Gotham Botanical Gardens November 6th 2010 8:00 PM EDT

We cased the place before going in, obviously. Rather than bring everyone it was decided Jim and I were strong enough that anything that could bounce the two of us would probably just kill everyone anyway, and since they only actually extended the invite to us we would go alone. Zee and Artemis had been pretty pissed about that, though Reggie had been distracted showing his girlfriend around the castle. So here Jim and I were scouting the outside of this place to check on who was inside. There were about thirty red dots in there on the map and we wanted to find out which were real threats.

The map sadly didn't really tell us anything about the dots. It did give us names if we zoomed in enough, but honestly that wasn't as helpful as one might think considering it gave us actual names and most powerful people used a pseudonym. There was thirty people in there and aside from Talia, Sportsmaster, and Cheshire we had no clue who literally any of them were. Even Lady Shiva's name was listed as something different, which I honestly should probably have assumed. Still with aura vision and my stealth and shadow skills it was child's play to map the place out.

It was a good thing we did too, because the assholes had moved since we checked the map, and I had to specially note the new locations. They could move again but we were hoping once we actually entered it would stop them from making any unnecessary movements so as not to draw attention to themselves. I met up with Jim again outside the gardens. I double checked my points, which were sitting at about three hundred ninety and nodded seriously to him, then I passed over a small pad of paper. I'd made the thing with my demonic power, trying to see what I could manage while spending minimal points, and the results had been...not great, but still usable.

He took the sheet of paper and read over it. "Seems about right, though I suspect your aura vision is not infallible, it seems you missed one or two." He marked a pair of spots on the map. "I would imagine they're senior assassins who have picked up some kind of concealment magic. Remember Morgan, your abilities are a useful tool in your arsenal, but the most useful tool you possess will always be your mind. Without that, all the power in the world is absolutely useless. Hone your techniques and perception even as you hone your combat skills. We are thieves, not soldiers."

I nodded, studying the map. I wasn't stupid enough to think it was a good idea to ignore Jim. Part of why I'd agreed to work with him was that he could teach me skills that I then wouldn't need to spend points on, but more importantly, he could teach from experience. Even skill based memories didn't integrate perfectly right away, I still needed to practice and acclimate myself to them, a weakness my enhanced memory eliminated when it came to actually learning things. Plus Jim was awesome, he had so much more to teach me about than just the art of quietly and invisibly stealing people's shit.

With our scouting done we decided to finally head inside to our meeting. We could handle anything they threw at us, and with detailed knowledge of how they were dispersed through the gardens we wouldn't have to worry about missing anything and getting sucker punched. Talia was standing there placidly, Cheshire and Lady Shiva beside her, and I noted with some glee that Sportsmaster wasn't around. When she saw us appear she gave and slow smile. "Gentlemen, welcome, I'm so glad you could make time to meet with me."

Jim nodded, and I took a step back to let him deal with the negotiations. He had way more practice dealing with supervillains. "We're happy to make your acquaintance as well my dear, I must say, your surname may proclaim you of the demon, but you're more of a fallen angel in my eyes. It is a true rarity to feast my gaze on such a vision of loveliness." I rolled my own eyes at that, because of course Jim would hit on the immortal, busty, serial killer milf. In all honesty he might have been doing it partly out of revenge for me comment the other night, but I also knew he had other motivations aside from the large expanse of surprisingly perky cleavage.

Talia giggled, which made literally every person in the room that wasn't the two of them gape, and actually flipped her hair over one shoulder. "Gentleman Ghost indeed. I must say I share your...fascination. Your exploits were legendary even when I was a girl. It's a pity we never got a chance to meet before your untimely demise, though I admit I didn't start hearing tales of your feats until some time after that. I feel at ease at the thought of having such a powerful and respected ally, I do so hope we can come to an arrangement."

Her aura showed much less lust and excitement than her words and tone implied, though oddly there actually was some of both. Jim swept his hat off and flourished a hand in a graceful bow. "I too share such hopes. Now, milady, why not share a few of your ideas for how we might both benefit from such an alliance." His voice dropped an octave or two. "I can assure you, should I find your offering agreeable, I would do my utmost to ensure your...satisfaction." The sexual undertone of the comment was obvious, and Talia averted her eyes, biting her lip in a way her aura showed was pretty much entirely bullshit.

This entire thing was a game to them. Jim wasn't an uncontrollable horn dog and Talia wasn't a horny fan girl, and they both knew it. They had assumed roles, masks for the duration of the negotiation to disguise their real intentions and goals. The largest factor in any negotiation was value, the value of your assets versus the value of what you wanted. You could overcharge the shit out of someone for something they wanted, but you might have to basically give away something less valuable to them.

As long as Jim was playing the sex fiend Talia wouldn't be able to figure out what was truly valuable to him. Pretty much everyone here knew he wasn't actually that invested in clapping them assassin cheeks (though I doubt he would say no, the whole Black Widow vibe is much less scary when you're already dead) but no one aside from possibly me knew what he WAS invested in. Talia was employing the same strategy, and Jim had already warned me of such. This negotiating tactic was just a natural extension of the habit of wearing masks that most powerful capes had.

Of course as the negotiation went on and things were won or lost, facades would be discarded, feints revealed to win points. If Talia gave Jim something valuable for nothing, revealing that victory would weaken her position and put her in a worse headspace for the next exchange. Talia started soft, throwing out some bait that would effect everyone. "Well, for one we wanted to discuss the food situation. As you may have noticed, restaurants and similar businesses have remained unmolested for the moment. Mostly this is because ingredients need to be used, and hoarding them all would simply be a waste. Allowing the eateries to remain allows the powerful players to keep track of population movements."

