Earth-52 IC

[DeafnotDumb]

Lieutenant Walker

"It was... urgh." Walker puts her hand over her face, which she is sure is going to bruise. "We had the Crimson Avenger attack us. And I still haven't read whatever that 'Kiss me Kate' article was, so I'll be going to work tomorrow blind. And..." Montoya, Montoya, Montoya. She clamps up, but she's pretty sure that Stephanie can read a lot from her expression.

"I'll tell you in a bit, Steph. Before the night's out. Just tell me about this Tim boy a bit? It'd be nice to hear the success story." She manages a smirk.

[Bruendor_Cavescout]

Kate Kane

Kate glances out the grimy window at the view afforded by her apartment - it overlooks the alleyway below, a dark and claustrophobic passage filled with trash, rats and despair. She knew that life had not been kind to her, but she couldn't really remember the specifics.

At least someone had made her tea. She picked up the cup, and inhaled the earthy brew, sipping at it as she made her way to the bathroom. She gave a quiet knock at the door. "Don't use up all the hot water, I still need to wash my hair." She leaned against the wall with its peeling paint, enjoying the hot tea as she waited for the bathroom to open.

[industrious]

Lieutenant Walker

"It was... urgh." Walker puts her hand over her face, which she is sure is going to bruise. "We had the Crimson Avenger attack us. And I still haven't read whatever that 'Kiss me Kate' article was, so I'll be going to work tomorrow blind. And..." Montoya, Montoya, Montoya. She clamps up, but she's pretty sure that Stephanie can read a lot from her expression.

"I'll tell you in a bit, Steph. Before the night's out. Just tell me about this Tim boy a bit? It'd be nice to hear the success story." She manages a smirk.

"Well, he's this total geek, so he's totally awkward, but he's kind of cute in that sort of shy way. He's really nice, and he's on the fencing team..."

Kate Kane

"Really, Kate?" comes an all-too-familiar voice.

The woman who exits the bathroom is amazingly pretty. Not beautiful; there's no glamour (in the metaphorical sense) around her. Pale skin, raven black hair, a youthful figure and expression. There's an Eye of Horus tattooed on her eye and an ankh around her neck, and she wears a black cotton sleeveless and leather pants.

She was an amazingly pretty woman, but she wasn't a woman. Not really.

"Do you really think your life is hard?"

[Zarthrax]

Scarecrow

Time to do a little reconnaissance...

Leaving the shed, Doctor Crane heads up to his apartment.


-------------------

The man currently approaching the address on file for Miss 'Jill Carlyle' bears little resemblance to Doctor Jonathan Crane. Other than a passing fancy that maybe they were about the same height, this man is blond and blue-eyed, dressed in a polo shirt, khakis, and some decent shoes. Just a man of more than modest means out for a walk before supper, it seems....

(Auto 26 Disguise roll.)

As he draws closer, he checks his watch in front of the address, scanning the environs with the corner of his eye, trying to see if there is anything unusual about said address....

(Auto 27 Notice roll.)

[DeafnotDumb]

Lieutenant Walker

"Well, he's this total geek, so he's totally awkward, but he's kind of cute in that sort of shy way. He's really nice, and he's on the fencing team..."

"Good lookin'?" Walker teases, smirk on her face. "I don't know if fencing builds up the muscles or not..."

[Bruendor_Cavescout]

Kate Kane

"Oh, it's you," Kate replied matter-of-factly. "That actually explains a lot. At least I'm clothed this time." She sat down on the bed, its box springs creaking in protest.

"No, I know I've been fortunate financially. I've used my wealth to try to make Gotham a better place. I've funded LGBT organizations, I've financed projects to help rebuild it after the quake, even worked behind the scenes on some other initiatives around the city. I've tried to do what I can to make the world a little better than when I found it, and I'd be lying if I said the money didn't make that easier.

"I wonder, though, if I deserve it. It's trite and hackneyed, but I would have traded it all to have the people I love back. I could live in a place like this if it meant another twenty years with my mother, growing up with Lizzy...and growing old with Renee. But instead, I keep living, while everyone else keeps getting killed. Is God testing my faith in Him, like He did with Job?" Through the speech, Kate's voice remains calm and collected; shouting in her presence seemed wrong.

Kate finished off the tea, and the question she'd been needing to ask formed on her lips. "So how? I seem to remember being told Renee couldn't be returned to me when we met last. Is it her? Is it really her?"

[industrious]

Death

She listens patiently, and sits down next to Kate.

Then she hugs her. Death gives magnificent hugs.

"I'm sorry, Kate. But I don't answer those questions."

