2016-10-15 - Tanker Tipping

Dockside. The fun part of Gotham where nothing ever happens. People don't live here, so muggings are very low. Nobody's dumb enough to walk around alone, so even graffiti events are low. The lighting is at least half broken or burnt out and darkness has mostly reclaimed the place, making it easy for smugglers and lowlifes.

It's also making it easy for the superheroes, who not coincidentally wear black as a matter of course. Cassandra is on top of a bunch of huge metal shipping crates, stacked atop one another, where she can see the dockside below. Minimal lighting, she's basically laying on the edge and looking over as people walk below. Her expression is kind of annoyed, and she's flipping a deck of cards in her fingertips.

The bats aren't the only ones who where black. Another shadow flickers across the rooftops, padding its way along but this one lacks a cape. The heroine known as X-23 is making her way in relative silence, only the occasional crunch to announce her existence as he leaps from rooftop to rooftop.

The teenage stabberina is coincidentally making her way to the docks. The thugs that do hang out here tend to hit harder, often being dockworkers by daylight so are in relative shape. That makes them more fun in a scrape by her thinking.

A hand comes up when X-23 passes nearby, signaling to the stabby girl of the location, though Cass' position is pretty obvious when seen from above. Or beside, she's only hidden from below. Which is good, because a big group of sailors walks by talking loudly about some kind of trim they're having problems with, probably boat related. Cass doesn't comment on them, glancing down and writing them off as unimportant.

In the distance, a large shipping tanker sounds its horn, signaling an incoming approach. Nothing of note happens in response.

X-23 makes her way acrobatically to where she's signaled from. Lacking fancy grapple hooks, it's how she gets by. Parkour is fun, so it's all good for her. She only takes a few moments to reach her friend, and she comes to a crouch on a nearby ledge. She doesn't speak, knowing better than to spoil the eventual ambush.

Shipping crates are basically a huge platform, so ledges are all you get up here. Cass looks at X-23, shrugging, and cuts the deck of cards in half with one hand. Then slides half to Laura, as she glances back at the docks.

Signals are being passed, some with flashes of light, others by yelling, but apparently the ship coming in is finally being noticed. And, y'know, prepared for. Lines are being prepped, and a small tugboat is moving out of the way.

X-23 takes the half of the deck, looking at it funny for a moment but it's only a moment before she recognizes it.

X-23 takes the half of the deck, looking at it funny for a moment but it's only a moment before she recognizes it. She shuffles it, having watched others play so she knows how to work it. Back in the Facility it was the game of choice for the guards, solitaire and poker. She's pretty proficient at shuffling, mostly from watching Gambit. A moment later, she's got her cards drawn and deck set down and is eyeing Cass.

Cassandra Cain is making a tower out of her hand of cards when she gets eyed by X-23, looking up and blinking at the girl having them in some kind of grouping in her hand. She blinks and looks at the other girl in confusion, then quickly knocks down her little card house and draws about eight cards in a grab. Then tries to mimic the other stabby lady by fanning them, really poorly.

Laura shrugs easily with a little smile at Cassandra, mussing up her own hand as she admits by her actions to having misunderstood the gesture. The only card trick she knows is how to slide her cards around in a circle. She can't quite make a full circle like Gambit, but it's one think she's close with. She grins a little at Cassandra.

Cassandra Cain sighs as Laura puts them down, giving a weak smile in return. "I do not know...that.." she admits, waving at Laura's hands. Meaning the game that Laura was expecting. Her voice is very quiet, skipping all the hard 't's and 's's so they won't travel in the night. "Mind should be on work, all times," she says, mimicing someone else's voice. Deeper, someone she knows. A teacher of some sort?

The ship slowly approaches port, as the tugboat safely exits the docking area, and a couple of figures appear on deck. Mostly deckhands apparently at this point, but it's very very difficult to tell in this light. Just shadows and silhouettes.

Laura grunts a little in acknowledgement of the words, countering with,"The mission is first...always." She nods, then adds,"I've never...played either. Only watched." She then looks down at the docks, following Cassandra's gaze owlishly. Or at least as near to it as her zombie contacts allow.

Cassandra Cain quickly assembles a small tower of cards, mostly without looking at them. Then disassembles them as fast, her eyes on the ship and the people on board. Not able to really tell bugger all about them yet, she grumbles about getting closer and poor cover for a moment. Her hands doing it automatically, it's apparently something she learned as a hand coordination tool.

"Guns," she says as she gazes at the boat. Ship, boat, it's got guns on it that's all she cares about.

