Sixth Night [Action, Voice]

[cowledcrusader]

 [It's been a long couple of weeks.  Between falling trees, killer butterflies, a rash of disappearances with most who returned telling the same story, there was enough to keep the Dark Knight busy behind the scenes.  But it gets better.  Green Lantern, Terra, Hellboy, and Adell had brought in Kefka of all people as a prisoner into the tunnels.

Comments

[orchidsandfire]

[Guess who just barges into his room and sits on a random chair? Batman's probably deduced by now that that level of familiarity just wasn't there at the point when she was exiled from Themyscira.]

What are you up to now?

[cowledcrusader]

[Batman raises an eyebrow at this, but doesn't immediately protest. That level of familiarity was slowly making itself more obvious over time. So he'll just roll with it and then look back into his microscope. He's studying that Tease corpse.]

Still analyzing one of those butterflies you brought back.

[orchidsandfire]

Still? [She stands up and peers over his shoulder. It just looks like a torn-apart butterfly to her.] Have you found out anything useful?

[cowledcrusader]

...It was never alive to begin with. Its wings and exoskeleton aren't like anything I've ever seen before. Can't be sure of its composition. This equipment doesn't have sufficient magnification for me to know for sure.

[He switches off the light on the microscope and frowns slightly.]

These were definitely created by someone. I'm not ready to rule magic out.

[The word "magic" carries a tone of disgust with it, in a way. Zatanna's magic was one thing, but true sorcery to create abominations like this? Really left a sense of frustration. Damn near everything here was magical somehow.]

[orchidsandfire]

It wasn't alive? ...So is it some sort of robot? [It certainly seemed alive when it tried to bite her.] Perhaps the butterfly is just an alien form we aren't familiar with.

[Also, she frowns at his tone when he brings up magic. While she's had some unpleasant experiences with it, she's lived with it her whole life. Heck, she was created by magic. But she does understand his frustration.]

[cowledcrusader]

[Not that he really knows about how she was created with magic. Yet, anyway. But he shakes his head.]

No, there are no electronics in it at all. It appears to just be animated, and programmed with a single desire to consume living matter. Humans seem to be its preference.

But the perplexing thing is there appears to be no living matter in it at all. Look.

[He turns the microscope back on and slides out of the way so she can see. When she looks at it, she'll see... whatever Tease are made out of. But even that doesn't look like it was ever alive to begin with.]

[orchidsandfire]

[She looks into the microscope. Whatever she sees disturbs her. It was unnatural. And wrong.]

Why would someone desire to do something like this?

[cowledcrusader]

They don't appear to gather any sort of resources. They're simply made to kill. So someone would likely use these for assassination. Or to send a message to someone.

[orchidsandfire]

[Why don't they just write a letter like normal people.D:]

It seems this place isn't as peaceful as I had thought.

[cowledcrusader]

Unfortunately, it isn't. There are several individuals here just looking for trouble.

They'll find it with us. Kefka already has, though that was a team effort between John and a handful of others.

[orchidsandfire]

[Yes. She always misses the good fights. Wait till she hears that the boys got drafted while she'll have to remain here and be a good housewife and wait for them to come home.]

Speaking of Kefka, do you need help with him?

[cowledcrusader]

If he proves uncooperative. But there's not much I hope to learn from him. He's nearly as delusional as the Joker. And I'm working on security countermeasures in the event of his escape. Or someone trying to break him out.

[orchidsandfire]

I could take a few security shifts if you want.

[cowledcrusader]

[...Normally he would say no, that he could handle it. But he had a lot of other things to do.]

...That would be helpful. I'll show you how to deal with the security I put into place tomorrow.

[orchidsandfire]

[Well, color her a little shocked at his accepting her offer.]

All right. [She glances at all the things in his workroom.] You've been keeping yourself busy.

[cowledcrusader]

...It's been difficult not having the equipment I'm used to.

[Which is to say, he's clearly getting along, but it's more frustrating to deal with the inferior equipment and the difficulties to get the answers and subtleties he's used to seeing. Also, not having a database for personal files? That sucks.]