12029/Where It All Started

Where It All Started
Date of Scene:	16 July 2022
Location:	The Narrows - Miagani Island
Synopsis:	Barbara meets up with someone who sheds a little light on the Lycan situation! Info is exchanged! Pleasantries too! All over the roof of a moldy smelling hotel.
Cast of Characters:	Barbara Gordon, Elektra Natchios

---

Barbara Gordon has posed:
An abandoned Hotel in the Narrows. Once a thriving place for the upper crust of society within Gotham, decades have not been kind to it. Several stories tall, the Hotel has a lobby that is filled with detritus, rot, and ruin. The front desk is in complete shambles, with bullet holes and trash laying all around it. The floor of the hotel is wet and rotten, with droplets of rain water falling down from the very high ceiling of the central balconies levels.

You see, there's many floors open here, each with their own balcony above the last, leading up to the apex of the hotel, which used to be a beautiful sky light with a giant chandelier of crystal and gold. Now the chandelier is a skeleton of metal, and wires... stripped of all its value and barely even hanging up from the support beams where the sky light used to be covered by glass. Now the glass has shattered and it scatters the lobby many floors down, dangerous shards of glass that are just resting in the standing water of filth and grime.

Most all of the windows in the hotel are smashed out, with grafitti lining the walls on every level. It's known for being a place where junkies, and homeless come to find shelter from the elements, but also notorious for random gang activity.

Tonight, at the apex of the roof sky light... Batgirl stands in the warm summer wind, with her cape gently swaying in the wind, as she stares down through the broken sky light toward the lobby level far, far below...

She talks in to her wrist computer. "Oracle. I'm at the Hotel. All is quiet right now, but I'm going to set a few drones down here to activate upon any motion sensors tripped inside..." Babs softly says to a AI's response.

Batgirl crouches down then as she starts to unfold some small drones from a black canvas bag she'd brought with her...

Elektra Natchios has posed:
The hotel brought back memories. Good ones, bad ones. As such things go. Memories of better times, with people she actually cared for but also of blood.

Yet was blood such a bad thing?

It didn't take an expert detective to realize the werewolves might be going back to previous hideouts. Hideouts such as the one they had used before when Elektra, Colleen and Selene had fought them. So she had got a small safehouse to stake out the hotel from a vantage point. Waiting. Always patient. For that was one of an assassin's best qualities, the patience. A couple of nights had already went by without too much action but now here was her chance....

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

There is no sound on that rooftop. A quiet of death. Too quiet? It's the kind that can prick those hairs on the back of the neck. Of a presence looming on. The glimpse of a shadow is visible for the split of a second and there's a clear feeling that Babs isn't alone on that rooftop anymore.

The sillouette in the shadows 'materializes' into a woman's form, dressed in black and red with a mask covering the lower end of her face. Sais are sheathed on a large sash around her waist but more instruments of death are visible on the leather bracers she carries.

The sais aren't drawn so maybe she isn't here to attack Batgirl. But who knows? This is Gotham after all!

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Babs has one drone up, its quiet buzzing taking it down in to the broken sky light... She watches it descend before she starts to piece another together. This is what she's doing when those feelings of being watched creep in to her senses...

She moves suddenly, very quickly turning to plant her left armored knee on to the broken filth covered roof. She pivots and turns to face Elektra's direction, raising up her left gloved hand to aim a tazer weapon at Elektra's form!

But she stops. She stares. Her fiery red hair gently waving against her right shoulder in the night wind...

The two just stare at one another, in silence, for a passing moment, before Babs starts to rise up with ease and grace. She stands now, and keeps the tazer drawn on Elektra.

"Who. Are you?" She asks, her own persona quite likely easily identified considering the style of her dark grey, black, and gold trimmed outfit of armor, cape, cowl and Bat flare.

Elektra Natchios has posed:
Dark eyes remain on Batgirl's even as the tazer is pointed at her. No motion to get out of the way, nothing that suggests a defensive posture from the woman. Maybe she just believes the woman won't shoot. Not without reason. It's the difference between them after all. Elektra has never needed a reason for violence in the past. Does she need one now?

"Elektra."

A simple answer yet it carries many questions. The name isn't unknown in Gotham, having more than once Elektra having come face to face with the Batman or some of the Robins, sometimes on his side but she has never been much welcome considering her line of work. That of a world-feared assassin.

"I am not here to harm you." Even if her tone is razor-sharp, "Yet I am here to meet you, Batgirl." she moves further away from the shadows and into the moonlight, long dark hair flowing in the wind as she nears that edge leading down to the hotel lobby.

"You have met them here in Gotham." It's not a question. "The Lycans." her voice barely a whisper in the night, again those deadly eyes turning on Batgirl.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
When Elektra starts to talk, Babs' chin rises up just a little. Her ear comm is feeding her some information about the woman based on the scan that her AI system is receiving from her cowl. This woman has helped Batman before... Barbara finds this quite interesting.

