#thegirlwoncr

[eightyxnine]

@thegirlwondcr sent:

well, i'm in trouble now.

PROMPTS FROM BATMAN

🦇—-;; Bruce had been watching her for a little while, not quite sure what she's up to, if only because it is a little odd to see a teen out this late, let alone a teenage girl, who seemed by herself. Still, not wanting to assume he had waited until she did something that did warrant action. There's a slight tilt to his head as he shifts on his perch, hand moving to the grapple. He uses the device to land quietly nearby.

His cape is pulled around his shoulders slightly as he steps over slightly and hi eyes narrow a little. He'd cleared his throat to get her attention, and he didn't particularly like the response, but obviously she was. He should bring her to the GCPD, but even he knew that wasn't likely the best course of action here. So instead, Bruce scowls lightly for a moment and huffs.

"Is trouble not what you were looking for?" The Bat asks, it's not a question that requires an answer, but he steps forward then, ignoring the street light for the moment. He'll gloss over what he'd seen her doing a moment ago for the time being, given the more concerning fact she's out here alone. "I mean, out here by yourself, is it really worth it with all the risks out here in Gotham?" It's not a safe city at night.

[eightyxnine]

🦇—-;; Bruce turns his head to the side slightly at that comment about her being eighteen, "you don't need to be eighteen to access that information, just have the right support who's willing to help you look without using it as leverage to make you do very illegal things." Bruce counters when she shot back that comment. Yes, he's definitely going to deal with this person that's using her and find Emma outside of the cowl and help her in some way. He doubts it's a happy ending, most kids the system in Gotham are that way for a reason.

"I'm not." He says firmly in response to her essentially calling him a liar, he knows because he's talking about himself. He watches her after he let go and he folded his arms across his chest, eyes narrowed a bit. He rolls his eyes when she says what she says before running from him, but he doesn't chase her. Just like he promised, he'd let her go home. When she's out of earshot and out of his line of sight he reaches for the little device on his belt and speaks into it to call the batmobile to him. He's going to go rifle through the offices at the girl's home and have Alfred set up an excuse for Bruce Wayne to be seen there in the following days.

She only gave an eye roll, she was confident she's tried every other way to get information on her parents and it's always been a dead end until now. "I'm gonna know, and I'm gonna make sure I'm not waiting until I'm eighteen." But she does not choose to think too deeply about how she doesn't really have control over how long it takes to get the full truth, she just knew she was close. She had to be.

"You're making them up." She easily accused him, she was not going to fall into some empty promise. When he lets go of her, she hesitates. She could not even believe he had done that, she thought for sure he was going to drag her to the police station. Emma took a small step back, eying him over and making sure he was not just about to pull some move on her. She also was thinking how she was going to go home with an incomplete list of notes. She was going to have to write something down and have them catch it later down the row if Batman hasn't gotten to them yet.

"Eff you." She intended to curse, but chickened out at the last second, and then she made her run for it.

[eightyxnine]

    🦇—-;; Bruce looked at her and he sighs a little. "You haven't tried everything." He points out, because if she had, she'd have found something. Maybe he can go look over birth records at city records, she'd have something there that he can use that would probably open up more connections than she's had opened to her. Still, he'd need access to her file from the girl's home first. "You're being used, kid. They're gonna keep using you until you're eighteen, then they'll kick you to the curb and you'll never know the full truth. I've seen this kind of deal before, it won't end the way you think it will." He's not expecting her to listen, but he's not going to do as she says when she tells him not to do this.

"My person has a lot of connections. Definitely a lot more than whoever you're hiding." He says with a small shrug. He doesn't make any indication that he's going to go after the Girl's Home, but he won't promise that anyway. Because, regardless, he's not going to let that place turn a bunch of desperate kids into thieves just because they can take advantage of them. Looks like he's going to have to look into a new orphanage. But, one step at a time. "No. You're going to go right home. Even if you're not willing to give me a name to work with here, do you really think I'm going to let you continue doing what you were doing?" He shifts a little, "go home. And don't come back here, next time I won't be so willing to let you go." He says, letting go of her arms then.

"I've tried every other way and none have worked." She had crumbs to work off of before, but now she had so much and there was the potential to learn so much more. She refused to ruin this. Emma's stomach heart sank for a moment when he mentioned the girls home. Now she was scared. She could see herself losing everything she'd worked for and be gone in the blink of an eye. She cracked. He did not even directly say he knew who, but she went ahead and jumped to that conclusion and began fighting against his grip again.

