2013-09-20 - Hat Boss

It's the first mission with Selina as a full time Birds of Prey agent, and Barbara had a good mission for them. She sent Zinda along with Selina and Cass, since this mission would bring them to an airport often used by Falcone's men to bring in illegal contraband.

Flashback to a couple of hours ago:

Barbara says to Selina, Cassandra, and Zinda, pushing a button to open a holographic screen. "Well as you know, Falcone's been moving into the weapons market, or been trying to. Batman's stopped every attempt he's made to try in Gotham but the surrounding cities still have been having shipments getting in. I've been monitoring the communications and recently stuff has been getting strange. His men have started making heists of labs along the East Coast and been shipping the stolen items to an undisclosed location via plane. Of course no paper trail or any way to lead back to Falcone."

Oracle continues, pushing another button to show video images of goods being placed on unmarked planes. "I hacked into the FCC and FCC registration or anything - Falcone might be paying someone really high up off or something. Still - the stuff his men have been stealing is not his usual style. I need you guys to find out what he's up to, where he's shipping these pieces of equipment, and why."

Cut back to the present - with Zinda, Cassandra and Selina on a rooftop across from the private airport. Armed guards on the ground and more men placing equipment on another plane. No sign of Falcone, obviously.

Catwoman at least has her goggles to see by. Which is more than some of the other girls might have, and she's not necessarily the sharing type. Comfortable, as comfortable as a woman in tight leather can be on a rooftop on a private airfield, she remains still, so as not to draw attention. She cranes her neck to the side, slightly, the night's air steaming off her fantastic lips. In the distance, a hoot owl calls, perhaps the signal for a hunt.

Catwoman looks between Zinda, and Cassandra, certain of her place with these two as she's worked with them (and, in Zinda's case, drank with them) before. Everything is fantastic. Except, of course -- the reason they're here. That's not fantastic. So, she looks towards Cassandra again, whose body language reading skills are fantastic, and asks, "So, picking up anything from them, Batgirl?"

Cassandra Cain has been skulking along up in the 'rafters' for a good vantage point, glancing down at them with a frown on her face. Watchig silently, the visuals in her mask being passed along to Oracle's network for recording, analysis, and later updates as she watches. A frown. "They are.. Automatic. In stupor. Like robots." They're moving to her as if they're drugged, making it extremely hard to read them. As if they're not just ordinary thugs, or are in some form of mind control or thier bodies are on autopilot of a sorts. It's hard for her to gauge them.

Lady Blackhawk is crouched on the rooftop observing the scene through low light field glasses. "You're right. That's not his usual style." The equipment, that is. Of course, there's no proof that it's Falcone. Information can be confused even when Oracle is involved. True, less often when Oracle is involved, but... "And...you might be right there. I'll trust your judgment." Nobody she knows reads body language better than Cass.

Oracle talks into your headsets, having overheard the talking. "Oh I'm pretty positive it's Falcone's men at least. It's just he suddenly changed from importing and exporting weapons to this electronic equipment. I really want to find out what that equipment is and where it's going. Got a bad feeling about it."

Oracle's bad feeling would be even worse if she knew what was happening in a secret location on Falcone's offshore private island, just outside of U.S. Jurisdiction. In a heavily fortified mansion, Falcone stands by two men who are bound to two chairs. One is a pretty fat, slovenly fellow, wearing a dirty overcoat and a crumpled fedora.

Meet Harvey Bullock. Police Detective.

He currently has the same blank stare looking forward as Falcone.

The other is an older gentleman. Better groomed, in his 60s, but in good shape for his age. Dressed more neatly, but has a certain 'grizzled professionalism.

Meet James "Jim" Gordon. Police Commissioner.

He does NOT have a blank look on his face. At least not yet.

From the shadows, he hears a voice, "One, two, one, two. Through and through. And then the rope when snicker snack. He left it dead an with its head..." A short, goofy looking man in a BIG hat comes out from the darkness. He finishes his sentence, "he went galumping back."

Meet Jervis Tetch. aka, The Mad Hatter.

He says to his mind controlled mob boss, "That'll be all for now, Falcone, I need to have a word with the dear commissioner on how much the Gotham Police know of my foray into the world of... ahem... respectable .... organized crime." He smiles as Commissioner Gordon.

Jabberwocky? Really? Commissioner Gordon struggles against his bonds while trying not to let on that that's what he's doing. "Well, we suspected mind control, and, well, only reason you weren't prime suspect after that was because we thought some of the new crowd might have come down the turnpike." He considers for a moment. "Now if you'll excuse me," he says, struggling a little bit more, "I'm late for a very important date." With about 20 officers in riot gear.

