7847/Orphan: The Silo

Orphan: The Silo
Date of Scene:	16 September 2021
Location:	Somewhere outside Gotham City
Synopsis:	Detectives decide to find out where Orphan gets her gear, and set out on a quest to track her to her base. Explosions, defusing bombs, secret hideouts, milkshakes! And baby pictures!
Cast of Characters:	Cassandra Cain, Barbara Gordon, Dick Grayson, Stephanie Brown

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Cassandra Cain has posed:
Detectives have to detect. It's part of why they are what they are, the need to know and to find out secrets. When presented with a conundrum, they may be able to ignore it for a while. Or they may keep it in the back of their minds for a long time, and eventually they just have to know.

A while ago, Orphan/Cassandra showed up. Bruce didn't give a lot of details (we assume he's hiding something), Babs researched, Dick studied her. But Cassandra showed loyalty, skill, tenacity...all the things needed to fit in.

Where does she get her stuff? That came up once, Steph may have said it or perhaps it was Damien. She never takes anything from stores, and recently she just showed up with a vulcan cannon. She has money, apparently a lot of it, but never asks for any. She has motorcycles, plane tickets, throwing knives, armor...

So tonight, when Cassandra slips off to wherever she goes to rest, she slips past them into the night. She heads southwest, using her grapples and parkour skills. She sheds anything that might have a tracker. She heads past boroughs and suburbs, leaving the city without a word.

She isn't as alone as she believes.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
    Cassandra is a Wiley one. Very good at covering her tracks. Not as good as she is following them though. A little bit of older technology is all she needed. Something Cass didn't know about, wasn't expecting. Eye in the Sky has taken flight. The large drone is high enough up in the sky that it's not visible.

    Babs is on her batcycle and in her armor. She is taking her time, watching the movements of the young bird, admiring her skill and athleticism. It's obvious what Bruce sees in her... it's just the secrecy that has her worried. She must make sure Cass is.. safe.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    Being part of a group who basically live two different lives, Nightwing understands secrecy. At the same time, Cass is more than a little bit of an enigma. It's not that he doesn't trust her, Batman's word and the info they did find on her, not to mention all the things she's been a part of have shown her to be a part of the extended family.

    At the same time, she's rather a mystery outside of bat family stuff. And Dick is, after all, an actual detective as well as one of the Bats. Mysteries like this make his brain itch, so it is that when Cass heads out one evening, there's a shadow following her using the same method to travel the roofs of the city. He stays far enough back that she's just in the range of his vision, but highlighted on his mask's HUD so he doesn't miss her movements.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
The tennis ball bounces off the roof of the brownstone's bedroom. Bounce, fall, catch. Bounce, fall, catch.

"God I'm bored. I am so bored I'd do chemistry homework if I had it," Stephanie Brown grumbles to herself. Bounce, fall, catch. Bounce, fall, catch.

She lifts her head to peer towards the door to the rest of the home. Did she hear Dick coming in? Nope. She sighs again. Bounce, fall, catch.

The ball is tossed over into a drawer as she rises and goes over to a laptop. One hooked into the Batcomputer, she checks to see if Nightwing is out and about the city. "Oh he is. That little sneak," Stephanie says, though grinning at the prospect of something not-boring to do. She turns and her clothes fly off and she dons her costume.

Soon a Batcycle is heading off for the southwest.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
With a Detective, another Detective, and a bored friend around, Cass was already aware that she needed to be sneaky. She never takes the exact same route, ending up cutting through a burnt out building at one point and out through the basement access. It gives Babs' eye in the sky a conniption, but would catch her as she exited.

There's a pause as she stops a moment, apparently watching to see if anyone is around though. She's behind an orphanage, which couldn't possibly be a cue of some sort. The place was closed down ages before, but budget cuts and politics kept it from being bulldozed.

You'd almost expect to find an abandoned subway then, tracking in Gotham being predictable in certain ways.

She ensures a reasonable amount of privacy, then presses her hand to a steel outcrop in a rusted out old train carcass.

A ping goes out, inaudible unless you have the gear to notice it. Then Cassandra vanishes into a hole in the ground, slipping into a crack beneath the train.

It appears to be a natural cavern. It looks deep, and dark. Going to have to leave the motorcycle behind.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
    No one hides forever from the Oracle. Some pull it off longer than others. Cass is one of those exceptions. That Dick is following her makes he wonder if that might spook Cass from revealing where she has been staying. It better not be in a cardboard box under a bridge.

