Shopping Crisis (open)

Participants: Sideways and anyone else, be it hero to thwart villainy or a villain to take hostages.
Open/Closed: Open
Location(s): Mall of Gotham
Time of Day: Night
Weather: Snowy
Summary: Derek encounters a criminal plot while out shopping with his mom. The task of simultaneously protecting civilians and his identity begins!

It was a Friday night, the weather was nice and cold meaning the evening was prime for a party around a big blazing bonfire. So why on Earth was teenage Derek James spending that time navigating the crowded innards of a busy mall in his mother's tow? Everyone was dressed in fluffy jackets and thick beanies, most carried bags in one hand and a piping hot beverage in the other. The huddled masses did the best they could to stave off the clinging winter freeze even though the mall was doing its best to keep the heat pumping at a reasonable temperature. There was just no way of keeping the place warm with so many people entering and exiting. All of this was floating through Derek's mind because he was trying his best to ignore anything his mother was saying, he was still completely and totally annoyed that she had dragged him along on this night of errands.

"I can hear you sulking back there." Helen called to her son slinking in her shadow, her lips just fresh from a sip of her hot cider. 

"It wasn't that long ago that you loved shopping with Mom. Besides, if we can get everything on your dad's list out of the way soon enough then the sooner you can go back to your oh-so-busy teen schedule of sleeping in all day every day."

Derek didn't bother with much of a respond outside of an indignant groan. But the joke was on his mom, Derek had no intentions of sleeping any of his winter break away. He was itching to get his suit on and really hit the streets of Gotham as Sideways. Gotham was so well known for its seedy criminals and the dark vigilantes that stalked the night, Derek just really wanted Sideways to be a little bright spot for the city. His suit was colorful, his disposition was sunnier than stoic Batman, and he tried to keep his antics squared in the hours of sunlight. All of that meant something to him, and he couldn't really get ready for a day of crime fighting tomorrow if he was stuck running in and out of shops with his mom tonight.

"Come on, let's see what's in electronics."

Her voice cracked his thoughts wide open and Derek groaned once again. At least looking at the latest technology would actually be cool, Derek thought to himself in an attempt to life his spirits.

Three floors down at the Gotham Mall ground floor, among the brightly decorated kiosks, moved a group of individuals in dark clothing. As if by cue of a some unseen conductor these certain individuals in dark clothing all donned black hoods. Derek and his mom were just getting inside of the electronic store when they saw a handful of people donning their hoods. A dark brow arched upward on Derek's face. He knew that someone concealing their face in darkness was a bad sign.

The teen started backing up, deeper into the store, as he reached for Helen. "Mom, I think..."

And then the guns came out. Derek could only see three Santas, two of them with large guns, but he assumed for the shouts farther down the hall of the mall that there were more. Thus, panic did not take long to strike at the citizens doing their usual shopping, they screamed and scattered in all directions. Though no one got very far as gunshots were fired into the air, bullets carving out chunks of the intricate designs of the mall ceiling. Citizens still screamed but they all halted in their tracks.

Helen turned to her son, her face completely drained of color, and grabbed him by his arms. Derek opened his mouth to say something, anything to calm or protect her, but his mom beat him to the punch.

"Hide."

Nights off were a luxury not afforded to people in Dick Grayson's line of work.

It certainly made dating a bit of a nightmare when he was a teenager. A lot of relationships crashed and burned because of last minute date cancellations, dinners cut short due to "food poisoning", and romantic trips to the scenic overlook ended abruptly by "family emergencies." There was this one girl, Sophie, who he had to leave practically abandoned on top of the overlook because of a bank robbery that Bruce needed help on. His reputation never really bounced back from that one... even though, he had to miss his prom anyway so what was really lost there? It's what made his relationships with Babs and Kory so much easier. They got it. Thankfully those dating days were over. He was no longer a hormonal teenagers panicking about zits and, in his case, getting shot at. Now he was a happily spoken for man who, in his case, still worried about getting shot at. Still, though, he thought back to all of those nights of wishing he could take a date out to the mall, maybe eat something terrible at the Food Court, and overpay for a bad movie in the cinema with her. Maybe he'd try to convince Babs to take a night off and they could go just for the fun of it? Relive a youth neither of them really had an opportunity to experience. Maybe think of it as a redo of a first date that didn't involve him in little shorts and a canary yellow cape? 

