4651/Red X: This Time it's War! Part 2

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Red X: This Time it's War! Part 2
Date of Scene: 14 June 2018
Location: Unknown
Synopsis: The planning continues, and Colette finally reveals her deductions to the Titans who already know the one key secret that links it all together.
Cast of Characters: Stardust, 87, Brick




Stardust has posed:
There's a field not far from the town where certain meetings had taken place before. It's just a rabbit hole away, and has been a useful location for certain persons to discuss things away from other Titans. Things that might require a certain extra level of delicacy, a little more professionalism, a little more maturity. Things like the secret plans of ancient secret organizations, and the smooshing of peeps.

Okay, maybe not the delicacy, professionalism, or maturity. Still. It is to that very field that Colette sends out messages to those members of the Titans who are a little bit more in the know about certain things. Those to whom, most specifically, Damian's identity is not a secret. The message was straightforward: "Red X is going down. Meet me at midday." And, of course, the location. Because Colette's not THAT forgetful.

However, she is late turning up.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
Summer is on, so there are no classes from which Vorpal has to excuse himself. He arrives early, but secretly- the Rabbit Hole opens up a ways away and h makes his way to the field, invisible.

Call it paranoia, but the person capabl of hacking their files could also falsify Colette's message. So he waits, invisible and in silence, a little ways off from the rendez-vous point.

Just in case.

Brick has posed:
Earlier today, Brick dropped a small number of robotic devices into the Gotham Knights arena. Or was it a large number of SMALL robotic devices. In any case, they were dropped in by boom tube, but it was a very small boom tube, more of a POP pipe. And the robotic devices have gone through the entire arena, finding every Terran-tech device there, including the ones that belong there because they're part of the regular television. They've also attached themselves to hinges, to chairs, to the sprinklers that water the astroturf... and why there are sprinklers to water the astroturf is a part of human engineering that Brick is certain that he will eventually find out but for now ... why are they still using astroturf anyway? Uh. Stop being distracted.

"OK, Maire Boit. Pull them back once they finish their setups, and we'll have a full grid on the entire field to use ... I have to make a pair of gravity grenades and a Mustard-Gas Free air-powered immobilizer."

The day passes. Brick eats and works at the same time, but Maire keeps him from eating the components.

**PING** It's //TIME// ... Brick pushes a touch of zero-energy into Maire Boit -- she needs to eat too -- and then into the Boom Device, and the POP pipe opens, sucking in what remains of the construction bots and spitting out a set of mobile controllers. Six of them, the size of marbles, they'll conceal themselves around the field for when Brick needs to activate the Grid for some reason.

BACK TO NOW: There's a brief KAPOW! as the fastest BOOM tube ever opens a half mile up, and Brick plummets downward, but rather than making a splat he starts spinning akimbo with his quantum-wheel skates making a slowing spiral. He lands about four minutes before the planned time.

Stardust has posed:
Colette's arrival in the vicinity is accompanied by a series of loud explosions, as the sack she's carrying blows up violently. Fortunately this happens well away from everyone else, as she is flying through the air.

Was flying. Flying becomes tumbling for a few moments before it becomes hovering, sighing, and then flying again. She lands in the clearing, drops the burned remains of a sack, and sighs.

  "Hi Brick," Colette says. "The world is getting worse by the day. Mad scientists are now building self-destruct mechanisms into their badly made robots. Seriously, I take a couple of months off fighting random trashbots and someone comes up with the idea of a self-destruct mechanism. I like collecting the parts. One day I'll do something with them. Like build a giant deathbot and set it to fight all the trashbots for me. How's things? All done setting things up at the Arena? Any sign of the kittycat, yet?"

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"I am right here," Vorpal says with preternatural calm, finally deigning to appear. Not that he fooled Brick's box- he was certain it had detected him, but at least gave no alert to his presence. Probably because Maire knows he's no threat.

His outfit is little different this time- on top of his usual spandex, he is wearing what appears to be a red-and-gold band jacket with its sleeves cut off.

