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CODE BY TESSISAMESS

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"Good question."

Steve decides he's probably not going to be attacked, and drops into a crouch, to pet the cat and - "I'm feeding the stray. I'm armed, but nothing in the bag's dangerous." Absolutely declaring himself. He doesn't want the fight. At all. If for no other reason than he'd like not to have to move again this soon.

Then he does grab the bag, pull it over and fish out the can of cat food to pull the tab to open it. The cat's a little more frantically friendly while he does. Steve's still got his eyes on Batman, though.

"Eventually. Not quickly, or here." He'd managed to get rid of a tracking device in that ...encounter outside Detroit. "They're very, very good at targeted strikes and limited collateral damage to avoid detection."

Risk to Gotham? Yes. But within reasonable bounds, by Steve's assessment. Which is admittedly not Bruce's.

There's a difference here - Bruce cared deeply about collateral damage. And he did not want to invite whatever might be chasing Steve into Gotham. There were too many lives and variables to consider.

He doesn't say anything for a moment. Just watches as Steve feeds the scrawny cat. That gentleness belies the man Bruce had seen in the surveillance footage. He's careful in a way Bruce would not have expected if he wasn't standing here to see it for himself. He decides, as he considers the man in front of him, he can't turn Steve away. He's so far lived quietly and none of the chaos that hangs over him like a storm has happened. So Bruce will do what he does best. Plan for the inevitability and try to slow it down if he can't prevent it. It feels like an unstoppable force getting ready to collide with the immovable object and Bruce would be ready for it.

"Who are you?" Someone valuable if he's fleeing across the country to escape. He had an idea, but Bruce needed confirmation, so he knew what his risk assessment would look like.

Steve doesn't intend to stay in Gotham for long, but there's no where he can go where there isn't potential for violence to spillover onto uninvolved parties.

Going back is putting a weapon back in their hands. That weapon just happens to be him. Even if he were out of the equation entirely, they'd still be there.

The only way they stop is if they are stopped.

Maybe that's why he's staying put talking to a man who's known as both something terrifying or a hero, depending on who you're talking to. He was ready to respond to a threat, but decent enough to have immediately assumed one. He obviously has resources Steve does not, and an investment in at least this city.

"Steve." That's about what he's got. "I'm pretty sure my Mom's name was Sarah. I can't give you a whole lot more than that." That's not a refusal or fear, that's 'can't'. On the personal information front. ...Well, maybe he could. It's just so disconnected.

He's also, as he stays in that crouch, trying to decide if he's going to put Bruce directly on the trail he needs. Not for Steve - Steve doesn't consider himself at all important in this - but the much, much bigger problem. "You have a hell of a reputation."

Bruce expects an alias. But then he's always prepared for people to lie to him. It's easier when facing undaunted scrutiny. It lets them have distance. Maybe a claim on a life they wished they had. But Steve sounds sincere. Earnest in a way Gotham's street thugs could never be. Such an ordinary sounding name for someone so inexplicable. Bruce files it away under "likely telling the truth" and moves on.

While Steve explains himself, Bruce runs through a list of Steves he's kept files on. People he thought might be important later. None of them match the man in front of him. He's an unknown quantity and Bruce did not like having those. But without much more to go, he would have to make do.

Steve's comment about his reputation is enough to pull him out of his head. He looks at the other man for a curious moment, as if he could see Steve's angle if he stared long enough. "It's necessary. Gotham isn't safe." He wonders if that's what brought Steve here.

He laughs, just faintly, and rubs the cat under her chin with his knuckles. "Yeah, it's got a hell of a reputation, too. I'm surprised no one's tried to rob me, yet." There's some faint humor in that, mostly because of the 'try'.

For one, rob him of what.

For another, he wouldn't be the one in danger with your average street criminal. The thought of that bothers him, and he intends to avoid it, but it wouldn't likely go well for them.

Meanwhile, the increasingly intense conflict between pointing Batman in a direction that might make him useful with those resources, and Steve's own paranoia continue to play out. There's silence while he studies Batman, who is studying him.

"How much do you know about World War II?" To hell with it. Emotion (fear) aside, there's no real risk here. Anything is better than Hydra. For him and for the rest of the world.

Edited 2026-02-01 02:33 (UTC)

"Give it time."