That we did know, I'd been confused about the logic of not hoarding the food, but Jim said it would be a short term benefit. Aside from tracking people, she wasn't mentioning the major benefit of the eateries, debt. All the major factions had captured their nearest food suppliers early on, and while they stayed out of the management and kept them from being accosted, they made sure to reinforce the idea that anyone who ate there was receiving a favor from that faction, and would be expected to pay it back.

Granted it was mostly one or two of the more moderate gangs who had bothered. Penguin was protecting most of the upscale places, and Dad and the family had gotten a piece of the pie, along with the Maroni's. It said something about Gotham that within a few days of being trapped in a magic bubble the organized crime element had already sized and portioned out the food service places. Jim, knowing all this, simply shrugged. "I'm afraid I haven't kept abreast. Food is such a...mortal necessity. My apprentices are expected to feed themselves, as any thief must, but I find I care little otherwise."

Talia's aura flickered with annoyance. That was a hard stance to take for almost anyone but Jim, and she hadn't been expecting it. Still she recovered quickly and without much visible sign of her irritation. "Ah, true, but I'm sure such a...capable Gentleman wouldn't reject a request from a lady sadly still beholden to such banal needs." Her flirty tone was still there, but colder now, less fan girl more femme fatale. I had to admit, half threat half proposition was a new one by me but damn did she pull it off.

That said, this wasn't going anywhere. Jim had brought me along in case something like this happened, he knew the benefit of the uninitiated, and when I started seeing signs of an hours long back and forth with no real hope of any useful outcome I did as I was told, and flipped the table. "Ok, this is annoying. If you two want to fuck do it on your own time, but you didn't bring us here to tag team you, You had a legitimate reason for this meeting, and nothing as abstruse as "an alliance" though I doubt you would be against it. So tell us what the hell you want or we're leaving."

I'd like to say all the impatience was faked, but honestly watching them flirt was pretty boring. I wouldn't have snapped if it wasn't part of the plan but I still didn't enjoy being set dressing. Lady Shiva's aura flashed with anger, and Cheshire seemed surprised and amused but Talia just rolled her eyes. "Young people are so impatient." She shot Jim a teasing smile. "I'm sure you and I can negotiate the terms of the over arching alliance later, in a more...private setting. For now, our impatient young friend is correct. We do have something we require your assistance with. It pertains to the coming food shortage."

She gestured to one side and an assassin I'd already known was there materialized, bowing and offering a briefcase before vanishing into the dark without so much as a thank you from his boss. She turned it to face us and popped it open, revealing a large pile of fairly sizable gems lying on a bed of black velvet. "As you can see, we aren't barbarians. We weren't expecting you to work for free, even should we have come to an...arrangement. We wish to hire you to do a job. It's well within your area of expertise. A theft from a secure facility. We simply want you to steal something different. Or more specifically, someone."

She closed the case with a smile. "So in the interest of the expedience young Random requested I will speak plainly. We are going to be running out of food soon, and we need to combat that before it becomes an issue. The Amazons will have brought their own methods of feeding their soldiers, though we don't know what those might be. We have to seek other answers to our problems. To that end, we want to hire you to break into Blackgate Penitentiary and free Pamela Isley, with whom we have a working relationship." She grinned wolfishly at us both. "Assuming of course, you're up to the task."

Doomhollow Hall November 6th 2010 10:00 PM EDT

We weren't ambushed surprisingly, but that made sense since they wanted to hire is for a job. However, the gems weren't really useful to us, which we told them. We arranged to meet up again once they had sufficient compensation and we would take a few days to think about it. Most of the restaurants seemed to have a decent enough surplus to run for a few more days. Luckily Gotham was a nightmare factory and all the eateries had much larger storage areas than normal in case of partial lockdown or some kind of attack on the food production industry.

We made it back to the island pretty quickly, thanks in part to the nearby teleporter, and called everyone together in the map room. Zee and Artemis had been awake practicing with their lightning, and Blood and Madame Xanadu had shown up too. We explained the situation, and everyone looked like they had a headache. Madame Xanadu bit her lip worriedly. "Food shortages are going to be a problem. I imagine the large factions have stockpiles of non perishable goods, or else they wouldn't be so quick to let the eateries remain open, but Poison Ivy would definitely help take some of the pressure off."

Artemis snorted. "Assuming she decides to help instead of actively hindering everyone. Hell, I'd be more surprised if she didn't. The idea of growing a ton of plants for people to eat isn't likely to appeal to her. She's more liable to grow a bunch of plants that eat people instead. Are we really going to break someone like that out of Blackgate? I mean sure, I doubt it would be hard with Morgan's shadow jumping but still." Artemis was a Gotham native, so she knew what Poison Ivy was all about. Honestly having grown up here I kind of agreed.

Jim however, just shook his head. "Someone like Talia wouldn't arrange a jailbreak unless she had the means of controlling her. It just isn't the Shadow's style. Unfortunately we have a larger problem. Morgan's shadow jumping most likely won't work in Blackgate. Similarly my own means of entry will be rendered unusable. I imagine that was the whole point of hiring us in the first place. Blackgate island wasn't chosen to be a super powered prison because of it's ominous name. It used to be the headquarters of the Religion of Crime, and they warded the place to hell. If we go in we have to do it the slow way unfortunately."

That...wasn't good. If Jim was bothering to mention it these would be heavy duty wards too, nothing I could take awaprt or pick a hole in like Zatara's. I couldn't imagine what would be needed to ward a whole island like that but I assumed having it meant the Religion of Crime were people we definitely shouldn't fuck with. Regardless that complicated things. "That's...good to know I guess. The question becomes then are we really going to accept the job?" I felt compelled to at least ask, though I most likely knew the answer already.

