16646/The Bat and the Spider

The Bat and the Spider
Date of Scene:	22 December 2023
Location:	Old Gotham - Founders Island
Synopsis:	No description
Cast of Characters:	Miles Morales, Barbara Gordon

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Miles Morales has posed:
Gotham City.

...specifically Old Gotham over in Founders Island. The time? Roughly 9pm.

Miles had finished plenty of his homework and he was now doing his ACTUAL job of being Spider-Man in a city that doesn't really like him. Then again, it's a city run by Bats and they have a...decent approval rating, half the time. Just be one of those things. Yet as Miles swings through the rainy skies, the white film of his mask's eyes staring ever forward as the red edges occasionally zoom in and out to keep the sensory levels reasonable.

Yet, as he swings, lightning strikes in the air and it briefly illuminates the black and red suit that adorns him.

The Spider-Man is on the prowl tonight.

But what else is out there? What villainy awaits the defenders of Gotham? Who might know?

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Miles will swing his way past one building's roof, and with a flash of lightning he'll see a glimpse of something he might not have expected to see at all. An aircraft? A bat-shaped aircraft? Sure enough, landed upon the rooftop was a single engine jet plane in all black, with wicked looking wings that jut forward on either side of the cockpit. The jet is dark, no running lights activated upon it, but not far away there is movement in and amongst the cold rainy night. Gold and black, a cape, waving gently in the dark as a single light shines up from a figure's left wrist. Wet locks of red hair fall down behind her shoulders, her form armored in black and gold, a form fitting suit that is of the highest tech in design. The woman, Miles had seen her before... Batgirl. She had a pretty sizable reputation in the city, even some merchandise out there, and no small amount of threads online all about her! She had her fans, and her enemies... people she'd busted and sent to prison, or just beat up and sent back home with bloodied bits.

There she was, one foot up on the ledge of the building with her back to that black jet parked behind her, and her eyes down upon the illuminated wrist-computer that holographically shines information for Batgirl to observe.

Miles Morales has posed:
Sometimes, Miles can move fast enough that he can take that moment to just hold onto the same webline and just...watch. He's fast enough taht he can see that illumination in the night when the lightning strikes. Spider-Man notices an armor of black and gold, the wet locks of red hair behind her shoulders. A high-tech form fitting suit that allows her perfect mobility yet maximum protection. Seems like a Bat to him.

....He should really ask one of them to design a new suit.

But more pressing than that was that there was a FRICKIN' jet there!!

He THWIPS a longer line so he can slingshot himself across the night sky. Yet when he lands, it's perfectly silent. He camouflages with his environment, becoming practically invisible as he crawls along the rooftop. Eventually, as he steps closer.

He moves so close he's practically right next to her. Then - because his ability to camouflage isn't the MOST reliable, Spider-Man is suddenly VERY visible next to Barbara as he tries to get a look at her wrist-computer.

"Whoa, that's cool."

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Being able to sneak up on Batgirl was no small feat, one that Miles might not even realize he was in a small few who'd actually managed it. Why was it hard? Because Barbara Gordon had been shot in the back by the Joker a decade ago. It'd nearly killed her and left her paralyzed from the waist down. Needless to say she's made extreme efforts to never be snuck up on again..

When it happens, it means he got past her drones too, some of which were flying around in the air tonight too.

Right after Miles speaks, Batgirl reacts by spinning on her boots and aiming to hit him with a destabilizing thrusting kick of her right foot, followed by a aimed swipe directly for his throat. She doesn't think about it, she just does it!

Her swarm of drones move around the air above the building, on alert now, they come closer to keep better tabs on what is happening to the Batgirl in the moment, all of their sensors on high priority alert now!

Miles Morales has posed:
Miles has NO IDEA that sneaking up on Barbara Gordon is a practically impossible feat. To him, it's just another day about town. Her extreme efforts were not quite in vain, it's just that Miles's camouflage can even avoid thermal imaging and other methods of detection. But that's just minutia. As Spider-Man tries to get a look at Batgirl's system. "Is that a holographic imagery system? That is /awesome/. Are you hacking? Oh man, I don't want to interrupt your-WOAH MAN!"

