Bruce Wayne walks up beside Lucius Fox at the urinal and begins to whistle some unclear tune. After a moment he turns to his friend, bleary eyed, and asks “did you get my email?”
“Yes I did, Mr Wayne…” Lucius says with a smile, “give me a moment.”
“Perfectly reasonable, Lucius.” Bruce responds with a nod. Minutes later, both men are viewing a line of high tech crime fighting gear. From hand held gadgets, to new bat suits, and more… Bruce eyes a cowl with circuitry on the inside near the eyes, “Sorry about the short notice. What is…?”
“That?” Lucius starts, “That’s a new cowl for your suit. It feeds tactical data directly into your brain. Should give you enhanced targeting with your batarangs, let you see in the dark, and there are some ear enhancements that work like sonar. It’s about finished. Along with these sonic disruptors you asked for…” Lucius hands Bruce a pair of sleek wrist accessories. “What are you getting into this time?”
“I need something to handle a crowd…” Bruce says trying on the cowl. He activates the sensor systems and the eyes light up, “The eyes are a good touch!”
Deep within the Bat-Cave, Bruce Wayne sips coffee and researches into any large heists of chemicals or pharmaceuticals. Alfred stitches a tear in his master’s evening wear. “Not limiting my search to Gotham this time…” Bruce thinks aloud, “and I’ve found something big. I should have thought of this earlier. These people have real money. This ‘Cult of the Dark Protector’ isn’t even based in Gotham. Not their criminal operations anyway…” Bruce punches up a newspaper headline… “Headline from a Keystone City paper… ’Industrial Sabotage: Millions of dollars in damage as Fox & Lampert Chemicals burns to the ground’… the police blame environmental activists who of course take the fall for this and a number of similar acts…”
“Pawns of this Dr. Falkirk… the Witch Doctor…?” Alfred wonders. He offers Bruce his cape and cowl.
Bruce turns to him with an arched eyebrow, “The ringleader was his brother. Criminals are sloppy, old friend. Falkirk has left too many clues… including where to go next. Their criminal operations are outside Gotham, but if they want to move this kind of loot into the city… they’ll need help. I’m going to pay Penguin a visit.” Suddenly, Bruce’s voice becomes deep and raspy, “Ready the plane.”
Light from the city floods into an empty Iceberg Lounge. Batman looks around, expecting to deal with the Penguin’s thugs, but there’s nothing; not even the sounds of his pets. He flips on his sonar. He loosens a batarang from his belt and stalks slowly through the casino area. There are signs of a struggle… smashed glass… a hawk swoops from above and goes screeching down the hall. Batman passes one of Penguin’s goons… his eyes are pecked out and he’s been slashed across the chest by a large blade… “Scarecrow…” Batman hisses. Suddenly there’s a crack from below his feet as the entire ground overturns in a cleverly placed trap door.
Batman tumbles into darkness and ends up dumped into a huge underground bird cage. He looks up with weariness… a light at the top signaling a way out. Just as he gets back up, he hears a rustle… movement. He picks up his night vision and sees scores of Penguin’s birds. Their movement is erratic; sure signs of the Scarecrow’s poison at work. Batman leaps to the cage walls and begins to scale them as the birds circle and screech. He leaps and climbs for all he’s worth until finally he comes to the top and sees a lock worthy of catwoman’s skill. “Penguin obviously built this with me in mind.” Batman thinks to himself as he picks through his belt for something to pop the lock with, “Flattering.” He says as the birds swirl below him. After a few seconds he pulls the small hatch apart and sees a tiny hole to climb through. The Dark Knight hoists himself into the small crevice and begins to contort his body, but he can’t manage it right away. The birds swoop in and swarm him, snapping and raking at him. “There are hundreds…” Batman thinks to himself, “Certain death if I am weak.”
With a growl, Batman finally squirms through the opening and spills out onto a ballroom floor. He turns over on his side and begins to collect himself. Just then, he hears the all too familiar sound of a gun cocking. A voice chortles in the darkness, “Enough trespassers! You ridiculous ruffians have ruined my roost for the last time!! WAH! WAH!”
Batman knows what’s coming next. There’s a blaze of gunfire as the Penguin opens up. Batman flips up onto his feet and dives behind pillars of stone as they’re shredded to bits. A few rounds zing close and catch Batman across the shoulder. He grunts and hits the ground as Penguin’s aim is forced away by the recoil of his weapon. Batman pulls out a batarang and goes to his new cowl sensors. The weapon flies from his hands and nails Penguin between the eyes. His umbrella goes spinning through the air firing as the felonious fowl spills down a staircase and begins waving his bloody hands in surrender. “Damn it all to hell, it’s you! Okay, okay… I’m surrendering already! Wah!”
Batman kicks away the umbrella and offers Penguin his hand. Penguin reluctantly takes it. Batman meets Penguin with a cold gaze… “Whether you’re involved or not. I don’t care. I want them taken down.”
The Penguin adjusts his monocle and grins.
Scene 3: The Cage
- Code: Select all
The next day, Bruce Wayne calls up Lucius Fox and uses connected to browse some high tech gear (DC25, but he spends a HP to secure it). Batman can pick out anything up to his automatic purchase threshold (DC38 for him). He picks out an experimental cowl design and some new gauntlets that confer the following…
Experimental Cowl: Enhanced Advantages 4 (ranged attack 4), Feature 1 (glowing eyes), Senses 9 (accurate auditory, danger sense, darkvision, distance sense, ultra-hearing) * 14 points
Sonic Pulse: Close Burst Area Affliction 7 (resisted by fortitude: dazed & hearing impaired, stunned & hearing disabled; extra condition, limited degree) * 14 points
Batman does his research, gathering information about any large chemical heists recently (he gets it… again, easily). He takes the bat-plane to have a talk with the Penguin. When he gets there, he finds that the Scarecrow has already been there. Batman is trapped in a death trap in Penguin’s aviary and all of Penguins birds have been gassed. +1 HP for the captured complication.
It will take Batman a DC20 athletics check to reach the top of the aviary, another DC25 technology check to pop the lock (this was designed to be a death trap for Batman anyway), and another DC20 sleight of hand check to contort his way out. Every time he fails a check, Penguin makes an attack at +11 to hit/11 ranks of damage. He struggles with the sleight of hand check once (but the attack misses) before Batman makes it out.
A terrified Penguin confronts Batman. Initiative time (Penguin goes first). He fires his machine gun at Batman (hit: +3 effect, +2 multi-fire; DC26 and Batman spends a HP to improve. Didn’t need it… he saves). Batman lets loose a batarang with help from his new cowl gadget (20! +5 critical, +9 effect; DC35 is a third degree fail and 30 feet of knockback… DC15 damage). Penguin surrenders. He tells him everything about the Dark… and where to find the cult.
Batman: 3HP, fatigued (obsessed with crime fighting), impaired (responsibility to Gotham)
Penguin: 3rd degree fail
Scarecrow: Wealth 4
