Happy was not what I expected him to be.

He was what people had told me - over six feet tall, heavy built with fat and muscle, with a simple black mask over his face. What I meant was that he was very much human, and vulnerable, as I witnessed as I watched him like a hawk from a high point inside the Sionus Steel Mill.

Victor sat beside me looking down his sniper rifle. We were both wearing black, and blended into the dark shadows the building created.

"Seven guys," he murmured, very quietly so only I could hear him. I counted them in my head, and indeed found seven guys, all down below, gathered around a table. "What's the plan, kid?"

I chewed my lip. "I-I don't know. Maybe I've made a mistake, I can't take all of these guys out..." I started, beginning to regret my decision quite quickly.

Victor put a hand on my arm. "Hey, don't worry, we don't have to do anything now. If nothing spooks them, then they'll probably still be here when we come back." he replied.

I nodded. "I'm sure nothing will-"

"Hey, what the hell was that?" one man cried, followed by the clunking of raised guns. I expected them to be pointing them at us, but instead they were pointing them in the other direction, where there was a swift movement in the shadows.

"Shit," Victor cursed, under his breath. "We've got company."

There was a shriek from another corner, as a man was grabbed by the ankles and hoisted upside down, leaving him dangling there, unconscious.

"The bats are here, spread out!" one man ordered, and the rest of them spread out into separate rooms, trying to find the perpetrators. Geez these guys really were idiots, spreading out into small groups would just make it easier for people to pick them off.

"Forget what I said about leaving, we're gonna do this now." I murmured, loading my gun.

"You catch Happy on his own and I'll take the rest of them out. Try not to get caught by a bat." he replied, aiming his sniper, and taking out a lone gang member. He fell to the ground in an instant.

"Roger." I answered, reaching over to kiss him on the cheek. "Go get 'em, tiger."

I climbed onto the ceiling railings, and snuck across them, trying not to put too much weight on them in case they broke. Happy was on his own near the loading containers, opening and checking the grates. Smugly, I dropped down quietly onto a surface a metre down, and then another one and another, until I reached the ground.

"Happy." I spoke, my voice serious.

He turned around, before looking me up at down, especially at the gun which was raised at him, loaded and ready to blown him to smithereens.

"I don't want you to talk, and I know you don't talk much anyway. I just wanna say, I really hope you enjoyed killing my mom. You might have lived to tomorrow if you hadn't have bashed her over the head with a mallet." I told him, glaring.

Happy looked back at me with calm eyes, and I couldn't deal with it. I fired a couple bullets into his neck and chest, making sure I hit a few arteries.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" I sighed, as he dropped the gun he had been holding in his jacket pocket, to instead clutch as his red pouring throat. As anyone in that situation would do, he stayed mostly quiet, the only noise being his gurgles. I watched the life slowly drain from his eyes, and it kind of felt... right.

"Watch out!"

I dodged, and a moment later a man felt forward with a knife in his hand, but completely missed me and fell to the floor. The voice had come from the woman that was now incapacitating him, the one and only pain in my ass Greybat.

She dealt with the man with the knife, before looking between me and the dead guy.

"Oh save me the speech." I sighed, blowing the smoke from my gun.

She narrowed her eyes through the mask. "I wasn't going to lecture you, I just wanted to warn you to get out of here as fast as you can." she told me, monotonely.

I hmphed. "And why is that?" I asked, leaning around Greybat and shooting a guy before she could react.

"Some guys that were known to work for the Joker have been spotted heading over here." she answered, adjusting her cuffs.

"And why should I care?"

"He was a homicidal maniac, so his guys have got to be up to no good. They'd hurt you."

"No they wouldn't, dummy."

"You're delusional."

"I know you're gonna get a kick out of this, but he's my dad. Though you probably already know that, and that's why you keep following me."

Her eyes widened. "His... daughter?"

"Yeah, we don't have time for this anyway. Just help me take out the rest of these guys, and I won't have Victor shoot you in the back of the head-"

As the words left my lips, there was the sound of raising guns from behind Greybat. She quickly whipped around, slamming the man to the ground and taking him out.

"Deal, I'll get to the high points."

"Last one is a rotten egg!" I called after her, as she jumped up onto the vantage points. I shook my head, and stormed into the other rooms in a heavy headed fashion, kicking open the door and shooting anything in it. Greybat did her fair part, taking the men out non-lethally, though I secretly shot them afterwards. Couldn't risk them coming after me later.

Not long after, all seven of the men were dead.

"You didn't have to kill them." Greybat sighed, as she joined my side. She was much taller and stronger looking than I was, and didn't slouch as much as I.

I laughed. "Sparing them is cool and all until they find out where you live and blow it up. I don't wear a mask like you, you know."

She fell silent.

"I feel like if we'd been under different circumstances we might have been friends. But sadly I'm not a nice person." I murmured, and Greybat glanced at me.

She might have replied, but we were interrupted by the cocking of a gun. It was Victor, who was still in his spot, and was aiming it at Greybat.

