crossbow_bat:

Terry was impossible to shop for. Maria knew his birthday was approaching and she had no freaking clue what to get him. Then again she wasn't much of a shopper to start with and having a difficult person to shop for made the task all that much harder.

Inspiration struck. She got him a few pairs of boxers that had "Big Boy Boxers" on them. After all, everyone had to have their big boy boxers or big girl panties. She also got him a sweater and dinner at one of Gotham's nicest restaurants for him and his girlfriend.

She left the wrapped items in the Batcave along with a card.

teamterry:

Maxine was working on the DNA test for the blood from the fight scene that Maria had mentioned. It had been a long shot that they were going to find anything testing the DNA for a match but still it had to be done since you never know. Plus it would give them the DNA profile for future use in case the ever needed it.

Maxine was listening to Beyonce on her IPod when the results came up. “No way,” Maxine said get up suddenly from her seat this was big news

As fast as you could Maxine had a message sent out to all the people she felt would want to hear about this saying, Big New About the Red Hood meet me in the Batcave.

sonic_arrow:

Keith was always thinking of Marissa, and what he put on her.  He knew she was dealing with a lot, and now with her birthday here, he wanted to do something special for her.  He could take a break from hiding out and make on special appearance for his lovely lady.  The process to do so was simple.  He called her on a pre-paid cellphone.

batdaughter:

Her birthday had thus far been a mind-melting event, first with her forgetting initially until Maria's gift reminded her, then with Terry's gift of the world's most badass bike (and yeah, she was pretty sure it rivaled the Black Canary's, bitches.)  What was really trippy, though, was a request from Bruce to come see him in his office at Wayne Industries.

This...probably wasn't good.  She'd shown up on his door as legally a dependent and, theoretically, a burden.  Now she was eighteen.

Oh boy.

"You wanted to see me?"

crossbow_bat:

Maria wasn't exactly sure what to get Marissa for her birthday, but she had to get something. It was Marissa's eighteenth birthday and that was a big one. Maria remembered hers quite fondly. It was the birthday that ended up sitting in jail cell for a few hours. The memory made her smile.

Maria had gone the safe route in terms of a gift. A certificate for the works at a great spa Maria recently found and the best Belgian truffles. The gifts were accompanied by a card and Maria urged Marissa to go raise some hell on her birthday and to have fun.

batdaughter:

Keith wasn't dead.

This knowledge pounded through Marissa's head every second of her waking days, most significantly when she was dealing with Keith's family.  Dinah had made the gesture of inviting Marissa to come out to be with the family for the funeral preparations which meant that she was surrounded at any given moment by someone who should know that Keith was alive.  Dinah was easy to fool; the woman's grief was palpable and she voluntarily kept herself distracted by alternately working on Mia's wedding and the funeral.  Oliver never acknowledged her, which was fine.  Men have their own ways of grieving.  She hadn't had much contact with Mia, either, but that was by design.  Marissa still hadn't forgiven herself for letting Mia die so it was already awkward.  Sin, however, had been harder to shake.  The small woman seemed to be looking right through Marissa at every turn.  Keith was right; she was creepy. Marissa was fairly certain she knew something was wrong, which made Marissa faintly paranoid.  Keith wasn't dead.  She knew it and she really couldn't sit around and do nothing about it.

Left alone in Keith's room, Marissa found one of his old cellphones.  A few moments later she had his contact list and there was a particular number she was looking for.

I need to talk to someone about Keith. Star Tower Hotel restaurant 4pm. -MW

She had been generous with the time, but she knew Jai West was fast so Marissa was already there waiting when she sent the text.

sonic_arrow:

It was nighttime in Gotham City.  Keith had managed to obscure himself well enough.  He wore a lot of things over his face to keep anybody from knowing who he was.  Didn't keep a cellphone on him, to make sure nobody could track him.  And everything he needed was tucked away in a duffle bag that he always had nearby.  He got to a payphone and thought about who to call.  He knew he needed to tell Marissa what had happened.  She'd be shocked to know he was still alive, to say the least, but she had to know he was still alive.

