Chapter Twenty One: Fallen Part One.
Some called the Circus the greatest show on Earth. Others called it a trainwreck and the exploitation of people. Regardless of what each and every individual person considered it as one thing could not be denied. The circus got a ton of people out there in droves.
Young Alexandra Potter relished the opportunity to get out and about and be able to see the Circus. It was one of the opportunities that she didn't have when she was growing up. Although to be fair, she was still growing up and enjoying some degree of a childhood. Even if those early years of her life were rather rough on her.
Still, she was glad that she got this opportunity, going out and about with Harry, along with Helena and Barbara.
"Oh, this is going to be so awesome, it's a shame that there aren't going to be any clowns," Alex said and Barbara and Helena both cringed.
Helena shook her head. She might have to work on educating this one about clowns and their evils later on.
"Well, I'm sure that there are going to be plenty of other things that will keep your interest, Alex," Harry told her and the young Potter female nodded, crossing her arms, when they made their way into the front entrance. Harry took this opportunity to lean in and talk to Barbara. "So, when is your father showing up?"
Barbara frowned. That was a really good question actually. "He said that he was meeting us here right about now, he's never one to be late you know."
"I know," Harry replied with a smile and he ran his hands over the top of his hair.
He reached in and grabbed Barbara's hand. He squeezed his wife's hand, holding it in tight to him.
Barbara hitched in a deep breath. She thought that she should be nervous. It wouldn't be too bad though. She was a grown woman, therefore capable of making her own decisions, both good and bad. She would fight this one to the death that this was a good decision.
"Are you okay?" Harry asked Barbara, nudging her.
"Well, I knew that we would have to face this one eventually," Barbara commented to him.
"We'll face it and we'll do so together," Harry told her.
"Not nervous are you," Barbara said, half teasing but she was half serious and also completely worried. But rather at ease that her father had witnesses around them, but really worried still. Then again she might be completely paranoid.
Okay, she was completely paranoid. Who could blame her though.
Harry gave his wife a questioning look. "No, I'm not worried…because I've deal with well worse than an overprotective father."
Barbara arched an eyebrow. That response only made her have another question. "Does anything faze you?"
"A few things, but I just go with the flow and see where life takes me and all that," Harry answered, and his face contorted into one of those smiles. His arms crossed together and Helena took a step forward.
She was taken aback when she nearly ran into someone in the Circus.
Of course, knowing her luck she would run into her alternate universe father, much younger. It was really jarring to see him in his prime. Especially with all of his limbs functioning and attached. She only saw pictures and that wasn't the same thing.
"Excuse me, I didn't see you," Bruce said in a jovial voice. He attached himself to one of those vapid model types that seemed to be hanging around Gotham City billionaires.
The type that always looked for some free-pubiclity, maybe some free money for all they knew.
"That's alright," Helena said, he was wearing the mask, but the mask kind of got blurred in those later years.
Batman started to seep into Bruce Wayne's life and her mother was the only one that could bring him down to Earth, but damn if her mother didn't have her own problems. Her mask flittered in and out often enough as well.
"You must be Harry Potter," Bruce said in surprise. He wasn't expecting to see Potter here but he was glad to meet him finally in person. "I've heard about your work and it's about time someone managed to loosen the Luthor chokehold over Metropolis."
"It's never easy," Harry answered with a smile on his face, looking Bruce directly in the eye and he walked over to shake his hand. "This is Barbara Gordon…..you may have met her father."
"Yes," Bruce said and he leaned forward. "I thought that I may have saw your father in the parking lot, Miss Gordon, he's on his way in."
"Great," Barbara said, not sounding so happy but if Bruce noticed, he didn't say anything.
"And this is my….."
"I'm his sister, Helena Potter," Helena said, side stepping the answer for Harry and Bruce looked at her, surveying the situation for a moment.
Helena wondered if he bought the story. There was a moment where she felt like she was getting scanned by some lie detecting machine.
