2013.04.16 - Raising the Curtain

Gotham City is known for its prisons. The infamous Blackgate houses some of the world's most notorious murderers and hardened criminals. Arkham Asylum may technically be a place of healing... but its padded walls are filled to bursting with the criminally insane. But what of the petty pickpocket? The mugger? The jaywalker?

All these and more wind up in the comparatively sleepy Gotham State Penitentiary, where sleepy guards dozily watch over lackluster prisoners. Nobody CARES about Gotham State any more. The rundown jail is where all the boring, workaday criminals go to quietly serve out their time and then return to the streets.

Which is why it is so surprising when the outer wall explodes.

Instantly, the night is full of alarms and screaming, guards panicking, and the glorious sounds of chaos. From a rooftop opposite the prison, Harley Quinn lowers her bazooka, and smiles wide. "Now THAT." She says, to her right-hand goon, "Is what I call startin' the act off with a bang!"

Already, the majority of her hired help are streaming in through the breach in the prison's defenses. Equipped with small arms, crowbars and baseball bats, they are rapidly - and brutally - overwhelming the stunned and ill-equipped guards, and assisting the convicts inside out. Three large vans now screeching in to block the front, back, and side of the facility. White, originally, they've been spraypainted with red stripes, and words in jagged stylized purple: Main Act, Supporting Cast, and Additional Materials.

Considering who this is... the level of care that has apparently gone into this caper may already be ringing alarmbells.

It doesn't take long for the break in to start the communication networks in the area to begin going nuts.

As Nightwing vroooms along on his motorcycle, he can here the calls of distress from emergency operators. Gritting his teeth, he pulls back sharply on the gas and accelerates even faster, heading towards the scene at breakneck speeds.

Though evening, Gotham City traffic can be pretty bad. Especially on the interstate. Nightwing begins to swerve in and out of the traffic, using the shoulder as his guide when he needs it. A couple of close calls don't seem to worry him much, and he pulls off the expressway and down a ramp that heads to the road leading to Gotham State. He takes the right turn sharply, peeling out just a bit, before speeding on.

Huntress had been in the middle of an intel-gathering meeting with a ... well, she supposes she can call him a friend by now. But when Oracle's voice snaps out a call to get to the Gotham state Pen, she refrains from cursing out loud. "Q, forget that, we got bigger fish to fry right now. Something's going down at Gotham State." She's already heading for her motorcycle.

The sudden departure of the crossbow-wielding vigilante causes the trench-coat and fedora wearing man to whom she was talking to pause right before he is about to smash an empty beer bottle over the head of a lowlife from whom The Question and Huntress were gathering the 'intelligence'. He calmly puts the bottle back on the seedy bar and lets go of his quarry's collar.

"Looks like we'll have to continue this another time," he says as the thug falls to the ground. He adjusts his coat, puts his hands in his pockets and he strolls out the door. Once in his car and speeding toward the penitentiary, he puts in his earpiece and scans the police band. On his watch.

"It sounds like they're renovating. About time," the faceless flatfoot tells Huntress in his dry monotone.

"Awright, awright, round 'em up!"

Harley's voice cuts like a knife, as she descends from the rooftop. A simple hop and a jump, and she's back at street level. Blissfully unaware of the approaching heroes, she's gesturing with an uzi, waving towards the back of the van she'd brought with her.

But it isn't the cops the gang are interested in - the penitentiary is soon a three way brawl. The largely-overwhelmed guards holed up further inside the prison (and Harley sauntering towards that without a care in the world), the inmates rioting and trying to force their way out through the other side of their beleaguered jailers... and then the streets, where Harley's gang are forcing all the escaping convicts they can grab themselves into the back of the van!

From the shadows Nightwing takes a moment to assess the situation. Certainly peculiar. He takes a look at the odd van and his immediate guess is that Harley, perhaps at the beckoning of her better half, perhaps at her own, is rounding up prisoners. Smilex experiments? Torture? New recruits?

Nightwing fires his grapnel gun and leaps in the air towards the van. His body contorts to try and get into the best launching point he can before letting go of the handle and flying through the air. Just like old times. His body moves into a kick as he attempts to careen into one of Harley's boys.

Huntress can't help but roll her eyes at Q's ever-so-helpful observation, staying just ahead of the faceless man's car... until they get to traffic jam that Nightwing threaded his own motorcycle through so recently. She brakes abruptly to come to a stop next to Q's drivers' side windows. "No way you're getting through that. Pull this boat over, I'll drive from here." She guns the Ducati toward the shoulder of the road, then lets the engine idle while she moves the spare quiver off of the tail of her motorcycle to make room for Q.

"I am not leaving 'this boat' here and you know it," The Question says as he pulls a K-turn and rides back down the shoulder against traffic. Yeah, he's picky about his car. Although he's not going to argue that Huntress also probably knows he could ride on two wheels all the way to the prison if he had to. Once he finds a parking space, The Question jumps from car roof to car roof until he gets back to the bike.

