2019-12-07 - Giving Organised Crime A New Meaning

Summary:

The gangs in Staten Island are getting organised.

Log Info:

Storyteller: None
Date: Sat Dec 7 07:07:57 2019
Location: Staten Island

Related Logs

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Theme Song

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toni-hoavery-aaronsongwen-stacyken-haradabarbara-gordon

.~{:--------------:}~.


Staten Island is kind of a hive of villainy and scum. It really is. It's here that petty gangs have sprung up, drug deals and robberies go down with impunity, the Staten Island PD are stretched beyond capacity and now …. something or someone is uniting the gangs.

Bringing them all under 'one management'.

Tonight, that's become obvious. Whereas there would be hits on various parts of the Island by smaller gangs, tonight the Bats have been kept busy. Coordinated strikes on businesses. First it was a bank, then a museum and just minutes ago an apartment block was stormed. The strikes not leaving enough for emergency services to deal with them … the Bats have been stretched thin as well.

It's the Apartment Block that a tired Batgirl appears out of nowhere, in the mouth of alley just across the road. "Well done. How are you holding up, Zeal? It's been a busy night …" the redheads modulated voice sounds from her mask.

Across the road, a gang of thugs is storming the building and turning residents out on the street. They are … extremely well armed.


The troubles on Staten Island have attracted the attention of more than just the Bats. Spiders, it seems, are similarly keen to get in on the action. Gwen Stacy has been double-timing it across town, webslinging like she really means it to get to where the troubles are cropping up. Hey, it helps when you get off the phone with your Dad and he says there's major trouble in Staten Island, and another hero kitted your suit out with some tech.

A well-placed webline carries her around a corner, and into full view of the apartment block in question. The Spider-Woman notes the presence of one of the Bats down on the ground; someone she recognizes, though she somehow can't quite place where from. Well, that's something to figure out later.

She swings once more, right up to the building, where she lands between a couple of windows and sticks. "Alright," she mutters to herself. "Let's see what we're dealing with today. Can't be worse than Halloween." She crawls sideways, re-orienting herself to be upside down, so she can peer in through a window below her; carefully, just in case anyone with a gun gets an idea.


"I am well, Batgirl. Though…" Zeal reaches into…nowhere, arm vanishing into thin air a moment, then pulled back into normal space holding a sports bottle. She gulps the drink down, and pushes her hand into nowhere again. "There." A smile. "I should be able to continue, Lady." Her drink of choice - Gatorade, with agave added because it just didn't have enough sugar to suit her amped metabolism.

The girl is dressed in a black hoodie, black pants, stompy boots, and a domino mask. Yeah, DEFINITELY an impressive costume right there! She also has a pair of batons crossed at her back, and a gun of sorts - a grapnel gun, at her waist.

Eyes of hazel narrow as she sees the bad guys. "Are you sure, Lady, that we needs must let these vermin continue to breathe the air we share?"


It isnt' normal for Overwatch/RESCUE to be part of crime fighting. There are other heroes and heroines to do that sort of things; generally they prefer to live up to their name and stick to crisis intervention and disasters.

But there /are/ exceptions…because Overwatch does have a contract with the NYPD to intervene in emergencies, when they're overwhelmed or faced by a threat that can't easily be taken care of.

Which is why there's a rumble of thrusters overhead as a star-spangled armored figure descends towrds the threat, the police alert scrolling across Toni's HUD as Iron Patriot slows to a hover, scanning the crowd as weapons are marked. "Oh joy. It's a party." Toni mutters. "Alright. Stun lasers to 50 percent, load riot supression pellets. Let's see if we can drive them off before someone gets hurt." The armor display marks the new settings as Tony rolls her head a bit.


"Batgirl…" A modulated AI voice comes over the coms. "He's doing it again."

The sound of a revving motorcycle fills the street and a slick little japanese bike rockets into view. The man on it has a pair of swords over his back and his face is obscured by a demon 'menpo'. He clothslines one of the people watching the residents - likely sending them scattering - and hops off the bike to draw blade in one hand and scabbard in the other.

