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Tweak says, "OMG! a flying worm with wings!"

Laurel Lance (i_crylikeabird) wrote in we_coexist,
@ 2012-12-26 17:30:00

Entry tags:

alfred pennyworth, bruce wayne, dinah lance, zz:status complete

Return of an old teammate (Bruce)
Backdated to Christmas day and before this thread

Dinah kept herself busy on Christmas day. She had presents to deliver after all. She'd dropped in on a few of her friends and dropped off gifts. The peace offering that she'd brought to Beauty had been particularly well-received as the young woman had invited her in for tea. They might not see eye to eye on Eric, but Dinah felt bad for how she'd left their last conversation and she believed that Beauty truly did mean well.

One by one her gifts were delivered until she finally pulled her bike up the driveway to Wayne Manor. She hadn't forgotten the butler who was so much more. Not in the slightest. Alfred had been there for her through two very tough times since her time in the City. More importantly, he had been there for Jake. Dinah could never forget him on a holiday and she just hoped that he was enjoying a quiet Christmas off. After all, she knew that Zoe didn't live in the Manor and so she assumed that it was empty. She also wondered if perhaps the butler missed having people to tend to.

Neatly wrapped box in hand, Dinah rang the doorbell. She wondered if she should have called ahead. She had been wondering that on each of her stops throughout the day but she hadn't wanted to over-schedule Christmas. She had simply prepared herself to drop presents on doorsteps if she had to. Besides, she thought that surprise visits from friends might be a nice thing for this holiday.

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i_crusade
2012-12-30 12:50 am UTC (link)

Catching the smirk Dinah threw at his back, Bruce canted his head to the left. Her flippant attitude about crimefighting rubbed him the wrong way. "Does the mayor also promise freedom from prosecution? I would hate for your team to be caught up in yards of red tape because of some, say, property damage. Or because the Joker managed to pull off one of his nefarious plots, despite your intervention."

Property damage was the least of Bruce's concerns when it came to making safe his city. But freedom from angry blowback, that was something he was quite interested in. Had she considered it? Had the mayor?

And what of this Jennifer Government?

Bruce changed his surveillance from Dinah Lance to the stack of papers neatly stacked face-down on the table where Alfred set his Christmas present. The clever man had actually obscured most of the papers with the gift box itself, and then took up quiet guard beside the table. Finally, Bruce turned around and crossed his arms loosely over his chest.

"Are your identities protected?" Obviously, Tony Stark's wasn't. That man was a fool and a genius all at once.

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i_crylikeabird
2012-12-30 01:06 am UTC (link)

If Bruce thought Dinah was being flip, he was misinterpreting her. She was anything but flippant about crimefighting. She just understood that they had to skirt the law and that there were some things that they couldn't flaunt with the mayor and law enforcement. The agreement was that they would do what they could to help the City with the understanding that they wouldn't abuse that free reign.

"We don't have an agreement regarding property damage though I was planning to drop in on the mayor since it's a new team roster and that's something that's worth bringing up."

Especially given the damage that Tony had done the night before when they'd rescued those kids.

She frowned a little bit at the question about identities. She assumed that someone would have broken the news to him about the comic books, and she really didn't want to be the one to do that. She gave Alfred a helpless look.

"That's not exactly something that's possible in the City. Not for those of us who have kept the same identities from home."

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i_crusade
2012-12-31 05:58 am UTC (link)

A pregnant silence slid through the room. At the window, Bruce squared his shoulders, clenched his jaw. His nearly-whispered words made it to Dinah, but barely: "And do you have anyone you love?"

It was a question to which no answer was expected. He frowned at the glass throwing his face back at him, and turned away at last. He walked back into the center of the room, glanced over at Alfred, then held out his hand. The butler quietly retrieved their plans from under his boxed tea set and set them in Bruce's outstretched hand. Rifling through the sheaves, he pulled out the map, the surveillance notes, the set of photos, and stacked them on top.

It was a fairly low-risk op. He'd balanced it for himself, first, then balanced it for two. Even if Zoe failed - and Bruce did not believe she would - he could still pick up where things went wrong, and do it with ease. Adding another head to the operation wouldn't be difficult. It would give him a framework to judge how Dinah worked. It was worth pursing.

Finally, he walked the plans to Dinah and handed them to her. "This is not a Justice League operation," he said. "It isn't going through your CPD liaison. It isn't sanctioned by the Mayor. Zoe and I are going to bring in one person tied to two cold cases currently sitting on a CPD desk, and then we will deliver him to the CPD for processing. The man is going away for a long time and won't be participating in any further crimes. I'll leave it to CPD to extract the name of his employer."

The Batman could do that last part, as well -- but this was also a test for Detective Charlie Crews. A test, Bruce sincerely hoped, that the man passed.

Bruce clenched his jaw once more, then pushed on. "Come with us. Work with us."

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i_crylikeabird
2012-12-31 01:37 pm UTC (link)

"Yes," Dinah said, in answer to the first question. He didn't require an answer, but she felt that it was important to answer him all the same.

"I'm living with someone. He's sort of in the business himself-he just specializes in the supernatural side of things."

She didn't like that being with her might make Dean a target but she knew that he could take care of himself and she knew that he probably felt the same way, given the types of supernatural enemies that he might have.

"And when I first got here, there was a boy. He'd been Barbara's adopted son but she wasn't here so I took him in. The Joker got to him. Didn't kill him, but he might as well have. Eventually the City had to send him back because the torture had taken too much out of him."

Her voice was raw with emotion but it didn't shake and she didn't cry. She knew what it cost to have a public identity, and she knew exactly why this version of Bruce was thrown off at being in the City. She even understood why the previous version had taken a step back and given his identity to Zoe.

