Soon Ioana was sleeping soundly, and James began cleaning up the mess left from the ghostly demonic event. While he did so, he had time to think about what had happened. Surprisingly the thing that bothered him most was not him meeting a demon face to face, though that raised some uncomfortable spiritual questions. No, what really got him was something within him ate a vile curse. 

On the flipside, since it did that he had gotten a far better sense of what was going on inside of him. It was still obscured and strange, but overall it felt like he now had a coiled mass of tendrils within him right around his gut area. Well, not really inside of him. If you cut him up, he doubted you would find it inside. No, it was like it was elsewhere and somehow connected with James. A connection that had seemed to gain in strength after it ate that curse.

His gut remained silent, not providing anything when he prodded it about what was going on with him. Shaking his head, he turned his focus back to cleaning. He had finished by the time the first rays of the sun crept into the windows of the penthouse. Taking a break he took a seat on the couch and thought about that demon. He didn’t recognize it from any comic book he had read, nor had it given him it’s name so he didn’t really know anything about it. His gut rumbled that she probably wasn’t too happy with him. He had denied her the souls she had wanted, which painted a target on his back.

Sighing he decided he might need to contact an expert in the occult when he heard a change in Ioana’s breathing. Clearly she was starting to wake up, so he stood and made his way to the kitchen. She had a rough night, so he felt she needed a good start to the day. Luckily he picked up some food to store in the refrigerator for Ioana the other day. With that he made a fluffy crepe with cream and slices of fruit.

Then when that was nice and cooked, he placed it onto a tray and brought it to her room. He knocked softly and she called out “Yes? Is that you, James?”

Opening the door, he said “Good Morning Madam Ioana. I decided to make you breakfast since you had a rough night. This will helpfully give you a headstart for the day.”

She raised an eyebrow and said “You made me breakfast in bed?” She snorted and said “Thank you. I… can’t say I’ve done this before.”

After she pushed herself up, he set the tray down and she took a fork and knife and asked “Did you make this yourself?” 

“Yes, I worked a part-time job at a Bed and Breakfast to help pay my way through college. One of my duties was helping cook the meals. I learned how to cook from there. This is one of my favorites from that place.”

“It looks great.” She took a bite, and her eyes widened in surprise and she said after swallowing “This is really good. You said you were in college?”

“Yes. I was getting a bachelors in business until… some events happened, and I had to move here.”

She nodded “That makes sense. It’s so easy to talk to you about my ideas for the place, so you have some head for these sorts of things. Not like most of my Uncle's men.”

James was about to respond when the doorbell sounded. It rang loudly several times, and he looked at Ioana and asked “Are you expecting someone Madam?”

“It might be Adeline, my Maid. I asked her to come over today if she was feeling better.”

“Then I will go and check out who it is. Please enjoy the rest of the meal.” James said. He in fact had heard this person coming down the hallway to the front door before they had rung the bell. Though, this person was way too silent on their feet compared to most people. 

The front door didn’t have a peephole, but it did have a camera to allow you to see who was on the other side of the door. The screen showed a tall woman in a maids outfit. Except she was ripped beyond belief. Her arms were practically straining the sleeves of the maid dress. She also had a nasty scar down her face.

He pushed the intercom and said “Hello, who are you?”

“I am Adeline. I have come to serve Madam Ioana. You will open the door, Yes?” The woman spoke in a very thick Russian accent.

“Uh, just a second.” James said and opened the door to let in the massive woman. While James was over six feet himself, this woman looked him directly in the eye. His gut told him this woman was battle hardened.

“Good Morning Miss Adeline.”

She strode in looking the place over and then wiping the counter. “Who are you?” She asked turning back to James.

“I am James Mistfield, the current manager for this building for Madam Ioana.”

“Manager… You here early Yes?”

“I don’t know if that is your concern, but I had business with Madam Ioana. I also heard you were sick.”

She nodded. “Yes I was not feeling well.” She sniffed the air and said “You cook?”

“Yes.”

The two of them silently stared at one another and James struggled to figure out what to say to this woman. He couldn’t get a reading on her at all. Finally, Ioana came out in a robe and said “Good you are here Adeline. I will need your help getting prepared. I have several meetings that I will need my best for.”

“Of course Madam Ioana.” Adeline bowed.

“I should get out of your way Madam Ioana. I have several things I need to take care off.” James said.

“Just a second.” Ioana said and strode to the side table and picked up her purse. She pulled out several bills and handed them to James. “Use these to help you get some stuff to fix the rooms.”

“I will.” James said.

“Good, I’ll speak with you later then. Oh and James,” She leaned forward and whispered “Thank you for helping me last night.”

“It was no problem Madam Ioana. Have a good day.”

She nodded and with that James headed out and when he reached the lobby he received a text from Elizabeth. She texted him an address in Gotham Heights asking him to meet her there. A short while later he turned onto Murphy Avenue. In his opinion the buildings in Gotham were ugly. The houses on this street were much the same, ugly cube shaped affairs. The place where she wanted to meet him was one of them, and he knocked on the door. After a few moments she answered the door.

Elizabeth was wearing an apron that was covered with paint stains. She had an excited face and said “Great you’re here. Please come in.”

Following her in, he closed the door behind them. The place was modestly sized for a house, and she said “Sorry, I was in the middle of painting when you knocked so forgive the mess. So what do you think of my home?”

“It’s a nice place.” James said. While he didn’t care for the exterior, the interior had a rich life to it. “So you live here?”

