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.
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.
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."
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.
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."
Bruce can feel the tension, almost like he can see it. So there are no sudden movements. He doesn't want to spook Steve and of course, he doesn't want to spook the cat he's managed to coax out. He wasn't much interested in chasing it around the apartment. When it's in reach, he pets it before scooping it up again.
The car is summoned with the press of a button on his belt and outside he can hear the roar of the engines, heralding its arrival before it quiets to nothing but a hum among the scattered noises of the city. In his hear, Bruce tells Barbara to do a sweep and make sure there aren't any errant signatures lingering where they shouldn't or silent alarms giving away their position. She confirms there aren't.
Relieved that it doesn't take Steve long to get his things together Bruce nods toward the fire escape. "After you. The car's unlocked."
It's a monster of a machine idling in the alleyway, a deep black that would leave it virtually invisible in the shadows. Security measures have been disabled so when either of them get close, the doors will open with ease.
Steve reacts to the car's approach, turning his head the direction the sound of it's approach is coming from. The moment between it being in the alley and cutting from a roar to a hum, there's a barely perceptible grimace, just because the specific pitch at volume is physically uncomfortable.
He's pretty... tensely cooperative and remote, otherwise. He does what he's told and doesn't ask any of the many, many questions he has. He doesn't hesitate in approaching the ominous, entirely too black, car or in getting in it. He is increasingly sure this is going to end terribly for him and really, he should get out of here - the car, the city, probably the country.
He focuses entirely too much on the way Batman has interacted with the cat as a weight against his paranoia.
He is dead silent while the car is in motion. No sudden moves, no threats, just there and more creepy about being there than he realizes, and waiting for the thing to get them to wherever they're going.
He'll 'unlock' again once they arrive and he isn't immediately ambushed. Really.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
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.
no subject
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.
no subject
"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."
no subject
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.
no subject
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."
no subject
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."
no subject
The car is summoned with the press of a button on his belt and outside he can hear the roar of the engines, heralding its arrival before it quiets to nothing but a hum among the scattered noises of the city. In his hear, Bruce tells Barbara to do a sweep and make sure there aren't any errant signatures lingering where they shouldn't or silent alarms giving away their position. She confirms there aren't.
Relieved that it doesn't take Steve long to get his things together Bruce nods toward the fire escape. "After you. The car's unlocked."
It's a monster of a machine idling in the alleyway, a deep black that would leave it virtually invisible in the shadows. Security measures have been disabled so when either of them get close, the doors will open with ease.
no subject
He's pretty... tensely cooperative and remote, otherwise. He does what he's told and doesn't ask any of the many, many questions he has. He doesn't hesitate in approaching the ominous, entirely too black, car or in getting in it. He is increasingly sure this is going to end terribly for him and really, he should get out of here - the car, the city, probably the country.
He focuses entirely too much on the way Batman has interacted with the cat as a weight against his paranoia.
He is dead silent while the car is in motion. No sudden moves, no threats, just there and more creepy about being there than he realizes, and waiting for the thing to get them to wherever they're going.
He'll 'unlock' again once they arrive and he isn't immediately ambushed. Really.