| DC/Marvel: Age of Infinite Heroes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Early in the morning - can you believe Arsenal got up that early and did something other than feed Lian?! - he went to a local library, scanned the documents (which btw took forevar thank you very much!) and E-Mailed them to Oracle. He then took the originals after making copies for himself, and gave Kendra the originals back.
The E-mail included a note in there: Call me Strong Arm.
There are two police reports, one unsolved and one solved. The unsolved says Jane and John Doe, no ID found. The other one? ID found, and other minor alterations. It is the same Detective on both of them, and the solved case was signed off on by the Chief.
The resolution? A robbery gone bad, some joe blow was later captured by police and while attempting escape was shot. He died later in ER. The shooter? The Detective on the case.
Investigation? The Detective wasn't kicked off the force, and had a continued career. He recently retired.
Kendra picked up a couple breakfast croissant things from the local supermarket deli while Roy was off scanning things. By the time the two of them were back at the apartment to eat and set up communications, the waiting began and they chatted about various things in the meantime.
There's something odd about the reports, between the first unsolved one to the final solved story. In fact, given certain alterations and information that appears to be overridden, there may be a missing second report in between the two. What a trained eye could tell, however, is that something was covered up. The fact two people - Kendra's parents - were killed is unchanged. The motive that's evident has shifted to one painting it to look like a random robbery, only it just doesn't make sense. In fact, it appears the Chief, Nedal, may have intentionally fudged some information, including redacting certain parts.
In other words, what comes off as a random robbery looks like anything but.
The phone in Kendra's apartment rings. As well as Arsenal's cell phone. Then on top of it all, the lights in Kendra's apartment blink eratically. Actually wait, it's morse code. P. I... C then K... U-P-T-H-E-D-A-M-N-P-H-O-N-E..... At least Oracle has style.
Arsenal is quiet, blinks, then says, "Show off." He then moves to answer his cell phone, "Hey Strong Arm, took you long enough. And stop showing off, you will creep her out," he gently scolds. Does he sound a little flirtatious?
"The hell..?" That's one of Kendra's go-to phrases when something unexpected happens, starting out by eyeing her own phone before looking up at the lights. Shaking her head, she mouths an 'Okaaaay' at Roy before saying, "Go with the speakerphone. And it takes a lot more than my lights flickering to creep me out." She missed the morse code, though.
Oracle sips her coffee back in Gotham at the Clocktower. When Arsenal picks up, she says, "Some of us creep people out with masks and skulking in the shadows, others do it other ways. It's a style thing. Sooooo I was watching on the security cameras and saw you got what you were looking for. Good job. Been looking over the documents you emailed me and I've been looking up more detailed information on the shooter, the case, and who chose to not put it in the general database in the first place. You know... cover up stuff."
"It sure as hell wasn't me on camera." But Roy moves to turn the phone on speaker after warning Oracle he was doing so. "Umm...so...don't kill me," this meant toward Oracle. "Oracle, I'd like you to meet Kendra. Kendra, I'd like you to meet Oracle. We go waaaay back...," he added the waaaay back, just to tease Oracle over age. So, it sent up a red flag for you as well. But what about tracking that cop down, did you find a name change or anything?"
Kendra squints at Roy. "I thought we were avoiding all the cameras. They'd better not have us on film." There's a note of concern in her voice, maybe more for someone else? After a moment she adds a short, "Hi. Uh, look. Thanks for helping with this. It's pretty big if we can nail the son of a bitch behind this. Until now, I haven't had any leads at all, even trying to check a few other ways than usual. I thought something seemed fishy with the chief and the detective in the report, but I know my parents were killed because they got too close to something. I just haven't been able to find the truth."
Barbara rolls her eyes a bit, then says into the phone, "Don't worry, it's not even a security camera signal that the police had anyway. I just wanted to keep a watch on you to make sure you were okay." She pushes aside a batgirl plushie on the desk, then pulls up the report on a holographic display. "So in case you want to know what i found out, there seems to be a connection between this guy .... Chief Nedal... and the detective in the report. The detective had this very quick rise up through the ranks. I smell collusion. I think your friends' parents just found out something about the collusion and they were killed." She pauses. "I have an address of his location. He used to be a cop in Austin, and went by a different name - Kinsley. Went through a lot of effort to hide his history, I even had to break into some FBI files, he has favors with a lot of people helping him change his past."