"I can see the resemblance, but then again, I can see the resemblance between myself and Harry, but….a few of the less repeatable papers reported it as such, but I guess they have to get something right, sometime," Bruce commented with a light chuckle and Harry smiled in response but didn't really say much of anything. "But….."
"Twins separated at birth, I've heard the rumors trust me, they are pretty outrageous, aren't they?" Harry asked and Bruce nodded crisply at Harry's blasé response.
"Rather outrageous, yes," Bruce agreed and he faced Harry down. "But there are sometimes validity to even the most insane of rumors, wouldn't you agree?"
"Yes, many times," Harry said and he saw Alex standing over the corner, pleading to be acknowledged. "And this is my cousin, Alexandra."
"Hi, Mr. Wayne," Alexandra said in a mostly respectful voice, even though she thought that he looked like a bit of a dork.
She had to be polite, even though it was kind of hard for her to be so. She only barely disguised wrinkling her nose up.
She could have sworn that Helena gave her a shadow of a smile before she turned away.
"It's a pleasure to meet you all…"
James Gordon turned up, looking gruff and Harry stared at him for ten seconds. He got a strange sense of Deja-Vu for some reason. He shook his head.
"Sorry, you remind me of someone that I knew in a past life," Harry said swiftly and he said no more other than that. "I'm Harry Potter….."
"Right, the boy that Barbara found in Vegas," Gordon said but then he realized that he was dealing with the Harry Potter, and was rather surprised. Barbara had a thing for him. Not that he spent too much time worrying about that. He didn't think that it would escalate to marriage though. "So…this is not the most ideal situation, but I had some time to think about it, and Barbara is eighteen and old enough to make her own decisions…..even if this was not one that I preferred to make…..so welcome to the family."
Harry saw Gordon extend his hand and Harry took the hand, shaking it. Barbara breathed a sigh of relief.
"You don't have any criminal records, do you?" Gordon asked and Barbara looked outraged.
"DAD!"
"No, I haven't even shop lifted a stick of gum," Harry said. He did once crush a toad with a falling cabinet.
That was purely out of self-defense and it was nothing that would really hold up in a court of law, as far as Harry knew. Considering it was also out of this universe's jurisdiction, Harry had nothing to worry about.
"That's good, Barbara has chosen well…..and you know, that look hasn't worked on me since you were six," Gordon said and he was sure that Harry was on the level.
'So how much did you explain to him?' Harry asked Barbara.
Barbara threw her arms up into the air. She figured that they were getting to this point soon enough but she didn't have to like the point that they were getting to.
'I explained enough to him, if you must know,' Barbara commented lightly and she could already feel a headache that was coming onto her.
The redhead female crossed her arms together and Harry placed his arm around her shoulders, pulling her in, which caused her to become a little more at ease, just a little bit, but not too much.
'Okay, that's good enough for me,' Harry said and he followed Helena, Alex, and Barbara up, they had some good seats to enjoy the show.
Harry didn't want to say anything out of fear of jinxing it. That being said, he hoped things fixed up to be a nice relaxing evening. He looked forward forward to a nice quiet night that would be devoid of any and all incident. That would be a nice and welcome change to the normal insane life he lived. He was ready to just kick back and enjoy the show and enjoy the events that would unfold for him tonight.
The roar of the crowds could be heard outside of the Circus, as the preliminary acts warmed up the Circus. Everyone knew what they were here for, for the main attraction. The main attraction was presently standing backstage, waiting for their cue to go on.
A young female of about eleven years old, with a long sigh crossed her arms over her chest. She had long dark hair and bright blue eyes, and she was slipping on her uniform. It was a red top with green shorts, and she looked and felt liked a total dweeb wearing it, especially out in front of all of these people.
She supposed that it went with the territory, but it didn't make her feel any less of a dweeb.
"Rebecca, honey, we're on in five minutes, are you ready?"
Rebecca Grayson pulled a face, looking about as critical of her appearance as a pre-teen girl might, even though she was a bit of a tomboy. She wondered if something like this was normal outside the circus. The young pre-teen guessed that she didn't.
