
At least until …
"Master Bruce." Alfred's voice cuts through the dead commlink. "I think you should turn on your television to Channel 11. Immediately." There's a slight urgency to Alfred's voice that suggests it's a definite matter for Batman.
But before Batman can do that, suddenly there's police chatter on the monitored comm. "Batman sighted at — urk!" the comm on the other end goes dead, briefly. And then Batman's voice comes over it. "None of you can take me down. Stop trying. Go ahead. Send Nightwing after me. Send Robin. Whoever you want. I've got a job to do. And I'm going to do it. Stop. Or more police will get hurt." The channel is - curiously left open. Yeah. That's not a trap, right? But no location is given, and the police start scrambling on the radio to try and find out who that was, and where the car is located.
Over the communication system, Batman's voice comes through clear: "Catwoman - Clayface will try to use my presence there to muddle who should be siding with who. Take the others, and go after him. I'm still on stakeout, and will remain in place."
Helena is still healing from her run-in with the Nightfall, but she's well enough to be allowed out. Especially as part of a team, with supervision. "Okay, call and response," she says over the comms as she readies the car. "Call is G7H2K. Response is P3N5. Batman's not the only one he can copy."
Sitting in the passenger seat, she fiddles with something on the console display until there's a flashing beacon in the center of a map. "Location acquired."
Catwoman's expression is uncommonly stony as Batman's order comes over the channels, a hard look in her eyes that's obscured when she pulls her goggles down over them properly and gets on the comlink. There's not a lot of room for mischief and disobediance here. Someone's killing people with Batman's face, and Batman can't be in two places at once to deal with it. Catwoman calls over the comlink, "You heard the man. I'm following the signal from the last broadcast. Everyone else with working limbs follow the Batmobile's signal." Selina acivates said signal in the Batmobile a moment later and grips the wheel tightly as she speeds towards another rendezvous with Basil Karlo. "And for god's sake be careful. Clayface is an actual literal monster. And his imitation of Batman is nearly perfect. If you see the boss on the field, take his head off. Literally. Over."
With that she looks at Helena. "Are you up for this kitten?" She knows what answer she's going to get, but… concerned mother and all.
Over the comm system, Batwoman replies: "…Copy. And if you see /me/ out there expect trouble."
A cute little purple mini-compact is trailing a ways behind the Batmobile. The driver has on a costume though, and tunes playing loudly. "To the gypsy that remains. Her face says freedom, with a little fear…" Stephanie Brown sings loudly to herself, going completely retro with Fleetwood Mac. She has the comms volume down at the moment, thankfully, as she makes up for musical talent primarily with volume.
Stephanie turns down the car radio and turns up her comms mike. "Right. G7H2K. P3N5," she replies. "So, anyone ever fought this guy before? Any suggestions there? I think Dick was talking about freezing him. I brought a few batarang attachments but not sure what all will and won't work," she says.
She slides the purple car around a corner, hitting the horn at someone who was about to step out into the street. Vigilante in a tiny car, coming through!
"I'll make it, Mom," Helena assures her mother, though she does adjust her seatbelt a little bit. "I'll just try to make sure I give everyone space. You know, like a responsible person," she adds with a wry smile behind her mask, switching over to Stephanie's channel. "He's basically a mud golem, Batgirl," she says. "So heat, cold, water, electricity. The goal's to compromise his structural integrity."
She's such a nerd.
Batman's only response over the comm system is: "I'm going into Channel 11."
'Batman'/Clayface is looming over a rooftop, exactly like the Batman would. Watching the streets below, as Catwoman and Blackbird arrive together, with the newest Batgirl arriving nearly at the same time. On the street, traffic is jammed with a police car sitting in the middle of the road, two officers strewn across the hood, either unconscious or dead (mostly the former), but severly injured at the very least.
Yet, none of the onlookers seem to have noticed the gargoyleish Batman, who appears - for the present, to be utilizing the night to his advantage and stay out of the eyes of the ever-growing crowd of gawkers. Gawkers, no doubt, who can easliy be turned to victims in a heartbeat.
