The looks Dick got when he returned to the BPD were not entirely unexpected, but they did seem more hostile than he had anticipated. Maybe it was because of the one too many days off from injuries from his other job. Maybe it was the fact that he hadn't been to work in two weeks. Maybe it was because they'd just lost one officer only to have another one disappear because of it. Good or bad, the death of a fellow officer hung heavy over any precinct.
Matt was at his desk, just where Dick hoped he'd be. Even he gave Dick an odd look as he walked up. "Hey. You hanging in there?"
Dick shrugged. "Been worse. You?"
"Been better." Matt shifted in his seat, leaning on the desk and shuffling papers, almost as if he was finding it hard to look at Dick. "Captain wants to see you. Supposed to tell you when I saw you."
Dick pressed his lips together. "Matt, I'm really sorry I haven't been aro--"
"Don't," he said, sharply, looking up at Dick. "I don't need to hear it. I don't wanna know. I wish I didn't."
Dick frowned, about to ask what he meant, when the captain called out, "Grayson! Now." He nodded, glancing once more at Matt before he went to the Captain. Matt didn't look at him.
Captain Rohrbach was seated behind her desk by the time Dick reached her office. Once the door was shut, she spoke. "I think it's time you quit, Dick. For good."
"And hello, Captain," he whispered, settling gingerly into a chair.
"Not Captain. If I was doing this as your captain, I'd be yelling at you, and I'd have every right to. I'm doing this as your friend." She licked her lips and leaned forward, resting her arms on her desk. "There's just too much overlap now, Dick. You're not handling it well, and you haven't been for some time. You know that."
"I've never wanted you to cover for me, Amy."
"When you did something illegal," she said. "I know. This is different. This is trying to explain why you seem to get preferential treatment. This is you not showing up for work and having to guess if you're just late or if you're dying in some alley somewhere. This is Matt coming to my house at midnight after you've been missing trying to figure out how to tell me what he knows while figuring out if I know. It's just not working anymore."
Dick hung his head, nodding as she spoke. Amy continued, "'Haven's not what it used to be, and that's a lot to do with you. You've done a lot of good for the BPD, Dick, and you did a lot of things we couldn't do. But it's not like that anymore. Cops like Peterson..." She paused, a slight hitch in her thoughts. "He used to be the standard, but not now. Now he's the odd man out. That's good."
She sat back in her chair. "I'm not saying you have to leave Blüdhaven; the city still needs you. Just maybe the PD can handle its own, now."
She watched him closely in the hanging silence. Finally, he met her gaze and nodded. "I know. I've been thinking that, too. I think maybe it is time for me to... move on." He grinned. "I'm not really meant to be a cop, am I?"
"In another world, Grayson," she said, a small smile on her lips. "I'll draw up your papers if you like."
"Thanks, Amy. And I'll leave you my gun and badge." Dick stood, setting the items down on the desk, before turning to leave. He stopped at the door, glancing back at her. "Matt. You said he came by to see you? What happened?"
"You need to talk to him. After hours. But, when you were gone, he went to your place to see you. I think he found your... other gear." She looked out the window of her office into the main room, where Matt seemed to be pointedly focusing on everything other than where they were. "You've got to handle that one on your own."
Dick bit his lip. "I will. Soon." He gripped the doorknob, hesitating another moment longer. "About Peterson--"
"Nope," she interrupted. "Not your concern. Marked down as gang-related death, and that's how it's staying."
Dick gave her a tight smile. "Take care, Amy."
"You, too, Dick."
With a deep breath, he finally opened the door, ready to take in his last day as Officer Grayson.
When Dick woke up, he found himself chained to a wall in what was either an abandoned warehouse basement or one hell of a rundown sex dungeon. Either way, he was getting real sick of being knocked out only to wake up somewhere else. His side didn't hurt so much anymore, though, so that had to be a point in his favor. He was just starting to test the give of the cuffs when Peterson walked in with a large, burly goon.
Peterson laughed when Dick turned his head away. "Trying to hide your identity? You really think that's gonna work, Grayson?" Dick glared at him. "I've got a present for you. I want to see if you're worthy."
"Glad to hear you sound all right after I broke your face," Dick said. "It'd be a shame if you couldn't monologue to me. I like a good comedy."
Peterson smirked and sprayed Dick in the face. Dick flailed, trying to get away from its burn. "I've been lookin' into you a lot more, Grayson. You're pretty interesting. Circus brat taken up to the high life. Took to that pretty well from the tabloid photos I've seen. It makes me wonder why you became a cop. 'Haven standards really that low?"
Dick glared at him, a dull red filtering around the edges of his vision.
"Maybe you just wanted a new thrill. Maybe being a hero wasn't enough for you." Peterson looked him over so slowly it would have felt salacious if not for the clear disgust on his face. "What do you get up to in that getup? Running around with Catwoman, I could think of a few things. Probably have a lot of luck with the ladies, especially around Blüdhaven. They probably jump you first chance they get."
Tarantula flashed in Dick's mind and he jolted, straining at the chains holding him.
"Do they all know who you are? You seem pretty easy, the kind that gives it away. All your secrets."
Dick strained against the cuffs. He could probably break his thumb and slip one hand free, but he wasn't thinking clear enough to do it safely. All he wanted was to get at Peterson's throat.
"Nightwing, this is Catwoman. Are you there?"
All three of them froze, staring at the comm Peterson pulled out. "Well.... Looks like someone's finally decided they want you back. I should take this." He nodded to the henchman next to him. "Test him." He sprayed Dick in the face once more and walked away toward the front of the basement.
[warning: transphobic, mysoginistic, and racial slurs and graphic violence below]
While Dick recoiled from the second spray, the big guy unchained Dick and backed away. "Pretty pathetic, getting caught," he said, picking up a baseball bat. "Boss wants you. Says he has from the time you beat up Jace. Says you're a natural for it." He brought his bat up to start a swing. "I says you're just some lousy tranny cop."
He swung his bat down, aiming for Dick's ribs, but Dick jumped out of the way. His vision was getting blurry, everything getting lost in a fog of red. The goon's features were fading, his figure fast becoming just a moving silhouette without distinction. If the silhouette moved just right, Dick was going to take him down.
"S'what you like, ain't it? Dressin' up like a bitch and whorin' around 'undercover'." The goon grabbed a loose chain. "Oughta teach you a lesson, Gypsy trash."
Dick launched himself at the goon, all defensive training gone. He was just anger now. The chain whip wrapped around his leg and wrenched it, pulling him to the ground. The bat struck hard on his chest, coming down hard on his shoulder blade as he turned away from it. Dick looked up and saw Two-Face in the shadow, grinning as he raised the bat again.
Dick kicked the arm holding the chain, snapping the elbow up the wrong way. The goon cried out, dropping both weapons as he backed away. Dick lunged, ignoring the pain in his leg as he tackled the goon. As they wrestled on the cold ground, the goon's knee shot up and got Dick in his injured side. With a roar, Dick slammed him down chin first and grabbed the goon's good arm, pulling up until it cracked. The goon let out a blood-curdling scream and stopped moving, in shock from the pain.
Footsteps to his left told Dick Peterson was coming back. He whipped around, snarling at him like an animal. If Peterson was not just a shadow to Dick's eyes, he would have seen the man's smile at the sight of the violence. "This is better than I could have hoped," he said.
Dick sat back on his toes and threw himself at Peterson, but between his blind rage and injured leg, Peterson avoided his attack, spraying Dick in the face once again. Dick fell to the ground, yelling as he landed on his sprained leg. Something heavy came down on the back of his skull and his vision blurred to black.