Spider-Man's senses tell him what's coming before it's even being thrown. With a helluva backbend, Spider-Man avoids the hell out of that kick aimed for his chest, and he stands up straight, his hand lifting to catch her hand as her fingertips were centimeters away from his throat. 'Woah woah woah! Friendly! TIMEOUT!"

Barbara Gordon has posed:
When Batgirl's hand is caught, she transfers the sense of her muscles being clenched and ready for a fight right through her gloved hand and in to his own. She's poised, and ready to freaking kill whomever had snuck up on her..

But his exclaimation of it being a 'friendly' does cause a gear to shift in the cowled woman's stance. It's a hard shift to go from a sudden defensive adrenaline spike to stopping it like it ran in to a concrete wall... but she does it anyway.

"Why did you sneak up on me?!" She demands, her voice modulated by a synthesizer that has her sounding like she is possessed by the darkest of female demons imaginable. Meant to intimidate her foes, now it's just coming across as horrifically angry at Miles, but... she kind of is! It's hard to get surprised like that, especially for her.

Batgirl pulls her gloved hand back from him, and steps back to put more space between them. Her face is bathed in shadow, but her eyes soon remember him...

She pants heavily, her pink hued lips partly apart as she stands still-ready incase things are not as they seem...

Miles Morales has posed:
When Batgirl pulls her hand away from him, Spider-Man easily lets it go. She takes a step back, her pink hued lips parting with breath, and Spider-Man lifts his hands up. "Sorry! Sorry! Just was investigating why a JET was on top of this building and why you were doing what you were doing. Wanted to see if you needed any help. The drones are uhmm.." He points around, suggesting he HAD seen them.

"A little intimidating, btu I'm trying to keep an open mind." She uses her scary voice synthesizer and for a momnt, it does INTIMIDATE THE HELL out of Miles, a little gulp in that masked suit that was a little audible.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to trigger you." He slowly lowers his hands.

"Are we cool?"

Barbara Gordon has posed:
It takes her a few moments to come down from that surprised high, but she does manage it. At least in part. His question causes the redhead to exhale a sharp breath before she just nods her head once. Her modulated voice is gone now, and instead she's speaking with a normal feminine tone. "We're fine..." She states, a glance given upward toward her flock of drones, and a momentary ponderment of whether they were malfunctioning or not was run through her mind. When her green eyes look back down toward him, she looks him over in his suit, and quickly considers the suit being more advanced than it looks. She'd thought he was just a young man with a fancy tailor, but perhaps he had more than meets the eye.

"I don't like being snuck up on..." She quietly says in the soft rain falling down upon her caped form. Droplets of rain streak down the sides of her masked face, as she stares at his white covered eyes.

"Spider-man, right? But not the New York one. The one who has been... operating in Gotham of late... Are you /from/ Gotham?" She asks of him then. "Or just moved here for the challenge?" She asks further with a edge of dry sarcasm touching her surprisingly kind sounding natural voice.

A glance was given to the jet to her right, then her eyes went back to him. "I'm working on a case..." She vaguely informs him.

Miles Morales has posed:
Spider-Man is waiting for Barbara to come down from the high, come down from the adrenaline. He's not a danger to her and if he was? Well, she CERTAINLY would've have found out very quickly. But tahnkfully, he hasn't laid a harmful hand on her and he certainly hasn't thrown out any kind of attack. She speaks with a normal feminine tone now that her voice modulator was deactivated. "Woah, nice voice modulator-I mean, uh, good, I like being okay with people." There's a little chuckle that comes from him.

"Me neither. Sorry about that." He had plenty more than meets the eye perhaps. Though perhaps it's less of someone in a fancy homemade suit, but rather someone who is resourceful with numerous special powers that sets him apart from plenty. Not all. But plenty.

