Burnside, City Of Gotham, NJ
Burnside was the life of Gotham, a below average crime rate allowed for it to have the biggest nightlife of the the east coast, lights shining high and bright, concert venues in business every night and a slew of expensive penthouse apartments where plenty of expensive parties and company operated.
One such penthouse was property of Roland Dagget, a collector of old and expensive antiquities of Miagani, the namesake of the native tribe that inhabited the islands of Gotham before the European settlers came forth. Now all that remained of their legacy was the name of one of the islands of the city and feeble activist groups that the higher ups in the system did their best to silence. Spoils of a once proud group now were held captive of sorts by people like Dagget. Across his main room were numerous expensive paintings, armaments and other possessions of the tribe.
Across from the vacant penthouse stood a man clad in a green hooded suit on the building opposite. Surveying the establishment with his tactical goggles which bore the look of simple sports sunglasses. He brought up a large compound bow and shot of zipline arrow into the roof and zipped across to land on the skylight where he silently stepped down into the room of antiques. He couldn't see much except for what the night sky could illuminate, luckily for him his target was one of those things.
A painting positioned as if it were a holy grail in the centre depicting a European "explorer" outstretching his hand to the Miagani tribe.
"Bullshit" the man in the hood muttered under his breath as he stepped forward and removed the painting from its glass, rolling it up and placing it in a plastic tube container which he slung around his back into his quiver.
He turned around only to be scared half to death upon seeing the silhouette of a woman standing at the other end of the room where he was once standing. The small fragments of light cascaded down her apparent platinum blonde hair. She was clad in head to toe black with the sides of her legs exposed in a fishnet stocking like material, she had a leather jacket that was positioned towards the upper half of her torso calling attention to a bird like pattern hinted with a similar fishnet material near her chest.
He swallowed his breath.
"I believe we're at the stage in our professional relationship where you can tell me your name" She called out in a commanding yet amused tone as she crossed her arms.
"Black Canary," He said as he pressed a button on his belt that modulated his voice down an octave as a disguise. "Followed me all the way from California to this dump, I'm touched"
"Not hard for a member of the Justice League." She said continuing to smirk as she stepped forward allowing the light to show her face and choker around her neck.
"You guys take this whole neighborhood watch thing too seriously." He said shaking his head walking forward to find that Canary had pressed her hand forcefully against his chest halting his movement causing him to smirk.
He grabbed her hand with his and attempted to throw her over his back, instead as she flew through the air she used her feet to latch onto his head pulling him over instead, knocking him on the floor.
Sharply getting up he pulled a crossbow from his sidearm holster and aimed a grapnel shot up to the skylight and catapulted himself onto the roof. Black Canary ricocheted herself off of a support pillar to catch up to him and then vault kicked him backwards once reaching the roof. The two continued to trade blocks and counters as if they were playing a video game. Eventually Canary made him trip over the ledge where she grabbed him by the front of his jacket. He then used a small taser to make her let go to allow him to pull off a backwards somersault in the air as he brought out his bow and aimed a grapnel arrow into the building wall allowing him to swing down below.
Canary free ran as fast as she could to the ground without breaking her legs, to then hear a motorcycle engine revving on behind her. She turned to the building's parking garage to see a single yellow light quickly turn on as her purp sped out into the alleyway, now wearing a helmet. While taking cover behind a dumpster he quickly stopped the bike to give a quick salute before closing the visor of the helmet and speeding off down the alleyway and onto the road.
Just as she was about to sound off a sigh of defeat she heard another engine speed up behind her, before realising what was happening she found herself grabbed by the arm onto the bike by a large built man in grey and black armour, topped off with a cape and pointy ears. It was Batman.
The two raced on after the man in the green hood as a they swerved through oncoming traffic.
"Hey Bats, what brings you to my neck of the woods?" She said grabbing onto his waist as the traffic became worse.
"Him, yesterday a pearl necklace was stolen from the Wayne vault by a man matching his description, I checked out the poorly written file you made on him and cross referenced his mo to this place."
"Yep, Green Arrow is his handle, chased him all the way to Star City and back again, jerk is good and cocky. Hey wait is this my bike?" Dinah called out, more annoyed by that than anything else.
"It's pulling a bit to the right" Batman uttered nonchalantly while barely dodging a truck.
"SHE'S special and you're abusing her, hey!" The two fought like children and eventually ended up switching positions in the middle of an active chase without crashing. Black Canary, now happy with arrangement, especially since Batman's cape wasn't in the way, now managed to gain significant distance towards Green Arrow.
