18054/The Journalist, in the Study, with the Secret File

The Journalist, in the Study, with the Secret File
Date of Scene:	25 May 2024
Location:	Gotham Suburbia, Gotham City
Synopsis:	An investigation in to the dead journalist Brick Galaway results in attempted murder by self driving car and the rescue of the Wayne Manor's newest member: Shadow the cat.
Cast of Characters:	Carrie Kelley, Damian Wayne, Bruce Wayne

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Carrie Kelley has posed:
No one writes 'it was a dark and stormy night' when starting a novel in Gotham. It's the defacto standard. Tonight it was bucketing down and the flashes of lightning made stealth slightly worse than normal. Not that they really needed it - this was one of the oldest medium income suburbs in Gotham.

The streets are windy and the terrain is hilly. Every house is a custom construction because the terrain forces each house to uniquely utilise the space. On nights like this when colours are muted every house looks like a variation of the Addam Family's home.

The street is quiet - a few cars parked and the other houses have the twinkle of lights inside suggesting plasma TV's are busy entertaining people who have had a hard day of work. It's Gotham, everyone has a hard day of work.

The house in question belonged to the now deceased Gotham Gazette journalist Brick Galaway. Recently terminated by a hacked national guard missile. The idea of a hacker able to fire a military missile on a whim is terrifying. That they didn't use it for the usual Gotham menacing suggests it was surgical and deliberate. A conspiracy.

Carrie didn't mind the rain. Like all good Robin's when she was young and under intense training from Batman she learnt to ignore the weather. "He was single," she states. Movement inside suggests he might have a cat. Poor thing hasn't been fed for a day - it's the end of the world for that critter.

Damian Wayne has posed:
Well for Robin the idea of the cat being uncared for is probably far more distressing than the idea of the journalist getting killed by a missile. One can probably /feel/ him frowning in the dark as the rain drizzles down over him.

<< Did this guy have the decency to get an automated cat feeder? I bet the litter box hasn't been changed in days. What kind of a piece of... >> Robin continues obsessing over the cat for several moments longer on the comm channel. Not one word about the dead human. Or the mystery at hand.

He opens the storage compartment of the Redbird and peers inside. "I think I can fit a cat in here temporarily," he mutters to himself angrily. Looks like Wayne Manor is getting another stray.

Bruce Wayne has posed:
The weather is just another hurtle, but Batman has made it his ally, like every other element of Gotham City. <<"Focus, Robin. We'll make sure the cat is taken care of.">> It's been some time since the Dark Knight himself has taken a personal interest in a particular case, preferring to focus his attention on everything at once and direct the pieces on the board. The board was in disarray, however. Too many spinning plates. His involvement in these matter, while surface level welcome, COULD be viewed as losing faith in his team to handle things without his direct involvement.

He's chosen a perch where he can view the house in question without drawing the attention of anyone who steps out on their porch for a late, rainy, nights smoke. Even in the flash of lightning overhead, all they might see is the stalking silhouette. A vague outline. A spectre. Rain pelts over his cowl, turned down to view readings on his wrist computer.

<<"Delphi, do a paremeter sweep of the property. Robin, find an entrance on the second floor.">>

While he searches for any security signatures or cameras inside the house. While he doubted a reporter for the Gazette would have state of the art home security, someone had launched a missile at him. So he was certainly up, or in, to something far more than the typical fluff on their websites.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Have alternate-reality-dad on the mission is a curious feeling for Delphi. He had mostly left her to her own devices as she got used to living in this version of Earth. Now it feels like she's being evaluated. Not that she has a problem with that - Babs does that to her constantly.

<< On it >> She dashes off around the edge and up on to the old fence line to scoot around the outside. It doesn't take long to confirm that the neighbours are interested in staying warm and no one is stirring inside the target house in question. There isn't even an alarm system nor security cameras.

