Midnight Shadows

Summary:
December 7, 2014: Vorpal informs Midnighter of Veruca's deeds

Gotham

It's dark, it's dirty, it's home.


Characters

NPCs

  • None

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


It's rather early at night- the sun has barely set, but there is Vorpal, standing at a rooftop. There had been a lot of things to take care of at the Castle, after Kate Bishop delivered the news, and one of the things that had to be taken care of involved checking up on some leads in Gotham. So while Gar was stuck doing the paperwork and sending the notice to the Batman, the cheshire cat made his way to his old haunts and sent a message to Midnighter:

«China Basin. Meet me ASAP» along with the GPS tag of his current location.

So he waits, cloaked in illusory shadows that make it hard to distinguish whether someone is on the roof or not.

Midnighter casually jumps over the gap from another roof, landing noislessly and after a quick look around, faces the shadow cloaking Vorpal. "You got more information on those druids?" he asks without preamble. "Decided the world is better off without them?"

When Midnighter lands, the shadows recede into nothingness, leaving Vorpal standing on the rooftop. Usually when he's around, he makes a point of simulating shadows so as not to unnerve people. This time around, he must have forgotten, because when the cloaking disappears, so do all of his shadows. He looks… unnatural, casting no shadow upon himself or the ground. If someone were to take a picture, post facto they would most likely agree that Vorpal must have been super-imposed onto the scene by a rather unskilled Photoshopper who didn't know how to apply shadows.

Midnighter's preamble gets the kick out the window, though, as Vorpal answers while borrowing heavily from it. "Someone decided the world is a better place without the Son of the Bat." He uses the translation of the name Midnighter told him, because it's easier to use than to differentiate between Robins.

"You took him to Egypt. Now I would like to know what you found out about this woman of mirrors, if you would. There's a murderer who needs to be brought to justice by the Titans."

Midnighter just nods when he hears Damian is dead. "Actually, we never got to Egypt. We barely got off the ground before they tried to blow the plane up. Inept of them. So she killed him?" He considers that a moment before continuing. "She's either out for revenge then or is planning on taking over for her former boss."

"She also blew up six other people. I need names, Midnighter, or a codename, or what ever more you have discovered about her powers." Vorpal crosses his arms. He never bonded with Damian, in fact it could be said that the two of them barely tolerated each other, but he didn't hate the kid. And Kate… what his death had done to Kate. Seeing Kate Bishop Not With It wasn't something he wanted to see ever again. Kate was the rock.

"The mirror thing she does- actually extends to reflections. She used a puddle to appear behind him and killed him. Ran him through with a sword. So she is either a mutant or a witch. Whatever she is… I am going to call on John Constantine. I know there's mirror magic- Cataptromancy. It's some of the stuff I do to turn into Vorpal… but I can't do magic. I could, but because of my 'condition', the results of me attempting a spell would invariably be disastrous. So I need to call on Johnny on the Spot to give me something to fuck with reflections in an area. Something the Titans can use to break her game. But I need to know everything you know, no matter how minuscule, about her."

"You already know more than I do since I didn't know she could use any reflection." Midnighter notes. "Her duplicates are made of glass and that's all I can tell you. I assume that if you find the real one and kill her, she's dead for good but I don't actually know that for certain."

"Glass. So resonant frequencies would actually shatter them. I have to give Kate a cookie for that one," Vorpal says, scratching his chin. "Now the trick is finding the right frequency. Hitting the formant." He sighs and shakes his head. "I need at least one hundred decibels… which I can do. The trick is keeping it concentrated so I wouldn't be able to break all duplicates at once, but one at a time." Ever since Kate mentioned resonant frequencies, Vorpal spent a few hours doing his research. And then he found out there was a website called breakglass.org- man, there's a page for everything out on the internet. "Still, that's better than nothing. And I don't suppose glass fares well under anvils. Do you have a codename at least? Something she goes by in the underworld? Nobody is that traceless."

Except maybe the Batman. Maybe.

"Veruca." Midnighter answers. "I don't know if that's a codename or her first name. She's been on Waller's list for a while but she's managed to avoid that so far." Giving Vorpal a grin, he says "You might want to think of a way to get Waller to hire you to capture or kill her. Then you can get information and possibly payment for doing what you intend to do anyway."

