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Post by Batgirl on Jan 26, 2017 2:24:08 GMT -5
The trip from Gotham to New York was ... an interesting one. Since Barbara made Gotham her home, she couldn't remember leaving it. This would be the first time venturing away from the safety of her father's home. It was thrilling, to say the least. She tried to keep her excitement hidden, but it was hard not to be excited to get out of the city and into New York. She'd heard about how amazing a city it was, and she couldn't wait to see what it had to offer. She couldn't wait to see what the police department was like, if it was any better than Gotham, if there were more women working as cops, if there were even women working as detectives. As much as she loved her father, she was curious if it really was her gender holding her back or if it was him being overprotective.
When she and Helena pulled into town, she made an appointment with the police department to go through their records and see what kind of evidence they had. She explained that she thought the cases were connected, and as soon as she showed them a picture of the smiley face in the wall, they knew exactly what she was talking about. They assured her that she would have full access to the case files the next day, and she figured that was as good as she was going to get. For tonight, she would do a little snooping of her own.
One of the smiley faces in New York that she knew about was in a particularly seedy part of town. And yet, it was still nicer than some parts of Gotham. She had the picture and managed to track down the right building, finally locating the bullet-hole smiley. She tucked the picture away and started examining the bullet holes, hoping to be able to tell if it was obvious what angle it was shot from. From the case file, the Bertinellis were killed by a sniper, but this smiley looked like it was shot by someone shorter than her. Then again, they could have shot from the hip. All she could tell was that the holes were very slightly angled up. But, if it gave a hint to what height they were looking for, it was a start. Even if it was literally nothing.
She pulled out a notebook and started taking notes about what she was noticing. She wasn't finding much, not that she expected to. The smiley was months old by now. Any real evidence would have been weathered away by now, but there would always be something. She took note of the angle of the bullet holes, following where they led and stood on the corner of the other side of the street. The murder that occurred around the time this showed up happened ... Barbara thought for a moment and walked in the direction of the murder scene. It took her further down the alley to a dead end. She looked up, and there was a broken window with two bullet holes through it. Well, it looks like that's where it happened.
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Rorschach
Neutral 
Soon there will be war...
Posts: 27 
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Post by Rorschach on Jan 26, 2017 2:53:49 GMT -5
It had been a long night. And it had only just begun. It was a dark knight.
Dark as it gets.
Rorschach had been pummeling the man before him in his own apartment for the last nineteen minutes and forty-three seconds. And in that time, the man wouldn't talk. Said he didn't know what Rorschach was talking about.
"Somebody knows." Rorschach growled beneath his shifting mask as he threw another right hook across the man's face.
The man was called Norman 'The Face' Fertuli. Hitman and gangster for the crime lord Artie Cade. Big name in the city.
Big name in hell too. If hell were a place and not a human concept.
The Face had been running a new sector of Cade's drug racket around in the middle of town. Usually Cade kept to the docks, but his reach was spreading with the absence of Wilson Fisk. The Face dealt drugs around some of the schoolyards. Or some of his hoods did. Rorschach didn't care much for being distinctive or specific with this. And Cade had thusfar proven too hard to get to.
"C'mon man, I can't tell ya where they-" Face tried to say before his normally handsome visage had its nose broken.
"Cade," Rorschach growled as he stalked toward the retreating man, away toward his second story window, "Who....delivers...his shipments....?"
"He doesn't tell us!" Face half screamed as he braced himself against the glass as he reached the window.
Rorschach regarded him, stopping in his tracks and looking the man up and down.
"Hurm." he grunted as he dove at the man, tackling him out the window.
Face started to scream but was quickly stopped as Rorschach snapped his neck before the sickening splat as the man's head was bashed on the rim of the dumpster his lifeless body slumped into.
Rorschach rolled beside the thing, having jumped off of the corpse moments before impact.
The masked man stood up, dusted off his coat and looked into the dumpster. Sure enough, there was the body of the man who was never told anything. No one would miss him.
He looked down the way in front of him and caught the glimpse of a young woman...she seemed to be.....hm.
He didn't take a chance and bolted down the side alley to his right.
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Post by Batgirl on Jan 26, 2017 3:09:27 GMT -5
Barbara had been jolted out of her thoughts by the sound of shattering glass. She looked up and saw two men diving through a window. One tried to scream, but was silenced with a crack. There was another crack when his head hit the rim of the dumpster. Less than 12 hours in New York and Barbara had already witnessed a murder. She couldn't help but stare in horror at the masked killer, and it seemed he hadn't noticed her yet.