Zee, knowing I was just playing devil's advocate, just nodded. My girlfriend was easily the most heroically inclined of our little band of reprobates. "People in town are going to need to eat. We can assume Poison Ivy will be handled at least until we get out of this mess. The Shadow's have a reputation for handling their business, they wouldn't have stuck around this long by making mistakes. The question is are teleports the only thing the wards will block? Will we have access to our powers on the island?"

Jim nodded. "I admit to being surprised you wish to participate but then, this is more in your wheelhouse I suppose. In any case the answer is some of them. Non spatial shadow manipulation should still work, though it'll be a bit weakened. In fact most magic we use will be lessened in effect inside the prison. Not only is the island warded, Blackgate itself was constructed with power dampeners and a few other countermeasures." He sighed, sitting back in his seat. "I'm afraid the easiest way in will probably be as prisoners. That said who knows if the police are even still arresting people in this madness, much less taking them to prison."

I frowned at that. We had a connection with the commissioners daughter, but I doubted Gordon would agree to send a bunch of teen thieves into a dangerous super powered prison no matter how good our reasons. Without that as an option I could only really think of one way to get it. I groaned, turning to Artemis. "Did you end up meeting up with Wally when you went to Archie's place? I was distracted by the meeting thing and forgot to ask." She raised a questioning eyebrow at that, but nodded. I sighed. "Can you get in touch with him again?"

She shrugged. "I mean sure, but what do you need..." She swore. "No, Morgan. He doesn't know I'm Neith, and if you make me contact him for you it's going to blow everything. You were the one who convinced me to give us another shot, you can't ask me to tank my whole relationship so you can ask him to team up on a prison break." Her voice was hot and angry, but I could see from her aura there was far more fear in her than rage. The worst part was I could also see she would do it if I really asked, she knew how important this could be.

Luckily it wasn't necessary. I just shook my head. "No need. I was asking if you were in touch because we can use the map and your recent contact with him to track him down. I'll approach him in person along with Jim and Reggie, and you and Zee can stay behind." They looked outraged but I held my hands up placatingly. "I know. But Zee, the boy wonder is crushing on you hard and I don't need him fucking up and being an idiot to impress you or somehow prove I'm unworthy or whatever. This needs to be clean." I turned to my best friend. "Artemis, you won't be able to operate properly worrying so much about getting discovered. You two will be here, acting as overwatch."

I pulled up the island interface and dropped two hundred and fifty points on something I'd been eyeing for a while. Psychokinetic Sending Stones. Allows long range telepathic messages delivered between stones via mental sending. 50 points per stone. Immune to most methods of detection. The stones were pricey. Since they could only contact each other their usefulness was fairly limited, but the functionality when combined with the map was incredible, but my major reason for buying them was that last bit. A mostly uncrackable communication method that worked over long range was invaluable.

Unlike with my power, the island didn't bother with theatrics like a door. A small box of polished wood just materialized on the table in front of me. At the questioning looks I shared the prompt with my team, Blood, and Madame Xanadu who all seemed sufficiently impressed. I reached down to open up the box. The lid wasn't latched or anything and it opened smoothly, revealing a bed of red velvet with five small black spheres sitting in depressions in the cushion. Along with the purchase I'd gotten a bit of info on using them, so I picked one up and popped it into an ear. I turned to my team. "They're easy to put in, just slip it into your ear don't worry about getting them back out they can be summoned to the box."

The others grabbed them and slipped them in while I explained the function. "I picked these for a few reasons, they're basically walkie talkies. Aside from being nearly undetectable and almost impossible to jam or intercept, they're also sending stones. Since they aren't an active mental connection but rather a skill that can be engaged with focus and effort we won't be picking up background noise or accidentally hearing each others deepest secrets. You have to have intent to send with the stones. The psychokinetic part I can't tell you anything about sadly, my best guess is that it uses psychokinetic motion to mimic sound waves over some kind of psychic field."

This last bit was mostly for Zee, who loved things like that and was already gleefully stuffing hers in her ear. She then sent me a series of rather graphic images of things we'd done in bed together and I blinked. I amended my earlier statement. "Or maybe not, since apparently these sending stones can send images too. Regardless it works somehow, and that's a huge win for us. Hell the images thing will be invaluable, on the job. Now with this and the girls on overwatch with the map we should have a solid chance to pull this off right Jim?"

My mentor nodded. "Quite right, my boy." He leaned over the table, pulling up the map and zooming in. "This map alone is an exceptional resource, it seems to be perfectly accurate, and I suspect some of these tunnels and entrances aren't listed on any modern maps or even known by the current occupants. A proper set of blueprints is one of the most dangerous and effective tools a thief can have." He zoomed closer still, pulling up a nearby island. At seeing my surprise he chuckled. "Yes, Blackgate is fairly close by. Not within range of the defenses obviously but within forty miles or so." He began to slowly shift the map over every inch of the island, studying it closely as he went.

I turned to Artemis and gestured for her phone, which she handed me without complaint. I closed my eyes and envisioned a connection between the map and the data on the phone, and then I cheated. I dumped nearly sixty points into my demonic magic, forcibly creating the connection with my imagination based spell. The energy needed was shockingly large for such an insignificant spell and I fell backwards into a chair behind me with a gasp before weakly handing Artemis her phone back.

