9935/Knightfall: Sitting On A Parking Garage Roof On A Tuesday Evening

Knightfall: Sitting On A Parking Garage Roof On A Tuesday Evening
Date of Scene:	06 November 2019
Location:	Central Business District, New Troy
Synopsis:	Jason finds a brooding Stephanie at the site of the battle between Superman and Batman. He protects his dark and edgy niche.
Cast of Characters:	Spoiler, Red Hood
Tinyplot:	Knightfall

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Spoiler has posed:
Batgirl took off from the Batcave earlier tonight. She'd been hitting her patrol area hard of late. There hadn't been much to do about Ivy for the time being, so she was trying to set things in order it seems.

Though there's no sign of her transponder in the area tonight when anyone checks. Oracle is able to shed some light though. <<She's in Metropolis. Central Business District, sitting on a parking garage roof. Been there for a couple of hours. Maybe you could look into it?>>

Sure enough, Batgirl has her Batcycle parked up on the parking garage's open upper level. The structure is pretty cleared out of cars this late in the evening. Steph is sitting on the edge, legs dangling as she looks at the street below. The crater in the concrete that Superman made when he slammed Batman down into it is still there, the lane closed to traffic. The other main signs of the battle have been cleaned away. The flowers that have been laid there have largely been cleaned up by now, but posters and pictures and other mementos left to both heroes can still be seen here and there in what had been an impromptu shrine, with so many flowers covering the sidewalks so people couldn't walk on them.

Red Hood has posed:
Jason had been looking for Steph to discuss the Ivy situation and when he asked Babs for Steph's location, he figured she'd be out in zone kicking ass, so Metropolis came as a bit of a surprise.

<< Have you met me? Do I seem like the check on someone type? >> Jason grouses even as he makes his way down to his bike. << Surely we have someone more personable for this, like Robin, or maybe his dragon... >>

Though that didn't mean he wasn't going, it was part of his process. Besides, it was a decent night for November, and a drive sounded good even if it was to that over-bright saccarine burg, Metropolis.

So, several shattered speed limits later, the Red Hood rolls up to the garage's upper level, drops the kickstand and dismounts, scanning his surroundings.

When he spots Steph he comes over, walking just loud enough to be heard but not so loud to startle. It was an art, something they all learned like the whole Bat-vanish trick. As he gets close to the edge and can see what's below he clues into where they are.

"Holy shit, this is where it happened isn't it?" he asks mostly rhetorically, before he gets to the ledge and leans against it. "Hey, O wanted me to check in with you."

Spoiler has posed:
Stephanie doesn't turn to look. It's a pretty quiet night, not even much traffic, so she likely heard the motorcycle before it was shut off. "Yeah, this is it," Stephanie says in a voice that is a bit quiet and somber.

She continues looking down at the street for a moment before finally turning to look over to Red Hood. "The Batmobile, what was left of it, ended up there," she says, motioning with a gloved hand towards one spot. "It was all charred around it. A lot of the other damage was covered up by the flowers in the days after. The whole block. Corner to corner on the sidewalks," Stephanie says.

"And at night, people had candles and electric lights set out. They didn't hardly need streetlights there were so many. You could read the posters fine even at night. A lot of people who were saved, either by Batman or Superman, coming and putting up their pictures. A memorial to what they've both done," she says. Her voice cracks just a little bit at the end.

Red Hood has posed:
Quite and sombre from 'Ray of Sunshine Steph' is sort of alarming and it definitely gets Jason's attention. "Guessing this isn't your first trip," he says as Steph talks about how things were a few weeks past, likely pretty soon after the whole business happened. Sure, the pics were all over the news but somehow it felt more personal than just seeing the images.

Jason nods about the people paying tribute, "Betting it was more Superman people. We Gothamites keep things close," he says and well, if you asked people who they idolized more it was almost always going to be Superman, he was a paragon, Batman was a dark necessity.

"Did you know him? Superman I mean?" Jason asks trying to break from his default bitterness. "I know Dick looked up to him, I mean why not, they're both so perfect," okay maybe he hadn't quite gotten away from that bitterness.

