7525/EROTEME: The Challenge

EROTEME: The Challenge
Date of Scene:	27 August 2021
Location:	Widowstone Creek Apartments
Synopsis:	The Riddler's gauntlet is thrown.
Cast of Characters:	Bruce Wayne, Stephanie Brown, Barbara Gordon, Harper Row, Tim Drake

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Bruce Wayne has posed:
It's a call that?s all too common in Gotham City. An emergency call from a housekeeper reporting her employer found dead in his bedroom. The news crackles through the police dispatch radio, but it's yet another killing in Gotham and there are actual crimes out there that can be stopped. In the end, it's too late for Bradley Pittman and as callous as it sounds his body will still be there later. The corrupted, rusted wheel of the Gotham City Police Department grinds to a halt once again as its teeth catch on apathy and self-interest.

The Batcomputer is a different beast. The AI automatically pinpoints those members of the Family already in the vicinity, addresses their current capacity, and provides an accurate GPS route to the sleepy apartments on Gotham's outskirts. The city is just a dark smear on the horizon from here, the plush and rural surrounds making it easy to forget what evil spills forth from the city's sick heart.

The bedroom is classic and well-appointed. Leather upholstery and high bookcases intermingled with modern luxuries like a widescreen 4K television built into the wall. The covers of the four-post bed are twisted and blood-soaked, and the man lying amidst them stares blankly at the ceiling with a look of horror. His silken pyjama shirt has been torn open, buttons flying loose and scattered across the rug. Something sharp has carved the figure of a question mark - an eroteme - into his chest, the wound fresh enough that blood still bubbles out from it.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
The view of the ocean from the bluff on the edge of Miagani island had been a calming sight for Stephanie. Wearing her Batgirl costume crafted for her by Oracle, Stephanie sat on her Batcycle, cowl pulled off while she slowly eats an ice cream cone obtained from a stand run by a nice lady. The sea breeze was blowing in, as if maybe it could make a dent on the other smells of the city and give Gotham's denizens a respite from the normal city odors.

The soft beeping alert caused Stephanie to emit a little sigh even as she reached for the cowl, pulling it down to be able to see the screens in the lowering lenses over the eyeholes. "So much for a quiet night," she said, popping the whole base of the cone into her mouth and crunching on it as she quickly chewed it while righting her cowl and securing it.

The ride to the provided location is quick and quiet thanks to the Batcycle's electric engine. A purple blur that is past most people before they are quite sure who that caped figure was on it. Pulling into an alley nearby to park, Batgirl makes her way to the apartment. Eyes scanning the ground outside the windows for any tracks as she moves, she checks out the windows to find one that doesn't leave into the murder scene, and uses it for entry. Then makes her way towards the scene of the murder.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
    The haptic feedback sensor tapped to her upper arm gives her the smallest little nudges indicating that something is going on that requires her attention. The slurping of noodles, practicing to fit in at a genuine Japanese soba restaurant properly, will have to stop for now. She puts down the bowl and heads in to the Oracle sanctum.

    The glow of monitors in the otherwise dark room, she slips on the comms and settles in to the comfortable swivel chair. Her fingers dance over the keyboard as she brings up the police report. It's the crimes that slip through the cracks that often point to the worse rot in Gotham.

    It was the question mark on the victims chest that tickled the AI. "Victim's name is Bradley Pittman," Oracle says over comms in to Steph's ear. "Could be nothing, could genuine Riddler. Be careful either way. Red Robin is joining you." And with that, she patches the two in to her comms, "Red Robin, Batgirl has arrived. This one seems to have fallen through the cracks but it might be serious. Collect evidence. Scans. "

    Her eyes roam over the prelims from the police. The hasty notes. How the system fails is a question always on the minds of the bats and birds. This is a very poignant example.

Harper Row has posed:
A police band radio is all Harper Row has to notify her of the reported crime. And sure she's been told to not interfer by the unofficial authority on the subject, but having decided to anyway... and having helped Red Robin just the previous night... she decides to take action. She grabs her kit, tells Cullen she's got to go check something out and not to wait up for her then she departs.

Tonight, not having any official business, Harper takes a bus to the appropriate section of town and then finds a place to 'change'. Her tactical vest is donned and her jacket replaced over it, a pair of targetting goggles are pulled over her face and her tasers are slung in home crafted, cloth holsters at her hips. Carefully sneaking around the patrolmen she's assumed arrived before she did, Miss Row approaches a back door that is still secured and uses her lockpick gun to gain entrance to the building.

