June 06, 2015:
The Joker makes his debute in New York… Oracle, May and Huntress stop him… sort of.
New York
Characters
![class="image1"](http://cmbeta.wdfiles.com/local--resized-images//class="image1"/medium.jpg)
NPCs: None.
Mentions:
Plot:
A Dark Hold
Apocalypse: Only the Strong
Blood versus Family
Bones Of The City
Breaking the Universe
Cyberdata War: First Strike
Dangerous Esterikos Wonderous Mystikos
Dark Gods & Times
De Oppresso Liber
Demon Lord of New York
Diaz de Muertos
Don't Tell Thanos The Babysitter's Dead
Empire of Tears
Escape from Sakaar
From the Ashes
Gateway to the Stars
Genosha: Rebirth
God Of The Dead
Hacker, Sass-Mastah, Engineer, Spy
Himmel und Hölle in Bewegung Setzen
Mood Music: None.
Fade In…
There's an all points bulletin for the water treatment plant on the southern corner of East Side. Gunfire was reported. When the police responded a number of very heavily armed men in clown masks engaged them at from the plant, killing two officers and making them fall back. And then the report came in that they were holding hostages. That report… actually came from the source itself.
"Hello New York! I'm BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!" It's the Joker transmitting, somehow, overriding every radio station within about 10 miles of the site. "I'm currently entertaining several of your fine water treatment workers. Did you know they skinny dip in the tanks? Well, they do now anyway. OR they're going to. We're just having a grand old time here, so I do hope the police aren't thinking of crashing the party. That just kills the mood."
Since The Jokers move to New York, Oracle has been more attention to the private police channels than she normally would. That's why she knows that The Joker has hauled in some chemical tanks and some heavy drilling equipment and that the hostages are being held, suspended over one of the tanks. From the discussion on the police bands, she's gleaned there are about 30 men there.
She would swear… she would… but it doesn't help. Instead, she checks her screens to determine which of her team is available. Over the comms, she sends out a signal.
"This is Oracle. As I feared, The Joker has made his move and is holding hostages on the Southern corner of East Side. May and Huntress, you're closest, are you able to respond? More details will follow if you are."
Helena was in New York City, following up a couple personal interests, luckily costumed though when she gets the call and she sets off quickly towards the location given, "Alright… I'm on my way. Give me what you can about the situation.."
"Oracle, May. Already en route. SHIELD started monitoring the situation at the first APB. There are teams in place, but getting the hostages out safely is my priority." Well, that and decapitating that pain in the ass Clown. Huntress, glad you're here. Where can you meet?"
The police are holding back now that SHIELD is involved. Ordinarily this'd be a job for NYHRT but the Joker is… well he's a man. Just a man so far as anyone knows but an incredibly dangerous one. K-Squad hasn't mobilized yet… and they don't technically have the authority to intervene right now without a request from the city.
Inside six hostages are hanging suspended over a water treatment tank. Which would be dangerous enough but there's clearly other things going on. For one, several of the mains have been opened up and new hoses attached that run to large tanks. For another… well… The Joker just came in.
"Hello boys. Nice of you to hang around. Now, I know it's been hot so I've been thinking you might want to swim. Let me just… chlorinate the pool…" He kicks over a chemical drum which starts spilling into the water below and turning it vaguely green.
Oracle conferences May and Huntress' comms. The news that SHIELD was involved was suprising but welcome. "Hostages first, absolutely May." No arguments from the redhead who possibly has a bigger beef with The Joker.
Transmitting the trajectories of the two women, Oracle lets them work out where to meet up. "He's just dumped a chemical into the water supply." Turning her head and narrowing her eyes, the wheel chair bound woman considers "Watch out… this is likely joker toxin." Mays had to deal with something like that when Darce was taken to SHIELD medical.
"Joker Toxin.. got it.." Huntress says, "I'll try to keep out of it. And name a spot May, I'm just arriving in the vicinity, I'll come meet you." She says as she moves to park her ride, disembarking and going to meet wherever it is May sends her to, "How many thugs does he have with him? And how many hostages??"
