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On their mission to the warehouse on the docks, the Defenders got what they needed in order to track down the Rat King in his lair. They've been flying by the seat of their pants for the most part, but this time the team, such as it is, is getting together after hours at The Cigar Factory to actually formulate some sort of a plan of attack. Danny had reached out to those that had been with them on previous adventures, and those he knew would be interested, and invited them all to come together for the first time as an intentional group effort.
And so it's Danny who, with arrangements made with Luke, stands at the front door and opens it up to allow everyone to come in and pull up a chair at a long table fashioned from stringing a couple af the back of the room together. There's beer, there's some sandwiches, snacks, and some papers and maps on the table.
Kai says, "Danny!" says Kai as he walks through the door, clapping the man on the shoulder companionably. He gravitates toward the beer. Helping himself to beer and a sandwich, he finds a comfy place to settle in. "Man, New Year's, right? That was a wild time.""
Reno promised Gidget now that she knows about *things* and he seen what she can do, was certain she just needed to know she could bmake a difference or at least what Robbie was up to. As it was Shiny Fist and Shiny Elf were also here so there were familiar faces. At least Reno didn't introduce hem by those names or he'd have to go sit on the pouty perch in teh corner next to Strong Guy for handing out terrible names. Le sigh. Still Reno brought hte tiny terrifying woman. Stepping in he formally said, "Kai, Danny, GIdget. From New Years. She like know about me an' my cousin too so… it's cool. She wants to help an' like honestly I think we can use it." He looked to Kai and siad "Well… the ball /did/ finally drop. We never promised how I guess. So… Danny we get a good look at that information we made Robbie not set on fire?"
Gidget had gotten dragged along to say the least. Once she was there, she wold just stand there quietly with him. Dressed in some wide leg cream pants and cream blouse, she'd slowly pull off the scarf and sunglasses on her head. Giving a wave she would smile. "….hi…." Leaving it at that she would look around a bit. It had been a while since she had been here."
Danny grins a little at Kai and says, "Yeah, that was.. a thing." He chuckles and then says, "Make yourself at home." He then turns around to see Reno and Gidget, nodding his head to the bird and his companion, "We're acquainted." He smiles to the purveyor of fine suits. He reaches out and clasps Reno's shoulder for a moment. "One thing at a time. First, go eat." He gestures the bird toward the food. "Evening, Gidget. Please, come in, make yourself comfortable. We may have others joining us in a bit, but for now it's just us."
Kai raises his beer to Gidget and Reno. "Hello, friends!" he says, his English accent bright and chipper. "Dragonslayers, it's good to see you again." He munches on his sandwich, sprawled like he owns the place. Danny did say to make oneself comfortable. "Are we going to wait for them to talk or dive right in?" he asks.
Reno looked up to Danny with those dark brown eyes and all the worried earnestness of a child wondering if santa might be okay in the rainy conditions. Sometimes a guy needed assurance from someone who had confidence. Really that's all it took to rally the bird in this case because the word 'food' was magical in and of itself. "Oooooh wings. Man I always feel torn eating chicken like i'm a canibal or somethin and then it's like, eeeh we're scavengers. Can't over think these things with that much barbecue sauce waiting to be used on somethin. Kai, man, am really glad to see you were serious about gettin involved."
Gidget would smile as she nodded then. Moving over, she'd have a seat and start to relax. Putting her things in her handbag she would chuckle a bit. "Sounds good. Thanks for letting me tag along…." She'd lean back a bit before sighing. "And….I'm sure Robbie might be shocked to see me here if he comes…." She'd blink but then decided to get herself a drink then. Why not!
"No, we're going to dive right in," Danny says to Kai once everyone is settled. He takes up his own seat and grins over at Reno with a slight shake of his head before he looks over to Gidget and says, "You and Robbie, huh?" He grins. Then he says, "Alright so… as you all know, we've been fighting this gang called the Razor Rats. They've absorbed what was left of Hill's Boys and we did some damage at their warehouse not too long ago and got some info on their King Rat. Everyone's been doing some research on that and we know where his headquarters are set up. Thing is, I don't think we can do our usual everyone-barrell-in thing that we usually do, that maybe a little planning is in order this time."
