2013.05.16 - Oranges and Oreos, Oh My!

Barry's out late, late is his modus operendi. He's just stopped into the KwikMart for a couple bags of groceries. He's always doing that, at just about any hour of the day, and this evening is no exception. He's also trying to get the layout of his new neighborhood down, since he moved here just a few days ago.

At home, his apartment is bare, except for a crappy dinette set left to him by the previous occupants and a sleeping bag and foam pad in the bedroom. The moving company was supposed to have gotten his stuff here by today at the latest, but somehow they managed to bollox it all up.

This is Barry's second trip out for the night for groceries and he ambles quietly, just taking in the night air and neon business signs. Most of the places are closed, except for the clubs and the Kwikmart. He hefts his bags of groceries as he heads up the street to his new apartment.

Huntress has spent most of the evening tracking one of the more oily mafiosos she's seen this year. After a succession of sleazy and sleazier gin joints and speakeasy-level casinos, she finally sees her target stopping at a corner gas station. She looks up and down the street and sees no one else around... perfect. She aims her crossbow carefully, planning to take out two of the ostentatious Cadillac's tires before 'introducing' herself to Guido don there. First steel quarrel fired, she fires the second one before the first blows out the car's rear tire with a pop rivaling a gunshot, and then she's on the fast track to immobilize Guido, swooping down toward him on a thin but very strong piece of cording. Come on, butt-munch, give her a reason to hamstring you.

Barry Allen hears the tires blow, like gunshots up the street about a block and a half away. The groceries get dropped and he activates his ring that ejects his costume. The bags have fallen a few millimeters by the time he's gotten the costume on, vibrating out of his street clothes and into the red and gold outfit he wears in his 'other' identity.

Then he's off like a shot, a red and gold streak that creates a wind tunnel from his falling bags and clothing down the street toward the gas station on the corner. It's not immediately obvious where the shots came from, but he can search the area in less time than it takes to blink. He finally spots the car, tires still deflating sitting by the pumps and then starts looking around for a gunman. He doesn't notice the Huntress swinging in in the darkness as he searches the streets for a potential threat at super-sonic speed. He pauses at the corner, the bags and his civvies falling to the ground, scatting oranges and Oreos across the sidewalk.

Huntress is aiming to put her shoes in Guido's back so he doesn't have a chance to try and run, and then seemingly out of nowhere, Bright Red Pajama Boy appears DIRECTLY in her path. The only reaction she has time for before she plows right into Barry? "SHIT!"

Flash is surprised by the aerial attack, even if he shouldn't be given the people that frequent Gotham nights. But he reacts as quickly to the shout as to the impact, and rolls forward as he's getting impacted, bowling The Huntress's target over as he moves. spreading the impact of her kick out between the Guido and the roll on the pavement. He keeps on rolling, rolling over and past Helena's target and bounces to his feet, turning around in the process. "Huntress!?? What the Heck!?" he exclaims, waving his arms. He glances at the tires, and recognizes her trademark weapon.

Huntress manages to throw herself forward as well, using a shoulder roll to mitigate the remaining momentum she didn't managed to use up slamming into Barry feet first. She doesn't waste time, though, immediately turning her attention to Guido as he moves to pull himself and his tacky shiny blue silk suit up off of the tarmac. "Keep kissing pavement, Guido, you and I need to talk." She has her crossbow trained on the man, even as she says aside to Bright Red Pajama Boy, "Back off, Cherry. This one's mine."

Flash holds up his hands and says, "Hey, far be it from me to get in a Lady's way, even if she's already kicked the ever-lovin' bejesus out of my kidneys." He crosses his arms across the bolt in circle design on his chest and steps back a pace or two, giving the Huntress room to work. Glancing down at the Mobster's outfit, the Flash asks, "Are you sure you're not the Fashion Police?" He's perfectly content to let things play out until he knows more about what's going on. Guido though, he isn't that smart and makes a play for the piece tucked into the back of his pants. He knows what happens when the Huntress is around.

Huntress offers Flash a short nod, then when Guido tries to reach for the pistol at his back, she drops a knee between the man's shoulder blades and leans her weight onto him. "Didn't I just tell you to KEEP KISSING the pavement, asshole?" She then looks up at Flash once again. She then plucks the pistol from the man's waistband and tosses it aside. "Tell me everything you know about that shipping crate full of PEOPLE that arrived a few days ago."

Flash can't resist meddling a little. He scoops up the handgun mid-toss, removes the clip and makes sure there's no round in the chamber and scatters the bullets from the clip, popping them out like Pez all over the sidewalk, then tosses the piece aside before resuming his nonchalant observation of the Huntress. "Shipping people, that sounds bad for you, Mister, I'd tell her what you know."