The last thing he heard before falling unconscious again was Peterson saying, "We're ready."
Selina stared out of the large windows of the lounge lost in thought and nursing a terribly strong martini. She didn't even notice when Isis hopped up beside her until the cat dropped her comm in her lap. Scratching her cat's head in thanks, Selina read the messages from Cass. Bats may be good with handling most drugs in their system, but if that was around and being used on Dick, he wouldn't be doing much good at all. She cleared the messages and laid her head back, letting Isis curl up in her lap.
She'd been useless up here, only able to tell people, "I don't know" and "I'm sorry." She just wasn't cut out for this heroing business, not in the long run, not like this. Sure, she wasn't a terrible person and she helped out who she could in her own way, but this was a level above her. She was a thief, not a savior. She gave a dry laugh. She even had a borrowed communicator.
The comm. They said Peterson had got a hold of one of Dick's. If he still had it, maybe she had a way to contact him after all.
Selina sat up, upsetting Isis as she bent over to put her drink on the floor, and poked around the comm until she found Dick's name. "Well, here goes nothing," she said, and pressed the button. "Nightwing, this is Catwoman. Are you there?"
For two whole minutes, there was no response. Finally, a deeper voice answered, a voice Selina now associated with that horrible smell and fire. "I was wondering if I'd hear from you, Catwoman."
She took a deep breath through her nose for patience, glad he wasn't anywhere near her. She swore she could almost smell him through the comm. "You can have your damn cat," she said.
"Well, that's shocking. And nice to hear. I'm touched."
"It's not free."
"I wouldn't expect it. You'll get your pay."
"I'll waive it. Just return Nightwing."
Peterson hummed. "Maybe. I've got a score to settle with him."
"I don't care," Selina said. "That's the deal. Return him, or I'll take a hammer to that thing."
"What makes you think you'll get him back then?"
"Because you really don't want to lose that cat, do you?" A thought struck her and she leaned forward; a power position. Even if he wasn't able to see it, he would hear it in her voice. "I think that's what you really go for with this smuggling ring of yours. Things that were made with meth."
"Meth?" He sounded disgusted. "That's child's play. This is power. The cat is just one of many things that has had the power put into it."
"Uh-huh.... And who's this power from? Aliens?"
"Gods, if some legends are believed. Haven't you noticed the power it gives by smell alone?"
"No," she said. "All I get is a headache."
"You're not worthy, then. But maybe you'll get to see its power for yourself."
There was a blood-curdling scream in the distance, then a soft thud, as if Peterson set the comm down. It was clear enough to hear someone speaking, but not enough to make out the words. There were sounds of a small struggle and then nothing but what sounded to the comm like a whisper.
A minute later, Peterson returned. "We have a deal. You bring me the cat, I'll return your disgraced hero."
Selina frowned. "That's sudden. And frighteningly easy."
"I'm feeling generous. I will send you a message later telling you when and where to bring it." He stopped as if waiting for a response.
"Anything else?" Selina asked. "Any 'come alone or he gets it?' threats?"
"No. Bring whoever you want. Bring them all. Just make sure you have the cat."
"Believe me, the cat is all yours." The comm lit up at her, telling her the conversation was over.
She sighed and flopped back against the seat. "Well, Isis," she said, picking up her drink again. "I guess we've got a date."
Damian Wayne checks the access logs within the transporter room before marching through the curved corridors of the Tower, not halting once in his stride until he's located Catwoman in one of the upper-deck lounges.
Selina is spread out on a sofa staring at the ceiling, idly petting Isis who's sprawled out on her stomach.
Damian Wayne wrenches his hand into Kyle's hair, fingers pressing hard into her scalp, and throws all of his weight into jerking her from the couch to spill her upon the floor. "Where is Grayson?" he bites out, throwing himself astride her.
Selina yowls like an angry cat when he pulls her down, one hand striking at his face, nails forward. Isis hisses and scratches at the hand in Selina's hair, her ears flat against her head. "I don't know, you little monster!"
Damian Wayne catches both sets of claws in his skin, hissing at the burn of it as he seizes the cat by the back of the neck. His knee presses harder into Kyle's abdomen as he flings Isis across the room, knowing she'll land on her feet. He hurls a bola after her, hitting her around her midsection and winding tight around her limbs as she dashes back toward them to defend her owner once more. With the cat immobilized, Damian returns his attention to Selina, red welts lining his cheek where her nails found their mark. "Liar," he spits, striking her face with the back of his hand. "I knew he was a fool to get involved with you. Why did you set him up?"
Selina grabs neck of his shirt and yanks him to the side, driving the heel of her other hand into his shoulder to push him over. "I didn't set up anything! It was a trap and we both got caught in it, but I had no part of what happened to him." She backs up to the couch, bracing herself for another strike. "You should save this for the man who took him, not me."
Damian Wayne grunts as he's rolled to the floor, and he's still for a moment, puffing through his teeth and contemplating her claim. "Then why are you here and he's missing?" he demands, rising up on his knees and lowering a hand to his belt.
Selina "Because he's a hero and I'm not." She's watching his hand at his belt in her peripheral vision, but she keeps most of her focus on his face. "When the timer started, I moved some guards out, but Dick stayed in there with Peterson. I ran back and the place exploded. He's missing because whatever's going on between him and Peterson, it's personal."
Damian Wayne slowly climbs to his feet, weighing Kyle's tone and inflections, the number of times she blinks each second, the level of focus in her eyes. "How could you both have been taken unaware?" he growls, inquiry shifting but still accusatory. He flips his hand out, dismissing her answer before she ever provides one. "The way I see it, it's still at least partially your fault whether you were unwitting or not. And if he dies, I will make certain you regret it," he adds, walking over to Isis and unwrapping the bola that restrains her.
Selina "I know it's my fault," she says, slowly moving up to sit on the couch. Isis growls at him as he unties her until Selina makes a small noise. Isis hisses at him once and runs back to Selina, curling up in her lap defensively. "I thought we could handle it. We both did. But I won't let him die, I promise. We've got the best bargaining chip right now. All we need is solid communication. He won't let Dick die until he has what he wants, I'm sure."
Damian Wayne stomps his foot. "Which is?"
Selina carefully keeps her face neutral to fight against the urge to smile at the foot stomp. "The cat statue I stole for him."
Damian Wayne flings his hands out. "It is your fault, then! You and your inability to resist larceny. Does Peterson know you're in possession of the statue?"
Selina "I said it was!" she says, a little louder than necessary, disturbing Isis. "He probably guesses, since I didn't bring him the original, yes."
--------
Lian prances into the upper deck lounge, pretending she's a hunter of dinosaurs. "DAMISAUR! Attack!" she screams.
Damian Wayne is a boy of quickly shifting moods and chases Lian down the moment he sees her, roaring out his best T-Rex impression.
Lian is sure she can cartwheel and flip and parkour like Uncle Dick, and stubbily stumbles and rolls along the floor, half-laughing and half moaning, "Oh no Damisaur's turned on meeeee! Help! HELPPP!" she screeches like her life actually depends on it, not quite realizing how alarming her pleas sound to any passing adult.
Damian Wayne relents after a few minutes of pursuit and motions for Lian to lower the volume of her screams. "I would not consume you, even if I were a dinosaur," he assures her seriously. “Well, perhaps I would if I were not in control of my mental faculties, but you shouldn't take it personally in such a scenario.”