"Vic, don't, she's cool!" I informed him, and though he was a little unsure and cocked his eyebrow, he lowered the weapon.

"We all better be going." Greybat started, checking the surrounding, but still keeping an eye on Victor.

"Agreed. I'm melting in here, I didn't expect them to actually be using the furnaces." I replied, as the three of us climbed up and exited through the roof, the vigilante a little more seamless and smooth than Victor and I.

We stood out on the roof, crouching down and looking out. Without a word, Greybat got out her grapple gun and was about to fire it onto another building, before I stopped her.

"How come Nightwing didn't come to stop those guys? I thought Blüdhaven was his turf." I asked.

She lowered the grapple and turned to me. "He didn't know about the guys in this place being gang members." she replied, simply.

"Then how did you know?"

She hesitated. "I've been following your case for a while."

"You mean you followed me."

"In better terms, yes." she replied, and now took the time to fire the grapple and soar away into the night.

"You've got a confusing arsenal of friends." Victor commented, deconstructing his gun.

I scoffed. "You can say that again."

"What did she want?"

I tilted my head. "To warn me that Joker's men were seen heading this way. But I shrugged her off."

His face stiffened slightly. "Why didn't you say this earlier? Christ we have to get out of here."

I chewed my lip - I had forgotten that I hadn't told him about my dad yet. Right now didn't seem like the best time, and plus I didn't want my dad's men to see I was with a man, just in case they reported back to him, and I ended up in a body bag.

"We can sneak over to your car."

He nodded, starting toward the ladder that lead down to the ground. Quickly he slid down it, and I followed. Afterwards he grabbed my hand, and pulled me across the premises, stopping every now and then to peek around the corner of a building, and check the coast was clear. The car was in site with no one to be seen around it, and I scrunched up my face, but didn't say anything.

"She definitely said she saw some guys that used to work for the Joker." I murmured, as Victor drove away from the steel mill, with no cars following behind.

"I'm hoping she was mistaken. If she wasn't then they probably knew people were here, and they're just hiding around somewhere." he responded, in action mode still.

I was much more chill, as I laid back in the car seat and put a hand on his thigh. "Relax, it's never been the Joker's gang's way of doing things, being stealthy. If they were going to follow up, they'd be real obvious."

I checked my mirrors to see I hadn't jinxed the whole thing, and gladly I hadn't. In fact, the whole drive back into Gotham was just peachy keen, and soon Victor was relaxed just like me.

"So. You killed him." he murmured at last.

I smiled. "Yeah I did, it was like nothing. I guess I kind of forgot that he wasn't this big supercriminal or anything. He was just some gang banger, and so he bleeds like any other person." I hmphed in reply.

"Did you find anything out? Like who paid them to do the job, or who else we could go to?" he inquired.

I shook my head. "I didn't want to know, him telling me would just lead to more questions, and I don't think I'm ready to go searching for more. You saw how regretful I was in there before the Bat showed up, and the person who placed the hit is bound to have a lot more guys than just seven." I responded, drawing my knees to my face. "As far as I'm concerned, the guy who killed her and everyone involved is dead, so it's done."

Without looking at me, just focusing on the road, he put his free hand on mine. "I'm proud of you, kid. I never thought you'd have the gall in you to kill all those people just for your mom, but you proved me wrong."

I waved my hand. "Oh shush, I don't want any gushy stuff. I just wanna go back to your apartment without you crashing, that's all I ask."

He gave me a sly look. "Oh I can do that." The car seemed to race down the road even faster, as Victor's face lit up.

We pulled up outside of the apartment block, but I could barely make it to the steps before he seized me. The two of us began the game of kissing and grabbing outside of the complex door, and I closed my eyes happily.

"I'm going to fix you up something nice, like what's your favourite meal?" he asked, quietly as he pulled away, resting his forehead on mine.

I beamed. "It's sorta boring but I like spaghetti and meatballs." I replied, honestly.

He smiled. "I'll make that then, don't you worry." he responded, chuckling.

His forehead slipped away from mine as I heard a 'dunk' sound, like the slamming of an object against something. I opened my eyes to see him stammering backwards, holding his head, as a man I recognised held his gun butt first.

"Tiny?" I whimpered, confused as to why he was attacking my boyfriend. "W-what are you doing?"

Victor tried to lash at him, but another one of my dad's henchmen grabbed him and tied his hands behind his back, placing a bag over his head. He struggled, but a car pulled up, and they threw him in.

Tears collected in my eyes. "Stop it!" I cried, getting out my gun. "Let him go or I'll shoot!"

Tiny turned around slowly, with his hands up, which made me think I'd won. "Get in the car, or else your friend will really get messed up."

I narrowed my eyes, my hands tight on the gun, but finally I nodded and put it away. No sooner was I unarmed that Tiny grabbed my arms, and forced a bag over my head, before throwing me in the car, where I fell on an unconscious Victor. I hardly had time to whimper before I was being knocked over the head, and for the first time in a while, everything was growing dark.