DC Beyond

Amity/Caution-Stately Wayne Manor

She was getting frustrated. First the locked gate, then the suspicious glimpse of figures around to the side of the house. Now she was fairly certain she could hear voices. Faint, but at least one sounded like Wayne's old growl. Stepping back, she spun and lashed out with one boot just below the door handle. It buckled and cracked, but held. Again-and the door sprang open with a mournful creak.

Holding her gun low against her leg, Amity darted inside, toward the sound of the voices. Who the hell can he be talking to right now? Did that weasel Powers send someone else? If he did, well another dead body next to Wayne would make her "intruder''story much more plausible.

Ahead, the lights were on in some kind of foyer. It looked like Wayne was talking to...a pair of teenagers? One in a white hoodie and the other in street clothes. They didn't look like hardened assassins, but who knows? Could be cybered up, could be freaks. Better to not take the chance. Stepping up behind the old man, Amity raised her pistol, and barked "Get down, Wayne! She's got a weapon!" As her finger tightened on the trigger, Amity slipped a small knife out of her pocket and prepared to sink it into Wayne's neck. It would be a perfect crime once she put one of the street kids' prints on the handle. Amity began considering what she'd wear to Wayne's funeral.

For some reason, the thought just made her break out in a wide, sadistic grin.

Vincent - Office Building

The Scarecrow's maneuver manages to make the splicer let go of him through his application of high-velocity doorframe to dinosaur face, bloodying his nose as the impact takes a chunk out of the doorframe, not killing his momentum outright as he falls to the floor and starts rolling down the stairs.

Kill him.

Vincent curls up into a ball as he rolls down the stairs, suddenly uncoiling as his hands hit the stairs, jumping back up towards the Scarecrow feet-first, aiming to kick him right into the wall of the staircase opposite from where they entered.

Scarecrow - Office Building

Scarecrow grinned as he watched Vincent roll to the bottom of the stairs. Before he even made his leap back up, Scarecrow had already jumped onto the railing. And when Vincent leapt back up to kick him, Scarecrow jumped, Frostbite's icicles whizzing past him as he fell down the center gap from the turns in the staircase.

Grabbing another fear gas grenade, Scarecrow armed and dropped it so it landed on the stairs. Which floor it was didn't matter, as Scarecrow continued to drop as the grenade went off above him, putting a cloud of fear gas between him and the Splicers. If they could survive the drop and jumped after him, they'd have no choice but to pass through the gas. But the thick cloud of green smoke also meant his pursuers wouldn't be able to see which floor he stopped on.

As he neared the bottom of the stairway, Scarecrow activated his jetpack in a few short bursts to slow down his fall. Once he'd slowed down enough, he climbed over the railing and entered the building's second floor. Satisfied with the head start he now had over the Splicers, Scarecrow tapped his suit's comm system... and proceeded to dial a phone number.

"Hello, police? I'd like to report a break in at the..." Scarecrow glanced around until he saw something that indicated what company ran this place "...Berkowitz Holdings building. I saw some dinosaur-looking things jump through the windows on one of the upper floors. One of 'em flew. They might be splicers, but I wasn't able to get a good look at them." Scarecrow looked at the wound on his arm from Vincent's bite to see how bad it was as he was informed that someone would be sent to check out the situation. He'd have to get looked at once this over. Could be infected.

"Oh, no no no, I was just passing by the place when I saw it happen," Scarecrow spoke to the person on the other end of the line as he turned towards the window looking out on the street. "I'm not inside the building. I just wanted to make sure someone took care of those dregs." Scarecrow started running towards the window, gritting his teeth a bit from the pain coming from his leg that had been hit by the fire extinguisher. "Great, glad to hear it. Bye."

The next thing Scarecrow heard was the sound of people screaming at the sight of the bird man crashing through the window of Berkowitz Holdings building and flying off above the city streets.

