2014.02.23 - The One Who Burned

The burnt-out husk of the Mary Elsworth Children's Hospital looks like it's still smoking a bit even days after the flames were put out. But it's really just all the ash being whipped up by the chill wind that claws its way through the alleys of Gotham. Fingers of air, ice-cold and nearly painful, do their best to shroud the flame-gutted structure in a black and grey curtain. While not a super high-tech hospital, it was still able to attend to the healthcare needs of patients. It was one of the few smaller hospitals in Gotham that wasn't struggling just to keep going. The generous donations from Daggett Industries might have had something to do with that.

And the fact that Roland Daggett was donating to a children's hospital might have had something to do with why the hospital burned down. As a public figure, Daggett's reputation was rather... Mixed. Most people didn't really know what he got up to -- the kinds of unsavory practices he used to try to get the upperhand on Wayne Enterprises. It was mostly the ones who suffered from this schemes that came to know that Daggett was a selfish, greedy, ruthless man who would do just about anything to get what he wanted.

But there were others, whose business it was to know Roland's business: the sort of people Roland Daggett would have strongly preferred to have stay way, way, way far away from his business. People like Batman... And other detectives.

The day is overcast, gloomy as only Gotham can be -- like a 'real world' version of the bleak and abysmal Underworld as ruled by Hades in Greek Mythology. Though given what Batwoman knew now about the supernatural and paranormal, she wouldn't be surprised if Hades and the Underworld both existed as well. Still, the dim light that filtered down through soot-stained clouds, choked with the miasma of industry, rendered the afternoon into an early dusk.

With the towering buildings all around, some modern and covered in windows that would be gleaming in better lighting but instead only reflect the other dark buildings and the swirling skies overhead, and imposing skyscrapers littered with scowling stone statues, hard edges, and gothic designs, and the limited ambient illumination that made it down this far, Batwoman nearly feels like she is standing amongst sunken ruins at the bottom of the ocean following some apocalypse. The police tape around the site fluttering in the biting wind, the wind itself, and the noises of the city carried thereupon help to dispel the illusion. With both her black cape with red interior, and her flame-red hair whipping out and off to the side, tugged and pulled as though by invisible hands, if it was noise and tacticle stimulation that would help to focus her, there was plenty to be had even just standing in place.

But she could not just stand in place. Treading carefully, she does what the GCPD had probably done. Sift through the remains. Search for signs of accelerants. Lift bits and pieces of the building to see what lay beneath. Rescue efforts were still underway elsewhere at this site, trying to find where the five missing children might have gone to, but they had diminished when it was determined there was no real place in what was left of the hospital where they could have been if they were either buried OR dead. It still means she can not take her time digging through the place. Eventually she will be noticed.

And she might be anyway, because there are others who may be aware of the fire and come to investigate -- for whatever reason.

Gotham was used to odd sights. Nearly every night large bats came out to protect the city. They kept evils at bay. How would they react to something with feathers? Well, everyone was about to find out. The moon shined brightly causing a silhouette of a winged man, or an "angel" as some may have dubbed it, to cascade over the cityscape.

Landing in the ruins Hawkman began to look around. Clearly he wasn't one for subtlety for landing in such an inconspicuous fashion. Dressed in green tights with dark red boots that had bits of yellow with leather straps that went around his chest and the grey wings, he began to move about the wreckage. The smell of smoke still lingered. Everything about the ruins reminded him of the War. Ground troops were sometimes sent into wreckages after a place had been bombed. Hawkman had seen a few back then. He was just thankful the any burnt corpses were taken away. For as long as he lived, Hawkman would have never forgotten about those corpses.

His bare hands sifted through the rubble trying to find something that just stuck out. Some key piece of evidence had to be overlooked. A blasting cap maybe? Fuses? Something had to give. Brown eyes roamed over every inch that was near him. Maybe he would have gotten a magical hunch.

Magic and Hawkman had an odd relationship. No one was going to make him Sorcerer Supreme anytime soon, but he wasn't useless when it came to magic either. Sometimes he got hunches. Other times he figured out how some magical doodad worked. If the hospital had foul ties maybe magic was involved? That's why Hawkman was here. All the "real" magic users were probably fighting some inhuman creature trying to breach the fabric of reality. A fire was small time stuff at best in their eyes.

Moon Knight had heard rumors about this guy, about this place. And now it burns down? Worth the investigation, atleast. Perched atop one of the nearby buildings, Moon Knight stares down in his noticable costume, spotting the winged man. Seems he wasn't the only one investigating today.

Moony glid down to the ground, heading towards the rubble. If this hawk dude gets to run around, why can't Khonshu's guardian? Huh?

He glanced around, looking down through the rubble. He looked around anyone he can see, trying to use his astral vision to shift out demons and witches and the like.

But he had a peculiar way of investigating. Instead of sifting through stuff...he was tapping the ground, looking up to the sky. Probably hoping for a blessing of sorts. Not that he was probably going to get it, Khonshu's lazy.

