Orientating the Board: A New Front Part 2

It hadn't taken too much time for Dick to recover enough for Bruce to clear him to go out again. When the time came Dick was eager to get back out there. They hadn't heard anything about anything that could possibly be the Owls since Lois had published her article and he needed to know what was happening.

What they were planning.

But first Bruce and his parents made sure that Dick had some new equipment to make his Owl hunt easier. He scavenged parts from the uniform he escaped in, and blended in new clothes that were dark to blend in with the shadows. Durable enough to put up with the amount of wear they would be getting and had plenty of pockets for supplies like bandages and a new grappling hook. Bruce had tried to suggest using some kind of additional utility belt, but Dick wanted to travel light so for now the pockets were more than sufficient. Bruce had also pointed out that if he was trying to go under the radar he needed a good facial covering and gotten him a mask that covered his eyes and part of the top of his face.

"You know," Martha had said when he tried it on. "You look like a superhero."

"I'm not that powerful," Dick argued.

"You have an enhanced healing factor," Bruce pointed out. "That's a superpower."

"It's like, a fraction faster than normal according to the tests the Owls did. Hence why they were talking about the electrum infusion going too slow. Not quite a superpower."

-.-.-.-

Dick had headed out to the city from the cave that night. And the night after that. And every night for the past two weeks. (It was a bit of a distance to the main city from the Wayne estate. Note to self: learn to drive.) So far he hadn't found anything that indicated current Owl activity. He knew he should be glad they were lying low and not actively hurting people but somehow it just made him more on edge. He needed something to do so he ended up spending most of his nights stopping muggings in back alleys.

Now Gotham city was...well, as quiet as Gotham city ever got. Dick was sitting on a roof a couple blocks away from the docks listening to the quiet rumble of traffic on the street below. It was still only midnight, which was early in the night for him, but since not a lot was happening Dick was taking a moment to enjoy the skyline. Most of the buildings in this neighborhood were just a few stories tall so Dick wasn't surrounded by skyscrapers and able to get a good look around. Despite it being the middle of the night it was far from dark. There were street lights, glowing signs from clubs and bars, and the occasional light glowing from apartment windows where people were awake. Dick lived for a long time underground, all alone. It could sometimes be a bit mind-boggling how many people were in Gotham.

The silence was interrupted by the sudden wailing of a police siren. A couple of cars sped down the street, lights flashing. It seemed Dick's rest was over. He jumped up and ran to the edge of the roof before leaping onto the next one, following the police cars. They quickly got ahead of him but it didn't take long for him to find where they had been heading. A block away the police cars had pulled up next to a third in front of an old stone building with the words "Gotham Sewer System" carved into the front above the entrance. The front entrance had already been blocked off with caution tape.

Dick settled in on a building across the street. "I wonder what happened here," he whispered to himself.

-.-.-.-

Sergeant Kate Riordan pulled Barbara Gordon and Renee Montoya away from their beat.

"It happened again."

"What?"

"The dead bodies in a net with a trident sticking out of them of all things."

Babs and Renee glanced at each other and grimaced. Admittedly, this was Gotham, and a couple decades back, before the Waynes took a step back from being industrial mongols and focusing their efforts on dragging the entire city out of squalor, gruesome killings like this were not exactly uncommon.

But still.

A net and a trident? Where would one even get those items? A museum? Or...

Renee tilted her head "Has anyone contacted Atlantis yet? Could be someone trying to frame them."

Kate leaned against her desk. "Maybe. That'll be a little outside our jurisdiction though - Gordon, you've got that fancy law degree, what's our extradition laws like?"

"We'll definitely have to get in touch with Atlantis." Babs sighed. "And we'll have to collaborate with one of the Alphabet Soup."

The other two women groaned. "Please, nothing that brings Waller even close to this." Kate muttered under her breath.

"Well, the least we can do is escalate to someone we can trust." Babs mused. "I'm thinking… Agent Kane."

