In the Shadow of the Bat
Penguin & the Iceberg Lounge
The Order of Saint Dumas was old. It dated well back to the Crusades, when holy orders grew fat on liberated gold and honors. But age did not necessarily bring wisdom...
Sister Sara sighed as she reviewed the files, sitting at an antique desk she had inherited from the previous owners. "No luck finding him?" she asked.
'John' one of her minions, looked sheepish. "No, ma'am," he admitted. "He has not touched his bank accounts, and he's deliberately stayed out of computer records."
Sara nodded thoughtfully. She suspected that someone had successfully erased Varley from the internet, possibly the near-mythical Oracle. Normally the Order would request help from allies like Ras al Ghul or the League of Assassins, but both had their own problems right now.
"And the detective?" Sara asked.
"Montoya has said she wants to make a report," 'John' nodded. "I was going to suggest we meet at the Iceberg Lounge."
Sara looked wary, "Is meeting at our home base wise?"
"If something unexpected comes up, I'd rather be ready," 'John' said.
"In this house of sin we use," Sara muttered, sighing softly.
Their recruit, Sister Fright, had suggested they take over the Penguin's operations in Gotham. Reflecting on it now, Sara suspected it had been for revenge against Cobblebot, rather than helping the Order. Tho as they say, what's done is done. And say what you will, the money and resources they had from their new gains were helpful.
She realized 'John' was still waiting. "Using the Lounge is fine," she nodded, "but alert the security staff. If something does happen we need to be ready."
"Yes, ma'am," 'John' agreed as walked off.
Sara sat back and sighed. She was the sole representative of the leaders of the Order here. All she had were warrior monks in support and Fright, of course. It meant that most decisions had to come through her, and she had no idea how to run a place like this!
"Sister Sara," the attractive blonde smiled as she entered.
"Linda," Sara used her real name, nodding to the blonde in greeting.
Linda Friitawa, the woman called Fright, smiled back warmly. "We're making a great deal of progress," she said enthusiastically, then calmly ran through the various operations they had taken from the Penguin.
"Thank you," Sara said, her eyes nearly bugging out at the amounts of money.
Linda nodded, "We're doing quite well, though we also have to consider the costs involved."
"Thank you for managing all this," Sara said sincerely.
"I'm just glad I can help," Linda answered.
'But can we trust you, I wonder?' Sara mused silently.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Kate Kane looked around the Iceberg Lounge warily. Like many of Gotham's wealthy she had come to the lounge, but not on business. So she warily swept the crowd, noting the armed waitresses and the Freeze Gun armed guards. They had been seated at a central table, and a waitress was fetching their drinks.
"Calm down," Renee Montoya noted quietly.
"We're hanging out in a VILLAIN HEADQUARTERS." Kate hissed. "I'd say you are the one being too calm," she added.
The third woman laughed softly. Dinah Lance was there as a favor, having had Renee's help on a recent case. "Do you seriously think the cult will jump you?" she asked.
"Don't know," Renee admitted. "I'm reasonably certain they're not going to be happy with me dropping the case."
"Well, if we have to we'll bust you out of here," Dinah reassured her.
"Don't get over confident," Kate noted.
"Is it me or are there a LOT of costumes hanging around?" Dinah asked warily.
Several members of the Flash's Rogues were hanging out at the bar. None of the really SCARY ones were there. like Reverse Flash or Captain Cold, but there was the Top, Mirror Master, Weather Wizard and the Trickster.
Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy were having a dinner not far away from them. Candles, wine and all the romantic trimmings, interestingly enough.
KITE MAN, of all people, was trying to hit up a pretty lady at the bar. Who looked distinctly unimpressed.
And a 1950's private eye was nursing a drink at the bar, trenchcoat and all.
"I would SWEAR that's the old TV show character, Nathaniel Dusk," Renee mused.
"It is," Dinah agreed. "Shapechanger? Maybe Clayface?"
