15085/Mystic Materials, part 2

Mystic Materials, part 2
Date of Scene:	14 May 2023
Location:	Gotham Barrens
Synopsis:	Batwoman and Domino track down where the cargo truck led to and find Yet More Trouble. Surely these two can put an end to it without TOO much collateral damage.
Cast of Characters:	Domino, Batwoman

---

Domino has posed:
The signal goes cold deeper into the Gotham barrens. Run-down structures dominate the weathered cityscape where business, services, and citizens had long since turned their backs on. Daylight hasn't quite reached the heavy grey clouds overhead while wisps of smog flit about the abandoned streets.

It sure is empty around here. Why, it would be the perfect place if someone wanted to finish some dirty business. Make someone disappear, for instance...

The matte black and grey sport bike comes to a halt in the middle of an intersection, its albino rider slipping out of a brain bucket to run fingers through short black hair. "Welcome to fucking nowhere" she grumps.

The zipper of her jacket gets tugged down enough to unholster a concealed handgun, using its mounted light to check the nearest street signs. "Nnnope. Not getting anything here, buuut we're not out of the game yet. C'mon, let's keep rolling."

At every intersection Domino checks the signs until coming to a quick stop at one in particular. One which she almost rode straight on past along with the others.

"Bunting..." she says aloud with the light trained on the faded sign of 'Bunting Street.' A bit of consideration, a light smirk, and a brief sound of amusement follows. "'Indigo Bunting.' This way."

Not far down Bunting Street lies the condemned remains of an old shopping mall. Batwoman may already be familiar with the place. Decades ago it had been built atop of a landfill, a way of 'reclaiming the land.' What no one had considered at the time was how much the land was still settling. These days the exterior stairwells and entrances are all several feet above where the rippling parking lot lies. Gas vents which had been added years after shoppers and employees had started to fall ill still reek of exhaust fumes.

Here again the albino stops her bike, flicking the lights off while viewing the massive structure from afar. "Bet you a thousand dollars this is the place."

Batwoman has posed:
"You're really impressing me with your tracking ability here, Oreo."

This is the first thing Batwoman voices at the first stop in her newfound, temporary partnership with the albino rider currently scoping out street signs. It's also the first words really exchanged since their little joint mission began: communicating is hard when you've got separate rides, after all. Red Knight One is hitched in place just a handful of feet behind Domino's own motorcycle as her Bat-themed companion takes stock of the area around her. Scarlet hair rustling within the stale, muggy breeze, Kate's green gaze narrows behind her mask. She knows this place -- there's not a lot of places in Gotham she -doesn't- know. There's a lot of places like this here. Abandoned places. The ones no one cares about, where the benefits of rehabilitation and reconstruction don't outweigh the costs, and so they're simply... forgotten.

The holes in things.

What they want isn't in -this- particular stretch of dereliction.

But it's exactly the kind of stop that it'd end up, isn't it?

In the buried places of Gotham.

Domino lights their way. Batwoman activates the locks on her modified Ducati, taking up the rear behind Domino with the rustle of her cape. The vigilante's movements are methodical, efficient -- keeping watch with all the diligence of a soldier.

"Alright," she says simply, "I've got your six. Let's move."

When they reach their final destination, well... Batwoman looks up. And up. Ruby red lips twist in the slightest grimace.

"Great."

Yep. It's safe to say she's familiar.

"A condemned building full of explosive gas?" she wonders to the albino woman at her side.

"Even I'm not reckless enough to take a bet with odds -that- stacked against me."

She looks up; her cowl flips through infrared, trying to take stock of any heat signatures past the methane trails, to assess just what degree of opposition they're dealing with.

"If they're bunkering down here, they're probably prepared for hell." White-lensed eyes look sidelong towards Domino.

"Got a gameplan in mind?"

Domino has posed:
'Oreo' gets an amused look from the colorless mercenary. "Have a little faith" is all she has to offer while the hunt is on.

It seems to end with the local vigilante complaining about explosive gas. "Is -that- what I'm smelling?" Domino asks with a scrunched up nose. "Fantastic. Look, they're the ones setting the stage. I'm just getting us there." And probably a whole lot more considering she's been packing firearms this entire time.

The dead mall is a big place, reaching as high as three levels at its center. There's a lot of territory to scan but Batwoman will notice something of interest, pinging the heat signature of a certain semi truck which had departed from the docks earlier this evening.