Apparently the methodical approach of some of the others present just wasn't for him.


Gwen might regret those words shortly though she doesn't know it yet.

When the heroes arrive, there's a least a dozen thugs (maybe more), some inside the building kicking down doors, others pushing residents away from the building brandishing weapons and generally being rough.

At least three of those pass under Gwen. Two more approach the area where Zeal is standing.

Oracles warning gets a sigh from the redhead "Of course he is…" He. The Silver Samurai. "Not that I'm complaining, we need the help. See to those, I'm going to try and get into the building."

Toni will see the flash bangs that Batgirl lobs at the group nearest her, closely followed by a batarang that knocks weapons from their hands.

Kens arrival sends some of the thugs scattering, they take one at look at him and move to deal with Zeal and Batgirl. There's a growl from the door of the building and two *huge* wolf men appear, not waiting on niceties, just launching themselves at the Samurai.

Toni's team takes a couple, but six turn their attention to her and try to bring her down.

At the same time, something tries to interrupt Toni comms. This is Oracle. Batgirl sends her regards.


Gwen might regret her words soon, but she doesn't yet. Three men with guns beneath her? Well, that's a thing; she doesn't waste any time on it. "Hey boys!" she yells down at them; as she does she fires a couple of weblines, one grabbing a man by his ankles, and the other ripping his AK-47 out of his hands. She gives a sharp tug on both, pulling them man rapidly up to her height, where she webs him liberally to the side of the building.

"Time out!" she declares triumphantly, taking a moment to bend his gun in half and toss it back down to the other guys. "You need to think about what you did," she adds, before putting the tip of her finger against her thumb and flicking the guy in the nose.

That done, she scuttles her way down the wall, before firing a couple more weblines. Might as well try for the other two while we're at it, afterall.


"Oh, good, the Silver Samurai be here too." Zeal says with a smile, yes, she actually likes the surly fellow. Well, stiff. Okay stiff AND surly. "I cannot teleport us without the 'line of sight', Batgirl. I will see about creating a distraction unless you have another task in mind?" Once permission is given, Zeal enters the fray, darting forward at a dead run, but…it is /weird/. Every step or two she flickers a few feet in a random direction, literally skipping all over the place ignoring little things like space.

With every skip she creates a bit of chaos in the form of tripping gunmen, smacking hands with oen of her batons, appearing right in one guy's face - this one with a rocket launcher - and yelling. "Boo!" Before vanishing and taking his current grenade round with her as she appears on top of a streetlight, twirling the grenade.


Toni pauses as the signal comes through. Batgirl and Oracle, huh? I thought you were an urban myth. the engineer responds, wryly. I'm assuming that's you with the flashbombs…and there's someone else in white swinging around nearby. I can't use crowd control sonics with them interspersed with the civilians. If you can separate, I can disable them as a group, but until then I'm going to have to do this the hard way. Iron Patriot flexes her fingers then drops down, landing in a three-point landing with a crash of metal against asphalt as she puts herself between the civilians outside and the gunmen as she holds out her hands, a force field springing into existence to deflect incoming fire. I can keep the civilians safe if you can take them out…


"Behind you!" The man in the demon mask shouts to Gwen as she bounces in among the gunmen. He can't talk to Toni or the others right now because he is all of a sudden very busy. Two very large, very furry, very angry beings make a coordinated run at him. He twirls both blade and scabbard in hand, expertly batting away their large clawed mitts and attempts to snap at him. Then one actually gets his scabbard and tears it from his hand.

"Baka…" The man mutters and reaches for the other blade over his shoulder. Even if others aren't looking they will sense when he draws it. The completely black blade radiates pure evil and wrongness.

The swordsman has had to give a lot of ground. He's separated from the fight by a solid thirty feet or so.


"Ack. What the hell are you? A Female Spider?" The thug who's webbed to the wall squirms trying to get free. He goes cross eyed when flicked on the nose and lets out a string of inventive expletives in spanish.