Back at the Private Airport:

Selina doesn't know anything about Gordon's position, or Bullock's or likely she'd probably be trying to figure out a way to save him, while still leaving Harvey behind. Yeah. Not a Harvey fan, over here.

But all that's pretty inconsequential. Selina suggests, "Alright." She looks to Zinda, "You and Batgirl have my back. Stay a little behind, and out of sight." It makes sense -- if the people are really 'off' Cassandra's not going to be able to fight them very well.

Then, Selina's jumping down off the roof, and a whip-crack to a beam gives her leverage to swing down to the concrete and roll. Then, with an outstreched hand after slinking forwards a few sultry paces, there's a scattering of caltrops thrown towards the would-be-busy-bee's.

Cassandra Cain takes a breath, and then over at Selina's signal, goes to smash through the ceilign as well. As the trio descends, Batgirl goes to toss a series of smoke pellets and flash bangs to detonate throughout the mimediate area on the periphery of the guards. If the guards are normal, they'll get chaotic and confused. IF they're under mental cotnrol and durress, they should continue to respnd mechanically, but with luck whomever is puppeting them would be unable to control them effectively!

And the kitty rushes in...but Zinda, as suggested, stays back. Covering her...in fact, she's behind Batgirl. Mostly because she knows of her habit of using flashbangs and is staying JUST that bitback to protect her eyes and ears from the assault. No sense getting any "friendly" fire. Which, well, isn't.

When Batgirl smashes through the ceiling, Cassandra's hunch is confirmed. They don't do what's expected - no chaos. Just a pre-programmed command if anyone was to interfere.

Attack.

The ones caught by the flash bangs are stunned by the smoke and extreme light and sound, but a few who are just out of range turn their guns and start firing haphazardly INTO the smoke to try to ventilate the intruders. Apparently the person controlling them doesnt really mind if there's collateral damage. Meanwhile, the people loading the plane speed up getting a piece of equipment in and start ushering two others to close the hatch!

Meanwhile, back at the island:

Tetch frowns. "Oh I think you'll be late for your most important date. As tubby here had discovered, I have eyes and ears within the police who don't even realize they're my eyes or ears. Oh joyous glee that you'll soon as well work for me. Think of how good a mob boss I will soon be!" he says as he takes a knife to free Harvey from his bonds.

Bullock then gets up and walks around behind Gordon. "Hold him still." Jervis says. Bullock puts his hands on Gordon's shoulder with the same blank look at the Mad Hatter brings takes a fedora and puts it on the Commissioner's head, smiling evilly.

Cut back to the private airport:

"Is that bullets? Why am I hearing bullets?" Oracle asks, wondering what part of 'stealthy reconaiisance' was missed.

"Because Cassandra's English needs work," replies Selina, who isn't about to let the situation gone wrong get under her skin. She rolls with it, afterall, she's had to learn how to be adaptable to a lot of different situations, and she's had more than her fair share of things go wrong. And she's no stranger to gunplay. "Back with you in five," she finishes over the comm to Oracle.

In a smooth movement, Catwoman is throwing her bolas around one thug's hands, binding them and preventing him from firing his gun any further. As another trains a gun towards her, she drops down into a crouch, rolls and stands, and flicks out her bullwhip, wrapping it around the gun, and yanking it out of the thug's hand, who then meets her foot in the jaw in a sublime kick of leather sheathed leg.

"Oracle. Remember those thefts of STAR Labs last week? What do you think I could get for selling their equipment back to them?" Catwoman is certainly paying attention to her surroundings. But, once a thief, always a thief. She's not missed the equipment, and now that she's closer, and her googles still on, she's certain. Also, she may (or may not) be joking.

Back on the Island:

When Bullock grabs Commissioner Gordon, he begins to actively struggle. He got some of the ropes loose, but hadn't managed to fully break free, and, as the fedora is placed on his head, the fight flows out of him, the commissioner of police adopting the same vacant look as all of Tetch's other henchmen.

Cut to the airport:

Cassandra Cain is on the offensive now, having misgauged the situation and with her reading torn off of the men, having misread a signal for the attack. She manages to mumble, "Sorry." Over the channel. Adn takes responsibility for things for once, which is a quiet sign of improvement as she leaps through the men, tryign to take them down quickly as her eyes sweep about the vista, trying to take the men down quick. This is her fault, so she'll make up for it as she tries to charge through the men to keep the fous on her, and let the otehrs go about the perimeter.

