a/n: …It's an AU crossover, so I placed it in the Dark Knight section since it's going to take place (excluding the first chapter) in Gotham, and yes, there will be other Batman characters that will play a vital part in my story. So, I hope you like it so far and tell me what you think! :D
Vicarious
I light my cigarette and stare across Old Town, all lights and action, from a room I'm sharing with Gail. She's not asleep; that much I know and she probably has her hand curled around something cold, metal and sharp under her pillow. I walk to the balcony in my boxers and look down into the street. Old Town girls mill around, parading their stuff like show horses but without saddles or bits – if there's one thing you can learn in Old Town, it's that the women here are bred without the influence of man and because of that, they are the epitome of everything female.
They don't show you the guns, or the knives, or the wires they're packing under their clothes. They show you patches of smooth skin, a bit of breast and their backs, just to catch your eye and keep it there so that you won't see what they're toying with in their hand. I should know. I made the same mistake with Gail that I know the guy on the street is going to make. He's approaching Amelie.
She's French; black haired and green eyed who wears a spider webbed dress made of silk and has gold paint swirled on parts of her. She wears glitter make up and she looks like a fairy with all that dust on her, but I won't tell her that. She'll just cuss me out in French and make a smile out of my throat with her harpy before I'd be able to see it coming. She wears spiked heels and has sharpened metal chopsticks in her hair.
The john moves in close and lifts his wallet and I see her sniff disdainfully and wave him away with a gloved hand. Gail doesn't like her much, says she doesn't like the French. I don't particularly like Amelie either – she's a sadist with a knife and Aphrodite's body and none of those has ever been a good combination for me.
The john moves in to slap at Amelie, maybe with bronze knuckles judging from the shine on his hand, and I guess she was caught off guard because I didn't see her harpy out, but something flies at him. It hits him. It hits him hard. Suddenly, it isn't from anger that's making him scream like a five year old on his knees and clutching at his shoulder. From this height, I can't make out what it is. Only make a guess as to who it's from.
A gargoyle perched on a rooftop across of my building jumps down, cloth whipping. Amelie looks up, and moves away, hiding into an alley. The john looks up a minute too late. He's on the ground in the blink of an eye, unconscious and bleeding from his shoulder.
Deadly little Miho.
She stalks around his body, and she toes at his body a little before she walks away; satisfied that the poor bastard probably won't be waking up for a while. The minute she walks away, Amelie and two other hookers dash towards his body, clawing at his clothes and shoes and emptying his wallet for all that's there. Amelie whistles to Miho and throws something to her.
Miho catches it, nods and looks up the building I'm in. She sees me and I wave down. She blinks and continues to walk calmly like a jungle cat in her territory.
Arms wrap around my middle and fingers steal my cigarette. Gail laughs in my ear and puffs my smoke. "Miho be quick, Miho be nimble," she laughs a little more and looks down at Miho, who is already melting into the shadows and climbing the building she'd been perched on earlier.
Gail purrs low in her throat and bites my ear, "What's the worst way to die?" she asks.
Gail asks the most inappropriate questions when she's naked. She probably already knows my answer anyway.
I stare at the building across of us, and watch as Miho stalks back and forth, her modernized kimono twisting in the wind like an animal's nervous tail. "In the dark, with only a bored Death for company," I reply and I know Gail sees that I haven't taken my eyes off of deadly little Miho yet. She chuckles and finishes my cigarette.
We both know Miho's agitated – she's had barely any action since Manute and the other mercenaries came, and Old Town is now a warning signal to all men that the girls are still packing and hostile. Business has been slow, which means that Old Town is frustrated, and if Old Town is frustrated, Miho is the cat without a mouse.
She vanishes, sharp earrings glittering under the moonlight, and she's leaping to another building to continue her rounds.
Gail pulls me back to the bed. I don't bother resisting.
-
Something gnaws at the back of my head and when I wake up; I remember that it's a hangover. I try to curl around a warm body that isn't there. My eyes open and my head pounds like a jackhammer. Gail's already out of bed and putting her effects on. Handcuffs clink together against her hip as she swayed.
