2014.06.01 - The kidnapping of Ava Ayala, Part 2

Malcolm said this was the place. The building is an old electrical plant, probably coal powered from the smoke stacks, and abandoned a number of years. Like much of Gotham, it is just waiting for someone to have enough money to tear it down.

The White Tiger had arrived here some time ago, having climbed to a place where she can watch and learn. She is pleased that her discovery earlier this evening that she can fade from sight as long as she remains still is correct. She has been sitting motionless for a long time, invisible to the naked eye.

She has figured out there are more men than she can see, she sees a total of eight on watch outside the building, armed with assault rifles. They apparently check in with others inside on a regular basis.

It seems a hot of people and hardware to keep a single teenage girl captive. Her mother has not had a ransom demand, but it is clear they must be getting SOMETHING in order to put this much effort into it.

The Ayala Kidnapping is just one on a near-endless list of cases in Gotham City, but reports indicated the presence of a new and as-yet-unidentified vigilante. That pushed it up higher in terms of priority and so he lurks in the darkness. The Car is parked a fair distance away, the rest was covered on foot - the roar of the engine too much for close-range stealth.

He observes the situation from on high, looking out for the new vigilante just as much as kidnappers. Low-light vision yields no result. So he switches to thermal, looking for the thugs through the otherwise implacable face of the abandoned mill.

The White Tiger could easily take out any of the Costa thugs, that is not the problem. The problem is them needing to report in on a regular basis. She needs to bypass the outer line entirely, witout being noticed. If she can get past them and inside the Electrical Plant, she can possibly deal with the ones inside and rescue her cousin.

She thinks she sees how to do it, the agility and speed the tiger amulets grant her should let her act during the brief time the two patrollers are facing away from a specific area. All it will take is precise timing and the agility of a cat.

Waiting until the exact moment, Angela sprints from where she has been hiding invisibly, running past the guards with speed beyond the greatest Olympic record and swarming up the wall using her costume claws and a series of acrobatic leaps to ascend to the roof of the power plant and take cover there.

There's the movement. A stealthy movement past the kidnappers that is enough to give away the new blood's position. He doesn't intercede. He keeps himself hidden in the dark, following in the Tiger's wake and keeping his presence unknown. Should she err he will be there, of course, but now it is merely a matter of seeing how she operates.

Angela regrets that her senses are not amplified the way her Strength and Agility are. The amulets are powerful tools, but they do have limits. If she had the eyes and ears of a tiger, she could easily spot the guards inside. Without that, she has to be careful.

She is sure all the normal exits and entrances will be covered, so she needs something not normally usable as either. These old coal plants used steam boilers to generate electricity, that means there are massive water pipes to bring the water in. After all these decades, there are bound to be gaps in the pipes. Gaps too small for a grown man possibly, but not for a slender and athletic woman.

Angela located a rusted out spot and muffled it so that it would not make noise when she bent it to make the hole larger. Sliding along the pipe in darkness was no fun, but eventually she located an exit point...an access hatch used to free obstructions from the pipe. It is kind of rusted shut, but with her strength she can force it open. The problem is going it quietly...which means a lot of slow back and forth work and a bit of penetrating oil from her utility belt.

Once she has the hatch open an inch, she looks through the crack to try to make certain she is not under observation.

No following down the pipe. He's contorted himself through tighter spaces before but there's the risk of making too much noise and alerting the Tiger to his presence. Instead, he takes to the rooftop in search of an alternate method of entry. He's prepared for any guards stationed there, though he avoids them if he can. For now he's purely observing.

Getting oil on the outside of the hinges to make it possible to move the hinges without excessive noise took all of Angela's enhanced coordination. Possibly someone double jointed and trained as an escape artist or contortionist could have done it, but certainly not a cop like Angela. That is exactly why this way in is not being watched.

The White Tiger squeezes out of the pipe and closes the hasp behind her so that it will hopefully not be noticed if a guard patrols the area. She is fortunate that her unstable molecule uniform is immune to collecting stains or smells, or else she would not be able to hide properly.

She takes several seconds of invisible rest, that was not something she would want to do often. Once she has recovered a bit, though her arms will probably be bruised for days, Angela tries to figure out where to go next.