Scarecrow

"Carlyle" lives in a cookie-cutter ranch house straight out of a 1950s sitcom.

The lights are on in the kitchen, but the blinds are drawn.

[Bruendor_Cavescout]

Kate Kane

Silent tears formed in Kate's eyes - she felt safe in that warm embrace, like nothing could ever harm her. She vaguely recalled a time when she felt something like that, falling asleep in her mother's arms. "OK," she said. "I didn't really expect an answer. That would sort of defeat the purpose of a test of faith." She stayed in that embrace for what felt like eternity.

"So, why meet with me, then?" Kate asked, eventually. "Or am I just dreaming all of this?"

[industrious]

Stephanie

"He's so short and skinny, so I don't think it does. But come on! Tell me about the date you didn't tell me about!"

Death

"Can't it be both?"

Kate wakes up in her bed. The moon is full and her sheets are wrapped tightly around her.

[Sophistemon]

Azrael

"Okay."
The Warden doesn't say much else.
"What shall we talk about?"

"I hate you," he says. It's very succinct, very matter of fact, and the way he pauses afterwards may lead Lyle to think that it's all that he has to say. But, after a breath, he continues. "And I hate the witch, Shondra. You have worked together to break my mind, to recreate me into something... weaker than I was before. The division you have wrought has lessened me, stripped my divinity, stolen my power, taken my... my purpose, my reason for being." He grips the guardrail so tightly that the metal creaks, protestingly, beneath his fingers. "It was easy before," he whispers. "I would carry out my mission for the Order, and I would be rewarded. The deaths I caused were bliss, and paved my way to Paradise, to sit at the feet of Saint Dumas forevermore, as do my predecessor and his predecessors before him, stretching back ad infinitum." He turns to glare at Lyle. "You have stolen that from me, tainted my soul with your wretched conscience and placed this nattering parasite inside my head." He stares out at Gotham Bay. "I have acted with cowardice, refusing a direct confrontation and thereby allowing the Red Lady to escape, because now that I am no longer assured of Paradise I am afraid to die."

[DeafnotDumb]

Lieutenant Walker

Walker looks over her memories of the night and tries to cut them into a coherent shape. "We got attacked by the Crimson Avenger, who turned out to be a friend of mine and Kate's ex come back from the dead."

A pause.

"She shot me and then pistol whipped me five times in the face."

Another pause.

"Not really the best date ever, I suppose."

[Bruendor_Cavescout]

Kate Kane

Kate gazed up as the moon kept its silent watch over Gotham's streets. Her rest was fitful, and her dream only lit a fire under her to get to the bottom of this. She might not have had answers, Kate thought. But that doesn't mean I can't find some. And there's only one place to really start.

Kate put on her work clothes, and mounted up on her motorcycle. She sped out of the hidden exit from Kane Manor, and made her way towards her destination. This isn't going to look good, but there's no other way to find out for certain what's going on. And the only way to find out just how deep this rabbit hole goes is to start digging.

Kate parked out of sight, and crept into the graveyard. She'd find a shovel on site. And she knew where Renee was buried.

[industrious]

Stephanie Brown

"...So, what you're saying is that the second date is definitely going to be better?"

Kate Kane

The graveyard is dark and foggy; the swampy hills of Gotham providing ample stench for Kate's gruesome deed.

The coffin is half-rotten when she hits it; the rotting wood crumbles under the weight of her shovel.

There is no body.

The Warden

"I gave you knowledge of good and evil," the Warden says softly.

"But unlike a serpent, I did not trick you into it. I forced it upon you. You are no longer assured of Paradise. But your actions are now far more meaningful than that of a tool, a pawn of men to play."

[DeafnotDumb]

Lieutenant Walker

"Don't say that." Walker grumbles. "There could be an earthquake. Or rats. Or an earthquake and rats. I'll see how it mucks up when I get to it."

She stands up, and stretches, and tries to remember the name of that gossip rag. "What that magazine is saying about me - will be on the net, won't it? I need to do some research." She looks down. "And get a new shirt, one that hasn't been shot. You don't need anything?"

[ChronicLunacy]

Deadshot

Renee Montoya...cop. Dead cop. Unmarried, no children. Killed in the line of duty in a rather nasty affair involving the recently deceased Black Crossbow. Very, very interesting, but as it was...leading nowhere.