The other two fall back, opening fire on the female spider as she scuttles up the wall. Masonry flies off the wall hitting Gwen as she moves. The bullets …. well, she has spider senses and agility right?

"And yes, Zeal, I'm sure." Batgirl answers "We can't kill these people. You know that." The black clad woman with the yellow bat on her chest and lining on her cloak catching the light as she moves to get higher ground. She's still trying to get in the building - Zeal, she trusts to deal with the thugs out here.

"Yes, that's me. Not so much a urban myth, as you see." She responds to Toni. "Patch the comms, Oracle."

Yes, Batgirl. The VI answers. Introducing Silver Samurai, Spiderwoman and Zeal. Everyone is connected by the VI. They all get the request from the Iron Patriot - she should see them separate to give her room.

Which is when she's targetted by a rocket launcher. One of the guys in the building is hanging out a window. The alert systems in the Iron Patriot suit go wild. Can she dodge?

Ken finds himself facing the two wolf men - who separate and approach him from each side. They snarl as the black blade is drawn but don't draw back. One lunges at him from his right - waiting for him to engage with him before drawing back, letting the one on the left jumps on him.

Avery, sitting on the lamp post with the grenade finds herself targetted by several men with automatic rifles - they just open up.


"And don't you forget it!" Gwen replies to the thug she just webbed to the wall, several stories up. Well! She's about to do more, when her danger-sense kicks off, practically vibrating inside her head; she leaps off the side of the building, just in time to avoid getting royally filled up with lead from automatic weapons fire. Getting peppered by flying chips of masonry, she can handle.

As she flies off of the wall, she twists, aiming one arm down and blasting a glob of webbing at one of the two men. Her other hand sends a webline back to the wall; she uses it to change direction, preserving her momentum as she yanks herself back towards the wall. Without really looking, she lobs another glob down at the other guy; he was right about there, right? Unless he moved? Probably right about there. "Your friends suck!" she adds, as she careens back towards the building.

She's aimed herself for one of the windows; she hits it feet first, smashing the glass and doing a summersault as she lands inside. She stays in the crouch, keeping low as she gets the invite from Batgirl's comms. Heya people. Spider-Woman here. These guys suck. What's the plan? Now she straightens, and moves to a different window, to have a peek outside and see if she really did hit the two men with her globs of webbing.


A long-suffering sigh is entirely false. "Fine, no killing, Lady." And then off she goes.

Once she gets to that perch and draws all that gun fire she waits until she sees the bullets getting near, and then flicker-dodges, phase shifting so she's essentially there and not there at the same time.

She mostly succeeds, being able to /see/ the bullets, but there are a /lot/ of bullets flying, and she gets grazed a couple times before she disposes of the grenade, pushing it through a portal and leaving it somewhere.

Greetings Iron Patriot, Greetings Spider Woman, I be Zeal. And Gwen /might/ just recognize the voice as Avery does have any sort of voice modulation like her Liege Lady does.

She grunts and grimaces at the grazes, but there's bad guys to take out. I have gathered a few below my perch…you could perhaps use them for thin—for /your/ target practice, Iron Patriot.


Where she is, Toni is at least in a position to have a good view of what's going on. Hello all. Alright. First, we get the remaining civilians clear. Give them a clear path out, over to where I am if you can. I can shield them from stray shots….and…aw crap… That when the missile comes streaking out of a sidewindow at her, bypassing her shield wall to smack into the Patriot armor and send her flying end over end into a nearby building with a crash of breaking brickwork. She grunts, then pushes herself up. Annnnnd they've got missile launchers…great…" She pushes herself up, a shoulder panel popping open as a small launcher extends, thens wivels to bear on the group Zeal's gathered, before firing with a series of soft *phffftphffftphffft* sound as a trio of gas pellets fire, exploding into a cloud of pepper spray around the group, before she raises a palm, sending a spray of stun lasers back at the missile launcher. As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted by boom….get the people clear…


"The plan is to not get eaten by werewolves." Says the guy - that must be the Silver Samurai though he doesn't look very silver - who is currently fighting two of them. "Once I have accomplished this, I shall assist with whatever you need."