But then he did. For a moment, she wasn't sure what was going to happen. Was he going to get rid of the witness? She was ready to defend herself. She'd taken self defense classes to protect herself from Gotham's worst. She was sure she could defend herself from some guy in New York. It felt like ages, the two of them staring at each other, before the masked man finally took off down a side alley.
All of her sane instincts told her to run away while she had the chance, but something possessed her to chase the man down. She took off after him, shoving her small steno pad into her coat pocket. "Hey! Get back here!" Why was she trying to get the killer to come to her? She ran a little faster and quickly caught up to him, clumsily grabbing the man by the back of his trenchcoat and shoving him into a nearby wall. Unfortunately, she didn't calculate enough space for herself to stop, so she tumbled to the ground, but she picked herself right back up.
She staggered over to the masked man and grabbed him by the collar, as if on autopilot, and hit him against the wall. "Where do you think you're going?" she asked, as if she really planned this far ahead. She was making this up as she went along.
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Rorschach
Neutral
Soon there will be war...
Posts: 27
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Post by Rorschach on Jan 26, 2017 15:07:42 GMT -5
The girl was fast. Young, but fast. She'd caught up to him quicker than he would have anticipated.
And she was skilled. Patient in pursuit.
But not skilled enough when she threw Rorschach against the wall then took a tumble, but she soon righted it.
Then she spoke. Asked a question. Rorschach's ink blot mask shifted as he tilted his head up toward the girl.
"Hurm..." he mused before he offered her a headbutt and used the pressure of her grip and the wall behind him to launch a kick with both legs to her midsection.
He wriggled from her grip and ran back down the alley, leaping onto one of the sets of stairs on the side and started scaling it to the rooftop.
Rarely had Rorschach been caught once observed. He preferred to operate at night for the very reason of safety from too many prying eyes. Anyone who did catch him....well. They would see inside themselves when they looked at his face.
It wasn't an easy dance, keeping away from the law. But enough murders happened in New York for the ones Rorschach committed to never really make much in the way of news headlines. So what if a gangbanger was killed. So what if a pimp was split open. It didn't matter to the city, which believed so fervently in a shining view of itself that it couldn't recognize the poison in its belly.
Once Rorschach made it to the roof, he turned and waited for her to inevitably follow him.
There would be two bodies on the pavement tonight if need be. His work was not done. It had to be completed. Cade had to fall. Cade had to pay.
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Post by Batgirl on Jan 26, 2017 16:24:15 GMT -5
If you had asked Barbara what she intended to do with a murderer once she had him up against a wall, she would have replied that she had absolutely no idea. As such, she couldn't exactly say she was caught by surprised with the masked man headbutted her and kangaroo kicked her in the stomach to knock her down. She fell to the ground, completely dazed, looking up to catch a glimpse of him escaping to the rooftops.
Now, as she picked herself up, she was faced with a dilemma. She had no plan. She had no idea what to do if she did catch this guy. Did she question him? Did she bring him in to the police? All of the racing thoughts that flew through her mind all terminated with one certain absolute. She couldn't just let him go. It wouldn't be right. She knew she was probably risking her life, trying to chase down a murderer, but she realized she wasn't afraid of that. With that realization, she wasn't sure what, besides not knowing what she was doing, was holding her back. Frustrated that she had no plan, she let out an exasperated grunt and did some quick stretches. This was going to be an interesting night.
She ran at the wall of the alley and kicked off of it to grab onto the fire escape, quickly scrambling up. Running up the stairs would take too much time, so she hung off the outside edge and climbed up that, leaping up to the roof in no time. She stood and saw the masked man waiting for her. Why was he waiting? He could have disappeared by now and gotten away. Was he testing her? What the hell kind of place was New York?
Before he had a chance to run again, she rushed him. She ran at him, and at the last second she dropped down, sliding feet first into him to knock his legs out from under him. As soon as she felt some kind of impact, she recovered herself and stepped into a defensive fighting stance. She wanted to make it clear to him that she was ready to fight, and she wasn't going to let him go.
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Rorschach
Neutral
Soon there will be war...
Posts: 27
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Post by Rorschach on Jan 26, 2017 16:43:01 GMT -5
Rorschach had readied himself into a fighting stance, fists up and knees bent before he found his knees swept from under him entirely. He hadn't expected the girl to rush him. Curious. She was a scrapper.
He fell to the roof, his hat tumbling off of his head before he looked at her slowly and cocked his head.
