Red Robin

@stargazingmartian

The glass windows of the building burned orange in the light from the setting sun. Tim had chosen evening for this particular mission because, although many of these administrative types worked around the clock, most of the rank and file personnel would have clocked out for the day. This way there would be less people to fight through if things went awry. Hopefully they wouldn’t, but it was better to be prepared for the worst than have it take you by surprise.

They reached the large double doors and the Peacekeeper pushed him through. As he was led across the shiny marble floor towards a reception desk, he took stock of the room. Elevators to the left, shadowed by the large staircase leading up to the next floor balcony. Additional balconies extended with each level towards the vaulted ceiling high above. Lots of visibility. That could make escape a bit more difficult, but Tim had the schematics of this place memorized, and he wouldn’t choose this way out of the building anyway. The roof access or the vents would be much better.

The reached reception and the secretary behind the counter greeted the Peacekeeper. “Caught another vigilante? Well done! Does the Magistrate want to see this one immediately, or should I notify the people down in Holding to get a cell ready?”

This night was weeks in the making, and not just for Tim. M’gann had quietly chosen her own mark, Angel Vallelungua. Shifting her body into his powerful build, complete with his beloved bird on her shoulder, was the easy part. It was one thing to observe a man and copy him from afar. It was simple, even, to slip invisibly into his pocket and nab his security clearance card just hours before mission start.

It was another thing to get close enough to a man to match his retinas perfectly. 

But that was a part of the job. She’d chosen Angel, or “Bird” as he preferred to be known professionally, because he spent most of his mornings at the pier with Talon. He was predictable. A couple hours of flirtatious small talk and she’d gotten all she needed from those eyes. Hazel, with the tiniest flecks of green. Her Martian mind memorized every mark. M’gann felt a pang of guilt, using him that way, but it comforted her to remember that Bird was one of the Magistrate’s top Peacekeepers. 

M’gann and Tim were going to sweep in and out. Get in. Let Tim do his thing. Get out. And none would be the wiser. Ideally, M’gann would return Bird’s clearance card before he even noticed it was missing.  But it rarely went so easily. They needed to be ready for anything. The stakes were high for both of them.

“Holding cell,” she said in Bird’s smooth voice. “Caught this one out trying to stop a purse snatching right out in the Village. Can you believe it? Right in the middle of a crowd.” M’gann reached into her pocket, into Bird’s pocket, and fed a piece of meat to the falcon on her shoulder. “And it was Talon that got the purse back.” She gave Tim a little shove to drive it home. “Let this one spend the night in a cell.” 

Tim allowed M’gann to push him through the double doors, and they started down the long hallway. That secretary’s obvious enthusiasm regarding Tim’s capture was… a bit concerning... He wondered if the Magistrate was so convincing that all of their employees shared their negative opinion of heroes. Or perhaps alternatively they were threatening enough that everyone pretended to. Neither alternative was particularly heartening. But at any rate, that wasn’t the important thing right now. Had to focus on the mission. They reached the staircase that would take them down to holding. But instead of heading down the stairs, they started up.

Head to the room two floors up, fourth door on the left. That’s where they keep the mainframe. Tim said to M’gann telepathically. Her Martian memory contained the schematics, so she already knew how to get there, but he’d rather be overly cautious than risk any miscommunications or deviations from the plan. Thankfully the stairwell was empty and they slipped into the mainframe room undetected.

Once in, Tim slid the handcuffs of his wrists and clipped them to his belt. They were designed to repress powers, but as he didn’t have any, they were basically just normal, boring handcuffs. Easy to magnetize the locking mechanism and get them off. Not that M’gann had put them on all that tightly anyway. With his hands free, he started up his portable computer, opened his hacking program, and plugged in to the mainframe. Hacking sequence initiated. He told M’gann, fingers tapping swiftly over the holographic keys of his computer. A few moments later and: Ok I’m in. Retrieving files. He plugged a flash drive into the computer. It would have been easier to just upload the files to their remote database, but it was safer to do it manually. Transfers could be tracked after all. Even his transfers, though he didn’t think there were many people out there who would be able to manage that. Still. He didn’t want to risk giving the Magistrate any leads to them. That’s why he and M’gann had risked coming here in person instead of just hacking in remotely. Oracle had enough work trying to keep the Magistrate out of her servers; Tim wasn’t going to just give them a way in.

The progress bar of the upload sequence slowly filled. This was the worst part: the waiting. Tim glanced back towards the door, listening for any approaching footsteps. So far so good. Maybe too good. He looked back to his computer. Almost there… The bar reached completion. Done. Initiating corruption sequence. Their main mission was to get these files, but they had figured while they were here, they might as well leave the Magistrate a little souvenir. Tim’s program swept through the Magistrate’s database, corrupting all the files they had just transferred. Not only would that decrease the amount of info the Magistrate had, it would also make their mission here harder to discover and track. (Plus, it would put a damper on the Magistrate’s day.)

He tapped his 'watch' (more accurately a portable computer), bringing up the holographic screen. A flashing light on the map showed Batgirl's location. Just a few blocks away. Good. "Location received. Red Robin en route," he replied into his comm.

A few minutes later and he was dropping down from the roof above to stand beside her. “Heard you were having a party,” he said, extending his bo staff and taking note of the positions of each of the thugs below. Satisfied that they seemed to be holding their ground for the time being, he turned back towards Batgirl, and seeing the blood all over her sleeves, reached into his utility belt and pulled out a pack of tissues. “Another bloody nose, huh? Those are the worst.” Well, maybe not the worst worst, but still. “Doesn’t look like it’s broken at least. You ok otherwise?”