(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]

"Did you hear what I said?" the Extractor asked.

[gcpd]

John turned his head and looked at the Extractor, trying not to make eye contact with Ariadne. "Your employer won't know it came from you. I promise."

[inyourdreams]

"That's right because I'm not giving you the information," the Extractor said, holding his ground.

[gcpd]

John pressed a button on his utility belt and suddenly all the power went off in the room. Quickly, he disarmed the Forger, Point man, and Extractor, leaving Ariadne out of it.

[inyourdreams]

At that point Ariadne made a run for it. Not sure how far she would get, considering he was the Batman, but she had to give it a shot.

[gcpd]

Maybe he consciously let Ariadne go. Maybe he was too preoccupied with the others, but by the time he turned to look for her, she was gone. The lights came back on the the three men were on the floor, their hands together behind their backs with zip ties. By this time to Mark had woken up and John told him to call the police.

[inyourdreams]

She ran into the hallway of the office building and to the stairs, looking over her shoulder to see if he was following her, but he must have been distracted by the others. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket as she ran down the stairs and typed in a text to their employer. 9-1-1 was all it said.

A moment later her heel caught on a stair and she rolled her ankle, skidding down the last 2 stairs of that group and hitting the landing hard.

"Fuck!" she yelled out in pain. She was expecting him to fly down at her at any point as she tried to gather herself, but the stairwell was quiet except for her own heavy breathing and whimpers. She collected herself and started to hobble down the rest of the stairs as quickly as she could.

[gcpd]

John didn't stay for long. Once he could hear the police sirens, he left the room and took the stairs up to the roof where the Bat still was.

[inyourdreams]

She could hear the sirens too and it made her try to move quicker. She had to get as far away from the building as she could. She was upset that she couldn't help her team, but that was the business. It was every man for themselves.

She limped out of the stairwell door and into a back alley of the office building, not sure which way to go to avoid the cops.

[gcpd]

John made a quick exit and flew back to the cave. Once he could take the cowl off, he shouted in frustration. Was that what Ariadne had said about things he wouldn't like about her? That she was involved in dreamshare? How could he face her now?

[inyourdreams]

She made it to a main street undetected, using her dressed up state as a guise, acting like she was drunk before hailing a cab back to the hotel.

How was she going to explain a sprained ankle to John? Never mind that she was just hoping it was sprained. She went up to her suite and took a shower before taking some pain killers and strapping a bag of ice to it, thinking of the excuse she could make.

[gcpd]

After he calmed down, he used the computer in the cave to do a background check on her. There was nothing out of the ordinary but then dreamshare wouldn't show up in the search. Sighing in frustration, he used the rest of his time in the cave on the computer.

[inyourdreams]

She eventually fell asleep in the bed with her ankle elevated, hoping the swelling would go down by morning.

[gcpd]

Around six, John got dressed back into his regular clothes and drove back to the hotel. Ariadne was in bed which made him relieved. He wasn't sure if she had gotten back okay or if she ran into any trouble. Quietly, he undressed and got into bed next to her.

[inyourdreams]

She moaned a bit when the bed dipped and her ankle shifted. She blinked her eyes open.

"Hey," she said a bit horsely.

[gcpd]

He noted the moan. "Hey, you okay?" It was dark so he couldn't see the pillow and her ankle.

[inyourdreams]

"Ugh," she said as she sat up and removed the now melted bag of ice from her ankle. "I went out for a bit and rolled my ankle off the side of the curb. I think it's just sprained."

[gcpd]

John reached over and turned on one of the lamps before looking at her ankle. It was significantly swollen. "You need to go to the hospital."

[inyourdreams]

"It's fine. I'm fine," she protested.

[gcpd]

"No, it's swollen. Come on." He felt a little guilty about it since he very well could've caused it. John got out of bed.

[inyourdreams]

"I'm not going to the hospital," she said. "It's a bad sprain. They can't do anything for that."

Besides, she was worried people might be on the look out for her. She wasn't sure if the Batman might have told the cops about her.

[gcpd]

"Seriously? What if it gets worse because you didn't go to the hospital? Someone needs to look at it," he insisted.

[inyourdreams]

"If it gets worse I'll go, okay?" she said. "I just want to go back to bed. I don't want to sit in an overcrowded ER for hours."

She was whining now, but she had a rough night. She was worried about her team and about what their employer would do about their failure on the job.

[gcpd]

"Fine, fine." He raised his palms before going to grab the ice bucket.

[inyourdreams]

She rubbed the heel of her hand against her eye and sighed before laying back down.