Summary:The Silver Samurai causes a ruckus - again. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
Related LogsTheme SongNone |
  |
There are nights when things are nice and quiet and simple. Tonight is not one of those nights.
"Batgirl. He's doing it again."
He is, indeed, doing it again. The Silver Samurai is inside a night club and lets just say that normal operations are not in force. And he's the reason.
Outside the building three windows break as people just fly out of them. They probably won't be getting up but they're also not dead. Gunfire sounds inside.
Yeah, it's a mess.
"Is he now? Do you think I should get some popcorn and just enjoy the show this time?" Batgirl answers as she guns the engine of her bike and sends it roaring down the street. "I mean, it's always entertaining and then I can listen to him tell all the things he does for me. Or better yet, how the Bat Family is a Crime Family."
She's not miffed. No, not at all. And it's got nothing to do with the fact that she's a redhead.
"Give me the feeds of the club, Oracle. You know the drill and send him a message telling him his sweetheart is on the way." The bike speeds down the street and takes the corner at a clip, expertly ridden by the original Batgirl.
When she gets to the club, the bike is set to rest in the shadows with the redhead electing to use the side door this time. "Where am I going, Oracle?"
"The Shattered Heart. Appropriate name. Just listen for the sound of breaking glass and gunfire. You'll find it. The alarm went out but not to the police. They are not yet responding. It will take until 911 calls get out for them to do so."
It's only about a mile away and indeed the message goes though as Batgirl instructed.
"He is responding. Do you want the full audio or just to know that he grunted in what might have been annoyance." The VI sounds amused.
"He's on the second floor. He's working his way up toward the roof. There is a helicopter landing. It is likely that his targets are escaping."
"I programmed you too well." Batgirl mutters under her breath. "I suppose he said something like 'lovely'. No need for the replay. Patch him through on the comms though now I'm onsite. I'm heading to the roof." Her rappel gun fires and hooks onto the roof, before slowly towing her upwards. "Can you slow them down, Oracle? Delay their entry onto the roof? Is Mister Grumpy Pants listening?"
This is where she has to be careful. Batgirl doesn't want to just appear on the roof. There's guns and despite her dark clothing, she'll still make a lovely target.
Gloved fingers grip the guttering as the redhead heaves herself up, poking her head just high enough to see how things are.
"It was something like that, yes Batgirl. Mister Grumpy Pants is on the line."
"Batgirl?" The Japanese accented english comes through clearly. "I think you might be stalking me." Ah yes. Well. That's definitely the Samurai.
"I am attempting to slow them down but there are limited electronic means of doing so and they are highly motivated. I do not think they wish to meet the Samurai."
The helicopter that is landing is a common civilian make. Luxury kind of vehicle that CEO's use when they're too cool to be in traffic. Three armed guards dismount. There really isn't room for more plus the passengers coming up. Fortunately they're not expecting anyone on the roof and not looking for Batgirl's ears.
"In your dream, Silver Samurai." Comes the tart response from Batgirl. "I'm really only stalking the mayhem you cause. You know there's more discrete ways of dealing with these people." She says as she peers over the edge. "I'm on the roof by the way, three armed men are waiting to receive their guests. I'm going to take them down."
Flipping herself over the edge, the black clad figure tosses a flash bang at their feet, sending a batarang flying quickly after it.
Moving quickly to the piece of superstructure to her right, Batgirl ducks down, expecting a spray of bullets anytime now.
"That should draw their attention."
"You might also be stalking me in my dreams. You are rather disconcerting." Comes the reply. There's more breaking glass below her. Someone got tossed out a window, again. "There was not time for discrete."
The spray of bullets comes as expected. Batgirl isn't there when it lands. But now she has to take advantage of the disorientation her device has bought her. It won't last too long. Fortunately, they're all relatively clustered together. Unfortunately she still has whirling helicopter rotors to worry about.
"Batgirl. ETA on the fleeing crime bosses, forty five seconds. The Samurai is gaining on them fast. He should be right on their heels.
"Would you like that? For me to stalk you in your dreams?" Batgirl has probably been around Nightwing too much. Or maybe it was being left to translate for Batman yesterday. "That might be fun, to do that." beat "But it *was* time to be discrete… wasn't it?"
