13988/Birds of Prey: New Ride

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Birds of Prey: New Ride
Date of Scene: 31 January 2023
Location: GCPD Retired Aircraft Airfield
Synopsis: Barbara introduces the Birds of Yay to their new Blimp Buddy. Green Energy, Moon Helium, Party Cruises and Airship Booze Cruises. It's quite a time. Cass might have even gotten high off Blimp fumes!
Cast of Characters: Barbara Gordon, Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown, Kate Kane, Helena Bertinelli, Harper Row




Barbara Gordon has posed:
Over the past several years, Barbara had been growing her technological level within the Birds, or within the Bat-family in general. She'd stopped widely going by the name of Oracle, and instead adapted the Oracle in to an AI, and group-assistance tool. She had begun to employ the wider use of Drone technology too, with engineering of her drones growing ever more advanced. They're reliable now, with camera tech, providing greater support for things like augmented reality systems, air support, and all manner of other things. Hell, Babs even uses some of the larger ones as grapple-anchors in the sky, to launch herself up off the ground when there's no other quick grappling access to shoot for.

But... things like drones have the same issues that so much of Humanity is held back by. Energy. Babs is an energy expert. She created a whole business around renewable energy sources after all. In the cases of the drones, they need to be re-powered 'fairly' often. Instead of having them fly all the way back to the Clocktower every time to do this, or risk charging stations in vulnerable locations, what better way to do this than to employ a mobile base for the Birds, and for the Bat-family as a whole...

Step One was the idea.

Step two... convince everyone else it's a good idea.

Tonight, at this old air strip outside of the city, Barbara had put out a call to have anyone available to come by asap.

She's standing next to a giant half-circle shaped aircraft hangar, the kind that could house a couple 747s if needs ever arose...

Dressed in a black trenchcoat, with black boots sticking out the bottom of its long form, Barbara exhales a spout of steam, the cold Gotham night laying like a blanket over the whole region. She is pacing, waiting for her people, her friends, her family, to arrive...

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Cassandra Cain is here, dressed ...yikes. She stands there, in a plaid skirt and a white longsleeved blouse, with white socks and black shoes. She's even got on a little blue tie that hangs partway down her front, her hair brushed back and looking every bit the catholic schoolgirl.

No katana even, who did Alfred bribe to get her dressed up like THAT? Of course it does show off the scars up and down her legs, but otherwise? Ladylike and nice.

If you call for ASAP, you get Cass dressed as she was at the time!

Babs (Barbara) called, so she came. She waits for Barbara to pace toward her, then turn away, and then steps out. The image would be that she's just appeared standing on the airstrip, standing there waiting for the redhead to turn back in her direction.

Hey, she likes to keep in practice. Even in these stupid flats.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
The quiet gradually gives way to the sound of approaching motorcycle. One that Barbara will likely be able to recognize by sound alone. Not only because she's used to Stephanie riding it, but because it was Barbara's graduation present when Stephanie finished high school.

Soon the bike can be seen, leaning into the turns as it zips along the roads, or taxiways, over to the hangar. The bike is parked beside the structure and the rider hops off. Stephanie pulls off her helmet and does a hair flip followed by a little finger-combing to help get rid of the helmet hair.

"Hey guys," Stephanie says as she walks over to join Barbara and Cassandra. "Cass, you out on a date?" she asks as she eyes the outfit, and gives the Asian young woman a little suggestive eyebrow raise as she grins.

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate is, of course, no stranger to drones herself, she's got her own little cadre of them, not for anything as broad as surveilling the city, but they do the job for helping maintain that Bat-reputation of being all-knowing and all-seeing on a tactical level.

Of course, she's _also_ got a bitchin' fast sports bike, which is what comes rolling up to the hangar with a high pitched whine of finely tuned engine. It's not like anyone would recognize her, black leather jacket, black leather pants, boots... helmet with a tinted visor that's probably got an augmented reality display built into it.

It's only once she's slowed her roll as it were, and confirmed Babs is Babs that she's coming to a stop, kickstand smoothly deployed, and that helmed pulled off to reveal... Kate! Who could have expected?

