2017.03.12 - Round Up of Circe's Zealots
Seated before the Batcomputer, Batman is busy typing away. The main monitor showcases a picture of Circe along with Batman's accumulated data about the evil sorceress. The surrounding monitors have a variety of Gotham PD notes regarding the Penguin and his accomplices who were rounded up attempting to rob Gotham National Bank.
Robin walks in from the costume vault, having just changed into a fresh uniform. He has a paper cup of coffee, and puts one beside Batman's hand as well when he joins the man at the computer. He stands by the chair and contemplates the board, sipping his coffee, then: "Lucky Ganymede was there," he says. "That could have been a lot tougher," the teen says as he looks at the pictures of the sorceress.
Batman nods and shifts the information on the main monitor to the Penguin. "He sang like a canary," he says. "The robberies were all just a ruse to try to draw out Ganymede and anyone else like us who might interfere with criminal activity."
Robin quirks his mouth into a lopsided smile as he sips his coffee. "Well, at least he was predictable, to a degree. So, what, Circe was going after Ganymede and just anyone else who happened to get caught in the net? What was she going after?"
Batman actually pauses a moment to pick up the coffee Robin brought and take a sip of it. "Near as I can tell, Ganymede was Circe's target and we were simply meant to be collateral damage to the Penguin's advantage."
Robin snorts. "I was wondering what he might be getting out of it. I guess he's headed back to jail, now? Think I should trail the transfer, just in case anyone from his gang gets the idea of springing the old bird?"
"Yes, he's headed back to Blackgate," Batman says. He takes another sip of the coffee, silently considering Robin's suggestion. "That might be a good idea. Circe brought in a lot of foreign muscle and there's no telling how many of them are still free in Gotham."
"The Greek dudes, right..." the Teen Wonder says as he taps at the wide console, bringing up their pictures so he can memorize their faces. "Circe's fan club. Huh. Guess it beats being turned into a pig.."
"Exactly. The ones that got rounded up from the Gotham City Zoo fundraiser ball are still in Blackgate and the ones from the Gotham National attempt are there too. But how many more are in the city?" Batman leans back in his chair, considering the matter.
Robin rolls his shoulders. "At least, I'd guess, six still at large - looking at their files and known associates, there's some muscle they left in reserve. Probably holed up in the Iceberg Lounge.." the youth says, a cocky smile spreading over his face.
"That's a good possibility," Batman says, setting the cup of coffee down and rising. "Let's go check it out," he adds, moving toward the Batmobile.
"Awright!" the Teen Wonder says, springing to the car, vaulting over the door and having his seatbelt clicked shut before Batman can make it to the car. Grinning, he leans over and taps the horn just once.
An amused chuckle comes from Batman as he gets into the vehicle at a more sedate pace. "Eager, aren't you?" he asks rhetorically as he starts the high tech car then heads down the tunnel to the highway that leads to and from Gotham City.
Soon they're cruising quietly through the streets of Gotham. Batman unerringly steers the Batmobile into the alley behind the Iceberg Lounge. He parks the car about 50 feet from the back door of the club and gets out. Shutting the car door, he does a quick check of his gear then nods in satisfaction. "Let's see who's home," he murmurs.
Robin hops out and quickly does a similar weapons check, then looks to Batman. Rooftop or front door?"
"Take your pick," Batman replies, trusting Robin to be able to handle whatever might be found either way they make their entrance.
Robin unlimbers his grapple gun and fires a line to a neighboring higher building, and uses that to pull himself up - when he reaches the level of the Lounge's roof, he disengages, and drops lightly to the brick ledge.
Batman follows suit, joining Robin atop the Iceberg Lounge. A trap door is set in the roof in the northwest corner and there are a few vents for the heating and air conditioning system.
Robin creeps along, pausing to listen at the vents - then eases to the trap door. He moves to one side, and tests the door, opening it a crack to see if there is a guard there. Nope, at least none he can see, and so he opens it and drops inside - a little reckless, but the Teen Wonder is eager for some action.
Batman moves behind Robin, content to allow the Teen Wonder to take point in this operation.
The upstairs hall that the roof trap door opens to seems to be empty. There are a couple of closed doors further down the hall. The heavy bass beat of the music in the open club can be both heard and felt here on the second floor.
The younger caped crusader eases down the hall, pauses - the ambient sound is almost too much for him to make out anything, but he does, and opens a door quickly - he comes into view a second later, strong arms around a thugs head, choking him out. The Teen Wonder struggles with the much-larger man for seconds until the man begins to black out.
Batman advances down the hall in Robin's wake. When Robin engages the hoodlum, Batman takes a quick look in the room to make sure there's nobody else lurking in there out of sight. The only other person is a young woman who is wide eyed with fear and only half dressed. Apparently Robin interrupted the thug as he was getting some alone time with the woman. Batman presses a finger to his lips to encourage the woman to remain silent and he quietly backs out the door back into the hall.
Robin eases the man down into the floor, and then rolls him into the room. He nods to the woman, then eases the door shut - that done, he continues on down the hall to the dim stairway. "Batman, I.." he whispers, then suddenly a man reaches up out of the darkness and jerks the Teen Wonder off his feet and tosses him down the stairs. Thump! Bump! Crunch! The tall and powerful man grins crookedly as he looks at Batman. "Got your birdie, now, gonna break me a bat.." he laughs as his massive meathooks reach for the Dark Knight.
Batman dances back, trying to put some space between himself and the thick set man. But the man is a lot quicker than he appears and he follows the Dark Knight, closing to deliver several quick punches to Batman's torso. The body armor provides some protection, but those blows are heavy and Batman feels them.
