John Doe Part 3 (Patreon)

Stephanie flopped back into her bed and groaned, legs kicking the air as the papers crumpled in her hands in frustration. 

Because as it happened, another eighteen hours thought in the back of her head, had not materialized the solution to this little case, as re-reading the notes so proved.

'Not, that it hasn't been helpful,' she mused, half glaring at the blocky letters.

'Mr Doe, you must have someone looking out for you, cos your insurance provider has changed three times in a year and despite plenty of doctors, none of them ever leave any notes.' She pulled out another piece of paper and nodded, 'Your nurse however has more of a paper trail.'

It wasn't much of one, a Ms Lita, and as far as Stephanie could tell, she was the nurse to handle John Doe's intake; If it was that alone, Stephanie might have ignored it. However, the fact she'd found Lita's log-in information tied to Jon Doe's case told her, the nurse was the one covering for him.

'What I don't know is why,' She groaned and let the papers drop.

"Maybe she's in a database..." A small smirk spread on her lips, "A bat database!"

If Ms Lita had ties to any criminal gangs in Gotham, she was certain Batman would know.

Now she just had to figure out how to get this information to him and convince him it was worth while.

'Maybe a little bird would have more luck, than a walking plot reveal?'

Flinging herself off her bed, Stephanie made for her gear.

It was time for Spoiler to take to the rooftops!
___________________________________________________________________________

Tracking down the newest Boy Wonder wasn't the hardest thing in the world, but it wasn't easy either.

Fortunately, word on the street told of an above average number of protection racketeers getting their asses handed to them by fourteen year old in Penguin's territory and that was all she needed.

Camping out near the Iceberg lounge, Spoiler flittered across rooftops and between alleyways, slowly expanding her search radius - and stopping a mugging in progress, fun!- Before a glint of red and green caught her eyes from across the street.

Whipping out a high powered torch her dad used in some of his heists that she'd painted a Bat Symbol on, Steph flashed the dark haired vigilante and grinned when he spun around and balked as she waved. Watching him draw his grappling hook she half expected him to just land in the roof but instead he motioned for her to follow as he shot across the sky. 

Spoiler raced after him, hand held grapple straining to keep pace.

After a solid five minutes run, they came to a halt on a large storehouse that backed onto a construction firm and now Robin was glaring at her.

Great start.

"What are you doing out her, Steph?"

"Spoiler," She corrected, "And I need your help with a case, there's this-"

Robin was waving his arms, "No, no, no! No more cases, no more vigilant-ing, we talked about this Steph."

'You talked,' she wanted to snap, "Dude, come on, there's this really weird John Doe and if you help me I can help you."

"I don't want your help, Steph," He said sternly, before sighing, "Look, Batman and Oracle have made it pretty clear you need to stop playing vigilante and go home."

"Who the fuck is Oracle?" She watched him stiffen and despite the whited out eyes she saw his gaze flicker to a security camera for but a moment. 'Huh, neat.'

"Nobody, look, you're pretty and cool and all Steph but you aren't ready for this, go home," Robin said again.

"Backhanded compliments much? I've handled myself just fine so far, thank you," she huffed.

"You've gotten lucky," Robin countered.

"And you haven't?" She asked, brow arching, stretching the white eyes of her mask higher.

"I've had training, that's the difference, Steph; luck can only happen so much, skill is earned," He said as if quoting from a book, or more likely Batman.

"Look, I just want you to some facial scans and blood work-"

Robin placed a palm over his face and groaned, "Steph-"

"Spoiler!" She snapped.

He dropped his hand, all beleaguered-ness and cheer gone as he said, "Go home, that's an order, I have work to do."

He drew his grapple and launched himself into the sky with a, "Later Steph."

It was only through a truly heroic display of willpower she stopped herself from lobbing a brick at his head.

Snorting, Spoiler turned her attention to the security camera and marched up towards it.

"You know, people have been talking for awhile now about how the Bats and Birds have had much better intel than they used to. I don't suppose you'd be willing to help me Oracle?" She bounced on her feet and was surprised when her old second hand pager buzzed to life.

Drawing it from her bag, Steph groaned at the message from a blanked out number that just read, "Go home."

Sighing, she let her whole body slump backwards limply, "Great, old fashioned way it is then."
___________________________________________________________________________

Spoiler broke into a police station.

Or more, she snuck into a police station.

Specifically one of the one's on the edge of the city and across the bridge.

It made for one hell of a ride, but as the bridges gave way to rough, grassy knoll, she was rewarded with an extremely sparse check-point station, filled with bored and inattentive cops.

Being 4 AM, she wasn't surprised most were barely on duty, but fortunately as she skulked through the dimly lit station, she wasn't looking for a cop, but an unattended computer.

That was unfortunately proving difficult, so she decided to cheat.

Pulling a row of firecrackers from her satchel, Spoiler flicked open a lighter and as the fuse lit, she tossed it out the nearest window.

'Five seconds,' she told herself, speeding on all fours down the dark hallway and sliding herself down behind a medium size bin behind the hallway door, burying herself in cloak and hood as the explosions started.