Lian sits up and stares at him. Then she gets up fully, seeing that Damian is off his guard, and, bracing herself, she shoves him hard. "I don't want you to be my pet anymore anyway! So there!"
Damian Wayne gasps as he stumbles backwards under Lian's unexpected attack, and he stalks forward with the intention of retaliating-- but he halts before he reaches her, unwilling to risk the consequences for attacking the other children. "I wouldn't be your pet," he returns haughtily, straightening his tunic. "I would control an army of dinosaurs and we'd conquer any under your pitiful command."
Lian "Thaaaat's it! From now on until forever, we're just gonna be teammates! I'm Jade Arrow and you're Robin and we're never gonna ever talk about being my boyfriend or my pet, ever again!" Lian folds her arms, looking sidelong at Damian. "Were you and that cat lady talking about a statue of a cat?" She looks sly and smug at the same time. "Because /I/ know where it is."
Damian Wayne sharply returns, "Fine!" and folds his arms, too, angry with Lian without understanding how or why. It's a petty grievance at best, the kind that usually starts and ends before the lunch bell rings during Tower School. But when Lian brings up the statue, Damian's arms drop to his sides, his expression becomes grave. "Don't toy with me on this subject," he warns lowly, moving closer to her. "That statue may be the key to retrieving Grayson alive. Where is it?" He grabs Lian hard around the arm, hauling her closer.
Lian "Owwwww let go of me! Let go let go let go let go let go let go let go let go let go--" she keeps this up until Damian does release her. But Lian's not finished taking offense, and decides to milk it for all it's worth considering her current rage towards Damian. She huffs and stomps to the window, folding her arms and prepared for a Hospital High School freeze out (Papa loves that Hospital High School show), but then what Damian said processes in her mind. She turns to Damian, biting her fingernail. "Uncle Dick is sick?"
Damian Wayne shakes his head no. "He's been captured by someone who intends to kill him. It's likely that he's sustained severe injuries."
Lian eyes get big and she bites down on her finger, hard. "We hafta save him!! I know where the cat is. I saw Auntie Cass and the Cat lady bringing it here in a sack! When we were having lunch with Tower School - which you missed /again/." She kicks out at Damian sullenly, but misses his shin entirely. "Auntie Cass said it was gonna go to a - a um - control. A control room for art! Is there an art museum on the spaceship? Statues usually live in art museums."
Damian Wayne repeats, "A control room," and paces, hand curled beneath his chin as he thinks. "There are wings designated for alien artifacts. I wonder if it's in possession of some dangerous power. You didn't see which way they went?"
Lian nods proudly. "Duh. They went there!" She runs for a while, down the winding hallway until she gets to the lift. "They went into there, the elevator."
Damian Wayne chases after Lian once more, but with purpose this time. He taps his fingers along the rail as the elevator takes them to the floor where relics from the League's adventures are stored. "I may need you to distract the guards."
Lian "Okay," Lian hops in place, trying to get into character and come up with a viable scenario. As expected, there are guards roaming the hallways of the artifacts control area, and one of the Sergeants looks down at the two children. She glances at Lian, then at Damian. "Do you have clearance, Robin?" she asks firmly, but politely. Lian then takes that opportunity to emit a bloodcurdling scream, and wiggle her arms like noodles. "Need---help...magic...wand...CLOSE! SO NEAR! AROOOOOOOOOO." She crosses her eyes for emphasis of being possessed.
Damian Wayne glares at the guard as she questions him, but Lian's possessed act certainly draws her focus. Whether she's fooled or not, she unclips her radio and instructs the children to stay where they are while she calls for medical assistance. But more adults storming into the facility to get in the way isn't what Damian needs right now at all, and he grits his teeth in a moment of indecision before plucking a tiny tranquilizer straw from his belt and blowing a dart into the guard's neck. He catches her when she slumps and sits her up against the wall. "Don't tell Father about that," he advises Lian, waving her onward through the podiums in the main lobby.
Lian stares in shock at the guard, but scurries after Damian anyway. "You were SUPPOSED to say that you needed to get a magic wand from the art gallery immediately! I thought I was awesome," she confirms stubbornly. When they enter the first door (Damian's voice command, surprisingly, opens it), Lian is taken aback. What she was expecting to be a lovely set up of items and statues and other things on display like a museum is completely wrong. Instead, it's rows and rows of cold, stainless steel drawers lining the wall, each one labelled with cryptic numbers and letters. There's a computer console set up in the middle of the room, awaiting commands. "It's so /ugly/!" she whines to Damian.
Damian Wayne sighs, long-suffering. "Your act was commendable, Lian, but the guard had no intention of letting us pass. Is there even a magic wand in here?" he murmurs, turning a circle to look at the surrounding walls of drawers. He plants his hands on his waist. "It's not ugly. It's utilitarian." He goes to the nearest drawer and tugs, and he draws away with a pained yelp as the handle delivers a mild shock through his arm. Fortunately, his glove is insulated, but it stings enough to convince him to not attempt forcing the drawer again. "There will be alarms. Someone will find us soon." He goes to the console and retrieves a lens from his belt to examine the keyboard before typing. "If we do find a magic wand, you may keep it in exchange for your silence on this operation."
Lian nods complacently. "Okay. I want a wand with a star on the end. She comes over to the console, the screen of which lights up as Damian starts typing on the keyboard. It's a database interface for League Artifacts Control, but it's password protected. Lian watches with interest, quick to pick up on the prompts as most technologically-indoctrinated children are these days. "Do you got a password? Do you know your daddy's password? Maybe you can HACK it because you're so smart!!!"
Ramsey sees a passed-out guard and does what any nine-year-old would do: he enters the console room and stares at his two peers. "What're you guys doing?" he says, putting his hands on his hips and sounding more and more like Hermione Granger with each word.
Damian Wayne laughs under his breath. "Father changes his passwords every twelve hours without fail. I deciphered one once, and instead of the file I wanted to access, the computer played a clip of Father scolding me for attempting to break into classified information. However," he continues as he tries different combinations of the same three number keys, "I was able to identify which keys are used most often on this keyboard. We can perhaps-- no," he says firmly, looking up at Ramsey and pointing to the door. "This does not concern you."
Ramsey folds his arms and looks unimpressed with Damian's answer. "Are you trying to get into the computer? What do you want to do that for?"
Lian waves gaily at Ramsey and then runs over, intent on doing damage control. She takes Ramsey's hands, trying to pull him further into the room. "It's okaaaay!" she tries to assuage her friend. "We're trying to save Uncle Dick! He's in trouble and we can save him with a statue of a cat. It's in here somewhere! The guard is fine. RIGHT, Damian? I mean, Robin??" Lian turns to look at Damian as he tries different password combinations.
Damian Wayne glances over his shoulder as a few rows of drawers beeps, the digital locks flashing green and disengaging. "Grayson is in grave danger," he confirms as he goes over to investiage, pulling some kind of onyx pendant free from one drawer before replacing it. "We must locate the statue Selina Kyle brought on board."
Ramsey is clearly skeptical of this whole operation. "A statue of a cat?" He anchors his heels down, watching Lian tug uselessly at his arms. "Why don't you just ask the grown-ups?"
Lian "I wanna help, but Damian's good with all that password stuff." She runs over to another row of drawers as they pop open, and Lian peers in and pulls out a long, long ribbon. It's so long, she gets impatient and stuffs it back into the drawer, shaking her head at Damian. "Because Papa and Marmee are working, Ramsey," she says as if her reasoning is perfectly reasonable. "So I'm gonna help out. If you love Uncle Dick you could help too..."
