2017-09-01 - Mauled by a Mutant Menace

For Catwoman, she's seen better days. She's slammed -HARD- through an abandoned warehouse, body beaten and bleeding then, clawed and slashed. She's forcing herself upright over, hand on the wall and her other hand trying to hold her blood in.

Casually striding after her is a towering figure, over seven feet tall and moving with almost supernaturally agility, darting through the shadows after her nearly as silent as the Bat. WEaring a suit made almost of fur, with massive claws on his hands. "Come on frail, make it fun!"

Richard Dragon has closed up for the night, his keys dangling as he locks up the dojo to go eat out. Best way to advertise? Public appearances. He dons a simple white bucket hat to shield his hair from the seemingly ever present mist of the Gotham night and makes his way with a bokken tucked into his belt. His gi bears a stylized Chinese dragon to advertise his school, and a jade dragon claw dangles from his neck.

Richard isn't deaf, so he wouldn't make it far before hearing the crash of someone having something other than a good time. He hmms and goes to investigate. Part of why his school is in a bad part of town is he wants to clean it up and make a good impression. Sometimes that absolutely necessitates personal involvement.

Batwing had been planning on calling it an early night to get in some studying before the noise from the warehouse drew his attention. He swings over landing almost soundlessly on the roof and peers inside. "Catwoman," he breathes. The thief was in bad shape and while Batwing didn't know what that thing was she fought he knew it meant business.

Fortunately so did he.

Smashing the skylight with an elbow he tosses a flashbang in calling out. "Catwoman! Run!" then he drops down inside shooting his grapple into the roof to slow his descent to a less suicidal speed.

There's a wicked grin over from the tall figure then going through, "Oh, fun. Fresh meat." And Sabretooth blurs then. Selina is smashed through one wall of the building, hitting the street hard, bouncing over a few times and lying still.

"Come on runt, you might not have money on your head but doesn't mean I can't have fun!" Sabretooth is fast, blurring over then as he advances towards Batwing. The flashbang is caught cleanly in one hand, it detonating and leaving burn marks over the hand. Almost instantly they're starting to heal over.

Richard Dragon happens to have been walking up the alley that Sabertooth smashed into. He's heard of this man, being in the loop on known serial killers. He's also followed the more famous exploits of martial artists like Iron Fist.

Richard pops his knuckles and calls out,"Hey! Fang face! Try someone more your speed, pal."

Richard balls his fists at his sides as he braces for the big guy to turn his attention, chin up as he affects a defiant posture. Batwing lands in a crouch his black clad form low and covered in his hooded cloak. His eyes widen slightly at how quickly his adversary healed. Those eyes remain wide when he sees who comes to fight with the creature next. Richard Dragon. He knew of the man by his legend and the files on the Bat-Computer but had never met him. This had gotten interesting. "Dragon, he heals quickly, watch out for that," he warns then to prove the point hurls a trio of batarangs at Sabertooth aimed for his legs.

Sabretooth lets one of the batarangs hit his legs, it penetrating to the bone and then he casually goes to take down a claw to yank it out, already the flesh healing over. The batarang is then launched over at Richard like a rocket, "Come and get it. I always enjoy when I get to kill one of you glowy fist types. It's fun. Makes me feel accomplished." Creed launches into an all out offensive on Richard. Claws slashing. A blur. A whirlwind of primeval violence. Richard Dragon nods subtly at Batwing. He'd address the Bat properly, but this isn't a social. Sabretooth would emphasize this with the offered batblade that Richard plucks from the air as he goes high against the mutant charging head long.

Going high means leaping up high enough to stamp a foot down on his head to launch behind the man in a blur of speed. Richard twists in mid air to sling the batblade at the back of his shoulder, sandalled feet skidding as he lights facing the mutant once again. He'll draw his bokken from the belt cinched about his waist, the weapon hand carved from heartwood and meticulously stained. It clearly isn't a mere training implement, but nor does it have an edge.

"Mr Sabertooth, I presume?" offers Richard before continuing,"I give you one chance to leave. Then I will encourage you."

Richard emphasizes this last point with a gesture towards him with his teaching stick.

Batwing watches as Richard Dragon proves to be every inch the fighter he'd been told he was. "Impressive," he breathes before he gets back into the flow of the battle. He draws two more batarangs gripping them about the middle to make them double bladed knives. He sweeps left of Dragon, flanking Sabertooth hoping to provide a little more encouragement for the beast to leave.