There's a snarl on her lips, beautiful and fatal, and she's a bomb ticking. I roll over and sit up slowly. "Gail," she tenses when I say her name and she looks at me sideways. Something dark in her eyes beckons me closer to the inevitable big bang like a siren song.
Her lips purse then, before I can obey the siren's calling she's giving out and she looks away before turning to grab her Uzi. Something's in the air, something rotten as a corpse. "Three girls are dead Dwight," she said, voice tight and I can't tell whether she's about to cry or shoot the living hell out of something.
Something gives me pause. Three girls? Three Old Town girls are dead. I think of the hostility and loaded arms in Old Town, and of the pixie that haunts the rooftops and represents the law in Old Town. How could that be possible? Miho's been dying for action and because of that, she's been on high alert like an attack dog without a leash or collar.
Before I can bring this up to Gail, she goes on, turning to me and flashing those Valkyrie eyes at me, finger on the trigger of her Uzi. "They got the Dahlia treatment," she snarls, "No blood. Cut in half, and given a smile." She paces the floor, her boots making steady infuriated noises.
I go quiet. The only one I know who could do such a thing would be Old Town's deceased demon. Kevin – good old Patrick Henry Roark's disciple – had been quiet enough, deadly enough to whisk those Old Town girls out from under Miho's ever watchful gaze. He was dead, thanks to Marv, and to the gratitude of the Old Town girls who buried the big brute in Old Town where an old orchard lies.
I look up at Gail.
"Any description of the bastard?" her lip curls when I ask this.
"Yeah, one of the girls he picked up managed to get away." Gail turns sharply to the door when a knock comes, hesitant and quiet. "It's open," she said, voice softening a little. The door opens to reveal a little angel, with corn silk hair and big baby blues. She shuffles in with an Alice in Wonderland costume, a big black bow sagging on top of her head.
"I-I-I" – she breaks down, right into Gail's arms who holds her and shushes her gently. She strokes her hair.
Not even a creak of floorboards will announce Miho's presence, who appears in the door like a shadow of the crying girl. She offers no comfort except a disinterested glance at the girl in Gail's arms. She cocks her head to me momentarily before taking up a perch on the windowsill near the balcony doors. One leg swings down in a show of relaxation that isn't there.
"You need to tell us what happened," Gail parts from the girl and holds her by her shoulders. The girl sniffles and wipes her eyes, nodding her head in between odd hiccups.
A cup of coffee and a doughnut later and it's like what happened never happened.
Dames.
"So, anyway," Alice goes on, licking her fingers of chocolate frosting, "He says 'I just want to take pictures you know? Of the urban life in Old Town for a project I'm doing in Gotham.' So me, and the girls on my corner we say 'Alright' because he's got wine and food and he's paying us so we get in the limo and he drives us to the edge of Old Town and he brings Missy out first, saying he wants solitary pictures. Now, m 'n Lady we ignore him and get on eating and giggling cause of this great deal we got," she pauses to gulp coffee and bite into another doughnut. "But Flower she's all hyped up and says she doesn't want to do this anymore, says something's wrong."
She gulps more coffee and picks at her dress, pausing and shivering for a moment before going on. "Anyway, the john comes back and tells Flower to come with him, and Flower's all spit and fire telling him he can go fuck himself 'cause she's going back with or without the money. And he was real nice about it, so he says alright, you can leave, and he tells Lady to come with him. So's I'm left by myself and I'm still eating these little wine grapes and hot bread and champagne and then I hear some screams. I get my Colt-baby out and I open the door and I keep on hearing these screams. The driver gets out and tells me to get back in the limo. I tell him no, and all of a sudden I hear some shootin', and slashin' and screamin'."
She sits back to burp and grab another doughnut. I wonder if there'll be any left out of the box by the time she's done with her story.
"Lady comes around the corner, all bloody and her mouth is torn up and she's trying to tell me something, but all that comes out is blood and some sick gurgling and then I'm tackled by the driver, but I shoot him and I try to get to Lady but the guy, the guy, he's behind her and twisting a knife in her back. I see his hand, it's red and splotchy. Lady goes down, and I keep shooting him, but I guess he was wearing Kevlar or something under his trench coat 'cause he didn't stop, so I took my heels off and ran like a bat out of hell."