Flapping wings draw Batwoman's attention as she is just starting to examine an odd piece of machinery with a relatively-uncharred metal casing. She would sort of blend in if not for her bright-red hair, but it seems she was under sufficient cover from the crumbling support beams overhead -- one of which chose that moment to drizzle ashes on her from above as though to remind her the fire-weakened structure is not safe -- that she went unnoticed.

On Hawkman's side of things, there seems to not be any IMMEDIATE evidence of magic usage... But there's still a sort of... Unpleasantness. Like something bad happened here. Hands sorting through wreckage, eyes searching for clues, it is not long before another investigator joins Hawkman on the scene -- though not announcing himself. Something hard and metallic clangs under Hawkman's foot. It seems fairly large, but light enough that if he removes the detritus from atop it he can pick it up easily. A charred metal disc -- unmelted, and still showing some of its reflective surface. It's intended purpose is unclear, but a tangle of ruined electronics still dangles from the back of it. What exactly is this thing?

At the same time this is happening, Moon Knight's own investigation will reveal there is definitely a presence of the paranormal here. Nothing MAGIC per se, but something beyond the norm. Whispers of the voices of children. Distantly, a cry of rage. The spectral after-image of a fire that is no longer there. Around the time that the noises are starting to become a bit sharper, the speech almost understandable, Batwoman reveals her presence to both Hawkman and Moon Knight. "I'm assuming you're here to investigate, not to scavenge?" the slightly-hoarse voice that Batwoman uses when 'on the job' calls out at a volume that will not carry TOO far as she steps through a door frame that stands without a wall to be set in.

"Batwoman," she introduces herself. "I haven't noticed any sign of accelerants or explosives so far."

"Yep," Hawkman said to the woman casually. His head turned slightly to see the black and red costume. The giant bat symbol across her chest said she was trustworthy. Looking to Moon Knight, Hawkman asked, "You too?" Again there was a garish costume with a symbol, but a moon didn't have the credibility a bat had, especially in Gotham. Once Moon Knight was found to be on the up and up Hawkman brought his findings to the group, "Something bad happened here. Not sure if it's the after effects of something horrible, or if something horrible was part of," a hand gestured to everything, "All this." The disembodied voices didn't bother Hawkman. Something terrible happened here. A ghost or some residual -like effect from buning the hospital lingered more than likely. There was a chance something dark, like occult dark, could have happened too. "Hard to say."

"Moon Knight, I gravitate between the two big cities.". Moon Knight is grinning under his mask, a nod of the head, before he looks over.

"None of this is normal. I'm seeing an after-image of the fire, and it's a bit ghostly. My inside man just tapped me, and I'll owe him for this, into some ghostly child voices and a cry of rage. No idea what's going on, though.". Moon Knight shrugs, before looking around.

"You're one of the Bat people, right? You guys fight any demons, voodoo sorcerors, any of that crap?".

The white lenses in her mask conceal what her eyes might be doing, but she is definitely examing the big metal disc that is held up. She doesn't recognize it or its purpose. Moving forward a bit, she extends a hand cautiously to test the material along its edge. Heat-resistant, whatever it is. As she reaches down to her belt and withdraws a very compact, very high-tech camera to start taking a visual record of the device and examine it in ways the naked eye generally can't, she answers Moon Knight with, "I can't speak for the others, but I do seem to get some of the weirder cases. Demons, ghosts, trips to other dimensions... Is that what you think happened here? Something supernatural?" There's no tone of derision or disbelief evident in her voice. She seems to be asking seriously.

That would make this incident even more of a mystery if it's true. She doesn't recall Daggett having any involvement with the paranormal... But then maybe it wasn't intentional on his part? Still, weird machines and a fire without an obvious cause are pieces of the puzzle. If there's ghosts involved, then that's an aspect to consider as well.

To be honest, she had heard about the kids and their hallucinations, and thought SOMETHING was up, but she wasn't prepared to chalk it up to 'ghosts' first thing. There's a LOT of weird crap in Gotham that isn't magic. She decides to bring that up, however as she lifts the cables underneath the disc and tries to see what they might have been used for. This one is power, this one is for an A/V input... "The children that survived apparently are receiving psychiatric treatment according to my sources. Being caught in a fire is traumatic." After pocketting a thin, unusual cable, Batwoman puts away the camera as well and says, "I think someone needs to pay them a visit and see if there's something the doctors might have missed... Or dismissed. I'm going to do some investigating about these machines. They don't look like medical technology, and something over there has Daggett Industries' mark on it. If they made these things, they'll know what they do."

She pauses as she starts to turn away. Then she asks Moon Knight, "Who was it that sounded angry? An adult or a child?"

"Well that could be trauma. Was there any reported fatalities? If there are, how many?" Hawkman asked Batwoman. Batman was skilled and observational. Stories about him being meticulous, thanks to League findings, passed the rounds. A safe bet was to presume anyone with a Bat on their chest was just as meticulous. It wasn't a sure-fire bet, but an extremely safe one given the lineage she was connected to.

