340/BOP - Bird in the Hand...

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BOP - Bird in the Hand...
Date of Scene: 07 March 2020
Location: Burnley - Bleake Island
Synopsis: Batgirl meets a Songbird. They have a talk about second chances and being a hero.
Cast of Characters: Barbara Gordon, Melissa Gold




Barbara Gordon has posed:
It starts with a small app that appears on your old cheap android smartphone.

Honestly it isn't one you remember installing either.

The icon for it is a small <green> icon which looks like a stylized women's head. (https://i.imgur.com/DVgmEs9.jpg).

A small notification badge is marked <1> and appears on the nofication screen as well in a priority placement.

Melissa Gold has posed:
    "...What?" Songbird, pausing in her patrol for a quick bite to eat, glances at her phone and ... "Huh. Must have been an update." She clicks on the green head to see what the message is, a Dagwood-style sandwich in her other hand, from which she takes occasional bites while cradling the phone in her cross-legged lap. "I'll never get used to these things. Always changing."

Barbara Gordon has posed:
The App opens with a title <ORACLE> just above the icon logo which is blown up a bit bigger at the top and the bottom seems to be a messenger application.

The only message right now though is.

<Songbird. An associate of mine with quite a few magic tricks up her sleeves said you might be interested in some things we are thinking of putting together. Was this information accurate?>

Melissa Gold has posed:
    OK, using her code name like that is a bit freaky. That's...
    Songbird looks up and down, left and right, checking if anybody's watching. Oh, wait. Magic tricks. Right. This must be Zee's friend. Wow these guys like drama!
    She hunches over the phone, setting the sandwich down on its wrapper and thumbs in, ~If frend Zee, thats rite. U the 1 Zee talked bout?~ She pauses, then decides to add a thumbs-up emoji before sending.
    "Never too early to make a good impression," she says to herself. "Gotta sound friendly and professional." With a thumbs-up. Emoji.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Barbara reads the reply with some level of amusement. She has been tracking the phone for a bit there.

<Yes Zatanna is my associate. I'm Oracle whom I believe she mentioned. I am following up like Zee said I would on this matter. Do you have time to meet another associate of ours in Gotham to talk further?>

Melissa Gold has posed:
    This is the point where Songbird accidentally does a good act without even knowing it. In her joy she leaps into a standing position, firing up her sonics, spreading her pink wings wide, and letting out a loud "WOOHOO!" A few blocks away, one Mildren Morne, contemplating her life, and specifically contemplating ending it, looks out of the window she wants to jump from and, startled by the distant noise, sees, miracle of miracles, an angel on a rooftop, oh-so-obviously watching over her. Filled with renewed hope she closes her window. Maybe there is hope in her future after all.
    Back on the rooftop, however, Songbird is now doing a victory dance that would make an NFL player blush at how over the top it is. Her shaking fingers barely manage to type out the reply. ~OKK. When? Where? ~
    Then it's back to the dance.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Barbara amusement grows at this point as she watches it through one of the cities CCTV cameras.

<Well once you are done dancing feel free to finish your sandwich and head to the following location in Gotham to meet my associate.>

Melissa Gold has posed:
    Busted. "Shit." The word slips out of her mouth, which she then covers up quickly, looking around again to see if someone's catching that. ~Cumming.~ From the way she was dancing, that could go one of two ways...
    Then she finishes her sandwich, in the single most unladylike display in all of history as she practically crams it down her throat like she was a fois gras goose and takes to the air. Destination: Gotham.

    ...

    Now Songbird's eager, but she's not stupid. You don't work in villain circles without developing a healthy respect for things like ambushes. BEFORE landing she scouts out the area in two rings, one the immediate area and one the area within about a half-mile radius, looking for any signs of unusual activity or clustering. If none of that is present, she plummets to the ground and lands in a pink, blue, and gold flutter.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Babs pulls the mask and cowl into place swapping from the tablet view to the HUD in the cowl now.