Once inside Harper consults a copy of the floorplan accessed though city files during the bus ride and starts checkiing around the house using a penlight to illuminate her way.

Dangerous? Surely. Unseen? Unlikely, she's probably noticed by one of the more experienced vigilanties approaching the building as well as she's surely the last to arrive but is likely the first to go in because she's moving too quickly due to her lack of experience.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Another reroute.

    After climbing most of the way down the cellular network antenna that covers most of Bristol Township, Red Robin drops the last couple of feet to the ground. There's no one around to see the way his jaw goes tight or how his hand, the one not clutching the signal repeater he's just discovered, presses against his side. A few steady breaths later, he straightens.

    His RTLS transmitter puts him three blocks away from the scene, though there's no indication to suggest precisely what sort of wild goose chase he's on at the moment.

    "<<This is Red Robin,>>" he says, comms open. Already, he's walking back to where his bike is stashed in the shadows of a construction site, mentally setting aside his current investigation. "<<Copy.>>"

    Though as he stows the device he's just discovered away in the storage compartment of his bike, the puzzle pieces once again coalesce at the forefront of his mind. Tim sighs as he revs the engine, gives a quick shake of his head, and then he's off.

    It takes him little time at all to navigate the back alleys and quiet streets to his destination, ending up parked not far away from where Batgirl is. He even makes use of the same method of entry, though he pauses on the windowsill. His head is tilted downwards as he pushes away the pain in his chest, focus already narrowed down to the crime scene ahead of him.

Bruce Wayne has posed:
There are tracks on the ground, certainly. The weather has been a little dry lately, so they are few and far between on the dusty earth. The pattern, however, appears to be that of a gardener or groundskeeper. No mere loitering, but rather carefully patrolling from one point to another in the service of high horticulture. The most obvious thing, it would seem, is the middle-aged woman seated on the steps outside the apartment block. Her eyes are red rimmed from tears, and she occasionally peers back up the stairs. She's too preoccupied with her sorrow and Gotham's Knights too quiet and sure with their steps for her to notice them.

Harper's floorplans speak volumes about the building. A turn of the century mansion that has been converted into luxury apartments for the wealthy who don't feel the need for big dusty homes but still want to perch themselves on the riverbank and overlook the city in old world luxury. The large bedroom with two walk-in closets, one that seems to lead down to what was once the kitchens but is now a utility room. The door to the second wardrobe is just decorative wood panelling now, looking to have been covered over by construction long ago.

Barbara's cursory search for information about the late Bradley Pittman reveals some interesting points. His brother Max was heir to their family's fortune (mostly in real estate), and Bradley had lived the life of the idle rich for some time. He was forty-eight now and had never really worked a day in his life. He'd lived in the apartment for the last five years and had become something of a recluse. His housekeeper, Evelyn Tretyakova, was the only one who had any form of prolonged contact with him. She matches the description of the woman weeping outside.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
    When one of the team catches sight of the weeping woman, Oracle pipes up on comms <<That's Evelyn Tretyakova. Victims housekeeper. She's worked for him for years and given how recluse he'd become it's possible she was one of his only real contacts. She may have an idea of who Pittman was talking to that'd put him on a villains radar.>>

    She takes a moment to peer at the brother, Max, and digs in to his work. Real Estate, but no unexpected real estate deals recently. For a moment she wondered if killing Pittman was a part of leverage on Max.

    <<When you get inside, find his phone, tablet, laptop, whatever he's using and connect me in to it. I want to see who he's been talking to. Five years alone makes him an unlikely target - hopefully someone new in his life is the key to this murder>>

Harper Row has posed:
Following the information gleamed from recent construction filings, Harper sneaks from the kitchen she accessed the house thhough, upstairs to a room that was modified to have internet hookups.

She's wearing gloves (leather gardening gloves!) and makes a beeline to the computer, pulling her laptop out as she reaches it. She connects the two devices via a USB networking cable and turns on the victim's computer afterwards. Using her computer, Harper begins scanning for any records that would mention keywords she figures are important: Batman, his known rogue gallery members, etc.

Unaware of the ever vigilant Oracle watching the datasphere, she does not take the victim's computer off the house's internet hookup thus unknowingly opening it (and her own system) for remote access.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Batgirl pauses at the corner, looking down the street to where the woman is sitting on the steps, giving Oracle plenty of time to get her image. She turns, seeing Red Robin's approach, and waves a hand to him. Softly into her comms she suggests, << Want to go put that charm to use soothing her and seeing what she knows while I take a look inside? >>

The corner is departed then, the female caped crusader making her way to the window. << Footsteps out here look like they were tending to the landscaping. Unless that's our killer they probably found another way in and out. >>

A tool is retrieved from a utility belt pouch and used to unlock the window, and then Batgirl is inside and moving into the bedroom. << Expensive place. Bet they have a decent security system when it's armed. >> Not that it would be while sitting on the steps waiting for the police to arrive.

