Let's follow the cops back home

[controlledvariable]

Who: Stephanie Brown, Bruce Wayne, CLOSED
What: Beating up the militia, Bat-dickery
Where: Militia dude's hotel room
When: Night time, a little after this
Notes: Sorry for spamming. Sorry for everything I choose to be. Also I purposefully didn't give the guy a name because of ~reasons~ but also a little bit because I am lazy
Warnings: Police brutality, violence, NPC death, swearing

It feels good to have a proper lead. Knowing where to look for her target gives her hope that she's going to find him and beat the shit out of him soon. The thought of wanting to kill him is still there, and even while knowing Babs will support her, it scares her a little. But she can't worry about that now; she'll cross that bridge when she gets to it. For now, she stakes out a spot above a popular militia bar that the kids mentioned the man frequents and slides down the lenses on her cowl to zoom in. It's a long night of watching people wander in and out of the bar at varying stages of drunkenness, but eventually she spots her target and flips the lenses up so she can see properly as she follows him.

She tosses up the possibility of trying to plant a tracer on him, but she isn't sure how well the technology would work in Baedal, and it might be too risky anyway. She's been doing this whole investigation the hard, low tech way from the beginning and she figures she might as well finish it up in the same fashion; so stalking it is.

He heads back to a cheap hotel, and Steph wonders if he's even officially a member of the militia anymore. She's a little surprised his own people haven't made him disappear, like they did to Henry Mau Jennings, but she figures it might have something to do with the fact his CiD didn't send the transmission. No one can actually trace him back to the leaked video, so maybe they just fired him rather than... doing whatever it is they do with people who piss them off. Either way, his living standards must have dropped a lot, considering the state of his room and how drunk he is as he stumbles back there. She'd feel sorry for him if she hadn't seen him hitting kids.

She wants to go straight in, but she knows Babs would kill her if she did that without relaying the information about the target's location first, so she makes a note of the address and goes home.

The next night, after having discussed a plan of attack with Babs, Steph heads back to the hotel room at about 3am. She approaches carefully, taking the back route because even shitty hotels have lights out the front and someone creeping into a room might raise suspicion. She's glad he's on the first floor; it means she doesn't have to perch awkwardly outside a second or third story window and try to peer in.

There's not much to see, so she switches her lenses to infrared and peers in. There's two main sources of heat; one is a body shaped blob curled up in a bed, and the other is a smaller, square shaped near the wall, which Steph assumes is a heater. She flicks her lenses back to normal, not wanting to risk night vision in case the militia agent turns a light on before she beats him senseless. The window has a lock on it, but it's easy to jimmy open, and she's relieved that it doesn't even squeak as she slides the window open. There are heavy drapes, but they've been pushed to the side already, so she doesn't have to worry about them, instead focusing on getting in the room without making a sound. That completed, she extends her bo staff and approaches the bed. The man's breathing is steady, and slow, and he hasn't stirred since Steph opened the window.

He stirs when she raises her bo staff and smashes it into his stomach. He lets out a sound between a shout and a gasp for breath, and his fly open, fixing on Steph. She doesn't expect what comes next.

Her left shoulder dislocates when she hits the wall she was just thrown back against, and she crumples to the ground, bo staff falling out of her grasp. She has no idea how he did that, considering he didn't lift a finger and none of the kids had mentioned him having powers. Before she can even get to her feet, she feels a force around her throat pulling her up, and the man has crawled out of bed and started towards her. He's got a hand on his stomach where she hit him, but he seems fine otherwise.

"What the fuck are you supposed to be?" He's about two feet away as Steph's fingers try to grab onto something that isn't really there. She doesn't answer, but that just makes him slam her against the wall again, "I knew one of you lot would come for me, bet you didn't think I'd fight back."

"I was hoping you would," Steph manages to say, despite the pressure around her throat, "Makes it more fun when I beat the shit out of you."

He laughs, it sounds hollow and cruel, "I think you've got it the wrong way around? Are you even old enough to be out after midnight?" His hand moves to her jaw, fingers sliding under the edge of her cowl like he's going to tug it off. It's the best piece of luck she's had all night, because her costume's rigged to electrocute anyone who tries to do that.

She doesn't waste any time when he flinches back after the shock - it's not enough to hurt anyone badly, just enough to startle them - because the pressure is gone. She slams her first into his face, feeling his nose break under her knuckles and she follows it up with a kick to his knee, trying to break that too and send him down.

