Traffic is a B [Closed]

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The dockyards. So many hiding places for the rats and the rest of the vermin of Gotham to do their business. At least rats were honest about what they were. When a person walked up on a group of rats would scatter. But the when the scum of Gotham gathered in a group, they seemed to get bolder when they were gathered. They even had the audacity to feel like they could take on people like the Batman, or those of his ilk. But then again, no one ever said that mob mentality made people more intelligent.

A few goons, heavy thugs armed with nothing but pistols, walked in between shipping containers that were stacked like a child’s color coded stacking bricks. On top of one such stack, crouched a figure. Huntress, watched their patrols for a few rounds now. Patience wasn’t exactly her greatest virtue, but it was paying off. She had heard rumors over the past few nights as she punched her way through scared mobsters. Something was making its way to Gotham. Something major. Something they all wanted in on. In her mind, this meant a few dozen things. Drugs and weapons being at the top of those lists. She couldn’t allow any of those to get out of those containers. She stood up and made her way to the next stack, and then to the next. Following the goons’ pattern over their heads. She waited between each turn, making sure they weren’t going to double back unexpectedly. Which they didn’t. They didn’t break their pattern even after inadvertently knocked a bit of gravel to the ground behind them. They didn’t even look. “Okay, enough watching…” Her voice was barely a whisper a she was speaking to herself.

She was fairly confident these guys were robots at this point, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her from taking them out of the show. She dropped down, using her cape to slow her decent to the ground. She stood up behind them, all six feet of her, adding two inches to her height as she realized, she towered over one of them. The other one, was a bit taller than her. They were both on the heavy side, muscle and plenty of mom’s home cooking.

“So Is says to the hooka…Listen…I’m payin’ ya. So yas may as well just shut up and act like yous enjoyin’ it”

She let a smirk form on her lips as they still didn’t notice her. “Well, you should have taken her out for a nice dinner first.” She grinned as they both spun around, pulling their pistols on her. It didn’t mean much. Guns didn’t scare her. She reached out quickly with her crossbow in hand. They laughed at her, but as they laughed, she shot two bolts into their elbows. Their guns dropped, one shot firing off into a container, screams coming from inside of it. She looked over in the direction of the screams, perplexed but she couldn’t afford the distraction. One of them, the big guy who hadn’t been telling the hooker story, lunged at her. She fell back with his grasp of physics but quickly recovered herself, jumping up as she threw her boot into his throat, knocking him backwards, holding his throat. She had a satisfied smile on her face watching him cough out his curses and then pass out.

The other guy had grabbed up the gun and had it point at her. “Bunch of guys heard that gun shot, Batgirl…yous gonna be cornered soon.” She held her hands and narrowed her eyes into a glare at him through her mask. Her jaw clenched as she held back her anger at being called Batgirl, agian.  “You’re right. A lot of people heard that gunshot…” She waited one heart beat then another before she smashed a smoke pellet on the ground, tackling the other guy to the ground and punching him with her armored fists to knock him out, possibly breaking his orbital bone.

Standing up she waved a hand in front of her face to clear the smoke. Before she was surrounded, she should check out what screamed in the container when the bullet when through. She moved quickly, pulling out her staff to pry off the lock, pushing all of her weight and strength into it. With a slight struggle the lock finally relented and she pulled the doors open, and there was a shuffle of people and he pulled out a flash light from her belt as she saw the dirty, malnourished faces of women and children and even a few younger men pushing themselves to the back of the container.  “<Shit…>” She muttered in her family’s Italian tongue.

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Illegal human trading was by no means the most violated crimes in Gotham, but it certainly was one of the most lucrative.  A gang boss could literally make millions if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in this endeavor.  Slavery, child labor, prositution....

Since receiving backing from numerous sources, Scarface and the Ventriloquist were in the process of making a move in expanding Their criminal sphere of influence in Gotham.  Things had been relatively quiet for the most part in terms of crime in the city over the past month with the Joker just recently locked up at the asylum.  Then again, the Joker never desired a chunck of the criminal dealings within the city, the man or clown simply wanted madness and chaos. 

