"Mommy!' Arsenio called out as Bruce brought him into the kitchen.
"Hi, my sweet boy," Adriana said and stopped the food processor which was full of carrot pulp.
"Afee!" he called to Alfred who was putting a few groceries into the refrigerator.
Alfred smiled at Arsenio. "You certainly love to greet others."
"I'm sure that's his favorite thing to do," Bruce said.
"Well," Adriana said. "My baby is definitely not shy."
"Not in the least," Alfred left.
"So did you have fun?" Adriana asked and looked at Bruce and Arsenio.
"Ya maysnaay!" Arsenio said. "Dak maysnaay!"
"Made a snake," Bruce said. "Looked like it was made of newspaper. Very impressive."
"Looked like?" Adriana asked. "You didn't see them making it?"
"I had to run an errand," Bruce said.
Adriana and Alfred both looked at Bruce in complete surprise.
"So...just a playdate for Jack and Arsenio?" Adriana clarified.
"Yes," Bruce answered.
Adriana smiled and walked over to give Bruce a kiss. She felt Arsenio's hand on her shoulder.
"Of course my baby gets a kiss too," Adriana said and kissed Arsenio on the dimple in his cheek.
"What are you making?" Bruce asked and looked at what looked like a miniature cupcake tray.
"Mini carrot cakes," Adriana said. "It's for my little one. I found a recipe online for carrot cakes for babies."
"Sounds yummy right?" Bruce asked Arsenio and he nodded, although he had never tried carrot cake.
"Your lunch is ready," Alfred told Arsenio. "Chicken and sweet potatoes."
"That sounds yummy too," Bruce said and Arsenio nodded again.
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"That truck is full of cartons of powdered milk," Bruce explained to Arsenio.
After lunch they sat in Bruce's office on his couch. Bruce held Arsenio on his lap and explained the food efforts being made in Madagascar. It had been a while since Arsenio had accidentally seen a news report about famine and both Bruce and Adriana knew that it has upset him. Bruce had spent millions on aid for the country and he was happy to do it.
"Plenty of cases of water," Bruce said as they looked at the pictures on his tablet.
"Tayoo Daddy," Arsenio said and leaned against Bruce's chest.
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"You smell lovely," the man behind Shade whispered into her ear she he held a metal bar over her throat.
He was standing behind her and they were fighting. She felt the bar's pressure on her windpipe. She felt his nose touch her ear and felt herself recoil in disgust but knew that this was her opportunity while he was distracted. She stayed still for a second, letting him believe he was in control, and when he least expected it, she hit him hard in the gut. In a split second she had him down on his back on the ground and the bar pressed over his neck.
"You don't," she said and hit him hard across the face.
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"That doesn't look good," Bruce said and looked at the bruising on the front of Adriana's neck.
"I estimate," Adriana said. "It will be gone in three days."
Bruce touched her collarbone.
"It's infuriating," Bruce told her.
"Like the one you have on your shoulder from last week," Adriana said.
Bruce was still practicing vigilantism but only in circumstances that he knew would provide opportunity for him to conceal himself.
"It's different when it's me," Bruce said. "Your skin is beautiful and I hate to see it bruised."
"Yours is beautiful too," Adriana said.
"Not like yours," Bruce told her.
Adriana sighed and gave Bruce a kiss.
"So..tell me about earlier," Adriana said. "When you took Arsenio to Jack's place."
"I wasn't there long," Bruce said. "I..realized that in order for this to work I need to trust him. So...I did leave."
"And..how was that?" Adriana asked.
"Difficult in a way that I didn't know was possible," Bruce told her. "Felt like I was leaving my heart and soul in his hands."
"But you did," Adriana said. "And I'm...proud of you."
Bruce looked at her neck again.
"It's fine I promise," she told him and rubbed night cream onto her face. "Ugh this stuff is so sticky and uncomfortable."
"Then why continue using it?" Bruce asked.
"Harri sent it to me," Adriana said. "She said I have to use it to prevent aging and its supposed to be the best thing ever for that...nevermind that it feels like molasses."
Bruce laughed. "You don't need to use that. Neither does Harri."
"Yeah..well...she's on a skincare kick," Adriana said tapping her sticky skin with the tips of her fingers. "And apparently I have to be on it with her."
"Like her scrapbooking kick? And her antioxidant vitamin kick?" Bruce laughed.
"Oh yes.." Adriana said. "Never mention curcumin or green tea to me ever again."
"Still..." Bruce smiled. "Must be lovely to have a sibling."
Adriana smiled at him and nodded and then gave him a kiss.
"You are sticky," Bruce said, feeling his lips adhere to hers for a second. He saw a strand of hair sticking to her forehead and lifted it away.
"I'm going to wash this off," Adriana said.
"Good idea," Bruce laughed.
Adriana rested her head on Bruce's chest as they lay in bed a few minutes later. She listened to his heartbeat and closed her eyes.
"I still can't believe you're helping him," Adriana said about the Joker.
"Neither can I," Bruce said. "Lucius told me he contacted him this evening. Delivered and set up the computers and his place."
"Already?" Adriana asked.
"Yes," Bruce said. "We'll get started tomorrow evening. Soon we start, sooner we will finish."
"Mmm," Adriana said and then looked up at Bruce. "Have you ever noticed..Wayne Manor kind of smells like potpourri? But we never use that stuff."