She supposed she couldn't even use the excuse that she looked ridiculous because she was performing in the circus and being ridiculous was one of the key aspects of performing.
"I'm coming Mom," Rebecca said and she closed her eyes mostly so she didn't have to look at herself. Even though she looked and felt like a complete and utter dweeb, she was coming, and she walked out of her dressing room, where her mother was standing there, in a similar costume. The girl had to admit it. Her mother was able to pull off the look much better. "So, how do I look?"
"You look great," Mary Grayson said with a smile on her face and Rebecca stared at her mother.
"People are going to laugh at me," she said, placing her hands on her face and pulling a sour face. She supposed that things didn't look too bad in this dim of a light, but never the less, she shook her head.
"They'll be dazzled by what you do up there, to be worried too much about how you look, and besides…..our manager says that we needed a fresh look," Mary told her daughter and Rebecca grumbled underneath her breath.
"Maybe you should fire him, he obviously has no taste."
Mary patted her daughter on the shoulder in a consoling manner. Rebecca crossed her arms over her chest and gave an extremely prominent scowl but she didn't really say anything else.
"It will be over before you know it, and I'm sure that you'll look back upon this fondly. Perhaps you'll even enjoy it"
Rebecca shook her head in disbelief, the day that she walked around like this willingly would be a sad day indeed. That being said, she looked a lot more normally dressed than the rest of the circus.
"Your father should be right across the hall….why don't you go and get him?"
"Right, okay," Rebecca said, making her way across the hallway.
Rebecca was on her way to meet her father but something stopped her in her tracks She saw Mr. Haly, the owner of the Circus, talking to some fat guy. She never saw him before in her entire life.
"Tell you Haly, there's already been some faulty pyro tonight, it's a good thing that no one got barbequed," the fat man whispered to Haly. "You know, my boys and I can make sure you have the best equipment and you know….it wouldn't cost you much, say half of the gate receipts. I'm making you an offer, it would be a shame if something happened to anyone tonight."
Whatever this fat buy was selling, Haly wasn't buying. He waved a rough finger in the fat man's finger.
"Zucco, I told you for the last time, I'm not paying up your racket, and you better get out of here before I call the cops," Haly said and suddenly, the strongman exited his dressing room.
"There's not any trouble, is there, Mr. Haly?" the strongman asked in a rough Russian accent.
"No, there isn't, in fact, Mr. Zucco was just leaving, weren't you Mr. Zucco?" Haly asked and Zucco raised his hands in the air.
He'd pay up now and pretty soon Zucco would be running the circus, and Haly would be out on the street. That was how things worked in Gotham City. You followed a pecking order or you get smacked down.
"It'd be a shame if something would happen…"
Haly reached into his jacket and pulled out a gun, pulling out on Zucco. The mob boss was surprised at the stones on this circus owner and also really impressed.
"It'd be a shame if something happened to you," Haly said, holding the gun on Zucco.
"That thing isn't even loaded, is it?" Zucco asked.
"Stick around and find out," Haly said and the strongman took an imposing step forward.
"Yeah, don't say, I didn't warn you, guess you've got a stone heart Haly, and I'm just trying to protect these good people," Zucco said and he walked off.
Rebecca stood, as Mr. Haly and the Strongman moved to the trailer. She could have sworn that she saw Zucco pass something to one of the roadies backstage.
The Grayson girl felt a hand on her shoulder and she spun around. After what she witnessed, the girl tensed herself up. Her body relaxed, when she saw that it was only her father standing there.
"Rebecca, are we ready to go on?" John Grayson asked and the girl nodded. "What's wrong?"
"There was some guy back there…..he was demanding money from Mr. Haly….."
"Oh, I'm sure it was one of the agents, they're always out for a bigger cut of the cash, and it's the performers who get screwed," John said, not aware that he said the last part out loud.
Rebecca wished adults would take what she said seriously sometimes. It annoyed her just a little bit.