My friend and girlfriend looked concerned but I waved them off. "It's fine. Just a little low on power. While Jim plans our entry I'm going to get the justice bros on board." I checked my points, wincing at only have forty or so left. "Tomorrow. Aside from being late I also don't want to put myself in a position where I have to fight them without points. I mean, I could fucking butcher the whole lot of them, but that's sort of the point. I'd pretty much have to kill them and I really don't want to." We had enough problems without becoming the League's public enemy number one because I decapitated Batman's bouncing baby brat.

Artemis chuckled at my obvious overestimation of my own abilities. "Sounds good. Just...don't overdo it ok Morgan? I know it's tempting to think of this as a sprint, but I have a feeling we're going to be in here a while. If you grind yourself down to nothing in the first few days or weeks we'll be pretty screwed. I think our major goal should be to help Talia get Poison Ivy and then hole up here for a while to upgrade the base. We can set up our own food production here right? I mean nothing large scale from what you said, but even a way to feed just us would be useful."

I smiled at that, and, thanking her, switched over to the base building interface. She was right. Poison Ivy could feed everyone in the bubble or close to it, but we didn't need to depend on her. The restaurants on the island could be bought and upgraded with points, so our families could eat whatever we needed. This would also be a good way to pull in fringe elements we wanted to recruit. Given a few weeks and offering a guy a ribeye would be more impressive than giving him a chest full of gold. I brought up the amenities tab and started to browse with a smile. We had a way to move forward.

Gotham City November 7th 2010 6:00 PM EDT

Triangulating Wally through the map was helpful, but it wasn't exactly the instant solution I expected. Once I actually showed up to follow him I realized he wasn't really always with his team. Since I was planning to enlist all of them to help (team work makes the dream work, and also I wouldn't have to risk my own crew) I ended up having to follow him around for a while. This was extremely annoying, because Wally was a speedster and zipped every fucking where for no reason so I had to keep using the sending stone to verify his position with the girls via the map.

On the upside, my sneaky ninja ass was undetectable so it wasn't like he was actually trying to get away, and I was able to follow him without detection all day, despite having to use the map to catch up more than a few times. I also had Artemis make sure not to call Wally while I followed him, that way when I stumbled on the justice bros they wouldn't be able to connect him speaking to her with my appearance in any way. Granted it was pretty unlikely she would have decided to call right before they noticed or ran in to me, but better safe than sorry.

Finally though, I managed to follow him back to a warehouse where he and the other justice bros were holed up. With my aura sight I could see them all sitting around planning. Robin, Aqualad, Superboy, Red Arrow, Miss Martian, and Wally being the last to arrive. I couldn't hear them from where I was, so I slipped crept in as close as I could then slipped into shadow form and flowed under the door. Theoretically I didn't think Miss Martian could read my mind in this state, since I was pretty sure my brain was in another dimension right now, but if she noticed me I could just pretend I'd been here the whole time to throw them off or teleport out.

Luckily as I got within hearing range I saw no reaction from the martian, and I made a mental note to use my human form shadow state to talk to them instead of manifesting in front of them to make sure it stayed that way. The last thing I needed was her picking up that I knew Wally's identity or who Artemis was. It took a few minutes to get close given the speed of my shadow form when I wasn't overclocking with points, but finally I got within range in time to hear Robin talk. "...and I personally don't want to see what Gotham looks like on a juice cleanse. We need to figure out some way to feed the civilians. Rationing would be best but we can't enforce it without the city devolving into civil war."

Miss Martian spoke up, the christmas colored superheroine sounding upbeat and cheerful even while discussing a potential upcoming famine. "I'm sure some people would be willing to cut back. Why don't we ask for volunteers to donate non perishables to a large stockpile for once the limited shelf life stuff goes bad?" That actually wasn't a bad idea, plus knowing Gotham SOMEBODY had a crazy canned goods fallout shelter under their house somewhere in town, probably more than one person too. Her voice lost some of it's cheer. "I can't think of any other way to help those poor people."

Which seemed like the ideal time to show myself, granted in a limited and pretty much invulnerable form, I wasn't stupid. I shifted to a humanoid form, still keeping to my shadow state, as I said cheerfully. "I can." The justice bros all jumped out of their skins, which was pretty satisfying, and a few of them literally fell over out of surprise. Luckily my shadow form didn't have a face so they couldn't see me laughing at them. They came to their feet in a fury, readying their weapons to attack me, but I held up my hands in supplication. "Whoa, don't shoot. I'm here to help."

Robin scowled at me. "Is that you Random? I recognize that weird modulated voice you're using. If you're here to help why not show yourself properly, this whole shadow ghost thing is pretty suspicious." I saw his hand twitch toward his belt and smirked. This asshole still wanted to arrest me or something. Not that it would do him any good in the bubble but still, I'd keep it in mind in case he tried to pull a fast one after our team up. However, I suspect he'd done enough research on me to know he couldn't touch me like this, so he held himself back.

I shrugged. "Can't be too careful these days bat brat, I'm more worried about your intentions than your feelings." That seemed to annoy him, and I mentally snickered at his tightening jaw before nodding to Miss Martian. "Like I said to her though, I do have a way to help feed the hungry around here. It just so happens my team and I have been worried about the same thing. This is our hometown you know. We have a plan to get massive amounts of renewable foodstuffs incredibly quickly, but we need a little backup to pull it off."

Robin raised an eyebrow. "And what? You're planning to help all the hungry people in the city out of the evilness of your heart? Forgive me if I'm not exactly whelmed by your offer." I cocked my head, confused by his weird phrasing, but he just cleared his throat. My aura sight showed embarrassment and I made a mental note to bring this up again later. He glared at me for a bit. Finally he gestured at me impatiently. "Well? I'm waiting? Just because I don't believe you doesn't mean I can ignore my options, tell me your plan if you think it's so great."