Another batarang flies out, this time with a bolo, to tangle around the gunmens legs and bring them down.
"Oracle, do we have anything to take over the management of the helicopter systems?" Probably not. The redhead thinks. "If they shoot the bird, it's not anywhere …" She takes a deep breath, crouches and run. "Is that the best you can do?" She taunts.
Probably not her brightest move, but she is going to duck under those blades and run behind the chopper - hopefully while they try to fire.
"Do you see police here? No, you do not. This is still fairly discrete." The retort comes.
Batgirl's gambit banks on the hired muscle having really poor trigger discipline and for two of them that isn't true. But it only needs to be true for one who tracks the moving shadow with his automatic weapon and winds up shooting up the tail rotor.
It is at that moment that four people emerge from the roof exit into the main building. There's the sound of gunfire inside, then a yell and no more gunfire. Samurai comes out right behind them.
And the helicopter is smoking.
And one of the guards tangled up in bolos. He isn't going anywhere.
"Surrender!" Samurai calls out in rather curt english.
"I think not." Replies a german accented man as he begins change. Lumpy and mishapen with a long nose.
Troll. It's a troll.
"I suppose the tail rotor will do." The redhead mutters as scrapnel explodes around her. "Would have been better if it was the engine but I'm not complaining. Not really." She's talking to herself. Or to Oracle. Take your pick.
Tumbling and rolling to her feet, the black clad bat turns as the Samurai appears. "Now come on, I'd say you're trolling but that's just low hanging fruit now. Can't you give me more to work with? Oh! I know, where are the Billy Goats Gruff?"
"Oracle, Lore on trolls. Burning will kill them. Popular myth says if you cut off a limb it grows back or another troll grows from it. Anyway to disable this creature without killing it?"
The woman hasn't stopped moving. Circling around to keep on the side furthest from Ken.
There's still gunmen in play. And the other apparent humans themselves. One of them fires at the Samurai and - somehow - he slices the bullet out of midair. That might be luck or just he knew that he had the blade lined up because Batgirl knows he isn't that fast or that perceptive. Another slash of his blade cuts the gun off above the grip disarming the man though not literally.
"Scanning Batgirl. There is insufficient hard data to make a determination. Shall I read off other sources?" Meaning normally unreliable ones. Myth, conspiracy theory, and so on.
The Samurai spins and slices into the beast but despite cutting his arm off at the wrist, yes, it just starts to grow back.
"Are you going to build a bridge over me, girl?" The troll growls.
"That's impressive…." Yes, Batgirl saw that as she moves. "Please Oracle. I can just hear Nightwing and Batman now if I immolate the creature." Somehow, she doesn't think there is anything. And if there were, where the hell would they keep him?
Silver Samurai isn't wrong about that, not that Batgirl will admit that loudly.
"You might like the bridge rather than stiletto's. Or perhaps you'll need the bridge to get over me." That arm is freaky and Batgirl sends another bolo-batarang flying, to tangle around the Trolls ankles.
"I won't need anything to get over you. You'll be flatter than a-AUGH!" While the Samurai had not been bantering he had been maneuvering and when Batgirl tangled the troll up he moves in and sliced into it's back. Not bothering to divest it of limbs he simply hacked the spine vertically and sent the troll sprawling. It's healing and rapidly but at least for the moment it can't move.
"Batgirl. Inferential evidence suggests that caustic chemicals may inhibit the creature's healing factor. Anything sufficient to cause protein denaturing."
Well the Bats probably don't carry that but there might be something in the helicopter's fluid systems?
"Remind to start carrying caustic soda, Oracle." Batgirl mutters, winceing behind her mask as the Samurai slices the trolls spin. "I believe that I'm very well endowed, thankyouverymuch." She quips to the Troll, moving quickly to the now defunct helicopter and prying open the engine compartment.
Taking hoses from the engine the redhead sprays fluid in the germans direction. "Careful, this might sting a bit."
%xaustic liquid pours into the cut on his back while the Samurai turns to deal with the others, some of whom had tried to escape back into the building. It doesn't take long. He is, after all, a supreme swordsman. The troll cries out in pain and crawls toward Batgirl but he can't seem to do much more than twitch.
