Rebuilding The Suit

Summary:
November 20, 2014: Batwing starts work to rebuild the suit and Oracle provides some /sage/ advice

Clocktower - Gotham

A locally famous landmark, the Gotham Clock Tower is located in the Central Business District. Tours haven't run in years, though, since the building was bought out by a group of bird-lovers known as the Nightingale Society. Still, it's a well-known part of the Downtown skyline. From the outside it looks unused, but the clock is clearly maintained as it still runs on time, and now and again people can be seen coming and going. The bottom floor looks mostly disused, with a long hallway ending in a bookshelf full of coffee table books about birds. To either side of the hall are sparsely furnished rooms. The walls show illustrations of local Gotham feathery sorts, and charts on bird migrations. Cabinets store various bits of bird-watching equipment.

The doors to the stairs require a key card to access, probably to deter vandalism. The upper floors are only accessible by a secret elevator. The doorways to access it them the stairs have been bricked over and drywalled. On the living quarters floor, each door requires a keycard and voice recognition, except for the door to the training facility at the end of the hall, which requires palm, optical, and voice recognition. The top floor, however, is the most secure of all.

The pale glow of the four massive translucent clock-faces dominate the four compass points of the lair, casting everything in a warm light by night, and cool light by day. the natural brick walls of the buildings exterior are left visible on one wall while the others are painted a pristine white. The ceilings have recessed and track lighting, and the floors are smooth pale wood. There is a lounge area and even a kitchen, as well as other facilities here. The insulation around the top floor is meant to keep scanners and eavesdropping equipment from being able to image what's inside.

Mainframes and back-up generators line most of the walls in rooms of clear glass kept from overheating with with high-tech coolant systems. In front of one clock face is an enormous computer system laid out on a long, custom desk, lower than average, just the right height for Oracle's wheelchair. There is a command chair for use when needed, which slides on rails along the length of the desk. A huge bank of monitors are arrayed in a horseshoe shape around the desk, with the ability to form one large picture or individual smaller ones.


Characters

NPCs

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Mood Music:
[*<http://insert.video.or.music.link.here>]


== Mid Afternoon In The Clocktower and Auxillary Bat Cave ==

After introducing Robin to Batwing, Oracle had sent messages to Batman letting him know the suit was found, that she was working with Batwing to improve it and that they would be using the Auxillary Bat Cave to do so. Ultimately, having someone who actually used the technology in the way it was intended who also had the skills and knowledge to modify it, was a rare commodity and incredibly useful.

Luke has just contacted Oracle to let her know he's at the Auxillary Batcave and ready to start work. Oracle has elected to remain at the Clocktower, after the mess with Robin over the last few days, she wants to keep an eye on everything. "Batwing, Oracle. Video and Audio feeds from your location are active. Let's do this…" and sure enough, on her main screen, is a 360 view of the inside of the Batcave… showing Luke ready to work.

***

Luke has strapped on a pair of circular safety goggles with a metallic frame, wearing a comfortable white t-shirt and a simple pair of blue jeans. The change to a more pragmatic style when it's time to get down to work is probably something to note.

Meeting in a coffee shop? Eh, that's alright. Getting into a cave full of awesome toys? This is business.

"This place is incredible. Sometimes I don't think I appreciate the extent of what my father does, even though I bet someone has to modify a lot of it to be more practical in the field, like I'm doing now." He has various parts laying across a rather large work table with solder metal and hundreds of little parts laying around.

"I've loaded the fabrication equipment with the material, but there are a few things I have to do first. Like manually rip out some of these little parts, make the systems more durable against the kinetic energy that might transfer through an impact with the outer armor, and more severe electrical overloads." He pokes a soldering iron at a few things in the chest of the armor. "And seriously these capacitors could be much smaller… Er, sorry, nerding out here."

***

Oracle watches the young man working and smiles at the information dump she's just received. "A little enthuastic there, Luke. One thing at a time or it will never get done, but you know that." She's quite happy to let him vocalise the process though, it's keeps her in the loop. "I trust you are documenting everything as you go along." That is something Oracle is aware that many don't do… they do, but they don't document.

***

"I've already written revised blueprints that I'll just revise again if I go off script, which I probably will. Who doesn't go off script when they're in the middle of circuit work?" Luke asks as if it's the most normal thing in the world, already hard at work soldering the chest. He works fast, removing tiny parts with surgical precision and very quickly replacing them with even smaller parts. This kind of work in an amateur's hands would be screwed up about as badly and as quickly as a toddler doing brain surgery. "This is the fun part, the hard and probably funner part is when we get to the fabrication. This part is like Legos. You should have come. Did you know about the heavy armors in this cave? What does Batman even do with that stuff, it's just… wow. Like he's really prepared for anything."

***

Her eyes flick across all her screens as Luke speaks, watching Gotham for things that shouldn't be happening. "I would be surprised if you didn't go 'off script', as you put it, it's part of the development cycle." the redhead shrugs "No matter how good my concepts and flowcharts are, once I'm into my code I often see better ways to do things. The trick… is to not go down Rabbit Holes in making things 'too perfect'."

The mention of being there elicits a sigh "I just need to be here, watching what's happening but I can provide moral support. And yes, Batman is prepared for anything…"

***

"I think you're probably one of the most important players in Gotham. I'm sure you're the eyes and ears of the Bat people, and with your network of resources we could probably clean up neighborhood after neighborhood. The fact that you haven't just leads me to believe crime is much worse than I can imagine…" Luke ponders all of these things as he's already completely finished the chest, moving onto peeling the face portion of the helmet back. "I bet I can enhance the infrared and maybe add some more augmented reality functions…"

***

"I doubt I'm one of the most important players, but yes Eyes and Ears, that's me." Oracle says that matter of factly "Each of us is important in our own way. And yes… crime is bad… it's a complicated mess."