Oracle rubs the bridge of her nose from where she is, comfortable back at the Clocktower. "Selina.... no selling stolen good back to the owners. Please." Oracle expects that at least Huntress is no longer going to be the Birds of Prey member with the most P.R. problems for Babs to deal with. She decides to start activating one of the Luthor satellites to try to get a birds eye view of what's going on at the airfield. Unfortunately a lot of it's taking place in the hangar so she can't get a good visual.

Meanwhile, the thug who Catwoman throws the bolos at gets caught up by it, and once the balls finally wrap around him, it actually causes the machine gun to hit into his face, knocking him out. His hat falls off as he falls down unconscious.

There are still a few more thugs firing into the smoke, though, as Cassandra dodges one of them and quickly takes down one... then two... thugs. Another gun is pulled from another thug's hand by Selina's expert bullwhipping. But instead of running, the big galoot instead charges at Selina to try to punch the catburglar-gone-good....-ish.

Meanwhile... where's Zinda? Well she's hte only one actually being stealthy, so Oracle talks to her headset. ESpecially since most of the guards are focused on Cassandra and Selina whooping their butts. "Zinda.... any chance you can get to the plane and take out the pilot before they fly off while Catwoman and Batgirl clean up ... stuff?"

 Oracle says, "skipping Gordon and more Island stuff until you guys are AT the island :)"

 Gordon mysterious!

"On it." Zinda, staying in the shadows, and circling around towards the plane while Cassandra draws all of the attention. Sigh. Going to have to work with her some. Zinda saw what she was about to do. She just couldn't do anything but not get blinded by it. Silly Batgirl. The plane is regarded assessingly as she moves around to come at it from the other side. How big is it? What kind?

"Well," ventures Selina, who moves fluidly as the huge thug charges her to slide towards the floor; one long, lean leg wraps behind the goons. The other in front, and her legs are quite strong things. She cinches them, rolls them, and as the titant teeter, she slithers upon to his back, caresses his head a moment, and then slams it into the ground. Hard. "You tell me why Falcone or his thugs would be acting like a bunch of mindless automotons and smuggling mass transmission signal satillete equipment onto a plane, and I'll think about not selling it back to them."

Afterall, it's no fun being a Bird of Prey if you can't haze the leader of the group, right? Selina has no real intention of doing as she's claiming, but she's got a reputation to uphold. Or, maybe she's just having a whole heck of a lot of fun.

Cassandra Cain is fighting her way hopefully through the gruop with luck. ANd feels really bad. Honest! She was the one who messed this up. Again through the commlnik there's a murmured "Sorry' audible to all then. Cass might be a prideful borderline egomaniac, but she does recognize when something is her fault and not anyone else's. Having a hard time reading the men, seh's focused on using hit and run tactics to try and take them out in ones and twos if possible, hitting and falling back into the shadow to strike with luck at another gruop, making sure to keep an 'eye' on the others.

The plane is an LET L-410 Turbolet. Medium-sized, it was actually based on earlier transport planes from the Soviet bloc and Czech - preferred by small military and smugglers for its ability to fly fly under radar and be retrofitted for water landings. It tends to hold up to 15 passengers at maximum, but right now seems to only have the pilot inside an one other person, along with the two guards right outside of it who had packed the equipment into it. The guards move away from the plane as the hatch starts to close and the plane starts moving to get ready to take off!

Meanwhile, Selina and Cassandra are taking out the guards in the hangar.

Batgirl is, of course, handling herself quite well - guys are getting knocked down left and right, but to people familiar with her, she's actually NOT at the top of her game. Normally, Batgirl would have been able to do this all in a minute max... but they're just having so little body language in their moves! Fortunately, Selina had made a habit of beating up guys with good ol' fashioned kick-butt-ness. Another of their hats is knocked off and Selina can see something odd - there's some sort of metal band inside the hat.

Cassandra Cain isn't the type to notice the small bit of the metal in the top hat. As she engages in hit and run attacks on the guards, displaying far more caution, jumping out ot hit one, then leaping away to hit another. SHe knows without telling where the men are aiming she won't be able to dodge bullets, sos he's trying to not present a clear target for them to aim at as she leaps bak and forth, trying to drop them without risking herself, and well off her normal game as she tries to clean them out. NOt pleased with herself.

