2014-02-27 - Rumble in Robinson Park

The sun had gone down and Robinson Park had become cloaked in shadow. Still the odd person wandered through the park, some of the innocent, if not particularly bright, and others with more criminal intent. A group of the latter had been causing trouble of late, a street gang pushed out of the West Side by the ever-shifting balance of power in the shallow end of Gotham's underworld who took their business to the park. A few weeks and a few assaults and a murder later they ended up on the Bat Family radar. They weren't enough for Batman to worry so the job got handed to Batwing and Red Robin to deal with. The instructions were clear, monitor them for now, stop their worst excesses and a plan would be put together to deal with them in the long term.

So that is what has the pair of costumed heroes crouched in the shadows of the park near an underpass which has become the gang's little hideout during business hours, serving their trickle of junkies drugs, while the lounged about drinking beers and harassing anyone who didn't have business with them in the park.

"This is boring," Batwing yawns from where he crouches in the shadows. "There's not that many of them we could take them out and move on to better things," he says to Carrie. He doesn't phrase it as a request, but it is one, for all his recklessness when he is alone, paired up he tends to take a secondary role.

"It's not all glamor and fights. Try to tell me what you've learned about each member while observing them," Red Robin suggests as a means to try and make things a bit less boring for the less patient Batwing. It wouldn't hurt for him to be able to learn to read people a bit better after all. She shifts where she crouches trying to take the weight off her feet a bit before she risked them falling asleep as she crouched in the shadows.

It's a cold night but not below freezing. The sky is clear and Ted is taking advantage of it to do some jogging. He'd rather be running on rooftops but ... he's still waiting on Batman to pay him a call and hash out a few things. Sonce he got to Gotham he's really only worn his costume twice and those times were both indoors for sparring. As he runs he decides to give the Bat a few more days. He's a busy man the Bat is and it's not like crimes are going to happen right under his nose. That sort of thing happens on TV and not real life. It was good to see some young people out getting fresh air and not playing those video-X-station games though. Huh? (Type "help" for help.)

Batwing looks over at Carrie his expression hard to read behind his green domino mask that hid his eyes and all the expression around them. "It's not about glamour it's about use of resources, strategy, we could be doing something more important," he says. Then when the question is asked his attention turns back towards the underpass. "Most of them are drunk, under-nourished and have little self-respect. They're scum, the sort of people that the world would be better without."

Speaking of people looking to be taken off the planet, Batwing spots the tall lanky jogger, there is something familiar about him, but the shadows make it hard to get details, his path is taking him towards the underpass. "We're about to have trouble," he remarks to Red as he stands up, letting the blood flow into his feet in preparation for the fight.

He's not the only one preparing, a couple of the look outs, barely older than Batwing by the look of them have taken notice of Ted and moved to intercept him. One has a bat over his shoulders and the other reaches inside of his coat as they move to cut off his path. "Hey old man, you picked the wrong place to jog," Bat-kid says as he takes the Lousiville slugger off his shoulders and swings it menacingly.

Ted looks around. Yep. He fell into a trap. That happens to folks a lot in his line of work but he's especially adept at it. In fact he pretty much stopped looking out for the damned things decades ago and now focusses his energy on the inevitable escape he will have to make. Still he was going to lay off the vigilante action till he spoke to Bats. So perhaps some part of him was looking for trouble. Or a big part.

"I'm sorry, I must have been daydreamin'. Could you please say again?" Ted says. You let the idiots spout off. There are rules for this.

"They're kids, Batwing, not..." Red Robin trails off only to let out a sigh when she doesn't even have time to point out that any particular choice could have led a number of them down this road. "Bad decisions, bad raising lead to this. Doesn't mean they all have to end up as 'scum.' Some of them--A lot of them--Just want to find a reason to make them more than this." Just like the Sons of Batman. The thugs and gang members that had followed Batman, learned from him, in her own world.

"Unfortunately you do sometimes have to beat some sense into them," she mutters as she stands leaning over the edge as she watches the approach of the man and the subsequent confrontation between him and the gang. "Ready. No maiming," she warns.

Batwing listens to Red but he doesn't comment. The world was too crowded and some people needed to be pushed off it; even if Father's rules didn't allow for that. He nods when she lays out the parameters of the engagement.

