The Litmus incident

Cassius raised an eyebrow but proceeded with business as usual. "Satelite pictures, traffic cam pictures, anything that will take us a step forward, I'm not picky right now." Cassius requested of Alice.

Jenga, havign finally regained feeling in his face, waltzed over to Dani. "Whatcha' looking at?" he asked her curiously.

"To be honest, I've got no idea." Dani replied, tilting her head as she stared at a particularly complex looking device. She didn't look Jenga in the eye, afraid she wouldn't be able to do so without recalling and laughing at his failure with Alice. "What do you think that is?"

"I'm getting stuff right now. I can patch into your feed and give you information and everything." Alice said as the screen behind her began gathering general satellite picture, the outside of boarding homes and streets appeared onscreen. "Before you go, tell me why you want me to get drunk."

"Doesn't look to good to me." Dommino said as she leaned on Cassius out of boredom. They were close since he had been the one to help her get into SHARP. "Hopefully security won't be too bad, which I highly doubt." she sighed. "any word on the condition of the kids now?" she asked, hopeful that they could hold up on their own until they were rescued.

"Either they're in perfect condition or they're chopping them to death one by one with an axe." Oracle said as a picture came up with a shed. Several men were in it. One with an axe, one in flashy clothing, one going by the name Falcon.

Cassius squinted at the pictures. He recognized the grim, hellish look of Falcon from a mile away. The fact that muscle like falcon was involved meant that this just became a very dangerous case. The guy with the Axe could have been anybody- probably some paid goon or something. But the flashy one was what disturbed Cassius. He looked important, but for the love of him Cassius couldn't put a name to him. "That one, do you recognize him?" Cassius asked Alice, pointing to the image of the flashy one. He would have answered the booze question with that he was simply just doing something nice, but bigger issues had taken priority now.....

Jenga shrugged. Looks just like a..... a..... machine thing, to me." Jenga said. He didn't pretend to know machinery that well, nameley because he didn't.

"Huh..." Oracle thought scanning the picture, she zoomed in and brought up files. "Well if I had to guess if it was anyone it would be Harvey Dent without his scars. I don't recognize him and the computer's not picking anything up." She said. "Odd. These satellites should have a facial recognition for every person on the face of the earth. Must have had a recent face change or something. You know like what Basil Karlo did? I'll search everyone who had a recent face change in the last week. My satellites should be be able to track him down. Are you almost ready to get out of my house now or do you all want to stay here till I grow older than I already am?"

"Agreed." Dani nodded to Jenga, leaving the machine alone. She turned her attention to the picture on the screen, analyzing the faces. Trying to store them into her memory. If she's going to meet them on the battle field, best to get an idea of the competition.

Battle field! Don't think of it like that. We stun. Don't kill. she had to remind herself. Her thoughts didn't linger on that for long, when Oracle spoke she began to dread heading into the death trap of a car.

"Huh, you know those goons, big guy?" Dommino walked over and examined the image. Flacon looked like the only tough guy, the others could probably taken down in a matter of seconds. "Well, if we're gonna head out, lets go!" she straightened up and walked towards the exit.

"Yeah, we've ruffled the old lady here long enough." Cassius said, taunting Alice. "Anyways, haven't changed my frequencies in 16 years, I'm sure you can get ahold of us if you need to. Keep us posted." He said, getting to his feet and plodding for the door.

However, careful eyes were watching them- the kind of eyes behind a sniper scope.....

"I can contact you even if you did change your frequency." Oracle said as Cassius and his group walked out the doors.

Rook opened the garage door and gasped. "Wow.. she gave us the keys to that?" Rook asked observing the APC with Bat symbols on it. "I wonder what she used it for. No way she could drive this thing." Reaper remarked kicking one of it's eight tires. "Nice." He whispered.

"Well, I call shotgun since it looks like one of you guys will be driving." Dommino said before walking towards the passenger side door, unaware of the impending doom around them.

Karmy was slumped down on the sofa in the living room, Jaime curled up in his blanket on her stomach. She had one hand resting on him and another over her eye's. In the background, she could hear Casey and Jade's video game playing almost too well, ruining the nap she was having. With a groan, she reached over to her bag, which was laying next to her on the floor, and pulled out her cell phone. Hey Al

Alice must have adopted a peculiar sense of curiosity being around Karmy for so long, she had her phone resting on her eyelid to see how it would be like if her phone was an eye patch. She had her head resting back to keep it balanced when it violently buzzed. Alice fell out of her wheel chair and onto the floor. Her headset had also come off and her laptop crashed to the floor which was once resting on her lap. She picked up the phone to see who it was. Holy crap! You scared me!

