2014-11-25 - Fear, Riots, and You

On Gotham's north side, the richer communities lie which also attracts a lot of attention. Of late, there's been a gathering of doomsayers that hark the 'end of the world', and a large gang has gathered under the influence of a man in a scarecrow suit, who does nothing but heighten their fear. He tells them how all these rich folk live safely, but nobody is truly safe. And his charisma draws in more, and more.

A large crowd with actual honest to goodness torches is gathered, though many of them are just flashlights, not fire. They appear to be trying to tear down the walls surrounding an old, rich person's building with no name given. Just someone who's a convenient target, as the mob grows more crazy.

Violence has already broken out, and the police are on their way.

It's with a grumble that Gordon arrives on the scene. He managed to snag a ride in a passing blue and white. He adjusts his jacket as he steps out of the passenger side on the edge of the chaos. "Call it in, we're going to need SWAT," he tells the uniform cop in the driver's seat. He looks around, paying a bit more attention to the rooftops than you'd expect from a cop witnessing rioting.

Harley Quinn is in the area because the Thunderbolts wanted to send someone in who was familiar with Gotham, and Deadshot was not as gullible as Harley. So after the promise of free punch and pie, Harley's watching from a tree the cops pull up to where the mob has gathered. But hey, she recognized someone! "Hey..." she says to herself, "It's Professor Raggedyannface!"

It's night, and Lady Blackhawk's out looking for trouble. She wasn't expecting to find this particular trouble. But right now, she's crouched on a nearby rooftop, watching. Hrm. Is that Scarecrow? She's pretty sure it's Scarecrow. Brilliant...he's not easy to deal with at the best of times.

The crowd seems angry. Calling it a mob would not be an exaggeration, as they are currently trying to rip down a wrought iron fence with force of numbers. One spots the red and blue lights of the police though, and soon the crowd is looking that way. And the voice of a man who is used to wielding power over people calls out, "Get them!" with no preamble. The crowd turns ugly, surging toward the police cruisers, and working to overturn the one they reach first.

You're looking at roughly 100 people, none of them professional villains but all of them in some way controlled, and one man way at the back using some means not immediately apparent to control the crowd.

Gordon gets behind the car, using it as a barricade. He fumbles a bit, but gets the bean bag rounds and opens fire. He's not SWAT, he's not even wearing obvious body armor, but you only deal with Hatter driving otherwise innocent people to violence so many times before you make some non-lethal weaponry standard issue. "Anger's a new tactic for you, Crane," he calls out. "Or is that even Crane. I warn you, son, Gotham types are rather protective of their trademarks."

Harley Quinn falls out of the tree at that point. Then hops right back to her feet. "WAIT! EVERYONE! I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY!" she says, holding out her arms. "As you all know, I'm a heroine, sworn to do what's right!" She pauses. "Okay, most of you probably don't actually know that. And I'm not actually sworn to do what's right. I'm just a member of a top secret government team." She pauses again. "ACtually none of you should know that, so please forget you heard about that." She thinks. "Plus I'm not actually a heroine. I'm sorta... well it's probably more like an anti-heroine due to my penchant fer extreme violence." She leans against the tree. "Plus I don't usually swear, actually. Kids could be watching, and you have to set a good example, yknow."

She looks around. "Where was I?" She looks behind the tree. "Oh yeah, I was here..... firing a bazooka at everyone." she says as she pulls the bazooka that she had propped up behind the tree before climbing up it. "This is heroic, right?" she says while she aims it.

Okay...well, there's SWAT, there's cops with riot guns. There's...a Lady Blackhawk on the roof. With non-lethals, but she doesn't have that many shots. She's going to pop off a shot towards the voice right now, and hope to get lucky, while she assesses the situation further. She hasn't noticed Harley with the bazooka. Yet.

From afar, Harley Quinn grins. The bazooka has an experimental round which basically creates a sticky foam. Harley doesnt realize that Waller ordered QC to put non-lethal ordinance in her bazooka and uzis.

Bean bag rounds from Gordon knock down a few of the people, though they're no safer on the ground in the middle of an angry mob than they were standing. It's actually possible that they end up getting hurt worse for the effort, but a cop has to protect himself in order to be of any use to anyone. The crowd manages to overturn one of the police cruisers though, making the officers inside start to panic a bit themselves.

When Harley calls for a pause, it has....a little effect. The ones closest to her who saw her fall stop to listen. Then when she pulls out a BAZOOKA there's a bit of honest panic as people fight or flight. Some of them dive for cover, and others...well, Harley's got a fair pile of people that react by diving at her with weapons.

Her effort does give the man in the back the chance to call out something though, managing to be heard thanks to Harley's work. "Anger. Anger is just a symptom, children. You can always tell the real cause when you see anger, because the real reason for anger is always fe-" and he suddenly gets cut off as a shot from a rooftop pops him in the forehead and knocks him back into the crowd. Thank heaven, some people never shut up.

"I'm pretty certain that's in violation of your parole, Doctor Quinzel," Gordon shouts. He's a cop, you don't get as far as he has without being observant of your surroundings. He tries to aim for people he can disable without them immediately being trampled to death, but his own survival comes first. He waves his men away from the upturned car, they might flip it onto it's back, but they won't get much farther than that. "Tell Central we need that fear toxin antidote," he calls to anyone that will listen. "Hypodermic!"

Harley Quinn yells, "Nuh uh, I'm totally free and have a letter of certification saying I'm sane and I'm definitely not in a secret government crimefighting organization!" Then lets out her battlecry as she fires the bazooka at the crowd. "YAHTZEE!"

Unfortunately the crowd is the one that's charging at Gordon as well. So it includes Commissioner Gordon.

Fortunately...

