2014-08-05 - Gather All Ye

The Batcave. In this case, it's mostly dark due to lack of occupancy. There is only the trickle of water to hear, the sound of bats chittering, and a rhythmic grunting noise from up by the vast ceiling of the cavern.

Cassandra is dangling from the roof, having found a place when climbing that she could grab with both hands. Weights on her ankles, she's climbed up to that place and, about sixty feet off the ground, she's doing chin-ups with her fingers clenched around some small barely-there rock outcrops. A light sweat on her body, she's not expecting company.

After doing the press conference that morning, Clark had gone in to work for awhile and then hooked up with Kara and Kon. He had mentioned to them about going to talk to Bruce at the cave and they had tagged along with him here. He descends into the cave from the roof exit, the bat computer would let the occupant know of their arrival, but since he had clearance, he wouldn't activate any of the external defenses. He floats down until he's level with Cassandra and offers the woman a smile. "Hi. Batman around anywhere?"

Kara Zor-El has been to the batcave a lot before. She just hadnt been around here a lot -lately.- "Or Alfred? Can I get some of those finger sandwich thingies? I havent been here in a while and I've been sort of dreaming of having more of them." She pauses then waves. "Hey Cass."

Superboy actually hasn't been to the Batcave before, and is basically the only person he spends significant time with that /doesn't/ know just what is OVER the Batcave. He comes in and starts looking around with obvious curiosity. When Kara mentions Cass, he starts looking around, it taking a not insignificant amount of time before he gets distracted. "Why is there a dinosaur?"

Cassandra Cain pulls herself up in smooth motions, rather enjoying the fact that if she slips she'll break both legs when she hits ground. When the flyers show up it kind of ruins the thrill, so she pulls herself upside-down and plants her feet on the rock ceiling, still holding on with her tense fingers. "Batman..does not tell me." She pauses, looking the group over a bit. "I can...cook," she suggests, her voice kind of cracking a bit.

Superman looks over at Kara and shakes his head. "They don't have to make any fuss over us if they don't want to." However, he does float around Cassandra, checking out to see exactly what it is she's doing. He figures that it must be some form of training, but for the life of him, couldn't understand why she'd be doing /this/. He nods and points to the ground. "If he's not here, do you mind if we wait?" He pauses. "Down there?"

"I'm not the only one seeing the dinosaur am I?" Superboy asks, and at the voice, he looks around, and, spotting Cass, he gives a small smile and floats over to place a hand near the girl on the ceiling. "Wait, her name is Cass?" he asks suddenly, looking to Kara, then back to Batgirl.

Kara Zor-El looks at Superman plaintedly. "But... cmon, they're delicious!" She floats over to Cassandra, and whispers, "Everything going okay?" Then looks at Kon. "Yes. There's a dinosaur. Kal has one at the Fortress also. We should get one at Titans Tower too. It's a thing, I guess."

Cassandra Cain says, "Theropod," toward Kon-El, without further dinosaur related explanation. She does grin at him though, pulling one hand free of the roof and saluting when her name is mentioned. She turns a moment towards Superman, and she looks at him calmly and asks, "Cassandra. Who are you?" without the slightest guile, as if she doesn't recognize the outfit Supes is wearing.

Cassandra Cain gives Kara a smile, suddenly holding our her arms to the girl, which releases her grip and allows gravity to re-instate its opinion of her actions.

Kal blinks at Cassandra. For almost a full minute. He couldn't tell if she was serious or joking. He looks down at himself and then back over to her. "Uh..I'm Superman." She seemed to know Kara pretty well and it even seems that she knew Kon, too. He idly scratches his head before he turns to look at the two teens. "She really doesn't know who I am?"

Well, it would, but Superboy is touching the ceiling for a reason. Cassandra's feet cling to the ceiling in a way human feet aren't known to do. There's only a quick jerk of panic to show that Superboy did anything at all. "Geeze Body lan--" he cuts out. "Geeze, Cassandra," he says, tasting the name, "don't scare me like that." He looks down to Superman. "She... might be teasing. I'm not used to her being this talkative." He pauses, and, with a glance to the two people that make whispering pointless. "Carrie told me a bit about what happened," he tells the girl, offering a hand.