"Should mind your business." he growled as he retrieved his hat and set it back solidly back on, "You'll get hurt. I would know. I do the hurting."
He cracked his gloved knuckles demonstratively.
Rorschach ran at the girl, not wanting to dismantle her entirely and certainly not wanting to kill her. He jumped as he got closer, delivering a hard downward punch to her jaw and swinging another back up at her once he landed. He ducked, rolled around behind her and punched her in the back repeatedly before he hopped backward and stood in his own defensive stance, ready for whatever this pup wanted to throw his way.
It had been a hard enough day already. He didn't need this...interruption. This girl was a witness to the true events that had transpired. Perhaps she thought he was the one to be after? Hm. Perhaps that was true. Rorschach was merciless when it came to the guilty. This girl didn't strike him as a criminal, just another puppet out of her depth.
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Post by Batgirl on Jan 26, 2017 17:17:48 GMT -5
When the masked man spoke to her, Barbara wondered if that was supposed to intimidate her. "You don't scare me," she said, fists held up. "I'm from Gotham." And, really, she felt that was all that needed to be said about that. Gotham was a horrible place, and she knew that. As much as New York might try to hide its horrible deeds, Gotham wallowed in them. Gotham was defined by the horrible things that happened within its city limits.
Then the man ran at her. When he jumped and raised a fist, she anticipated what he was going to do and moved her head to follow his fist, lessening the impact of the punch. She didn't, however, anticipate the second punch. It caught her off guard just enough that she had to take a step back to steady herself. She tried to shake it off, but by then, he had already started landing punches to her back. She grit her teeth, taking the pain, before turning to face him, completely undaunted. What game was he playing? If he was going to get rid of the witness to his murder, he was doing a terrible job of it.
She leapt forward and delivered a side kick to his abdomen, using her momentum to shove her elbow into his throat. Her body spun to the side as her arm hooked around to connect her fist with his face, then kept spinning until her elbow hit him in the back of the neck. Now standing to his side, she swung another kick at his abdomen and swung her elbow down at his back again to try to knock him onto the ground, this time not hopping away. She wanted to make it clear to him that he wasn't going to scare her.
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Rorschach
Neutral
Soon there will be war...
Posts: 27
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Post by Rorschach on Jan 26, 2017 17:40:40 GMT -5
So. The girl was from Gotham.
What business did she have here, he found himself wondering. But Rorschach's wondering was quickly replaced with read hot bashes of pain. The girl was fast. Faster than he had anticipated. She had longer limbs than he did. And she was quick.
Rorschach took the hits, rolling as best he could with each one until he found himself knocked to the ground.
He growled and rolled in one sweeping motion to kick her legs from her as she had done to him before, crouching on one knee beside her. He raised his fist to strike, breathing heavily...but then he stopped.
Couldn't break her face in. Not til he had some answers.
"Who are you?" he growled, remaining crouched but backing up slightly, "Should go back to Gotham. No safer here."
This was a conundrum. The girl likely wouldn't back down. Rorschach certainly wouldn't. Perhaps if her answer was unsatisfactory he would have to kill her after all. What's one more body amongst foundations?
"Have other work to do," he growled as he drew his gas powered grappling gun from his coat, "Don't have time for you. Should go home. The city is too infested with the dark. And you're too late to stop it. Just like I am."
He held his grapple gun patiently. He would hear her answer first. Have some data on this girl. To keep an eye out for her if she interfered with him again.
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Post by Batgirl on Jan 26, 2017 18:16:43 GMT -5
It seemed not stepping away from him was a mistake, because before she knew it, Barbara was flat on her back. She saw the man raise a fist, but he had stopped just short of bringing it down onto her face. She laid where she was for a moment, catching her breath, eyes locked where she assumed his eyes were. "My name is Barbara Gordon," she said, very clearly. She brought her legs up to her head and swung herself up into a crouched position, still holding herself in a defensive stance. "I'm in New York looking for a murderer. Someone who killed a child's parents and brother 10 years ago."
Then he spoke of the city being infested with the dark. From what she had heard, Gotham's own vigilante, Batman, spoke that way before he disappeared. Obviously this wasn't the towering caped crusader, but ... was he a vigilante? Was he one of the masked fighters that tried to keep the cities safe? "It's never to late to fight the darkness," she said, after a moment's consideration. "You're just making it worse. Killing people only makes things worse for the police. Trying to figure out where the bodies come from and who put them there and who they should have on their watchlist." She glanced back in the direction of the dumpster, thinking carefully. "Who was he? You didn't seem to care he was dead. Some low level criminal that didn't know anything?"
