In the Shadow of the Bat
Chapter 47
Father Jean-Paul Varley smiled, "Cass! It's been too long."
"Jean-Paul, I'm glad to see you," Cass Cain replied warmly. She then punched him in the shoulder, hard.
"Ow!" he yelped.
"THAT'S for making me think you were dead," Cass scolded.
"Sorry," Jean-Paul said sheepishly. He added apologetically, "I kind of had to do it, for various reasons..."
"Hmph," Cass frowned.
"Introduce us," Nyssa asked her girlfriend.
"Nyssa, meet Jean-Pail. Also known as Azrael," she introduced him.
"FORMERLY known as Azrael," Jean-Paul corrected with a smile as he shook her hand, "I'm retired. Mostly."
"I'm somehow not surprised that you ultimately became a priest," Cass noted as they toured the small temple the community built in the bad part of Gotham, "you always were more about helping people than fighting."
"Well, we try," Jean-Paul said modestly.
They returned to the main hall when the church doors banged open violently. "THIS IS A ROBBERY!" the three men in ski-masks yelled.
There as a beat of dead silence. "You have, possibly, picked the worst church possible to rob," Nyssa noted mildly.
"Eh?" one robber blinked before the three jumped them.
Within moments the three men were down, and mostly unharmed. Cass was a little surprised at how... gently, really, Jean-Paul had handled them. 'Maybe he's serious about changing himself?' she mused silently.
"I'll call a friend I have on the police force to come pick them up," Jean-Paul noted. He smiled at them, "Thank you."
"You could have handled it," Nyssa noted mildly.
"Stay in touch," Jean-Paul noted as he walked them out.
"You too," Cass nodded, "and call if you need something."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"There's two security guards," the man with the headset warned.
Calculator was a c-list villain. At best. He had advanced tech on his side, but every time he had been out on a caper, he lost. Thankfully, he found a new job. For a fee, he provided hacking and information services to other super-criminals...
"Security cameras?" the voice asked.
"That'll be another thousand," Calculator told him smugly, dressed in business casual and leaning back in his comfy office chair.
"Oh come on," his client bitched.
"Sorry, my time is money. Well?" Calculator asked.
"Hit my Swiss account," the guy sighed. He rattled off a number adding, "Password is 'rosebud_23' no caps, underscore and the number."
"Seriously?" Calculator teased.
"Oh shut up. Well?" he asked.
"Yes, there are Security Cameras. As a favor to you as a long time client, it'll loop the system for ten minutes," Calculator told him.
"You're a saint," the guy sighed.
"Good luck," Calculator smiled wryly.
Calculator set his system to auto-monitor for any further calls, then went to work on his other project for the Order of Saint Dumas. Bluntly, he found religious nuts distasteful, but the money was good. The only problem was running into Oracle.
When Calculator started this information service, he had thought Oracle was a myth, an fake online boogieman to keep black hat hackers in line. However he quickly came across evidence of him/her/it's actions, AND gradually got a sense of it's resources. Whatever Oracle was, it was more than he wanted to fuck with.
There WAS some online information on Jean-Paul Varley. Birth, family, early life was all there. Murder of his father, then... gaps started appearing. He went to work for Bruce Wayne, whom EVERYBODY knew was funding Batman. Quit, disappeared for awhile, turned up a vagrant, oddly enough. Wandered a bit in around Gotham, died. Probably.
"No body, scant blood evidence," Calculator muttered. Yeah, looked suspicious as hell, even to his untrained eye.
After that, there was no digital fingerprints for 'Jean-Paul Varley.' Private funeral, paid for by Wayne of course. No hits on combinations of his name too. Hmm.
Then his computer chimed.
"Father VALLEY? Seriously?" Calculator blinked at the name of a young priest arrived in Gotham a few months ago.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"He's WHAT," Sister Sara blurted.
"He's been under our noses the whole time," Linda Frittawa admitted, the other woman having delivered Calculator's report.
"Father Valley," Sara shook her head ruefully. "We should have picked it up via our connections to the mainstream church," she noted.
"You've never told me why you're looking for him," Linda noted. "Should I set up a raid of some sort?" she asked.
"No! He'd destroy anyone you sent," Sara quickly said.
Linda raised her eyebrows, "Azrael is THAT good?"
"If he chooses, he can face and win against a small army," Sara said grimly. She shook her head, "No, we need to go to him cautiously."
"Mmm hmm?" Linda encouraged like a good minion.
Sara looked amused, knowing the other woman was playing a role. "I and another Sister should go to him," she mused, "and no bodyguards."
"That's not safe," Linda objected. "At least take guards on the way there."
"The neighborhood he picked is THAT bad?" Sister Sara blinked.
"The cops do not go in that area alone," Linda noted. She paused, "Though Calculator noted crime in and around the Church itself is down for the area. It looks like he's stopping at least some of the usual mayhem."
"All right, we'll go see him tomorrow," Sara resolved.
After the meeting Linda realized she STILL didn't know why they were looking for him...
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Morning, Father," the blonde hooker waved as she went home.
"Morning," Jean-Paul nodded. "Be careful out there," he added.
"Always am," she smiled.
He finished sweeping up outside, then headed in. He had a morning sermon to prepare, then would head over to volunteer at the East End soup kitchen. He paused as he saw the car drive up, noting how low it was to the ground.
'Armored,' Jean-Paul thought warily.
A man who obviously was a bodyguard got out first, warily looking around, then he opemmed the back door. Two women dressed as Nuns emerged, then calmly walked to the church.
An expert on the Church would look at them and feel there was something off. As a former member of the Sacred Order of Saint Dumas, Jean-Paul recognized them as members of that order. He tensed, warily looked for others like him...
"We come in peace, Father," the lead Nun smiled. "I am Sister Sara, this is Sister Taylor, may we enter?"
"My Church is open to all," Jean-Paul answered mildly.
He lead both women to the back rooms that served as his quarters, spartan though they were. "Thank you," Taylor smiled as he waved them to seats at his table.
"So," Jean-Paul asked, "what does the Sacred Order want with me?"
"The Order is fractured and conflicted," Sara said, sighing. "You remember Sister Lilhy?" she asked him.
"Yes, she wanted to reform the Order," Jean-Paul made a face.
"She leads a faction, we represent another, there is the Order of Purity... things are falling apart," Taylor said.
"And this concerns me, how?" Jean-Paul asked dryly.
"There will be war between our sects," Sara said, "lives will be lost. Including innocent lives."
'They know me too damn well,' Jean-Paul thought sadly. "All right, what do you want me to do?" he asked. "I will NOT be your assassin again."
"Nor do we want you to," Taylor said. "You see, the method of creating a 'Azrael' is lost to us. You are the last."
"And...?"
Sara and Taylor both bowed their heads, "We come to ask you to lead us."
"WHAT."
To be continued...
Notes: There were a few issues where Cass and Jean-Paul were friends, so I thought to use that. I always liked Calculator as the 'evil' Oracle. In the comics he tries to defeat Oracle, which seemed kind of dumb, honestly. He'd be better off just making money selling data to b-list villains.
Had the Azrael thing bubbling away in the background for awhile.