DC: 2012-03-04 - Follow the Lead! Er...

After making sure Kara was in the gym, Tre heads off to meet with Lady Blackhawk, who has the address of one of the people involved in the bar fight which had served as the distraction during which Kara was dosed with Red K in her drink. Three of the men involved apparently had died of various causes, all supposedly 'accidents.' One was killed in another barfight. One in a car accident. A third was killed in what police called a mugging gone bad. They arrive at an apartment building of the fourth and last person who might have some information about what's going on. And it's a dump of a place, in one of the worst parts of the city. Tre's probably familiar with the area.

Lady Blackhawk is determined to get to number four before the bad guys do. This is one...dump of a place. "This is unpleasant," the woman notes, stretching a little as she regards it. "But let's not linger. He's almost certainly targeted...we need to get to him before they do." She sounds pretty calm...she's used to investigations in the bad, or worse than bad, part of town.

Having arrived at the designated spot for the meet up, Tre recognized the area and smirks. The ghetto is his domain of expertise, and as a Titan he patrols there constantly but doing it better without being seen. Crouching a bit, with a bit Tre nods to Lady Blackhawk, "Yeah lets go." he says to her. With them being on a bit of a time table, he looks around to make sure they aren't being followed nor watched. "Yeah, but we also need to watch for the Deuces here too. They aren't the best street gang around but they are the loudest." he sighs as he follows Lady Blackhawk's lead.

"Loudest? And would they do a gang shooting for pay?" Lady B is not stupid on such matters. She's leading the way, staying in the shadows as much as she possibly can. It's amazing, really, how quiet she can be in those heeled boots. Of course, she is a Gothamite. Generally, they tend to be good at stealth. Her voice is the barest of whispers, just loud enough to be clearly heard by the Titan she is currently partnered with.

The last person is located in apartment 401 of this building. Dang it's a dumb. There's a dilapidated fire escape that looks so rusty as should be condemned, some gang members mulling around near the entrance. Other than that, nothing much seeming to happen.

Quirking a brow, "Possibly but then again with the Lincoln Boyz out of the running for top spot everyone is trying to move in on that." he says to her. 'Damn how can she move in those.' he thinks to himself and can't help and look at those legs. Shaking his head, he gets his mind back on the situation. "They would need to be paid pretty good." he tells her. Tre is moving in sneakers and having been trained by Nightwing and Arsenal on stealth Tre isn't bad at all. "Well, let's move quick." he whispers.

"I think whoever is behind this is rich enough...hrm. Is there a back door?" She's more thinking out loud, not wanting to go past the loitering gangers and, as she can't fly, not trusting the fire escape either. She starts to move down the alleyway, looking for a service entrance, loading dock, whatever.

As the two of you go down the alley, there's a back entrance. It's a thick-looking steel door. Not much else in back - storm pipe leading up the side of the building, a dumpster, a bum sleeping in said dumpster.

 Lady Blackhawk says, "Locked, or is somebody gonna have to pick it?"  Kara Zor-El says, "it's locked yes :) Possibly deadbolted."

Tre sighs, "Well we better move it then." he tells her. As he moves down the alley, he loks about for another entrance, possibly a side entrance. He does look at the fire escape, he frowns. He could possibly climb it, it could possibly break before he gets to the first rung. Seeing the steele door and the dumbster, shaking his head. "I will try to climb up and maybe access a windo and try to get in that way." he suggests.

Lady Blackhawk moves to check the door. "Firmly locked. Probably bolted. The fire escape is likely too weak...and I for one need a plane to fly." Of course, given one, she's the best, but there aren't any handy. Even the model kind. "Dang...go ahead. We can't wait around on this.

There -are- some windows on the side, though even with the dumpster, it's quite a jump without a boost of some sort.