"He said that there would be….."
"Coming up next, doing their death defying acrobats without the aid of the net, ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for the Flying Graysons."
"That's our cue," Mary said and Rebecca stared down the hallway, the man was gone.
"But….."
"Becky, I'm sure it's nothing," John said, he needed to be of sound of mind when he was two hundred feet above the ground, without the aid of a net.
That really was less imposing than it was. He was up there countless times and never had a miss.
"It sounded….."
Mary grabbed her daughter, and the three of them made their way out in front of the crowd.
Rebecca had to focus on the performance out there, and all of the people, this was one of the biggest crowds that she ever performed in front of. Most of their performances had been in rinky dink rural towns and cities where the performers outnumbered the people. This was the big break for Haly's Circus in Gotham City, so everything had to go right.
The Circus went on without a hitch, other than a pryo screwup that caused people to jump. No one got burned and everyone thought that it was just part of the show to add some color to it.
Harry sat with a smile, with Alexandra pretty much balanced on the arm on the side of the seat, sipping on a soda, something that Harry was sure that he would regret, if she got wired later on.
"And now ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, performing their death defying act, without the aid of the net, ladies and gentlemen, the Flying Graysons."
There was a loud applause and Barbara looked on, she was curious to see how this worked. Either they were completely nuts, which was likely, or there was some trickery. Out of the two options, she found the option less likely.
Alexandra looked excited, on pins and needles at the excitement of what this act would bring.
"Are they really going to fly through the sky?" Alexandra asked.
Helena was skeptical and hated to burst her bubble.
"Well, maybe with the aid of wires," Helena said, ever the detective she was trying to see how this worked. The name Grayson seemed familiar to her somehow, but she couldn't really put that piece together.
Was it someone that she knew when she was younger? Perhaps but she gritted her teeth in frustration when her memory failed her. That happened at the worst possible time.
"Just sit back and enjoy the show," Harry whispered to his wife and Helena smiled, leaning back with a grimace.
She could see that her alternate universe father was sitting several rows down and about four or five seats to her right. Helena blinked, it was odd how she kept running into her ever so briefly. Selina Kyle sat there, although she was busy talking to another female and didn't really make eye contact with her.
"And they're off ladies and gentlemen, and an acrobatic maneuver where they've just defied a plunge that would bring everyone to their death."
The crowd went wild and Helena shifted after a second but then she saw that Selina slipped off into the ground. The roar of the crowd heightened at the insane stunt from up above.
"And the youngest Grayson makes it, it's unbelievable."
"No wires yet," Barbara muttered peering high from the sky. She blanched when she studied the rope in a critical manner. "That rope doesn't look very safe…."
Harry looked up suddenly, along with Helena looked up as well.
Barbara had a point, the rope that was hanging from the trapeze didn't look very safe at all, and the two adult Graysons were going to perform a death defying stunt.
"Oh, that was…"
The announcer stopped suddenly, when the rope gave way and creaked. The adult Graysons dangled in a death defying manner and they only had seconds to realize that their fate was doomed.
There were a few people in the crowd that cheered, thinking that this was all part of the show, and so did the circus hands that were watching from below.
"MOM, DAD!" Rebecca yelled and she could see the rope give away, her eyes widening.
Everything flashed before them and suddenly, both of them were down on the ground.
"Must have been a stunt double," said some loud mouth from the crowd and Rebecca turned around, upset.
She saw the same man who was arguing with Mr. Haly earlier slip into the crowd. He stopped when she spotted him. The man made eye contact with her for a second, almost committing her details to memory, before slipped off.
"Ladies and gentlemen….the show's over," the announcer said in a hushed voice, his bombastic demeanor being completely thrown off. If this was a part of the act, he was not let in on it and the medic that was on hand made his way to the ground.
"He's not moving, she's not breathing, someone call an ambulance, this is not a show, I repeat this is not part of the show!"
