5610/Interview

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Interview
Date of Scene: 20 October 2018
Location: Wayne Tower I, Gotham City
Synopsis: Jubilee saves Bruce Wayne from an assassination attempt.
Cast of Characters: Batman, Jubilee




Batman has posed:
    When Jubilee called the number on the business card, Bruce Wayne answered. Admittedly, it was after more than a few rings and his voice sounded a little groggy on the other end. He passed it off as having slept through his alarm and despite it being noon that seemed reasonable enough. He then went on to arrange a meeting at Wayne Tower I in Gotham, and even went so far as to send a car for Jubilee so she wouldn't have to brave public transport. Rather than meet her in his office like some sort of cartoon supervillain, however, Bruce is waiting in the lobby of the skyscraper when she arrives.

    "Made it all in one piece?"

Jubilee has posed:
"I did! But it was touch and go for awhile there. This sketchy guy showed up with a big car and I was always told not to ride with strangers. We're friends now." Jubilee turns and waves enthusiastically out the window to the driver, who waves back as he pulls away from the curb.

"This place is huge. I'd never seen it. Thought maybe we were accidentally at Stark Tower, at first."

Batman has posed:
    "Pfft, Stark Tower?" Bruce waves a hand, gesturing across the street to an identical skyscraper, "Wayne Towers. Plural. We can't all jet around in flying suits of armour but at least I win the billionaire skyscraper competition."

    He offers a faint, joking smile at that and turns to lead the way into the building alongside Jubilee: "So, I thought we might get something to eat and go from there? What do you think?"

Jubilee has posed:
"You mean besides a hot dog? Do billionaires eat like normal people?" Jubilee smiles. She's not exactly dressed to the nines. She's wearing a little black dress with a red satin sash, tied in a small neat bow at the waist, and black heels that make her seem almost normal height. But she can keep up in heels, that's a step in the right direction. Her hair falls in black, languid curls to her shoulderblades. Absent are the usual goggles from atop her head.

"I mean, I eat almost anything. Almost. I'll try anything once! Twice if it didn't hurt too bad the first time."

Batman has posed:
    "We could go find a hot dog cart if you'd like," Bruce offers, looking up and down the street of Gotham's busy central business district for a moment, "But I thought we might go a little upscale. And yes, we do eat normal food - we just encrust it with diamonds and gold leaf first."

    As they arrive at the bank of elevators, Bruce passes a keycard over one of the sensors and an elevators at the far end opens immediately. He leads the way into it, hitting a button for the top floor before it begins to ascend. As the elevator travels, he turns to Jubilee: "I'm glad you came, actually. I was worried you'd think I was up to no good and toss out the card."

Jubilee has posed:
"Naah. You've got enough going for ya, you could be up to no good with anybody in the world. I didn't figure you'd bother with somebody like me if that's all ya were up to." Jubilee grins and looks around the elevator. "Hot dogs are peasant food anyway," she says with a haughty sniff. "I wouldn't subject you to it twice."
"I bet those diamonds are rough on the teeth, though. Hard to chew. Harder to swallow, eh?"

Batman has posed:
    "Like you wouldn't believe," Bruce says with a smile, turning back to the elevator doors just as they come to a stop and open. The entire first floor of Wayne Tower I seems to be entirely set aside for his use. Not so much a penthouse as it is a large office spanning the whole floor. A number of tables and seating areas suggest it sees a lot of use for entertaining. By one of the tables, two covered silver dishes await: "So, bodyguard, I hope you like yakitori. I had some in Sapporo last year and it was /the/ best. I've been trying to find somewhere that does it the same way in Gotham ever since."

Jubilee has posed:
"Oooh it sounds divine!" Twisting a curl idly around one finger, she looks around the spacious floor in wonder. "I'd make a comment to make me sound smart, but I'd have to Google it first and see what it is, or I'd just make an idiot of myself..." The statement's vacant enough that she might have even said it without thinking. She's in awe of Bruce's office space. "But if YOU like it, I guess I can pick the diamonds off."

"You certainly go all out to entertain prosepective employees. Got any ninjas after ya that I can knock off before we eat? I feel like I need to earn this."

Batman has posed:
    "I hope not," Bruce says with an exaggerated, furrowed brow, "I figure Tony Stark keeps all the secret societies looking to beat up on billionaires busy. I asked him for a suit but he won't return my calls."

    Bruce moves over to the dishes and removes the cover, revealing rather simple but tasty-looking food. Grilled meat on skewers by the look of it, and coated in a sauce of some kind, "It's finger food, I'm afraid - I hope you don't mind?"

