Just like it had every single night in Gotham, it was raining. No wonder the news kept talking about droughts in California and Texas. This one little city was stealing all of the nation's rain.
The Specter raised her eyes from the empty streets below to the starless sky. The raindrops seemed to fall towards her, but never hit her helmet. The visor of her helmet was coated with a thin electrical field that immediately dissolved and pushed away small debris that got too close. It took her a couple of months to develop it. She no longer had the lair to construct it. And there was no Verlix to help either.
"Hey." His voice caught her attention. She looked at him. "The weapons deal is happening on the ground," the Red Hood continued. "Unless you're looking for flying gangsters?"
"'Weapons deal' is putting it lightly," the Specter replied. They were talking about truckloads of explosives. No doubt someone in Gotham was planning to blow up a building or two.
"A lot of the thugs here are from Black Mask's lot," Red Hood said, scanning the area. "That's the annoying thing about these guys; you can't clear them out no matter how hard you try. If you destroy the nest, the rest just scatter like roaches and swarm back in a different place under a new boss."
"And we all know Gotham has no shortage of new criminals," the Specter mumbled. After the death of the Batman, the city experienced a huge influx of bad people wanting to take advantage of the seemingly defenseless city. "So what are we waiting for?"
"It's still too early," Red Hood determined. "The trucks aren't here yet. Besides, we don't know which building the deal's taking place in. With all these gunners crawling around, we can't take too many chances." The area they were watching over contained a number of small- and medium-sized warehouses. They had obviously been damaged from two years ago and abandoned. A lot of them were missing chunks of their roofs and walls.
So apparently it was time to play the waiting game. The Specter watched a couple gunmen pass each other below, feeling something nagging at her. Finally, she decided to voice her anxiety. "Jason, about this morning…" she began uneasily. "I know you don't like anyone mentioning… It just sort of slipped out. I'm rea—."
"It's fine," Red Hood said bluntly. "There's nothing to talk about."
His face was hidden behind that red mask. Hers was covered, too. It was times like these when their conversations seemed so distant, like they were on opposite sides of a phone call. The Specter looked away. This overall feeling of discomfort was too familiar. And just when she thought things were looking up between them.
"Listen, Jo, I'm serious. Forget about it." She felt him put a hand on her back. "It's not worth getting upset over. Let's just get this done and go home." In a sly voice, he added, "Then we can see about making up."
The Specter laughed. "Don't let the journalists catch you saying that," she warned. "Their heads will explode." She spotted movement coming towards their direction. "Heads up. Trucks inbound." There were two of them. As they watched, each truck diverged onto separate paths and went to different warehouses.
"Looks like they're trying to take precautions, throw off anyone trying to track them," Red Hood noted.
"How about we split? One each," the Specter proposed.
Red Hood glanced back at her and eyed her robotic arm. "You got the right arm on this time?"
"That was one time!"
"Relax, I'm only messing with you. All right, I'll take the left truck out. You take right. Here." He handed her a small explosive and a detonation trigger. "Plant this on the truck and meet me back here. Then, we'll watch the fireworks together."
"Got it." The Specter pocketed the items. "Weapons free, right?"
"Why not? No one's gonna miss them."
They parted. The Specter jumped down from the edge of the building and headed towards her warehouse. As she approached the nearest gunmen, she cloaked. Instead of engaging, she let them pass. It was better to attract as little attention as possible. But she needed to take out the ones nearest the truck. They'd notice the planted explosive.
The Specter looked around, trying to determine which path she could take. Then, at the last second, she noticed the patrolling gunman walking straight towards her. She managed to phase just in time so that he passed right through. That was too close. Then, when he passed, she dropped the phase. She could maintain the cloak as long as she wanted, but phasing had its limits and needed recharging.
When she had determined her route, the Specter crept through the maze of walls and rubble towards the truck. She made as little noise as possible. As she came upon the truck, she noticed that there were guards posted around it. Two stood near the back of the truck, and one was at the front. That one was going first.
It was easy to approach him while she was cloaked. She walked around to his back. Quickly, she wrapped her robotic arm around his face and pressed her hand over his mouth, stifling his startled cries. Before he could struggle and make too much noise, she pressed a fist against his back. A blade shot out from her gauntlet and into his back. When he was still, she gently lowered the body onto the ground. Then, the Specter made her way around the truck to the other two. They were standing side-by-side. Taking them down without causing too much alarm was going to be tricky.
"What's this all for?" one of the guards asked. "I hear it's a bunch of bombs."
"These are top-of-the-line," the other guard replied. "This stuff'll tear off a vault door at the Bank of Gotham no problem. Penguin got them from an outside seller. He's probably going to charge crazy high prices for anyone who wants them for their next heist."
"Greedy guy," the first guard remarked. "But at least he knows how to make money."
"That's right. And when he earns, we earn."
While they were talking, neither of them had any idea of the cloaked figure standing in front of them. They didn't know what took hold of their heads and rammed them together. And just like that, they were out.
The Specter stepped over their bodies and took the small explosive from her belt. Before she latched it onto the truck, she paused. Top-of-the-line, they said? Wouldn't hurt to have a looksee first.
She phased into the truck. When she was inside, she dropped her cloak. The tiny blue lights from her helmet barely lit up the dark cargo. The Specter touched the side of her helmet and turned on a headlamp.