Laura spies out quickly what she's talking about. She doesn't know any such excercises and isn't paying much attention to what Cass is doing, but she does shuffle the deck since it's in her hands. She never could figure out how Gambit does it, but she knows how to slide the cards amongst each other efficiently and she doesn't want the racket of flickering cards.

"See them,"replies X-23. She goes to counting what she sees on the deck, offering,"Not quite dozen."

Cassandra Cain's eyes flicker to Laura, to X-23 she amends. Though both names are just words, one is used more respectfully than the other. She knows that now, though it felt like more useless jibber-jabber til fairly recently. Names have power, and which one you use changes how they act to you. Words. So strange. "I can not see yet. You have...very good eyes. Where guns?"

X-23 is a trained scout, mostly by Wolverine but she's run with others as well. Including Hawkeye. She points out the weapons, including a few that are at waist bands and one who is packing in the seat of his pants. The young mutant sniffs at the air, trying to get more information by the smells but she is too far for anything meaningful at the moment.

"Some hidden, some obvious," X-23 offers. She isn't surprised or disappointed that Black Bat couldn't quite see them, she's aware of how advanced her senses are next to most. She isn't vain though, Hawkeye is incredible by any standards.

Cassandra Cain has excellent senses. She can detect a bullet being fired at her head from behind and avoid it by reflex. But she can't quite make out the silhou..oh, there they are. Nodding as the guns come into view, she accepts the difference and works with it. Obviously this girl has some nice bonuses with the negatives.

A quick flip of her hand suggests a bit more waiting, as the ship isn't docked yet. "Am told, must dock first," she says tiredly. "Oracle blah blah." What she was told was that if they touch american soil they can be arrested, but she didn't bother listening. Right now she's just willing to accept it, since the wait is almost over. Her body is relaxed, ready. And the ship is nearly docked.

X-23 isn't at that level with the reflexes, but much of that is not needing to be. She can reattach limbs, after all. Disembowel her, and she can return the favor before walking it off to return to duty a few days later. The downside is a ravenous appetite when her immune system is taxed to that degree, the repairs involve mad calories and nutrients.

She'll nod her reply, not yet knowing who this Oracle person is but she's heard her voice before. She has an idea who she is though hasn't been introduced. She's just here to help.

The tanker is taking its time pulling in to dock. There are look outs on the boat who eyeball the docks as they move in, having obviously done this before. They know what they are looking for as they come in. A few voices are exchanged between the edge of the boat and the docks, Russian by the sound of them. A bridge extends out to greet once the boat is in position thus formalizing their arrival.

X-23 hrms a little at the sight of the bridge, commenting quietly,"Won't be long. Just need start offloading, yes?"

Cass says, "No," and pulls out her grapple gun, formalizing her attack as she fires it at the highest point she can hit, a crane over the ship's side. "We do...not need THEM do anything else," she actually jokes as she swings off of the shipping container toward freedom, combat, and joy. Which comes at the cost of the first person she sees, as her heels impact with his jaw, sending him into the ocean.

Shouts go out already, as the ship crew realize that something's up. And all eyes are on Cass, so X-23 has a free run.

X-23 drops off the edge to let the ground rush up to greet her. She'll charge headlong from there, her knees popping as they immediately reset from muscle action after the jarring impact of landing in a crouch from several stories up. Her hands slip into her bracers from where she palms a pair of slivers of silvery metal, and once she's close enough, she'll tag a pair of dockworkers with them!

The docks come to life, two men down and one injured. Lucky for them, marksmanship on the run isn't the first skill of the mutant on hand. Her second blade went into the shoulder instead of the hand of her mark, so his weapon is still handy to return fire!

Cassandra Cain flips up over the railing, retracting her line automatically, and lands on the deck between two hands. She grabs both their guns and pulls, knocking them both together almost theatrically by their straps, and then tosses the guns overboard. Then she slips past them, not bothering to finish them off, heading at a sprint across the deck for anyone else who's able to shoot her. Tactically, she knows that she needs to take out the weapons. The men aren't a threat to either one of them.

Unfortunately for the men at the docks, they aren't a threat to her with the guns either between her armor and her healing factor. She has her blades out, favoring feet for a change as a couple close in to try and deal with her with clubs. She goes into a handspring, imitating a breakdancing routine in response to their charge!

The men Black Bat disarms yell curses on their way to the water. Their guns generally seem to be of Russian make, both of the ones she's taken are AKs at a glance, but when she reaches the Captain's quarters on her sprint, she's greeted with a series of semi automatic shotgun blasts through the door! A street sweeper...

X-23s fight goes well so far, she knocks the feet out from under one, then deals a wicked slash across the torso of his partner before rightening back with a kip that cleaves his club in three.