"You know..." It wouldn't just be her that would be done for, all the other girls would end up going down with the ship. They'd all lose their source of information. "No you...you can't do anything about this." She frantically to find a defense or reason to keep him uninvolved. "I don't want you or your friend's help in this. It's working just fine. I'm fine." Clearly, she was not fine at present because she could see everything crumble. "Your person doesn't have access to my parents' things, mine does." She emphasized that's what kept her and so many others hooked because no one else could offer this. "Let me go, I just want to go back to what I was doing please." She was panicking, trying to think how she was going to avoid getting in trouble for all of this.

[eightyxnine]

🦇—-;; Bruce's grip loosened when she stopped fighting him as much though he didn't let her go, it's clear he'd go back to how it had been if she picked it back up again, but for the moment, he's at least willing to show that cooperation means he'll be a little bit nicer. "Well, yeah, but I can still help. I have access to things that most people don't." And he doesn't have to cut through that red tape to get it.

As she continues and responds, that feeling from before sinks further into his chest. She's an orphan, at least in the sense that she's in the system. God. He'd had a feeling, Gotham's foster system is terrible. He frowned a little, considering something quietly. He doesn't think this girl fully realises that she's probably being used. The Bat gives a little grunt. "I know how much it means to want to know your birth parents, but this isn't the way to go about it." He says to her. "I'm assuming you're from the girls home? If you go right home and I don't catch you back out here tonight, I'll let you go." She'd given him more than enough already, but he's going to try something else. "I'm going to talk to a friend of mine about helping you, so you don't have to commit crimes to get the information you're after."

Emma did consider it. Could he really help her? It made her pause in her squirming, considering her options. He had some decent defense to help back his argument, but was it enough? She's tried everything to find out about her parents, but only one person has helped her. "This is different." Her stubbornness kicked in, but her fighting against his grip did not return.

"I'd love it if they were disappointed." She began, while she was no longer physically fighting, she was looking all around for some sort of way out. "Because then it means I know them." Now she was deciding to share more, if only to reemphasize that this was not his area of expertise and that he couldn't help her. "If you turn her in, I'm not going to be able to learn anything about my parents." Getting out of this was alluring, but the long-term circumstances were not worth it in her eyes. She was so close to finding her parents, she just knew it. "Listen, when I know who and where they are, I'm gonna stop all of this, alright? Can't you trust me on that?"

[eightyxnine]

🦇—-;; He gives her a bit of a look then, it's noticeable even through the cowl too, he's fairly certain he's not crushing her arm in his hold. But he does glance down at where his hand was, just for a moment before he looked at her again. He doesn't acknowledge it further though. Bruce does pause a little at what she says when she mentions she's not doing it for a money. He'd had a feeling that was the case, people always had a reason for this and it's not always monetary. Though usually it was in Gotham. "No, but I can point you to someone who can, but I can't do that unless you give me a chance to, kid."

He snorts a little bit at that when she speaks again, not believing he can help him. "I managed to work out how Joker was poisoning Gotham with his Smylex gas by figuring out the combination of cosmetic products he'd mixed the chemical components in when no one else had figured it out. Don't tell me I can't help you."

He's quiet for a moment as she speaks, explaining herself to him, it didn't tell him much. But the way she spoke hinted at something that definitely tugged at something within Bruce's chest. There's a moment he considers something but then he shakes his head. "I'm sure they'd be disappointed in the means you're using to do this." He says to her and he sighs a little. "Look, just give me the name of who you're working for and I'll let you go. And you can pretend you didn't run into me tonight."

"You're hurting me!" She yelled at him when she felt his hold tighten, it actually did not hurt but she was looking for every opportunity for him to let go. "I'm not doing this for money." She clarified if he thought throwing some cash at her would end this. "You can't offer what I'm going to get." She did feel a pit in her stomach when he had pointed out that if she was arrested, no way was she going to get her award then. If anything, she probably would get the opposite. Emma would not put it past the woman to just burn all her things.

"Bullshit, you can help me." She did not believe that offer for a second, not wanting to fall into whatever trap he was setting up. His threats were getting to her, she was starting to worry about how this would end. So far she has not even felt close to escaping this, and now she's getting tired.