"What's keeping us from barrelling in?" Kai asks between swallows of beer. "Don't get me wrong, I'm all for stealth and sneaking. I'm just not up on the info, man. Gotta get the lay of the land before making the plan." Filthy beatnik. "Tell me what you need and I'll do what I can to provide."
Reno says, "Uhhh people getting hurt, getting out, oooh! Roof collapse!" He remembered that one from two fights ago. Around the chicken he mumbled, "People gtting away, general being outnumbered. Oh and the fact that like, not everyone's a fighter sooooo I think it helps balance that out by jsut bein smarter than the other dudes. Also did I meantion there's like lots of em?"
Gidget would blush slightly as she cleared her throat. "Oh….yeah…." She'd look to Reno with a smile then sighed as she looked at them all. Oh man….what did she walk in on…..? Raising her brow she would just listen…..and see what's going on.
"Well, nothing, really. We could barrell in but we don't have a lot of intel on this .. bunker." Danny then spreads the map out at the end of the table without food on it. "So, it looks like they took over an old bunker in what was once an old bank. We tried to get detailed plans on it but it seems there are multiple different plans registered, making it difficult to know exactly what the inside configuration is. We also don't know exactly what kind of defenses they have set up inside. What I am hoping for, is maybe a two pronged attack, maybe even three, with one set to be pure distraction. Unless we have anyone who is good at subterfuge or has some way to see what's inside. My face is known, and honestly, surveillance and scouting isn't my skillset." He glances over toward Gidget, catching that look. He says to her, "So, we've been working with the Devil of Hell's kitchen, and we're basically.. defending Hell's Kitchen, Harlem, trying to help clean things up, when other's can't or don't.. we're uh.. Defenders, I guess."
Kai nods to Reno and says, "Those are all really good reasons." He flashes Gidget a warm smile in an attempt to comfort her; whatever she's walked into, she's not alone in it. To Danny, he says, "I'm quick. I can cloak myself in darkness and cast illusions. Minor ones but they can cause one to turn his head. I've snuck into places before to get pictures." He idly waves his fingers and tendrils of darkness arise from them. He twines them around his fingers as theyd rift like planes of mist. Then he dispels them with a flick of his wrist. "I like that," he says, "Defenders."
Reno went ede-eyed impressed, "Wooooooah, Danny you got legit city hall plans and everything?" He blinked and looked to GIdget, "It feels all sorts of official don't it." He considered this and really wasn't a fighter and he wasn't a volunteer. "Ommm if we got time maybe I can fly around the buildin a few times, poke at worms or somethin, see if we can't narrow it down lookin i the wonds or somethin?" He listened to Kai and Danny. He looked to Gidget and licked his fingers off beofre giving her shoulder a squeeze, "Gidget, you're like the bravest woman I know.> I mean there's scary as hell ones, and that really crabby lady withthe baby who used to be datin- you know what… point is yous the brave one. " Looking up to Danny and Kai and said "These people in these neighbourhood dont have a lot, don't make a lot and need help. They need defendin well… I say we do this. Let's do taht also that Devil dude? He scarry as hell but he's a sweetheart. I tink we should get some food to him or something. Soul food, enchaladas. Somethin fillin. He's been under some stress."
Gidget looked to Danny and nodded as she smiled. "Defenders huh? I like that….it's a nice name for you guys…" A tilt of her head as he looked to Reno then and raised her brow. "….a crabby lady with a bag who used to date…..who now?" She'd look away from him slowly and nodded. "As for brave….I wouldn't say that. Just…helping….how I can't." She'd nibble her bottom lip for a moment before nodded. "As for…looking in….I'm sure if you did enough recon you can see…"
Danny glances from Gidget over to Reno and then back again for a moment before he nods and says, "Reno, if you want to take a fly by around this address and see what you can see, anything in the windows, any roof access that might be available, anything.. of note, that might help figure out where we want our distraction and where we want our entry point to be." He then nods to Kai and says "If you can do any recon inside and find out which set of plans we're working with, or anything really about their defenses or numbers inside, that'd be helpful."