The kid with the bat steps forward. "Said you picked the wrong place to jog old man," his partner looks over his shoulder and whistles. Bat-kid continues "Give up your wallet and jewellery old man, and you can jog on out of here." He closes a little pointing at Grant with the bat. Rookie mistake, putting intimidation over a good stance. The kid behind him might be a problem, younger, scared by the look in his eyes, and the way that he reaches into his jacket suggests he's got a piece. They always give it to the kids they don't do as many years as the older ones if they get popped by the cops.

The whistle draws the others from the underpass, there's about ten in total, some old enough to be considered adults, most of them are young, angry or scared. When they see someone's walked into their lookouts some of them smile and laugh. Their leader, one of the older ones, bald and scarred say so to the others. "Go get lend a hand, but let the boys do the work, got to earn their keep." His men surge forward to start surrounding Ted. A few of the younger ones shouting out "Get him Kenny. Do 'em!"

Batwing watches it calmly and reaches into his belt for some batarangs which he slides between his fingers like claws in preparation for the fight. "You take the lead, I'll watch your back," he says.

That. That older man that comes out marking himself as leader is what draws Red Robin's attention almost instantly. Every ounce of her training yelled at her to take out the head. Take out the leader. Take out the one in charge and prove yourself stronger. It was what she'd been taught however unintentionally. It was what Batwing was taught, too, though his was more of a 'destroy them all' mentality.

"Help the guy," she orders without thinking as she slips off into the shadows to change her position to round to the side the leader was on.

Ted Grant spreads his hands out and says, "I got no wallet. I got $14 and a $10 watch. Listen ... they know me at Finn's Diner on Jake St. Why do you come with me and I'll get you all some dinner. Let's not do this. See, you with the bat, you don't know what the hell you're doing. Your pal behind you is more likely to plug you then me once the shooting starts. I'll take out the four closest to me before the rest of you move. That fellow on the right has badd footing and is gonna get hung up. You with the scars ... you put these kids between me and you and ... it won't save you. You know who gave your leader that face? Someone like me. So let's go get you guys fed and maybe get you a place to stay." Ted gives his biggest smile.

There is a pause from the would-be gang bangers when Ted lays out well, how he's going to lay them out. The kid with the bat, Kenny, backs off a bit, but the others shout encouragement and push him towards Ted again. Angry, embarrassed, and scared he swings hard and fast at Ted's middle. Behind him, the boy with the gun just drops, something small and metal with red fins sticking out of his neck. A dart. A moment later something lands at the feet of some of the gangers, and they look down at a small metal ball before it explodes with a bright flash and a deafening bang. Into the echoing noise and blinding light comes a small hooded figure laying into the gangsters with a pair of metal sticks.

"You can stop pretending now," the figure, Batwing, says to Ted. "And hurt them." Clearly at closer range he's recognized him.

From by the underpass, the leader watches the explosion with a mix of anger and fear. He reaches down behind a trash can to pick up a hidden gun, he cocks it and looks around the shadows. Clearly he's been around enough to know the Bat Family when he sees it. "You want my turf Bat? You going to have to take it!"

The light glints off the lenses covering eyes, allowing Red Robin the proper amount of adjustment to her vision to be able to see in the dark. It's the only warning that the leader has as she comes in not from above, but from the tunnel itself having slipped in through an access point she'd discovered in the course of the steakout. Three well-placed batarangs are thrown out aimed for the gun-weilding arm without apparent concern for the fact that the bladed edge would sink into his flesh.

"I intend to," comes the simple response from a serious, female voice, definitely not THE Bat. With a flutter of cape she launches toward the leader immediately after throwing kicks, and punches.

Ted Grant steps in close and grabs the bat heading for his midsection near the kid's hand. He wrenches it from Kenny and sends him flying with a shove to the solar plexus. He turns on the kids about to mob him and breaks the bat over his knee. "Don't. Just don't. Lay down on the ground before you get darted, tasered or I kick your little ass to Metropolis." One kid obeys instantly. The others freeze in indecision.

The batarangs rip into the flesh and nerves of the leader's gun arm and the weapon clatters from his dead hand to the pavement. He turns towards the sound of the voice "You're not the Ba-" the rest of the words are lost when a foot finds his jaw and knocks it shut. Followed up by some punches that take the wind out of him and leave him sore and bruised. "You will pay for this Bat-bitch," he snarls and throws a few punches and kicks of his own. Though the punches are all from the left, his right hand still useless and bleeding.

