2013-03-21 - Hell Hath No Fury: Explosive Insanity

Somewhere within New China close to the Bay Area, there is an explosion. One of the buildings by the wharf simply goes up in flame without warning. This is picked up on the Titan computer system just before an image displays for whomever it was that happened to be on duty that day: A masked woman in green appears and says, "That was an empty building that just exploded. The next one will be occupied if Arsenal doesn't come to stop it. He knows that this is not a bluff."

Then the sceen winks off displaying the normal images that are monitored for whomever is on monitor duty. Cheshire has laid the trap and placed the bait. Now it would be up to Roy Harper himself to decide if he would willingly walk into it.

Vanguard is on monitor duty today and when Cheshire comes on the screen he wastes no time in alerting Roy and asking him to come to the monitor room. Once there, he replays the footage for him and then falls silent, allowing the situation to sink to his field commander.

For two days, Roy has been on pins and needles, doesn't let Lian watch the television, and snaps at anyone who even looks at him. His ex just tried to murder the president, the one he actually likes! He gets dress when he hears about the explosion and heads to the command center. At the broadcast replay, his mouth presses into a thin line of disapproval and stress. "I need you to stay here with Red Arrow." Wait?! He's actually trusting his daughter to Vanguard?! But that's Roy, he doesn't want anyone else to get hurt by Cheshire, and he wants to make sure his daughter is protected.

Vanguard nods. "If that's your wish, I'll protect her with my life. But...are you sure you don't want backup on this one? I mean..it's your call of course, but I'd feel better if you took someone with you." No matter how they've acted towards one another in the past, Vanguard didn't want to see anything bad happen to Roy. But despite his power, even he knew that Jade was out of his league.

Roy rubs the back of his neck, "I can't leave Lian undefended. This could just be a distraction. Jade goes through...phases." He shakes his head. "Lian is more important right now," his daughter's real name. He then smiles a bit, "I'll come back home, don't you worry Vanguard." There is that nagging doubt in the back of his head, but he doesn't show it on his face.

Vanguard nods. If that's how Roy wanted to play it, then he'd back him up as best he could. "Alright. I'll call you if something happens here. But if it gets too hairy out there, Roy, you call in for backup. You know her better than I do, but she's not worth Lian loosing a father. Just keep that in mind." And Vanguard says no more on the subject. Instead he focuses on his job more in case the call was a reason to get Roy out of the Tower so Jade could make a play for Lian.

Roy nods, he knows. Still, he cares about Jade, and Jade likely knows she can use this against him. He puts on his Arsenal face and heads down the elevator then, coming out in a sub-level to get on his motorcycle. He roars out on it, heading out through the tunnel beneath the bay's waters to the city. His expression is hard, eyes though haunted. What pushed Jade over the edge this time? Was it the marriage of the world's? But she was at Lian's birthday. Sadly, Roy has no answers and he isn't going to get any. So pushing the dark thoughts away, he concentrates on what he can do, he can buy time and try to force Jade to retreat.

As Roy arrives at an abandoned building in New China, from the outside it looks as if there is no one inside. However this two story building his a small light burning in one of the windows on the second floor. No sounds can be heard on the outside, not even the chirping of insects. The front door is ajar, as if giving silent invitation to the costume clad hero.

Arsenal though is a trained agent, and there may be a bomb in there like a set-up. Though Jade is typically the type to stab someone in the face if it is personal. He turns off his motorcycle and hides it nearby near a dumpster. He tries not ignore the smell as he runs past the dumpster and heads toward the building. He pauses at the building beside it, pulling out his bow and a grapple arrow. He shoots it, catching the edge of the roof as he then pulls out a device to hook to the cable and it pulls him right up the line rapidly so he can flip onto the roof. He glances around for those on look-out, before he will go to look through the window from the next door building. From afar, Tifa Lockhart can join?

Arsenal is greeted to the sight of a dark haired woman in a chair facing a wall. She is wearing a shimmering blue kimono and her hands are tied behind her back, anchoring her to the chair itself. Underneath the chair is a bomb. The casing is counting down with about a minute and a half left to go. It's also a pressure bomb, so if the person on the chair moves, it goes off. The only other thing in the room is a single lightbulb suspended from the ceiling. There are muffled crying noises coming from the woman and her shoulders shake with the effort. For the moment, there is no one else around that Arsenal is aware of.

Arsenal closes his eyes tightly and in pain for a few moments, severe emotional pain. He then opens his eyes and pulls out his cell. He places a call to the communication system of the Titans Tower. "Vanguard," he says quietly. "I'm at the location, a woman is tied to a chair with what appears to be a pressure bomb, no sight of anyone else. Keep alert to what is happening in and around the Titans Tower." He then disconnects and slips his cell into its pouch. He pulls out his bow and an arrow once more and shoots a cable arrow right above the window. He then slips the bow away, and makes sure his gun hostlers are untied. He then puts the cable hook in place after securing the cable on this roof and slides down to the window, feet bracing on either side of the window to catch himself. He studies the window for a moment for any triggers and then moves to work it open if possible, still keeping an eye out for a potential sniper or someone entering the room inside...or worse yet, the woman on the chair moving OFF it! Ya, that would suck.

