Summary:Batman briefs the Batfemmes on the upcoming mission against the Denim Crows. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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It's not often that Bruce calls for a meeting - but when he does, it's generally important. With the batsuit on, the cowl is pulled back as he stands near the batcomputre, waiting for the others to arrive at his call. He has several files pulled up on the screen - some of the faces would be recognizable by Selina as both Miguel and Meredith.
His expression is cast in stone, as one of the smaller screens is currently running an analysis, and has several [FAILED] tags listed on them. He has several other files and programs running, including a screen that has pictures of several children - the kidnapped by the Denim Crows that have been given over.
Kate arrives in her own heroic gar, with the crimson of her gauntlet, boots, and utility belt marking her in a very distinctive way. Without the mask her hair is short, bobbed and combed to the left. Unlike the other Bats for Kate this isn't a costume but a uniform. She's a soldier who has just been called to duty. So her expression is severe as she takes up attention, facing Bruce.
"What do we have?" Kate asks in her soft, smoky voice. "I take it the others will be joining us soon." She goes silent as the analysis data goes past. "I'm assuming that the others will be here soon."
Catwoman is already sitting on the edge of the desk, one leg swinging idly over the edge as the other crosses it at the knee. If she ever managed an air of stoic confidence in her off-and-on stint as Batwoman, it's *gone* now, replaced by that almost playful, bordering-on-arrogance confidence and a mostly relaxed attitude. "Don't make that face, you'll scare everyone off." She teases Batman merrily, before the first of the arrivals come.
Catwoman visibly perks up and says, "There we go. Bats in the belfry. Hey K-" Annnnd Kate's super serious. Right. She should have expected that. Instead she salutes. "Batwoman."
Babs arrives about then, rolling into the cave from the vehicle entrance on her bike, dressed as batgirl. Parking the bike well enough away to not scratch the Batmobile, she swings her leg over and walks to the gathering, eyes moving to the displays before the others, "Bruce. Sel. Kate." She nods as she reaches up to tug back her own cowl, shaking out her mane of red hair. "What's going on?"
--
There's a little smirk that's cast towards Selina, and he reaches out, touching her knee in fondness before he pulls away as the others start to arrive. Stepping away from her, he gives a stern nod to Kate. "Batwoman." he greets the redhead woman, older, before redhead woman, younger arrives. "Batgirl." the pair are greeted as he settles his arms over his chest. "I want to try to avoid any redundancies before I begin the meeting. If you need any information on the case so far, the files are in the computer."
"In the last few days, I took Zatanna and went to Baytard Taylor, while Catwoman and.." he glances towards to Selina to check to see if Helena made /any/ headway on a codename with her. "..her associate." Because he's trying not to get just a hint of a smile of pride at the admission it was his daughter. "Went to East Side Elementary. In a coordinated strike, both of the women that were providing the children to the Denim Crows were taken down. As well as one of their major lieutenants." He brings up Miguel's file.
"Catwoman will be providing the information on what she was able to get out of him. But I have spoken with Spider-Man, who has also been working on this case, and he and his associates are willing to assist us in taking down the Denim Crows once and for all."
"Spider-Man?" Kate replies, immediately latching onto that detail. She's the sort to listen to a briefing completely before ocmmenting, preferring to stand and be relatively imposing. As Selena noted when choosing her mode of reference. Selena gets a nod from Kate, but she's busy focusing on the situation at hand.
"Spider-Man is a kid. I have some reservations about his… Focus. We had an encounter regarding some mercenaries attacking him- in a public place. Staged hijacking to draw him out. He doesn't take that sort of threat very seriously. But… He's strong. Good head on his shoulders otherwise. And if he wants to help us…"
Batwoman trails off and breathes a soft sigh as she gives her head a shake. "Catwoman. Batgirl. Glad to see you both. But all I am saying- we might want to keep an eye on Spider-Man and make sure he doesn't do anything… Reckless. I don't think he's that much older than our… Youngest associate."
If Batman isn't going to say Helena's name neither will she.
"Barbara~" Catwoman greets with a bit of a finger wave, before frowning with a slight nod in regards to Spider-Man. "I'd feel better if he had someone more experienced looking at for him, if he's as young as you say… buuuut we don't always get to pick who we're thrown together with when things start going crazy."