A well aimed rifle shot nicks Laura's skull, out of nowhere, as someone with a hint of actual ability takes a shot off the foredeck. He tries for another, but finds her moving too fast to hit more than once and gives away his position to the stabby in the process, while X-23 disarms the entire docking crew in barely five seconds flat.

Cass snaps a kick into the top of the door frame, attracting the attention of the shooter inside, and ducks to the left. She dives up, getting momentum from a swinging start, and lets her heels open the nearest window as she vanishes into the cabin.

About two seconds later a man flies out the closed door head-first, with a shotgun stuck someplace uncomfortable.

X-23 growls at getting shot, even if its just a nick. The party isn't started good until she's taken a hit somehow. With the disarmed and unconscious men with broken weapons scattered about, it was only a matter of time before she found someone else to play with. She lunges headlong at the base of the shooter's perch, then begins claw climbing up as quickly as she knows how to take hold of the man by the neck of his shirt! A split second later, braced by her toe claws, she reaches up to grab him by his hair and yank him down from his perch to drop. It isn't a far fall, so he should be fine.

Retracting her claws, she'll use the shooter for padding as she drops down. A smile forms at the sound of crunch ribs beneath her before she goes to find her friend. She'll be cursing later at her bad luck of taking one to the scalp, her hair doesn't grow any faster than anyone else's.

Cassandra re-emerges via someone's skull being used as a battering ram, from the room she went into. Her foot resting on his chin suggests that it was a kick impelling him to such an energetic thing, to headbutt the wall like that. Then she steps out of the door calmly, dusting her hands off on her pants, and looks for Laura.

Suddenly, six men step out from every hiding place. Each has an AK, aimed at the pair of girls. Surrounded. "That's enough, ladies," one says, dressed in white.

Cassandra raises an eyebrow, looking at Laura. Waiting for the girl to make her choice. But she's smiling, knowing what it'll be.

X-23 doesn't take long to make her choice. She throws herself at the gunmen, spinning through the air in a butterfly kick with her hands in her bracers retrieving new blades to loose into them when she lands! Her toe claws target weapons and hands to disarm for her friend's benefit, her blades going generally but not going for vitals. She'll smirk as her fist claws now pop out...

"We're just starting..." says the mutant girl in sinister tones.

Cassandra Cain moves the same time as Laura. She leaps up and over the gunmen, letting their bullets spray the air. She literally lands on the shoulders of the one closest to behind her, kicking him in the back so he stumbles forward, and clips him in the back of the head so he goes to sleep in the process.

With one on each side of her, she grins and motions left to Laura with a tiny jerk of her head, then moves right in an enthusiastic dash!

X-23 is on it, knowing her meaning as she darts left with toe claws retracting as she goes! Fist claws crash into the hip of the first gunner she meets, crippling him for life as her follow up brings a quick backhanded slash at the inside of his wrist to disable his trigger hand as he drops under his own weight. He's in the right position for a knee, so she obliges with sufficient force to send him to la la land. While Black Bat does her thing she faces the man in white with a smirk.

Cassandra Cain runs past the first guy, who drops for no apparent reason. His gun goes off, spraying bullets into the wall and just barely missing Laura as Cass' foot kicks the barrel high, so they hit wood instead of flesh. She slams into the last guy as he fires, taking a couple of shots on her armour which she was smart enough to wear, finally, and the two go over the side. There's a single splash, with a yelp, and then quiet from her side. Shortly afterward however, a black leather gloved hand comes over the edge.

Not wasting time, Laura's enemy opens fire, crying some rambo-esque thing like 'die bitch' or something. He's not very creative, but then it's late and they've had a long day too. Probably. Not that it matters much, he's about to feel a fair bit of stabby.

X-23 gave him a chance, she takes his first shot square to her before she charges just to be sporting. Her armor stops the bullet cold, the hollow point round pancaking with minimal effect. She slashes him across the chest for the greeting, just to ruin his suit for the heck of it before retracting her offhand fist for the face punch. When he reels, she slashes him ankle with a toe claw to floor him before flipping forward to deliver a knee drop squarely on his bleeding chest for the finisher, he'd be too disabled after that to go anywhere.

Cassandra Cain is hunched on the railing, balanced there, with her fingers touching it between her heels. She's smiling as Laura does her job, watching in silence. As the police sirens start being audible, the gunshots having drawn them finally. They've done their job, it's time to go.

X-23 returns the smile as she sprints to follow her as best she can without grapplers. She doesn't want to speakto the police if she doesn't have to, that's just downright inconvenient for a lady on the town.

Moments later, the police pull up. To find only downed enemies, a good supply of illegal guns, and shadows. Crossing the sky, in the night. Shaped like a bat, and maybe a little more.