"You are late, by the way," he says to Colette, with only the hint of a smirk.

Brick has posed:
Brick successfully conceals a start when Vorpal appears, because the guy has been doing that "cat" thing of being utterly silent and hard to detect at Brick for almost as long as Brick's known him. Even when dropping by with pizza, he's somehow hidden the scent of the stuff. It's ... probably a physics violation. Somehow.

"They've ALWAYS had self-destruct mechanisms, Leticia. It's part of the fun to disable them."

He summons his "utility" pod -- a suitcase-sized cylinder that holds a director's chair (made of reinforced substances), a box containing two gravity grenades, another box containing the trumpet thing he made for Breath, and yet another box containing ... tea. A real Chinese style tea set. And a large bottle of hot water. And loose-leaf tea. Four cups, a Sharing Pot, a Brewing Pot, and a tray that captures the water. Oh, and a tea towel. But no Tea Animal, because that's just silly. Common but silly.

"Today I have Empress Red Robe tea."

Stardust has posed:
Colette gives a shrug of her shoulders. "The ones I've captured before didn't blow up," she answers Brick, while eyeing Vorpal. Most specifically, eying his jacket. "Did you join Sargant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Vorp?" She arches an eyebrow at him before stepping over to inspect the tea set. "Ohh. Damian would be jealous if he knew. Talking of. Vorp thinks Red X is a rogue Robin. There was some complicated story involving armpits and butts. Question for you Vorp, did you ever do that digging I suggested? Figuring out who exactly Red X has been stealing from, and what actual, you know, criminal stuff he's done? Apart from stabbing you and Rayner, that is."

  Stopping only to brush bits of burnt robot off her outfit, Colette sits down cross-legged, and awaits tea. "I've already filled in Brick with my plan to take down Red X, Vorp. It involves all of us attacking him at once. I wanted to have a little more in-depth discussion with the pair of you, 'cos it involves something you two already know the others don't. Also 'cos you two are less flakey. I can't believe I just said that."

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"Lonely Hearts Club?" The Cheshire raises an eyebrow, looks at his jacket, and then shrugs, "If the shoe fits."

"Rogue Robin? That almost sounds like the food chain. In any case, the digging with Batman was... interesting, but it didn't really put me any closer to finding my suspect's whereabouts." He crosses his arms and looks at Colette.

"What do you hve in mind?" He doesn't sit down for tea just yet.

Brick has posed:
"I got a few lessons from Alfred, actually," Brick says. "The man knows forty different ways to make tea. Somehow he prefers the British way, which is weird."

The tea ritual is going as he talks. Hot water into the pot, then into the sharing pot, then into three of the cups. The tea, measured by some arcane method involving a tweezer and the lid of the brewing pot ... and then it goes into the pot, and fresh hot water is poured in, held for ten seconds, swirled, then the lid is used to ... pour out the tea into the tray. Because it's DUSTY and GARBAGE. Honest. Technically he should be sniffing the dry tea, then sniffing the freshly opened tea leaves, then brewing the tea, but he doesn't do those things because he doesn't want to explain the details to Collette when Vorpal will simply sneeze all over the tea. Because he would. So he pours in hot water instead, for the actual brew.

"The box with the yellow band has Rayoflight's gravity grenades. They stick to whatever they are thrown onto, and emit a ten second pulse of alternating intensified gravity, 2.5G within 10 meters, with a push-pull interval of one second. It'll knock over a mastodon, but probably won't kill a hummingbird."

He pours the tea into the sharing pot, using the lid to keep the leaves inside. He also doesn't use the tea tools -- invulnerability means never having to say you've burned your fingers.

"The trumpet. I don't know how well it'll work, but ... it does NOT the heck blow MUSTARD GAS. It blows out a charged particle field that makes it more difficult to move, which means it slows things down. It takes something as strong as our energetic windy girl to provide the power to distribute it."