Hopping on the back he puts one arm around Huntress and with the other he literally holds on to his hat.

"I hate these things," he grumbles as she speeds off again, his tie and coat tails flapping out behind them.

The thug that Nightwing targets never really had a chance. He doesn't see the superhero coming, and he goes down hard. Unfortunately, like rats, there's always more henchmen. With one of their number brought low, three more advance menacingly on the superhero, each brandishing a baseball ball. "Always wanted to nail one of you costumed freaks." The largest one growls, "Gonna EARN my pay tonight!" And he swings with all his clumsy might right for Nightwing's skull!

Harley, meanwhile, is prancing her way into the prison proper, preening and proud that everything is going as planned. A quick spray of bullets to encourage the cops to keep their heads down... and she is leaping clean over them, and deeper into the prison, to the pinned staff's utter shock!

Huntress races toward Gotham State now, trying to be careful to not turn corners too sharply out of deference to Q, but they've already wasted a few minutes mucking with the cars. They hit the exit and finally reach the edge of the prison's grounds. Cutting the bike's engine and pushing to a dark out of the way spot, she comments seemingly idly to Q, "Looks like a full blown riot going on there. Hope you're ready to get your hands dirty for a change."

Contorting his arms in a way only yoga allows, The Question manages to touch the spot between his shoulder blades most people can't. "Am I wearing a Pick on Me sign?" If he had a face it might show a pained look. Then again, maybe not.

The Question gets off the pike and runs onto the grounds, climbing and vaulting the fence in a fluid motion. Soon a cloud of yellow smoke erupts among the escapees who have managed to avoid getting thrown in the van. The Question's silhouette emerges from it. He grabs two crooks by the backs of necks and bangs their heads together. He takes off his hat in a salute to Nightwing. Without looking he uses the other gloved hand to backfist a third that thinks he is sneaking up on the man with no eyes. "Evening, Dark Squire."

Nightwing neatly takes down two thugs, and The Question's dynamic entrance renders three more dispatched to a cheery land of head trauma and sleepless dreams. Apparently, as the driver notices that there's not just one, but two, costumed superheroes fighting back, he guns the engines. There can't be more than eighteen people in the back of that van - but discretion is the better part of valor.

Never mind that his path is going to take him right past Huntress' darkened spot.

The brawl is starting to really heat up now, though. The white collar criminals and wannabes aren't as well armed, but they outnumber Harley's guys significantly, and now that the van has departed, they seem torn between flight or fight. The desperately fleeing criminals aren't much danger to the experienced Capes, at least not individually, but they are panicking! And a panicking crowd is never a good place to be.

The chances of anyone hearing her deep inside the prison are fairly slim, but as Harley is now strolling casually through the lockup, gun in one hand, keys from a downed guard in the other, she starts to sing to herself. Here, lockdown had prevented some people from getting out - but she's starting to unlock those doors and peek inside.

"Isn't it rich? Are we a pair? Me here at last on the ground, you in mid-air...~"

"Evening, Face," retorts Nightwing, making an anti-A-team reference. He brings an elbow upwards towards the jaw of another attacker, but as he sees things going from butt-whoopin' to chaos, he knows he needs to act quickly. "Incoming," he says low enough for Question to hear, before he slams a trio of flash bangs on the ground, trying to blind the opponents. There's no point to chasing down the van at this point, he feels. Not knowing Huntress is on the scene, Nightwing's resigned to following later through more investigative means.

Huntress scrambles over to a convenient vantage point, snapping steel quarrels into her crossbow and taking aim into the fray. She has to wait a few moments to get a clear shot and for the flashbangs to fade out, but when she does the first bolt is aimed at the van's radiator, then a second targets a front tire and a third a back tire. If she gets a chance, a fourth will be sent at the van's windshield and then Huntress will start prepping the lighter wooden bolts to aim at the evildoers themselves.

At Nightwing's warning, The Question puts his hat back on, pulls it low, and turns his back. For good measure he closes the eyes he actually has under his mask. While he waits for the flash-bangs to clear, the Eastern-trained man in the Western-styled suit turns his mental focus inward.

After a moment, The Question erupts into a frenzy of chops, punches, elbows and long-legged kicks while the knot of prisoners around him is blinded. The form is eerily fluid, and slightly faster than seems right. The coat and trousers in lieu of a cape make it all look very Matrix.

After the flurry, The Question seems to fall back into normal time. "We ought to get inside and see what this is really about," he says to Nightwing. He sounds winded. After the the sound of a tire exploding reaches their ears he adds "By the way, Huntress is here."

The flashbangs work magnificently - most of the criminals simply aren't expecting it, and the combination of the deafening noise and the blinding light staggers them, sending the crowd reeling backwards desperately. The Question helps in clearing the area immediately around the duo, and the whole area is full of staggered, dazed, bleeding or crippled people. At least outside is relatively clear now!