"My intentions are good, I swear!" With every minute that passed, she began to believe more and more that this man didn't mind at all turning her into the GCPD. "It's for my parents, okay?" Slowly but surely, she was cracking. "They don't know I'm doing this, but it is for them." Maybe that would help her case, right?

[eightyxnine]

🦇—-;; Bruce could very well wait her out, not that he wanted to, given that there was probably more than likely other things going on tonight that needed the Bat, but for the moment, she was the one who had his attention, and sure she wasn't actually hurting anyone, though she was hiding the person who would be hurting this business later. Part of Bruce did wonder if this was one of the companies that fronted for the mob, but that was something he could look into later.

There's a quiet tutting, his tongue clicking against his teeth as she mentions she's not hurting anyone, his grip tightens slightly on one of her arms and his narrows his eyes. "No, but whoever you're protecting is. These are people's businesses, trying to make a living out here in Gotham. We don't need someone making them think they have to run for the hills because some no good crook wants to make some quick cash off their stolen merchandise." He says, definitely not letting her off that lightly. "If you'd really rather take the fall for their mess, fine, you won't get whatever the hell they promised you to make you do this."

He glares still, and then he shakes his head slightly. "Listen, I'm not a cop, and I don't work for the mob, I can help you if you help me." He says to her, "I know for a fact that if the cops think you're connected to the crime spree in this area, you're not getting a slap on the wrist with a 'kids will be kids'. No, you're going to tried as an adult and thrown in prison likely for the rest of your life. Do you really want that?"

"Shit," Emma mumbled when he did manage to get a firm grasp on both of her arms, she was starting to run out of energy. She kept tugging against his hold, but each tug was weaker than the last. Did anyone make it out alive after meeting this dude?

She did have a smug grin on her face when he chose not to respond to her comment, she felt that only proved she was right. Which...now that she thought of it was not a good thing. Was his next step to dangle her over a rooftop? Surely not because she's a kid, but he's not held back on threatening prison time with her. "I am not hurting anyone." Maybe that was the way out? She wasn't physically hurting anyone, to her understanding.

Had this guy been keeping track of her and her friend's crimes? Who the hell was he working for? She's sure she's only hit up stores that do not have any strong connections with the underground, but did she slip up and this guy has been hired to stop it? "I'm not spilling anything." Her stubbornness peaked through. "Guess I must love old-women jewelry and can be in multiple places at once, huh?" She said just to poke the bear then.

[eightyxnine]

🦇—-;; He'd made the mistake of letting someone find the weak points of his armour once before, and he's certainly not going to do it again, he's also positive she doesn't have anything sharp enough to cut through it the way those claws had. "You can think that all you want." He responds, he kept a hold of both her arms for now, at least to get her to stop hitting him.

He doesn't dignify her smart comment with a response, if only because the only other person who knew what happened on that cathedral was Vicki, he'll ignore what happened to Princess, because Penguin was responsible for that, despite the set up making it seem like the Bat had done it, he'd been cleared of that fault when the truth came out. Instead of speaking, he glares, teeth baring slightly. It was perhaps the only reaction she was going to get out of him

"Unless you're capable of hitting multiple stores a night at around the same time. I don't think you're working for yourself." He says, "and I know this place has some high value items that can be resold at twice the price." He's seen it happen before, but Bruce isn't going to let her take whatever she was trying to get to whoever she's working for. "No, I'm going to make sure you go down for aiding an abetting, since you're covering for someone. I'd like to think someone put you up to this, whatever they're offering you isn't worth throwing the rest of your life away."

She continued to fight against him, despite not having any signs of success getting out his hold. Emma was hoping that maybe she could catch him at one short weak moment and break free then, but currently there seemed to be no signs of that. "You don't have proof." She muttered to him.

"So people only fall off of buildings when you're around?" Was her smart comment back to him. She still could not believe out of all the people in Gotham to find her tonight, it was this guy. He definitely was as weird as what the papers had described. She did start to understand the fear people had for him, this guy definitely had some powers. Probably a vampire, that was the most reasonable guess she had.

"I can't work for myself?" She knew she was going to be done for if she told who she was working for. She would never get to know another thing about her parents and she would only get death glares from the other girls. "You're going to put a teenaged girl in prison for looking at cameras?" Emma was skeptical of his motives to say the least.

[eightyxnine]

🦇—-;; The armour takes the brunt of those hits, though he is careful not to let her hit him anywhere near the exposed part of his face. "No? So I didn't catch you casing that place." His tone indicates he knows she was taking notes, looking for something, general signs she's taking notes on locations of things. Now he knew why some people got involved in crime, hell he knew it well by this point. There's a reason people go on these paths, but that didn't exactly mean he'd let them get away with it.

