Another couple of weeks had passed, and despite the extra duties Silas had taken on, he'd never felt more energetic in his life.

'Owe it all to those extra zeroes in my account.'

He grinned to himself as he made his way back to the Lounge. Today was an off-day, but he'd gotten a text message that morning from Jay, asking him to come in. He couldn't help but wonder what was going on. The only other time he'd been called in was when Jay wanted to see what he had to offer.

'Maybe that's what this is? A rematch? She wants her runback?'

Silas glanced down at his phone, seeing that he would make it to the club a little earlier than expected. He slowed his pace a bit, letting himself figure out a way to settle his steadily shaking nerves.

'I mean, it's not like it's anything bad. If it was, Cobblepot would've called me. Dude doesn't seem like the text kinda guy unless he really needs to."

WIth that, he shook his head and arms, quickly bringing them back into his heavy coat to protect them from another Gotham winter.

'Maybe I should think about a car. Shit's too cold to walk in.'

Around twenty minutes later, Silas found himself of two minds about the call. On the one hand, he was regretting ever having said yes to the text. If he had known he was going to end up where he currently was, he would never have even responded to begin with.

'Coulda just said I was sick or some shit.'

The other mind, however, was too busy swimming to figure out what was happening.

"Focus, kid!"

Raven's voice just barely cut through his haze, forcing him to try and shake himself out of it. The room around him stopped spinning, though it still tilted from side to side. He knew there were only supposed to be three other people in the room. Why were there suddenly nine?

Three of them, who all looked suspiciously like Lark, threw a left hook at him. His instincts told him to bring his arm up to try and deflect it.

The problem, however, was that he tried to block the wrong one, which resulted in the fist slamming hard into his cheek. He quickly found himself hitting the mats, and the room started to spin again.

He pushed himself to his feet, still somewhat dizzy from the hit. He could barely make out Raven as she rushed forward, spinning on the ball of one foot to fire a hard back kick to Silas' midsection.

The shot staggered Silas, sending him stumbling backwards until he hit the nearest wall.

"Snap out of it!" Jay shouted as she flew through the air. She delivered a flying split kick to the pair of goons rushing at her, quickly putting them down, "We don't have time for this!"

Silas shook his head again, looking on as a blurry shape rushed toward him with another fist reared back. Acting on instinct, Silas ducked down, letting the gangster's fist fly harmlessly above him before unleashing with a fist of his own.

The dummy popped lightly as the young man's fist slammed into where its ribs would be. Silas allowed himself a little grin of satisfaction, though it didn't last. The sharp sting of a hand on the back of his head cut off his good feel.

"Don't linger," Lark said as she walked around him. She then grabbed him by the wrist, holding on as hard as she could, "Or this is what's gonna happen. And, don't aim there. Breaking a rib isn't worth it if you break your fingers doing it. Aim here," she moved his fist a little lower on the dummy's chest, "And you'll ruin their day without ruining yours."

"Got it," Silas said, nodding as he began to pull his hand back. Lark, however, held firm, grinning as the teen struggled a bit.

"What now?"

The thug grinned, taking in the satisfaction of being in a position of power over Silas as he held onto the younger man's wrist. Silas gave it a few tugs.

"Gotcha, you little shit."

Silas growled at that, but then grinned. "Nah, it's the other way around," Before the thug could respond, the teen struck, whipping a hard kick to the side of the larger man's knee. The man cried out in pain, suddenly buckling as his knee gave out. Silas then sprang into action, leaping up and wrapping his legs around the man. It took a little doing, but he managed to wrangle himself into position, and tighten his legs around the man's arm and neck in a flying triangle choke. The thug struggled for a few moments, trying everything he could think of to try and get Silas off of him. With his brain rapidly being deprived of oxygen, however, all he could think to do was flail about with his free arm. The moment he felt the back of his head touch the ground, Silas tightened his hold as much as he could, trying to knock the man out as quickly as possible. He could still hear the Birds working on the other rival gang members in the room, which pushed him to put this guy down as quickly as possible. It wasn't long before he got the result he wanted, and the goon went completely limp in his grasp. He let the hold go, giving the man a quick kick to the head to get him to the ground before rolling up to his feet and looking for where he could help out.

He watched as Raven took down a pair of grunts with relative ease. Despite the overall smaller stature of the Birds, Raven was easily the powerhouse of the group, and seeing her grab one thug, drag him through the air in a spin, and bodily toss him into one of his fellow members served as a good reminder as to how Silas felt about that.

'Yeah, not fucking with her if I can help it.'

Silas then looked around, finding Lark surrounded by another trio of thugs. She seemed to only be aware of two of them, though, as the third man was crouched down a bit to try and sneak up on her. He rushed toward him, while Lark ducked and weaved away from attacks thrown by the other two men. She grabbed the head of the second man to attack her, pulling it down and smashing her knee into his face. The first tried to retaliate in response to his teammate going down, but Lark dropped down to the ground, wheeling around and firing a hard back kick up into his chin.

Silas ran as quickly as he could, trying to catch the thug before he could sneak up on Lark, reaching out as soon as he was within range of the man.

"Now, hands around the jaw," Raven said. Silas did as he was told, wrapping his hands around the jaw of the training dummy in front of him.