Then the Samurai's blade comes down in front of him.
"No more of that or we will test how great your healing powers truly are. You moved several artifacts tonight. Where?"
"Do you think I am really going to tell you."
"Yes. Before or after I have cut your tongue out for the twentieth time, I do not care."
Batman would possibly not approve? Then again his tongue does regenerate, like the rest of him.
"I have more of that…" Batgirl cautions as the Troll crawls across the roof towards her. "And I'm not afraid to use it." What the hell are they going to do with this thing. Send it to SHIELD? Another one?
They need a better solution.
"Tell us where, what they were and who's involved." The modulated voice is really quite calm. "I know your tongue will grow back, so I don't mind letting the Samurai here, have a bit of fun."
To emphasise the point, the redhead spills a little more fluid on the ground, letting splash over the misshapen face.
The troll grunts and glares up at Batgirl. Samurai crouches down, hand resting on the hilt of his blade. "So. How about it?"
The troll glares sullenly for a long moment. Samurai shrugs and picks up his blade. "Wait. Fine. They were moved into the underground. The old smugglers tunnels beneath the sewer system."
The Bats know of those. They're only partly mapped at best and absolutely labyrinthine.
"Why?"
"Medusa wanted them kept safe. She had her own people do it."
"Medusa." That name again. Not Eurayle though, Medusa. "You handed the artifacts off to Medusa's people? So you aren't working for her or do you know where in the tunnels they were moved?"
The black clad woman doesn't move, but lets a little more fluid spill to the ground. "What were the artifacts? You didn't say …" beat "And why does she want them kept safe."
"You mean Eurayle." Samurai says.
"No. Medusa." Interesting. So that wasn't just a slip of the tongue from someone who doesn't know that the proper term is Gorgon.
"Large stone spheres." Samurai supplies for the troll. "Carved marble. Imported, so it is said, from Greece and carved from marble found in ancient ruins." How he'd heard that is a good question but he does clearly have his sources, that's evident from prior incidents.
"I do not know. But they were imported specifically on her orders."
Batgirls hooded face settles on Samurais when he makes the correction. She had assumed the Troll knew what he was talking about. She'd been right but it never hurt to test those hypothesises. Medusa, a sister of Eurayle.
"Do you have images of them." That's direct to Ken though her attention quickly returns to the Troll.
"You know where she's keeping them safe, though, don't you?"
"Yes, but not here." Probably on his phone or maybe elsewhere stored electronically. The Samurai looks down at the troll who looks sullenly back.
"No." He sneers. "Cut me tongue out as much as you like for that one."
The underground is a big area to search and it tends to be a bit… infested with criminals. That is going to be a difficulty if they don't have a way to narrow it down. But even if the troll can't tell them, there might still be ways.
"Send them to Oracle when you can, they can see what they can find on them." Now's not the time to discuss those though.
"Hmmm. Do you believe he can't tell us, Samurai?" Batgirl, for all her talk doesn't really want to harm the Troll.
Well, not really.
"Then why don't you tell us what you do know and how we might find where they were taken. Hydraulic fluid is *very* easy to come by, I could have an unending supply."
"I've told you most of it." The troll glowers. "The artifacts were imported, we turned them over to Medusa. They're very important to her. Her own people took it from there. Greeks." He grunts, snorts really. Sort of derisively.
"Are you sure?" Samurai presses, glancing at Batgirl. Does he believe that it's all the man knows?
"I'm sure for fuck's sake!!"
"Language!" Batgirl chides the Troll. "What's your name, anyway? I'm Batgirl and this is the Silver Samurai." She's being pleasant, isn't she. "Most, but not all. Really, you need to be more careful with the words that you use…"
"Where did the hand off take place? And when you say Greeks, do you mean humans or do you mean mythological beings like yourself?"
Does she believe they have everything? Not really. But they've possibly got all they're going to get. What to do with him, though?
"Why the fuck do you want to know that? Down at the import warehouses, not that it will do you any good. There isn't anything there anymore." The troll starts to try to push himself up only for the Samurai to cut him on the back again. "OW!"