Noticing this Green Arrow brought up his communicator through the display on his bike. "Hey Dodge? We got a problem here!" He called out in a nervous but still sarcastic tone to his partner who was several blocks away sitting in the driver's seat of a black van playing a game on a stolen Nintendo Switch.
"What did Black Canary get the drop on you again?" Dodger sarcastically asked while continuing to play his game in his slightly cockney London accent.
"Yes! And she brought Batman with her!" Green Arrow called out while dodging a batarang.
"Bloody Hell! How does she keep doing that!?" He said slamming the Switch down and grabbing his earpiece.
"Got no clue buddy just think of something, I'm coming to ya." He said while taking an abrupt turn towards Dodger's location.
"What am I meant to do!?" He shouted while stepping out of the messy van onto the street where the chase was about to lead them down.
Dodger fiddled around his long blue trench coat for some gadget to help them in their current predicament. He pulled gadget after gadget tossing each out after realising how useless they'd be here. "Go to America, it'll be way more fun than rain infested London…" Dodger muttered about his life choices.
"Hurry Dodge!" Arrow called out as his bike passed him on the street with the Leaguers not too far behind.
"Uh… what do I… oh they're on a bike" Dodger turned around with a smile towards the leaguers while outstretching his electrically charged nightstick with a flick of the wrist.
"Canary slow down!" Batman called out upon realising Dodger wasn't a random pedestrian.
"When have I ever?-" She turned back to say before the entire bike was toppled completely over as Dodger had hit them in the wheel by his nightstick causing them to crash into a parked car and land either side of it in pain.
Green Arrow came riding in and parked next to Dodger upon seeing the crash.
"Hey are they ok?" Green Arrow said with concern at the sight, while stepping off his bike.
"Oh they're… definitely fine!" Dodger suddenly replied ignoring his general cool calm and collected tone upon seeing Black Canary sit up on her shoulder.
The two of them acted like scared school girls as they hurled the bike into the back of the van as they sped off into the van, Dodger in the driver's seat and Green Arrow in the back with the bike on the floor.
They rocketed themselves across the street in the van scraping a couple cars along the way. Black Canary got up and looked after the escaping truck in frustration as she breathed heavily while wiping the blood away from her lips, smudging her black lipstick in the process.
Over in Dodger's truck, Green Arrow relaxed in the back removing his motorcycle helmet while grabbing a can of coke that was rolling around the floor. Under the helmet was the face of a male model, his perfectly highlighted blonde hair and light stubble were that of notable humanitarian and ex-businessman Oliver Queen.
Wayne Enterprises, The Next Day
Bruce Wayne, the majority shareholder of Wayne Enterprises was fixing his tie in his office mirror as he stood in front of his office's large glass walls providing a view of the skyline of Founder's Island where most of the major multinational corporations were stationed, as well what was put on the tourist websites. Bruce checked his appearance in the mirror one last time before attending to the first of many meetings he had that day. He wore a three piece charcoal suit which covered all the bruises he had gained during the night before. Upon checking his perfectly slicked back hair his intercom turned on.
"Mr Wayne your 8 o'clock is here." Called out his secretary Sharon.
"Thank you Sharon send them in." Bruce replied naturally increasing the pitch of his voice while still making it sound natural to use with the public.
Bruce looked towards his glass door to find Sharon welcoming his guest, opening the door for him, leading him into the office before closing the door behind her. In front of him stood the handsome and winner of last year's humanitarian of the year award, Oliver Queen. He carried himself well with a mischievous grin counteracted by his sleek and form fitting grey suit which had the blazer open, collar button undone as all as no tie to be seen. Despite this he still looked like he was fully prepared for the meeting that was about to unfold.
"Oliver it's good to see you again, old friend." Bruce said while shaking his hand.
"We both know that's a lie," Oliver said while turning back to see that an older African American man had walked in.
"I'm sorry I'm late Bruce, Mr Queen, it's a pleasure to meet you." Came the voice of Lucius Fox.
"Lucius this is Oliver Queen, Oliver I'd like to introduce to you the CEO of Wayne Enterprises, Lucius Fox." Bruce said, as the two men shook hands and exchanged the prototypical business greetings.
When all of the men took their seats, Bruce and Lucius behind the office desk and Oliver in the chair in front, the meeting could properly begin.
"How can we help you Mr Queen?" Lucius asked in a pleasant tone.
"Well as you know after my return to civilisation 4 years ago I gained control of Queen Industries, dissolving all assets focussing everything on the development and the work that the Queen Foundation does. Recently we've been pursuing the education sector, we wish to start a scholarship and grant programme for low income families to allow them to send their kids through to college. But this proves to be a great task given the scale we wish to work at, so I would like to make this a cooperative endeavour between the Queen Foundation and the Martha Wayne Foundation for Arts and Education which is owned by Wayne Enterprises and controlled by you Mr Wayne."