"Even if I retired or took on a different secret identity, it wouldn't matter. Anyone with access to a library could find out who I'd been before. Zoe's the only one with a secret around here and I intend to keep it that way. The team doesn't know about her. My boyfriend doesn't even know about her."

There was one thing that she wouldn't share with Dean unless she had to. It wasn't her secret to tell after all.

She accepted the plans and looked them over, absorbing the information in them.

She gave a terse nod to show that she understood both the plans and the fact that this wasn't through the League.

"I'll help. When are you planning to do this?"

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i_crusade
2013-01-02 12:25 am UTC (link)

"Soon," Bruce said, finally taking the seat he'd abandoned. "I don't prefer to storm Stark Tower or Arkham Asylum just yet, but it seems that this man splits his time between the two." Bruce pointed a finger toward the top sheet. "The car he uses is wired for remote control. As soon as he leaves Stark Tower, Zoe and I will receive the signal."

Bruce kept the woman in his sights. He wanted to see what she thought about this man being tied to Stark Tower, especially given her mention of Tony Stark himself.

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i_crylikeabird
2013-01-02 03:09 am UTC (link)

"Stark Tower?" Dinah didn't miss that reference. She looked at Bruce sharply, her expression conveying the surprise.

"Any idea what role the man plays at Stark Tower?" she asked.

She had been going with her gut as far as recruitment. picking and choosing the people that she felt she could work with, those whose hearts seemed to be in the right place. But this new piece of information did concern her. Then again, there was just as much chance that this man was an employee at Stark Tower and that Tony wasn't aware of what else he might do in his spare time.

"I assume that you have a way to access my comm-link?" she asked.

If she wasn't wearing it, it would just ring through to her phone so she was almost always reachable via the comm-link.

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i_crusade
2013-01-02 04:21 am UTC (link)

"I do," he said, having already set up the feature to connect to her device, as well as to the AI at Stark Tower, the cell phone of Megan Gwynn, the line to Bruce Banner... He may not have been convinced yet that he should work with the others here in the City - but he certainly hadn't ruled it out. Preparation was nine tenths of success.

"The man seems to be associated with the Riddler's daughter, not an employee of Stark Industries." He paused, taking in Dinah's expression, her stance. "I understand that you and Enigma know each other."

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i_crylikeabird
2013-01-02 10:24 pm UTC (link)

That was one way of putting it, Dinah thought to herself. She nodded.

"Yes. She held me in her warehouse while I recovered from the Scarecrow's fear toxin. She could have killed me, but didn't."

She paused, considering how best to describe the situation and the young woman. The Bruce she knew wasn't big on second chances. For that matter, he wasn't big on trusting people on a first chance either.

"She used to work with the Teen Titans, one of the superhero groups in my world. I think that there's a chance I might be able to get through to her and get her on the right path."

She frowned, still processing the Stark connection.

"I wonder what her connection is to Stark."

She supposed that Bruce might have an idea on that as well. It seemed that he had been busy with surveillance in his time here.

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(I'm SO sorry for the wait -- really bad week.)

i_crusade
2013-01-07 04:42 am UTC (link)

Bruce stayed quiet for a while. With the exception of the encounter in the warehouse, Dinah had told him nothing he didn't already know. He had to wonder if Dinah could truly turn the girl. A clever villain would try just such a stunt, use just this sort of leverage to continue to fly under the radar for as long as was useful.

"As near as I can figure," he said at last, "Her connection to Stark is via Bruce Banner. The physicist is a brilliant scientist..."

A gentle lift of his eyebrows, and a turn of the head, finished the rest of the sentence. The girl was making a fool out of an otherwise brilliant man. The girl, Bruce also realized, was taking Banner out of the equation, as well. A man in love pardoned many sins for the object of his affection; a man in love was a man two steps away from madness.

Bruce shook his head again.

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i_crylikeabird
2013-01-08 08:27 pm UTC (link)

Aha. That explained the Stark connection. There was a little glimmer of realization in Dinah's eyes. She nodded solemnly.

"Banner seems like a good guy. Love can sometimes make people blind, but sometimes it can change them for the better." Dinah sighed. "I'm just hoping that he rubs off on her before it's too late."

She knew that they would need to take Enigma in if the girl continued stealing. It was probably better that Dinah didn't know about the murders just yet, save for the connection to Enigma's bodyguard. If she'd known about the murders, she would have been as much of a proponent for taking the young woman in as everyone else.

As it was, she did question Enigma's connection in all of this. She wanted to see what happened once the bodyguard was arrested, see what came out of that.

"I'll talk to Tony about his houseguest. See if I can figure out where he stands on her."

Tony might be an ally in the rehabilitation, perhaps. Or Dinah might just need to look a little more closely at the trust she'd given him regarding her team.

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i_crusade
2013-01-09 04:43 am UTC (link)

Dinah understood. Good.

"Don't mention that Enigma's employee seems to be linked to a multiple homicide. It's difficult to say what surveillance those two have on the place, themselves."

Justice League. Bruce didn't quite frown. But the idea alone was rife with difficulty - especially given the mayor's special dispensation. Government restrained too much of Batman's personal operations - it was one of the reasons why he'd declined to join the FBI. Even still. He didn't want them in his way. And he didn't want to get in theirs. Did that mean they should ally?

At the very least, their communications system and his should be linked. Perhaps not completely. But there should be the option to connect the two together.

"We should keep lines of communication open, at the very least," he said at last. It was, it seemed, as far as he was willing to go. For now.

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