The shell explodes upon hitting the area of the crowd and Gordon, releasing a white foamy sticky substance the covers everyone in that immediate area, making it difficult to move and there's absolutely nothing lewd about it, upon further reflection of the person writing this pose as the writer thought it would be more like that 'safety foam' from the car in Demolition Man.

Harley looks confused. "Wait... no boom?" She looks at her bazooka, not realizing that Waller had ordered the Quartermaster at Thunderbolts HQ to replace Harley's lethal ordinance with non-lethal ones, after the incident at the McDonalds when they put pickles on her hamburger.

Lady Blackhawk doesn't have a target. This time. Quietly, silently, she puts the gun back in its holster and starts to make her way down towards the part of the crowd NOT solidly trapped by Harley's brilliant (if inadvertent) move. Somewhere in this mess is the gas itself. Oh, and yes, she puts on protective gear...she's not stupid.

A call from Central on Gordon's highly advanced radio that they don't use anymore anywhere else in the world informs him that the backup will be arriving soon with fear antitoxin, and asks if they want it dropped on the crowd. Gordon might find it hard to respond too clearly with the rocket full of safety foam going off nearly at his feet, but I'm sure he'll manage. He is, however, no longer in active danger which also means that Harley may have technically saved his life.

The foam covers a good portion of the crowd, though some people stumble out of it with the foam on them looking like rejects from a pitched battle at a car wash. The crowd that is NOT hit however actually seems more angry, showing more of the fear that's driving it on, and they start fighting each other as well as looking for targets. People are being seriously hurt, and anyone in range is viable.

There are a small amount of innocents in the area; A young man who has been standing in a corner near to where Lady Blackhawk is moving, keeping his sister as silent as she can as they hide behind a car, trying to avoid notice. Also, two young men who were making out in a car and are now trapped, as the crowd starts smashing in the windshield. There is no sign of Doctor Crane.

Gordon visibly finches at the bazooka, and then... he looks like the final scene of Ghostbusters. He frowns, grumbling a 'too old for this shit' grumble. He can't get to the other beanbag rounds either. He drops the shotgun and starts fumbling for rubber bullets. Thankfully, most of the SWAT team wasn't caught, and the actual RIOT is, if not stopped, at least contained somewhat, not likely to spill out of this block.

Barricades are put up in the neighboring streets, restricting the flow of people into and out of the area. With most of the rioters being more or less innocents under the effect of fear toxin, the police are mostly focusing on containment now, though Harley seems to be doing a pretty good job of that. A phalanx of riot shields press back anyone that tries to violent charge past the barricades.

Lady Blackhawk moves to help the young man with his sister out of the area, if she can. Whispering. "There's cops this way, they'll take care of you." She knows the GCPD isn't so bad, these days. Not since Gordon took over, anyway.

Harley Quinn yells over at Commissioner Gordon and the other members of the mob who she shot the 'Disabling Foam' at. "SORRY!" She then adds, "IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE AN EXPLOSIVE SHELL!" She tosses her bazooka aside, then unclips her uzis and says, "This time, it's PERSONAL!"

Yes, it didnt exactly fit, but it's a cool movie line.

Harley fires her uzis. Which fire out a series of little tranq darts at other members of the mob. "Hey wha? Aw cmon!"

Lacking a response from Gordon, the radio chimes in that an 'airdrop is ready' as a helicopter starts to come over the house beyond. It's quite audible, though the crowd is still pretty loud. Spilling around the comical foam section, Harley ends up with a bunch of people in her face who end up smiling on the ground fast enough due to tranq darts instead of due to bullet holes.

Gordon is able to move if he chooses to do so (Game-master's decision, to let him be more active if he wants) and can get into the fray, though his partners seem to be making their way out of the overturned car finally and can get into the action as well.

As Lady Blackhawk helps the young pair to the police, the three heroes ALL spot someone trying to get over the fence to safety. It bears a striking resemblance to Doctor Crane, but it's pretty far away. Gordon spotted him because of his years of training on the force. Zinda spotted him due to her pilot's eyes, amazing and strong. Harley was lucky. We all have our talents.

Gordon manages to shrug his way out of his jacket, where the worst of the disabling goop had attached itself. The elderly man frees his legs, then, and begins pursuit of Crane. With Harley continuing to be GCPD's Most Valuable Player by tranquilizing the rioters, the police perimeter moves in, but, as is always the case with hastily assembled things, there are gaps, this one about the size of a psychotic psychiatrist. Not Harley, the other one.

Lady Blackhawk spots him and takes off at a run, but she's just that bit too far away and by the time she draws her gun, there are cops in the way. "Dammit," she curses. Maybe Harley can stop him?

Harley Quinn looks at Professor Crane as he's escaping, and takes out her sledgehammer, about to give chase to stop the evildoer. Then stops, and looks at her hammer. "Nah. It'll probably just squeak or something." Then she turns and trudges off, leaving the scene.

With nobody aaaactively stopping him, the figure manages to get over the fence. Mostly. His pants catch on the spike on the top, leaving him dangling for a moment and the one cameraman on scene gets a lovely shot of someone in a scarecrow mask hanging with his polkadotted boxer shorts hanging out before the pants rip, and he flees the scene in a mix of triumph and morbid embarrasment, vanishing into the darkness just as Lady Blackhawk gets to the area, seconds too late.

The helicopter coming over opens up, and a dose of antitoxin in dust form gets poured over the crowd, which causes most of them to fall over and pass out. It has no real effect on anyone who was not under the control of the fear toxin, but everyone in the crowd who was under the original effect is going to need minor medical help.

Gordon frowns, but starts collecting evidence, supervising the recovery until he's certain enough everything's going smoothly. Then he's off to a rooftop to request more of the anti-toxin. He gives Lady Blackhawk a salute, and goes to ponder the fact that Harley Quinzel saved more lives than his own police.