Identity

The plan

"Vigilantes," I said eventually, and they nodded. All of them had  useful skills on the street; they'd all taken martial arts at one point  or another, and as a group, they could think through problems, analyze  situations, and derive solutions. Now that I thought about it, they'd all picked back up with their training over the past few months, and I should have known something was up, but I hadn't been thinking too much beyond managing my paranoia. "I don't think I'll be much help." I  laughed shortly. "It's still an effort for me to go out in public. But  if you can think of something I can do, I'd be happy to help. If you  need a meeting place, there's always here, or I could acquire a  property, outfit it."

"We've already got a meeting place," Justine  said. "Beck had purchased a fixer-upper not too long before he was killed. It was apparently going to be a wedding gift; we'd talked about remodeling a house together after we were married, and it's a style that I love." Her face was clear from pain or anger as she said  this, focused on the new project. "It's actually not far from here,  north four blocks." I thought about it, then nodded. It was kind of a  shithole neighborhood that was resisting gentrification, nice-sized homes that would be affordable on a cop's savings. "I'm going to  rent it to Jinx and Ari for awhile, so that any further investigation into us will  be covered, and they're going to help me fix it up, so us going in and out with equipment won't be notable. Put up security; in that neighborhood it won't be questioned. But in the basement, we're going to have our own vigilante  setup. We wondered if you'd run the information aspect of it for us. You  could work here or there."

"None of us can work a computer like  you can, and very few people know that you have any skills that way,"  Nix said. I thought about the possibilities and smiled.

"This  way you can be included too," Mark said. "In a meaningful way. You also  have access to people and places we don't, so you can collect  information the old fashioned way as well."

"Is your dad included in the parental roundup?" I asked Nix.

"Nope,"  he said. "He and I have been tap-dancing around the situation since the Joker reappeared; he's furious that the Joker went after you again.  His safest bet is still neutrality. I don't want him back in that  lifestyle, and I want him around for years yet. I'd like him to expire peacefully, of old age, maybe seeing another generation or two of Cobblepots toddling around."

"And we really don't want him to get in trouble because of  us," Imogen said. We all nodded; Mr Cobblepot had been really good to  all of us over the years.

"He doesn't know exactly what we're  planning, but he suspects. If asked, he'll pass along information about  the particular level of the underworld that we'll be working in. He'll  let us know when he has something for us. If we increase our presence  there at the lounge before we actually start, it won't look suspicious if we drop in more frequently. This isn't going to happen fast."

"We're  all working on our disguises and aliases. Jinx and Imogen will be  working to outfit us with tools, modifying off-the-shelf stuff." They were creative that way and Jinx  could do the science and engineering thing handily, even if it wasn't up to Batman standards. "We'll also be  grabbing any tech we come across in our mission, reverse engineer it,  make it fit our needs." Mark said. "I was wondering if you could help  construct the actual disguises since you can sew."

"I can do that," I said. "Do we have a 3D printer, or do we need one?"

We talked some more, taking a couple of hours to discuss the formation of the vigilante group and the set-up in the basement of Justine's house. The boys were moving in the next week, and Justine had dimensions for me so I could plan. It went without saying that I'd be funding a sizeable chunk of the operation, but I didn't mind a bit. This was something that I could take part in, and it was something important. I wouldn't just be pathetic dead weight while my friends went out to eliminate evil, covering my paranoid butt. While I had everybody there, I took measurements and would start sourcing fabrics and body armor to incorporate into their costumes. The next time I went out to the estate, I'd pop down to the cave, take a look at the construction of the Batman and Robin outfits for hints. I wanted my friends to be safe. They also had to start thinking about their 'look,' what they wanted to present themselves as. Only Nix had an idea; his codename would be 'Ash,' and he wanted a plain costume in ash gray. Some sort of featureless head covering.