What DNA Deadshot had been able to get off of the abandoned motorcycle when he'd first examined it confirmed with very little leeway that it was a dead woman that had been driving it. The motorcycle itself hadn't give him any clues...most likely stolen, no plates. Furthermore, there was a frustrating lack of any other evidence at the scene. She hadn't left any dirt on the kickstand, she'd been wearing gloves so there was nothing on the handlebars. She hadn't been storing anything in the vehicle. A microscopic inspection led to a result of mainly nada and zilch. Deadshot couldn't even go to her apartment. In Gotham a place like that would have been long since cleaned up and rented out by another tenant.

So, he was left with no leads and nothing but the name of a dead woman to go on. It was infuriating. His only option was to go out into the city and make himself obvious in the hopes that the new Crimson Avenger would try to take another shot at him...which was what he was doing now. Back out into the street, no matter what time it was, in full costume just ******* around until some other option presented itself. Floyd pulled at his mask in irritation and looked out over the deep, dark cess pool of Gotham...more or less just waiting for something to happen. Hopefully there'd be a mugging or a carjacking or something...give him someone or something to vent on while he was busy spinning his wheels.

[Bruendor_Cavescout]

The Question

"Hurm," Kate exhaled as she peered through the rotting hole in the coffin. That was really all that could be said upon finding out your ex-girlfriend's body had been stolen at some point between when she was interred five years ago and now. She stuck the shovel in the pile of dirt and climbed out of the hole, her trenchcoat and pants caked with the stinking soil of the grave. She brushed as much off as she could, and fished her phone out of her pocket, pulling up Walker's info.

Looking into M's return. Still not sure on how. Meet tomorrow evening, exchange notes?

She sent the message, and was about to turn off her phone when a wild hair struck her. It was the height of vanity, but she'd totally forgotten about the tabloid piece on her and Katherine until now, so she Googled herself to find the video.

[Sophistemon]

Azrael

Behind the mask, the assassin's eyes abruptly widen and he whips around in righteous fury to face his captor, thrusting a finger up to spear beneath the chin of the larger man. "Don't you dare to ape scripture at me!" he shouts, and his voice cracks with only barely-contained rage. His sword, thankfully, remains impotently contained within its sheath. The pointed finger trembles, and he clenches his hand into a fist. "What you've failed to understand in your pursuit to save him is that Jean-Paul is not a person anymore than is the Question's coat or the mask that you wore." He lowers his hand and turns back to face the water. "You've crippled me to grant freedom of will to an illusion. You've stolen my life's purpose so that a mask could pretend to have its own." His shoulder slump as he leans over the railing and looks down into the bay. "I'm vulnerable now in a way that I've never been before. So much has changed so quickly... I hate you, Lyle Bolton."

[industrious]

Lyle Bolton

"No."

The Warden has perhaps an inch of height on Azrael, though their weight is comparable. The Warden also has home field advantage.

"You were born Jean-Paul Valley, and it is Azrael that is the mask. You exist because a religious order of fanatics decreed you would exist. You are, and always have been, human. The illusion of immortality is over. You will learn to deal with it or die."

With that, the Warden gets up, and walks back inside, leaving Azrael to think and ponder.

N!

"...breaking news, notorious heartbreaker Kate Kane has claimed another victim. This leaked photo shows the club-going multimillionaire putting the moves on one Lieutenant Katherine Walker of Gotham's Finest. Kiss me Kate!"

The video continued for several more minutes, in which Walker was told, via various talking heads, about how Kate was notorious for "kiss and run," that she was just after the Kane fortune, and that that Italian supermodel from last year (who Kate had used for an evening to cover for an ongoing investigation into a drug cartel) was a far better match for Kate.

Stephanie

"...No. I'm good. Off to Dreamland with me."

[scene change]

The Next Day

When Kate wakes up, there is a text message waiting on her cell phone.

7pm. Top of the City. It's a date.

Katherine Walker

Bullock is waiting for her when she gets in; legs indolently crossed on her desk.

"So, Katie. Little bird told me you like birds."

Deadshot

Waking up, he opens the door to his apartment...to find it's been mauled. Three wedge-shape gouges in the wood, to be precise. Three very familiar gouges.

Well, there goes his security deposit.

Azrael/Jean-Paul Valley

"Fear me, mortal!" thunders the patient before him. "Free me, and The King of Gods will greatly reward you!"

[DeafnotDumb]

Lieutenant Walker

"Sorry. Should've told you earlier. Maybe then you'd have worked out who was stealing all the attention from you. I have to admit it wasn't hard." On one level, it's still the same friendly snapping that she's done with Bullock ever since they started being friends rather than stubborn-minded arses who worked with one another, but it's also a test. How he reacts to this will tell. Bullock is one of the stale, sweaty macho crowd, of those prone to thinking with the wrong head and to react badly to... well, a lot of women in general, but especially one who's just been thrown out of the closet so hard she splintered the doors. He's certainly got something of that crowd.

