Carried yawned as she walked along the halls of Wayne Manor, she remembered the day she was recruited by the Batman, she and her friend Jason had recently attempted to steal the wheels off of the Batmobile, she had been on the lookout making sure no one would catch them on their tracks while giving the instructions to Jason.
She couldn't believe that fateful day would have led to millionaire Bruce Wayne taking custody of both of them, much less how Bruce Wayne was apparently the Batman. Her life at Wayne Manor was much more comfortable than living with her parents, especially after they had abandoned her.
She took a seat at the dining room, she had resisted her urge to put her legs on the table, her lessons with Alfred had worked "Hey Al, would you mind if I asked to watch the telly while having my breakfast?"
The british butler smiled when he heard her call it by the british slang he always used to call it "Not at all Master Kelley" he said as he laid the plates for the both of them with food for a full english breakfast "I am afraid Master Bruce and Master Todd won't be able to join us today, both of them are occupied with their crusaders"
She would nod in knowledge, following her classes with Alfred, she'd grab a few sausages, beans, half of a tomato and a sunnyside egg with class and elegance just like he taught her "Isn't it early for them to do it?"
"You know how Master Wayne is, he uses both identities to his advantage all in the name of his crusade for Gotham" Alfred said, turning on the TV, grabbing a similar amount of food to carry with the exception of getting himself a slice of black pudding.
The first channel the Television would default to would be WHIH Newsfront, Christine Everhart on screen with a bright smile as always "As you may have known, we have been trying to track The Hulk over the past few days over here at WHIH, what we didn't know is just how close he is! We have information that could lead us to believe that the green giant might appear in New York City and with government measures asking people to remain home today, we are lead to believe that our rumors might indeed be plausible" Christine Everheart said as she pointed at the screen, a blurry picture of the green man right besides her.
Carrie observed the green man slowly "Is that why Bruce isn't able to accompany us?" She raised an eyebrow as her curiosity got the best of her, making sure not to talk with a mouthful as she enjoyed her breakfast.
"I am afraid so" Alfred answered simply as he took a bite out of his breakfast, being the gentleman that he is he would not speak with a mouthful of food even if he wanted to "He is trying to find doctor Bruce Banner before S.H.I.E.L.D. or General Ross can trigger him in Manhattan or Gotham to transform into the green giant"
Carrie nodded in understanding as she ate her breakfast, stretching in her seat as she turned to look at the TV, taking a deep breath as she laid back against her chair "Isn't it dangerous for Bruce were the Hulk to awaken?"
"I assure you, Master Kelley, nothing that Bruce does is safe. I trust he would be able to at least escape were there to be a problem with the Hulk" Alfred closed his eyes as he took a bite of his food, taking a moment to focus on his thoughts about the situation.
Christine Everheart showed pictures of a destroyed Roxxon truck "Yesterday, a small convoy of Roxxon trucks was attacked on lower Manhattan by an unknown force, people report seeing Spider-man along with a mysterious duo of powered individuals. However no evidence of it but testimonies were found"
"I assume, Jason is gonna investigate that, despite Bruce telling him not to exit Gotham" Cassie adjusted her green glasses as she took a bite out of a slice of toast, stating it almost matter of fact as if it was even more obvious than Bruce going after Banner.
"You are correct, Bruce did not give me orders not to help him if he were to investigate crime, should I prepare your uniform? Master Kelley?" Alfred raised an eyebrow as he looked directly towards the teen.
"Yeah, I think I was done with breakfast anyway" Carrie stretched her back as she got off the table, a smile on her face as she turned to look at Alfred "Breakfast was great as always, Al" she felt happy in Wayne manor even when her new family wasn't there. She could be herself, Alfred and Bruce appreciated her for who she was even if they did give her training, they didn't force her to grow her hair out nor forced her to wear skirts, she could do anything and she appreciated it.
Alfred got up and followed her closely, stepping on the elevator right besides her "Make sure to keep Master Jason safe, I know he is very capable but he can get into unnecessary trouble"
"I'll make sure, Alfred" she grabbed her green belt, filling it up with various pellets, micro explosives, boomerangs and other tiny gadgets as Alfred prepared her suit, she was very careful about selecting her tools.
Her outfit was relatively heavy armored compared to that of the Batman or Jason, she wasn't as agile as either of them and her build didn't help her become agile. Carrie didn't like the acrobatics that Jason or previously Dick did, she was always more of a fan of boxing and so Bruce taught her just that, she used her stature and how tough she was to her advantage.
