Chapter Text
The first to hear something was Red Hood, listening to street whispers and the rumors going around the normal people in Crime Alley. A new player on the streets, very much focused on just the streets. Nothing to his name, no face, no signature behaviour, no ego. Just arrets after a quick intervention, nevertheless he never said anything. For one, it really was going to get into Batman's skin, and second whoever that was in the rumors really knew what were they doing.
The second one to have a hunch was Spoiler, voices on the street mentioning posible intervention without including the normal fear for the Bat or the Birds. Sometimes she heard some of them complaining and referencing bad jokes and puns she didn't remember making, (again, why was she the only one making jokes at the usual perps, goons and lackeys? Dick loves teasing the family members on coms but never outsiders) the family teasing her on her reputation going down for her "deteriorating" (the nerve!) sense of humor.
The next one to hear something was Oracle, her father did mention a detective suddenly getting way more arrests than usual, and while Alvarez had a good reputation, she reviewed all his arrests and records, banking and his affiliates. Because she was never gonna forgive corruption in the police department, much less when it got to those in the system that were among the good ones. Alvarez never worked with the Bats, but he was clean as far as she could find, the arrests had no tendency focusing towards nor ignoring any faction, there was no geographical pattern and even was largely focused on petty crime that they couldn't normally focus on. She had to let it slip her mind to focus on the bigger patterns, Black Mask and his movements, finding the traces of the Joker. Finding out the reason for increased arrests for attempted robbery was not anywhere close to her priorities.
The last one to hear something was Signal, his street reputation was soaring for helping with many more crimes than before. That he was managing to do everything so much faster that people barely saw him. But he knew it was wrong, he knew where he was for many of those alleged interventions and he was at school, working somewhere else, or just simply, he didn't remember being anywhere close. He wanted to be better, to get better, but this felt like cheating. This felt like someone was pulling strings, and in the family's experience that was never a good thing.
He chose a somewhat quiet night to raise his suspicions.
"Has someone else noticed that there's less activity than normal? Just like, across the board, noone is overly hiding their traces more than usual, petty crime is going down... I don't wanna point fingers, but I'm getting credit for things I didn't do and maybe it's happening to someone else on the team? I don't know."
"Yes! Thank you! I'm getti ng blamed for petty puns and jokes on the level of Big Wing or worse! I was getting worried that it was an elaborate prank by one of you!"
"Hey my jokes and puns are an art form all of you right out ignore or complain about."
"... Many criminals less afraid than usual... Not confidence... as if getting caught not so bad..." Cass was the first one to answer seriously to Duke's concern.
"There has been a sharp increase in minor arrests, but no pattern, area, or specific players involved, just Detective Alvarez and a bunch of regular policemen behind those arrests, no sign of under the table dealings nor background players." Oracle felt the need to stress the fact that this wasn't related to corrupt police.
"I'm surprised it took the greatest detective in the world this long to even hear about it." The joy in Red Hood's tone being able to point a blatant failure of Batman...
"Everyone will debrief at the end of the night. And i mean everyone." The conversation was cut short by Batman but it wasn't gonna be the end of it.
"Everyone here, talk about what you know. I don't care if its rumours, hearsay, hunchs. We will start from there." Bruce was angry, using the same tone he used when he was finding out about the royal fuck ups they did every now and then.
"I swear I know nor heard of anything that would affect the family." Damian, intimidated by his father's tone, and being completely out of the loop confessed his ignorance while looking completely angry with himself for that very reason.
"I had checked beforehand, but I reviewed again all the details. It goess a couple months now, a little under half a year. There is a bunch of police involved and detective Alvarez, all clean, all of them would be vouched for by my dad." Barbara summarized the only fact that was part of a pattern, nothing else was traceable.
"Checking over the hisotory left by Babs, i see no pattern either. Most of it is petty crime relted although there are drug busts, taking down dealers, assault, a couple of domestic violence cases, armed robbery. But no big names, nobody being targted, no turf gaps. A couple goons for Scarecrow, Joker, Penguin, Black Mask, hell even Hood's people were arrested. The only common factor were the mention of restraints being used, but nothing about the kind. From some descriptions I can imagine some sort of glue? But nothing that shows on crime scene pictures nor mug shots." Tim gave his review on the files left by Barbara.
