17343/Xavier Rollin: Interrogation

Xavier Rollin: Interrogation
Date of Scene:	07 March 2024
Location:	A
Synopsis:	Red Robin, Red Hood, Osprey and Essix play Monitor, Worse Cop, Bad Cop, Goo(p/d) cop with Xavier Rollins -- a person of interest in Phoebe Beacon's death -- getting more information on Cupp's schemes in Gotham, and Who Is Coming. CONTENT WARNING: VIOLENCE, THREATS OF DEATH, BREAKING BONES, UNLICENSED DENTAL WORK
Cast of Characters:	Phoebe Beacon, Essix, Jason Todd, Austin Reese, Tim Drake

---

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
THREE YEARS, ONE MONTH AGO - THE SILO --

    Montana Winters were startling to Xavier Rollins. Ten feet of snow blowing in off the plains. Drifts as deep as fifteen. He'd seen one of Mickey's guys disappear into one a couple hours earlier. They managed to dig him out, but it took throwing him in the vincinity of 'The Asset' to get him fixed up. Xavier had assumed 'The Asset' was some sort of mystic mumbo jumbo. Some artifact that the guy who owned the cult that operated The Silo made up. He had this woman in a red coat and theatrical levels of cowrie shells that was advising him. He said she was some sort of homo something. Homoginmagus, or something. Mickey and Phil were talking about it, and wondering what her relation to The Asset was... only to find out that 'Pemu' -- he had assumed it was an idol or something, like in Indiana Jones, or a hamster -- was a missing kid from Gotham City that Mickey had joked they should check Bruce Wayne's couch for -- like she was spare change. She'd managed to escape. Walk into town bare foot through a blizzard with subzero temperatures, break a window, and was caught on camera. Xavier didn't know that was the item that would have tipped Red Robin and Impulse off that their missing friend was being held there.

    Xavier had participated in the punishment for escaping. Phillip Cupp broke her hand and wrist seventeen times on her seventeenth birthday. Xavier? He just used his fists. Her unbound aura had healed whatever had ailed them at the time.

PRESENTLY:

    This was a Safe House. The basement. Re-enforced walls. Soundproof. Concrete. Easy to clean and keep clean and sanitize.

    Xavier was wearing a six hundred dollar pair of jeans, a hundred and eighty dollar T-shirt, with an 'artful' hole in the sleeve. His jacket had been taken off him and folded to the side, showing he had a barbed wire tribal tattoo on his left bicep.

    He was a little groggy. Watching bats try and take on an assassin made of -- whatever the Hell that thing was -- he had decided to check out. He tasted bile.

    He wheezes out a breath, coming to in the lights of the basement.

Essix has posed:
Essix had taken Xaiver exactly where Damian had told her to take him and seen to it he was still there when the Bats started to arrive. She was staying close to him, having chosen her purpose in this mission to ensure that he stayed in one piece... a purpose she took seriously, having been in the wreckage that was the guys car and protected him from that damage.

Were it not for an explanation finally offered up, she would have continued to protect the man. Her people were one of explorers yes, but they had a very strong sense of justice that ran through the very impulses that formed them. This man, Xavier Rollins, had forfeited all of his rights to further protection from her. Now she remained close, in his line of sight, to ensure he made no stupid attempts to escape. She may look human at the moment but Xaiver knew full well she wasn't, and if her presence alone would keep him from being even more stupid, she'd linger there until the end.

Arms folded across her human chest, face hidden by a matching Domino (not her real Domino this time) and body concealed by a black catsuit and boots, she waited for the Bats to decide what they were doing, and do it. Her work on mimicking the human face was improving, and there was no mistaking her for what she was, but she continued the masquerade of being a masked Bat all the same.

Jason Todd has posed:
Red Hood wasn't paying attention to Xavier at the time of The Collection. He hadn't been part of the original Op to grab him. If anything he had been backup having heard the 'All Points Bat-Bulletin', arriving at the scene of the crash just in time to see some other Interested Party show up to try and snuff out the useless life of their Mark.

It wouldn't have gone any other way, even if he hadn't stepped in, but as he drove to the agreed on Safe House, he considered the fact that if he hadn't shot the unknown assassin, they would have had longer delay in getting this piece of trash extracted. It was a point of satisfaction.

The black Mach 1 silently rolls into the secluded parking and Red Hood steps out, his posture and movement reflecting the dark anger buried deep in his chest.

Entering the safe house after the others arrived, he barely casts a glance to acknowledge that Tim-Red Robin is here rather than Damian-Robin. His path is directly toward Xavier. Somehow a crowbar appears in his right hand.

