Breaker Chapter 3
Disclaimer: Don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, nor do I own DC Comics
East End, Gotham City
Jackson Family Apartment
New Earth
August 23rd, 2014
The kitchen table was a complete and utter mess, covered in scraps of paper, and cutouts from various magazines. Steph had an extremely focused look on her face as she slowly layered the glue onto the sheet of paper for her to be able to complete the clue.
"So, wait? Why aren't you flat-out telling the cops what your dad's doing? Why do this whole song and dance routine?" Percy whispers to Steph as he cautiously looked towards the hall and his mom's bedroom door. Scared she might come out at any second and catch them doing this.
Nodding slightly at his reasoning Steph looks up from the clue and towards her friend. "I know my dad Perce. If the cops move on him right now, he'll be able to blow the entire plan up and be gone into the wind. But if we have them catch him on Labor Day then he'll be caught with the money and everything."
Shrugging at her reasoning Percy slightly nods as he watches her slip off the latex gloves she had on and slide another pair onto her hands. Slowly picking up the clue she slides it into an empty envelope, the front of which reads the address of the GCPD Headquarters and is addressed to Police Commissioner Jim Gordon.
A door opening down the hallway causes both of the young teenagers to jump, as Steph goes to cover up some of the evidence and Percy accidentally brushes the envelope attempting to hide it behind his back.
Just as they manage to hide the incriminating stuff Sally stumbles into the kitchen. Yawning, she looks at the two of them and the mess they left at the table. "What are you two up to?" Turning away from them she grabs the coffee grounds and begins to refill the pot that Percy and Steph had emptied while they were combing through magazines.
Looking over to, Steph Percy shrugs his shoulders and mouths for her to come up with something to tell his mom. Her eyes growing wide Steph begins to stammer as she comes up with an excuse to give Sally. "Well, um it's for an, um…."
Luckily for her, a knocking on the door saved her from her terrible attempt at an excuse. Sally gives her a look of pity for being unable to come up with a lie that fast just shakes her head at Steph's attempt and goes to unlock the door and check who's at the door.
A woman in a dull olive-green bathrobe is standing outside in the dim hallway. The lights overtop flickering on and off giving the woman an even more haggard appearance. Looking up her stringy brown hair made her face look longer.
Concern flashes in Sally's eyes along with annoyance at the sight of the woman. "Crystal, what are you doing here?" She asks slowly pulling the door closed behind her not letting the woman get a peek into her apartment.
"Just came to check on to see if Steph's in there. I need her to pick up some stuff for me after she goes to school today." Her eyes fall to her empty orange pill bottle, its label faded and worn down from being rubbed so much by Crystal. Sally just lets out a tired sigh at Crystal's request.
"Crystal, are you seriously doing this right now?" Sally looks upset at the mother of her son's friend. She was hitting the bottom of the barrel every day and somehow still sinking lower. Hollow green eyes locked with Sally's disappointment-filled ones.
"The pain Sally, it's getting too much, I can barely walk because it hurts too much." To exaggerate her point her knees start wobbling as if she could barely keep herself from falling forward. "I just need to check on Steph, make sure she can get the stuff for me."
Reaching around Sally, Crystal goes to open the door to the Jackson's Apartment, but Sally gets in her way and won't let her through the door. "Look at yourself Crystal, there's a reason Steph doesn't want to spend all the time in that apartment with you. You're a mess and need to clean yourself up. We used to be friends and I care for you, but I can't keep enabling you like this."
Pushing Crystal away from her door Sally opens it ad reenters her apartment leaving Crystal stunned as the clicking of the lock echoes throughout the hallway. Blinking her eyes some tears begin to well up as she slowly retreats to the stairwell.
Making her way back to the kitchen Sally catches up with Percy and Steph who managed to clean up the kitchen table from the project they had been working on and instead were both eating cereal. Their conversation died down as she re-entered the kitchen and both turned to her.
Steph looked sheepish as she sees Sally's tired face. "I'm sorry about that Ms. Sally. I didn't realize she was done already. I thought she would've been out until this afternoon. Then at least I could've gotten her the refill like I was supposed to."
