Gotham
"According to officials, The Red Hood is dead and his Arkham Knights are either in Blackgate Penitentiary, dead, or in the wind, and-" The Red Hood snorted and turned his phone off, jamming it into his black jacket pocket. Sporting a new look, lighter than his armor, he wore a black jacket with white shoulders, with a red hoodie beneath it, and a dark gray shirt with a red bat symbol on it. His legs were clad in black pants with black knee-high shinguards, and black boots. Around his waist, he wore a low-slung blood red utility belt, and of course, as per his name, a blood red helmet.
It had been only a week since he left Gotham, since he left the manor, but he was still keeping tabs. He couldn't go back to Gotham, not just yet. He wasn't stupid; he knew he was injured and that was why he left Gotham. It as far too risky to stay there with Nightwing, Batman, and Red Robin as replacement was calling himself now, running around. He was good, but not good enough to face them down in his current state.
So he came here, to Star City, to pay an old friend a visit.
"What'd I tell you? I told you, if you're coming on patrol with me, ton stick close so you don't get yourself killed!" Arsenal snapped, dropping down beside him. The red and black clad vigilante punched his arm and drew his bow. Hood looked up at the man, face obscured by a black domino mask, short auburn air blown back by the wind. He sighed and stood up, shaking his head.
"Hey, I might not be one-hundred percent, but I'm not helpless," Hood snapped back. He dusted himself off and drew his dual hand guns, rolling his shoulders a bit before motioning down to the thugs below and turned to Arsenal and asked "so, how'd you wanna handle 'em?"
Arsenal scanned the room below with his tactical visor active. From the intel he had, they were a gang of Drug Dealers working for a dirt bag out of Gotham. Red Hood had been reluctant to go back, but once they finished up here, that'd be their next stop: Gotham City. Arsenal was silent for a few moments longer and Red Hood was getting antsy. Finally, he grinned over at Hood.
"No civilians. No holding back," he said with a cocky grin, starting things off with a well placed explosive arrow, aimed at the table with weapons piled on top of it. The men shouted in both angry and surprise as the two red and black clad vigilantes dived into the fray below.
Hood dived down, spinning through the air as he fired off his hand guns in rapid succession, killing several of them quickly, while Arsenal nailed two more with throwing knives. As soon as they landed, they were charged by several thugs with various melee weapons ranging from baseball bats to crow bars. The two vigilantes stood back to back as they came at them.
"Think you can handle it?" Arsenal asked, slamming his bow into one of them and sending him flying backward. Hood performed a punch-gunshot combo and knocked one out while killing another. He laughed in amusement at the question.
"Remember who you're talking to! And then ask yourself 'why do I bother'?" Arsenal gave a laughed as the two of them pushed off of each other and tore threw the last of the thugs, tying up the survivors for the cops. Arsenal and Hood met each other in the middle of the room, the former of which gave a light hearted backhanded slap to Hood's arm.
"See? I told you you could play nice if you really tried," he said with a grin, gesturing to the tied up, but alive, thugs. Hood gave a shrug of his shoulders.
"You're one to talk. You killed as many as I did." Arsenal snorted and mounted his bow on his back.
"Yeah, but I didn't kill them all. Now-" Arsenal said with a grin, rubbing his hands together. He clapped Hood on the shoulder and flashed him a grin "you ready to get back to Gotham?" Hood sighed and threw his hood off, removing his helmet, revealing a red domino mask beneath it. He raked a hand through his hair and gave another shrug.
"Sure, why the fuck not. It's probably gone back to being a pisshole without me there," he said with a grin. Arsenal laughed and slapped the man's back, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and leading him out of the building.
"Very likely. But we;ll bust your guys out of Blackgate, as much as I dislike the idea-"
"Hey, they were loyal to me, I'm not gonna leave 'em in there" Hood snapped back. Arsenal backed off a bit and raised his hands defensively.
"I know, I know. I get it. I just don't like prison breaks, okay?" Hood gave a nod and sighed, hand raking through his hand again.
"I get it. But we're totally killing anyone else who tries to get out. Think of it as...spring cleaning," Hood said with a wicked grin. Arsenal laughed and poked the man in the chest.
"Okay, first of all, it's August, so it's the middle of summer-"
"Details, details," Hood said nonchalantly, waving his hand dismissively,
"And second, I like the way you think!" Hood chuckled darkly and playfully punched Arsenal's arm.
"Good. Then we'll leave tomorrow. I need to sleep. Like, seriously, I haven't had a good night's sleep in a month." Arsenal chuckled in amusement, wrapped his arm around his friend's shoulders.
"Well, last night may have been my fault," he said in a low tone, wiggling his eyebrows. Hood smirked and punched the man again.
"Yeah well, not tonight. I'm fuckin' tired."
Nightwing spun through the air, escrima sticks flying, punches, kicks, and escrima blows raining down on the thugs he was engaged with. Gotham erupted into chaos with The Red Hood's departure. With him gone, a power vacuum had been left behind, and the gangs were at war to try to claim leadership of the Underworld. Penguin proved an invaluable source of intel, but only because the constant gang wars were messing with his own businesses.
Black Mask's lawyer somehow got him off, but Batman suspected jury tampering, which Nightwing whole heartedly agreed with. All in all, it was pretty much an average month in Gotham. But Black Mask's return made things worse; he and the Joker had been rivals for a long time and now with the Clown Prince of Crime gone, Black Mask became more aggressive, taking up more of the Joker's old territory. But not without a fight.