She paces heads out into the city having given herself enough time to get there by her estimation from the bat armory she had paused in to send the messages.

Which means she is in place when Songbird does her superhero landing in the middle of the construction yard. Why do heroes always insist on doing superhero landings enough that it has become a cliche about them. Batgirl has theories but won't be voicing them right now.

Instead she steps out of the shadows like a damn batninja. She isn't batman but she was trained by him for dramatic entrances like this. Raising her voice. "Songbird. Oracle said you would be stopping by."

Melissa Gold has posed:
    Internally Songbird jumps. Really high. Probably emits a girlish scream of surprise. Externally she ever-so-slightly flinches, barely visibly, and turns with a deadpan face to Batgirl. Years of dealing with stage fright and the vagaries of psychopathic bosses show.
    "Yep." Beat. "On my phone." She holds the phone up as evidence that she has one. Or something. It's hard to tell what she's actually trying to accomplish. For her as well. "Uh ... I'm gonna to take a little stab in the dark here. You're here to test me, right? You've got a bunch of people in the site that are gonna rush out and attack me and I have to beat them? Or you're gonna attack and I have to beat you? A puzzle? Some kind o' test o' physical prowess?"
    She shrugs. "I'm only guessin'," she adds nervously. "My first time doin' somethin' like this. All I got to go on is old chop socky flicks."

Barbara Gordon has posed:
The whole flinch or even leap into the air never really gets old even after all these years.

Batgirl does blink though, the ramble about being tested and all the things that could be about to happen are actually a new thing. I mean Batman doesn't even do that. He has a complicated set of probrations and all before you earn his trust.

Mostly though there is a whole lot of data mining and background survielence.

Both of those things are also things Batgirl practices. "Well .. actually no though I have seen a lot of those old films too. We already have a pretty extensive file on you... and what you can do. I was hoping to just have a conversation with you and ask you some questions."

Melissa Gold has posed:
    "Oh." Just that, followed by a pause, like someone changing mental gears. Someone who looks like they might have preferred it be a battle royale for entrance than, well, questions. "OK, then."
    A hint of the real person beneath the nervous Nellie appears as she quips, "Like your office. Real DIY vibe."
    Then the flinch is palpable as she realizes how she's coming across. "Sorry, sorry! Just, I ... look, can we start over? I'm M...Songbird. And if you looked at my past, you know already that's not a name tied to a great rep. I'm workin' on that."

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Batgirl seems pretty stoic and unexpressive as she watches Melissa and listens very closely. The other woman's bio and the compiled information scrolling slowly on her HUD in the cowl.

"Well I do believe in fixer uppers." was that a deadpanned joke about the construction yard... or about Songbird... damnit Babs.

"As for you trying to work on that, well that is the only reason we are here having this conversation really. It appears you really got tangled up with some bad influences, prison, but you seem to have made the decision to turn your back on all that and not just go legit but try to be a hero."

Melissa Gold has posed:
    "I'm not gonna make excuses," Songbird says, looking Bab straight in the cowl. "I done bad things. I made a lotta bad choices. Sure, I also had a load o' shit dumped on me, but that's not a reason."
    She starts pacing in a small circle, head down as she continues talking. "I never really had a chance before, though, to know what it was like. Doin' good. Kept getting sucked into the crime side. An' once you're a con, always a con. Can't even get a decent apartment with a record. But..."
    She looks up at Batgirl, pausing in her pacing. "When we was doin' the fake spandex gig, thing is, people loved us. We helped. We helped to do bad, but we helped and people loved us. And ... it felt real good. Better than scorin' big in a gag. And it felt bad when we knew that we was doin' good to set up bad. It's why half of us turned. We couldn't stand it anymore."
    The pacing resumes. "And thing is, I got action in my blood. Ever since I ran off, I ... Well, I couldn't just have a normal life. I wanted to BE someone. And I wanted that feelin' that I could make ammends. Can't do that liftin' fuckin' boxes, can I?"