"Ah yeah, fucker left my guys to be arrested when they were shooting against False Faces. Was mad at him for that, but yeah took you all fuckers ages to find out there's a player out there. He goes protecting the little guy, your average civillian. Never seen him, I'm guessing a man because of the rumours on his quipiness and voice. And my guys mentioned he could knock out 15 men on two different fronts, without any fatal injuries in less than a minute. And he used a rope that dissappeared to tie everyone up. That's all I've got, and all I'll give even if I find out anything else." Red Hood started to dismiss himself from the batcave with that.
"You mean to tell me you are ok with a vigilante you never met on Crime alley?!" Dick was, shocked, offended the courtesy to operate in Red Hood's turf was extended to someone outside the family. And somewhat happy there were traces of a trusting Jason coming back.
"Yeah, whoever that is has people happy. Not just feeling safer like I do. Crime alley, and many other streets from waht I hear in my turf, they are starting to feel like normal. Like going out the street is not a death threat. 2 parks have seen actual kids playing on them. Even a couple girls mentioned that they no longer carry at certain times and places because there's no need for it. Dickiebird. That guy has been here for less than half a year. WE have been doing it for ages. As far as I'm concerned, he is doing or job far better than us."
"He has been lucky, he hasn't gotten across any of the big players. He hasn't come across a big war. He doesn't know the city. He is a liability to Gotham." Bruce was curt, his brow trying to form a perfect 'V'.
"We are back to our usual argument then. Only your way is the right way? Only you know the way everything is supposed to happen!? If it's not with your approval nothing goes in the city!? He even follows your useless fucking rules! Not a single body on his trail! And you still aren't satisfied?! If it isn't your little soldiers thay can't help this city then!"
"Every single thing I do! Every single choice I've made! I tried to make it so that nobody is put at risk! So that we don't have to go through that again!"
"And you still can't fucking say it out loud! How you did NOTHING when the Joker killed me!" The flares of his old temper were climbing with every breath and every word.
The silence hung heavy on the room. The tension between their father and their brother. Nobody wanted to be the first to speak. Dick was feeling more pain seeing how quickly Jason was back on his old temper right after showing what he took as progress.
"... Uhm, guys..." Barbara hated being the one to cut the silence over the coms. "... Dr. Crane..."
Dick jumped at the chance to change the subject. "Where is Scarecrow we have to stop him before he spreads any gas!"
Frowns and exhasperation ran across everyones faces. Alfred stopped himself from calling everyone to rest.
"That's the thing, Dr. Crane is under arrest."
"Where"
"He was caught installing bombs and gas tanks with what is expected to be some version of his fear toxin under Gotham's mayor's building. Apparently he was aiming to interrupt some meetings happening at noon that propose installing new filters on the water supply of the city. The sort of thing that would make his old tricks be useless. Officers on arrest are Alvarez, Diaz, Bolton and 5 other patrols. 3 phone calls on their numbers outside their usual lineup. 2 to Alvarez specifically, can't trace the caller. No files for an investigation on something like this on any of their computers."
The implication was there in the room for everyone to taste. Scarecrow was among the targets they were always looking for whenever he was out. They had no sightings, no suspicions, no traces. They were beat at stopping one of those so called 'mayor players'.
"Damage report."
"Just a couple of minor injuries, from the area because of the panic caused by the sound of gunshots and 2 stray bullets. A couple blocks closed to avoid potential traces of gas leak, property damage because of gunfire, and uhm... A car was flipped and used as a shield? Theres also multiple reports of 'a net that holds multiple goons at the same time', Scarecrow was left hanging upside down in the sewers."
"A meta."
The "no metas in Gotham" was never an actual rule but it hung heavy.
Tim was running to his cycle. "There's no way this guy left no evidence of the fight I'm gonna run to get something to scan or analyze."
"Run cameras and footage on a 5 mile radius Babs, see if he appears coming in or out." Dick had to voice out loud the instructions, Jason and Bruce were still glaring at each other.
"...I'll go to the police department to talk to talk to Crane. Nightwing, Spoiler, with me to the department Nightwing will talk to the involved police, Spoiler to the arrested goons. Black Bat, go review for the potential nature of the fight. Damian, Duke you two have school go rest." Bruce gave his orders after pulling hi cow up.
