Sit Rep

Sometimes you needed to take a break. Continuing to work on Nygma's laptop while contemplating the ramifications about that virus blueprint she had found required that she take one. Who knew if the laptop itself could be a carrier for the virus, one that would decimate her own system if she connected to it.

Instead, she had turned her sights on the Omnicron that Spoiler had retrieved. In retrospect, should have known one of the former Batclan members would have gone rogue, especially when the other former member was swept up in this mess. However, it was Dick that was more determined to keep them off the street; Barbara agreed only to the extent of their age, blatantly ignoring how she had ignored it in Tim's case.

The VR headset was a very sophisticated piece of equipment, and she had linked up her workstation to the device to get a better understanding of it. Then she had hacked Computron to get their blueprints so she could compare.

There was a single difference: a chip. It was a small addition in a port that wasn't even in the original design. How Riddler was able to sneak it in was incredible. The solution, as it turned out, was simple. Pull out the chip.

He must have had the chips made somewhere else. A double check of the laptop might confirm another invoice. The answer was hardware, and another trying to manipulate it with software would find out they had a challenge on their hands. Naturally, trying to take apart an Omnicron while it was activated and worn meant that opening it up to remove the chip was a no go. Obviously Riddler would have planned for that, if that farce of a press conference showed anything.

She was doing a closer examination of this specialized chip when she suddenly had the feeling eyes were on her. Ceasing all movement, Barbara carefully moved away from her workstation if only by a few inches, then slowly looked over her shoulder.

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, "Where have you been?"

Needless to say, she had a visitor. Batgirl in all her dark glory was lurking right behind her, again. She swore, she'd trade up knowing anything about the masked girl's identity if she would wear a bell in exchange.

The blank, black face only stared back. "What do you know about everything?"

Taking a breath, Barbara gave a small sigh. No answer to her question; this must be how her father felt. Still, this was a Bat, and one under the cape of Batman no less.

"Right now, we have a situation. A man calling himself the Riddler has captured over a thousand kids using this," a gesture to the Omnicron was given, "and he's holding them ransom. At the same time, he's planted these devices that transmit a nasty computer virus when they're destroyed. So pretty much, it's been a mess."

Batgirl was silent for a moment, her head turning slightly to focus on whatever the hacker pointed out. "Where is Batman?" the vigilante asked next, and something slipped out. Her voice, which was normally steady and gave little away had an edge in it. There was something under the surface there, but Barbara doubted Batgirl was going to use her as a makeshift counselor.

"That's the other thing. Before he acted, Riddler abducted Batman and stuck him in this maze. The cops have zeroed in on his location, but Riddler was ready for them and now the cops are under attack. Meanwhile, Batman has been trying to find his way out and Riddler's been broadcasting it to the whole city."

It took a few taps on her keyboard, but on one of her monitors was the live feed of Batman accompanied by the other masked individual claimed to be Catwoman. Batgirl was watching that monitor intently, and the wheelchair-bound woman could feel its intensity.

"How long?" the vigilante demanded.

How long? Oh, how long had this been going on. Taking a second, Barbara's eyes raised themselves up to the ceiling. "This is day three so...it's going on for at least three days. Batman may have been missing for longer."

She hadn't noticed until the moment Batgirl's posture slumped, but this girl had been tensed up. Then, the hacker had to strain her ears, but even then, she bared made out, "...so he couldn't…"

Couldn't...what exactly?

You didn't need to be a genius to know what that meant. Batgirl was going to go there and try to save the man. There was an instinctive need to want to stop the girl, but then Barbara had to restrain that. This wasn't the members of the Network whom she had debated sending there herself. It felt like the Riddler was playing them all, so what if this was a trap for them? Going to that amusement park could be the wrong choice.

But this was Batgirl, someone capable of feats along the lines of Batman himself.

Looking at the monitor with the livefeed, Barbara began to open her mouth when she stopped cold, watching the footage. A few seconds later, a large grin formed on her face.

"I don't think you need to go anywhere."