"Yeah, I don't know" she considers while leaning forward with arms crossing over the top of the handlebars. "As far as secret lairs go being somewhere this stinky seems like a bad move. Gotham's not exactly hurting for run-down hidey holes." One hand lifts up to finger-gun at the mall when she asks "So why -there?-"

'Got a gameplan?'

For a moment the albino seems lost in thought. When those thoughts catch up enough to be voiced they..don't make a lot of sense.

"'Action's always up front.' 'Hidden gremlins in the front...' Let's go in the back."

The kickstand is set. Helmet and jacket are left behind, returning the sleek black suited gun for hire back to her look back at the docks. She's already marching onward while threading a suppressor onto a sidearm, one of a matched pair.

"If we're lucky no one bothered to check in on Larry yet. ... If we're REAL lucky Larry hasn't regained consciousness yet. It was a good hit, to be fair."

Batwoman has posed:
As far as secret lairs go being somewhere this stinky seems like a bad move.

"This is Gotham," is Batwoman's counterpoint.

As if, somehow, that simply explained everything.

Not that Domino doesn't have a point: why -this- spot, specifically? There's plenty of serviceably abandoned buildings besides this one in this neighborhood alone. And the men Kate clocked at the docks didn't seem like the themed goons of the more unhinged of Gotham's rogues. So why? Is it an issue of size, or...

Something worse?

This being Gotham, Kate places her wager on the latter. She keeps these thoughts largely to herself, like a true blue bat; instead, turns her attentions squarely on Domino as the other woman answers her question in... a way... best described as 'abstract.'

The sheer weight of Batwoman's incredulous squint is palpable even behind her mask as the monochrome mercenary talks about frontloaded action and gremlins.

Silence reigns for three seconds.

"... Uh huh," is what Kate finally lands on.

Still; a relative plan of attack is set. Kate keeps to the shadows, just off to the side of Domino as they start working towards the rear of the distended, gas-bloated mall. She seems content to leave it at that for a while, instead remarking: "I've got a bead on the target. Once we breech, I'll secure us a route there." She pauses, on Domino's list of conditionals, considerate. A smile tugs at red lips.

"You know just how to flatter a girl," she remarks, in that effortless deadpan. "I guess the question is -- how lucky are you feeling?" Kate, well. ... Kate never banks on being lucky. Which is why, even if she has no visible weapons at the ready like Domino... she's visibly ready for a fight by the time they make it towards the rear. And it's only then, that she diverts the subject:

"'Gremlins'?"

Domino has posed:
Domino must really be into her own thoughts to not have a response to Kate's counterpoint. Either that or the pale lady knows when she's been bested. By comparison she's only been in Gotham for a matter of months and has been flying by the seat of her pants ever since.

Apparently she's not afraid to admit it either by way of her abstract infiltration plan.

Kate gets a bead on a target. Dom does her best to suppress a cough. "This is great for the lungs..." she groans. "I've been in cleaner smelling sewers."

Ah, here's a question she can answer! How lucky is she feeling? "If you have any lotto tickets to fill out you can pass 'em my way."

Back entrance reached, broken doorway discovered, then Kate drops a single word of question. 'Gremlins.'

Neena stops short, standing upright with a slow look around through a tight expression. "You're gonna think I'm crazy. I bought a used car the other day. It had some previous front end damage. Stuttered in low RPMs, bit down on power. You know. Gremlins. Some weird fuckery going on which needed to be sorted out. But the 'gremlins' were in the -front- which is why -we're- going in the -back.-"

It all makes perfect sense to her, okay?

The mall's good and dark on the inside but once Kate takes point they'll eventually come across the glow of some industrial flood lights set up. Past empty and ruined store fronts, graffiti, broken glass, dead plants, long dead water fountains filled with putrid green stuff, and...sounds. The sound of a wooden crate being pried open and the lid set aside. Then a woman's voice, too soft and with too much reverb in the dead shopping center to make out the words.

All of the action seems to be focused around a three story high cupula. One of the highlights looking at the outside of the mall and where a giant food court had once been, there's a lot of space for someone to set up shop in. Kate might recognize this place too, back in the mall's heyday it was a focal point for promotional images. A giant domed sunlight, railing-lined floors ringing the perimeter, it had some thought put into it. More so than the mall's location, certainly.

Batwoman has posed:
The methane is -thick-. And repellent. Batwoman's poker face never cracks for a second, though. Not even a curdle of her lips.

"Not the worst I've smelled."