Nodding his head, "Hey weren't you supposed to call me the next time you came into town?" he asks remembering that she said she would at least hang out with him every once and a while. Shaking his head, "Umm...care to give me a quick boost?" he asks as he crouches down and holds out a hand to Lady Blackhawk to help her up on the dumpster. He gestures to her to where he would need her to be before boosting him up.

Lady Blackhawk does so. She isn't sure, given how brief their previous interactions were, what Tre is capable of, but she trusts him to know his own abilities and how to best achieve what he has in mind. For this moment, she's following his lead. Good teamwork means knowing who should lead each measure of the dance. Accepting his help onto the dumpster, lightly, and then moving into position, still with that surprising quiet.

Climbing onto the dumpster, Lady Blackhawk gives Tre a boost up, allowing him to grab the bottom of the second floor window's ledge. Fortunately, the window itself is open. Inside are 2 children. Their mother is in the kitchen with a third kid sorta slung over her shoulder, muttering about the absent father. Meanwhile, Zinda still needs to figure a way to get -herself- in the building as well.

Meanwhile, the bum sleeping in the dumpster she're standing on is getting a good look at some spectacular legs.

 Lady Blackhawk pbbts.

Looking into the window, Tre sees the mother and her children within the kitchen. He smiles and knows he should hurry while the mother is a bit pre-occupied. Quickly easing into the window and hoping down lightly. Knowing that he can't make too much noise or else he will alert them to his presence. He walks towards the front of the apartment, checking to make sure there is no one else within ashe makes his way to the door. Once to the front door, he unlocks the door and slips out as quiet as he can. He looks down the hall, he then quickly begins making his way downstairs to the back where he left Lady Blackhawk and unlock the door hopefully wihtout too much problem.

Lady Blackhawk hops down from the dumpster, landing on her feet as she moves to the door. She might have been able to get in on her own, but it would have been much harder. (On the matter of hanging out, she remains silent. She's not about to admit she clean forgot that particular promise. Ahem).

Yeah, he loves his ghettos. He looks to the girl and smiles, "I'm a friendly one." he says to the boy. Mussing his hair, "Now take care of your mom." he says as he now has attracted the mother attentions. ANd yes this really does bring back memories, but with the six deadbolts and two chain locks and a angery mother. Yeah one would like to get out alive and he does manages to do so.

Of course, it wouldnt be an adventure without some problems. Such as one of the kids grabbing onto Tre's foot and saying "Are you a stwanger?" Tre should have know, even Arsenal has trouble sneaking past Lian. Of course, this alerts the mother, who starts screaming something in spanish at Tre as he gets the door open, while she waves a frying pan at him. Once Tre gets out of the apartment with extreme haste - geez there are so many locks to undo! - the mother screams some other obscenities at Tre in the hall and slams the door closed behind her, followed by about 8 different locks being heard closing up. Of course, screaming obscenities is normal in this building, so it does not attract much attention, and Tre is able to go down to the side entrance to unbolt the deadbolt and let Zinda in the side.

Getting down stairs, he opens the door and bows to Lady Blackhawk, "M'lady." he smiles to her as he waits for her to enter.

Lady Blackhawk steps inside. "What kept you?" she teases, lightly, stepping into the building. Ugh. It smells like something might have died around here. Hopefully a rat. She really hopes a rat. Other possibilites are, of course, far nastier. Fortunately, she's used to it, able to deal with far worse than a bit of a bad smell, but she does wrinkle her nose a little.

The two of you head up to the fourth floor, passing by druggies sleeping on the stairs, a kid spraypainting on a wall, and another who looks at Zinda with a "Woooooah" though he's nudged by the first one.

"They're like cops or somethin moron."

"Yo but lookit her legs. She could arrest me anytime"

Unfortunately, this route was necessary - because the elevator is out of order. Of.... course. Once you get to 401, the door is locked... obviously. And if the mother's door was any indication, it's locked securely and multiple times.