She climbs up on to the detached garage and peers out over the street. A car drives past slowly and parts not too far down. No one gets out. She watches it for a bit and then files that away and checks in << Looks like we're alone with the house tonight. No one knows he's dead besides us. I expect tomorrow his employer will file a missing persons report with GCPD. >>

Damian Wayne has posed:
Talking more to himself than to anyone else, Robin continues muttering as he scales up the side of the house along the gutter drain pipe as easily as someone might stroll down the sidewalk. Other than his upset rambling on the comms channel, he is as silent as a cotton ball tumbling across shag carpet.

<< He probably doesn't even have the correct number of litter boxes. The rule of thumb is one litter box per cat plus one. >>

The agile, costumed vigilante tries a window. It's locked from within. Holding on to the drain pipe with one hand, Robin reaches into his utility pipe and tugs out a slender device that he inserts between the sliding window panes and pops the lock. It's effortless. It would have barely been easier if the window had been left unlocked.

The young warrior slips silently into the room.

<< Cats are solitary creatures but still depend on socialization with a pack sometimes. >>

After several moments: << The top floor is empty. Two bedrooms in the southeast and northeast corners, a bathroom off the master bedroom and a second bathroom off the hall. There's an attic access in the hallway ceiling. >>

Bruce Wayne has posed:
Batman has had a list of protiges over the years, from the boisterous, wise cracking Dick Grayson, to the anxious Tim Drake. He's learned to tune them out when they're saying something that he... well he cares.. but it's not important to the mission. So he lets the Robin ramble. In years past he would have clamped down on comms, called for silence until they were done. Perhaps he's softened, perhaps being his biological son affords Damian leeway... more likely? Hearing Damian speak about animals in a caring manner is growth.

Bruce is hard, but he's not a monster.

His lessons are to encourage change, not stop it.

The rain pelts across his back, rolling down the water resistant material of his cape draped around him where he's perched, eyes down on his wrist computer viewing what the pair are doing through the HUD linked to his systems. <<"Delphi, check for a computer and copy the harddrive. Laptops, tablets, anything we can pull information. Robin, search the bedrooms.">>

<<"Grab the cat on the way out.">>

        <<"The way OUT.">>

Carrie Kelley has posed:
The detached garage is a short jump across to the drain pipe that Damian used. She climbs up and in to the house and bringing with her the wet. She wipes across her goggles and then looks about the old house. The wallpaper hasn't changed since the 90s.

She offers Damian a highfive as she passes him in the hallway, then heads downstairs to the man's office. He's almost a hoarder - there's open storage closets along the lower floor hallways housing every single copy of the Gotham Gazette since it started. He'd only worked there for 17 years which means either he's part of a legacy or a huge fan of the company he worked for.

In to the office he has his laptop set up - open still. She sits down at it and plugs in a USB drive to take over. Fast transfer gives her a copy of everything but the open webpages makes her pause a moment. << This guy reported on sports and local fairs. Why is he researching farmland in the Czech Republic? >> She doesn't need to take a picture; she has it all stored away already.

Whatever was going on with this guy he seems to have stumbled on to something big. Much bigger than he could handle. The cat peers in to the study for a moment. A black little thing with yellow eyes. Seeing Delphi and not Brick it runs upstairs to check out Damian.

Delphi unplugs the USB drive and then watches the laptop's Wifi signal randomly dip to zero and then crawl back to full strength. "Huh.." she murmurs to herself. Bringing up her portable computer from utility belt she checks the Oracle command center logs. << The hacker is at it again. Another big burst. Let's hope that doesn't mean a missile is headed our way. Perhaps we should make like a tree... >>

Damian Wayne has posed:
Robin returns Delphi's highfive. He doesn't know how to do casual social interaction, this one. But Carrie has earned his trust and respect. She is unapologetically herself without trying to impress anyone or walk on eggshells. And she's competent, which is Damian's absolute most-valued trait. The list of people who could get a highfive out of Damian is quite small.

First rule of searching for hidden stuff: check the obvious places first. Most people are bad at hiding things, and if a cursory search of the obvious places doesn't yield results then you can fine tune your efforts. So Robin goes for the socks and underwear drawers and under the mattresses first.