When the word 'Lycans' is mentioned, this actually makes Babs very gently tip her head toward the left. She's still getting used to 'Werewolf' as a name. She's not at all expecting a sub-race that is arguably even more deadly to be what she's dealing with now, or at least investigating now.

"Lycans?" Barbara asks, her voice not modulating, entirely just 'her', soft and gentle. She spares a quick glance toward that once-majestic skylight that is now just a giant piece of trash waiting for its day to be recycled.

She looks back to Elektra then. "The Werewolves?" She inquires. "You're familiar with them?" She asks further, as she starts to lower her weapon down to her left thigh, still clutching it in her black gloved hand.

"I was attacked. By five of them, but I saw many... many more than that. In the sewers. I've been... pulling on this thread, and am saddened to see some very disheartening things unraveling about it all."

Is this woman here to help her? Or is she 'with' them?

Elektra Natchios has posed:
"This was one of their past hideouts.." Elektra explains, gesturing with a gloved, elegant hand to the hotel below them, "I thought we had slain most of them in the area but ..." a beat, "They always find a way to breed more. Like cockroaches." there's emotion on her voice for a second there. And perhaps not entirely related to this specific situation. Almost as if she had some personal stakes on this.

"What have you uncovered?" She then finally questions, some curiosity on her posture at the 'disheartening things' mentioned. There's a very slight lift of a brow at the woman before her attention goes back to the lobby beneath them, she lowering herself down to a knee to inspect the broken debris, perhaps trying to figure out if there was a recent passage of lycans this way. She had learned a few hunting techniques against these Lycans from Selene after all..

"That you survived against an attack by five of them is telling of your abilities, Batgirl. Good. But you will need to find the one creating them in order to stop their infestation in Gotham."

Barbara Gordon has posed:
As Elektra moves across the filthy roof to stand beside the skylight also, Babs just turns to face her with her hands remaining at her sides, her cape gently flowing behind her form as she turns her head to look down the open windows as well, before she looks back down to the other woman.

"That's the thing..." She starts to reply, keeping her voice low. "I have not been able to find anything on who the leader is. I assumed it was ... either a former gang leader, who stumbled down the wrong path in the park some night, or perhaps a out of towner... perhaps from ... our neighbors from the north, I'm not sure yet."

There's some sounds down below the roof fromt he floor where some heavy trucks are moving down the street, a garbage truck, followed by some service vehicles for the city. The voices of people shouting at one another can be heard down there as well, but it doesn't sound like a conflict... yet.

"What I know is that they're recruiting the destitute of Gotham's youngest homeless. The kind who still have spirations of being something more than... what they are. There's reports of gatherings, rallies, I guess you could call them, where they bring willing people up to... I'm not sure, a fight club, maybe? The winner given the 'right' to join them. I haven't witnessed any of these things yet myself, it's all just second hand hearsay." But it's partly what lead me here."

Babs motions toward the skylight with her left hand, the one clutching that tazer gun still. "Apparently this was one of their major hubs at some point. I'm setting up a monitoring swarm. My drones will... well. I suppose that's obvious." She cuts herself off then, and looks back to Elektra. She stares at her for a moment.

"How are you involved in this?" She asks of the other woman then next.

Elektra Natchios has posed:
"I came across them over a year ago. They were attempting to make a deal with the Hand to gain soldiers to swell their forces." The assassin explains, eyes continuing to inspect the place, on the debris, then down the lobby and then to where those sounds come from. All taken in and analyzed with calmness even if violence seems to be just below the skin with Elektra. "For a war they have with another group. These people, Gotham destitutes, homeless. They are cannon fodder for them. Allured by promises of power to become monsters.." she shakes her head slowly.

Silence grows afterwards, Elektra's eyes finally on Batgirl again, almost as if taking her measure, considering on how much to share. Eyes narrow just so, perhaps at the decision she just made, "I am looking for someone." a beat, "And the rise of these creatures once again can't be a coincidence. I will find this leader and question him but ..." and she gestures, "This is not my turf."

Elektra reaches behind her and when she brings her hand forward again there's a sheathed dagger in it. "So I propose an alliance. I aid you with this and in turn you help me find who I am looking for." she extends the dagger towards Barbara. "A gift of good faith." unsheathing it would reveal the blade being made of silver.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Babs is mostly just a staring statue while Elektra responds to her. She doesn't move until that dagger is offered. Inside her cowl her scanners are measuring it, inspecting it, reporting findings to Babs, but she already knows what it is.

"Silver." She says quietly as she reaches out her right hand to accept it. She holds it by its handle now, turning the shining blade around some, reflecting the summer moon back up at it high in the sky. "So it does make a difference when fighting them?" She asks, though obviously the answer is already given, in her hand.