"Oracle, stop it," Roy says seriously. "I don't need a babysitter." He doesn't feel appreciative in the least. He has been doing this full-time before Babs even thought to dress up as a Batgirl for halloween. He then falls silent to listen to Babs report, having had his say and making his feelings clear. He hrms thoughtfully. "The reports, how condeming are they if taken to a court of law?" This is something Oracle would know way better than Roy.
Oracle smiles. Superheroes are always so stubborn about not liking her being a mother hen. Until they need her to be one. Not to mention she first did the Batgirl thing at 15. She says, "Pretty damning if you ask me. Then again this Chief might have a lot of judges in his pocket, or there might be some Feds who are helping him who might pull some federal jurisdiction to get him out of trouble if there's anything less than a full confession from this guy."
"You can do that?" Kendra asks when she learns that Oracle was watching them somehow. Roy can see her turn pale as some of the details come to the surface. "I think they tracked the cop here to St. Roch but they never told me much because they wanted me to just forget about it, like that was even possible." She sips at some water when the connection is revealed, though. Lips thin out when Austin is brought up. "Kinsley..." she whispers, then she asks suddenly, "Do you have anything you can find from about..seven years ago? A cop shot and killed outside Austin?" She almost doesn't want to know, but she has to.
A slight frown on Roy's face, but he doesn't say anything. He knows sometimes...you can't protect people, no matter how much you want to. Especially someone really trying to stand up on their own.
Oracle enlarges a portion of one of the files she got while hacking. "Of course I can. It's my thing." She zooms in on the caption under the picture. "Cop shot and killed outside Austin... yeah... got the name right here. Let's see.... Name was Jenkins, Daryll A. Badge # 4018."
Kendra looks down as she hears the answer, confirming what she'd feared. A few quiet swears serve as her initial answer, then she pieces it all together. "Kinsley was the other cop there that day, when mom and I were painting in the desert. Kinsley and Jenkins. Then he came here and changed his name to Nedal, my parents figured it out, and he set them up and killed them then covered it all up. And he's been right here under my nose the whole time."
Roy can see it because he's right there, but all Oracle can hear is a bit of rustling. "I'm getting changed. I'm going after Nedal right now. He's going to pay for this," she says, voice low, tone screaming vengeance.
Oracle pauses. "Roy.... can I speak to you off speakerphone for a moment?"
Roy moves to stand up, leaving his cell phone on the couch. He moves to stop Kendra. "Enough. What are you going to do, kill him? What would your mom and dad think, when they died protecting you? You want to slander the names of those who gave you those," pointing toward the wings. "You want to destory, any chance you have for a future?" He is looking at Kendra seriously. "The end choice is yours. Go after Nedal for self-satisfaction, or let us help you bring him down for good, ripping his life away at the foundation as he watches it crumble away with no net to catch him."
She whirls to face Roy, a dangerous look to her expression. "He set my parents up and killed thim in cold blood then covered it up, Roy! He doesn't deserve a trial and prison! He took my parents from me, I ended up lost on the streets I tried to kill myself because it tore me apart!" She succeeded too, before all the stuff that happened with becoming Hawkgirl, being killed again, then coming back as herself. "What are you going to tell me, that you can put a stop to him once and for all and I'll be happy because he's behind bars for good?" She misses or ignores Oracle's request to get Roy on the phone privately.
An 'Ahem' comes from the speakerphone. "Kendra, is it? Killing him is a road you really should not go down. I won't even get into the whole 'you'll become as bad as he is' cliche. You shouldnt do it because it's too easy to step over that line. Trust me, I have some experience knowing about that line and people who walk it. And some people who've crossed it and have not crossed it." Avenging the murder of ones parents and not killing the murderer - yeah that's something members of the Bat Family have almost PhD's in.
"No, taking him down or letting him go, killing him or letting him live, none of it will bring you happiness Kendra. What I want for you, is /closure/. So you are no longer haunted." Roy then moves to step back slowly to pick up his phone and take it off speaker. He speaks into it, while not taking his eyes off Kendra, "What is it?" His expression is firm, but his eyes are so very compassionate. He understands.
