2012-08-20 Eff the Police

Gotham city, Old Town, a couple of hours after sundown. In the burnt-out husk of the old Monarch movie theatre, something is going down tonight. A plain black car, one of those that just screams 'unmarked police unit', has pulled into the alley along side the Monarch, and two men have slid out, both in cheap suits to enter the side door of the building.
On the other side, a chromed out Cadillac pulls up, and four men get out. One lights up a cigarette and hangs out near the car. The other three make their way inside, and just happen to pass beneath a street lamp right when it flickers on. Fast Eddie. Well known enforcer of the Galante crime family. Tobias Whale's main go to guy for leg breaking.
Robin is on patrol a few blocks away, checking his wrist computer as he takes a short break. 'Another night, another patrol, another empty rooftop.' he mentally mutters. Not that he he wants something bad to happen tonight. No. Of course not. But something to break up the monotony would be nice once in a while.
@Spoiler_Alert: King Kong ain't got shit on me! #winning
Sometimes, the best lead that Spoiler can get is a car that looks suspicious enough to bera following, like the black sedan she's had her eye on for the last half hour. She'd /hoped/ that by following its wake, she might stumble on a carelessly discarded drug cache or two; the mere /sight/ of a police vehicle - unmarked or otherwise - this late at night is often cause enough for the more paranoid street dealers to dump their stashes and run, lest they be prosecuted--or forced to pay the officers a cut.
Now that she's perched across from the Theatre - now that she can see what she can only assume are Gotham's Finest getting ready to meet with Gotham's Most Infamous - she's relieved; following random cars through Gotham's streets at night is a modestly more successful strategy than one might imagine, but she's still gotten stuck casing more innocuous suburban homes than she'd care to admit to anyone.
@Spoiler_Alert: Now playing at Monarch Theatre: The Fast and the Felonious
Most of the roof of the theatre is missing, providing a nearly perfect view from nearby rooftops as the two groups converge towards each other. The three made men and the two officers seem to know each other, and the group even exchanges handshakes and hugs with each other before they settle into to start to talk.
The latest rumors are all about huge numbers of guns that have been hitting the streets lately. Standard Gotham Police Issue Glock nines are flooding the market. The police themselves are having to use older models, sometimes even non-functioning side arms, for no other reason that each time a new shipment comes in, the mob is waiting for it. Two such shipments have been stolen so far. The third is under triple security, super hush-hush mode, since it will contain the automatic rifles for the SWAT team.
Exactly the type of rifle that is on the schematic that one of the cops there is handing over to Fast Eddie.
Robin's screen blinks a second, before displaying his twitter feed. "Spoiler...I could kiss you." the Teen says, before spinning and firing a grapple line to quickly travel the few blocks of distance to the Monarch Theatre.
After gingerly settling into a seated position upon her mostly-intact gargoyle perch, Spoiler wraps her arm tightly around the petrified beast's head so that she can lean out over the edge with her phone. After a quick button-press, the screen is showing a terribly dark, grainy version of the criminal proceedings below; she tries like mad to zoom in and get a better shot, even going so far as to inch along the gargoyle in the hopes of getting that much closer to the action.
The decrepit statue's soft, crackling noises of protest - not to mention the pebbles of granite showering the street below - are all the impetus she needs to breahlessly cling to the statue with all her might and start hitting the shutter button as quickly as she can; if she can't guarantee herself one good picture, she'll have to settle for fishing it out of ten terrible ones.
Soon, grainy, out of focus pictures of the gun deal begin littering her twitter feed.
The group of men seem to be discussing details amongst each other, unhurried in their discussion and trading quips with one another. The goon by the car also looks to be in no hurry, as he takes a phone call on his cell and starts chatting while leaning up agianst the car.
With a quick scan of the area, Spoiler isn't hard to find. And...that gargoyle doesn't look like it's gonna hold much longer. Robin hurries, and lands with barely a whisper on the roof behind the young lady.
He moves up, being as quiet as can be, hoping to not startle the girl into falling off the edge, but still be close enough to help if that garygole decides to give up its long vigil and finally end it all.
Unaware of the Boy Wonder behind her, Spoiler continues to juggle playing with her phone with hanging from ruined statuary; somewhere around the 27th vaguely passable photo, though, she decides that the evidence she's getting is probably not worth breaking her neck if(when) her roost falls off of its building. She quickly scoots back until she's sitting on the base of the gargoyle, and once there, she breathes a sigh of relief, tilts her head back and lets it rest against the edge of the rooftop.
As soon as she's confident in her stability, she brings her phone up to scroll through her profile--only to see a weird, humanoid melange of black and red dimly reflected in the screen; her eyes get huge behind the mask, and - unstable platform or no - she quickly springs to her feet, pivots around and cocks her fist back.
"/Rob--/" The gargoyle emits a low, stony groan before its entire leg cracks off; with a squeal, Spoiler springs from her perch to the roof itself, with one arm out to nudge Robin aside and give herself more space along the way. After her crouched landing, she turns back around to peer over the edge as more wee chunks of granite fall to the street.
"/Terrible/ idea," she exhales, still a little out of breath.
The falling leg crashing loudly into the street below, causing a rather swift ending to the meeting as the two groups split and head for their cars. Fast Eddie's driver is already sliding into the car and starting the engine.
Robin glances at the fleeing men and recognizes one of them. "Fast Eddie." he says softly, narrowing his eyes before he looks to Spoiler.
"Get any of the cops faces?" he asks. "Your twitter didn't show any."
Just to be on the safe side, Robin pulls out a small camera of his own, and snaps a few pictures of the fleeing cop car, getting the plate numbers.