Carpenter, Wayne-Powers -> Cain's Cab

Following after Harley, and knowing that she was going to need a long shower and a stress burger or two after this, Jasmine barrelled out of the building, looking for any means to quickly get away from the warzone the Wayne-Powers property had become. Seeing what looked like a taxi cab, she gripped Harley's hand and steered her towards it, too hopped up on nerves to question what the hell a taxi was doing here at this time of night.

This, in turn, led them to the presumed driver throwing Molotov cocktails, which had Jasmine blink a few times as she took in his appearance. As much as she admired someone fighting 'the man', she couldn't help but wonder what he was doing up this late. As far as she knew, old people extolled virtuous sayings like 'early to bed, early to rise'. Was this his way of being a rebel?

"Listen, uhh, sir, I know you're probably having fun, but we're payin' customers, so if that's your cab, my friend and I, we've got a date for anywhere but here." She said in a rush, clearly itching to get out while the getting was good.

Edited by Bored_Man on Mar 16th 2024 at 8:05:47 AM

Harley, Cain's Cab

"Heyheyhey—!"

Harley didn't argue. She'd be fibbing if she wasn't startled, but let Carpenter lead the way. She owed her that much.

They soon reached the cab. She wasn't sure whether to scream or cheer. She loved her some chaos, but the last thing she wanted was Powers to get pissy.

"Yeah, what she said gramps. Harley loves her some arsin' arson , but we need to get movin'! Vroom vroom, know what I mean?"

Cain Adamson—Getaway Cab

Cain turned around, shrugged, and decided to also get out of there while the going was still good, before the "street cleaner" noticed him too. If anything, he could come back to the Wayne-Powers building again. So, he picked up his phone, stopping the recording of himself, and stuffed it back into his jacket pocket. He raised the "key" to his cab, which seemed to be in fact an ornately carved bone whistle, and blew on it, the shrill note making the vehicle rev up eagerly. One of the back doors opened so that the girls could get in.

"Get in and buckle your seatbelts, girls," he said curtly. There was no time for customer service when time was this short. "There's a first-aid kit under your seats if you need it. Forget the fare. Tonight, you may give me some weapons you can spare."

The vampire slammed on the gas, and the cab screeched forwards. He drove like a demon, the buildings blurring by until they seemed to enter another layer of Neo-Gotham entirely. Street signs read "This Way to Hell" and "That Way to Perdition," though nearly all of them seemed to be pointing downwards. Ghostly, intangible figures lined the streets, wandering aimlessly. The sky turned an ominous red, as if it couldn't decide it was sunrise or sunset. It was then that he turned to the girls, dropping his sunglasses to reveal his crimson eyes.

"Now, what'll be our destination tonight, ladies?" Cain asked, playing the part of the affable driver. "Hospital? Police station? Home base? But don't give me your addresses. I'm not a creep."

Edited by JumpingFruit on Mar 17th 2024 at 4:09:06 AM

Carpenter (Cain's Cab)

Jasmine's relief at having found a way out of their current predicament was soon tinged with a sense of uneasiness at the warning bells going off in her head. That sense intensified roughly threefold as the ride itself began and she was bearing witness to the otherworldly sights, and before she even registered she was doing it, the girl was clinging to Harley with a death grip.

"There's a p-p-p-place near the hospital that'll do, if that w-w-works for you, 'bestie'." She said, trying not to look into Cain's eyes and clearly attempting not to collapse into a panic.

Harley, Cain's Cab — I'm Not Afraid of Spooks

Harley squealed with glee. She dug into her seat, heart racing, cackling as they sped into gear. It was no different from a roller coaster and roller coasters were her jam! What wasn't to love?

As soon as she saw the ghosts and the crimson canopy she changed her tune. Her squeal became a scream, heart pounding from her chest. She clung to Carpenter as much as she was to her, praying for a way out. This was what she got taking a taxi...

"S-s-sure! W-whatever ya say 'bestie...!' (Totally a creep, fuckin' dreggy...)"