Once painted a bright purple and green with white lettering that may have been 'Ha Ha Ha Ha Boom' at some previous point, it has since been carelessly oversprayed with a mix of dark red and black paint. The result is probably not so different a visual than the mental state of the man holding it.

There is no hesitation. No verbal berating or threatening. No "You piece of fucking shit!" intimidation. Only the violent swing of the crowbar down and under Xavier's chair. The two left side chair legs shatter, followed by both fibula and tibula of his left leg about six inches above his ankle.

Try running now motherfucker.

Austin Reese has posed:
Outside of the safehouse room, Osprey was standing with his back leaning up against the wall, tapping his foot quietly on the ground. He was still wearing his gear, except for the jacket, and his gauntlets were off, arms bandaged from where the assassin's blade had made it through the armor. There'd be time for stitches later, the bandages were keeping most of the blood in. He takes a moment to adjust the MMA gloves he has put on his hands instead. He fully intends to get information out of him one way or the other.

This was one of the guys who had hurt his sister. He'd never had anyone he considered a sibling before he found this family, and he'll be damned if anyone who's hurt Phoebe gets away with it. They've already gotten away with it for far too long. Plus they needed to stop Sewell or whatever he was calling himself these days. If Austin had known what he knows now when he was hiding in Sewell's air vent, he'd have stopped hiding and someone wouldn't have walked out of that office. But now? No now they could take their time.

Well, unless Jason just shot him in the face. Osprey is pretty sure he talked him down.

When he doesn't hear a gunshot once Jason enters the room, he counts to five and then leans forward off the wall and steps through the door, "You're lucky I managed to convince him not to shoot you in the head as soon as he walked in. I feel like you owe me for that, Xavier."

Tim Drake has posed:
    Outside of the room holding Xavier, Tim has arrived and set up shop. A hefty amount of computer gear has been set up on a rickety table that barely looks capable of supporting the weight of the tech, and there Red Robin is, hunched over as he types.

    Who knows what leads he's running down over in the virtual space, but he's physically present enough to lift his chin when Jason stalks by. And if anyone knows Red Hood on a warpath, it's Tim.

    So he does the smart thing and, like Austin, stays out of the way. Only after the first blow has been dealt do the headphones come off, set aside, and the computer screen locked.

    Unlike Austin, he doesn't go all the way through. He just stands in the doorway, leaning on it casually as he observes the scene.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Xavier screams before he's even struck -- Red Hood comes at him with the crowbar, his lips part as he croaks out a scream, and then the left two legs of the chair are crushed to splinters in an act of violence, and leg jars, twisting to the side from the trauma as he goes down, his eyes going wide, his fingers curling against the side of the chair as he holds on to it like it's going to save his life.

    "WHAT DO YOU WANT?! WHAT DO YOU WANT?! You want money? I'll give you money! I've got money!" he screeches out, adreniline and fear making him try to push away on his good leg, sweat and tears on his pale face.

Essix has posed:
Essix had seen violence since coming to this planet. She had seen good people become the victims of violence, she had seen bad people fighting each other in the streets, but she had never seen what was supposedly good people, heroes, do it. At the same time, she didn't know Red Hood hardly at all, just the name, his connection to the Bats, and who he really was.

As Red Hood enters and goes in for the swing, she can read the body language loud and clear. When the chair goes over with Xavier in it, she takes several steps back and looks toward Red Robin, them toward Opsrey. When neither opt to move toward or stop Red Hood, she takes a few more steps back and remains silent.

There were a large number of gaps in her education, she would readily admit that to anyone who asked, but try as she might she couldn't find a way to voice how violence shouldn't equal more violence, even if someone was deserving of it. She had thought they would question him, perhaps harm him in some minute way... this however, this was so far beyond anything she could fathom.

Jason Todd has posed:
Lowering the crowbar, Red Hood looks down at the man. Spilled to the floor as he is, the vigilante towers over him.

"I'm going to take your money. But it isn't going to save you. You damned yourself long ago."

With a flourish that brings the curved end of the crowbar very close to Xavier's face, Red Hood turns and stalks away. Interrogations aren't his preference. He's better at playing executioner. Forget the judge or jury.

Austin Reese has posed:
"What do we want?" Osprey asks, as he crouches down next to where Xavier is trying to crawl away, "Well, what we want is your boss, Sewell. But I will settle for you telling me why someone wants you dead." A pause as he looks over to Red Hood, "Well besides him. I know why he wants you dead."