Gordon sat in the crowd, a night at the Circus turned into a murder investigation. Most people figured out really quickly that this wasn't part of the show and so they freaked up.
Harry and Helena exchanged a look and both of them were thinking the same thing, this was not an accident, this was murder. The real question was who did it? They looked up at the youngest Grayson who looked completely horrified beyond belief.
No one could blame her, she saw her parents brutally slain before her eyes.
"I can't believe it, I can't believe it…..I tried to warn them….I tried to warn them…" Rebecca said and she tried to repeat this as a mantra, shaking her head.
Her eyes widened when she saw the Circus cleaned up. She kept muttering things underneath her breath. Try as she might, she couldn't reassure herself that it wasn't her fault.
"Sorry, Miss Grayson, your parents died on the way to the hospital," one of the circus hands said in an apologetic voice and James Gordon was standing at the edge of the door, talking to a young Asian female officer.
"But….they didn't….." Rebecca said and she took a deep breath to calm herself.
It failed big time.
"It's okay, here take this," Gordon said, handing her a handkerchief to watch her eyebrow. "I'm Lieutenant James Gordon, this is Detective Ellen Yin….."
He pointed out the woman. The girl only barely acknowledge her, she was lost in a world of grief. Rebecca nodded, folding her hands over her lap and she sighed, it was rather frustrating what she was trying to say.
Especially given that she just learned that her parents had died and wouldn't be coming back.
"I tried to warn them…..there was someone out there…..with Mr. Haly…..and…..it was time to go out," Rebecca said and she looked like she was about to blue screen right then and there, she sighed completely. The eleven year old girl was buried underneath a huge amount of stress.
Yin frowned. "You couldn't have known….just calm down….it will be okay."
She sat down next to the girl and she nodded, still looking rather distressed.
"Has anyone seen Haly?" Gordon asked some of the performers.
"I did," the strongman grunted and he looked rather uncomfortable for someone who was so big and imposing. Gordon turned around to face him, raising a surprised eyebrow. "He was having words with Zucco…..third time this week….."
"Zucco….Zucco," Gordon whispered, suddenly he was racking his brain.
It was a name that he heard a few times. Not for good reason.
"What did they say to each other?" Gordon prodded.
"He told the guy to hit the bricks, and…well he left, and I thought that was the end of it," the strongman said, he didn't really feel that comfortable with that, given that it lead to the death of two people.
"Zucco….does this Zucco have a first name?" Gordon asked, he was pretty much putting two and two together.
If this was the same Zucco he thought that it was, things were going to go insane pretty quickly.
"Ah, I don't know, he never said, and Haly always said to drop the subject, saying that he was nothing like a pompous blowhard," the Strongman said and he felt really bad for the kid but shit like this could have happened at any time. It was just unfortunate that it had to happen in front of this many people.
"He was out there in the crowd," Rebecca said and Yin turned towards her. "I saw that guy and….he looked at me and he left….disappeared when all of the people were running around…."
"That could be a problem," Gordon whispered to Yin who nodded in response.
The fact of the matter was that if the Grayson Girl made eye contact with Zucco, she was the prime witness. Given who Zucco worked for that put her in a lot of danger. There have been grown men who have gotten hurt when caught in the middle of Maroni's business, and all indications was that this was the situation.
"You know she'll be in danger," Harry said, turning up next to Gordon and Gordon turned around to face him, with Barbara standing next to him.
"Barbara, you know this is an official police investigation…."
"I know that," Barbara said and she looked in her father's eye. "But you can't deny that Harry has a point."
Gordon sighed, he had a point, but that wasn't the point.
"I'm not denying it…."
"We got a witness," another cop said, returning from outside. "They said that they saw Haly get into a car in a hurry…..not sure if he went in on his own or someone picked him up."
Gordon knew that this situation was not as cut and dry as it might have seemed at first. At first, he assumed that this was some extortion racket. There was another angle he could consider. He wondered if Haly made some kind of deal with something that he shouldn't to get the Circus to come to Gotham City.