He put the money in the phone and dialed her cellphone number.

dc_misc:

It was the night of the annual Gotham Natural History Museum Gala for Charity. Which hasn’t been attack by super villains for two years a new record. All the big movers and shakers in Gotham were there and the amount of money being raised for charity and to keep the museum running was surprising.

5th_dimension:

Bugsy and Boo popped into the 3rd Dimension with a fanfare of trumpets followed by confetti and firecrackers. They arrived in an empty room.

"Huh? What happened? Where are Blue and Gold? This is the right dimension, right?" Boo asked as he looked around.

batdaughter:

She had texted him literally every single day.

I love u.  Plz call.

Every day her phone remained silent, but she still tried.

Whatever it is, you can talk to me.

I'm here.

Plz Keith.  I love u.

There may have even been a few drunken texts or texts that just seemed weird (vodka + auto correct = very bizarre texts). But she kept sending them. 

old_windbat:

Bruce Wayne was back and feeling better than he ever had been.  His heart condition had gone completely and he looked younger.  There was a buzz going around the tabloids about his return from a vacation and his youthful appearance, but all of that was swept aside.  He had business to attend to with his company.  Tamara had done an excellent job with keeping the company in tact and on track, and she was given her well-earned gratitude from Bruce.

His home life was another story, and one that didn't need to be explained too in depth.  All that anybody needed to know was that he was back, and things were going to get much more intense for the Bat Family.

dc_misc:

The city of Star City looked deserted. The citizens had either fled or had been turned into black lanterns. At the heart of the city was the entity known as Nekron. Nekron used the city as his base as his black lanterns ravaged the Earth.

The black lanterns increased their numbers each day and the power levels of the black lantern battery increased with each person that died.

Soon Nekron would have enough power to obliterate all life on this planet.

old_windbat:

Bruce Wayne flew over Wayne Manor and landed at the front door. He turned the knob and walked in, only to be greeted by a growling dog. Ace, the dog that stood at his side for so many years, now showed his teeth at Bruce's walking corpse. It was greeted by an uncharacteristic, cracked smile.

"Rage," Bruce commented. "It never did take much to set you off, Ace. But it’s time to heel, boy."

...

Later, down in the Bat Cave, Bruce Wayne sat in his chair and faced his large computer. Ace was at his side, covered in the shadows. Everything seemed... normal.

dc_misc:

It started as any other morning in San Francisco. The sun came up in the East and people climbed from the beds to start their day.

The Titans in Titans Tower were starting their day. Their new sister team from the East were visiting for a meeting to discuss the current situation. While they were inside making plans, the waters of the Pacific started to churn. Waves kicked up and dark clouds blocked out the light of the sun.

The water quickly pulled back from the shore and things were calm for the briefest of moments. Then a huge tsunami crashed ashore and water flooded the lower half of the city.

gotham_rogues:

Gotham City was at it's boiling point.

In the streets, the wars between the crime families had reached its breaking point, with the death of another family head that previous night. The police had their hands full with trying to break up riots.

It had taken some very careful planning on his part, but Hush had managed to break out every prisoner in Arkham Asylum. The guards were dealing with their own personal hell, as the most dangerous criminals in Gotham City were all out of their cells, and they were trying to keep them from getting out into the city.

And now...it was time to test Batman and Robin. Hush delivered a package to Terry McGinnis, with pictures of Dana Tan tied up and beaten, along with his location, a warehouse in Gotham Harbor.

Attached was a simple note:

Choose.

daughteroftroy:

"Hey Adam...wanna go out on a patrol together? It'll be fun."

Boy, was Lily really starting to regret those words right now.

A little nightly patrol on New York City, looking to maybe stop some muggers had take a drastic turn when Lily and Adam happened upon a little villain group called the Pack pulling a heist on a local LuthorCorp Facility.

A few muggers they could have handled? A group of villains with high-tech armor? They were in a little bit over their heads.