    Outside, above the skyline of Gotham, a black helicopter lifts up. It wouldn't be worth mentioning, save that it appears to be making a direct line for the window from afar. Still, there's time for it to veer off ...

Jubilee has posed:
"Oh no, I eat fingers all the TIME. And I'm a huge fan of food on a stick," Jubilation assures him, nodding in approval at the dish. "Have you ever had a dill pickle corndog? They have them at the fair, it's like the Turducken of carnival cuisine. It's a hot dog, inside a dill pickle, dipped in cornbread batter and deep fr--No, no I guess you probably haven't."

Tilting her head a little and peering out the window, Jubilee pauses, her hand instinctively reaching for a small black satin handbag hanging from her shoulder. "You don't happen to be expecting company, I suppose?"

Batman has posed:
    "Noooo," Bruce says slowly, turning in his seat and leaning one arm over the back to get a good look at the approaching helicopter. When his face is turned away from Jubilee, the carefree smile of Bruce Wayne flitters away to be replaced with the cold calculation of the Batman. But when he turns back, it is gone. "Excuse me a second, Jubes."

    That said, he looks concerned as he walks over to the desk and lifts up the phone receiver, "Charlotte, does Walter have anyone coming in for that dinner appointment by helicopter?"
    Bruce turns away from the window for a moment as he speaks on the phone, and in that same instance something bright and flaming appearts to launch from the helicopter and speed rapidly towards the window he is standing with his back to.

Jubilee has posed:
Jubilee has nothin' to hide. It's easy to be her. At least, in this instance. Most of the time it's all kinds of hell. When Bruce replies to her question, she's already pulling out her goggles and seating them atop her head. But the helicopter isn't stopping, and when he goes to make a phone call, she pulls them down over her eyes.

He's, luckily, looking away, but he won't be for long. "Whatever you do, DON'T turn around," Jubilee calls out, and she lifts her hands, palms facing the window. Now would be a good time to blind them. But NOW isn't, because they're launching /something/.

"Listen HERE," she says sternly toward the helicopter and the no one in general who would hear her, anyway. She blasts from her palms twice. The is a roiling ball of blue plasma the size of a basketball, and it shatters the window, if nothing else, with its stark and sudden heat. The second blast is larger, bright and blue with fingers and veins of pink throughout. It careens through the now open window, and detonates directly in front of the projectile with a concussive blast that could knock a missile off its course. The flash is a brilliant, magnesium-style, except that lingers and pulsates as it travels toward, and then engulfs the helicopter. The resulting light is more brilliant than a welding arc, and at least a thousand times bigger. The heat, even from inside, is tangible.

Batman has posed:
    The missile hurtling from the helicopter is duly incinerated, disappearing within the ball of plasma and falling to the rooftops below as so much twisted, white-hot scrap. The helicopter itself suffers a smaller shock, shaking slightly before turning as the blinded pilot begins to lose control. What happens next would be better placed in an action movie, as two men dressed entirely in black leap from the 'copter as it loses control and cover the gulf to land inside the broken window before Jubilee. Outside, the helicopter begins to lose control and falls in an erratic but semi-controlled dive towards the rooftops as the blinded pilot tries to get out of the air as quickly as possible.
    One of the men doesn't wait, charging at Jubilee in an effort to tackle her. The other makes a direct path for Bruce, who is propped up on his elbows in the floor where the shattered window must have caused him to dive for cover. He glances from Jubilee to the attackers for a moment. There is nothing there he can't handle, but not without giving away his most valuable secret ...

Jubilee has posed:
As the men dive toward the window, Jubilee doffs the fancy heels in two different directions, and as the first man charges her, she tumbles and rolls sideways with a side-handspring that she's awfully fond of when evading. Landing two rotations later, she holds one hand up toward the man and blasts a red ball of light the size of a softball that will likely melt part of that fancy black getup of his when it detonates directly in front of his chest for sheer knock-back power. The other hand is lifted in the direction of the man approaching Bruce, and his ball of light is brighter and more angry. It detonates a little later, as she waits for it to reach his shoulder before giving it a push with that hand and forcing its explosion. "You need to get out of here, Mr. Wayne, and lock down the building!"

Batman has posed:
    The first man attacking Jubilee falls back swiftly, the explosion of plasma far more than he came equipped to deal with. He lands on his back not far from the edge of the window, his weapon clattering from his hands before it falls hundreds of feet to the rooftops below and /well/ out of reach. The other man tries to give chase as Bruce does as he's told and scrambles to his feet, but the ball of light strikes him in the side and sends him tumbling into the table their meal was set up on. As he calls down the phone to lock the building down and send for the GCPD, he looks back in at Jubilee and the two very unconscious assailants. His expression wide-eyed.