From out of left field, Harley Quinn, of all people, stepped up and took control of the Joker's men. With the Joker dead, she became even more psychotic, more aggressive, and far more violent. She even renamed the gang to "The Jokerz," and already made a few very violent, very aggressive power plays against Black Mask.
Bludhaven would have to wait, as it wasn't nearly as bad as Gotham currently. Nightwing had to take a little more time away from Bludhaven to help in Gotham. The GCPD, Batman and Red Robin were tasked to capacity with gang wars erupting every other night, so Nightwing opted to stay for a while to help. The Justice League offered to help a few times, but each time, Batman declined. He didn't like having other heroes in his city. He had even insisted Nightwing take care of Bludhaven. He was as stubborn as ever, but that didn't stop Nightwing from sticking around.
And so here was Nightwing, taking down one of Black Mask's gangs, who were pushing venom onto the streets of Gotham. Or trying to. Black Mask didn't seem to care what 'business' his gangs were up to, as long as they were solidifying his power base and raking in money. Just a few days ago, he and Batman broke up another child trafficking ring. And last night, they caught Two-Face brokering a weapon deal with Penguin's men who turned out to have gone rogue.
Penguin had not been happy when he found out, which he did only a few hours later. Needless to say, his turncoat men didn't make it to Blackgate alive.
"There's twelve of us, and one of him! Why the hell ain't he dead yet?!" The gang leader yelled, firing a machine gun at Nightwing. Nightwing laughed as he spun through the air, avoiding the gunfire before landing on top of the man and sending him crashing to the ground.
"Let me give you a hint; it's because I'm Nightwing," Nightwing replied, looking down at the man while knocking two more out with his escrima sticks without looking up. He stepped off the man and got to grounding and tying them up for the GCPD to come pick them up. He pulled out a grappling gun and aimed it at a building across the way and turned back to the bound gangster. He flashed them a wink and a grin.
"Try and behave yourselves. Maybe you'll get out of Blackgate before you're fifty!" He fired the grappling gun and vanished into the night.
"Oracle, you got anything else for me?" Nightwing asked as he landed on top of the building. There was a brief silence before Oracle replied.
"Yeah, there's some activity down in The Bowery. Seems like another gang war." Nightwing groaned and typed a few commands on his gauntlet, summoning the Wing Glider.
"Yeah, can't ever catch a break can we?" he asked with a slight laugh, diving off the building and latching onto the Wing Glider. Oracle laughed at the reply.
"Well, you're the one who wanted to stay and help, remember?" she replied. Nightwing could practically hear the smirk on his face which elicited another laugh.
"Barbara, you're such a bitch, and I mean that in the nicest way possible," he said. Oracle laughed again.
"I'll take that as a compliment. Being a bitch isn't always a bad thing. I wear the title with pride," she said and Nightwing laughed again.
"Sure thing Babs. I'll let you know when I'm there. Tell Batman and Red Robin that I got the Bowery covered."
"On it."
Nightwing dropped down on top of the abandoned warehouse where the trouble supposedly was. Interestingly enough, all he found were dead, or unconscious thugs littering the ground.
"Oracle, looks like its over. And it doesn't look good. Everyone is either dead or unconscious," Nightwing said quietly.
"Everyone?" she asked.
"Everyone." Nightwing continued through the warehouse, escrima sticks at the ready. Something didn't seem quite right; there were two different gangs here, but every single one of them was out cold. And there were no signs of a third. None at all. Nightwing came across some a pile of charred drugs, worthless now but worth millions before they had been burned, he guessed. Was there another vigilante in town?
"Fuck!"
Nightwing heard the shout from another room and followed it, carefully. He heard a gun shot, then rounded the corner and spotted someone crouched down over a corpse. The man got to his feet and turned and Nightwing's heart hammered in his chest.
"Well, well, well, if it ain't golden boy," The Red Hood said with amusement. Nightwing glanced down to the hand clutching his side. He nodded to it.
"Are you okay?" he asked. Hood grunted and moved his hand, revealing a shallow cut on his side. He snorted and waved a gun toting hand dismissively.
"Just a flesh wound. And it's nice to see you too," he said casually, holstering his guns. Nightwing spun around on the spot when he heard someone drop down behind him and was surprised to see
"Arsenal?"
"In the flesh!" Arsenal said with a grin, giving a slight bow.
"Right, well, it was nice seeing you again, but we have work to do," Hood said casually, patting Nightwing's shoulder as he passed. Nightwing growled and grabbed his arm.
"You're an asshole, y'know that?!" he snapped. Hood turned back to him, then glanced at Arsenal who just snickered and raised his hands defensively.
"You're not dragging me into this," he said, grappling up to the rafters above and vanishing through a hole on the roof. Hood sighed and removed his helmet, tucking it under his arm.
"What?"
"What?! You take off in the middle of the night, injured, gone for over a week without a single word, and all you have to say is 'what'?" Nightwing asked angrily, fisting the man's jacket and yanking him forward. Jason grinned wickedly and licked his lips.
"Y'know Dickie, you're really hot when you're angry," he teased. Nightwing tried to be angry, but his expression faltered and twisted into a smile, followed by a laugh as he let the man go.
"Jason-" Jason donned his helmet again and grappled up to the roof above.
"Sorry, gotta go. Duty calls. Looks like The Red Hood's gonna have to clean house. Again."
"Hey!" Nightwing called after him, but he was already gone. He sighed and contacted Oracle. Somehow, he didn't think Bruce would take this news well...