Shaking her head slightly at Steph's reasoning Sally doesn't respond. She knows that no matter how hard she tries Steph won't stop trying to appease her mom. Instead of commentating, she turns towards the clock. "It's 7:00 already. If you're any later, you two will miss the subway to school."
They both nod as Steph stands up and grabs her stuff, the letter tucked firmly in the front zipper pocket of her backpack, making her way past Percy who was chugging the rest of his cereal bowl she wrinkled up her nose at him. "That's disgusting Percy."
Wiping his mouth clean of the milk that remain he shrugged as he headed towards the door. "Don't knock it till you try it Steph."
"Absolutely not." The door shuts behind them as they continue to make their way down to the stairwell. "I'll catch up with you. I have to drop the letter off first. And then we'll catch up when you get back from Ted's tonight."
"Sure, that sounds good. Just text me whenever you want to meet up."
Gotham City,
GCPD Headquarters
New Earth
August 27th, 2014
Sliding the next piece of the puzzle over to Batman, Commissioner Gordon looks over the half-collected puzzle that they had been mailed over the past weeks. The puzzle showed a castle in the middle, but the exterior pieces were still missing.
"Well, it's obviously a castle, sadly we don't know any true background because of the exterior missing, but we should have another piece soon. Every 3 days they come in the mail just like clockwork." Batman meanwhile picks up the pieces and hands them off to Robin beside him. The young teenager looked over all the bits slowly and carefully. "A different zip code each time, and usually whoever they are is extremely careful. No prints, no hits of any DNA, not even any creases in the pictures."
Hearing the word usually Batman turns his full attention to the Commissioner. "You said usually, Jim. What's so special about this one?"
"Well, you see, whoever this person is they slipped up. You see that creased corner on the top right? There's a partial print on it. I know we're keeping this hidden from the public, so I didn't want to risk running the print through our database. Figured it'd be best left off to you."
Nodding Batman slowly takes the puzzle piece from the rest of the puzzle and took a copy of the fingerprint. Scanning it he downloaded a copy of the print to the Batcave computer and steps away from Robin and Commissioner Gordon as the two of them continue to speak about the pattern that is the puzzle.
Pressing his hand to the side of his cowl he activates his direct line with the Batcave. After a brief pause, he hears the voice of Alfred fill the static. "I'm looking at it now sir. I'm preparing to compare it with the GCPD database. I'm sorry to say I don't think we'll have much luck. It's nowhere near good enough a print to be extremely useful."
Sighing at the words his ally had told him he nods to himself. "Make sure you test it against the Metropolis, New York, and Bludhaven databases too. We can't be too careful."
The British voice rings out once again. "Understood sir. Very wise decision there."
"Keep me updated with what you find." Not waiting for Alfred to respond he ends the communication and makes with way back to his protégé and the police commissioner.
"No, it would be a Sunday delivery on that day. The holiday weekend. Do you think it's possible that whatever is being clued into us would take place then?" Commissioner Gordon is scratching his arm as he looks over the puzzle. Two pieces remain unfilled in the puzzle. With the pattern of them arriving every third day, that means that they would have until Sunday when the last piece should come in.
"It's possible," Robin responds to Jim. "But there are so many different castles in this city, you have the monkey castle at the Zoo out in Coventry, and Castle Electronics is headquartered out of Victoria Place. And those are just the two I have off the top of my head."
Nodding Gordon turns his back to the dynamic duo as he reaches over to his desk and pulls out a pill bottle. "You too will take those two, I'll post cops outside of the other major castles in town." Throwing a couple of pills into his hand he tilts his head back and swallows them whole.
Looking a little concerned at his friend Batman takes a step forwards. "Jim is everything alright? That shouldn't be good for you."
He attempts to shake off the vigilante's concern. "Don't worry about any of that. They're Advil to help me with my headache. This upcoming mayoral election is hell on me. The police are front and center of the upcoming debates. With me at its center being the poster child for police incompetence."
"But they wouldn't replace you would they Commissioner?" Robin asks chiming in as he finally looks up from the castle puzzle piece.
"Armand Krol would put a literal Doberman puppy in this position if he thought it would win him the election. He's making me out to be incompetent in the hopes of swaying public opinion in his favor. These goddamn puzzles are just another nail in the coffin and embarrass me further and further."
