Gotham Knights #2
Chessmasters (#2 of 3)

At his parents’ grave, Bruce Wayne swore an oath that he would do everything in his power to fight evil, to protect Gotham City…his city. Now, with the help of others, Batman remains the dark protector of Gotham City, and the leader of the Gotham Knights.

“Fall back,” the Checkmate Knight said, as Batman turned to face him from across the street. “We have lost the element of surprise. I repeat, fall back!” Catwoman watched as Batman simply stood there, and the Checkmate Agents vanished into the darkness. Followed by Spoiler, she flipped off the roof and swung down to the ground with her whip, coming to where Batman and Batgirl were standing.
“Why’d they leave?” Catwoman asked, causing Batman to turn and give her a look of stony disapproval.
“They knew they couldn’t beat me head on. They were hoping that they could use the element of surprise to take me out.”
“Well, I guess you’ll have to admit I saved your butt that time,” Catwoman said, her voice silky. Batman ignored it, and turned away, picking up a hat that the Mad Hatter had dropped.
“There were five Checkmate Pawns, one Knight. The Knight was aiming a Mk12 SPR sniper rifle at me, crouching approximately half a meter from the base of the roof. He was preparing to take the shot; he would have missed.” Batman turned back to Catwoman and locked eyes with her. “I was fully aware of what was going on, and I had a plan. I did not need you there.”
“What if your plan had failed?”
“I always have a backup plan. You’re not part of it.”
“You know,” Catwoman said, losing her air of self-confidence, and starting to get angry. “I don’t know who you think you are, thinking you can dictate who can and can’t try to protect this city, but I just want you to know, you can’t stop me.”
“Of course I can.”
Catwoman sighed; he was right. If he didn’t want her involved, he’d find a way to keep her out of it. She’d have to try a different tactic. “Why can’t you give me a chance? Is it so hard for you to believe that I might’ve actually changed?”
“You’re just doing this for the thrill, Selina; you know it. And you’re putting that girl in danger.”
“She chose it too, and it’s no different than Robin. But what if I really am doing this because I want to help people, to protect them? Why shouldn’t I be able to? Give me a chance!”
Batman looked at her for a moment, and she could see that he was thinking about it, but before he could answer, he turned and put a finger to his cowl, pressing a receiver to his ear. “Yes,” he said. On the other end, though Selina couldn’t hear it, Robin was telling Batman that the Scarecrow had taken hostages at a nearby mall, and that the Cheetah was with him. “On my way,” Batman said. He turned to Catwoman as he was about to leave, and as he fired a grappling hook into the air, she barely heard him saw, “One chance.”

“Command, this is Unit 7, Queen’s Knight Gold reporting in, Sir. The Batman made our position, and his agents wounded two Pawns. First aid has been administered, but we were forced to pull out, over.”
“Unit 7, Command. You should have pressed the attack. You had the tactical advantage on the Batman; his attention was divided between you and the criminals.” The man in the control room waited a moment for a response, and then he realized his omission. “Over,” he said finally.
“Negative, Command. The criminal threat was all but neutralized, as was our advantage. If we hadn’t pulled out then, we would not have gotten another chance, over.”
The man in the control room looked over at a large, imposing woman sitting in the next chair. “Well,” she said with a deep, brusque voice. “You certainly wouldn’t have wanted him capturing them and learning all our little secrets.”
The man sighed, and then pressed the Talk button one more time. “Roger, Unit 7, return to base immediately. Command out.”
The man known only Mr. Bones, or “Director Bones” to those in his field of work, stood and began to pace as Amanda Waller looked on, somewhat bored with the whole thing. She was not nearly as concerned about the Batman as Bones was, but this was her job, so she stayed, not feeling the need to say anything; she merely watched pace and smoke his cigar.
“This Batman is far more dangerous than those mere criminals. If we allow him to continue this lawless vigilantism, the city, the state, perhaps soon the country could erupt into widespread, unchecked anarchy! Martial law, even.” Mr. Bones stopped for a moment and took another puff from his cigar. “It is clear to me that he must be the example. And I now feel that we should go to greater lengths to affect this example.” Mr. Bones pressed a button. “Rec, any buzz on the police band that might attract the Batman?”
“Yes, Sir,” the voice on the other end stated. “The Scarecrow, one of the Arkham escapees, is holding a large group of hostages in the Robinson Park Mall. Our intelligence indicates that the Batman may have tangled with this guy before, so it’s a fair assumption that he’ll be interested in this.”
“Very good,” Bones said, taking a more satisfied pull of smoke. He pushed another button, connecting him to another operator. “This is Command; I want Unit 19 deployed to the Robinson Park Mall, immediately, and quickly. I want the Silver Bishops to accompany them.”
“Yes Sir,” the voice on the other end replied.
Mr. Bones put out his cigar, and then turned to Waller, and she returned his gaze, not flinching for a moment at his hideously freakish face. “We have differing opinions, you and I,” Bones said. “You believe in employing supervillains through coercion and bribery. I believe in actual rehabilitation. Perhaps know we’ll find out which method will prove more effective. As you just heard, I’ve deployed Cheshire and Clayface with the squad to give them…a little added muscle. They are legally considered to be rehabilitated, and they have accepted these duties in the Checkmate organization without coercion, and taking the normal salary of an agent of their rank.” Mr. Bones looked at Waller smugly, anticipated his desired result. “Let’s see how they do.”
“Really, Director,” Waller replied, every bit as smug. “It’s not a fair test. The Batman won’t go down so easily.”
Bones lit another cigar and sat down in his chair, relaxing as if he were going to watch sports. “We’ll see.”