    One of the keys to being Oracle is to know but not necessarily tell.. she doesn't contact Dick just yet. She trusts he is beyond skilled enough to follow her. Seeing Steph take to the streets though, that raises an eyebrow. She pulls off the road a moment behind some trees and goes dark. Her successor has her own style and panache and she's curious to see just where this might be going.

    Once that batcycle has passed her by she turns her engine back on, a muffled purr, she moves back on to the road and keeps her distance. After all, two Batgirls at once? She'll have to convince them to just call her 'Bats' for the night if they all end up meeting face to face.

    It seems, though, she will have to go on foot as Cass disappears underneath a train. Sending a drone in would be just as obvious as going in herself. She parks a bit aways and with a grappling gun lifts herself up on top of a nearby building to see what Dick and Steph will do first.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    Nightwing was probably close enough to see where she went, but not close enough to see where she pressed. Several minutes pass as he gives her time to get further into her hideout, then he moves carefully up to where she vanished. He examines the area for a moment, running through various modes of vision on his mask to look for traps. He's pretty sure Cass would have that sort of thing set up to protect her lair, so a careful approach is called for.

    His inspection pays off, as while he doesn't find any traps here, he does find a hidden handprint scanner. Pulling a couple tools from his belt, he goes about the job of opening the scanner enough to get to it's electronics, then pulls a cable from one of his bracers and plugs it in, letting his suits computer try and spoof the lock.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Batgirl: The Blondening, zooms along the streets of Gotham. Not noticing the drone overhead that spots her as easily as it spotted Orphan and Nightwing. No, Stephanie's attention is honed keen. A singular focus that-

Holy crap! Taco Whiz has a sign out front that the Mexican Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Milkshake is back! Batgirl veers into the parking lot, dodging past a sedan that is backing out of its space to pull into the drive-thru.

"Yes, one Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Milkshake. Large," she orders into the speaker.

"Do you want whip cream and cinnamon spice on it?" the speaker asks back.

"What a silly question. Of COURSE I want the whip cream and the cinnamon spice!" she replies.

Soon she's at the window, paying with cash, and pausing just long enough to throw up a peace sign when the guy at the window wants a selfie.

Moments later, she's zooming through the streets again. Attention honed to a singular focus. Singular but for happily sucking on the straw of her milkshake.

Maybe that's why she goes right on past the trainyard. Too focused to notice where Nightwing turned off, leaving Barbara only one person in addition to Orphan that she need worry about spotting her.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Dick finds this, and it is a natural cave formation. The train was set on top of it because it is basically as old as Gotham, if not older, and doesn't look like it's going anywhere any time soon.

Barring something changing. No Man's Land foreshadowing.

Oddly, with Dick stopping to investigate and Stephanie NOT stopping, there seems to be a divergence going on. When someone wants a milkshake, they clearly lose their minds and go on with other duties. Like, seeing if blondes do indeed have more fun.

The cave however is down, then up, then down further. No hand or tool formed this, it's something that a child could fall into but not too far, and they'd never be able to progress. There's only one path, and it'd take an olympian level gymnast to traverse. I wonder where Orphan went?

And, since Dick's computer hits the right audio-code after about three minutes searching, there's the sound of a door sliding open inside. Deep inside.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
    Babs spreads her cape and glides down to land on top of the train carriage, then drops down to the ground level while Dick does his work. "Nightwing," she says to him. "I guess you wanted to know what her deal was too huh?" She folds her arms.

    The footage clearly shows Cass touching something on the fence before disappearing down there. Dick has it sorted though. She moves down under the train and in to the cavern. She looks around the cave and says, "This isn't the worst I imagined, but it's not much better.."

    Because no bat or bird should be living in a cave if they don't have to. Not when Bruce can help. Sometimes it's the stubborn ones who take the longest to realise it's okay to ask for help. You know.. the kind that Bruce seems to attract.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    While he is a little involved with breaking the security on the lock, Nightwing is not taken by surprise, as he's not required to stare at a screen while the system works through the security on the scanner. This is probably a good thing, as he's not particularly good at hacking, or detailed computer work in general.

    So it is that as Barbara glides in, he's looking around to make sure nobody is watching him, so spots her as she drops down from the car to the ground hear him.

    "Yeah, I mean I trust Cass, but I'm curious. And apparently I'm not the only one." Checking his HUD he smirks as he sees Steph's marker in the same area but proceeding past the correct area. With a quick command he pings her system with his location.

