Shadows in the Night

Rune had initially come to visit this city for two reasons. One, was that prior to that weird day, he never recalled hearing of it. The other had been that he intended to see what and where he could make some investments. Truthfully you could never have too much money, and aside from what went to charities, there was money he kept to the side for various other things, including the 3 daughters he knew of. His eldest two may still hate him and refuse to talk to him, but they weren't against taking his money. At least to him, it meant they didn't truly despise him the way he did his uncle. A small victory on that front but he'd take it. Though, arriving here, he found that things were as bad as they were in New York if not worse.

Tonight though, he had enough and had spent the night roaming the roof tops with the AI tucked safely in his left forearm guard tapped into police bands. He'd spent the night going after anything he could find. Robberies, Rapists, whatever. A few had been odd though, as they had mentioned this "Bat" or asked if he was this "Batman". Naturally his answer was no, but he was curious as to what these ramblings were about. Was there really a giant bat running around this city? Or was it some kind of vampire, he'd never seen one before, least not on earth. He wondered if those one's in movies were what they were like here granted they were often touted as myth. Course, by those standards, he was close 75% myth, yet here he was. He doubted though that they sparkled, particularly this bat if he was confused for him. The black outer leather and cloth of his armour was made to reflect little and no light at all.

As the sun came up though, he slid the ring on to his finger that brought up the illusion that he was wearing normal clothes. However he sensed something and as he turned his head just enough caught movement towards him from above. He ducked back in an alley and removed the ring again, pulling the hood and cloth up to conceal all but his eyes before bounding up to the walls to the rooftops where he could better move without people blocking him or cars. Though, after a few rooftops and several minutes, it became apparent that whoever was chasing him was not normal, not by earth standards. Usually, he could shake a tail on roof tops, especially as he changed from roof top to lower levels. But this pursuer kept pace and he was running out of usable roof top, and he didn't want to drag a potential fight to the streets, too many possible civilians in the way. So he skidded to a top as he reeled around in a defensive stance with his hand on the hilt of his sword in case he had to draw, his eyes narrowed as he focused on his pursuer to see what he would do.

There was an audible, guttural growl when his tone became threating and briefly Rune's pupils changed slightly from a normal round circle to somewhat of a vertical oval. He looked over what the person in front of him had analyzing what he could. The materials were unknown to him, but looked normal in a way that would never stop a blade or bullet. The cowl's points were a little too short to be use as a weapon, the biggest question came from the gauntlets and the belt, given the several pockets it had. " You're a fan of illusions? A friend of mine can do something similar. Question is, what are you doing running around Gotham using them for? I warn you I don't take kindly to criminals in my city. Now talk or ill be forced to make you. "

His grip on his sword loosened slight as did his stance when he mentioned illusions. "As impressive as it is that you kept pace with me across the roof tops, I doubt you could make me talk." he said, "This friend you speak of, do you mean someone who can actually use magic or illusions, or these fools that use smoke and mirrors to fool others?" He was curious as with obvious exceptions of himself, grandmother, and a couple others that had come with them, he'd never seen anyone on this planet use ACTUAL magic. "Criminal is also a rather subjective term, defined by an individual. Some however the majority agree upon. Could have fooled me however with how many I've seen in the last couple days and dealt with tonight, and that was simply the ones I stumbled across and could get to". Though as he looked again, he noticed the logo on his suit. "I'm guessing your this bat I keep hearing about, so I'm guessing you know something of illusions given half the people I've dealt with tonight paint you as some supernatural monster or the like"

Rune raised an eyebrow as the man commented that the other he knew wasn't from around here, then asked what planet he was actually from. He could only assume that some form of identifier had been spotted before he got the hood up, namely his hair and his eye colour, naturally unaware of the change earlier in his pupil's. Clearly, he was either smarter, luckier, or more realistic than other humans. Most chalked it up to partial albinism, and he played along with it. Once he walked to the edge and all, it was obvious at this point he wasn't looking for a fight so he stood normally and removed his hand from the hilt.