Until then he's slightly busy. He drops down and leg sweeps one with significantly more strength than it had looked like he had a couple seconds ago. That de-synchs their rush and the next swipe at him just looses a hand at the wrist.

Batgirl might yell at him but that will probably get them to back off.


"Copy that, Iron Patriot." Batgirl answers. "Zeal, use your ability to transport the civilians to safety. I'm heading into the building to try and get the civilians there." The redhead fires her grappel gun, using the automatic feature to lift her over the group. She's aimed at, but another flashbang and batarang makes that task a little more difficult.

Gwens web hits the first target, tugging him off balance as she changes direction. The second is where she expects him, but he opens fire as she lands in a crouch. "Take that bitch …" There's three people cowering right near her.

Avery finds the group gathering closer to her. She can wait for Toni to get there or … the weapons rise and aim in their direction …. she might need to act a little more quickly. She's got a good line of sight.

Toni's stun lasers hit the window, the launcher disappears from view. The gas pellets starting to go off as the weapons are raised at Avery's group - it's a race against time.

Ken is busy. There's bleeding, angry werewolves trying to eat his face right now. The claws from the severed hand twitch as the limb drops with a wet thud. That wolf howls and starts to back off - not towards the building or the thugs but to the alley. His friend? He circles around trying to draw the Samurai's attention - but no, he's not getting near.

And when has Batgirl ever yelled at the Samurai?


Gwen looks at the three people for about half a second. "Hey, it's gonna be okay," she tells them. "I'm Spider-Woman, and outside there's some others who are here to help. You're gonna be fine." She straightens, tilting her head to one side and then the other, making her vertebrae pop audibly. Zeal, I'm on the fifth floor, smashed window. Three people in here. And, bullets pinging off of the wall and coming in through the window, too.

With that said, she takes a run at the window and leaps out of it; it's no good to have the thugs firing at her where there are civilians. She comes flying out the window; in mid-air she aims both wrists downwards, firing a pair of weblines aimed for the guns held by the two thugs. "Don't those things run out of ammo soon anyway?!" she yells at them as she sails through the air, giving a sharp pull on her weblines and hoping for the best.

Either way, she's on her way down; she bounces off the wall of building on the opposite side of the alley, just to burn off a little sped and slow her descent. But if it works, she'll be landing on one of the thugs, and landing on him pretty hard.


On it La—/Batgirl/. Zeal answers over the comms, she can't help but flinch at the explosion when the Iron Patriot is blasted into a wall…fortunately the woman is essentially unharmed. Relieved, Zeal's eyes study the battlefield, and she is definitely mindful of the guns pointed in her direction.

Of course she's constitutionally incapable of letting innocents come to harm when she can help, even if the cost to herself is significant. Her solution? She drops from the light just as the guns open up vanishing just before hitting the ground — it really isn't her fault if the gunmen accidentally shoot each other a bit, is it? I guess we'll find out.

When she reappears with herself between the three innocents about to get fired even as she grips the arms of the two on the outsides and tries to tug them into touching the third. She smiles. "Close your eyes, friends." This also audible over the comms, and then they all vanish, and Zeal only gets shot one more time, this one a bit more serious than the grazes, but nothing that will stop her. Not yet, maybe after the adrenaline runs dry!

All four of them vanish as she finds a nearby rooftop in her line of sight and they appear up there. "Stay low, we'll deal with this."

Only then does she look for the window where Spider-Gwen is. I see it, I will be there directly, an it please thee.

Yes, stress, old speech reversion - go go!


Iron Patriot fires her thrusters, lifing off again as she soars up into the air.

"Thermal scan…" Toni says, running the sensors over the building with the launcher. She didn't see him go down…and it's possible there are others. She's alert now as she hovers forward, balancing on her boot thrusters and snapping off shots with more stunbolts, then frowns as she sees the group firing near Gwen and accelerates, busting through the wall to swirl a field around them to evacuate them.