Catwoman smirks a little despite herself, reaching over with one hand and squeeze Helena's wrist briefly without looking at her.
"That's right." She says, confirming Helena's advice to Stephanie. "He's a shapeshifter as well, he can look like anyone and form basically anything he can imagine out of his body. So use everything you have."
With that Catwoman brings the car to a stop, looking up anxiously at the doppleganger of her partner with a scowl. "… I want both of you to get behind him. I'll try and distract him." She orders before leaping up to the nearest fire escape and pulling herself upwards to the top of the nearest building, leaving no opportunity for argument. Very Batman-like, actually.
A few moments later, she appears leaning against the roof entrance, a coy smirk on her face as she calls out to Clayface. "Hey there, handsome~" her nose wrinkles slightly with disdane but her expression otherwise stays the same as her whip dangles from one hand. "You've been keeping busy."
The purple compact heads off down an alley after hearing Selina's orders. Dodging in and out of dumpsters, garbage and crates, Stephanie pulls up on the other side of the building and climbs out quietly after hitting the button to kill the interior dome light. She closes the door quietly and then rather than use her grapple that might be heard, she begins climbing the building.
She runs at it, kicking off with a foot to boost herself up and grab hold of a window. She pulls her way up that then jumps over to a balcony higher up. One floor after another, Batgirl makes her way up the building, until finally she pauses just below the edge of the roof where she can give her arms a moment to rest before pulling herself up to peek over the building's coping and see what is going on with Selina and Faux-Batman.
Helena nods to her mother, taking a deep breath and slipping into the shadows as Selina heads upward. She's a little slower to make it up the building than Stephanie is, thanks to her injuries, but she doesn't let it stop her completely.
She does, however, stop short of coming up to the roof itself. Instead, she takes a spot a short distance away. Far enough to be out of most areas of effect or easy reach, but close enough to see what's happening and be ready to rush in if needed.
The Faux-Batman looks at Catoman, watching her. "So. They sent you, did they." He's not stupid. He grins a very familiar grin that Catwoman's seen once before. She's seen the transformation once, too. But now she is prepared for what comes next.
The body begins to bulge. To grow. To enlarge beyond measure. It quickly loses it's coloration of the black and greys, turning a clayish brown as massive legs, huge as tree trunks and matching arms with fat fingers emerge.
It's eyes are as big as footballs, and it's mouth? Massive, too wide, too immense for anything 'normal', but matching the head that's as grotesque as it's body and far wide enough to swallow a person whole.
It's a horrific thing to watch, like that of a traffic accident, one is generally able to tear their eyes away.
This time, though, Clayface doesn't make a 'grab' for Selina. Instead, his bulk begins to move towards her, slowly. Predatory. "You're the one who ruined this for me, Catwoman. I think I'll kill you, first."
Catwoman is thankful for the goggles at this moment; it's all she can do to keep her composure, and her eyes are NOT following orders as she watches Clayface's horrific transformation. Her jaw, however, stays set, and even manages a little smile as Clayface speaks, although she's breathing heavier now. "Oh, *honey*." she sighs sympathetically. "You had your chance once already, remember? Back when you had *surprise* on your side?" She grimaces a little as he looms nearer. "… I've still got eight lives to chew through. And you're out of time."
And that's the girls cue to do something clever before Selina Kyle gets mauled by a giant monster.
Robin's voice cuts through the previous silent comm: "Security force is all hostiles, repeat, all hostiles."
Batgirl grips the edge of the roof, pulling herself up with arms and legs at once to not so much climb up onto the roof as leap into the air above it as she cries, "Here we go!". A batarang is released, followed by two more as quickly as the caped crimefighter can move them to her throwing hand.
The first whistles in an arc around Clayface, landing in front of him on the roof and throwing up a shower of sparks to blind and distract him from his target.
