Alison's progress

1 0 0
                                    

Ali spent sometime to herself in the batcave. It was her turn to rest from the search for Jade. It was a rotating schedule, which unfortunately meant someone had to have double a load or they work from home. Ali decided to work from the cave, looking at footage from places Jade was last seen, trying to notice anything out of place.

She was viewing footage of the last day Jade was at the Diner with Bart. Nothing seemed too out of the ordinary, she just sat up on the bar with Ali for the longest. As she fast forward the tape, she paused seeing her bump into someone. Ali stared at the man, he resided at her regular's table the one day. "Huh..." her mind began to wonder, the guy's face looked familiar. "Alfred...Do you have the recording of Jade's showcase?" "I do, do you want to put it on for you?" Ali nodded as she kept staring at the stilled frame.

Alfred uploaded the video to the cloud and once it was done installing, Ali wasted no time clicking on it. She scrolled to the segment of Jade bringing up a random on stage.

"Let's give it up to Richie everybody!"

Ali studied the frames side by side of the two men on the camera in front of her. Could it be pure coincidence that the two ran into each other at the diner? Or is it something else? And what are the odds that those two losers know someone else? Ali took a deep breath as she slid the chair over to the white board with multiple photos and their suspect board.

There was Talon, but he was crossed out a long time ago when he came to them within the third day of Jade's disappearance.

According to the Council, There was no Kang or Phaedra threat currently. However, Damian did throw a fit at them.

"You all are required to keep tabs on your most powerful asset! Without her, you all would crumble" Damian had a tight sneer looking at the group in their chairs, mainly his eyes never left the empty chair that sat next to Doctor Fate. "So what's the real reason we can't ask for precise location?"

"Not to be a dick kid, it'll be too easy" Doctor Strange took the risk of speaking seeing how no one else would. "There's certain...things we have to go through to be here"

It became clear to them that the council would be no help in aiding Jade's recuse. Not even a chant, hymn, or riddle they could spare.

Jade didn't have many enemies, she didn't have any bitter exes, so what was the deal? Why would the Ghostface cult be after her? The bats all have their theories but they all sounded off to Ali.

"Obviously someone is just trying to make a statement with kidnapping her. They think she's apart of the elitist" Damian had his first conclusion and it took a lot to change his mind.

"Talon says the cult hates all elitism, even the court. But Jade being on the list seem unlikely seeing how if they wanted to make a statement they would've gone after Bruce or maybe even Ali" Tim rebutted his brother, a slight huff.

Ali glanced over at the picture taken of the crumbling balcony of Wayne Tower. Bruce had told them that a bright beam shot a corner of the balcony when he was on his lunch. Immediately they all knew it was Jade, which made them happy to learn that she was still alive.

"Bat computer, Show me the areas that the balcony on Wayne tower faces" Ali watched as the holographic table appeared in front of her, as she spun the area around looking for the potential scene. "South east..." the computer moved to show the show East buildings of Gotham. She crosses her rob around her as she began to think. "If she was able to knock that corner piece of the balcony, it's safe to say she had a small window and small amount of space to hit it from a certain angle."

Ali circled the table, placing her finger near the broken corner of the balcony and tracing a line. Ali's finger landed in the general area of the back end of Gotham. Near the bridge and Old Gotham. "Alfred, keep some members west and north Gotham. But most of us need to be towards old Gotham" Ali took a sip from her coffee, moving her free finger to point at the scene. "I want a background check on that guy. He's our prime suspect at the moment" Ali stared at the photo of the mysterious guy on the screen. Ali was moving off of nothing but her gut, she knows something is off about him.

She looked at the count down, one hundred and five days since Jade's disappearance. Ali bit the inside of her cheek as she sat back at the computer. She played the rest of Jade's showcase, looking at the different camera angles panning around the theatre. She sunk back in her chair looking at the footage while sipping his coffee. That's when she saw it, she nearly choked on her coffee. She paused the footage immediately, the camera had panned over to a few people in the crowd, two of those people being her regulars

Again.

"Hm." Ali looked back at the suspect board. She had another feeling...

Taken Where stories live. Discover now