Babs and Steph each get a little sketch of a wave. Cass gets a little sketch of a wave... but can also probably read Kate's body language enough to tell she's only now realizing when looking at Steph's bike just how many of the Birds favor motorcycles.

Her hands slip into the pockets of her jacket and she pointedly does /not/ ask the question on her mind.

Because Steph's already done it, with that little eyebrow raise that's so charming that... well, she's just going to let Steph take the heat from Cass for asking.

That's a tactical decision, you see.

Helena Bertinelli has posed:
Helena Bertinelli got the message. It isn't often Barbara asks for everyone to show up, let alone at an airfield outside the city. Leave it to her to be all mysterious.

It may still be January and Cold AF in Gotham, she's still going to ride her motorcycle. It builds character. No really.

Rolling up, she shuts the motor off and coasts to a stop. Swinging off the bike, she's dressed in a purple sweater under a brown leather jacket, black jeans and hiking boots. Removing her helmet and riding gloves she sets them on the seat. A bike in winter builds character, a bike in winter without gloves builds frostbite.

Walking toward the group she offers a smile and nod to the others. "Ladies.."

She looks curiously to Barbara and waits for more details.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Barbara is turning around to see Cassandra standing there like something out of a horror movie that was about to prey upon the redhead. It does make Babs stop short, and after a second she is just smirking as the sounds of engines can be heard approaching. Steph arrives first, and Barbara just nods her head once. "I think you look marvelous, Cass." She says, walking over to the young woman then to put a hand down upon her shoulder to offer a light squeeze.

When the others pull up, Babs is there by Cass and Steph, and she smiles to them both too. "Kate, Helena... good. Very good... Did anyone hear from Zinda? I was hoping she'd be able to make it too, but... such is our whacky lives, I guess."

"Sorry to drag you all out here on a cold ass night like this too, but it was the best night for this." She states, stepping over to the black pickup truck that she drove to get here tonight. She opens the driver's door up and reaches for something inside the cab while the car lets out a little warning jingle about the door being ajar.

"I've been doing some thinking, which should terrify all of you..." Babs says then, shutting the truck door with a thud as she steps back toward them, holding a black box in her right gloved hand at her side now.

"We need a bit more... versitility, in our arsenal, I think, and I'd like to do it with both the future in-mind, and a bit of the past too. We Gothamites like our style, after all."

Barbara offers that little black box to Cassandra then. "Here. Push this button." She says of a small black button upon the small black box.

If pushed, the massive doors on the hangar will start to roll open, large rubber wheels pulling back the heavy doors to whatever lies within. It's not fast either, so Barbara just huffs out an exhale.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Cass wasn't going for scared. Barbara is a good person, so she was just going for a successful infiltration. The flats made it more challenging is all, and she pauses as she gets complimented. It makes her smile a little bit, looking down and away. She's flattered!

Then, motorcycles. Cassandra smiles at Barbara, watching til the team pulls up sans Zinda, and she is already feeling happy so when she's asked if she's 'on a date' she says "No," without preamble. Still, that's weird. The door isn't a jar, why would it say that? English is so messed-up...wait, Barb wants my attention.

She takes the black box, not really tracking what it's for, and then pushes dem button. She blinks as the doors start moving, and glances at Barbara to see if her body language says 'danger' or not.

It does not. Stand down from defensive posture.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie Brown greets Helena and Kate with friendly smiles, and waves. Cassandra gets a hug and an arm around her shoulder, though it's relinquished as Barbara puts Cassandra to work on the big reveal.

Stephanie starts air drumming as she does her best verbal imitation of a drumroll. The women turn to the hangar doors which start to open.

And, still opening.

Stephanie draws a deep breath then continues the drumroll.

Still opening. Drumroll continuing.

Still opening. Stephanie is starting to suck in breaths between drumrolls. Small chance she might hyperventilate before they get fully open.

