Alone? [Batgirl]

[Dick Grayson - Nightwing]

Of all night the low lives of Gotham had picked a great night to try and rob a few places that night. Since Dick had hit the city as Nightwing, it hadn't stopped raining. He even had driven a bit slower on the now slick road in the Gotham city traffic. After some lunatic had almost hit him while out on the road, which was not Dick's fault, he was now caught in a downpour, fighting in some alley in the down town part of West Gotham.

Usually Dick enjoyed a challenging fight being out numbered. Though tonight's weather was bringing his mood down as well with how everything has been going that night so far. And to top it off the rain was just coming down harder and harder as he caught hand to hand with some goons. He had since then side armed a few of them of the crowbars some of them were holding. But with so many of them, it was hard to stop all of them from running back and collecting their weapons. At least, they didn't have guns. Well, he hoped they didn't at this point.

There were probably at least six guys. Dick had lost count after the first three had gone after them. Nightwing had just appeared right in time as a gang was working on a plan for a break in. He just happened to get in the way at this point. Though it was probably better to stop them before they could do anything.

Dick was trying to avoid the left hooks and the brass knuckles some of the men were now wearing. He had probably been fending them off for the last five minutes of so. But these guys seemed to be tag teaming each other against him and making it easy for them keep fresh for a fight against the unwanted vigilante. These weren't like most of the gangs in Gotham. They were enjoying the fight and trying to wear him down.

This fight seemed to be turning against him at this point. These were the kind of guys that would teach the city a lesson by teaching one hero a lesson. And the fight was becoming just that. Dick was lucky he had managed to avoid the brass knuckles now. But just one moment of his attention not focused on the right man and Dick took a brass knuckle to the right side of his face. The hit sent him backward as someone quick took the chance to hit him in his left side with a crowbar.

Nightwing fell to his knees with his head to the ground in pain for a moment. "Looks like the bird finally is falling," one thug commented while a few others laughed at the joke as he quickly took the chance to hit Nightwing in the back with the crowbar, sending him flat to the ground.

This hadn't been the first time he had been after this group. He had an encounter earlier that week against them. He had managed to stop them some of their supplies from coming at the docks. And Dick was sure these guys probably wouldn't have forgotten the crocky attitude of a new vigilante on the streets that had brought them down.

"How's it feel Nightwing to be stuck down and have you're plans wrecked for the night," another thug said as they grabbed a crowbar as well. Two other thugs grabbed Nightwing by the arms and dragged him up.

Dick stayed quiet he tried to control his breaking after that last hit to his back that had knocked the wind out of him. "You shouldn't have followed us," the guy continued as his crew held Nightwing against the alley wall. Dick struggles against the two guys holding his arms against the walls. Sure he had probably been fighting for ten minutes now, but had it not been for the hit to his back, he probably could have continued a while longer.

The rain continued to fall in a steady but hard flow. Dick looked up at them, his wet hair was plastered to his face. "You really thought I wouldn't? Shows how much you know," Nightwing commented back with a smirk on his face as the blood that had been on his face ran down the right side along with the rain.

He turned and head butted the guy to his left. Getting himself free from the guys grip, he struggled against the guy to his right now to free himself. He pulled out one of his Escrima sticks from the attachment on his back. He hit the man in the head and got himself free. But two more men came after him. Even with Dick going after the first guy charging after him another came up behind him and grabbed Nightwing, trying to restricted his arms. And the one man who had been restraining him to begin with, came back to help keep a hold of him. First taking both of the Escrima strike away from Nightwing, throwing them across the alley. Both the men held him out as another man came forward raising up a crowbar. "Say goodnight, Nightwing," the man started to say.

[k]

[/b] she said pointedly, and jumped from the escape down onto the ground, sweeping up Dick's Eskrima sticks into her hands. Babs was trained with them, but had rarely used them. Now she'd managed to take the attention away from Dick she took the opportunity to throw them back to him.