As Richard goes to leap up high, Creed whips his hand out. Catching Richard by the ankle mid-twirl then and going to hurl him hard over at the wall. The type of thing Richard can easily recover from to make a clean landing over from easily, but again a reminder of Creed's speed and strength, and that just a little cleaner yank could have snapped the ankle off like a twig.

Sabretooth grins at Batwing, "Kid, you gonna hide behind the old man? Or you going to run away and cry?" Creed advances cleanly towards the pair. "Oh, nice, going to use the stick? How about I shove it up your ass?"

Richard Dragon bounds from the wall, having twisted to hit it feet first in an almost spiderman style crouch before springing off with an acrobatic flair. He smiles at Sabretooth, replying as he takes off his hat to set it down on a stair,"The better to swat the backs of your hands with. Be a good lad, now, and I won't have to."

Richard draws a breath then, centering himself as he takes up a kendo posture against the big mutant. One of the hands gripping the bokken unclasps briefly to single 'come at me, bro.' Damian grits his teeth. Kid! Who the hell was he calling kid?! Still Damian holds his ground. "Tt. That 'old man' is going to kick your shaggy ass," he retorts as he slips into a defensive stands blades in front of him waiting for Sabertooth to pick his target.

Sabretooth goes full offense. But in this case, he's going for Damian. Keeping his attention on Richard, going for the weaker target. Presuming that targeting Batwing means that Richard will try and attack him or go to defend Damian. If not, the kid's an easier target to Creed and can also be used to separate over from the flank easier as he goes full on teh attack.

A shadow appears in behind. Landing next to Catwoman, whoever it is drops a small bat shaped device on the woman and hits activate, which signals a medical drone to come to her for emergency pickup. If she doesn't bleed out in the next five minutes, she'll be collected...but that's only if they can keep the fuzzy guy off of her that long.

Then the shadow lobs a handful of small grenades into the air above the fight, their explosion scattering a hellish concoction of spices into the air. Not too bad for humans, but the advanced senses of Creed would find it excruciating.

And the girl without a mask steps out of the shadows, aiming to fight dirty. Cassandra Cain is on duty.

Richard Dragon blurs to intercept Sabertooth, an onlooker might see a pale flicker of motion with Richard being mostly in white. He flips the bokken around in stride to lash out with a thrust of the pommel at the mutant's hip as he goes low this time. Creed is right about Richard defending the other.

Richard would follow up that attack near instantly, whipping around to bring the blade of his teaching stick slapping against his lower back followed by a punch squarely at his kidney. Hopefully this would slow his roll for at least moment while he figures out how to take down a man who can apparently heal near instantly.

"Wrong choice," Batwing chides as Sabertooth picks him over Dragon. He rolls to his left counting on the beast to turn with him and expose his back to Dragon while he does. The explosions and raining spices brings a grin to Batwing's lips. Reinforcements. Excellent. He finishes his roll and comes up crouched low turned to face Sabertooth.

The strike that Richard makes at Creed's back hits his kidneys. Sabretooth lets out a roar then. Almost of irritation then. That didn't hurt him so much as annoy him. THe man has the constitution as one person put it of an ox on bloodlust. As the grenades go into the air hten, they hit around Sabreooth. He lets out a howl of rage then.

And a claw narrowly misses Batwing's neck, and instead tears through the brick wall behind him, taking out a segment the size of a fist and leaving sparks behind, like slashing metal on metal.

Richard Dragon will toss his bokken aside then. The monster-man has gotten pissed, and his tool would be useless from here on it. He just knows it. Richard draws a breath as he steps back one, hands moving in an esoteric pattern as he chooses his next strike at the man he nows sees as a coward for disregarding him.

Dragon's movements carry him alongside the big mutant who has just gone after Batwing again. This time he'll strike at the under arm of the offending claw, his fingers joined to target the nerve cluster in a pin point crane strike. Almost simultaneously, his other fist will target his solar plexus aiming to do real damage at the vulnerable ribs there. He'll be skidding backwards with hands flowing defensively following this attack. Hit and run.

Batwing may have seen Cassandra from time to time around the cave, but she's never given the impression of the potentially lethal monster that her files warn she is; yes, Batwing has likely accessed her files, since there's not a lot to do when Alfred thinks you're sleeping and three hours a night is fine.