Spoiler has posed:
Stephanie's eyes drifted back down to the street, though listening to Jason, nodding briefly at his comment about not her first time here. "It was. His city. But I think you'd have been surprised how much there was left for your dad, too," Stephanie says. "The highways in from Gotham were kind of jammed in those days. People came from all over."

Stephanie glances towards a spot, where a short, squat fence rings some grassy grounds around a towering office building. "Met a girl from Angel Grove. Came all the way in to pay her respects," she says.

The young woman clears her throat then and looks over to Red Hood. Her optics lenses are up, revealing the blue of her eyes, though some of their normal brightness, that light that comes from inside of them, is missing today. "No, I never did," she says with a shake of her head. "I've met Wonder Woman. Bats sent me to meet her. Took me for a fly in her jet. And Aquaman, met him on campus when he came to give a lecture. Superboy. Tim knows him. But not Superman," she says with a little shake of her head.

Stephanie draws a deep, somewhat shuddering breath and shakes her head as she looks away. "It had to be done. Didn't it? I mean, he'd have hurt more people if he wasn't stopped..." Stephanie says, sounding as if it's a question she's asked, aloud or quietly, many times.

Red Hood has posed:
Jason's head turns sharply when Bruce is called his dad. "I never had a dad, I had Batman and Willas," he corrects, but nods his head to concede the point there were things for Bruce too.

The girl from Angel Grove comes as a bit of a shock, "All the way from out by Starling? He save her out there or something?" after all Superman wasn't just America's hero, he served the world.

There's only white lenses to greet Steph's look but he can see the lack of brightness there, the feelings. He reaches behind his helmet and unfastens it with a hiss, to pull it off, and set it down on the edge next to him. His mask still obscured his eyes some but there was context of other facial cues now, a mouth, a brow, a nose.

"Met him once, or maybe twice myself, when I was Robin, didn't figure he liked me much," Jason says of his encounter with the Man of Steel. Though the question remained, why did it effect her so deeply, the death of the this hero she never met?

There's no hesitation, "Yeah, he had to go, the moment he went off the reservation, even Batman saw that. Our crazies back home, they've killed, what? Two-three thousand people if we're not counting Ra's? Superman could rack that up in a heartbeat. He had to go, no question."

Spoiler has posed:
Stephanie turns her head to face Jason, her hands resting on the edges of the ledge she's sitting on. His comments about the potential death toll that could have resulted make her look down finally, nodding. She glances back to the street below, where she'd seen Superman fall on the news feeds, but where his body wasn't found later.

"Damian spotted someone at some party, that he thought might be Kryptonian. I guess? I'm... actually I haven't really been able to stomach too many of the reports about that," she says ruefully. "But I finally caught up some. Do you think he might be alive still?" she asks. "And... what if he is?"

Stephanie looks back towards the street below. After everything she's felt, what if it turns out he's alive. And what if that ends up being a terrible thing for the world?

Red Hood has posed:
Jason was at his heart a utilitarian, for him the math was simple, if Superman is a threat, he needs to go down, hell, if it was Jason he'd have killed Supes twice if he could, just to be sure. Perhaps not the best shoulder to lean on in moments like these, still he tries, climbing to set on that ledge beside Batgirl letting his booted feet dangle above the void.

"Yeah, read that one," Jason says about the potential Kryptonian at the halloween party. "Superman? I dunno, I mean it's Batman who did him in, it's not like he leaves things halfway done, but if that guy is Superman, then we'll deal with him too," it was bave words but he didn't know if the family had more Kryptonite to use to stop him.

"So, what gives?" he asks Stephanie finally deciding subtle wasn't a good look on him. "What's eating you about this? I mean you're so upbeat I want to strangle you sometimes, but you're not weak, so didn't figure you'd skip a report just because it was uncomfortable. Worried we missed Superman, that he's going to be coming back for us?"

He admitted, it scared him too, all the Kyrptonians did actually, Jason didn't do well with things he couldn't beat.

Spoiler has posed:
Stephanie's throat is tight as she swallows. Her mind races across what she knows of the tumultuous relationship between Jason and Bruce. Imagining how he would react if she told him.

Only you could live with it.

