(for inyourdreams )

[gcpd]

John drove down to the cave and got suited up. The new one Fox had created for him was perfect. It was a snug fit but he was still able to move around.

The reason why John was suiting up tonight was because he'd heard a rumor about something going down in the city, so he thought he'd check it out. It could be nothing, but he wanted to be on the safe side. It was something about dreamshare. John couldn't find much other than it was a military training program but got shut down after losing its funding.

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[inyourdreams]

While he was out getting suited up, Ari was on her way to the financial district to meet up with the team. The CFO they were being paid to extract from worked down there and had a tendency to work late. Although, sometimes that work involved "company" from a high-class escort service. Tonight, instead of one of those girls, he would be getting her. And the rest of her team, once she'd managed to drug him. She wasn't exactly thrilled about the role, but when the only other female member of the team dropped out, she'd had to step up.

[gcpd]

John decided to take the Bat to the building and parked it on top. He thought about the Batpod but he didn't want to draw a lot of attention to himself. He'd also read up on how dreamsharing was being used on the black market for corporate espionage among other things. It used a PASIV, a machine that induced these shared dreams. It all seemed complicated and excessive, but hey, if you've got the money...

[inyourdreams]

By the time he would have landed on the roof, Ari had the Mark drugged (with luckily minimal physical contact with him) and her and the rest of the team were hooked up to the PASIV, sleeping quietly as they raced against the clock to get the info that the Mark had.

They had one person awake to man the machine and keep watch.

[gcpd]

John entered the building quietly, not even his cape made noise. It was empty save for the security guard downstairs. He used a little device he had to turn the security cameras off. The CFO liked to work late and liked the company of young, beautiful women. He figured the guy would still be here and if the rumor he heard was right, he'd be hooked up to a PASIV machine.

[inyourdreams]

The job was going as planned. She was helping run distraction with the Point Man while the Forger played the part of the Mark's wife and the Extractor did his thing. They were only one level down and things were going fine.

[gcpd]

John snuck up on the guy keeping watch. It took him a while to master Bruce's gravelly, deep voice whenever he donned the cowl. "What's going on?"

[inyourdreams]

The guy was caught off guard but managed to get his gun out as he turned around to face the voice.

"What the..." he said as he realized who the voice belonged to.

[gcpd]

John was prepared for the gun so he effortlessly disarmed the guy. "Who are you working for?" John asked as he got him on the floor.

[inyourdreams]

"Forget it buddy," the guy said to him with a strain in his voice. "You think they tell me anything?"

[gcpd]

John had him pinned to the floor with his knee on his back. It was then that he looked over at the dreamers and saw Ariadne. He froze.

[inyourdreams]

"Don't you have bigger fish to fry than this white-collar nonsense?" she guy asked, struggling against him a bit. "Johnson's the biggest crook in this room."

[gcpd]

"It's still theft," John replied after a moment once he focused on the guy again. "How much left until the timer runs out?"

[inyourdreams]

"I don't know, check it yourself," he said, hoping for a window of escape. The rest of them would have to fend for themselves.

[gcpd]

John didn't know what to do. If he let this guy go, it wouldn't seem right if he left everyone else for the cops, including Ariadne. "If I catch you again, you're going to have to answer to the GCPD. Go." John got up and pulled the guy roughly to his feet.

[inyourdreams]

"Yeah, yeah," he grunted but high-tailed it out of there as soon as the Batman let him go.

[gcpd]

He watched as the guy left before turning to the sleepers. John carefully stepped over them as he looked at the timer. Thirty seconds. What was he going to do when they woke up in thirty seconds? Let them go? Detain them? He could at least question them, ask why they're extracting from Johnson and what.

[inyourdreams]

Below, the music had started and they all knew they would wake up in a matter of minutes. Ari was still keeping the projections occupied, although the chase was getting a little more heated at this point. She bound up the stairs toward the roof of the building she was in.

[gcpd]

John took a step back and waited. All he really wanted was information at this point.

[inyourdreams]

As soon as she got to the roof the dream started to collapse around her and she launched herself off the roof to speed the process up.

A second later she woke up with a breath, opening her eyes and moving to pull the line from her arm. She didn't notice the dark figure hiding in the shadows of the room.

[gcpd]

John was starting to chicken out. When he watched her wake up, he froze again.

[inyourdreams]

The rest of the team also started to wake up and pull their lines out, talking about the job. Someone added more sedative to the Mark so he wouldn't wake up until long after they'd left. The Forger praised Ari's work. The Point Man jokingly asked her if she'd gotten her money from the Mark up front and she rolled her eyes.

"Hey, where's Marco?" she asked suddenly, looking around for their look-out.

[gcpd]

"He left," John said as he finally came out of the shadows.

[inyourdreams]

Ari jumped up at the voice and everyone whipped their heads around.

"Shit," she said under her breath when she saw who it was. She started backing away as the rest fumbled for their guns.

[gcpd]

"I'm not going to take you in," he said. "I just want to know what information you were stealing from Johnson and who your employer is."

[inyourdreams]

"Interested in corporate espionage now?" the Forger asked.

"If we tell you that, you might as well just kill all of us," the Extractor chimed in. Which may or may not be true. Some of their employers weren't as crazy as others, but none of them would be pleased to find out they were snitched on to the Batman.