Night of the Bat (Open) [MV]

It all made sense, in a strange sort of way.

Dr. Langstrom reached the top of the stairs. The building was old, abandoned, and in the bad part of town. It wasn't a place he would normally go, but he couldn't think of any other place. Here, in the blackness of midnight, he could be alone.

But wait, what was that? Red eyes glowed in the darkness, staring at him. What was this? Some sort of monster? Or perhaps it was merely an illusion within his own mind. He was losing control over this thoughts, as well as his body.

"You must know why I'm here. I've always been fond of bats. My hobby became my work, and my work an obsession. Lately, I've been having these strange thoughts. These...visions. I know what I am, or at least, I know what I will become."

The red eyes said nothing. They simply judged him, silently. Harshly.

"I suppose, at this point, I have nowhere left to run. After all, where can you hide from yourself? I'd end it all if I had the courage, but I just can't."

The pain returned, stronger than it had been hours before. Langstrom fell to his knees, his hands over his heart. The eyes watched, not amused or moved by his agony. It occured to Langstrom that the eyes were the monster within himself, the evil that lurked within his very soul.

"Please," he begged. "I want it to end. Can you please just kill me?"

Robot Sniper stepped into the moonlight, revealing the black sheen of his armored mechanical body. He nodded. Killing was what he did best.

Langstrom lurched. Robot Sniper watched as the man shook. The human's body was changing, shifting, growing. In a matter of seconds, Langstrom's transformation was complete. He had become a giant bat.

A bat?

Before Robot Sniper could honor Langstrom's request, the bat lunged at him. It knocked Robot Sniper on his back and bit at his metal arm. Robot Sniper punched the abomination, knocking it off of him. The giant bat turned and took flight, out through an open window.

The bat had taken flight.

The get-away vehicle for a band of bank robbers was just sitting in the middle of the street with busted tires, the bank robbers themselves were all tied up to a post, unable to escape. Quiver didn't need to bother calling the police, seeing how loads of people noticed, so she just left. It was dark out, so no one saw her, since she naturally blends in anyway.

She took to the rooftops, continuing her patrols, when she saw a bat right in front of her face. She tried to bat it away, only to realise that it wasn't in front of her, it was in the sky! If Quiver was surprised, there was no visible reaction whatsoever, she instead went right to work, running to follow it.

As she ran, she would also fire grappling arrows and swing around to catch up. Once she managed to get in a good position, she aimed her bow, took a second to aim, then let an arrow fly. As long as the bat didn't take evasive manoeuvres the arrow would strike it in the chest and electrocute it with enough volts to make an average man go unconscious.

The bat was moving fast, and its flight pattern was difficult to predict. Robot Sniper waited for a good shot.

He had been right. Humans had been genetically engineering their species to create meta-humans with special powers. It was the only explanation for the sheer number of power users he had seen. DAR had sent Robot Sniper here for a reason. He wasn't just here to test his model's combat abilities. He was here to obtain intelligence about this human revolution. If they continued to increase their meta population at this rate, they would become a threat to other sentient life in the galaxy.

The bat didn't notice Quiver, but it did notice the arrow that hit its chest and unleashed a torrent of electricity. The bat screamed, then fell onto a nearby rooftop. It was still conscious, still moving (though clumsily), as it tried to get airborne again. The bat noticed Quiver and started to snap its teeth at him.

Robot Sniper didn't have a good angle, yet. He started to move, making his way to a better vantage point.

Quiver's arrow hit it's target, electrocuting the bat and causing him to fall to a rooftop. Quiver grappled her way down to a closer rooftop and notched another arrow, letting it loose. This one would land right in front of the bat and start to release noxious gas, if breathed in it would weaken the bat, it would make it go unconscious after too long. It could always escape the gas cloud by flying upwards, but Quiver was hoping on it being too weakened.

The bat smelled the gas and coughed a few times. It waved its clawed hands in front of its mouth, as if trying to fan the gas away. Quiver might notice that the bat seemed to be wearing black dress pants. There also seemed to be shreds of socks and a shirt on it's body. As the gas got to the monster, it was still. The bat wings, teeth, large ears, fur, and claws retracted into the body. Within a few seconds, the monster had transformed back into a human. A sleeping human.