Gordon had yet to retreat to his office, staying with dispatch as events unfolded at the amusement park. The radioed voices of various officers rang out, a constant stream of reports of the situation. Some time ago, SWAT had arrived, but when it came to turning the tide, their effectiveness had been minimal.

SWAT had been designed for humans, not robots and drones. An enemy that could take your shots and serve them relentlessly back at you was not something the training covered. As tough as their transport van was, all it took was to get an explosive under it, and the underbelly was as vulnerable as any other vehicle.

That had happened, and it was luck that anyone got out of the burning wreckage alive. From there, it had been a standoff, the robots not letting any of his officers within a certain range while they cordoned the whole park off. The robotic menaces were not venturing far from the attraction they were guarding, so stalemate was the only way this showdown was going.

Could they afford to bring in helicopters? Were theirs armed in a way to turn the tide? There was no doubt in his mind that if they tried to bypass this obstacle, their aircraft would be targeted. Riddler probably had some anti-aircraft measures in place, but so far there was no evidence of it. The only way to prove it was to send a copter out to be shot at.

Nevertheless, something had to be done, and he needed to be the one to make a call, whatever it was.

Then there was a slight change in the chatter. Violence was ratcheting up again, but there was a different kind of alarm about it. Then one voice came out clearer than the others, not colored with panic and alarm, but making a declaration.

He recognized that it was coming from Sawyer. How he was able to pick out her voice was a riddle in and of itself. The contents of her report, on the other hand…

Gordon found his heart picking up in its beating. Could it be true? Was Batman out of there? By all accounts, it sounded like he was turning the tide by himself, which wasn't surprising as much as it was relieving.

And hopeful. The past few days—it felt so much longer—it had seemed like they were running around directionless, trying to answer a riddle none could solve. Now, now here was someone who had the best chance of doing so. Batman was back into play.

Whatever his ally would come up with to turn this all around, it needed to be good.

The phone call came unexpectedly.

It just so happened to be on Lucius' cell phone that he answered it automatically without checking the caller I.D. He might not have answered it had he seen the UNKNOWN identification otherwise. Usually those were spam calls and those calls were completely unnecessary with what was going on right now.

"This is Fox," he answered absently.

"Lucius, it's me."

Lucius jerked his head from the receiver and stared at the phone. There was UNKNOWN on the screen, but he knew the voice quite well. Pressing the phone back to the side of his face, he responded with a relief in his voice, "You're finally out."

"I just left after securing the scene. Tell me what's going on."

Down to business it was. They did have some air to clear, however. "You know, it's lucky that I knew you were trapped in a labyrinth this entire time. As you can probably imagine, Wayne Enterprises has been in an uproar about your disappearance. I covered you the best I could."

Well, perhaps uproar was exaggerating things a little bit. Questions were starting to pop up on where Bruce Wayne really was. His impromptu news conference had distracted enough people not to look too deep into it, but he was hearing grumblings about Bruce's past history coming back to the fore. That it only took three days was worrisome.

"I'm sure you did your best. Now what is the sit rep?"

"There's about a thousand kids citywide being held hostage by this Riddler fellow," Lucius told him. "As far as I can tell, the Riddler sent out modified Computron Omnicrons, which have trapped these kids in virtual reality. He's rigged them so that outside interference will kill the user. Daniel Mockridge just held a press conference to show off how Computron was going to override the Omnicrons, only for it to fail spectacularly. I highly suggest we don't follow in his footsteps."

"Noted," Bruce said drily. "Anything else?"

Lucius glanced up to his computer. He had a news station website on, detailing the Riddler crisis with minute-by-minute updates. Prominently was Mockridge's fantastic failure at being a hero. Grabbing his mouse, he began scrolling down the page, checking for any other relevant news. Unfortunately, he found some. "There have been some battles over the last couple of nights," he observed as he read one of the headlines. "Some of your brethren have been fighting some bizarre weapons." At this, he saw a picture of some smashed remains of said weapon. "It's happened each night since this was started."

There was a moment of silence before, "I'm uploading a photo and sending to you. Do these weapons look like this?"