The window hasn't been tampered with, and doesn't seem to be booby trapped. However, upon closer inspection, the room seems to be part of a shell around a set of stairs that lead downwards into darkness. Aside from the single light bulb, there is no other source of light in the entire building. And except for the noise of the clock ticking downwards and the muffled sounds of the woman in the chair, it is quiet. Perhaps..too quiet.

And time could be running out, while he walks right into a trap. But it's Arsenal, he cannot risk just leaving the woman there! So he works that window up, but force if he has to! It is better to open it though if possible than to fight with busting it out. Once he gets it open - noise included unfortantly, he swings inside feet first, and comes to his feet. He reaches into a pouch, and rather than dealing with an arrow, he actually tosses a flash bomb toward the darkness and works to run toward the woman to make sure she doesn't try and get up from the chair when it goes off.

To his credit, Arsenal's actions just may have saved his life. When the flashbang goes off, it briefly reveals two females clad in red with the same mask that Cheshire wears lying in wait for him. However, they are disorented by the bang as Arsenal may have intended it. When he moves towards the woman, she flicks her wrist behind the chair as a blade slides down out of the sleeve of her kimono. Leaping up from the chair, she attempts to stab Arsenal and yet the bomb doesn't go off!

"Shit!" Arsenal curses fiercely! He is also already moving to raise an arm to block the attack, his forearm smacking against hers as she tries to stab him. Since he was charging forward, he does not stop, instead lifting his leg high as he takes the next step forward to jab his knee hard into the woman's stomach. He already knows what he wants to do with that bleedin' chair, but first he needs an opening.

The woman uses her other hand to block the knee towards her stomach and kicks out towards Roy's knee as a counter-attack. Spinning away from him, she chuckles as she unties the belt to the kimono. Staring hard at him she removes the garment to reveal the customary green outfit worn by none other than Cheshire. Curling her fingers around her chin, she rips off what looks to be a flesh colored mask attached to a wig. "Harper. I was wondering if you were ever going to show up."

In the meantime, the women downstairs are beginning to recover from the flash bang. They are already stumbling towards the stairs as Roy deals with Cheshire.

Roy only manages to dodge the return attack because of the woman's requirement to step back and he actually flips backwards and lands back on his feet, his guns suddenly out in his hand, two handguns with one pointed toward her and the other one pointed toward the darkness once the flashbag went off. "I'm Harper now?" And the gun goes off toward the darkness, not necessarily to hit the women, but to force them backwards to avoid accidentally getting shot even as he heads back toward the window, "What do you want Jade?!" The words called over the firing of the gun.

Cheshire stares at Roy. There is a mixture of madness and glee in her eyes. "I want you dead!" She lunges to the side while simultaneously letting fly two shruiken that are on target for the back of Roy's hands, her hope is to make him drop the guns. Rolling on the floor, she's back on her feet and running towards him. "I want my daughter! And I will kill you and every single Titan to get her!"

Roy stops shooting and jerks his hands, one gun flying out of his hand, the one that he was shooting earlier, but the other one manages to deflect the throwing star AND he not lose it - very important to do as Cheshire often poisons her tools of pain and death.

Arsenal cannot shoot Cheshire though! So instead he starts to run to the left of her, and kicks up and then off the wall to twist out behind her to try and get to the chair. His goal? If he lands by it, he wants to pick it up and toss it right down that dark area toward the stairs, and run to dart right out that window! Or explode his way out, he isn't picky at this point, as long as he ends up alive and hopefully not dying of poison in the hospital...again. "Damn it Jade! Why do you do this?! You can visit her if you just call me and arrange it!" Cheshire snarls. "She's mine! I shouldn't have to make arrangements to see her!" The women downstairs are now making their way up the stairs, and Arsenal does know Jade well enough to know she poisons her equipment. This time it is a neuro toxin that will make the target begin to hallucinate and then paralysis..and finally, death. She throws shruiken as Arsenal manages to dodge them with some fancy acrobatics. Seeing that he's moving towards the chair, she begins throwing darts attempting to lead him with her shots. The sound of metal being drawn also reaches Roy's ears as the two crimson clad women draw swords in preparation.