Alice is finished with her story and out of the box there are seven doughnuts left. I grab one.
Gail speaks up then, "What was he wearing?" she fiddles with the handcuffs at her side.
Alice looks to Gail almost sharply, a hell of a contrast from the shaking girl who cried in her arms five minutes ago. "Black pants, a big trench coat and a fedora hat, a red right hand." She holds her right hand up and pauses, looks to Miho almost warily.
Miho returns the gaze evenly.
Gail stares at her, "Any idea where he is?"
Alice shakes her head, corn silk flowing like threaded wheat. "I know where he might be heading," she says helpfully, looking up at Gail earnestly and for the second time, I look at how young she is. Gail watches her, expectant of the answer. Alice downs the rest of her coffee, "He said he was doing a project for Gotham, about different urban life."
Gail turns to me, and Miho moves to her side. "Gotham," Gail concludes, fingering her Uzi.
The sheriff and the deputy of Old Town share one glance and Miho turns to me. "Dwight," Gail starts but I already know what's coming. "Go with Miho, check around for," she looks back at Alice for a moment, "a red handed man."
I nod and get out of bed to pull on my clothes and my Colts.
Miho, I notice when we're heading out the door to hunt for the woman-killer, is tense and she looks excited in the way only Miho can look.
…
I should've seen it coming really.
Miho and I head into bars, and hotels in Basin city, driving around in my Caddy and asking people about a red handed man. Miho breaks six arms, eight fingers and nine faces before we come across a man who seems to know something.
He doesn't talk at first; not until Miho shows him her wakizashi and a few tricks with it to his boys before he starts to sing like a canary.
He says that he's from the Falcone family in Gotham, who had been in league with the Magliozzi family here. He only recently got wind that they'd been wiped out, the guy says, and because of that, Falcone is looking to take over his territory and expand even.
Expand straight into Old Town.
I get up close to him, and I ask him about the red handed man.
"He's a messenger sent from Falcone," he stutters, pale with fear and he won't take his eyes off of Miho who moves beside me. "Sent to those whores who gave him information."
I pause and back track. Flower, Lady, Missy and Alice – "Gave him information," I hold a Colt 1911 to his temple. He already knows we're not messing around.
He nods, licks his lips, "Yeah, they were the ones who told him about the Old Town slaughter and how the Magliozzi family was wiped out," he looks pointedly at Miho and I.
"Why did he have those girls killed then?" I hear the clean sound of Miho flicking her wakizashi out of its sheathe.
He gulps, "Because they were selling information to the Maroni family too and he wanted in on Old Town before they got to it."
I let go on him and move back. I feel numb.
Old Town…Old Town was being blown wide open again. I had no idea if they'd be able to protect themselves from the mob since the murder of Jackie-boy. The police already suspect foul play from Old Town since that cop had spotted him going there and it was the last place he'd been left alive.
The evidence may be in pieces and in the Pits, but the suspicion was enough.
The shaky truce was ending, and crumbling in front of our eyes.
The guy laughs, fat face still pale, "The Red Handed Man is already on his way to report back to Falcone. Once he does, Falcone will move in, bribe the police and Old Town will be his." He's laughing now, insanely and Miho jabs the butt end of her wakizashi into his throat to make him choke on it.
I sit and think. I try to think like the Salesman would. It's always in person, the exchanging of information because the phone and mail is too dangerous. The phone may be bugged and since Falcone is a Gotham crime boss, it isn't a far cry from the truth.
The red handed man, with his information, will go straight to Falcone and inform him. Inform him of Old Town's weaknesses, their numbers and everything the girls told him.
I turn to the guy again, pointing my Colt at his face. "What did they tell him?"
He smiles and says the word I'd been dreading. "Everything."
Miho slashes lightning-quick and his head rolls to the ground.
I turn to Miho, "We've got to get back to Old Town and tell Gail and Wendy." She nods and we move out, racing like hell back to Old Town.
Seven Old Town girls are waiting, armed to the teeth and it doesn't look like anybody's selling anything. The streets are empty.
Wendy, in her curly angel hair glory walks to us with a revolver in her hand. Gail's right behind her, Uzi out and ready.