Kara Zor-El takes ahold of Cassandra's hand before she can fall. "You're really weird sometimes, Cass. And Kal, she knows who you are. She's just learning to have a sense of humor." She grins a bit as they fly down to the ground and Kara sets Cassandra down.

Cassandra Cain is helped to the floor. She settles to her feet without commenting on whether or not she was joking, and walks to the batcomputer where she hits a couple of buttons without really looking at them. Alfred's voice chimes out from a speaker, asking if there will be guests for tea, as Cassandra waves amiably at the camera on the computer and thumbs behind her at the arrivals. Not much of a talker.

Kal crosses his arms over his chest and floats down to the floor next to Kon. He asides to him. "I don't think I'll ever understand women." Kara and Cassandra reach the ground first, and he follow suit, smiling faintly as his feet tough the floor. "No tea for me, Alfred. But thanks anyway."

Cassandra Cain whaps Kal-El in the shoulder, then tells Alfred over the intercom that they'll all have tea and to please alert Batman that they have guests. It's shorter and kind of stunted, but that's the gist of it. After hitting Superman like a recalcitrant child.

When he's whaped on the shoulder, he looks over at Cass like she struck him with something that actually hurt. His gaze turns to Kara and then Kon in turn and he just shrugs faintly. "Fine." He drifts away from the group as he begins looking around the cave and waiting for Bruce and the rest of his crew to show up.

"I'm good," Kon says to the disembodied butler voice, still taking a look around the place. Unlike most new arrivals, he doesn't need the Robin Costume in the display explained, frowning a bit as his eyes linger on it. He looks back to Cassandra, then to Kal. "That bodes very poorly for me, then. You've got... what, a 30 year head start?" He looks to the Dinosaur again. "Okay, this is going to be a weird question, but has Bart been down here, and did he ride the dinosaur?" he asks of no-one in particular.

Kara Zor-El sits by Cassandra. "So... have you been getting your kung fu mojo back?" she asks, making conversation in the meantime.

Cassandra Cain shakes her head idly, turning away from the computer screen as the screen stops displaying Alfred's handsome face. She leans back against the keyboard, not really worried if she leans on anything important. "Have..a lead," she admits, her face slightly hopeful, and she grabs a towel to wipe the sweat off her shoulders and back.

At that point, Kara is summoned to an emergency and has to leave. She gives an apologetic smile, knowing her family will fill her in on anything that's decided.

A load engine roars into the cave. Twelve headlights cut through the darkness. Each set of three were set into different areas so it may have looked like there were only four. The new batmobile roamed into the cave with four all terrain tires, the sleek black paint that sat juxtaposed against jagged metal. Normally Batman would have made a comment to Red Robin, but the sudden company threw him off. Slowly the hatch slid forward allowing them to exit the vehicle. Getting out Batman glared at the sign of red and blue. It wasn't that they weren't welcomed. Far from it. It was just coming home to find your friend waiting for you in your mancave. The presence was welcomed, but a courtesy call would have been nice.

His blue eyes went between the two of them, "Talk," Batman said in the typical voice. He knew their presence meant it was urgent in some way, shape or form. Walking away from the vehicle his black boots echoed with each step taken toward the computer. Bits of the grey uniform peaked out as the cape swayed a little revealing more of the costume. His eyes went to Cassandra, "Tell me when people are waiting on me next time. Kal, this is Black Bat and Red Robin," he gestured to the two bat-ladies while he gave Superman his attention for a moment.

The Batman is not the only one to arrive in the Cave at the same time. Rocketing through the air on his rocket boots is Batman Beyond, or by his current code name. Redwing. As he rockets into the cave he will land beside the Batmobile his wings fold up onto his back armor. The Sight of Clark and his family makes him smile as he will allow Batman to Address the Situation as he says, "Hey Clark." For the moment Redwing simply leans against the Batmobile relaxing allowing the Boss to handle the serious talk as he listens.

"We've met, Boss, several times," Red Robin states simply as she vaults out of her side of the Batmobile to walk in further. A nod is given to Kara, and she flashes a smile toward Kon before going silent to listen to the explanation herself. The whole El family showing up? Had to be important.