But on the other hand, he's her friend. And although right now she'd never admit it to anyone, even the gothy girl she prays to, Katherine is nervous as she waits to find out which side of the man is stronger right now,

There is also the more practical problem that he is sitting on her desk. Again. She taps the wood with her cane meaningfully. She doesn't ask how he got in. He's a Lieutenant, thought it's an odd word to imagine in front of his name - it's no easier than in front of Walker, for some people, but the point is that him barging into her office is merely standard Bullock (and, yes, Walker) rudeness but nothing actually wrong. And all this talking of ranks, that reminded her - "I assume you came here to chat business, not just girls? Because if we're going to be comparing I can assure you that mine's better than any you got." She smirks.

Go on the offensive. Don't let them think what you are needs defending. She'll be damned if this is what, of all things, harms her career.

[Bruendor_Cavescout]

Kate Kane

After watching the video, Kate sighs in relief, chuckling to herself. She'd expected a LOT worse than this, so finding out that it was a fluff story rather than a hit piece was actually comforting. Let them wonder about us. It'll distract from the truth.

She read the text on her phone the next morning, and nodded. 7pm would come swiftly, and there was a lot to do. Renee's body was gone; that much was certain. She'd seen her coffin lowered into the earth, read the coroner's report. Renee was dead five years ago, and now, impossibly, she was back. She'd hoped that someone had just taken a part of her and cloned her - science could be fought with natural means. A missing body, though, that spelled one thing, and one thing only: supernatural powers were at work.

That was bad. Sure, her powers were rooted in the supernatural, but they were a means to an end. She couldn't inscribe them on someone else to give them the strength or second sight of her tattoos, and the rest of the Sephirot weren't exactly on speed dial. She did know someone who might have a connection, though.

And that's how she found herself outside the Halsey, pressing on the buzzer and looking up into the security camera, wearing her work clothes. "It's me, Lock-Up. I need to speak with you."

[ChronicLunacy]

Deadshot

Waking up, he opens the door to his apartment...to find it's been mauled. Three wedge-shape gouges in the wood, to be precise. Three very familiar gouges.

Well, there goes his security deposit.

Whether he's coming to or going from his apartment, Floyd examined the gouges in the door. He ran his fingers over them and couldn't help but let a grin cross his mustachioed face. "Catman, you hairy, little pest. What brings you to Gotham?" he asked the wood before he opened the door.

[Zarthrax]

Scarecrow

"Carlyle" lives in a cookie-cutter ranch house straight out of a 1950s sitcom.

The lights are on in the kitchen, but the blinds are drawn.

Idly, he reaches down and scratches an ankle before striding meaningfully up to the front door and knocking twice.

Let's see if she's dumb enough to stay in one spot, shall we?

[Sophistemon]

Azrael

"Jean-Paul was never born!" shouts the angel, his anger boiling over, tinged with indignation and despair. "Jean-Paul was made, and he was made to be me! He was made to be Azrael! I'm real! I'm real!" But the Warden keeps walking, and soon he is alone, with the water, and with the thoughts that lurk beneath its surface. He looks into its depths and sees his mask reflected back at him. Scowling, he reaches to his belt, retrieves a throwing knife, and dashes the reflection into ripples. Muttering under his breath, he then follows the Warden into the ship and shuts the door behind him.

Jean-Paul Valley
The young man smiles warmly at the prisoner. "Mister Zeus, you've been neglecting your anti-psychotics again, haven't you? You know that you need to take your pills if you're going to get better." His voice drops a little, tinged with compassion. "Can I get you anything, Maximilian?" Unlike many of the other prisoners on the Halsey, Maximilian Zeus was more deluded than he was deranged, and Jean-Paul, who had his own inner demons (how the other would have raged at that remark!) to deal with, felt a strange sort of kinship with the would-be Olympian.

[industrious]

Scarecrow

She answers the door, dressed in a pair of dark jeans and a black tee.

"Can I help you?"

Deadshot

Inside the apartment is an effigy of himself, made from pillows, dressed in a costume, and slashed to cotton-filled ribbons.

There's a note.

Sorry, Blake. Time to see who's the better hunter.

Maximilian Zeus

"Fetch me my chariot of fire! And my thunderbolts! I will not allow your foul poisons to diminish who I am!"

This had to be deliberate. Bolton rarely did things without clear reasons. Or maybe it was coincidence, after all; Maxi Zeus's madness ebbed and flowed depending on mood and medication.

The Slammer

A rumbling voice answers her, low and almost relaxed.

