fledermaus
Nightwing95
Written in collaboration over many days with the inestimable Blissy
Harley's idle threats lingered on the dimly lit room around her. To the several Joker thugs in front of her, the terms of warning she exclaimed seemed like not much more then the delusional ravings of the entrapped Jester. “Betta start countin the seconds..” She said cautioning behind a smug grin, all while she'd struggle at the poor knots holding her wrists together behind her back. Wasn't like these idiots knew how handle hostages.. Getting out here would be easy.. all she'd need was-
“Hey!” She spoke aloud, trying to draw the attention of one of the men closer towards her. Meanwhile the others turned their attention else where. “Psst.. hey! Ya im talkin to ya bozo.” Harley's antagonizing of a clown masked thug managed to draw him forward. “Shut up! The more you talk the more I want to hurt you Quinn.” He threatened. Harley wavered the rashness of that threat with a light smug rolling of her eyes and brief flare of a smirk. “Look at ya, all brawn’s and no brain.. Had you's been paying attention ya woulda realized ya dropped something when ya finished tying me to the pole.” What was Harley up to..
A gimmick perhaps? A clever means to try and draw attention from one of the men to make her partners life easier? Or perhaps something else altogether. Harley had an idea, seeing as how her motivate to remain a hostage to her ex-boyfriends gang, wasn't exactly the ideal way she wanted to spend her Friday night. However, that idea couldn't be achieved alone.
From the shadows above the group, two shapes shot down and embedded themselves in the barrels of a pair of rifles with audible THUNK sounds. The henchmen wielding the weapons stared dumbfounded at them for a second or so, taking far too long to come to the obvious conclusion before Nightwing dropped from the rafters into the centre of their motley gang. Two down, two to go.
"Now now boys, I'm sure we can settle this without violence." he said as he took ahold of the other two guns in the group . Before the men using them could react or resist, he kicked one in the kneecap and the other in gut, similtaneously yanking the guns rifles from their arms. He bludgeoned the nearest opponent over the head with the stock of the first and stamped down on the trigger of the other. That's three he thought, snapping the magazine out of the other and throwing it like a batarang into a goon's face. And that's four. Damn I'm good.
In a brief sweep of her attention Harley witnessed the sight of four armed thugs being 'handled', in the corner of her eye. Took ya long enough Bird-brain.. That was her signal, her queue and she took advantage. “Hmm.. whatta kno? Guess it slid under my foot, tiny little thing it was.. kinda looked like a key..” She enticed the thug forward, getting him close so that he were in a fair enough range to benefit her. His body near brushing hers at the tilt of his own dimwit gullibility, had him hunched over and looking for something that wasn't actually there. That was her chance. Her knee came up in a sharp rejecting motion effectively hammering the fool in the stomach. He keeled, groaning, before he fell forward and she just barely managed to sweep her hands over the knife at his side. That put him out.. for now..
“Dun mind if I do!” She declared a loud, as Dick's own voice spoke out to high-lighted his presence among the commotion. Easily cutting the ropes binding her wrists at her back to shreds with a light shimming of her wrists broke her free from the bounds. It were a good thing Nightwing's timing was on par with the rather improvised escape plan she managed to whip up on her own.
Punching another in the face and cracking his mask, Dick managed to give a nonchalant shrug and survey the surrounding mayhem."Okay, maybe we can't settle this without violence, my mistake. You alright there Harley?"
Knife in hand her ears twitched to the sound of Dick speaking to her from just down ways. Harley's own hands gently went to massage at her wrists before she'd confirm the question. “Neva betta.. it's a good thing these clowns don't kno how tie knots very well.. Last thing I need is ya savin me from my own people.. Ha! The irony..”
With an acrobatic spring, Dick leapt into the air and drew his billy clubs at the same time. For half a second he almost seemed to hang in the air, suspended above his assailants like an omen of doom. Then he came crashing down, each of his four limbs striking one of Joker's thugs before his legs wrapped around one's shoulders to break his fall. His momentum jerked the man backwards, with Dick hanging off his back like a bizarre bag. Jabbing out with his sticks, two opponents doubled over before Dick released his leg hold, balanced on the sticks for a moment and brought his armoured boots down onto the back of the duo's heads like an executioner's axe. They fell, sound asleep, as Dick flipped upright again.
"Sorry Harl, didn't catch that properly. You said thanks for me arriving in the nick of time, right?"
Dick's flashy show of eagerness to the terms of battering the first line of the Joker themed thugs only caused Harley to huff in almost jealous response. Standing where she were, twirling the little knife she used to free herself with, she'd almost find herself scoffing at the whole act of watching him turn Joker's so called most 'mean and badass' into human bowling pins. It felt weird to find herself fighting alongside Nightwing, knowing she had all that thunder on her side of the broad for once.
“Yeah.. I said something like that..” A light rolling of the eyes ensued before that particular disregarding address led her to notice a Joker thug rampaging towards her with a bat. A brief flash of alarm took her expression, before Harley ducked evading the swing of the bat, only to return her gratitude for the cheap shot by hooking her foot into the Joker thug's ankle. He tripped, she reached out, grabbed the bat he held with a wide sneer, that seemed to convey flattery only a moment later. Taking advantage of the clumsy thug's flip that wind him up on his back, Harley rammed the bat into his chest and left him winded and down for the count.