"Go and make another enemy out of someone actually doing something for Gotham that ACTUALLY manages to prevent shit instead of minimizing the damage why don't you." With that Jason put his helmet back on, and mounted his bike, it needed not be said he wasn't heading to help.
"Father, I request you change the directive I can be far more effective than Brown, send me to question the rabble working for the Scarecrow."
"Nonsense, Young Master Damian, you need your rest for school early tomorrow. Young Master Duke, please follow me upstairs as well."
Duke chose to head back upstairs, with the feeling of having jinxed everything earlier that night.
Nightwing, was feeling his charming smile tense up. Alvarez wasn't letting up, not a single one of the cops was giving a peep of information. "we were lucky", "they were off guard", "we have been following this case for some weeks now", "just good police work". God, if they could at least all say the same story he would pretend to believe them. Even when the police were actually hunting them because of the anti-vigilante laws they were willing to let some information slip.
"Detective Alvarez, we are all on the same side, we just want to make sure there aren't any loose ends. Nor on the case, nor on the scene, no one getting caught up in the aftermath, you know? No bad faith, no arguments."
"And as I mentioned, I made sure the case is bulletproof, all policework involved was done witht the utmost care. Chain of custody is flawless. The only thing we have is the help of an anonimous tip and the help of a concerned neighbor that helped protect the citizens. Nothing outside your usual, much less violent than the usual. Nothing for you to be concerned about, you hear me?"
"And this concerned neighbor has a name? Address? Description? Is this anonimous tip your usual source? We know your recent record has been wildly more effective than the norm, and while we applaud your efforts we just want to make sure this isn't someone's trojan horse at play. I hear the Odyssey is back to being popular on the net, maybe someone chose to take a lesson or two from the man himself."
"So the Bats are the only source for arrests or foul play is going on? I pity Gordon for blindly trusting you lot all this time if that's your take."
"We both know I never meant anything like that. But you know we have better resources, a deeper network and more alternatives to finding out potential connections to the larger names that always come up when crime is mentioned in this city. Even if they are from outside as well."
"You know, even if I wasn't here back then, it's common knowledge that Gordon took a massive risk trusting Batman back then. Every single time a cop trusted you lot when the law was activelly telling us you were to be equated with super villains, every time there was so controversy over your actions or the Justice League being put on the public eye because of some clone, doppelganger or mind control. Every single time we chose to trust you all. Now, I have another source of trust. No, I'm not gonna say who it is, nor I'm gonna play a game choosing a favorite. He works very differently than what GCPD or Gotham has gotten used to, yes. But nothing that will hurt us."
"So you choose to trust a meta in Gotham to keep helping the GCPD. Is he trained? Proffesional? How dangerous would he be if Mad Hatter or Ivy get to him?"
Detective Alvarez only let out a chuckle in response.
"Your reputation is as always, first questions are to check how much it'll cost you to tke him down. No, he is good. Work is stellar, no complains from me. Crime is going down because people are actually being helped, not because we are cutting on the main funds of crime. There's a little bit of life because we are getting different help. I'm not saying you didn't do anything, don't get me wrong there is nothing personal against you here. You all laid some great foundations for this to happen. Wayne Industries has put in the for cleaning the streets, health, funding this city needed and desperately so. Bruce Wayne being the poster boy of 'not giving up on this city'. Yet, we needed something else to complete this city. He is able to do that last work. He could contact you on his own if he wanted to, he must have his reasons for not doing so. Maybe checking in the mirror once will let you all see why."
It hurt Dick that those words were not so different from Jason's. Have they been missing the trees for the forest? Was it their fault crime was never actually going down? Could they have been any better? He was sure that Alvarez could see how stiff his smile was right now.
Spoiler was not doing her name any justice right now. Being the one ouf of the loop? Unable to surprise and corner some goons with neither information or physical intimidation? This was soooo not fun.
"Come on guys, first to drop some information on the newbie gets a protection ticket from yours truly, from our sword wielding Robin, we all know that little demon is more than happy to do some damage that's hard to fix. And the Goonion doesn't have great medical insurance right?"