She grabbed her outfit and went into the changing room, her outfit was padded on the inside, were it not for the bright red her suit would look like it was made for the military, the heavy padding was relatively heavy yet it still allowed her to move. The armor hugged her figure with straps attaching it tightly to make sure there was no space where a bullet or knife could enter with ease, the chest slightly slanted but not the point where one could see the definition of what was underneath and her legs covered by a significant amount of padding.
She stepped towards her tool belt, putting it on along with a motorcycle helmet that was bulletproof, colored in the robin colors with a bright green visor that displayed the information, made to be the same prescription as her glasses, putting a collapsible shield on her back "Do you have an approximate location as to where Jason is?"
Alfred shook his head as he pushed a button on the computer, where a batmobile stood now stood her bike, a bright red heavily armored motorcycle tailor made for her "I can only assume Master Jason is already following a trail from a crime scene or trying to figure it out without help"
She got on her bike and smiled under her helmet "Thanks Al" she drove off of the Batcave, following the road towards lower Manhattan, she was not used to going out of Gotham much unless she had to go after Jason. The city in New York might not be too far away but Bruce insisted they stay on Gotham unless the situation required it, she never understood why Jason wouldn't listen to Bruce, especially after Bruce took them out of the streets.
She arrived at the crime scene, the street was closed and just like she expected, Jason was arguing with commissioner DeWolff "Hey… I'm sorry here for my friend robin here" Carrie tried to grab Jason with his shoulder.
"Listen here, I know Gordon has an arrangement with your superior over at Gotham but this is Manhattan" the old woman groaned and paused for a second before looking at both of them "I am having a lot of trouble today, we have issues with people being scared of Hulk. I can't let you enter the crime scene, but what I can do is tell you what I know"
"WHAT?! How come you don't want to tell me anything but when she gets here you are all talk?!" Jason growled under his mask as he clenched his fist, Carrie swore that he always seemed like he was about to bite someone.
"Well, if you didn't interrupt me demanding that I let you into the crime scene, you'd have gotten the same information" Commissioner DeWolff groaned in annoyance "Listen, all we know is that the track tires lead to a warehouse nearby and that we found Spider-webs on the buildings, but they dissipated far too quickly"
"Is that all?" Carrie was taking notes on a small notepad that she carried, looking at the commissioner through her motorcycle helmet "Any other evidence that might be good to know?"
"We found several molten remains, no people harmed but it's a lot of molten metal" the commissioner said pointing out the now molten mousers on the floor "And we have reports that there might be several pieces of debris and ice a few meters away on the bay"
"Thank you very much, Commissioner" Carrie smiled as she pulled Jason by his arm, walking towards the river. A sigh came out of her mouth as she made sure that Jason was following her "You need to control yourself, Hood"
"Freckles, you know I don't trust the pigs" Jason groaned as he stretched, his robin suit was not as armored as hers, he had ditched the green and yellow that the traditional robin suit had in favor for a pure black and red look with a jacket, he looked more like a soldier than a robin.
"You think I still trust them? You remember what they did to Mitchell when we caught him, before Gordon could get there they had beaten him up to a bloody pulp" Carrie kneeled down, grabbing a piece of molten metal off the ground, it looked particularly different than the rest. It still had some relative semblance of what it used to be.
Jason groaned as he got near the water, pulling a piece of ice out of the river without any care, using his grappling gun to pull it back to them along with a robot head stuck to it "I understand that not all of them are bad, but sometimes I just want to do the same and more. Guys like the joker just get under my skin"
Carrie's eyes widened in surprise as she saw the robot head "Good find Hood, from what I can tell this is the only piece of one of these that's this complete" she would tilt her head in curiosity as she looked it over.
"I don't think we have the time to go over to the cave and analyze this. Can you think of anyone that could help us?" He scratched his head as he made sure to hold the head tightly, the piece of ice felt incredibly cold to the touch, he was thankful that he was wearing gloves.
"How about Nora? I don't think she'd be opposed to help" Carrie said as she walked over to where their bikes were parked, grabbing a couple of more complete pieces of the robots from the ground in the way, storing them in a ziploc bag.
"Sure, we are lucky that they moved to New York. Can't blame them" Jason said as he stored the robot head in his motorcycle, getting on it as he would wait for Carrie "You think Bats will get angry that we are being seen by civies?"
