|
![]() ![]() |
It is a rather stormy evening that has sent most everyone into their hidey holes or homes. In the back of a Chinese restaurant, a group of what appear to be cooks stand around outside the back entrance, when another group approaches on their motorcycles. getting off of their bikes as they approach the other group. As they do, one of the motorcycle riders takes off her helmet and reaches to take out a pouch from one of the bikes.
"We're here." she says in accented Chinese, before moving towards the entrance, even as a couple of her guard take position.
"Tell your boss that we've upheld our end of the bargain, it's his turn to do so." she comments, a frown crossing her features.
On a nearby building, the lightning temporarily silhouettes a figure of black and red watches over the alley. Nightwing is not going to move on the attack yet - instead, he's watching to see when the boss comes out. This is a deal he's only recently heard about.
Harper has been scarce lately. She's always been somewhat scarce, taking jobs carefully, disappearing after the job is finished, no one certain if they ever really saw her face. But lately, things have changed.
The Irish and Italian mobs have a new and unusual focus, hunting down supernatural items and materials and looking for the girl who calls herself Lux. There's a hell of a price on her head. Thus far, Chinatown has been relatively safe - the Chinese don't much care for the religious reasons the Italian and the Irish cite, and they protect their territory just as fiercely. But that doesn't mean Harper is going to rely on that.
A roof or two over from where Nightwing watches, Harper crouches at the edge of the roof, invisible. Or at least she would be, if it weren't for the rain. No one can see her…but that rain does move oddly around the blank space where she is.
Nightwing may have not quite noticed the figure silhouetted in the rain, or maybe he has, but has not said anything yet. After all, his focus is still down on the meeting below.
Coming out of the restaurant is a heavy set figure, old and feebled as he approaches. "Let me see it." he says in a wheezing voice.
The woman holds out the bag. "Here, prove that it is what you claimed. And then I will ask for my price."
Reaching into the bag, the man pulls out a pair of gauntlets. Slipping them on, they form fit around his hands and grabs the man closest to him. The man screams as the old man's feeble and heavy body trembles for a moment and then falls to the ground. When the man he grabbed speaks, it's in the old man's voice. ".. the gauntlets of soul transferrence." he says, reaching to take the gloves off the body he just left. "It is your day for bad luck." he says, before glancing to the woman. "Your price will be paid."
With that, he snaps his fingers, gesturing inside the restaurant where a man comes out carrying a case. Probably money.
Hidden in the rain, Harper's brows rise at the exchange. Apparently the Chinese have their own magic they're playing with. That's…a matter of some concern, since she's recently discovered that magic users can sometimes tell when she's using her powers. Sinking lower along the roofline, she lets the invisibility drop, trusting that a mundanely-hidden human will be less noticeable than magic if there's someone down there that can see it.
The woman reaches for the case, but when she opens it, her eyes wide. "What is this?" she demands at the empty case.
"A double-cross, my dear," the man says, reaching for his sidearm. As other start to draw their weapons, that would be Nightwing's cue to enter.
A wing-ding flies down from the rooftops, striking the man's weapon, knocking it out of his hand as he leaps from the side of the building, the black suited figure rappelling from the side to the side, as he bounces down and slams feet first into one of the other heavies.
"Sorry guys, but you should at least buy a lady dinner first before you try to kill her." he comments, drawing his batons as the old man calls out. "I will pay double to whoever brings him to me!"
Because that's a nice body to take over, right?
Harper curses quietly as one of the costumed types dives into the fray. Normally, she'd leave this alone. It's two not exactly good people, and they're some of the only people who are hiring and not hunting her right now. But right now, that means leaving someone who's actually a good person to their whims. And she can't quite bring herself to do that.
She draws a cloak of shadows around herself, leaping over the edge of the roof and using a fire escape to slide down into the fight as a figure made of darkness with glowing eyes. "Or you could simply take your ill-gotten gains and call it a night," she suggests, balls of light starting to form in her hands.
"Two of them?!" one of them calls out as one of the tugs turns to fire a wild burst in Harper's direction.
Another one, this one on the woman's gang snarls. "I recognize the male, he's with the Bat!" That causes a brief surge of fear amongst some of the gangsters.
The man with the gauntlets? He's bailing. Pushing one of the bikers off his motorcycle, he's trying to get on it to ride away.
"Didn't know someone else was working this street." Nightwing offers dryly as he swings down his baton, knocking away one of the weapons as he ducks away from from the wild swing of another brawler. "Next time post a sign or something."
"I wasn't working the street," Harper drawls, a Louisiana twang in the words when she's not speaking Mandarin. "I was making sure these fellows weren't getting friendly with the Irish or the Italians. But-" She pauses, catching a blow from one of the gangsters on er forearm before ducking low with a sweep of her leg to bring him down.