    "You probably already know that Batgirl is out this way too, right? Apparently it's follow Cass night."

    When the computer finds the right response, he retracts the cable and actually puts the scanner back together - this isn't a villain hideout that he can break as he wants, this is Orphan's hideout. Once it's hidden again, he slips under the car and starts making his way through the cave.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Batgirl putters along after she passes by the trainyard. The shake is just too enjoyable, and the weather is pretty nice now that the worst of summer has given way to early Autumn. It's a great night to be out riding about Gotham.

Not to mention, the Mallomar is back in stock now that summer is over, and it's quite possible that the sign over at Dinkman's Grocery might have caught her attention. The marshmallow would really go well with the chocolate and pumpkin to wash it down.

The ping from Nightwing gets a response after a few moments. A picture of a Mallomar. Yep, she saw the sign.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
It's ONLY an underground tunnel with jumps over chasms and moments when you have to cling to walls. There are places where footing is highly treacherous, where water has built up and it's nearly lethal to just stand on, let alone try to pass. You know, a normal day of spelunking if you're a lunatic.

The first thing that might come to mind is, there's no way she took a gatling gun on this route. The second would be the lighting. There is none, and natural light is limited at best. It's likely that Cass knows the route well enough to do it blindfolded.

Pro tip, she was made to do exactly that as a child.

Fingers touching a metal frame might be surprising, but when the passage becomes more open and the ground more easy to walk, they'd come across a door. And a computer pad with no letters or numbers, but instead what appear to be heiroglyphics. Symbols, all looking like...gestures?

A language written for a person who thinks in actions. And it requires a passcode.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
    Babs nods her head, "Yep. Haven't quite figured out callsigns when we're both in the field. Just call me Bats and we'll sort it out another time." She grins and starts to traverse the cave with Dick. "This brings back memories," she says as the pair of them go in to a dark strange place.

    Except it's no villain lair this time. And instead of wearing purple and yellow, she's armored in black and yellow and no longer Batgirl. With a touch on her wrist she sends instructions to Batgirl's batcomputer on where to go once she gets to the train.

    When she reaches one of those chasms she draws out her grappling gun. No sense in risking it, she fires and swings across. The night vision is helping her navigate this place. A change in structure to a hallway and door with a strange keypad.

    "Hmm," she says thoughtfully as her eyes roam over the symbolic instructions. Heat vision shows exactly which buttons were recently pressed though.

    "What's got me curious is why Cass would make invent like this." She wouldn't. Which means someone else made it for her. "So who's her benefactor?" The subtle gradient in heat suggests the order to press them, so she does.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    As he and Barbara make their way through the cavern system, he wonders if Cass decided to follow Bruce's lead with the whole cave lair motif. If so, hers is much less convenient to get in and out of.

    Since she seems to have this security pad dealt with, he just waits for her to get this door open.

    "Yeah, she's got me a little curious, as you can obviously tell. Glad I'm not the only one though, invading a friend's privacy is always better in a group."

    He smiles and shrugs a little as he says it, perhaps just then realizing that they are, in fact, invading Orphan's privacy and not just investigating something. But they've come this far, might as well rip the band-aid off quickly and continue onwards.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie Brown is climbing back onto her bike when the instructions from Oracle come in. The blond watches them scrolling past her field of vision, an eyebrow going up. "Huh," she says. And then again except this time it's a little bit muffled by a bite of chocolate-covered marshmallow cookie. Followed up by a slurp of shake.

A message wings back through the ether to Barbara, a simple confirmation of receipt and that Stephanie is on her way. The bike rolls towards the exit to Dinkman's parking lot, though a couple of kids including one little girl in a purple skirt and cape and with bat ears on call over to her. Batgirl rolls over to them, chatting with the kids for a minute or two. She reaches into a pouch on her utility belt and pulls out a few Bat stickers for kids. "Here you go, you can put that on your door or a book or something, just like our own private Batsignal," she tells the girl, and getting a big grin back for it.

And then she's back on the street again, the Batcycle zooming off.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
The door slides to the right, the same sound that was heard earlier. Which must have been Cass entering through this access point. The light is dim, but the sound which reaches from inside is simple. It sounds a lot like The Batcave.

Computer screens ar visible among wiring. A large central area where training can occur is a pit, and mannequins and training dummies sit to one side. A sand floor has signs of soaking up blood, and a grated exit off the other side shows...it could be something, a passageway?