"Oracle is right, Kendra. And dead or alive, loose or in jail, none of it will bring you happiness." Roy leaves the phone alone just a bit longer, instead moving to cup Kendra's cheek if she permits it. His expression is firm, but his eyes are deeply compassionate. He /does/ understand. "What I want for you is /closure/. A chance to start living for yourself, without being haunted by the past. It's a nightmare, trying to break from those chains that try to drag you down. You can't breathe, you can't move on, it feels like you are dying so painfully on the inside. But you can be /free/ Kendra, free of all of that. I /know/ you can be. You just have to give yourself the chance, have just a little faith in yourself. /I/ have faith in you. There is a reason you got a second chance songbird," a gentle teasing from Roy. "And it wasn't to blow it. You are too damn amazing for that."
Kendra looks back to the phone with a frown. "Hawkman and Hawkgirl would kill someone if it was needed," she says defensively, and it comes off just the way it sounds: momentarily childish and in a way that attempts to justify it. "Being rid of him would make me happy. It'd mean I dealt with the guy who killed my parents. Eye for an eye, right?" It's tough to crack that stubborn side of the 'bird.'
However, some of what Roy's trying to get through to her does give her pause. It may not completely take her out of 'want to kill' mode but it slows her roll even if she initially draws back at the touch of his hand. "How? What am I supposed to do? I know who he is now. I know what he did. You heard it all. Are you telling me we put him before a jury?" Then there's a sniff at the 'songbird' comment. "He has to be stopped," she reiterates.
Oracle says into the phone, "He can be stopped without becoming a murderer. I know how tempting it can be to want to get revenge. You don't have to kill him to get justice. It won't be satisfying anyway. You know what's satisfying? Making the bad guys tie their own noose."
Long pause.
"Figuratively speaking of course. Making him confess so that his own words send him to jail for the rest of his life." Yeah, one thing Barbara -is- like Bruce about? The no killing rule. It drives Helena nuts.
"Oracle's right. Destroy his life, and you will leave a broken man behind. Malicious, sure...but he deserves it after what he did to you and your family. And you have people watching your back in this, making sure all the Ts get crossed and i's get dotted. We aren't letting this bastard get away. And what better way to shame him,, then have him comitted by a jury of his own so-called peers, the people that elected him sending him behind bars, ashamed of him? Watching all the power he created crumble away into nothingness. We can be cruel and hard people Kendra, but neither of us believe killing is a first option. Will you take this chance to crush him?"
Silence lingers as Kendra paces back and forth, both hands running through her hair. After all these years, she finally has the identity of who was behind this. She could find him, do...something, and get her closure. But maybe Barbara and Roy are right. Do it on the up and up and it makes for a bigger impact, right? She looks back to her bedroom, and if Roy's figured out locations of things already he could grasp that it's right at where the armoir is, with the wings, the helmet, the rest. "I'll..try. We have to get him, but we have to keep him from getting away again too."
"I agree. He won't get away Kendra, I swear it." And Roy does...he would do more than put his reputation on it. And Oracle would know when Roy gets like that...nothing would stop him. He is fully comitted to helping Redtail, and the earlier words in the conversation revealed the dark past that Dinah and Hal saved him from, but especially Dinah. Roy would do what needs to be done, to save someone else from that self-destructiveness...it's the type of guy he is. "Oracle? We game? We will need your help to build one hell of a case."
Oracle nods a bit, then says into the phone, "I'll make sure when you get his confession, you have video of it from every angle. Even getting some of the spy satellites in orbit ready to zero in on a nice clear video of him if outside. And if inside, I'll make sure you still get video of it. Plus any dirty laundry he has to back it up in a court of law. I'll also work on making sure his fed 'buddies' have more at risk to protect him if it comes to that. Sound good?"
Kendra's attitude turns from stubborn and revenge-driven to icy determination. "When we set the trap and catch him in it, I'll get him to spill it all for everyone to hear. He won't have any chance to wiggle out of it." Whatever the impact of the things she's found out this morning, there's still work to be done to catch her new prey. The hawk will have her day.