"What--" Spoiler quickly looks over at the Boy Wonder, then down at her phone; soon, she's scrolling back through her pictures. "--uh--" Click click click. "--yeah, right h--no, wait, I think that's the /back/ of one of their..." Click click. "--hey! I got--wait--no--" She leans a little closer and gently wipes a smudge away from her screen; her shoulders sag. "... alright, I guess not."
She doesn't even try to get any photos of the fleeing criminals; if her camera could barely handle a group of guys standing around and talking in a dark theatre, it's unlikely to do any better with speeding cars on dark streets.
"Where's the /other/ one?" she murmurs, adjusting her hood a little as she looks his way. "Or--I mean, the cutlets, I guess, if /that's/ the deal." Beat. "No judgement /here/," she adds with a quiet voice and a concealed smirk.
Robin blinks a moment, and then glances around, seeing if someone else is up here. "The other one?" he asks. "Oh...the female blonde me you mean?"
The Teen Wonder turns away a second, and then shakes his head. "That was just a friend covering for me while I was....recovering from the Joker. I still need to thank you for that by the way." he mentions, trailing off.
Robin turns back to face Spoiler, and then holds out the tiny camera is was using a moment earlier. "Take this." he offers.
"So there /isn't/ an army of you guys running around?" Spoiler replies as she warily accepts and examines the camera. It's--/mostly/ a joke; a well-armed juvenile fighting force would certainly not be the /least/ credible explanation she could come up with for Batman's boastful claims of city-ownership. A few dozen eager, violent little hands would go a long ways.
"What's this supposed to be?" she finally wonders, waving the camera around a little before--putting it into one of her utility pouches anyway; free camera is a free camera!
Robin smirks, the corners of his mouth tugging upwards in a roughish grin. "There isn't an army. Though it feels like sometimes with so many new people in town. You included. How is Oracle treating you by the way?" he asks.
"And thats my way of saying thanks for saving my life. It's a high end digital camera, with wireless that you can sync to your phone. Should be able to get much higher quality pictures with that." he says, that smirk shifting into a full blown smile.
"Oh--" Spoiler glances down at the compartment her new camera is stored in, starts to look up at Robin... and quickly turns her attention to the empty streets when she catches a glimpse of that smile.
For the millionth time, she says a quiet prayer of thanks for her face-concealing mask; she would absolutely /die/ if Batman's crime-fighting prodigy could see her cheeks reddening.
"Thank you. Uh." She clears her throat a little and slips her phone back into its compartment. "I guess it's okay, for, you know, an intelligent Net Nanny," she says of Oracle. As soon as she says that, her hand jerks to her ear a moment; hopefully Oracle isn't listening right now. "It's..." He hesitates for a little while.
"--I've done /easier/ things," she eventually decides to go with.
"Usually best to assume she is /always/ listening." Robin advises softly, catching the motion of Spoiler's hand moving to her ear. "But she really comes in handy at times. Not that she spends much time with us anymore. But I'm happy she's getting her own team together. If you guys ever need a hand. I'm around." he says, making a light sweeping motion towards the city.
He can't help it. That smile comes really easily to Robin, and some people just draw it out. He knows Batman will never admit it, but Spolier's tweets have proved useful a couple of times, and the Teen Wonder can remember a time when he himself was trying to do this without much training and experience.
"And feel free to contact me if you ever want to practice."
'She'? For a second, Spoiler is ready to write this off as yet another example of a gadget-loving boy feminizing a favourite piece of technology, but the comment about 'her' not spending as much time around Batman & Friends puts the kibbosh on that. Instead, the hooded girl peers curiously at Robin and opens her mouth to press for details--only to be interrupted by the Teen Wonder's generous offer.
"Wha--" Her mouth hangs open a sec as her brain switches gears; she wastes little time in finding anything /but/ Robin to focus her attention on. "--yes," she mumbles. Beat. "Yes!" She winces a little; too much enthusiasm.
"Yes," she repeats for a third time, in as even and professional a tone as she can manage. She looks Robin square in the eye and holds a hand out to him. "That would be... very useful, I think."
Robin actually thinks nothing of calling Oracle a she. Like most guys, he does feminize his favorite tech toys, and most people in casual coversation just assume thats what he's doing to the electronic voice in his ear. Leave it to another woman to realize that he's talking about an actual woman though.
When she gets excited about the chance of training with him, Robin smiles again, and reachs up to run his hand through his wind swept hair. "Excellent. I'll have Oracle splice you into my comm. Anytime you get a moment, just let me know." he says, reching out to take the offered hand and give it a light shake.
"I'll keep that in mind." Spoiler's grip borders on excessive at first, eager as she is to make up for her lack of professionalism; the nervous little giggle she lets out when she realizes this and relents probably won't help her case very much, though.
"I'll--" She pulls her hand back, looks at it briefly, then quickly lets it fall to her side and backs away. "be--in touch, for sure. For now, these, uh, perps are gone, soooo..."
She turns on one foot and starts jogging to the opposite edge of the roof, grapple line coming into hand along the way. Just before flinging it out into the night so she can make her escape, she plants her foot on the edge of the roof, looks at him over a shoulder and offers a sheepish little wave. "Nice seeing you again," she rather quietly says, fidgeting a bit with the rope in her other hand, "conscious-you is way better company." With that, she tosses the grapple out to a nearby flagpole and swings away.
"Nice seeing you too..." he says softly, knowing she's already out of hearing range. So thats what having someone run off on you feels like. Heh. Robin chuckles to himself and heads back off to his patrol route, already sending the plate information on to the Batcave. A lead on these possible gun thefts is a lead. No matter if it came through his own hard work, or a Spoiler Alert.
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