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate's content to let Babs take her time getting to things, or maybe she's just having fun trying to piece the puzzle together from the clues. Not that 'GCPD airplane graveyard' gives much of a clue beyond 'Probably going to involve flying'. But she gives another little wave to Helena as the Italian approaches and murmurs out softly, "This is it. Babs has built a death ray and she brought us here to practice her megalomaniacal villain speech in front of an informal audience."

And then Babs is pulling out a remote of some sort, and offering it to Cass to press... for plausible deniability? Oh god, that death ray thing was supposed to be ghoulish overkill for humor.

Not that she seems all that worried as the doors begin to slowly open themselves and Kate finds herself watching the show. It'd be a lot easier to spoil the surprise if she'd kept her helmet on and had some night vision right now.

Helena Bertinelli has posed:
Helena Bertinelli smiles to Barbara, moving over to stand nearby. Nodding as Barbara begins to explain, she can't help but grin wryly. "Do we ever do anything that isn't mysterious? It's half the fun of it all anyway."

Watching as the button is pressed by Cass, her gaze turns to the building and the doors crawl open. Curiously watching, she laughs at Kate's comment. "Well she does have that satellite in orbit. So I think we already have that. This is probably where she reveals she's replacing us all with Terminators and she won't be needing our services any longer."

Blowing on her hands a moment, she stuffs them back in her pockets. Should have kept the riding gloves on.

Harper Row has posed:
Harper Row finally arrives, tardy and on her own motorcycle. She chirps on one of the tigher turns and rolls herself on up to the assembling group of stellar ladies. The ripped jeans are a little extra ventillation she wasn't accounting for this evening, but the boots and the jacket over a local Gotham Indie bank are enough insulation for now.

Her mouth is a round pie-hole as she comes upon some manner of grand opening. Quite literally those hangar doors parting. She's off her bike and still carrying her helmet with the obnoxious punkish accessories embellishing it, practically trotting to come on up to the group. Her breath huffs and puffs. "Woah!"

Barbara Gordon has posed:
The doors are continuing to open as Steph provides the Griswald Family Christmas Tree presentation, which has Barbara glancing over to her with a grin before she looks back to the doors. They're half way open now. "Kate, go push them open, it'll be faster, I think." She says with a grin over to the woman in head to toe leather. She's teasing. Probably.

Harper's arrival on another motorcycle has Babs watching her, then ID'ing who it is when she sees enough clues to fill her in. "Harper. Nice to see you. How cold are you?" She asks, since it's like 6 degrees outside right now. "You're just in time too..."

The doors continue to roll open and once they finally reveal the interior of the hangar, it's just... black.

Babs huffs, and is reaching for the remote that she gave Cassandra, when lights start to pop on inside the hangar, spotlights shining down from the north and south interior walls. The spotlights all pop on with that loud industrial snap of illuminating glory, and their brilliant bright beams all send light across the mammoth form of a massive Dirigible. The kind the GCPD uses, though an older model...

It's just sitting there, looming really. Like seriously looming. Major looming here, folks.

Barbara finally just applauds with her gloved hands, then starts to walk toward the hangar a few steps before she turns to look at the other women. She spreads her arms out to the sides. "Ta da!" She says with a big smile, a giant air ship looming behind her.

Have you noticed all the looming, and the giant air ship yet? because yeah, it's right there... in the huge hangar.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Cass turns toward Steph as she drumrolls, wondering for a moment if she's going to need to get the oxy-tank. Then she's distracted by a passing bird, and then by Harper's arrival. By the time the doors are actually open she's hunched down looking at a caterpillar, wondering exactly how they get so many legs.

The SNAP of the lights makes her look up again, and Cass licks her own teeth inside of her mouth thoughtfully. Huh.

Which is when she turns to everyone and says, with a pause:

"Race you?"

She actually waits more than a half-second before taking off toward the zeppelin, but only because of the damn flats. No traction.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie Brown finishes the imitation drumroll with a flourish, then gapes at the dirigible. "This one doesn't have Mr. Freeze standing on a platform in front I hope," she says, of the Christmas Eve attack on Gotham spraying freeze gas on the various buildings.