"I didn't say you weren't, it's everything else I saw you doing, kid. And don't lie to me about it, I know what I saw." Not in the mood for being lied to, the Bat made that very clear to her. HIs free hand came up to catch her elbow and he scowls lightly at her last comment. "I've never pushed anyone off a building. Don't believe everything you've read in the papers." He knows she's likely talking about what happened to Jack, well..Joker, but technically, Bruce hadn't pushed him. Either time he fell.

"Three other businesses were robbed near here, and I know they're connected, so I've been waiting, watching. I knew someone had to be a scout. Am I mistaken, or were you writing down where the cameras and security sensors? That doesn't seem innocent to me." He bore his teeth a little, shifting his weight again, though this move is done to use his height a bit. "If you tell me who you're working for, I'll let you go, if you don't come back here. You can be sure if you do come back here, I'll make sure you end up in a prison cell."

It was hours of work, but it was going to pay off in the end. She was planning to spend the day tomorrow to work on mapping out her routes for breaking into each one of these stores, and she'll know exactly how many camera's she needed to either knock out or avoid. A lot of work, all written down on a crumpled piece of notebook paper, stuffed carelessly into her jacket pocket.

Emma instantly went into fighting against his hold. "What the hell? I haven't even done anything wrong!" She argued, squirming against his hold. None of her moves were calculated well, some elbowing and kicks were harder than others, but she did not put too much thought behind any of them. She couldn't afford the trouble she'd get in if this bat guy got roped into this.

"Am I not allowed to walk outside? I'm old enough to be outside alone, I'm not five." Emma remarked, she could not believe this was how her night was going. "You'll let me go? Bullshit." She was not falling for that. "I heard you like to push guys off of buildings for fun, and I want to live." She's heard a lot of rumors, and it was always difficult to choose which to believe. However, she's heard enough reports of people's big falls when near the bat. Thankfully they were on the ground still, so she had a chance of safety still yet.

[eightyxnine]

🦇—-;; Bruce watched, taking note of what she was doing, seen it enough times to know she was going to bolt the moment she got the chance to do so. Honestly, he knew what someone casing a place looked like, having seen it enough in this god damn city. Really, what is it with the criminals trying to drive businesses out of this damn city by making it so hostile? It's only making things worse. He feels his jaw tense a little and his eyes narrow again.

The Bat moves after her when she moved to bolt, grabbing her arm, making it clear he's not trying to hurt her, but he's not letting her run from him for the moment. He needed to make sure she doesn't come back here, and whatever she's casing this place for doesn't happen, but given how cooperative she's been so far, he doubts she'll listen. So...he knew he needed to at least be a little tough.

He planted both his feet to keep her there, adjusting his stance slightly to use his weight a bit to make it more difficult. "You should be lucky I don't leave you here for the GCPD to find, young lady. I saw what you were up to." The string of other crimes lately kind of made him reluctant to let her go. He had a feeling there's more than one person behind this and so, he's not just going to let her leave without getting something from her. "You cooperate and I'll let you go. This doesn't have to get ugly." She's a kid, sure, but that didn't mean he wouldn't defend himself if she tried to attack him. "Your choice."

Emma had been given a short list of places to check out for that evening. She was technically not doing any crimes tonight, to her understanding. All she was doing was making a note of where cameras were outside of shops and wear their breakers were. Honestly, probably the most legal task she'd been given as of late, so she did not mind going about it alone, especially if it meant the reward would be bigger.

When she turned to see who was behind her, her stomach did drop. Like just about everyone else in town, she's heard of all the Batman rumors. Honestly, for a while, she thought it was some rumor the GCPD put out in an attempt to minimize crime, but this guy definitely did not look like a cop to her. She was already starting to eye her surroundings, thinking of which would be the best escape route possible.

"Oh my god, you know what? You're so right." She was not hiding any sarcasm in her tone then. This guy definitely did not look like a cop. He looked worse than that; she had done a brief glance at his belt and saw all the unknown gadgets attached. "It's not worth it at all, I'll go home right away." With that, she bolted. She was not heading anywhere in particular, just wanting to get out of this guy's way before she became a headline. Ironically, the one place she was going to avoid running to was her girl's home, she needed anonymity.