But that had less to do with Gotham's criminal element and more to do with the city itself. It liked chewing up the people inside of it and spitting them out on the wrong side of everything. It's how it has always worked and why Bruce's fearsome reputation was necessary. Someone had to push back or they would all eventually be flattened together.

There was no doubt that Steve would be able to handle the average mugger. He had seen the security footage. Navigating the dangerous parts must be second nature to him.

The question is an odd one and it sends Bruce's mind racing. He's read dozens of books on it, watched documentaries, dug into classified files. He tries to sort through all of the information in the seconds it takes for Steve to ask and for Bruce to answer. Nothing relevant comes to mind. Not without more information at least.

"Enough. Why?"

"How about I avoid like crazy and give it as little time as I can get away with, instead?" His tone's dry, bordering somewhere between self-aware 'humor' and just being real fucking tired. He doesn't want one of those fights, either.

He stays down and stays with the cat. The affection for the animal's pretty sincere, but it's also a grounding presence and action - literally- which is enabling him to give Batman even backdoor answers. Somewhere to start digging, maybe do some good.

"Because you want to know why I'm here and what's looking to find me. Your answers start there." Irony? Steve does not know that his own history starts there, but does know that Hydra's does. He knows more about Hydra than himself. "There were people who were using the conflict to further their own interests. The axis powers were stopped. The hidden organization wasn't."

The problem with that strategy, is that the trouble often found you. Sometimes you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time and Gotham's got the teeth to hold you in place. But he understands why Steve would say that. He must have been running for a long time. Maybe fighting for even longer. Bruce knows that kind of tired.

There's a pause while Bruce sorts through all of that information again. People connected to secret societies that were long since defunct, if they weren't outright hoaxes or misinformation. But Steve says it's still operating. Or at least implies as much. His suspect pool shrinks and what's left doesn't set Bruce at ease. Instead, it winds up the tension he's been feeling all night. He taps the radio in his ear and relays orders to the person on the other end.

"A hidden World War II organization doesn't leave many possibilities," Bruce says as Barbara relays her findings over the lenses in his cowl. He studies it for a few brief moments and then gives Steve a look.

"How secure is your apartment?"

Steve expected Batman to follow the trail he'd been given to answers. Steve did not expect it to happen while he was standing in front of Steve.

His own tension ratches up when he realizes what is going on, but he keeps on petting the cat and staying in his crouch to do it until Bruce is done. Then he stops petting the cat, and slowly stands up.

Then he takes a single step backward and definitively away.

He isn't stupid. He knows concern when he hears it and can infer the reason (and warning) behind it. His instinct is to curse and bolt. His programming is to protect Hydra, even if he's who just, intentionally, exposed it.

He doesn't do either one - or answer immediately.

He drops all of his weight into his heels, his jaw clenches, and there's tension in his shoulders and hands but rather than curl into fists, he stretches them further open, keeps them down by his side and rotates them so his palms are out.

Effectively he's put himself into the worst stance for a fight there is, while being upright.

The damn cat is back to winding around his ankles. That cat is an idiot.

He doesn't quite manage to stop the glance over his shoulder, though he looks back to Batman.

"It's anonymous, not secure. Why?"

Edited 2026-02-04 13:44 (UTC)

The air shifts. Tense and wired and warm, despite it being cold out tonight. Steve could sense it too, if the way he moves is any indication. He wasn't prepared for Bruce to have his answers so quickly. What Oracle gave him only provides a direction. One Bruce doesn't like, but it would need more research and that he could only do in the cave.

He doesn't want Steve to bolt; Bruce doesn't want to have to chase him. He thinks that had the potential to be messy for the people still out on the street. He doesn't want this turning into a fight either for the same reasons. Oracle is in his ear again, telling him something about old documents she's managed to dig up and send to the cave. He'd go over them later. Depending on how this ended.

"Because we should talk in private." At least more private than the alley.

He doesn't take his eyes off Steve or the tension radiating off him. But he kneels offers the cat a treat from his belt. And lowering the threat he presents.

"If you and I are thinking the same thing, they're probably already here."

Bruce kneeling down makes him immediately and clearly 'not a threat' and diffuses enough of Steve's tension. Not all of it, but enough to be able to take a deep breath, and to his head hard - not in negation but just to clear it.