Stephanie walks forward, not trying to match Cassandra's dart for it. The blond girl walks a little along it, getting a better view of the side and then moving back over to Barbara. "Well I have to say, it fits the Birds theme pretty well," she says with a grin.

"It's going to be kind of noticeable. So do we want to just embrace that full on? Sell video space and make it into a flying billboard that people will just get used to and stop thinking about?"

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate's eyes roll and she sighs out, "Listen, I don't /actually/ push open airplane hangar doors as a regular workout routine, Babs. That's something _you said_ to tease me once."

She's so super deadpan about it. Is that true? Is she just acting like Babs has said that before to _make_ Babs think she said it before? She'll never tell.

Harper's fashionably late arrival with fashionable helmet earns a crooked grin and a little two-finger wave from Batwoman, before she's snapping back around at the first THOOM of spotlights turning on. By the time they're done, and Kate's processed her entire series of thoughts of 'Blimp!' or 'Dirigible?' 'Zeppelin?' She's actually not sure which it is when Cass starts running towards it.

Kate just trusts long legs to propel her forward at a brisk walk, glancing to Steph and stage whispering, "This is why she was hoping Zinda was going to show up. Because who the hell else knows how to _pilot a zeppelin_?"

She ponders Steph's questions about blending in, "Oh no, I say this is Babs' beast. We paint it sparkly purple with a giiiiiiant golden Bat symbol on it. We keep asking her about her blimp until it sounds like it's a euphemism for something."

Helena Bertinelli has posed:
Helena Bertinelli smiles at Harper as she arrives, "Hey Harp."

Looking to the others then back to the large hangar with all of the looming suspense.

Then Cass is talking about a race. "Oh hell no. This Italian does _not_ race when it's below effing zero with wind chill" she says with a laugh. "The honors are all yours Cass."

Falling in with the rest of the group, she nods to Steph, "It does. Now we need jet packs so we can dive out of the thing and swoop down on crime from above. They'll never stand a chance."

"Yeah. It's going to be hard to hide it. Unless we paint it black and only take it for nighttime joy rides?" A shrug.

"Have you already updated for the team Barb?"

Kate's comment about purple sparkles gets a snort of a laugh. "..that's.. perfect Kate."

Harper Row has posed:
Harper pulls a dorky face, tilting her head, kind of like a bird trying to get a better bead on something. Her open mouth probably isn't helping generate a favourable opinion of her intelligence.

She offers red-cheeked looks to the other women, her eyes dragging off one to another, lingering on one or two in particular, as if to take cues or direction or inspiration. She's too flustered and late to come in smug or sarky. A gathering like this is a big deal.

And so her eyes strain, squinting and she takes another step forward. Her teeth choose that moment to chatter, as if triggered by one of Barbara's remote control mystery buttons. It is quite nippy out here, exposed on an airfield. The glare of the lights don't provide warmth, but the sight revealed temporarily banishes the temperature. "T-that's...that's...Big!" she gasps, helmet dangling from her fingers.

Harper lets it fall to bonk-clonk the tarmac as she mad-dashes to try and catch up with Cassandra. "I call shotgun! No wait! Can we do the...no! No we gotta do the thing at the front. The prow!" She huffs and puffs, unladylike in her scramble to try and get to the hangar. Her progress is sabotaged by her brain, and she half-turns, nearly spilling herself. "OhEmGee, Does she have a fricken name?!"

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Cassandra and Harper are the first two to get inside the hangar, and once inside they'll see that the Airship is moored to a large scaffolding arrangement beneath the main passenger compartment of the Dirigibile.. There are a series of metal staircases zig-zagging up the scaffolding thta lead to a door that is currently lifted up on the side of that underbelly compartment too.