Kal inclines his head towards both women. "We've met." In return he lays his hand on Kon's shoulder. "This is Superboy. Kon-El. My..son." He says before moving towards Bruce. "I apologize for not calling ahead, but I assume you've seen Darkseid's message to the people of Earth, yes? I don't know about Gotham, but people around the world are freaking out. I did a press conference this morning attempting to allay some of their fears, but the fact is we need to make some progress. Avenger mansion is destroyed, and I fear this is only the beginning. I feel like we're not making any headway against this guy." He pauses when a Batman that he's never met addresses him by his actual name. His entire body tenses as he attempts to see the face behind the cowl with his x-ray vision. "I don't believe I've had the pleasure.." He says towards Terry.

Terry's Beyond Suit is shielded against X-ray vision. Hell even The X-ray won't pass the surface layer of the Tech as Redwing can only just barely resist a smile. Slowly he starts to approach the Man of Steel and then pulls back the Cowl to show his face and offers his hand. "Terry McGinnis, AKA Redwing it's a pleasure." For now he doesn't offer up any more information.

Redwing was given a look. Heroes didn't out other heroes identities. Shaking his head "No" at Redwing. "Kal. Redwing is from the future. What he lacks in manners he makes up for in heart. He presumes that because he's from the future and knows people there...that everyone else recognizes him here," Batman spoke sternly. He was upset with Terry, but instead of scolding him Batman focused on the matter at hand. "I've seen it."

Kon raises a hand in greeting to Red, and picks up on the exact same thing Clark does, turning to look at Redwing. "Bats, no offense, but your corner of the world is getting weird, and this is coming from /me/," he says at Batman's explanation.

Cassandra Cain is sitting quietly now. Lotus position and no talking, hands folded in her lap.

Red Robin glances over to Redwing when he greets Superman that way earning a disapproving frown from her. They were all in suits... But then Kon does it too, and she spreads her hands out at her sides with a sigh. Giving it up for now she walks to Conner's side crossing her arms over her chest. "Forgot to mention him the other day, sorry. It's been a busy few months around here." Glancing over at Cass she smiles to her fellow Bat quietly.

Giving Kon a look Batman then turned to Superman, "Lois isn't his mother." What parts Kon had of Kal were clear. The eyes, hair color, parts of the cheek bones and nose. The others didn't match Lois's features. There was a story to the teen of steel.

Kal shakes Terry's offered hand. "Well. Welcome Redwing." Because he's never seen tech like that before at least not in this century. "Please call me Kal-El. Or Kal." Never Clark. At least not without the glasses on. He also gives Kara a pointed look when she addresses Batman as Bruce. When Batman explains, his posture relaxes significantly. "With each time traveler or dimensional traveler I meat, my theory is further proves valid." He waves a hand. "Ignore that. Just prattling out loud." He rubs his chin. "No, she's not. There is a story there, but we can talk about that later."

Cassandra Cain waits for the conversation to turn to work, nodding to Red Robin. After a while, she rolls her eyes and says, "Darkseid." That's all, she goes quiet again afterward.

"CADMUS," Kon says, knowing that Batman should know the significance of that. Genetic Engineering, cloning. "Any more trouble from your impostor?" he asks Batman, turning things back to business.

Turning to Look at Bruce, Terry shakes his head. "You'll need to pardon me won't happen again Kal-El. Old habits are hard to break, Things believe it or not were fairly casual during my training, at least in the Cave." Terry leaves it at that. Habits good or bad can be a PITA to break. Terry simple offers a Nod to Kara and Asks Kon. "I thought weird was part of the Job description Kon?" About this time the noise of an egine can be heard as Nightwing arrives. He is in costume and he gets out and smiles when he sees the group, ""Looks like i am tardy to the party." He says putting a little humor into the procedings. He says, "Well nothing since the Blackgate incident." He answers as he walks over to join the conversation. He is in uniform, one detail that is barely noticable but given hte senses and detection skills of those in the room most would notices it once he gets close. He is wearing make up to hide a large bruise on his right cheek.

Red Robin takes a deep breath only to lift her hands clapping them sharply. "Okay. Everyone knows everyone now right? And we've re-established the super-bro code of 'Do not out your fellow super-bros.'" God she missed Adam sometimes. "Issue at hand. Who do we need to go punch?"

