Wednesday 8th April 2009, 19:00.
New Jersey,
Gotham City,
Dockyard.
"Really? A dockyard?" Esau questioned as he crouched beside Batman on a shipping container overlooking the people down below. "How cliché can they get? I mean seriously, when I was hunting down Black Mask this is the first place I came to look for information."
The dockyards were a hotbed of criminal activity.
So much so that most of the workers were actually members of a gang or crime family, or at the very least on their payroll with the docks themselves split under the control of the crime lords. From what Esau had come to learn from his time as Black Hood, was that once Batman had come along the old agreements hadn't been enough and so there had been a huge negotiation between the various organisations that dictated who would own which parts of the docks.
It had been the largest gathering in years and since then, there had been no such gathering ever again.
Batman said nothing in response to Esau's words, continuing to study the thugs down below as they moved barrels of an unknown substance into a single container.
"Speaking of which, how come you've never stopped those deals going on here?" Esau asked the silent Batman. "Because I found a lot of shady shit going on when I was here and not all of it was to do with Black Mask."
Once again there was silence for a few minutes. "Because it's better to have an enemy operating in a place you know they will than in a place you don't," Batman explained.
What was the point in busting the few small-time deals that took place in the dockyards daily when he could allow them to continue to operate here so that when a big deal came along, he could catch them? That way, when a big-time deal took place, instead of the meeting taking place in some unknown location throughout the city, it would be right here in the docks where he knew it to be. If he did raid the docks all the time, then eventually, the crime lords would be forced to find more secure and undisclosed locations.
The docks were open with plenty of high vantage points and ways to sneak into it.
A perfect place for him to take down the bigger dealings that took place and it was certainly worth the risk of letting a number of smaller deals take place.
Besides, the vast majority of deals that went on here were usually stopped by the Gotham Police Department. When considering all that, it was actually more beneficial to allow said deals to go on even if a few went on unhindered. Especially if it allowed him to stop the bigger deals that could and would cause serious problems and consequences if allowed to happen.
Fighting crime in Gotham wasn't easy and sometimes it required letting certain things to go unpunished in order to make a major difference.
"Still don't get it," Esau replied.
"Be quiet." Batman hushed, watching as an SUV pulled up in front of the proceedings.
Esau narrowed his eyes in anger at being ordered around, but instead of saying something decided to turn his gaze back to the thugs and watched as Scarecrow stepped out of the SUV. His mask was in place as a few of the more important members of his gang listened to the orders he was giving, his arms waving around in exaggerated and angry movements.
Something was definitely angering him, that much anyone could tell.
"We definitely found what we're looking for," Esau muttered and Batman nodded his head. "I'm gonna go get a closer look."
In most cases, Batman would have attempted to stop Esau knowing that he could get caught and alert the guards who would raise the alarm. This in turn would cause the barrels to be moved to a different location and force them to scour the city for their location all over again. However, as he watched the shipping containers holding what he assumed was the Fearless Toxin Scarecrow had produced were being locked up. Batman knew they wouldn't be able to unlock the container and move the Fearless toxin before he arrived in time, so he allowed Esau to get closer.
It also allowed him to study Esau's movements as well.
As he had expected, he was raw and untrained.
He stayed out of sight well enough, but that was easy when someone was higher up and was dressed in all black at night, especially in a city as dark as Gotham. Still, Esau knew it was best to stick to the shadows and was very quiet for someone who moved like stealth was a new concept to them.
Still, he could see plenty of things to improve upon, both in Esau's fighting style from earlier and also in his movements right now.
However, they could be improved on with time and proper guidance from the right person.
But like he knew when offering this team up, Esau would be difficult to work with.
He didn't like Batman and his lack of killing, that alone would make working with him difficult for Esau to accept. Add in the fact that Esau was also very stubborn and it seemed Batman would have his work cut out for him, more so than with Barbara and Richard.
Still, he would make this work as best as he could.
The whole point of this team-up was so that Batman could teach or at least guide Esau in how to improve both his fighting and his view on life.