"Don't move. I didn't say you could move." Silver Samurai says.
"I don't know what her people are. I just know they're her people. You don't ask those kinds of questions if you don't need to know."
As the Samurai slices, Batgirl splashes more fluid. "Seriously, they weren't wrong when they said trolls were dumb. I asked your name and I expect it." The import warehouse. That's going to get a visit. There's all sorts of clues that get left behind. "Oracle, pull the feeds from the Import warehouse, send them to the Samurai and I. Go back twenty four hours to start with."
Won't help them much, huh?
"Speaking of that, would you like to live, Mister troll?" This is going to cause problems with the Samurai, she's sure. "And not have caustic chemicals splashed on you?"
"Klaus." The Troll says flatly. Is that actually his name? Samurai has no idea. Maybe it is or maybe it's just like telling someone that your name is Jack so that they leave you alone.
"And.. .y-yes?" He'd like to live. Bats don't kill do they?
"I don't see why we care if he wants to live." Samurai says, picking his sword up to place on his shoulder.
"As in Santa?" Batgirl asks. It's probably good her voice is modulated. The teasing tone is masked out.
"Wouldn't you like an informant, Samurai? Klaus, you're not employed by anyone right now, are you?" The black clad woman folds her arms and watches the supine troll. "You'd like to make some friends that won't kill you in exchange for information, wouldn't you?"
"Sure. Santa." The troll says flatly. "I would oh so very much like to make friends who don't want to kill me in exchange for information. It's my favorite kind." Yes he's saying the right words but he's not happy. Why would he be? "All these other guys are knocked out right? They're not hearing this."
"They're knocked out." Samurai doesn't answer Batgirl's question as to whether he'd like an informant. He's got objections but he will raise them later.
It's the fact that Klaus isn't happy that sets Batgirls mind at ease. "Good. We can be very good friends if you play nicely. You will become an informant for me and the Samurai. You will tell us what Medusa, and Eurayle and any of that group are planning. We will know where to find you…"
The woman fishes in her utility belt and pulls out a tracker, bending down to stick into one of the wounds. When it heals, the tracker will be embedded - and she's put where the troll will have trouble reaching. "If you try to remove that, I'll be on you before you can and you'll be covered in caustic chemicals, are you clear on that?"
"Fine. Are you going to help me up?"
"No." Samurai says as he steps back. The troll will PROBABLY heal in time. For now though he and Batgirl need to be leaving. Something which he makes quite plain as he goes to secure a rappel line to the side of the building. Then he's off. Batgirl will follow.
Once on the ground he makes for an area that will be free of police intrusion WHEN they finally arrive.
"Of course not. You're a fine healthy troll." Batgirl answers following the Samurai and disappearing over the edge.
"I'm heading down to the Import Warehouse to take a look around. There might be some clues as to where to where the goods were taken." She thinks on that for a moment "Oracle will have the feeds for us to review at some point. We may be able to track them from that."
"Would you like to come with me so you can yell at some?"
"I will come with you." Samurai says curtly as they begin to move. "You do realize that he will not honor that agreement. And he will look for a chance to get his revenge."
He seems quite certain of that. That Klaus will not be their informant. Is that because he knows something though, or is that because he just thinks the way he does. With Samurai it could be either.
"Working on those feeds, Batgirl."
"My bike is over here, get on." Batgirl gestures, almost as a curt as the Samurai. "Are you speaking from experience? You know for a fact that he will betray us?"
In a way she's expecting it but she couldn't allow him to be killed. He was a sentient being - stupid, but then many of the criminals they deal with are stupid.
"How would you have dealth with him, Samurai." Batgirl guns the engine of her bike, he's going to have to lean close to speak to her. The ride won't be long … but it might hair raising.
"The criminals you are dealing with are bound by more than a simple criminal code. They operate under oaths that bind more than simply words. Even if he is not oath sworn to the Gorgon he spoke with, he will not wish to risk being turned to stone. I do have some experience trying to turn them. It has not generally worked well for me."
Samurai rides as well, she knows. He knows how to lean and move when Batgirl gets creative.
"I would have killed him. Better to deal with him now while at the advantage then have to do so later when it is more dangerous and less convenient. Or do you think that this is the last time you will have to defeat him?"