"So what specifically would you like Mr Queen?" Lucius asked.
"Despite our resources, the relationship that Wayne Enterprises has with many partners is unpresidented. In order to accomplish this we wish to work with you." Oliver finished in probably the most endearing and serious tone he'd ever used.
"It means a lot to us that you came to us Mr Queen." Mr Fox said earnestly after looking to Bruce to confirm his suspicions. "However, due to the way you operate, we can't be seen doing business with you."
Oliver's face fell, not out of insult but out of pure disappointment as well as seeing it coming. "Please, the amount of lives we can help if we do this…"
"It's not that, Oliver frequently you have been disrespectful and even abusive to people you disagree with, you even punched a senator in the face last month, for what was it? Oh yeah his stance on gun control." Bruce interjected.
"He'd rather children die in school than form a registry…" Oliver feebly replied.
"That's not the point, whether we agree with you or not, we can't award behaviour like this." Lucius continued.
"I loved my mother, she taught be about tolerance and respecting others even if they don't respect the ground you stand on. Oliver despite what you preach you seem to be extremely petty and childish, and backtalk anyone who gets in your way. I don't want my mother's name to be associated with you." Bruce stated, letting some of the past trickle into his speech.
Oliver let out a sigh and blinked back a tear.
"Thank you for your time…" Oliver said while getting up to walk away. Before reaching the door however, he stopped in his place and clenched his first before gaining back his composure. "Mr Fox, may I speak to Mr Wayne in private?" Oliver asked returning to a fake smile.
"Sure thing, just saying, there are cameras." Lucius said to Oliver before leaving.
"Oliver?" Bruce asked in a surprisingly confused tone.
"Funny, you pull all this bullshit and you think you can get self richous on me?" Oliver gave off a small laugh.
"What are you talking about?" Bruce asked crossing his arms.
"I know your secret Bruce, it's almost funny given what you just said about your Mom." Oliver smiled at him in a cocky voice.
"Listen Oliver…"
"No, I know all about it, the money embezzling." Oliver laughed in a triumphant tone.
"What?" Bruce replied in a confused tone but then realized what he meant.
"Millions of dollars every year disappears from the Wayne Enterprises budget and no one knows where it goes, and in the past few that number has gone up by 70% and ya know what, tones of people in your board pull this crap to dodge taxes, but nothing on the scale you do it on ever since you started working here. Once my people find out where that money is going there won't be anything stopping me from taking this company from your jailed hands." Oliver laughed while stepping to the door. " That sob story about your Mom and Dad, I guess it was just an act all along you never did care about their memory or anybody else, since you steal from this country every day to buy what? A few extra yachts? I thought maybe after what happened to Jason you'd wake up but ya didn't, you're just the same old Bruce Wayne."
As Oliver left the room, Dinah Lance also known as Black Canary stepped through the glass doors a few moments later wearing essentially what she was earlier minus the overt crime fighting gear. She found Bruce with a dazed expression on his face, with glazed eyes he realised that Dinah had snuck passed security and was now placing her hand on his shoulder to wake him up.
"Huh, sorry Dinah, do we have a meeting?" Bruce saying compartmentalizing his emotions after what had just happened.
"Yes but that's not important, you look freaked, do you wanna talk about it?" She asked in a concerned tone.
"You're a child and youth therapist Dinah, anyways I doubt any therapist could help me." Bruce said while pushing back the head of the bust he kept of his grandfather revealing a scanner which shone a light on the two of them.
Dinah rolled her eyes at his comment as a computerized female voice confirmed their designations.
"Recognised, Batman 02, Black Canary 08." Came the voice of Gideon the advanced AI of the justice league.
"Gideon activate Zeta-Tube platform, destination, Watchtower." Bruce commanded, and within a second of him saying so the bookshelves of the office rolled back to reveal a large circular mechanical tube with gears at the back turning in all directions as a large white light turned on.
"We should probably change first" Dinah said.
Bruce pressed another button on the back of the bust which caused two sections of the floor to roll back, bringing up to large black columns which opened to reveal their suits. Ignoring the need for any separation the two changed into their uniforms, Bruce taking considerably longer as Dinah only had to strap on some shin pads and arm guards as well as holstering a few gadgets including her tonphas on the sides of her legs, not to mention touching up her makeup to add some more eyeshadow, which she stole from Bruce's hands which he used to complete the look of the cowl.
With the two fully dressed they stepped into the light as it broke them apart atom by atom until they had completely vanished, with that the tube powered down and the office returned to normal, like nothing had happened.