"Darkseid. He wants to enslave the Earth. We need to find Diana," Wonder Woman wasn't as uptight bout the codename rule. "She knows what happened but finding out how Themyscira will strike is key. The League will need to notify the Avengers and find out their plan of attack," going to the computer Batman played some CCTV footage of Avengers mansion. Within moments it was blown up, "Everyone on the planet is affected by Darkseid's presence. The world is going to look to -us- for guidance. If everyone in a costume unifies it increases our chances and can bolster more people to revolt when things are at their darkest," they had to think of what the world would look like if Darkseid got his boots on the ground. The kind of forces everyone would have tod eal with. It wasn't going to be pretty.

As Redwing comes over to the computer. "We should also consider the independent Heroes. Like Spider-man, and such. Maybe we could have the Titans get down to street level to start trying to do-ordinate with local Grown heros. Those who are not part of an active Team." He suggests to Batman.

"I'm in tight with some of the X-men, some of them are Justice League level. I'll see if they're up for jumping in on this," Superboy says. "And I'm living in New York these days, so I can try and find the Avengers for you, figure out where they're based now that the mansion's gone." He goes quiet, considering the footage, taking a deep, heavy breath. "I can head out now, see what I can do, networking wise."

Clark had pretty much said the same thing in his broadcast. He walks over with Batman towards the computer and then nods when Dick arrives. "Nightwing." He says by way of greeting before turning back to the screen. "We can't really afford to wait until Darkseid gains a foothold." He looks over at Kon and nods. "Go. I'll contact you if we come up with anything else. Be careful out there, son." He also nods to Redwing. "Excellent idea. I'll talk to Hal and see if he can appeal to the Lanterns. The more people we have, the better off we'll be. I know Kyle is probably busy rebuilding with the Avengers right now, but we need all the help we can get." He looks towards Nightwing. "What are your plants for the Titans?"

Red Robin keeps her arms crossed as everyone begins to make suggestions. "Start with Stark Tower. At the very least they'll know how to get in touch with Tony. I've met him a time or two but we're not really on phone-call level. I know Hawkeye and his nephew, but they're off training I think." Her lips purse and she considers trying to recall everyone else she had met over the course of her time here. Potential individuals. Shaking her head to chase off that thought she adds, "I can get Wildcat and he can kick up for some of the older vigilantes, too."

"I've met Spider-Man before. Maybe see if the Fantastic Four's on-world, I've been told this is kinda right up their alley, which is a weird thing to hear about a team with 4 people," Superboy says. He gives Dick a quick bro-fist. "I'm gonna head to New York, see who I can track down, I've got my communicator if you need anything." He considers for a moment, and shrugs off his jacket, passing it to someone. "Get that back to me, it won't survive re-entry if I have to get somewhere in a hurry." With that, he takes off, not really putting on the speed until he's high enough up that the sudden displacement of air as he accelerates only disturbs bats.

"No." Cassandra's voice cracks out from her corner. She kind of raises a hand in a slightly impatient wave, then adds, "Good fighter, not too direct. This...simple. Gett..ing many fighters fine, fine. What is Darkseid 's real target? No GOOD fighter throw only one punch."

Nightwing when asked by Superman about plans he says, "Well I have talked to Vanguard and Supergirl, the three of us are in for helping how ever we can. I am trying ot round up the other members." He hten says, "Well except Kori she is still on the disabled list." He then adds unnessesarily, "Donna is one of us has bene since almost the very beginning, we are taking this personally." There is an almost Batman-like edge to his voice during that last sentence. He fist bumps Kon and says, "Take care, I will be in touch."

Pulling back as Redwing thinks and says. "Cassandra your guess is as good as mine. We have had two universes merge into one universe. It could be anything. Or just Darkseid realizing unless he makes a serious attempt to take Earth now, with as many Superhumans, Metas and Mutants. He will loose all chance to claim it in the future." Looking at those here. "Yeah I know he considers himself Top dog. But still."