"Would you believe us if we told you that Batman is more noticeable than this guy? Specially when we get our ass kicked? This guy? Going in and out in clothes as dark as yours. He appeared out of nowhere and next thing I know is I'm tied up with these guys."
"You fucking idiot, it wasn't so dark he was wearing blue."
"How the fuck are you working for Scarecrow, it was fucking red. Thats the only way Scarecrow tags his shit with color coded bands you dumb bastard I'm gonna leave a complaint on the goonion for letting a blind fucker put everyone at risk handling Scarecrow shit."
"I'm telling you it was basically black."
"No it was red"
"I swear I saw blue"
"Now you want to say yellow? Dumb fuckers it wasn't Superman coming at us lat night."
"His eyes where big and white and scary."
"I think this fucker had some gas on his system."
Wonderful, these guys were useless. She really wanted to bring the demon brat to use as a threat to shut them up. Maybe see if they were really under some sort of drug from Crane. Oh god she was borderline considering being still in the batcave listening to Jason fight Bruce.
"Oracle, do me a solid and let this guys tagged on your system? Filter them for drugs and color blindness once you have the time. Thank you dear." And with that she left, she knew these guys didn't know that much either but this was worse than useless. Even if they had fought Cass they would've gotten a (somewhat) coherent story.
Tim missed his coffee. This place would have been a goldmine of evidence if they had been looking for Scarecrow. Chemical trails? Everywhere. Labelled containers? Color coded and everything. Three, again THREE different desks that showed the production of the bombs, the toxin, the weapons mid modification to find the traces of potential suppliers and sources! He would consider giving Ra's another one of his organs in exchange of having all busts look like this. But finding the trails of an outsider in all this mess? Fucking hell. Under normal circumstances he would suspect the League's top brass was involved. No prints, no dirt, no mixed blood
"Robin would have told immediately if he suspected. You would have gotten sloppy trying to find him alone. Oracle and Spoiler and me would have gotten caught at some point looking. Nightwing too much away to actually work on it."
"I hate it when you're right."
"..."
"Ok, I hte it when I'm wrong."
Cass gave a satisfied nod.
"Red Hood thinks he is good. He doesn't like interfering when he thinks it's good."
"So, what do you see?"
"Unusual fighting, come up and down, diagonals outside guard. Experience, not tradicional training. We fight better."
"So... teleportation? Theres no evidence of grappling hooks or adhesives on the walls for distance and movement management."
"Not sure, lots of strength on the ground. Jumps?"
"Hey Oracle, any hits on that perimeter?"
"Nothing, I can see when Scarecrow's crew disabled the cameras on a 5 block radius and their route. I can see the camera's back 15 minutes after the arrest when the police re-started them. But its completely dark during the event, and there's noone I can pinpoint for suspicious movement before or after the confrontation. Either this guy blends as well as B, avoids cameras as well as BB or can walk around like a civillian without anyone noticing a thing." Barbara was very frustrated on the lack of findings. Hell, even the bigger players left something, 99% of the time untraceable, but something nonetheless, this guy was mocking them from... somewhere.
Batman was facing Scarecrow in the interrogtion room.
"Came here to gloat you didn't leave a finger to catch me?"
"..."
"What didn't like the report of your new Robin? Although I see you changed them colors. Tryingout new forms of fear I guess? I will agree spiders and tarantulas are far more scary than some little birds. Going back to the roots of making everyone more afraid of crime than their usual hell."
"He took you down with ease."
Not even a question, He wanted the Dr. and his pride wounded so he would spill more information. Since Crane wouldn't be voluntarily cooperative.
"He reads fear better then me I'd say, jumped away from where I wanted to shoot before i finished aiming. How do you train your little rainbow troupe? Maybe by having them fight on my early gasses to avoid the long term effects? Back then they were so rough, you just could tough them out. No long term effects, no adaptability for phobias. Ahhh well, you did teach me more about fear than I would like to normally admit. Then you were protective of Robin, started using antidotes and masks. Even if the kid tried to make a joke out of any situation. See you also went back to your roots on that front."
"Now all your future plans down the drain."
"I'll have to adpat yes, but fear is a weapon, it adapts, it grows. It can be spread so many ways and waterways are just the easier ways to do so. Your little game won't stop me, your justice won't keep me long. The mayor will face the consequences of ruining my biggest target. And you and your spider won't stop me, not with quippy lines nor jokes. Not with your silence and darkness. My pure fear will consume this city."