Selina rolls to her feet, snagging the hat as she does so. She likes things that glitter, flash. And it's not usual to see a band inside a hat, like that. "Batgirl, why don't you show these jerks how you've been practicing with the Batarang?" She prompts; if Cassandra is having a hard time hand-to-hand, a good-ol'-fashioned throwing target ought to be easier, at least in her mind.

As the plane starts, she calls into the comm, "You need an assist, Zinda?" A pause, as she runs a finger along the metal band, "Riddle me this, Oracle. What is metal, fits inside a hat where it shouldn't, and has some kind of intricate wiring built into it?" Selina's smart, but not Batman-Detective smart, and she's not the experience that Oracle has in piecing clues together, just the knack for noticing them, and recognizing some value in them. On a hunch she dodges and rolls her way towards the first goon she'd gotten with the bola; and peeks under her hat. "And it's under all their hats." Another glance. "And, they're all wearing hats." If she's put two and two together, by now, she's not saying it. Then again, the Hatter isn't someone Catwoman ever dealt with, much. She's far more familiar with Penguin, and Two-Face who were always more willing to entertain her.

 Oracle says, "http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/Let_L-410.jpg/300px-Let_L-410.jpg"

Zinda's thoughts - Oh, good. They're paying so little attention that she's not even going to have to sap them. Knowing exactly where the pilot's door is on this model of plane, she vaults up to it silently to pull it open. It won't be that easy once she's ON the plane, but being able to avoid those guards keeps Zinda quite, quite happy for now.

The two guards by the plane are distracted by the two women who are going through the entire group like the average minions they are, as Zinda quickly and silently opens the pilot door after vaulting up to it. Normally Zinda gets a good deal of attention with those legs of hers but she's not too bad at being un-noticed when she wants to be! This does not include the pilot who, when he sees her open the door, blinks and moves to pull out a gun from his jacket. In fact he's possibly the first person in this whole airport who has shown any type of surprise at all. He's also someone not wearing a hat.

Oracle says to Selina, 'Hold it up to the sky okay?' she asks, before zooming in one one of them - thank you Luthor's spy satelites. She groans. "Actually I recognize that technology - it's Jervis Tetch's design. So either he's working with Falcone, or ... ugh... we might be needing to save a mob boss from a madman."

Cassandra Cain is finishing off hopefully some of the last of the men, watching one of the hats tumble on down to the ground, and gives her own analysis of it as she surveys the perimeter. "Stupid hats." Which may or may not be of immediate objectie analysis, but is still likely on the mark as she lets her eyes swoop over the area for further resistance.

"Hatter, huh?" Selina tsks, "Serves Falcone right. But, I suppose we should go find out what they're up to." She surveys the area of destruction around herself. Then, on impulse, she begins ... collecting the hats. Once all the hats for the goons outside are nabbed, she comes in over the mic again, "Zinda? What's your status on the plane? Find anything?"

"Kinda..." Pow. "...busy." Busy trying to punch the pilots' lights out before he can get the gun up, that is. In a confined space like this, guns are actually at a bit of a disadvantage. Zinda gives no further answer to Catwoman. She's occupied in trying to evict the poor pilot from his own plane.

Lady Blackhawk is more than a great set of gams, apparently, as she punches the pilot before he can aim the gun at her, cleaning his clock! He falls down. They just don't make pilots like they used to, apparently! Zinda takes control of the plane just as Selina and Cassandra get done with the last of the thugs and guards with a series of 'sok!'s and 'biff!'s. The one thing they don't have, however, is coordinates of where the plane is supposed to go.

Cassandra Cain flicks her hands up and over then as she scans the area. The only ones left now seem to be over on the plane then as Cass heads over towards it at a fast trot then. By the time she gets there, Zinda is likely to hae dealt with them.

Having collected hats, Selina remarks, "Leave the pilot conscious, so he can tell us where we're going. And, so he can give any proper verbal cues to the Hatter he needs to," she suggests, unaware Zinda may have premptively already acted on her own and - well, not without reason. She begins heading to the door of the plane, signalling Cassandra to join her.

"Once we land, you and Cassandra should work on de-hatting people." Because, really, there's no proper word on the English language for the acting of moving about to remove hats. So, it's going to have to work. "I'll distract Jervis. Oracle, think Jervis would know if we cut the bands? Or would we be able to fake it for a little bit, if it came down to it?"

"He's out, but I didn't hit him that hard. Plus, Oracle...could you, if we got a hat to you, backtrack the mind control signal and find them that way?" Oracle can do things like that, so it's a reasonable suggestion. Meanwhile? Zinda's hotwiring the plane.