Tea goes into three cups. Brick offers the first to Colette, the second to Vorpal, before taking his own, and sniffing it slowly.

"Don't worry, no catnip," he murmurs.

Stardust has posed:
Colette picks up one of the gravity grenades, turning it over and over in her hands. "Sounds fun. You got any spares?" She asks. "I'd like to try one of these out on myself some time. Ash has me doing this weird training thing to do with using my flight as a balancing force. It's kind of hard to explain. But it's all about rapidly changing directions, so this could be..." she blinks, and puts the grenade down. It occurs to her that there's something not entirely healthy about seeing a new weapon and instantly thinking about using it on herself.

"We're going to capture Red X, Vorp. At the stadium. I'm going in as a ringer for Breath. He'll be prepared for her not me, but I'm willing to bet I've annoyed him enough by now that he won't want to back away. And then when he's in a good position, I'll signal and you guys appear. You with Cass and Rayner, Brick with Breath. One bamf either side. Rayner does his speedy run thing to the rear, we have him surrounded. But I want you guys to know what to expect."

Colette takes the tea with a nod of thanks, and takes a thoughtful sip. "Not bad. Kinda flowery. I think it might even be better than that stuff Damian serves."

" So. It's Kaldur's fault I figured this out," Colette explains. I mean not personally, but he was my number one suspect. Ex Titan, good resources, military training. Then guess what happens? An Atlantean artifact gets stolen. That's why I was so uh... short. With that whole apologizing for the theft thing. Because I was sure it was a set-up, and we'd be apologizing to someone who was in on it. So then there was the robbery at the bank. Look at what's being targeted, who's losing out here. Fun fact, nothing was reported stolen. The bank got damaged, but fun fact number two, it was scheduled for major refurbishments anyway. So no harm done, huh? Fun fact number three, the bank is the property of Wayne Enterprises. Well that could fit in with the Rogue Robin theory if he was actually stealing anything, but odd that he seems to be avoiding actually doing any damage beyond the stabbings, hmm? And how does rogue Robin fit in with Atlanteans? Of course knowing what the three of us know about Wayne Enterprises, there's an interesting link. Justice League. I was expecting the next theft to be a Themysciran artifact."

  Colette stops, and stares at Vorpal. "No rabbit holes. No getting mad when you figure out where this is going. Don't make me hold onto your tail. Understood?"

"So, the next venues," Colette answers. "How do they fit in? The island doesn't. It's different. But it fits in with not wanting to actually do any property damage. Red X sets these battles up to his own advantage. I'm probably the hardest Titan to actually damage. So he needs somewhere isolated, where he can cut loose. Blow things up. The Stadium. Well, fun fact number 4, it's due to be demolished. Fun fact number 5, it belongs to Wayne Enterprises. Fun fact number 6, Red X's kidnap victim belongs to... well. I think there's a clear pattern here. Which leaves one really obvious question. How could Robin possibly not be waaaay ahead of me here? Of course the messages from Red X to Robin have never really fitted in. Stuff about how he must have already figured out what his task will be, when according to what he tells us he hasn't even figured out who? Nah. And then there was the Luke Skywalker thing. Putting his own face on Red X and beating himself up. Guilt, hmm? I'm not sure exactly who is behind the mask, but this is a Bat thing, and our glorious leader has known exactly what was going on from the start. The bullet in the shoulder? That's cold. Whoever thought that one up... well, nice way to deflect attention, but if it was a rogue Robin, you'd think he'd be a better shot. So..." Colette leans back and sips some more tea. That was quite a bit to process, and it's the first time she's actually voiced all this aloud. It takes her a bit of processing too.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
Vorpal's eyes narrow very slowly. He unbuttons the top three buttons of the band jacket, looking for something to do with his hands as his brain races.

"Robins wouldn't be a better shot," he says weakly. "... Batmand doesn't condone guns."