He watches Bruce feed the cat a treat, registered that this masked, caped, figure with a reputation for being scary as hell... is carrying cat treats.

If he had slightly less going on in his head, he'd smile about that.

"It isn't physically secure, but it is electronically secure and we can both sweep and use a signal disruptor inside it." And that should, actually, work for anything he is aware of Hydra having.

He'll also probably settle some once inside a confined and familiar space that he feels less exposed, and more in control, of.

"It's only a couple of blocks."

Edited (Rearranged some icons and had to fix. Don't mind me.) 2026-02-09 14:27 (UTC)

If it helps, Bruce is willing. The cat seems pleased and Bruce doesn’t have the heart to leave the wretched thing out here by itself. Gotham isn’t kind to its own, especially not to something as lowly as this scraggly looking cat. He feeds it another treat or two while he decides if he wants to scoop it up and take it somewhere safe or not. Or at least safer than this. He finally looks at Steve as he stands back up.

He doesn’t look so tense and Bruce is relieved it doesn’t seem like they’re going to come to blows. He’d rather save that kind of energy for the puppeteers.

“It’s better than being out here,” He replies. And once he got a look at the space, he could probably fortify it a bit better than it is. Give Steve some protection if he needs it. Or move him to a safehouse if he deems it necessary. There’s at least one not too far from where they were.

He nods for Steve to lead the way.

Yes, the cat is coming.

Batman picking up that cat does more to truly relax Steve than even getting down on the ground to feed it had. For one thing, it's an incredibly compassionate act, toward a creature who is unimportant, largely invisible to most, and can offer absolutely nothing in return.

For another, it means he knows Batman has at least one hand occupied and with what. The cat can be dropped, but occupied.

Steve grabs the empty catfood can and the bag it had been in, and starts walking. He is not overtly tense or paranoid, he's not looking over his shoulder or flinching at shadows. He is sticking to shadows, moves quietly, and sure as hell doesn't talk. Because what he is doing is listening.

It's a short walk and then up the outside 'fire escape' to the second floor door, that he unlocks and pushes open with one hand. He flips the light on before he steps through and gets out of the way so Batman (and cat) can follow him in.

He takes a second with his head cocked though, and triggers something on his wristband (there isn't a watch on that thing) before he's comfortable enough to say: "You can put the cat down. What did you find out?"

It's helpful that Steve knows to stick to the shadows It made moving discreetly easier, even if he had a squirming ball of fur secured in his arms. He notes the route they take, and every direction an attack could come from. The fire escape isn't ideal, but once he had a better view of the apartment, he'd decide if it needed to be off limits entirely.

After he wrangles the cat and climbs up into the apartment he sets the cat down and watches it bolt into a hiding spot. Oracle tells him there's nothing concerning that she can see and so Bruce's hackles do not raise any higher.

"There's a group that operates in the shadows of Gotham. They've been here for a very long time." He finds a sheet of paper and draws an emblem on it: the skull of an owl surrounded by six tentacles. It must look strange, but Bruce only regards it grimly before he slides it over to Steve.

"They call themselves the Court of Owls. But I believe their a splinter group of a larger faction. The people chasing you."

He can run into people in the halls. Steve cannot run into people on the fire escape. Best he can do, with a primary goal of mitigating danger he may put others into.

The apartment itself? Absolutely forgettable. Whoever lived there before Steve was a smoker. The furniture is probably as old as Steve appears to be, and was there before he got there. There's nothing out of order in it, and it's not dirty - it's just the worn down, ground in, appearance of poverty, desperation and... Gotham.

Steve watches to see where the cat bolts to, just because the motion catches his attention, but then focuses back on Batman and that drawing.

"They are." No hesitation on that one, though his voice is strained, but he's not... hesitant or unsure. He's not even afraid. He's... frustrated? It he clarifies immediately. "I haven't heard of them or seen them, but that symbolism's too close to mean anything else. Replace the bird skull with a human one and it's Hydra." There's a tiny second of hesitation around naming the group, but apparently within any space he feels even remotely secure in instead of exposed, he's more than willing to talk. Able gets easier or harder in places, but for now....

"Next question: how splintered? How long have they been in Gotham, operating under that name and symbol?"