Cassandra Cain considers, and shrugs, spending a few moments quickly tying up and disabling the other thugs before going back over to the plane then, several of the hats in tow then. She then mimes over, "Call cops?" To arrest them before they can get free as she nods up and joins the others over, and takes a breath.

Oracle listens to all the different suggestions and nods a bit. "Sure, I'm on it, I don't think he'd notice - the signals seem to be one way. Tetch's mind control doesn't have unlimited range, but if he's using a plane he must be using a transmitter with enough strength to backtrack. Batgirl, take out one of those amplifying boosters from your belt and attach it to one of the bands and I'll track the signal back to the source."

A few minutes later, Zinda has a latitude and longitude of the transmission source - which seems to be a private island 27 miles off the coast of Gotham in international waters. The one prominent structure is the Falcone Mansion. There's no airstrip, but fortunately the plane has been equipped for water landings and there's a dock very close to the mansion. There are guards there as well.

Oracle breaks into the Birds' headsets. "The grounds seem to have a lot of guards patrolling Now um... maybe this time you can get into the mansion to do that... STEALTH thing? Maybe catch Falcone and Tetch before they manage to escape with a lot of bullets being shot." It's largely directed at Cassandra, though Barbara doesn' like sounding too harsh with the girl. She was trained in the 'punch first, punch second, then maybe see if anyone's conscious, punch them, and when they wake up someone else should ask them a question before she punches them again' mode of reconaissance.

Lady Blackhawk is, for now, flying. "Hopefully they haven't worked out we aren't their guys coming back with the loot yet," she murmurs, as she starts to descend for a landing. Fortunately, the plane IS an amphibian, but that does make the landing a little trickier. There's a reason most pilots learn normal planes before seaplanes.

"If everything works out well, when we land, I'm going to try to convince Jervis I want to team up with him, and that I'll help him get his influence around Gotham. And tempt him with Batman." Afterall, it's well known that Catwoman can get close to the Bat, closer than most 'criminals'. "While you two work on his goons. If that fails," Selina muses, "Well, we'll just improvise. It's what Batman does." She grins, sharply.

As the plane lands, she grabs a few of the hats to use as props; their bands having safely been snipped before to ensure they aren't going to work. Just in case. "Ready, girls?"

Cassandra Cain nods over at the others. Remembers. Go in quiet. Don't make a sound. Don't hit anyone or anything until chaos has set in. SHe won't be the one to break orders this time. She ndos over at the instructions from both Selina and from Oracle, "Got it."

This time instead of going the 'frontal assault route,' the trio employ a stealthier approach. It helps when you have an eye in the sky letting you know where the guards are patrolling. They get to one of the side doors of the mansion where there's more vegetation for coverage. Looks like a job for someone used to breaking into places. This time - they have a plan in place.

Too bad the adage about no plan surviving first contact with the enemy holds true.

"One second while I hack into the security cameras and disable the alarms, okay?" Oracle says as she overrides the security alarms. Looks like smooth sailing so far.

Or at least it would be if it wasnt for the fact that suddenly there's a hail of bullets being fired from two guards with machine guns inside. Or... wait they're not guards.

One's Harvey Bullock, and the other is ...

"DAD?!" Oracle practically yells into their headsets when she hacks into the mansion's security cameras.

It's a strange fact of Gotham that Thompson submachine guns are never too difficult to find, the distinctive drums as common as cassette tapes. The good news is, with the trigger held down, they're not all that accurate, especially at any sort of range. That's what saves the women (and girl) from the first assault by the former soldier who's spent half his life fighting crime in an often all too literal war. Somethings off, his actions are mechanical, jerky, and, well, anyone who's seen the old man in action could tell he's not fighting at his best.

Lady Blackhawk rolls to the side, using the wall of the building as cover. "Any way you can disrupt the signal?" Zinda murmurs. SHe's not letting this get to her, plus if SHE stays calm then Babs should calm down too. Not a surprise that she's in a panicky situation, but mind control...well. It's tricksy stuff.

Oracle says quickly into the headsets, "It doesn't work like that! I hack computers - not a magician. I can't just disrupt the signal!" She then says into Cassanda's headset, "Cass... seriously. Stop him without hurting him. Do. Not. Hurt. My. Dad. Okay?"