"Hm...could be some of the types of wood used in the remodeling," Bruce said. "Should fade soon."
"I don't mind it," Adriana said. "It's fragrant."
"Neither do I," Bruce said.
"Hmm.." Adriana hummed. "Hablando de madera.." Speaking of wood...
Bruce laughed. "Doesn't take much for you does it?"
"Well...some sexy words with a sexy voice would do it," she laughed and kissed his lips.
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The Joker stood in front of a bare wall in his apartment and Bruce took his photo with a digital camera.
"Got it," Bruce said. "Turn to the left and right."
Adriana sat in a chair and watched Bruce take the photos. When he was done he took a video clip and told the Joker which ways to turn his head and had him turn his body from left to right. He looked dup and down. Once Bruce had video and photos of all angles he went over to one of the computers that had been set up at the Joker's dining room table.
Adriana and the Joker went in behind him.
"Have a seat," Bruce told them.
Adriana and the Joker sat in front of each of the two remaining computers next to each other.
"What we're here to do is to alter any and all video footage of you during your time as the Joker," Bruce said. "Most of the work will be done automatically by the computer. We will be responsible for discreet hacking and replacement of all photos and video footage with altered versions."
"Exactly how is the footage being altered?" the Joker asked Bruce.
"The computers have been programmed to change your face very slightly in the videos and pictures. All of them will be changed in the same way. A slight narrowing of the nose and jaw and widening of the forehead I believe," Bruce answered. "All footage being held and facial recognition database imagery will also be changed to match this new image."
The Joker understood.
"The main places we will need to focus on first will be the Interpol, FBI, CIA and Gotham Police databases," Bruce said. "After that we can focus on media, news and reporting, other various surveillance footage, social media et cetera."
"Wow," Adriana sighed. "It sounds like this will take a while."
"It will," Bruce said. "Especially with the surveillance footage. We will essentially have to track your every move and every camera that may have picked up something. Much of this, again, will be automated."
"This is rather impressive," the Joker said.
"It is," Bruce said. "Our work here will be relatively repetitive and at times tedious, but it will be more time consuming than difficult."
Adriana and the Joker both understood.
"Once we finish with our main targets...CIA...FBI and others," Bruce said. "There is some field work that must be done as well."
"Like what?" Adriana asked.
"We will need to confiscate all physical evidence they have," Bruce said. "Fortunately essentially all of the relevant materials are in Gotham. The lab work for DNA...fingerprints...anything the police confiscated from you...any physical evidence...we will need to take it all and have it destroyed."
"So...we'll be breaking in," Adriana said.
"Yes," Bruce said. "I have blueprints for each location. Some should be straightforward if we go after hours...others will require using ventilation systems to move through and get what we need."
"Wow," Adriana said. It was a lot.
Bruce could see it in the Joker's eyes that he had not realized what an enormous task was ahead of them. He was thankful for their work and assitance.
"Let's get started," Bruce said and walked over behind them. "It will be pretty simple but if you have any questions you can ask me, of course."
Bruce opened a program on the computer for Adriana while standing behind her and taking control of the mouse. The Joker followed on his computer and opened the same program.
"Lucius did an amazing job with this program," Bruce explained. "Each phase is separate. We'll start with the Gotham police department. You see a list of dates of incidences and a brief description-"
"We're already in?" the Joker asked. What he was looking at appeared to be confidential filed held by the Gotham police.
"It was the easiest to hack," Bruce said. "The CIA and FBI won't be so easy. We won't get to those until another week or so. We have to be very careful to not raise any alarm, which is why it will take so much time. This is delicate. Any red flags noticed by any of these organizations and this whole thing falls apart."
"Understood," the Joker said.
"As I was saying," Bruce said. "There's a list of dates for things that happened and a brief description. All you'll need to do is use the address listed and then click here for the map...then click here and the program will automatically scan devices in the area for matches with the pictures and video I just took. There will be a lot of pop ups but they should close after the program automatically changes them. If one of them turns yellow it means some manual change will be necessary. Could be footage from a weird angle or pixelated images or the like. I'll show you how to manipulate it manually, it's simple. It shouldn't come up too much but those are the main things we will look out for."
"Got it..." Adriana said.
"So, let's get started," Bruce said and clicked on the first file.
There was a sloppily written police report. The Joker looked at the writing. He remembered the robbery. It was so long ago.
"The only thing that's really important on these is the address," Bruce said. "It should automatically take you to the map. Okay...see these boxes..those are the matches. Then click here. Now it's scanning and automatically changing the images. There are no issues with this one."
"That was really quick," Adriana said.
The Joker looked at the image on the screen. His painted face. It felt like he was looking at a different person. He watched the bridge of his nose become smaller and then saw the scanning program confirm the face was no longer a match.
"It was quick," Bruce said. "But you'll need to expand the map at least a couple times until all the matches disappear. There will be less and less as we go along since there will be overlapping areas. We could scan all devices from top to bottom in the city...all files...but that would take months and much of the time would be spent on irrelevant files ..say..snapshots on cell phones or downloaded images on computers that would never play a part in law enforcement or facial recognition. This will be dull but it will help us to cut our time by at least 3 months."
Adriana looked at the computer as it changed other frames in the video on the screen at the speed of light.