Birds of a Feather (Oswald Cobblepot)

Trouble in Paradise

    Asleep in one of the double beds in the lavish apartment, I'm awaken by a knock at the door. Stumbling out of bed to open it, I find that nothing is there to greet me except another small well-wrapped gift box. Great, so I destroyed Oswald's tracker for nothing.

I pick up the box and open it. It's a pair of pearl earrings, the size and color perfectly matching the pearl necklace he gave me a while back. What are these gifts for?

I glance back over to the bedroom. Barbara and Renee are still asleep. What would they think if they knew Oswald knows of our location? Would they blame me? Would they go after him themselves?

In the small duffel bag containing the clothes I'd packed from my apartment, I stash away the earrings. Unless they're small bombs in disguise, they should be harmless. And plus, they're nice earrings.

I knock on Eel's apartment door, and all I hear are stifled murmurs. However, the moment I open the door, a liquid Eel comes flooding out of the apartment, splashing out into the hallway and slamming me against the wall.

"I was trying to say 'do not open the door'!" Eel cries, the slimy texture of his fluid body shifting with his words.

Standing up, I start working my way back to Eel's motel room door, hiking up my legs to trudge through the goop.

"Eel...I thought you said you were trying to control your powers," I grumble.

Unable to keep my footing on his constantly shifting body, I slip, crashing down and collapsing into a pile of his skin.

"I-I'm trying!"

Eel starts to become more solid, slithering across the floor back toward his room. I follow, as the sludge gathers to build up a somewhat solidified Eel.

"Sorry, I'm just...it's hard sometimes, you know? It's not like you could go to the library to find a manual about this sort of thing," Eel figures.

I nod, "I understand it's hard, and...it was wrong of me to rush to open the door. ...we have to be careful, imagine if anyone say you...like that."

"No kidding," Eel sighs, driblets of his body flying off with his sigh, "you know...maybe I do need help."

I look up, "It...it's fine to admit that Eel. I'll get you help, absolutely."

Eel's form melts into a puddle, "Thanks, Trix."

After a great amount of hesitation, I turn on the communicator Amanda gave to me, Barbara, Veronica, Renee, and Crispus. The soft, but elegant voice of Veronica Vreeland comes through from the other side.

"Oh...uhm...hello. ...Nellie, is it?"

I didn't expect her to remember my name, "It's Natalie, Veronica. I uhm...need to talk to you about something. A sort of condition I've stumbled upon."

She gasps, "You don't have something horrible, do you? Tuberculosis, polio-"

"No...it's a friend of mine. An...an informant," I explain.

There's a bit of a pause from the other side, before Veronica responds, "I see. Describe it."

I take a moment to collect my thoughts, "His shape is...flexible. Constantly changing, almost liquid. Somehow, he can control it to an extent, but only so much."

"Hmph, that is strange...and when did this start?" she asks.

I sigh, "...after he fell into a vat of dangerous chemicals."

"Ha! What else could it have been?"

I can't help but laugh, "Very true."

"Well, I'm currently getting away from the chaos in Gotham with a trip to Metropolis, how about you have him drop by my place in a couple of days?" she offers.

A couple of days? I don't know if Eel can hold on for that long...but, it is dangerous in Gotham right now, and if something were to happen to Veronica, Barbara would never forgive me. But...Eel...

"Uhm...sure...it's just a couple of days...alright, I'll...I'll see you then," I mumble, and Veronica turns off her communicator.

Can I keep Eel in control until Veronica gets back from Metropolis? He seems to grow more unstable by the day. What are the extent of his powers? Does he even have a limit? How is he even still alive?

I could instead try to bring Ed on this. But there'd be so much more explaining to do, nevermind I'm already going to have to hide the fact that Eel is a criminal connection, not just an informant.

I know it's not in my best interests to help Eel at all but...I can't help but feel for the kid. He's just some street kid looking for a chance, don't I know what that's like. Seeing him makes me feel...like I could pay it forward, be to him what Ed is to me. Just, maybe not in every sense of the word.

Stashing away my communicator, I head back into the hotel room. Barbara and Renee are milling about the living room, Renee doing workouts in the middle of the room while Barbara reads a magazine. They seem mostly unfazed by my absence, the both of them buried in deeper thoughts.

"Hey girls..." Barbara asks, her lurid eyes peering up from her magazine.

Renee and I turn our attention to her as she continues, "Since we are stuck here for the time being...we should throw ourselves a Christmas party."

Renee and I exchange glances, and Renee speaks up, "What would we do? This hotel room is huge, but I doubt we could fit a Christmas tree through the door."

"We don't have to do everything. Maybe get a smaller tree, simple dinner. You know...just to keep tradition," she suggests, "Natalie, you're already heading out to investigate the gemstone you found in the Court of Owls statue. If you haven't been attacked yet, we could at least go out to prepare a Christmas dinner."

"Should we really be taking unnecessary trips? Even if Natalie hasn't been attacked thus far, the Court of Owls could just be waiting for us to let our guard down. After all Barb, you said it yourself: they're mainly after you, not us," Renee retorts, her logical tone unwavering.

Scrunching her eyebrows together, Barbara gets up from her seat, "Well excuse me if I want to be a little human every once in awhile."

Renee rolls her eyes, "I'm not saying you can't be, I'm just saying we should continue to be cautious-"

"For how long?!" Barbara bursts, "We can't live our lives like this! Hidden away, fearing even to go outside. And why is Natalie the only one who's let out anyway?! God knows what she could be doing while running errands."

Fine, talk about me like I'm not in the room. I cross my arms and glance away, not wanting to get involved.

Enraged, Barbara takes her magazine and rips it right in the center, before throwing the separated pages up in the air.

"I'm heading out!" she shouts, stomping out of the room and slamming the door behind her.

Renee yells back, "Fine, go get yourself killed!"

She groans, pulling at her hair as she heads into the bedroom, shutting the door in a similarly loud fashion.

I sigh, and throw my body onto the couch. Barbara's right, we shouldn't be cooped up like this. But at the same time we can't risk getting caught by the Court of Owls. I've been relatively lucky, going to check on Eel and sneaking around while getting Barbara's magazines or Renee's wine. Speaking of addictive substances, where did Barbara get those painkillers from? This can't be the first time she's left the hotel room, unless she had them delivered. Who knows, I really don't want to think about it right now.

I scan the room only to realize a sobering fact: we'd finished the last bottle of wine last night. Dammit.