The Audience watch Bat-Qrow interact with Klein.

Cast

Bruce Wayne/Batman: Qrow Branwen

Alfred Pennyworth: Klein Sieben

Anatoli Knyazev: Tock

Cesar: Shay D. Mann

"Now then," the Host declared. "We're going to see Bat-Qrow in his base of operations and interact with his butler."

The Batman theme continued as the Audience watch Qrow Branwen descend on an elevator platform with his arms in front of him. He let out a sigh as he walks off the platform. The last couple of nights have given him nothing but one name for his investigation. He walked through his base of operations dubbed as the Bat Cave. It was not the original Bat Cave, but a new one made since he moved out of the old Branwen Manor. It was all platforms suspended in the air, filled with technology and equipment made by him, his sister and their allies.

Those interested in technology and equipment looked at the screen with intrigued expressions. Penny was using her eyes to take pictures.

Hearing sounds of tools at work as he rounded a corner, Qrow saw one of his friends working at a desktop. His butler and father figure, Klein Sieben. "Still working?" he asked before taking a jab to the older man. "You're getting slow in your old age, Klein."

"Age comes to us all, Master Branwen." Klein shot back, not looking up for a moment. "Even you got too old to die young. And not from the lack of trying." he gloomed.

This instantly drew chuckles or snickers from most of the Audience. Though Weiss, Whitley and Winter playfully frowned at Qrow for calling Klein slow.

Qrow, though, held a contemplative look as he replayed the words. Even you got too old to die young. And not from the lack of trying. He thought about how he had been asked of the life expanse of a Huntsman or Huntress. He nodded to himself. He was almost forty and most Huntsmen lived to be thirty. Sometimes more, sometimes less depending on the environment they were in. I suppose I did get too old to die young, he thought to himself.

The Batsuit had gone through many upgrades and designs over the years since Qrow started his mission. One of the latest additions was the voice modifier. It digitally altered Qrow's voice so no person or program could identify it. The night Qrow interrogated the sex trafficker, Qrow noticed that it was faulty and Klein had been working on it since. The butler held the microphone to his throat and spoke. "Funnel Fairy Butter Bar. Funnel Fairy Butter Bar. Funnel Fairy Butter Bar." Qrow looked to the older man with a raised eyebrow but chose not to say anything. He pulled it away. "There's nothing wrong with the microphone." He said and looked down at the cowl.

"It's this new layer of armor." He said and that meant more work. "I'll just have to rewire." he muttered.

"Do other Batman variants use a voice changer?" Whitley asked.

"Not really," Darth Anarchus replied. "Most variants speak deeper when in their Bat persona."

"I see," Whitley nodded.

"That must take a toll on their vocal chords," Glynda muttered.

"Not all the time." the Host explained.

Klein then picked up a tray holding a glass of orange juice and a boiled egg. That was the normal amount Qrow would eat these days. Though there were times Qrow wouldn't eat at all as he worked. He walked over to Qrow as the man sat at the computer. "So, last night was productive?" he asked.

"No. He was too low level. He knew nothing." Qrow replied as he pulled up some files on the screen of the Bat Computer. "This is a woman who knows things." he stated and the Audience saw that it was the Crocodile Faunus from the desert. Her face was shown as was some tattoos of the Virgin Mary.

"Tock Knyazev. Mistralian. Contacts all over the globe but is based out in the Port of Mantle. Weapons, humans and Faunus trafficking." Qrow read and frowned at the end. He did not like that there was someone like Tock in his city and began making plans to put her in the hospital after he got the information he needed.

Most of the adults frowned when they heard Tock's 'profession' as a criminal/mercenary.

"So the White Portuguese is a Mistralian, that's the theory?" Klein asked as he set the tray down.

"White Portuguese?" some of the Audience repeated in confusion.

"It will be revealed later on." Darth Anarchus said. "But it is important."

"No. The theory is that the Mistralian will lead me to the man himself." Qrow shook his head to Klein.

"If it is indeed a him." the butler pointed out the possibility that it could be a woman. The duo had encountered dangerous women over the years. From a simple cat thief to a green skinned eco-terrorist. "You don't if he exists, could be a phantasm."

"One that wants to bring a dirty bomb to Mantle?" Qrow replied, telling the butler that he wasn't chasing ghosts.

"Is the green skinned eco-terrorist Cinder Al Ghul?" Raven asked, remembering the name Bat-Qrow had said during the intermission. The Host shook his head. "Cinder is more of 'Dangerous Assassin Ex-Girlfriend' and 'daughter of Immortal Warlord."

"Wait, what?" many of them exclaimed in confusion and surprise.

Both Cinder and Qrow glanced to one another and scooted away despite they were already fifteen feet away from one another.

"Eco-terrorist with green skin' is named Poison Ivy." the Host continued. Neo rose an eyebrow as she remembered the last AMV for couples. Somewhere her counterpart told a woman named Ivy to not mess with Whitley. Coincidence? Probably not. Yeah, she mentally drawled it out. Definitely not a coincidence. And she blushed when she thought more of the video.

"Ah, typical high stakes round." Klein said in defeat before deciding now was the time to confront Qrow about something he thought was dire. He picked up a newspaper and threw it at Qrow's side. It was a Mantle Free Press with the title, BAT BRAND OF JUSTICE and a photo of Shay D. Mann and a closeup of the Bat Brand. "New rules?" Klein asked in disappointment. He had seen the Bat do a lot things to criminals that ended them in a hospital but branding was a whole new level of brutality.

Qrow looked down at the newspaper impassively. "We're criminals, Klein." he said, moving the paper aside. "We've always been criminals. Nothing's changed." He looked back to the screen.

"So the Bat Brand is something new?" Raven asked.

"And something unique to this variant," Darth Anarchus explained. "It's part of his arc for this viewing."

It was then that the Audience remembered what Bat-Qrow had said during the Intermission. He was in a dark place. He had no faith in humanity at the moment. Though he should have said something about the branding, some of them thought.

"Oh yes it has, Sir." Klein shook his head. He saw through Qrow's lie. Things have changed and not just Mantle but the Bat himself. And Klein knew what it was from. It was the death of his ward, the death of his sister, the death of his niece and it was his guilt boiling into rage and Qrow was becoming clouded by it. "Yes it has. Everything's changed." He went to the Bat Computer and began show footage of Superman battling General Hazel in Atlas as well as footage of the destruction caused. "Men fall from the sky. The gods hurl thunderbolts. Innocents die."

Raven and Yang then recalled their own interactions with Bat-Qrow and understood as Klein's counterpart.

"That's how it starts, Sir." Klein turned to Qrow. "The fever. The rage, the feeling of powerlessness. That turns good men. . . cruel." With that said, he walked away, internally hoping that it would help Qrow see reason and that he would not fall into the abyss.

Some felt chills at Klein's words.

Qrow remained silent as he looked back to the screen.

Next time

"People scared of him are people who got reason to be."

"Scared of who?"

"When the mugger or thief stops to think twice, THAT is fear. That is what he is. Because he is the reason criminals breath easier when the sun rises."

"There's a new kind of mean in him. He is angry. And he's hunting."