Carrie got on her own bike driving off with Jason "You know he will get mad regardless, even when he's happy he's mad" she said as they drove off. They couldn't not drive attention to them as they drove in the daylight.
Carrie realized that they wanted to approach their friends as civilians, but she figured no one would mind if they broke into the apartment of someone to change into their civilian clothing. The two made their way with their grappling guns to the top of the building, getting into the interior with ease as they both were experienced burglars.
Carrie used her helmet to detect any heartbeats, she chose an empty apartment, making their way with utmost care. She had thanked Alfred for the fact that he always packed an extra set of clothing in their bikes.
Hood, made his way down towards the motorcycles, hiding them and their clothes in the compartments while Carrie knocked on the door of the apartment of Nora and Victor Fries, standing at the door with her pair of green rim glasses on her face and her relatively baggy clothes.
Just as Nora opened the door, Jason came running "Oh! Jay, Carrie!" Nora smiled brightly as she invited the two to enter her home "How are you doing kids?" Nora was a blonde mature woman, her clothes were baggy and looked like they were made for comfort. Nora wasn't a particularly fit person, she had a small tummy on her body and had bags under her eyes, but both Carrie and Jason thought she was beautiful, she was like a mother to them.
"You know, great, Bruce might not be the best adoptive father but he still tries" Carrie smiled as she pulled Jason into her home, a smile on her face.
"He's… not bad, but the amount of work we have to do sometimes feels too much for how small our allowance is" Jason chuckled as he would look around the place. He wanted to complain about how cold he felt his hands were but he felt as if he needed to impress Nora.
"Well I'm just glad he was able to give you two a home" Nora clapped her hands together, moving to her bridge "Would you two like a glass of water, maybe a soda? Please take a seat kids"
Carrie politely declined the offer for a drink, sitting down at the table she smiled softly as the warm furniture brought her memories of the times where Nora would pull them from the street to make them dinner.
"I want a Dr. Pepper… please" Jason sat down, putting the frozen robot head on the table, taking a deep breath as his body relaxed, his posture not as tense and his eyes closing for a second.
Nora chuckled as she would put the Dr. Pepper can on the table, sitting down as she looked at Carrie "So is this part of a science project, something you two stole or is there another explanation"
Carrie didn't want to lie to her, but she knew how important this was to Bruce, before Jason said anything she spoke up "We found this head on the street on our way here, Jason grabbed it before anyone could notice and we want to know who made it or what it's purpose is for"
Jason would nod in agreement as he opened up his soda can, taking a sip as he let her talk.
"Right…" Nora looked at the head over, carefully taking a look at it. Her fingers trailing the parts of it that weren't covered by ice "This looks like the work of Baxter, although it could be Otto, I'd put my money on it being made by Dr. Albert Wily... the ice is unusual as it shows very little signs of melting, I think it might take a day for it to melt but I'll take a further look and text you about it once it melts and I'm able to operate it"
Carrie would nod slowly as she looked over at the head with a similar amount of curiosity "Where is Victor?"
"Oh you know how the people at Oscorp are, they pay well but their workplace is too volatile, Victor had to go because of an emergency" she would take a drink out of a small can of soda.
"Ugh, sounds annoying, Wayne Enterprises doesn't seem to have issues like those" Jason had been in the R&D department of Wayne Tech, it all looked so safe and pristine he wondered how another company could have emergencies.
"Well Wayne Enterprises isn't trying to get the military contract for a super soldier serum" Nora offered an explanation, feeling a bit of weight off her chest as she looked at the two. She wasn't particularly sure about their job despite how well it paid and she was glad she could discuss it with two persons that she cared about.
"I am so tired of hearing of people wanting to recreate that, Oscorp, TCRI, Lexcorp, Star Labs and even the US government themselves. Can't they just accept that we are never going to get the serum again?" Carrie went on a rant that she didn't know she had in her, she felt some anger boiling in her body that she couldn't explain.
"I can understand your anger about this, Carrie, I am not happy working for a military contractor either… Sometimes the road to make the world better has dubious moral starts, Wayne Enterprises wasn't always as nice as it is now" Nora looked serious at Carrie, she knew what she was talking about.
"Well… I guess you are right, Thomas Wayne wasn't as caring as Bruce is" Carrie looked down at the table, taking a deep breath as she didn't know what to think. It was all so difficult. At first she didn't understand why Batman didn't kill but after meeting Bruce, she understood, seeing his grief and his spirit, his love for Gotham.