"Okay, now what?"

"Now, pull him back, toward you," she said, demonstrating what she wanted him to do to the air in front of her, "When you do that, you're gonna bring your knee up and drive it into his back as hard as you can."

Silas nodded, doing as directed. A pop filled the air of the training room as Silas' strike landed, and Raven gave the young man a smirk and nod of approval.

"Good. Aim for about the middle of the back when you do this. You're trying to break your target's back with this move, and the hands around the jaw give you leverage and muffle any sounds they make."

"Doing some real damage, huh?" Silas asked, a sly smile of his own across his lips.

"Yep. Let's go over it again, so we know you've got it down."

"Got it."

And with that, Silas reached out again, pulling the dummy back and driving his knee into it.

The hands around the thug's mouth and jaw were somewhat unnecessary, as the snap of his spine caused him to let out near silent cries of agony. Not satisfied that he was out of the fight, Silas pulled him further back, driving him down the ground and giving him a sharp kick to the head. The thug's head whipped to the side, and he lay still. Silas watched him for a second, making sure he was down. When he was sure the only movement coming from the man was his breathing, he looked up.

The action had settled down, with only him and the Birds still standing. He breathed rather heavily, feeling the adrenaline fade and the pain of fighting set in.

"Everyone alright?" Jay asked, letting the man she held by the collar drop to the ground. Her hair, normally well kept, was now frazzled looking, and like Silas, she panted with exhaustion.

"I'm fine," Lark answered, arching her back a bit to stretch and pop it.

"Yeah, I'm alright," Raven answered, walking toward the group. Silas noticed her flexing her fingers over and over again. He looked at her hands, and noticed how cut and scuffed her knuckles were.

"Not exactly how we planned it," Silas said, shaking his own hands out.

"It's how it goes sometimes," Jay said. She looked the group over for a moment, "Glad to see everyone's alright, though."

"Cobblepot's not gonna like this," Silas said.

"Yeah, that's one contact off his list," Raven said, "Tell you what, though. This guy were dealing with? Kind of an idiot. Lark, how 'bout you and Silas see if you can find the cars they came in. Maybe they brought the money they were supposed to give us with them."

"I'll go with them," Jay said.

"No, you're coming with me," Raven said, shaking her head. Jay gave her a frustrated look.

"What, you can't be a big girl and wrap your own hands?"

"No, Jay. You're bleeding from your forehead."

Jay blinked for a moment, then reached up. Silas grimaced a bit as he saw her make contact with the stream of blood beginning to trickle down her face.

"Yeah, I think Lark and I have it covered."

Raven didn't give Jay a chance to argue, instead walking over and putting a hand on her shoulder to direct her toward their truck.

"C'mon, kid," Lark said, drawing Silas' attention. He nodded, following Lark to the outside of the building. It didn't take long at all for them to find the cars the gang had brought, as Silas laid eyes on them the instant he was outside.

"I'll take these," he said, pointing to two of the four black cars, "and you take those. Sound good?"

Lark nodded. "Shout if you see something."

With that, the two parted ways, each taking to their assigned vehicles. Silas whistled as he looked over the cars in front of him. They were nice. Almost brand new, even.

'Which means their boss is rolling.'

Silas looked through the windows, though doing so was made difficult with the dark tint on them. He went to a back passenger door on the nearest car, reaching out to pull on the handle.

'Nah, there's no way this works. These guys might've tried to pick a fight with us, but there's no way that–-oh what the fuck.'

The door popped open, causing Silas to audibly groan and roll his eyes.

"What dipshits."

He climbed into the seat, scanning the area. Nothing of interest popped out to him, though. He stepped out, then went to the driver's side door. He opened it up, quickly finding and pressing the trunk release button. He then went to the trunk, taking a look inside. It didn't take him long to spot what he was looking for: three briefcases, all silver, sat before him. He reached out to the closest one and popped the locks on it. When he lifted the lid, his eyes widened more than they ever had in his life.

Stacks of cash, neatly bound and lined, filled the briefcase.

'Holy shit! That's gotta be, like, a hundred grand in here!'

He quickly checked the other briefcases, finding the same thing in them. He let his eyes race across all three.

'Ho. Ly. Shit.'

He slowly reached out, letting his fingers touch the money. As he settled on one bundle, he let his fingers slip between a few of the bills.

'...pretty sure this is more than what we were supposed to get. I'm sure the boss wouldn't mind if one or two–'

"Hey!"

Silas jumped a bit, feeling a hand slap itself onto his shoulder. He turned to see a grinning Lark looking over his shoulder.

"You found it! Good going, kid!" she looked over the contents of the briefcases, "Looks like we're making a bigger profit than we expected. Mr. Cobblepot'll be really happy to see this."

"Y-yeah," Silas said, smiling nervously.

"Come on, grab these and let's go."

Silas nodded, closing and taking two briefcases while Lark grabbed the third. As the two made their way back to the truck, Silas made sure to lag behind a little, giving himself the chance to frown without Lark seeing it.

'Fuck. That was a hell of a payday there, and it's all going to Penguin. Maybe I'll get lucky and get a little bonus.'

'...but if Penguin's raking in this kind of cash…'