"Veruca? Isn't that a wart you get on your foot?" Vorpal frowns. "Right, get Waller to hire me just as she hired you and Bat-Son to go to Egypt, that didn't get very far, did it? This doesn't sound like someone you can just easily hold, unless you trap her somewhere where everything is completely and absolutely matte." A pause.

"So I guess that's where John Constantine comes in. So I need to contact his spell-slinging ass for a trinket, and then I've got to go and get a sine-wave generator to study. I can replicate any sound with my powers of illusion… if I study how those things work… well, they're not really powers of illusion. I can create real sounds, real images and real scents. Images just don't have substance to them. So they're real, just not what they appear to be, which is solid."

"Hired by Waller. And then I'd have strings attached to me, wouldn't I?"

Midnighter just lets Vorpal talk. It never hurts to know how someone thinks and what they say about their own abilities. Not to mention he know knows Someone named John COnstantine does magic. Could come in useful. "Depends on the deal you make." he tells Vorpal. "Could be a one time thing, could be more. She's dangerous as all hell and I wouldn't trust her but she's also useful."

"I have enough dangerous things I can't trust in my life already. Nevertheless we're going to need resources to get this woman off the streets. Go ahead and call her, tell her I would like to talk to her about this. If Veruca is on her hit list, then the Titans and allies might be able to do some coordination with Stormwatch- no strings attached. Main thing is getting this witch off the streets before she kills more people. Again."

Vorpal looks at Midnighter, "I notice you don't seem to care very much that Bat-son was killed."

"You can get a message to her the same way you got one to me." Midnighter says, after studying Vorpal a moment. "I don't need to play middleman on this." Or be caught in the crossfire if it all blows up in their faces. At the comment about Damian, he shrugs. "Why should I be? I barely worked with him. You knew him a lot better than I did and you sound like you want revenge more out of a sense of justice than any personal motive."

"We don't do revenge, Midnighter," Vorpal snaps at him. He made that mistake once, he wasn't going down that road again.

"She is killing innocent people. I want her off the streets. She also killed one of us. He was broken and a mess, but he was still better than her."

The cat lowers his eyelids slightly. "Don't assume my motives. I'm not in this game for revenge."

"A sense of duty then." Midnight corrects, shrugging again. "You don't seem very broken up about it yourself. Hardly surprising given who we're talking about. Still, he had promise and I agree that she needs to be taken out. I'm willing to help toward that end once you have something concrete."

"Then we'll stay in touch, you'll get a message as soon as we have something to grab. I'm going to call Waller and then swing by the ESU labs. See if my boyfriend is willing to sign out a sine-wave generator. I've got studying to do."

Over the next few days, the cheshire is going to be studying the frequencies and trying to replicate them. The castle is going to need a new drinking glass set soon. And perhaps a few new windows. "Likewise, if you learn anything, you know how to contact Gar of myself."

"Yes." Midnighter agrees, turning away and heading back to the edge of the roof. "And while fancy sonic equipment might sound cool, I'll repeat they're made of glass. Hit them hard enough and they shatter. A big stick will work just as well or learn to use a gun. Complicated is easy to break. Simple works just as well."

"If it were that easy, Midnighter, Robin wouldn't be dead. I may have my issues with the guy, but he was well-trained. And the fancy equipment is just for me to study the frequencies. Once I get a feel for them, I can replicate them. No need for fancy equipment." Vorpal smirks.

"A surprise knife in the back can take down lots of enemies." Midnighter points out, glancing back over a shoulder. "No matter how good they are." He's used the same tactic many times. "Like I said, simple works well. But if you need fancy equipment to prepare, I'm sure Waller can get you whatever you need if your boyfriend can't or it's not sufficient. There's advantages in working for the government."

"Better make sure the knife is dull and can't reflect," Vorpal points out, and smirks.

"My boyfriend can give me many things, including everything I need. We'll be fine, Midnighter, it's just a sine-wave generator, not a hadron collider."

Midnighter just nods and jumps onto the other roof. Long as he's out, he might as well go hunting. There's never a shortage of prey in Gotham.


Back to: RP Logs

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License