Selina can appreciate, even if she can't quite empathize with Barbara's position. It also makes her own plans null, and void. And she's hardly bulletproof; sure, her outfit is made to help absorb damage, reduce wear and tear on her body, but it's nowhere near enough grade to keep her safe from the barrage of bulletfire coming out from inside the mansion. She waits, until either the gun runs out of ammo, or until Gordon's finger goes off the trigger. Afterall; one of the two has to happen, eventually. Then, to Zinda, "Fast as you can to his left. I'll run to his right. Batgirl - wait until the count of three, when he's aiming at one of us, and disarm him. Got it?"

She looks at Zinda, "Ready?" And, without waiting, Selina's taking off, all the while swearing at herself for being so stupid. At least she can run. And run, fast.

Running around the side, as Gordon goes to open up with the machine gun along with Bullock, Batgirl is on the defensive as she darts to the side, going into a quick tuck and roll. Both to try adn make herself the more obvious target, but also not to give the two an poportunity to 'lead' her with the machine gunfire, and make her into a pincushion. Rolling tightly along and going to snap up to her feet, she calls along the commlink, "Gas Mask!" Going to launch a pair of tear gas pellets through the air towards Bullock and Gordon. WIth luck, the cloud would mess up their ability to shoot, and not hurt them. Cassandra has made a promise to Barbara. And more importantly, after her failings earlier, to herself. She would rather die.

 Oracle says, "I think I missed a golden opportunity to use Molly in a TP."

 Gordon says, "OH god, no, Molly would immediately become his sidekick."

 Gordon says, "Her hats are her greatest weakness."

 Selina Kyle says, "All that would save us is that as long as we dodged her for a few minutes, she'd nap."

 Gordon says, "Yeah, but like... 2 people actually believe she has powers."

 Gordon says, "It'd be 'Oh, cute, little angry tween, did Beiber get a new girlfriend that isn't you--OH GOD MY EVERYTHING!'"

The tear gas is limiting their accuracy, given their teared up eyes from the gas - but they've had police training for dealing with tear gas, so while it is somewhat effective, they still manage to keep firing.

Okay. There's only one solution to this. While the other two mess around, Zinda draws HER guns, takes aim and fires. At the hats. Yes, she really does know what she's doing, even if it might make Barbara gasp on the surveillance cameras. Or maybe Oracle will trust her. She's pulled stunts like this before and, as often in tough situations, she's completely calm.

In the Security Room of the Mansion:

Jervis watches from a room away, behind a bunch of guards with Falcone standing by him. "Uh oh..." he says to himself. "Okay. I guess I'll put my grand plan into action a bit earlier than expected. You two - come with me to the machine. The rest of you... kill those lolligaggers!" he orders, directing them to swarm the room where Harvey, Gordon, and the Birds are.

Back in the room:

Zinda's definitely a good shot. Oracle says, "Zinda! You'r shooting at my- oh..." she says. Normally Barbara probably would have had total faith in Zinda's ability but - it's her dad after all. Still, after she sees the hats shot off, she breathes a sigh of relief. But then she perks up, seeing guards heading towards the room. "You're all about to ahve a lot of company in about a minute, and Hatter's going the opposite way!"

Without the hats on, the control over Gordon and Bullock is broken - Bullock says, "What the hell?" As eloquent as ever.

Cassandra Cain lets out a growl as she hears the command then, hissing, "handle them" She gestures over at Zinda and if necessary Selina, "Stop Hatter." Close enough. She cracks her knuckles together, waiting for the rush of thugs that are going to come pouring out. This is going to be her fight. She's been holding back this night. Out of not beign able to read people. Out of not being sure waht she's up against. Out of making sure not to hurt someone. Now she can cut loose.

Gordon steps away, even as the tear gas starts to flow out of the grenades. The mind control dulls his instincts, leaves him slower, less accurate, but he's still more dangerous than your average Gotham Goon. He begins firing in short bursts, mitigating the poor accuracy of the submachine gun at full bore, though not eliminating the issue entirely. Maybe he's fighting the control, maybe Tetch's particular brand of mind control just isn't good at getting quality minions, but the shots aren't nearly as accurate as they could be. Trust it to the grown ups to get the job done.

As the only person on the island older than him shoots off his hat, he regains control, and immediately ceases fire. There is a brief, blurry confusion, from him and Bullock, and then they're being shot at. Gordon dives aside, taking Bullock with him using a support pillar to protect the pair from the oncoming fire as he briefly sizes up the situation, eyes narrowing a bit when he spots Catwoman. "Bullock, you cover the ladies, and remember, these aren't criminals, they're victims." He stands up and calls to the others. "Batgirl, help Bullock. Whoever got those hats off, with me." He tosses the heavy, inaccurate weapon aside, pulling his service pistol from a hidden hostler and starts to make his way after Tetch, moving from cover to cover.