Examining a crime scene was something that Stephanie had gotten into under Barbara's tutelage. Enough to make it her major at Gotham U. She puts those skills to work now as she works methodically through the room and to the bed. She leans close to examine the body, viewing it through various filters. The blond leans down, fingers checking something on his neck, before turning her attention to the wound itself. After about a minute of that, she carefully rolls him upwards a bit to get a look at his back.

Tim Drake has posed:
    "<<Sure, will do,>>" Red Robin answers, though he sounds slightly dubious about his supposed charms. He gives a quick nod in Batgirl's direction rather than returning her wave.

    Though he follows her in first. A few moments spared for some initial intel might help in his questioning of the housekeeper.

    As he moves through the apartment, both the sensors that feed into Red Robin's HUD and the narrow-eyed look hidden behind his domino mask makes a careful scan of his surroundings. He picks out what pedestrian details of Mr. Pittman's life he can from an investigation of the man's space, his belongings, how he keeps things.

    He's on the lookout, too, for any electronics. If he finds one, he'll pause long enough to give Oracle access.

    And then, leaving Batgirl behind to investigate the victim's body, Tim slinks out into the building's hallway, doing his best not to disturb any of the other tenants he might encounter on the way. Soon enough, he's on the inside looking out at the back of Evelyn Tretyakova's head where she sits on the stoop. Purposefully, Red Robin stops quieting his footsteps as he steps back out into the evening's cooling air.

    "Ms. Tretyakova?" he asks, voice pitched a little lower than his normal cadence, aiming for soothing. Also, of course, aiming not to startle her, as he lets the building's front door close behind him. "We heard the call you made--I know you're upset. I'm sorry for your loss, but I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions? I promise that we're here to help."

    Though his posture doesn't betray it, Tim's on edge. It's always hard to anticipate if a civilian is willing to work with them. Especially given that they're on a time table, the arrival of the GCPD a lingering warning in the back of his mind.

Bruce Wayne has posed:
"Kakiye?!" the housekeeper gasps, spinning suddenly on the stoop at the sound of the voice only to be confronted with Red Robin, "Oh! Oh, you're one of them. The Batmen."

She presses her hand to her chest, taking deep and calming breaths.

"I - where are the police? They were meant to come. I called them."

In the office, Harper finds a wealth of information on the computer. Trades, news articles, account details for a wide number of subscription services. On top of it all are a series of e-mails with a 'Doctor B. Hoekema' at Gotham Memorial Hospital about Pittman's diagnosis with Addison's Disease. It's quite treatable, assures the doctor, but it explains his fatigue and mood changes.

On Pittman's back are a series of dark patches on the skin, visible on his shoulders and stomach too upon closer inspection as Batgirl moves the body. But the most notable thing is a series of words carved in the same angular lettering but in much smaller script into the flesh of Pittman's back. It appears to be gibberish, letters that make no sense and do no translate to any known language:

'TVTPY FJCEBRQ QOSCPT
  QKGPCJE TVTP BCEBTP
  AT RBT QIGPRTQR KL GHH
  KP NKWJ YKS WCHH LGHH'

Barbara Gordon has posed:
    Babs tilts her head as the computer in Pittman's apartment comes to life. "Hello," she says to herself and begins to type. The little camera on just about every computer. She turns it on - without the light indicating that it's on. She wants to get a look at just who is using that computer right now.

    <<There's someone inside...>> the facial recognition identifies her as Harper Row. Someone Batman has interact with. <<Harper Row, name ring any bells?>> because now she's a person of interest and she's going to start to dig. <<Looks like our uninvited guest is upstairs, Batgirl>>

    As Babs starts to dig in to Harper's life she starts to see a pattern emerge. She's just like so many of the Robins, just the kind of person who fights back against the darkness. That may be what she's doing here. A talented engineer but also one with a hacker profile. Not a big one - but there she is. Some of the hacker spaces she maintains a presence in. Oracle is watching.