So it's perhaps a little astonishing when she acts completely out of character and steps forward in a panther style assassination pose. Her eyes don't even look at Richard or Damian, staying mostly out of focus as she leaps up into the air, using the distraction that the two grandmasters are giving. She rebounds off of the wall nearby, doing a forward flip over the fight and lashing out with her fingers into Creed's eyes.

The snap kick at the back of his head almost seems like overkill, but she's clearly going for the nasty shots. The ones they're not supposed to use on anyone, ever. Batwing is in the last place he wanted to be, trapped between a wall and Sabertooth, he twists out of the way of the claw at the last moment then dives low as Dragon attacks Sabertooth's arm. He drives both of his batarangs through Sabertooth's foot then rolls through his legs and out onto the warehouse floor. Once there he's up on his feet and putting some distance between him and the mutant before he turns and like Dragon puts his hands up defensively. From where he stands he is given a perfect view of Cassandra's attack and he blinks behind his mask. That was not something he expected.

The batarangs dig over into Sabretooth's foot, and he shrieks then. And then as Cassandra goes to snap kick hard over at him, with a blow that coucl have taken it off, Sabretooth does even something a bit more terrifying given what Batwing has seen. He dodges it. Flat out a full power blow from Black Bat. He moves FASTEr than she is, letting out a roar and trying to get her up and a gutting bear hug! The blows from Richard Dragon rain off him, almost ignored then over in their power and flurry then. His healing factor is just healing from nerve strikes and body blows and brutal slugs almost as fast as they rain down on him.

Cassandra is caught in the bear hug, which manages to catch her due to simple, overpowering speed. She twists, quickly, managing to get her arms set so there's as much time as possible, but not enough to get free. There is, however, enough time to say something quickly, and she does before all the air is driven out of her.

"Stop holding back."

Richard Dragon raises a brow at Black Bat's statement attack, then understands the extent of the lunatic's abilities as he goes straight after her as if nothing had been done. He exhales as he observes the grapple, a hand going to his amulet as his true attentions go inwards.

Richard's presence would seem to bloom as his chi invisibly explodes. He didn't need to be told to stop holding back with the man-monster's kill impending, but he nevertheless acts on the advice. Sabertooth's vitals are exposed, and Richard's first empowered act would be to crook his fingers in the fashion of tiger's claws and snatch hold of his hair to yank his head back as his other hand thrusts low to hammer a palm strike at his kidney. Fingers dig in with skin rending power as his hand twists to contort and clench muscle and tissue, he aims to make Sabertooth pay attention to him and let her go with pain.

"No!" he shouts as Cassandra is caught he explodes forward reaching behind him to draw his one of his two blunted katanas from its sheath on his back. It had a blunt edge but a sharp point and while Dragon struck the mutant in the back Batwing drove the point of the blade into its side with a growl. "LET. HER. GO!" He pushes the sword in deeper with each word.

Cassandra is used as a shield by Sabretooth. Not using her to block everything, but enough to keep actively targeting him hard. She's squeezed. Brutally. Bones might be giving or close to giving out if she weren't in her armor. That's giving her a few extra moments of protection as he tries to pop her ribs like a pinata. He lets out a ROAR of hate then Richard goes to swing at him and hits him again and again with chi. One leg kicks out, missing Richard and caving in a brick wall as the other hand lets go of Csasandra as the sword from Batwing embeds in his but. It stays in. Sabretooth lashes out with his claw, trying to snap the blade off at the hilt like a twig.

Creed's beastial scream fills the alleyway. They're no more dealing with a man.

They're dealing with a monster.

Effectively tossed aside, Cassandra rolls to a stop in a corner of the alley. She forces her lungs to work with sheer willpower and shunts aside the scorching pain in every part of her body to the void. It's a wonder as she starts to stand, mere seconds later, but for the moment she can't attack.

She can contribute the the fight though. While she was on him, she left two explosive batarangs jammed into his hip joints. Flashing, they are visible if you're on the right angle. About a second to detonation. Cass was fighting dirty.

Richard Dragon growls as his clenches tighten as inexorably as Creed's own on Cassandra. He'll snarl as he commands,"You let her go..."