May meets Huntress where she's parking her motorcycle. "Preliminary reports say approximately thirty hostages. The actual number of hostiles is more difficult to determine. Oracle, can you confirm?" She looks at Huntress again. "For similar ops, SHIELD usually has a covert sniper. There isn't one in the area currently. Are you okay to take that spot?"
The green tint to the water has everyone suspended above the tank pretty worried. And it only gets worse when the Joker, humming a little ditty, hops on over to some camera equipment and turns it on. "Hello New York!" He grins manically. The transmission is going out through the internet. It can be shut down though. "I thought you'd like to see some proof of life! See! Here's the hostages, safe and sound." He steps over to a console and hits a couple of buttons that start the stirring arms in the tanks going. They make an almighty racket. "For now…" Out on the perimeter at least of dozen Jokerz are in position to report and fire on any police advance up to the main entrence of the plant, hidden behind pipes and in the outbuildings. Good coverage, really. But none of them are expecting SHIELD.
SHIELD can deal with the onsite stuff, Oracle has seen what The Joker is trying to do. "He's compromised the water mains, that stuff is going into the city water supply." the redhead really dislikes The Joker. "There are five mains compromised already." Details are sent to the womens communicators "We need to shut them down, before whatever that is is dispersed."
Huntress' question is answered as well "Six hostages, Huntress and about 30 Jokerz."
There's a reason Oracle is a hacker, she can access the city computer systems and pull up the schematics. Finding the water supply, she searches for a way to stop the toxins dispersal.
"That's a lot of them." Huntress says with a bit of a hmn, but she nods her head a bit towards May, "I can do that, I suppose yeah." she says, moving to her bike to produce her larger sized crossbow, and crossbow accessories, "I'll get up high and try and find a good overwatch. You let me know if and when you need any shooting to start."
Melinda May nods to Huntress. "Sounds good. SHIELD has three other teams in place to enter the plant from the south, the west, and from the water side. We're going in on the north side." That puts them closest to the Joker et al. "Oracle, would it help if I could get you direct access to the plant's computer systems?"
Stop the spread? No. Slow and limit it, yes, but it would involve Oracle shutting down one of the pump stations. If she does that the chemicals won't go any further north than upper East Side, though they'll still go south. And it'll leave quite a few people without water. And the city services will probably try to get it working again. But she can do it.
The Joker's men don't seem to know SHIELD is ready to breech. The main man, though is running the clock out on them. He presses a button… which starts to lower the hostages toward the water. They'll be hit it in about a minute. In two they'll be fully immersed. Then he heads back inside and out of the shot, toward the lower leveles. Whistling.
"Legally, May?" Oracles already trying to hack that system now she has the schematics "If we shut this down, it will cause problems for the city. I'm searching the databases to see how we can neutralise it." If May gets her access quicker than she can hack it, all well and good, but the redhead won't let The Jokers foul poison affect New Yorkers.
She's quite happy to leave Huntress and May to sort out the issues on the ground.
"Gotcha.. just make sure they aren't wearing clown masks." Huntress says with a bit of a grin, "And watch out for traps." She says before she starts to take her leave of May, ascending one of the perimeter buildings and moving to try and find a good vantage point down on the location below…
Melinda May nods to Huntress and moves to enter the building at the point that was pre-arranged. This is, honestly, almost depressingly easy. "Oracle, I'm in." She moves cautiously but quickly until she locates a computer system, pulling a USB stick from a pocket and plugging it into a hidden port. "Remote access is yours. Moving on." What Oracle does with the access is up to her, but at least now she doens't have to completely hack her way in.
Ninety seconds. If Oracle's watching this feed she might want to let May and Huntress know that those hostages are going to be dipped in Joker-somehting in a bout 90 seoncds. They need to move. Quick. There's a rumble and something lights up Oracle's boards. It's… big whatever it is. Construction equipment?
