Summary:The Silver Samurai breaks into a Nightclub. Batgirl follows Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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"Batgirl. I have spotted the Samurai in your area. He looks dressed for trouble." Batgirl's patrols are pretty thorough. She coordinates with the other Bats, of course, but she has her own projects and areas of special interest so it's not exactly as though they're acting as one unit.
Samurai is two blocks over. Not very far at all. From what Oracle is feeding her he's just cut the lock on the back door of a nightclub and headed in with blade drawn. Which prooooobably means there's about to be a LOT of trouble in Batgirl's area.
Batgirl is independent of the Bats these days, still part of the family but she does her own thing. One of her special projects is tracking new vigilantes in the area - and the Samurai is of particular interest.
"I suppose that was done with a credit card…" The black clad Bat mutters to herself as the feed plays out on her hud and she starts moving. Two blocks don't take her long to traverse but enough time that the Silver Samurai will be into whatever trouble he's looking for by the time she gets there.
"Get me the feeds from the interior of that club and try to keep eyes on the man." She tells Oracle.
When she gets near, the redheaded Bat crouches on the edge of a building overlooking that door, assessing the situation before just running in.
"Accessing interior feeds." There is a delay as Oracle has to get into the system and ideally do so quietly enough that it doesn't trip their security. About thirty seconds later though the feeds come up on Babs' hud. She has eyes on the Samurai who is moving through the club with blade drawn but held in a reverse grip close to his body. The dancing masses don't notice the sword so low down. The crowd is too thick. People usually only see it after he has passed them.
"Scanning potential targets. Batgirl. There are three local Yakuza bosses in a meeting on the third level. I cannot identify the person they are meeting with but I estimate a 84.67% probability that this is his target. Given the crowd size I estimate he will be at the door in one minute and twenty two seconds."
Oracle is VERY helpful with the data tonight. Being outside, and having a swing line, Batgirl does have a better and faster shot at that room. The question is, really, what is Samurai going to do when he gets there and does she want to interrupt it.
"Get the room layout, Oracle, I want a place I can watch." Batgirls face twists under her mask as she considers. "And remind me to give him a communicator. I want to be able to nag him."
She has to maneouvre to get in a position to access a window, that doesn't take much to do. The ingress to the building brings her through an office, which empties out into that mezzanine level. She wants to watch for a moment before deciding which way she's going to lean.
Because, after all, the Yakuza and her have a problem.
"Do you really think he would take it?" The Oracle sasses Batgirl. "Here is your best vantage point. You may have to suspend yourself from the ceiling to get it." The room layout quickly comes up. "His ETA is thirty seconds."
In the top right corner of her HUD Batgirl sees a pair of guards confront Samurai. He incapacitates both of them without actually using the edge of his blade. One gets his jaw shattered by the pommel but you know. These things happen.
And then he kicks open the door and the mob bosses turn to look. The shadowy presence at the end of the table glowers.
"Swordsman…" That voice. Batgirl knows that voice. That's Eurayle's voice.
"Suspend myself from the ceiling? Maybe I need to find one of those Spiders." Batgirl smirks under her mask at the sass "Remind me to look at your programming, you're getting a bit too big for your britches. No, I don't think he'd take it, but I can be … persistent."
"Oh, look. My new best friend…"
The black clad tumbles to the ground and skulks in the shadows.
Behind the Gorgon.
She knows who's side she's on now … It just a matter of time before she does anything.
The Samurai reaches up and lays a hand on the hilt of the second blade he has. The one he hasn't yet drawn. The black one. The mob bosses reach for weapons. Samurai leaps up onto the table and cuts a pistol in half right down the center.
"So. You would throw your lot in with her. You have no honor." He glowers.
"On the contrary Samurai…" The shadowy form of a gorgon rises up to full height. She's huge.
"They are greatly honored by me. For they are wise enough to bow to the true kings and queens of the earth."
"We shall see about that. You have tasted my blade once before. This time, you shall make a full meal of it."
The gorgon laughs. "I think not…"
From her vantage point Batgirl can see shimmers in the air. Vague outlines of winged humanoids nearly invisible. Sylphs possibly. Air faeries.
They're behind Ken.
Honour? They're Yakuza. They have no honour as far as Batgirl is concerned. To try use a mans student against him, one who is obviously impaired, is far from honourable. Not that she's given much time to think on it, she stares as the Gorgon rises - that's different - and then at the shadowy forms.
Ken will feel the air move around him as two Batarangs whisk by - these ones are treated with cold iron. Batgirl had them made specially. She's only a handful at the moment.