... Of everywhere she's been? Or just Gotham?

She doesn't specify. And maybe that goes a long way towards explaining how she can keep up that stoic face.

seriously though it does smell just -awful-.

As unimpeachable as her expression is, though, it's not emotionless so much as it's just withholding of the truth: all the same, the amusement that tugs the corners of Batwoman's scarlet lips upward is certifiably genuine when the mercenary answers her question on her luck. "Guess you get to pick up the slack for both of us," she remarks...

Whereupon, Domino explains the matter of the gremlins and Kate is left thinking maybe she spoke too soon.

Lips part. Close. Part again. It's not really the 'gremlins' thing that gets her. She actually understands that; when you're bored and you've lost your life's purpose and you're in the lull times between destroying your life with bad decisions, you look for ways to spend the time, and one of Kate's was learning mechanics (and/or idly fucking with her step-mother's cars). No, what mostly gets her is--

"So... you based your decision... based on reading the tea leaves of your new banger?"

She just sort of... leaves that where it lies.

Perfect sense. Of course!

Just a crazy kind of sense.

... Kate can't even say she doesn't like it, which just speaks volumes about her as a person.

"Back it is, then," is the last thing she says before they slip into the dark embrace of the abandoned mall. She maneuvers through the dark until they find the glow of civilization with a smooth ease that comes with the wonders of having more money and military connections than sense; one red, gloved hand rests comfortably on her utility belt, covered by her cape as she pushes deeper inside... and stops, once she hears that voice.

Behind lenses, green eyes look up to the grand dome that was once a runaway food court for a runaway construction project. The ambitious opulence for a place that was so obviously doomed, combined with the nauseating reek of methane -- it really is almost symbolic, Kate ruefully thinks to herself.

Right now, though? She doesn't speak a word of it. Right now, she goes radio silent, so as not to alert those voices with their own. Instead, she relies tried-and-true military hand signals, hoping her guesses about Domino are right enough that the albino mercenary can parse as she gestures.

She'll go high. Domino can go low. She'll have the other woman's back.

Within the silence, Kate approaches that cupula. And when she's close enough --

The black-and-red-clad Bat pulls free a grapple gun, points, and shoots with a silent *pfffft* of uncoiling cable to hook onto the railing at a corner of the dome's top floor, to quietly send the redhead airborne for her target.

Is this why? The space of this mall? ... But why would they need all this space, then...?

Domino has posed:
Tea leaves is one way to put it, and another point which Domino doesn't disagree with. Once more she says nooothing at all. How could she hope to explain it without outright giving up the game? Oh no, it's MUCH more entertaining keeping everyone else guessing. One must find their amusement where available, although keeping people off guard also has its uses.

Instead of Dom giving up her secret Kate gives up one of her own. Military training! The albino probably shouldn't be surprised but she is enough to raise a brow. It's been a while since she's communicated in such a way but muscle memory quickly takes over. Kate's assumption proves correct.

With a zip of a grapple gun Batwoman gets a proper bat's eye view. While it may not answer everything it does help answer SOME questions... Like 'why here?' Quite possibly because 'here' is a large circular structure which works out shockingly well to draw a Giant. Fucking. Symbol. It's not a pentagram, so..small blessing? Maybe? Whatever it is it's proper fuel to send a chill through the spine.

As for the people involved, most of them look to be muscle but the focal point is the brown haired lady who is now pulling something out of the first crate with obvious care.

"You've been sitting on this for centuries, old man... And for what? Fear? Peh. I'll show you who to fear."

Facial recognition will ping one Heather Vernell, lone daughter of Howard Vernell, a man who made his fortune dealing with art and antiquities. There had been a string of high end robberies overseas, one in particular which involved a Vernell collection. Several pieces remain unrecovered.

There's another point of interest which Batwoman can see from up high. That would be the sight of a shadowy black on white lady lurking from cover while leveling her sidearm in Heather Vernell's direction.

It looks like 'Domino' here found exactly what she had been after.

Batwoman has posed:
Elevation is a great way to get perspective. Sometimes that perspective doesn't come with good news, however. For example: getting a better look at what quickly becomes clear is a giant goddamn symbol of some - very likely mystical - sort.

Kate blinks once, behind white lenses. She sweeps her gaze from one end to the sigil to the other almost by instinct, even if she lacks proper comprehension of what she's seeing in the moment: at the very least, it'll be recorded and saved to pour over at the R.H. Kane Building.