The other two batarangs whistle in towards his back, one carrying an electric shock payloud, while the other has a sonic screamer that can disorient and stun a normal person at close range. And who knows what effect it might have on organic, living clay?
Batgirl lands on the roof then in a crouch, hands already going to her utility belt to reload on batarangs. God those things are the best!
Electricity is good, but it's going to be even better if Helena can get some water introduced to this whole process. Staying silent and keeping her distance, she stays clear of the roof for the moment, letting Batgirl and Catwoman handle the heavy lifting as she goes in search of bigger guns.
Little more than a shadow in the night, she slides back down to the street, murmuring on their own channel. "Hold him off, guys, I'm getting some water going here."
Then it's back to the car, where she can tap into the police and fire channels. "Hey, we need a truck here at the scene. Crowd's getting rowdy, might need medical."
The first batarang hits, and does it's job. Clayface is, if only briefly, blinded by the stun-flash. But this also has an adverse reaction - while it saves Catwoman from a very messy end, perhaps, it also causes Clayface to revert into mud, however briefly, losing his shape altogether as he knows if one batarang has been thrown, through experience, there are others to follow. This causes the electricly-charged batarang that Batgirl threw to miss.
The screamer doesn't seem to do much, while he's in this form but it's gone as quickly as it came and Clayface is reforming, but this time into a massive giant 'ball', and the bulk of him suddenly rolls forward at what would equate to running speed towards Batgirl, clearly seeking to squash her entirely.
From the other end of the comm, "Roger. Sending a truck," agrees the dispatcher, calling the codes over the system. It'll be a few minutes, but a fire engine is on it's way.
The only question is, how long can they hold Clayface off?
Catwoman smirks briefly when the first batarang hits, then grimaces, sucking air through her teeth in a short breath as Clayface begins to liquify. As the second Batarang flies through the air, Catwoman leaps upward, pulling herself up onto the rooftop entrance and catching the electric batarang as it passes. She lands on the roof entrance with enough momentum to spin her body once and hurl the batarang back down again to the round mass that Clayface has become. "Quick as you can, hon!" Selina answers Helena, her voice tense, "We don't have time to dance with this guy." With that she unfurls her whip, hitting the ground with a sharp CRACK and leaping forward to keep pace with Clayface.
The blond Batgirl gets a smile as the first batarang gives Catwoman some breathing room. "So who is this bad guy again? Silly Putty Man?" she asks as she watches him smoosh down and loose his shape. "Robs banks but oh is he a good time with the goods and the Sunday Comics?" she quips.
Only Silly Putty Man doesn't seem to like the nickname as he starts rolling towards her like a boulder down a mountain, and gaining speed every moment. "Ack!" she says, eyes widening as the mass of clay darts towards her. But Batgirl was only making sure he got close enough before she acted, suddenly leaping into the air to jump over the rolling ball. Her metal baton is slid from its sheath and extends into a quarterstaff as she swings it down overhead in a hard strike towards Clayball, using the extra momentum from the blow to help her do a flip overtop and land closer to the middle of the roof.
"Working on it, trucks are on their way," Helena calls back up to the others, using her time to think ahead to the next step. If they liquify Clayface, they're going to need a way to collect him. What's nearby that can be used to collect liquified mud man?
She scans the area, finally noting laundry strung between the buildings. Sheets, clothes…It's not the ideal situation - some people are going to be very unhappy about their laundry - but at least it might help keep him from forming back up. While she waits for the truck, Helena climbs up to the edge of the building, starting to work up a rig of the laundry lines and laundry so she can get them up to the roof when it's time.
The massive ball is jumped over, just /barely/ by a very agile Batgirl, but when the staff hits him, well — Catwoman could tell what he was going to do next. The staff is gripped, lost in Clayface's mass and drawn inwards. The creature uses that moment to snake another thick and muddied tendril out to ensnare Batgirl with, and as the head reforms it's drawing Batgirl towards it's maw, literally going to eat her. She can see into that wide, gaping hole, the sharp teeth that likely will, and could, rend flesh easily.