I hadn't really been expecting him to be willing to listen, but then I guess being intangible kind of limited his options. I shrugged. "Fair enough. You need a large amount of food very quickly, healthy food would be best, preferably something you can get more of in a short time." They nodded along as I spoke but I suspected this next part wasn't going to go down quite so smoothly. "Easiest answer for that would be produce. Growing food quickly is a pretty limited skill set though, and the only person I know who has that knack. Specifically I'm talking about-"

Robin's shout cut me off, obviously enraged I would even suggest it. "Poison Ivy? Are you insane? You do know she hates pretty much everyone, right? Especially men. And even if you convinced her to help temporarily, which you wouldn't by the way, she would just turn on you as soon as it was convenient. To top it all off she likes plants more than people, so good luck convincing her to grow a bunch of them for people to eat even if she was willing to help us all survive this mess, which again she wouldn't be. That's not even going into how illegal it would be to break her out of prison."

I rolled my eyes. "First off, we have arrangements with a third party that has ties to her. They've assured us they'll keep her under control." Which sounded way better than 'the shadows said we can trust them, it'll all be fine I'm sure'. Since I didn't want to admit that though I just kept going. "Secondly I think a prison break is a bit less morally dubious than letting tens or hundreds of thousands of innocent people die of starvation. This is a siege in case you missed it, except they're already in here with us. Plus correct me if I'm wrong aren't you guys vigilantes? That's illegal as hell, and even if the League has a charter no way it extends to their teenie bopper sidekicks."

I saw them all tense up at that, and made a mental note to save the S-word for when I wanted to really piss them off. That was a sensitive subject apparently. I held up my hands again. "Alright just back it up. Is this drastic, yes, but it's not like I'm asking you to directly hurt anyone. We need helping getting in and out of Blackgate. That island is apparently the former home of some sort of evil criminal religion, as dumb as that may sound. Our magic is seriously hampered and getting into the place is tough unless we want to blow a hole in the side and let all the others out when we do it. I for one don't want to see the inmates of a super prison unleashed on the populace."

Before any of them could respond though, Aqualad spoke up. "He is right." Even I came up short at that. I had to hand it to the guy, he was one of the most mature, composed people I'd ever met. His aura basically screamed 'Mr. soft owl has seen some shit' but I hadn't expected him to be rational enough to listen properly without me nattering on for an hour to drive the point home. Heroes were bad about that usually, at least from what I'd seen of the League and their mini-me's. He noticed the stares and turned to face me. "The civilians are our first priority. Allowing them to die to salve our own consciences would be that actions of a monster. The safety of the people of Gotham is our first priority."

Robin looked shocked, but then sighed, rubbing his temples. "You're right Aqualad. This isn't about moral superiority. Lives are on the line." He turned to glare at me. "But we will be following her EVERYWHERE she goes while she's out. This isn't a prison break. It's a work release. Just...not one we got permission for or warned anyone about." Even I smirked a bit at that one, and I nodded in confirmation. "You can explain to your mysterious third party that she'll be going back after this is over, in the meantime we need to hear your plan."

I grinned, not that they could see it, and I was minorly jealous of Jim for not having a face if he felt like this all the time, secretly making faces at people when they couldn't see was fun. "Well we had a few ideas for getting in, but they depend on how well you can still utilize your resources. Specifically how much are the cops still functioning, how much do they affect what's happening on Blackgate, and how much influence do you still have on them?" I tried my best to keep the expectation out of my tone, not wanting to give anything away, but I could see on their faces they got what I meant.

Robin looked horrified. "Please tell me your plan isn't to get locked up and stage a prison break from the inside. Aside from being insane it's also literally the first thing they expect from anyone. It's literally their entire job to stop that from happening." He looked like he was about to pull his hair out in frustration. "I thought your mentor was supposed to be the worlds greatest thief? You're supposed to be able to come up with a better plan than any random movie director." He was glancing around for support from his friends who admittedly did look worried.

I waved him off. "Our plan is much more complicated than you could imagine." It wasn't. "We obviously have other contingencies in place for once we reach the island." We didn't. "No way would we be stupid enough to just drop ourselves into a super max prison for capes and expect to slip out with our own abilities." We were. But to be fair I had escape artist skills and a ton of powerful abilities these junior white hats couldn't imagine, and Jim had trump cards even I didn't know about. We would definitely be fine. Maybe. Probably. Fingers crossed.

Blackgate Penitentiary November 10th 2010 8:00 PM EDT

"Alright, off the boat you fucking animals!" The guard's thick New York accent made his disdain even more noticable as he banged his flashlight on the roof of the cramped boat cabin, gesturing at us to get out. The trip to Blackgate has been slow and annoying. According to Robin, who sat across from me not wearing what I knew was a later mask, they were only bringing the worst of the worst here, but he and Batman had been able to pull some strings. Alongside him were Red Arrow, Aqualad, Kid Flash, and Superboy.

Miss Martian had stayed come in on another boat. Robin had arranged for a tracker to be hidden on her and pulled some strings with the guards so she would end up cellmates with Poison Ivy. Our plan was to stage the breakout in the dead of night, using Miss Martian as a locator so we would be able to hit the right cell without having to scour the place. She would also keep us updated on what was happening via telepathy. Well, she would keep them updated, her telepathy didn't work on Jim or I for some mysterious reason.