The two batarangs hit home and the creatures they hit instantly become visible. They have blue tinged skin and white hair and they cry out in pain and fall to the ground writhing.
The room explodes into action. Someone - it's not quite clear exactly who - fires a gun. The Samurai draws his second sword, cuts the table in half with his first and then kicks one of the mob bosses into his chair which tips over and slams him into the wall. Four more sylphs appear in the corners of the room and dive inward and in all that chaos…
… Eurayle turns around and sees Batgirl. "I remember you." She says, advancing on the woman. "Tell me. Has Fear broken your little Orphan yet?"
The sound of the gun in such a confined space has Batgirl freezing in place for a moment. That moment might prove fatal though perhaps it won't, as she sees the Sylphs appearing. Her hand dips into a pocket of her utility belt and comes out with a handful of what looks dust … that she throws in an arc around the room. Iron filings.
"Call your pets of Eurayle…" Batgirl draws her escrima sticks from her back. They have a sheen to them this time, that haven't had before. "Or taste the oil that I used to season my weapons."
When Barbara freezes Eurayle's eyes glow. Those are the only parts of her that can be seen clearly anyway but this… this is more than she's seen before. Power goes out from them and Batgirl feels a stiffness set into her joints. A hardness to her skin. An urge to just be still forever more and a coldness about her heart.
She can shake it. But can she do so before two of the Sylphs dive in on her with swords made of magical thorns?
Further out in the room Samurai draws the other blade and everyone can feel the pure EVIL in it. There's a glow that Batgirl can't entirely see but she knows what it is.
"Fatalities, Batgirl!" Oracle warns. The samurai has killed both of the Faeries and one of the mob bosses. The other is sent fleeing, ignored as the swordsman turns on Eurayle herself.
Can Batgirl shake it? She fights it, pushing with her mind and the stubborness that has served her so well in the last ten years. Slowly she starts to move, swinging the escrima sticks in a practiced arc - though much more clumsily than she usually would.
The sticks have been coated in holy oil.
She tries to parry the sword of thorns and disarm the Sylphs. "Samurai …" the rest of the warning is bitten off. Arguing here and now won't serve them and he's letting the Yakuza flee.
The gorgon woman easily dodges Batgirl's stiff, clumsy strikes, but the diving Sylphs are already committed. One of them catches a stick. The thorn blade doesn't bite into it. In fact it slides off with several thorns broken and the edge blunted. The force of the parry causes the sylph to hit a window and lose balance.
Then Samurai is there swinging both blades like almost literal poetry in motion. Eurayle dances back to avoid being hit but one of the Sylphs loses their wings in the melee.
"There is a price to be paid for using such tools." She hisses.
"I know." Is all the swordsman replies.
The gorgon's eyes narrow and she looks at Batgirl. "You hate it don't you. That he kills. Do you really think he's going to change that? It goes against everything you are."
She really likes trying to make people question one another.
"That is not between you and I, Eurayle." Batgirl answers, now free of the Gorgons spell. She's moving like she should now, muscle memory letting her flow through the forms. With one Sylph off balance and the second de-winged that leaves two for the redheaded Bat to deal with.
Does she hate it? Good question.
Spinning around, the sticks are placed in one hand, as Batgirl gets another handful of iron filings. Some are tossed at Sylph by the window and the rest at the dewinged one.
There's no words for The Samurai, but he knows. And … the feel of that sword. It is just … wrong.
The swordsman smirks. "Try your honeyed words elsewhere, Eurayle." And then, blades spinning, he goes after her again. There's only so much room in this room and while the gorgon is quick, the swordsman is skilled. The two remaining Sylphs get put down. One of them by actually being struck and crashing through the window thanks to the batarang. The de-winged one doesn't have a chance to dodge.
By that point the Gorgon-shadow is flowing out the door. "All your rage for naught." She hisses back though to whom is not clear.
And then Batgirl and Samurai are just… there. In a ruined room with loud club music pumping outside.
Batgirl is breathing heavily. She had to exert herself for that fight and the feeling of being frozen wasn't pleasant. Maybe The Silver Samurai hadn't noticed the freeze - if she's lucky. He had been busy otherwise, hadn't he?
"She seeks to divide us. Set us at each others throat." The black clad woman says as she starts to stock, and collect those batarangs. "I need to work on my arsenal. Get more of my tools with cold forged iron in them. And see about having my escrima sticks endowed with some protection."