The act of killing was not an option for people like them, they needed to prove to the government that they weren't the time bombs that they thought they were. It's hard enough trying to keep the villains from discovering their secret identities, let alone with the various government agencies and police forces doing the same. In a matter of weeks if not days, nearly every hero would have their secret identity discovered giving the government all the leverage it needed to control not only the heroes but the Justice League and all its resources.
Esau needed to realise that or he would end up as a tool to do someone else's bidding.
But for the time being, Batman had the information he needed.
Esau was going to be difficult to convince to accept his help, Scarecrow was holding Fearless toxin at the docks and he could end this incident right now before it started to get worse.
Moving quickly, he moved to Esau's location and noticed that the boy hadn't even sensed his approach.
Suddenly revealing his presence would no doubt startle him and alert the guards and send Scarecrow scurrying off to whatever hole he had been hiding in.
So instead, Batman leapt off the container and allowed his cape to open up.
He glided across the night sky and as he neared Scarecrow's location, before dropping to the ground, kicking the man to the ground with a kick to the face. The various thugs scattered around the dockyard froze taking a few moments to stare before snapping back to reality and firing in his general direction.
Regretfully, some of the thugs went down due to friendly fire as Batman avoided the hail of bullets and charged into the largest group of criminals. His fists and feet lashed out with devastating accuracy and power, sending criminals collapsing to the ground in bruised, unconscious heaps of flesh.
Meanwhile, Esau looked on in shock having not expected Batman to spring into action so suddenly.
But he quickly got a hold of himself when Batman came under fire and pulled out his fully loaded pistols and took aim.
Not every shot was a kill shot, most were head shots and that's where he was aiming, but some were slightly off course and hit some thugs in the chests, shoulders, arms, and legs and if they were lucky, missed them entirely. Still, Esau had a number of magazines to go through from his time robbing Black Masks armoury and every time his gun ran out of bullets, he'd just replace the empty clip with a new one.
So while he was no Deadshot, – though he had worked hard on improving his skills – he was definitely a good shot unlike some of those thugs firing at Batman right now.
"Get me out of here!" Scarecrow shouted, violently grabbing one of the thugs before pushing him to the driver's side of the SUV he arrived in while Scarecrow got into the passenger.
Not wanting him to escape, Esau took aim and fired.
Luckily for Scarecrow, the bulletproof glass stopped the bullet from piercing through the head of his driver, stopping his escape. Esau cursed his luck, having not only been aiming for the Scarecrow and his aim was off, the bulletproof glass standing his way.
"Shit!" He cursed, watching as Scarecrow took off. "You're not getting away that easily."
Leaving Batman to deal with what remained of Scarecrow's crew, Esau took off back the way he came, leaping, vaulting and climbing his way across the piled containers until he arrived at where his bike was parked. He knew very well from his time studying the dockyard's layout that the nearest exit for Scarecrow was just down the road from where he had stored the Fearless Toxin and so, he quickly revved the engine of his bike and took off.
The bike roared as he swerved it through the dockyard, skidding across the ground as he turned right after exiting it and then took off faster than before. Already he had broken the speed limit pushing a hundred and fifty miles per hour as he drove down the road, his form a blur as he tried to catch up to Scarecrow.
That's when he saw the SUV driving up the road.
He was going too fast to stop in time and so, watched the as the SUV drove straight past him, the world seemed to slow down as Esau saw Scarecrow staring out at him from behind the window. Growling, he slowed his bike right down, while simultaneously spinning it around only to see Batman jump and land on the ground in front of him, one hand raised in the universal sign of stop, in his direction.
Ripping his helmet off after he came to a sudden stop, Esau looked at Batman incredulously. "Why the hell did you stop me?" Esau shouted and Batman just stared at him silently. "I could have caught up to him easily."
"Have you forgotten the barrels filled with the Fearless toxin that he will eventually use against Gotham?" Batman questioned.