"FBI?"

"Yeah, afterall, she loves this city as much as we do. And! I know she's clean."

Kate sighed. "If you trust her then go ahead and contact her." She pushed off the desk and headed towards the door. "I'm going to check out the scene."

-.-.-.-

He waited there for twenty minutes, watching the small group of police officers move in and out of the building. Most of the buildings on this street appeared to be businesses or in various stages of disrepair, so the street was empty except for the small group of law enforcement. Dick counted five of them. He decided to chance moving closer. He dropped down the fire escape of a store a few buildings down then darted across the street. He crept through the alleys until he was within earshot of the police outside.

"I think this has to be the bloodiest one yet."

"Seriously? Are we ranking them now?"

"Well, what else are we going to do?"

"Now come on, we don't know that it's connected to any other deaths."

"Sure. A bunch of Falcone's men decided to drop dead separately, in isolated places, in ways that looked like it hurt."

"There has always been intergang violence."

Dick noticed a window that had been left open a crack leading into the building. He didn't have to go in. If the cops outside were right it was gang activity, nothing to do with the Owls. And no chance of them getting involved either. They had always considered themselves above "petty criminals."

But he was curious. And there had been no trace of the Owls for weeks.

It turned out the window had been left open a crack because it was nearly impossible to move. When Dick couldn't move it with his hands he started poking around the alley for something to use as leverage. Eventually he found a small pipe he could wedge in the gap to try and pry it open.

Bang!

"Hey! What was that?"

"We're just a block away from the docks. Who knows what happens there at night."

"Yeah, just ignore it, rookie."

Dick was torn between frustration with himself that despite all his stealth training that had just happened and indignance on behalf of the people of Gotham that their police would just ignore the sounds of someone breaking into a place. But before the police could change their minds he slipped into the building.

The main part of the building was one large empty space. Piles of debris had long since been pushed to the sides of the room. There were a couple of doors in the back wall probably led to other chambers in the building. A couple of lights were on near the front entrance but most of the room wasn't illuminated. But Dick's attention was caught by the body lying in a pool of blood in the middle of the room, wrapped in a net for some reason. Something that Dick couldn't see clearly due to the dim light was sticking out of the body. The police hadn't bothered to move it, or more likely hadn't been allowed to until the forensic investigators had arrived.

The body had once been a tall muscular man with tattoos wrapped around one arm. Dick tentatively crept closer to get a look at the item sticking out of his chest. It turned out to be a trident. Several puncture marks were spread across his torso; he had been stabbed several times before whoever had killed him had been finished, though it probably hadn't been necessary.

So the how of this seemed fairly obvious, though there were plenty of why questions that needed answering. Why kill him? Just regular violence between the gangs like the officers thought? Why not a gun or a regular knife? Another group who preferred weapons like tridents? The only one Dick could think of was Atlantis but he couldn't imagine what business they would have in Gotham. Someone trying to frame them? He probably couldn't find answers to any of those questions here. But why this building? Was there something else here?

Dick stepped away from the body and headed to the doors at the back wall. It was even darker back here so Dick had to take a moment to let his eyes adjust. He tried the first door... locked, he let out a frustrated grunt. He could pick the lock but the door didn't look like it had been forced open at any point. He could leave it for now. The second door opened easily enough...to reveal a broom, mop, and empty bucket. Maybe this place had just been chosen because it was abandoned.

"You aren't one of the officers on duty."

Oh no. First making a loud noise then losing himself in thought so someone could sneak up on him. Dick needed to get a grip on himself. He spun around to see a woman with bright red hair in a GCPD uniform standing by the body.

She smiled. "So are you this 'Guardian Angel' our witnesses have been talking about? It's nice to meet you. I'm Sergeant Kate Riordan."


AN: Thanks once again for reading! If you'd like to contact us via tumblr, my handle is eastoniablogs! Reviews appreciated!