Edited by kkhohoho on Mar 17th 2024 at 11:39:42 AM

Wayne-Powers Loading Bay (Catwalk)

As the bony barbs dug straight through her sleeves and into her arms, Ymir could see her eyes jerk open - she'd feel a twitch run through her captor's entire body, as her face went a little red and blood vessels began to visibly pulse. Whatever she'd just infected into Bane's system, it had an effect.

Unfortunately for Ymir, it wasn't the effect she had intended - though her captor was clearly in pain, for the time being what she'd done had only succeeded in sending a fresh jolt of adrenaline to mix in with the poison. Bane's enormous arms went as rigid as boards, and the spider-woman's attempt to escape by shoving her enemy's arms up and herself down resulted in Bane being dragged down with her, her grip on her neck re-orienting itself, placing the burden on her upper arms instead.

She then used Ymir's downward momentum to flip her upside-down, before swinging her high up above, such that her feet briefly pointed up towards the ceiling. Bane promptly fell backwards, executing a vertical suplex that slammed Ymir back-first into the catwalk behind her - probably a much more survivable injury than getting smashed into a steel wall by the skull, but still nothing to shake off.

As Ymir recovered, Bane took the opportunity to get back up to one knee and - painfully, with an audible grunt, took hold of the barbs that snapped off Ymir's arms and - CRACK - ripped them out of her arms, one at a time, exposing the damage that had been done - clean tears in Bane's jacket, which now trickled with blood. She took the broken barbs in her hands and began to walk over to Ymir, limping a little - a sign Ymir might recognize as the paralytic poison beginning to have an effect.

Before Bane could do anything else, however... -STRIK - she heard something coming from behind, and turned around just in time to see a lit match descending onto the shipment...

Edited by PresidentStalkeyes on Mar 18th 2024 at 8:34:38 AM

Cain Adamson—Getaway Cab

"Shit, why didn't you tell me earlier?" Cain groused, before yanking on the wheel. He slammed on the brakes at the same time, so that the vehicle slid into a paradoxically graceful drift, and kept going, long past the point where it would have been logical for it to stop. The screech of the tires on asphalt, however, sounded suspiciously like the screams of the damned. But all of a sudden, it stopped, as the cab slotted into place in a vacant spot between two other cars, perfectly parked, parallel to the curb. The neon sign of the hospital could be seen glowing conspicuously overhead.

As the lights of the cab came back on, not unlike an airplane's cabin lights after a landing, the meter continued ticking up, letting out a cheerful ding! after it stopped, while the digital clock stopped glitching. It was only three minutes since their departure, though the hospital was ostensibly fifteen minutes away, though neither of the girls would probably be calm enough to notice it. Either way, a door opened for them to step out.

"Leave a weapon you can spare on the back seats, please," the cabbie sighed tiredly. "Tips for speedy service are also welcome."

Edited by JumpingFruit on Mar 19th 2024 at 8:04:06 AM

Jurassica - Wayne-Powers, Loading Bay

One swing of a hammer sent a DKI goon flying, the other she tackled and pinned to the ground, her inhuman strength driving the knife into his armor.

This close, assuming the slam hadn't given him a concussion, he'd see spittle flying through her large teeth, her maw opening like she was about to bite his head off, only for her to pause at the whirr of the gunship.

"Shit." She mumbled, dropping her knife to grab at the pinned goon, pulling him up and spinning so the poor sap was between her and the incoming gunfire. "Ah, fuck this."

Promptly deciding she'd done enough damage for the night, she ran off, still holding her human shield. As an afterthought, she slid her hammer into the strap on the back of her tank top, stole the goon's blaster and popped off a few haphazard shots at the gunship.

Carpenter, Hospital

Later on, Jasmine would probably be able to remember how weird it was that they'd gotten here so quickly. At the current time, though, all she cared about was getting out of the cab.

Realizing that their driver was serious about leaving a weapon, Jasmine rummaged through her belt, and withdrew a medium sized carpenter's hammer before laying it on the car seat. And for good measure, she put a little bit of cash down with it. Anything to not have this guy showing up in her window or peripheral vision in the middle of the night.