"File it as a kidnapping right now," Gordon told him and the cop nodded in response. "Yin, could you stay here and keep an eye on Miss Grayson."
"Yes, Lieutenant Gordon," Yin said, not taking her eye off the girl in question.
"We might have to put her into protective custody, and we need to keep wear underneath wraps…..because you know that if this gets back to the wrong person, the entire investigation will be….."
"I know," Yin said, she looked at Gordon and sighed. "Go do what you have to do…"
Gordon suddenly ran into Bruce Wayne when he was about ready to leave. Wayne and Gordon made eye contact for a second.
"So, what will happen to me?" Rebecca asked, and she couldn't believe this.
"I don't know sweetie…..but it's too dangerous to stay at the Circus," Yin said and Rebecca balled her fists up by her side and gave the Detective a challenging look.
"I can take care of myself," she said and Yin nodded.
"I know that you think that you can," Yin said and suddenly she saw Harry Potter hovering in the background ,along with James Gordon's daughter.
"If push comes to shove, I have a place where she can be safe," Harry said, and Yin looked at him.
"We won't rule you out," she said and she like many others was curious about Harry Potter. Then again, he did have that air of mystery. He did seem to be on the level without a hint of criminal involvement which was odd for someone so mysterious.
Alex sat herself down next to Rebecca and the girl turned towards her, and Rebecca looked at her.
"I lost my parents when I was really young," Alex told her and she sighed. "It's…..not easy."
"I can see that," Rebecca said and things were getting really awkward, because there was really no idea what they could say.
"And it must be worse because you actually got to know your parents and now you'll…..well you'll never see them again," Alex said and she frowned, wishing she could console the girl a bit better. "Harry told me that things might seem like they're going to get better but it's going to be hard…"
"I'll be fine, I can take care of myself," she persisted but she could see that there are people crowding around.
The person that took out her parents, killed them, he was out there somewhere. She didn't know where they were but she knew that they were out there.
She wondered if any of the adults believed her.
"Alex, are you ready to go?" Harry asked and she opened her mouth.
"What about….."
"Mr. Wayne has agreed to take her in, if that's fine," Harry said and Alex stared at Harry.
Rebecca was taken ajar about that. She honestly didn't think too much about her living arrangements. She was shell shocked about what happened.
"Um….I guess that would be fine," Rebecca said, she didn't know what to believe but then again, her entire world had been turned upside down.
It was something that she wouldn't get over any time soon. The dark haired young girl shook her head and tried to make sense of things that were very difficult to make sense of. One thing was for sure, she didn't really know what to expect.
Rebecca got up to her feet and Bruce waved her over to talk to her. She was so in a funk that she didn't notice Helena watching her closely.
'She'll be okay, for now,' Helena thought.
'Will she be?' Harry asked.
'Yeah, Wayne Security actually is good, if the Manor is like anything in my world,' Helena said.
The kidnapping attempts on her didn't work out too well for anyone. That was before her mother got her hands on the would be kidnappers.
Harry and Helena turned to each other, both of them had a lot of work to do tonight.
Looking over his shoulder, Harry saw a shady figure standing in the shadows. He raised his hand and caused him to trip over his face. After he got tripped off, the gun slipping harmlessly from his hand.
The GCPD's finest pounced on him suddenly and Yin watched, with her mouth opened.
"I better come with you, to make sure you get home safely," Yin told Wayne and he nodded.
Rebecca could see that she was this close to joining her parents and she know new what it was like to have her entire life race before her. Up hundreds of feet in the air, she felt safe, but down here, she felt really vulnerable.
Tony Zucco sweated like a pig in the suit as he was talking frantically with one of his men on the phone.
"What do you mean…someone was asking questions, well you didn't tell them anything did you?" Zucco asked and he shifted anxiously, he felt like he was going to have heart failure. This extortion racket wasn't going anywhere. "Well you better not have…..I'm not going to tell you where I am, do you realize that someone could be listening to this line…..yeah burn it all…..it looks bad enough as it is."