Tre chuckles at the boys, but nods. Thinking a moment he reacehs into his pocket and takes out two twenties and hands both of them one each. "You never saw us and if sorts come that look bad news, get out of here but adding a warning." he says knowing how to talk to the boys. Which means, give a 'WHUP, WHUP call.' As they head further upstairs, he looks to Lady Blackhawk, "There are a ton of locks so either we ask nicely and break through." he whispers lowly just in case this guy is that paranoid enough to sit at his door.

Lady Blackhawk moves to put her ear against the door. Is the guy even home? Can she hear a television, a radio, voices, anything else? That might determine which out of asking nicely and breaking in is the best course of action.

As Tre says what he's saying, and Lady Blackhawk puts her ear to the door to hear, a shotgun blast sprays the door with buckshots inches from where Lady Blackhawk is, just barely missing her! The shot came from inside.

With a following yell from inside of "You come on in, I'll shoot ya dead!"

 Lady Blackhawk says, "Does it sound like the guy we're looking for?"

 Kara Zor-El says, "yep. it's the guy you kneed in the groin sounds like"

"You don't let us in and somebody else likely will," Zinda calls. "We aren't the ones who want you dead." Sure, he's a thug, and she wouldn't mind putting him in jail, but she doesn't KILL. That's like, against superhero rules.

Sidestepping away from the door is good because Lady Blackhawk almost got shot. He looks down the hall as Lady Blackhawk starts talking to him, with paying his informants for now, and keeping an eye out, who knows how much time they have before whoever is looking for this idiot comes here. "Listen to my friend." he suggests because right now they are his only hope.

The guy inside takes your advice, and returns more with another blast of shotgun pellets sprayed at the door. On the plus side, it will be pretty easy to break it now. On the negative, you might get shot trying.

And the second he stops firing, Zinda moves to kick the door in. "Quickly!" The downside to shotguns for personal defense? They have to be reloaded. And he already fired both barrels. So if they're fast, they have a window to get in. She seems incredibly casual about it, too.

Luckily for Tre who's used to gunfire, but still not used to being the target, is standing on the opposite side of the door. Taking Lady Blackhawks lead, he comes in behind her breaking off ot the side and looking for the man with the gun. Upon seeing him, Tre will try to quickly disarm him and get his gun away from him while he's reloading if possible.

Zinda breaks down the door, already weakened from two blasts from a shotgun, and both of the heroes rush in. You can see, from across the room, the guy from the bar behind a couch, swearing to himself and trying to reload his shotgun. He'd be faster if he wasnt shaking so much. The TV is on with the news playing, and the phone is off the hook. The window drapes are drawn as well.

"Now. Can we discuss this like civilized people?" Zinda notes, crossing the room as quickly as she can and reaching for the half-loaded gun. "I'm not here to kill you...although you could make me change my mind."

The man gulps as Tre and Zinda rush in, Tre stopping him from behing able to load the gun and Zinda taking it away from him. He backs away. "Yeah right. Look don't kill me okay? I can pay you the money back!" He's just not listening.

"Oh, I don't care about the money. But I'll find a way to make your little debt problem go away if you'll talk to me about a certain bar fight." Is she checking her nails? Even with one hand wrapped around the shotgun. Why, yes, she is. She's quite casual about this...she's done interrogations before, but this one? This one's easy.

Having gotten the gun away from the man, Tre now shakes his head as the man is fumbling about for words. He then looks back to the destroyed door and frowns a bit. "Look we don't have all day. Answer her questions as calmly as you can." Though there is a bit of an edge in his voice, something he's not had to do in a good while. He then begins moving towards the door, but staying off to the side and keeping an eye out. He didn't want to have any surprises like the one they just had, but also he knows that if he stayed near the man who caused the fight and with the people who possibly slipped something into Karas drink, he may hurt him.

The man looks around to see if there's a way to run. Unfortunately it's the 4th floor so... no. "Okay look whattya want to know, I just found out all my friends have died starting after that bar fight"

From afar, Tre is there any noise or sounds of any one coming up the stairs or down the hall?