She threw knife in her hand to the side a moment later, letting it embedded itself in the wall to remove it from the picture. “Soo.. this is what this feels like huh? Shoulda started sooner..!” And there Dick went, getting her all charged up.
Dodging some desparate blows, Dick tapped a pair of buttons on his batons to the sound of crackling electricity. The tips of his weapons now practically sparked with coils of blue energy, both of which he stabbed into the guts of thugs. Instantly, the two men jerked backwards with uncontrolled thrashings that sent several more men stumbling away. In the sudden gap, Dick stepped forward sharply and sprang over the heads of several more men.
With perfect poise and self satisfied smile, he landed next to Harley and took up position by her side. "I'd certainly have less scars if you'd started on this side sooner. Now, shall we soften these, excuse the expression, clowns up before asking any questions?"
Gettin her all charged up.. Oh what a pun.. Of course it didn't help that she watched Dick only shock several of the Joker thugs a minute later. She had to admit.. That looked kinda fun.. The shocking part anyway.. ehehe..While Harley let her rather crude sadomasochist imagination wander, another Joker thug served to try to remind her what the circumstances of her mischief brooding would entitle her too. Namely, a fist full of angry clown. He came in fast, faster then the other guy, but this time she were paying attention. Or at least mostly anyway. While Nightwing handled the situation in his own way, Harley started to adapt to the hostilities that came complying down around her. The thug came in forward, his momentum strong, too strong for her to block or obstruct. Not like she really needed to do anything of those things.
Once he came roaring in rage endued charge at her like a bull, she'd easily jump up and plant both hands on the small of his shoulder, using him as makeshift leapfrog all while displaying just how flexible she could be. He of course got anything but an arm full of the excited blonde he tried to flatten like a pancake. He ate the wall a minute later, only to also eat a sharp kick in the face that had Harley bending over and spinning him a kick to the jaw like a red and black clad ballerina. Great timing to, since now her and Nightwing were standing side to side.
A light sneer formulated on that exhilarating wild expression at Nightwing's comment. “If you mean SMASH em into pudding then yeah that's what I MEAN!” She replied, letting that comment evolve into squeaky battle-cry. Harley charged forward into the next few thugs that were trying to entrap them where they stood..
As Harley ran in with a frenzied cry, Dick shook his head in mock despair. Truly, the similarities between her and Damian were genuinely frightening sometimes, only he would probably be moaning using a katanna about now. Can't stand here all the live day! was his only thought before he jumped into the fray after her.
Where Harley fought like a sugar fuelled berserker, Dick had a practised ease to his strikes. Bruce had trained him to fight like a surgeon, placing blows with ruthless precision to cause as much damage as possible with as little risk. That training had been hammered into him for more than ten years, most of which time he'd been fighting far more dangerous opponents than these second rate henchmen. So every kick, punch, grapple or strike he used set up the next to, exposing temples, knee caps, throats and guts. Damian often remarked he was far too compassinoate, preferring not to cause more pain than he had to but his younger brother would be proud of him now. Dick was pulling no punches, intending to cause as much pain as he could without too much lasting damage.
After all, they were planning to interrogate them.
"Remember you said you wouldn't kill anyone Harley..."
Thrill took to her approach in easily hammering down two more thugs, one with a swing of the bat and another by a rather crude kick to the crotch. Harley didn't care, so long as the thugs stopped moving and stayed out of her merry way. Improvisation and detrimental imagination carried this ones movements, as well as her particular style of combat. Unlike her newly obtained ally, Harley did not process the grace of such precise or experienced hits that guided her own terms of showing offence. Instead, Harley's combative capabilities came from a much more odd flow of blunt energy and acrobatic maneuvers.
Dick's call of reminding her that she wasn't allowed to kill anyone, made her pout in dramatized resolve, all while Harley found herself wrapped around one of the thugs like a snake, pulling cruelly on the small crease of his brows that made up his own cheap clown painted mask. “What's that Bird-brain? I can't HEAR YA OVA THIS ONES SCREAMIN!” She protested, hearing him, but being difficult about it, because she was having fun. Being entertained was important after all, especially when that source of entertainment came from riding one of her enemies around the room like a horse jockey.
The protesting continued all while a few other armed goons moved to surround Harley. This was her own fault, she ran head on into the crowd. Noticing the lack of space around her, she'd dismantle herself from the Joker-Jockey and sent him flying towards Dick by climbing ontop him and locking her ankles around his neck, before pitching him across the room. This was Harley using her acrobatic qualities to her advantage as well as making them effective at cleaning house. “Allow me to express ma gratitude for PLAYIN BY YOUR RULES! Bottom's up birdy!” He flew, she flipped down into the ground disappearing temporarily beneath the crowd. Hopefully Dick was paying attention, otherwise he was about to receive a rather unintentional present.
Luckily for both of them, Dick was very much on the ball. As the ill fated minion's trajectory brought him down, Nightwing twitched to one side and tugged one of the falling man's compatriots in his place. There was a crash, a crunch and some despairing moans from the bottom of the newly formed pile but it didn't seem too serious. Glancing over at Harley, Dick realised with alarm that she'd practically disappeared from sight under a tide of foes. Tasering the last standing opponent in arm's reach, he leapt towards where he'd last seen her.
"You alright in there Harley?" he called, kicking a thug in the back of the knee to make him kneel before hammering his fists into each of the man's temples. Man, if you'd told me this morning that I'd not only be spending the evening with Harley Quinn but also being trying to make sure she doesn't die... A strange day indeed.