Cassandra is standing down in there, looking up at the sliding doorway. She's staring, looking like she'd like to do some 'things', many of which are violent.

There are other exits. Simple computers, most looking as if they are turned off. An ample supply of lights, most of which aren't active. And what appears to be an old Rampage video game console, just beneath this entryway.

Cassandra is glaring. There's no way she wouldn't have heard that door slide open, which is probably on purpose. So nobody can sneak up on her.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
    What Babs didn't prepare was a proper apology for barging in on Cassandra's private sneaky sneak base. Though, it's taking her a moment to simply absorb everything she sees here. This is a heck of a set up. And for what? by who? her eyes fall upon the glaring Cass and she twists her lips a moment. Be inscrutable, that's what Bruce would do. She folds her arms.

    This looks like some retro upgraded part of a sewer system with a secret entrance through a cave. Possibly because that's what it is. Cass lives in the sewers. Sort of. It's better than the sewers, but it's no nice warm house filled with people who care about you.

    It's no Jim Gordon coming home to the chocolate chip cookies she just baked, or the Charlie Gage rabidly working through her homework while desperately wanting to play a computer game or beat something up. "Hmm," is her word of choice in this moment.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    Nightwing moves up next to Barbara and shrugs a little sheepishly, saying "Surprise? Comon, you can't be that mad, you're part of a group of detectives, you had to expect this at some point. We don't dress up in armor and spandex because we mind our own business."

    Glancing at his HUD for a moment, he continues "Steph would be here, but apparently tacos and Mallomars distracted her. We better make sure no bad guys figure that one out.

    With a little sigh, he begins an apology, "Sorry for busting in Cass, it was just curiosity at first, you know? It was only as we were opening the door here that I really thought about it."

    He looks around and adds, "You've got a nice setup here though. I'm still not sure where you got a minigun though."

Stephanie Brown has posed:
The journey following Cass would have been grueling for most people. Even the finely trained cohorts of Batman could be excused if they worked up a sweat and ended up with some dirt and cobwebs on them after climbing the difficult course through the caves. But finally they made it, emerging into the inner sanctum of one Cassandra Cain, and finding her waiting.

Across the room, there's a soft, rather familiar 'ding' sound and a door slides open on one of those aforementioned other entrances. Batgirl strides into the room, cowl dangling from a hand, blond hair about her shoulders, and nibbling on a mallomar cookie between pulls on the straw of her milkshake. There's also an unopened container of Mrs. Field's soft chocolate chip cookies under an arm.

"Hey, thought you guys might like a snack," she says as she steps in, and then sees Cassandra staring down Barbara and Dick. "Why'd you guys take the back way in, anyway?" Stephanie asks, glancing back at the elevator she just emerged from and then back to them again.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
There is a LOT. Computers, which have access ports and are just itching to be looked inside. Records in them might shine light on Cassandra's past, on who built this place, on so many things. They have those odd keys, which are clearly for Cassandra to use since nobody in their right mind would be ready for a completely new programming language.

There are places to inspect, one of which looks like it has fish, or a place to wash up. There's noplace to sleep, but given that Cass normally sleeps while hanging upside-down from a zipline...she probably makes do.

The fighter looks as if she's about to throw a fit, along with a small car. She turns as Steph enters, then throws her hands in the air. She stalks to one side, kicking a board which opens up to reveal a keyboard, and starts hitting buttons. It looks as if she's ...what IS she doing?

Cassandra, busy on her computer, waves Steph over. Then points to her screen.

She's called up a screen, with a bunch of numbers on it. Most noticeable is a flashing 4/2 in red. Four people. Two authorized. She's trying to work on the security, so there may be some kind of reason she's annoyed.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
    Babs walks in to the center of the place. Cass is, quite reasonably, upset. She frowns a moment to Steph and says, "We'll talk about that later." But Dick is right, it's in their nature to pry. And pry she does glancing over at the computer screen.

    "Yeah, I don't think Cass made all this herself. Looks like we've tripped some security alert." She points her hand with wrist down toward the computer Cass is trying to use and fires out a small hacking dart. It hits the computer and she brings up a holographic interface in her cowl.

    Her hands begin to type. Luckily she gets to use her own virtual keyboard.. unluckily this computer runs in hieroglyphs. "I'm going to try to override the security system before it comes to the wrong conclusion about our.. intrusion."

Dick Grayson has posed:
    Glancing at Barbara as she moves over to the computer, Nightwing follows her over to the area Cass is in and turns his attention back to the cave's owner. "We weren't even working together on this. Apparently curiosity got the best of us at the same time."

