2012-06-24 All In The Family

Barbara Gordon has just returned from a Librarian convention at NYU. Oracle was still at work while she was gone of course. Babs has programs galore to keep her up to date on monitored camera feeds, police band radios, EMS communications, and the bat frequencies. But now she is gratefully home where she can hole up in her tower like the world's most stubborn Rapunzel, and focus on her real job.
She's settled in her command chair wearing a Wonder Woman tank top, sweat pants, and a cup of coffee as her only accessory. There is a cup of coffee near at hand, and her screens are displaying mail and text messages received by her dozens of accounts for her alleged contacts. They're all really her, but she uses them to screen people.
The Bat never really knocks, though he probably should. It's not in him to be polite, which really is a shame... Instead he crawls in through one of those secret access points for vigilantes and walks quietly towards the glowing screens where Barbara has taken up residence to facilitate her work.
"Alfred is not a good substitute for you." It might be a joke coming from anyone else, in any other tone of voice. Bruce, on the other hand, is almost always serious. Too serious. And it almost sounds like a chastisment of her being away, rather than questioning Alfred's ability to stand in for her while she is.
"It's good your back." As if realizing what he said... or how he said it. Small steps, baby small steps.
Oracle doesn't even turn around at the voice. She has so many sensors on the various tower entrances, that she knows if a moth sneezes in a ventilation duct. "Do I even want to ask what on Earth you had Alfred doing while I was away?" she asks. Her brow arches high, visible in her reflection off one of the screens. "I'm pretty sure you aren't talking about cocoa making skills, because I cannot compete with the Pennyworth family recipe there." She quirks a wry smile before turning her chair so she can face him.
"But it is good to be back," Babs admits. Her bangs are held off her face by a little gold bat-symbol barrette. "Anything blow up while I was in New York?"
"No, not cocoa." Batman's reply is low, eyes sliding over the various screens by habit. Information visible, information read. It's not spying, it's not keeping tabs.. It is what it is. "He was organizing information systems from the cave. Redirecting police responses... He is also glad you are back." Because Bruce has been working him around the clock.
Because that's what Bruce does.
"Nothing blew up, no. One of the Metropolis families is working with the Salveon family. They have a dock inspector on their pay roll. I've found them and delt with their shipments, but I can't go after the dock worker." That's not entirely true. He /could/ and usually /would/ go after this man with a ruthless abandon..
Which means he's got another plan. "I need doctored off shore accounts and an established criminal reputation."
"Memo to me...send Alfred a gift basket with a spa certificate for all the work I'm sure you nagged him to do while I was gone," Oracle says with a small snort. She listens, though, to his request and nods her head, turning back to face her monitors again. "I picked up some of that chatter from a few contacts while I was gone. Do you want a new identity, or do you want me to set up Matches for the job?" she asks. Her fingers begin flying over keys with the speed of someone who spends most of their waking hours typing.
"No, Matches is too low key for what I have in mind." Batman doesn't /not/ hear the part about the spa treatment. He just skims over it. He's focused, and probably already set Alfred up with something special. He never apologizes, not out loud... But the sentiment is there.
"A new identity. One for Tim as well. And Dick."
Standing like a dark shadow behind the command chair, cape draped down over the black armor. "Specialization in international arms deals. Time in Blackgate." Listing off his requests like a check list he's got sitting right infront of him. "I want this to be a big score for the families and the City official they're working with. Get creative."
Oracle nods a little, her focus already deep into her system. "All right, I've got Antonio Michael Vincetti and his sons, Dante, and Matteo." She begins altering their photographs to doctored ones of the boys, and editing their birth dates, immigration dates from the old country, and basic stats. "What car do you want to use? I'll update registration and tags too." She puts a moustache on Dick, just because she knows it'll drive him nuts.
"The Fiata for Dick. Put one of the custom built Masaradi's in Antonio's name." Batman doesn't need to consider long. Everything he owns it just another element used to facilitate his war. "We'll need muscle. Send out feelers in Metropolis and New York that Antonio Michael Vincetti is looking for 'associates'. The more known the better." Real criminals working with them?