"Trust me!" Zinda says before heading off after Gordon. After all, she can't let Babs' dad go off on his own and get killed...besides, he asked her to. The fact that his request/order and her plans coincide does rather help keep things...smooth.

Catwoman no more wants to work with Bullock than Bullock wants to work with her - which tends to make things a little less smooth, on her end. As Gordon moves ahead to apparently apprehend Jervis with Zinda, she grits her teeth because she's also not going to leave Cassandra alone to fight a bunch of people that she can't fight as well as she normally could.

Politely, she tells Bullock, "Touch me, and I'll break all your fingers off." Her way of reiterating what Gordon said, even as her bullwhip flashes out to snap off a hat. She whirls it around her head, and snaps off another hat like she was flicking fleas off a horse at a circus.

Bullock does not look all that pleased about working with a bunch of vigilantes... and one outright criminal. Despite the fact that they just freed him from mind control. But he grimaces and follows orders. He might be a jerk, but he's a good cop still, dammit. "Well that'll just be hunky dorey" he says through grit teeth, sarcastically.

Meanwhile, it's actually a pretty... odd assortment of people going after Hatter. At first, Zinda and Gordon out front, with Catwoman, Bullock and Batgirl covering the rear. Every time they remove a hat from one of the guards coming in to attack, there's pretty much a 50/50 chance that the guard will run away rather than stay and fight, or will actually join them to help!

One of the guards that Bullock punches, at one point, is wrestling with him for one of the guns.

Meanwhile, Hatter is heading down to a fortified room with Falcone, every so often having two of the mind controlled goons with them stop to guard the hall. "Gotta get to the machine!" Hatter pants as he runs as fast as he can. "I'm late, I'm late! No time to wait!"

Cassandra Cain is working on smashing, punching, chopping, and making a general mess over of whatever remaining guards. Letting the others deal with bratting the Hatter, and tryign to make sure that Gordon and Bullock don't get over into too much trouble, but they seem to be holding thier own. Leaping back and forth in the brawl, Cassandra is content to make sure that the thugs don't geta way, and lets the others deal wtih the bigger fish.

Lady Blackhawk is removing hats. By whatever means comes to hand. With luck they can do this without anyone else getting hurt - some of the guards seem bizarrely loyal to the Hatter, but many others are quite willing to vacate the fight once free to do so.

Gordon shoulders his way through a door, letting out a grunt as he doesn't pull it off nearly as cleanly as he would have twenty years ago. "Can you get his hat too?" he asks, breathing heavily, age and a smoking habit starting to get the better of him, making Tetch's getaway far easier than it would be if Gordon were just a little bit younger.

Some days, you just wish you hadn't left your bolas at home. Or, on the guard in the hangar. "Oracle," Selina calls, as she's moving to de-hat a goon behind Batgirl; she's not going to be able to catch up with Hatter, and by the time she 'broke her way' into the secured room, whatever he's going to do, will be done, "I think we need you to shut down the power grid, here. Yesterday. And you'd better not tell me you can't do it. Because if you don't, we're probably all going to be really screwed. No pressure, or anything." Oracle responds. "I'm working on it but I think Falcone's mansion has an emergency backup generator. Once I turn off the main power you'll probably only have a minute or less before it kicks in." She pushes some buttons. "and I just analyzed what equipment was being stolen. It's experimental STAR Labs equipment designed to tie into various satellites around the planet to send a signal to every populated city in the Western Hemisphere! So once I kill the power you'll need to get in there and take Hatter down FAST."

Meanwhile, the Birds, Gordon, and Bullock finally get to the lab that Tetch has barracaded himself behind. When they open the door, Tetch is there, taking cover behind a machine, with Falcone out front holding a friggin' bazooka.

"TUT TUT! ONE MORE MOVE AND I FLIP THE SWITCH AND WE'LL JUST SEE HOW YOU DEAL WITH THE RESULTS!" he says with a wild grin. "I had intended to tie it into television commercials, to issue the hapless masses commands, but without that, it'll just blank out the minds of hundreds of thousands! Back away!" he warns.