Damian Wayne frowns at what appears to be a simple birch stick in one of the drawers. "A magic wand," he tells Lian flippantly, handing it over to her before glancing at Ramsey. "I spoke with Kyle, but she was not forthcoming. Which is not a surprise. Lian saw her with the statue, however, and she admitted herself that Grayson's captor wants it."
Ramsey scrunches up his nose. "Yeah, but--" he shrugs at Lian's grip, as if he is attempting to get away from her guilt-trip, "--but if someone beat up Dick, they'd just beat you two up, too." He looks up at Damian, eyes widening. "Green Lantern is a girl?!"
Damian Wayne fiercely insists, "He wouldn't beat me up at all," and shakes his head against a touch of amusement. "No, no! Kyle is Selina Kyle, of course."
Lian squeals in delight at the wand and starts waving it around animatedly. "Wingardium Leviosa!" Another set of drawers pop open after Damian tries more combinations, and Lian runs over, and spies a burlap sack. "It's here! I found it, I found it!" She leans in and touches the sack, trying to feel it and see if it's cat-shaped. "It's cold and hard! I found it! We should get outta here before the guard wakes up! Ohmigod ohmigodohmigod." She abandons the wand on the floor, trying to pick up the statue.
Damian Wayne draws in a sharp breath and hurries over to Lian to help her lift the bundle. It's heavier than he expected, and he pulls the sack loose to let the burlap gather around the cat's neck. "Good work, Jade Arrow," he intones in his best impression of Father's voice. "It doesn't seem very remarkable. It must do something," he surmises as he pokes at the statue's eyes.
Ramsey is poking the security guard instead, then goes about rolling him onto his side. "Sorry, Ms. Security Guard," he murmurs, patting the unconscious woman awkwardly on the shoulder.
Damian Wayne looks up for Ramsey and is as displeased to not find him at hand as he was to note his presence in the first place. "Ramsey!" he barks out. "Don't fret over her. You must come use your abilities to lift the statue. We have to go after Grayson at once.”
Isis slips into the room, looking at the guard and Ramsey curiously. There's lots of noise nearby and she must investigate.
Ramsey notices Isis and points. "HEY LIAN!" he yelps excitedly, "A CAT!"
Lian "Where is Uncle Dick?" Lian hurries to the lift, pressing the button repeatedly as she waits. She keeps slapping it, impatiently. "Do you even know, Robin?" She doesn't notice Isis until Ramsey yells. "OHMIGOD! IS THAT THE STATUE COME TO LIFE?!" When the lift finally opens, it is chock full of guards. The guards in the lift all stare at the children for a moment, and then one of the guards hits his sleeve comms. "Someone contact Batman right now! And - Green - no Red - no - ONE OF THOSE ARROWS!”
Lian screams at the sight of all the guards descending onto the floor. She tries to hit one of them on their thigh.
Ramsey has picked up Isis. He looks at Damian accusingly. "I'm gonna get grounded because of you."
Isis rests her paws on Ramsey's shoulder, content to be held by the quiet one.
Damian Wayne emerges from the artifact room at Ramsey's announcement of the cat, none too pleased to see that it's Isis-- but that concern is minimal when the lift of guards opens into the lobby. "Goddammit," Damian snarls, and he hurls a handful of gas pellets at the guard's feet, filling the room with an odorless fog on contact. He activates the enhanced optics in his mask and skirts through the guards, felling one or two of them as he collects Ramsey and Lian by their arms. "The statue," he yells into their ears over the commotion. "We'll get it and escape in the ventilation shaft."
Lian is still screaming and hitting anything she can, the fog raising her panic further. She stays rooted to the spot until suddenly Damian's right there with them, saying something about the ventilation shaft. She lets herself get dragged to where ever Damian is aiming for.
Isis hisses at Damian and swipes at him before hopping out of Ramsey's arms and running off.
Cass hears the alert for the floor where she left the cat statue for safe keeping. Worried, she follows after a handful of guards. By the time she reaches them, the entire area is covered in a standard smoke bomb that's begun to fade, and a little girl is screaming till that too trails away. She immediately pulls out her comm, contacting Damian, "Put the cat back. Right now or I'm telling Bruce."
Ramsey points at Damian accusingly even as the boy drags him towards the ventilation unit.
Damian Wayne hauls the sack containing the statue up with the aid of the other children and kneels, allowing them to step in his cupped hands so he can give them a boost toward the wall vent. Once they're safely inside, he follows after them, pulling the grate closed behind them. "Keep heading north," he tells Lian, who is in the front, "and expect a fight once we make it to the zeta room.”
Isis runs up to Cass and rubs her ankle, then meowing at her for attention.
Lian is half-crying, half-coughing now. "Did that fog kill the guards?!" she screeches, as she crawls along. She's short enough and the vent is large enough, so Lian abandons knee-crawling and hikes her butt up, waddle-running noisily through the vent on her palms and feet. "What way's north?! I'm lost! I dunno where north is! I wanna leave now!"
Ramsey pats Lian on the shoulder consolingly. "There, there, Lian, it'll be okay..." he says, in his best Kate-voice, even while glaring at Damian.
Cass frowns at her comm with no response from Damian. Her attention is drawn to Isis, crouching down to pet the cat at the back of her neck, "Damian's getting in big trouble. Where are they?" she asks, the smoke nearly all gone now showing no bodies other than the coughing guards who were taking care of the one on watch that Damian had incapacitated.
Damian Wayne snaps impatiently, "Of course not. I'm not allowed to kill." He doesn't clarify whether or not that's the only reason that prevented him from using more lethal methods in disabling the guards. "You'll be fine if you follow my orders. That way.” He points straight ahead.
Isis butts her head against Cass' hand, then runs toward the vent. Once she's sure Cass knows that's where they are, she runs off to find Mama.
Lian follows Damian's instructions at every intersection, until they come to a dead end, finally. The grate at the end opens into the zeta room, which is dimly lit as it's not currently being used. After some pushing and running her fingers along the edges, Lian slumps against one of the vent's walls, breathing heavily. "Well we're trapped now. We can't get out! The grate is bolted from outside! Damian you're so stupid. We're gonna die here."
Cass groans at Isis directing her to the vent. Leaning in to the open duct she hollers (a skill she's likely tried to pick up from being around Mia and the Titans) "DAMIAN WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING WITH THE CAT. STOP IT." before squeezing into the vent she texts Bruce, [Txt] Damian's trying to take the statue.
Selina makes her way to the zeta room with Isis, slipping between the shadows to remain unseen.
Damian Wayne wedges himself through Ramsey and Lian in the tight space until he's behind the vent, and he finds the small wrench in his belt, twisting it through the slats to work on the bolts. One clatters to the floor when Cassandra's voice echoes from nearby. He grits his teeth and works faster. "Ignore her."
Lian remains stock still, eyes getting wide. "We're gonna get in trouble," she whispers as she finally realizes that this is kinda serious business. She sighs and shifts her legs under Damian's body, looking over at Ramsey. "I'm sorry Ram-Ram," she says plaintively. "When we get in trouble, I'll tell them I dragged you along without willingness."
Ramsey thinks about it for a moment, then shrugs. "I'll be fine. Everyone knows I don't do bad stuff, and your dad never gets mad at you, so we're fine." He stares at Damian, the odd duck out.
Damian Wayne loosens the remaining bolts and braces on his hands, kicking one strong leg out to slam the vent with the thick sole of his boot. He rams it three times before it pops free of the shaft and crashes to the floor below. The talk about inevitable punishment behind doesn't seem to catch his notice-- Damian is always in trouble anyway.