Arsenal isn't without his own tricks! He is not that silly idealistic boy he was! Alright, maybe he still is in most ways that count. Still. He finally moves his gun he still holds to shoot at Cheshire's upper arm to nick her if she doesn't move out of the way as he still moves toward the chair, his free hand reaching for it to grab it and make that throw. He will need to run for the window next, because he aims to shoot at that chair. He tries not to think of the risk of death, or even of killing the people here. The man moves as if his life depends on it and the life of his daughter, because it does, and he ignores the tightness of his throat that holds the tears back of pain at seeing Jade like this again.

Cheshire is winged by Aresnal's bullet and it spins her around in a circle. She clasps her hand to the shoulder as blood seeps through her fingers. Her face is a mask of pain and rage as she looks at Roy. Spittle flies out of her mouth as she screams. "You are dead, Harper! Dead!"

However when Roy grabs the chair and tosses it, his plan becomes apparent to the other two women. They speed towards Jade's side and with her between them, they leap off the second floor directly onto the first floor just as Arsenal shoots and the bomb explodes. The force of the explosion pushes Roy out of the second story window that he was running for. As for Jade and the two women? Who knows.

Even as Cheshire and her women run, and Roy runs as well, "You already told me that, just be happy I shoot you somewhere worse!" That means, he aimed to only wing her. And he cannot slip through that small window, instead crossing his arms and knowing this is going to be painful, he takes out glass and wood frame as the explosion helps push him through! He goes flying out that window, and has to twist not to turn his back to the building which he hits hard, the breath being knocked out of him. His arms feel like they are on fire, and his back now feels like someone beat him nearly to death on it! But he then falls the rest of the way, landing on his feet, knees building, and leaning forward to fall into a roll to absorb the impact. He draws in a sharp breath, hoping to not get shin splitters from that, but he did what he could to miminize the damage to his body.

Then, even as he searches for Jade and her women, he is pulling out his phone to make a phone call to Titans Tower to try and get ahold of Vanguard as he looks for his lost gun that fell when he was flying. There is no sign of Jade nor of the women with her. Either they perished in the explosion, or they made their getaway already. But Arsenal does find his lost gun eventually, though it's not in good shape. When he makes the call to the Tower, Vanguard answers almost immediately. "Vanguard here, do you need assistance Arsenal? I can be at your location within moments." And then he adds. "And Lian is safe and sound."

Arsenal draws in a shakey breath, "Her primary target is Red Arrow," he says over the comlink. Even now, his first thought is of his daughter. "Damn it, where is Supergirl?" Roy sounds emotionally strained. Whatever went down, it did not go down well. One gun lost in the explosion, this one dented. He slips it into the hostler though and continues to search for signs of Jade and her girls. He doesn't believe for a moment that Jade is dead. He is heading toward his motorcycle. "Is there /anyone/ else at the Tower?"

Vanguard says, "Everyone else is out on patrol. Kara's taking care of something in Metropolis with her cousin. Rose and I are the only ones here at the moment. I can see if I can't raise anyone and if they're in the immediate area, I'll dispatch them to your location. But if Red Arrow is the target, I'll stay here with her." There are signs of a hatch in the ground that was part of the first floor. It's pretty obvious that Jade and her girls got out that way. They were probably long gone by now.

"Rose is there?" Roy sounds so very thankful for that. "Let her know. She's highly trained, you can trust in her Vanguard." Her mother made sure the girl was very highly trained. Arsenal approaches where he left his motorcycle, keeping alert in case he is jumped and Jade did not fully retreat.

"Acknowledged. I'll inform her immediately. Do you need me to come out there?" Vanguard asks. As Roy goes back towards his motorcycle, he would notice very slight signs of the hiding place of his bike being disturbed. Someone found it and attempted to put it back exactly like how he had it.

Roy curses, "No! Stay there. Damn it, what did they do to my bike? I got to go." He turns the cell off and slips it back away into the pouch. He takes another look about before squatting down to take a look at his bike. He is a tinkerer, he has handled explosions because of his arrows, but he isn't a professional with them. He knows about motorcycles in what to ask for, but not in repairing them or such beyond basic handiman. But he takes a quick look over his bike to see if it is safe to get on.

Vanguard says, "You got it. Be careful."

Roy's bike has indeed been tampered with. There is a box near his motor that wasn't there before, though it's the same color as the rest of the motor. Roy's experience with explosives would tell him that it was an ignition switch bomb. As soon as he starts the motor..BOOM. Apparently Jade wasn't kidding about killing him this time.

"Great, she really lost it now," Arsenal grumbles. He starts to undo the bomb, and pocket it in an empty pouch to examine later. He double checks his bike one more time for saftey before getting back on and starting it up. Paranoid much? Yes. He is scared shitless of Jade when she gets into these 'moods'. He has valid reason to be.

After Arsenal disarms the bomb, he doesn't find any more surprises waiting for him. But it is evident that Jade is back in full swing and not only did she threaten Roy, but the entire Titan team. She's out for blood and she's not alone.