Selina pushes away from the group. Her hand moves, sensually up her side. And, plays at the zipper just at her throat. She unzips it, just enough to begin to show cleavage, and muses, casting a rather disdainful look at the group with her, "You know," she says, looking back towards Jervis, "I always did find an -intelligent- man to be more - interesting," she manages in a sultry, bedroom voice, "Than a man of muscles." Her lips twist, coyly and she takes a confident step, one, and no more, towards Jervis, and the bazooka man. "I really came here to offer you a proposition, Jervis. You and I never did get to speak, really. Sure. You can do that, to all of us." She pauses, turns, places her hand on her sculpted, refined bottom and looks back at the group. "Or, you can have them, with your little machine. With the parts from STAR Labs that I made sure were on the plane after you play your little game. And. I could get you The Batman."

She turns back towards Jervis, eyes glimmering. She takes another step forwards. "I could do that for you, Jervis. YOu know I could."

Cassandra would know, by body language, Selina is faking it all. She gets close enough to press a finger towards the bazoooka, in the way that the girls in movies often do. And, likely of two things will happen. Either Selina buys someone time to react to Jervis, or, they're all dead. That is, if everyone else on her 'team' realizes what she's doing, and Jervis buys into it. The desperate are always, usually, the most gullible.

Cassandra Cain recognized it. Tensing. Then going to click her tongue twice along the commlink. THen a third time in a much shorter burst. THe signal for 'stnadby'. giving Selina a chance to shine then, all ready to rush in, but hopefully for the others enough of a show by the girl for them to get it and play along as she tensed, Batarang held high.

Gordon just looks over at Catwoman staring not in a predictable, masculine way but in complete bemusement. Really, this is the master plan. Then again, there was that entire thing with that Alice girl...

Lady Blackhawk knows enough of what Selina's like...and she'll let that zipper draw the man's eye as she shifts into position. Come on, Oracle. Throw that switch, or whatever it is you're going to do. She just needs to get into JUSt the right place. Just the right angle...

As Selina goes to distract the bang man, Zinda gets a light nod over from Cassandra. Backing her up, waiting for the right moment. Her own batarang ready as soon as the group gets to launch, and then at the right moment TOSS, and hat the hatter. How mad!

Jervis blinks a few times, looking at Catwoman. "What... you mean you and me would - really? I.... wow... I ..."

And that's when Batgirl's batarange flies at Jervis, pinning his hat to the far wall off his head! Jervis snaps out of his 'catwoman seduced me' look and says, "You think that will help you foolish fops! I don't need my hat to throw this swi-"

But the Hatter is cut off by Falcone, no longer under Hatter's control, hitting him in the face with the bazooka like a club. Falcone yells at him, "You nutcase! How dare you control me, I'm gonna kill you!"

And at that point, the power temporarily goes off in the power grid while Hatter is screaming "AHH! HELP ME! HELP I SURRENDER! SAVE ME!! AAAAH!" Falcone, meanwhile, is about to bash the Mad Hatter's head in!

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Falcone," Gordon says with authority. "Not with the police commissioner in the room." He pulls up his gun, pointing it at Falcone. "You're both under arrest."

Lady Blackhawk moves quickly as soon as the power's out, bent on restraining the Hatter (and pulling him away from Falcone before the mob boss kills him) because letting a crook get killed in front of Gordon would upset Babs. It would upset Babs a LOT.

Cassandra Cain has her weapon up, and ready to cover. THen gives a half nod over at SElina of thanks as the situationh is secured. "Good job." THen at Zinda, "Good shot." RElaxing.

"My job is done here," says Catwoman, pleased. She looks at Jervis, winks at him, then zips up her suit. "Maybe another time, Jervis. Guess the cards weren't dealt in your favor. This time." As if hinting they might be, later. Or leaving herself open to interpretation, by him. Don't want to burn a good racket, after all.

Falcone smirks at the Commissioner, putting down the bazooka when the gun is pointed at him. "You'll never make an arrest against me stick, Gordon. And you know it! Especially since I was under mind control by this ... lunatic!"

And he's probably right - in this rare instance, Falcone actually is not guilty. Still, it'll be something to keep his lawyers busy for a few days. Bullock handcuffs both Falcone and Tetch nevertheless, as he radios for backup to come and round up the rest on the island. They'll let the DA and defense attorneys sort out who goes to prison or Arkham Asylum, and who goes free. Jervis looks at Catwoman as he's cuffed. "You can still be my Alice!" he says before Bullock thumps him on the head and ushers him off by the cuffs.

Oracle says into the headsets, "Not bad for a first mission, huh Selina? Come back to the Clocktower - got some other things for you to do. I hear Killer Croc just escaped Arkham and he's more monstrous than usual ..."

The End - for now.