You paged Tre with 'um... not yet that you can hear.'

"Were you paid to start it?" If he talks, she'll get Oracle to get him out of town...get him well clear of this, new identity, the works. She's pretty sure he didn't do anything to warrant the death penalty. Besides? Tre is making a good bad cop here.

He looks over at Tre, then at Lady Blackhawk. Okay on one hand, Tre looks like he wants to beat his head in. On the other hand, while Zinda looks like she's being reasonable, she is the one who kneed him in the groin. He looks at Zinda. "Yeah um... some woman gave us $10,000 just to start a fight in there. I didnt know that we were all gonna start getting killed though! Look, you gotta protect me."

With not hearing anything from the hall of stairs, Tre does look back over to the two of them but staring down the man as if he's ready to break his face in. On the verge of saying something, Tre stops and listens as the guy spills his guts. Allowing his training to take over, Tre lets his anger abate but keeps the bad cop vibe going just to give the guy incentive to tell the truth, "And what else?" he asks angrily.

"Some woman? You can do better than that." She's keeping one eye, herself, on the window. Fourth floor or not, they COULD come through the window. And if so, she'll have to save this loser's life. Oh well...she's done things far more distasteful in her time.

He shakes his head. "Okay! look... she was a cop also okay? Somehow knew that me and my friend were ... yknow.... we had some stuff in our car. Offered us $10,000 to go in the bar and start something with each other, said if we didnt, we'd be going to jail. Officer... um... .what was her badge name... Parsons. Officer Parsons. I swear that's all I know!" He pauses. "That's why I havent gone to the cops even. You gotta protect me"

"Tre. Watch our back." She turns slightly away from the man, but not entirely so, murmuring under her breath into a comlink. She doesn't have a badge number, but Oracle should be able to run 'Parsons' quickly enough. A cop? She is pretty dang sure the lady's no more cop than *she* is.

You paged Tre with 'ok NOW you hear some people coming up the stairs.' Tre pages: Ok. Tre pages: Is there anything near by that I can have Tre use like a broom?

On the other side of the comlink, Oracle does a quick hack into the police computers in San Francisco. After less than a minute, you hear something in an earpiece, saying there are 4 police officers who are female in this area with the last name Parsons. One of whom used to have a beat in the area of Ray's Bar, but that one retired several months ago.

You paged Tre with 'um... no but Lady B does have an unloaded shotgun.' You paged Tre with 'there's also a floor lamp nearby'

Oracle then mentions that she hacked into an ATM camera from that day, and yeah got a picture from across the street of a woman in a police uniform talking to your 'friend' and his friends. She mentions, "I'll need to do some analysis to blow up the image and try to match it with an identity. Might take a day or two."

Nodding his head to Lady B as she tells him to watch their backs as the thug finally is able to give them more information. But as he watches out, the sounds of foot steps rushing upstairs. "Company coming, dude get down. Lady B cover him." he says not yelling but in a commanding voice so that only those in the room cna hear him and not those coming up. He reaches over and grabs the floor lamp and gets ready.

Lady Blackhawk is not normally one to follow orders blindly. This time? She TOLD Tre to watch their back. With practiced ease, she moves to force the man to the ground. "Down," she hisses in his ear. "And stay down." She'll reveal the rest of what Oracle had to say later.

As Lady B pushes the man down behind the couch, several of the gangers who were out front earlier rush down the hall and towards the apartment - about 6 of them it seems. The first one runs in with his gun out

Allowing himself to remain calm and letting his instincts to flow through him and as the first thug comes in, Tre swings the lamp towards the guy clotheslining him. Right about the neck and well possibly really painful for the guy. He then quickly spins the lamp and rushes towards the two coming in right behind the first in a attempt to clothesline them as well. The move is fast and strong, but as he attempts to clothesline the other two men, Tre jumps back into the apartment not wanting to be fired upon in the hallway.