Kai nods to Danny, curls bobbing. "You got it, Danny," he says. "I'll get in, get some pictures, and get out again." He just so happens to have a camera and some experience with PI work 'because it sounded cool at the time.' "I'll go at night, cover of darkness. I can put the lights out. I can see in the dark." So eager to share, so eager to help. To Reno, he says, "The Devil of Hell's Kitchen is great. He's a good guy."
Reno was always quick to answer those kinds of questions! ""That crabby lady who used to date the guy who runs the bodega jsut off Hurst street there?" GIdget spoke local telle novella that was the drama in the neighbourhood. He offered to Gidget "You hadled that dragon and them angry lil union dudes real well." Oh those dwarves. THe bird nodded to Kai, "I'll go with you." It was said so casually for the guy literally afraid of his own shadow. "You can use a look out, I'm good in teh dark and no one pays attention to birds man. Ask any lady on the block, like none of them know me."
Gidget would look at them and just nodded. "I mean…." Pausing she'd look to Reno and laughed before looking to the others. "If you want to just go in guns blazing….I'm sure I can cause a distraction….." Looking back to Reno she would nod. "That was all group efforts….I assure you of that."
"Well, no," Danny says to Gidget, "That's sort of the point of the recon and of having this meeting, to try doing this without the guns blazing and no plan. Not that doing so hasn't worked for us before, but.." He glances to the others, and then he reaches for a sandwich of his own, grabbing a beer and leaning back in his own seat. "I just want to know what we're getting into, here. The warehouse showed us that even all together, when faced with overwhelming numbers, it might be better to have a plan."
"We might yet get to go in guns blazing," Kai says, "once we figure out where we're going in, how many to expect, and all that stuff. We'd need the distraction, regardless. He leans over to high-five Reno when he says he's coming with him. "Hell, we could use a distraction when we go in for recon. Another pair of eyes on the street, that sort of thing."
Reno took a deep breath and knew Gidget would not want to hear this but said, "YEaaaaaah Wasn't too happy when the Rider almost killed that dude. But he didn't1 I mean that's progress but if we have a plan maybe we don't stop to have internal arguments while like, there's guys in funky suits tryin to beat on us." He held his hands out not certain what Kai was doing with them yet as the 'high five' wasn't in the repoitoire of handshakes beloning to any of the various groups he locally fraternized with. Hey that's an easy one. He can get behind that.
Gidget would nod then as she smile before she heard that part about Robbie and winced. Sighing softly she would look to Kai and then nodded. "I can make a distraction….it'd be easy. If you guys want the help that is….." She had been acquired her drink by now and finally took a drink. "….I'm not going to just assume. But….if you want a distraction…that I can do."
Danny nods his head to Gidget and says, "Okay, we will put you down for distraction once we have the information back from Kai and Reno on what they can find out on their recon." With that said, Danny says, "I think that's as far as we're going to get tonight until we have some more information. So.. everybody enjoy the food, drink.. " He then looks over toward Gidget and Kai and says, "We can use all the help we can get."
Kai tells Danny amiably, "I've been looking out for Hell's Kitchen for awhile now. It's good to be part of a team that's doing so. You know, another thing I do is check in on some of the poor folks who can't get food easily or medication. Sometimes people hear things. It might be worth asking around." He gets up and grabs another sandwich. Mmm.
Reno really thought about it and bit his lip looking worried "Yeah I got some contacts that might know em. I know a few… not so nice dudes." He was not proud of this. There was a hiccup with that part of the plan though, "Problem is when you come up from these streets Kai and you're part of a group like that? There's this phrase, 'snitches get stitches' so they might be more likely to tell them about us than us about them. We just gotta be careful." He pushed up his sleeve and showed a tattoo inside his arm to Kai which liekly meant nothing to anyone present but it was, by it's nature, some mark of affiliation to something.
Danny nods his head to Kai and says, "I figure we've all been doing things separately to help out — why not work together? We're stronger together than we are on our own. That way we can combine all our specialties, use all our strengths to achieve the same goal — trying to help out the folks in these neighborhoods."