Karmy couldn't help but give a tired smile as she read the text. Making sure it was set on silent so as not to wake up Jaime, though, she was sure that the video game noises would eventually, she texted Alice back and set the phone down where she could see the light from the text.

Heh, sorry buddy, woulda texted you earlier but I fell asleep. What... How'd I scare you?

Alice got back on her wheel chair and inspected the damage on her laptop. It was in great condition still and that was a relief. Her phone buzzed again.

I'd rather not talk about it. What's up? Where's your hubby?

Karmy was stroking Jaime's soft hair and humming a lullaby in hope's to keep him asleep. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the light from the phone and she reached for it, still humming.

Not much, Jade showed up n now her n Casey are playing video games VERY loudly. And he's working a double shift today, gonna help show the rookie the ropes.

Alice had finished cleaning her own mess when she got the next text message.

Ah, that's cool I guess. Your cousin just popped by with his motly crew not 10 min ago. Gave me a bottle of Jim Beam.

Karmy tilted her head at the message. Why was Cassius visiting Alice? The Batclan and the Ropers hadn't been on great terms for a long time, and Karmy had been in the middle ever since, not wanting to choose a side but keep both close. As close as moving to Alaska can get.

Mhmm.. And huh, that's odd. Man, he gave you a bottle of that? That's some good stuff right there.

Alice sat alone, starring at her phone waiting for the next text message to come up. She wished it was night time so Batman, Inc could go back in business..

Well of course I had to pay for it. That loser Jenga was trying to rape me or something... Of all the guys to like a cripple, huh?

Karmy rolled her eye's with a smirk and picked up her phone to tex- "MOM!!" Casey came running in, shouting his head off. and can you guess who else started up? Jaime woke up crying and screaming. "Jaime, aw no baby it's alright!" Karmy cooed, rocking him back and forth as she sat up. "Oh dang, sorry mom." Casey apologized, rubbing the back of his head. "It's alright.. What did you need?" she asked patiently, still trying to calm down Jaime. "Oh, just wanted to know where the soda was. Couldn't find it and Psy n me are thirsty."

"Oi, I put it in the cupboard, there was no room in the fridge." Karmy said as she got up to walk around in circles. "Thanks mom!" Casey grinned before running off again. With one hand, Karmy rubbed her head as the noise from the other room started up agian.

Hey, do you think I can pop over for a bit? As much as I love my son and my niece, they can be very loud when it comes to video games and Jaime doens't like the noise.

Alice looked around for her pants which she ingloriously threw off when Cassius left. Gimmie a second. Alice texted rolling around in her wheel chair trying to look for any pair of pants now. Oh what the hell, come on over.

After receiving the text, Karmy quickly sent another text out to Robert, telling him where she would be. He was always worried if he didn't know where she was. "Casey!" she called out to him. "I'm going over to Alice's house, call me if you need me!" she slung her bag around her shoulder and cradled Jaime in her arm's. "C'mon sweety," he wasn't screaming anymore, just crying. "let's go see auntie Alice." she smiled down at him before snapping her fingers. Obviously not wanting to agitate him even more with the jolt from falling, Karmy made the portal right side up so she could walk through. "Hai Al." she greeted with a smile before waving the portal close. She was wearing a plain white t-shirt and her pajama bottoms. "Haha, pantless I see?"

"Oh shut up its pantsless night at the CB from 8 to 10. Maybe I'll have a chance of getting laid there." Alice rebuked rolling her wheel chair around still in search of her pants regardless. "So why did you want to pop by?" She asked.

"Is it a problem that I wanna see my best buddy?" Karmy grinned as she plopped down with Jaime and pulled out his bottle. "Sorry, just needed to get out for a bit, it's too early over there for video games. Good thing Casey only has two more weeks before we start up his lessons again." she sighed as she started to feed Jaime.

"Oh right, well I have some news regarding schooling. Well I mean Alice Grayson is going to Public school this year so naturally I'll be more open." Alice explained. She had been good at homeschooling and teaching scheduals and making sure they never overlapped. She use to teach Nicole, and The Graysons have been keeping in close contact with her, she had been teaching Alice and Bruce along side with their parents.