But then, Catwoman is reclaiming the electric batarang and it hits, unleashing it's charge on him and he screams in pain, a bellow that resounds across the block, sending shivers into anyone who hears it and isn't in the fight of a: what the hell was that?! sort of fear that something is hunting them, or on the prowl.
His form flails, shifting, and reshiting, masses twisting, spikes jutting, and then pooling from his form, and other shapes taken. Famous people. Homeless people. And insidious people. And then, the charge disspates.
And now Clayface begins to reform again. Only this time, he looks enraged. Before, he was just playing. Toying with them. Thinking them easy prey. But now, they've caused him pain. Suffering. "I'm going to tear you apart!" He bellows, one massive hand forming a spike club, the other a whip, much like Catwoman's.
And twisting around like a top, he begins to slap the whip erratically at Catwoman, and using the spiked ball of his other hand to keep Batgirl at bay.
Catwoman takes some grim satisfaction out of Clayface's suffering - considering all the pain he's caused - shielding her eyes from that flashing sparks of electricity tormenting the living mass of clay. When he starts to reform again, she readies her whip; but as he forms his own weaponry and winds up, her eyes get very wide. "… Oh, hell." She squeaks very softly, and then leaps backwards, repeatedly backflipping, handspringing backwards under and around the lashing of that giant whip before, on one occasion, landing on her shoulders, balancing there for a split second, before springing forward to land on her feet before lashing out with her whip. Once again it simply imbeds itself in the mass of clay, but this time she holds down a button on the whip that sends an electric current through her whip and into Clayface.
While Clayface is writhing in pain from the electrocution, Batgirl creates some distance between them, recovering her staff, and speaking quietly over the sub-vocal mikes. "Let us know when the water's ready. I have an idea for getting him to stand still then," she says to her teammates.
In the meantime, Batgirl dances back as the spiked club swings down at her in an overhand swing, doing a back flip to get out of the way just before it crashes into the roof, sending bits of the material flying in all directions.
As he hefts it again and pulls it back for another swing, Batgirl suddenly whips a batarang right into the club. There is a hiss of something colder than liquid nitrogen as Clayface swings the rapidly hardening club her way. Rather than retreat, Batgirl takes a two handed grip on her staff and swings it to meet the club, like Jose Altuve going for the deep seats.
Helena readies her absorption rig, then jogs over to the nearest fire hydrant, pulling back her hood and tugging down her mask. The joys of the holo-mask: she can look like she's being entirely transparent without having to actually show her face. Nice trick.
Nervously, she glances up toward the roof, keeping an eye on the others. Come one, fire men!
Apparently the all-femme Batcrew had come prepared. Clayface is met with another 'bout of electrical discharge, and again bellows, but this time the effect doesn't last as long, only because in one of the spasms part of himself unlinks with Selina's whip, leaving a small puddle of quivering clay where the whip was, but the rest of him reforming back.
Then the liquid nitrogen hits and it freezes his club-hand in place, thoroughly. There's no thawing that part of himself off, anytime soon. He 'drops' that arm and starts to regrow another - but his mass is somewhat lessened by the loss of the frozen spiked mace hand.
The quivering bit of clay makes it's way back to the mass, and then Clayface is digging two 'jaws of life' hands around the rooftops air-conditioner, and hefts it hard at Batgirl.
Down on the street, Helena will see the firetruck pulling up, the lights signaling their arrival and the men and women starting to get out to work on crowd dispersal and safety protocols.
Panting slightly, Catwoman backs away from Clayface's thrashing - weakened though it may be - and says "Blackbird, I hope you're ready!"
Batgirl smacks the frozen clay club with her metal staff, hands wringing at the impact. She looks back over towards the blob-like villian as he moves for the air conditioners. Batgirl backs away further, leaving Selina a little closer even as Batgirl is Clayface's current target. She tosses a regular batarang at Clayface to distract him, knowing it won't hurt him but then he doesn't know it doesn't have any attachments on it.