The apartment doesn't surprise him. Poverty was rampant in this part of Gotham and most folks could barely scrape enough together to afford a place like this. The people here likely kept to themselves to avoid eviction or drawing any unwanted attention. Forgettable's a good thing in this context. Forgettable meant most people weren't going to look at this place more than once. For a minute, Bruce considers buying the block. Say it's part of some revitalization project.

It's a thought he sets aside for later, now that Steve's confirmed what he suspected.

Finally, he had a name and really it fit like the perfect puzzle piece. All of that fragmented information he had could fit under one neat little umbrella. He'd look into it more once he got back to the Cave.

"Very. The earliest reference I've found is more than 50 years old. I haven't been able to connect the Court of Owls and Hydra. Until now."

Batman feels like he's taking up a lot more physical space inside the apartment than he possibly could be. Maybe it's partially the cape, or the light, or the physical size and stature of the man.

Most of it, Steve is pretty sure, is just that there's too much presence for the space. It's an absently noted thing, almost to the point of being subconscious as Steve steps back and drops one shoulder against the wall nearest the door. The move almost, but doesn't quite, disguise the faint twitch at hearing 'Hydra' coming from someone else.

"I'd call myself a disgruntled former employee, but the pay and benefits didn't exist.. Mal-functioning equipment's closer to the truth." He's not looking at Batman now, but rather past him, with an unfocused gaze. In contrast his posture and voice are closer to more natural - he's even exhibiting a (dark) sense of humor there briefly. "I can probably tell you less than your car could tell me about what you do and why. I can say that if they've been operating under that symbol for fifty years, at least at the point of splintering off, Hydra knew they were doing so and decided to allow -or encouraged- them to continue, and that the motive wasn't peace and love."

And that he should get his ass ready to jump again. Fast. Or just let them catch him.

Edited 2026-02-11 15:08 (UTC)

Bruce had too much presence, while Steve seemed like he wanted to blend into the scenery. Easier to exist when you're just another nameless part of the crowd. A shadowy organization has dogged his every step for years. Bruce couldn't really fault him for wanting to disappear. He did resent what it cost him.

Steve's arrival accelerated something Bruce would have preferred dealing on his own timeline. The Court of Owls was patient and methodical. Precise. He needed more time before forcing their hand. But soon enough, waiting wouldn't be an option.

That's fine. He would adjust.

"No. They've been undermining Gotham for years." Long before Batman. Long before he started to believe the nursery rhymes and campfire stories about them. Then he met the Talon. The first one had been brutal, vicious. Bearing down on him like an avalanche. He had the upper hand but no answers and so the victory was a hollow one. It didn't untangle why the Court had fractured from Hydra's broader operations. Or what their endgame in Gotham needed that Hydra couldn't provide.

Questions for another time.

"The Talons will find you. You're not safe here." And he can't say for certain what their goal is or if it even aligns with Hydra's. It didn't matter. He wouldn't gamble Steve's life on their internal politics.

"I can shelter you."

For now.

Steve resents the ever-loving-hell out of a lot of things that have been the result of Hydra. Including cost and complications to parties for having even glancing contact with him.

"I'm not 'safe', anywhere." Which is said more with the air of a man commenting that the sky is blue, than a man who's... autonomy is at risk. "Hydra's like that - everywhere and nowhere." He'd let them have him back, but that would be empowering them. Dying would be letting them have him back, via indirect means. "I'm not sure you can shelter me. And it wouldn't make sense for you to, unless you have a plan, and need bait."

That's not a rejection. That's matter of factly pointing out something that seems logical to him. Also shelter him how? He ... wants that answer, but his immediate jump is to 'what is your motive'. Because Batman should want him out or dead, immediately. As far as Steve's criminal-informed, gossip based, understanding of Batman goes.

Fortunately for Bruce, this is part of the job. Minor interactions always have the potential to spiral out in ways no one else anticipates. So he anticipates them and mitigates any of the fallout before it spreads. That's the goal here.

Once Hydra decides they're ready to reclaim their asset, he doesn't doubt they'll show their hand. Putting Steve just a little further out of their reach buys Bruce time. Carves out space to think and prepare, so when they come, he's ready.

Hydra's shadow is long and deep. But Bruce thrives in dark places and Gotham wouldn't bend so easily.