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Batgirl watches the pacing and listens still, she is getting a bead on the other woman as she does so. Profiling.

"I've known more than my fair share of ex-cons or criminals who see an error in their way and turn from a life of crime to try to do better. I believe it can be done." which is probably also why she is giving you a chance.

"It isn't all love and cheer though, it can be pretty rough, but it definitely a lot more rewarding .. in the non monetary sense." a shrug at the last part as her angle took a turn on her.

"You are under observation though, so if the lot of us are to work together you will need to stay pretty straight and narrow or you will end up back in the system."

Melissa Gold has posed:
    "Observation?" At that Songbird laughs bitterly. "I'm gonna need you to take a number," she says. "There's cops watchin' me. There's some people I screwed over in the spandex brigade watchin' me. There's SHIELD, now, watchin' me. Take a number. You'll be served in fair time."
    She takes a deep breath, releasing it as a sigh. "Yeah, I know. I have it comin'. Only reason I'm free is I turned state's." Her eyes lock on Batgirl again. "But I'm tellin' you. People who think I'm gonna crack? They wrong. You saw my past. You saw the shit people threw at me in the ring, then. And out in life. I don't break. I fight harder. Whether Screamin' Mimi or Songbird, I fight. Whether alone or in a crew, I fight. This ain't somethin' I'm givin' up on once I make up my mind. If y'all want me in your crew, I'm there, and I'm happy. If I don't fit, fine. I'm not happy, but I'm still out there. I'm still makin' amends."

Barbara Gordon has posed:
"I didn't mean under observation by me." she laugh, first sign of humor. "Though I mean yeah I imagine Oracle is watching yoi. They keep tabs on all of us really .. sort of an overwatch system." she flicks her eyes up to the sky and indeed there is a small black drone silently hovering up there.

"I meant the ops and agencies yeah. So all heroing then if you really mean it and no back sliding and I think that we can definitely bring you on board if you want. We are thinking about getting the old gang back together to do some truth justice and all that jazz... but either way Zee and I will need backup sometimes and maybe you will too."

Melissa Gold has posed:
    Songbird takes a long time to think, a flurry of emotions crossing her face, in no particular order, regret, frustration, anger, resignation. And, peculiarly, a hint of contentment. "I promise," she says simply. "No backslidin'. I can't return to that. So it's an easy promise to make."
    She compresses her lips, pulling them at the sides, then extends her hand. "I know, promise of a con, but ... it's all I got. Ain't got nothin' valuable to hold up as col... colat... Hostage."

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Batgirl says helpfully not condescendingly or too patronizing. "Collateral." then she looks around and fishes into one of the pouches on her belt and offers up a very discrete hightech ear communicator.

"It works with either verbal or subvocal communications and is bone conductive so it should allow everything from normal to stealthy missions. If things are going down Oracle will alert you on your phone when it is showtime." a smile is given though.

"Before we part ways though, can you show me the whole reason you are called Songbird?" a glance to a pile of concrete rubble, not needed for the construction.

Melissa Gold has posed:
    "Thanks." No resentment back. Word learned. Maybe.
    Then, the communicator is in her hand and she looks it over curiously. "Huh. That must be nice to have. Easier to coordinate in action. Grapplers, we used body language when we was in the ring. This is much cooler, thanks."
    The concrete pile is eyed and a light shines in Songbird's eyes. "Oh, hon, you wanna see me sing? Gotta watch the dance too, then."
    Red gems flare as ghostly pink wings extend from her back. She jumps up, letting the wings claw for altitude. She flies around the other side of the building in progress and vanishes from sight. (Oversight, of course, not.) Then, a sudden sharp bank and she's flying at tremendous velocity THROUGH the building, dodging open beams and equipment as she goes through, bursting out the other side in a blaze of colour, flying at a tangent to the concrete. Opening her mouth she seems to scream, though nothing visible comes out, aiming at the concrete.
    The concrete explodes into shards, razor sharp pieces of fragmented cement flying like a landmine went off. Banking tightly she come straight at Barbara, landing in a crouch right before her, wings vanishing into the aether as a pink wall appears at an angle behind her.
    The concrete shrapnel that would have made this a bad day for Barbara had she not herself been more than capable of dodging it pings harmlessly off the impromptu pink shield, directing into a fan shape behind Songbird.
    "That was my song," the woman says proudly, standing. "Everything was. It's all sonic energy used in fun aways. The wings. The blasting. The wall. Can do more, but you get the idea."
    She grins foolishly. That useta be me, but I burned all that out in my throat, so I got implants to do it now. But it's still me controllin' and aimin' it. An' it's all sound. My song."