I've got them Spider-Woman! Keep it up! She surges back outside, dropping off the civilians clear of the fight, then turning back to find more, focusing on getting people clear more than on the bad guys.


Going from two werewolves to one is an improvement. The Silver Samurai turns to face the remaining one. He swats the furry beast across the nose with the flat of his blade. "Go." Because the next time he strikes it won't be with the flat.

That handled he turns to see. Ah yes. Spider Woman, Iron Patriot and BatZeal. Well, they should have that wrapped up in just a moment.


In the distance, the sirens sound. The SI PD are finally arriving.

Between Gwen, Toni and Zeal, the civilians are evacuated from the buildling. Gwen and Avery having to deal with thugs that they find. Most were taken down out in the street though, what's in the building isn't many … and they get less when the werewolves turn tail and run.

Batgirl is caught in her swing and ends up dropping down near Samurai. The Werewolf turns and runs, into the alley where the other disappeared - when they check the alley later, there'll be no sign of them. "I'm impressed. You didn't kill it."

SI PI inbound. Oracle reports. ETA 3 minutes. Iron Patriot, I'm transferring contact details if you wish to speak with Batgirl or I, later.

"Zeal, Spider-Woman, Silver Samurai, it's time to go. We can meet in the alley behind the Belfore building in half an hour. I'll be there." Batgirl answers. If the others aren't, she'll contact them later. "Iron Patriot, my thanks for the assist, it's been a hell of a night."

She waits, long enough to make sure the rest manage to leave without issue.


Gwen makes it all the way to the ground. Well, most of the way. She's prevented from actually reaching it, by one of the thugs — that being the one that she boots in the chest on teh way down, knocking him to the ground as she lands. "Hyah!" she shouts, in so doing. The man's gun gets grabbed out of his hand, and the barrel bent, before she swings it to golf-club the other thug's weapon out of his hands.

"You boys need to make better life choices!" she declares, as she jumps up and gives the still-standing thug a solid kick in the gut. "Now go home and rethink your life, like Obi-Wan said." Standing between the two, she drops the gun, and balls both hands up into fists in case either of them want to press the issue. But then, of course, there comes the instruction to leave the scene.

Got it, she replies. I'll be there. Half an hour! Gives me time to get snacks. The Spider-Woman turns down a different alley, and wanders out of sight. A minute later, out the other end, Gwen Stacy emerges, with a different color backpack slung over her shoulder (or maybe just the same one turned inside-out?) and no sign of any spider-costume at all; as the police cars go zooming up the street, she walks the opposite direction, calmly taking a drink from a bottle of coke.


Iron Patriot settles back to the ground with a thump, holding out her hands as she summons a forcefield over the downed thugs. /Nice job. I'll just forget to mention any vigilantes, if you'd like. I don't think anyone will be asking too many pointed questions. She cocks her helmet. We'll have to grab lunch sometime. You've got my number, call me. She'll stay. After all she's legally supposed to be here. And this way she can make sure none of the bad guys get froggy while the police are arresting them. If you know why these creeps are causing so much trouble, pass it on. Maybe I can help again.


For her own part Zeal rather likes these two new ladies - the Spider Woman and the Iron Patriot, they have their priorities straight. She still considers putting baddies down to be the 'default' action, but, her Liege Lady says otherwise, and that means Zeal has a new default. Cursed VR upbringing in an MMO seeded world!

Regardless, she works on the civilian evac as instructed, and is greatly relieved when it seems that the Samurai is in good stead - though that sword, yeah, creepy. Extra points for merely severing a hand though.

Copy, Batgirl. Belfore building, three-zero minutes. See! She's learning the lingo and everything!

Thank you for the assistance, Iron Patriot, Spider Woman, Silver Samurai - it would be my honor to work with you all again. Zeal adds before she vanishes home, and gets out of her torn up costume and patches up her gunshot wounds, they're all pretty minor, a half hour gives her JUST enough time be there with changed clothes and fresh bandages underneath.


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