"This is an all bulletins call to any and all available officers in the area. We have reports of active shoots at the Mall of Gotham." 

Dick slicked his hair back, melting the snow with the heat of his glove and smirked as the police scanner in his ear bud sounded off. He'd been out on patrol since the sun slipped behind the horizon an hour or so ago. It had been a dull night which was particularly brutal since it was also a cold night. His suit was lined with fibers meant to retain his body heat and distribute it evenly throughout his system but he still felt cold. It made him miss wearing the Batman cowl. Maybe he could incorporate one into his own costume? That thought left just as quickly when he thought of Tim's Red Robin costume and how everyone thought he was Dr. Midnight. Dick tapped the device in his ear to change it to the frequency that the Birds, Bruce, Jason, and the others used. 

"This is Nightwing en route. I've got this one. Let me know if you want a slice of Sbarro pizza or some pretzel nuggets from Auntie Anne's." He was the closest to the mall and could get there the fastest. Dick shot a grapple line into a nearby building and leapt off the top of the building he had camped out on. Well, now he had that opportunity to head to the mall. Was Spencer's Gifts still a thing? It was admittedly a laissez-faire approach to an active shooting at the mall, but it helped him control his emotions. Robbing a bank or a museum always made sense, but shooting up a shopping mall? A lot of those places barely carry cash anymore and, even then, what's the haul going to be? No, these weren't crooks or robbers... these were terrorists hoping to instill fear and kill as many people as possible. Dick was a sloppy fighter when he was angry. He didn't have Jason's ability to funnel it into his combat skills and be stronger for it. 

Dick landed on top of the mall gracefully and rushed to the domed skylight that held over the center of the building. Gunfire still rang out throughout the building, he could see the Gotham citizens screaming and running for their lives in all directions, and, then, three floors down, Dick saw a Santa Claus carrying an automatic assault rifle. "Well... that's fun." He made a mental note to have Bruce send a check to the mall to cover the damages as he smashed the glass with butt of his escrima stick. Thankfully no one had been under that could have gotten hurt from the glass but there was a man down there that was about to be hurt as Dick leapt through the broken glass. He soared downwards gracefully before using his slowing his fall with the help of a tether line. Throughout all the shooting, the man he was approaching from behind didn't seem to notice the breaking glass. 

"Hey there! Want to let me know why I never got that pony I asked for as a kid?" Dick chucked his escrima stick at the surprised man as he turned to face him. The stick smashed him directly in the nose as he dropped his gun. Just as he opened his eyes, Nightwing's fist was colliding with the side of his jaw and dropping him to the floor. The man fell like a sack but based on all of the shooting there were still more out there. Dick turned to notice a few people were watching him, relieved and yet uncertain by what was going on around them. "Don't run for the exits yet, folks. Lay low. I'm not sure how many are out here but I've got everything covered." 

Hide. That was what his mother had told him. That was what any loving mother would say to her child in a horrible situation such as the one Derek and his own mother was in. But how was he supposed to hide when he was trying to be a hero? Heroes didn't hide, they charged head-first into danger. The only problem was, Derek was a teenager and as such his mother was responsible for him. While his concern was protecting everyone Helen's only concern was making sure her only son made it to see his graduation. And his mom had been especially helicoptery since the incident that had given Derek his powers in the first place. So how was an aspiring superhero supposed to actually live up to their super heroic dreams with a parent eagerly shuffling them away from the danger and threats?

