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Another night in Manhattan where those who prey on the weak go unpunished. Or so it would be, but Dwayne Taylor isn't having it. Outside of his own neighbourhood tonight, the armoured figure who calls himself Night Thrasher rides down a side-street in the shadows on his skateboard, until he hears the familiar sounds of innocent civilians being threatened. A mugging; seems to be his heroic bread and butter. A hard pivot on the board veers Thrasher in the direction of the crime; little more than a lone man cornering a woman in an alley, but Dwayne won't know that until he gets there, which should be any second now…
Manhattan is certainly a beautiful sight to see at this hour, especially when viewed from the relative secrecy of rooftops. Spider-Girl is on patrol, largely because she can't sleep. Spring break is here, and the sudden respite from class has her feeling decidedly antsy. No better way to quell these feelings than to go on the hunt for neerdowells.
The mugging is happening not far from her. Perking up at the commotion, she rushes toward the edge of a rooftop, and with a silent *thwip!* in the night, gets to swinging between buildings.
"You know". A voice echoes out bounding from one wall to the next, distorted and deep like the voice of Satan himself made manifest. It's deep gravely and inhuman echoing with a boom. "This city doesn't take kindly to your type." A light pause, the voice coming from a different angle. "If I were you I would run."
Out from the shadows of the alleyway steps a figure cloaked in darkness his long flowing cape covering his form eyes glowing slowly but steadily in the dark. He looks more demon then man the result of mans worst nightmares made flesh. He tilts his head slightly to the side turning his whole body instead of just his head to look towards the source of the oncoming heroes before looking back to the mugger.
"Do you think they'll come in time to save you from me?" Asked with a low smile of pure pearly white teeth beneath the cowl. He moves further forward motions slow and deliberate as he walks further from the shadows cape still covering his shape.
The mugger was closing in on the woman, a knife in his hand, muttering threats, but he stops in his tracks when the voice comes from the the shadows. He might have been about to try to fight, when he realizes who he's been confronted with. Instead, he grabs the woman, and puts the knife to her throat, holding her tightly against him. the woman screams, but it's muffled against the mugger's arm. You know, standard hostage-taking procedure. "Get lost, freak, or her blood's on your hands," he threatens, pressing the knife harder.
Seems today is really a bad day for a mugging, because another figure cloaked and hooded is approaching in on the action. Most people would run away from a mugging, or at least keep their distance, and that stranger is just heading at a lesuirely pace towards the mugger. That on top of the incoming Spider-Girl and another cloaked figure, coalescing with the darkness and bearing the voice of a demon. Looks like a bad choice.
With little more than a soft sound, Spider-Girl alights on the rooftop just above the mugging. Before she can act, however, the booming voice of Batman echoes through the darkness. Quietly, the masked vigilante creeps up to the roof's edge and peers down to see what's happening below, a weird twist to her mouth that is exposed below the mask. "Que demonios…" she whispers to herself.
Beneath the mask, eyes narrow when the mugger takes his hostage. All it takes is a motion of her arm and a squeeze of her fingers.
From above, something comes whizzing through the air. It strikes the mugger's knife wielding hand; a line of impossibly adhesive webbing. Then, with a yank, Spider-Girl pulls her hand back, hoping the knife comes with the webline.
The motions are soft, and fluid like a dancer moving from one position to the next as Batman strikes. The knife is pulled from the muggers hand and then the next moment Batman connects with the clutched palm, turning around to the left side of the woman and taking the muggers hand with him. The arm is bent back behind his back with the first fluid motion of the deadly dance.
Next the free hand goes between the muggers face and the back of the womans head with Batman now behind him. Using his own leg as a fulcrum he pivots the man on the spot tearing him away from the woman and twisting the rest of the way to take him down to the ground. His arm goes against one of Batman's knees a loud crack echoing out, the other arm slams behind his back, and all in one fluid motion the muggers hands are behind his back, with the shadowy figure slowly coming back to a stand, his cape opening like wings to reveal the well toned body beneath.
As he spins on the spot he speaks again, this time his voice more friendly respectable. "Thanks for the assist." His posture shifting once the danger is gone to a more comfortable stance. "Got a name?"
As the situation turns to go quickly under control, the cloaked figure hesitates, but then approaches further. "Someone is still doing good work," she remarks at the familiar figure of Batman, whoh may or may not recognize the voice. Her far flashier costume is hidden underneath her rugged beige cloak.
When her webbing strikes the wall instead, Anya huffs. Before she can make some smart remark, though, she ends up watching as the Batman dispatches the mugger in a manner she can only describe as artful. "Wow…"
Time for a descent. Leaping from the rooftop, she grasps hold of the opposing wall with her fingers and toes, then springs to the opposite wall without much of a sound. Moments later she's on the alley floor, the agility with which she moves beyond that of any normal person. "Yeah," she answers. "Spider-Girl." She looks from Batman to the cloaked figure, before rushing over toward the woman who was being mugged. "Hey, hey. You okay?"