"Thank you sir, have a good night sir." She said in a shaky voice, knees doing their best to stay steady.

The Street Cleaner hesitated for a moment as Jurassica grabbed a human shield, and then opened fire anyways. The goon she had was wearing heavy armor, the rounds in the rotary cannon were low propellant testing rounds, so long as he was in that armor, he stood a decent chance of surviving.

Of course, that was before the molotov hit the rear engines. Antigrav engines didn't eject fumes or even run on standard fuel, but they were made of very hyperactive materials to conduct the energy needed to defy gravity itself. This was a problem if they got hot enough...

The pilot had to consider his next actions very carefully, and opted to direct the hovercraft to the water near the loading bay before ejecting.

Still no word from the old man, handle that in a bit, stick to the shadows and keep quiet, the suit was capable of scaling walls. He narrowed his eyes as he tracked Derek Powers and Mr. Fixx, the two responsible for everything that went down, and the killing of Warren McGinnis.

"Any sign of that crazy plant person?" Powers asked.

"None sir," Fixx responded. "We're in the clear, for now."

Ace's ears perked up at the sound of the knife, he broke out barking, charging forward, Bruce steeled himself and watched closely. Ace darted past the Cassies and right at Amity.

"Good boy," Bruce muttered, before looking to the intruders once more and barking. "If you're not here to kill me, care to help me handle a worse intruder?"

He gripped onto his cane, a promethium cane, an old gift from his friends on the Justice League. He should have grabbed the hellbat out of storage, but the risk on his heart.

Harley, Hospital — Follow the Leader

Harley stumbled out of the cab, following after Carpenter in a tizzy. She wasn't sure what she was expecting but it wasn't Transylvania! She absently patting herself down for any weapons, but all she had was her stinking laser. It was the last thing she wanted to part with. Bitches loved cannons, but what if Titty Rex came after them again? She needed to defend herself somehow. First chance she got she'd soup herself up. Unless someone asked for it, she wasn't gonna be caught with her pants down.

She pulled a pack of exploding gumballs of her belt, tossing it towards the cabbie. She hoped it was enough, but wouldn't lose sleep over it.

"Catch!"

Heads he caught it, tails she'd have something laugh about. Least it'd be funny.

Cain Adamson—Getaway Cab

Unsurprisingly, Cain caught the pack of exploding gumballs and stuck it in the glove compartment, where it hopefully wouldn't be jostled around or otherwise exposed to negative stimuli that much. He let the carpenter's hammer land in the back seat and put the cash into the cab's lockbox, then did a lazy two-fingered salute at the two women as they fled. He couldn't exactly blame them. Then the cab peeled away from the curb, disappearing behind the next turn much more sedately than it had arrived.

Edited by JumpingFruit on Apr 21st 2024 at 4:47:53 AM

Deleted-Had better ideas.

Edited by Booky on Mar 23rd 2024 at 4:54:39 AM

Waynely State Manor

This new intruder made a bad entrance, breaking down the front door and brandishing a gun into the trio. And smiling? Like that? Oh this girl was bad, that helped settle some of the Nightingale's hesitancy about the old man's request.

"Gladly."

Mask up as she breaks out into a run, soon as it's secure her hands go for her own talon knives. Her eyes are, performatively, wild as she gets in close and tries to tackle the intruder to the floor. Her voice starts coming out of the mask raspy and sing-song... Another performance to try and unnerve the would-be gunman.

"Dooooooes the girl want to bleeeeed? No? Tell me! Teeeeeeell me! Whoooooo sent, whoooooo sent?"

The Nightingale was actually being pretty careful with the knives, not yet trying to injure but keeping them threateningly close. Intimidation was her game right now, and for some reason she thought it would be best to impress.

Cassie || Wayne Manor || Well that escalated quickly

Cassie blinks at Amity's arrival, genuinely confused for a second, even muttering, quietly, "This is obviously a steak," before their brain switched on again, and they understood what was going on. What the fuck had they dropped into? One theft and one murder attempt? Still - no one dies.