With that Batman just turned and left.
"You were caught in a citizens arrest, found out by an anonimous tip. Police did the investigation from start to finish. No assistance from our side, everything will go into court. This will be the death of your reputation Crane."
The Scarecrow's face changed. No trace of his arrogance, his ego, his bravado nor manipulations.
"Impossible, there's no way that guy isn't related to you!"
"We won't go to your trial."
And with that Batman left. A perfect victory for him, without doing anything.
... Or at least that's what Scarecrow was left to think.
Bruce was already at his wits end. It was one thing that Jason was hiding something like this from him, it was another thing someone was working with the police department right under his nose and Gordon's.
It was yet another thing that there was someone skilled enough to avoid Barbara's surveilance network. It was bad enough to be told that the latest improvements were happening in spite of him, not despite him doing nothing related he would be celebrating on that fact. But there was someone out there, playing with this city's rules not caring for how much it would set back the city when he failed. All his rules, all the monitoring, all the cold blood as his kids called it... They were to set back and reduce the cost of failure, if nothing else.
It was another subject that this arachnid based vigilante was quick an strong enough that his power set was completely a mistery. They had confirmed superhuman strength, but it was up to a guess if he had it on a level of Bane without venom, or Superman level and he was holding back. Enhanced speed? Tim proposed short range teleportation based on the attack patterns and the lack of evidence of any sort of equipment used for transportation. Did he had some electrical based powers to be able to avoid all cameras from capturing him? Even the hidden ones not on any grid he had installed with Tim for Barbara's network. Hacking skills? Although no evidence had been found of him using technology he shouldn't rule it out based alone on past experiences.
He was very much unfocused on his present situation at Wayne Industries, a presentation for stock holders, nothing he wasn't already informed by Tim or by reviewing the files left by Luscius. His mind was going a thousand miles per hour, Tim hadn't been able to run any tests on the web as Dick convinced everyone to call it "you have everything bat named, let's play along the spider themed guy", Damian had made it a point to call him more of a tarantula, because of the lack of venom in the MO, while Tim argued trapping in web is more spider-like behaviour than a tarantula... Steph made it a point to make everyone clean any traces of spider webs in the cave, safe houses and homes for "potential informers lurking around" (Alfred had taken offense at the insinuation that the manor had any to begin with). And Cass... while mostly silent Bruce knew she was interested that there was someone so good at avoiding the family, Steph pointed out she was on the same ground as everyone now, when usually she was the that could surprise anyone in the family with how well her she could conceal her presence.
"... Mister Wayne I know we aren't as interesting as your usual party girls, but could I ask you a little extra of your time after we are done? I need to talk to you about the funds for the Martha Wayne academic scholarship"
Lucius Fox took a little of a jab at Bruce, knowing of his nightly activities, he knew his presence was mostly for show, and he did need him for very touchy subject. Specially since it was related to their continous effort to protect the city.
"For you, always, my friend. You know I always consider it a personal favor that you always help me with the schorships I chose to open up."
The charming smile was on, and with that a private meeting without a single raised eyebrow was set up.
...
"So tell me Lucius, what brings up a meeting hidden away from the public eye? The last updates on our personal projects were barely done last week. And the scholarships funds are nowhere near needing an update until end of the year."
"You know, if you would not be so tangled up with all your plans and activities you coul guess the fact that this meting is much more on the leisure side than normal. I have been pointed out a little 'technicality' on one of Wayne Industries scholarships. And I would like to have your support when I bring it up to the next meeting, for both the company and your personal projects."
"And whats is this so called technicality?"
"The research and development competition and scholarship, it specially mentions that participants must be high school or college aged students. Now, apparently it was never specified in the rules they must be enroled in college or school to enter. Now, some of our receptionists refused to take a registration from a kid, who was already mad that all official registration sites were inside schools and universities, and they refused to take a non enroled regitration. He made a scene large enough and near enough to a meeting I had, a fact this kid admitted was not coincidence."
"So kid does his homework, now while this sounds interesting, what does he have that can make you consider him for our personal projects?"