Cass smacks her hand hard along the inside of the vents, sending a metallic echo through the ducts, "BRUCE KNOWS." she storms out of the room and runs off for the Zetas. Where else would a kid with a stolen statue on a space station go? Actually a lot of places...but this just seemed likely with Damian.
Lian weighs her options. "That's true," she concedes, and then follows Ramsey's gaze, looking at Damian's butt. She leans back and plants her own booted foot on his rear, pushing him out and trusting him to land on his feet, like all cats do. Lian bursts into giggles.
Ramsey stares at Lian in shock. "You still shouldn't push people off things, Lian!!!" he yelps, peering over the edge to make sure Damian is okay. He glances back over his shoulder at her, and says as haughtily as his sweet voice can muster, "as your uncle, I want you to know I am very disappointed in you."
Damian Wayne is thwarted from his tough-guy steady descent and instead topples to the floor as he's booted, landing with less grace and flourish than he would have liked. He swings the heavy satchel around to his back and glares overhead at Lian. "Not acceptable in the field!" he chides her, ignoring the echoed warning that Father was not aware. "Both of you have expended your usefulness. You're fired," he declares, and punches in the coordinates for the zeta pad.
Lian blinks at Ramsey for a moment and then giggles harder. "As my who?! You're not my uncle!!! Uncles are all adults, silly!" She flattens herself on the floor of the vent, peering over the edge to look at Damian. "Dami-wami, are you okay?!?!" she screams, her voice echoing in the large empty room.
Ramsey "AM TOO!" Ramsey yelps, indignant, putting his fists on his hips. "I'm your dad's brother, so I'm your uncle, which means you gotta stop--are you even listening to me?"
Lian looks back at Ramsey. "He left us! He left us!" Lian does her best impression of Alex from Jurassic Park.
Selina cracks her whip just above Damian's hand. "I wouldn't do that, kitten."
Ramsey 's expression goes a tad annoyed. "I'm gonna miss the pudding cups at the cafeteria, for all this stupid stuff," he pouts, just about to climb down when he hears the whipcrack. "Uh-oh. That's not my mom..."
Damian Wayne grunts and drops the sack behind him, lowering his center of gravity before kicking at Selina's waist, wary of the whip in her hand. "I'm going to recover Grayson! Get out of the way!"
Lian stays frozen where she is when she hears the whip crack, staying silent as she watches the scene below.
Selina dodges the kick and lashes her whip at him, striking the floor beside him. "Not alone, you're not. I don't care if you are the blessed son of the Batman, you're going to get yourself killed if you try that. I can only deal with one of you birds in trouble at one time."
Bruce stops, and looks down at his communicator, exhaling. "Damian's attempting to steal the statue from Artifacts control." He looks up at Ollie. He sends a message to Cass. [ENCRYPTED TEXT] Stop him. I'll deal with him
Cass grunts at Bruce's message, reading over it mid stride, [Txt] TRYING is all she replies back before she goes sprinting down the last hall to the zeta pads, Lian and Ramsey within her sight. She thinks to grab Ramsey and Lian as leverage for Damian, but the falling sack catches her attention. Brushing past the kids she dives after the wrapped statue, hanging onto it by the burlap that is just a little too large for the cat.
Damian Wayne is occupied in the scuffle with Catwoman and doesn't realize Cassandra is present until she seizes the statue. The whip pops around his ankle, and he falls to the floor, shoulders heaving. "Why did you bring it here? What does it do? Where is Grayson?" he demands, voice rising with his final question. He leaps to his feet, braced to fight them both.
Lian is alarmed when Damian hits the floor and she yells out, "We just wanna save Uncle Dick!! Don't hurt him!! It's my fault too!"
Cass "We brought it up here because we need it to get Dick back safe. You're not rescuing Dick alone, Damian." she turns around to Lian, adjusting the cat in the burlap sack, "No one's getting hurt."
Selina sighs in relief when she sees Cass. "Cover that thing up! It's just going to make things worse if we keep breathing it in." She looks back at Damian, wincing slightly when Lian yells from the vent. "I don't know where he is, but running around on your own with the one chance you have at getting him back isn't going to help him."
Cass The cat is now well covered, as she contacts Bruce for hopefully the final time [Txt] I got it.
Ramsey hangs his legs over the edge of the vent, still watching.
Damian Wayne relaxes his aggressive posture just slightly, hands unclenching. "You intend to go after him, then?"
Lian remains laying on her tummy besides Ramsey, resting her chin on the back of her hand as she clutches the edge of the vent. She whispers confidently to Ramsey, "You can't be my uncle. You're not a grown-up."
"Of course we're rescuing him!" Cass shouts, "He's my brother too." looking up at Ramsey and Lian dangling from the vent she frowns, "Get down from there, please."
Selina glances at Cass. "Yes, at some point. When we know where he is. If he thinks I have the cat, he'll have to agree to meet me to exchange it. We can't go until then." She's not aware of it, but her voice is softening slightly as she speaks, like a mother trying to reassure an upset child.
Lian "It's so high up, I can't jump down," Lian whines to Auntie Cass.
Damian Wayne growls and beats his arms against his sides. "No! We can't wait. It was clear from the state of Grayson's apartment that he was severely injured. We must pursue him now!"
Ramsey frowns. "Can too!" he grunts, beginning to climb down from the vent, which involves a good deal of dangling before he makes it. "Here," he says, holding out his arms, "come on, Lian, my niece."
Lian is scared suddenly, for whatever reason, at Ramsey calling her 'niece' with such heavy emphasis. She recoils from the edge of the vent and her voice floats down, a high, tiny, "...no thanks."
Selina lets out a sharp huff through her nose. "What do you plan to do? Wander around Blüdhaven until you stumble across them? Then what?"
Ramsey puts his hands on his hips. "Okay, I'll stop. But you gotta come down. Come on, it'll be like a trust fall. Except I could catch a truck and you aren't as big as a truck."
Cass moves beside Ramsey, setting the cat statue beside her as she holds out her arms for Lian, "I can catch you, Lian."
Cass looks down to Ramsey in surprise, "You can catch a truck?"
Ramsey looks up at Cass in confusion. "You can't?" Ramsey assumes all superheroes have default super-strength unless informed otherwise.
Cass shakes her head, "No, I'm not that strong."
Damian Wayne is suddenly very cross over not being able to catch a truck and makes plans to complain to Father about it the next time he sees him.
Lian peers down at both Cass and Ramsey assembled below her now, and retreats again, burying her face in her knees. "I want Marmee! I want Papa!" she weeps quietly. "I'm scared. Marmee can fly."
Damian Wayne draws his chin up, indignant. "No. I scanned the sample of his blood I took from his apartment. I planned to hunt for a DNA trail that would lead me to him. And if I happen across them, I'll incapacitate the kidnapper and bring Grayson back to the Tower for medical treatment."
Isis makes her way over to the cat statue, curling around it protectively.
Ramsey blinks. "Oh, okay. I can help you by catching trucks, then," he offers.
Selina purses her lips. "Oh good. At least you won't aimlessly be wandering, then. That changes everything." She raises an eyebrow. "All by yourself?”
"Thanks Ramsey." Cass nods, "Lian, they're not here right now." she calls up to the girl, "But we'll catch you, we want you safe."
Damian Wayne bristles. "Yes, all by myself!"
Ramsey "We were gonna come, too," Ramsey adds over his shoulder. "I wasn't gonna come with willingness through."