“Yeah, after I had got out of the hospital, I bought this place. Just wanted someplace to get my bearings straight. Turns out I like this place more than I thought I would.”

“So you were painting?”

“Yeah, I woke up with an idea and started to paint it out. Here let me show you my studio.”

She led him to a large back room that had a set of patio doors that overlooked a small backyard. A computer desk sat in one corner, but on the other side was a full-blown art studio. “I do most of my work digitally, but I like painting.” Various finished paintings and sketchbooks littered the area.

Some were quite well done. “Can I take a look at what you're painting now?”

“No, um it’s not ready yet. But you can take a look through some of those sketch books.”

He nodded and began to flip through one. The first half was basically sketches of people in various poses. There were landscapes of Gotham as well. Yet it was the pictures at the end that caught his attention the most. They were of the riddler, but each seemed to depict the man as a monster. He could feel her terror through each of the drawings and when he glanced up he saw her face had gone blank.

“I can’t seem to draw him like the man he is. It just comes out like that.” She said after a bit.

Putting the book down he went to her and gave her a hug. She stiffened at first then relaxed. They stood there for a little bit and then she pushed him away. She sniffed and said “let's get back to business.”

“So what did your contacts say to you?”

“Well the good news is that I got confirmation when Lex Luthor's yacht is to come in, and I got partial blueprints for it. It’s supposed to pull into Gotham Harbor late Sunday night, early Monday morning.”

“If that’s the good news, what’s the bad news?”

“Lex will be holding the Gala on Monday. Then he leaves on Tuesday for Metropolis. Thus the only time that my father has a chance to get his hands on that box is on Monday. Since he’s an arrogant prick, he will attempt to steal it during the Gala.”

Grimacing James said “Well that isn’t great news. It doesn’t leave us much time to figure out a way on board.”

“No it doesn’t.” She shook her head. “I do have a few ideas about that, though. I will let you know if it turns up anything.”

“You also got the blueprints for the Yacht?”

“Well sort of. I only got the plans for the public areas where guests will be allowed. But using them and the shape of the ship I can make some inferences about the private areas. I also found out that they use key cards for the doors. I got a key card that we can use.”

“Wait, you got a key card that will work?” 

“Well it should work. It’s a Key cloner. If you can get it within another foot of a key card, it will copy it. It can hold up to several different clones.”

“If I get this key cloner next to a key card, can we then use it to open doors?” James said skeptically. 

“Well that’s the first part. We still will have to figure out the key pad. Plus I also hear that some doors are locked with Biometrics so we will have to figure out a way past them.”

“Fine. For now you should just focus on a way to get on board for now. Were you able to find out if your father bought any explosives?”

“Not yet. I managed to set up a meeting with some contacts on Saturday. Speaking of which, I will need you to come with me.”

“Do you think there will be trouble?”

“Maybe. I don’t know these guys, so I need to be prepared just in case.”

James thought and said “Okay, what time?”

“It will be close to twelve am.”

“I’ll have to ask for a night off then.”

“Great. So how is your new landlord settling into her penthouse?”

“It was… an experience.” James gave Liz a brief overview of what happened.

She shuddered and said “Ghost shit is too spooky for me. It’s good to know you can deal with ghost problems.”

“Yeah, if you need a ghost gone, I'm the local ghostbuster.” James said jokily. “Oh that’s right. I have some things I was hoping you can have some of your contacts keep an eye out for.” James pulled out a sheet of paper and handed it to her.

Taking it from James, she looked the paper over with a frown and sid “What’s Kryptylium?”

“That’s an alloy basically. I’m unsure if it’s available, but it would work really well for something I’m working on. I’m not asking you to buy any of these, just either get me a price of how much it would be to get some or where to find them.”

“Okay, but the few that I recognize on here, I already know you will have to pay over a million for just a small piece.”

“Yeah I figured. I have some ideas that can make some money.”

“Alright. I’m going to be hanging out later with Rebecca tonight. Apparently the treatment for her mother went well so she invited me over for the night to celebrate. Do you want to come by?”

“Possibly. I have a dinner date with Dr. Pye from the Museum tonight. If i get back in time I will swing by and say hello.”

“I’ll let her know. Have fun on your date.” Liz said.

“I will. Thank you for showing me your art. It is really great.” James said. “I need to head out, I’m planning on fixing some rooms today, so I need to head to a hardware store.”

“Don’t work too hard now.”

“Understood.” James smiled and waved as he left. “I will talk with you later Liz.”

“Bye.” 

Exiting the house, he began to head down the street while pulling up locations of hardware stores on his phone. As he walked, he noticed a car pull up to a house in front of him. Someone got out and James glanced up and nearly came to a full stop. The man who had exited was someone that James recognized. It was clearly Dick Grayson. AKA Nightwing. He had gotten out of his car and was now leaning against the door looking towards a house.

The door of the house opened and a man with graying hair and glasses stepped out followed by a redheaded woman in a wheelchair. “I have to go Dad.”

“Alright, be safe Barbara.” Commissioner Gordon said to his daughter. 

Apparently Dick Grayson had come to pick up Barbara from her father’s place. Cursing his luck James debated turning around and walking away. However, Dick glanced his way and James realized that doing so would be incredibly suspicious. His best option would be to speed up and pass them and hope Barbara didn’t spot him.

As he passed Dick, the man nodded at him and James said “Morning.”

Then he passed, though he could hear the sound of the wheels start to speed up and then he heard “Excuse me?”

Frowning internally, he turned around and said “Oh it’s you Professor. How are you doing?”