"Nightwing!" Babs yelled to Dick as she threw the sticks before delivering a roundhouse kick to the face of one of the gang members. She didn't stop to see whether Dick had made the catch, although she assumed he would. She went about taking down the gang, trying to ensure they were constantly disarmed, because she knew the kind of impact crowbars could make, least of all when they were directed at the face. The gang were enjoying the fight though, Babs noted, which made a change from the usual lot. They often seemed determined but never to the point where the fights caused excitement. She frowned as she delivered an uppercut to the member who'd previously been raising the crowbar to strike Dick. She was caught off guard with a kick to the abdomen, but managed to recover fairly quickly. She narrowed her eyes and continued to fight back angrily, now glancing around looking for Dick.[/ul]

[Dick Grayson - Nightwing]

As the sound of the crowbar hitting the ground, Nightwing knew who had come. That and the voice he heard made it all the more obvious. Dick was relieved to hear her voice and to have her there at that moment. Though, he wouldn't admit it straight forward to Babs out loud.

Dick didn't waste any time, even though with the pain he was in after the few hard hits he had taken in the last few minutes. He wasn't going to waste this chance to get out of this little situation and gain back some of his pride. He wasn't exactly hoping to run into Batgirl this way for the first time the two had run into each other on the streets.

As soon as the thugs attention was drawn to Batgirl, Dick yanked his right arm free from the one man. And before the other could do anything, he used the man's weight against him by flipping the man over his back. Knowing right away the man would let go of his arm as being thrown in the air. It had worked and by the time Babs had thrown the Escrima stick, Dick was able to catch them in time.

"Thanks," he replied as he charged forward at two other men coming at him. He crossed his arms over and as the two came at him, which full force of the escrima sticks, uncrossed his arm and hit both the men in the face. As soon as they dropped to the ground in pain, another man came charging up from behind Nightwing.

Dick knew he was coming and with ease, jumped up and out of the way of the large man. The large man had dove at him and missed and went toppling over the two men who had been downed by Nightwing. With these guys down, Dick figured it was time to give Batgirl a hand. He had seen her take a hit to the abdomen. And before she had the chance to see he had noticed. Dick made a run and lept at the near by fire escape. He grabbed hold of the railing of it and watch the man before Babs for a moment.

And in a slit second he jumped off the fire escape and did a flip in the air, landing himself behind the man now facing off against Batgirl. Nightwing stood behind the goon and tapped him on the shoulder with one of the escrima sticks. And when the guy had turn to see who was behind him, Nightwing let a full force right hook to the man's face loose. The man fell of to the side in pain and surprise at the attack.

Dick was ignoring all the pain he was in at the moment. The acrobatic work was not making it easy on him while fighting after the crowbar met with his back. Dick placed the escrima sticks back in their holder on his back. He gave a smirk to Batgirl for the over the should trick working on the goon in the first place. But there wasn't much time with another two men coming their way again.

[k]

[/b] Babs complimented, still assuming her stance, taking the brief moment to talk to Nightwing. She knew he would like to think he could do this all alone, but she wasn't going to let him. She was here now and fighting, and Dick would just have to square with the fact he couldn't do it all alone. Babs glanced back to see the two approaching men.

"I'll take Pillsbury Doughboy," Babs said, nodding in the direction of the sligtly weighter of the two men approaching. Without another word to Dick she moved forward, directing another high roundhouse kick to the man and knocking him off balance. He fell to the floor, but grabbed hold of her ankle as he tumbled down. She was momentarily caught, but pulled her leg free and sprung away, flipping across to the other side of the alley and landing on the gravel. The guy seemed to be enjoying the chase too, and was already back on his feet.

"Who are you?" Babs muttered, mostly to herself as she delivered a sharp kick to the man's stomach. He grabbed her foot, about to twist when she took the opportunity to punch him square in the nose. He dropped her foot and she was able to complete the kick back, managing to take him down. She glanced around at an approaching member of the gang before pulling the rope from belt, expertly wrapping the rope around the man's legs and yanking it back to pull him over. She knew the GCPD would be on their way now, someone would have phoned for them, and she was sure she could hear them in the distance.

Babs took the moment to glance at Dick, a smile on her face. She'd forgotten how much she enjoyed fighting beside him. His take down of the man with the old tap on the shoulder trick had told her something. He hadn't changed - that was a move Dick would have used as Robin. He was still the carefree, light-hearted kid she'd managed to find herself falling in love with - and here they were, fighting together again. It was nice to know that whilst the times changed - and vigilante costumes changed - somethings would remain the same.