Lucius' phone vibrated in his hand and he pulled it away from his face. Looking at his screen, there was a photo of this tall drone, armed to the teeth with missile launchers, machine guns, and some odd device with a barrel. Comparing the drone to the remains of the one on his computer, he could pick out a couple similarities, but that was it.

"Possible," he said after a moment. "There aren't a lot of images to go by at the moment, but for the sake of time, let's say so." He paused. "And if I recall right, there have been these odd blackouts throughout Gotham. As far as anyone can figure, the area where these battles have occurred have been the sites for the blackouts."

There was another silence. Clearly Bruce was taking in what he was being told. "We'll have to tackle that at a later time. For now we need to focus on the hostages. Tell me what you can about these corrupted Omnicrons."

"Corrupted is a pretty good description. The Riddler added a program to the ones he sent throughout the city and I'm pretty certain it's this program that is trapping the children and preventing us from removing them. He's threatened that if we try to remove it manually, we can kill the user. He's also said that if we don't meet his demands, he'll kill all of the hostages."

"Kill them how?"

"I'm assuming through the Omnicrons themselves. They have self-preservation functions that are preventing tampering and the Riddler made a point of claiming to have a killswitch, his words, not mine."

"So if he were to kill one of the hostages, he would have to do it remotely, wouldn't he."

"Logic would dictate that, yes." Lucius frowned. Bruce was clearly onto something, he just couldn't see where he was going with this.

"That means he will need to use a specific frequency to connect to the Omnicrons and activate the kill program. It's probably a similar frequency that activated them into trapping the hostages."

That was an interesting point. "Go on," Lucius urged him.

"We need to buy ourselves some time. If we can somehow prevent the Riddler from activating this killswitch, we can remove the immediate threat of him killing the hostages at any point in time."

"Something like a signal jammer," the older man mused. "That should be relatively simple to design and build quickly. All we need to know is what signal to block."

"The Riddler probably used the frequency when he started this plan of his," Batman said. "It should be in a similar wavelength. No doubt he's monitoring each and every Omnicron, so there should be a current broadcast occurring. See if you can't identify the frequency that's being used and design a program around it."

Sometimes Bruce would stun him with his brilliance. "I'll get right on that," Lucius promised him. "We should have a solution ready to go shortly."

"Put it into production as soon as you can," Bruce told him. "We're on a ticking clock as it is. I trust you'll make certain that whatever you come up with will be effective."

It was nice to have that kind of confidence bestowed on him. He would need to make certain he deserved such praise. "And what do you intend to do in the meantime?"

"I'm going to buy as much time as I can for you to come up with the signal jammer. The Riddler needs something to pin his attention on and he already has it out for me. Let me know when you have something ready, or relay it to Cassandra. She'll be able to get a hold of me if I'm unavailable."

"You got it. Oh, and Bruce?"

"Yes?"

"Good luck."

Morning was here, and Stephanie was at the hospital with Cullen once more. There had been no changes in Harper's condition, her friend laying in that bed without moving a muscle. Cullen was trying to put up a front, strong or brave didn't matter, and he wasn't doing a good job at it, what with his voice shaking and everything.

Other people were here, family members of other kids, all trying to be at their respective kid's side, but it felt so much more like a funeral home in here. Yes, there was hope things were going to get better, but when faced with an unmoving body that showed no signs of doing anything, it was depressing.

It was all in good hands, the blonde continued to tell herself. Oracle and the Network were going to make things happen. They had the laptop and Omnicron; they'd figured something out. She had faith that they would.

Cullen wiped at his eyes using the sleeve of his arm. It was a movement that only for a second took Stephanie's attention away from the teen in the bed. From this angle, she only had sight of one of his eyes, but she could see the red tinge in its corner. Poor guy probably cried himself to sleep again. Huh, how'd she know that?

The teen who currently wasn't dressed for vigilantism returned her gaze to Harper. On the sides of the Omnicron, she could see the green circle with the black question mark in it. The monster behind it was still out there, ruining people's lives. All this time, and no one was any closer to stopping him, though hopefully her efforts would pay off somehow.