Wendy looks right at me, "Anything?" she asks, eyes darting between Miho and I.
I turn to Gail, "Where's Alice?" I ask.
Gail frowns, "Gone. We couldn't find her after you and Miho left."
I curse and Miho slides out of the Caddy, meets Wendy's eyes to calm her. It works.
I speak to Wendy this time, "The red handed man isn't a woman killer. He's a messenger."
A sharp intake of breath from Wendy and a hiss from Gail. The Queen bee of Old Town speaks this time, low and dangerous like an angel from hell, "From who?"
I look up at her and say the name that does nothing for me, but might for her, "Falcone."
Her eyes widen and stumbles back a step, "Are you telling the truth?" she points the gun at my face.
"Of course he is, Wendy. Dwight won't lie to you," Gail snaps and Wendy retracts her arm slowly.
"Alice and those other girls who were killed, they were feeding Falcone information about Old Town."
Where Wendy stiffens and her eyes go cold, Gail's her opposite, she's all fire and brimstone and cussing. "What kind of information?" Wendy asks, slow and deliberate.
"Everything," I reply.
Gail rounds on me in the blink of an eye, "Why did he kill those girls then?"
"Because Falcone found out they were giving Maroni information too," Wendy falls back and holds her hand to her face like someone smacked her. She seems to know these names all too well. Maybe she'd dealt with them before.
Wendy closes her eyes for a moment, then opens them. There's a cold hell in her eyes, an Ice Queen who rules with a steady hand and a steely gun. "Dwight, take Miho with you and cut him off from Gotham if you can. We could hold back the ones in Basin City, but not Falcone. Falcone…he'll bring back the old days." She looks to Miho who nods in acceptance, before she looks over at Gail, "Gail, get all the girls corralled at the Saloon, we need to have a meeting and no one gets out on the streets tonight. Get some other girls and tell them to look for Alice – tell them to bring her to me alive."
Gail doesn't question Wendy the Ice Queen of Old Town. She gives me a final glance, a good bye, before she stalks back to the other girls to give out orders as sheriff. Wendy beckons a girl over and tells her to bring something to her. She nods, and cocks the safety on her Glock before racing off.
Wendy looks to me, "It's dangerous in Gotham."
I nod, "I figured."
"If Alice told Falcone everything, she might have given forewarning that you and Miho will be there to meet him head on." She stops, thinks and goes on.
"There's a warehouse a couple blocks from here, it has everything you need. Take whatever you want." Her look turns sharp, vicious, "Do everything you can to keep Falcone from rounding troops out here. But Dwight," she pauses, looks at Miho who looks at her silently. "Don't kill Falcone. If you kill him, the entire Falcone family will come here regardless for revenge. It'll be bloody. It'll be the end. Just…give him a message from the girls of Old Town." She squeezes my shoulder.
Dizzy dame. I have no idea how Miho and I are gonna pull this off without pissing off the Falcone family one way or another.
The girl comes back panting, holding a worn map that Wendy hands to me. "It's a map to Gotham." She explains before offering up, "Good luck," she tosses her hair over her shoulder and she gives me a grateful half smile.
"Good luck to you too," I say, then to Miho, "Let's get suited up." Miho nods and climbs back in the Caddy.
The warehouse I drive to is filled to the brim with submachine guns, revolvers, Colts, Glocks, Winchesters, knives, wires and everything the US Army could dream of. I take a few Glocks and load a duffel bag full of ammo.
Miho takes a long sword; a katana, from a secluded pile that I presume is hers solely. She attaches it to her belt and secures it with a tight knot; she also takes her longbow before she looks to me. In her other free hand is a quill of arrows.
Miho looks like a Samurai woman.
I can see her shivering from where I'm standing. Like an attack dog with a target but was held back by a tight leash for too long.
I nod grimly, "Let's go get this son of a bitch Miho." I rev the Caddy and Miho takes the back seat. We speed out of Old Town and the map is held down on the top by my duffel bag so I can read it.
My headache from my hangover pounds in my head like Marv's fist while I think of Gotham.
I think of Wendy, of Gail, of all the girls of Old Town and even Miho before I think, What I do for a pretty face.