Wearing a new armani jacket, the Ventriloquist outfitted Scarface in the same blue suit with white pinstripes.  The two of them had dressed almost identical.  They stood at the edge of the pier, with a green packard parked behind them ready to go.  They had come down to the pier to manage the latest shipment of people sent from Liberia in Africa.  The people in that freight had paid nearly a year and a half worth of savings in order to experience a trip to America which nearly killed them.  Now they would fall right into the hands of the Ventriloquist who would sell them off to the highest bidders.   Looking around, Scarface noticed that they were behind schedule.

"Where da heck are Louie and Monroe?" Scarface asked while chewing on a cigar.  "Those mugs should have 'let us know if da shipment of chalkies has arrived from Africa gy now."

That is when they heard the gunshots go off on the next set of dock yards, near where the large cargo freight with the packages should have been hauled to. 

"Dagnagit!  Goys with me!"

With that order, three more thugs dressed in leather jackets and jeans, wielding melee weapons such as chains, knives, and baseball bats followed Scarface and the Ventriloquist to the dock and pier.

As they made their way to the dock, Scarface and the Ventriloquist loaded and readied their tommy gun.  They arrived only to be engulfed by a large cloud of smoke which was heading their way.  They managed to hear the lock snap and someone muttering a swear word in Italian.

"Ah' think someone has stumgled upon this project.  Let's find out who it is."

Ventriloquist motioned for the three thugs with leather jackets, torn jeans, and melee weapons into the puff of smoke to find whomever was there.  They stepped back away from the smoke ready to plug anyone who appeared out of it with a hail of bullets from a tommy gun. While they waited, Arnold Wesker began to chime with a sadistic smile on It's face.

"Girls and boys, come out to play,
The moon doth shine as bright as day;
Leave your supper, and leave your sleep,
And come with your playfellows into the street.
Come with a whoop, come with a call,
Come with a good will or not at all.
Up the ladder and down the wall,
A half-penny roll will serve us all.
You find milk, and I'll find flour,
And we'll have a pudding in half an hour."

[[OC: Hope you don't mind if the Ventriloquist joins!]]

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OOC: [No, no, by all means. Welcome to the Thunderdome ]

Helena was a bit taken aback by what she had stumbled upon, but she shouldn’t have been surprised. This city was full of degenerates. She gritted her teeth as she looked over the poor souls that found themselves from her spot in the front of the container. She didn’t wanted to approach them and risk them panicking and attacking her. She didn’t want to injure anyone while defending herself, but she may not have a choice. She heard voices in the distance. Disgruntled voices. She turned her head as she smoke covered her position. She sighed and looked back to the people in the container. “Stay here…” She spoke, holding her hands up to signal them with gestures.Knowing full well, they probably didn’t understand her. She heard foot falls, heavy foot falls as she shut the door, hoping to not force them in to an overly fearful tantrums.

She pulled out her grappler and shot it off to pull herself up to the top of the container stack and above the smoke. She could see figures searching in the clearing smoke. Three of them. They were close to the open container. She couldn’t let them closer. She dropped herself, letting gravity help in the first attack as she slammed the soles of her boots into shoulders and taking one down. “Evening….care to explain why you boys look like you’re about to get your asses get kicked?” She smirked and as one tried to attack her with a bat. A bat!! That could have sent a lot of Freudian flags up if anyone was actually analyzing this fight. She raised her arm to block the attack, feeling the bat smash into the armor. It sent a dull, but rehearsed pain through her arm. She could handle this. She was a warrior after all. She was trained and honed for this stuff.

She didn’t wait for the thug to recover. She wrapped her gloved fingers around the bat like purple constrictors as she it passed her shoulder, sending her other fist towards his slack jawed stare as he realized rather quickly, this wasn’t some kid running out in tights as a sidekick. Huntress wasn’t going to hold back or listen to a boss to tell her how to fight. She held the bat tightly as the thug fell in a heap of his embarrassment and possibly more. She stood up, looking down with a satisfied smirk, then remember, almost too late, there was a third. From behind she felt some reach out clumsily, unsure of his movement as he sliced through the back of her shoulder. Lucky for her, but more lucky for the thug. He drew blood. And it felt like he had hit a nerve and the pain was starting to radiate through her. But she had to fight through it. Her elbow of her injured arm went flying back as she let the adrenaline push her through. But the goon she knocked out earlier was starting to get up. The smoke that hide given her the smallest of cover had completely cleared out and it could very well be open season on her if she doesn’t end this fight soon.