Barbara Gordon has posed:
The drone does indeed catch it all for analysis later, but right now Baatgirl is focused on the view from down there amongst the landlocked.

She nods a bit to herself as she watches the wings, the flying, vanishing, and then re-emerging back onto the scene. She definitely has to admit that sceam, the cry that explodes the concrete so dangerously there.

She was just starting to move and flip her cloak up to protect herself from the shrapnel in the exposed parts of her face when there is Songbird, shielding them with a sonic wall.

"Okay, that is really.. really impressive S-B." she steps out from around you looking at the remains and bits of shrapnel. "We may hit bad guys really hard ... but no killing people is definitely a rule we try to stick to. Especially here in Gotham." she nods. "Welcome aboard Songbird." she looks back "Any questions?"

Melissa Gold has posed:
    "We got dental?" Beat. A chuckle, then, and an embarrassed wave. "Yeah, I know. Not that kinda gig. Just thought it'd be funny to ask."
    Her face goes more serious. "I know about Ms. Zatara ... and holy shit is she a class act! ... and now I know 'bout you. And I heard about someone goin' by the moniker Oracle who watches over with drones an' plays with phones and cameras. Who else is in? Or that need-to-know? Ain't never been in a group of legits, so I don't know how it all works. Willin' to learn, but ... ya know, I'm gonna make mistakes and I'm gonna have mistaken ideas, right?"

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Batgirl nods softly at the question. "Bit of need to know. The network is pretty big but the active people on the board, not as big yet. Like I said the group isn't as active but .. that might change again soon. As for the dental.. actually sure we have a per dium sort of thing for expenses exspecially if there are damages in the middle of doing hero work. Also yeah Oracle is.. well an Oracle. . the yare all seeing and knowing and excelent overwatch for missions."

Melissa Gold has posed:
    "Got it," Songbird says. "Well, I'm needed I'm there. Ya obviously know how to get ahold. An no killin'. I get that too. Wasn't never my style anyway." She shrugs, unapologetically. "Broken bones ... yeah, that happens 'round me if ya get in my face. Bank goon shot at me a couplea weeks back. His arm broke. Here." She shows a spot on her left upper arm. "I figure that's a propo... Prop... Fair response to guns. Specially since guns can actually hurt me. Punches, not so much."
    Then, heartfelt, emotion painted across her face like foundation on a Chinese opera singer, she adds, "Thanks for the chance."

Barbara Gordon has posed:
"Hey if a criminal needs help becoming friends with a wall and you helpfully through him into it and he breaks something... well I think that is on him for doing the whole crime. You're just being super helpful." that is all pretty dryly spoken, yeah she has some humor in her.

"No problem Songbird... looking forward to working with you and helping some people."

Melissa Gold has posed:
    "Well, I look forward to the call. Anytime you need someone who can melt steel with her voice, or just punch someone a lot, I'm yours." Beat. "Or if you need to fill a table for pizza. That's fine too."
    Songbird puts the comm receiver in her ear, waves, and leaps into the sky. And on her way out the drone just might catch a happy grin on her face. Or her swooping through the clouds in a crazy aerobatic display when she thinks she's out of sight....