Troia went slamming into a wall of crates, and they fell down around her. She climbed out of them, throwing on of them at Coyote, who had sent her into that wall of crates.

bwa_ha_ha:

Any number of things had been going down recently, but the rash of various thefts from Queen, Wayne, Luthor, and Kord Industries' west coast branches (the last one made it personal), also had to be dealt with.  Dinah had done some investigating on her own, the clues being relatively simple things, since the robberies themselves had largely been smash and grabs and the like.

What had been surprising were the culprits involved: the Pack.  The mercenary team was relatively well known within certain circles, operating out of Zandia with impunity from the laws.  This seemed a bit below their usual standard, but it probably meant someone even higher up on the food chain was working an angle.

And the next theft, based on what she had pieced together about just what had been stolen, was going to be in Gotham, at one of the Wayne Industries warehouses.  Even with the Scarab, she knew she couldn't take them all on on her own.  She needed the Titans.  But with the team decimated of late and time being of the essence, she'd only been able to get Pippi, Mitzi, and Ash to come with her.

Fortunately, they'd been able to pick Riley up along the way.

She brought the Bug into hover mode, closing the faceplate on her armor.  "Okay, I briefed you all on these guys on the way over.  They're very nasty and they won't hesitate to kill you if you get the chance.  No fancy heroics.  We play this like a team."

gotham_rogues:

He had to go away for a little while, but Hush was back in Gotham City. And he was out for blood.

Or rather, the guy who was paying him was. But he was paying him to go after a very old friend of his. Someone who he had tangled with before. Someone who this time, if he played his cards right would end up exactly how he wanted her to be-dead. Her, and if he got lucky, her friend. Batman.

But first, he had to make sure that she knew she wasn't safe. He had to get her nice and scared, so she would be easier to break.

A package arrived at Wayne Manor that afternoon for Marissa Wayne. In it, she would find several pictures of her mother, Vicki Vale, lying dead in a pool of her own blood. Attached to one of the pictures was a typewritten note.

Miss me?

dc_misc:

Reporters lined up outside of the Gotham City Police Station, filming the transport of the Artist's body from the police station into a van.  The police officers were all grumbling about being caught off guard by the assault on their station.  The, finally, the Chief of Police stood up on his podium and made his broadcast announcement.

"Robert Franklin 'Frank' Wells, otherwise known as The Artist, was murdered last night in his cell.  He was recently brought in for a string of murders of multiple women, including the local crime fighter, Red Arrow.  We have identified the culprit of this murder.  He has strong ties to the Red Arrow and has been recently seen in Gotham.  The man who murdered Robert Wells is none other than the Green Arrow." 

The Chief of Police took that moment to hold up the large bag containing a bloodied green arrow, taken from the Artist's forehead.

"The Green Arrow is now a wanted criminal.  All who see him are advised to call the police so he can be brought in for his crime."

The cameras were turned away from the Chief of Police then, and each reporter put their own shocked responses and questions to the tail ends of their reports.  The news filled the television screens all across the United States.  Word was out on the Green Arrow.

newimprovedbat:

Terry sat in the Batcave, in costume, but without his mask on. His mask, he was holding his hands, just staring at it.

Bruce was dead. Bruce had been killed by the same assassin that Terry had stopped from killing Bruce earlier that week, at the business meeting.

He hadn't been there to protect him this time, though. Last time he had been there. Last time he had stopped it.

Damnit. What the hell was he supposed to do now? He blamed himself for not being there when Bruce needed him the most, and he wouldn't hold it against her if Marissa did too.

Terry just continued to sit in the chair in front of the monitor screen, staring at his mask like it held all the answers.

batdaughter:

(*takes places after the Songbirds finale*)

She still had Mia's blood on her.  She still had on the wrecked remains of her party dress and one of the shoes and she still wasn't sure how much of the rest of the evening had transpired, but one thing stood out crystal clear.  Mia was dead.  Mia had pushed her out of the way and taken an arrow to the heart.  An arrow fired by a madman that Marissa had pledged to stop.

She had failed, but that wasn't the painful part.  The painful part was that her failure had ended the life of Keith's sister, of Tim's friend. She was responsible for the death of a woman dear to her boyfriend and her brother.