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The thug who had managed to draw blood took the back elbow cleanly in the face.  He cried an..

"OOOOFFF!"

As the blow took him out of the fight, dropping the knife to the ground.  The one who had been slammed by the sole of her boots in the shoulder was beginning to get up.  He was armed with a chain. 

He yelled a roar just before trying to warp his chain around her throat from behind her. 

The smoke began to clear as the Ventriloquist and Scarface were able to make out the opponent.  It was not Batgirl, despite the similar appearance, the Ventriloquist had seen much of her to be able to identify Batgirl right off the bat, no this one was different.

"Yer, definitely not 'Gat-Girl.'  Question is, who are ye?"

The Ventriloquist guided Scarface's arm down so that the mannequin was pointing the tommy-gun at both her and the goons around her. 

"Heeee.  London Bridge is Falling down!  Falling Down! Falling Down!  London Bridge is falling down, sadly for all of you." 

The Ventriloquist chimed, awaiting a response and ready to use the gun. 

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Huntress regretted the hit as soon as she threw it. The pain was shooting through her arm now and she could feel the fatigue trying to weigh her arm down. She had to fight through it. She had beaten Lady Shiva to a standstill at one point, and if her or Canary ever saw he even think about letting her body wimp out on a fight, she’d live to regret it. She slammed her knee down into the back of the knee of the goon still trying to fight her and used the armor to dig into his muscle as she held him there, then she shoved her armor padded elbow into the base of his skull. She may have killed him, but she wasn’t about to cry about some flesh trader’s life.

As the other goon got to his knees she looked up, seeing a dummy, and his mannequin. “You’re right, Scarface…I’m not…” She took her cross bow and fired a bolt into the shoulder of the man trying to get up to save the fight. “I’m out of your league. That’s who I am.” But he stayed down, groaning in pain. Was he praying to some deity to give him strength, or did he finally realize he wasn’t going to win this. She wasn’t sure, and she wasn’t paying attention to him anymore. There was a pint sized gun training itself on her. She held up her crossbow and trained it on the Ventriloquist’s arm, as he held the dummy up. She may even hit Scarface as a bonus. But for now, it was stand still. She’d only fire if she had to, but she had to get those people out of there. If only she learned to play nice with others, maybe she’d have someone around to help her out. “Who’s the mastermind, Scarface? This is too complicated for the dummy to help you pull it off.”

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Gotham City docks was a bad place, so many shady deals happen down here they should rename it Hell's playground! What is it with criminals and dock yards anyway, it's like a moth to a light for them. I mean I guess it's a more faster way to get cargo in by boat, cargo such as illegal weapons, drugs, dirty money, all those vices. Whatever floats your boat, eh? No pun intended! But, if you're a vigilante in Gotham this was the place to find some action and do some good, keep those dirty bastards out of town. That was just what Dinah was up to in this part of town, not Dinah though, the Black Canary. Canary on her sleek black in color motorcycle was riding swiftly through the alley ways leading up to the docks, she then pulled to a corner and parked her pick and turned on the electrified shield mechanism she had implemented to it. "Hope some kind of scum tries to steel my baby, it will be an electrifying experience!" Canary then laughed and then started to creep along the wall leading to the entrance of the docks.