How many are dead? Batgirl starts to take stock of each being she can find, determining if they are alive or dead and what they might be carrying.
"How did you know she'd be here?"
.~{:--------------:}~.
"Cold forged iron will only work against certain types of Faerie. It won't do anything against other monsters." The Samurai very deliberately wipes both blades clean and puts them away. Black blade first, then the normal one.
"I got lucky. I heard from my Yakuza friend that several bosses were meeting with a powerful and unusual underworld figure. My contact knew that I had been investigating this syndicate - whatever it is - and knew it would be of interest to me. I did not know that it would be her, it could have been one of her lieutenants. But it was worth the risk either way."
If he'd been able to pin her down he might have gotten answers but she was again not physically present. She was projecting herself in some way though she seems to be vulnerable to the black blade even so.
"And how did you make that discovery?"
There are four dead confirmed. Three pixies - the one whose wings were cut off bled out - and one Japanese mob boss. The other sylph is unaccounted for but did go out the window, so probably isn't in great shape. The only one who MIGHT have something on them is the human. The rest of them aren't wearing enough to be concealing anything.
Batgirl watches as the blades are cleaned and put away, a frown creasing her brow as she checks the casualties. "Makes sense but you came here with an intent to kill them all? Or was it something else?" It's hard to tell her tone behind her modulator.
"Oracle knows many things." Is the answer she gives to his question. "They told me you were here and they knew you had an interest in the Yakuza. I thought I'd check in on it. I'm glad I'm did."
"Did you have to kill them?" beat "Iron works to greater degree than not having it. Treating my escrima sticks in holy oil also does. As I work out their weaknesses, I'll that to my arsenal but I work with what I know and I have."
"Only this one had anything. A wallet and id and …" she's still rifling through his pockets.
"Ito Ichimura." Samurai says helpfully. "Local leader of the Lin-Kai Yakuza clan. Third son of the Ito family. Age 29." Beat. "Mediocre swordsman."
Oracle confirms everything that Samurai says and gives more. Home address. Business interests. Known recent activities. He's been seen frequenting two areas previously identified as Hand drug production zones but now thought to be abandoned as the Hand have largely been pushed out of Staten Island. Not completely so, but mostly.
There's something interesting in his right pocket. It's a packet of honey. Greek honey, specifically. Imported. And not sold anywhere around here, from what Oracle can find.
"Yes I did have to kill them. Better they die then that fight go poorly." Samurai had promised to refrain from lethal violence unless he felt it warranted to retain control of the fight - which is to say unless he thought his own safety was on the line. Clearly he did in this case.
"Note this ones details to visit his places, Oracle." beat "Your friend here has a tie to the Hand drug operations that have been run off the Island. Judging by his presence here, I'd say he was trying to negotiate a new alliance. Of course, if you left some alive, we'd be able to confirm that."
She shakes her head as her gloved fingers close over the packet of the honey. "Hmmmm. Oracle, Greek Honey. I seem to recall something Melissae, Nymphs associated with honey bee's?" She looks at the winged Sylphs and then at Ken.
"Why would your friend have honey on him when visiting here? Clearly he expected to make an offering…"
"Well he was trying to shoot me and nearly succeeded. Better luck next time." Samurai tells Batgirl. It's not clear if he means better luck trying to shoot him or better luck having her prospective interrogate-ee not killed during the fight. Could be either.
"Ancient Greeks did sometimes offer honey to the gods rather than wine. I know for a fact that he doesn't use it in his tea."
The way he even says it, it sounds sacrilegious.
"He has some on his shoe. Perhaps he poured it out and stepped in it by mistake. There's a lot of… something else on his shoe too."
There is. Metal dust, from the looks of it.
"Have you heard of maiming and disabling? Maybe I should teach you how to do that. And maybe next time someone will get lucky enough to shoot you." She's clearly not happy about the human being dead. How she feels about the creatures? It's hard to tell.
"Who, in their right mind, puts honey in their tea?" The black clad woman answers. That might give Samurai more information about her then she realises but the redhead really is distracted."So an offering for a greek god. He could have known he was meeting Eurayle and … maybe she styles herself Goddess…"
Bending down, Batgirl inspects the shoe. "Like my iron filings. Open his shirt - he was loaded for Fae."
"Or it could be that Eurayle has deific contacts of some kind." Hard to rule these things out. Samurai, gives Batgirl a look. "Are you aware quite how difficult and dangerous disabling someone in a fight is, Batgirl?"
