Breathing Down Your Neck (closed)

[krawn]

Henry Lane sat at the table, enjoying his latte. It was starting to get dark, about time for his plan to go into action. From his perspective outside the coffee shop, he could make sure everything happened without any problems. The mutant eyed his target, the most recent construction of The Really Useful Company. This particular city posed an unusual threat. As with most cities, the daylight was littered with citizens. That was a problem, no matter what the case. Too many unpredictable elements. Too many witnesses. And in a city like this one, there was no telling how many people were concealing weapons.

No, no, no. He had done his attacks by the light of day. Message sent. Now all he had to do was destroy his enemy, and by moonlight, his fellow mutants could usually do this unopposed. That was what made this city so different.The was a silent protector watching over Gotham. He was no mutant, and Krawn was aware of this. However, this human was exceptional. He had defeated many with super powers on his own. Krawn was tempted to match wits with this Batman, but he ignored his desire. The Batman had proven himself to be equals to the mind of Sin Tsu, and conquered fear itself against the Scarecrow. No. This fight was best avoided.

That left his options very limited. His best chances were either dusk or dawn. So with the setting sun behind, Krawn did enjoy his latte, and waited for his plan to go into action.





The blue Taurus parked three buildings down from the target building. Casually, two men got out of the car, laughing. They were dressed in suits, like any respectable business men. On their ears were devices unrecognizable from an ordinary bluetooth. They practically were bluetooths, only designed to make their signals virtually untraceable. Within moments, they reached the entrance of the building.

The taller one of the two reached into his right pocket, and took his hand back out, pointer finger and thumb pressed together. He pressed the two fingers up to the keyhole and imitated the turning of a key, magnetically moving the tumblers in the process. In this light, no one would be able to tell he didn't use a key. As he did this, the other man nodded to a passing white minivan, which turned parked near the end of the block. The door opened, and the two entered inside.

The two took their time searching over the place. No alarm had been tripped. No civilian made aware of the trespassing. They needed to make sure it looked like an accident, and they were good at their jobs.



Krawn stood up and stared at the now burning building. The waitress started mumbling under her breath, shocked at the destruction. Krawn reached for his phone, and called the fire department. He needed to blend in to get the full benefit of his location, and they would have plenty of time to do their jobs.

[timjacksondrake]

Tim drake didn't spend much time at home. But for some reason, cold cereal always tasted better here. His feet up on the kitchen table, Tim was watching the TV over the top of the couch in the living room. This house was quite a bit smaller than their mansion home from before, but Tim had ceased to care. He didn't spend much time here anyway. As he munched on the fruit loops, his eyes strayed to the back of his father's head.

His father, who knew his identity as The Boy Wonder. At first it had caused a great amount of frustration and friction between everyone he knew, but now, he was almost glad he knew. He didn't have to lie about where he went all the time, and on some level, Jake knew how important his son was to Gotham. That was better than captain of the football team, wasn't it?

Their relationship was still struggling, of course, as his father was still job drifting. Tim sometimes entertained the idea of asking Bats for a bit of financial assistance, but neither he, nor his father would really be satisfied with that.

Looking at the time, he realized that it would soon be time for his patrol. In days past, he would report to Wayne Manor before going on patrol, but tonight he thought he would prefer to just go alone. He'd been contemplating doing some work abroad. Finding Con or Bart or someone and doing some team work again. Bruce was great, but Tim had a passion for working with heroes his age.

Tim was finishing his cereal when his step mother, Dana, came into the room. "Marie from downtown said that there's a building on fire down there. I think she said it was some place that just got built. It was a big building too. I wonder if it was arson..." She continued to babble on like wives do about things, and Jack made some comments as well, but Tim gathered one thing from the story: Patrol was starting early.

---

Tim didn't like to make assumptions until he arrived on the scene, but his hunches were affirmed when he showed up. The towering flames obscured much of the signage but Tim kept close watch on the goings on, and he knew that an Establishment called "The Really Useful Company" had been constructing their Gotham Branch.

These buildings had been coming down left and right, in different cities around the US, and for that reason, Gotham's finest had been wary of letting one be built here, but Money always had a higher value in Gotham than in most place. Due to the evidence, Tim couldn't believe that it was simple Arson. It was most likely a planned motion...and the breadth of the attacks implied a larger operation. In the back of Tim's mind there was a nagging feeling that this was bigger than your typical crime bust. He was a little excited.

He swept down to ground level and Dodged rolled through the flames into the building. His first priority had to be anyone who was trapped in the flames, and perhaps the perpetrators if they were still there. The fire was well on it's way, and he wondered to himself if this was going to be a simple clean up job...

[metahumans]

The two men headed towards the back of the building. To most people, the destruction would look like an electrical fire. Too much plugged and in use at one time. It wasn't exactly wrong, either. It was electricity that started this fire, but not from any machine. In a way, the company itself helped in it's own destruction. The company used vaccines. Fooled with blood. And that meant flammable liquids. One small spark from a mutant, and the medical cabinets blew like a grenade. As far as these two were concerned, any of the mutants could have done this job. There was no need for their talents and the precautions.

The sounds of glass breaking and small explosions were everywhere, masking any noises made by the new person in the building. As far as they were concerned, their job was complete. All they had to do was escape, and not get noticed.