It's not so creative - but she does know how to corner, barely slowing as she opens the motor up.
"And maybe we can turn him to our cause. If he betrays us, we'll know and we can put things in place to guard against it. That tracker I implanted will give us information at the least." She's silent, letting the bike take some of the frustration she's experiencing "No, I don't. However, that's a way of life for us, isn't it." She means the Bats of course.
The warehouse isn't far now.
"That is foolish. For your enemy will not respect your mercy. And while you let him go he will continue to work against you. And when you next fight, he may kill you. There is nothing that you gain from this. If perhaps you could turn him that would be one thing, but he would have to be more afraid of you than he is of his current employer."
And is he? Maybe. The Bats are good at that with mundane criminals. But these monsters that are sprinkled into their numbers, these monsters that are running things at the high levels, they don't seem to regard humans as anything more than food or entertainment. And Samurai knows that.
"And do you know that he is not?" Batgirls bike pulls up out a short distance from the Import Warehouse. "Oracle, feeds for the warehouse, please." They appear on Samurai's phone and her hud. "It looks clear to go in and take a look, but becareful, there may be things that camera's don't pick up."
Gesturing to a door, the redhead gives a 'be my guest' gesture. Samurai can use his sword for that, right? Not a paperclip, that will take too long.
"I do plan to just 'drop in' and speak with him, you know. I might not look intimidating, but I'm told I can be."
"Without meaning to be disrespectful, Batgirl, I am not afraid of you. I do not suppose he is. Perhaps he should be, but I do not think that he is." That is of course an observation based on his own experiences. It could be wrong. But again he seems confident. Then again, the Silver Samurai generally seems quite confident.
The feeds come up. The warehouses are empty but for security which looks bored and is not very numerous. Perfect time to break in and take a look around.
"If you do drop in on him be careful. He may decide to try you for another round."
"Maybe I'll take my big brother." Batgirl answers. Who she is talking about is a good question. "I've not given you reason to be afraid of me, so I'm glad you are not. And I'm well aware what I look like, dressed like this."
"Open the door then and we'll head in. Oracle will take care of the alarms for us. If need be, send security looking in another direction."
Once inside, Batgirl lets out a breath "Oracle, where did Klaus do the handoff?" Keeping to the shadows, she leads them onwards. "We're looking for anything that might tell us where they took the goods. Dirt, algae, detritus. People leave all sorts of signs they're not aware of."
"Do you really think killing them is the only way to deal with them?"
"Do you have a better option?" The Samurai asks. "You cannot intimidate them, you cannot imprison them, you cannot persuade them to your side. What other options does that leave you?" Because in Samurai's mind letting them fight you over and over and over isn't an option. Or rather it's a fool's option.
"Southeast Corner, Batgirl. There is a fenced off section that contains imports which require special customs attention. It is alarmed but I will disable it."
"Well. You look there. I will look in the manager's office. I am less of a detective."
There is some detritus. Dirt from boots. Algae from the water. Scrapings that might be skin or dried blood. All things that need a crime lab to analyze but critical clues nonetheless.
"Maybe it's time to find a way to imprison them. Killing isn't always the way the way, you know." Batgirl answers. "Are you telling me there is no way in that world to bring criminals to task? That the only way of handling is to kill them?"
She shakes her head. "And what stops the anarchy?" Ken might pick up that she's not arguing to never kill but that trying to find a way to balance this.
"Be careful. As I said, not all of these being may show on camera." Batgirl nods and heads towards the fenced off section.
"Well, there's some stuff here." She says into the comms, Samurai will hear her - he may just decide not to respond. "Someone scraped themselves against the door frame here. And someone didn't wipe their boots before entering." Bending she starts to collect the samples - putting them into sealable bags that disapper into her utility belt.
"Not you." The Samurai replies. "You're not even upholding the actual law."
There's a pause as he rustles around inside the office, clearly going through the desk and the file cabinets. "And we are not talking about criminals are we? We are talking about monsters of myth and legend. How exactly do you propose to bring them to account? What prison will you hold them in? What set of laws will you try them under? When they turn a jury to stone, or control a judge to let them walk free, how will you deal with that?"
