The nights were finally beginning to pick up again, which Cassandra welcomed after the increasing confusion and questions of the past few days.
"Some of Cobblepot's favored thugs were sighted on their way to the Flugelheim Museum," Bruce explained in the cave, strapping on his gauntlets. "There's a gala out there tonight for an aspiring artist. I don't know what Cobblepot's planning, but the police insisted they wanted some back up."
"To the museum then?" Cassandra asked.
"Robin and Spoiler are already on their way there," Bruce replied, moving upward to his cape and cowl. "I want you to come with me and deal with Cobblepot personally. He always keeps the best guards to himself."
Cassandra pulled on her masked hood and nodded, climbing into the back of the Batmobile as the two went roaring out into the hills of Gotham Heights, speeding towards the city.
"I heard you had a run in with George Ryan," Bruce said. "Did you know he was a friend of Tim's family?"
"The Drakes?" Cassandra asked.
"Yes. Oversaw his parent's wedding, Jack's second one, Tim's baptism, everything. He's mentioned it a few times when we've driven by the church."
Cassandra considered asking a few more questions, but Batman's hand was to his ear, muttering to Tim and Stephanie, "Keeping focus over there?"
"Yeah," Cassandra could hear Tim over the radio built into her uniform. "I definitely do recognize a few of these guys too. If anything happens, we'll be the first to know. Are you guys heading to the Iceberg Lounge then? You don't think that's too obvious?"
"No, Cobblepot will want to be where he knows he's safe. Even if the police know those are his men, they'll need more evidence to convict him if he was just sitting and waiting for them to catch up."
As the two continued to race through the streets of Gotham they eventually parked just a few blocks down from the seemingly abandoned Iceberg Lounge restaurant. Bruce and Cassandra were both quick to getting out and grappling to the rooftops for a better look at the Penguin's defenses, The Batman being the first to mutter a confused, "What's all that about?"
Cassandra turned to him, confused, as he pointed downward towards the shotgun wielding guards just in front of the door. "Yes?" Cassandra asked. "The guards?"
"No," Batman said. "Look to your right."
Cassandra scanned the area as he had instructed and, to her shock, noticed several bloody corpses laid strewn about, riddled with bullet wounds, shotgun shells from the looks of them. She looked back towards the guards at the door to confirm their weapons. Definitely shotguns.
"Notice anything else?" Batman asked. "They're dressed the exact same way."
It was true, Cassandra realized. The dead men and the ones posted at the door wore identical pinstripe suits, all of their hair buzzed short and out of the way. It was clear: the guards at the door had killed the other members of their staff.
"But why?" Cassandra asked, as much to herself as to Bruce.
"I don't know, but those two are in for a rude awakening," Batman snarled, reaching into his belt and producing a small pellet. "Follow my lead."
Within moments the two focused guards were frantically searching and coughing, finding themselves in the midst of a dense smoke from the pellet Batman had tossed. A few shotgun blasts went up into the air, but nothing made contact with the two stalkers of the night, who quickly disposed of the two, Batman resuming his contact with Robin as they approached the door.
"How are things looking on your side?" He asked.
"I was gonna call you a second ago," Robin said, his voice somewhat frantic, the sound of a few gun blasts in the background. "The artist guy, Vignarolli? He's okay, Spoiler has him. But uh… I don't know how to say this… Penguin's goons are killing each other."
"Your side too?" Cassandra asked as the two walked into the lounge.
"I mean it just came the hell outta nowhere," Tim said, trying to yell over the blasts. "I gotta go deal with them, but something weird is going on here. Really weird."
The two dropped their attention to Robin as they looked forward into the icy-colored lounge, the smallest twitches coming from Batman as he looked on. Nine of the men in the tailored suits were spread across the room, blood dripping from their chests and mouths, only one of them making the slightest indication he was still breathing. Tables and chairs were tossed aside, shattered glass covering the floor, destruction all around them.
In the restaurant's center stood four of varying sizes and heights, two gripping machine guns, one with a set of brass knuckles and a third looking over a pair of knives.
"You'd best see yourself out Bat," the one with the knives said, taking a battle stance. "We're only here for Cobblepot… At least tonight we are."