"This is all a bit out of my norms... If one can say I have norms." Babs notes as her green eyes gaze to the south and the city horizon that shines in that direction.

"Do you have any information on their Leader?" She asks then, dropping her eyes back to Elektra's half-covered face. "I can help you locate him. I'd... like to be there, for any confrontations. I have my own questions, let alone... demands? If you can call them that. Gotham doesn't need this kind of trouble. IT's people are already nearly constantly on-edge due to the madness we already face on a weekly basis. This?"

She looks back down to the silver dagger. "this is a whole new can of worms. Furry, angry, surprisingly strong, worms..."

She looks back up to Elektra then. "Have they united with The Hand?" She asks. "If they become trained, like you? That's just going to make things... less than better."

Elektra Natchios has posed:
"It will stop them from regenerating." Elektra adds about the difference it makes when fighting them. A wicked gleam comes to those dark eyes, "And it pains them deeply. Of course that the trade off is you need to get close and personal to one of them. Never a good thing." she knew it well from her voice. Experience!

The talk about norms has Elektra again arch an eyebrow, "It's a menace to your city. But instead of a villain dressed like a penguin you get furried creatures." there's just the hints of teasing to her tone, "And I even hear there's a catwoman around this city.."

Though as Barbara seems to agree to the alliance there's a sharp nod from the assassin, "We will start with this fight club you mentioned. If they bring people there to fight it means the leader may be present to watch those worthy. If he isn't we will still take out a den of them." Is she really that fearless about just barging into a den of lycans? Or maybe needing those answers too much..

That last question has her shake her head, "No, we stopped them." again that 'we', but she seems to be doing this alone tonight.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
The tazer weapon is put away on to the back of Babs' belt beneath her cape. She draws out a black wrap that she rolls around the silver blade of the dagger before she slips it too away behind her. Her green eyes rest on Elektra then, just watching her as she talks. "Seems like a fair enough proposal. The regeneration power that these things have? It's... not like anything I've seen before. I've come across fast healers, but these things?" She slowly shakes her cowl covered head. "It makes them almost impossible to actually stop. I'll let the others know that silver is the right path. We're not... killers though. We want to find a way to disable these things, and ..." She trails off then, dropping the volume of her voice as she once more shakes her head, very softly this time. "I don't know. There's no cure for this kind of thing, is there? Or ... is that just a 'movie thing'?"

A quick smirk is shown, and then gone again just as rapidly. "This is all rather difficult. Penguins? Cat women? Yeah, I'm used to that. I mean, look at what I'm wearing.. But all of that... is just theatrics. These things? They're real. We come across big threats around here, sometimes, but not... hundreds of them all packed together."

Without really finishing that thought, Babs reaches for her belt again, and slips a card to Elektra. It's a tourist card for the Gotham City Clocktower Apartment Skyrise, very unassuming. The kind of thing you might find at a gas station.

"We meet here, if you need to find us. We're going to find a way to solve this, somehow..."

Elektra Natchios has posed:
"There is no cure." It's a very definitive tone on Elektra, "Only death." it's the echo of someone else's words. But she knows them to be true. Or perhaps that's just how Elektra views them now. As monsters to be slain. "Hesitate when facing one of those monsters and it may be you being killed."

The tight leather of her pants stretches as the assassin gets back up to her full height, eyes going up and down on the woman's garb. "Yes, you have a tendency for it in this city." the animal-themed heroes and villains! Eyes then roam down to the card, a moment which she spends just looking at it but then she nods, holding the card between fingertips.

"I will be there." Promise on her lips. Elektra walks to the edge of the building, right to the ledge, "And keep it between us, Batman doesn't need to know I am back in his city.." the hint of a smirk, "He can be so possessive sometimes..." and then she opens her arms, letting herself drop down in a freefall. A moment later there's the sound of a zipline and the woman disappears in the night.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Barbara watches Elektra make her retreat toward the edge of the old derelict Hotel. She nods ever so slightly to her words, esepcially the last bit there about Batman. She's so busy with the Birds these days, she doesn't run in to Bruce much.

With Elektra vanishing via-zipline in classic Ninja stylings, the redhead turns back to her work with the drones. She draws in a breath, then slowly releases it as she crouches again.

Within seconds she has another drone buzzing up in to the air over the busted out skylight, and her green eyes watch it descend.

Her AI Oracle System starts to call for her assistance to be drawn elsewhere, a domestic dispute not far from her location. Apparently it's getting bad too, enough for her attention.

"I'll check it out, sending the last drone down." She says to the AI before she zips the bag and rolsl it up, walking to the opposite side of the building from which Elektra vanished.

Moments later and the Bat is gliding out over the city...