A warehouse in Baltimore, Tuesday night

[willbethenight]

Due to, frankly, an obsessive amount of research considering how long a drive it was to Baltimore, Bruce knew pretty much all the details of an arms deal happening at this very warehouse on this very night. He was pretty sure he could handle this on his own - there were only eight thugs here - but he wasn't willing to play a hand he was just '

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[batwaffles]

You didn't get voicemails like that from Bruce and not immediately jump to comply, at least not if you were Stephanie.

It wouldn't do to have anyone spot Batman's sidekick with someone who might be recognizable, so she wasn't in full costume, but she did have her utility belt, and most of the armored suit was on underneath her civilian clothes. Plus the knit cap she had on? Actually a ski mask. What? The irony amused her.

"Ready and willing," she replied, cracking her knuckles. "Anything special to know about these guys?"

[willbethenight]

Dear god, she really was a sidekick of Bruce. He pulled his own ski mask on as he started to answer. "Not really. Just generic NPC thugs your typical gun-running organized crime types. They'll go for the guns once we make an entrance, of course. How are you at fighting in the dark?"

If he were more experienced, he wouldn't have even asked that. Of course taking out the lights would be the first move once they smashed their way in. It's harder to shoot people if you can't see them.

[batwaffles]

"It is," Stephanie said cheerfully (or as cheerfully as she could, since there was still an edge of must-try-not-to-screw-up behind it), "my preferred method, as it just so happens. It has that nifty side effect of making it hard to aim and all."

See, other-him actually had taught her well.

[willbethenight]

"Good. In that case, we drop through the skylight, take down the men nearest the guns, take out the lights, and pick them off from there," Bruce said. Again, that plan was probably instinctual for Stephanie, but Bruce was still starting out. "And don't get shot. Can't forget that part of the plan...."

Bruce grabbed a bola from his belt as he prepared to jump through the skylight, just as he'd practiced more times than he was ready to discuss.... "Last chance to back off and do something a little less insane tonight," he offered.

[batwaffles]

It was pretty much standard MO for Stephanie, but did that stop her from listening attentively and nodding along anyway? No. It was habit.

"Not getting shot: circled with red on my metaphorical list, promise," she replied, tugging her ski mask down and getting into position by the skylight. "Besides, I hadn't met my insanity quota for the week yet. This'll put me over the top reaaaaaaaally nicely."

[willbethenight]

"I like to help when I can," Bruce said.

Not wasting any time, an instant later he was going through the skylight. As the glass shattered and fell all around him, he aimed his drop at the table with all of the guns on it, intending to smash through it on landing and make the scene just a little more chaotic.

And while he was doing that, he also threw the bola at one of the thugs.

Bruce Wayne: Masked Multitasker.

[batwaffles]

It had taken Stephanie what seemed like a hundred practice attempts to get that move halfway down, but since she leaped through the skylight right after him she didn't have much time to feel bad about that.

Watch her not be at all surprised that he'd gotten it down this well already.

Since he was going for the table, she went feet-first for one of the thugs instead.

"Is this a bad time for us to drop in?"

[willbethenight]

It took a lot of practice that nobody ever saw to get that good.

Meanwhile, Bruce hid the fact that he had to collect himself a little after dropping from a skylight through a table by posing in a crouch like a total badass before throwing sneaking a few shuriken from his belt and throwing some at the overhead lights. The final shuriken ended up grazing the gun hand of a thug who thought he'd grab the pistol he had on him.

That probably hurt. You could tell by the screaming.

By the time the lights broke, Bruce was getting back to a standing position.

[batwaffles]

And someday Stephanie might actually realize it had taken that much practice for people other than her.

Someday. The current moment was much more suited for going into a roll away from the thug she'd landed on, popping up, and throwing an elbow into another one's face. This was easier with her night vision lenses, but she'd made do without for a long time as Spoiler. No point in getting too -- heh -- spoiled by them anyway.

She probably shouldn't enjoy that crunchy nose-cartilage sound so much, but she did.

[willbethenight]

The thugs were clearly starting to get freaked out. Half of them were down or hurting already, they couldn't see anything, at least two people were attacking out of nowhere, one of them was making puns, and the other just jumpkicked one of them in the face, knocking him through a crate.

So more than half of them were down or hurting.

[batwaffles]

The puns were necessary! Almost on the same level as oxygen!

If it was any consolation to the thugs left standing, Stephanie took a good knock to the jaw and staggered back, which put a cramp in her plans to present a couple more of them with a nice present of unconsciousness or a concussion or at least a few good bruises.

Well, fine. She could just kick a chair into them instead, to buy herself a few seconds and then go in after them.

The sad thing about fighting in the dark, though, was that nobody really appreciated her (overenthusiastic) somersaults.

"Boo," she chirped, popping up beside one of the thugs and throwing a roundhouse punch at his chin.

". . . it's less fun when they're too out cold to come up with a witty reply."

[willbethenight]

"I prefer them that way," Bruce chimed in before rushing in to deliver a quick punch combo to the thug whose hand he'd hurt earlier. He finished it off with a strong uppercut to knock him through yet another crate and into unconsciousness.

Weird how Bruce always found a crate to knock them through.

[batwaffles]

There was a whole spectacular smashing sound. It added to the ambiance.

"Oh, sure. Be practical," Stephanie quipped.

After making sure the guy she'd hit was actually out cold.

[willbethenight]

"I was planning on it," Bruce said.

Another thug was trying to sneak up behind him. Bruce could hear the footsteps, so he was able to aim a seemingly casual backhand at the guy's face. With practice, that would knock someone out. As it was, he had to turn around, drive a knee into his gut, and then punch him in the back of the head.

"You just about done over there?"

[batwaffles]

"Oh, just --" Okay, Steph did have to double-take at that, since she fully expected him to make thugs see circling cartoon birds with that backhand.

"Just a little bit of mop-up," she called as she checked over the prone thugs for concealed weapons.

[willbethenight]

Bruce pulled some flexicuffs out of his belt and started securing the thugs with them. Just because they were unconscious and, after Stephanie was done, definitely unarmed didn't mean they should just be left free.

"I made sure the police received a call from this location before we started. They should be here any minute. We should be gone before they show up," Bruce said.