Selina puts her hands on her hips. "And what happens when you get yourself blown up, instead? What happens when you're led into a trap without backup and no one knows where you are?"
Ramsey turns back to the vent. "Lian, you have a cell phone," he yells up, still holding his arms out. "But you gotta do something, because it's almost snack time."
Lian looks around herself. "I left my phone at home," Lian says. Which is no surprise; for Lian it's a common occurrence. "Go then, if you want your pudding cup."
Cass "You were going to go? Ramsey." Cass frowns, expecting better of him. She never heard of Ramsey getting into trouble with Lian and Damian. Not often at least. "What's for snack?”
Damian Wayne purses his lips at Ramsey. "I fired you," he reminds him. "And I'm not concerned with any of those possibilities! I would embark with the intention of rescuing Grayson, and I operate with that as the definite outcome until it no longer is. If I needed to defend myself, I would."
Ramsey sighs, then digs his phone out of his pocket and tosses it up into the vent. "I wasn't going to go willingly," he insists, "but if something bad happened it'd be better if I was there."
Selina "And if you needed to get yourself kidnapped or killed, you would, too. And then we're right where we started, only now we're missing two of you. And guess which one of you would be seen as more valuable." She's trying for guilt, but the second it's out of her mouth, she wonders if that even works on Waynes. They usually go better with self-loathing.
Damian Wayne resumes entering coordinates into the computer. "I've wasted enough time here. I'm going to get him. Keep the statue if you will."
Lian catches the phone and sits with it for a moment; but she realizes that if she contacts Marmee or her Papa, there would be questions. And potential for disapproval, no matter what Ramsey thought. She puts the phone safely in her jacket pocket which she zips up and then slithers out of the vent, dripping limply out like a snake. "Here I come!" she calls out, shutting her eyes tightly.
Selina grabs his arm. "No, you're not! So help me, I will drag you to your father if I have to."
Ramsey wraps both arms around Lian at her waist and lowers her down to the ground. "Stop kicking so much," he grunts.
Lian "I'm not kicking," Lian clarifies and detaches from Ramsey. "Thanks." She smiles up at Auntie Cass and hugs her, then looks over at Damian, but he's still arguing with the Cat lady. Lian gives Ramsey's phone back to him. "Thanks," she repeats.
Damian Wayne slams the crown of his head into Selina's stomach the moment she seizes him. "You have no authority over me! And you have no place among us," he adds, tone dropping lower, venomous. "Do you think if you play nicely with Grayson, my father will perhaps look upon you without suspicion? He never will. You're a pathetic thief, and you've only condemned yourself further by endangering Nightwing."
Ramsey takes back his phone but is now interested in watching Selina and Damian's interactions.
"Damian." Cass barks, collecting the cat statue in her arms once more, shooing Isis off it with a quick hand. "We are working to find Dick and save him, together. No one is going after him alone. We'll just get into more trouble then."
Selina stumbles back with an, "Oof!", the wind knocked out of her. "Little bastard..." she hisses, catching her breath. Louder, she says, "I've played nice. I do play nice. But I'm about done playing nice with you." She readies her whip, flicking it behind her in warning. "I don't much care what happens to you, kid, but I'm not about to get myself blamed for another thing just because you want to run off and be a damn hero without thinking about using the help you know you need!"
Damian Wayne cuts his eyes between Cassandra and Selina both, his defiance fading to sullenness for the moment. "You cannot monitor me indefinitely," he mutters.
Selina lowers her shoulders, but doesn't relax completely. "We could put a leash on him," she says, glancing up to Cass. "That might help."
Cass "A bell would work better. Damian's a cat." she smiles softly.
Selina smirks. "A big bell, then."
Damian Wayne folds his arms and ponders all the mean things he would like to do to the current occupants of the zeta room.
Lian takes a look at her Spongebob watch. "I'm gonna go to the cafeteria," she says to herself, not particularly interested in the goings-ons now that she knows Auntie Cass is going to find Uncle Dick. "I hope you find him soon, Auntie!" Lian says with a tug at Cass' sleeve. "Please find him soon, I miss him."
Selina keeps her eye on Damian, but moves across the room to Cass. She nods at the sack with the statue. "That should go back where it came from before anything else happens to it."
Cass smiles down at Lian, "I miss him too." she looks up to Selina, "I'll put it back. It'll be fine."
Selina gives her a quick smile. "Thank you. I'm going to try to contact Peterson, see if I can set up some sort of exchange, or at least have an idea of what he might be planning."
Cass nods, hefting the statue in her arms to keep a strong hold on it, "Ok. Let me know when you hear from him."
Selina catches Isis as she hops up into Selina's arms. "I will. As soon as I find out anything."
Lian stoops to pet Isis on the way out, murmuring something she's sure is cat-speak of the animal, before she heads to the cafeteria, trying to be as obedient as possible after this afternoon's excitement. The adrenalin's down to the end and Lian really just wants to sleep until Rose finds her.
Damian Wayne departs the zeta room without speaking to the others, except to tell Cassandra in particular, "I'm not speaking to you, as of now."
Selina raises an eyebrow at Damian's imperious depart, and gives Cass a grimace. "Sorry about that. I didn't mean to, ah, come between the family."
Cass "That's fine." she nods to him. "He would've been mad at me with or without you." she shrugs to Selina, "It's no one's fault." she looks down to the covered cat, "I should return this." and so she sets off to do so, hoping that whomever was guarding the artifacts now would be a bit more capable.
Meanwhile, the birch 'wand' that was discarded in the artifacts control room wiggles and trembles on the floor. When a clean-up guard comes over to pick it up, the wand shivers and transports him to the Arboretum, before the object itself disappears in a puff of fire and brimstone.
Damian Wayne goes to Grayson's room, flings himself face down on the bed and throws a tantrum until he feels calm, then returns to the zeta pad and arrives at Queen Tower shortly thereafter. "Queen!" he calls as he roams through the halls. "Queeeeen!"
Ollie had retreated up to Queen Tower to lick his wounds and console himself by ... staring at a wall and feeling bad, so he jumps up when he hears Damian's tiny lion cub growl in the hallways. "Damian?" He peers out, then comes and stands in the hallway proper. "What's wrong? Are you looking for your dad?"
Damian Wayne shakes his head no. "Father isn't here, is he?" he asks, looking around for him and knowing Cassandra probably framed his exploits to make him look brash and irresponsible in Father's eyes. His siblings always managed to do so when reporting on him. But Bruce doesn't emerge from any of the nearby doors, and Damian relaxes. "Selina Kyle stored a cat statue that's important to rescuing Grayson aboard the Tower, and I retrieved it because I must recover Grayson, of course. And then everyone conspired to thwart me, and now I am very angry at Cassandra and Ramsey and Lian and Selina Kyle. Do you know anything about Grayson's disappearance?"
Ollie taps a finger against his chin as he considers. "I can't say I do, kiddo. I've been caught up in a case of my own at the moment, and it's tying up your dad too. But how 'bout this--" Ollie gestures into one of the rooms down the corridor. "Howzabout we go sit down with some cinnamon rolls and you can run some theories with me? Can't hurt to talk it out aloud, maybe figure out a different angle to getting your hands on this cat statue."
Ollie is the worst person to talk with when it comes to rash and reckless ideas.
Damian Wayne squeezes his fists and issues a long note of complaint. "I don't have time for cinnamon rolls! Perhaps one singular cinnamon roll, but not multiple rolls," he amends, catching the warm fragrance wafting from the kitchen. "I feel certain Catwoman betrayed Grayson somehow, but she says she didn't."