"Sorry," he says. "He hasn't been here in weeks. My name is Lyle Bolton. Can I help you with anything?"

[industrious]

Bullock

He snorts. "She's too pretty for you. I'm the best looking guy on the squad; she takes one look at me, Walker, and she'll go nuts."

Bullock was many things, with Politically incorrect, sleazy, obese, and lazy among them. But he was also doggedly loyal, and once he gave his friendship, he never gave it up.

"You should have told me, Katie. Would have made all the blind dates I tried to set up gone a lot smoother. Renee would have told me something like this."

[Sophistemon]

Jean-Paul

"Maxie," he says, "You know that I can't. You have to stay here if you're going to get any better. Doctor's orders." His voice is calm, but has a slightly plaintive edge to it. And, anyway, didn't the Chariot of Fire belong to Apollo? Yes, intones the other, inside Jean-Paul's head. It did, and not even Zeus was brave enough to drive it. This fool is deranged. Bolton thinks himself clever to foist him on us, but I am no delusion. I am an angel made flesh, born and reborn time and again, as immortal and unending as the tides. Jean-Paul shook his head in an attempt to clear it. "How about some magazines, huh, Maxie? We just got the new issues of Gotham Weekly in the mail. How'd you like it if I brought you a copy?"

[Bruendor_Cavescout]

The Question

Damn, Kate thought. Hopefully Bolton will be able to help.

"I need to speak to someone about the newest cape around here. One of my investigations is leading me in strange directions, and it might be entwined with him."

[DeafnotDumb]

Lieutenant Walker

Katherine smirks in relief and amusement. Bullock may have his plethora of personal flaws, much like her, but the thought that this revelation might change how he treated her didn't seem to have entered his head.

She hesitated before speaking, not wanting to ruin his faith in his old friend, but she'd have to describe some of the details of that disastrous first date to the MCU anyway. Best he heard it from her. "About that..." She winces. "It came as a shock to me too, but, well, Kane's old flame? It was her. And the reason I'm telling you this is that last night somebody probably pretending to be Renee attacked us and that was how I found out." Well, not true, but this way no question about who Kane really was. "I'm telling you now because I'm going to have to say this to the whole MCU. Evidence is evidence."

"So, did you or did you not have the worst luck with setting up these blind dates?" She tries a bit of humor, and realizes just after this is probably not the right place or time. Dammit, Katherine. Think. On that thought... "And sorry for not telling you about me, too, while we're here."

[ChronicLunacy]

Deadshot

Inside the apartment is an effigy of himself, made from pillows, dressed in a costume, and slashed to cotton-filled ribbons.

There's a note.

Sorry, Lawton. Time to see who's the better hunter.

Spoiler

Show

I edited the above, because I assume it would have had Floyd's name. Let me know if he would have purposefully used a wrong name.

A slow smirk spread across Floyd's face and he pulled his heavy pistol from his shoulder holster with a dextrous and unnecessary spin like a cowboy. "Okay, I could have done without the creepy...killing me in effigy...thing...but game on, momma's boy! Now where's my backup costume..."

A few minutes later, Deadshot was dressed in his tactical gear and sporting a variety of custom-made tools of death -- today most notably a collapsible compound bow with a variety of nifty arrows. "I love it when Kitty Man is in town. It's been a while since I shot him. I wonder if he's over the whole...three months in traction after falling off a building thing. Probably not, right?" he talked to himself as he went out the fire escape. "Ah well..."

Spoiler

Show

Arsenal Loadout (35ep Total): Compound Bow (+4 Damage + Strength Bonus; Subtle, Non-Lethal Arrows, Frag Arrows, Smoke Arrows, Tear Gas Arrows, Sleep Gas Arrows, Taser Arrows, Snare Arrows)[For simplicity's sake, treated like grenade launcher for purposes of ammo cost; 22ep], Heavy Pistol (+5 Damage, Laser Sight, 19-20 Critical) [10ep, Mini-Tracers [1ep], GPS Receiver [1ep], Urban Camo [1ep]

[Zarthrax]

Scarecrow

She answers the door, dressed in a pair of dark jeans and a black tee.

"Can I help you?"

In an upper crust English accent, the man without fear responds in a apologetic tone, "Not unless A Sarah Kincaid lives here? She told me to come by, or at least her roommate did. I detest blind dates, but I owed her a favor or two, so what can you do?

Of course, never actually having been to her domicile, it does appear that I've garbled the directions a bit. Is South Shaunessy Court nearby, or have I gone in completely the wrong direction?"

(Auto 26 on Bluff.)