Chapter Text
Prologue
Gotham City.
Ember recalled Bruce, once, telling her and the guys that there was no progress, no ultimate goal in their mission. Just another night to keep the city safe. And she was honestly fine with that. Three years as Ember, and she still loved what she did. She was always ended each night proud of herself.
However, it was when those nights of being a hero involved her entering the sewers that made her question everything.
“This sucks!” Ember groaned.
“I can’t imagine it smells too good down there,” Tiana said over the comms.
“You would be right. Ugh! One of the most advanced cities on the planet and the sewers are still disgusting.”
“They are sewers, after all.”
“Hey! Whose side are you on?!”
Ember spent the next few minutes carefully traversing through the sewer. She heard something behind her and ducked a swing from the energy-powered mace of Striker, a new villain trying to make a name for himself in Gotham. Ember threw a fireball, causing Striker to swing his mace and disperse the fireball. Striker charged at Ember, swinging with all his might, but Ember managed to dodge all the attacks, jumping back to gain some distance.
“Great!” Ember groaned, quietly. “Bats and Runner get the night off, Koutetsu’s halfway across town, and I get stuck with jughead!”
“‘Jughead’ could describe most of the rogues’ gallery,” Tiana declared.
“Tsk! Tell me about it!”
Ember and Striker fought for a couple of more minutes, fighting into another part of the sewer. After a while, Ember and Striker swung at each other but Ember supercharged her fist with fire, shattering the mace in one punch.
“NO!” Striker shouted.
“YES!” Ember followed up with another punch, with a bit less strength, directly to Striker’s face, sending him sailing back and knocking him out.
After putting cuffs on Striker, Ember doubled over, breathing hard and clutching her knees. “Oh, my God! That was so stupid!”
“His tech’s impressive,” Tiana said. “Having to put all that power just to destroy his weapon and knock him out? This guy’s good.”
“Don’t remind me.” Ember stood up straight as she breathed a sigh of relief.
Tiana monitored for another second then studied the screen. “That’s odd…”
“What’s up?”
“Can… you go down that tunnel to your left?”
Ember looked, confirming the tunnel. “Sure.” She started walking. “What’s going on?”
“Uhh…” Tiana said. “I’ll… tell you when I’m sure.”
Ember kept walking until Tiana said, “Right there! Stop!”
Ember stopped. “Oracle, what am I doing?”
“The… wall to your… right. Does it sound hollow?”
Ember looked and went to the wall. She leaned her close and knocked against. “Uh… yeah. It does. That’s… weird.” She felt around and found some kind of mechanism. “Looks like it’s locked.”
“Mind being forceful?” Tiana asked.
“I prefer it!” Ember lit her fist and punched the wall, almost falling over due to the lack of density to the wall. Ember discovered a small chamber with cots and a sparse amount of weaponry, but it seemed like it had been abandoned for a while. “What the f…” She scanned the room, quickly, coming across a small radio device. She picked it up and looked it over. “You gettin’ this, Oracle?”
“I see it,” Tiana said, astonished. “That must’ve caused the weird signal I picked up.”
“But what the hell is all this?” Ember she looked at a wall, focusing on the graffiti. “Whoa!”
The graffiti read, “EVIL RISES”.
Tiana swallowed, nervously. “What the hell does that mean?”
Ember exhaled, apprehensively, “I wish I knew.”
One Year Ago.
Tangier, Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima, The Kingdom of Morocco.
He sat in the conference room, swirling his glass of wine around. He took a sip.
He looked at the clock. “Almost time.”
The door opened and Athanasia walked in. She smiled at him. “Beloved.”
“Beloved,” he replied. He pulled a chair right next to him, “Sit with me.”
“Gladly.” Athanasia sat in the chair and rested her head on his muscular shoulder.
“What’s the news?” he asked.
“Our troops have been removed from Gotham,” Athanasia answered. “We’ve observed Batman and his clan a bit. They’re strong. But… not unbeatable.”
“Dangerous to think Batman isn’t unbeatable. I know, firsthand.”
“Of course, Beloved.
“We will observe him and them more in time,” he added. “What of our soldiers?”
“Prepared.”
“Even the inmates of Peña Duro?” he asked.
“As strong as you remember,” Athanasia answered. “But none stronger than you, Beloved. We’re ready to extract them when you say. We’ve also located a few special individuals I’m certain you’ll approve of.”
“Very well.” He stared up at the screen, studying the map of Gotham. “Soon. Soon…”