The Darkest of Knights

"Yes." Dick looked directly in Nicole's eyes. "If you don't forgive him, you'd better go ahead and plant it back in the corner."

[May I begin to post as Ra's yet?]

Cassius raised an eyebrow at Dick scolding Robin and Nicole like little kids. He considered piping up with some joke about a lover's quarrel, but, uncharacteristically, he shot the idea down. It was odd..... he never honestly had to scold his children, except pretty much once or twice with Cyrah these past few years. His son was raised by a stranger he hardly liked, and his Daughter grew up allmost entireley without him. For all purposes, they were strangers. To watch another man act fatherly was...... alien to Cassius. He procured his emergy rations [a flask of booze] and indulged himself.......
[sorry, I needed a depressing post]

Karmy had snuck off from the rest of the group, still feeling a bit sick, when she ran into Cassius. "Hey Cass..." she waved to him and plopped down against the wall near him. Seeing him drink was something normal to Karmy now. "Mind if I join you? I could really use an escape right now."

[Yesh! Please bring in Ra's! Though... I have no idea where he lives o_o..]

"Glad you can cooperate." Damian said reaching out and shaking Nicole's hand. "Great, now lets talk about finding your grandfather Damian." Dick smiled clapping his hands together, wanting to get to work so they could save his first apprentice. "Zero is depending on us. So if you cooperate with us, then I'll reward you." Dick promised. "Oh yeah? Like reward me with what?" Damian asked folding his arms as it was getting interesting. "Your reward is not harshly punishing you for abandoning Barbara back when she was trying to save you from Slade." Dick said lightly punching his hand into his fist. "Gotcha, that works. You have a phone I can use?"

Alice watched her friend ready to drink till she drops. She promised herself that she wouldn't drink with Karmy again because the last time she did, she wrecked the Batmobile. One of them has to be sane. Nevertheless, Alice walked up and sat next to Karmy.

Karmy rooted through the lantern bag but couldn't find any booze. "Fffuu.." she guessed that neither Casey nor Zero drank. Not a good image for her that she was disappointed at that. "Hey Al, wouldn't happen to have any booze on ya huh?" she asked, not looking up.

"Nope, no booze here. I think if anyone has it Cass stored some up in the Bat-ship before we left." Alice said leaning over the bar. "Though, Dick isn't really known for stashing booze on trips. You can try the fridge; though I doubt that Cyborg or Tim drink." Alice said pointing to the small fridge.

"Doubt that.." Karmy looked longingly at Cassius's drink. "Haven't really been resting all that much since we got here. Some vacation.." she huffed. "c'mon Cas... Need something."

[Uhm, that's the thing- Ra's has more then one potential perch. I'm settling for the clifftop mansion type-deal from Under the Red Hood, that one was classy. It's not far from Gotham- Bruce was able to get there and back to Gotham without too much time passing.]

Ra's Al Ghul. For at least ten lifetimes had he walked this world. Well, maybe ten- he stopped keeping track during the Black Plauge. Ah well, the details were trite. In his black suit and cloak, he stood upon the balcony of his estate. Ah, it seemed just yesterday the Detective had dragged him onto this balcony to inquire about the resurection of his second student. He almost missed Wayne- when he heard of his passing at the hands of Redeemer, he felt he had lost his one worthy Adversary. In his whole long life, nobody had stood in his way quite like him. But now the baton had been passed, but it was too early to fairly state if this new detective was worthy of Ra's praise. But time would tell.
It allways did.

Cassius raised an eyebrow. "No booze for YOU, least in YOUR condition." He said in a scolding fashion. With how the bag had affected he rin its absence, Casisus didn't find it a grand idea to put liquor in Karmy's system.

Slade, sure enough, made it to the top of th eelevator and emerged in Thorne's office. "Evening, Thorne." He said, his eyes instantly locking on the black box on Thorne's desk. "I have my part of the bargain here:" Slade said, waving the datadisk. "I trust you have yours?" He said, not doubting for a moment that Thorne did.

"C'mon Cass, I really need an escape." Karmy pleaded, falling to her knees in a begging position. She was pretty much degrading herself in front of a person she, by now, considered to be a father figure and her best friend, but she didn't care. She just wanted something to make the pain stop, to make everything seem alright. "Please Cas.."

"Find your escape somewhere else." Alice suggested looking away.

Damian dialed the number he thought was his 600 year old grandfather and looked at the bats, their arms crossed. Starring him down.

Karmy thought for a moment. "Alright then." she stood up. "I know someone who can help me with that." she said and headed for the door.

"Uhh.. Who's that?" Alice asked looking back.

As Deathstroke arrived at the penthouse lair of the infamous mobster, Rupert Thorne was already seeing company. A large round man well into his later year stood in front of the mob boss's desk, and didn't seem too happy about it.

"There, happy? That's everything the GCPD's got on this John Corben fella." The man tossed a vanilla folder onto the crime lord's desk, and put his hands back into his heavy brown duster coat. "Can I leave now?"

Thorne flipped through the folder lightly, just giving the contents a light look over. "Well it is a promising start, but you owe more than a few papers my friend... Still I suppose this is enough to, have your line of credit restored. I'll tell Marcus to let you play as much as you like, now if you please. I have other business."

The heavy man growled and ground his teeth, cursing under his breath as he turned his back to the mob and headed to the elevator, his hands firmly locked in his coat pockets.

Karmy turned and gave Alice a nervous look. "Uh... Never mind." she sweat dropped. "Crap.." she muttered under her breath and sat back down next to Alice. "Nothing, forget it."