    Looking around the cave and stopping for a moment on the sand, he raises an eyebrow and adds, "Though we usually don't have to clean up blood in the batcave."

    "But seriously Cass, I'm sorry I didn't respect your privacy. You're one of us, and I shouldn't have poked into your business."

Stephanie Brown has posed:
It doesn't take Stephanie too long then to realize what was going on. "Oh. Oh, I didn't realize you guys didn't know. Actually I kind of figured Bruce had a hand in setting this up for her," Stephanie comments as she walks over to join Cassandra.

She opens up a pouch on her utility belt and pulls out a small bag which she offers over to the Asian woman. Inside are some vegetarian treats that she picked up at the grocery store before she left. Knowing that Cass wasn't likely to eat the sugary stuff.

"Yeah, think it's realized there are extra people here," Stephanie agrees as she look at Cassandra's screen. "So, um, cookie?" she asks, holding out the bag towards Dick and giving him a sheepish smile. She didn't know he was wondering about where Cassandra went, so didn't know to bring it up!

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Cass glances up as the dart lands, looking at Barbara's speech. She looks at Dick. She looks at Steph. She has to, or she won't get most of what they say!

She doesn't relax though, a level of panic in her stance that isn't normally there. She rushes past Dick quickly, grabbing at Steph's shoulders, then pointing to the elevator. She looks at the veggie treats, then says, "Danger." A word that she learned recently, one that she doesn't use often.

Then she rushes past them all to a side door, where she enters and starts rummaging through...books? It looks like books.

Dick's sharp eyes would see drawers, one of which is actually left open. Inside is what appears to be gold coins, stacks and stacks of them. Literally hundreds of coins, placed for Cassandra's use. Identical to the one she used to pay Killian for 'something' at the bar, that short while ago. During the football game.

The security is blinking, and complex. It was not meant to be used by anyone but Cassandra. Ever. Which means it'll take at least a moment for Babs to decypher. You know, a cool fifteen seconds.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
    Problem number one - the strange symbolic language being used to interface with this computer system. There's a lot to intuit here and she puts herself in the mind of its creator as she typetypes wildly with fingers in the air. For her, she's typing on a virtual keyboard that only she can see.

    "Okay, making an English language interface so may be we can understand what's happening with this system..." So helpful to everyone else standing around. Dick's apologies are good, she'll have to join in on those once she's done.

    And just like that, the strange computer interface changes before her eyes - in her virtual environment any way, from Cass-symbol-language in to English. "Right. We have an alert, two unauthorised visitors. That'd be us," she says waggling a finger between herself and Dick.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    When Cass actually _says_ "Danger", Nightwing knows there's a serious problem. Looking over to her he asks, "Will it help if we leave, or is it too late?"

    He moves over near the elevator Steph just entered from in case leaving would be a good idea, he wants to be ready to de-ass the area with the quickness. "Oracle, do you have this, or should we be running?"

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie's calm demeanor gives way to a slightly less calm demeanor as Cass makes something more of their situation known. "Uh oh. Did something get tripped? A booby trap? Or is something coming?" Stephanie asks, peering around the room quickly for signs of immediate danger and back to Cass.

"She wants us to evacuate, that much is clear," Stephanie says adding her thoughts to Dick's, though her eyes go back to Cassandra. "Are you coming with us if we go or are you staying here to deal with whatever it is?" she asks. Apparently not ready to bail on her friend and leave her in harms way to deal with something on her own.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Cassandra isn't in the room at the moment, but she looks back out the door. Then she's there, holding an old book in her arms, and tries to convince the trio to leave. She's really very urgent about it.

In the computer, there's a lot to process. This system was written ages ago, in 2006, and updates were done for a few years afterward. The alarm is easy to find and deactivate, but there's another issue. Babs comes face to face with an active security device that's transmitting THEM, through one of the cameras, to a remote location. And apparently her finding that activates a two-way link.

"I was not expecting to see bats in the belfry," a woman's voice says from one screen. There's a woman there, old, caucasian. She's holding a lizard and looking through her screen at them all. "Quite interesting. Cassandra, you're also alive. Wonderful."

Cassandra is holding her book like she's seen Hell. Her fingertips are white. Oh Crap, apparently.

"Mother."

Barbara Gordon has posed:
    Babs looks over to Dick as he links this armored Batgirl like form she's dressed as with the name Oracle. Whether or not the stranger heard, she's not quite sure. But navigating through the old security code, all custom written.. at least it was designed well enough. She shuts off the alarm.

