Après Protocol 10

Chico Maroni was the son of Sal "The Boss" Maroni. He'd been thrown into Arkham City by Hugo Strange just after it had been built. He and his gang had survived by keeping a very low profile while the bigger fish like Penguin and the Joker were fighting for supremacy. The Batman running about had made things even worse, but Chico had managed to keep his head down and stay out of their way. The mad Blitz that was Protocol 10 had pretty much destroyed Arkham City and killed a large percentage of its population. Somehow, Maroni and some of his gang had survived.

Now Chico stood in the centre of the ruined courthouse. His few remaining henchmen were outside standing guard. Most of his guys had been killed in the Tyger assault on the city and one or two had decided that they could make it as either super criminals or crime bosses in their own right – but they didn't matter as they'd probably be dead in a day or two. Joker's demise had created a power vacuum and various low level thugs seemed to have got the idea that they could fill his somewhat peculiar shoes. "Not a chance" said Chico to himself as he absentmindedly flipped a quarter while surveying the wreckage that surrounded him. In the corner, something glinted from beneath a large chunk of roof plaster so he pocketed the coin and ambled over and crouched down. Giving the plaster a gentle-ish shove revealed the glint to be caused by a submachine gun. "I suppose it'll come in handy" Maroni muttered. He pulled the gun free and proceeded to see if the plaster covered anything else. What his efforts revealed was a dead member of Jokers crew, who had several rounds of ammo on him and a couple of grenades. He also had a wallet in his pocket that judging by the ID card inside wasn't his. Too bad it only contained $20 but that was better than nothing.

Damn that Hugo Strange and this whole Arkham City thing. Rumour was that Strange had been at the top of the Wonder Tower when it had exploded, and the Bat along with Ra's Al Ghul had been seen falling from the exploding building. At the time he had hoped they were both history, but the Batman had been witnessed running into the Monarch Theatre so that hope had been dashed pretty quickly and according to a lot of stories, Ra's Al Ghul had cheated damn near certain death on a regular basis somehow so that hope looked pretty ropey too, especially as his body has vanished mysteriously.

Most of this part of Gotham was wrecked and would probably be demolished soon, no doubt under the stewardship of that rich bastard Bruce Wayne. For now though it was best to get what you could while there was anything left and ship the hell out and set up someplace less charred.

His thoughts were interrupted when his lieutenant, James Crawley came in. "Hey boss," he said, "Me and Big Dave have cleared a path down to the basement. It's pretty banged up but it's safe. You were right – Calendar Man never got out and his cell is pretty much un-openable."

"Oh well, he was weird anyway. Anything of use down there?" Chico asked

"Nah. Nothing but junk and a dead weirdo." Replied James.

"Screw this place then. Arkham city is dead. While the Bat's occupied with that annoying Quinn woman, let's get out of here." Chico had heard that Harley Quinn had kidnapped some cops and currently was occupying Batman's attention. He pulled out the quarter and looked at it in a very thoughtful way, nodded pretty much to himself and flipped the coin. It landed on tails. "Right, that settles it." He motioned to James and they headed to the back door, calling Big Dave out of the basement on the way. Guarding the door was Lenny Brookhouse: loyal gang member and crack shot. Lenny also had a radio and was listening to Vicky Vale. Maroni opened the door and spoke to Lenny, "Any news on the Bat?"

"Not much. He's not been seen since he went in, and that was 2 hours ago. According to Vale, his little sidekick is talking to Commissioner Gordon right now." Lenny responded.

"Good. Gather the guys and meet us down at the Velvet Lounge. We're getting out of this hellhole.

"Will do boss." Lenny nodded and went off to get the rest of the gang.

An hour later, Chico was sitting in the main bar of the Velvet Lounge, an abandoned and somewhat wrecked nightclub. Lenny and the diminutive gang came in and gathered up some chairs so Maroni could have a group discussion. Chico quickly scanned the room and sat on the bar. "Right boys, we have to face facts here. This place has gone to hell and before too long the bulldozers are gonna come in. And with the Batman and his little lapdog Robin sticking their beaks in every time we do anything, I think the best thing to do if we ever want to get any bigger is to leave Gotham."