There was a method to Hawkman's madness. If there was a fatality the voices could have been residual or something more. If there was any then it meant there was something more. "Spirits linger when their deaths came traumatically. Why do you think there are ghost stories about Crime Alley and how one spot is haunted? The Wayne's died in that alley. A lot of alleged ghost get pegged for them," every city had their own ghost story and Gotham was no different. "Ghosts are real. I've met one once, he was a gentleman and an asshole. They can get made through trauma and bargains with God only knows what. Just ruling out possibilities with my questions," he went on his eyes were still scanning the area for that little something. "What have you two figured out?"

Moon Knight pauses for a second. "Child. Perhaps one of the casualties..or maybe a past casualty at the hospital?". Moon Knight pauses, taking a look. "I'm no Batman or Hawkdude or whatever you are, but I have a hypothesis or whatever. What if the fire was started by a kid who died? Maybe Daggett skimped on treatment or something because of costs, and the kid got his revenge. It could explain why no children were found dead, too.".

Moon Knight pauses again. "Ghosts are totally real. I can say this just by the fact I've died. Twice.".

Moon Knight then nods to Batwoman, but shakes his head. "I think there's a more..mystical connection? Unless you have some sort of damn sorceror or something I don't think the kids will draw up much. And my mystical abilities of that sort only go up to spotting demons and ghosts and hidden crap.".

Batwoman nods to Hawkman. "Seven. Two nurses died, and five children are missing. Some are saying that the children died as well, but there's been no sign of their remains so far." She hopes they're not dead, of course, but she is prepared for the possibility. If it's a ghost from BEFORE the fire then there's the possibility they may have been abducted into some kind of spirit... ...Thing. She's not an expert on this stuff, and is glad there are those who are already involved. Turning to Moon Knight when he shows his own knoweldge of the case, she suggests, "If we can identify who the ghost may be via the children, that's still something. Everything is a clue. A description, a way of speaking, a repeated behavior, side-effects of its presence... Or maybe they might have an idea who or what started the fire. I intend to ask questions of the 'grown-ups' as well, but children tend to be more honest. And if someone shows up who is willing to listen when they say they saw a ghost instead of telling them it's all made-up, they may have more to say than otherwise. Maybe they won't have anything useful. But it's still something that needs to be followed up on."

Batwoman isn't about to start giving orders to two people she just met, but since these two have shown an interest in solving this mystery, she at least feels she can offer suggestions. "If you think you can track down the ghost, see if the hospital has anything strange in its history, or that sort of thing, I encourage you to do so. I don't have that sort of mystical awareness, so you're the one best suited if that's your specialty." Then she turns to Hawkman. "If you can visit the hospital the kids are at, even if you can't get permission to talk to them directly, at least taking a look around and seeing if there's anyone who WILL talk can help. Roland Daggett is not a nice man. He was donating a LOT of money to this hospital, and that means he was expecting to profit from it somehow."

Batwoman starts walking away, heading towards the half-buried machine she was examining before. After cracking open the case and examining its interior -- taking more photos as well, she scowls and adds on, "Batman has more experience dealing with him than I do, but I know enough about Dagget that he may try to cover up whatever he was doing here. The fire may have even been part of doing that, for all we know. I wouldn't put it past him to try to do something about all the survivors as well." She looks over her shoulder, and says, "There's three things to look into. I could try to do them myself, but I get the feeling we're racing against time. If each of us does some investigating on our own, I think that would be best. I can't give your orders, but I suggest we work together on this."

The flame-haired woman tosses pair of devices that she must have removed from her belt at some point towards the two other heroes. One to Hawkman, and one to Moon Knight. "We can stay in contact with those radios. Press the button to talk. I'm going to pay a visit to someone at Daggett Industries and see why a pharmaceutical company has suddenly branched out into brain-mapping computer hardware." Then she vanishes from sight behind a wall fragment for a moment, only for the quiet hum of an engine to start up and a sleek black motorcycle to roll into view. Once she's heard any replies, she takes off out of the wreckage and onto the wind-swept street.

Hawkman looked over the area, "I can pull in a favor or two. Maybe Zee will show up. She can be better determined the nature and origin of the voice. When someone talked about hitting the Hospital, "I'll ask the kids. If it has mystic and magical stink on it this could be very bad. The man behind it becomes twice or three times as dangerous. From what you two have talked about and the rumors alone, I don't want that to be the case," he admitted. One of the last thing anyone needed was an alleged crime figure with strong mystical tie.

Snagging the communicator he smiled at Batwoman, "I'll keep in touch," his gaze went to Moon Knight, "You'd look better in black. Ever thought of joining her family?" he gestured to Batwoman. "Seems you could be a good fit," and it was a genuine compliment. Seconds later he pushed off the ground heading toward the hospital.

"Heh, I'll pass.". Moon Knight says to Hawkman, before grappling off himself, having no responses to anything else.