Robot Sniper wasn't sure what Quiver intended to do with the man-bat. But whatever it was, it didn't matter. Robot Sniper would bring an end to the monster's life. All it would take was one well-aimed bullet.

The robot was climbing the side of a building now, trying to get a good vantage point on the bat. He didn't want to let it out of his sight, so he was taking a risk here. If Quiver just so happened to look this way, she would see a lanky robot with glowing red eyes and a sniper rifle hanging on his back.

Talk about awkward. Robot Sniper just kept climbing. His weapon favored the high ground.

The gas worked, making the bat reform into a human and collapse, Quiver didn't show any sign of pride over victory, or any emotion at all. What she did do was remove her mouth mask that was modifying her voice and called the police, speaking in a fake voice, pretending to be a confused bystander Hello, 911? Umm... I don't know what happened but a flying monster got taken out by a hero or something. But they just left it on a rooftop. I'm worried it's gonna wake up or something, could you take it away?

The police operator on the other side assured her that they'd send a helicopter over to collect it, then asked where it was. Quiver gave the address, then thanked the operator and hung up. She put her mouth mask back on and looked around. She had no more business here, but she had to make sure that the man didn't wake up before he was taken away. She watched the man, but she would also look around just in case.

As she was looking around, she saw a robot climbing the building, it was wielding a sniper rifle and had glowing red eyes. Quiver looked at it suspiciously, hiding herself so that she could watch it without detection. Unless it had heat vision or something of course. She tracked its movement up the building, keeping an eye on the man that had turned into the bat as well of course.

The archer had noticed him. Oh well. Robot Sniper had learned at the carnival that an assassin didn't need to be unseen by anyone. It just needed to be unseen by the wrong people. Quiver had shown no compassion for the giant bat. She had shocked it and put it to sleep. It seemed safe to assume that the archer was not an ally to the bat, so she shouldn't have any problem with Robot Sniper killing the abomination.

Reaching the top of the building, Robot Sniper grabbed the rifle from his back. He lined up a shot on the target, who was once again human. Quiver had disappeared, and the robot assumed it had simply left the area, having pacified the target.

Robot Sniper, however, would do far more than put the target to sleep. When he had a clean shot, he pulled the trigger. The shot was nearly silent, but unless something stopped the bullet, it would easily kill the unconscious Langstrom.

(OOC: Sorry this took so long. A combination of catching up with other threads, tiredness and distractions forced me to take a long time to do this)

Quiver watched as the robotic assassin climbed up the building, only able to imagine that he was up to no good, considering that he was wielding a sniper rifle. Her theory was confirmed when the sniper aimed his rifle at the unconscious Bat man. Quiver immediately aimed an arrow, adjusting it slightly to take the wind into account, then fired. Before Robot sniper could fire his bullet, the arrow would penetrate the nossle, then explode. The explosion would send the sniper flying back, but he wouldn't take any serious damage. The rifle would be destroyed though, which was the intention.

His weapon exploded. Robot Sniper picked himself back up. This was no accident. The archer had hit his weapon with an explosive projectile. This was unexpected. For some reason, the archer valued the life of the man-bat. Was it possible they had some sort of history? Or did Robot Sniper not fully understand the way humans thought?

At the moment, it didn't matter. He had misjudged the archer, and had foolishly assumed she had left the scene.

Robot Sniper backed up, then took a running jump off the rooftop. For a few seconds, he was in free fall. His momentum carried him across the street, where he landed on the much lower rooftop below. He cracked the concrete rooftop, and a small crater formed where he had landed. He was now about a third of the way to the man-bat. He started running towards his target, activating his thermal vision while he did so. He noticed the archer, hiding in the shadows and changed course. It would be best to take out the woman first. After all, the bat wasn't going anywhere.

Quiver watched as the robot jumped off the roof, crashing down on a lower rooftop. Clearly he didn't care much for stealth. He then ran towards the man, only to change course all of a sudden to run at her. To have seen her, it must have some kind of thermal vision. Just her luck. Quiver had but a few moments to decide her course of action, considering which of her many trick arrows to fire.