At the same time, Huntress' attempt to disable the van is mildly successful. Its obviously been toughened up a bit to try and prevent such measures! The bolt to the radiator doesn't penetrate nearly as deep as it should, but the tires burst, and when a crossbow bolt lodges in the driver's windshield, he panics. That looks really dangerous! He could get HURT!

The van is flung around wildly, screaming and sparking, and a couple of convicts are flung out onto the pavement through the open back door. The driver himself is cowering, trying to decide whether he can risk breaking cover or whether it is safer to keep his head down low for the moment.

Inside, Harley tuts when she hears the explosions outside. "Jus' when I'm gettin' to my big musical numbah." She complains, kicking open another door. This time, though, she seems to find what she's looking for, and grins big. "Weeeeell, well, well!" She declares, "Ain't the clown I was lookin' for, but you'll do!"

Nightwing gives a solemn nod to the Question and begins running through the blinded and moaning jobbers towards the inside, trying to get at least some space for him and his ally. "Did you see Quin get in the van? I didn't. Maybe she's inside."

Huntress frowns as the van isn't as badly incapacitated as she'd planned on, but whatever. She sees Nightwing on the move and abandons her sniper point to chase after him, sending one last wooden bolt at the side of one of the van's remaining tires just in case. "Q! Come on!"

"No," The Question says about seeing Harley. "I --" he starts to day until Huntress runs past him stating the obvious. For a beat he stands there giving her disappearing caped back - what else? - a blank look. Then he's following after just as quickly yet somehow maintaining his casual stroll at the same time. Every now and then he gives a prisoner trying to stand up and elbow in the back, or kick in the gut as he steps over others, cleaning up in his allies' wakes.

In his head, The Question silently ponders: What else he appeared he was going to do, that prompted Huntress' instructions? And then he remembers how he jumped out of a moving truck and told Arsenal he'd 'catch up'. Point taken.

Inside, things do not look good. There's a lot of injured cops, a lot of injured bad guys too, and of course, the criminals Harley has been letting out - these guys don't look too dangerous, and in fact, as they were running and see the costumed superheroes coming towards them, the startled criminals slow, and then part, trying to keep out of their way. You never know, it might just work.

There's another explosion as anyone who isn't staying to deal with the sorriest criminals Gotham has ever known rounds the corridor to get to the holding area Harley had been raiding...

And there she is! Draped over one shoulder she's got a very, very frightened-looking older man, plump, glasses, silver hair. There's a hole in the ceiling, and a grappling gun in her hand - there's also a present at her feet, all done up with a pretty bow.

The present is ticking.

"It's gonna blow!" Nightwing yells as he sees the present, but is in no position to stop and disarm it. Instead, he leaps sideways into one of the cells and goes straight fetal position, protecting his head and vital organs. Nightwing yells into his communicator, but the directions are muffled because of the echoes and the distance. He seems to be calling on one of the Bat-folk to attempt to track Harley if she gets out of this.

Huntress hears Nightwing's shout because thankfully Oracle thought to link her comm unit to his, and she immediately backs up. Reaching to snag Q by one arm, she throws herself through the first convenient door, hopefully to get them out of the blast radius of whatever Nightwing saw. Whatever it is, she doesn't want any part of it.

The Question is snagged, and hurled into Huntress' cover. It tuns out to be prisoners' side of the phone-call visit room. Once inside, The Question straightens his tie and adjusts his gloves. He notices a Bible sitting on one of tables. He picks it up and opens it. Sure enough it's hollowed out and has a plain-brown-wrapped package in it.

The Question removes the package and slams the Bible shut. Sticking his faceless head out the door he whips the Good Book down the hall, sliding it on the floor toward the present. The Question doesn't stop to watch, instead ducking back in the room and slamming the door shut. He leans against the wall and cross his ankles as he folds his arms.

"So," he says turning his blank countenance to Huntress, "want to get Chinese after this?"

Harley Quinn looks genuinely insulted when Nightwing shouts, sounding hurt when she asks, "Really, Wingnut? Would I be so obvious?"

Then she sees the bible skidding towards the package, and her eyes go very wide indeed, "Uh oh! Uh, no time for an encore, sorry folks!" And with that, she fires! The grapple gun propels her high into the air, moments before the bible hits the present--

And Harley has to tuck her legs up to avoid the explosion that rocks the room! She is spat out onto the roof, and exhales, "W-well what can I say?" She asks her captive, "S-sometimes, its a classic fer a /reason/. Don't give me that look, this ain't easy y'know!"

She doesn't hang around for long, though. Skipping across the rooftops and away... she's got her captive. But at the same time, the heroes have cost her a car, a lot more captives, a good number of gang members... and they've stopped what could have been a total prison break.