<< Well hello. I think I found our boy's porn stash. >>

The young vigilante finds a manilla folder under the mattress in the spare bedroom. He opens it up and flips through each page so Batman and Delphi can see them on their video feeds.

<< Weirdest fetish ever, but okay. I'll bring this along. >>

As Robin heads for the window to make his egress he sees the precious little black shadow. Hunger is making this little girl brave with strangers. He scoops her up as he slips out the window, shutting it behind him. The small, hungry creature is already in a pouch inside of Robin's cape. "Your name is now Shadow and you live in a mansion now," the young warrior says as he straddles the Redbird. He doesn't start the vehicle because he won't leave until Delphi is safely out. Team first and always.

"Your sister is named Bat-Cow and your brothers are Ace and Goliath."

Bruce Wayne has posed:
While he hadn't noticed the dip in wifi signal himself, Batman had seen some of the televisions flicker when they temporarily lost connection to whatever programs the families in other houses around him had been watching. As well as through Delphi's HUD playing on his wrist computer. He brings his hand up to type at the keys and adjusts one of the Wayne Industry satelites to track the nearest National Guard missile silos, just to be on the safe side.

A quick message to Oracle to let her know that someone might be trying to hack Government launch codes. That she needs to monitor it and put a clamp down if she sees anything out of order. Having the resident Goddess of the Internet on their side has to count for something... be a shame to waste that resource. That also means he'll have to fill her in on more details.

A bridge to cross when he gets to it.

<<"Lois Lane didn't always report on Superman.">> Is his only reply to how someone goes from sports and local fairs to investigating the farmlands of the Czech Republic. It is a fairly large leap, however. <<"Someone had to have tipped him. A whistle blower. Look for encrypted communications software. Everyone is connected to the darkweb these days.">>

Though, seeing what Damian has flipped through so they could all see it, he grunts at the description, but says nothing. More leads, but no definitive fingers pointing in the right directions. They could try to put a signal trace on whoever is playing with the wifi, but without Oracle present, that might be a pipe dream. He's good with computers, but he's no Tim or Barbara. <<"We need to give them a new target. One we can control. Chasing shadows isn't going to get us anywhere.">>

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Carrie slips the USB drive in to her utility belt with her computer and makes her way out the front door. The crack of lightning makes her realise there's another extra car on the street now. She eyes them curiously then walks down the pathway toward the Redbird.

<< I'll run analysis when I get back to the Clocktower or Cave. This guy seems very low tech but may be someone reached out to him first. >>

Electric cars don't screech their tires to get speed. They just accelerate - fast. The first parked car crashes up the curb and gets air over the fence trying to get at Carrie. She dives out of the way just in time as a second car hurtles toward the Redbird itself.

Carrie jumps back up in time to see the car hit the house but then immediately start backing up with speed towards her. She grabs her grappling gun, aims, and fires. It yanks her off her feet and up the side of the house and out of the way of the attacking car.

Damian Wayne has posed:
There is definitely no time to start the Redbird and save it before the electric car hits. Bruce can afford motorcycles, so no worries there. For really any of the Bat Family, rolling off a motorcycle to avoid an oncoming car is trivially easy, especially if your mental algorithm has already written off the bike. But doing so without crushing the kitty in a pouch in your cape? That's an entirely different matter.

The young warrior does actually manage it, but the freaked-out cat leaps out of the pouch, lands perfectly on its feet, and then tears off into the night. A terrified black cat vanishing into darkness at the speed of sound? Yeah, she's gone. Robin frown and then turns to the car that has now become one with the mangled Redbird, as he starts to move toward it to put a beatdown on the driver. That's when he realizes the vehicle is automated. He stops and folds his arms over his chest.

<< Great. >>

Bruce Wayne has posed:
Self driving cars are a menace.

Batman should have been paying attention to those vehicles. Point of fact, he meant to, and got distracted. No sense crying over the milk now that it's spilt, however. The attempt to hurt Delphi and Robin will, through proximity, put the people of this neighborhood in harms way. One vehicle goes smashing through a window into a living room and suddenly Gotham is set back thirty years of technological progress because they'll all blame some robot man.