She had to call them.  Keith first.  Marissa dialed the number she knew by her very heavy heart.

sonic_arrow:

There was no way that Keith was going to miss his chance to give Marissa her first Christmas present from him in person.  That was the reason he had gone to Gotham City in the first place.  So, after texting Marissa to find out what Christmas party she was expected to attend, Keith dressed up for the occasion and grabbed her necklace, which he put in a Christmas jewelry box.  He arrived at the party in a fancy Gotham hotel and waded through the press and the guests to find his one and only Marissa Wayne.

batdaughter:

Christmas was usually Marissa's favorite holiday.  She and her mother had always done something fun and special for it but now Vicki was dead and worse than that (in Marissa's mind) was that she was stuck in a huge house with a father who was probably still running daily dna tests to make sure she was in fact his.  Marissa still wasn't sure how the man felt about her and though she didn't want to admit it, that made her sad.  She always wanted a father.  Now that she had one, she wasn't sure he wanted her.

But questions aside, she did still have to get him a Christmas present.  She wasn't going to let being half-orphaned entirely wreck things for her.  Since she couldn't figure out what to get him, she decided to ask and marched straight to where he spent a lot of time, per Lucy.  His office in the manor.

"Are you busy?"

batdaughter:

The plan was simple--Marissa would go to a public event just crowded enough that the Artist would probably feel safe showing up and where security would appear to be busier than norm.  She'd get "captured" by the Artist, but with the aid of the Birds of Prey, the Artist would be the one who found himself captured.  Marissa had on her person a tracker so that the Birds could keep track and she was armed with only shuriken as they were small enough to hide.  Everything else would be her own training.

She showed up exactly as planned, making the expected Marissa Wayne appearance which involved the press, a lot of smiling, and mingling with other famous children of the wealthy, most of whom Marissa privately thought were stupid.  She made the requisite rounds before moving off to powder her nose.  She hoped the Artist followed.

dc_misc:

The young brunette girl sits bound to the chair, crying softly as she looks down the body of a petite blond girl, no younger than twenty-five. The blond woman wears a cowl or a hood, laying unmoving on the cold concrete. Her body is positioned in solemn rest as she lies on the floor, as though she were only sleeping rather than dead.

( Read more... )

newimprovedbat:

Marissa didn't deserve being grounded. When she only got to see the light of day (or night, in this case), was when they went out on patrol, well...that was just torture.

Between adjusting to his classes at Gotham University, being Bruce assistant, Batman, and attempting to have SOMETHING even close to a social life, Terry really hadn't made much time to break Marissa out of her "prison".

So this was long overdue.

Bruce was out for the day, and if they did get caught (which they probably would), Terry would take full blame.

He knocked on Marissa's door.

"You decent?"

old_windbat:

There had been a lot of publicity around Marissa Wayne leaving for Star City, and it was something she couldn't maintain.  Instead, Bruce had to calm the media storm surrounding the five individuals it affected the most; Bruce, Marissa, Tim Drake, Keith Queen, and Ollie Queen.  Bruce had managed to remove the Queens from the equation and settle things down by explaining that he sent Marissa to live with Tim Drake for an extended period of time while Bruce was dealing with health issues.  It wasn't true, of course, but news of Bruce with a concerning health condition kept the media at bay.  Anything surrounding the name "Wayne" at that point was generally about who would take over Wayne Industries after he died.

It should be fairly quiet until Marissa finally returns home.  Bruce knew full-well that Tim would be accompanying her.

bloodred_robin:

Tim calls Marissa into the living room and indicates that she needs to take a seat on the couch. He's wearing his workout gear, and he doesn't look happy about whatever he's about to say, but he knows it needs to be said.

"Hey, kid. We need to talk about you and Gotham." Tim says, sitting down with her.

in_a_snap:

(Timebendyed so anyone can be involved)

Jerry had heard that there was suppose to be an amazing meteor shower tonight and the best place to see it was in the Arches National Park in Utah. He had let dad knew he was going to spend the night there which his dad was totally fine with.