She seems to know her way around a fight, which means that she ought to know that the reason lethal combat is the standard the world over and not non-lethal combat is because most of the ways of incapacitating someone in the fight are merely 'almost killing them' in very specific ways. And a skilled opponent will nearly ALWAYS make that more trouble than it is worth.
Ken opens the shirt and indeed he was loaded for fae but not in a very professional way.
"This looks like grinding dust or something similar. He scooped it up off the ground. There's dirt mixed in. Means he was at a tool shop or work site."
The question gets Batgirls expressionless mask looking at the Samurai "Yes. And I'm quite good at it." Is all she says. She's well aware that a lethal fight is the universal standard but that's not their way. "Like I said. Perhaps I should teach you."
Cutting wit.
"So it does and it seems he's read fairy tales about how to deal with this." The black clad woman answers "Oracle. Pull the video feeds and see if you can't track our Ichimura-san's movements leading up to coming here. We're looking for a tool shop or work site he might have visited, I suspect we'll find their base of operations there."
"If that is true then you know quite well why I don't. You may be willing to risk your neck for your morals. I am not." This is a short version of a conversation they had previously. It's a bit of a bind really partly because Samurai IS an asset and an ally and partly because he's good enough that even a multiple-on-one fight against him - say with some of Batgirl's allies - is likely to go extremely poorly. The best option would be just to shoot him. Which… they won't.
"Playing back…" Oracle begins tracking Ichimura's movements backwards. Okay. There's driving, hanging out at a bar, a restaurant meeting. Wait. There. A visit to a construction site. That's where he grabbed the grinding dust. At minimum that means the Yakuza is involved in the construction of that tower. That's on Staten Island. It's one of the redevelopments.
"Hmmmph." Yes, Samurai hears that. He likely doesn't imagine the conversation the redhead is going to have with the others. The Samurai is an asset but a dangerous one - and often the Bats just don't care. A killer is a killer.
"Have you got everything you need from here?" Batgirl asks as the video plays out as a projection on her suit. "I'm going to visit that site and see what I can find. Given dead men tell no tales."
"Seems to me like he's telling us a tale right now." The Samurai counters. "But yes, I am finished here. I would say I have what I came for but I was hoping to pin down Eurayle or whomever she had sent. Unfortunately she is just too slippery in that shadow form, or shadow spell. Or whatever it is."
Though she also quite CLEARLY doesn't want to fight Samurai. Not with that black blade, at any rate.
"And what, may I ask, are you going to look for when you get to that site?"
Batgirls mask turns to the Samurai one more time, the ears on it making the gesture even more pointed. "Not as much as he could or would. And who knows we're reading the same tale that he wrote?" beat "Eurayle doesn't want to fight you, not yet at least." Spell work. Yuck. Batgirl doesn't know any mages. Maybe Phobos does.
"What am I going to do? Not kill anyone to start with." Another pointed statement. "And I'm going to look for clues. See what we … I … " she corrects herself "… can find about what the Yakuza are doing, aligning with Eurayle and her cronies now."
"Perhaps you would like to speak with one that is both living and sympathetic then?" The swordsman says as he half turns, looking over his shoulder and largely expecting Batgirl to make her exit out the window. The Bats DO seem to like their ziplines.
"I can arrange that. You just have to promise not to have them arrested afterwards." Not like they'd have much evidence but when has that ever stopped the Bats, honestly.
Batgirl certainly isn't going out through the club below. Dressed as she is, she'll get propositions. Ones that she'll have to decline and most not politely. So the window it is. Thank heavens for her zipline.
"If your contact isn't in the process of committing a crime, I won't have them arrested." The Samurai sees her fire her gun and the woman perch in the window. "I … would like that. Thank you."
She stops, reaching into her utility belt to withdraw a small device. "An OracleNet communicator. If you use it, I will be able to tell you if I'm crashing your parties in future and you can contact Oracle whenever you want."
The Silver Samurai catches it and pockets it. He looks back at her and nods. "That would be appreciated. I might be worried about you snooping on me but apparently your Oracle is all seeing."
Is she though? Is she really all seeing? Well no but hopefully the Samurai never finds that out. "Contact me within a couple of days and I will arrange the meeting. You'll want to be in costume I imagine, so it will be slightly tricky, but we will make it work."
Batgirl makes no comments on the extent of Oracles abilities. They mystique is part of the part of the VI's power.
"I will do that and yes. You sound like I might not be in costume sometimes. The only time that happens is when I shower and you're never likely to be there for that."
On that snarky comment, the woman launches herself from the window and is soon on her way to the construction site.