Black and Red Chapter 36 At Work

Tim pushed himself as hard as he could. There was no time to waste. Between the gang war and the Arkham breakout, he was just too busy to take it easy. Six gangs to go.

"Red Robin," his comm chirped, and he stopped, hunkering down to give the conversation his full attention.

"What do you have, Oracle?" he asked.

"Mask has announced his new strategy," Babs reported. "He's going for ally-with-Joker-then-betray-him."

"I doubt that'll work," Tim frowned. "Not least because Joker would likely betray him first."

"Should we let them fight it out between them?" Babs asked.

"We could," Tim mused. "Keep watching. We'll want to know what's happening if one of them becomes vulnerable."

"Right," Babs replied. "I've also got that list of the top five companies producing the most pollutants. What should I do with it?"

"Check to see if there are any corporate events coming up within a week one or other of the companies will be participating in," Tim instructed. "Those would be like red flags, but look out for anything else that catches the eye."

"Sure. How are you coming along?"

"Not too bad. Luckily, everyone seems to fear the Joker enough to stay in." Tim sighed. "I don't know how lasting it will be, but I believe the three Cathedral gangs are having an inter-gang boxing tournament this evening, so that's promising."

"Sports as a substitute for war? Impressive," Babs commented.

"Combat sports, yes," Tim agreed dryly.

"I bet you're great at martial arts competitions," Babs added.

"You kidding? If we ever tried we'd probably get disqualified in seconds. Our fighting isn't anywhere near pure enough for competition purposes."

There was a slight giggle. "If you say so. See you later."

Gordon dragged himself into his office, dreading what he was going to find. Less than a minute after sitting down, a knock at the door completely failed to surprise him. "Come in."

One of his more junior constables peeked in. "Sir? I was told to give you this," he squeaked, anxiously.

Gordon sighed and took the file, allowing the nervous youngster to make good his escape. Reading through the night's activity reports, he received something of a shock. Despite a massive increase in police activity due to the manhunt, crime, especially street crime, had gone down drastically.

Gordon shook his head. Red Robin had warned him the crazies kept normal crime down, but he hadn't expected to witness it. And he hadn't expected it to be so dramatic. Combined with the measures they'd already put in place, it looked like all that would be needed to end the gang war would be to bring in Sionis.

He opened a blank document on his computer and started typing up the request to the judge that would make Red Robin's evidence admissible.

Babs stretched and yawned. This was harrowing. Everything so far had been exciting, and fulfilling, and good, but now she felt like a bag of nerves. Could she be endangering herself, or her parents, or brother? Rob had promised to keep her identity secret, but what if someone got around his precautions?

Like Dent got around Dad's precautions?

Drat!

Babs leapt up and started to pace. She was already in danger; she could see that. Being the family of a notable policeman had been enough. By helping Rob, she was decreasing the chances of actually coming to harm, because she was decreasing the chances of anyone coming to harm.

That was only a little reassuring.

Trying to put the worry out of her head, she started into the routine Rob had showed her.

Red Robin landed, and crouched. Oracle had found out that a company that produced cheap but wasteful fuel was moving into Gotham, and opening a new plant. The plant would be officially opened in three days' time. Just enough time for a complete survey, bug plant and protection detail planned.

He'd also hijacked another part of Wayne Enterprises to analyse exactly what toxins Ivy had access to, so he could prepare antitoxin ahead of time.

The other potential difficult would be pheromones. Ivy tended to use them in combination with a substance in the victim's bloodstream to make them more accepting and pliable. It had a stronger effect on post-pubescent males, so with luck Tim himself was still young enough to avoid it – if she used it. Unfortunately, they had yet to develop a vaccine that wasn't a poison in and of itself. It could be used as a short-term measure, but only a few times per person. Then it would probably overload the liver.

Approaching the dock where the last of the equipment was being brought in, Red Robin winced. The dock hands were being careless; one sufficiently wrong move could get everyone blown up and cause the company to fold – which would stave off the attack, but at too high a cost.

The comm buzzed. "The Commissioner on the line," Oracle reported. "I'll just put the comm to the radio."

"What's happened?" Tim said brusquely. No time to be wasted beating about the bush.

"Joker's made a move. Gotham Zoo. You better come along."

AN: Anyone wana guess what Joker's up to at the zoo?

Also coming up now, another chapter of Jason and the Argonauts. Next week, more Black and Red, and probably more Jason and the Argonauts, but I'm not entirely certain yet.

Now, I do believe I have a rather important announcement coming up. I'm not quite ready yet, but watch this space.

Finally, please review!

Katara