Babs heard one of the men come up behind her, the guy she'd referred to as 'Pillsbury Doughboy', probably something he hadn't been too impressed with if he'd heard her. He grabbed her from behind, but Babs knew she'd be able to struggle from his hold without much problem.
"Nightwing!" Babs called, looking in the direction of an escaping member of the gang. It would be nice to bring in a full house, Babs thought, not wanting to lose the guy. She'd called it to Dick's attention in the hope he'd stop the guy before he got too far. Babs, however, had struggled an arm free and delivered a backward kick to her captor.[/ul]

[Dick Grayson - Nightwing]

"All right. Sound like a good plan," Dick said as he went after the shorter man, not waiting. There was no point in letting this fight drag on. The pain was going to catch up to him sooner or later. But at the moment, he wasn't going to let it. He needed to pull through and end this now. It had gone on long enough.

Nightwing charged at the shorter man before him. He turned quickly when he got withing striking distance of the man. Only to spin around while pulling out the Escrima sticks again and hitting the man in t the side and face with both. This knocked the man to the side and Dick quickly went after the man again as he tried to gather himself.

Dick went up to him and delivered a spinning kind, hit foot landing to the man's stomach. The man fell backwards as Dick throw a rope with with a three split and weights on it so it would wrap around the man's body. Trapping him so he couldn't get away.

Dick had taken down his man, only to see that Babs had someone on her back. But she had called his attention to the man now trying to escape the scene. He was torn between helping her and stopping the man. Though he knew he could do both if he played his cards right.

There was an easy solution to the man trying to get away. Dick pulled out another line with weight and threw it, aimed at the man's legs. The line flew through the air and ended up tangling the man around the legs. Sending him flying through the air as he fell to the ground face first. That had to hurt, but the guy deserved it.

Turning around to see Babs struggling with the man that had gotten his hands on her. Dick could see she was handling it herself. Though it wouldn't hurt to put and end to it. Running toward the two, Nightwing ran to the side of them and from behind the man whacked him in the back of the head with one of the Escrima sticks. He had gotten sick of these guys' games that night. Dick just wanted a break from it. It looked like they had gotten everyone.

[k]

[/b] she said, looking at the guy he'd just knocked out. She smiled at him, above taking meaningless things like the fact he'd taken down someone she could handle perfectly well as an insult. In fact, she had been the one to break up the initial fight that Nightwing had been fighting, one where he'd been severely outnumbered.

"Who are these guys?" Babs asked, with a frown. They didn't seem like the average gang, and she was worried that this was barely the surface of the full extent of their members. "They're... different, they seemed to enoy the fight," she said pointedly. Something told her that there was more to this gang than the both of them thought, and she looked over at Nightwing to try and read how he was feeling about it all. He had to agree that their method of fighting was rather amateur - trained professionals didn't fight in that style. However, they seemed to Babs to be a lower class in a bigger food chain of a gang, and they were just the whipping boys for something larger. Babs could see the flash of the sirens as the police approached, pulling up outside the alleyway. She didn't want to mention how they'd managed to overcome Nightwing, how easily this whole affair could have gone differently. She didn't want to imagine what could have happened had she not arrived when she had. As strong as Dick was, he was far from infallible.
[/ul]

[Dick Grayson - Nightwing]

"It's some kind of new branch off from the Thorne gangs. They are more of a new group themselves though," Dick started off as he glanced over at the now knocked out men and the few that were tied up. The rain was still pounding down on the streets below. Even with this weather Dick had taken on the challenge to take them down.

"Yeah, they tend to enjoy the fighting. It's more like entertainment to them. I'm thinking it's because they probably are running more as free agents that having a ring leader just yet," he said. He had observed the gangs work of late. Though these guys weren't all that professional in their way of working, but they had muscle and a bit of strategy to their work. They worked in shifts against one man attacks to save energy, but they lacked a way in weapons when using crowbars. At least they weren't like the every day crook with a baseball bat. Either way, they didn't have much class to their act.