The reason was of course, that I had arranged for it not to. The five hundred points for a mind blank serum that gave me mental immunity was pricey but well worth it. It was the most expensive of my preparations by far and had to be purchased by email because powers and skills couldn't be bought through the base interface. Item's however, could and I's also picked us both up a small spatial ring for a hundred points each, and grabbed myself a mask that changed my face to look like someone else, since I wouldn't be able to get on the island in costume.

Jim was fine using his own visage since he'd been dead for over a century, but he kept all his things in the ring, which only the wearer could remove. I'd also put plenty of odds and ends into the ring, including some pretty serious explosives Reggie had made me, and I was wearing a set of Tier One soft armor that would stop bullets up to about ninety caliber. With this in mind everything was in place as the guard practically shoved all of us off the boat after we arrived. I stumbled but caught my footing on the wet stone of the shore as we stared up at the island, and even I had to admit I was impressed.

Jim stepped up next to me. "Dreadful place, isn't it?" I had to agree. If Doomhollow Hall was a work of dark beauty, this place was a masterclass in despair. Everything about it was designed to make you unhappy or distressed. The angles of construction were jarring and uneven, the materials were coarse and brutal looking, the ground was uneven, and even the guards looked somehow unbalanced at a glance, like they were unwell from just being here and they wanted to take it out on us. I closed my eyes for a second, ostensibly to steel myself but really to check my points.

I was sitting at a measly eight hundred right now. In the four days since I'd nearly emptied myself out getting the sending stones I'd gotten sixteen hundred points, but after dumping five hundred into the mental protection and another three hundred into my various preparation items through the base, including the space rings, I was back below a thousand. With my Outer Body training I could do a ton of damage with that, but it had still been a struggle not to stockpile the points to use in case of a big fight since I couldn't teleport here.

In the end though, I decided being prepared would help me AVOID having to blow a damn hole in the wall and fight my way out instead of hoarding my power and basically guaranteeing it. A sharp jab hit me in the back, knowing me to my knees and forcing my eyes open. The guard's gruff voice came from behind me again. "Get moving scum, this ain't a beach trip. I don't want to be standing our here in the cold all damn night." I scowled, but with my enhanced stats I was fine and I stumbled to me feet, pushed onward before I could even brush off my knees as they escorted us to our cells.

They put us all together, having somehow gotten us a block of cells to share, I assumed through Robin's connections because unfortunately, I ended up sharing a cell with him. The guards dumped us there and slammed the door, leaving us to our own devices as they headed off to do whatever it was they did when they weren't tormenting anyone who was put in here. The second they were gone I whirled on Robin with a glare. "This wasn't the fucking plan." I hissed, trying to keep my voice low enough the guards wouldn't come back. "I was supposed to be in a cell with Jim."

Robin glared back, and I noted how good his mask was, because the scowl or disdain showed perfectly on his completely false features. "Well I changed the plan. I don't trust you, and I'm not leaving you and your boss alone in a cell to plot how you can screw us over. You're stuck with me for this trip, so get used to it." I kept up my glare, but honestly I didn't really blame him. He wasn't wrong objectively, if we'd found a way to screw him and leave without making the League our enemies we would totally have done that, but I didn't think there was a way to do it in the first place so this was a completely unnecessary precaution.

I sneered at him through my even more perfect disguise, but in the end I flopped down on the cot on my side of the room with a snarl and closed my eyes again, activating my sending stone. "Hey baby you hearing me?" My telepathic message was transmitted...somehow, I still really didn't get how the thing worked, but it was a closed system that was almost impossible to disrupt in theory, so we were pretty sure the wards on the island would neither stop nor detect it. Of course it was also possible I'd just exposed our situation and we were all about to die, but you know, fingers crossed. Besides we were tough enough to fight our way out if needed.

Zee's dulcet tones filled my head. "Ten four honey bunny. We're on the open network right now, so Artemis, Reggie, and Jim are all listening in." I somehow got the impression of a wink. "We can do some more...private messaging later. What's going on by the way, the map shows you and Jim got split up? Everything ok?" She sounded concerned by not overly worried considering who she was talking to. It warmed my heart to know she believed in me like that. Her offer of private time later would actually be a great stress reliever so I put a mental pin in it to come back to.

I knew my own sending was tinged with annoyance as I responded. "The boy blunder was wary of a double cross and arranged for us to share a cell. It's annoying but nothing that will ruin things. How are things on your end?" I got a flash of an image as she sent me a live update of the map. It was zoomed in on Blackgate and I had to admit there was a LOT of red dots there. I spotted the two green dots indicating Jim and I, surrounded by purple where the team was and a blue dot showing Wally where the map was still tracking him. Way off to one side I saw Miss Martian.

She was in a small room next to another red dot so I was pretty sure she was in position. I turned to Robin. "Miss Martian is in place. We follow the plan." Robin nodded and then rolled over to sleep. I rolled back to stare up at the ceiling. We'd decided as a group that since intake had been changed to once a month based on the danger of dropping people off, all the guards would be on alert on intake day. We would all sleep here, then get through tomorrow in the yard and stage the breakout tomorrow.

Of course, this benefited me more than the others because it would give me an extra four hundred points to play with, or even six hundred if we pushed the actual breakout to after midnight. I was actually hopeful I wouldn't need to use them. My main priority was upgrading my base. Food was getting scarce and while springing Ivy would help ameliorate that situation it wouldn't make the food taste good. In contrast, if I picked up one of the restaurants I would have access to delicious food every day, and so would my loved ones.