Babs walks along with Kate, Helena, and Stephanie. "Publicly this thing is going to be a Gordon Green Energy project." She explains the boring parts to those who didn't partake in the race. "These are actually far more eco friendly than your average airplane, and because of that, I was able to swing a pretty great deal on acquiring it from the GCPD, for my company. In faaaaact. The whole point of this, publicly, is to wrap the whole body of the ... whatever you call it, the blimp, in a new kind of solar absorption panelling. I'm going to prove that Gotham may not be as sunny as Miami, but its still sunny enough to produce a wealth of solar energy, enough to power a number of things..." She mutters then. "Like all of our air-borne gear."

As they all enter the hangar now, Babs steps over to a table just inside where she sets down the remote, then starts to pick up a number of hot drinks which were resting inside of cardboard containers offering insulation to keep the drinks piping hot.

She starts to hand them out, more drinks here than there are mouths to enjoy them...

"So we're not going to try and hide it. We're just going to .... not say /everything/ that it's doing, and providing us." She states with a smile for those still listening to her.

"Come on, I'll take us up there..."

Cass is definitely already up there.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Cass is SO up there. She's already ignoring the skirt issue that girls sometimes have when climbing and looking at the upper parts of the dirigible from her perch in the scaffolding. She's lost a shoe, but she's certain that it wasn't important anyway so she chooses to lose the other one with a kick that sends it vaguely forward, or aft. Screw words, they're just meant to imitate reality anyway.

Waving to Harper to keep up, she hangs upside-down by her knees, looking at the connections on part of the hull. There's a lot going on to explore, and she'd be remiss if she didn't familiarize herself with the blimp. After all, it's only a matter of time til one of us ends up fighting a supervillain while clinging to it.

Tell me I'm wrong.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie Brown follows along as Barbara gives them the lowdown on the... high up. "Good, the more visible it is the better it blends in. Strange how that is," she says. Stephanie holds out a hand as if she were following a big advertising slogan. "Gordon Green Energy Blimps. Sourced from the finest free-range helium."

The blond flashes a grin over at her mentor. "It's a great idea, Barbara. And I promise I'll try not to fall to my death from it more than once or twice," says the girl with the ongoing beef with gravity.

She laughs as Harper and Cass race forward. Stephanie gets one of the drinks and grins over to Kate and Helena. In a stage whisper, she says to them, "I think Barbara actually was saying to herself, what's a training module I haven't put the Birds through yet. I know! Dirigible piloting!"

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate might play off as too cool for school, but like... it's a _zeppelin_ and it's... Barbara's. That's impressive. And that's without accounting for the fact that Babs has clearly got plans for it beyond however it fits into the Gotham Crimefighting Ecosystem. It's fitting into the... well, actual ecosystem. And energy grid. And that earns a low, appreciative whistle typically reserved for sports cars and other things that Kate appreciates that usually aren't energy generation plans. But this is one impressive plan and she gives it its due.R
Kate reaches out practically on instinct when Babs hands out drinks, because she's eying Cass, just keeping an eye on her. For safety.

She sips at her hot beverage and she murmurs dryly, "So... this thing like... is going to have an actual crew, right?" She pauses for a moment and then eyes Steph, and then Babs. A little more sharply. "No, seriously. We don't have to learn to pilot this, right? The last time I piloted a... weird air thing it was a spaceplane."

Kate's never letting that story about the space sharks go.

Helena Bertinelli has posed:
Helena Bertinelli walks along and listens. "Well there you go. As usual, she's thought of everything. Cover story, hot drinks.." She moves to pick up her coffee and sip. "... forgot the brandy though.."

Nodding to Stephanie in agreement, "Yeah. It's actually.. well perfect isn't it? A mobile location to rearm or repair. If we can't get to the tower, the tower can come to us now. There've been a few nights this would have been amazingly helpful already."

Sipping from her cup she looks to Kate. ".. weird air thing? Is that a technical term? Or an official JLA one or something?" It's a valid question.

Looking to Barbara she echoes the question, "But yeah. Seriously, we're not going to have to learn the fly it. Right?"