"There's still plenty of time for me to slow down after I'm dead." Spoken in complete deadpan before the smirk finally cracks across his face. "Wonder Woman." Spoken as he shifts his attention moving his whole body in the process to look over towards Spider-Girl. It's a wonder that he can actually be so smooth and graceful in a suit that doesn't actually allow him to turn his head more then a few small degrees in any direction. "Well Spider-Girl, you did excellent work, keep it up and you'll keep these city streets safe." Not an ounce of insincerity in his voice as he compliments her work. "It's a job too big for any one man to do alone."
The woman seems a bit terrified of the ordeal, but surprisingly enough not as afraid of the caped crusader as she had been a moment prior. There was a fear but once the demeanor changed on a dime it seems to have flowed away somewhat now she's simply in a bit of shock over the fact she was almost mugged. "Th-thank you." She pauses. "All of you." She looks down towards her hands barely able to move just saying "If you hadn't come…."
"It's nice to be remembered," Diana says to Batman, before lowering her hood, allowing a glimpse of the unlikely tiara she is wearing. "You've kept your skills in tact, and I dare say improved upon them, I'd expect no less from a true warrior." She does, however, for a brief moment looks a little uncertain about that cowl. Clearly not a fan of limited head mobility.
With Batman congratulating Spider-Girl, Wonder Woman turns to look her way, "I haven't heard of you before, a pleasure to meet you, Spider-Girl, good work." She doesn't quite introduce herself, as Batman already took care of that for her.
Diana can't help but stammer a "for any one," at Batman, then again, she's not fully versed on how women are seen in Man's World, though she has some idea. She'd probably be much more appaled if she had a bigger scope of understanding.
"Gracias, persona murcielago." Spider-Girl answers the man almost on instinct, for she's focused on the victim. "But we did come." She reaches down to take the woman's hands in her own. "And don't let anyone chastise you for being here, in this part of town, or… or whatever. Okay? Don't let anyone make you feel like a victim." She briefly casts a look over to Batman and Diana, before looking back to the woman. "Next time," she whispers, "kick the gilipollas in the nuts, okay?"
Once satisfied that the woman is alright, Anya sighs deeply before turning back to face the other two. She reaches up to tug at the back of her mask for a moment, before planting one hand on her hip and studying both. "Okay, so, you're Batman. I've heard of you. And you're… Wonder Woman?" She grins wryly and says, "Groovy name."
"Any day not spent improving is a day spent getting worse." Batman pauses for a moment, his cape now fully back into place to hide the bright orange logo on his chest of a bat. "In this line of work you can't afford a slip-up," Speaking in a calm and collected manner with a great deal of control over himself. The next bit he more speaks for Spider-Girl's benefit. "because it only takes one mistake to go from hero to chalk outline."
Then the comment of Diana causes him to quirk an eyebrow under his mask. "I don't exactly see why the distinction needs to be made." Most of his body is perfectly hidden underneath the cape. "It's a turn of phrase, you know mankind, manpower, a catchall."
"De nada." Is his only response to her in an almost perfect Spanish like that of a man born in northern Mexico. He watches the woman as she starts to walk away, pulling out her lipstick in order to fix up her makeup. He's honestly just glad they managed to get there before something terrible happened to her. There's a soft spot in his heart for helping those who may not be trained to defend themselves. His expression is somewhat soft.
That's when she makes one mistake that proves exactly why Batman's cowl is the way it is. As she walks past the caped crusader she depresses the bottom of the lipstick case and suddenly lashes out to one side with all the speed and finesse of a trained assassin going right for the jugular. She says one solitary phrase in the motion, speaking in a mostly dead language. "Mortem ad equites!" It comes as a shock to everyone, including batman, but what comes as a shock to the assassin is when the blade doesn't manage to even put a scratch on what at a glance looked to be rubber. The blade just doesn't sink in, and instead catches. She's left in stunned silence for a moment.
"I wasn't familiar with that phrase, any particular reason it doesn't happen to be womankind, womanpower as a catchall…?" It's a silly bit of musing, but Diana does seem to think this marks quite a distinction on how Man's World views the natural order of things when it comes to gender. There's much to show and teach. It was a good thing she decided to return when there isn't a great war all around for once.
"And you might want to tone down your language a bit, Spider-Girl," Diana offers to the other woman, "how we speak is how we present ourselves."
Then the wouldbe assassin makes the mistake of picking Batman as her target, then again, in this crowd there wasn't really a good choice. «Now that wasn't very clever, was it?» She admonishes in perfect Spanish, albeit hers is more akin to Madrid accent.
"It's because this is a patriarchal society," Spider-Girl answers for Diana's benefit, and one might practically hear the eyes rolling behind her mask. "God made woman from man's rib. God is a He. And so on and so forth. What, did you grow up somewhere where women weren't treated as nothing more than little baby-makers?"