Aww, what a good dog - who just stopped a murder attempt. "Don't take orders from you, old man," Cassie replies, but she still reaches into the shadows behind her, in the corner where their body blocks the light - and pulls out a metal baseball bat. It doesn't matter that something in her chafes against anyone having authority over her - they're not going to let a semi-decent old man die. And definitely not his dog.

Ace.

Shut up.

And then the other Cassie is off - acting creepy as fuck which is a weird thought for someone possessed. She stands there for a moment, just watching - again, confused. And they take a breath, and sink into the shadows behind them, vanishing into the wall - only to reappear, seconds later, in a patch of shadow behind Amity, baseball bat in hand. Relying on Amity either being on the ground or not seeing her, Cassie lines up a swing - to collide with the back of Amity's right knee.

Amity-The State of Wayne Manor (crowded)

Dammit-I knew I heard a dog in here. Sloppy.

Then the mutt had grabbed her gun arm and forced it down, bringing her to one knee. Thankfully Amity was wearing her costume under her clothes, so the next two days would involve bruises instead of rabies shots. Her pistol went clattering away across the floor, and a hastily thrown knife just clanged off of Wayne's walking stick instead of hitting his chest.

Her face set in a fighting grin, Amity swiveled and lashed out at the dog with one leg, kicking it away with much of her coat sleeve still in its mouth. As it flew into a corner, whining, she spun to face the masked kid, who was doing some freaky owl-voice that Amity did not care for at all. She ducked and dodged the knives, noting with the back of her mind that the Owlgirl didn't seem to really want to cut her.

With another smooth circle, she intercepted the bat coming at her knee from Teen #2, who had somehow stepped out of nowhere(?). Amity twisted the bat out of the girl's hands, using it to block a few knife swings from her first opponent before throwing it at Owlgirl, and whipped Teen #2 into a nasty drop seoi nage throw that would at the least knock out her breath, if not break some ribs or hopefully a concussion. Amity would come back and stomp on her throat later. Presuming that Teen 2 (mentally dubbed Shade) was out of the fight, Amity turned back to the masked girl, ready for more attacks and freaky voices. Wayne she disregarded entirely, cane or not. What challenge would an old man pose to her?

Ymir: Wayne-Powers Loading Bay (Catwalk)

"Ow..." Ymir groaned after she had effectively had her back forcibly realigned, rolling onto her side and twitching for a moment before shakily forcing herself back up onto her feet. "Okay. Okay! That hurt. I get the picture-"

Oh, that wasn't good. Some chump had climbed up onto the catwalk with a book of matches. Ymir wasn't sure what was in those chemicals, but she didn't want to stick around to find out. Her opponent's back was turned, and she had only a few seconds to act. She could get the hell out of there...

Something primal flashed in Ymir's eyes, and she zipped forward at full speed towards Bane's side at an angle—shoulder-checking her in an attempt to knock her off-balance while she was distracted, before leaping up and away off of the catwalk. She didn't watch to see if Bane would catch herself from tumbling off the catwalk. She doubted her diminished strength would've been enough to knock her down anyway, but the anger had taken over for a moment. Now, all she could do was flee.

She jumped onto the side of the Wayne-Powers building above the catwalk, and then began to very rapidly crawl away towards the corner. She wasn't sure where she was going, but she needed to get out of sight and fast.

It wasn't even clear to her what she'd accomplished that night, but the adrenaline was pumping, and she felt like she'd done something at least.

It just didn't feel like that something was particularly heroic.

Edited by Enirboreh on Mar 22nd 2024 at 3:13:33 PM

Vincent - Office Building

His kick sailing over the scarecrow as he drops down the staircase, The splicer grabs onto the opposite railing to halt his momentum and follows suit, throwing himself down the shaft after his target.

Acting on pure instinct, The hybrid stops himself at the floor on which the grenade rests with his tail grabbing onto the railing above, swing around to make his vertical speed horizontal, ramming into the door feet first and bashing it off its hinges, getting another dose of the fear toxin in the process as he breaks into a sprint.