Harper Row has posed:
Harper sees the personal files and glances them over but sighs in frustration as there's nothing that supports her assumptions. That said, she makes a 'behind the scenes' sort of flag on the medical notes so that when someone else goes looking they'll find them (HA! like Oracle isn't seeing what Harper's seeing in real time!) but makes a serious effort to obscure its origin so that it would take an expert to determine they aren't there due to the original user.

She disconnects her system and slips it into it's dedicated pocket in her backpack and submits a shut down command on the victim's computer (easily overridden by Oracle if she wishes to keep the computer on and darken the screen to hide her presence from the purple and blue haired novice vigilante).

Tim Drake has posed:
    Immediately, Red Robin lifts his hands up. "Izvinite," he tells her, and then tips his head in mute acknowledgment of his position as a so-called Batmen. It's certainly not the worst thing he's been called by a civilian.

    Tim can work with it.

    "Yes, and I'm sure they'll be here soon." To Tim's credit he sounds sincere despite having very little faith in that being the truth. "But I'm here now, and if there's anything you can tell me about who might have done this to Mr. Pittman, I might be able to help bring him to justice."

    The sound of Oracle's electronic voice reciting the name Harper Row makes him pause, and briefly glance over his shoulder towards the building. "<<She's here?>>" he subvocalizes. "<<I ran into her yesterday. Smart kid.>>" Everything else, he has no doubt Barbara is either in the process of or already has dug up about Ms. Row, and given that Red Robin has assessed Harper as a non-threat, potential civilian ally, so he leaves any decisions regarding her presence inside to Oracle and Batgirl.

    He looks back at Evelyn Tretyakova and shifts his expression into his best attempt at comforting, mouth thinned with concern and brow faintly furrowed. "Please. I'm not here to interfere, just to assist in any way I can," he says, earnestly.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
The examination of the body is done quickly. Being thorough is important, but her training has taken into account that there may not be time for the kind of in depth examination of the crime scene that one might like.

<< Looks like he was injected in the neck with a syringe. Struggled at that point. But afterwards the question mark was made on his chest without him struggling >> Batgirl shares before turning back to the carved letters.

<< And then the same weapon was used to carve a cipher into his back. >>} She makes sure to give a good view of that, using a bit of the sheets to dab away some blood that is partially obscuring some of the letters.

Batgirl's head comes up at the mention of Harper Rowe being in the building. << Have only read the reports on her. Sounds like she's got spirit. >> As she is speaking, Batgirl checks the key carefully and then slips it into an evidence bag so they can check it for prints or other DNA. << There's also a key with the word 'gauntlet' on it. Can't really get more clear than that can you? >>

Bruce Wayne has posed:
"I - please, I don't know who did it," Evelyn says with a sobbing sigh, grinding her palms into her eyes, "He didn't even make a sound. I was just going to ask him what tea he wanted like every night and - and I found him like that. He - he was looking at me. He was moving his mouth like he was saying something but there was no sound. I called the police and when I looked again, he was ... was ... "

She sighs, clutching her knees to her chest and turning her face away from Red Robin.

"Please. Please that's all I know."

Back upstairs in the room, Batgirl's observations reveal all manner of curious things. Though just how the killer got through the outside hall where Evelyn was preparing the tea when the windows show no sign of forced entry is work for a detective indeed.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
    The cipher carved in to the victims flesh catches her eye and she transcribes it quickly in to the bat computer. She talks to herself as she plays with it "Not a ROT cipher. Not a Shift cipher. Not a Caesar cipher... substitution? .. English." She taps a finger against her lips a moment and relays back to the team.

    <<The message on the back of Pittman is a substitution cipher, English, Bat computer has a hit score of 39053 -- translation: every knights squire soaring ever higher be the smartest of all or down you will fall>>

    Babs sits back in her chair a moment as she stares at the message. <<If this isn't the Riddler then it's a clever copy cat. Either way we have a serious problem>> Because murdering people just to leave cryptic clues is exactly the kind of terror Gotham doesn't need.

    In a side window she types in to the chat for Bruce, -- Possible Riddler crime, left a substitution cipher reading 'every knights squire soaring ever higher be the smartest of all or down you will fall'. Batgirl and Red Robin on the scene investigating. Found a key with the word Gauntlet on it. Will keep you up to date.

    As Harper tries to shut down the machine she quickly types, keeping it alive but she shuts off the lights and the screen so it looks off. "Curious," she muses to herself and retraces Harper's steps on the computer - looking at the same things she looked at <<I think we have a regular Nancy Drew on our hands>>.