Jubilee has posed:
"C'mon, we're gettin' outta here," Jubilee calls out, pulling her goggles up atop her head and reaching out for Bruce's arm as she dashes out of the room. The two guys in fancy tactical gear are rolling around on the floor, and she kicks the second gun under a couch while Guy B is writhing in the other direction. Outside the door, she looks between the elevator, which appears to be on the thirty-seventh floor, and then nods toward the stairs. "I hope to God there's an emergency exit at the bottom of these," she laments as she heads them down the stairs, doubletime.

Batman has posed:
    Bruce follows suit, playing the part of the hapless man caught in the middle of something he doesn't understand to a fault. As they begin to run down the stairs, he follows along. Perhaps the only strange thing about him (besides being targeted by daredevil assassins in a helicopter) is that he's got the stamina to be running down these stairs like this without seeming to lose much of his breath. As they go, indistinct shouting can be heard coming from the office level now far above them. Bruce takes a moment to speak to Jubilee, only now feigning breathlessness: " ... what ... was ... ?"

Jubilee has posed:
Jubilee shakes her head as she finds an emergency exit. "I dunno, but we need to get outta the building or we won't find out for at least another 12 hours, while the police fumble around and knock stuff over." Pulling him out the door, she sets off an alarm, but it only adds to the alarms going off all over the building by this time. "They obviously know where we were. That's where they'll look first. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum should be down for at least another ten minutes." She pauses for a moment as her hands is squeezing his bicep. "Wow, you must REALLY work out...And also: WHO DID YOU PISS OFF, SERIOUSLY?"

Batman has posed:
    "Nobody!" Bruce answers, "At least, nobody more than usual? Believe me, I have /no/ idea who those people are /or/ what they want." But hearing Jubilee's plan, he nods his head before he gestures through the fire exit to a door at the end of a rather non-descript hall, "Come on, I know a quicker way down to the parking garage. My car's there." Somewhere in the back of his mind, the Batman is begging him to strike off on his own and deal with the situation on his terms. But he doesn't. It would lead to too many questions, not to mention he's not entirely sure he could effectively sneak off at this point without getting Jubilee in some hot water with the police.

    As he leads the way through the hallway, he bumps open one of the doors with his shoulder to reveal a non-descript office without any personal furnishings at all. Only the standard desk, computer and chair arrangement. He moves over to the computer and taps a few of the keys in specific order, prompting the wall to - without fanfare - pop open and reveal what looks to be a vertically-aligned hospital guerney. A swift regress to the Batcave, in truth, but Bruces makes up an explanation for it on the spot:

    "We had these installed in case I needed to get out of the building without being noticed. The architect was a ... bit of an eccentric. But there are access points on every third floor and they all lead to the parking garage."

Jubilee has posed:
"Fancyyy," Jubilee observes as the wall opens. "Who are you, Batman?" She giggles as she follows his lead for awhile. "They're gonna think the explosion vaporized me right outta my shoes, you realize that, right?"

As they move through the hallway, she narrows her eyes. "I wish I knew where that helicopter landed. I'd like to give THAT guy a STERN talking-to."

Batman has posed:
    "Please, Batman would've seen those guys coming a mile out. You're the only reason I didn't get blown up."

    Bruce pauses to check the cart in the tube, half-climbing into it for a moment before taking pause. When there's no way around it, he looks back up to Jubilee and extends a hand: "I think we're going to have to get a little closer than we might have expected to fit."

Jubilee has posed:
Giving a sage nod, Jubilee sighs. "That sounds just like something you'd say if you were Batman." She peers over into the cart and shrugs. "Good thing I'm little or we'd be squished in there like marshmallows." She takes his hand and climbs in alongside him, exceedingly glad that she showered just before she left for the interview. "I feel like this is some kinda test. Reflexes. Evasion. Flexibility. Squishability..."

Batman has posed:
    "Yeah, you're passing with flying colors," Bruce says with a half-smile, still managing to keep a look of mild panic in his eyes despite not truly feeling it. He reaches out to hit a button on a panel built into the cart and the doorway slides shut, propelling them downwards through darkness on the wildest Space Mountain rollercoaster ever conceived. Moment later, light shines on them again as the wall opens and reveals a storage closet in the skyscraper's below-ground parking garage. Bruce steps out, reaching out a hand to help Jubilee follow him. His voice is earnest now as he speaks, no longer trying to make light of the situation: "I'm sorry about all this ... I really have no idea what those people want and you shouldn't be caught in the middle of it, whatever it is."