She didn't know if they would, but she had hope.

Speaking of, what should she do to help Cullen keep his? Had this been the longest time he had ever been without Harper? Stephanie truly did understand the concern, and the boy himself was too sweet for this world. Hmm, maybe that might help?

First, she checked her purse. Yes, she had one, thank you very much, and it was nice if a bit on the small side. All the better not to hide a costume in, don't you dare laugh at her, Harper—oh, right. Anyway, there should be some loose change in there, and a quick check later gave the confirmation.

"Would you like a candy bar or something?" she asked. Chocolate was the answer for so many problems. If nothing else, it could provide an escape if only for a second, and Cullen looked like he could use one.

Cullen gave a sniff, then rubbed at his nose. "Snickers" he answered. "Gonna be a while."

Stephanie nodded, and began to step away only to stop abruptly. Looking back at the boy, she deadpanned, "Really?"

His shoulders shook, but it was easy to see he was trying to hold laughter in instead. Looking up at her, eyes tinged red, "I couldn't help it. It would've annoyed Harper."

"And you got to take your shots when you can." The blonde gave a nod of approval. If only that annoyance was enough to break Harper out. Why did the world have to resist their every effort to fix things?

"I'll be back," she told him, then restarted her trek to the nearest vending machine.

Once out of the ward, her eyes darted from side to side, as if expecting...okay, she'll admit it, she was expecting SOB to pop up. There had been no peep from him since last night, and since he was starting to show up at the most inconvenient times, there was the expectation that right now was no exception.

So far, no sign of him. Was he hiding in the vents or something? Stopping near a vent, Stephanie waited a few seconds, expecting a voice to hiss out at her, but nothing. Maybe she was starting to lose her mind or something.

About a minute or so later, she reached the first vending machine she was able to spot. Peering through the plastic shield that was a pain to look through because the overhead lights were causing a glare. Narrowing her eyes, she searched and there, the thin brown wrapping with the large, white, blocky letters. Eighty-five cents? For a candy bar? Geez, talk about nickel and diming. Shouldn't it be like seventy-five?

Whatever, just an extra dime. Did she have one? A little more digging into her purse was needed, and that was taking a little time to do. As she was doing so, two, er, people appeared down the hallway, walking their way towards her. They were having a conversation, and Stephanie knew they were since they were being loud about it. At first, she did her best not to pay attention.

Then, one said, "You know he's out, right? He managed to get around some bull thing and he's out."

"Wait, when did this happen?"

"Like ten minutes ago. I saw. The hell were you doing?"

"My rounds, ass. You're not pulling my leg, right? Batman got out of that maze?"

And Stephanie stopped, eyes widening.

"Yeah, there was this large bull thing and it attacked with a sword, but then Batman used this flying hand to smash it and then he was out, but it was awesome! You really missed something special."

"I was making sure no one was dying. Why does all the cool crap happen when I'm doing my job? Seriously."

It continued like that, a back and forth of ribbing and taunting, but the gist was that Batman had found his way out of that maze. Ever hear that phrase hope springs eternal? Because Stephanie was feeling like she had a lot of it springing up in her right now.

With Batman out, things were going to start happening, she was sure. It was going to be alright. It was...gonna be a while, wasn't it? No, she just recalled the Snickers bar she had to get, but man, it wasn't going to be a while because Batman was always down to business and he was going to fix this.

Should she get ready? Hold up, where did that thought come from? Get ready for what? She was allegedly retired. Sure, she managed to sneak around Nightwing's back and all, but this was just a one time thing. It was to help a friend who needed it.

So why did she feel the need to go home and change into something more badass?

"Ah, screw it."

After a stop to one of his bunkers in the city, Batman was fully equipped and ready for action. Unfortunately, he was woefully short on intel. The call to Lucius had told him that not much progress had been made on weakening the Riddler's hold over the city. With the streaming of Daniel Mockridge's attempt at playing hero being played over and over, he could see that the Riddler was several steps ahead of everyone. Forget being six steps, he was a mile ahead.