Derek's mind tried to come up with some solutions but it was a degree difficult with his mom steering him between aisles for what he could only hope was safety. The teen could hear the gunfire rattling off and echoed not entirely too far away from their position, screams also filled his ears. Derek's palms were sweating, his could feel the anxiousness tightening in his chest. He had to do something! Could he tell his mom he was Sideways and sprint out of there to go save the day? Would that even work? No, that would only aid in ceasing Sideways to exist from that point on.

Employees Only said a door they hurriedly passed and Derek's mind latched onto it like a life preserver in storm waters. "There!" He shouted, making sure his voice was at a level enough for the other panicked shoppers nearby. Some turned to look at him, they and his mother all followed where his finger pointed. Helen looked to have some reserves but she knew ultimately there wasn't much in the way of options afforded to them. A small scale stampede made for the door, Helen and Derek swallowed up in the center of it. There was pushing and Derek helped. He ushered his mom into the Employees only door and quickly opened a slender rift beneath his own feet. Derek closed the rift only when he was completely positive no one else was stepping in it like a puddle on the floor, he didn't want to accidentally sever any limbs.

From the yellow gash in space time Derek dropped and landed on a small mall toilet. He didn't waste time, he tried to keep his movements quick and virtually soundless as he continued to hear gunshots. Derek tore another hole through dimensions and reached in, ignoring the obvious shakes of his hands and limbs, drawing out his Sideways costume. The change was quick, even with Derek's wracked nerves, but putting on the suit helped steel his mind and fortitude. Hopefully, back at the third floor, his mom wasn't going too insane without him.

Derek sneaked out of his stall and was suddenly aware that there were others hiding in the bathroom as well, they muttered and whimpered at the sounds of his footsteps.

"Its okay, I'm here to help. You folks stay here and don't move or make a sound until someone comes for you." It was obvious information but it worked to ease some nerves, Derek's included.

He tiptoed over to the restroom door and peeked through. His muscles quickly tightened to catch the door from cracking open too far when his eyes met with a gunman's turned back. Holy hell, Derek thought. If Ernie could see him now she'd probably be calling him an idiot, telling him this was something way too big for him. Her words would be coming from a place of friendship of course, Derek knew she one wanted her friend to be safe, but oddly enough hearing her voice in his head brought Sideways a certain stillness that reassured him that he could absolutely do this.

Pulling backward Sideways allowed the rest room door to shut. He took a deep breath, trying to steady his stomach as he opened yet another rift in such a relatively short time frame. The rift opened in front of him against the door to the room. Sideways back up a couple of steps before running forward and diving straight through.

RFFT!

The yellow-trimmed cut through space and time opened a few feet before the gunman. The shooter dressed as St. Nick eyed the tear in the air and approached slowly, unsure if he should chance shooting it or just calling for someone to take a look at it. He didn't really get a chance of much of anything as in the very next instant Sideways came shooting out of it and tackled the criminal to the ground. The weapon clattered to the ground and skittered across the tiled floor where it fell into an awaiting rift. Sideways sent the weapon to the Gotham Harbor. The masked criminal watched his gun disappear in astonishment and then turned his quizzical gaze onto the teen hero, "You'll shoot your eye out, kid." Sideways then delivered to sharp blows to the man's face to free him of consciousness.

He'd opened too many rifts in too short of a time span, he was already feeling a little lightheaded from the overuse of his powers. That was dumb. A better play for Sideways would have been to use stealth and sneak around to each terrorist he could find and rift them to GCPD or something. It still would have been an overuse of his powers because at least he could have removed a lot more shooters from the mall before he was too dizzy and too sick to rift any more. He was giving himself a handicap unnecessarily but what was done was done and now he had to try to continue on with just a little more of a strategy and less reliance on his superpower.

Dick Grayson

He hated to think of any active shooter incident as "routine" but this wasn't Nightwing's first rodeo. 