[timjacksondrake]

Tim looked around hurriedly. It was impossible to tell how long the integrity of the building would hold up, and he had to quickly assess the situation. From the looks of things it had been started by Electricity. A place like this used a lot of outlets and flammable substances. However, it was common for intelligent criminals to make their attacks look like normal.

All the Really Useful Company buildings that had been used in the past were supposedly accidents. In this way, it had appeared to be simple bad luck to many people of the populace. In each city it would seem like just another accident, but when looked at on a large scale, there were holes in that explanation.

Boy Wonder the Third quickly looked around the place, searching for the cause of the fire or survivors. He jumped over the Reception counter, headed down a hallway. He looked in and out of each door. nobody. It must have been after closing time. He wondered then, who was running the electricity that sparked the fire? At the end of the hallway there was an unmarked door that was locked. Without losing pace Tim fired his grappling hook through the deadbolt and the door swung open.

The room was relatively free of fire, it seemed, and he was standing in front of two men, who were headed toward the back alley door.

[metahumans]

Wayne, the taller of the two metahumans, and Bruce, with his long lank black hair spun as the door behind them burst open. Wayne blinked at the famous Boy Wonder before his brain kicked into gear. "Bruce," He shouted over the roar of the fire outside the room. "get him!" Wayne then turned and jogged the rest of the way to the back door. Pressing his hands against it he began to reroute the electricity to the heavy electric lock. The front business door had only minimal locks but this door was heavy duty. With a chk the lock popped open.

Meanwhile, Bruce called the fire from outside the room to block off the vigilantes view of Wayne as he worked. He heard the door open as Wayne made his escape. Drawing some of the fire to his hands, he launched a blazing bolt at Robin. He then turned and ran through the wall of fire, which opened for him and closed almost before he was through. He ran out the door, still cradling a couple of handfuls of fire.

[timjacksondrake]

As 'Bruce' Stepped Forward, Robin pulled his Bo-staff from his belt and extended it. It was obvious these were the felons responsible for the crime. He was not expecting this culprit to be a meta-human, however it did seem slightly obvious in retrospect. When the Metahuman closed the flames behind him, Tim could tell something was up. He rushed forward, prepared to strike at the man's temples, however, the man unleashed a pillar of flames directly at tim. Instead of dodging the flames, he covered himself with his cape, which was coated in Fire-retardant material, and continued rushing.

When he lowered his arm far enough to see, the mutant had disappeared beyond the wall of flames. Quickly rolling though the blaze, Robin took a second to survey the other side. The heavy lock had been unlocked, not broken, which made Tim wonder about the exact nature of the second meta-human. He would need to be wary of them, and gauge their powers.

This in mind, He darted through the open door and looked around for the escaping mutants.

[metahumans]

They got halfway to the alley before Robin came through the door. Bruce turned and unleashed an arc of fire at Robin, leaving enough fire on his fingers to grow into more handfuls. He followed the arc with two more bolts of flame from his hands. He knew that his fire would only hold off Robin for so long. Their real endgame would come from Wayne, but he needed time to concentrate.
Wayne had built a magnetic field inside his body, he focused on what he wanted to do and unleashed the energy. With a screech of rusted metal being ripped apart, a piece of the metal fire escape came free. It landed on the concrete with a heavy clang and wrapped itself around Robin, holding th Boy Wonder.
Shaking and sweating he looked at his partner. "Let's get out of here!" They turned and ran down the alley and met up with the white truck. As the vehicle drove away it vanished in a blue light.

Miles away the car appeared on a little used back-road.

[timjacksondrake]

Robin Quickly saw the escaping metahumans fleeing and gave chase, reaching into his utility belt, he withdrew a few Birdarangs and threw them at the fleeing mutants. However, he did not expect the Fire-manipulator to spin around and launch a barage of Fire at him. He Successfully wall-jumped over the first wave of flames, but fell cape-first into the second wave. The force of the flames sent hims spiraling backwards. He recovered and landed on his feet, realizing that his right leg had sustained some burn damage.

As he released his cape he was taken by surprise by a large portion of the metal fire escape landing heavily on the ground in front of him. The metal began constricting around him, but he turned his Staff sideways in order to stop the constricting. When the pressure of the bending metal and locked his staff in place, he used to yank himself from the confines of the metal trap, and gave chase to the two criminals that were escaping.

They were faster than he'd anticipated, and their ploy had slowed him down far more than it should have. He was already irritated that he had not yet apprehended them. The alley way emptied out onto the main road, but the two had already lept into a waiting car. He threw a tracing device at the car just as it dematerialized, leaving him in it's wake.

Robin took a few steps to slow to a stop, watching in the direction that they'd be if they hadn't vanished. He clenched his fist and punched the brick building beside him. He clenched his teeth and quickly turned back down the alley, to retrieve his staff, and to nurse his leg, and his ego.

[krawn]

Henry Lane took another sip at his latte, watching the speeding vehicle. Fortunately, all of his men had escaped. Robin was a very capable individual, despite being a powerless child. However, he was unsure about the integrity of the mission. The boy was no Batman, but there was no doubt he had left something to remember him by.

Flashing red lights coated the walls of the buildings, and sirens filled the night. Water sprayed at the buildings, fighting the flames. Krawn had one this day, but he had to be even more careful from now on. Now that the boy wonder was on his trail, the caped crusader was soon to follow. The big man got up from his chair, and walked away.