(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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[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.

[gcpd]

He ignored the forger. "don't make me ask twice."

[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.