    The virtual interface disappears a moment and she looks at the woman holding the lizard. Mother? Cass speaks so rarely it's a surprise to hear her talk of this person like that.

    "We're friends," she says ambiguously. Friends of Cass certainly but of this stranger? hard to say so far. She checks the connection logs. The name Oracle was spoken before this remote connection was established. She lets out a small internal sigh of relief.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    The new voice catches Nightwing's attention immediately, causing him to focus on the screen with the old woman on it. "Nice lizard." Glancing at Cass and taking in her expression and body language, he looks back to the old woman with narrowed eyes. "Somehow, I don't think she's happy to see you. Why would that be?"

    "Cass, if this is a problem, you know we'll help you solve it, right? Just let us know what we need to do."

    Returning his attention to the screen, he adds, "Since you seem to be tied into Cass' computer system, I have to wonder why you're surprised she's alive."

Stephanie Brown has posed:
While Cassandra may have been raised to read body language, Stephanie has had to come by the skill more recently as the best way to communicate with her friend. Nowhere near the level of Cassandra, but Stephanie know her friend and sees the urgency in Cass's body language and gait. "We should get-" she says before the video feed cutting in cuts Stephanie off.

Her eyes go to Cass, seeing how she reacts. Stephanie's eyebrows go up slightly at her calling the woman 'Mother'. A somewhat perplexed look shows, eyes darting between Cass and her body language, and then back at the woman on the screen.

"I think someone's way behind on birthday presents," she says towards the woman in the screen. Her eyes dart back to Cassandra, gauging if the urgency of departure has gone up or down now.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Up. Definitely up. But Cassandra isn't moving, save for her eyes shooting around the room looking for a way to solve this issue. Of a woman being on her tv screen. There's fear here, and it's all hers because the old lady looks merely amused.

"Look at you, my beautiful child. All grown up. You really were not meant to do so, but I admit you've grown up to be very pretty, indeed." She shifts, looking at Dick, Steph, and Babs, and says, "It's too bad really. We could have reunited."

Then she smiles, her gaze seeming to look at each of us, and turns off the screen from her own end.

Suddenly there are multiple pulses trying to pass through Batg..no, through Oracle's systems, the power aimed at multiple locations in the little base. Stalling them is easier than stopping, but they were trigger impulses, clearly meant for something that was...bombs. Okay they're bomb triggers.

SEVEN bomb triggers, each in different places. It's basically impossible to stop. They're all going to die, and the doors are probably on lockdown now. I mean, you can pretty much assume so at this point.

But they can try.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
    The feed is cut. The security is routed to different parts of the base and she tries to slow down the signal, but the best she can do is transmit to Steph and Dick the locations of where the signals went. "Bombs.. we need to split up and defuse them or we're all going to die. We're locked in."

    She is a blur of motion, her cape whipping about. She points to Cass, "Up there, behind that panel." She expects they're all capable of handling this.. there are seven bombs and only four of them and precious little time.

    She dashes off down one of the path ways and to a wall. She pries her hand in to the panelling and rips it away. Behind, explosives. She looks it over, her heads up display analysing it quickly. Cut the blue wire.. from her utility belt she takes out a knife and slices through, "One down."

    This _really_ takes her back now, though with her protege and Cass helping.. and no Batman to guide them, it's up to group to save themselves. At this point in their lives, Dick and Babs can count on their training to save them. Every time is a test though, to see if she has taught Steph well enough.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    Nightwing gets Barbara's feed and immediately runs to the nearest bomb, already pulling tools from his belt. A vent grate is ripped out and thrown aside, revealing a bomb hidden there. Dropping to his knees to look the bomb over, he scans it with his mask and gets a virtual model of it along with disarming instructions sent from the Bat Computer.

    Following the transmitted instructions, Nightwing cuts the green wire and the readout turns off. "Two."

    He stands up and runs for the next highlighted bomb, hoping that Barbara can keep the signals busy long enough to disarm all the bombs, or this may be the night Gotham loses half of it's protectors.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
There is a whirl of black and purple as Batgirl spins and rushes across the silo, taking her towards one of the locations indicated by the schematic that Oracle sends through to her heads up display.