I winced, thinking of my mom. I wished she could get out of here, sadly when I'd asked Gojo about it I hadn't gotten the answer I had hoped for. The super powerful being that my mother was dating had been pretty up front about not being able to help. His response when I questioned him had not been inspiring. "It's not that I can't break that force field, it's more than if I do it'll tear this whole town apart. It's tied together with the curse energy in this place. I use curse energy myself, which is why I find it so comfy here, but due to the way my powers work the curse energy tied to a place is important to the effect."

He'd shrugged. "My power interacts with the world in a specific way. Long story short, breaking this barrier would break the curse, which would break the city. Every single thing in Gotham has been soaking in cursed energy for decades now, you could say that technically this city is one big curse at this point, and breaking it could destroy the whole place. Plus, I'm kind of scared if the cursed energy here interacts with my power on a large scale it might manifest as a cursed spirit. I've never seen a place with this much cursed energy baked into it before and to be honest even I'm slightly worried what might be born from that. I mean, I could still kill it I'm sure, but it might do some serious damage while I was finishing it off."

The concept of the horrifying curse on Gotham becoming a self aware physical entity was terrifying enough that I fully supported Gojo not getting involved. It also kind of explained why he avoided and big displays of power, even more so than his self professed survivalist philosophy. Still, it meant we needed to find that damn anchor to undo this thing. With Zatara and Kent in here, there were no real heavyweight sorcerers in the League, and I wasn't confident they could motivate on of the big magic villains, especially with Circe being the one behind this. Pissing off the gods was a good way to get your whole year ruined and everyone knew it. This was probably going to need to be an inside job.

Shaking off that though I closed my eyes, for real this time, ready to go to bed. I'd gotten weirdly used to the burning red numbers behind my eyelids, and something about the sight seemed to soothe me, making it easier to get to bed. As I drifted off. I sent Zee a message about being tired and promised to test out the sending stones and their erotic possibilities later. We said I love you, something we did every night now with the stones, one of the best parts of having them, and then I drifted off to sleep. After all, I had a big day tomorrow. I had to rescue a supervillain.

Blackgate Penitentiary November 11th 2010 12:00 PM EDT

I'd expected the actual breakout to be the most stressful point in the prison break, but I'd been wrong. I'd underestimate Blackgate, or rather prison in general. More specifically I'd underestimated that most hallowed of prison experiences, yard time. The absolute discomfort of being trapped in a small courtyard with dozens of incredibly tense and pissed off criminals, some of whom had super powers even I would be wary of, was not to be discounted. If it wasn't for the dampener collars they had on the inmates (collars which didn't work on me because of the source of my powers and which I'd disabled on my teammates) I'd probably have noped out of there within minutes.

We were, of course, targeted pretty quickly by nearby criminals. Specifically a pair of incredibly large men, who got right up in our personal space. Since we didn't want to draw attention we naturally tried to deescalate things. I help up my hands as the closest man, a blonde with a tattoo across his bare chest reading "Some Body" loomed over me, and the other, a massive bald man, towered over Robin. "Whoa there guys. We don't want any trouble. We're just here to serve our time and be on our way." I tried to inject a bit of nervousness and pleading into my tone. I could bench press these idiots, but they didn't need to know that.

Baldie grinned down at the boy wonder, addressing me without taking his eyes off my ally. "Maybe you don't get to decide when you get trouble. When Czonk wants to hassle you, all you can do is get hassled boy. Isn't that right Faceless?" He bared his yellowed, crooked teeth at the sidekick, clearly trying to come off as creepy and intimidating, and succeeding, though mostly because his grin was coming across as more of a leer and it kind of looked like he wanted to make Robin his bitch. Though given we were in prison, that actually might have been the vibe he was going for, who knew.

Before we could respond though, another voice cut in. "No Titus." The voice was calm and measured, confident and absolutely certain of it's control, and baldy looked off to one side, his eyes widening with fear. A handsome guy with a blonde ponytail and a chin full of rugged stubble stood off to one side, cold, intelligent eyes fixed on the bald man. "They're too young. You know I don't allow harming children." The bald man, Titus apparently, which made sense because Czonk wasn't actually a name, just nodded, face pale, and stepped back from Robin, eyes on the ground.

Faceless, as Titus had called him, stepped back at the same time, as ponytail strode forward to offer us a smile. It was surprisingly warm. "Sorry about that. Things can be tough around here, but I try to watch out for kids. Got one of my own actually, though I don't go into details, isn't safe in a place like this." He offered a hand. "Arthur. Or Cluemaster, if that's your preference. Both names hold equal value to me." He gestured over to a set of nearby bleachers. "Come sit down, no one will bother you when you're with us. Honestly your little clique might have been enough on its own if you weren't so young."

I turned to see that the others had come up behind us, Superboy was glaring at Titus, clearly more than willing to throw down if need be. Useful guy, that one. Still, since there wouldn't be a fight we decided to head over to sit down on the bleachers to talk. I smiled at Arthur. "Thanks, as you can tell we're a bit new. This place is kind of intimidating." It was, though we could have crushed everyone here given they were power dampened and we weren't. Still it would have drawn loads of attention which would have spoiled the job. Jim oddly, was nowhere to be seen, but knowing him he was probably off scouting so I put it out of my head, there was nothing here I couldn't handle and he knew it.

I looked around, taking in all the criminals and powerhouses. "So. Since you're down to play tour guide, can you give me the four one one on who the big dogs are around here?" I wanted to know who the hell to stay away from during my time in this place. A few more guys had gathered around us once we made it up onto the bleachers but not a huge amount, I got the impression Arthur's boys were something of a mid to small sized crew in here. Enough to keep the carrion feeders off us but not enough to piss off the big boys, which I personally thought was perfect. The last thing we needed was to get sucked into a prison gang war. I'd had quite enough of those on the outside.

