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[sub][ [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4965106]Prev[/url] ]  [color=#9fc5e8]“[b]FEAT OF CLAY[/b], Part VIII”[/color]  [ [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4998469]Next[/url] ][/sub][/center][COLOR=steelblue][INDENT][B][SUP][SUB][H3]B L Ü D H A V E N[/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/B][/INDENT][hr][/COLOR][INDENT][INDENT][sup][color=goldenrod]Blüdhaven Police Headquarters[/color][/sup][/INDENT]
[color=silver]Cissy Chambers was looking rough when Dick came inside the precinct. 

It was around five in the morning. Once upon a time, Dick had gotten up at four o’clock to go to the gym. Then, over time, stopped going to the gym and just made his way into the office. [s]Toyboy[/s] Jason hadn’t returned yet, so Dick hadn’t been able to get a debrief on just what he’d missed while he’d been asleep.

Looking at Cissy’s face now, though, he had a feeling that he was about to hear all about the Toy Wonder’s adventures of the last twelve hours. [color=#9fc5e8]“Don’t tell me we’ve got another kidnapping on our hands,[/color]” Dick deadpanned dryly, tucking his hands into the pockets of his trenchcoat as he stood there, looking over at the visibly distressed lieutenant.

“What?” Cissy uttered, breaking out of her brooding to cast a look over his way. When she realized what he was asking, she just shook her head. “No.”

[color=#9fc5e8]“Murder?”[/color]

“A mugging,” the woman stated finally.

[color=#9fc5e8]“Sounds like the crime of the century,”[/color] Dick joked grimly, taking a step closer so that he could see the files spread out across the woman’s desk.

“It didn’t happen.”

Glancing up, now it was Dick’s turn to ask,[color=#9fc5e8] “What?”[/color]

“The mugging. It didn’t happen,” Chambers remarked in answer, however cryptic. “Someone intervened.”

[color=#9fc5e8]“That sounds like the sort of thing we need more of,”[/color] Dick ventured, settling back against a wall as he waited for the other shoe to drop.

“Four grown men versus one seventy-something coming out of church late at night,” Chambers began, before she started sliding the mug shots across the desk. 

The first thing that Dick noticed was that most weren’t the usual line up. Instead, the photographs were taken inside a hospital.

“One has an arm that’s broken in three places. Nevermind the dislocated shoulder,” Chambers said. “Another has a skull fracture and a concussion, but the third is the real piece of work. Cracked sternum. Three broken ribs. Then had his face impaled by some sort of climbing hook...”

Chambers had his attention now. Dick felt his stomach twist into a knot as his head popped up. Toyboy had used his grapple line to stab somebody in the face?

“...he’s in surgery now. Docs said the eye can’t be saved.”

[b]Correction[/b], Toyboy stabbed somebody in the face with his grapple line [i]and put their eye out?[/i] Swallowing, Dick cleared his throat as he asked, [color=#9fc5e8]“And our seventy-something victim?”[/color]

“Swears an angel from heaven swooped down and saved her ass,” Chambers answered flatly, obviously less than satisfied with that answer.

[color=#9fc5e8]“But you don’t believe in angels,”[/color] Dick ventured aloud.

“It’s the description. She said that he was wearing a cape that was black on one side and gold on the other,” Cissy stated, crossing her arms as she shook her head and added, “Remember when we pulled those kids out of that storage unit? They all said that there had been another kid with them, but none of their stories made any sense. But they all described the same thing. A cape that was black on one side, gold on the other.”

[color=#9fc5e8]“You’re suggesting that there’s a connection between Anton Schott and a mugging?”[/color] Dick asked, feigned skepticism coloring his tone.

“I’m suggesting that we may have another vigilante problem,” Cissy offered, turning her head back toward Dick. “GCPD are already hearing about someone dressed up as Batman. Maybe this is another copy-cat.”

[color=#9fc5e8]“What? Like another what’s his name? Darkwing?”[/color]

“Nightwing,” Cissy said, correcting him. “And I’m worried that its a possibility. The Street Demonz were causing problems near the mall earlier, but someone busted them up before we got there.”