The air conditioner is launched her way and Batgirl slides forward, bending her knees and also her back until her shoulders are nearly pressing to the roof beneath her. The air conditioner flies past overhead, bouncing across the roof and then off of it to fall to an alley and smash to the ground below.
Batgirl, still bent over, gives too little hops and then lifts herself upright, singing, "All around the limbo clock, hey, let's do the limbo rock!" She pulls out another batarang, this one with a payload "How's that water coming?" she asks sub-vocally.
When the truck pulls up, Helena runs up to the captain. The outfit makes it clear she's in the cape category, but then…no mask. In fact, her hood and mask are down. Trust the nice, vulnerable cape.
"Captain!" she calls over, waving a gauntleted hand. "Captain, I wish I had more time to explain, but the city needs your help." She points up to the rooftop, to the chaos already taking face. "That's Clayface up there. He's the one who's been stirring up the city, pretending to be Batman. And right now, the best way to stop him is you and your men. If you hit him with the water from your hose, we can soak him up and get him safely put away."
Her gaze is steady, her features every bit as earnest as she ever learned from Uncle Steve. "Captain, we need the city's real heroes. Can you help us?"
"We just heard. It's all over the news," the Captain, a grizzled old man - the sort of fellow that could probably tell you all kinds of war stories, and how to survive in the woods for 30 days on nothing but scorpions and roots tells Blackbird. Though he squints, "Who are you? Nevermind. Alright, let's man the hoses, people!" The Captain says. "And someone call in for a containment truck for Clayface!" A woman and man move to help Blackbird with the hoses, while another man moves into the truck to get on the radio. "Rest of you get that crowd dispered. We don't need gawkers!" And, ordering his crew around like a boss, the Captain sets to work as a more mundane, and often unsung hero of the city along with those that clearly have trust in the man.
Clayface, meanwhile, snarls at Batgirl but then Catwoman is in his sights again and he decides to double-down on her. This time, his body creates a 'hole' around the targeted spot for the batarang, it passing right through him. Now, he uses those same 'jaws of life' hands to tear into the roof of the building itself, and pry a chunk of it apart, throwing it at Catwoman and charging at her. She, afterall, is the source of his ills.
That… is… a big chunk of concrete. Catwoman is visibly taken aback by what's coming her way, drawing increasingly rapid breaths of alarm before grunting sharply as its sent flying her way. Catwoman throws herself backwards, aiming to go underneath the flying debrie, and as her body goes horizontal, sailing backward, she mostly manages it, except the heavy chunk of concrete clips the top of her head, grinding against her forehead and breaking her goggles in half, prompting a sharp grunt of pain from Selina, who lands on her back, sliding across the rooftop, holding a hand over her face as blood begins to run down the side of her nose from a small wound on her forehead.
There's a soft click as Batgirl pops one of the smoke payloads off the batarang so it only carries half as much. It will make it a little more inaccurate, but then the duration of the smoke is more important than is her accuracy.
She winces as she sees Catwoman go down. Batgirl whips the unevenly weighted batarang over to stick in the roof at Clayface's feet. Smoke billows up from it, hiding Catwoman from his view and giving her time to recover herself. Though it also means they momentarily lose sight of Clayface.
"Blackbird. Thermals," she says under her breath as the breeze is already starting to clear the smoke from the batarang away.
"Blackbird," Helena answers the Captain, though it's followed by a wry smile. "Nobody," she corrects herself, turning her head to one corner of the downed hood to call up on the comms.
"Rainstorm coming in, ladies, brace yourselves!" Somebody's got to keep good relations with the public servants in the city, right?
Suddenly, and - rather unfortuantely, the wind picks up just after the smoke bomb went off. The thermals at least were a good choice for a precious few seconds. … or, maybe longer.
Because, suddenly as the smoke clears there are not one, but two Catwomen. With identical wounds. And, both making rather similiar sounds of discomfort.
