2013.07.13 - Hunting The Joker

It's 3am, I must be crazy. Huntress shakes her head to get that random snippet of song to go away. She's been standing on this rooftop trying to make sense of what went on earlier tonight and getting nowhere fast. She's so deep into contemplation that her normal vigilance about her surroundings is slipping.
There's someone else up and about at this hour. Vorpal has donned a black variant of his uniform to minimize his visibility, although there is not much to be done about purple fur. He jumps from one rooftop to another, searching, searching. Any sign, any whisper of what a certain clown might be up to. Because if he doesn't catch him, he knows he's probably going to come for him. At one point his jump is visible from the rooftop on which the Huntress is standing guard.
Huntress snaps out of her contemplations when an unusual bit of movement catches in peripheral vision. She turns to look, wondering what she might have seen. Nothing... wait. There. Purple Cat. And just like that she's on the chase, mentally extrapolating the felinoid's path and moving to intercept him somewhere along the way.
The cat stops suddenly and crouches whilst on top of a ledge, as if he were keeping an eye on the street below. But what he is doing is listening--- he may not have Superman's power of hearing, but cats hear a lot. Unfortunately, the night is very dead, and there seems to be very little to listen to.
Which is why he turns around when Huntress lands on his roof. The first time they had crossed paths, he was intent on a conversation and was filtering everything out. Now there was nothing but silence, and the Huntress' soft footfalls-- soft for anyone except those with acute hearing-- were a quiet whisper in the night. Pupils narrowing, the cat's nightsight picks out the familiar figure, and he tenses visibly.
"... I know, I know... people with powers aren't exactly welcome in the beat around here..." he says. Oracle had told him the Bat frowned upon that.
Huntress stops as Purple Cat turns toward her, and doesn't reach for her crossbow. "What? What the hell gave you that idea?" The Bat frowns upon her BREATHING, so it can't be because of someone having powers. "I just hadn't seen you around since, well, you remember. How're you doing?"
At this, Vorpal relaxes visibly and exhales. "Sorry... Oracle told me the Bat doesn't like powered people traipsing around Gotham. I was half expecting him to show up and eat my soul." He sits down on a vent and looks at Huntress. "... not stellar. I assume you probably read what the Gazette wrote about the Arkham breakout." He didn't want to mention what the BUGLE had written. At least the Gazette had stuck to facts. The Bugle had insinuated he had been in cahoots with the Joker and Harley Quinn.
Huntress nods, taking just a few steps closer. "Yeah." She read the Bugle also, but knows that that rag is prone to wild speculation. About her as much as anyone else. "And if the Bat does show up to eat your soul, that means you've actually made it in this town. You're no longer beneath his notice." That's not really a GOOD thing, but...
"I'm always beneath everyone's notice, I've noticed. Except for Booster... but I think he's dead..." Vorpal looks somber, at that. "I was trying to find... anything that might give me a hint of where the Joker might strike next. Try to redeem myself as something other than the purple failure." he swings his legs a little "So far, not much luck. And I know that clown's going to try to catch me to just add more insult to injury. Or get me through my boyfriend." he growls.
Huntress thinks for a quick second. "Well, if you /know/ he's going to try to catch you, why not make it intentional? Make sure you have all kinds of reinforcements waiting and have him come at you at a time and place of your choosing. Oracle can probably help you with that."
"What kind of reinforcements?" the cat narrows his eyes, "It's a good idea... but the clown isn't stupid. Unless I know exactly when he's planning to strike, I'd basically need these 'reinforcemets' to stick around all the time. He'll probably lay low for a while. Enough time to make it plausible for any help I've called to have to deal with the rest of the asylum that is Gotham." he crosses his arms, looking around at the city.
Huntress shrugs faintly. "Not sure. But, that's why I said to talk to Oracle. If anyone can figure out the best way to make you a worm on a hook for the Joker and NOT put you at risk at the same time, it's her. You know?" She follows his gaze for a moment, then focuses on the catman again. "What's your other option? Wander around the rooftops until you happen across the Joker and hope he doesn't completely tear you to shreds?"
"It's like you're reading my mind." He smirks. "I was actually hoping to find anything that might tip me off to something weird going on. Warehouse activity. He had to have stored that float -somewhere- before I captured him. And he enjoys pageantry. It was just a thought... but then again, I haven't turned out to be worth very much on the beat so far."