Changing tactics, Batman tries to grab hold of the thug and throw him. The man doesn't quite lose his feet, but he does stagger a few steps down the hall which gives Batman enough room to deliver a powerful kick right to the thug's gut.
Meanwhile, at the foot of the stairs, Robin gets a hard kick in the head from the thugs buddy - then the Teen Wonder gets his feet under him and he springs up to trade boxing blows with the man, body blows, blows to the shoulder and gut.
The huge thug on Batman grunts at the powerful boot to his gut, but it's like kicking a barrel full of flour - looks paunchy, but it's solid muscle there. He rounds on the Dark Knight and changes him, trying to pin him to the wall.
The Dark Knight tries to slide by the big man but can't quite avoid him. What follows next is a quick exchange of kicks and punches. When the two combatants take a moment to separate, Batman is sporting a split lip and aching ribs. But he gave just as good as he got and the thug doesn't have the benefit of wearing body armor so hopefully he fared slightly worse.
Robin's own uniform isn't nearly as armored as Batman's is, but his opponent is both less skilled and less strong - the youth feints, then clocks the man out with a powerful right cross. Then he's racing the stairs to help Batman. He hits the top of the stairs, vaults over the railing, twin pixie-booted feet slamming into the big man's side.. and the youth sprawls at his feet, the man not moving an inch. "Hah," the man says as the bird-boy bounces off him. He staggers back, obviously feeling the effects of Batman's pummeling. He then switches tactics and reaches for the momentarily stunned Robin...
That distraction is just the opening that Batman needs. He flings a shocking batarang at the big man who is simply too close to be missed.
BAZP! THUMP! That's all it takes. The big man lays twitching for a second before slipping into unconsciousness. Robin levers himself to his feet. "By the way, one of our Greek guys is sprawled out at the foot of the stairs," he says, running gloved fingers over his jaw. "So they are here, at least some of them. Looks like the birds didn't fall far from the nest."
Stooping to secure the unconscious man with a handy set of zip ties, Batman nods at Robin's words. Straightening, he touches careful fingers to his lower lip which is already swelling but seems to have stopped bleeding. "You all right?" he asks Robin, looking over his partner carefully.
Robin nods to the man. "I'm good; he got in a few good shots, but.. eh.." he says as he gives Batman a concerned look but he knows better than to make a deal about it in 'public'. He goes down the stairs again into a common area. "Some of them, at least," the Teen Wonder says, pointing at several food boxes from a nearby place. "Demos' is the most authentic Greek food in the city," he says, checking out one of the boxes. "Safe to say several of them are here."
"Well, that's three down," Batman says in a game tone. "Let's see who else is roosting in the dirty bird's nest."
On the main floor the back hall of the Iceberg Lounge has a door that opens into the actual club which is full of the average Saturday night crowd. There's also a couple more doors in the hall and the stairs which descend into the basement.
"Knock knock," Batman says softly, opening the first door on his right. It appears to be an office of some sort. There's a desk which has a variety of different papers, envelopes and folders on it. There's also a couple of filing cabinets behind the desk. Apparently whoever does their paperwork only works days.
Robin quirks a smile at Batman's.. joke?.. and opens a door opposite it. Break room. Currently empty. The noise from the crowd is masking most of the noise, it seems. The next door, Robin opens; oops. Greek guy. "Four," the Teen Wonder says as the man surges up from his chair only to meet a pixie boot to the face. He sprawls back, and Robin punches him hard enough to send him off to dreamland.
"Four," Batman agrees with Robin's count. He heads toward the stairs that lead down into the basement, looking down into the darkness for a moment to scan for heat signatures. Seeing no immediate signs of danger, he goes down, switching to night vision to navigate.
Robin follows, fanning out when they reach the bottom. "This place is a maze; Speedy and I were down here for almost an hour trying to find a way out.." he says, as he looks around. "A lot of it seems to have been cleaned out, though..."
Looking around, Batman decides to investigate the obvious places first. He opens the door on the left side of the hall and looks inside. It's another office, though it seems to be a bit more neat than the one upstairs.
Next he tries the door on the opposite side of the hall. And here's where he hits paydirt. It's a bunk room and there just happen to be two men sleeping inside. He gestures for Robin to approach and signals two enemies ahead. Slipping silently into the room, the Dark Knight moves to the right, getting a set of the ziptie cuffs ready.
Robin nods as he creeps in, and palms a sleeping gas capsule from his utility belt. Then he pads in and moves to the left, ready to coordinate with Batman..
Holding up his left hand, Batman signals a countdown. Three... two... one! And then he's on the sleeping man, a knee in the man's back as Batman cuffs the thug's hands together with the ziptie. The sleepy man never even had a chance and is subdued before he's even fully awake.
Robin puts a hand with the sleeping gas capsule in it over the man's nose; he starts awake, then is quickly asleep again. Zip=tied, and subdued. "So, what now? That's six.."
"We open the back door and let Gotham PD round them up for questioning," Batman answers, pulling his customized smartphone off his utility belt and dialing the police. A few terse words are exchanged with the police dispatcher then Batman is off the phone and nodding to Robin. "They're on the way," he says, moving back out into the short hall and toward the stairs so he can open the back door of the club.
Thankfully that's a short trip; only the guard at the back door to deal with, and the Teen Wonder takes care of him in short order. Then it's just a matter of waiting a few minutes for the police. Once the lights show up, the youth turns to Batman. "Ready to get out of here?"
Batman nods to Robin, leaving it to Gotham PD to take custody of the thugs that the Dynamic Duo have subdued. "We've done good work here," he says before they get into the Batmobile to head back to the Batcave.