#closed;

Stephen had heard the ruckus outside his lecture room, assuming it to be a disgruntled student. He organized some of his papers, figuring it would quiet down. With his back to the door and his attention on the whiteboard, he began to write some algorithms. Science and math were his favorite to teach as he specifically preferred biology and Physics.

The door slammed in the lecture hall, catching him off guard. "Class doesn't start for another hour. You're welcome to wait, but-". He had turned to face the person when the words died at the tip of his tongue. He hadn't expected her of all people. In fact, there was some confusion in his expression as he recalled her name. "What are you doing here?".

All in all, it had been a damn good day, and Kate was feeling so much more like her old self that she had brought all the men enough liquor to drown a fish.

I come bearing gifts!

She says as she presents the liquor to the men sitting at the table in the sparsely furnished safe house, not dissimilar to how she had presented the arsenal she would be using for the mission. Apparently, that was her thing now.

I gotta hand it you both. Well, you and your crew, actually. Excellent work out there.

Kate wasn't sure what kind of alcohol the others would want to drink, if any at all, so she had loaded up her personal supplies and added a few on her way here, bringing enough materials to make a variety of cocktails and mocktails for a variety of palettes.

@batwoman-or-whatever

~. In contrast to the fellow men celebrating the pile of decadent alcohol and booze, Harvey had been standing off to the side. Cigar lit between his half-charred lips, teeth biting down on the nub when Batwoman came back in.

"Can't say we did anything out of the ordinary than we usually would -- Isn't that right, boys?"

Two-Face held a low chuckle bubbling within his chest before joining back in with the gang sitting around the table -- each man quickly indulging in drinks to get the party truly started.

"Couldn't have pulled it off without you, hot stuff. Believe it or not, but without your eyes from above it wouldn't have turned out the same. So this one's on you. Credit where credit is due, and all that jazz..."

Walking back up to the masked woman, Two-Face was held back from laying on with the flirting a little bit too much. Harvey instead appeared a little softer, a little bit more humbled than he was used to.

"...--We appreciate you wanted us in on this."

They swept a glass from the table from one of the distracted thugs who were far too busy cheering the other ones to drink more. Placing it in her proximity.

"To good teamwork. And hell of a good time." .~

~. "...Are you sure about this, boss?"

"No. But we're doing it anyway."

It wasn't like they had a choice in the matter. So as they came rolling into the abandoned parking lot of the equally abandoned hospital, Harvey didn't waste any time heading out. They motioned his driver, Bob, to come with them.

Time couldn't be wasted no more. Time was something he couldn't afford be seen wasting now that when someone close to him risked being killed.

Everything that had been said during that phone call with Crane repeated in his head. The hints that Bianca was barely pulling through, but alive. The clue to Heckland still being in the building. It was enough for adrenaline to kick up a notch, putting his shared body into a headlock.

This is a trap.

I know that.

And you're stupid enough to wander straight into it.

You have any other ideas?

Alongside of Bob, they marched inside. The hospital was a big place -- and they could be searching the whole damn place until their time ran out.

Better reach out first.

[ msg >> BINARY ]: We are here. .~

12 months ago . Outside Two-Face's Safehouse, Gotham .

>. Everything about this screamed 'bad idea'. To put herself out there, in harm's way - just to chase ghosts? Maybe it was dumb; but right now, the up and coming black-hat-hacker had little to lose. Any lead was a good lead, and if it meant she had to take risks then so be it.

Two-Face. Harvey Dent.

There wasn't much about him she knew prior to breaking into his safehouse. Just that he was the former District Attorney, turned mad after an incident that caused his psyche to split in two.

He was dangerous. Unpredictable. But had far much more knowledge than her when it came to all the laws Heckland had broken -- and that was the exact knowledge she needed to bring the sorry excuse of a man to justice.

So there she was. Standing outside the Safehouse once more, armed to the teeth in case shit went south.

"...---What the hell are you doing, Bianca..."

Mumbling under her breath, she stepped up to the very same door she had pried open a few nights earlier. Using the same tactic to open it and invite herself in --

Only difference now was that Harvey Dent was expecting her this time around. .<

~. Impatience. Cursed, damned impatience. It felt like several weeks had passed since a word from Batgirl since they broke into the Courthouse --but only a few days had gone by.

Something must've gone wrong.

"Maybe she died."

"If she did, someone should've told us by now."

"---Perhaps she hasn't been discovered yet -- buried alive, built into concrete, drowned in the Gotham harbor --"

"That's macabre---."

"Yet, we've seen worse, haven't we--..."

"Hn."

The same route within their office had been followed as they frantically tried to stay composed, steps being counted in sequences of two over and over. One, two. One, two. They had to hear from her sooner or later. One, two. One, two. One ---

Then there it was.

A knock on their window, to which they spun around in a 180 degree -- staring with all their might at the glass as the echo of the knock kept winding around and around in their divided head.

Could it be...

Slowly, they stepped up - much against all the anticipation and hesitation that resided in their body.~

>. BATCAVE. 2.24 AM.

Subtle but sharp, the faint blue glow of the Batcomputer had begun to flicker.

The big wide screen that was otherwise filled with encrypted data, surveillance feeds and research was replaced by duplicating screens of black and white code - slowly empowering the entire system until it all came crashing down in one fell swoop. A self-defense mechanism created within the computer to shut out whoever just tried to break in.

The back-up generator kicked into the gear mere seconds after. Rebooting up the entire cave back to it's hum, instilling the peace and quiet once more - but not everything had returned to normal.

One of the windows that had appeared out of nowhere was still in the center of the screen - a pulsating message in binary code being sent over and over - an endless wall of text of the same 1's and 0's.

>> 01101000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 00100000 00001101 00001010 01100010 01110010 01110101 01100011 01100101 00100000 00001101 00001010 01110111 01100001 01111001 01101110 01100101 << >> 01101000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 00100000 00001101 00001010 01100010 01110010 01110101 01100011 01100101 00100000 00001101 00001010 01110111 01100001 01111001 01101110 01100101 << >> 01101000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 00100000 00001101 00001010 01100010 01110010 01110101 01100011 01100101 00100000 00001101 00001010 01110111 01100001 01111001 01101110 01100101 <<

Above it was a warning text -- flashing in red. Sending off an alarm that begun to echoe like a siren through the cavern -- alerting anyone nearby and connected to it.

>> UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS DETECTED.<<

Shouldn't have given her that earpiece, Batman.<

There was nothing Henry could do but accept the rain as it pelted down on his head. His jacket didn't have a hood and he hadn't expected the downpour that had come seemingly out of the blue.

Instead, he let the drops fall on him and soak his face and hair as he waited for his newest client to open their door after he rang the bell.

Finally, they did; he greeted the stranger with a smile.