The Gathering Who: Batgirl NPCs: The Masks (Brett: would you like to play them, to give Cass something to play off of?) Where: The Narrows When: August 23rd, 2012. The evening following Cass' bonding moment with Tim. What: In her quest to find Bruce Wayne's killer, Batgirl stumbles upon a rally held by a new gang called The Masks. Rating: R for violence, possible language. Status: In progress.
Cassandra's home on Park Row beckoned to her. She hadn't returned in many days, and she knew Leslie Thompkins was going to give her the lecture of her life the moment she stepped through the door. So Cass decided that she could afford to stay out a little longer, just to delay the inevitable.
Besides, there was still so much to do. So much ground to cover.
Her encounter with Tim Drake -- and all the feelings and stirrings that caused -- was pushed to the back of her mind as she continued to search for clues to Big K's disappearance. She'd visited the Narrows regularly in her patrol, but ever since Bruce's murder she'd expanded her search area greatly, so her visits to this area had been few and far between. But it was within walking distance of Park Row, so she felt it was time to rattle this particular cage once again, to see if Big K might fall out of it.
She found something else instead. She ventured into a closed-off, disused subway station, where she knew a lot of fugitives from the law liked to hide. Once there, she spotted a large group of people, all wearing different masks. Some were cheaply-made and appeared to be store-bought; others were more intricate and finely crafted. Judging by body language, there was a certain hierarchy based on the quality of the mask. Or rather, the opposite was true: one's status in this gang seemed to merit an increase in mask quality.
The leader -- wearing an elaborate Japanese oni mask -- gave a speech about eliminating their enemies, and Batgirl watched the crowd's body language. The crowd seemed to be composed of young people of both sexes, high school and college age if she had to guess. Some of their bodies were laced with an excited, violent edge, as if they couldn't wait to hurt someone. Others were angry, but in a different direction. Batgirl thought she detected righteous fury from them, or some kind of social injustice. Outrage against a concept rather than against someone in particular.
Regardless, this gathering was dangerous, as were the volatile emotions of the people involved. They had to be shut down.
Even more, Batgirl couldn't immediately tell whether Big K was a member of the crowd. She was itching to find out.