And then the floor drops out from under May. The Joker had an excavator in place. And now he's driving it. If he's not stopped he'll drive it right through the police blockade and on his way out.
About the same time the SHIELD teams engage the Jokerz. And while SHIELD commandos are very well trained… these guys have a lot of ordinance. Three separate fire fights break out and suddenly Huntress and May will have no shortage of targets. What to do though? Save the hostages? Enage the clowns? Stop the Joker himself? The good news is that the excavator seems to be hooked up to some sort of VPN. Oracle might be able to compromise it… if she's not busy doing other things.
Of course Oracle will let her team know. "You've got 90 seconds to get to the hostages. I'm working on shutting the pumps off. Thank you, May." Working her way through the system, she brings up the management console just about the time the excavator goes live. It's a good thing the redhead can move quickly, well digitally, and with a quick swipe of her hand, the excavators engine is disabled.
Which then brings her to the pumping station… "I've got access, shutting the station down…" another gesture and the pumps should go dormant leaving her time to review the Batcomputer for a neutralising agent.
"Looks like your team's are running into a lot of problems." Huntress says over the comms, and she loads a blunted bolt into her crossbow, taking aim on one of the more threatening Jokerz on her avenue of coverage, "I'm going to give them as much support as I can from up here." TWANG goes the first shot, sending the heavy tip of the crossbow bolt into one of the Jokerz heads and she quickly starts to reload to deliver another quick shot, prioritizing the Jokerz with the heaviest weapons over the run of the mill murder-clowns.
Melinda May would offer her thanks to Huntress for covering the other SHIELD teams, but the floor just fell out from under her feet. She curses shortly, then despite really REALLY wanting to go after the Joker, instead scrambles to get back on track so she can get those hostages away from that tank of contaminated water. "Huntress, Joker is on that excavator. If you get a shot, take it."
The controls aren't hard to work. But the feet of the (stripped) hostages is already in the water. May can, and does, save them from a complete dipping but a couple of them are already starting to chuckle. Clearly a compound that absorbs through the skin.
The Joker rides the excavator out and… it will go past a place where Huntress gets a shot. He's cackling madly over the all call. Not really subtle. And the clowns would be bugging out but SHIELD has them tied up and they keep getting knocked out by blunted crossbow bolts for some odd reason.
There's a crunch of metal as a squadcar just… flattens. The Police are shooting. For all the good it's doing.
Seeing how the hostages are responding, Oracle doesn't send the details of the neutralising agent she's found, instead "Can you get a sample of that water please? It looks like he's changed the formulation."
A final thought as she watches the two woman work "Remember to grab Mays USB on the way out." There'll be things to explain about turning the station back on, but for now… she'll take what she can get.
Huntress produces a bolt with a crescent shaped blade on the front, and as the excavator starts to trumble in view she begins to take caaareful aim at the hydraulic lines on the arm, attempting to sever them and cut all the hydraulic power to the arm, and drop the bucket as a big old anchor for the Joker's current vehicle of mayhem.
Melinda May gets the hostages clear, frowning when they start to laugh a bit. She knows though, that if their exposure levels weren't lethal they'll recover in a matter of days. And to help with that she pulls a small but wickedly sharp curved blade and makes quick work of removing the shoes, socks, and lower parts of their trousers. All without touching any of the tainted items or leaving even the tiniest scratch on the former hostages. She then pulls a plastic evidence-type bag from a pocket and absconds with one cut off trouser leg. "Sample obtained." She nods to the other SHIELD agents and heads back the way she came in so she can pull the USB as she passes by.
The arm just kind of thuds down. The Joker doesn't fight it. As the excavator slews into a slide he opens the door on the far side and hops out. Moments later Oracle can see a sewer grate being opened. Clearly reverting to type here. The Joker is retreating to 'familair' haunts. Where in the NY sewer grid he's set up is a good question.
Either way, SHIELD is in the process of wrapping up the clowns thanks to Huntress and the cops are moving in. May's got the hostages safe… So the only really worrisome thing is the chemicles.