It takes only a moment to realize the device is behind a wall. Batgirl pulls out a small launcher that thumps six times, sticky darts hitting the wall in a circular pattern. "Hope these things aren't too powerful," she says as she turns, covering with her cape and triggers the small explosive charges. Made for breaching like this, they blow the wall apart without doing to much other damage. Most importantly they expose the bomb behind the wall panel.

Batgirl checks the cover quickly and then pries it off the device. Her eyes trace the wiring, quickly locating the different components. "Straight forward, should just need to-" she says, pulling out a wire-cutting tool and snipping one of the wires. She breathes out a sigh of relief at the lack of her body exploding. It's a short one though as she heads for the next device.

<< One more down. >>

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Cassandra is the last one to start moving. She looks as if she's not sure what people are doing, as if ...nobody has ever defied this 'Mother' before, and she doesn't know what to do. This is so not the Cassandra that has shown her ability before.

She moves then, then she MOVES, leaping to the top of the old Rampage game (which makes bleeping sounds) and slams her fist into a section of paneling. Concrete rains down, and she grabs and twists at rebar she finds, then her eyes narrow.

She looks at the others, at their motions, and seems to make a decision. The bomb is open in seconds, she's clearly done this before in her training, and she uses a small tool in her wristband to snip wires. And then another wire, hidden in behind, just in case. No taking chances.

"Yes," she says loudly. Words. Useful sometimes.

Go Babs!

Barbara Gordon has posed:
    Babs points her grapple gun to the ceiling and with a swoosh she is pulled up. She shoots it again, then across to the other side of the roof and engages a powerful motor. It pulls hard and rips out a cunk of cement to reveal another bomb. A very important bomb.

    She pauses as instructions are sent to Nightwing and Batgirl. She looks around the room a moment and says, "Orphan, where's the most structurally reinforced section of this base. We're taking cover there. One of these bombs needs to go off and this one will do," she says as she stares at it, not disarming it.

    "We can survive one bomb.. I detect seismic sensors still transmitting. Whoever this 'mother' is she is expecting a bang. Nightwing, Batgirl, disarm those last two." She descends rapidly leaving that seventh bomb still armed. The red head rushes to join Cass, "then join us at the safe zone."

Dick Grayson has posed:
    Almost throwing himself into the elevator, Nightwing pulls a small metal tool from his belt and rams it into the edge of the control panel, levering it up enough that he can yank it off and drop it to leave it dangling from it's wires.

    Revealed behind the panel is another bomb which gets scanned by his mask and modeled in his HUD again. On this one, he snips two wires as the schematic shows, shutting it down as well. "As long as Batgirl has hers handled, we should be down to one left."

    He looks to Orphan to see what her answer to Barbara's question is, then heads wherever she points out to take cover.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
The instructions from Oracle lead Batgirl into a side door and leave her face to face with... the toilet. "Really, Mother?" she grumbles as she checks the water tank. "Of course that would be too easy to find," she mutters and then drops onto her knees on the tile floor and examines the toilet's base.

Batgirl pops back up to her feet, flushing the toilet and yanking on the valve inside the tank to keep it from refilling. She pulls her telescoping bo staff from her belt. It pops open and she swings a mighty blow at the bowl itself, cracking it. A second blow and half of it falls away, revealing explosives inside and wires going down into the ground.

A hasty examination yields the right wires to cut and they are snipped. << Ok this one is done. >> She hurries back to join the others then as she hears Barbara's plan. << Good thinking. >>

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Cassandra's response to Babs' orders is simply to follow them. She looks at the book she dropped, then runs down to the elevator. She hits a few buttons and the elevator power shuts off, and then she rips the doors open with both hands.

Then she indicates inside, the elevator being at the bottom already. Perhaps a bit of a climb to get out of, but an elevator shaft is probably alright...

If the doors are closed.

Then she dashes back, leaving Babs to figure out this end, and looks for Steph and Dick. In that order.

Oh hush, she liked Steph first.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
    Babs picks up the discarded book. It clearly means something to Cass. Once everyone has made it to the safe zone - the elevator with the doors shut and the bomb inside disarmed.. she takes a breath. "Brace yourselves," she says and moves to shield the group from the doors. She is the one wearing armor after all.

    She lets the signal move freely. The instruction zips along the wires to all seven bombs, though only one of them responds with a deafening explosion and shockwave that dents the elevator door.

    Babs stumbles forward and plants her hands on the other side of the elevator. Her ears don't ring nearly as much as someone without ear protection. One of the perks of a batsuit.. audial warfare doesn't do much to them.