"Yeah, that's me! Web-slingin' and wall-crawlin' JJJ-menacin' friendly neighborhoodin' Spider-Man." He chuckles. "Nah, I was born in Brooklyn. My folks moved down here to Gotham when I was a lot younger. Been home ever since. Wish it was about the challenge, it'd be easier to quit and focus on my personal life, but I like helping people too much." Spider-Man explains.

Though he looks at the jet then back to Barbara.

"Yeah? What kind? Sherlock Homes-level case or like...CSI: Miami kind of case?"

Barbara Gordon has posed:
The armored woman stands with a mild amount of tension still in her form within that suit she's donned inside of. She seems leary of the Spider even after they've had a chance to talk. It could just be the nature of the Bats in general though. She slowly nods her head to what he says, before she dips her chin a slight bit. "Do not under estimate the foes within this city. You can go from a gang of out of shape drug addicts with bats one second, to something out of a sci fi nightmare the next. If you take it lightly, you'lll end up hurt..."

There is a slight pause there after before she adds softly. "That said, clearly you're capable..."

She takes a light breath as the rain falls around them, and a glance is given to her left armored wrist, where the holo-computer resides. "Sherlock Holmes, I guess you could say. A number of Priests have been getting killed throughout the past year, all connected to a group called the Black Hand. Or the Five Fingers. Either way, I'm still running clues and doing my best to track down leads... Probably not the kind of action you're looking for though, as I imagine you web-slingers are more about the adrenaline and high stakes violent encounters..."

Miles Morales has posed:
Spider-Man actually starts to laugha little bit. "Well, I've had my fair share of monsters." Spider-Man remarks. "In New York, Metropolis and well...now here. Though I understand the guys here are pretty scary. I tangoed with Clayface for a minute or two." Spider-Man tries to advise before he hears her suggest that he's clearly capable. "Hey, thanks, I appreciate that."

A pregnant pause occurs as his eyes shift from her eyes and lips (the only thing he can see from the mask) to the wrist-computer. "Huh. Like, Priests-PRIESTS like 'Hail Mary, full of grace' or Priests like...human sacrifices and stuff." Longer pause.

"I really need to stop playing video games..."

"Hah, that's sweet of you to say. But no, even the small stuff that glory hogs don't care about I care about. So if you want to bring me in...bring me in." Spider-Man smiles. "Pinkie promise I won't sneak up on you again." He lifts his pinkie.

Yes, he means it.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
The caped Batgirl shifts her weight from one golden bronze boot to the other as she stands a few paces away from the Spider. Her cape is kicked up by a gust of rainy wind, casting it around to her left side behind her form, whilst her eyes remain locked on his own. His question causes her to look down toward her wrist computer again before she regards him once more. "Catholic Priests." She responds in short, voice calm now.

"If you run across anyone out there with a small black hand tattoo on their neck, usually behind their left ear, tucked up near the nape of their neck... then you're dealing with someone associated with the group. I can't figure out what they have against these Priests, but my initial findings suggest it is related to real estate deals, and higher up money influences." she informs him, as a glance is given toward her jet, then her eyes slide back over to his covered face.

"If you want to put the nearby Cathedral on your routine surveilence patrol, and happen to see anyone skulking around it... I'd enjoy the information passed on."

Batgirl's right hand goes up to the gold belt wrapped around her trim waist, and she detaches a small device from her hip assembly. She steps forward, and with rain pattering across her armored hand and arm, she extends her yellow gloved hand toward him. "Comm device. You can reach me with it, and vice versa. If you're going to be swinging around our city, we may as well bring you in to the comm network..."

Miles Morales has posed:
Spider-Man can't read people too much, but he CAN read body language. She's thinking about something, eh can't tell what it is! But he's thinking about it. He watches as her cape gets picked up by the wind and he gasps behind that mask. "....I need a cape." Spider-Man remarks in awe at the vision before his eyes. "Catholic Priests...why do a bunch of folks want a bunch of Catholic Priests dead? Don't get me wrong, the obvious reasons are psychopaths who don't like religion..." He shrugs a little bit.