He intended to kill all three of the acrobats but he only got two of them and the brat saw him. What was worse, the guy that he sent to snuff her out didn't come back and he might have gotten caught. The clumsy bastard tripped over his feet and security would be picked up around her.
Then half of his men were taken out by a mysterious shadow. Zucco heard about the Bat, but he had dismissed the entire mess as a bunch of BS. Now this latest incident was too much to dismiss as any type of coincidence.
There was only one thing to do and that was call in a favor from the boss. Zucco didn't want to do it and he knew that Maroni was butting heads with the bird. Zucco could get a fuck less about that. He needed Maroni's help and he needed it now. The boss owed him a favor after he deflected the heat off of him for all of these years.
He dialed the phone, waiting nervously for it to pick up on the other end. It rang a couple of times and Zucco closed his eyes.
"What do you want, Zucco?" Maroni asked in a short tempered voice.
"How did you know it was me…"
"Oh, call it a dumb hunch, you stupid bastard," Maroni grumbled and his mood was really foul right now and Zucco wondered if he even dare ask. Maroni didn't wait for him to ask because he was ready to enlighten him on it anyway. "You've always been causing a lot of trouble with your games and you know what, I've had it about up to here with it all…I'm not in the best mood to begin with all that's going on. You just happened to drop a lot more shit on my lap."
Zucco thought that was unfair. He prepared to argue his face, even though he thought he just might be fighting a losing battle.
"Boss, I didn't….."
"Do you realize who just showed up at my club and caused me a fucking headache?" Maroni asked quietly and Zucco knew better than to respond. "It was the Bat….."
"He exists….."
"Yeah, all we need to do is confirm the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, and the Easter Bunny, and they can form their own rock band," Maroni said, his voice rather snappy. His hot temper boiled over to the surface. "Zucco, you're a useless son of a bitch, and you fucked up…..good thing that I was able to clear up enough of your loose ends…the Circus…..you could have gone for any other business…..but I guess that you have some affinity for the Circus."
"Why do you say that, boss?" Zucco asked curiously.
"Because you're nothing but a fucking clown, numbnuts," Maroni growled. He would have loved nothing better to bury a gun down Zucco's throat and unload the entire clip into his gut. "And you left a witness!"
Zucco prepared to defend that. The witness could be taken care of, he just needed more time.
"Just a kid….."
"A kid that was talking to one of the cops in Gotham City that we can't put in our back pocket, and you could kill her now, but that would really raise suspicion on us, so guess you fucked that one up," Maroni said and Zucco continued to sweat. "If the Bat comes knocking down your door, then…..well I can't be held responsible for anything that might happen to you."
Zucco's heart pounded harder and he was really getting closer to having that heart failure that might push him over the edge. He breathed deeply and managed to calm himself down.
"You didn't tell him where I was, did you?"
"I know that you look it, but I'm not stupid," Maroni fired back, frothing at the mouth a little bit. "But anything from here on out, that's on your head, and don't be surprised if he's come knocking at your door any second now."
That put the fear of god in the rotund mobster. Zucco looked in the corner with shadows moving and he nervously twitched, his breath knocked out of his body. Maroni hung up, obviously not having a very good day.
"There's nothing there, nothing at all, nothing to worry about," Zucco said and he clutched his hands around the desk and pulled out a shotgun.
He would shoot first and ask questions never, anyone who came through this door without knocking.
It was back to the Circus for Huntress and Arcane. They were here on a mission. Both of them prepared to look for that one piece of tangible evidence that would lead them to the person behind this.
'I don't even need to tell you who is behind this,' Helena thought.
There was only one rat who could do something this brutal. The fact Rebecca survived in the first place was an accident. She was alive but not okay.
'We know it's Zucco, you know it's Zucco, but we need to find him,' Harry thought and Barbara chimed in.
'Right, I'm running background checks on the guy, he has a few aliases, and he's been one step ahead of anyone who tried to track him…..someone in that shape staying one step ahead of anyone….'