Closing the gap between them Batman places his hand on the shoulder of Jim. "The only ones that embarrass you should be me and Robin. Freed from the chains of bureaucracy we show you up at every turn. But the two of us weren't meant to be your replacement. We never could be."
Shaking himself loose of the vigilante's grasp Gordon sinks into his brown leather office chair landing with a plop. "Krol doesn't see it that way sadly." His glasses hid the look of true desperation that resided on his face, which combined with his white hair made him look older than he ever was. "He's hell sent on having me torn down and convincing the public that I'm nothing but a useless doddering old fool."
Turning his chair over to his window Gordon just sits back and sits in silence. Trying to get over his wave of depression from that conversation. Sensing that the two of them won't get any further Batman and Robin slink out of his office and back onto the streets of Gotham.
East End, Gotham City
Cutter Moran's, Hangout
New Earth
August 27th, 2014
The orange super suit of Cluemaster A.K.A. Arthur Brown looked down at the blueprints and the set of plans he laid out on the table in front of him. A stack of notebooks was stacked next to him in a very meticulous order. The rest of Cutter Moran's gang sat behind him watching him go over everything.
"What I have in these notebooks is the most important part of the job I all described to you a few days ago. I've planned out every step of this robbery down to the very last step, and inside these notebooks are the exact syllabuses that you all will follow on this robbery. If you all follow these notes to the T then we'll all walk out of this mission very rich men."
Cutter Moran in his trademark ugly rust-red suit walks over to the table picking up the notebook at the top of the stack. The one with his name on the front cover. Lifting it up and slowly flipping through the first couple of pages he scoffs looking back at Cluemaster. "You actually think we'll follow this shit? You must be more fucked in the brain than I previously thought."
Throwing the notebook at Cluemaster he then moves his arm in swiping motion knocking all of Arthurs's hard work onto the floor. Cluemaster leaping back in shock stares down Cutter.
"What why? Our last heist was so successful together."
Rage begins to build in Cutter's face as Arthur asks why. His face reddening from anger he tries to take a deep breath. Sadly, that breath didn't work. "Why? Do you want to know the fuck why? Because of the fucking Batman. That's why." His voice is more of a roar as he screams down at Cluemaster. Drawing his revolver from his hip he cocks back the hammer and points it directly at Cluemasters chest.
"Jimmy The Fish fucking saw you. He was doing me a favor and making sure that you're a true standup guy when he saw The Batman beat the ever-loving shit out of you. So, we decided that's suspicious, so I decided to call one of my buddies who's a lieutenant at the GCPD, and you'll never believe it. They've been getting cut-up pieces of a castle decorated as a puzzle. That's exactly the shit that you would pull."
"So, I have to truly ask." Cutter threatens as he steps closer and closer to Cluemaster. "Why the fuck shouldn't I end you right here right now?"
Arthur doesn't even flinch. In fact, he looks mildly offended at the accusation that he would rat them out to the GCPD. "Why Cutter. I'm offended, you would really think this little of me?" To prove his point of feigning true hurt at being accused Arthur even raises his arm to his heart as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
Instead of answering Cutter turns back to the rest of his gang who had also drawn their guns in support of their leader. "Boys. Light him up." Arthur sensing this was happening opened one of the capsules he kept on his wrist allowing a yellowish-green smoke to flood throughout the room.
The gas completely obstructing the view from the rest of the criminals allows Cluemaster to strike. Well-crafted kicks and punches before retreating into the gas provide him with opportune cover as the gang continues to miss their shots, a few go wide and make his job easier as they start to turn on each other through friendly fire.
After a brief pause as the gunfire died down the remaining members of the gang turned to look at Cutter. But the man was too busy clawing at a pink goo that was covering his face. The smoke faded away revealing Cluemaster with knocked out or bleeding out gang members littering the floor around him holding a half-open capsule that contained the pink goo.
"That right there Cutter, it's a fast-acting quick-drying resin. Specially made by yours truly it conforms itself to any surface and is resistant to any solvent except for the formula right here." To emphasize his point, he begins to wave around a glass test tube containing an electric blue liquid in it.
Cutter could only continue to scratch and claw at the resin as he begins to lose his breath. Blood begins to appear on his face as Cutter tries to dig his fingernails into his skin and pull it off him. His reduced airflow slowly turns his face blue as the lack of oxygen hits him.
