InsaneJournal

Redbird wakes up in a sleazy motel room in state of dazed confusion. A thin sheet -- and her mask -- is all that covers her naked body. Her brain struggles to process through what's happened, partly because it involves believing what happened. She had sex with DEO Agent David Lawlor. That was probably not one of her finest decisions, but damn it -- she does have pretty eyes.

No, the more troubling thing here is that she somehow fell asleep. It shouldn't have happened yet obviously did, and all the while Trickster could have come on gone. She sits up quickly to check the window, only to notice something else out of sorts. Lawlor is gone. The clothes laid about consist of only her costume. Naked, she moves to the window and depresses one of the blinds to see outside. Trickster's buggy is there -- parked just inside of an alley near the playground. She sees neither Trickster or Lawlor in the playground, though.

Redbird dresses quickly, putting thoughts of her recent... feat of fine decision-making aside for the time being.

After checking the park, she heads into the alley where Trickster parked and finds more than a clue as to where they could have gone. She finds Trickster. He is above her, sitting in one of the baskets of the fire escape leading up the side of a building. She scales up the iron bars quickly, vaulting over the railing into his basket before he's able to fully stand. He sees her coming and automatically assumes the position -- on his ass and hands up in surrender. He does not want to be hit, please. He is busted. He is caught. He is schway if she is. What does she want?

When she asks, he claims not to have the data drive anymore. He also says he doesn't know what guy she's talking about. That guy wasn't any DEO fed. When asked again -- more insistently -- he goes along with whatever she wants to believe about the guy and points upward, saying he kept going on to the roof after taking the data drive. He still gets hit and left unconscious there on the fire escape, while Redbird continues on up.

"Redbird! Hey!"

It's Huntress who Redbird finds first as she makes her way over the roof's ledge. Her sidekick knew the location of the meet with Trickster but wasn't included in the stakeout because... because. The reason of not wanting Huntress around during a long, quiet stakeout should be obvious. Something is weird about her now.

"Get him! He's not -- the dork jumped me and he's not a dork!"

Huntress' hands are bound together by a set a plastic strap cuffs, trapping to hands to a pipe running up the side of an air conditioner vent. That's what is weird. She's struggling against it, trying to twist herself loose without much luck. This leaves her with gesturing with her foot and head towards the other end of the roof, where Redbird sees DEO Agent David Lawlor.

He pauses there and looks back at her with an expression of surprise. That soon passes, and he regards her with an uncharacteristic smirk and wave. The data drive is in his hand, and she watches him slip it into his pocket. He has what he came for.

Oh, Redbird needs some answers, and she goes racing across the rooftop at him to get them. She is surprised -- again -- when he turns away from her and goes leaping fearlessly over the ledge. Reaching that point, she stops and sees him running across an adjacent rooftop he managed to reach. She does the same in hot pursuit of him.

Huntress... stays cuffed to the pipe.

"Hey! ...Hey god dammit! HEY!"

------

Several rooftops later, Redbird is still a roof length behind Lawlor. She already knew he was in pretty good shape, but now she's learning he can free run like a pro too. His tie flutters in the air over his shoulder as he jumps from another ledge, hitting a sloped roof and sliding down it. She follows on a parallel path on an adjacent building, trying to gain ground on him that way.

He slows to a stop as she cuts him off a few buildings later, spreading his arms with a smile that suggests he accepts he's been caught. This is obviously not likely. "Okay, okay... Now, I can understand why you'd be angry. But let's be fair... you made the first move."

True to form, Redbird makes the first move again and throws a punch at him. He dodges it -- just as he dodges the next. All the while, he begins removing his suit jacket so that when she throws her third punch at him he twists the jacket around her arm. Then he quickly twists it around her other arm when she tries to punch him again. They stand together like this for a moment, seemingly stalemated with him holding the sleeves of his jacket tightly with her arms tangled between them. "If it helps any, I really do think you have pretty eyes," he says with a grin.

A kick thrown at his head forces him to release his jacket while he gets the hell out of the way of it. Redbird steps away from him long enough to untangle her arms from the jacket and moves for him again. He quickly backpedals from her, trying to keep pace and pointing out her. "Now come on! You are way to energetic! Clearly I should have used a higher dosage of that sedative!"

His retreat is pointless, and she catches up to him in no time. He swats away her attempt to grab him and throws a punch of his own. She blocks, catching his arm. But he quickly twists free. It's becoming very apparent that she's dealing with another martial artist. The question is how good of one is he.

They continue to fight, and she learns. He's a very good one and knows multiple arts. There's a lot of kung fu in how he fights. The Jeet Kune Do is obvious, as if the Choy Gar -- figures he would know Rat Kung Fu. Monkey Fist, Buddhist Palm, Southern Praying Mantis, Bak Mei, Tiger Claw, Dog Fist... There are a lot of different forms in his fighting style She isn't fighting someone who just did really well in classes at the local dojo.

He is very good, but she is still better. Both of them know it.

Lawlor whips off his necktie in one swift motion. He lashes it downward around one of her ankles and pulls, yanking her off her feet.

He is, possibly, more annoyingly creative.

"At the rate I'm running out of clothes here, I'm starting to think you only have one thing on your mind. I'm really not that kind of guy."

Yes, he is definitely annoying.

Redbird is back on her feet in no time, pressing her attack on him. He has had some nice tricks up his sleeves so far, but it's only a matter of time before he goes down. He isn't winning the fight. There are several ways she knows she could eventually beat him, but there is one that will wrap this up here and now. He knows a lot of different kung fu forms, but there's one he doesn't. She locks him into a routine taught to her by Connor Hawke, who developed his own form. When she completes it, a kick to the side of the head will put him down for the count.

She drives him back to a corner of the roof, setting him up perfectly for the final kick. She lets it fly, and he... counters it. He doesn't just counter it. He counters it with a practiced precision of someone who knew exactly what was coming and how to stop it. He counters it exactly as Connor Hawke had so many times in the past. He counters it as someone who has also been taught that move could. L.J. Hawke, Jaina Peyton, Kenneth Queen. Those are -- or were -- the only people other than Connor and herself who should have been able to perform this counter. But David Lawlor does it.

Redbird falls aside, having been tossed in the air from the momentum of her own kick. Rolling onto her heels, she looks up to see... nothing. Lawlor is nowhere in sight. She stands and cautiously begins searching for him, but there isn't even a sign. His tie and jacket are gone too.

It's like he wasn't even here.

Whoever he was.