 It didn't take long for her to come across some baddies, men with guns, high ammunition guns. There was only three of them, but the were on the watch, what are they protecting? Time to find out. "Hey boys... nice night, huh?" Canary said with her hand resting on the corner of the brick building. The thugs then turned around and acknowledge Canary. "Sure is sweetie, would be nicer if you came and chatted with us? How about it huh hun, come over here!" The other thug then whispered to him. "You know that's the Black Canary right?" "Yep!" "Just checking..." Canary then made her way over to them strolling very slowly, teasing them. "Not up to any trouble tonight, right boys..." The goon smiled. "Not yet, but you about to be bitch.." Then man then went to fire a shot but Canary quickly dodge it and gave him a round house kick and knocked him out. She then looked to the other one and smiled. "Your turn..." They then began fire shoots wildly, but Canary dodged everyone of them and then crouched and did a leg sweep on the nearest guy knocking him into the water. "Looks like you are last..." The man chuckled. "Best for last, right hun..." "Yes sir..." He then raised his gun and started shoot again but Canary this time started to run the opposite way with the man in pursuit. She then got to a wall and kicked off of it flipping herself over the man. He now against the wall looking at her with amazement. "Wow your good..." "I know right! Ready for the grand finale?" Canary then took in a deep breathe a let out her signature Canary Cry, a high pitch scream that gave off enough force that it threw the man against the wall knocking him out in the process. Canary, now with her hand on her hip. "That was fun..." Then she heard a noise coming from the far end of the dock yard, sounded like someone was getting a beating. Canary was intrigued.

She then made her way down to the commotion. Hiding behind a shipping container unit, observing. Canary then noticed a woman, a vigilante, the Huntress. Canary then began to laugh, that Huntress still kicking ass and taking names. Then all of a sudden, of all people the neurotic and just plain weird, the Ventriloquist shows up with his puppet Scarface in tow. This is getting good. Huntress and Scarface go back and fort with witty comments and mentioning the trafficking of human beings, that's just wrong on so many levels. Then he sends out more goons and Huntress takes them out one by one. You go girl! Now the small dummy has a gun, pointed right at Huntress at a close range and it looks like Huntress' arm is a little banged up. I think she needs some help. “Who’s the mastermind, Scarface? This is too complicated for the dummy to help you pull it off.” Canary then climbed up on top of the container unit and made her appearance standing there with her hands on her hips. "She's right! You always think too small... who is the... hmm, let me think how would gangsters say it... the "big cheese?" in charge of this operation?" Canary now smiling with a smirk. "Hi, Huntress..."

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Growing up in a mafia family, Helena often took an unintended offense when people tried to quote old gangster movies. She had to intentionally hold back her eye role as Black Canary walked forward and used the phrase “Big Cheese”. No, the phrase is actually, the head of the deal, but no please, go on. This isn’t offensive to anyone. She had to muse inwardly, because if she said it out loud, she knew she would sound like she was on the other side of the law, which in this time seemed as good a place as any sometimes. It was no secret that Huntress didn’t like cops. Being in a mafia family, she had met some of her fathers “cop friends” and they were the ones who influenced her. As she grew, she grew to hate cops even more after they arrested Sal while she was in Switzerland for boarding school. Honestly, cops should be so lucky she was above poking holes in them. Most of the time.

“Hey, Canary…nice of you join.” She bantered with the blond, but kept her eyes on the tiny little gun that Scarface was holding. She held her crossbow up, leveling it with Wesker’s but she knew the man was too far gone in his delusions to really think on his own. No, the doll made the choices. Not the man. She understood that Batman felt these people needed help, and Wesker was one of them. Maybe. But that was like saying Two-Face had a soft side. Of course the two men could be helped, but deep down, Helena knew that very few really wanted redemption. She herself was trying to find that solace every day, but she still had to fight against her nature.

She looked over to Canary as the cape enveloped her body. Her blue eyes looking towards the thugs and then to the container behind her that housed the prisoners these lower than scum delinquents held captive. Huntress’s movements were now shrouded by the dark cloth as she nodded down to the goons who were getting the big idea that getting up and doing something would be the smart thing to do. She signaled to the blond with her blue eyes, now hiding her crossbow behind the cape. If Wesker or Scarface didn’t answer her soon, she’d have to take them out. Great, now he’s got me thinking like they’re two people…maybe I should be in the looney bin .