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[color=#ffd700]“And then she was just [i]gone![/i]”[/color]

The same account of the previous evening had a slightly [i]different[/i] re-telling from the doll’s perspective. Having Jason gave Dick a reason to leave work earlier than his usual round-the-clock routine. Otherwise, it was possible that the two would never see each other.

Dick had found the doll lying on the floor, playing Fortnite on his Nintendo Switch. Had he been doing that all day? 

Dick was definitely going to need to do something to occupy Jason’s non-heroing hours. Maybe sign him up for sports? [color=#9fc5e8]“Probably scared out of her wits,”[/color] Dick commented, as Jason finished telling his account of the rumble with the Street Demonz gang. [color=#9fc5e8]“And that’s before some goofy kid in a mask and cape came swooping in.”[/color]

[color=#ffd700]“Hey!”[/color] Jason protested, demanding,[color=#ffd700]“Who’s goofy?”[/color]

Kneeling down so that he was eye-level with the doll, Dick paused as he tried to get his thoughts together. He wasn’t sure just how much good that it would do to be frustrated with a machine. [color=#9fc5e8]“Jason, let me ask you about the muggers,”[/color] he began.

[color=#ffd700]“Okay,”[/color] the boy answered with a shrug.

[color=#9fc5e8]“Three of them were hospitalized with some pretty serious injuries,”[/color] Dick began.

[color=#ffd700]“Three?”[/color] the boy echoed, as though surprised. Then added, [color=#ffd700]“I anticipated two requiring medical assistance.”[/color]

[color=#9fc5e8]“Anticipated.”[/color] Now it was Dick’s turn to play word games. [color=#9fc5e8]“So you meant for it to happen?”[/color]

[color=#ffd700]“There were four opponents in close proximity, three of whom were armed with knives and a fourth armed with a pistol,” [/color]Jason began. [color=#ffd700]“I selected the course of action that produced the lowest risk for both them and the woman that they were threatening.”[/color]

[color=#9fc5e8]“One of them lost an eye,”[/color] Dick said, trying to keep the emphasis on the damage that he’d caused. [color=#9fc5e8]“Another inch and the grapple hook might have killed him.”[/color]

The doll just blinked. It was clearly taking a moment in which to process what Dick had said. Which, Dick could appreciate that at least he could count on the fact that Jason genuinely did [i]listen[/i]. Even if he was as pig-headed as a real boy. 

[color=#ffd700]“He had a knife pressed to the woman’s throat, which he used as a hostage to try and bargain with me. I calculated a seventy percent chance that he would not intentionally cut her throat, but a twenty-seven percent chance that it might happen accidentally,”[/color] the doll explaining, laying out the rather cold and calculating way in which it negotiated interaction. [color=#ffd700]“Extrapolating from that calculus, there was a ninety-three percent chance of death should the carotid artery be damaged. In contrast, my solution posed only a sixteen percent chance of mortality for him, while eliminating the danger in the most expedient way possible.”[/color]

Dick gave a heavy sigh. [i]In other words, Toyboy had chosen the lesser of two evils[/i]. Not an answer that Dick wanted to hear, but he’d been there a few times himself. And he definitely couldn’t negate the fact that the seventy-year old had walked away without a scratch.

[color=#ffd700]“I do not see how it is possible to function if our duty of care is to the criminals,”[/color] the doll noted. Not pointedly, but it still seemed remarkably blunt all the same.

[color=#9fc5e8]“It’s not,” [/color]Dick answered. Even still, there had been a few unwritten rules with Bruce that Dick felt like were lost in translation here. Except, being that they were unwritten rules, Dick wasn’t even sure of how to go about explaining them. [color=#9fc5e8]“Our duty is to the people that we protect. I just wanted to make certain that I understood what your thought process was.”[/color]

Shooting someone in the face with the grapple gun. Why had he never thought of that?

And what would Bruce have done if he had?[/color][/INDENT]