He grabs Xavier by the hair and turns his head, "Look at me, Xavier. You are in a very precarious position right now." He says, voice going very serious, "I put your buddy Phil in Arkham. If you don't tell me everything I want to know, I am more than willing to let him put you in the ground." He motions to Red Hood.

"They'll never even find your body. So start talking, and I might consider calling an ambulance before that compound fracture breaks the skin and you bleed out."

Tim Drake has posed:
    Technically, Tim is here to keep people from crossing the line. Technically, Tim is the voice of reason. Technically, no one is going to die.

    It's a lot of technicalities and Tim isn't feeling particularly abiding of them, at the moment. But he's a fence-sitter; always has been. He's come close to the edge many times and knows that he's capable of things that are not, shall we say, benefitting the legacy of the Bats.

    Nominally he knows that's why he's here. But as of yet, Tim only watches, nothing showing on his expression except a flat, grim frown, the rest blocked by his domino.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Xaiver is breathing hard, his eyes wide from pain, shaking. Bats don't kill, he had to keep reminding himself. They don't kill. Phil landed in Arkham. He'll be in Blackgate. They can buy their way out of trouble. He gives a mewling, whimpering sound before Red Hood walks away a step, and Osprey takes over.

    "Bats -- Bats don't kill. You didn't kill him. He did way worse things to -- oh god, you're about her, aren't you? It's... it's true then? She was one of *you*?!" he breathes out, his hair wet from sweat, matted.

    "Sewell -- that bastard. I don't know where he is! He thought he could take a bunch of names outta her! Isolate her from people. I didn' thave anything to do with it aside from sourcing machinery!"

Essix has posed:
A few mores steps back and Essix feels she has reached the 'not really involved in this part' distance she needed. Could she leave? Absolutely, she could be out of that room in seconds, but the logic in her mind wouldn't permit her to.

Xavier spoke the truth she had been told, Bats don't kill, but apparently that didn't mean that Bats couldn't make you wish you were dead. There was a thin line being walked, and the only one she knew well enough to see that line wasn't present. Did these three Bats know the line? Would they cross it? She couldn't leave until she knew the final answers to the questions in her head, and even if that answer was Xaiver dead and buries, she had to have them.

Jason Todd has posed:
Red Hood snaps back around, his left hand holding a pistol. Aiming at Xavier's head, the growl offered isn't Bat-level. No one can mimic Batman. But you know what? Close still counts.

"You're right. The Bat doesn't kill." Closing again he drops down and shoves the gun muzzle up against Xavier's nose, pushing till the soft cartilage is distorted upward.

"I'm not him. Or a Robin."

It isn't a slight on the Robins. If anything it's an admission of why he isn't one any longer. Robin's job is to help Batman keep his humanity, the beacon guiding away from the darkness. Red Hood is that darkness. It's why he failed. He embraced that failure to become who he was meant to be.

Shoving Xavier's head away with the gun barrel before he stands. His heavy boot presses down on the man's shattered lower leg. Only a little pressure for now.

"You supplied the equipment. You knew what it was going to be used for. That makes you incredibly guilty" Hood growls.

Austin Reese has posed:
Osprey is glaring at Xavier the whole time he talks, listening to him whine about how Bats don't kill this, Bats don't kill that. Who's really to say what Bats do or don't do these days. The world is in chaos after all. Thanks to people like Xavier.

"That's right.." Osprey says, as he drops Xavier and stands up, "You did source the machinery, and that makes me wonder..." He turns back around, cracking his knuckles and looking back down at Xavier, "Where did you get the fear gas? I am only going to ask this one time, so think very carefully before your answer."

For what it's worth, Austin does not intend to kill Xavier. That being said, accidents do happen. Like someone's broken leg getting shoved into their femoral artery during questioning. The eyes of his domino narrow as he waits for Xavier to decide his own fate.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Xavier looks down at the barrel of the gun as Red HOod brings it up, pushing it against his nose, and his eyes go wide as saucers. "No -- no no no -- we were promised we were safe!" he whispers "Cupp swore up and down we'd be safe!"

    His head slings backwards as Todd applies pressure, and Osprey drops him.

    "OH GOD -- I knew it was gonna be used to make pills! I thought the gangs were going to be at war! I thought they were going to make oxys!" Xavier cries out, feeling the pressure on the shattered bone and sinew, his leg shaking from the pressure "I thought the girl was a separate issue! I didn't have anything to do with her! Just talk from Sewell! Someone else programmed the machines to make the compounds and assemble them into the geltabs all I did was get them the machinery from my dad's old plant!" he yelps out, writhing a little on the floor as he cries out.