Jubilee has posed:
She's shaking her head quickly as she lets Bruce help her out of the cart. "This isn't anything you can control, Mr. Wayne, please don't let that bother you. It's not...exactly outside of my job description." She doesn't specify whether it's her future or present job of which she speaks. "I don't blame you, I blame the asshat in that chopper. And maybe the two idiots who thought they could beat up a girl." She grins, her expression actually showing no sign of anxiety or panic. "They just picked the wrong girl."

Batman has posed:
    "I'll say," Bruce is still wide-eyed as he leads the way to his car, an expensive looking performance vehicle of some sort. The sort of thing most people only dream of owning and people like Bruce Wayne have three of in their garage. Despite everything, he opens up the passenger's side for Jubilee and then moves around to the driver's: "I'm with you on wanting whoever is in that chopper to get hauled in, but if it's all the same to you I'm not exactly /equipped/ to go fighting what look like paramilitary guys on rooftops. Right now, I just want to get the hell out of here and lay low. We don't know how many more of those guys are out there. And this might be what you do but I wouldn't be able to live with myself if you got hurt for my sake."

Jubilee has posed:
"I know. And I'd never forgive myself if YOU got hurt just because I wanted to go charging headlong into something I'm this unsure of." She shrugs as she buckles into the car, and mutters. "Logan would KILL me for that."

"So yeah, let's get you out of here and someplace safe." There's a faint light blinking from inside her handbag, and she opens it, reaching inside it and pressing a button to make it stop. She presses another to drop a GPS marker before they leave. "Besides, I have a feeling there are probably a bunch of people already on it."

Batman has posed:
    "You're not kidding," Bruce answers, steering out of the parking garage and out into the late afternoon streets. There are police cars already arriving in the opposite direction, but they pay them no mind as they speed past. Bruce glances back at Wayne Tower through the rearview mirror, his brow furrowing, "Looks like they're all over it."

    Perhaps a little more settled down, he steers down another street and makes for what appears to be the outskirts of town. For all his useless billionaire act, he drives with the skill and calm of a professional driver. He doesn't bother to mask any of that. Wherever they're going is unclear, but he seems to know the streets well enough that they don't make any wrong turns or end up going in circles.

    "Thank you for that. Back there? You saved my life. Or at least kept me from being abducted by ... whoever those guys are."

Jubilee has posed:
"Psshh," Jubilee shrugs. "I was just glad to have somethin' to do. It was SOOO boring this morning. I wanted to get out and do somethin', but I had this thing coming up and my somethin's sometimes turn into huge somethin's and then I might be late. Or miss it. And I wouldn't have missed this for the world. You gotta lighten up. Stress'll kill ya if you brood over it."

With an affirmative nod, she looks out the window at the windows and doors speeding past. "You live fast, drive fast, eat diamonds, work out. I feel like you probably woulda been JUST fine..."

Batman has posed:
    "I'm glad I didn't have to find out, though."

    Despite the traffic of Gotham at this time of day, Bruce seems to circumvent it with ease. Before long, they're crossing over one of the bridges leading to the less densely urban portions of the City. Not long after that, it's the countryside. Only then does the car slow down, and Bruce pulls over to the side of the road. He looks sidelong at Jubilee before sadding, "I wasn't sure where to go."

His first instinct may have been the Batcave, but that's hardly somewhere he can take Jubilee. So, he's simply taken himself out of the city. He climbs out of the car, standing at the side of the road and letting out a deep breath. Venting all that stress, perhaps?"

Jubilee has posed:
"This is good. It's quiet. It's peaceful out here." She gives half a grin, and cocks her head, looking over at him as she shuts the car door behind her. "I live in the country, despite the school, and the city rat race. I've got a little cabin on the lake, and I wouldn't trade it for ten penthouse apartments." Then, scrunching her nose a little, she corrects herself. "Yeah probably for TEN. Because I could sell 'em and buy it back, and still come out smellin' like a rose."

She looks at Bruce now, with a serious expression that rarely comes out, despite the circumstances. "Hey, are you okay? You seemed pretty rattled back there. Calmin' down? Feeling better? Are you hurt anywhere?"