"Have you forgotten," Esau stressed this part as to mock Batman. "That Scarecrow is the one who created this toxin and even if we have his barrels, he can just create more, have you forgotten that?"
"No."
"Then what? You just stopped me from chasing down Scarecrow." Esau continued. "If you don't know, this wouldn't be my first time chasing an SUV...I should have just run you over," Esau muttered the last part angrily.
Batman stared firmly at Esau realising that he may have more work cut out for him than he realised. "If I remember correctly, that chase resulted in it being a trap that you walked straight into." That last part made Esau freeze before his face twisted up in a snarl at the reminder of his own hubris.
"Whatever," Esau grunted. "So, what do we do about Scarecrow who's escaped?"
Batman turned around and started moving back towards the dockyard. "I placed a tracker on him." He said before firing a grappling hook that wrapped around a nearby support beam and pulled him up towards the top of the containers.
As he watched Batman disappear back to where they had originally been, Esau couldn't help feeling a little bit of respect for Batman despite how much it pained him. He hadn't even thought of tracking devices, nor had he realised that Batman had placed a tracker on Scarecrow.
'Stopping me makes more sense now.' He thought before putting his helmet on and riding his back to where Scarecrow's Fearless toxin was being stored. 'Should have led with that in the first place.'
Bringing his bike to a stop beside Batman, he looked to where the barrels had been stored to find that not only was the container open, but it was also empty. "We were gone only a few minutes, how did they manage to empty it all without us realising?" Esau asked and Batman didn't answer because they already knew the answer.
It shouldn't be possible.
There's no way twenty-three barrels of Fearless toxin should have been able to be moved in the space of fewer than ten minutes.
Not without them knowing about it.
-X-
Wednesday 8th April 2009, 19:00.
New Jersey,
Gotham City,
East End.
Sighing, Robin sat back on the ground, his back leaning against the wall as he waited quietly.
It had been like this for the last fifteen minutes since Batman placed a tracker on Scarecrow allowing them to know where his hideout was. It took them only five minutes for him and Batgirl to get here in the Batwing and they had been waiting patiently for ten minutes for Batman to arrive.
Now normally, he was a pretty patient guy.
There were plenty of times in which he and Batman would spend hours on a stakeout just waiting for the perfect moment to strike to present itself, yet here he was ten minutes into the waiting game and he was already frustrated.
"Calm down, Robin," Batgirl muttered quietly, her irritation at his impatience slipping into her tone.
He looked over to see that she was doing what he had previously been doing, studying the warehouse in which Scarecrow was situated and like always, she was doing a better job.
Despite having been Robin far longer than she had been Batgirl, she had quickly proven that her age did give her some advantages. She was every bit as flexible, as fast and even slightly stronger than him, combining that with her fighting style, intelligence and longer reach and that made Batgirl currently better than him. It still hurt his pride a little to know that someone who hadn't done this for as long as he had, had surpassed him, even if she did keep saying that eventually, he would surpass her.
It had nothing to do with Batgirl being a member of the opposite gender, it was just how quickly she had grown into being Batgirl. She had been unusually motivated, more so than he had when he first started out and he knew it had something to do with her childhood friend, Esau.
"I know, you're right. I'm sorry." Robin apologised turning around to look over the side of the building once more. He could usually last much longer than this, but that was usually due to having no choice.
Scarecrows' security was spread thin so they could sneak in easily.
Why Batman had told them to wait when he would have usually let them go in was anyone's guess.
That's when both of Batman's sidekicks heard the sound of footsteps.
A single pair and whoever it was, was trying to sneak up on them.
It was probably one of Scarecrows goons who had somehow spotted them and thought to take them out by surprise. Unluckily for him, he tried to sneak up on the wrong people and he was about to pay for that fatal mistake.
Spinning around, Robin went to leap forwards, while Batgirl went to leap to the side.
It was a tried and true method of attack the two had come up with in the countless times they had worked together. Robin would jump forwards and engage their enemy in close quarters, keeping him or her distracted and off guard. While this was going on, Batgirl would move around and if needed, throw Batarangs at them that would cause their attacker to avoid them as well Robin, which was easier said than done. If they needed to stick to stealth – like right now – and couldn't afford to make too much noise, she would instead come in from the flanks or from behind.