Ollie guides the frustrated child into the kitchens, getting them both cinnamon rolls. He cuts Damian's in half as he asks, "What would Catwoman gain by betraying Nightwing? She knows she'd have to deal with trouble from the Batclan for it, and that wouldn't necessarily entail getting hauled up to the tower. So that's probably not much of a lead." Ollie cuts his own pastry in half too, peeling off an outer layer and folding it before he starts munching on it. "No, she's probably in trouble with the same folks who've got Dick, so she's throwing in with us in the hopes that it'll make her problem go away, too." Ollie gestures with his piece of roll. "Tell me more about this cat. Is it valuable? Stolen?"
Damian Wayne pushes aside the dry outer edges of the roll and eats only the center, using it to mop up any stray frosting on his plate. "She's bad and I don't like her, and I don't trust her," he insists stubbornly. "The cat was medium-sized and heavy, very solid. She stole it at the request of this man, Peterson, who evidently is holding Grayson captive. I don't know what it does, but she was concerned about it being in our vicinity after I retrieved it. She said he won't kill Grayson yet because he's using him as ransom for the statue.”
Ollie leans over to snag Damian's outer skins, giving him the prized inner tender morsels from his own roll in exchange. "So there's your focus," he says. "Find out what's the big stinkin' deal about this cat statue, and you've got the thing half-solved."
Damian Wayne is satisfied with this trade and willingly passes over any of the crusts that he doesn't want. "I suppose so. Though I'd just as soon track Peterson down and force him to relinquish Grayson, statue involved or not. But they took the statue from me and tattled to Father."
Ollie looks at him incredulously. "Seriously? Tattled on you? That's an outrage! You're working a /case/ here, dammit!"
Damian Wayne extends his hands and shakes his head, satisfied enough by Queen's solidarity that he forgets he was angry enough to bite his shoulder a few weeks ago. "Yes, obviously! Cassandra doesn't understand, for some reason. Selina Kyle has gotten to her, too. But I will rescue Grayson, and anyone who bars my way will be sorry for doing so," he adds darkly, crushing the squishy center of a roll in his hand.
Grumpy Cass will just guard this stupid smelly statue forever then, gdi Damian.
Ollie bounces up from the table, tucking the last scraps of his cinnamon roll into his mouth. "Let's go up to the Tower now! They can't bar ME from seeing this damn statue or checking it out or whateverthefuck I want. You should be able to examine it to your heart's content! Although not hand it over to this Peterson person, that's probably a crap move." Ollie dusts his fingers. "You coming?"
Damian Wayne jumps up, pleased by Queen's reaction to his tale. "I'd never surrender it in negotiation. I hoped to use it to lure him out and utilize the statue's power myself. Yes, let's go claim it.”
Much to the new guard on duty's annoyance, Cass is ACTUALLY guarding the statue for the foreseeable future. She sits directly in front of it's holding site.
Ollie and Damian summarily charge down to the zeta transport and make their way up to the Watchtower and the holding area for the artifacts and evidence. When Ollie sees Cass sitting there, he grins big. "Cassandra! Excellent, glad you didn't leave the cat unguarded. Let's all take a look at the thing, huh?" He waves his hand, motioning her aside.
Damian Wayne folds his arms and glares at Cassandra from behind Queen.
Cass doesn't budge, "No, it's staying right here."
Damian Wayne jabs a finger at her. "Green Arrow told you to move! You are outranked!"
Ollie looms behind Damian, his full six-foot-plus. "It's all right, Cass. You did good. I need to take a look at it so we can get a handle on where to proceed from here."
Cass frowns sharply, "You can look at it, but I'm not leaving the cat."
Damian Wayne makes a point to clip Cassandra with his shoulder as he passes her and stands near the display table that holds the statue. "Did Catwoman tell you what it does?" he asks her.
Cass "It's scent seems to affect people. Like adrenalin." she places her hands on her hips, watching the two carefully as they study the cat.
Ollie twitches the burlap sack aside, frowning. "Anybody run tests on this thing?" he asks. "Analyze what it's offgassing?" His nose wrinkles in distaste. "Whatever it is, it sure reeks to high heaven."
Damian Wayne crinkles his nose as well, but more just to mimic one of the adults than genuine disgust. It certainly doesn't smell pleasant, though. "Was Grayson exposed to it?"
Cass shakes her head, "I don't think so. Whatever it is, the guy keeping Dick wants it for the scent alone." she looks to Damian, "It's the same scent that he wears, it smelled like this in Dick's apartment, remember?"
Damian Wayne nods. "It permeated the entire domicile."
Ollie lifts a corner of his lip in a snarl. "So maybe we should seal this thing up before it affects people. Y'think?" His voice is dripping with sarcasm, and he throws up his hands. "Jesus! It's like nobody can get anything done around here for themselves!" He glares at the cat, which looks smugly back.
Cass cups her hand over her nose and mouth, the scent beginning to feel as if it were sinking into her pores now. "I wasn't even sure what tests to run."
“No! We must bring it with us to rescue Grayson!”
Cass "You have no plan, you are not rescuing Dick!" she snaps at Damian.
Damian Wayne strikes the wall with his forearm. "He is in danger now! We don't have time to formulate a plan. We must act, and we must do it swiftly!"
Ollie hollers, "The cat ain't going anywhere until it gets sealed the hell up so it can't affect people!"
Cass glares at Ollie, "It's affecting us right now."
Ollie "BULLSHIT IT IS! I'M JUST NATURALLY FUCKING PASSIONATE ABOUT THIS JOB!
Damian Wayne picks up the cat statue and hurls it against the nearest wall.
Cass "NO YOU'RE NOT!" she shouts back, "YOU JUST BARGED IN HERE BECAUSE DAMIAN CRIED TO YOU OVER NOTHING." her hands move to reseal the cat in the burlap but before she can even touch the statue it's pulled from the table by Damian and, "WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?" she cries out.
Ollie crows in approval of Damian's action and goes over to the pieces of cat statue, poking through them with the toe of his sneaker. "Bring that bag over here and we'll get this stuff in there," he says, more normally. "I wonder what Peterson would do if he got sent just a part of his prize."
Cass tears fingers through her hair, "I was supposed to watch it, and you break it."
Damian Wayne calmly returns, "You cried to Father first," and moves over to examine the remnants of the statue, plucking up one jagged piece and looking at it under the light. Its edges are quite smooth, and no light passes through the glass. "It doesn't need to be whole. I don't care about this trinket or whatever witchcraft it controls. I care about getting Grayson back."
Cass "Because you gave me a reason to." she grits her teeth. "Since when am I not about saving Dick? That's all I've been trying to do Damian." she frowns, "He's not just your's to protect."
“Well, I disapprove of your methods”
“And I don't like yours. We're even.”
Ollie looks as pleased as if Damian were his own progeny. "Attaboy," he says. "Priorities, Cass! This thing wasn't the endgame. And if it's valuable to this Peterson person, that makes it even BETTER that we removed it from the board."
Damian Wayne flicks his finger and thumb in front of Cassandra's face
Damian Wayne rocks on his heels, allowing himself his moment of smugness as Cassandra is chided. "It may still possess its powers anyway," he points out.
Cass shoves roughly at Damian's melon shaped head. "We wanted to trade the cat for Dick, so now we're going to taunt him with portions of it?"
Damian Wayne bites Cassandra's hand the second it draws near.