The first guy goes down rather hard as the lamp hits him square in the neck. "Nnnngh!" he goes. When the other two come in, one of them manages to duck as the lamp is swung around, the other guy being hit with the end, knocking him back out of the apartment. The guy who ducks, however, punches Tre in the face and grapples him, while 2 MORE men swarm into the small apartment.

"And stay down," Zinda whispers before she vaults out from behind the couch, landing on it to bounce off towards the closest guy. High heels first. See, she wears them for a reason...they really add to the force of a kick. Yeah. She's quite willing to beat these guys up. Not kill, of course. The move is executed in a smooth and casual manner.

Of the two men who rush in while Tre is being grappled by one ganger, one gets a foot square in his chest, sending him crashing over an endtable. And he's down. Two down, 3 to go.... not including the big guy in the hall. The other guy pulls out his gun to try to aim at Zinda.

Staggering back from the punch, Tre quickly regains his footing from the punch. "Your a joke." he says as he elbows the guy in the ribs hard. He then headbutts him in the face and breaks the grapple. As Zinda comes in taking out one of the men, Tre moves back on the offensive. As one of the thugs reaches into his jacket to pull out a gun, Tre is on him. "Fuck you!" he growls as he throws a two piece combo, a knee to his sternum and a spinning elbow smash to his neck.

Tre makes rather short work of the one who was grappling him. After the elbow to the ribs followed by the headbutt, he goes down - hard. Tre runs to throw a two-piece combo at the man pulling the gun on Zinda. He manages to hit him with his knee, making the man stagger to the side, though still holding onto the gun, but as Tre's about to do a spinning elbow smash, he's suddenly lifted up from behind as Ganger #6 grabs him and throws him across the room.

Ganger #6 is BIG. Like... shaved gorilla big. Though he isnt actually a gorilla. Just a REALLY big guy. I mean.... wrestler big. King Kong Bundy type wrestler big. Ganger #5, the one with the gun, grimaces from the knee, but then again pulls up the gun to try to take out Zinda when he sees his hombre throw Tre.

Gun. Gothamite. Point blank range. Noob! Her hand comes up into the gun...and then with the other hand she tries to club him with the poor barfight guy's shotgun. Which she never did put down at any point, even when vaulting over the sofa. Hopefully the pistol will go flying. You don't pull guns on people who can actually REACH you.

The gun does indeed go flying as Zinda swings the shotgun like a bat, probably breaking some bones in the poor murderous gang member's hand. He goes down, clutching his hand, the gun sliding across the floor.

Having thought this was going to be an easy take down, he wasn't expecting to be grabbed from behind and thrown. 'Shit.' He scolds himself for allowing himself to get tunnel vision in a situation like this. Hitting the ground and rolling and coming back up on his feet, Tre staggers a bit but tries to quickly regain his focus. As he does he quickly moves after the big guy hoping that Zinda and take out the gun. Quickly moving in towards the big guy, Tre remembered his last fight with guys like him, he has to go after nerve clsuters and joints and thats what he does. Aiming palm strikes to the center of the chest and neck, Tre attacks the wrestler, then quickly follows up wiht a kick directly to the guys knee.

The first strike by Tre right into a nerve cluster located by the chest.... doesn't seem to work. What the heck? That was supposed to be a good one too. Ganger #6 smirks and swings his fist at Tre. However, though he's big, srong, and apparently has enough muscle and fat to dilute a nerve strike, he's also slow. His fist misses Tre as he follows with a kick to the guy's knee. THAT seems to work a bit better as the Ganger looks like he's in pain from that one, yelling out even. But as Tre hits him well in the knee, bringing him down to one knee, the Ganger smashes his fist down on Tre's back. That also connects - solidly. Ouch. That's gonna hurt.