As Luke begins to improve on his improvement a small knowing grin touches Oracles lips "How about you hold those changes for Rev 3 and maybe Rev 4? Let's get the important things done, get you out on the streets and the suit tested again, first."

***

"Well, alright, if you must say completely reasonable things that I can't find a way to disagree with no matter how much I stall with this sentence." Luke does, however, continue replacing little bits of circuitry. One of the more notable things he does is add a few redundancies to the system, which she could likely notice just by watching.

After a while, though, he starts to set the suit up in the incredibly advanced fabrication equipment. "I've been studying what public files I can find on some of the big name villains in the city. Most of them seem incredibly dangerous, especially the Joker. He doesn't seem like someone you can really fight with logic or a solid plan. Alone it's practically suicide. I don't know how Batman does it."

***

"Stalling simply slows getting you back on the streets, Luke. I thought that's what you wanted… If you like, I can be unreasonable …. " laughing at Lukes comment, Oracles eyes scan her screens again.

"The Joker… is not stable. Someone described him to me recently as one of the top madmen in the world… and they were right, he is." there's a pause "You could use logic and a plan, but you need to be quick on the uptake to modify it and Luke you will, at times, have to face him alone. I will try to get you backup, but sometimes you'll have to do it alone."

Oracle sighs as she considers just what The Joker did to Robin recently and what he had done to her "What do you know about how Babs Gordon came to be in the chair, Luke?"

***

"It was an attempted assassination on her father or something, right? I'm a bit foggy on the details. I've never known much about it, and I didn't bother asking because I felt like there were better things to ask if I really wanted to get to know her. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious at all." Luke admits, being honest and sincere about it as he starts to put on some pretty futuristic looking gloves to handle the fabrication equipment, and an even more advanced set of goggles. "Tactics are something I excel at, but like I said the other day, I have to get better at them under intense pressure."

***

"Potentially it was an attempted assasination, but she was shot in the back and left as a message for her father. A message to tell him to back off." Oracle speaks as if Babs is an entirely different person but she still has to pause before continuing "That message, was left by The Joker."

Happy to change topics "Looks like you're progressing there" her eyes flick back to the screen with the Auxillary Batcave displayed. "You're looking a little Steam Punk there."

***

"Can't say I don't suddenly feel the urge to knock all of his teeth out when I meet him." Luke says in a grimmer tone than usual, but it snaps right back to casual when they start talking about the work again. "Oh, yeah, this tech is amazing! I guess if I took that Wayne Enterprises job, I'd have gotten to work with stuff like this every day. I can get a readout on every microfiber of this thing, and control the little robotic arms with each finger. This is just… wow. It's Christmas. I can't believe this stuff is just down here getting dusty."

***

Oracles green eyes snap to the screens at Lukes words "That kind of attitude is what you must loose in the field, Luke." blowing out a breath, she continues "I appreciate the sentiment but emotion, particularly anger, will be a hindrance. That's how Batman copes… he is cool and calculating. Work on that…"

"It doesn't gather much dust, it gets used, possibly more often than I would like." Giving a wry snort, which won't transmit over the audio "Glad the equipment meets with your approval."

***

"Keeping a cool head, now there's one I definitely need to work on. I don't just fly off the handle when someone insults me or something, but I don't respond well to people I care about being put in danger. I'll work on it, though, I promise." Luke begins the insane deconstruction of the suit, all of his previous work apparently preserved as it's undone layer by layer, something completely necessary if one wants to replace the very material that it's made out of, while preserving the circuitry. "Do you have any idea what Barbara wants to do now? I mean, how she sees her future?"

***

Watching the suit deconstruction, Oracle is impressed with the young mans skill. "We can help you with the focus. Each of us have our ways… you will develop your own way too." There's little more to be said on that topic.

The question about Barbara brings a soft smile to her lips "Well, apart from asking her yourself, I think you're seeing what she wants to do now and her future, at least for a while."

***

"I have the sneaking suspicion that Barbara doesn't get out much. But I think she could do with a break from her work every now and then. There are a million high class restaurants out there, and plays, you know, places with dress codes." Luke laughs a little, the conversation not seeming to distract him as he begins the reconstruction, the suit pattern changing in a slight but noticeable way. He starts with the feet, but the reconstruction is painstakingly detailed and careful. "I wonder if I should ask her out to one of those places."

***

Back in the Clocktower, Oracle sighs deeply. "You would need to ask her directly, Luke. I'm sure she gets out more than people give her credit for." is the only answer provided. "The suit looks different, is that the new material you've used" Oracle is back to business

"Yeah, and I redid the general design of the armor to protect and work more efficiently the redone circuitry." The suit seems almost done, and Luke is walking around, getting a look at it from different angles. "I'll go see Barbara later, then. Thanks for the advice. I'm almost done, so I'll give this thing a test later. But first I'll have to modify my blueprints."

***

The woman in the Clocktower smiles. "It's looking good. Let me know when you're going out to test it, I can monitor the results." She pauses again "Nice work today Luke. Oracle out." Stretching, Oracle divides her attention between the streets of Gotham and watching Luke complete his work for the day.


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