Cass hisses, moving her hand to grab at Damian's nose, holding it firmly between her thumb and index finger, "Quit it."
Ollie goes to one of the supply cabinets and comes back with a sizable plastic zip evidence bag, holding it out, blithely ignoring the sibling rivalry. "Drop the pieces in here," he orders. "It's not airtight, but it'll provide better protection than that burlap."
Damian Wayne whines out "Owwww-www..." and is careful not to twist too hard with Cassandra's fingers clamped tightly on his nose. "He doesn't know we broke the dumb thing!" he says, voice thick with his nostrils pinched close.
Cass releases his nose, lightly smacking his forehead for good measure before Damian has a chance to retaliate. "He will as soon as you start sending him pieces, or a fake cat in it's place. He'll know it's fake." she beginnings collecting pieces and placing them in Ollie's opened evidence bag.
Ollie "The mistake here," Ollie says sagely, shaking the bag to move the pieces down into it, "is ascribing the upper hand in the situation to this Peterson hump. I mean, shit -- look at who he's up against! The most highly trained non-meta vigilantes in the entire damn country, with an assist from a master thief!" He taps his head with one finger. "Beating these kinds of people all begins up here."
Damian Wayne grunts and gathers what remains. "We'll do neither. If we contact him at all, he'll have to take it on faith that we still have the statue and may be willing to negotiate if he leads us to Grayson. Then we ambush him because we aren't going to negotiate anything at all."
Cass pokes at the broken bits now all stacked inside the plastic bag, "I want to know why he wants this so bad. He kidnapped Dick for it."
Ollie shrugs. The cat is clearly insignificant to him, and when he's sealed the bag, he holds it out for Cass. "Run tests," he says. "Find out for sure. If you know for certain what the cat does, what its properties are, you can extrapolate the connection between it and Peterson. Maybe he was in some kinda freak accident and him and the cat are hormonally linked. Maybe he's some kind of undying ancient and his fate is bound to the cat's. Maybe it's a magic thing and he and the cat share a soul. Right now, all you're doing is spinning in the wind without some hard evidence on what the hell this kitty cat's about."
Cass frowns, taking the bag from him, "Ok. I will. I'm just...I've been trying to think clearly but it's hard. When they have someone, you just want to get to the center. But you can't see any paths to get there." she shifts the bag in her arms, the small pieces clinking against each other, "I want to barge in and save him as much as Damian does. But that won't solve anything." she shrugs, "Has Bruce said anything about it?" she asks softly.
Ollie scratches the side of his face. "He won't say it, but he's having a hard time with this," Ollie volunteers. "He's got a bunch of things on his plate already, and he trusts you and Mar'i and Damian to handle this. But he's worried, of course." Ollie wipes the back of his hand across his mouth, lips drawing tight. "He's helping /me/ with something else, not to put too fine a point on it."
Cass nods, "Uh-huh." her fingers seal and reseal over the bag's opening, listening to the plastic crunch in on itself with a satisfying pressure. "What's something else?" she asks picking up the burlap sack to go along with the pieces, rolling it up on itself to seal in the scent.
Ollie says shortly, "An assassin that I used to know." His teeth grind together briefly, in imitation of the shards of cat statue in the bag. "It's ... complicated."
Cass looks up, curious, but not trying to press him for anything, "Oh." she smiles to herself, "I might know a few."
Ollie gives her a wry, lopsided smile. "Yeah," he says, "exactly." Blowing out a breath, Ollie points at the evidence bag. "First things first," he emphasizes. "It'll get you where you wanna go. Good luck, Cass."
Cass nods, looking down to the bag, trying to feel a bit hopeful, "Yeah. Yeah, you too."
Ollie looks for a moment like he might hug her, but he settles for a semi-awkward lurch before heading off towards the zeta tubes again.
Isis makes her way up to the lab where Cass is, purring once she finds her.
Cass rests her head on the counter, awaiting results. She smiles as Isis says hello, petting her softly for a little bit of comfort.
Isis rubs against her for a moment before running out again. She returns a few minutes later with Selina, hopping up on the counter next to Cass. "She seemed excited," Selina says. "What are you doing?"
Cass looks up at Selina from her position against the counter, but doesn't move to sit up quite yet, "Testing pieces of the cat statue to see what makes it weird. Damian broke it. Now it's in chunks." she happily returns to petting Isis when she returns to her side.
Selina stares at Cass, an eye twitching. "He broke. The cat." She takes a deep breath and then repeats, "He broke the cat. Why?"
Isis keeps purring happily.
Cass "He broke the cat." she reiterates once more, "We all probably took in too much of the scent, and he went smash." she shrugs, trying not to get worked up over it any longer, "I was yelling a lot." she kneads her fingers into Isis's side gently.
Selina groans and plops back against a cabinet, trying not to think about the way something thunks back in response. "Well, that's... lovely. Hopefully that's not some great metaphor for all of this."
Cass "So we just have to wait for some tests. I want to know why Peterson wants the cat, or the scent. Whatever."
Selina "The million-dollar question. I wonder if it released more of its scent when it broke. That'd be bad."
Cass shakes her head, "I wouldn't know, since we never tested it all put together. There's nothing to compare." she sighs, "That would be bad.”
Selina hits the cabinet. "This whole thing is bad." Whatever's inside the cabinet thunks back, but she pretends very hard that she didn't hear anything. "I suppose the little genius had some ideas of what to do now that the cat was broken?"
Cass frowns, moving to run a hand slowly along Isis's tail, "Little genius, meaning Damian?”
Selina nods. "Littlest Brat. ...Bat."
Cass shrugs, "Ollie, I think, suggested sending him pieces. I thought it sounded like a taunt."
Selina sucks in a breath. "That's a great idea! We send him pieces of the cat, he sends us pieces of Dick. I'm sure that'd make everyone happy. Maybe they could glue him back together."
Cass "I didn't say it was a good idea." she thunks her head against the counter, "Just. Wait on the tests. Maybe we'll get something that way."
Selina sighs. "Yeah, we can hope." Isis puts a paw on Cass' head as if in solidarity. "You want me to bring you anything? Drink? Snack?"
Cass "I'm fine for now." she assures her, which is probably half true knowing bat-logic. "Thanks." she reaches up to scratch at Isis's side, thinking to herself that she should bring Olive up with her next time.
Selina "OK." She lingers a bit at the cabinet before standing up, rubbing Cass' back gently. "Let me know what turns up, OK? And if you need anything." She leans down and kisses the top of her head. "We'll get him back."
Cass smiles softly at Selina's touch, "I know, I just don't like not knowing. And waiting."
Selina "You're like your brother, all movement. I understand that."
Cass turns around to face Selina, "Am I? I don't think I noticed that."
Selina smirks. "You're not as bad. It's just sort of..." She waves her hand at her. "All in you. Does that make sense? Just watching you when we went down to fetch it, you've got a lot of the same energy."
Cass shrugs, "I spend so much time watching other people I don't notice myself.”
Selina snorts. "You /are/ a Bat."
Cass laughs, "Thanks for noticing."
Selina scratches Isis' head a moment, then points at Cass. Isis rubs up against Cass' arm. "I'm going to head down and see about finding some food. I'll come back in a little while." She nods to Isis, who is currently pushing her head under Cass' hand for scratching. "She's good company, I promise you."
Cass nods, "Ok." she smiles back at Isis, looking for more attention, "I can tell, good girl..." Cass busies herself by keeping Isis entertained.
Selina smiles and watches them for a moment before heading out to look into whatever she can find in those files going around.
