Mr Zoat
Dedicated ragequitter
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27th May 2013
13:33 GMT -5
"I can't help but find this a bit weird."
I hear Richard snort over the radio. "Gotham doesn't only exist at night, you know."
Nothing in here aside from some shelving. Back outside…
"No, I mean, you not being out in the field with me."
"Why? You worried?"
"No, no… It just seems like something you'd want to do."
"I would, but… With everything that's happened with Batman… I get it. What you said about efficiency. It didn't really matter when the world was working, but if I can do more good telling other people where to go… I think that's what I need to do."
I carefully open the door of the next warehouse, tumblers rotating at my ring's direction.
"Heh."
"What?"
"Oh, I just pictured you in a gamer chair, surrounded by fast food wrappers and empty energy drink cans-."
"That's not gunna happen. I still get out into Gotham. But some of us can't move at the speed of light. And… If I wanna help make the whole world a better place, I need to affect other places. I guess… I mean, this is what Batman's been doing."
"Are you just dodging your mother?"
The lock clanks open, and I use a pair of spreader constructs to open it fully.
…
"No?"
"Robin, it's perfectly normal to-."
"Yeah, I-. Already had this talk. But talking about it doesn't mean that you don't feel it. And she's…"
I think this facility used to do paint mixing? Some of the smaller machines have been removed, but the larger pieces are still here. I'm not sure if the owners just did a runner or if they were planning on opening it back up if the demand ever materialised.
"She's what?"
"I never really thought her relationship with Batman would work, you know? I get that she's attractive, and… Yeah, I've heard the jokes about who he dates. But she's the daughter of Ra's al Ghul. The head of an international assassin cult. And she was fine with all that. I never thought she'd actually switch sides for real."
I scan the interior, searching for-. Huh. It's amazing what you miss by over thinking things, but I did learn from Richard finding Richie Simpson before me or Wallace. Don't just scan for hidden spaces, look for power lines, patterns in the dust, an air current where the architectural plans say there shouldn't be one…
"I apologise. I didn't think it would get this far either. Found it."
I drift up and over the rim of one of the mixing vats. You wouldn't think that a supervillain would have the skills to hide a false bottom in one of these. It's basically a solid piece of steel with an arm for a mixing paddle. But…
I deploy a construct crumbler arm and a construct suction cup, applying the cup to the middle of the vat before crumbling a circle around it. And lift…
A small basement with an electronics workshop, bits and pieces of circuitry arrayed in… Places which presumably make sense to the person who put them there.
I notice that I've already deployed a construct electronic components rack and started sorting them properly, and-. And I stop, and set my ring to put them back where it found it.
"Confirming the presence of a workshop. And…" I take a closer look at one of the helmets on the desk. "What's either an Apokoliptian Justifier helmet, or a very close replica. No occupants discovered yet."
"I doubt that we'll get that lucky, but keep looking anyway."
"Will do."
Regular crime is way down. Even supervillains… With the economy toast, stealing just isn't an effective way to gather resources, not compared to being hired to do something productive. But rational arguments don't matter much when you're insane.
In theory, all examples of Apokoliptian technology should have been handed in. In practice… I understand someone who got stuck as a Justifier for a month wanted to keep their helmet. Just as a memento of something horrible which they survived. Something to show the grandchildren. So when we find someone who's done that without nefarious intent, we just take out the circuitry to render it permanently non-functional before handing it back.
Now, in theory, without a way to project Anti-Life, the helmets are pretty harmless. The only other source of Anti-Life I know about is Darkseid… And possibly Despair. And if either of them start messing around on Earth then we'll have bigger things to worry about than one guy in a helmet.
But.
Earth is weird. There are probably ways to project other things through the system. There are probably people other than New Gods who can modify them and use them for… Something untoward. So we need to find out who's playing around with them.
Checking the airflows again-.
"Mmmmpgh!"
"Found someone."
It's-. It's slotted into the floor. I guess… Someone built a slot with some sort of… Restraint frame built into it, which they can raise or lower at will. It-. I check the mechanism as best I can, but Apokoliptian technology disrupts ring scans and I'm reluctant to try anything else just in case it's booby trapped.
But okay. If it's something the site owner is working on, they're going to need to test it fairly regularly. The deployment system isn't going to be that complicated, because it would create a problem for them. The control to raise the prisoner compartment is a button on a box connected to the wall by a thick cable. I can just press it, but there's a hole for a key… And the key's attached to it by a piece of string, which is lazy…
Too lazy.
I send a filament into the key hole, checking for-. Yes, that's a detonator. Which matches the key on the string. So either there's another key here somewhere or they have it with them. Why did it have to be the one Gotham criminal who's actually good at electronics?
Look around, where could it be? If he was working at the bench there, he's shorter than me, so-.
A construct filament pulls out a key that was sellotaped to the underside of the bench. Check the pattern of the teeth… Looks like it should work. Alright, but set up constructs to detect electrical impulses and another to slam shield constructs down to protect the victim just in case. All in place? Okay, insert the right key and press the button…
The vertical… Tray, rises out of the floor, a man in a stained white t-shirt and boxer shorts handcuffed to the frame with… An ersatz claymore strapped to his side and a ball gag in his mouth. I put a safe construct around the mine as the man manages to focus on me and realises that I'm not his captor.
"Mruh?"
"I'm here to rescue you. Please indicate any traps that I haven't noticed as quickly as possible."