Stephanie's eyes drifted off towards the night sky, where the moon hung high overhead. She'd thought that meant living with the grief. Maybe part of it meant there were others who couldn't accept why Bruce needed her to do it.

Stephanie manages the next swallow more clearly. "Bruce isn't up to fighting him again. We're short on... effective supplies. And I can't imagine his mood would be any better after what happened," Stephanie says. All true. But she also know it isn't enough to satisfy Jason.

"The world went through a lot. And... and it might end up being even worse this time. Even if we manage to win. Someone I talked to down there, the girl from Angel Grove, said if we gave up hope then whatever was behind the changes in Superman won. I just fear, if the world sees him go down twice, just how badly that is going to affect everyone," she says.

Red Hood has posed:
Yeah, if Jason knew what had happened, Bruce would be needing more than magical voodoo ju-ju juice to get better right now. Though at the moment he's blissfully unaware, though he stares at Stephanie with a long searching look as she talks.

"Yeah, I hear you, it'll be tough and we might need the other Kryptonians to do the job, I don't know if we've got more Kryptonite, hell I didn't know we had the stuff Bruce used the first time," he says, her words, her stated concerns make sense, but even so why come here to think about it? That felt off, at least its not where he would have gone.

"As for the world, it'll get by a hell of a lot better losing Supes twice than it would if Damian's cloaked guy is actually him and he goes nuts again," he says thinking through the angles like Bruce would, even if his conclusions were as different as night and day. "Anyhow if it comes to it and we've got the means, I'll take the shot, would be cruel to make any of you guys do it, well, except for Robin. You're not killers."

Spoiler has posed:
You're not killers.

Stephanie's expression manages to betray nothing, and it was actually easier than she'd have thought. She can't help but love Jason a little for telling her that. "Thanks," she tells him softly, nodding and looking down. And maybe there's a little of her normal light coming back into her expression.

"I didn't even know kryptonite was a thing. Good secret," she says. "I guess, I'll focus on hoping it's not him," she says. An answer to the question she's sat here for hours thinking about. "But maybe we should reach out to Conner and Supergirl just in case. I don't know how they'll feel about it all to be honest. But, we can see."

Stephanie leans back where she's sitting on the edge of the five-story parking structure, giving a little flip of her body to flip to her feet. She regards Jason, head tilting sideways. "You know, come out here checking on me like this, I'm almost going to start thinking you care," she says, her light-hearted tone returned fully. "Almost," she stresses.

Red Hood has posed:
There was an unspoken post script to that declaration: you're not killers, and you're not going to hell. Both a statement and a promise. Jason wasn't sure if he believed Lucifer or not about all that hell business, but if it was true, he was sure as *ahem* hell going to make sure nobody in the family was going there, not when he was already drenched in blood and sin.

Still, the quiet thanks, gets a ghost of a smirk to appear on Jason's lips, "No problem, besides if the rest of you become all dark and edgy, I loose my niche," he jokes with the faintest of chuckles.

"I wasn't supposed to know, but anyhow, I did, just wasn't something I thought about until well..." he gestures at the scene below, because after all the Big Blue Boy Scout going crazy wasn't something he'd ever really contemplated. "Not sure either," he says of the Super-family. "But we can feel em out, maybe have Red Robin talk them through the whole magic thing he was writing about, how it's not really him but this Khan guy."

A beat.

"Is it bad that the name makes me want to do the full on Captain Kirk, 'Khaaaaan' thing?" he asks with a bit of a smirk as he watches Steph dismount the ledge.

There's a barked out "Ha," at her assertion he almost might care as he repeats her little flip, boots hitting the concrete with a heavy thump. "Checking on you? I was just looking for Big Belly Burger and got lost. Total luck I found you here," he says with a grin as he goes and collects his helmet from the ledge.

Spoiler has posed:
Stephanie gives a soft laugh about Jason's niche, and when he makes the Captain Kirk comment she's right there with him, making a fist to the sky and joining in the 'Khaaaan!' with him.

"Yeah, I think that too," she tells him as they start walking back towards where their motorcycles are parked. She slips an arm around the much taller Jason as they walk off, saying, "Louis, this could be the start of a beautiful friendship."