Chapter Text
New rogues were nothing new to Gotham. There had to be a new one every week. And it was a pain in the ass for Bruce. At least for older rogues, he knew what to expect.
Poison Ivy was active? Bruce headed to a new company that was known for pollution. Oh, it was Mister Freeze? Bruce headed for the medical facility that was working with uncurable diseases. The list went on. On nights, or even days, when he was busy and couldn’t be in two places at once, he’d contact one of his allies family members to go check it out.
But new rogues? There was nothing that he could assume going into this about what to expect. He wasn’t about to head in blind, though.
Currently, Bruce sat on the edge, a pair of binoculars in hand, as he watched the warehouse. Duke had told him that during his day patrol, he had found out that the new rogue was hiding out here.
“Everything good on your end?” Barbara asked viva the commlink.
Bruce reached up, turning on the comm. “Yes, and there’s nothing new going on,” he said as he kept his gaze on the warehouse. “He’s just been in there working.”
Bruce could hear typing on Barbara’s side before she continued. “Hey, I was finally able to connect to the cameras inside,” she said, sending the video over to his wrist monitor. “Check this out.”
Inside the warehouse, it looked like the rogue was building some sort of… portal? Bruce could see the stolen machine he had taken, and the scientist the rogue had kidnapped the day before, working with him.
Bruce heard the sound of a grappling hook beside him, and looking to the side, he saw Damian land beside him. “Are we going inside?” he questioned, looking at the monitor on his father’s wrist before looking at the warehouse. “We have visuals now.”
“Not yet,” Bruce answered back, lifting his gaze to the warehouse again. “We have no idea what those two are even working on.”
Unfortunately, Damian didn’t look like he was willing to wait.
***
Joker was currently in his lab. He couldn’t have Punchline making his Joker toxins every time. It also gave him something to do when he wasn’t quite in ‘the mood’ for crime and chaos.
He may not be completely sane, but he at least had some sanity. He knew his limits and hadn’t wanted to return to Arkahm, even with how easy it was to escape.
Ting. A notification popped up on one of Joker’s monitors. It drew his attention away from his chemical work as he climbed over to check it out. It was a notification about a bomb going over by the ports in an abandoned warehouse.
Joker’s curiosity was piqued. Bombs were more his calling card. Of course, the others used them from time to time, usually Penguin if they did, but it was his thing . He pulled up the cameras in the area, specifically what had happened moments before.
Batman had been patrolling in the area. Robin showed up and dived in headfirst into to warehouse, and the Batman followed afterward. Joker didn’t know what happened, but whatever did, an explosion followed.
“Hm,” Joker tilted his head at the screen, watching the smoke billow out of a building. “Interesting.” While this Robin seemed as impulsive as the second, Joker had been under the impression he was, by far, more cautious.
It felt off, something about this. Whatever, it wasn’t like it was Joker’s place to care about what was going on with the Robins. He had brought more death and blood to the Robins to care about any abnormalities in them.
Joker could only hope that this was not what killed Batman. Gotham would be so… boring without the caped vigilante.
***
The moment the explosion went off, Barbara panicked. “Bruce,” she called out into the mic. “Damian, talk to me.”
Static. Neither vigilante would answer her. “Shit,” Barbara muttered under her breath. She quickly typed at her keyboard, pulling up to see who else was online. She saw that Steph and Cass were online, so she tried them first.
“Steph, are you-,” Barbara began but was greeted by the sound of gunfire back. She immediately had to reach up and lift her headphones off of her ears. “Ow..”
“Sorry, Oracle,” Steph replied over the comms. “Orphan and I are kind of busy. Bank robb ery !” –gunshots– “Two-Face! We got this handled.”
The only other one online was Jason. She switched to pull connect to his comm link. “Jason?” She called out, and when she hadn’t been greeted with gunfire like she had with Steph, she was hopeful. “Are you busy?
At first, it was just silence. Then, Jason answered back with, “Who needs backup?”
Barbara let out a breath of relief that Jason had asked that. “It’s Bruce and Damian,” she answered as she checked to see where he was in the first place. “An explosion just happened where they were, and I can’t contact them.”
“Where is it?” Jason questioned in a grumble, the sound of his motorcycle growling coming across the commlink.
“It’s in an old abandoned warehouse down by the ports. Can’t miss it.”
***
Jack let out a cough as he looked around. This… this wasn’t Ed’s lab. God, how did he get here? And why did his head hurt so much?
It was a ruin of a building, but he couldn’t worry too much about that now. In the rubble, he could see two people stuck. Scratch that , he could see a brightly costumed child and a scientist(?) stuck.
Jack pushed himself up, climbing through the rubble to the two. He checked the pulses of both, and unfortunately, the scientist had lost his life. Luckily, however, the child still had a steady pulse; he was just unconscious.
Jack pulled the child out of the rubble, lifting him gently to carry him out. He didn’t recognize the costume he was wearing, but he knew the kid must be some new vigilante in town. He would have to ask Ed or Harvey about it when he figured out where he was.
Carefully walking about, he made his way out of the rubble of the building and into the clean air. He adjusted his hold on the kid, reaching his hand up to his earpiece as he looked around. “Hey, it looks like I’m here at the ports,” he called over the commlink, looking at the signs. “Can someone notify the GCPD of my location? Got a destroyed building and a kid in need of medical attention.”
Static. Literal static. No response from anyone on the other side. Weird. Jack vividly remembered Ed saying he would be on the comms if he was needed. Before he could question much more, he heard the sound of a motorcycle approaching.
Jack turned his head and saw a person in a red costume, watching as they stopped their motorcycle. He watched this person climb off the motorcycle, reaching for something on his belt. “Put him down ,” he hissed out, voice filtered by a modifier in that red hood. “And where’s Batman?”
Jack gently set the costumed kid down, putting out the baton as he had a feeling this would get violent. “Take your hand away from the gun,” he replied, stepping in front of the kid to protect him when the red costumed man pulled out his gun.
“Like hell I’d listen to you,” the red one replied, pulling out his gun and ready to shoot him. “Now answer the damn question, where is Batman ?”
Jack seriously had serious clue who Batman was. He had never heard that name before. Hell, he had never seen this red fellow or this costumed kid before. “I don’t even know who you’re talking about,” he admitted honestly, slowly walking towards him. He didn’t trust the gun pointed at him, but then again, who would?
The red guy’s grip on his gun tightened as he looked at Jack. “Cut the crap, you can’t pull that shit on me, Joker,” he snapped back and that made Jack even more confused.
“My name’s not Joker,” Jack replied as he lowered the baton, his gaze confused. “And I don’t know a thing about you.”
The red one seemed to falter for a moment, and Jack took this as his chance to get that gun out of his hands. He charged at him, swinging the baton to hit it out of his hands. The red guy stood there baffled for a moment before he raised his fists.
“Okay, so we’re doing this,” Jack muttered under his breath, placing the baton back on his belt. The red guy had obviously mistaken him for someone else, but he wouldn’t completely beat him up for that.
God, Jack needed a retirement.