AN: Thanks for the reviews, guys. To answer the question about sidekicks, no, Cassandra won't be Batgirl in this as she's still too young (about 10 years old) and that she's currently in Rome, living with Bruce and Selina. However, I'm sure this chapter will give you a hint at one of Helena's possible sidekicks.

-X-

Gotham City, twelve years later...

"The defendant has been successful in his insanity plea and will instead spend his time in Arkham Asylum for treatment until such a time he is deemed sane enough for prison," the judge ordered, banging his gavel.

Warren White smiled in victory at D.A. Harry Sims, knowing that he had avoided jail time despite the lawyer's best efforts. A small-time crook for the Mob, White specialised in finances and racketeering, but when the Mob was torn up by the police and the Huntress, he found himself before the court. Wishing to avoid prison, White entered an insanity plea and he was pleased that he was successful. At least at Arkham, he should be comfortable in his surroundings, his every need being catered to and all he had to do was pretend to be insane. If only he had heard the stories about the asylum, if only he knew what it was really like, then he would never have argued for the insanity plea. At first, White's time in the asylum was fine, but as time went on, he realise how truly insane the madhouse was. With every day he spent alongside the nutjobs and maniacs, including the Joker's insane daughter, White felt that he was slowly losing his grip on his sanity, slowly being driven to the breaking point and even began taking the drugs assigned for him in order to cope, having originally flushed them down the toilet. As the days wore on and his grip on sanity, White began contemplating retracting his plea and go to prison, figuring that he would fare better amongst the murderers and rapists than the violent mental patients. However, as with all things, everything changed for White on the day that he was due to reappear in court in order to retract his plea. A riot broke out and several of the violent maniacs escaped from their confines, going on a rampage. Out of all the victims, White suffered the worst, given that he was known as a pretty boy in the asylum and the maniacs decided to change. Armed with numerous kitchen knives, they caught White in the bathroom and held him down, while taking to his face with the knives. Although he tried to fight them, White was not a strong man and could only scream in agony as they scalped him, then severed his ears, nose and lips, leaving him in a giant pool of his own blood. When police stormed the asylum to put an end to the riot, they had White immediately taken to the hospital, where he underwent surgery to save his life, his severed appendages having been flushed down the toilet. The operation was a success, although White would have to live with a deformed face until such a time he could gain prosthetics. However, when White recovered and saw his image in the mirror for the very first time since the attack, his sanity snapped at the sight of his vicious visage. To add to it, White took a file to his teeth, filing them into sharp fangs and began calling himself 'The Great White Shark', creating a personality to go with his new name.

-X-

Mexico, one year later…

Arthur Brown sighed in relaxed satisfaction as he stood at the edge of his multimillion-dollar mansion's courtyard, overlooking the sea, a glass of the finest Scotch whiskey in his hand. Armed guards patrolled the perimeter of the mansion, keeping an eye out for any authority or trespassers looking for trouble, while the latest flavour of the month slipped off her towel to reveal a two-piece bikini, and then dived into the crystal-clear pool, much to Arthur's delight. Crime really did pay, as Arthur was capable of having whatever he wanted at a whim, thanks to a lifetime of criminal activity as a burglar. Of course, that had also included some jail time at least once or twice, but good behaviour usually led to an early release and it wasn't long before Arthur was concocting another robbery. He did try going straight once, but after his wife left him, taking their daughter with her, Arthur didn't see the point in staying on the right side of the law and even ended up in the employ of the Mob for a short while.

However, that changed when the costumed vigilante known as the Huntress teamed up with the police and started tearing the Mob apart; breaking their influence over Gotham City and Arthur was forced to flee. He was lucky in the fact that the police weren't directly targeting him, aiming for the higher-ranked crime lords, but that didn't make escaping Gotham any easier. He barely got away, heading straight for Mexico and his multimillion-dollar mansion where he would be safe from extradition, at least from Gotham City's finest. Arthur lived in fear that the Huntress would come knocking on his door soon, even though he had numerous guards to protect his property, given that he had heard the stories about her. How no criminal had been able to escape from her, how she pursued them relentlessly and how broken she could leave the criminals if they ever tried to fight her. Thinking about it now, Arthur considered himself very lucky he had managed to avoid the Huntress…for now.