Big Dave waved his meaty fist in the air. "So, where we gonna go boss? I mean, Bludhaven's alright but Nightwing hangs out there, and he's just as bad as Batman."

"Valid and sensible point there Dave." replied Chico, "So we're going to Park City. James here has a few contacts there and they don't seem to have any costumed freaks being vigilantes."

There were general nods of agreement.
The meeting was interrupted when the main door was kicked in by a large thug. The thug was followed by Al Bartross, a former member of Chico Maroni's gang. Al was one of the ex gang members who thought they could fill Jokers shoes and so far he'd done quite well. He'd risen to the top of the group of squabbling petty criminals by virtue of being slightly smarter and a shade more sadistic than the rest.

"Right Maroni!" he yelled, "You're finished. I'm taking over and you're going to leave. In a body-bag."

"Who says, you Albatross?" asked Chico in a sarcastic manner.

"Me and my gang. We says." responded Al. He was carrying a machine gun, and started to raise it in what he thought was a threatening way. This gave Chico more than enough time to whip his pistol out and shoot Al in the face, and without pausing or even slowing down he shot the big thug by the door as well.

"Says you, Albatross," sneered Maroni, "Boys, get ready."

The lads either flipped up tables or leapt behind the bar, guns at the ready.

James looked at his boss and pointed to the back door with his pistol. Chico nodded and turned his attention back to the main door. A member of Al's little gang, all full of bravado and little sense of safety stepped into the doorway and was greeted by a hail of bullets. Snippets of a conversation between the remains of the Albatross gang could be heard. One of them shouted. "Yeah, you win. This time." They heard the outer door slam, followed by some badly-concealed giggling. Chico shook his head. "Pathetic." He whispered, "Lenny, got a grenade?" he quietly asked. Lenny nodded, and dutifully de-pinned one and threw it into the open doorway. There were a few cries of 'oh shitoshitoshit' and manic scrabbling at the door before it exploded.

2 Days Later

Big Dave and Lenny were in an abandoned apartment. The boss was setting up the move and there was nothing much to do. Lenny's radio was tuned to COSH FM, Gotham's own gangster radio station. It was billed as "Gangsta Rap for real gangsters", but it mostly gave airtime to small-time hoods and thugs who wanted a bit of fame. Sometimes the big bosses used it to put out messages to their gangs, or some mad veiled taunt to the Batman.

Lenny was sat at a table, sorting through a pile of guns that were formerly owned by Al's gang. Some were junk but he was determined to make the most of what they'd found. So far he'd found 2 working pistols, and 3 working machine guns. Hopefully the deader weapons could be dismantled and used as spares. Big Dave was at another table with a pile of parts, trying to repair a shotgun.

"You know anyone in Park?" asked Big Dave.

"I think a few people I knew when I was a kid moved there, but I dunno if they've moved on." Lenny replied. "What about you?"

"My cousin lived there, and he was a cop." Dave spat the word 'cop' as if it left a bad taste.

"Was?"

"Yeah, he was killed during a raid on that psycho runt Penguin. Nasty business all round I heard: Penguin's whole operation in Park was ruined and the cops lost a few guys in the process. Any of them salvageable?" He nodded at the pile of guns.

Lenny nodded, "Yeah, some ain't bad. Got a few need work and a couple are pretty much past it."

COSH FM's news programme "What's Goin' Down in Gotham" came on, the headline story being that Jervis Tetch, aka the Mad Hatter had been collared by the police in downtown Gotham for kerb-crawling and harassing a seemingly random blonde teenager. Apparently he was to be taken to a new 'maximum security facility for weirdoes' somewhere near Metropolis. According to the reporter, another fruitcake bound for the new asylum was one Harley Quinn.

"Good thing too." Big Dave commented with feeling, "She was completely nuts."

"Yeah, damn right" agreed Lenny as he carefully squinted down the barrel of a pistol, "Couldn't stand that woman. That voice of hers went right through me like a saw." He shuddered at the thought of her.

Dave's phone rang. He looked at it and answered, "Hey boss. " He paused to listen, "Right, on our way." He shut it off and got up. "C'mon Lenny, The boss has called a meeting at the big church. Looks like something's up."

They put their gun projects down and picked up their working weapons before Lenny grabbed his radio; He switched it off and they headed to the meeting.