He is giving Colette a Look. The kind of look that says he is tiptoeing down the alleyway she has pointed to, but is clearly stopping half-way because he feels he isn't going to like what he'll see at the end of the road.

Brick has posed:
"Incidentally, I've got a Grid down in the stadium," Brick says. "There's several things Maire Boit will be able to do with that. Most of them involve disabling tech, and having viewed the limited video from the incidents, other than having Robinesque moves that are genericized enough to make them NOT match any specific Robin ... the guy is about the tech and the traps. Of the four and a half Robins, there are two who are good enough to mask personal style, and one of those is too large to be Red-X. If this is a Robin, not a robot, not an impersonator with incredible training, then it's only one person. And ... I can completely see him doing this as a training exercise, for teamwork..."

Sip of tea. Brick smiles faintly. This is REALLY good stuff. Albert's advice on who to get it from was perfect. Strange, that a shop in England would be better for pure Chinese style tea brewing, but there is a good reason -- they have the time to cultivate the relationships with tea farms that a superhero or otherwise distracted person would not.

"Also, I'm certain that assassin training includes the ability to shoot without killing or even permanent injury."

Stardust has posed:
Colette gives Vorpal a different Look. One that says 'Sorry Kitty Cat. I've been struggling with this for the last few weeks. We all have to face the truth, even when we don't like it.' She draws in a deep breath, lets it out slowly, and consoles herself with tea.

"Too short for Batman, too tall for Damian. The others I don't know. Not out of the question it's a robot. Not out of the question it's Moon Moon. He has the right training. He's ex-League, which makes me real curious just how he and Robin get on in private. This really is good tea. Teamwork? The whole thing has been the exact opposite. Trying to face us one-on-one. Finding solutions to our powers. Remember Robin getting mad at Rayner about the powers versus gadgets thing? It's either a test to determine who's worthy of being Robin's little lackeys, or... well, figuring out how to win. Well, there's our answer. Bats are smart. Bats are well equipped. Bats figure out how to deal with someone's weaknesses. Red X has been all about setting things up to his own advantage, and we've been letting him. The solution is to take away his advantage. Make him deal with the unexpected. And make him deal with all of us at the same time."

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"Then we will face him on the field." Vorpal's voice is tight, and his jaw is clenched hard, but he maintains an otherwise calm demeanor. "And we will strike together. And woe betide whomever is under the mask."

He looks away into the distnce for a bit, lost in thought, before he turns back. "Anything else to discuss concerning this... situation?"

Brick has posed:
Brick sighs a bit sadly.

"You haven't even touched your tea, and you're wound up tighter than if you were in a room full of rocking chairs."

*PING*

"OK, fine. I'm being pushy, I'll quit."

He looks over at Colette, and considers what she's just said.

"You're eliminating Damian based on what looks like a four inch difference in height, but that can be faked and fooled, especially by someone with the right training. There are two Robins who can shoot well, but one of them always moves like a Robin."

Or at least, as far as has been seen on the bits and pieces of video that are found if you know how and where to look.

"Vorpal, do you want me to make you anything gadgety? Oh, and no, I don't have more gravity grenades, but I can make a grav-training device for you. The grenades take a lot more power, and burn out completely, because I am not leaving my tech around for someone to do a Starkening to it and then have to go chasing it down across the whole planet."

Stardust has posed:
Colette blinks at Brick a few times. "You're suggesting Red X is Damian in heels? Let's hope not, I dread to think how Breath would react. I guess..." her shoulders drop. "I guess it's possible. I've been trying really hard to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. But it's hard to see how he can't be very involved."

  "Let's not woe betide him too much, Kitty Cat." Colette looks across to Vorpal, a calculating expression on her face. "We want to capture him, and preferably not hurt him too much, okay?" Colette eyes Vorpal. "I realize you may have the urge for revenge, but there's a good chance you'll regret that later. We're going to try to get him to surrender, and if he doesn't go quietly we take him with minimal damage. Understood? And when it's all going down... keep calm. Yelling at him can happen later. Along with... well. We'll deal with that when it happens." She leans back, sighs again, and gulps her tea.