Arthur chuckled. "Ah, of course, I imagine not knowing what's going on must be unsettling. It isn't too complicated, there are hundreds of inmates, but the two main factions here consist of two leaders at least on the men's side, one recent and one established." He gestured over to the side of the yard. "For the old guard we have Emperor Blackgate. He's been around for years. His powers are...complicated, but basically he has a cocktail of super drugs in him that make his skin incredibly tough and make him super strong and fast. Since its physiological the dampener doesn't really shut it down completely, meaning he's stronger than most in here."

He nodded off to a corner. "Over there is the new blood. Bane just got here before the lockdown, only a month or two. He's a genius and a ruthless bastard, as well as being strong as an ox. Almost everyone who doesn't work for Blackgate works for Bane now. It was looking like a turf war for a while there, but the lockdown has the guards on edge, so no one is willing to start anything right now. Honestly you got here at a pretty stable time." I stared at the two people he'd indicated, each of them surrounded by groups of men with unusually strong auras.

Bane was, as literally everyone know, huge. Absolutely jacked and wearing a luchador mask. I'd heard he needed his venom to stay functional but I didn't see his rig, so I could only suspect they were rationing it to him somehow. Despite the physical presence though, what really stood out from his aura was the towering intellect. People talk about Bane like he was some kind of thug, but from what I was seeing the man was a literal genius in every sense. Arthur himself was clearly brilliant, with a keen mind that made him a true danger to anyone who underestimated the man, but Bane made him look like an idiot.

Blackgate on the other hand was not nearly as intelligent, not as vital physically, but what the grey skinned man missed out on in brains he made up for in ruthlessness. Bane was willing to go the distance to get things done, but he had at least some code. There was a moral framework. Blackgate had none of that. The man had the soul of a jackal and the morals of a pit viper. Most criminals could be ruthless to get ahead, but Blackgate LIKED betraying people. Your average thief would stick a knife in your back to snatch a score, but this guy would stab you in the back so he would have somewhere to hang his coat.

I could easily see why men like this would be in charge of this place. They both had their own assets in terms of leadership. Bane was an inspiring figure how empowered his men with confidence just by taking the field. He was the general who led from the front, the force multiplier that made his people feel safer for having him. Blackgate meanwhile was everything tyrannical about the word Emperor. He was an iron fisted brute who terrified his people into obedience and submission by tormenting those who went against him.

Arthur saw me looking and shook his head. "Avoid those two if you have the choice kid. They absolutely aren't people you want to mess with." As I averted my eyes he nodded and went back to explaining. "As for the women's side, that's a bit more confusing, but pretty much all the different forces answer to a single person. Sofia Falcone. Old Carmine's little girl, though she isn't so little. They call her Gigante, and in a place where powers are suppressed she's Queen bitch. Huge, terrifying, and dangerous, even Blackgate doesn't fuck with her. She protects the women from Blackgate and some of his more...despicable lieutenants, and in return they follow her lead."

The blood drained from my face. Shit. I forgot I had an aunt in here. My dad's older sister was considered hardcore even by Falcone standards. I sincerely hoped we didn't run into her here. I wasn't sure what her relationship with the old man was like, but I'd had about enough of my extended family. Between one Uncle being a serial killer, another being an undead assassin, and a cousin who had become the new Queen of a hell dimension, both sides of my family put the dis in disfunctional, and I could do without adding to the roster. I was about to ask about some of her lieutenants so I could steer clear when I felt the ground shake, nearly throwing me from my seat.

An explosion rocked the air and I slipped to the ground, rolling under the bleachers to try to keep myself from getting crushed by whatever was hitting the ground. The yard was a riot of bellows and curses, but no screams of fear, say what you wanted about the prisoners here, they weren't the whimpering type. I looked around, trying to see what the hell was going on. There was smoke and dust everywhere and when I was finally able to focus on something it wasn't exactly good news. About twenty feet away was a crater with a big flaming rock in it.

That would have been much more confusing to see if I didn't see another three of them arcing down at us. From the angle it looked like they had been hurled, and I pretty much immediately got what was happening. Trebuchets. The fucking Amazons were here. I turned to Robin, whose eyes were wide with alarm, cursing myself for an idiot. "FUCK! Rob, the other half of this place is a womens prison. Half the female inmates are powerful metas. If those nutcases bust this place open a good chunk of them will join up, and even the ones who don't will flood the city and make this mess a hundred times worse!"

Robin's eyes were wide with terror. "You're missing the worst part! Why would they stop at Blackgate? If they're springing powerful metas this is only half of the captive supply. We need to stop this and get in touch with someone on the mainland, they're going to go after Arkham next if they haven't already. Busting out the criminals here is one thing, at least they're all sane. Arkham is full of monsters! If they let the inmates loose they'll burn the whole city to the ground." His voice was full of genuine fear at the idea, and I didn't blame him.

Another crash rocked the ground around us, but before a third wave could be incoming there was a loud noise. A massive pulse of energy shot up from the main prison compound splintering into a massive stream of arcs that joined together to form a shimmering dome over the island. As I stared in astonishment as that massive shield Blackgate's warden must have erected though, something out of the corner of my eye made my blood freeze. I followed the movement and spotted a number of huge holes in the wall, some leading to another ward and some having blown open some of the cell blocks. And so began the largest riot in Blackgate prison history.

Shit has officially hit the fan, next chapter we see the fallout and our boy mixes it up with some of Gotham's worst and darkest to mixed results. pat-reon has the advance chapters at that site /malcolmtent so let me know what you think and I hope you enjoy.