Catwoman sighs a little and stands up as she's put under the spotlight. "Okay. It all came out as a little bit of a jumbled mess, but I'll try to pare it down. "We jumped Meredith, but she tipped off her contact Miguel before we could get anything out of her. Tracked him down, broke some skulls - his boys were ready for our approach, go figure," she adds, casting a bit of a look to Batman, though she's honestly unsure if they had experience with him or not. "- long story short, we squeezed him. Meredith's… more or less being forced supposedly - I guess you don't just *leave* the Denim Crows - but she's loyal enough to Miguel to help him… and Miguel squealed on the condition that we keep HER safe." Selina shakes her head.
"These guys are a 'chapter' of Denim Crows lead by Julio Campo, and are all tied up with El Clan del Golfo. Julio has a rap sheet a mile long. Sort of charmer you'd expect. But they apparently have orders to single kids out and take them to a set of demountables along Henry Hudson Parkway. There're Denim Crows on it day and night, and apparently these…" Selina wrinles her nose, "'Nightfall' wizard guys show up within a couple hours of each delivery."
"So that's the most obvious place to look next." Selina paces slightly and grimaces, "I… elected not to throw Miguel and Meredith to the police just yet, mostly because of these…" With that, Selina produces a pendant, a gossamer disc on the end of a leather thong. "We found these on the both of them. Apparently they're communicators. They only work for the people they're made for, and they only work for THEM when it's exposed to their blood." Selina shrugs helpless. "Magic stuff. They're supposed to use it to let Nightfall types know when they have a kid ready for pickup. I'm thinking… if we can get Miguel to call these guys in, we can mop them up on our schedule."
With that Catwoman sets the pendant down and sits down again. "Full disclosure… Staten Island's collective niece-" she smirks, referring to the LARGE number of allies that have come through during the course of Helena's training "- helped out on this for her test drive mission. Rocky as you'd expect, but she was impressive. Stopped a speeding van. Got a little shaken up. Give her a high five or something if you see her? Your call."
And with that she gestures to Batman with both hands as if turning the stage back over to him.
Taking in all the information that Selina presents, Batman nods his head in a frown. "I won't hold back. These men are very well trained. Military skills, sharpshooters. I don't know where they are pulling their forces from, but they are not your standard gang. I can only assume that Nightfall has put them there for this purpose."
He moves over to a table. "Spider-Man has developed an antidote to the ink that the mages will be using. When applied to their creatures, it will break them up and disrupt them. Furthermore, for those of us that prefer it.. I have cold-iron wrap arounds for you hand to hand weapons." he takes out a pair of gloves to present to Selina. "Including retractable claws." Okay, it's not that Bruce /doesn't/ have a favorite - he just knows what Catwoman prefers. "I will be getting some batarangs made for this, but they will be limited in number, just because of how infrequent unprocessed iron is to locate." he admits with a frown.
"I understand your reservations, Kate. He is young. But he's given us one of the advantages to handle this threat. And he has allies - other Spiders, apparently. I am not sure of their skills - it will give us a chance to observe them. But he has agreed to our rules. No killing." He chuckles. "Actually, he demanded it of me." There's a shrug of his shoulders at that.
"We're going to use Miguel to spring the trap. The Nightfall - we have yet to take one alive. They tend to take their own lives when cornered. Our only information we have on them so far is this.." he brings up a picture of Keiko. "She is a former member of Nightfall - and apparently still worships Polkta. This may make her a liability if he arrives."
"Understood. We'll work with what we have. I trust him to keep up his end of things," Kate replies to Bruce without any hesitation. With that she lowers her chin slightly, apparently deferring to the eldest Bat's wisdom on the matter.
"Interesting. A defector? We It sounds like that was a stroke of luck if they're as fanatical as you say. I'll take the cold iron wraps for my gauntlets. You and Batgirl will need the batarangs more than I do, I think." Kate glances at Bruce and then takes a deep breath, slowly. "Any targets of special interest to be aware of? I know we want to try to take /someone/ alive, but should I be watching for anything… Special? Other than faerie creatures. Apparently."
Kate doesn't sound particularly amused by even the /concept/ of that. Cold iron? Really?