Richard will only then kick downwards at the back of one of his legs when he sees Cassandra tossed aside, responding to Creed's back kick to off balance him. If that works, he'll relinquish his grip into Creed's back to slam his hand into Creed's neck.

All this while, Richard's defense would be his body reading. He has a grip on Creed, he can follow the movements of Creed's swift muscle twitches. He uses this to stay behind him and avoid efforts of counterattacking. His defense is dodge and position. He is on him like gum on the sole of his boot.

Creeds claw rends cleanly through the steel of Batwing's sword, Batwing lets the hilt drop and rolls backwards away from Creed and the blinking batarangs lodged in his flesh. "Dragon! Get clear" he shouts as he comes up throwing a third explosive batarang at Creed. This one aimed for his throat.

The explosive batarangs go off, embedded in Sabretooth's flesh, blowing out chunks of it. No ordinary person should be able to -move- in such a state. Even Killer Croc would be dropping from this level of pain. As Richard goes to slam his hand to Creed's back, Creed's hand slashes out, catching the fist. Going to squeeze it with power that if Richard didn't snap it away fast enough would snap the forearm OFF.

Sabretooth lets out a scream then as more explosive batarangs hit his flesh. HIs skin is literally on fire. Bits of it falling off, healing, and burning. He is STILL MOVING. He is rushing to meet Richard, full fury. Claws out. Lashing, slashing, hammering. Matching Richard speed for speed. Blow for blow. On raw instinct and berserker fury

Richard Dragon would snap his hand away, then plant a foot to the middle of Creed's back to kick away at Batwing's warning thus sparing himself from being in the vicinity of the explosions.

Richard is almost aghast at the fact of Sabretooth being able to come at him in this state. Richard dodges, not bothering to try and block because he can plainly see the excessive force behind those slashes. Once, twice, then thrice before sliding on heel in a half crouch beneath his assault to slam a fist into the side of Creed's knee before rising to snap a kick across his back completing his effort to offbalance him yet again.

Behind his mask Batwing pales. The thing was still alive! How is that even possible? "Tt. Doesn't matter, just kill it," he scolds himself and gets down to the business of exactly that. He couldn't punch this thing hard enough to hurt it and he didn't have a tank so he had to improvise. He grabs his sword off his back and slides it along the warehouse floor, "Dragon!" he calls to the master martial artist, maybe he could do more damage with the blunted blade than Batwing could. Then drawing his grapple in a single smooth motion he fires the pointed hook at Creed's face.

There's no sign of Cassandra. She's gone to shadows, aware that her body is on damaged status. Something she does as well as anyone that's ever been born, there's no sign of her at all. Which is likely the smart thing to do, if potentially cowardly. Of course it could all be a ruse, and she's just not letting Creed know what direction her attack will be coming from.

So with Richard and Damian on full attack, she knows she can pull this off. She warned him not to come back here. The impact on top of his skull is completely without warning, and the power is astounding, her entire body driving power into her heel. Wounds are just of the body, the mind is far more than those simple things. And she can see if he'll be able to dodge, this time. So there's no way he can avoid it, this time.

The shot grapple at Creed by Batwing is CAUGHT cleanly, even as the snap kick from Richard snaps his knee sideways. Creed just slams down his other hand to his knee, snapping hte bone back into place. Presuming that Batwing did not release thegrapple in time, Creed would yank it to try and fling Batwing over at Richard like a rocket. The leap from Black Bat hits Sabretooth's head and there's a loud CRACKING then as his neck spunk around ninety degrees, a loud SNAP filling the air.

The Dragon does not kill. Tempting as it might be to sever the head of the monster to keep him from coming back. Taking up Batwing's sword with a nod, he'd drive it at Creed's belly. Nothing languishes worse than a gut wound.

Richard calmly states as he backs away, uncertain of Creed's abilities in this state and unwilling to give him a chance,"Do not return, Sabertooth. I am but a simple teacher, and they are but two of the Bats. That is my warning. Take it how you will, but next time will be much worse for you."

There was a lull but this was no time for mercy. With Creed distracted by a broken neck Batwing sweeps the warehouse with his eyes looking for gas pipes. If Creed doesn't surrender as Dragon requests then Batwing wants to be able to bring the whole place down on his head.