What the hell is he planning?
"Have one of the dock warehouse changed over from WayneCorp to Vincetti for initial meeting and product testing. The night of the meet, the police need to be somewhere else." It's almost horrible to ask her to do that... Not that they've never done it before, or the morality of it bothers Bruce one bit.
The vehicles get entered and registered in the New Jersey Department of Motor Vehicles database. She pauses at the note about looking for criminals. "What are you planning, Bruce?" she asks, glancing over her shoulder at him. "I'll try to keep the GCPD away, but if you make too much of a boom with whatever you're doing there, well, you know my Dad. Keeping him out of this will be tough if you don't keep it on the downlow."
"I'll make it up to him." Bruce says in a cool tone, though it is not calloused. "They wont bring the higher ups involved to the initial meeting, so we have to establish a running relationship with them." Which means genuinely shipping weapons, even if they're wayne technology and he retakes them on the other end. It's small fish thrown in to catch the bigger ones. "I want the Gotham officials the Families are working with, the cops they're using to cover the shipment transfers to the docks, and Veto Salveon." Nodding his dark cowled head.
"Big bust for the GCPD and enough evidence to shake up the Mayors office for Van Dorn." Where that'll put Dick, Tim, and Bruce? That part he doesn't address. It wont be hard for the trio to keep from getting arrested but for this to work...
They'd have to be.
"I'll work on setting up a departure trail for the Vincetti's back out of the country after the bust," Oracle notes. She really does think of everything. "I'll set up fake IDs for the fake IDs, just good enough to get past airport security, but not so good they won't find them afterwards." She smiles and begins developing personas for the personas.
"It's good that you're home." Batman states again, reaffirming it in that same quiet voice. It's not the gravel like growl he uses outside, but it's still Batman.. it's that cold tone he takes with friends.. /his/ voice. Not Bruce's.. His. Detached, but vigilantely so.
"Also. Do you know anything about that woman who works out of Little Italy?" It's a standard practice that if he doesn't know everything about someone, Barbara probably does. "Her name is Huntress."
"Not off the top of my head, but I can look into it for you?" Barbara offers the Bat. She understands that this is about as warm and fuzzy of a welcome home as she's ever likely to get from Bruce. "I'll see what I can dig up, see if Tim or Dick can chase her down. What's she doing?"
"She was under the radar." Bruce says this like it's, at least as far as he's concerned, a good thing. "Now, she's not." Which is the oposite of that. "She got involved with the Salveon family the other night. Which means she was working outside of Little Italy." Which means he's going to have to talk to her. Explain the rules and get her on the team. That, or shut her down.
It's pretty simple. Gotham doesn't belong to everyone, not in the heroing world. It belongs to Batman. And it's his way or the highway.
"Maybe I can use her in the Birds. Canary and I need more bodies, and she qualifies by virtue of estrogen. Wouldn't want to intrude on your boys club," Babs quips with a grin.
"You read my mind." Batman offers as if it's a fact, but he could probably have suggested it a little less round aboutly. "I'm going to direct her to get intouch with Canary. You can make your decision on it from there. Just keep her nose clean, she was using crossbows. At least some of them weren't blunted darts."
"Ouch. Any corpses? You'll have to give her that talk. I'm not quite as intimidating and all that jazz," Oracle notes.
"I told her we were going to have a talk." Batman nods. In truth, he probably said it a lot less like that was a suggestion. There's very little wiggle room when he makes a decision like that. "Once she knows how Gotham operates, I'll point her at the Birds. She has done reasonably well in Little Italy." Even his complements sound like he's judging her.
Either way.
The shadow turns, sweeping his cape across his ankles as he heads back towards the way he entered. "Keep an eye on Metropolis traffic. Lois Lane was in Gotham last night and I want to know if her guardian angel sets one red toe in my city." It's coming. He knows it's coming. It's just a matter of being ready for it when the Super man eventually shows up. "Goodnight Barbara."
"Adios Muchacho," Barbara quips in Bruce's wake. "I'll keep an eye out for Big Blue."
Category:Logs
Category:RPLogs