Batman has posed:
    "No, no, I think I'm fine," Bruce answers, patting himself down a little bit to check for injuries. In truth, he's re-opened the stitches for the second time on a gunshot wound to his abdomen but that would take more explanation than he's able to give. He glances down at the dark shirt he wears and is thankful that he didn't wear white. Under the guise of straightening himself up a bit, he buttons his suit jacket to cover up the blood and turns back to Jubilee, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just not used to that kind of ... whatever that was. I'll tell you, though, if you really want that bodyguard job, it's yours. You definitely earned it."

Jubilee has posed:
"Really?? Even after I let the helicopter get away?!" Jubilee looks astonished, and has to fight the urge to hug Bruce. One does not simply hug a billionaire offering one a job. It isn't done. It would be entirely inappropriate.

"Thank you!" she exclaims, throwing her arms around his shoulders and hugging him tightly, before stepping back. Luckily, she didn't hug lower. That might have been painful. But she doesn't know that, because of the fourth wall.

Batman has posed:
    Bruce returns the hug and adds an open-handed pat on Jubilee's back, smiling faintly to himself. Her hug does touch more than a few bumps and bruises hidden under his clothes, but he's become a master of concealing pain that one would never know it just to look at him. He shrugs his shoulders a little in response: "It's still up to you if you want to leave Xavier's and come work for me. But the job /is/ yours if you want it. And I think I owe you some yakitori that some goon hasn't fallen into."

Jubilee has posed:
"A job, AND food on a stick!" She grins impishly. "You certainly know your way to a girl's heart, don't ya? Next time I'll bring the fudgecicles, and that way dessert can be on a stick, too."

A concerned look comes over Jubilee's face. "I mean, I do wanna work with you. It'd be such an honour. I'm kinda worried though, because maybe you don't feel safe going home. And you really don't feel safe back at work. Is there something I can do?" Her honeyed brown eyes are softened. "I like it out here, and you can take all the time you need. But eventually you'll have to go back to somewhere, and I want to make sure you feel safe."

Batman has posed:
    "I'm not sure," Bruce answers, sitting down on the hood of the car for a moment and staring off down the country lane they find themselves on. He runs the variables through his head, thinking over them passionlessly in the same manner the Batman handles everything. This was obviously a targeted attack on Bruce Wayne, not Batman. If he returns to the Manor, he puts Alfred in danger. It could just be a one off attempt and he'd be safe, but he's not willing to run that risk. Deep down he's fuming that he can't don the cowl and cape and set out to track down whoever is responsible, but the well-being of the carefully crafted masquerade he has made and those closely tied to it must be considered. Gotham will need to make due with the other members of the Bat Family tonight.

    "You're right. I don't really want to go back to the Manor. They know where I work, so it stands to reason they know where I live. But where else am I going to go?"

Jubilee has posed:
Jubilee shrugs. "I dunno, a cabin on the lake? It's the last place anybody would look for you. It's not fancy like you're used to, but it's comfortable, and it has a fire, and food that isn't encrusted with diamonds or gold flake." The thought hadn't even occurred to her until she said it. "If...you're so inclined, you're welcome to crash there until you get a handle on it all. We could entertain ourselves, I'm sure. The swimming isn't the best at the moment. The lake's already cold as hell. No champagne or caviar, but there's a beer and stars that aren't washed out by the city lights."

Batman has posed:
    Bruce takes a long moment to properly consider the offer. It puts him on the sidelines. But it gives him time to think where he will be off the radar. Another part of him also considers the idea that he has not truly relaxed in what feels like years. He knows what Alfred would be telling him to do. At any other point in time, he wouldn't even consider it. He'd make an excuse. He'd extricate himself, become Batman and that would help the world make sense. For once, he opts for the road less traveled: "Sounds like a good idea."

Jubilee has posed:
"Awesome! Mini-vacation!" Jubilee grins and holds out her arms and closes her eyes, feeling the wind on her face and hands. "It's a good day, Mr. Wayne. You'll see. I think stuff happens for a reason, even if we don't see it at the time. Maybe you needed a spot to unwind a little. And you can have the bed. Cause the couch is small. I fit. But you wouldn't. I fall asleep there by the fire half the time, anyway." She lowers her hands and opens her eyes again. "And my little cabin, well it gets kinda lonely with just me to keep it company."

Batman has posed:
    "Sounds good," Bruce says, his smile distant and betraying some deeper thought that is weighing on his mind but remaining unvoiced. That said he climbs back in the car, waiting for Jubilee to get in the passenger side before starting it up again. Is it really the right decision? He doesn't know. But he's made it now. "I think you're right. I just need somewhere to think about what's happening here. Maybe give the GCPD time to hone in on whoever it is that planned this. And Hell, I'd feel safer with you than with them."