... Presuming this doesn't all go to hell right -now- making it moot.

God, she thinks. I hope it doesn't literally go to hell.

"Dammit," mutters Kate under her breath, as she tries to digest everything. Keep it simple. Don't get stuck on the things you don't know. Address the elements you know.

There's the hired muscle she expected. Standard, like at the docks. None of the rogues gangs. The symbol is potentially arcane. There's plenty of that in Gotham that this doesn't narrow things down either.

The woman...

Heather Vernell. She recognizes the face even before the name; Gotham's only so big when it comes to those with means. Daughter of an art collector. Recently the victim of an art heist.

You've been sitting on this for centuries...

Pieces start coming together, enough for Batwoman's ruby red lips to pull thin. She tenses, ready to get the drop...

... And then she sees that particular woman in monochrome, emerging from the shadows.

Gun pointed at Vernell.

Kate's thin-lipped expression instantly curdles.

"/Dammit/--"

There's a lot of things Batman and Batwoman don't see eye to eye with. Killing someone in cold blood when there's other options AND they have a LOT OF QUESTIONS Kate needs them to answer?

Well--

'No killing' in this case is a rule she still stands by.

Which is why, as the albino woman squares up that barrel -- Batwoman lines up to fire her grappling gun one more time from above, aiming to snag Vernell's wrist and pull once, firmly, to the side -- to try to yank her out of the path of fire.

It's going to completely give away her position. Things are going to get messy.

"What kind of luck is this--"

Domino has posed:
The grappel line goes out.
Heather's wrist is caught. Pulled.
"HEY--?!"
The artifact in her hand slips free.
Domino takes the shot.
The bullet smashes through the artifact.
Heather's muscle starts to come around, reaching for weapons.
A dark smoke rushes out of the ruined artifact.
Smoke tendrils unfurl, reaching for the guards.
The mall thrums with a low rumble as the floodlights dim in unison.
The last sign of any of the guards or Heather is the sound of her laughter echoing throughout the mall.

When the lights return only Batwoman and Domino remain, the latter of which is now GLARING up toward the bat with arms held out wide. "What the hell gives?! We could already be mopping this up! I had her dead to--"

An unseen force slams into the albino, rocketing her across the food court where she crashes through an old glass food display set within an empty vendor stall.

It's the only warning Batwoman will get before another unseen force suddenly lands on her back, grappling the vigilante and raking claws against her armor.

All around them are disjointed sounds like the scrambling of claws and the ragged huffing of breath but they're too quick and too difficult to pin down before they're somewhere else.

Down below Dom opens fire, the lower velocity rounds making more noise when they strike old tile walls than they do zipping through the air. Much like the string of profanity which follows, nothing seems to find purchase.

"Well this is real fuckin' great!" she shouts before she's sent head over heels back out into the empty food court.

They aren't done with Kate either, the powerful force now trying to grab her by the ankles and pitch her head-first over the top railing.

Batwoman has posed:
Sometimes you feel something you can't explain.

Unease for no discernible reason.

The way the tiny hairs at the back of your neck might suddenly raise with nothing visible to inspire them.

A spontaneous shiver down your spine.

The unspoken sense that -something- is not -right-... even though everything is.

Everything is right for Batwoman right now, relatively speaking. Swift action puts her into a dangerous situation, but none she's never been in before. Domino is yelling at her, understandably, for ruining her shot, and this might complicate things by a factor of <UNKNOWN MYSTERY ALBINO FACTORS>, but that, too, is about standard fare for her.

In fact, she's already queueing up a retort to what she assumes will be Domino's inevitable complaint, even as she prepares to deal with a slew of guards...

... when dark smoke rushes out, engulfing everything in bloating, churning darkness.

"What--"

Heather and her guards are gone, leaving little but laughter in her wake.

"..."

Domino is shouting at her, like she expected. But.

Something's not right.

Kate can feel it. The hairs at her neck raising. The shiver down her spine.

Gloved fingers tense.

The creeping sense of unease just at her peripherals.

"Shut up," she says, helpfully. "Something's here--"

Domino is hurled straight through a food display. Kate's hackles raise.

It's a batarang she's brandishing as she suddenly pivots on pure instinct; lips twist into a sneer and she swipes -- at open air?