Harper Row has posed:
Having given up on the computer and not wanting to disturb the desk further by messing with the tablet, Harper steps away from the desk towards the wall that the office shares with the bedroom. After a few moments she finds the mechanism mentioned in the revised blue prints and steps though the concealed door into the bedroom...

Upon seeing Batgirl, Harper freezes in place for a moment and then, restrained but still excited says, "Oh wow, you're the blonde Batgirl," softly enough not to sound /too much/ like a fan girl but loud enough to be heard clearly by Stephanie.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
As Harper steps through the door, she finds said blond Batgirl facing that way, hand holding a yellow metal tube that is about a half foot long. Batgirl gives a small nod of her head, "Harper Rowe," she says in a tone that might reveal to Harper that her presence didn't come as a surprise.

The metal tube goes back into her utility belt as Batgirl looks off to the side as she speaks, as if addressing someone else other than Harper. << Anything you can pick up on it that suggests a clue to a next puzzle? >> she says. << Fairly straightforward who the Knight's squires are. Though it could be a double reference. >>

She looks back to Harper again finally, looking at her first, and then past her into the room that Harper came from. "Let's take a look in there," she says. "Find anything useful?"

Tim Drake has posed:
    Red Robin nods a couple of times as Evelyn gives her statement, but he doesn't interrupt her. His posture remains precisely controlled, at least until she turns away from him, and then he lets his shoulders slump, and his hands flex into fists at his side.

    It takes him a moment or two, easing himself down, but soon enough Tim has sat himself on the steps next to the housekeeper. There's a respectful amount of distance between them, and he's angled himself subtly in her direction, though after a moment spent looking at her quietly, he turns to face forward. He folds his arms against his knees. "I'm sorry," he says, and he doesn't have to put any effort into tailoring his tone for the situation. Showing empathy, especially in a situation like this, isn't a struggle for Tim. "That sounds awful."

    He's quiet for a moment, and though he's listening to the information Batgirl and Oracle are sharing back and forth on the comm-line, Tim does his best not to follow the rabbit hole down just yet. Later, he can process it to a point beyond surface level. Whoever Bradley Pittman was to Evelyn Tretyakova, even if it was just a standard employer-employee relationship (though he suspects there was at least some sort of kinship there, given her reaction), her grief deserves his fullest attention.

    "I know it's difficult to think about anything except what you saw in there. I hate that I have to ask you this right now, but it's important... Was there anyone who might have wanted to hurt him? Can you remember anything in the last few days or weeks that seemed odd to you at the time? Any changes in Mr. Pittman's habits or behaviors?"

Bruce Wayne has posed:
Rather than respond through the comms, the Batman responds via a typed message that appears not only on Oracle's feed but in the HUD of both Red Robin and Batgirl.

- Get blood and tissue sample from vic. Before GCPD contaminates.

A pause.

- Question H.R. Maybe picked up extra intel.

Then the Dark Knight's contributions go silent, and the group are left observing an uncomfortably stuffy and dark room with the body of an eccentric treated like a notepad. In the distance, the sirens of a GCPD patrol car can be heard and the red-blue flash of lights bounces off the topiaries and stone fences of the Bristol Township. Nearby, windows in other houses light up yellow as curiosity trumps sleep.

"His - maybe his doctor? I don't know. He was always saying they don't work hard enough to fix his condition. He sleeps all the time now. And he's always got a sore stomach and he can't eat. He's - he was wasting away to nothing."

Barbara Gordon has posed:
    Babs looks at the response from Batman and raises an eyebrow. Clearly he's concerned or else he'd have replied to her about it directly. She frowns a moment and then replies to Steph over comms << We'll figure it out. Pick at the threads. >>

    The riddle possibly not just a message but a destination. Ever higher? a tower. May be too literal. Something to discuss with the team. If Riddler thinks he can divide and conquer them that easily he's got a surprise waiting for him behind bars when they catch him.

Tim Drake has posed:
    "Thank you," Red Robin says, with a slow tip of his head, to Evelyn. He makes note of the sound of the approaching sirens, but his most generous estimate of their arrival gives him plenty of time. His least generous, still probably enough to slip away.

    So he rises to his feet, though he has to brace himself on the step railing to do so. He turns to look down at Mr. Pittman's now-former housekeeper, and adds, "We're going to do everything we can to find who did this."

    And with that, he excuses himself, headed in the opposite direction of the approaching GCPD.

    "<<Let me know when the coroner report comes in. His housekeeper mentioned a preexisting condition that the victim's doctor was unable to diagnose or treat. I'll look into it.>>"

    He looks up one last time at the building, before he ducks around the corner.