"Eight dollars for organic strawberries?" Adriana huffed and placed the small carton of berries into her cart. After leaving the French restaurant where she had lunch with Lucius she decided to stop by one of the downtown markets. It was located in a very wealthy area of the city, and even though Adriana could afford what she wanted due to the enormous amount of money Bruce has payed her, she was not used to these prices.
As she walked over to the meats she began to remember her dream. A dream of a little boy, one that she didn't know. One she was beginning to feel that she loved. She almost felt attached to him and wanted to have the same dream again.
"Hi!" Adriana heard a child's voice. She snapped out of her daydream and looked down to see Pavla, the governor's six-year-old granddaughter.
"Pavla, hi!" Adriana said cheerfully. She had only met the girl once, when she and Gordon visited the governor's home to make sure all of his security team were honest and not working for the Joker. Adriana used her gift while there to examine all of their minds and found that they were all decent and loyal.
"Hi, Adriana," Pavla smiled up at her and waved.
"Where's your-" Adriana started to ask.
"Pavla," the girl's mother came over. "I told you to stay by me. And where's your scarf?"
"I don't know," Pavla answered and touched the fur lined hood of her coat.
"Is that it, over there?" Adriana pointed to a baby blue scarf laying on the floor several feet away.
"Oh!" Pavla laughed before running over the scarf. "Thank you, Adriana."
"I met Pavla and the governor a couple weeks ago," Adriana realized she was reading the woman's thoughts and she was wondering how the girl knew Adriana's name.
"Oh," the woman with hip length blonde hair replied. She had a very friendly face and demeanor. "What was your last name?"
"Navarro," Adriana replied and Pavla returned.
"Oh, right I think I saw your name on the guest list," she said. "I'm Olivia by the way."
"Nice to meet you," Adriana said. "What guest list?"
"For the Halloween function," Olivia answered.
"Oh right, your father did invite me," Adriana recalled the governor's invitation.
"Yes, but I had to go over the guest list and send out new invites to a different event," Olivia sighed. "Because of the bombing and everything going on in the city, it will be postponed and will instead be a masquerade ball. Same location though."
"Great, thank's for letting me know," Adriana said. "Pavla's a sweetheart."
"She is," Olivia agreed and turned to Pavla. "Time to go get the salmon."
"Ok," Pavla said. "Bye Adriana."
"Bye Pavla," Adriana replied. "It was nice meeting you, Olivia."
"You too," Olivia said and walked away.
As Adriana looked over the overpriced grass fed ground beef she decided to call her sister.
"Hey, Siri, call Harri."
As the phone rang Adriana settled on a $12 package of ground beef and a similarly priced package of beef livers.
"Hey, girl," Harri said cheerfully. "I'm working."
"Hey just wanted to check up on you," Adriana said while mentally adding up the total of the items in her cart.
"I'm great," Harri said. "You?"
"Ehh..about to spend $80 on two days worth of groceries."
"Hahaha," Harri laughed. "Go to Save Lots."
"I should have," Adriana said. "They don't even have my cereal here."
"Get Bruce Wayne to buy that stuff for you," Harri joked.
"Huh?" Adriana held in a laugh.
"Aren't you dating him already?"
"No," Adriana said. "He's..dating many other people."
"And?"
"I don't know," Adriana said.
"Did he at least try to sleep with you by now?"
"Yeah, almost..once," Adriana said, remembering the night when he was training her, before they learned the Joker had escaped. "There was a distraction."
"How many other people is he dating?"
"Girl..I have lost count," Adriana laughed. "He's definitely a playboy."
"I can tell," Harri said. "I have some good news by the way."
"Oh?" Adriana said as she moved to the check-out.
"Antonio told me I should quit my job," Harri said.
"We've been telling you that," Adriana said.
"Yeah but this time..it's because he said he's ready for us to get married and start a family. For me to be a stay at home wife."
"Is that what you want?" Adriana asked.