Then, one of the Catwomen sees the other one, and, she's moving with agility and a sleekness to her movements that only years of training would provide, looking to Blackbird then, "Quick, get him!" She calls in a desperate, perfectly believable Catwoman voice under dire stress and who is near the brink of exhaustion in keeping CLayface 'busy'.
Except those who bought into Batgirl's wisdom would see the truth of the matter. This 'Catwoman' has no thermal heat.
Catwoman grunts and grimaces, her hand moving from the central wound to cover one eye, leaving the other one free to look out and see… herself.
A very surreal moment passes.
All at once, with a catlike growl, Selina lashes out with her claws to swipe at the imposter's face, but she's not fast enough to hit them as the doppleganger escapes her reach. Catwoman leaps to her feet, only to follow Clayface's gaze to her daughter, pure agitation in her eyes as her mind spins with how to resolve this, before she blurts out "Response P3N5!"
It WAS just between Bat-Family, after all.
Batgirl's optics in her mask switch over to thermal even as the smoke is there. She cannot see Clayface through the smoke, but can see Catwoman. Then the smoke clears, and Batgirl jumps forward to grab Catwoman, as if falling into Clayface's ruse.
Batgirl grabs the real Catwoman from behind, attempting to haul her back and away from the version whose body is the same temperature as the air around them. "Got you, get away from my friend!" she cries to sell it, as she's really just helping Catwoman get out of the way before the firehoses open up.
Hopefully.
At the call of thermals, Helena pulls her hood up enough to interact with her contacts and give her the thermal read. "The left!" she calls out to the firemen, starting to run over toward her laundry rig to be ready when the water hits.
The water is turned on, and the second Catwoman is suddenly hit with it. She screams, and tries to move, but the water follows her, sloughing off chunks of her and dissolving her into it's essense with the high pressure that it's hitting with. More and more of Clayface's mass is reduced, as the fake-Catwoman is revealed back into a continually diminishing Clayface — until there is nothing left, but a gigantic pool of dirty water on the rooftop, some of it sloughing off and dripping down the breech in the rooftop that Clayface had ripped out earlier.
But, the fight is clearly over. The femme-fatales had dealt with one of the more dire threats the city had faced in some time.
And, the welcomed sound of police sirens coming to provide backup, and containment, can be heard in the distance.
Well, watching herself scream and melt was an experience Selina could have comfortably grown old without ever experiencing. Too late now though. One more for the terapist, one supposes.
"No!" Catwoman had yelled when Batgirl pulled her back, not grasping, at first, that both were aware of which Catwoman was real. She settles down quickly, ceasing any squirming against Batgirl's grasp as she watches Clayface melt away, then heaves a heavy sigh. Holding a hand to her minor wound, she closes her eyes and says, "Good job, girls." Then adds, with a bit of a smile in her voice, "Kitten."
She looks down at the liquid mass that now constitutes Clayface and morbidly notes, "Now we just need a really big sponge."
Over the comm system, Batman, gruffily, though those closest to him will hear the pain in his tone. "Zsasz is down. Report."
Batgirl lets Catwoman go and smiles over to her as she rests a hand on her shoulder. "He doesn't have any body heat. Figured if we gave him a chance to impersonate someone he'd jump on it. Easier target for the hoses then." Batgirl checks her wound, and pulls out a bandage to offer it to her to help stop the bleeding. "I'll go help with the mop up," Batgirl says.
She turns to look at the runny mess of mud and wrinkles her nose. "Literally, with the mopping," she says. "Anyone got a bucket?" She moves over to help Helena with the laundry she'd found to soak him up with.
Over comms, she sends, "Clayface is contained, until we can get him to the dry cleaners."
When Clayface goes to mush, Helena pulls the line on the laundry, ready to soak up the mess until the police can arrive. There's no one to see the breath of relief that the others up top are okay, but she plays up the bravado as she heads back toward the firemen. "The real thanks go to the brave men and women of the Staten Island Fire Department," she says, holding a hand out to the Captain.
"Thank you, Captain. We mean that."
Blackbird: repairing relations with the authorities.