"I'll send you a map, Vorp. The trick is to get into four positions, cutting off his escape. If he's smart he'll try to break out in the direction of one of the faster groups. So the others take longer to catch up. And my guess would be me as the least trained fighter. We need to be ready for that. We also need to be ready for unexpected routes of escape, he'll be prepared. Anything comes in from above to pick him up, Breath will blow at it. If he has rocket pants and tries to fly away, Cassie and I are fliers, Brick can probably join in with his air blades. That leaves down. He may have something prepared. Bricks scouting that out, but Vorp? Just to make sure, as soon as you are through the gate, hit the ground beneath his feet with a full on chaos wave, okay? That should slow him down whichever way he goes, and take down out of the equation."

Colette frowns and bites her lip. "One other factor. Raven. I don't know what's going on there, she keeps secrets. She knows something, and she's not saying. But X-Face's first message said she'd nearly caught him before. I'm going to make an attempt to bring her in on this, but I'll be careful exactly what I tell her. Not a word of this to anyone else, okay? And particularly not a word of this to Moon Moon or Robin. Or to each other while in the Tower. I'll be glad when this is all over."

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"I am not thirsty," Vorpal responds to Brick, his voice softening when addressing his friends, but it soon tightens again. "No woe? No tides? If it is whom you suspect it to be..." hand clenches and unclenches, causing his claws to appear and disappear from the fingers poking out of the fingerless gloves, "I am finished with offering my trust only to have it betrayed. Three times is the charm in every fairy tale."

He takes a little stroll, listening to his team-mates and nodding his head. "Right chaos wave. That might cause some issues with Brick's tech. But I also have some ideas." He smirks at Brick, "Thank you, Brick, but I don't think technology reacts well to my magic. I have some ideas on what to bring. And I daresay they should be fairly unexpected."

He pauses and takes a few moments to gaze out into the distance. "I won't be back to the tower until it's time to strike. I need time to prepare my things. My apartment is probably bugged, so I'll choose a place somewhere in the world to hunker down and prepare."

He pauses, and then looks very uncomfortable. "There is, of course, the chance that /I/ have been bugged, too. It'd be relatively easy to put a tiny tracker in my fur. Even with regular showers, it would cling harder than a tracker in a human." He looks over at Brick and says, "Can Maire Boite detect those on me? Otherwise I may need to ask someone to... er, inspect me. And I'd rather-"

Brick has posed:
Tea is not for body thirst, but Brick is beyond that.

"Stardust. I'm mad science not MAGIC, and like he said, doing a full chaos wave would utterly wreck the grid I put down over the stadium grounds, which is intended to enable Maire Boit to interfere with an escape..." Brick objects.

**PINGping**

"Right. As far as Maire can detect, and I can detect, you aren't bugged. Your apartment, certainly. Just like my room at home and my lab at Star Labs, and of course the Tower."

... at least, the lab that anyone knows about, and the Sekrit Place is ALSO pretty much impossible for most people to get to.

"Your plan to herd him may not even work, and yes, I already mapped the underground passages and pipes -- and they are ALSO part of the Grid. I would appreciate it if we don't sacrifice my work prematurely."

Stardust has posed:
"I'm going to be fighting X-face one-on-one for a period," Colette explains. "To get him into position. Then I give the signal. Up to then, the grid is valuable, mostly to give us advance warning of any surprises. At that point, chaos waving the ground seals the deal way better. He can't escape through passages and pipes if they're wrecked. At least in his immediate vicinity. Our priority here is to not let him escape, capable as he is, he's not going to defeat all of us at once. Warning though Vorp, the deal here is to stop one possible exit avenue we haven't got covered, and to disrupt his actions. Don't go too over the top here, remember that we need to be able to get to him as quickly as possible. If we have to fight our way through a horde of animated shopping carts to reach him, it's not good. Oh. One more thing."

