Mr. Cross
Omake By Me (Obviously)
Gotham was a truly extravagant hell of humanity, and not many could claim to thrive in hell. It wasn't, by any means, impossible of course. It was one thing after all to merely make a living, working away at any number of jobs, careers, or positions to make ends meet and a little pleasure besides. It was certainly admirable enough, even if most weren't as... extraordinary as most would believe. Just look at those more gentle (relative to most Gothamites) souls working at Arkham, trying to, in some cases at least, offer mental treatment to those who truly needed it.
Admittedly, Mr. Cross was only thinking about the place since it had been compromised... again. The cops, media coverage, and usual sorts weren't sure who'd actually gotten out, too much property damage you see? But then, that was a good tell by itself. Perhaps, Bane, running amok with his Venom and other drugs on the streets again? It could've been Crocodile as well, the man was disturbingly powerful at times. Mr. Cross set his phone aside, pondering the street from an outdoor seat of a Café.
The place was good, nice and straightforward. The workers were no nonsense, the décor tasteful without being overbearing, and the coffee was divine. His tips were the things of legends, a side-effect of his unseemly behavior (and his guilt of such things) after pulling all-nighters.
Whenever the more unusual sorts from Arkham were on the streets, chaos was going to ensue. It was like clockwork, you see? Maybe bombs, or shootings, or other such unpleasantness. Mr. Cross, of course, might've had an opinion on such things, but no one paid him for that. Instead, Mr. Cross got paid for finding out
what kind of chaos was coming.
The construction companies liked to know if extra work was coming in, hospitals if they needed to order extra supplies, car workshops if they should be worried about car wrecks or bullet holes, and countless other minutiae that resembled the whole of Gotham City seeming to tense, ready for a blow. Villains were just that, villains, irredeemable wastes of air and water that produced nothing of value for nonsensical reasons. Utterly shameful, especially the Clown. But even a flooding river was useful if you could set up a dam. Thus, his profession.
"Sir, another cup?" The waitress asked, pot ready and hot. He ignored the whim of declaring her a goddess and just gestured to his cup. He looked quite pitiful, sadly enough. The break-out at Arkham had happened by evening, because of course it did, so he'd been up for nearly 18 hours since yesterday poking around. It was rushed work, it happened, no reason to lose his mind about it. But there had been that one tip...
A hand nudged him out of his thoughts.
"Sir?" The waitress asked. Cross twisted, away from the street he'd been absentmindedly staring at, and let his eyes settle on the woman. No, girl, too young otherwise, a touch of baby fat to her cheeks still and with the inherent awkwardness of youthful sorts in their own bodies.
"Sir?" Her tone was more concerned, but Cross' mind was on autopilot, tearing the world down into pure logic and facts such that he barely noticed her mouth moving. There were bags under her eyes, recent, she wasn't sleeping well. The uniform scuffed, but too new, not worn out, but worn constantly. She was overworking, probably, missing sleep for something, chances were roughly 50% on that.
"Hey, are you ok?" The concern was still there, lesser though, more mixed with confusion as she moved a bit forward, beginning to wave her hand over his unblinking blue eyes. The motion revealed a small hand cast under the longer sleeves of her uniform, blue in color, the vibrancy of the shade said it was recent.
"How long have you worked here?" The words were almost curt, blunt to the point of impoliteness. He'd need to sleep soon after passing on his findings to his superiors. And tip the girl well, food service employees suffered enough from the more belligerent sorts without having to add to it.
"Uh," She blinked, more confused. "About, 2 months? Why?" A touch wary of him. Understandable, but he had all he needed. If he couldn't cultivate such an opportunity, he didn't deserve his position as Head of the Forecast Division of the Wayne Industries Insurance Company.
Without missing a beat, Mr. Cross rose to his feet, snatched up his coffee, and downed it. Quite hot, good to wake him up for now while it burned. As the girl stared, wide-eyed, he set his cup down and pulled a card from his suit, stenciled with the Company's Logo and relevant contact information. On the back was his own, with a QR code as well for reporting purposes. He left it on the table, along with 500 dollars to hook her attention. Presentation was important, after all.
"If you were to see or hear of any particularly notable events in the coming days, such as new rumors, notable gang violence, problems with your supply chain, or other such unfortunate circumstances, use the relevant information to report such for a cash reward," Mr. Cross declared blandly. The waitress was staring now, eyes flickering back to the 50 dollar bills on the table, considering. Good, as expected. He was always looking to expand his network, countless such souls saw what his own office mates never would, running endless numbers in a stale white office. Pathetically inefficient, utterly shameful.
A simple nod, almost a bow, and Mr. Cross set out without another word, already moving on from the encounter. After all, children may dream of being superman, but few remember the poor fool who's truck served as the Man of Steel's football. For such souls, it was Mr. Cross who would see due diligence done, that some absurdist happenstance or grand misfortune didn't ruin someone's job because the Clown had planted bombs in their office, or the gang wars had sent stray bullets falling from the sky.
Insurance was always a laughing matter, for those idiots who didn't respect it's purpose. Soon, dozens such life-changing events, almost none of them positive, would occur. Just this morning he'd spoken to another of his regular informants, Emanuel, about talk of changes among the sewer culture, old tunnels being used when they shouldn't be. Some would ignore that warning because it came from the sewers, until they realized that the Piper might be back to send a river of diseased rodent flesh to the streets for some other wastefully inept nonsense.
Yes, there were countless such reports to codify, business owners and employees of countless industries throughout the city who would require coverage. The lack of specifics of who
exactly had escaped from Arkham was telling at this rate, most worrying. Mr. Cross foresaw many phone calls when he awoke from his 3 hour nap later. But the last report...
It had been smaller, from a bar tender near the more contested territories of the Penguin's ilk, Black Mask's thugs, and the Mob. Johnny was a useful sort, hopelessly in love with every woman who walked in his bar, and equally hopeless at actually impressing any of them. But the other night was noticeable for Johnny, for two reasons. The first was that there had been no women for him to flirt with (unnecessary information, but Mr. Cross allowed the man his nonsense for the sake of efficiency), but the second?
There had been some 'suits' as Johnny called them, slang for law enforcement of some kind. Three of them, and one had been attacked earlier. Not unusual, useful potential information. Only the young man, drunk under the flamboyant encouragement of Johnny the Bartender, had given more... concerning detail.
Bite marks in the young man's throat, blood flecks on his white scrubs...
The young man worked in the morgue, uncertain of
what had assaulted him, but it was during his shift. In the Morgue. Mr. Cross, quite frankly, wasn't sure what to think. That was troublesome, such uncertainties ruined his chances to prepare appropriately for the chaos to come. The others, The Clown, the Riddler, they all had profiles on them. But Mr. Cross had reviewed those files, written half of them himself for streamlining emergency insurance plan templates, easily modified and ready to use in case one of the usual superpowered cretins reared their worthless heads.
But this wasn't one of them. It wasn't in any of the files, any history or notable cases he knew. The few things it might match were... troublesome to consider.
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Behold, this thing I did. I don't know why the muse chose this, but apparently, I'll be offering a really overstressed insurance jockey working a literal info broker network, preparing for maximum GOTHAM. Mr. Cross needs more sleep, and less villains.