Hopefully with Lucius working on a signal jammer, he could throw this madman off his game for a moment. His escape from his labyrinth was clearly not in his plans as he changed the rules to make sure he and Catwoman didn't escape. Now that he was out, the Riddler would no doubt be making adjustments.

Either that or he was moving onto a contingency plan.

Before that could come to fruition, he would need to play a wildcard to throw him off.

Based off of the sensors in each Network member's suit, he knew his fellow vigilantes were out trying to save the city as best they could. Unfortunately, it was clear they were reacting, which was all they really could do. Trying to track one down was going to be time consuming and they were spread throughout the city.

So why go hunt one down when he could go to one person that was staying still?

The Clocktower was still in one piece, so that was a blessing. The reported blackouts hopefully hadn't affected here either, otherwise this was going to be a bust. Considering all of the improvements he had made to the tower during the government quarantine should have spared this place, there was no point in taking anything for granted.

Naturally, Oracle had made some upgrades in her security system. Evading those had been a little tricky, but he had done it. Now he was standing in her living room, glancing at the discarded takeout food cartons and bags. Clearly Barbara Gordon hadn't been leaving this place since the crisis.

He did have to pause for a moment though. On her dining room table were job resumes and literature for the GCPD. Interesting job search. Silently, he walked to the main hub where Oracle would be.

He found her at the computer station, each monitor running a different program, or showing a different feed of some kind. The sound of her fingers typing on the keyboard filled the small room. She was staring intently at a screen in front of her before glancing to one to her left, then back.

"Oracle," he greeted.

"God damn it!" the redhead exclaimed as she whipped around. There was a cross of fear and relief as she looked back at him. "How is it I can expect to be hearing from you at any moment and you can still scare the shit out of me?"

"Sit rep," he responded instead.

"Yeah, sure, I'll get right on that...right after I pick my freaking heart up from the floor." Oracle was literally panting. "I swear, I need to get bells on both you and your sidekick."

"Batgirl's been here?"

"Unless she ditched, she might just be right behind you."

Batman raised an eyebrow. Then he looked over his shoulder...oh.

Immediately he noticed there was tension in her body, yet she was making no move to say or do anything. He would have to make the first move, it seemed.

However, Oracle started speaking again. "We've been trying to keep track of you, but figured you'd show up here anyway. Right now, there's still that matter of a bunch of scared kids being held hostage by a madman."

Any time to check on his daughter would have to wait for the time being then. "What progress have you made with them?"

"Not much, I'm afraid. I do have one of the Omnicrons from a kid lucky enough not to be wearing one when the Riddler put all of this into action, so I've been analyzing it." At this she tapped a few keys and one of the monitors lit up, an image of said Omnicron on its screen, multiple windows opening and closing as it ran its analysis. "One thing is for certain, the Riddler has been working on this for months."

That made sense. With the set up at the maze, those killer robots, and the Omnicrons, it was clear this wasn't something set up in a matter of days or weeks.

"Then there's the matter of the beacons."

That caused him to tilt his head towards the hacker. "Beacons," he repeated.

"Yeah." Again, there was a taping of keys and another monitor showed a grid of Gotham. There were a few dots on it. "I started picking up these signals the first night you were in the maze. That's where we encountered the drones, which the Riddler got his hands on from a weapons manufacturer. Stole them right out from underneath them and outfitted them to his specifications. We've been able to destroy the beacons, but each time we do, a blackout is caused. As best as we can tell, an actual EMP is being discharged, which is the cause of the blackouts. But just before that, we detected a transmission—a virus to be exact. I've been trying to follow it and it looks like it's heading to the nearby banks."

Batman narrowed his eyes. "Show me all of the locations that had active beacons."

There was more typing of the keys and black dots appeared. Eying them, he could tell right off the bat that each of those locations had a bank within a block or two of them. Looking at the active ones, it was the same. "So he's sending a computer virus to the banks right before the blackouts," he murmured.