Cassius was, in fact, about to hand off his flask to Karmy- he knew as well as anybody the need for an escape at times. But Her discussion with Alice beat him to it, and he simply sucked down another few swigs.

Ras was continuing to meditate on his balcony when his thoughts were interupted by the phone in his pocket. He had become familiar iwht modern technology, even if he wasn't fond of it. He didn't quite recognize the number, but anybody who had HIS number deserved an answer at the very least. "Hello, Ra's Al Ghul speaking." He said levelheadedly.

Slade raised an eyebrow at the man departing. The name John Corben was familiar, but he couldn't put a face to the name right now- he had his mind occuppied by other...... things. He didn't bother to ask- it wasn't his place, and he frankly wasn't too concerned with Thorne's plans unless he was involved. He still held the datadisk, waiting for Thorne to acknowledge his presence. So close to his unihexium, Slade could wait. He had all the time in the world.

[gonna be out most of today, y'all know what to do, just don't do anything TOO major without me o3o]

Karmy knew how Cassius got after a certain amount of liquor so she waited for the exact moment to strike. After a bit, she suddenly snatched the bottle out of Cassius' hand and proceeded to chug. Seeing that Karmy's a lightweight, it only took half a bottle to send her off. Now, she was curled up on the floor, bawling like a baby.

Alice stood up abruptly looked at Karmy's drunken state. Her sudden action alarmed everyone in the room. "Screw it. I tried." She said walking out. Dick looked at Barbara confused. "Maybe you should.." He started. "I'll take care of her. You focus on Ra's." Barbara said walking in the same direction Alice took off.

"Okay. Just be polite Damian." Dick said carefully. "Yeah, yeah." He responded to Dick and turning to the phone he spoke into it. "Yo gramps. Recognize my voice?" He asked. Dick facepalmed.

Ivy released the cuffs off a Crimson. "If he shows trust in us, we can show trust in him." She stated, knowing Luna's mind probing abilities had never failed them yet. Her stomach growling in protest, she gave a small laugh and took Zero's hand to guide him. "Breakfast anyone?" The girl inquired, pausing at the door to see who would join her.

Ra's couldn't decide wether to grin or grimace at the sound of his grandson's voice. "Why yes, I do recognize your voice, child." Ra's said on the phone. He knew of his grandson, he wasn't calling to shoot the breeze with his supercriminal grandfather- he wanted something. "Tell me, what is it you want?" He asked, cutting to the quick.

Cassius took a look at Karmy and sighed. "Oy vey, child....." He mumbled. Ah well- if liquor took it's hold on karmy this quick, she ought to be powernapping any time, and lord knew sleep would be good for her.

Zero couldn't help but feel giddy at the sound of Ivy's laughter and her taking his hand. He didn't jesitate to follow after her, practically glued to her side. "Lead the way, doll." He said, carefuly planting a quick peck on her cheek.

Karmy stumbled around the room, drunk out of her mind, and started to recite one of Shakespears most famous soliloquys, "To Be, or not to be, that is the question." but seeing as she had never heard the whole speech through and she was plastered, it came out pretty messed up. In fact, most of it consisted of her using the word 'something' over and over again until she remembered a random line. Poor Shakespeare rolled over in his grave. Finally, she ended with "Be all my sins something with that something." she pointed to her head and then proceeded to pass out.

"So I've got this friend who went blind and I'm wondering if we can take him to your hot tub." Damian blabbed as Dick smashed his head into the table, mumbling something about respect and honor.

"Hey Alice." Barbara called catching up to her. "I don't want to talk about it." Alice said swiping her hand over to Barbara. "What is it?" Barbara continued to pressure. "None of your concern."
"Just talk to me."
"What are we doing now?"
"About what your issue is."
"Karmy's never acted like this before. Look, get away from me."
Alice then shut the door to Terra's room in front of Barbara.

Thorne tucked the folder into his desk drawer, and waved for Deathstroke to step over. "Ah perfect timing my friend. I have your unihexium right here." The crime lord placed a hand on the metal box just beside his cigar box. "I have to say it was a little more difficult to obtain than I had been expecting, but not so much trouble that I couldn't obtain it." Thorne leaned back, removing his cigar from the ash tray and placing it between his lips. "I have to admit, I'm a little concerned. You're not going to use this to irradiate the city are you?" He chuckled a little, only half joking though. If the city was going down, Thorne wanted at least a week notice, he had things to move, planes to catch, plans to change, that sort of thing.

Slade gave a cocky grin to himsefl under his armored plating. "Oh no, not irradiate." Slade said. "This is for something more...... personal." Slade said, still greedily gazing at the box Thorne had. He took the disk and held it up. "Here you go, plans for the suit." He said, placing the disk on Thorne's desk and sliding it to him. He waited for Thorne to hand over the box patiently......

Ra's al Ghul raised an eyebrow. "And here I thought you wren't a funnyman. Really, giving one of my coveted possesions to a stranger? Truly, a grand jest." Ra's said, giving a rare chuckle. "This is a joke....... right?"

"This isn't a joke gramps, I-" Dick couldn't take it anymore. "Ra's, look I'm sorry for his behavior. But you have to sympathize with us. This is Dick Grayson. The man we want to help is my first student." Dick said, "We'll be indebted to you Ra's. His sight is more valuable to him than anything." "Hey! That was so rude. Taking the phone from me in midsentence. Can you believe his manners?"