    The screens over her eyes draw back and she looks at Nightwing with a bit of a pained expression. She dreads what might have just happened to Cass's home all because of their curiosity. Her lips form in to a grimace. "Is everybody okay?," she asks her voice tinged with the guilt she's feeling.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    As Orphan rushes past him he turns and follows her in, immediately going for the hatch at the top. When the others pile in, it's clear they won't have time to climb out, so the plan changes. He spins to make sure Steph and Cass are the furthest away from the door, adding himself as another layer of protection for them. He's never tested his armor against shrapnel, but hopes he won't need to, as Barbara would be getting hit first.

    Once the explosion goes off, he turns to check Barbara first, while asking, "Everyone ok? That was some fast work, well done. Let's get these doors open and see how badly Orphan's stuff is messed up."

    He looks over to Cass and apologizes again, "Sorry we caused all this, though it looks like we might have something to talk about."

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Batgirl hurries into the elevator with the others, saying, "Next stop, ground floor. Explosives and vengeful mothers." She crouches low, one arm going up over her head. The other goes around Nightwing as he huddles protectively in front of her.

"This is going to be the last time I describe a good time as 'having a blast'," she mutters loud enough for the others to hear. She opens up her mouth as she'd been trained so the pressure wave is less likely to burst her eardrums.

When the blast hits, it leaves her stunned for a moment. Stunned and sore. Even if nothing penetrated her costume's protective layers, the pressure wave still could be felt. "Oh, going to feel that in the morning," she says, then ends up coughing from the dust and airborne debris.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
The -crump- of the explosion shifts the train up on the surface. The elevator doors, armored against intrusion, bend and let in a bit of dust, but they do hold. Then the lights go out. The elevator shifts a bit, the wires not really holding it, and it settles with a thunk to the bottom. Which is, luckily, about a half-meter fall. A foot and a half to those who use Imperial.

Cassandra was holding her breath at the time, worrying about this. It's not like she's likely tested the doors against bombs. But there does appear to be no major death having happened. She looks around, in the dark, and says, "Yes?"

She really needs more wordage.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
    Babs lets out a slow breath and offers Steph a hand. Her attention the moves to the doors which she asks, "Nightwing, give me a hand?" Because they're bent and messed up and even once open, it's still a half metre squeeze to climb out and in to whatever is left of Cass's home.

    "Uh.. Orphan. If you need a place to stay I have a spare bed." Because sure, may be Nightwing had the same idea as her but she could have called it all off with one simple message. Curiosity got the better of it and because of that, a crazy person with a lizard tried to blow them up.

Dick Grayson has posed:
    Pulling a small flashlight from a compartment on his belt, Nightwing shines a little light on the subject. Moving the beam over to the doors, he nods and lays the flashlight on the floor while he helps Barbara lever the doors open enough to get back into Cass' hideout.

    Given that all of them are good at squeezing into spots they don't belong they get it open enough to allow even him to get through. Climbing out, he clicks over to low light vision, as the light from the flashlight should give it enough to let him see the area.

    "Same here Orphan, we've got spare rooms too. Let's take what we can of your stuff before lizard lady decides to send people here."

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie Brown finishes coughing and takes Barbara's hand, surveying the damage once the doors are open. "Ok, the bombs are very villain. But what's up with the lizard. Doesn't she watch the movies? It's supposed to be a hairless cat. Doesn't anyone care about the classics anymore?" Stephanie complains.

"Yes," Stephanie agrees with Dick. "Definitely can stay with us if you like. I'm sure Batman would also offer space if you prefer there," she says as she dusts herself off.

The interior of the silo is a jumbled mess, things blown around and some covered by rubble or smashed, though it's not a total loss at least. "A little Spic n Span and some elbow grease..." she says, trailing off. "Well, maybe we should get out of here for now though."

She turns to check out the roof of the elevator. "Should be able to climb out," she judges and then sets to work.

"Aw crud. Forgot my milkshake and the cookies."

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Cass comes out last, looking a little bit dusty. She runs her hand over her hair, thoughtfully, and looks at them all. Then she sighs, and hugs whoever's in range and lets her hug. All at once if she can.

Then, without words, she dares to share the one thing she would have risked her life to save. The taps the book that Babs grabbed, then opens it. Inside is ...photographs. Pictures, of first...a baby. She's sitting there, naked, chewing on the blunt end of a knife. She's got a little cut on her right arm, and is making faces at the camera.

A photo album. She wanted her baby pictures, and though there aren't a lot in there...she clutches the book tightly.