Tossing an annoyed glance at the cherry colored costume standing there, Huntress leans her knee into the man's back a little harder for a moment, letting up when he groans in protest. She frowns when instead of stating what she wants to hear Guido begins stuttering out that he knows nothing. "Bullshit." She thumps the man on the ear. Annoying but not in any way damaging. "Try again."

The thug yelps in pain while the Flash just watches the Huntress at work. "Hey tough guy, just be glad it wasn't me slapping you upside the head, your eardrum would have burst." He speed searches the glove box of the car, finding the registration. "Hey, a home address. Maybe I should go have a look over there, while you two sort things out here." The Flash is only taunting the man, trying to put him off balance, he has no intention of leaving him alone with the deadly Huntress.

Huntress gives the man the chance to stammer out what he knows, leaning over him for dual reasons. Not only does it increase the intimidation factor and keep him talking, it puts her ear-bud comm link to Oracle closer to the man so his words are picked up and transmitted more clearly. When he finally stops, she thumps him on the ear again. "That it?" When he answers to the affirmative and she feels he's actually telling the truth, she straightens up and away from Guido, leaving him lying on the ground. She pulls her crossbow and switches out the wooden bolts for heavier and far more dangerous looking steel quarrels before aiming the crossbow at the thug.

The Flash says, "HeyheyheyHuntresstakeiteasy!" says the guy in the crimson and gold, waving his hands in her direction. "He talked, and unless he's got a gun permit in his back pocket, he's arrestable." Flash doesn't do anything at this point, other than talk. He figures if she pulls the trigger, he'll just snatch the quarrel out of the air. "Anyone ever mention decaf to you?"

Huntress puts her foot on the small of Guido's back again (but doesn't lean any weight on that foot) to keep him from trying to squirm away while she turns a VERY heavy glare toward the Flash. "Did I ask for your help? OR your opinion? Go the fuck away and let me do my job." She aims the first quarrel very clearly at the man's arm and fires.

Flash moves, a crimson blur and gust of wind and snatches the quarrel out of the air and flicks it at Huntress's feet, where it shatters on the pavement. "Hey! He's down! He's out! We're the good guys! We don't pull that kind of crap!" He jerks the thug up to his feet and hammerlocks his arm behind him and drags him behind the hood of the car. "Why don't you take a chill pill and let me handle this from here on out." He's squinting at her hard, waiting to see if she's going to make a move against him or not.

Okay, now he's pissing Huntress off. She lets the Flash yoink the man away from her and doesn't follow, but DOES huff in annoyance. "Jesus H, are you always this much of a stick in the mud? I'm SO sorry that I don't carry a fucking stapler with me to keep this guy from trying to rabbit before the cops arrive. I have to work with what I've got." She holsters her crossbow and crosses her arms while GLARING at the red-costumed man. "If you want to stay here and get dragged in by the fucking cops along with that bastard, be my guest. I'm gone." And with that she turns and runs across the street toward the nearest building with a fire escape she can reach readily enough.

The thug tries to shake himself loose and Flash gives him a supersonic flick under the chin, enough to knock him cold. Response tiem for the cops is going to be too long to wait, so he decides he's not going to. He watches Huntress run off and snorts in her direction, shaking his head. He's tempted to follow her and chase down the lead she'd gathered, but he'd rather the thug made it to the police station in one piece. "Oh, I'll show you gone..." And like that, he gathers up the gun parts and is gone, a crimson and red blur heading north to the nearest precinct house.

Huntress makes it to the rooftop and watches the Flash zoom away, then puts one hand to her ear. "You get all of that, Oracle? ... Yeah, car's still there. Right. I'll keep watch." She then finds a well-shadowed vantage point from which to continue monitoring the now-abandoned vehicle.

The Flash takes little time, as per usual. He drops the thug off with an officer along with the gun, writes a quick note saying "So sorry, no time to explain, but this guy fired shots at people at the gas station at 32nd and Oak," before zipping back at supersonic speed to the scene of the crime.

He spends several seconds looking around but fails to find the stealthy Huntress. He yanks her bolts from the tires and grabs the broken quarrel as well, before giving the crime scene one more look. "Gotham's definitely got a different vibe, that's for sure." With that he races off, leaving no trace of himself or the Huntress at the scene of the crime. By the time he gets back to his spilled groceries, they've been taken, except for a single orange rolling in the gutter. He grabs it and peels it and consumes it faster than the eye can follow. Yeah, time to find *another* grocery store open all night. And then he's off in a flash.