When she looked back at the masked man, she lowered her defensive stance, but didn't lower her guard. He seemed ready to leave, but she still had questions. "Look, I know you have no reason to trust me, and frankly I have no reason to trust you. Back in Gotham, though, we had a guy a lot like you. Worked outside the law to fight the good fight." She prepared herself, just in case he attacked her, though she wasn't sure he was going to. "I don't know this city and you do. Would you help me?"
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Rorschach
Neutral
Soon there will be war...
Posts: 27
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Post by Rorschach on Jan 26, 2017 18:24:31 GMT -5
Rorschach steadied his grapple gun and lowered it again to his side. Now was not the time for escape. This girl didn't seem to want to fight anymore. He kept his shoulders stiff just in case he had to throw a punch but cracked his neck as he approached the girl again, looking up at her.
"Rorschach." he growled, "Heard of me maybe."
He listened to what the girl was looking for...a murder? Curious. That didn't narrow the search of course. Many a case had been closed prematurely in New York City, especially when it came close to pinning it on either Wilson Fisk or Artie Cade. They'd split the city in two between them, drawing a line in the sand that only occasionally was crossed. And that always ended poorly. Fisk had just recently seemingly gone crazy, admitting to things, being locked up, then being broken out and vanishing in the wind. It made little sense. That's why Rorschach's current night walks were more dedicated to Cade.
Rorschach looked at Barbara curiously.
"The Face," he grunted, "Calls himself that. Or called. Dead now. Drug dealer, had no information on his boss. Worthless. Nobody will miss him. Will be replaced by tomorrow. Business can't suffer."
He holstered his grapple gun and shoved his gloved hands deliberately into the pockets of his trench coat.
"Help you find a murderer? Hurm..." he growled, "Know best place to start. But no place for a little girl."
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Post by Batgirl on Jan 26, 2017 19:04:38 GMT -5
Barbara was glad to see that Rorschach was ready to stop fighting, but neither of them were fully at ease. That was probably safe. She shook her head, indicating that she'd never heard of him, but to be fair news from New York hardly ever reached Gotham. She had to request a lot of information to see what was going on with the NYPD, and even then she had to do so without her father finding out.
Then he said he knew the best place to start. Immediately, she was filled with hope, but it was quashed with his jibe about it being no place for a "little girl." Barbara snarled, trying to remind herself to keep her temper under control. Vigilante or not, this man had just killed someone in front of her.
"Forgive me if I'm wrong," she halfway hissed, "but I've knocked you down once or twice already this evening. I'm not a little girl. I can handle myself." She stood defiantly, hands in her coat pockets. Her gaze went back to the building where the graffiti was and she walked to the edge of the building, looking down at the smiley on the wall. "The guy has done more damage in New York than in Gotham, Rorschach. I made a promise that I'd find him. This poor girl has lived in fear for 10 years because of him. I can't let her live like that anymore."
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Rorschach
Neutral
Soon there will be war...
Posts: 27
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Post by Rorschach on Jan 27, 2017 2:35:56 GMT -5
Rorschach grunted, not one for apologies. He didn't flinch at her snarl nor acknowledge her counter to his comment.
It didn't much matter. Not much did. Much.
His eyes followed hers to the smiley on the wall. He had seen those himself more times than he could count. He had no data on it thusfar.
"All over the city," he grunted, moving closer to the edge of the rooftop, but not far enough to be seen from the street, "No clues. Cops took the bullet casings and removed evidence. Dirty cops. Puppets."
He looked back up at Barbara.
"Ms. Gordon," he growled, stepping closer to her, "Will take you where you need to go. Now that you're in Cade's territory. Squeeze answers out of him...start somewhere. Start twisting arms."
The thought seemed to him to be a pleasing one. It was late. The bar was probably filtering out its last customers. He had never had enough to go on with either the smiley bullet holes or anything else, but either Cade would talk or one of his people might. If they had anything to give up.
Cade was just another hood after all. Just wore a nicer suit.
Rorschach nodded to the ladder heading down to the stairwell again and made his descent, sliding on his heels and with his hands down the railings expertly until he landed softly on the street below.
No reason to trust this girl either, he considered. Could be a trap.
He kept this in the back of his mind.