"Well, as I said, they did speak of you as some sort of monster or supernatural being, though it's clear they also never encountered you as they mistook me in a couple cases for you." He replied, "As for where I'm actually from and what I'm doing here, that's compli...." was as far as he got before a semi distorted female voice said "It's not that complicated when you know things and don't start your secretive nonsense, it's likely not working on this one", by the end the voice becoming more normalized and a small ghostly female figure appeared hovering near his wrist. The figure pointed at Rune before saying "Don't mind him, he has some issues including paranoia... understandably or otherwise, as to where he's from, all the looking I've done Earth scientists haven't found it yet, and neither of us know what the world is referred to at this point, what few files I have left of earlier times make no mention of that. However..." she paused as her hands moved and at first, a diagram of the city appeared before zooming out to earth, and cycled through zooms till it was far enough to show a line between earth and where he was from and the route used to get here, followed by a second window that showed it comparable to the entire galaxy and where it was relative to both Earth and the center of the galaxy. "Even by galactic standards, not exactly a short trip, and a far older part of the galaxy than this planet which is a region typically considered a little more back water, though it has shown potential. Surprised by the lack of how far you've gotten but it seems like somewhere you lost all the technology you had which is...odd. Even his planet kept variations on the tech and some sections more of it after a calamity that made them almost paranoid and afraid of it.", her hand going to her chin as she thought about that for a bit, well, by her standards, seconds in actual time.

"As for why he's here, he was SUPPOSED to just be here looking to invest in things, property, business's, maybe some better tech stuff thats a bit more advanced" the last part with her looking at him with a certain tone. "Yeah, yeah, I know, you hate being limited to the chip and most of the current computers" he said rolling his eyes as he pulled the hood and cloth down as it could be somewhat stifling. "But yes, that was his main goal, but after a couple days seeing what even happened in broad daylight he felt compelled to intervene tonight despite having some things scheduled for today.... eccentric millionaire recluse excuse only goes so far. By the way, that one guy with the knife, probably not going to be able to ever walk with out a cane with all the damage you apparently did to his knee and leg going by the hospital database" She added, rather unimpressed. "He pulled it on me after he and his pal went after a girl half their size and age... not gonna feel sorry for him." he replied with a shrug of his shoulders "not like I killed anyone". The hologram folded it's arms before saying "So, yes, the lack of scum on the streets today is connected to him, and maybe that means he can NOT have me up all night tapped into emergency services communications since your around, seriously, it's the same reason as much as I like being informed on things as I can without him letting me hack the real good stuff, I hate watching the news."

There was a slight twitch in his eye as he heard "less desirable citizens". Those considered as such on his home and possibly here were the only ones to take him in and help him as a kid, so he generally found the term highly insulting given sometimes, they were far better people than normal citizens... but he didn't know the story and on this world, the kind that weren't all bad seemed to be rare. "At the very least the wrong kind of "less desirable" ones" he said. "Also, can't really take credit for her" he said, pointing at the figure, "I found her in some old ruins. She wanted to leave for the first time in a while, I felt I needed to leave my home planet". The ai chiming in right after "He was also one of the few less primitive minded ones to realize I'm not a damned ghost or spirit or the like and had a clue what I meant when I said artificial intelligence.... as terrible as he is with your Earth computers."

The AI continued as she said "he's in this city just looking at investing and all really, make some more money for various reasons, maybe do a little good and maintain his general life style with ease. I'm the one really looking for tech. Basically since we got here till you people finally discovered wireless signals for things like internet and all I've been trapped in this chip and before that it was in one computer that while it was larger and I could actually go to at least a full size limited me to rooms inside the buildings for... well, I'm not sure how long... I turned off date data at some point because I felt it was going to drive me mad. At the very least I'd lie access to holographic projectors of a even slightly bigger scale and a computer that I can fit more than a minor fraction of my self in. More interested though in things like robotics, prosthetics, etc as before the collapse of the first society they were looking at the idea of putting AI in bodies for various purposes, namely to help some..... better adjust." She wasn't quite sure how else to phrase that one. "I believe a simple analogy would be this story you have of "Pinocchio" wanting to be a real boy."

"What she said" Rune said, beyond his finances, half the techno babble was lost on him, "What exactly is this "Justice league"? He was curious, as it sounded similar to these so called Avengers he had heard about. Plus, there were always questions when it came to teams. He had been on one on his homeworld and given his associations, his particular skill sets and well, certain personality traits and habits, there had been a good deal of infighting at times, particularly with the half witted half elf and the holier than thou pain in the ass. "As far as my "agenda" for the most part it was live a somewhat simpler life for a change." He added, the AI then chiming in again "And intervene in some manner in armed conflicts, deal with some of the nut cases out there, stop any criminal that crosses your lines on right and wrong aka most on this planet, and try and get two of your three daughters to NOT hate you and.." she was cut off as Rune said "okay, I get it, it's been anything but", a slightly annoyed tone in his voice.