She doesn't have time to feel confusion before that unseen force is grabbing at her. To her credit, she puts up a good fight -- but it's hard to fight against what seems like little more than air. No matter what she tries, she's ensnared by the force, hefted -- and HURLED, whipping through the air like she was little more than a ragdoll as -whatever- had her pitches her ass-over-end over the railing.

Caught in mid-air, Batwoman twists. Her teeth grit as she feels methane-soaked air batter at her alabaster cheeks. She draws her cape -tight- around her, and -twists- --

--and the flexible material of that bullet-proof cape acts as the best makeshift buffer Kate can manage with so little time and so little material, absorbing precious amounts of impact force as her back hits the food court grounds. She rebounds as she feels what is sure to be a bruised rib -- and collides shoulder-first into a sagging, aging sign reading

        \<span style="color:xterm196"\>BAT BURGER\</span\>

Kate really doesn't have time to digest the irony of this as she her impact cracks the sign in half and collapses it over her. The pain thing gets in the way.

"hkg" is her eloquent, initial response to Domino as she shakes her head. She doesn't have time. She forces herself up; to her credit, even as her body screams at her, she only staggers once as she recovers.

Wiping a dribbling smear of bright red from her chalk white chin, she -looks- at Domino as she staggers into place beside the mercenary.

"Now," she starts, voice recovering with a hoarse hiss, "is when you start answering questions. Like: what the -hell- is going on here?!"

She thinks this is the -perfect time-.

Domino has posed:
Reunited and slightly more bloody than before, the two pigment-challenged women come to stand in the center of the sigil. Neither of them look happy. The air still reeks of methane. Kate is making demands.

"I don't have to explain myself to you--!"

"Enough!" calls out the voice of what is..was..probably still is Heather. "You dithering buffoons nearly ruined EVERYTHING I've been working toward! But I'm so close now... So close. One opportunity, just..one..opportunity to surrender if you don't want to be torn apart by the daeva."

Kate won't have trouble seeing a total shift in the albino's demeanor. It's the same sort of look she had when hunting down street signs and when figuring out how to enter the dead mall.

That kid... 'Indigo.' 'One day he just up and disappeared. '"'Hidden' gremlins, Dom. HIDDEN" she seethes. "Stupid!"

How many enemies are they dealing with? The attack at LexCon... She had felt possessed to carry a revolver that day. Six rounds. The plate on her car, 'INDI6O.'

"Six targets" she quietly tells Kate.

Heather is out there somewhere. How to single her out? Ice-hued eyes dart about in the darkened mall but she doesn't have to look for long.

Blue car. Vanity plate -referring to a shade of blue- which also reminded her of a guy with blue dyed bangs--

"Blue wall, at your seven. How's your aim? You've got one shot at this."

At the call to surrender Neena slowly brings her arms up...then 'accidentally' fires a round--her LAST round in the mag--into the air with a *tak!* It strikes one of the railings and ricochets off into the distance where it smashes the nozzle on the building's fire suppression system.

*Clunk-clunk-clunk*

-Water.- Cold, stagnant, rust colored water pours down from above. Within seconds the already soggy interior starts to flood. But you know where it -doesn't- fall? Where the invisible baddies stand. Including one outline standing directly in front of a very -blue- painted section of wall at ground level.

Kate has her window to deal with Heather, however she decides.

Batwoman has posed:
'I don't have to explain myself to you--!' Domino begins to shout.

"You don't -have- to, but you're -going- to--!" Kate begins to yell.

Both of them are cut off at the pass of a heated debate over Batwoman's right to exposition by the disembodied voice of Heather Vernell. Kate's body aches. She ignores it as her stance widens and her body lowers like someone ready to fight. But fight -what-? She can't -see- them, and if she can't, then how...?

All Kate can do for right now is listen, eyes narrowing and frown creasing as the voice of Heather invokes the word 'daeva.' Kate's familiar; the Zoroastrian gods of chaos and disorder. Faith and religion have always been a part of her interests -- a part of her.

It's a kernel she clings to, tucks away to use as reference for later research and probing, when she's not bloodied and being menaced by invisible goons and their socialite overlord. Behind lenses, green eyes dart, looking for some sign of their presence. But then...

Domino seethes. And her entire attitude seems to shift within an instant. Like outside, when they found the mall. When they figured out a plan of approach. When...

'Six targets.'

Kate Kane looks at the other, pale woman for a long, quiet moment. Even behind that cowl, that look communicates so much without a word.

'We're going to talk.' Even if Batwoman has to track her down to do it.

It -might- just make it more exciting.