13:33 GMT -5
"I can't help but find this a bit weird."
I hear Richard snort over the radio. "Gotham doesn't only exist at night, you know."
Nothing in here aside from some shelving. Back outside…
"No, I mean, you not being out in the field with me."
"Why? You worried?"
"No, no… It just seems like something you'd want to do."
"I would, but… With everything that's happened with Batman… I get it. What you said about efficiency. It didn't really matter when the world was working, but if I can do more good telling other people where to go… I think that's what I need to do."
I carefully open the door of the next warehouse, tumblers rotating at my ring's direction.
"Heh."
"What?"
"Oh, I just pictured you in a gamer chair, surrounded by fast food wrappers and empty energy drink cans-."
"That's not gunna happen. I still get out into Gotham. But some of us can't move at the speed of light. And… If I wanna help make the whole world a better place, I need to affect other places. I guess… I mean, this is what Batman's been doing."
"Are you just dodging your mother?"
The lock clanks open, and I use a pair of spreader constructs to open it fully.
…
"No?"
"Robin, it's perfectly normal to-."
"Yeah, I-. Already had this talk. But talking about it doesn't mean that you don't feel it. And she's…"
I think this facility used to do paint mixing? Some of the smaller machines have been removed, but the larger pieces are still here. I'm not sure if the owners just did a runner or if they were planning on opening it back up if the demand ever materialised.
"She's what?"
"I never really thought her relationship with Batman would work, you know? I get that she's attractive, and… Yeah, I've heard the jokes about who he dates. But she's the daughter of Ra's al Ghul. The head of an international assassin cult. And she was fine with all that. I never thought she'd actually switch sides for real."
I scan the interior, searching for-. Huh. It's amazing what you miss by over thinking things, but I did learn from Richard finding Richie Simpson before me or Wallace. Don't just scan for hidden spaces, look for power lines, patterns in the dust, an air current where the architectural plans say there shouldn't be one…
"I apologise. I didn't think it would get this far either. Found it."
I drift up and over the rim of one of the mixing vats. You wouldn't think that a supervillain would have the skills to hide a false bottom in one of these. It's basically a solid piece of steel with an arm for a mixing paddle. But…
I deploy a construct crumbler arm and a construct suction cup, applying the cup to the middle of the vat before crumbling a circle around it. And lift…
A small basement with an electronics workshop, bits and pieces of circuitry arrayed in… Places which presumably make sense to the person who put them there.
I notice that I've already deployed a construct electronic components rack and started sorting them properly, and-. And I stop, and set my ring to put them back where it found it.
"Confirming the presence of a workshop. And…" I take a closer look at one of the helmets on the desk. "What's either an Apokoliptian Justifier helmet, or a very close replica. No occupants discovered yet."
"I doubt that we'll get that lucky, but keep looking anyway."
"Will do."
Regular crime is way down. Even supervillains… With the economy toast, stealing just isn't an effective way to gather resources, not compared to being hired to do something productive. But rational arguments don't matter much when you're insane.
In theory, all examples of Apokoliptian technology should have been handed in. In practice… I understand someone who got stuck as a Justifier for a month wanted to keep their helmet. Just as a memento of something horrible which they survived. Something to show the grandchildren. So when we find someone who's done that without nefarious intent, we just take out the circuitry to render it permanently non-functional before handing it back.
Now, in theory, without a way to project Anti-Life, the helmets are pretty harmless. The only other source of Anti-Life I know about is Darkseid… And possibly Despair. And if either of them start messing around on Earth then we'll have bigger things to worry about than one guy in a helmet.
But.
Earth is weird. There are probably ways to project other things through the system. There are probably people other than New Gods who can modify them and use them for… Something untoward. So we need to find out who's playing around with them.
Checking the airflows again-.
"Mmmmpgh!"
"Found someone."
It's-. It's slotted into the floor. I guess… Someone built a slot with some sort of… Restraint frame built into it, which they can raise or lower at will. It-. I check the mechanism as best I can, but Apokoliptian technology disrupts ring scans and I'm reluctant to try anything else just in case it's booby trapped.
But okay. If it's something the site owner is working on, they're going to need to test it fairly regularly. The deployment system isn't going to be that complicated, because it would create a problem for them. The control to raise the prisoner compartment is a button on a box connected to the wall by a thick cable. I can just press it, but there's a hole for a key… And the key's attached to it by a piece of string, which is lazy…
Too lazy.
I send a filament into the key hole, checking for-. Yes, that's a detonator. Which matches the key on the string. So either there's another key here somewhere or they have it with them. Why did it have to be the one Gotham criminal who's actually good at electronics?
Look around, where could it be? If he was working at the bench there, he's shorter than me, so-.
A construct filament pulls out a key that was sellotaped to the underside of the bench. Check the pattern of the teeth… Looks like it should work. Alright, but set up constructs to detect electrical impulses and another to slam shield constructs down to protect the victim just in case. All in place? Okay, insert the right key and press the button…
The vertical… Tray, rises out of the floor, a man in a stained white t-shirt and boxer shorts handcuffed to the frame with… An ersatz claymore strapped to his side and a ball gag in his mouth. I put a safe construct around the mine as the man manages to focus on me and realises that I'm not his captor.
"Mruh?"
"I'm here to rescue you. Please indicate any traps that I haven't noticed as quickly as possible."