February Investigation catch-all

[earlybird]

WHO: DAMIAN WAYNE, closed to Investigation plot CR
WHERE: Various locations
WHEN: Early February until Mid-February
WHAT: Robin is investigating a missing childrens' case, which brings him into contact with an array of characters.
WARNINGS: The kind of content you'd see usually see in a Detective Comics comic: violence, language, discussion of sensitive topics (murder, human trafficking, etc.)

NOTE TO PLAYERS: I've set the details of this plot up so you can feel free to tag at your own pace, or opt to handwave if you like!

START... MAURTIA FALLS.

Robin first picks up the trail of a few missing kids from the street; four children from the St. Nicholas Orphanage of Maurtia Falls Catholic Union. Assumed runaways, lost numbers in the system, they were originally a case file tossed aside by MFPD. But a key witness gives him a promising lead: Mortimer Stroud, a conman with a minor criminal history working at the orphanage as a part-time janitor under a different alias. Robin suspects he took advantage of his station, and sold some info upstream to interested parties about which children wouldn't be missed.

A catch-and-release interrogation gives him the location of a recently abandoned "workshop" in Maurtia Falls, and another name -- this time of a murdered criminal whose body was found by local police in de Chima: Warren Pierce.

LOCATION... DE CHIMA.

ASIDE: CRANE

Although in de Chima on business, there's some personal motive for Damian to make a visit out to the city. Ever since he discovered this world's Bruce Wayne, he's kept an eye on the older version of his father from afar. However, curiosity wins out, and draws him closer -- close enough to find out Dr. Jonathan Crane has, somehow, insidiously inserted himself into Wayne Enterprises. He has time for a little visit.

SABRIEL

Warren's effects are being held in the police evidence locker, and his body down in the department morgue. Sabriel, on RISE business, catches Robin in the middle of his investigation, and -- after some back and forth -- uses her skill to chat with Warren's ghost long enough for an interrogation, and another name: "CONSTANTINE."

LOCATION... MAURTIA FALLS.

JOHN

Constantine is suspicious, and an asshole, but Damian knows enough to know he (probably) wouldn't be involved on the wrong side of this kind of business. However, a lead is a lead, and the "supernatural advisor" is getting a visit from Robin: whether or not John's sober enough to deal with him. Turns out Constantine knows Warren -- enough to inspire a spiteful grudge that lasted beyond the grave, evidently. Constantine also knows a few other characters who ran in the same circles.

ASIDE: MOTOKO

Other children have gone missing, and these kinds of cases are bound to cross-over the deeper into the criminal underbelly an investigation gets: Robin runs into the Major, who's following up on her own threads. She's got some opinions on a boy getting involved in this kind of business, and Robin has some opinions about her opinions.

ALFIE

Those leads have born fruit: an informant has named Alfie Solomons as a lead player in what is looking, increasingly, like a child-trafficking scheme. Alfie isn't too happy to hear that he's been thrown under the bus, used as a scapegoat and a distraction, and conned by his own clients into unknowingly taking part in the kind of unsavory business even he wouldn't touch. He has the real identities of the perpetrators to give Robin -- one of them the very informant who pointed him Alfie's way.

DARYL

He's close. But his investigation has ground to a halt, as the ringleaders went underground at the tip-off of an investigation, and he's no closer to finding out where the children are being held. He's learned from the best that sometimes a change of track, a step back, is needed. A person -- an "angel" -- keeps coming up in several related cases, and that person might have some answers... if he can find and flush him out. (Daryl, turns out, has a special kind of insight.)

AURICAN, BRIANNA, and SHELKE

With Daryl's help, Robin is able to finally track down where the missing children are being held captive, only to discover a major operation in progress: nearly thirty youth have been taken and stored at a riverside warehouse to be handed off down the line, and among them are several imPorts. However, Robin isn't the only one to be making his move; neither Aurican nor the Breeze have been sitting quietly or waiting on rescue...and Shelke is in the same boat as them.

ALFIE, REVISITED

The main players behind the operation -- this hub, at least -- escaped in the chaos, going deep underground again in hopes of evading Robin's chase. But where they lose the vigilante, they find the man they double-crossed. Their bodies are found a week later, dumped among the trash and grime of Maurtia Falls' personal "crime alley" -- and it doesn't take a genius detective to guess who was behind it.

Comments

ALFIE, REVISITED

[earlybird]

[devoutish]

[Whether or not Damien keeps Alfie updated, Alfie follows the case. It's not easy to find out when it all blows up - a bunch of kidnapped kids being sprung from a warehouse isn't a small thing, and word gets around.

And then Alfie springs into action.

Once the men are dead and their bodies are disposed of semi-publicly (not public enough for any random Joe to stumble across, but not so hidden that they won't be found and Alfie's point won't be made), he continues to go about his business as normal. He can be found at his apartment in independent housing, at work at the radio station, attending temple, shopping for groceries - you know, all the typical things that murderous gangsters do in their downtime.]

[earlybird]

[ They got away. The children were rescued, the rank-and-file round up for police, but the ringleaders ran like the dogs they were. He'd had to choose his priorities, but the understanding doesn't burn his pride any less.

Nightwing would have told him he chose right: better to protect the children under fire than to give chase. He also would have told him he shouldn't have gone in alone, the hypocrite.

He's spent the better part of the aftermath going after the escaped bosses before they could even think to recoup their losses, and in the end he only finds bodies.

Damian's a smart boy. He doesn't need a calling card to know.

Which is why Alfie finds himself flanked by shadow of a boy, who falls into step next to him on the sidewalk with natural ease. It's a bright, cold winter day, and he's bundled up in a thick black coat, matched with sunglasses to mask his eyes.

Normally, Robin would corner Alfie elsewhere; his house, an alley. But in this, he's made a pointed choice: he's not here as Robin. ]

Solomons.

[ A clipped greeting. Even if Alfie didn't clue in from the start, there's no mistaking that posh voice. ]

[devoutish]

Fuck off, kid.

[Alfie's a joy, really.

He doesn't so much as turn to look at Damian - he just continues walking.]

[earlybird]

Fuck you.

[ Tossed right back without missing a beat; he buries his hands in his coat pockets, short legs making long strides to match Alfie's pace.

As if he's that easily shaken off. They've already gone over this. ]

The men are dead. But I doubt that's news to you.

[devoutish]

Goodness.

[Alfie doesn't even bother trying to sound surprised.]

What is this town coming to, eh?

[earlybird]

The city's gone to the dogs.

[ Drawled, as if Maurtia Falls hasn't been a cesspool since day one. Like Gotham, there are simply some cities that seem to breed evil. ]

Those bastards deserved it.

[devoutish]

Yeah, good riddance to bad rubbish. Now, are you here for something other than good gossip?