"Makes sense. Oh, I hope this doesn't blow up in our faces," Kate mused with a sigh.
"Here comes our guy," Renee warned the others.
'John' cut through the crowds easily, the big man just bulling through. He still looked odd in his ill-fitting, off the rack suit, but despite that was also quite imposing. "Miss Montoya." he rumbled.
"Mr McCoy," Renee nodded. "Did you want to have our meeting here or...?"
"Here," 'John' said, He frowned slightly at Kate and Dinah.
"We'll leave you alone for a bit," Dinah said smoothly. She looked at Kate, "Dance?"
"Who leads?" Kate asked agreeably.
"We'll arm wrestle for it," Dinah laughed.
'John' looked faintly disapproving, then focused his attention on Renee. "You contacted me, saying you had a report?" he asked.
"Whomever erased Jean Paul's trail did a good job," Renee admitted, "I haven't achieved much, yet. However, I did get some information from public sources."
"Wayne was involved in both hiring and letting him go?" 'John' noted. "Interesting."
"I think he was a charity case for Wayne," Renee explained, "both suffered similar family related tragedies."
"Ah," 'John' conceded.
Renee also ran through his movements before his 'death,' the mystery of whom got his car out of impound and details of the 'murder' investigation. "They didn't look too hard, though admittedly they didn't have much evidence to go on," Renee added.
"Did you have any luck finding where he is now?" 'John' asked as he finished going through the papers.
"I've pretty much hit a wall," Renee admitted. "I've hit up all my sources, but no one's seen any sign of him." She pointedly did not bring up the new priest 'Father Varley.'
'John' looked unhappy but collected the paperwork. "You found information we didn't have, that's something," he admitted. After a moment he said, "Keep the remainder of the advance. It has been good working with you."
"Thank you," Renee said as he got up to go, feeling a bit of relief.
"What do you MEAN Cobblepot's dead?!" a voice roared up by the bar.
"Oh shit," 'John' cursed softly as Clayface literally lost his shit.
"Fuck," Renee agreed, flipping over the table as a shield as she got her 'Question' mask out of it's hidden compartment.
"ACK!" Trickster yelped as the explosive rubber chicken he was fiddling with flew out of his hands and landed on a nearby table.
"What..." Poison Ivy started right before it went off.
"You hit my sweetie!" Harley yelled, hefting a giant hammer.
"It wasn't intentional!" Trickster yelped as he tried to scurry away.
"It's a trap!" Clayface yelled, switching forms and clobbering Weather Wizard.
"Break it up..." one of the staff started, only to be jumped by the Top.
"What the fuck?" Dinah asked as she and Kate hurried over to Renee.
"Damn if I know," the Question admitted. "I think maybe we schould try to get the civilians clear...," she suggested.
"Sounds like a plan," Kate agreed. Teasingly she added to Renee, "You always show me the BEST nights out..."
"Get a room," Dinah laughed as they started hustling folks out of the line of fire.
"How DARE you overcook my steamed broccoli!" Poison Ivy yelled, animating plants and trying to get the cooks.
"What the fuck." Mirror Master sighed, wisely jumping behind the bar. He was in no way interested in getting into THIS kinda brawl.
The fight ran on for over an hour, the total damage was in the high thousands, and people across Gotham would claim to have been there, even though they weren't.
Sister Sara, in street clothes, came in to assess the damage even as the last stragglers left. She saw the broken tables, smashed bottles, chairs and all the ice-design decorations. Several staff members stood around, looking bedraggled.
"When I left the Nunnery, they never said ANYTHING about this sort of thing," Sara sighed, then decided just to duck back in her office.
To be continued...
Notes: While I'm NOT really a fan of Doomsday Clock, I like that they brought back DC's old crime comic Nathaniel Dusk as a series of in-universe books & movies. Swiped a bit from a earlier chapter, though I fleshed it out a bit too.