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Post by Batgirl on Feb 3, 2017 23:18:10 GMT -5
It hadn't exactly escaped Barbara's attention that Rorschach dropped the subject of her being a little girl. She was glad. Frankly, she put up with enough of that kind of attitude from the police department, and she wasn't prepared to deal with it from someone she didn't know. She knew she could take the vigilante in a fight, and she'd take him down if she needed to. She didn't need to prove that she wasn't a little girl, but she certainly could if it came down to it.
There was a small sense of satisfaction, hearing that the smilies were all over the city, but that satisfaction was completely replaced by an overwhelming feeling of reality. Of course there were dirty cops in New York. That wasn't native to Gotham City by any means. Just as she was starting to curse the cops that took money from criminals, she realized she could ask one of the higher-ups some questions. A sergeant, maybe. It was something to keep in mind for her trip to the NYPD tomorrow.
She followed Rorschach down in the same manner, sliding down the ladder until she landed on the ground. It did dawn on her that she could be following him blindly into a trap. She was willing to trust him to lead her to ... wherever it was they were going, even after she just witnessed him kill a man and fist fought him on a roof. Still, he'd had opportunity to kill her, so maybe he really was fighting the good fight. Maybe he really was, in his own way, a hero. Either way, she had no other friends in the city, and she needed help. She had to accept help where she could.
"Cade, huh?" She thought for a moment. "Artie Cade, right? We've heard about him in Gotham, but we don't really have any information on him. Most of the detectives decided he's not worth their time, or something. What do I need to know about him?"
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Rorschach
Neutral
Soon there will be war...
Posts: 27
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Post by Rorschach on Feb 4, 2017 16:50:08 GMT -5
Rorschach shuffled along in the shadows, not at a terribly brisk pace so that the girl might keep up.
She could be useful. Could hold herself in a fight. Meat shield maybe if things got rough in the Wicked Suit.
Maybe.
Or let her loose in there while he went to look for Cade. Also possible.
Hm.
"Arthur Nelson Cade," he growled in reply as they walked, "Drug trafficker. Weapons manufacturer here in the city. Murderer. Criminal kingpin. Splits the city with Wilson Fisk. Fisk is no longer around. No clues why. Confessed to a crime, supposedly blew up part of Coney Island. Cade's territory. Was arrested. Fisk broke out of jail that same night. Hasn't been seen since."
He stopped and looked up at the night sky, the streetlamp above him lighting his mask and showing the shapes shift in and out.
"Two new faces cropped up in last week in bullets," he went on as he shuffled onward, "Fisk is out. No other larger gangs in the city. Could be connected to Cade. Runs a bar nearby called the Wicked Suit. Best place to get information when you want it. Pretty girl. Might talk to you more than me."
He rounded a corner and stopped, holding up a hand to Barbara behind him and nodding ahead a block down. There it was. The Wicked Suit. Red sign flashing and the interior red leathers all bouncing off the lights within quite dramatically. It was a smokey place, but not raucous. A quiet place for the criminal underbelly to gather and take a load off.
Rorschach had heard about a back room where Artie might do more of his intimate dealings, but had never made it beyond the door. Even without his mask.
"Have to sneak in." he growled.
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Post by Batgirl on Feb 6, 2017 0:21:53 GMT -5
It was .... interesting, to say the least, being taken seriously. Or, at least that's what it felt like was happening. Honestly, Barbara wasn't sure if she would know if she was being taken seriously if someone spelled it out for her. It happened so rarely. But she wasn't being talked down to. Everything was spoken plain, so there could be no confusion. It felt nice, and she realized Rorschach was the first person to really talk to her like she could make a difference. Whether he meant it or not, it meant a great deal to her.
She took in everything that was said, and processed it carefully. So it was a turf war. "Sounds like a setup," she said, more to herself. "I have no idea how Cade would be able to pull it off, but it sounds like he set Fisk up to take the fall and set up the whole confession and escape. But how the heck would he pull it off...?" Maybe she'd look into it later. Right now, she had her priority case. Cade wasn't who she was after, as far as she knew. But it was good to know he was a dangerous man. Especially if Fisk hadn't been seen and the faces were still appearing. Maybe it was someone that worked for him. It was naive to think she could get an audience with Cade to ask if he had any stray hitmen that might have killed a family in Gotham 10 years ago, but it gave her a place to start.
When they rounded the corner, the Wicked Suit definitely caught her eye. There were a couple of places like that in Gotham, but Barbara had never dared set foot in one of them. Even now, she was a little wary. Her stomach churned at the very thought, but she had to put the thought from her mind. Work had to be done. When Rorschach spoke, Barbara glanced at him, eyebrow quirked. "Why? Can't we just use the front door?"
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