"I have a plan, but I don't need you for bait."

At least not yet.

"I need you out of sight." But close enough that Bruce could still keep an eye on him. He should want Steve gone. Escort him to the city limits himself and leave him to his fate. Let the cycle repeat itself somewhere else.

Bruce refuses.

He's ending it here.

If the way Steve's eyes focus on Batman for a beat, then track to the window they came in via fire-escape, Steve is also thinking about letting the cycle repeat itself somewhere else.

That he's beside a door and eyeing a window says something about him, though. If only that his instincts to avoid being seen (and to limit harm to bystanders) are functioning just fine.

"I need me to be out of sight, too. The good news is that if you can create a big enough and cold enough freezer, I can be stored in a closet. The bad news is, I'd rather not be. I can be out of Gotham in under an hour." He just assumes that's the implication, here.

Edited (Dammit, cat, stop helping!) 2026-02-15 14:26 (UTC)

Bruce didn't know much about Hydra, a fact that grates like sandpaper. Only that they were clever at hiding their tracks and that their experiments were brutal. He's no stranger to their kind of tactics; it would just take time to unravel them and without Steve, he imagines it'll take longer than he'd like. Putting him away in a freezer might be ideal, but sounded macabre. Cruel. Did Steve still think of himself as an asset? Bruce couldn't claim his intentions were any better. He did intend to use him. But he had the decency to look at Steve like a person. Not a weapon or tool he could put away when he didn't need it anymore.

"No. If they hit us here, I can at least keep it contained." Outside of Gotham, Bruce's reach isn't nearly as long. He'd have to rely on others and that would be the back up plan to the back up plan, if he had his way. Clark would hear him if he needed him.

"I have a place. It's comfortable and secure. It'll be a few weeks before they figure out where you've been moved." If they're careful. But Bruce is always careful. Steve is too, if the footage he's seen is any indication.

"There'll be eyes on it twenty-four seven. If you need me, there'll be a way to reach me."

Steve's sense of justice is a lot more intact than his sense of autonomy. He hates Hydra because of what they use him for, not because they use him or what they do to him. If he thinks of himself as anything, it's mostly 'dangerous' and related directly to an attempt to limit damage he does, or causes.

He definitely doesn't expect consideration, in any format or context.

Doesn't mean he doesn't appreciate the hell out being talked to and given explanations - even incomplete ones. He's aware this could be a trap for him, rather than using him as bait. That wouldn't fit what he's heard of Batman.

It doesn't matter. He doesn't have any real options. So he pretty much shrugs. "I don't have any room to object to anything you decide you're going to do. If there's some way I can be useful, let me know and I will be. I need you to drag the cat out from under the sink, though. I don't want her to get locked in here and starve."

Do what you want with him. Take care of the cat.

They're both cautious enough to realize this could be a trap for either of them. Bruce doesn't doubt he's the one thing standing between the Court of Owls moving in completely. Setting him up through someone they know he wouldn't be able to resist helping would be clever. But Bruce is putting layers of protection between himself and Steve. The property he has in mind isn't directly connected to him. Oracle would handle any correspondence and if she thought something seemed off, she'd let him know.

But he isn't going to leave Steve twisting in the wind. He can't. Not in good conscience.

"Don't worry about the cat. I know someone who'll take her." He'd already decided to take the scrawny thing to Selina when he scooped it up back in the alley. Better her than letting Damian see it and having to make room for yet another pet. He finds a few more treats to coax the cat out of its hiding spot.

"I'll call the car, pack up what you need."

If it's a trap, it's a trap. Even if it's directly a Hydra ploy and the place he ends up is back with them, he won't truly be much worse off - or, rather, he won't be aware enough to know he's worse off.

Sometimes? That's almost got some appeal.

Unfortunately, the world will be.

He eyes Batman while he moves past him. He doesn't feel great about closing that distance and it shows, but he's not... threatening or skittish in an overt way. He's just tense and watchful.

It takes him less than five minutes. Basic toiletries out of the bathroom, a couple of changes of clothes out of the bedroom and then back to the kitchen where he grabs a cheap spiralbound notebook and pencil out of one of the drawers.

He's still armed. he isn't drawing attention to it, or disarming himself into a bag. "I'm ready when you are. Lead the way and I'll follow."

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