"We ain't afraid of you!" Chimed in one of the machine gun wielders. "The Iceberg Lounge is under new management!"
"Really? And who would that be?" Batman said, his eyes running over all of them, Cassandra recognizing his expression as the one he wore when toying with his opponents.
"He's not ready to make his grand entrance just yet. But hey, maybe he'll be more apt when he knows the streets are a little cleaner!"
With his last word the one with the brass knuckles ran at Batman. Though the two were similar in height, Batman had no difficulty dodging to the side and kicking him square in his stomach, followed by a swift punch in the nose that put the attacker off his feet.
It was then the attackers cut loose. The sound of ricocheting bullets filled the room as Batman and Batgirl quickly retreated behind two of the cool colored pillars decorating the lounge. Machine gun fire took over for around a minute before a momentary quiet to reload. The Dark Knights took their moment then and lunged out from their hiding places.
Batman delivered a punch square across the jaw of one of them as Cassandra rushed forward and bent the other's arm, forcing him to relinquish the hold on his gun and knocking him to the ground with a leg sweep. She was about to go to work on the arm with the knife-wielder made his way over. Cassandra briefly released her first captive to catch the twin blades heading towards her, again breaking her opponent's grip, grabbing behind his head, and smashing his face into her knee, knocking him backwards with blood dripping out his nose. With a quick curve and stomp Cassandra rendered the gunman's arm useless as he shrieked in pain. "You'll recover," she assured him quietly, as she jumped forward towards the knife wielding thug and delivered a decisive blow to his head, knocking him unconscious. Cassandra turned to see Batman deliver the finishing blow to both of his opponents, smashing their heads together and tossing them both aside.
Quickly so as not to keep him waiting, Cassandra rushed to grab a chair and propped the bloodied man up onto it to ensure it would not flow down his throat. With an approving nod, Batman led her down through the lounge, where he knew Cobblepot's private suite would be.
"Robin, Spoiler, what's going on down there? Is everything secure?" Batman asked.
"Yeah, looks like we're in the clear here… I still don't have any idea what just happened though."
"Well, let's see if Cobblepot has some answers," Batman muttered as he pointed Cassandra forward to a pair of oak doors marked, "Manager's Suite. Do not disturb." A keypad was connected to the doors, which Batman made his way towards.
"Double checked these before we left," he said, typing in the code 2473 and waiting for confirmation. To his irritation he was denied access. "Damn, must have switched them before we came in."
To both his and Cassandra's surprise, there came a metallic turning sound: the unlocking mechanism. Giving it a moment or two, Batman proceeded to the oak doors and delivered a swift kick, forcing them open.
"Always 'ave to make an entrance don'tcha Bats?" The small, cockney voiced man cackled as the two heroes made their way in. "I even unlocked the bloody thing for ya!"
"What's this all about Cobblepot?" Batman demanded. "What were you trying to do to Vignarolli and why were your men shooting one another?"
"Like ta get right to the point, don'tcha," Cobblepot sneered. He stood around four feet ten and was grossly overweight, his face seemed painfully scrunched at all times and clashed strongly with his oversized nose. A large cigar was wrapped around his sausage like fingers, and he took a long drag on it before he said, "I idn't ave anything to do with it."
Batman made his way over to the seated villain, the difference in their size now even more impressive as he looked down into his eyes. "Didn't you?"
"No, I didn't," The Penguin sneered. "If I wanted a few pieces a' that snot nosed Vignarolli's a't, I'd a gotten it fair. No, a few a my boys, Jimmy Wockets, Evan Drum, all that lot, all said they were handlin' some pick up duty fer the lounge t'night. I'm sittin' ere enjoyin' a fine Cuban when Rye'son looks over at me an says, "We don't work fer you no more". I shot im' in the gut with me umbrella, not gonna deny it, but the basta'd 'ad a gun ta my head. And then they all stat'd killin' eachotha. Simple as that Bats."
"So you really had nothing to do with any of this?" Batman said, not trusting a word he had just summarized.
"Piss off. I got security cameras all over this place if you wanna investigate furtha'," Cobblepot said.
Batman gave him a last intent stare before leading Cassandra away to find the surveillance footage, and just what had happened before they arrived.