A guard on the roof goes down silently. A quick check for vitals ensures he will be fine and the Bat moves on. He elicits entry through a secured skylight, the lock breaking after exposure to a brief spray of liquid nitrogen and an impact from the bottom of the belt-sized aerosol can. He remains in the rafters, waiting for the mystery vigilante to make her next move.

The White Tiger hears voices. Two thugs are talking, a guard on the roof has failed to report in. They pass within feet of Angela without seeing her as they head to the stairs to investigate if their watchman has simply fallen asleep, or possibly if their cell phone died. Angela notes that the timer is running now, if the guard upstairs is all right she might have more time, but if something happened the inside guards will be alerted. She needs to move quick and quiet and deal with the remaining guards before those two either report in or come back. Moving from shadow to shadow with grace and speed, checking for guards in the dim lighting, she locates the first pair of guards. They are well placed each can see the other, but they are out of reach from one another. A very quick sniper with a silencer might be able to hit both without either crying out...but Angela has not got a sniper rifle with a silencer. The White Tiger carries a utility belt these days for a reason. She is going to have to sneak close to one and attack that one by hand, while at the same time attacking the other with a thrown weapon. She eases her tanto from it's sheath and holds it with the blade flat against her arm and the hilt forward. She moves fast, an acrobatic leap over a crate tat was as close as she could get by stealth, throwing the tanto at the top of the arc aimed to strike the hilt to his temple and kicking the other in the stomach to knock the wind out of him, followed by a knockout strike to the side of the neck and both guards are down with minimal noise (though she had to grab the gun of the guard nearest her to keep it from falling with a clatter).

The guard on the roof is down. He won't be reporting in. The timeline might've been tight before but now it's strangling. The Bat watches when the Tiger takes down the two guards, moving to drop down behind her just as the last one drops to the ground. He's silent, looming there for a moment before he speaks. "Who are you?"

Angela is only briefly startled by the appearance of Batman, he is legendary and she has heard any number of stories about him since joining the force a few weeks ago. She knew she would encounter him sooner or later, working in Gotham. It is no surprise, in one sense, that he would show up here. He is known to be very protective of children, it is often considered his only weak point. She replies, "I am called the White Tiger. The child in there is the daughter of my predecessor. Help me or get out of the way, but I have work to do." Knowing Batman's reputation, he probably knows all about Hector, possibly including the source of his power.

"Do it," Batman rumbles, lifting his eyes to look at the ceiling for a moment, "Two more guards. They're mine."

There'll be time for warnings later. Time to warn her off and persuade her that the masked vigilante life is not one that anybody should want to pursue. But there's a job to do. He moves, seeking out the first of the last two guards.

Collecting her tanto, Angela works her way stealthily to where she can see Ava Ayala. Fortunately she is tied to the chair with ropes, the handcuffs are not going to keep her from being grabbed away once the tanto slices the ropes. Gathering herself, she plots the exact path she will follow...and follows it. A dive roll coming up into a swing of the razor sharp tanto, parting the ropes. Ava is grabbed and placed in a fireman's carry, and the White Tiger leaps free all before the startled guards can react. They do turn to track her with their guns...

The Bat moves in on the two armed guards, having placed himself in the shadows to best ambush the guards. As they train their guns on the Tiger, he emerges and grabs each by the base of their necks. Their heads are driven together brutally, hard enough to knock them both unconscious and send them crumpling to the ground.

The White Tiger says, "One of us gets the girl out of here, the other deals with the guards, you choice who does which." Angela is certain each of them can do either task.

"You take the girl," Batman answers, leaning in for a moment to look the Ava over with a critical eye. One hand reaches up to check her pupils, the other brushes hair aside to check for cuts and bruises. Surreptitiously a tracker is planted, just in case the White Tiger is not everything she seems. Satisfied, he turns to look at the unconscious thugs. "I'll clean up here. Go."

Getting out is a relatively easy part. Angela can carry Ava easily up to a catwalk and open a window which was locked from inside. A couple of smoke bombs to sew confusion, followed by a quick drop to the pavement (once any shooting stops) and run along a pre-selected route through the smoke and they are home free. Ava is dropped with her mother and the tiger amulet is placed back into the shielded container that lets Angela carry it without it's power claiming her. Angela does not quite collapse when she is returned to normal, but it almost feels like she should. Few people can understand what it is like, suddenly being only one eighth the person...weak, slow and clumsy. It would be so easy to rely on it, but so many times it is not needed, or even the wrong thing to do.