"Small hand tattoo on their neck. Straight up Dark Brotherhood stuff, huh?" Did...did he just make an Elder Scrolls reference? GOD what a nerd. "Don't worry, I'll keep you informed on what's going on. Though how am I gonna do that without-"

He looks at her right hand as she pulls a device from her belt and offers it to him. "hey thanks." He reaches to accept the device and a smile touches his features. "Wait...I can CALL YOU?!" He laughs. "YES! I'M AN HONORARY BAT!"

Long pause.

"Bat...friend?"

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Batgirl has her hand extended with the comm device when he pops his Elder Scrolls joke. It garners a smirk on the woman's half exposed face, the pale skin glistening from the rain water coating it. "I'm more of a Fallout Four fan." She quips back, apparently he's not the only nerd on this rooftop. After she hands the comm device over to him, she turns toward her 'ride' but pauses for a second. "The 'whys' of it certainly are important, but what I've found doesn't suggest it's related to anti-religious sentiments. I'm more in belief it is related to prime real estate being encroached upon by homeless shelters, and other low-rent housing developments. But, that's just what I've come up with so far. Nothing concrete..."

She pauses for a moment again as she continues to eye him, apparently still formulating her opinion of the black-clad Spider-man. "Spider-bat is certainly pushing boundaries on what people will likely accept, as far as names go. But... you never know." She says to him before she starts to step forward.

"Watch your back out there..." She states toward him with another smirk gracing her exposed visage under her half-mask.

Batgirl starts toward her jet plane then, her knee-length cape bouncing around her legs as she moves, the wind billowing it out behind her, with her drenched red locks plastered back behind her shoulders and down said cape.

She's stepping up the side of her small jet plane then, and with only a few steps she's entering its cockpit, with beads of rain pattering upon the open canopy glass.

Miles Morales has posed:
A loooooooong gasp leaves Spider-Man's lips as she mentions she's more of a Fallout 4 fan. "YOU LOVE BETHESDA TOO?!" Spider-Man's hands are actualy on his cheeks. "...you're amaaaazing!" Miles says then stops and says much louder. "HAHAH! Jokes! Jokes are fun! What's a joke? Things that you laugh! HAHAHAH!" Spider-Man's terrible at this, and horrifically awkward. But we all swear it's part of his charm. Really, it is.

He watches her turn towards her ride and she admits she doesn't think the killings are due to a personal hatred of something, at least not religious. "Hmmm..prime real estate. The Church really likes to support low-rent housing developments, so I guess it makes sense if there's a lot of money going to waste."

He shakes his head. "Don't worry, we'll take them down." He gasps again. 'Spider-Bat..." Oh no, some things you shouldn't encourage!

"Can I have a beacon of light taht has a spider-symbol in the sky like-" He points at what is no doubt the Bat Signal.

"Take care of yourself Bat-girl!" He smiles behind his mask and gives her a little wave, before he LEAPS off of the roof, his hand reaching to THWIP a web to the rooftop. "I'M A BAT!" he howls in the night with a "WOOOHOOOO!"

Barbara Gordon has posed:
After the Spider-man vanishes over the building, the jet rises up in to the sky, using a VTOL system to get it up good and high over the buildings before its single engine kicks on, and it darts out across the rainy Gotham skyline.

A few minutes go by before the comm device beeps with a message. When he checks it, he'll see a Pip-Girl icon giving a big thumbs up.

Apparently she's a legit gamer girl, indeed...

Miles Morales has posed:
Spider-Man vanieshs over the buildings indeed.

Yet, when his communicator - Batcommunicator? - is chiming, Spider-Man gives it a peek and notices that Batgirl sent him something! As he checks it out, he smiles a little bit, lifting his mask over his face as he looks at the message.

"Geez, how come the cool ones are so frickin' terrifying?" Spider-Man laughs and sends a picture of a Bottlecap icon back! With that, he seems to push his mask back down over his face and he swings after what looks like some police cars!