"And the EMP is destroying any evidence that such a transmission was made," Oracle finished for him.

"Tell the Network to hold off on destroying any more of the beacons," he then ordered. "They can take out the drones, but leave the beacons alone. Have them keep an eye and see if the transmission is made at any point other than when it is destroyed."

"Got it." Oracle hit a key and activated her comm link. "Attention, Network, I've got some new orders. Remove the drones, but do not touch the beacons. I want eyes on them to see if they do anything funny."

It took a moment before there were confirmations, but they came in thankfully. While the hacker was dealing with that, Batman turned to Batgirl with a request of his own. "I need you to rendezvous and support the Network for the time being. Standby for further instructions."

Batgirl was still tense, and the mask that covered the entirety of her face prevented any facial cues from leaking out. However, the girl did nod her head and began making her way to the window, slipping out and into the city. They would speak later, and he would get to the bottom of what was affecting her. Perhaps his absence had taken a greater toll than he had anticipated. It had been a while since anything might have disturbed the girl's protective streak.

"So now what?" Oracle asked him as she turned away from her monitors.

"A lot of resources are being used to keep everyone's attention on the kids the Riddler took hostages. We have to free them," Batman said.

"Easier said than done. Computron just—"

"Tried and failed spectacularly," Batman interrupted. "I know. I'm working on something else at the moment, but we need to distract the Riddler so he doesn't see what we're up to. Everything that has happened has gone according to his plan. We need to disrupt him."

"How do you plan on doing that?" Oracle looked to him expectantly. "It's not like you can just go out and shout for him to come out and fight."

That was true. Batman then looked to the monitor analyzing the Omnicron. A thought occurred to him then. While he was in the maze, the Riddler had been monitoring his every move, interacting with him at various points. Who was to say he wasn't doing the same thing with the hostages? With as intricate of a plot he was working, he needed to have as much control as he could.

And he was narcissistic enough to want to show off to everyone just what he was capable of.

"I might be able to go to him, in a sense," he said after a moment. "Where is the Omnicron?"

"It's—" the redhead cut herself off, eye bulging in their sockets with abrupt realization. "Wait, are you planning on going into the virtual reality sim? That's crazy! You'll just get yourself trapped like the others!"

"Perhaps, but it will ensure the Riddler puts most of his attention there, versus what we're doing on the outside. Now where is it?"

Oracle reached out to him, her fingers barely touching his arm. It was clear she was trying to grab him, but couldn't from her position. "Please, don't. There's already one of our own in there. We can't lose you in there too."

That got his attention. "Who?" he demanded.

"Bluebird. Apparently Spoiler was given one of those Omnicrons and Bluebird happened to be using it when the Riddler started this thing. She hasn't been able to get out and it's really weighing on us."

All the more reason he needed to get in there then. Perhaps he could figure out a way to get to Bluebird and she could update him on the hostage situation in virtual reality. It was also possible he couldn't be able to if his thoughts on the Riddler needing control were true as well.

He didn't have much of a choice on the matter, though. "Bluebird is in there with a thousand scared kids. That can't be easy for her," he then said. "Even for a moment, they need to feel like help is on the way. If that's me, then so be it. Either way, we can't just sit here and let them be lost."

Oracle retreated her hand to her side, though her hand squeezed tightly into a fist. "You do realize that sidekick of yours is going to kill me when she finds out about this."

"And you do your best to avoid being strangled," he replied evenly. Hopefully Cassandra would not decide to double back and would heed his request. "The Omnicron—now."

With a sigh of resignation, Oracle backed her wheelchair up and spun it to her left. She rolled over to a desk, where she pushed down on its surface. A lid opened it and on a small platform raised the Omnicron. Picking it up, she then spun around in place and rolled back to him, handing over the device.

Batman stared down at the headpiece, holding it in both hands. He then looked around the room, seeing no other chair around. So he turned and went back into Oracle's living quarters, finding a comfortable enough looking chair and dragged it back in. Taking a seat in it, he then held Omnicron over his head.

"Good luck," Oracle told him as he slid it into place and then his world went black.