A light tap on Damian's shoulder gives him a smile from Cassandra, as she takes a moment to 'speak' to him in her own way. Of course she reaches down and snaps Creed's neck a second time, with her hands, to get the message across. I can keep doing this all night if you don't calm down, you asshat. Her voice is still gravelly from lack of use, but her moves are steady. "Leave." Right to the point.

Sabretooth's head snaps a hundred and eighty degrees in the next direction. At this point, his hand snaps up and over then, goin to try and catch her by the wrist. He's not as fast as he was, but his body language is immensely hard to read still, if only due to his mass and his healing factor, and the fact while he's berserk he moves like an animal, a freakish monster. NOt a man. HE's too strong for his body and too fast for his bulk and his healing factor lets him do things someone shouldn't be able to. His ROAR fills the air then as he tries to catch Black Bat by the wrist, if he could then trying to snap her arm like a broken stick! As the blade goes over to his belly, Sabretooth goes to yank his other hand out to try and catch Richard by the neck. The showing of mercy would be used to try and catch his opponent, and if possible trying to take his hand on Richard's skull, palming his face and going to SQUEEZE.

Richard Dragon is caught, his feet going to Saber's head and chest to push and try to get free. He grasps at Creed's wrist, fingers digging into the nerve bundle below to try to weaken his grip enough to break free. He knows the man is too strong to otherwise go for a chi'na maneuver like he would against most.

Cassandra Cain almost gets her hand free in time. Almost. She does have those LOVELY wrist reinforcements specifically designed for this kind of thing, but that only keeps the wrist from danger of snapping. Should have kept up the attack, shattered his skull and spilled his br...no. No, never. No, no no no. This is wrong, even now. She shakes her head, trying to get free with less finesse, more inner struggle.

Batwing nods to Black Bat and nods to a pipe junction he spotted near the ceiling. "Batarang there and get out too," he says but Creed cuts that plan short grabbing both Cassandra and Dragon. There's no time for finesse, Batwing jumps and grabbing a pair of throwing blades from his belt as he goes he drives them into Creeds eyes as his feet land hard against the monster's chest.

WHAM. Batwing's move of desperation then as Damien's throwing blades impact hard over to Sabretooth, slashing through his eyes then, literally carving them out of his head and the kick sends Creed tumbling over on his back then as Batwing's maneuer and pressure literally SCALP him, tearing off the upper chunk of his face.

Richard Dragon breaks free, pushing away with his feet to land uncharacteristically gracelessly several feet away. Taking a moment to rub the numbness from his head that being gripped by a superstrong fellow can cause, he looks around. Seeing what Batwing accomplished, he'll run to snatch up his bokken, then charge to deliver a flying kick straight at the sword still impaled in the mutant.

That done, he'd put some distance as he doesn't care for a repeat performance. Richard also senses that something big is about to happen to the place, and he'd look to see if Black Bat is doing the same.

The one female in this testosterone filled room has already snapped the quick releases on her wrist braces and used body dynamics to free her hand. She heard Damian's plan, and is using the printer in her remaining wrist to set up another explosive batarang even before she's moving, pivoting and releasing the thing the instant it's loaded for bear. Or in this case, for support wall.

Batwing lets go of the knives when he sees he's taken a bunch of sabertooth's face with them. They clatter to the stone floor as Batwing zeroes the hole Sabertooth made when he threw Selina through the wall. His exit. "Let's go this whole place is coming down in a minute," he trusts Black Bat isn't going to miss.

The explosions level off. The building is collapsing, even in fire as the bataranges detonate and the support columns pile on down and the building collapses i on itself. Creed will no doubt dig himself out eentually. By the time the group gets back to where Selina was, there's just smears of blood on the ground and she's gone.

Richard Dragon wipes his brow, looking up with a moderate sigh as he realizes he left his hat. Oh well. He'll glance over then to see if the Bats made it out. Of course they did, they caused this lovely scene of demolition before him. Richard grins at that then, and will proceed on his way over to find dinner like he'd intended in the first place.

Cassandra Cain hopes that Selina went with the nice drones. If not, she'll be fine but it'll hurt more. Bat medical services being what they are, she'd be sipping Alfred's chicken soup by now. Laced with sedatives.

Batwing pauses a moment at the blood. He hadn't thought to worry about Selina's condition. He frowns a moment looking very much like his father in that moment then he moves cueing his comms. "Penny-One, Batwing, do you have Catwoman?" he can be heard saying as he vanishes into the night.