The trick was to move fast and act with purpose - no wasted movements. He moved quickly from the bottom floor of the mall, ducking in and out of plain sight to keep a low profile. As he ducked in and out of storefronts and slid across the smooth, tile floor of the mall, he checked on people who weren't as lucky to avoid the first volley of gunfire. Some of the injured were in shock and he tended their wounds as best as he could with what Alfred had taught him about combat medicine. The first priority was to stop any and all bleeding. Thankfully all of the department stores had plenty of fabric to turn into makeshift bandages. He would move them to a safe location inside one of the stores, behind clothes racks or in dressing rooms, and then head back out into the open. The ones who were not as lucky he left in place - nothing more could be done. 

Along the way, Dick made quick work of whatever gun toting Santa's he could find. These were not trained fighters or assassins it seemed. Either that or just anyone with bad aim and a glass jaw got to call themselves an assassin these days. All it took was a roundhouse kick, a well placed escrima stick shot, or a good old fashioned punch to the jaw. With each thug he knocked out, he quickly stripped their guns of their ammo - tossing it far away from the gun as possible - and searched their unconscious bodies. No matching tattoos, no identifying information. These men were seemingly nobodies or at least that's how they wanted to appear. He wasn't any closer to figuring out what the motive was here than when he started. He had to keep moving. 

What was important was that it seemed most of the citizens in the mall had already rushed out of the building leaving only him, the injured, and the gunmen... and also someone else it seemed. 

He caught of glimpse of someone in a costume. He thought he was moving impossibly quick at first and he immediately thought of the Speed Force. Wally would've given him a head's up if someone was coming into town. He kept his eyes open for him again. Each time he saw him, he made note of a new feature to him to better identify him. He had a small frame, likely a teenager. He moved a little clumsily and left himself vulnerable to attack if he didn't disappear as quickly as he showed. If someone was able to determine where he would stop next, they could camp in place and catch him by surprise. He was tempted to call Tim and see if he recognized him from the Titans but there wasn't time. 

Dick caught a glimpse of the kid again but that wasn't the only person he saw. A red coat, a gun-metal AR-15, and lined up behind where the kid was. Dick quickly tossed his escrima stick into the man's hand. The metal escrima stick knocked the gun out of his hand and it clattered across the floor. As he turned to see who did that, Dick was already in the air, flying at him boot first with a high kick that hit the man square in the jaw. With a grunt, Santa fell limp to the ground. Nightwing picked up his escrima stick and turned to the young man. "Hey there. You new here?" 

Derek didn't really think there was much "good" news that could be pulled out of a mass shooting incident but it did give him a large degree of relief to see that no exits had been blocked by whatever group this was attacking the mall. The people nearest the exits and in good enough condition to make the run were already spilling out of the mall glass doors - that was good, it meant someone could notify the authorities and get some back up on the scene for Derek. While he was a hero and was actively doing his best to save everyone even he could admit that wasn't quite a job for Sideways, he wouldn't sigh a breath of relief until he heard sirens. Hopefully the civilians (his mother included) lasted that long.

The dizziness had set in and Sideways could tell it was a ways off from un-fogging his mind any time soon. His powers would have to rest a while and that meant the teenage hero would have to rely on his own wit and abilities. He tried to think back to what the time monitor Tempus Fuginaut had taught him; the entity knew his powers couldn't be relied on at all times so he had worked briefly on training Derek to be of use even without his special abilities. Derek darted between shops and kiosks as quickly as possible to move to advantageous positions as well as assess the situation. Without his powers he knew he would have to keep moving and be decisively precise, there was no room for error and no time for second guesses - lives hang in the balance.

Sideways popped out from behind a kiosk of Spongebob plushies. His weight came down to add force to the metal folding chair he swung from over head. The chair smashed into the top of a Santa's red hat and bounced back nearly smashing Derek in the face, the sound of the chair connecting with the gunman's skull echoed through the hall of the mall. The man crumbled from the blow, though still visibly breathing, and Derek then threw the chair down on top of him. The group of shoppers that had been cornered by Santa stared at the young hero, unsure if the turn of events was really in their favor or not. "What," one of the mask's eyes seemed larger than the other as Derek quirked a brow beneath the fabric, "Is there something on my face?"