Her foe was a robot, so gas arrows wouldn't work, he had thermal vision so she couldn't distract him with a smoke arrow, unless he had some sort of weak point that she didn't know about a normal arrow would be useless as well, plus grappling arrows wouldn't work unless she intended to flee, which she didn't.

Those were all her useless options, which left her with explosive arrows, taser arrows and bola arrows. She had already used up a few of her explosive arrows and taser arrows, which wasn't a big deal except they were expensive to replace, so she didn't want to use up too much. It didn't hurt to be frugal, especially since the more arrows she had left the more could be used another day.

With that goal in mind, she decided to use a bola arrow. This thought process only took a few seconds, after which she knocked her arrow and let it loose. It would fly over like an ordinary arrow, but after a second flying over the cartridge would burst and a pair of bolas would come flying out. The intention behind this attack was to ensnare the robot. If Quiver was lucky, the robot wouldn't be able to escape the steel wires.

The archer intended to shoot Robot Sniper with an arrow. Expected damage was minimal. He kept running directly at her, closing the gap fast.

In midair, the arrow suddenly burst. Before he realized what was happening, the bolas had wrapped themselves around his legs and arms. Robot Sniper dropped, sliding a short distance before coming to a stop. Wires were restraining him. This was most unexpected.

Robot Sniper pushed his arms an legs apart. A few seconds later, the steel wires snapped, freeing the assassin. As he stood up, Quiver would have the chance to attack him, if she chose to do so. Robot Sniper wasn't carrying a weapon at this point, so she would have an advantage.

At least, she did until he caught up with her.

The ensnarement was a success and the robot dropped to the ground. Quiver then took out her next arrow and prepared to fire it, but then saw that the robot broke free! Not that it mattered, it was still getting up, so Quiver just needed to adjust her aim slightly is all. She fired an arrow, but then out of nowhere a dragon girl came and tried to tackle the robot. If she was really unlucky, she might get hit by the electric arrow intended for the robot, which would shock her with enough volts to knock out an average human.

Tin Can? Where was that voice coming from? Before he could fully turn his head to investigate, Robot Sniper was slammed into by a charging half-dragon. What? The dragon girl? Where had she come from?

The good news was that Robot Sniper had been shoved out of the path of an electric arrow. The bad news was that he was now facing two opponents, the archer and the dragon. On top of that, he had a time limit, he had to kill the man-bat.

Or did he? It would be preferable to eliminate the meta-human target. However, he may have just learned some additional information. When an attack was made on a meta-human, other humans and metas came running to protect them. Clearly, humans placed priority on the safety of those with superpowers.

They were organizing. The humans were building an army, one that would take control of their world, and then others.

If this was true, it was important that he survive, to report.

Robot Sniper tried punching the dragon girl in the neck, hoping to break free from her grasp. Without a weapon, he was in a very bad situation here. He needed to flee.

Unfortunately, the interruption of the dragon girl caused the robot sniper to not get hit by the arrow, which theoretically might have ended the fight there. But, even worse, it was the the new arrival that got tazed instead. Quiver internally swore before she nocked another arrow, intending to try and tase the robot sniper again, but the damage was done and he was given enough time to recover, so he would be more able to dodge.

Dodging was difficult. Moving a human shield a few inches to take the arrow for you was far easier. Robot Sniper picked up the unconscious half-dragon and held her body in front of him. He moved towards the archer, daring her to shoot by leaving half of his face unprotected. If the archer tried loosing an arrow at him, Robot Sniper would simply block it with the half-dragon's body.

Now he had a shield, but he was still without a weapon. Why couldn't the one be both? Moving to a sudden sprint, Robot Sniper threw the dragon's body at the archer. It wasn't the most elegant attack, but considering her...ahem....weight, a successful hit should do a fair amount of damage to the human opponent.

(OOC: I'm so sorry for not posting for so long, I have no excuse)

The robot picked up the dragon girl and started to use her as a human shield, a cowardly tactic but a good one. She could shoot the sniper where the girls body wasn't covering it, but he could just move her. The robot then threw the girl at Robin, but before she could hit Robin she turned into a giant white dragon, flying upwards.