The economist in Bruce can't have that.

The Dark Knight just wont see people get hurt.

The looming shadow of the Bat leaps from his perch and pulls a connective device from his belt to attach to his grapple-gun. Electrifying the cord and claw. There's a period where he's suspended in the air, having jumped from the second story of a building adjacent to the one where he'd sent Damian and Carrie, with his cape blown out behind him. In that moment he takes aim and fires the line to connect with the front panel of the electric car. Then sends enough electricity through the wire to light every Christmas tree from now until December.

Landing, relative to leaping from a second story anyways, gracefully by absorbing most of that impact in a roll. A hard yank of his arm, jerks the prongs from the front of the vehicle, disabled or not, and begins recoiling it back into the triggering mechanism. When a black cat rushes past him.

He scoops the cat up and holds it out at arms length, which just pisses it off because it's pouring rain. So it starts clawing his gauntlet. "Stop." And, because he's Batman.

Who are we kidding, that cat doesn't give a single shit.

It keeps clawing his arm.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
With the cars disabled, Carrie unhooks her grapple and drops back down to the ground. She approaches the car that tried to run her over - twice. The doors won't open so she takes out a baton from her belt. With a thud she cracks through the windscreen and then climbs in to check over the electronics. The car is dead now but that doesn't mean she can recover something from it.

She pops open the panel and removes the screen to get at the computer behind it. They're not sophisticated machines - they use the internet for their smarts. She pulls out the micro-sd card that controls it all and should contain the log of what it was trying to do.

Climbing back out of the car her eyes narrow a moment as she looks up and down the otherwise quiet street. This is Gotham - when something goes thump in the night you don't open the door to check it out. No one has come to look though odds are someone called the GCPD.

"This hacker owes you a bike, Robin," she says trying to make light of the near death experience. Two completely different industrial sectors - military and civilian autonomous car systems. This hacker has a broad repertoire.

"May be it's a collective instead of a single hacker. Or someone exceptionally talented." She looks to the Bat and her brother, "At least it wasn't a missile." But it might as well have been. Once again a hacker who can hurt a lot of people with a few strokes of fingers across a keyboard.

Damian Wayne has posed:
"You're hurting her!" Robin says more harshly than Batman deserves as he scoops the cat away from him and tucks it away into the pouch in his cape. It's dry and it's familiar, so she seems willing to stay there for now. And of course Damian's not angry at Bruce (any more angry than he usually is), he's just coming down from an adrenaline surge. The socially unfit young man pours all sorts of tangled-up emotions into his love of animals. But the truth is, it probably saves lives.

"It could be governmental. Latveria, Russia, Iran? It's just hard to believe that a person or group this sophisticated couldn't find a folder under a mattress. We'll know more once we analyze the data."

Bruce Wayne has posed:
Decades of training, conditioning, and research into every subject under gods son could not prepare Batman for the wrath of a wet cat. It's going absolutely insane on his arm, clawing at his gauntlet in a way that is both incredibly annoying as it is harmless due to the protective weave over his suit. "I am not hurting her." Bruce states in a flat tone. He's fairly well certain he's done nothing to either anger or cause harm to this animal.

He is not a cat person.

So he's glad to be rid of the animal when Damian scoops it and tucks her away in his cape.

His attention and focus is elsewhere, instantly.

"If it were Doom, he would have already bragged about it." Doom is anything if subtle. "I've already got counter measures against Russian and Iranian incursion into Gotham." Because Russia and Iran. He glances sidelong, wrist coming up to plug in a few keys to alert the batmobile to their location. "They were counting on the GCPD to find it for them." Bruce surmisses, nodding towards the disabled vehicles.

The matte black vehicle pulls up from where it had been parked around the corner and he climbs over the top into the driver seat, with enough room for both of them and the cat. Remotely disabling anything of significant value or intelligence on the Redbird. Micro explosions set off, enough to completely dstroy it. They have too many enemies to allow that kind of technology to fall into their hands. "Robin's right. We'll have more answers once we do a thorough analysis. We're not stopping at pet smart."