"Hell yeah," Harri said. "But I will still need you to babysit sometimes of course."
"Oh.." Adriana said and remembered her dream. Her premonitions of a little boy. "Wow.."
"Yes, it's great news right? I'm going to work here for another month or two then I will be quitting for good."
"I'm so happy for you Harri," Adriana responded.
.
.
.
"Interesting place to meet," Adriana said to Lucius as she exited her car. They were on the rooftop parking lot of one of the Wayne Enterprises subsidiary buildings. It was dark and slightly windy, but the skies of Gotham were crystal clear.
"Inconspicuous," Lucius said and walked over to her. "Hope you're having a good evening."
"I am," Adriana said. "Hope you are too."
"Thank you," he replied. "The items that you gave me-"
"The phone? Were you able to find out anything?" Adriana interrupted, asking about the Joker's cell phone that she had obtained at Arkham from his former roommate.
"Ah, the phone," Lucius said. "Unfortunately there was no SIM card and the circuit board was destroyed. It could take a while to get any information from the phone, if at all."
"Damn, so this is a dead end?" Adriana said with disappointment.
"Not quite," Lucius said and pulled out a folder and handed it to her.
She took it and opened it to reveal a photograph of the business card that she had given him. It was nearly blank. Below it was a picture of a business card, and after looking for a few seconds she noticed similar outlines in the water damaged card.
"Club Core?" Adriana said.
"A nightclub," Lucius said. "We've known about a large amount of drug activity happening there for a while. It seems some of the police may been bribed to prevent drug busts."
"Okay," Adriana said. "How does this relate to the Joker?"
"I'm not sure," Lucius said.
"So..should I investigate?"
"Investigate the club?" Lucius asked. "No. Bruce can do that."
"But how?" Adriana asked. "He's very busy and we don't even know what this means yet. I should go."
"Ms. Navarro-" Lucius started to talk.
"Lucius, I will just be observing..gathering thoughts," she explained. "How dangerous can that be? It could be helpful."
"Yes but maybe Bruce should go with you."
"I can handle it," she said. "Have you told him about this?"
"No," Lucius said. "Bruce does not know about Club Core yet."
"So..maybe we should wait to tell him until when we actually have some information? After I go and just scope the place out? I've done things like this before, for the police. It's totally fine."
Lucius paused, thinking over what she was saying. What harm could from her visiting a night club and using her gift to observe minds without anyone knowing?
"Alright," Lucius finally agreed. "I'll get you blueprints for the building, locations of security cameras on site. And it's probably a good idea to go...not looking like yourself."
"A disguise?" Adriana said with a bit of excitement. The idea of being undercover and making herself unrecognizable was actually thrilling. "I can do that. Actually..."
"Yes?" Lucius said, noticing her voice trailing off.
"Maybe I should have...you know..a suit."
"A suit?" Lucius made a face. "Miss Navarro..if I didn't know any better I would guess that your intention is to actually become a vigilante."
"Maybe..." she said. "Can you help me? It doesn't have to be anything complicated..just enough to hide my identity if I need to."
"It's not that simple. Do you intend to fight in this suit? Does it need to be bulletproof? Waterproof-"
"Yes, all of that," Adriana said and noticed the look Lucius was giving her when she admitted that she was willing to fight in the suit. "Please, Lucius? Just let me try. I can pay you."
"That's not necessary," he said. "I do think we should let Mr. Wayne know about this."
"Not yet," Adriana said. "Please. Once we find something that requires him we can do that but..I just want to see if I can do anything on my own. I won't put myself in danger, I promise. I mean...I'm an adult, I'm allowed to go a night club..and ask you to make me a protective outfit, since you just said there may be a lot of drug addicts there you never know-"
"Good rationalization skills," Lucius laughed.
"How fast can you have the suit completed?"
"When do you want it done?" he asked.
"Tomorrow night? Is it possible?"
"Yes."