Barbara allowed the snarky response she had regarding Zucco running.
'He had to have help,' Helena commented calmly and that was something that was agreed to by all.
Harry activated a little device in his mask that allowed him to do a quick sweep of the area around him and there were people who were lurking around and it wasn't just cops.
He repelled to the platform where the Grayson's did their act. He didn't know what he found but he scanned the area.
Helena kept watch on the ground and she saw someone lurking around in the shadows. She pulled out a throwing dagger and threw it at him.
It caught his sleeve in the curtain and Helena walked over, pulling him into the light.
"I'm just a roadie…um….what are you doing here?" the guy asked, whimpering, having the air of someone who got his hand caught in the cookie jar.
Harry didn't buy his story for a moment. He smelled a huge line of BS from a mile away. This guy reeked of it.
"Some roadie, aren't these guys a made of a bit more stronger stuff?"
"Alright, I get coffee for the main acts," the young man said, his bravado failing really correctly. "Job doesn't pay that much, but it helps put me through college…"
"It might not pay that much but someone else could have slipped you something underneath the table, you have access to all of the areas of the Circus, including the rafters," Arcane said and the many flinched. "Does the name Tony Zucco ring a bell?"
"Zucco….Zucco…..I never met the guy, I swear," the circus hand said and he was sweating profusely.
His pain only was about ready to begin when Huntress repelled him up to the rafters. He screamed like a little girl when she dangled upside down.
"Think of what the Graysons felt when their rope was about to give way, think about what you'll feel if my hand slips, and think about what their daughter saw when her parents dropped to their doom," Helena whispered and she dangled the hand above.
"I swear…."
She was holding onto him by his coat sleeve and pulled him up.
"I found a can of gasoline back there where he was, it seems like someone was trying to get rid of the evidence, so he didn't get implicated," Arcane said and Huntress dangled her prey upside down and he whimpered.
"Please….please….Zucco just told me to replace the ropes with a different kind of rope, I thought…I thought it was going to be okay."
"You knew exactly what you were doing," Huntress said and she let him drop.
The circus hand screamed and Harry casually waved his hand, causing a net to fall at the last possible second.
He breathed in and out. He thanked God, he would have thanked anyone for not being a big splatter on the ground.
"Next time, you fall without a net like the Graysons, so tell me exactly what was happening."
The threat of death caused the man to sing like a canary.
"Right, Zucco was willing to fund the circus, take it to new heights, but Haly….he decided to go back on the deal…and he wanted to send a message…."
"You knew what you were doing this entire time, didn't you?"
There was another figure that loomed in the shadows and Huntress turned around to face him. She had forgotten that particular version of the costume.
"So, you're on the same trail, aren't you?"
To Be Continued on September 29th, 2014.
Business is about to pick up here.
There are a few characters that are changing genders to female. Why? I'll give you the simplest and most direct answer that I can. Because. Just because I'm the author and that's what I want to do. There is no reason more sinister and convoluted than that.
I did enjoy how Rebecca came off. I actually thought about including Dick in there too, as her twin brother, but he would have been offed with his parents. Maybe I should have. I would have had people out for my blood, and I don't think that I can kill off Mr. Grayson. He's one of the few male characters that I like in comics and one of the few that I might ever consider doing as a lead, other than Harry(who isn't technically comics, but I consider him a DC character, and I've given She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named full dominion of the Harry Potter series. That's obviously what Rowling subconsciously wanted, but I've had that rant before), Clark, Peter, and Conner.
Unless I use a male OC, which I might as well just use Har-Zod to begin with anyway.
Yin's cameo is just that, unless something changes.
I did enjoy Maroni and Zucco's interaction and how that came across. You can tell that Sal is pissed. This leads to a cross city gangwar that's really not a main plot, but mostly something going on in the background that will be reference from time to time. One could argue that there's always a gang war going on in Gotham City of some sign.
Special Monday chapter for Part Two, because I had to switch the schedule around.