After teleporting in with some basic supplies he started looking for a good place to watch it from. Teleporting around the park he saw a mesa that looked like he could get a great view from. He snapped his fingers and appeared in a flash of green at the top of the mesa.

What he saw up there was something that he Jerry Carr had trouble believing. There was a organic looking machine with little robotic drones eating the rocks. And one charged right at him.

Quickly snapping both hands he teleported away and teleported a boulder right on top of the drone crushing it. Jerry let out a sigh of relief until he noticed that the drones were now eating the boulder and forming even more drones.

This was bad and Jerry knew he could not handle this by himself and felt that it would be smart to call in as much help as he could.

Teleporting back to his stuff away from the mesa he grabbed his cell phone and started calling all of the people he knew who were superheroes to get as much help as he could.

dc_holiday:

Mothers are the place that we call home.
On them we rest our heads and close our eyes.
There's no one else who grants the same soft peace,
Happiness, contentment, sweet release,
Erasing nighttime tears with lullabies,
Restoring the bright sun that makes us bloom. - Anonymous

sonic_arrow:

Keith had heard that marissa was in town, and he was glad to hear that.  He hadn't seen her in awhile, although they did keep up with each other with texts and phone calls.  Speaking of, Keith dialed her number and waited for her to pick up the phone.  He wanted to see her later.

batdaughter:

Months after her mother's murder Marissa decided to start going through the paper box labeled "confidential' that she'd taken out of Vicki's bedroom.  Vicki had grown distrustful in the months prior to her end, having taken to storing only the absolute barest of information on her work computer while storing the real information elsewhere.  The editor hadn't been able to find anything further, nor had any of the police when they looked over her computer.  No one had considered the box; Marissa herself had forgotten about it, chalking it up to just a haphazard collection of photo albums, old notebooks, a piece of jewelry or two.  Yet something made her open it.

Hours later she was on her way to Star City, having bothered only to mention to Bruce that she would be "out" for awhile and to not wait up.  The old man was creepy enough that he probably would figure out where she went before she even got there anyway.  It was the specific destination in Star City that would be harder for anyone to trace.  Bruce Wayne may have been the World's Greatest Detective, but Vicki Vale had been pretty clever in her own right; their daughter had inherited the best of both.  A little bit of digging, a few idle threats, a little bit of money changing hands and soon enough Marissa had exactly what she needed.

221 Arbor View Road.

She rang the bell.

sonic_arrow:


Takes place before Keith gets kidnapped.

Star City was boring.  Keith was rich, and he had a private jet.  It may have taken him quite a few weeks to plan it, he finally decided to take visit Gotham City.  Ollie and Dinah had connections in that neck of the woods, so he wasn't without supervision.  In fact, even the papparazzi had an eye on the young Queen.

The jet landed and Keith somehow managed to go incognito in Gotham City.  He stopped into a closeby Starbucks for some coffee.  He also knew that the particular neighborhood he was in had some interesting sights to see.

batdaughter:

As far as she could tell, this was all bullshit and wasn't getting any better. The transition into the care of her father was still rough. Marissa didn't know if it were safe to get to know him at all, especially after discovering that he was...had been Batman. It offered her an outlet, though. After discovering she was hell-bent on being out in the guts of the city to track down the slime who murdered Vicki, Marissa got her own cape, her own job.

Robin.

Batman's sidekick.

Except Daddy Dearest wasn't Batman. Terry was and Bruce had turned her over to him completely. This soured with Marissa. Who the hell was this...kid that he could have authority over her? That alone irritated her. The costume she was supposed to wear irritated her more. Marissa was not wearing the green-red-yellow disaster. It was ugly. And obvious. No. No way.

She had spent the better part of the past two weeks redoing the costume. Batman wore black. Okay, fine, no black. But there was nothing wrong with a blood red so deep it was almost onyx. It called up in her the sight of her mother's spilling blood. It drove her, that hue. Geared up completely save for her mask, she idly noted that she looked a touch like a red Batman with boobs. She didn't care.

But Terry might.

"I'm here."

And early for a change instead. Reporting for patrol always pissed her off.