Another sound of a metal file cabinet being opened. "Well. Those aren't files. I have something here."
"Oh right." Batgirl mutters. "So because you can't answer any of that and we operate outside the law to bring people to justic within the law, you'll just kill them. Makes perfect sense to me." The comms go silent as Batgirl works, there's no indication whether she's heard that last part.
Eventually… "What have you got …" Comes from behind the Samurai.
The Samurai meets her at the door with a wooden box in his hands, sighing. "Look. Even you have to admit that what you are doing here and now - and what you do every night - is a concession to the fact that the justice system has broken down and is not handling things as it should. Well if your justice system cannot handle the likes of the Joker - and it self evidently cannot - then how exactly do you expect it to handle criminals it cannot incarcerate, or even capture in the first place."
He pushes the box into her hands. It's already cracked open which means he's looked inside.
"Like it or not, the reality is these creatures exist in a place beyond your law. You can no more apply the Justice System to them than you can apply Newtonian physics to the Quantum realm. You are talking about two entirely different spheres of existence. The police and the courts have a very limited part in this and what justice you will get must come from the place that it always ultimately comes from. The gun's barrel. The sword's edge. Without force, there is no justice. Ever."
Inside there is a crystal. Batgirl has seen the like before. Projecting shimmery fields that turn any caught within them into… a fantasy version of themselves. This one seems inert.
"And I didn't deny that. I've said to you, I believe, that the police are stretched thin. Which is why we do what we do." She sighs too, loud enough for the modulator to pick it up. "I don't want to argue with you but I'm not going to stand by and see creatures slain just because they don't work with the same ruleset we do. One day, Samurai, it will be you or me who has that judgement bought down on our heads - I hope I meet someone like me rather than you."
"In mythology there is such a thing as compacts. Maybe that's what we should be looking at."
Taking the box, Batgirl opens it carefully. "This … we've seen this before … is this what they came to collect? No, you said it was something else. Why is this *here*?"
"You do not deny that your laws and legal system cannot apply to these creatures and yet insist on trying anyway." The Samurai shakes his head. "Disappointing. If it meant your death that would be tragic. But it will not. You will damn innocents to suffer and die at these creatures hands because you will not use the only tool you have to stop them. I hope very sincerely your conscience can handle that."
Kenuichio looks at the box. "Two possibilities. Either it was kept back and Medusa did not know, in which case the warehouse manager is skimming off the top, or it was kept back and she did know in which case it was supposed to be here, which means a field was meant to go up here."
Either possibility is tricky.
"I asked, did I not, what their world would have to deal with them." Batgirl shakes her head as well. "I would rather that one guilty man go free than an innocent suffer. I will live with conscience, Samurai. Can you?"
She considers his words though as she looks at the box "We need someone to look at this and tell what they can find. Are you friendly with anyone from the magic world? I can always ask Kitty who he knows… " If not, she'll reach to others for a contact. "Oracle can check the security footage, that might show us one way or the other. They can also monitor from now on and see the response."
"Are you done here?"
"We are not talking about punishing the innocent though, are we?" The Samurai looks at Batgirl. "We are talking about dealing with murderous enemies in a final fashion. And yes. My conscience is quite clean." He's killed, she can be sure. She's looked into his background.
"Magicians could restrain them but I am afraid you're not going to like when I say the usual answer is the one I am proposing now. In their world if two parties cannot come to an agreement, someone is going to be dealt with permanently. Leverage might be used. But all other things being equal…"
"I am more or less done here. Are you, Batgirl?"
"Are we not?" Batgirl doesn't add any more than that. It's not that she disagrees entirely but she doesn't think that murder is the first option that's for certain.
"I am and if you have don't have someone you can reach out to, to examine this, I'll take it." Turning on her heel, her cape flaring a little, the black clad redhead moves off. "I'll give you a lift to where you want."
"Back to my bike would be good." Samurai says as he follows her. They've clashed ideologically like this before. He is sure they will again. "I do not have contacts that I necessarily trust more than you."
That is rather interesting. She knows he does have contacts and resources but she also knows some of them are… shady.
And he has just told her that he trusts her. Despite the differences, it seems.