There were very few people who had the necessary skill to fend off either Batgirl or a Robin, let alone both at the same time. Those that could would still find themselves hard-pressed for a while, long enough for Batman to arrive or create an opening for them to escape.
All that came to a halt when they noticed that it was not a single person standing behind them, but two.
One was their mentor, Batman which explained why they could only hear one pair of footsteps as, despite their best efforts, their mentor was still too skilled for them to close the gap.
The other was a surprise guest, Black Hood and an unwelcome surprise as well, for most parties involved.
"What's he doing here?" Robin asked arms crossed over his chest due to still being a little miffed at being tricked by the vigilante. The ass-kicking he dealt to the older boy definitely worked well in soothing his wounded pride, but it didn't change the fact that he had been tricked by a dud of all things.
Now that seriously wounded his pride.
Especially with all the teasing from Barbara, Alfred and even Bruce at times.
"He's here to help," Batman informed them shortly, gauging the reactions of the three young individuals before him.
Batgirl and Robin appeared indifferent and would appear unbothered by Black Hood's arrival to most people. But to him, he could tell they disliked this as much as the person they were so uneasy working with. Black Hood's entire posture radiated irritation and even anger at being forced to work with the three people who he blamed for having a role in enabling Gotham's crime, despite being the ones trying to stop it.
Still, he needed to be sure there wouldn't be any problems. "This won't be a problem, will it?" It was phrased as a question, but everyone knew it was more of an order. A force of habit that his protégé had grown used to, Black Hood not so much and it showed in the way his anger grew a bit more at being ordered around. Even so, Black Hood begrudgingly nodded his head stiffly. "Good."
Batman on the other hand couldn't care less about Black Hood's wounded pride.
They had a job to do and he wouldn't walk around on eggshells around Gotham's newest vigilante just because he didn't like being ordered around. His stubbornness could be a good thing, but it seems that Black Hood didn't understand when to let such things go in the face of overcoming odds that required help.
That would have to change as well.
"What have you learned?" Batman asked, crouching down beside Batgirl, while Black Hood and Robin remained standing, their eyes narrowed in each other's direction. Neither said anything, even Black Hood knew better than to piss off Batman, especially after being beaten with relative ease earlier today.
"Thirty armed guards and I'm not just seeing Scarecrows guys down there, I'm seeing a few guys that have worked with Killer Croc as well," Batgirl informed her mentor who said nothing, just kneeling there thinking over the information. "I'm thinking the two might be teaming up or something like that. Either way, the only viable way is to get on the roof and then move down through the windows on the side. Most are missing so we should be able to avoid making any noise."
Nodding his head, Batman took note of the number of men on the roof.
There were five, all armed with semi-automatics and patrolling randomly around, making sure to look like they knew what they were doing when in fact they didn't. Still, with five of them, it would be difficult to take them all out before they could raise the alarm, partly because they had a new member that was unused to working with them.
Batman more for the sake of Black Hood, pronounced their next move. "Go for the roof, take out the guards and move into the warehouse through the missing windows." While he, Robin and Batgirl had grown so used to working together, their roles had become defined.
The unique synergy that had formed meant they didn't need to communicate to know what the other was doing, they could tell just from their minuscule movements what they were planning to do. Right now, Black Hood didn't have that and so for the sake of things, Batman would have to use verbal communication more often.
Without a word, Batgirl and Robin took off covering the west and east sides of the building, each getting into a position where they could take out the guards quickly and quietly.
Batman, however, stayed and turned to Black Hood. "You cover the guard on this side, once I'm in position take him out, quickly and quietly." Reluctantly, the younger man nodded his head and Batman went to leave, but just before he did he remembered something. "No killing."
With that warning, Batman took off not even caring if Black Hood had attempted to rebuke this order and instead move to get into position.