These super beefy dudes are a pain in the ass, but at least they are not unbeatable and it's something more that he will have to work on seeing as he is encountering them a bit more often now. But having thought he was quick enough to escape his last swing, Tre isn't. The hit to his back sends Tre to teh ground. The weight of the blow is enough to let him roll but leave him gasping for air and slow to recover. Yeah that hurt a lot and his body is rebelling against him, "G...get him out of here." he hollars to Zinda.

Lady Blackhawk is not going to leave Tre. She steps forward, and aims a nice, solid, KO-attempt punch at the back of Ganger 6's head, stepping around him if necessary to do so. He's very focused on Tre...why do people always ignore the women? Oh, wait, this isn't Whedonverse.

Tre shakes his head and he isn't dumb enough to ignore a woman, but this idiot is. He quickly shifts his stance and goes for a counter strike, delivering a kick to the side of Ganger 6's right knee, then a solid kick to his NUTS! Yes his fucking nuts, all men he doesn't care how bad you are, your nuts isn't all that tough.

As Zinda clocks him hard in the back of his head, it stuns him, though the guy's head feels like it's made of granite or something. It does take his attention off Tre, though, who takes a page from the Lady Blackhawk 'Anything Goes' method of fighting someone who outweighs and outmuscles you that extremely. Ganger 6's eyes roll to the back of his head and he falls over.

Lady Blackhawk relaxes a bit, then turns towards the guy. "Hold up. If you run away, we can't protect you from the next attack." And there might even be more of them outside. Her tone is surprisingly gentle...sure, he's a thug, but right now? He's their lead. And he doesn't deserve to *die* for what he did.

Tre sighs as he stretches a bit and then rubs his back. Walking over to where Zinda is. He looks at the thug, "Listen to her, you already've seen we are not here to kill you." he says as he walks over to the guy. "But we better get a move on quickly." he says more ot Lady B.

The guy looks at the unstable fire escape... then starts to go back in. "Okay.... but you guys gotta protect me. I don't want to die like the others."

Meanwhile, Oracle tries to contact Zinda via her phone. "Zinda, you might want to get out of there with that guy. I've been monitoring the police channels in San Francisco, and there are all sorts of alarms going on. Bunch of police are heading there with an ETA of 8 minutes. If any of them are dirty, you're going to have more trouble than just a bunch of hired thugs. The JLA has an auxiliary HQ there. I've made arrangements for them to keep your friend there until I have a name for you on that fake policewoman's face."

"If any of them are dirty?" Zinda grumbles into her com. The way this is going down, she's assuming they all are. "Okay. Come on. We're going to a safehouse. I'm not happy about what you did, but you don't deserve to eat dirt for it." She offers him her hand, then starts to head out of the building. Quickly. By the back door, of course.

Looking to the guy he can tell he's nervous but as Zinda speaks about the safehouse he nods. "Alright lets move, becuase if your worried about dirty cops then we need to go now." As he finishes saying that he quickly walks over to the door to check and make sure there isn't anyone else coming, then he quickly gestures for them both to come.

They both subtlely leave the building with their 'plus one,' avoiding any more gangers, bringing him to the Birds of Prey safehouse for his own protection until Oracle finds out more information. Later that night on the news, there's a report about a gangland shooting, in which several members of a gang were killed by a rival gang. The images of the dead gangers is rather recognizable to the two of you - it's the six whom you beat up protecting the jerk.

The following day, Oracle sends Zinda another message, that the face was that of Sandra Peters, who is a member of a merc group from the DynCorp International (a subsidiary of Tycho Industries' mercenary division). Tycho Industries is a huge megacorporation with many dealings with the U.S. Government (as well as other governments) - they deal with everything from weapons and soldier training to household goods to food goods. They even have business dealings with other powerful corporations like LexCorp and had with Wayne Enterprises as well on some of the technology used in the Watchtower. Oracle says it's a good lead to follow up on, and gives the address for DynCorp International.