Over by Ted the mob of gangers stop when he just straight up breaks the bat over his knee. This was not going according to the script. It wasn't going for the script for Batwing either. He'd expected to be deep in broken limbs and faces by now, but everything had just stopped. He growls at the ganger, a kid really, he has by the collar and drives an elbow into his throat and drops him. "And the one's he doesn't break like that bat have to deal with me," he growls as a fresh set of batarangs appear between his fingers.

One of the kids, looking back towards the underpass points, "Look!" pointing out the fight between Red Robin and their boss.

The Jogger was a big guy, and strong, and tough. There were others in this gang that thought they were tough--Or at least wanted to prove they were. A scrawny runt of a kid, clearly a tag-along younger brother, launches at Ted from behind. He actually gets a good height on his jump as he aims to tackle him from behind going for the throat with a glint of steel in his hand--It was a butter knife that had been sharpened on a rock for hours, meticulously, until it made a decent shiv. There wasn't much to it left really but he tries.

The fight going on elsewhere, or not going on, doesn't seem to concern Red Robin overly much as her attention was focused solely on the leader. When those punches rain down at her she ducks, and tucks to the side, slamming her own arm out to hit injured one. It's followed up by a spinning kick with her booted foot going high for the man's face as well. He was angry. Hurt. While he was bigger and stronger she knew she had an advantage right now. "That's no way to talk to a lady."

Ted Grant takes the hit and the kid manages to hang onto him. Ted even takes a step forward. The knife flashes at his throat and his wrist comes up blocking the stabbing blade cold. He grabs that wrist and shakes he blade loose, then throws his head back to whack the kid in the face. Knife-boy drops down and runs holding his face and screaming, "My nose!".

Ted looks at the three kids standing frozen and says, "Make up your minds because shit is going to get real in a minute." They all lay down almost as one. Then the scarred guy's other lieutenant jumps on Ted.

"Uuuff ... 'the hell kept ya?" Ted grunts. He acrtually missed that.

The leader is not doing well, his arm hurts, and the kick drops him to the ground spitting blood. The rest of the kids are caught between Ted and Batwing, they watch their leader go down. They look at each other, the heroes, and then they start fading away. The hard cases stand their ground, but they don't move to help their leader not yet, their watching him, and the red-headed hero beating on him. Waiting for something.

Batwing moves to join Ted, glancing up at him, before he looks over at the fight between Red and the leader.

When the leader goes down Red Robin spins behind him planting a foot on the back of one of his knees to press down with the heel of her boot. Even as she does this her hand grabs for the scarred guy's head pulling it back against her leg and holding him there in an awkward, painful position. She looks up toward those that were watching knowing they were.

"Is THIS who you all want to follow?"

Ted Grant twists with savage speed and grabs his assailant by the belt. He grunts with the efoort and raises him heels over head before dropping suddenly and slamming hm on the ground headfirst. "No, that's fine, I'm all right kid," he quips to Bat-Wing.

Ted dusts himself off and adjusts his jacket before turning to the kids on the ground,

"So, you guys ready for dinner?" he asks nonchalantly.

The gangers that remain, the hard cases, not the ones still on the ground, look at their leader with disgust, as the girl in the costume kicks his ass. The turn and walk away, some of the more responsible ones move towards the injured ones around Ted and Batwing. One of them looks over at the pair. "We're going to get our people and go, alright?" he asks, reaching down to grab the kid Batwing elbowed in the throat to bring him to his feet.

Batwing keeps his arms crossed and nods.

The leader, groans out up at Red Robin "You're going to pay for this," despite the protest he's all but broken.

Red Robin just snorts with apparent disgust. She lets the man go, pushing him forward with a kick between his shoulderblades. "Go home," she calls out to the others commandingly. "Or take up the old man on his offer. Either way, make different decisions. Or we'll be talking again." That, apparently is that for her as she walks off.

Ted Grant pulls some business cards out and drops them by the people getting their injured out. Then he pulls the few biils he was carrying out and drops those too. "Grant's Gym. I'll help you however I can. Go there.”