R Batman, 85
R Catwoman, 48
U Batgirl (Spoiler), 41
R Batgirl, 25
R Robin, 17
Total: 216

Vs.

R Clayface, 36
R Cheshire, 24
V Checkmate Agent, 16
V Checkmate Agent, 16
E Checkmate Medic, 17
R Checkmate Medic, 13

R Cheetah, 43
R Scarecrow, 36
Total: 201

Same format as before; use the mall map, naturally. Although I did make reference to hostages, I don’t really think we need to bother with Bystanders in this one.

Awesome! You gave me both a Charger and a Poisoner! A team I might be able to do something with!

Initiative: 1
Objects: 1

Ish.

Initiative: 6
Objects: 4

I'll just be boring and set everyone up from J-N 23.

[] RookieBatman (8/8) J-23
[] R Catwoman (6/6) K-23
[] U Spoiler (5/5) L-23
[] R Batgirl (4/4) M-23
[] R Robin (4/4) N-23

LO: K-15, N-15
HO: L-18

Oh yeah, and I forgot that you get to throw in an extra Agent or Medic since I added Robin.

I thought you were just so scared that you decided to give me a handicap. I'll take another Medic given the choice, not because of the support so much as the 2 damage.

I'll set up after I get home from work.

Err...just realised that the V Agent has 2 damage as well, along with a better AV and range. I'll take one more of them instead. So here's my set up then.

R Medic I2
R Clayface K2
V Agent #1 L2
V Agent #2 M2
R Cheshire N2
V Agent #3 L1
E Medic M1

R Scarecrow S2
R Cheetah T2

Do you want to play 3 actions each since you've got 5 figures and one with Willpower, and I have 9? Ready to go when you are.

Does Wakandaman's crew get a leadership upgrade to someone?

Yes, that sounds good.

Yeah, why not.

I'm gonna go and look through all the other games, and then I'll take my turn if I still have time. You didn't post objects, by the way.

Man, this is really wierd.

Basic move:

Batman to L-13, Catwoman to M-14, and Batgirl to M-20.

Editorial note: I think I've mentioned this on the main thread, but in case I haven't, I'll cover it again here. I don't consider the in-game story posts to be canon to this continuity. I'd get massive migraines if I tried to work into my continuity what people put in their story posts, or if I tried to get their continuity in line with mine. I want to let everyone know that the same thing goes for my own in-game story posts in this game. The story posting I do will just be light, off-the-cuff, simple, just to give some atmosphere and a mental image to the droll of "move this piece to this square." It's not a big thing, I just don't want you guys saying, "It's RPSC continuity because RB said it in one of his Gotham Knights story posts." I'm just not gonna think about these that much, so if I make a misstep in a character's dialogue or reference to another character, no big deal, it doesn't count.

Anyway, here's a light, off-the-cuff, simple story post.

Robin came out to meet Batman and the others that had come with him.
"Scarecrow and Cheetah are holed up in a little stockroom off of one of the stores. I don't think he'll be going anywhere for a while, but we have another problem."
"Checkmate."
"Yeah," Robin said, raising an eyebrow. "How'd you know?"
"I figured they wouldn't give up so easily," Batman explained.
"Well, for some reason, they have a couple agents out of uniform, and one of them is Clayface."
Batman grunted. That, he wasn't expecting.
"The other is some girl I don't recognize, but we should probably watch out for her, too."
"Of course," Batman said, and then turned to Catwoman. She held his gaze.
"You're not going to tell me to stay back. I'm going to take my one chance and I intend to prove to you that I am an asset, not a liability."
"I wasn't going to tell you to stay back. I was going to tell you to come with me. We're going to go in and find out the situation. The three of you will follow slowly behind; watch our backs. This Checkmate organization seems to have a lot of surprises; I don't want to be caught off-guard."

Recap:
[] RookieBatman (8/8) L-13
[] R Catwoman (6/6) M-14
[] U Spoiler (5/5) L-23
[] R Batgirl (4/4) M-20
[] R Robin (4/4) N-23

R Medic I2
R Clayface K2
V Agent #1 L2
V Agent #2 M2
R Cheshire N2
V Agent #3 L1
E Medic M1

R Scarecrow S2
R Cheetah T2

LO: K-15, N-15
HO: L-18

You forgot to list how many clicks your guys have.

GO BATMAN!! I will be out of communiation for the next month or so. Good luck RB u are gonna need it!

Argh! I placed Objects on my map but must of forgotten to list them. WHoops.

So are we have 3 actions each PLUS I get a leadership figure? Sweet!

Yeah, so if I lose, I can just blame it on my over-generosity.

Do you want to allocate a particular figure to have leadership, so that you can at least Outwit it or KO that figure to get rid of it.

Objects: Heavies at N10 and J11, Light at K10.

R Medic I2 3/3
R Clayface K2 5/5
V Agent #1 L2 4/4
V Agent #2 M2 4/4
R Cheshire N2 5/5
V Agent #3 L1 4/4
E Medic M1 4/4

R Scarecrow S2 5/5
R Cheetah T2 6/6

Sure, call it V Agent #1.

I already made a move, so you can go now.