Diana's second remark prompts Anya's head to pull back in surprise. She opens her mouth, but before she can say anything in response, the would be victim turns on the cowled Batman.
"Hey!" Spider-Girl flings both hands forward, fingers making an odd shape. Strands of webbing shoot from each wrist, and with a tug, the webs wrap around the assassin's legs in an unforgiving manner. «No it wasn't,» she answers Diana in her own Spanish.
To be fair Batman has zero idea what either of them are talking about. It's all confusing, patriarchal society? On their own he might know what the words mean but put together they just sound like gibberish. Putting the words out of his mind all together and moving on his mind drifts back to the moment.
This moment has a blade caught in the neck of his cowl. He turns on the spot, taking a quick moment to artfully disarm the assassin. It only takes one motion to make it happen thanks to the quick thinking of the Spider-Girl. The blade gets knocked down to his open hand allowing him to calmly flick it back shut. "Eventually people are going to learn there's a limit to my patience." His body language shifting as he recognizes she's no innocent turning much more intimidating then it had been just a moment prior. "We're going to have a nice long conversation about what happens when you try to murder someone in this town, and exactly who hired you for this little suicide mission."
He cracks his knuckles, and she's right back at it again. It's one last ditch effort to kill her target who is right within her grasp, a quick tap on the side of her leg fires off a lone bullet right into Batman's torso ripping a scorched bullet hole in the side of her fairly respectable dress. Except the pistol bullet bounds right off his midsection, impacting then falling to the ground causing his eyes to drift down towards the ground where the bullet landed. "Strike two."
"A partiarchal society…" Diana muses, it would be somewhat hypocritical of her to suggest it's a bad thing for one gender or other to rule entirely, given the place she's from, but to her people's defense, there aren't really men around. It wasn't until a certain pilot crashed on their island that she'd even seen one. She laughs as Anya explains how things are, "really? What makes people so sure that God is a He? And from a man's rib…?" Diana does roll her eyes, and that says something, for someone from her family. "Where I'm from? No…not really, you could say women have all the opportunities to be all they can be where I come from." But she doesn't explain further than that.
She turns to look at Batman handling his assailant quite expertly, and notes «I would just stay down, and give up, you don't want him to hurt you…if you're also severely outnumbered. I'd say surrender is a good choice given the circumstance,» Diana offers her sagely advice to the attacker about to become a victim.
"Translation of ancient text," Spider-Girl tells Diana. "By men. Kings, specifically. It…" She waves her hands around in a dramatic manner, but while doing so, another webline flies out and captures the assassin's right hand. "Really, on Tuesday-" She yanks her hand back in the same dramatic way, and the webline is flung to stick against the alley wall. "-there's this place-" Another line zips out and grabs the woman's left hand. "-that has tacos for a nickel-" She yanks, only this time she holds the webline, pretending she's unaware of it in her hand. "Great place to explain everything." At the last word, she throws her hands upward, and the webline is thrown up to attach to the other wall. "Oops!! I am so sorry, lady! But really I'm… not sorry." She grins then. "Sorry, Bat guy, but I don't like to take chances. Think she's got a knife in her mouth? I could shut that up, too."
"At this point I wouldn't be surprised." Batman finally says after a long moments silent examination. It's clear that he thinks this is getting old very quickly. "I have to say, this isn't the… most competently executed of assassinations I've ever seen." He looks away from her. "I'm going to have a few words with our friend here, then drop her off at the NYPD, you two feel free to go on without me."
There's a quiet crack. It's an unfamiliar sound. Then without warning the woman begins foaming at the mouth just smiling as she says the words "Hail…. Hydra" Batman moves forward suddenly very concerned. "No you don't." Trying to do something to help. "Dammit." He says looking around his utility belt for some kind of neutralizer. "Do either of you have a chemical compound capable of neutralizing the effects of Cyanide? I used my last dose on the way over."
"It was good to see you again, Batman," Diana offers the man with a nod of her head, clearly she wasn't needed in the end, and this wasn't quite the time and place to reminisce. "I'll be seeing you around." She pulls the hood back over her head, enough to hide her tiara, "I'm afraid I don't carry chemicals on my person." She looks quizzically at Anya.
Spider-Girl gives Diana a very curious look, and allows the look to linger a hair beyond what would be considered socially acceptable. The unfamiliar crack brings her attention back to the assassin, and with a startled gasp, she rushed over. "Ummmm… bleach, I think, might do it but, oh does it look like I carry bleach?" Skin tight costume. Maybe she needs some pouches. She chews on her lip for a moment, but soon realizes that there's little that can be done.
She turns away, not wanting to watch the woman die. Her shoulders rise and fall deeply, and she shakes her head. "What a night…"
Clearly upset, the young Latina flings her hand into the air, firing a webline at the corner of the roof. Then, she's vaulting into the night sky, disappearing into the air over the building as the webline goes slack against old, dirty brick.