"But I don't like the idea of letting someone take these on alone, so." One of the light globes flies from her hand toward another gangster, lengthening into a dragon that spews what looks like flame from an open maw.
"Appreciate the hand." Nightwing responds. Unlike his more famous mentor, he's not afraid to accept help as he watches Harper's moves for a moment before hearing the roar of motorcycle. He has to step back from the dragon that suddenly shows up in the alleyway. "Alright, friend of Zatanna's?" he asks casually before he flicks a wing-ding towards one of the remaining gangsters, taking him down.
The motorcycle roars towards the pair, force Nightwing to leap over it and he grabs a hold of an overhead laundry line to swing himself up and away as he frowns. "Mind doing something about that?" he asks Harper without as much as a pretty please.
"It's complicated," is Harper's grim answer in regards to the dragon, taking a running start at one of the gangsters and engaging in a quick exchange of blows. Her style is polished and professional, the moves clearly resulting from a great deal of training. For a moment, it looks like she's not going to do anything about the motorcycle…until it looks as though a black hole of a void opens up in front of it, like a portal into hell.
Watching Harper for a moment, Nightwing is about to say something else, when that portal opens up and it looks very much like a one way trip.
The man on the motorcycle screams, seemingly about to fall to his doom as he releases his hands from the handlebars.
Nightwing's domino mask covered eyes raise in worry and he snaps the laundry line he used earlier, swinging down to snag the man off the bike before the cycle can disappear into the portal and slams him with his shoulder against the wall, knocking the breath out of the final gangster and bringing him down.
"…sending people to hell? Not cool. You know. Trial first?"
Somehow, the shadowed features manage to convey a smirk as Harper cracks her victim's head against the sidewalk, knocking him out. "You're right, that would be unfair. Especially since it's apparently under new management or something at the moment." She flicks her fingers, opening what looks like another smaller portal that rushes at his hand…and right through it. "Good thing it's not real, huh?"
"Another trickster?" Nightwing asks with a lift of his brow and a smirk as he pulls out some ties to start fastening on the gang-banger's hands. That is until the illusion rushes at him, and then dissipates.
"You know, a girl shouldn't give away all of her secrets on a first meeting." he says with a small smirk as he finishes his work and considers the gauntlets. "If you're a spell-caster, I'm sure you have some idea of how to get rid of these things?"
"Like I said, it's complicated." Harper doesn't seem to have much in the way of restraints, though it's hard to tell through the shadows that veil her. "And I've honestly got no idea, but I do know who to call. Apparently there's a…" She waves a hand, shaking her head. "Head wizard. Other than the KKK guys. Although, to be fair, I didn't ask if he was also in the KKK, but he didn't seem like the type."
"Yeah. Not the type of wizard that you probably want to hand these too. Alright, I know someone that can figure out what to do with them. But to be on the safe side." Nightwing takes one of the gloves and tosses it over towards Harper. "They only seem to work as a pair, so if you take one, and I take one, and we both get rid of ours, it takes care of the issue, right?" he asks logically as he tucks the left glove he has into his belt. "Name's Nightwing. And you are?"
Harper catches the glove, though she holds it gingerly. Definitely not familiar with magic, even if it seems like she's doing it. Or at least she doesn't much trust it. "Lux," she introduces herself, taking another look at the fallen gangsters. Not a particularly well-known name, but one there's recently been some chatter about, especially in the Irish and Italian circles. Formerly for hire, and now hunted. "What brought you out to this part of town tonight?"
"Heard there was a meeting of the Sio Sam Ong and Wah Kee gangs. Figured I'd take a peek and see what was so important that they'd be meeting. Guess I know. But with them getting into the whole magical artifact business.." Nightwing trails off, as the former bodyguard turned to old fat man groans in agony. "Someone's probably called the police by now, but he's probably going to need an ambulance. What brings you out on this dark and stormy night?"
"Making sure the Irish and Italians hadn't made inroads on these guys," Harper admits, nudging one with her toe. "Ten minutes ago, these ones were more or less not my enemies," she muses glumly. "Suppose that's up. Although they went down quick, maybe they won't add up two and two." She turns her attention back to the other vigilante, head tilting slightly. "You're not a magic-user, or you would have kept these things yourself. And you didn't show any powers either."
By the time she turns away and then back towards where he was, Nightwing is already on the rooftop. "A guy's got to keep some secrets." he says down towards Lux and grins slightly. Tipping two fingers against his head, he takes the girl's information to heart before he's off across the rooftop, taking his glove to probably a mage contact he knows - or to put in his trophy case. Cause he's not completely co-opting Bruce's thing with the cave.
He hasn't found a giant T-rex yet, after all.