There were numerous metal crates inside. She walked up to the nearest one and knocked on it. Something about it sounded off. She crouched down and, with her robotic arm, flicked on a narrow laser. With it, she cut through the crate's locks and shoved it open. It was empty. She opened another one. It was also empty.
"Jason," she said into her comms link. "This truck's a decoy. There's nothing in it. How's it on your end?" She was met with the sound of a yell, then a few gunshots. There was a thud of a punch, followed by a sickening crack. Something heavy dropped onto the ground.
"Oh, it's fine. Just doing some clean up," Red Hood replied.
"Lay low. I'm headed your way." The Specter phased out of the truck. To avoid alerting anyone else, she dragged all of the bodies underneath the truck. Then she headed for the other warehouse.
On the way, it was pretty evident that Red Hood's presence had become known. Every gunman she passed seemed on edge. One, upon hearing her footsteps, jumped and whirled around frantically, calling out, "Who's there?" But by that time, she was long gone.
She slowed as she got closer to the warehouse. Everything seemed quiet. The Red Hood was nowhere to be seen.
"Who's it this time? That Red Robin kid?" she heard a thug ask nearby.
"No way, man. That guy back there had a hole in his forehead. Nah, it's the Red Hood."
"Red Hood? Fuck! Where's he at now?"
"Don't know. He just disappeared a while ago. Bet he got scared off. I always knew he was nothing but a pussy. Guy just comes outta nowhere after Batman and thinks he's so tough. Even got the papers talking about him."
"If the Red Hood's here, I hope he brought that ghost bitch with him. You see how that suit shows off her tight ass? Oh man, if we ever got our hands on that bitch, the things I'd do to her."
Listening to his words, the Specter felt utterly disgusted. Where were those two pigs? She followed the direction she heard their voices coming from and rounded the corner of the warehouse. In the moment she saw them, a gunshot blared out. One of the thugs dropped.
The remaining thug stumbled over himself and tried to run. A figure dropped from out of nowhere to block his path. The Red Hood ripped the gun from the thug's hands and threw it aside. He took his own handgun and pistol-whipped the thug in the head. Before the thug could fall over, Red Hood grabbed the collar of his jacket and slammed him against the warehouse wall.
"You'd do what, huh?" he roared. "What were you planning to do, you sack of shit?" The man weakly raised his hands. Red Hood struck him with the butt of the handgun again.
The Specter dropped her cloak and hurried over. "That's enough! Stop!"
"Oh, that's enough all right," Red Hood growled. Still gripping the thug's jacket, Red Hood turned and threw him down onto the ground. Then he raised his gun and put a bullet through the man's head.
"Jason, what the hell has gotten into you?" the Specter demanded angrily.
"Me? Did you hear what this jackass said?" Red Hood countered.
"I did, but I wasn't about to bash his skull in over it! Why do you have to go berserk every time this happens? They're just talking, Jason! You don't need to kill them because of it!"
"Are you saying you don't mind what he said? Oh, so you like it or something?"
"I didn't say that! But it's not like I can stop them from saying those things! And what about last week, huh?"
"Last week? What about last week?"
"When we ran into Catwoman on that gallery rooftop, you idiot!" the Specter snapped. "You remember what she said to you? And when I started getting bothered, like I should have been, you told me I was overreacting!"
"You were! Selina talks like that to every guy she meets! She was like that all the time with Batman."
"Did you just call her by her name?"
"Because that IS her name!"
She felt like she wanted to rip everything around her apart, starting with this piece of trash right in front of her. Then she heard a voice call out.
"I see them! They're over here!"
The Specter turned her head just in time to see a gunman raising his weapon. Out of instinct, she phased. Bullet holes punctured the wall behind her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Red Hood duck out of the line of fire. He jerked and let out a cry. There was a red line on his arm where the bullet had grazed him. Without hesitating, the Specter raised her robotic arm. A small barrel rose out from the limb. She unphased and discharged a bullet. The gunman collapsed. But more were on the way.
"Let's go," she said. "Did you plant the explosive?"
"Yeah," Red Hood said, holding his arm. "We'll bail and I'll hit the trigger." He shot out a line and zipped up. The Specter cloaked and raced away. She ran straight for the building they had started out on. He was already there when she arrived.
There was an earth-shattering explosion. The Specter looked back and saw a brilliant ball of fire erupt from the warehouse they had just been at. Then, it fizzled down into a tower of flames. After watching the crackling fire for a moment, she turned back towards him.
"How's your arm?"
"You don't need to worry about it."
"Oh sure!" the Specter suddenly snapped, feeling all of her previous rage come flooding back. "Shut me out like always! Don't worry about this! Don't talk about that! It's none of your business!"
"Will you quit your nagging?" Red Hood shouted back. "This is why! You're always trying to shove yourself into every single little one of my problems! Stop coddling me!"
"Coddle?" As far as she recalled, she had always been very mindful of Jason's boundaries. What was this moron babbling about? "Fine! You know what? You can dress your own damn wound!"
"Fine!" Red Hood turned and stormed away.
"Where are you going?" the Specter demanded. No answer. "Go ahead! Bleed out for all I care!"
"Fuck you."
He disappeared off into the night. The Specter looked towards the burning warehouse. There were sirens wailing in the distance. Finally, she turned and headed back to the apartment alone.
Addendum: Oh god, there's too much drama! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES.
On behalf of Texas, I would like to say: yes, please give us some rain. Please.
Also, Red Robin is what Tim Drake eventually becomes in the comics, so I'm assuming it's the same in the Arkham-verse. (Yummmm)