Harper Row has posed:
Harper's haphazard sprint is not going to win her any gold stars on review. Craning her head back so much is certainly going to take of keeping her hair out of her field of vision. The scale of the airship is breathtaking, and the fact it is housed in a hangar doesn't diminish the dimensions. It helps her do some preliminary mental guestimations though.

The wave has Harper set her teeth clacking together and her expression goes into game-face mode. "Oh sure, of course you've got a head start. Hey no fair with the footwear!" she grates and swings herself up to use Cassandra's route of ascent. "Oh sure, go up this way!" The Bluebird gives it her best to monkey upwards, not capering, but capable to hopefully not break her neck right away.

It would been more apt if there was porthole up there where she could re-enact a Twilight Zone scene, Nightmare at 20,000 feet. She huffs and puffs, her movie quote words coming in broken parts. "It was lightning! At first I thought it was an animal." Grunt, clamber-climb. "...Some kind of bird or something. But...It was a wo-man!" She theatrically points to Cassandra with an accusing finger.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Cassandra and Harper will find their ascent up to the Gondola to be free of obstacles in their way, as Babs had already been up there just a short while ago after getting a tour from the person she finalized the deal with. The Gondola is two levels, accessed via a spiral staircase in the middle. The bottom level houses passenger seats, and even a pair of bunks with a restroom between them. The forward facing area has a few diner-style booths, and tables where it was clear that passengers could enjoy food here alongside all the windows that encircle the room itself.

The UPPER level of the Gondola contains the crew area, a few chairs up near the control boards where computer screens line the dash, looking a bit outdated. There are also central chairs around a second station of terminals, and at the back of the second level is another small seating area around a rear facing viewing section.

"There won't be a crew needed anymore." Barbara tells the others with her as she crouches to pick up Cass' lost shoe. She puts it in her coat pocket and starts up the steps, explaining more as she goes, her boots impacting the metal steps as she ascends.

"We're going to rip out the navigation system, and replace it with a modern system that will link to my AI controller. It will thusly be flying based on my AI design system for it." She says, proudly of course, gliding one hand up the railing as her other provides her lips with a sip of that hot coffee she'd had in her cup.

"Additionally, get this..." She starts, glancing back at the others. "The Justice League is embarking on all of their plans on the Moon, right? Well guess what the Moon is utterly rich with?" She doesn't linger long for guesses. "Helium. The very thing used to keep this big thing in the air."

"And no, it doesn't have a name yet!" Barbara calls out to Harper, wherever she might be located by this point.

"So, the JLA, if all goes well, might be providing us with the Helium... straight from the Lunar surface itself... Pretty cool, yeah?" She asks as she reaches the top of the staircases and starts to step through in to the Gondola itself.

"And it's not done there. We're going to setup charging ports around the city. Another GGE element. Throughout the day, the solar energy gathered by the Blimp's energy wrap, will be transfered down in to the city. So we'll be announcing stops all around the city, throughout the day, and week. The Clocktower will be a daily stop... for obvious reasons. Thus we have energy from the sun, Helium from the Moon... and a base for the Birds, and the Bat-family as a whole..."

Babs stands by the spiral staircase then and rests her free hand on its small metal railing as she looks around at the interior...

"What do you guys think?" She asks. "I haven't even gone in to my idea for a Helipad either..." She says with a huff and a grin on her visage.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Dropping down, Cass ends up with the group again. She came from above, without warning. It's just lucky that she and Harper weren't re-enacting some fight scene or something up there. Or at least Cass wasn't, Harper sounds like she's the one needing the oxygen.

She lands in a crouch, then stands up and adjusts her skirt. Then Cass looks as if she'd never gone off and been curious, looking around the group. She's almost certain she got here first, after all.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie Brown sips the hot beverage after blowing on it a little bit to get it down to not-scalding temperature. She follows up inside, looking around everything with interest. Stephanie goes over to a window, peering out it as if guessing at what the view is going to end up being like.

She turns back as Barbara goes over the AI piloting system. Stephanie crosses her arms, her lips pursed slightly in a way that those who know her best would know there's a thought percolating in her head. Her inner voice probably ready to blurt it out right away while Stephanie is trying to stifle it.