Blue wall. At her seven.

How's her aim?

The promise on her lips transforms into a bloodied smirk.

"See for yourself."

One bullet fires. Rusty water belches out of sprinklers, thick and repugnant. It douses the floors with its rancid presence -- all save for six targets.

The goons -- and --

Immediately, Batwoman throws two batarangs from her hands. One sharp, one blunted.

The sharp one? It flies high above the silhouetted goons, slicing into the aged, rotting support of a sign for TACO WHIZ. Old and decrepit, a single batarang is more than enough to bring it crashing down behind them. Distraction, at least. Maybe it'll take out a few too if she's lucky.

Kate's not paying attention to them, though -- because she's chasing after the blunted batarang she threw. It goes wide. It curves.

And aims to hit Heather across the side of the head with plentiful amounts of speed and blunt force trauma, just as Batwoman slides across rust-soaked waters to try to catch her right after the moment of impact.

This is how she decides. How she always would, in this situation.

... Not the -least- of which because -someone- is going to answer all her damn questions--

Domino has posed:
Kate's aim is true. The TACO WHIZ sign hits the ground with quite the clatter. Pieces are still clacking about when the Bluntarang catches Heather and down she goes. Whether by fate, divine intervention or some other unknown factor, the act of Batwoman catching the other lady results in a delicate necklace chain to break. In turn, whatever bad magic was at play seems to come to an abrupt end.

The guards reappear as their former selves, now with a hundred percent less consciousness. Miss Vernell reappears in Kate's arms, also knocked out cold via alternative means. It's like they've somehow managed to find the Holy Undo function of this elaborate ceremony!

Although one demon remains as Domino is reloading her sidearm--

Then there's a faint buzzing sound from a pocket on her belt. Someone's getting a phonecall. Eyes roll with a growl of "Tiiiiimiiiing..." as she glances at the screen, eyes narrowing as the sidearm beside her goes into battery with a meaningful *Chak!* Neena turns that narrow-eyed stare to Kate as if to ask 'did YOU do this?'

"Who's calling? Yeah. How'd you-- ... I see" she says with a darkening of tone. "This better be good. I did. Yes." She pauses, looking at Heather then returning her stare to the vigilante. "Negative. ... Seems luck's on your side tonight. Very well, we have a deal. Now do me a favor and erase this number. No loose ends, understand?"

She ends the call with a quick breath, still looking at Kate's masked eyes. "Okay" she announces while tucking the sidearm away. "She's all yours. Just make sure she makes it into a cell somewhere."

Batwoman has posed:
Heather goes down.

Her necklace snaps.

And just like that --

The sense of unease scratching at the back of Kate's mind comes to an end just as the guards reappear, helpfully unconscious; Vernell in her arms, -also- thankfully unconscious.

Magic. ... Goddamn magic.

The Great Spell of Falling Ass-Backwards Into the Magical Abort Command completed, Batwoman surveils the end of this strange, grand work. She finds herself at a loss for all it was for, and all it implies... save the nagging suspicion that whatever this is isn't quite resolved. A frown settles into her stinging lips as she looks at the woman in her arms...

... and then back at Domino, loading in a new clip.

"..."

Legs tense. She readies herself as she faces down with her ally of convenience. She's bloodied and bruised and carrying the dead weight that is Heather Vernell's unconscious form, but she still looks ready to scrap if she has to. As violently as she needs.

Feet spread with the slosh of rusty waters--

And then a phone's vibration sounds off in the silence.

A second passes. Another buzz. Kate cocks her head owlishly to the right.

"I think that's for you," she helpfully supplies Domino. The glare is met with the quirk of the right corner of Batwoman's mouth in an infuriatingly vague smirk.

Did she? She's not telling.

(She didn't; but she's not above being petty and leaving Domino hanging either.)

A conversation takes place, and Kate very patiently waits it out. She listens to at least the one side of it. She makes sure to remember it. And when it's done...

"Looks like our date's over, huh," she says simply, dryly. She pulls Vernell a bit tighter towards her... until she's sure that sidearm is completely holstered.

"What a shame."

She offers no assurances to Domino's request; the expression she offers, jaw set, lips a neutral line, stance unyielding, communicates for her: there's no way in hell she'll be satisfied with any less than a cozy cell for Miss Vernell.

"This was fun," she remarks, flatly.

"Let's catch up soon, Oreo."

The second is a promise. The first...

... well, maybe it wasn't a complete lie.