Bursts of spectacular color and smoke filled the car park, with its two squad cars, and the explosive noise began to increase, louder and louder as the stations few police raced outside, guns drawn, not even thinking to look down, let alone back.

As the six voice joined the enraged chorus outside, Spoiler shot out from her hiding spot and rolled through the door. Letting it swing shut gently behind her, she tied the door handle off to the nearest table with some resin reinforced rope her father used in heists that she'd figured out how to recreate with string.

"Find the brat who did this!"

"They might be armed!"

"Lights on, be ready to call in back up!"

Spoiler tsked and shook her head as she slid onto the only active computers seat and began flicking her way through Gotham's databases aaaaand...

'Not even a sign of Lita, fucking hell!'

Dismissing that as a potential false alias, she turned her attention, hastily, to the Jon Doe's of Gotham, which was longer than the Lita's, but also easier to sort through given the time frame. It was only as the printer was finishing regurgitating lists and pictures and time frames  for her that the cops came rushing back in.

'This should be fun!'

Spoiler ducked down before the first shot even came flying through the window and cackled as the door was yanked open, toppling a desk and shattering the computer with a clatter, stunning the cops.

She loosed a trio of gas pellets and started to move before they exploded.

Shots were fired, but she was a leaping, lunging, rolling blur and when she finally burst through the door, the station was flooded with smoke and gas that stung the eyes and left the skin itching.

"Back to your sty, piggies!" She crowed, leaping through the front door and doing a front flip over the last cop, loosing a metal shrinking epoxy on his gun as she soared over head, this time aiming for the barrel and watched as the triggered clicked.

And nothing happened.

Looking betrayed and suddenly terrified, he ran and Spoiler made her escape, chest heaving as she sprinted towards the bridge and loosed her grappling hook.

Snagging a pipe running along the underside, she leapt began her descent.

'They're probably juuuust figuring out I slashed their tires,' she chuckled, finishing her arc with a thud as she grasped onto one of the water draining pipes that ran along the bridge and drew her grappling hook for a second throw.

It was time to head home.
___________________________________________________________________________

The routine was familiar.

Home. Sleep. Wake. Cook.

As usual, Stephanie also found time to secret away a few of her mothers pills. Not as many as she'd like, but enough to help, yet so few that Crystal would believe she simply took a few too many.

She had even managed to coax her mother into having a proper shower and sleeping in her actual bed before leaving for school with a tired sigh.

She could only skip so many days for odd jobs and parental care after all, and the gymnastics team had practice that afternoon.

'At least I have something to look forward to,' she mused, eyes heavy as she looked upon the semi dilapidated school loomed large in the distance.

She'd have to work on her case files later, hopefully she'd have more luck tonight.
___________________________________________________________________________

Now, Stephanie didn't like cops. She had plenty of reasons from the personal, to the practical, to the professional, but she wasn't going to ignore the GCPD's occasional use as an information source.

Mostly because they thought to write down different things to the doctors. Stuff like, theories on her John Doe being buried alive, the search radius they'd used and the fact no signs of someone digging themselves out of somewhere was in that ten mile area.

'Which is weird, Gotham's a concrete jungle and given where he ended up it'd be nearly impossible for him to have been buried out here, so it has to be somewhere in the city.'

But that just begged new question, who, and more importantly, why didn't someone important enough to bury and strong enough to get out have some kind of record? Some kind of recognizability.

The back of her head tingled and she tried, tried mightily to place his face to someone she'd met but she just couldn't.

'I'm missing something,' Stephanie sighed, leaning back from her desk and sighing. 'I need a new angle.'

"Steph, I'm heading out for work!" Her mother called, and Stephanie smiled. She'd remembered to call, her voice wasn't so shaky or strained. She was doing better today!

Stephanie shot up from her desk and into the hall, summersaulting off the steps into the living room, "Wait up," she grinned, pulling her stunned mother into a hug.

"Quite a performance there," Crystal mused as Stephanie pulled back.

"I did well in Gymnastics today, guess I'm in a mood, did you remember your lunch, your water bottle and-"

Her mother cut her off with a wave of her hand, "I know what I'm doing, Stephanie."

'Oof, full name,' but not letting it get to her, Stephanie bounced on her feet, "Gotham Mercy again, or back to the usual grind?"

"Mercy, though Lita is apparently due back soon and I doubt I can pull on those favors again easily," her mother said not quite meeting Stephanie's gaze.

"I'll go shopping, get us something nice, and cheap," she stressed, mental tally already ticking off the cheapest instant meals.

"Good, good," Crystal said absently, "Stay out of trouble, I'll be back around two."

"See you then!" She called, waving cheerfully.

"You'd better not," Her mother countered in what Stephanie hoped was good humor.

Stephanie waited for her mother to get out of sight and nodded to herself.

'New angle found, time to visit Lita!' She stalled in her turn at the sight of the pantry and sighed, 'After I do some shopping, that is...'