But finally she can't help it. Stephanie lets out a sigh and kicks at the deck with a toe. In a voice of defeat, she says to Barbara, "Ok, this is the point you're waiting for me to use my head and point out that computer systems can fail and if we're going to be suspended in the air above a city we really are going to need to know how to pilot it ourselves too, isn't it?"

Stephanie turns and walks away to see another part of the vessel, but not before holding up her hands and groaning something, "... responsibility... what happened to just uppercuts and butt-kicking for goodness...?"

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate's eyes keep darting up, tracking Cassandra and Harper's race... and she only chews her lower lip pensively a /couple/ of times. She's not joining in the race, because clearly competitive zeppelin climbing is a young woman's sport. And also she didn't bring a grapple gun or anything else. And also then she'd have to keep at least one hand free instead of soaking up warmth from her drink with both hands.

There are a lot of reasons that Kate's treating it as a spectator sport.

She snorts and eyes Helena with a little shrug, "Well, I mean, technically I guess /that/ was a 'weird space thing'. But hey, I provided valuable test data. If it weren't for me, they couldn't be certain the space plane's panels were _not_ shark-proof. Now they know."

Stephanie's reaction of resignation to them having to learn to fly it earns a crooked little smile, green eyes flashing with mirth as Kate chimes in, "Steph's got a good point. We probably should familiarize ourselves with the basics at least." She pauses for a long moment, "Or, you know, we familiarize ourselves with the basics _and_ Zinda teaches us all how to do... wicked cool blimp stunts? I mean, those have to be a thing." She grins impishly and bobs her head to Babs, "But this is just... like, you've earned a solid week, week and a half of me not teasing you about needing something to do, because you have clearly _been_ busy."

Helena Bertinelli has posed:
Helena Bertinelli listens to the details as Barbara keeps going and going. Helium from the Moon, endorsement from the JLA. Green energy. Shaking her head with admiration she lets out a soft whistle. "Yeah you've outdone yourself Barbara. The Tower was a great idea. This.. just carries that forward." She points a finger at Steph, "But yeah, the whole backup to the backup systems.. might be good. Otherwise we're going to get to reenact Led Zepplin's album cover." Which is at least more polite to say than comparing things to the Hindenberg. But.. Helium versus Hydrogen - "At least we won't have a firey crash if that happens.."

Wicked cool blimp stunts. It makes one wonder. "Can you barrel roll a blimp?"

Harper Row has posed:
Harper rejoins the main group. It's always a challenge to keep up with someone like Cass. It's certainly kept her warm by keeping her muscles moving. She'll be learning a lesson from this, in addition to not picking up a cup when she could have earlier. Dusting off her hands, she tugs down her jacket, and tugs up the hem of her jeans.

Catching up on some of the convo she can hear. "Loop-de-loop!" she cheers, jokingly, and offers a grin, flushed from exerting herself. "I'm trying to grok the amount of sensors and antenna and high def cameras you could install in the shell of this thing. Gawd, the superstructure alone is probably capable of..." She blinks and reaches up a fingernail to chew on to help computations. "Will someone need to be pulling regular Watches up here? Definitely space for a bar fridge..."

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Barbara drops her hand from the spiral stairs railing and dips it in to her coat pocket. She pullsout Cass' shoe and hands it back to her. After passing her by, she walks toward the front of the passenger level of the Gondola, and looks out one of the windows before she speaks up. "Yeah, anyone who wants to get training can, and will. I'll make sure to front any cost we have to endure for that too. I'm sure Zinda would help, but she's busy. I was hoping for her to be here tonight for her input, but I'm sure she'll come along when she gets the chance." Babs states before sipping from her cup again.

She turns around to face them all, and smiles warmly toward them. "The interior... here, and above, its all up in the air for what we want to include within it. Obviously we'll have it brimming with cameras and surveillance equipment... but, I'm open for ideas too."

She glances at Harper and smirks at her. "A bar, sure. We'll just have a nice opening party up here, a booze cruise... in the sky." She flashes a grin then and there.