Huntress nods a bit. "Well, that's also something Oracle can help with. It's honestly kind of creepy, but also really handy at the same time. If anyone's gonna get a bead on the Joker's location, it'd be her. I seriously think she's got access to more cameras than the FBI does."
"...where -did- she come from?" He pauses. "No, nevermind, those are questions I'm not supposed to ask. At times I do envy the luxury of having a secret life. It'd make this a lot easier."
He paces the rooftop, looking around, "...what got you started on this life, anyways? You don't have to answer, if that's being too nosy. It just takes a certain... determination to be around here with ... well, /his/ shadow always hanging around. Doesn't he give you the creeps?"
Huntress crosses her arms at Purple Cat's first question, but it's more of a defensive gesture than an indignant one. And she doesn't answer, either. Instead, she shrugs at the question about the Bat giving her the creeps. "Well, yeah, but I either have to suck it up and deal or let him scare me away like little Miss Muffett and that stupid spider."
"I don't mind the Spiders. At least they don't mind me, that is." 
The cat hops on a telephone cable by the building and stands on it, seemingly making very little effort to balance himself. 
"Why didn't he go after the Joker himself? Why wasn't he at the Asylum when the alarm rang out?" he shakes his head. "I was already there because I was called in to help with something. The Joker's breakout attempt merely coincided with that and I.. had to deal."
He looks at Huntress, walking along the cable. "I'm a laughingstock. I can't stand to look at anyone in the face."
Huntress says, "I don't know why he wasn't there. I would have gone if I'd not been stuck elsewhere." Blame Oracle. Working undercover sucks. "Honestly, the Bat's been more and more scarce lately, and wondering why just isn't' good for my brain.""
"Well, that's great. It doesn't reassure me any, either." He walks along the cable like a funambulist- with almost preternatural grace and very little apparent effort to maintain his balance. Perhaps the one thing he might consider an advantage to being who he was. "So the options are lie in wait and see when the Joker decides to strike-- which will mean at least some civilian casualties before anyone can respond. Hope for an intercession from the Bat, or...."
He pauses. Then he looks at Huntress. "... worm on a hook, did you say?"
Huntress watches Purple Cat walking along a cable as if it were a sidewalk, but mentally dismisses it. And she nods when he asks about the worm on a hook mention. "I think it's probably the least risky of all the possibilities. Especially if you get worthwhile backup." She's counting herself in there, of course.
"I guess there comes a time when pride has to take a step back to practicality." He shrugs and jumps from the cable back onto the ledge, landing on a crouch. "... I feel it's my fault I let him go, and that I should be the one to put him back in. But those are delusions of adequacy-- I'm a nobody. A nobody who just had the bad luck to push the buttons of a deranged clockwork clown. And that is probably the one good advantage we can use."
"I'll do it." He says, taking a moment. "I'll call Oracle and see how best to get a plan together, and I'll be the bait. At least I'm not bound to screw that part up, right?"
Huntress smiles at Vorpal. "Cool. So, have any other plans tonight? I'll bet there are some morons somewhere that could stand to have their heads clocked together a few times."
The cat looks at her for a few seconds, and then slowly begins to smile. 
"You sure know how to cheer up a girl, don't you?" he jokes, standing up to his full height (which isn't much). "I'd be delighted. I wanna show you some new tricks I've learned since that last time." he hops off the ledge and back to the roof. "I'm also curious to see if I can keep up with you, what with your hoppy hoppy and that swinging stuff you do." He grins
Huntress hehs, finally pulling her crossbow, but only to load one of those grappling line type bolts into it. "Yeah, well, you'll probably keep up no sweat today. I've had a less than stellar week myself." Her leg is already mostly healed, but still occasionally twinges at the most inopportune times.
"Then it looks like the two of us could use some venting. Sounds like a date to me!" The cat says with a cheshire grin, comfortable making that joke since he's already mentioned he has a boyfriend. "We'll keep a Gimli/Legolas tally of head-bashing. You can be Legolas. I've got enough hair for Gimli."
Okay, Purple Cat's growing on her. She can't help but chuckle a bit more before aiming her crossbow and sending the grappling out across open air to the next building over. "Ready, then?" That's the only warning he gets before her grappling line yanks her across toward that adjacent rooftop.
"No fair! you didn't count, cheat!" Vorpal chuckles and runs after her. Sometimes what you need to lift yourself from a foul mood was the probability of being the cause of someone /else's/ foul mood. Ideally, someone who really deserves it.
Category:Log