He stumbles but doesn't fall, and then he's fighting back, using his powers to throw Steph across the room again. She can't stifle the small pained cry that comes when she lands on her dislocated shoulder, but she doesn't let it slow her down. Her left hand slides into a pouch of her utility belt, even as she runs from the next attack. Something winds around her legs anyway, and the next thing she knows, she's hanging upside down by her ankles, staring at the man's face. It sends a little thrill of satisfaction through her to see how much blood is coming from his broken nose.

"You think what I did to that kid was bad, wait until I finish with you." She wonders if that's supposed to make her scared, because it just makes her angry. She spits in his face and while he's busy shouting abuse at her and wiping saliva from his face, she depresses the button on the batarang she grabbed, and drops it at his feet. He doesn't seem to notice, because he doesn't do anything about it, choosing to shake her violently up and down instead. It hurts like a bitch, but Steph goes loose and waits the five seconds for the batarang to explode and release a sticky mess of goop that covers the man's feet, trapping him to the floor.

"What the hell?!" She gets thrown across the room again, but manages to land on her feet this time, facing her opponent for a split second before she dives out of the way. She can't see his attacks, but he tends to move like he's throwing something at her, and it's enough of a hint to get her moving. The lamp on the bedside table catches the attack instead, ending up in a dozen pieces.

"I'm gonna kill you!"

"You've got it the wrong way 'round," Steph replies with a confidence she doesn't feel, but it doesn't stop her from throwing another batarang.

That was a stupid move, Steph realizes it about two seconds too late when it comes flying back at her with doubled momentum and slices across her thigh. Her sharp batarangs are specifically designed to cut through body armour, and her own is no different. She hisses in pain but keeps moving despite the protests in her shoulder and now her leg; she can feel warm blood leaking form the wound. They'll have company soon, someone has to have heard the noise from their fight. She can't risk more militia showing up.

She tries for another close range attack, while he's distracted at trying to free his feet from the goop, but she can't even land a punch before she's flying backwards. The back of her knees hit the bed and she manages to keep her feet. That is, until the whole room comes flying at her. He's grabbed every loose object and flung it in her direction; she tries to dodge as best she can, but the nightstand hits the left side of her back, and she feels a rib or two crack. It hurts, but she realizes that she has the advantage because while he's throwing things at her, he won't be paying enough attention to block her attacks.

She throws every single sharp batarang she has. Some of them get deflected, or hit one of the flying objects before they can hit him, but when Steph manages to stop moving long enough to look, he's bleeding from the arm, lower leg, collarbone, and a batarang is actually embedded into his stomach. He definitely isn't attacking now, as his fingers fumble at the bloody batarang and try to pull it out of his stomach. Steph moves as quick as she can, ignoring the assorted pain signals her body is sending to her brain, and launches herself at him. They both go down and he screams as one of his ankles snap. The goop was still holding him upright, and something had to give.

He punches her in the face, and that's just another pain signal to ignore as she puts her hands over his where the batarang is, and she pushes down, blocking out his groans of pain as it's driven entirely into his torso with a slick, squelching sound. His powers must be based on his ability to focus, because while Steph feels like she's being battered from every side, he can't seem to work up the energy to push her off.

The sound of footsteps is suddenly outside the door, lots of them, and she knows that someone's called the militia. In less than ten seconds, she smashes her fist into the man's face one last time, grabs her bo staff and scrambles out the window. The door smashes open and someone shoots at her, but it barely grazes her already injured arm. There's no way she can outrun them all, not in the condition she's in, but there a few batarangs left in her belt and she pulls out the two she needs now. She's running even as she turns and throws them; one goes into the room and the other sticks into a window sill where a militia agent is lining up a second shot at her. She doesn't bother to see the result, she can hear the shouts that come once the stun grenade has gone off, and the crack of ice that will cover the window.

It'll give her a few minutes before they'll be able to re-organize themselves and make their way the long way around to the back of the hotel and Steph takes every advantage she can get, sticking to empty streets and putting as much distance between herself and the militia as she can. She's grateful for her bo staff, using it as a walking stick is taking some pressure off her leg, although she's still losing a lot of blood. After a while, she collapses it and sticks it back in her belt, then pulls out her grapple gun. Once on a roof, she gives herself a moment to rest and catalogue her injuries; dislocated shoulder, a deep, still bleeding cut on her right thigh, potentially broken ribs, and one of her molars feels loose. She doesn't bother trying to work out what feels bruised, she imagines she'll be almost entirely black and blue under her costume. She's starting to get dizzy from blood loss and pain, but now isn't the time to worry about that.

She has to keep moving.