Colette looks away before continuing. She doesn't seem to want to look anyone in the eye while saying this. "Brick brought up holograms. You're Mister Illusions. There's a psychological warfare possibility that occurs to me. I have the feeling that whoever X-Face turns out to be, seeing Batman watching him critically from the stands would at the very least be a distraction. Might be an idea to hit him with that just before the gang shows up."

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"That won't do, I don't think," Vorpal says. "I am pretty sure he has some sort of infra-red vision in that stupid mask of his, he'd be able to tell that 'Batman' isn't giving off any heat signatures. That would give away our game right away."

He crosses his arms and does a passable to good job of hiding a rising foul mood. The notion of a betrayal unsettles him, and for a moment he feels the inexplicable desire to go to Gar and see him again.

He quickly squashes that notion.

"If that's all, I should go and prepare. I'll go to my apartment and pretend to pack, then I'll call Brick to let him know I'm leaving for Puerto Vallarta with my parents for a few weeks, that should explain my absence."

Brick has posed:
Brick narrows his eyes.

"The solid-light hologram would match the Batman's thermal signatures ... but probably not any specific signaling devices, or silent communicaiton tricks that they use, which we don't know about. There are several dozen ways that your Chaos Wave plan is more likely to go wrong than right, not the least being that a chaos wave is CHAOS, and from my observations, it does not guarantee any specific result unless Vorpal concentrates on that specific result uninterrupted until it completes, which puts him out of operation for that period of time. If your goal is to collapse all escape routes, then it's more logical to detonate the underground structures in key locations. Controlled explosions will do the job much better. Think about it."

Brick collects the tea things onto the tray, replacing the hot water bottle into the carrier. Then he taps the tea tray and it, along with the tea service, evaporates into light. Strangely, the tea and the water that were in the tray are not left behind.

"You are team leader. Your choices, but a good team leader pays attention to her team, and learns their full capabilities."

Stardust has posed:
"We could even have a person standing behind the hologram," Colette points out. "As for specific signals... well the idea is only to throw him off his game for a moment at the critical time. I have a hunch it would do that. But I'll leave that to you two. You're the illusion experts."

Colette pinches the bridge of her nose and shakes her head. "This is tough for all of us. There will be quite some explaining to do at the end of all this. And we're going to have to..." she cuts herself off with a wave of the hand. "That can wait. Be ready to answer your phone, Mcavity. And be ready to pounce when the time comes."

Colette stands up and stretches. "Okay, Brick. I agree, know your teams capabilities. But know your enemy's too. IF you are confident you can set charges that will collapse the tunnels without endangering the lives of people standing on top, go ahead. But this is his ground and being prepared is his thing. He has access to huge resources and cutting edge tech. He will be prepared for sabotage. If the grid gets compromised, Vorp goes with the chaos wave. Agreed? Good. I'll send you both diagrams for arrival points. Learn the ground before hand. And... I'm done. I think that's everything. I've had enough of superheroing for... ever. But let's start with for today or I'll have four hundred and ninety seven voices yelling at me for the rest of my life, mostly in alien languages. But I'm going to go and pretend to be normal for the rest of the day. Maybe see if I can manage to get drunk."

Brick has posed:
"Good luck with that. If your ... mentors ... are that cranky they're unlikely to let it happen."

Brick sends the capsule back to where it belongs, then, in an attempt to de-stress from working at cross-purposes, he says, "Udra vakkasha muur vektalis."

A Boom Tube opens under him and closes almost too fast for it to make noise. He appears in the sky over Mount Elbrus in the Caucasus range, and plummets into a glacier, not bothering to slow down.

*PING*

"Yep. Bombs are unsafe. So, we need to find a LOT of clay. Think we could fill those tunnels with estuary mud? Got any recommended favorites?"

Snow gets in his mouth as he talks, as the hole in the glacier where he hit collapses in on him, but that's OK, they're gone before the soldiers get there.