 “Last chance, boys. We can go easy on you, or Scarface can be my new pin cushion while Wesker gets laid up in medical wing of Arkham for a while.” She wasn't nearly as talkative as Dinah in these moments, but that was just another thing she had in common with him. She sort of hated that. She was ready for the fight, but she wasn’t ready for a teammate. In her mind, Helena was still on her own. Probably while she didn’t belong in the JLA to start with. But that wasn’t her problem now. She waited for Wesker to make his choice, casts or steel. Those were his choices now.

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Canary then noticed some of the thugs that Huntress had already taken down were rising again. They weren't done with this fight, tough bastards. They must have been paid good for this job, not from Ventriloquist but someone more in control. Huntress then signaled to the container unit behind her. That must be where they are harboring the trafficking victims. Not wanting to cause a full out fight into a brawl they could not handle, not just yet... Canary then waited for the right time and then sprung into action. That was one of Canary's faults, always going into battle without thinking, often times being called reckless, even being called that by the Batman himself. Dinah was a brilliant leader of operations but needed a game plan. When she didn't have a sense of direction she just act not reacted. Dinah would have been the perfect officer, following in her father's legacy, but Dinah decided to take part in the other side of her family legacy, the hands on approach of crime fighting.

"Ready for justice?" Canary then leaped in the center of a few thugs and started combat with them. Dodging and reversing maneuvers. She took out two of them in one movement, but there was more than the two, only four more. She also kept an eye on Huntress, still a stand off with Scarface. This was Huntress' fight, Canary was the help. She didn't mind helping others, giving them glory, satisfaction. Canary had the need make an alliance with someone, not matter how big and bad and skilled you are, you will have your weaknesses. Others can help fill those empty spaces and help you keep your head on straight, keep you intact with your morality with the everyday conflict with the evil of Gotham.

Canary then took out two more of the hired muscle, that were already weak from Huntress' beatdown, but non the less still had something to prove. The last two goons then had her surrounded. One in the front, one in the back. "Why can't you boys play fair... I guess I'm expecting too much of you, right?" One guy pulled out some electrified brass knuckles, ooo shocking! His secret weapon, nice touch. He then went to swing at Canary but she then cleverly dodged it and hit his partner. The man then was electrocuted and then Canary gave him a spinning back kick and the wounded thug flew into the Ventriloquist. In the process, she then took out the owner of the knucks and then made her way to aid Huntress, the captured innocents and to stop Ventriloquist and Scarface.

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Huntress couldn’t help but roll her eyes at the corndog verbal assault that Canary was throwing around as her martial arts techniques put all that opposed her to shame. Really, who has time to learn all of those moves? She couldn’t let herself be distracted by the show though, she had to focus. She was in a staring contest with two dummies, and she wasn’t going to let them win. She held her crossbow at level with Scarface’s forehead. She could shoot it off, and destroy Wesker easily. But, there were sirens in the distance. She was right about the gun shot being heard by anyone earlier. And Canary wouldn’t let her handle this as a final act of the Ventriloquist.

She decided to do this the faster way. She aimed her crossbow down at Wesker’s foot. If it hit, he’d had a bad limp for maybe the rest of his life. That would be a nice token for him to remember her by. She didn’t wait to see if the bolt hit its mark. She made ran for Wesker, jumping at the last minute, slamming the tread of her boots into his chest. She was hoping to keep him on the ground, and keep the dummy from shooting. She turned and looked back at Canary and felt a bit jealous that she was having all of the fun. She looked down to ensure that Wesker and Scarface would stay down for now and sprinted off to the cargo container. “SIRENS!” She yelled off to Canary as a warning. Dinah may be on better terms with cops than Helena, but they weren’t always friendly with vigilantes. And Helena didn’t like cops very much to begin with, so that didn’t help matters.

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Huntress then looked to Canary and shouted that the police were coming, sounded like half of the force. Umm... we are at the docks, police sirens are always heard. Canary then nodded to Huntress. "Right! We need to let the victims out of the unit, this one right? Is this the only one?" Approaching Helena and a subdued Ventriloquist. At this point, Scarface was separated from his handler and was a small distance from a semi unconscious Albert. "Nice job! Couldn't have done it better myself!" Canary said giving Huntress a smile.