The huddled group got up slowly, having been forced to kneel by the now unconscious gunman, and quickly set off for the nearest exit, one of them mouthing a soundless thank you.

Sideways couldn't wade in his good deal for too long, there were still others to rescue and terrorists to put down. Before Derek could get a move on there came the sound of metal loudly clattering behind him. The sound caused Derek to jump as he quickly turned to look behind him. Another machine gun toting Santa! And he had nearly swiss-cheesed the young Sideways. When looking to see what or who had disarmed the criminal that Sideways had not initially perceived he stood frozen in awe as he watched the black and blue costume sail right past him. That form. The athleticism. The hair. Nightwing made a hell of an entrance with a flying leap kick that probably dislocated the jaw of the sneaky Claus.

Thank goodness for full face masks because Sideways stood there with his mouth hanging wide open. "Uh." What did he say? The fog in Sideways's head washed away immediately as he looked at one of the most famous vigilantes in the world (and especially in Gotham). It was suddenly like the lights in the mall were all crappy save for a spotlight that shined down solely on the acrobatic Nightwing. "New as a newborn." What?! What the hell was he talking about? Derek could feel his entire body grow 20 degrees hotter and just wanted to disappear. Making a fool of himself in front of Nightwing would have to wait though, there was still work to be done, a gunshot reminded him.

"These guys seem to be disorganized and not after anything in particular, though I haven't been able to question any of them yet." Not that he was a master of interrogation or anything. In fact it was only now that he was face to face with a more seasoned vet did Derek even consider the idea of grabbing one of the gunmen and actually asking them what they were up to. Missed opportunity to impress a Batfamily member. "Are we about to have a team up? Name's Sideways, beeteedub." He really tried to not sound so enthused, he did, but Sideways knew he had succeeded in the slightest.

Dick Grayson

Dick smirked as Sideways spoke. It reminded him of when he first met Superman, Wonder Women, and the rest of the Justice League back when he was still Robin. Yeah, he was a newbie alright. "A team-up? Sure. It's the proper "Welcome to Gotham" present. I'm Nightwing by the way." If anything, the kid was lucky that Dick found him before Batman. Bruce didn't always take kindly to new kids operating in Gotham without his permission. Dick slipped his escrima stick back into his holster and crouched down to the unconscious man. Without looking back up at the younger man, Dick pulled off the Santa's beard and hat, studying the unconscious man's features. "I've not had much luck in interrogating these guys either, Sideways. I don't know who they are but they certainly aren't the most durable gun-totting mass shooters I've encountered." 

No face tattoos. A few missing teeth which were his fault. A small facial scar but likely from a childhood accident. A crooked nose which suggested it had been broken a few times. Nothing really to go by. Dick flipped open the man's white fur lined jacket and checked the pockets. No identification. No wallet. The only thing were spare bullet clips that Dick chucked as far from the man's scattered gun as possible. The man's body was in average shape. A few tattoos but nothing that told him anything. No lead again. If he could find some sort of common identifier between the two he could reach out to Babs to help identify them quicker. So far these were just a group of guys with no motivation to gun down innocents. Dick stood up and looked back at Sideways. "I've been checking these guys for gang tattoos or some sort of physical call sign that would point me towards who would be responsible. You're right that this is uncoordinated but there should still be some sort of angle." 

Dick looked Sideway's sleek costume design over again. Not only did his attempts to identify the Santas come up as a bust, he wasn't really sure what Sideway's abilities were. He didn't seem like a speedster like Wally or Bart but he moved far too quickly to just be quick and acrobatic like he was. It would be rude to just bluntly ask. Seeing the kid go to work would be the best way to figure out his capabilities. "Well... want to catch a live one?"

Derek James