"I don't disagree Black Bat. His angle is world domination, but how does he inetnd to do it." Thinking on it his head whipped to Kal, "Use the computer in the fotress. Focus on boom tube signals. If we can find locations mayube we can figure out the how based on eographical locations," it was a long shot but one of the better ideas they had. Batman knew out of everyone in the room the alien tech was going to trump everyone else's tech even Redwings.

Kal nods to Bruce. "I'll have my androids maintain round the clock surveillance. They'll notify me once a pattern is established. In the meantime, I'll keep an ear to the ground..so to speak, from Earth's orbit." He backs away. "Remember we have to keep each other in the loop on this. Any tidbit of information that comes to light needs to be shared. In a word, get it to Batman. He'll make sure I get it." He frowns. "The last time we faced Darkseid, it took Kara and me both and that almost wasn't enough. It really took Batman threatening to blow up Apokolips to get him to back down. We don't have that luxury this time."

Thinking, Redwing asks. "Can anyone get Oracle on channel? We need a Central focus for our communications. Which also makes Oracle a prime target. Would you trust Oracle in the Fortress Kal on your tech other wise Oracle could be easy to trace and trace down? They might find a pattern."

Superman adds as he raises into the air. "I've got it covered." And then he's leaving the cave altogether.

Cassandra Cain watches Superman leave. With only the Bat team in the room now, she waits to see if there's any specific instructions before going to put on a shirt.

"Search for low-level energy signatures. If he's had enough time to take Donna Troy then that means he could have spies. I'd search for those first," Batman thought about ti then looked to Redwing. "We can wire her into communications, but she'd go to the league headquarters before the Fortress." Seeing Superman float away made Batman inwardly wince. It was really hard to offend Superman during a plan session. Yet Terry had done it. His eyes went to Terry, "Asking that question would be like asking if we trust one of his robots in the cave."

Nightwing walks over to Batman and asks, "Anything new get learned or happened since the prison break?" he then adds, "I know know Bludhaven PD has been almost frantic about things."

Red Robin looks around at all the arguments beginning before she just shakes her head. Walking over toward Batman she clears her throat quietly. "Boss? He said last time, threatening to blow up Apokolyps was what won. Is that an option again?"

Looking over at Batman, Terry narrows his eyes in return. It is at this point for Terry's Snark to come out as he says, "Well excuse me for Trying to suggest ideas that would keep an enemy of the entire planet, from anticipating or expecting. I know Darkseid is a tactical genius, and sometimes to defeat an enemy you have to do things they won't expect. Like a serial killer suddenly changing his MO after his third killing." Terry at that point just turns to leave. He's still limping in the left calf as he will pull his mask down. "I'm going on patrol, Feel free to stay here and Plan Batman." And Redwing just activates the boots to take off.

Cassandra Cain gets up and looks at the map for a moment, assuming we have a map of the Darkseid attacks. Not able to discern the squiggles that identify place names, she takes a moment to get a grip on it, and whispers to Carrie for help reading the thing, in the hopes that she can do something useful about all this.

"Putting the most technically savy mind on the planet in your secret fortress when you're an alien hiding big secrets is not a good thing," Batman said. Then changing tactics plan had a point. Before he could say anything Terry was gone. They would talk later. "It's an option. Kal has context thanks to his past with Apokolips. It's an option but it may force them to come planet side without a home. What would they have to lose?"

Red Robin hmms and nods quietly. "Then it wouldn't help to force that issue again." Turning away she nods quietly to Cassandra and helps with the map.

Cassandra Cain spends a little time poring over a map. For the first time in her life, and potentially the last. She looks absolutely f'ing lost, and gives up after a few minutes muttering something about just hitting Darkseid in the face really hard, and heads for the shower.

Nightwing thinks for a moment, 'Well it is harder to ply defence then offence in this situation, I am not talking about an invasion of Apokalypse, but would a tactical strike be feasible?" He smiles, "I know Kara was thinkign along those lines as well."

Red Robin glances over at that only to shrug. "I was going to suggest that I can probably get in to where ever they're at, if we can locate it. I'm good at infiltration."

"Too many factors." He looked at Red Robin and Nightwing, "Contact who you can. We need to be unified. Find out what they know and we'll meet to come up with a plan. The world sees us as heroes, now we have to act like it. Even us," sometimes Batman had to put that standard on himself along with the others. It was rare. However, now was that time.