"Tag teaming is kind of their thing when odds are against their opponents," he said. Dick walked over toward the two he had knocked out earlier and bent down to tie the two up with come cable he pulled out of one of the compartment built into the top part of his boots, half way up his shin.

After he finished tying them, he stood back up and winced as he back was so sore. He had been ignoring all the pain through out the last few minutes of the fight. He had been luck the other hit with the crowbar earlier had been more to his side then on his rib cage. Though he didn't feel anything wrong at the moment. He hoped there wasn't any internal injuries as much so. But his back was sore the hit had come more on his shoulder.

He still was hiding the fact that he had gotten hit hard a couple of times. He could take car of it when he got back to his place. As he turned to walk back towards Babs, he reached up and wiped the side of his face. He could see against the blue of his gloves that there was blood. He knew h was probably going to have a black eye from that one as well as some swelling. As for his back, he was just going to need to rest. It's a good thing these guys weren't as strong as Bane or anything. It still hurt, but would never compare to the beating Two-Face once gave him years back when he had first started as Robin.

"These guys aren't going any where," Dick said. "I've been on them for about a week now. Found them do at the docks in the middle of a trade." He filled her in on the last run in he had with them. As for the reason of them enjoying the fight more to get back at Nightwing. Dick tried to move a bit more easier for his back. It wasn't much of a change in his walk and actions, but there was something a little off. Dick was starting to think maybe he should call it an early night or something. He usually didn't think that way, but the crowbar to the back had done it. Good thing he hadn't gotten one to the head.

[k]

[/b] Babs asked, looking across at Dick. This was news to her, because she certainly hadn't heard anything from the police department about anything trade-related last week. "What did you find?" Babs asked, and she turned her attention back to the men as the police arrived. She glanced back at Dick, her grapple gun in her hand now. "Our work's done," she announced. She aimed her grapple gun at the top of the fire escape, and then looked across at Dick again.

"Come on," she instructed, and swung up onto the roof of the building. She stood there for less than a second, gaining her balance and standing there, watching the police below her. Her hair was soaked through from the rain, and she began to question why she didn't tie it up or have a cowl that covered it all. However, she didn't fancy cutting it all down, she was quite fond of her fiery red hair, and wouldn't want to sacrifice it for the sake of fitting it into a cowl. Babs made a mental note to herself to remind Dick to get his back looked at. Things like that could easily esculate into a bigger problem, and that was the last thing that Nightwing would need, any kind of impairment physically could quickly become a weakness when fighting, and it would be hard to keep it a secret from opponents too. If Babs spotted it so easily, she imagined during a fight someone would see it too.[/ul]

[Dick Grayson - Nightwing]

Dick noticed the police coming there way as well. He had heard Babs question on the trade, but knew there was little time to explain it from where they stood at the moment. It wasn't something that was going to be easy to explain to the police right at that moment. Dick ended up following her lead and pulling out his line gun as well.

He allowed the line to reel him in a bit using his left arm to hold on to the line. As soon as he got close to the roof top, he added a bit of a swing to his line to allow him to get more air before he landed. This allowed him to perform a a front tucked flip to land on his feet with ease. Though the impact of landed did shed a shutter up hit spine a bit over the pain. Dick made a note to himself to remember to see the doctor sometime that week. But he'd have to come up with a cover story for it.

"This trade seemed to be unsupervised by Thorne's company at all. Yet, these are his men performing the acts. I have a feeling there are some double sided men working more within the vines of the larger gangs," Dick started to explain as they had made it away from the police. The rain was still a steady stream, falling even quicker than before, he thought.

It was times like this, Dick was glad his suit was water proof. This rain was really starting to switch his mood. Normally he enjoyed fighting in whether like this. But something about that whole night was throwing him off. These guys they had just taken down as well, were the major part for this reason. If he didn't know any better, he had a feeling someone was going to be out to get him soon for the many interferences he had caused

"It seemed like a trade for drugs in return of weapons," Dick said as he crossed his arms. "The supplies they are trading seem to be the main part that Thorne's business runs off of. I have a feeling Thorne's isn't going to be happy when he finds out his own men are two timing him." Though, Dick didn't feel bad at all for what was going on. All those people seemed to deserve the backstabbing they were getting from each other.