    "I don't know anything about fear gas other than that psycho Sewell had a fascination with it! He wanted to IMPROVE Crane's shit for treatment of shit! I don't know anything about that other than I take meds when I can't sleep!" he yelps out, trying to push himself away from the violent demands!

Essix has posed:
Essix's aqua eyes continue to watch the scene unfolding before her, her head canting slightly to the side. Fear was a powerful motivator, one that villains used regularly to get what they wanted. In her observation of humans on this planet, she had seen a lot of fear, but not at this level. The fear of not being able to pay a phone bill, or losing a child to an illness was nothing like the fear for your own life.

"Perhaps you should focus more on answering the questions that are being asked, and less on what you where not told," she finally says, her voice calm. Perhaps she was attempting to offer Xavier a 'good cop', a light at the end of the tunnel, or perhaps she was merely offering him advice. "The longer you drag this out, the longer you are likely to be in pain. Where is this Sewell? Where are the places he could be? Do you have a means of getting in contact with him, or does he contact you?"

Jason Todd has posed:
The crowbar makes a return when Red Hood swings it so that the back of the curved end slams down on Xavier's right hand with the sound of small bones fracturing.

"I don't CARE what he told you. He was lying to you and you bought it. Now you are here. With me. The only people who know where you are or that you're still - barely - alive are in this room!"

"You're already a half dozen bones down on the healthy list. I have a lot more to work my way through. I'm in no hurry."

Austin Reese has posed:
There's a quick glance back to Tim to make sure that the recording equipment is working as intended to make sure they got everything he was giving them. When Essix speaks up, he snaps and points to her, "Exactly, see? You're answering around the question."

Osprey hauls back and hits Xavier in the jaw with a solid punch, "I hate it when people don't answer the question. I said WHERE you dipshit!" See NOW both he and Red Hood are the bad cop. He was being nice up to this point.

Tim Drake has posed:
    The feed on Tim's domino is clean, though it is carefully zoomed in on Xavier's face. From multiple angles, of course, because he is nothing if not thorough. When Austin looks up at him to confirm, all he gets is a faint uptick of chin from Red Robin, who has otherwise remained in the doorway, arms folded over his chest, shoulders bowed inwards slightly.

    It reads defensive, outwardly. To people who don't know him, at least. Coupled with the thin line of his mouth, he doesn't look happy. But what Tim really is, is uncertain. Essix speaks up and Tim breaths out a slow exhale.

    And he still doesn't say anything. Not that it matters. He knows silence is compliance.

    "Out of two hundred and six total," he adds, a clarifying comment to Jason's threat. "In case you were wondering."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Oh God -- oh my god--" Xavier whimpers, and he tries to cover his head with his hands as the back of the curved end of the crowbar slams down. His hand fractures and is already distended slightly.

    And he's hit with another punch. He coughs red, spitting to the side.

    "I don't know, I don't know! I only know he worked out of the fucking school. He sometimes went on-site to the manufacturing points, but they all got hit by capes. I don't know any more about it than that! He'd call up Phil. Phil would spread the word and if we were needed we'd meet. After they got the machinery I only met with the whole group once. Cupp. Cruz. Ford and Collier. Canasta and Bender -- he's another psycho! -- and their creepy preacher. The one that calls up all the chaos! Oh god, oh God, I just wanted money to pay my gambling debts and keep my lifestyle." he cries "Fucking Mickey Rogers and his creepy lady in red replaced by Cupp and the fucking preacher."

Essix has posed:
Essix was certain the man was speaking the truth, the fear for his own life and the level of pain he was in, he couldn't lie. He wasn't the sort of person able to with stand pain and keep secrets, he was a spoiled human. The other telling factor for the little alien was just how much more information he offered up in telling his truth... more names.

Shifting her aqua eyes to Tim for a moment, she looks back to Jason and states, "He is telling the truth about Sewell. Given his current damaged state of existence, he is incapable of lying, he does not have the will nor the strength and will do what it takes to save his life."

She pauses there for a moment, letting her eyes shift from man to man, until they are back on Jason and she adds, "Or what he believes will save his life." She still has no idea what the end result will be, but she did her part to try and help, to get the answers needed. The Bats and Jason may in fact already know all those names, but she could now walk away from whatever happened here with the knowledge that she had tried.

Jason Todd has posed:
Red Hood stops down on his haunches. He reaches out to take Xavier's jaw in his left hand, holding in a vice like grasp. The crowbar remains in his right hand. He slowly traces the curve along Xavier's temple. The steel is icy cold as it touches his temple.

"Who was the woman trying to shut you up back at the crash scene? Another woman you've beaten?"