She liked teaming with Huntress, it reminded her of her days in the League when she would often get paired with her fellow heroine because they were both street level fighters and let's face it, they stuck them together cause they were tough women. Dinah respected Helena and always gave her the benefit of the doubt. Even when they say that she was fighting "too rough" or was "dangerous", unfit to be called a "hero" Canary always had a mutual view point on crime fighting with Huntress. Do what it takes to get the job done!

Canary then went to the unit and tried to get it open but the door wouldn't budge. The door had got smashed throughout the fight and was jammed. "Dammit!" What now? "Want to try?" Canary asked Huntress but she couldn't make it budge either. Canary then got close to the door and put her mouth close to the crack. "Listen! We are going to get you out of there! Just need you to stand back and we will open the door, step away from the door, okay?" The prisoners were panicking and talking loud, scared obviously. "I'm going to hit it with a canary cry to weaken it, don't worry ill control it enough to not hurt anyone... stand back and hold your ears!"

Dinah said with a smile, she then took a small breath and let it out. "Skreeeeeee!"

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When Canary gave the word, Huntress didn’t need to be told twice. She stepped back and put her hands over her ears. It wasn’t enough though as that damn scream could take down a tank if she wanted it to. Huntress was bracing herself when the sound subsided. She could still hear sirens, which was possibly a good thing. Depended on her frame of mind. Cops and Huntress didn’t mix well, and that was probably a left over feeling from growing up in a mob family. But they hadn’t shown her any kindness since then, and she wasn’t inclined to show them any in turn.

Helena raced over to the door. It was opening but only through a small crack. She gritted her teeth and then shoved her shoulder into to try and budge it further. It was slow going but the door would finally give way enough for people to start slipping through. She hurried some of them out, there was a full count of twenty women, children and young men. She felt disgusted and angry. She wanted to do more to that sick freak who was unconscious on the ground.

Helena then returned over to Canary. “You’ll get the credit for this, Canary.” Her voice was low but there was the telltale growl of anger in it. “You know cops and I don’t mix well.” She pulled out her grappler and winced as she had further injured herself while opening the door. What she wouldn’t give for a Kryptonian physiology right now, hell, an Amazonian one would work. But being human was what made her do this every night. She let out a sigh and looked back to Canary once more before swinging off. “Thanks.” She offered the blond a soft smile under her mask but she left before she could get anything from Canary in return.

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"Yes!" The door was finally opened enough to get the victims out, twenty women and children, what a horrible predicament. But they were safe now, thanks to our heroines. The sounds of police sirens got louder, they were getting closer. Canary then looked to Huntress and then went on to speak with her, she had heard a lot of commotion from the streets of Huntress' recent crime fighting. She seemed more aggressive, well more aggressive than normal. The Huntress was feared, but not only by the criminals but everyday citizens, oh... and also the boys in blue. Huntress isn't on easy terms with the cops, so let's see how long she sticks around.

But before Canary could get in a word with Huntress she began to make her exit with a simple "thanks" and her consent of Canary taking the credit. "Huntress wait... I don't want credit... I need to talk to you!!!" But it was too late she was gone out of sight and the police were almost there. Canary sighed. "Helena..." Three cop cards drove up and got out of their cars. "FREEZE!" Canary then turned to them and put her hands up. "Chill out guys, just busted the Ventriloquist! Human trafficking!" Looks like I'm taking the credit, I hate credit! "Wait... Black Canary?" The officer questioned as he lowered his gun and looked around at the downed thugs, a injured Ventriloquist and the over a dozen women and child talking loud in a foreign language. "You did all this?" Canary then sighed and put her hands down. "I guess so... do I get a medal?" The cop chuckled. "No, but you get a pass... thanks for the help, now beat it."

What? Wow another cocky cop, or maybe he was keeping the image up of a serious law enforcer. "Consider me gone... have a nice night!" Canary then activated her motorcycle to drive to her location and then got out and zoomed off. The cop then watched as the other officers were tending to Ventriloquist and the victims. Once again looking around. "Wow! What a woman..."