"That is the thing Bruce! The kid is a bona fide genius on the bio chemical side. He came with a repurposed hand spray. He claimed it to be a neutralizing agent against chemical weapons. My curiosity did get the better of me and I tested it on my personal lab, started with things like pepper spray, all the way up to some old versions of Scarecrow's fear gas. It works, while not perfectly because I was still using the same hand sanitizer spray he turned in basically the second I started paying with the concentration and the pressure of the gas coming in it the effectiveness lowered. I want him, Bruce. Whatever he used to make it was by his own admission, makeshift, with subpar equipment and extracting chemicals from general stores and I'm guessing some stolen compounds from the clinic of Dr. Thompkins, she is the only one that wouldn't report something like that from a kid that's visibly in need. Imagine what he can make if we give him the resources and technology beyond the public's edge."
"You mean to tell menthis kid made a cure..."
"No, not a cure yet, he basically made an effective counter to Joker Venom and fear gas on a freaking abandoned RV out there somewhere. And yes, I know because I asked him. He is 20, doesn't have any high school records. Originally from New York but apparently 'dropped by life in Gotham'. He has a sense of humor. I want to employ him and roof him under any excuse we can, not only he can make life in Gotham a lot easier for everyone, and he needs to do it in a safe place because the kind of thing he came up with-"
"-will basically put a giant target on his back. I get why you need our involvement. This sort of deal would have to be kept completely under wraps every single step of the way up to when it basically is at a functional level on a city wide scale. Any leak beforehand would ensure there would be a massive war in the streets to either take him or kill him. What do you have on him so far?"
"Name is Ben Riley, from New York. Homeless and former kid in the system, clearly has a troubled past, he can't hide the face he makes of panic and frustration when I tried to bring it up. Last records of him are from around seven years ago, when he went into the system. Currently residing in The Narrows but refused to specify where exactly. Lanky, anxious and highly alert, not sure how much of that has to be attributed to his current living situation."
"So we need to have documentation made for him, get him a place to live in a highly secured area that would need constant supervision. A lab and supply route that is masked and encrypted. A job that both legitimizes his entry to Wayne Industries but doesn't give away his actual work. I'll be working on that."
"Thank you for getting it so quickly, I gave him and 'old' phone but in reality it's a private secure line we can use to keep track of him. I can contact him with an offer and we can get a feel of him as well when we detail the implications of his position."
"I'll have Tim come with you, his position as former CEO and his closeness in age should give him some degree of trust to our side. Do you think next week is a good timeline?"
"It should be, go and do your thing and I'll contact him to give him the least shocking parts of the news."
Later at dinner.
"Tim, I will need you to go meet Lucius next week at Wayne Industries, he will send us the details later, Cass if its possible i would like for you to join him-"
"I thought it was forbidden to bring up the family business at the table? I don't think you can finish the subject before Alfred comes to chew you out for breaking his rules."
"While it will be related to that later. For now it's a meeting fully on the WI front, there is a prospect that will need more than standard work contract. And both your proffesional and personal position will both be a great bridge to earn some confidence. I want Cass present to get an extra read on the applicant-"
"Wait, wait, what do you mean my personal and proffesional position? What do you mean read?"
"Ben Riley is a barely 20 year old that has turned in an effective counter against fear gas and theoretically Joker Venom-"
"What do you mean he cured Joker Venom?" Duke had to interrupt the conversation.
"Not cure, at least not yet according to Lucius. He has turned in a compund that when atomized in the enviorment it has rendered many chemical agents ineffective on contact. Lucius wants to give him a very private position and lab in WI. He might need some convincing and trust to understand that his position will need the upmost privacy and confidentiality; as well as the fact that we will need his cooperation and trust in the long run."
"Fox wants us to lower ourselves to be bodyguards?"
"No, he wants us to help earning his trust and cooperation. The technology he can make and we will work on implementing it on a city wide scale to reduce the damage that this city usually sees will have inmeasurable value. The fact that we will be using that same technology will at least compromise the relationship between WI and the team. So we will need a degree of trust and cooperation beyond a simple contract. That's why I want both Tim and Cass to meet him, both have a perfectly valid public reason to be present at the meeting before we can build any plan or countermeasure."
Cass just solemnly nodded while she kept enjoying her meal, curioity and surprise surrounding her the rest of the meal.