business as usual?

[owwmyspine]

WHO: Selina, Jaime
WHERE: Out, about
WHEN: Tack it on for a super late night one of these days!
WARNINGS: Idk yet gosh
SUMMARY: Seriously this is the one time he's NOT looking for burglars to bust he just wants to get his paper done on time
FORMAT: No

Comments

[owwmyspine]

He kind of expected this. Computer-slash-electronic stores were typically nine-to-fivers. Or sixers, the ones more sympathetic to people with nine-to-five lives. And it was almost two in the morning. So, really, it was more salt in the wound to fly over places he knew were closed, pretending somehow one of the managers would be doing stock late and take mercy on his poor, procrastinating college soul. He could always throw the superhero card out and say it was to help save the world, anyway.

It was just a stupid idea, though, and Jaime had practically forgotten about it when Scarab relayed a heat signature inside the nearest repair shop. That's...not normal. Even he knew his wishful thinking was no doubt just that.

He landed on a building two spaces away and a stack of stories higher and squinted, getting the full range of Scarab scanners to scope out the situation.

Managers don't rifle and bag stuff like that. He's pretty sure. Not decent managers, anyway. And they certainly don't head up to leave...

He grew his wings again and stepped off the ledge, drifting up before starting to do a fly around and land before there was a good chance to get out of sight.

Closer, Scarab offered one more helpful clip of information: meowingcat.wav.

Jaime thought it was more disruptive than helpful at the time, but in hindsight, it was very clever. Distant hindsight. Swapping vision channels to actually see the outfit the lady was sporting was the real kicker--

Oh.

OH, WAIT.

"Catwoman," he blurted, low enough in altitude to be heard. "Really?"

[meowminx]

"Beetle," she replied, looking more amused than annoyed. She even tipped him a little wave. The rooftops and sky had always been a bit crowded in the City. "Hey."

[owwmyspine]

The impulse return wave is halted fairly quickly, because, dammit, this is not a courtesy call.

"Yyyeah, hi," Jaime drags out, tilting his head and squinting. "What exactly are you doing here? At this particular place and time?"

[meowminx]

"Stopping crime, of course." Isn't it obvious, Jaime? Why else would she be breaking and entering.

"And yourself?"

[owwmyspine]

"Not really seeing that," he admitted, just as quickly shaking his head of it and folding his arms. More authoritative, he thinks.

It doesn't really work around someone like Selina, however. It just doesn't. But he carried on anyway.

"Is there a story behind this store or something? Because..."

[meowminx]

"Run by the bad guys." From her tone, it's clear she expected that to be obvious. "What, you don't trust me after all this time?"

[owwmyspine]

Jaime's reply was hasty, a little on-the-spot at the jab. So much for arm-folding; his hand went to the back of his neck as he peers at the roof - through and inside.

"It's not like I can just turn off my common sense when I see someone jacking in and out of some place like this, you know." Of course, even rambling like that was proof of the benefit of doubt; she helped Abby, after all. He landed, a little heavily by losing the wings a couple feet up. "What was it that needs pilfering?"

[meowminx]

"Information." She looked at him, a slight tilt of her head. The goggles hid her eyes but she appeared to be thinking. And studying him.

[owwmyspine]

And he, in return, was doing likewise, though his mask did a lousy job of hiding any expression at all.

"You know," he said, his head tilting, "I kind of am in the possession of info-crunching tech right here. If whatever you need out of there can be peeled off, transcribed, and put back..."

[meowminx]

"Perhaps altered and put back?" she replied, smirking a bit. "Don't want to make things too easy for them."

[owwmyspine]

"Or," he pressed, "give them - if these are bad guys - any excuse to cry foul for having their junk jacked. Yeah?" Because really, he had no idea what lead she was working on. Bad defined a broad scope of things and people working in and out of the City.

He held out his hand. "Can I see?"

[meowminx]

"If they're given the wrong location and that address happens to be passed off to the cops.."

She only hesitate a moment before passing off the bag. There's a couple dozen flash drives inside.

[owwmyspine]

Jaime fished around and picked up one of the drives, pinching it between a finger and his thumb and bringing it closer to his face. With a couple blinks, he gives Scarab the chance to see inside-out. Guess I shouldn't be surprised it's normal enough, he thought, moving it away from his eye. It's what's in the inside that counts.

"Oh, here--" To free up his other hand, he held the bag back out for Selina, as simply as if he were just exchanging grocery bags or something. "I bet I can just..." Two of his fingers melded together and flattened out, the tip altering. "Oh, cool. That'll work. So let's see..."

He plugged the drive in...into his fingers, which was weird only if he stopped to think about it. Squinting, he let the suit feed in the data and send it out, expanding a hologram screen for the both of them to see.

[meowminx]

Selina's eyes skated over the details. Names, times, addresses, numbers. "You are handy, aren't you?" she murmured as she read.

[owwmyspine]

Maybe a little too handy. He grimaced at the lists of private details, starting to feel really underhanded.

"You're...positive this is bad guy stuff, right?" he asked. "Because if it's not, and we're just kind of nosing around in other people's business..."

[meowminx]

"Human trafficking bad enough for you?" Her voice was cold. It was something she'd seen a few too many time in the City.