The beautiful sight of the sun setting over the ocean put Arthur's mind at ease and he forgot about the Huntress for the time being, content with relaxing for as long as he could. The beautiful young woman slipped out of the pool, drying herself off with a pointed look at Arthur and he recognised the intent in her eyes. With a smile, he followed her inside the luxurious mansion, after making sure with his bodyguards that he was not to be disturbed.

The guards kept patrolling the grounds, thinking it to be just another normal night with no interaction from the outside world, completely unaware that someone was watching them from a distance. Two guards stood by the front iron gates, there to question anyone who tried to enter the grounds, when one of them suddenly dropped, a bullet wound in his chest. The other guard went to draw his gun, but quickly suffered the same fate. No one noticed a thing.

Meanwhile, Arthur sat in his comfortable wingchair in the den, his glass refilled, as the young woman decided to make things entertaining by starting a slow and sensual dance, still wearing her bikini and Arthur smirked in delight as he admired her curves. He had no idea what her name was, but he didn't really care about things like that. As long as she entertained him, he would keep her around, but if not, there were plenty other young beautiful women he could take his pick of. Perhaps for his next one, he might go for a beautiful Mexican señorita. However, Arthur's fun was cut short by a voice calling over his earpiece radio.

"Sir, we have a problem," came a guard's voice, "We're under attack."

"From who?" Arthur demanded, annoyed that someone who dare try to attack him, before thinking that the Huntress had finally come for him and he grew fearful.

"We don't know. Whoever it is, they're armed and they're shooting to kill."

Arthur frowned, knowing about the Huntress' strict code to never kill, although she was often willing to beat criminals into unconsciousness and break a few bones. But if it wasn't the Huntress, then who was it? Arthur began to sweat with fear and the young woman looked at him in confusion, wondering what was going on, especially when he yanked her by the arm.

"Hey!"

"Come with me," Arthur ordered.

As he took the woman away to hide, the guards had all retreated inside the mansion, with three heading to the den in order to protect their boss, while the rest remained in the foyer, standing in a circle with their semi-automatic weapons at the ready. They believed that they had all the entry points covered for their position, but they were wrong. Something fell amongst the group from above, fists striking home, as the guards yelled and tried to fight back, but it was only in vain when bones were viciously broken. Bullets sprayed, but never found their target, the fight over in a matter of seconds and all the guards were left bleeding and broken on the floor. Arthur was huddled in his panic room, unable to see anything on the screens due to the camera feeds being cut and he was a sweating bundle of nerves, fearing for his life. He didn't know who was coming for him, but at the same time, he was scared at finding out. At this point, he would much rather deal with the Huntress and her friends than face someone who was willing to kill. At least with the Huntress, the worst she could possibly do to him was put him in a body cast for six months, despite how unappealing that sounded, it was better than dying. Due to the thickness of the steel walls, Arthur couldn't hear anything outside and was simply content with waiting for a few days, given that he had the supplies to do so, but his heart rate skyrocketed when the doors whooshed open and his aggressor stepped into the panic room.

He was tall and lean, but obviously someone who worked out every day, with a body that easily put Arthur to shame. His clothes were pretty casual, mainly a black T-shirt and jeans, along with motorcycle boots and a black leather jacket, twin Raging Taurus .49 quad-shooter pistols in hand, but it was his mask that was his distinguishing feature. It was a full red helmet that covered his entire head, the only feature being his white lensed eyes. Arthur cowered in the corner as the man approached him, the woman showing some bravery, but she was knocked out with a pistol whip to the side of her head.

"Who – who are you?" Arthur cried, "What do you want with me?!"

"Arthur Brown, you're a dirty, lowly criminal who ran with the Mob. Gotham City police can't get you because of certain laws, but what are laws to you and me anyway? As for me, I'm the Red Hood and I'm here to clean up your mess and everyone else's. See, the way I figure it, there's only one real way to deal with you scum. And that's permanently."

The Red Hood pulled the trigger, firing four bullets into Arthur and killing him instantly.

"It was something that the Batman or the Huntress could never understand."

-X-