Chuckling to himself Cluemaster squats next to Cutter holding the vile just out of his reach. "What's that you say, old pal? Do you want the solvent? You just gotta ask for it nicely." Tears mixing with the blood show Cutter's face as a complete mess. Attempting to reach out and grab the vile Cluemaster waits and lets him brush his fingers on it before he lets go.
The test tube falls through the air as Cutter attempts to catch it before it breaks and shatters on the ground. "Whoops, sorry about that Cutter. But I did tell you to ask nicely, not just try to grab it out of my hand."
Attempting to collect the liquid into his hands Cutter finally takes a hit from the lack of oxygen as he instead falls face forward hitting the ground with a crunch as the resin did its job. Not even giving the gang a second to mourn or look over their boss Cluemaster stands up picking two of the guns off the ground before turning them on the gang members that remained standing.
"Now that he's dealt with, this gang requires a new leader. I nominate myself. Any objections?" The remaining guys chuck their guns onto the floor before pledging their allegiance to the new gang member. "Wise choice gentlemen. Now let's go over the plan again."
From the skylight above the criminal gang and their new leader is watched closely by Percy and Steph. Both of them are using their suits to blend in with the darkness of the night along with allowing them to listen in more closely.
Turning to Steph, Percy looks at her through his domino mask. "Damn, your dad is a fucking psychopath."
Shushing him Steph turns back to her dad and his new gang who are listening to his plan. The highlights of which include killing Batman and Robin along with finding out the person that was ratting out his plans. This meeting ended up going until the early hours of the morning. The two teen vigilantes took turns watching over them and sleeping in an attempt to not completely sleep through class.
"Percy, come on man. Wake up." Steph begins to shake Percy's body back and forth as drool built up on his face. Her dad has just made his way out of the building and the sun was beginning to rise. "Seriously man come on, we need to get back now."
Choking on the drool Percy coughs himself awake. "I'm up, I'm up. What did I miss?" He begins to turn his head around the top of the building.
Steph sighs, rolling her eyes underneath the mask before motioning him to get up. "I'll catch you up when we go back to your apartment, we need to go now before we miss school."
Yawning and nodding his head Percy stifles his yawn by covering his mouth with his hand. "Shit, Ms. B is going to murder me, let's just pray I sleep enough in Algebra to stay awake in English."
Not giving Steph a moment to respond Percy makes his way down the maintenance ladder and starts making his way back to his apartment.
Outskirts of Gotham City,
Batcave underneath Wayne Manor
New Earth
August 28th, 2014
Bruce Wayne sat hunched over a keyboard in the Batcave, his cowl resting on the table next to him as he scrolls through the GCPD Database looking for any prints that might match the partial one they took off the puzzle piece.
"Still nothing, maybe this person truly has no record." Continuing to search he finally ends up with one partially similar print. Oddly enough though this didn't come from the normal database, instead it was from a locked report filed 5 years ago.
Alfred walks down the cave stairs carrying a tray holding a kettle of tea and an empty mug. Walking over to Bruce he notices that there finally might be a match. "Did you finally find something Master Wayne?" Without saying a word to Alfred Bruce takes the mug and fills it with the tea from the kettle and takes a big sip.
"I think I did Alfred, apparently a few years ago there was an attempted mugging of this 9-year-old boy and his friend."
"What's so interesting about that sir? This is Gotham City that unfortunately is pretty common around here."
"Because of the name of the friend to that boy? Stephanie Brown."
"Brown you say. Any relation to Arthur Brown?" Alfred fully has his interest peaked now.
"On paper no. But that boy? His partial print matches the one we found on the puzzle piece. But that's not even it. The man who stopped the mugging was Ted Grant."
"You mean the Wildcat sir?"
"Exactly the same Alfred." He stands up and turns away from the computer. "I might just have to visit Ted after I finish with some work at Wayne Enterprises."
"And what about the Child Master Bruce? Surely you can't fault him for trying to warn us of what's happening."
"He'll get a visit from Batman in due time. But he might have a visit from Bruce Wayne first."
Thanks to Silver for editing my bullshit into something manageable for you all to read. Remember to join the Emerald Library Discord at /v7EVxd2dd6