The dragon's tail almost smacked right into Robin, but she rolled to the side at the last moment. That could have been bad, to be fair she couldn't really be mad considering what happened to the girl a moment ago. The dragon then attacked the robot, Robin decided not to act for the moment, waiting for a better chance.

The dragon was awake again? His window of opportunity hadn't lasted long enough. Now the meta-human was flying back towards Robot Sniper, breathing out a huge ball of ice. The assassin managed to dodge the icy attack, but was picked up by the dragon a second later. Being thrown at the street, he braced for impact.

But he didn't hit the ground. The man-bat had apparently awoken, and had just taken flight in time to stop Robot Sniper's fall. Now the assassin was holding on for dear life as the large bat struggled to stay airborne beneath the extra weight. It screeched loudly, slowly getting lower and lower until it crashed through a large window.

Quiver couldn't believe she'd forgotten about the darn bat. It took flight in such a way that the robotic sniper landed on the man-bat. Quiver started moving, not keeping up exactly, but just staying close enough to keep them in sight. She watched the man-bat crash through the window, along with the robotic sniper, then aimed her shot.

She sent an arrow out, but the intention was not to strike the man-bat, nor the robotic sniper, it instead split into two bolas which, if the robot sniper did not avoid, would ensnare the both of them. Experience taught Quiver that the sniper would break free in a few seconds, so she drew two taser arrows and fired them at the same time. Each one would tase both targets if they hit.

Robot Sniper recovered quickly from the crash landing. Unfortunately, so did the giant bat. It clawed at him, digging three deep lines into his metal torso. This was unexpected. The bat's claws could cut through metal? It was time to end the life of this monster. Robot Sniper raised an arm, readying a punch.

A bola wrapped around him. Again? That archer was relentless. Robot Sniper used his free hand to snap the cable. Tenacity would only get a human so far. When dealing with a Robot Sniper, you either had strong enough weaponry, or you didn't.

Another arrow stabbed into the back of Robot Sniper's neck. This time, the arrow unleashed a powerful electrical pulse. The robot's vision became highly pixelated, then deactivated altogether. His glowing red eyes dimmed to empty blackness. It seemed that the archer did, in fact, have the right tools to defeat a Robot Sniper, Robert thought. His body stopped moving, and his repair systems immediately got to work. He would be fine...in a day or so. This was a bad situation he was in.

The bat had also been hit by a taser arrow, and was now, again, unconscious on the ground.

A police helicopter drew close, and the sound of the rotating wings soon became deafening. The first thing they noticed was, obviously, the giant flying dragon. The dragon flew away, and the helicopter followed. After a brief chase, the dragon disappeared behind a building, and was suddenly nowhere in sight. Reports would be filed, but first, the police were very interested to see what else had been going down in 'the Swamp.' The helicopter landed in the street, between Quiver and Robot Sniper's motionless body.

Quiver's shots rang true, knocking the bat out and short-circuiting the robot. The moment of victory was always sweet, but Quiver remained unemotional. She saw the arrival of the police helicopter. She looked at the unconscious bat, knowing that if the police were searching from the ground they probably wouldn't find it before it woke up. She yelled to get the polices attention, voice distorted by her mask, so they wouldn't recognise it as the same girl that called before, from that far away they wouldn't even recognise her as a girl Over there, in that window! she pointed the way to where the bat was, as well as the robot.

Two police officers went running in the direction Quiver had indicated. A third walked towards the archer herself. Most law-abiding citizens didn't run around wearing a mask and holding a bow.

"I'd like to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind. We need to know what exactly has been going on here."

Bank robbers, dragons, robin hood. Star City was turning into a circus. It was the goal of every officer, no, every citizen, to help return the city to simpler times.

A voice came over the officer's radio. "Robot sir. It's an actual robot, and a giant...bat monster, too."

"This sounds like a bad joke," the man said to Quiver. "You don't happen to know the punchline, do you?"

The police officer asked her to answer questions, asking what had been going on. Quiver nodded, responding Of course, officer. The bat monster was in the sky, to stop it from potentially hurting any civilians I took it out. Then the robot tried to kill it, so I stopped it. She was naturally cautious, she knew how little the police trusted heroes, especially teen heroes.