Catwoman takes the special gloves with interest and purrs, "Thoughtful *and* handsome~" clearly not taking sufficient care to bolster Batman's mystique, but she has a lot of Catwomaning to catch up on.
She admires them for a moment, but brings her attention back to Kate as she speaks, giving a nod. "Miguel mentioned meeting a man with tattoos on his head and face. Seemed pretty particular that he wasn't like the others who summon animals. I don't know what the difference is, but… there's probably somebody we could ask."
Babs listens intently. there were points she could have interrupted and from the expressions on her face at those points, she wnated to but she was biting her tongue. Until cold iron is brought up. "/Cold/ iron? I know you. No jokes. But you're joking. We're really dealing with a Mid-Summernight's Dream here?" She nods. "Batarangs will work yes. Though now I'm wondering. How do we make cold iron grapple lines? A few lessons from Wonder Woman and we could be banishing these things like nobody's business." A faint smirk.
"You mentioned Zatanna is helping too? It seems like a good idea to keep her in this if it's mystical or magical we're dealing with.."
"There's no time for the research, Batgirl." Even without the cowl, when he gets that stone-faced stare, Bruce Wayne can still be intimidating as he turns his attention fully to the others. "I will Zatanna working on how to remove the tattoos. On the children, they are used as tracking devices - a way for the children to easily be located. The antidote that Spider-Man came up with only temporarily scrambles that ability." he responds, as he turns his attention to the other.
"My guess, is like any other hierarchy, the more powerful the creature, the more likely to be an upper ranked member." he says to the others. "I am not sure about the ones with the tattoos on their heads - but we can only assume on their abilities. And I do not care for assumptions. We'll question Keiko on this, and see what she can provide us." he says with his attention returns to the others.
"I know we are used to dealing with those that are more like us." Normal. Human. "We know what the Denim Crows are capable of. I know that the Nightfall is outside of that scope. If any of you want to stand down from this mission now, I will not hold it against you."
And he waits.
"Tattooed heads. Right. At least we have a High Value Target to consider." Kate glances over at Barbara and slowly shakes her head. "As long as none of us get transformed into a donkey's ass I think we'll all be fine. I only wish this was just Shakespeare." She shakes her head slowly and then turns her attention back onto Batman, letting that stare settle in before she continues.
"Just give me the mission parameters and I'll do my part. I volunteered the moment I put on the mask." Just that, no preamble. "Is there anything else we're missing on this?"
Catwoman raises her eyebrows and smiles tightly, sorta… shifting her hand back and forth as if she were considering it before she waves it off. "Nah. Gotta get these weirdos off my streets." She says, and… *sort* of smiles, but it's unconvincing. Something else has been subtly gnawing at her since the Nightfall's propensity for suicide was mentioned, but that's not for here.
Babs shakes her head, "We've never backed down before. It isn't going to start now. We'll find the way to bring them down and they'll never know what hit them." She crosses her arms, leaning on the side of a rack of BatComputer servers. At least it hasn't got a huge label stating what it is however. Right?
No. No labels. There's a nod from Bruce's head as he gets agreement from the three. "Kate, I want you to talk to Keiko, get what you can on how this Nightfall is organized and what we can expect." he says to one redhead, before turning his attention to the other redhead. "Barbara, get a hold of Zatanna. Tell her what we know on the tattoos. See if she can find a magical way to remove them." he glances to Selina. "Selina. We'll discuss Helena's role in this after the meeting. Is there anything else?" he asks of the three.
"Alright, I'll do that," Kate agrees immediately, giving a firm nod. She'll return to silently observing, taking mental notes on everything that transpires.
Selina blinks once at Bruce, and nods. Gah! Mind readers! Still, at his final question, she just grins cockily and gives a little salute, saying, "All good, boss."
Babs nods. "I will." She is serious about it all - turning, in fact, as she pulls her cowl back on and adjusting it a little. "I'll let you know what we find out."
"Good. We don't have much time to act on this. We cut off their sources. They'll find new ones soon and go back to ground if we don't bring them out now and strike while they're wounded." Bruce says as he shares a look with each woman. He's confident that they will come through for him. None of them have failed him. He gives a nod of his head. "If there's nothing else, let's get to work."