Even before he can answer, the split prying end of the crowbar drops down to wedge around one of the man's front teeth. It takes only a quick little twist to snap the tooth off, leaving the nerve inside exposed to the air.

Austin Reese has posed:
Osprey is just hearing the same stuff he already knows. Names he's memorized, faces he can put the names to. Then he says something that makes the eyes of his domino rise. Creepy Preacher...That's right, the night at the school. There was a street preacher outside, spouting all kinds of nonsense. Hard to ignore someone arguing with a raptor and getting attacked by Talia.

He turns away from Xavier, letting Red Hood do whatever more damage he wants to do. Like a ref in wrestling having his back turned, if he didn't see it, it didn't happen. Even if it was unsanctioned dentistry. He brings a finger up to his chin, "I might not know a lot about magic, but I do know it when I see it." He muses, loud enough for Xavier to hear as well of course.

"Why would someone with access to very powerful magic want you dead, Xavier? Last I checked with him, your buddy Phil is still screaming 'He is coming' at the padded walls in his cell at Arkham. Who is 'He', Xavier?"

Tim Drake has posed:
    Despite it likely being unnecessary, soon enough there are small profile pop-ups in Austin and Jason's HUD. The way Tim's arms are folded means his fingers were already on the keypad embedded in his left gauntlet, so it's easy to type out a few commands and bring them up. The names that Xavier repeats are given pictures and information to go along with them, though for Canasta it just highlights how this was an old ID of Sewell's.

    Essix unfortunately doesn't get to see any of this, without her domino tied into the Bat comms network, but Tim does mutter something that his throat mic picks up: "That's all he's got."

    When Tim turns away, it's with finality. But he does stop just past the doorway to look back, staring a hole in the back of Red Hood's helmet. His mouth opens, wanting to say something, but in the end he apparently decides against it.

    At least until he gets further into the adjoining room, well out of Xavier's range of hearing, and starts breaking down the tech. "We're done here," he says into comms. "We can dump him in the courtyard of the building on the corner, I'll have GCPD and an ambulance on the way for him shortly."
%

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "I DON'T KNOW!" the man cries out, and then when his tooth is cracked open, the nerve dangling, a little blood clinging to the broken enamel he screams, writhing in pain. Adrenline giving out, he curls up, he cries, cradling his shattered hand.

    "I beat her up. I did! I admit it! Everyone was doing it because the bitch ran out into the freezing cold and made it to the town! And then Bender put her on a drug cocktail that coulda killed an elephant!" he pants "And you psychos want me dead! You're /Bats/ you're not supposed to want to kill people!" he gasps out in a sob. "Phillip you asshole. You fuck. I hope he rots in Hell!" he spits red, weeping into his injured arm, fingers twitching. "I won't touch anyone. I'll donate all my money. I'll go live in Italy alone in a tower, just don't kill me!"

Essix has posed:
There are a few blinks of the aqua eyes as Essix watches Jason remove a tooth, a perfectly healthy tooth. There was a darkness to that man, one she couldn't even begin to imagine, she could read every horror story, watch every horror movie and it wouldn't touch what she believed resided inside of Jason now. There was no judgement for his actions however, she didn't move to stop him or make comment against it, she watched.

"If only one of these men were a woman," she says quietly, almost contemplating. "Then they could put you through what you did to her, and likely others. The human macho male condition, or so you would like everyone to believe, but you are a scared boy and I will leave you to Red Hood now."

Her words spoken she walks toward the door, pausing for a moment to place her hand on Tim's shoulder and offer him the chance to escape with her. "We should leave now," is all she says to him, then gives his shoulder a light squeeze before leaving the room where Xavier Rollins had went from man to baby in less than an hour.

Jason Todd has posed:
Red Hood lets go of the broken man's jaw. As the panic sets in and Xavier curls into a ball he reaches down to slap lightly at the man's cheek.

"You didn't listen. *I*. Am Not. The. Bat." He pauses for effect. "You're a disgusting pawn. You're going to see Cupp in hell. But not today." Then he grabs the man's collar and jerks him up close to that red mask. "I don't care where you go live. If you ever touch another woman. If you even -think- about it? I'm going to know and there is .no.where. you can run that I will not find you. And I promise you this. If you ever see me again? I .will. be the last thing you ever see before I send you to meet Cupp in hell myself."

Standing up, Red Hood holds the battered and broken man's shirt and collar in his balled fist and turns. "We are done" he agrees to Red Robin and begins to drag the limp hanging man through the various back corridors and out to the secluded courtyard.

Tossing him into a stack of filty trashbags and cans, a lid clatters and rolls away loudly.

"You stay here till GCPD finds you."