KILL HIM KILL HIM KILL HIM KILL HIM KILL HIM

Forced into a backseat in his own body, Vincent can only watch in horror while he charges ahead to ram through the window and out into the street, his mind racing as a thousand nightmare scenarios run through his head, imagining the things he would uncontrollably do out in the open.

There was a crackle of static, before over communications, a message would be relayed to Deathstroke.

"Asset has entered the building, move to intercept, sensors show signs of moving to lower labs. Contain ASAP."'

Frostbite - The Streets

Seeing Scarecrow escape, Frostbite flies after him. But she stops when she notices Vincent running through the streets, not exactly looking like he's in control of himself and potentially about to crash into a civilian with dangerous amounts of force. Reluctantly, she decides that it's probably too dangerous to let him run loose amongst the general populace, and stops pursuing Scarecrow. She swoops down towards Vincent, trying to restrain him.

"You really need to check yourself before you wreck someone else. I don't want to have to explain to the cops why the streets are full of spaghetti."

Scarecrow - The streets

Scarecrow glanced behind him and saw Frostbite fly towards Vincent. Satisfied with the distraction, he turned a corner, keeping the Splicers from being able to see him. Now, he should be home free to get to a safe location to recover and deliver his three remaining biotoxin canisters to Powers.

Unfortunately, the damage done to his jetpack meant that flying all the way there wouldn't be an option. He wasn't going to be able to fly fast enough or high enough to avoid getting spotted, and even if Powers had a good portion of the city's security forces in his pocket, enough of the police weren't that Scarecrow wasn't about to take the chance of getting caught. He'd a less conspicuous mode of transport to reach his destination...

—-

A random Gotham citizen was driving through the city; his late-night shift had just ended, and he was eager to get home and rest. Suddenly, however, he heard a loud "thump!" on the roof of his car, and the vehicle shuddered from the impact. As he took he eased up on the gas, he noticed a green light was being reflected by his side mirror. But when he looked to see what it was his eyes went wide at the sight; a glowing green scythe blade. And whatever was holding it was on the roof of his car.

The car screeched to a halt, and the driver was rushing out as fast as he could remove his seatbelt and open the door. But he'd barely made it a few feet away when someone landed before him; a man dressed in a brown flight suit and a dark metal bird mask and wings... and holding the scythe he'd just seen, as well as a canister.

"Wha...what do you want?" the man stammered, backing away in fear.

"Oh, I just want the car," the winged figure said, his voice sounding slightly unnatural thanks to his mask. "I'd tell you not to be worried..." the citizen stumbled and began crawling backwards as the figure pulled out an orange device, which was slowly releasing a green gas that surrounded them both. "...but I know you won't listen."

The citizen started to feel funny as everything seemed to start rippling, and then he saw a spider crawling on his arm. He screamed and swatted it away, but then another spider appeared. And then another. And another. And before he knew it, spiders were swarming all over the man, and it seemed like no matter how many he swatted off, it made no difference.

"GET THEM OFF ME!!! GET THEM OFF ME!!!" the man screamed as he rolled on the ground trying to get away from the spiders. But he was so consumed by fear that he failed to notice Scarecrow bending down and going through his pockets until he pulled out his car's key fob. Then the costumed thief walked away from the man trying to get the non-existent spiders off his body, detached and slung his wing pack into the back seat of the car, then sat down, closed the door, and drove away, satisfied that the condition of the car's owner and anyone else who breathed in the fear gas would be enough of a distraction to reduce the number of people reporting on the car theft. Now he'd attract far less suspicion as he made his way to his destination: Gotham Harbor.

Carpenter, Hospital

Once the cab that had gotten them to the hospital vanished from sight, the adrenaline faded and Jasmine let out a gasp of air before hugging herself.

"I thought I was gonna lose my soul or something in there. Stick a guy in there, that'll cure any delusions that they're the baddest ass on the block." She said, then looked Harley over before speaking up again. "You feeling alright? You took a pretty bad fall during that scrap, you need to see a doctor?"