"So yeah, all of you have a job, and that job is to tell me what you'd like this thing to do to make your lives easier." She states then as she steps over toward Helena, and puts a hand lightly on her back. "Oh, and Helena pointed out recently that you guys might need gear upgrades. Be it armor, or trinkets. Please keep me updated on that, I'm here to provide for you, to make it all better... I hope."

Cassandra Cain has posed:
"Thank you," Cass says as she takes the shoe.

...

She sounded like a chipmunk on crack. It sounded like she and Harper have been into the laughing gas. Like she's been given a recording track for a group meant to speak to coffee addicts and methheads. Did someone find a place to huff the helium up there?

She grins, looking exactly like she should if she and Harper were probably a bit lighter than their specs, for a little bit.

Then she glances at Harper, and starts to giggle.

This too, is perhaps an octave higher. Shush, you'd do it too.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie Brown returns from sticking her head into the other areas of the blimp. "Well you've really outdone yourself this time, Gordon," she says, flashing a grin to the redhead. "Of course now we're all going to need to have skycycles invented so we can get back and forth easily," she teases softly.

Stephanie can't help but pull out her phone to record Cassandra's helium voice. No doubt that is what is going to play in place her phone's chime to indicate Cass has sent her a text.

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate quirks an eyebrow to Babs and hums out softly, "Wait, we're going to do a booze cruise /in the air/? So I shouldn't be planning a Birds Getaway on my yacht?"

Eyebrows raise ever so slightly, like she's daring Babs to tell her to stop planning the getaway... although, really how much planning 'Everybody get on board' takes is questionable. Plus, Kate's immediately losing track of her plans when Cass arrives and her voice is... oh god.

Eyes dart between Cass and Harper, back and forth, like she's working the odds of these two having gotten up to mischief up in the superstructure of the blimp. But... well... she just can't bring herself to be The Responsible One.

So she goes for being the One Who's Going To Play Dumb.

Instead she flashes a grin to Babs, "Oh, I'll reach out to the League about the Helium stuff. I kind of missed the last big meeting up on the Moon. The joys of just being an Auxiliary, no one seems to notice so long as I stick to my scheduled monitor duty shifts."

Helena Bertinelli has posed:
Helena Bertinelli drifts away from the group to explore a little on her own, sipping at her cup. A glance back, "An inaugural flight party would be fun. A sunset cruise over the city for the team."

Nodding to the request for ways to implement the blimp for the team as well as for upgrades she then looks to Cass before bursting into laughter. "oh god.. we're going to have to secure the helium or we'll never have enough to get this thing off the ground!"

Then back to Kate she looks intently at the OTHER redhead. "There is zero chance you're calling off a getaway on your yacht now, Kane. You've voiced the words you cannot revoke them."

Harper Row has posed:
Harper's cheeks are quite pink, and her pupils are a bit dilated. She's not sure which Chipette Cass could stand in for, but she totally sounds like an Imp.

Harper shouldn't have shared the glance with Cass, because now the giggle is contagious. Light-headed, she snicker-snorts. Oh no, the derigible is already infested by gremlins!

Harper's jaw drops and she pipes up. "Yacht!" Down girl. She bounces on her heels and raises her hand as if to ask a question, but it's some Breakfast Club air-punch. "Yeah! See? Helena said you can't not now." She sways and puts her hand onto a nearby railing. "Yeah."

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Barbara just eyes Cassandra. Eyes her so hard.

Then she sips her drink and just smiles at what the others say as some of them explore. She starts to walk toward the spiral stairs. "I still haven't gotten to ride on this yacht." She says, starting the march up said metal stairs. "I'm starting to think it doesn't even exist..." She chides Kate on the way up.

"I'm glad you all like this though, as I'm ever trying to impress you ladies the most, out of everyone." She says next, in that dry tone of hers...

"And remember, we can just park this thing over people we don't like, and make them super uncomfortable as it follows them around the city. Added perks!" She shouts from the upper level now!