Chapter 69

Oswald hobbles through the warehouse district, followed by four men in black jackets, including Frankie and Gabe. He turns around to the men, "It's this way."

Pulling back an obscured door, he limps down a gravel pathway, "Not much further."

They approach a large warehouse and Oswald points to it, "It's there."

An explosive device is placed on the front of the door. Oswald twists his lips, time to act.

One of the men turn to Frankie, "Hey boss, so we're going to be making a lot of money off of this?"

"I'm going to be making a lot of money off of this, Eel. I'm the boss, it's my cash, and Don Maroni's 'golden goose' here is going to take us there," Frankie spits, twisting Oswald's nickname to sound like an insult.

Oswald gives a knowing smile to Frankie, let him insult him now, he'll be on his knees very soon. The makeshift timer ticks down on the bomb before it snaps, blowing the front doors into the building. Frankie and his men fire into the building as they slowly make their way in. Oswald stays back, letting the henchmen wipe out all of the men in the room. He looks on as Nikolai and his men are decimated, Frankie and his men are picking off Oswald's enemies like flies, and none of them are the wiser. One of Frankie's men is taken out, but three still remain: Frankie, Gabe, and Eel.

"Told you, easy as pie. There's must be a million dollars worth here," Oswald gloats.

"Yeah, you told us alright," Frankie looks down at the body of their dead gang member, bloodied and hunched over against some tarp. He hands his gun to Eel, "You're very clever."

"I sense a sarcastic and hostile edge to your tone," Oswald points out with his signature awkward phrasing.

Frankie smiles, "...hostile?" he punches Oswald in the gut, and he keels over, stumbling back in pain, "You got that right."

"You ain't no golden goose, you're a yellow rat snitch and you've got Maroni all twisted," Frankie lets his true opinions shine as he stands over a hunched over Oswald.

Keeping an ecstatic smile, Oswald looks up at his superior, "I'm so g-glad we're finally clearing the air at last."

Frankie grabs him by both shoulders and pulls him forward, "That's it, act smart, okay? Cause all I gotta do right now, is put a bullet in your brain, right here," he presses his left index finger against Oswald's temple, "bang."

"See then I go back and I tell boss that one of Niko's men shot you, 'gee, that's too bad', end of story," Frankie finishes, pushing Oswald off of him.

A maniacal chuckle escaping him, Oswald nods his head, "Yes, that's clever enough, I never doubted your intelligence...that's not your problem."

"Oh, I got a problem?" he asks, turning to Eel to mock, "Oh, look, I got a problem."

Eel doesn't respond, and facing Oswald again, Frankie's joking expression disappears, "No...you got a problem. What's my problem, schmuck?"

"What drives you? Hmm? What's your passion?" Oswald poses, taking in a breath, "When you know what a man loves, you know what can kill him."

Frankie turns around to Gabe, increasingly needing to seek approval from his henchmen, "Do you believe this guy?"

Gabe also remains silent, until Oswald catches his attention again, "For you it's money, you love money."

Frankie chuckles, almost in approval.

"More than power...or respect...you're a skinflint, Mr. Carbone, a cheapskate," Oswald tilts his head toward Gabe and Eel, who grab Frankie and hold him by both arms.

"Hey?! What are you guys playing at?! Let me go!"

"Sorry, Frankie," Gabe apologizes with a playful insincerity.

"As I say, a cheapskate! And consequently...you don't pay your people enough," Oswald shakes his head as he draws his pocketknife.

Seeing the knife, Frankie starts to panic, turning to his former henchmen, "Oh no, you don't wanna do this! You-...you...don't wanna-"
"It is a sad fact, that there is no loyalty among thieves."

With Gabe and Eel holding him in place, Oswald stabs him in the stomach, forcing the knife through and holding it in place, "The simple offer of a substantial pay raise, is all it took to sway these fine men."

He pulls the knife out, only to slice it back in, causing Frankie to yell in pain.

"You see? That's your problem, your greatest passion, becomes your greatest weakness," he yanks the knife out of Frankie, who falls to his knees.

Oswald laughs as he watches his adversary drip blood, hinging on the brink of consciousness. The excitement begins to overwhelm him, and Oswald starts panting. He reaches down and combs his hand through Frankie's hair, grabbing him by the shoulder and pulling him up so that he can look him in the eye, "Love...Mr. Carbone...love conquers all."

He pets Frankie as he loses consciousness. He will never understand how Oswald feels about him, but just maybe, in those last few moments, he got the idea. Grabbing his head with both hands, Oswald gives Frankie a long kiss on the forehead. Gabe and Eel glance at each other, confused by Oswald's sudden outburst of passion. Oswald finally lets go, petting him one last time, one down, one to go.

It's midnight when the alarm at the First National Gotham City Bank goes off, as four thugs in black make their escape in a white van. They're laughing as a fifth member drives the van. But suddenly, in the rearview mirror, the driver spots a black car with red highlights approaching them.

In the driver's seat, Batwoman smiles at the Trickstress, who presses one of the many buttons on the Batmobile's dashboard. From behind them, a black and light blue motorbike comes speeding up next to the Batmobile. Jumping from the car to the motorbike, the Trickstress straps her helmet on as Batwoman hands her a coil of wire. The motorbike zooms off, easily catching up with the van. With the wire, the Trickstress holds it out as the motorbike makes circles around the van. The back door of the van opens, revealing the thugs with guns. They fire at the Batmobile, which swerves from side to side, trying to stay in control. Seeing Batwoman slowly losing control, the Trickstress makes one last loop around with the wire before heading back toward the Batmobile. One of the thugs takes aim at the Trickstress, and knocks out her back tire. The Trickstress wipes out, the motorbike flipping onto its side and crashing to the ground. From the ground, the Trickstress lets go of the coil as it tethers off. The other end of the coil, attached to the Batmobile, still holds on, its length wrapped around the van, the thin but stretchy wire almost invisible. Batwoman presses a button on the Batmobile and electricity courses through the wire, shocking the van and short-circuiting it to a stop. The Batmobile comes to a screeching halt just behind the van as the thugs fire at the car. Batwoman leaps out of the car and throws a pellet onto the ground. Smoke floods the surrounding area, and the thieves stop their shooting, trying to get a glimpse of the vigilante from the haze of smoke. Just then, there's a grunt from the back of the van, followed by something falling to the ground. The smog begins clearing, and the others realize that the driver has been knocked out. As the crooks are all turned around, the one closest to the back door is pulled to the ground. The other three whip around and immediately open fire, but quickly stop as they find that they're shooting at nothing but their partner unconscious on the rim of the back door. With the smoke now completely gone, Batwoman, lurking upside down from the ceiling of the van, silently drops down and grabs two of the men by their heads, smashing them together. The last remaining thug has his gun trained on her, and she slowly puts her hands up. But just then, the roaring engine of a motorbike becomes louder by the second. The Trickstress speeds up towards the van, approaching just close enough for her to spring off of the motorbike and tackle the thug against the wall, knocking him unconscious.

"What, you thought I didn't carry a spare?" she asks jokingly.

Batwoman smiles, but their moment is interrupted as police sirens blare. Batwoman hops back into the Batmobile, while the Trickstress calls back her motorbike with a small remote control. They speed off into the night just as the police arrive.

Author's Note:

McCoyote: As twisted and maniacal as Oswald is, there's no denying that he is human, someone who is bound to make mistakes and have disagreeing opinions. When you think about it, Natalie is the only person he can go to talk about those kinds of things. Mrs. Cobblepot/Kabelput would not be happy to hear such things. There is a growing rift between them, the two of them are going to be mostly doing their own thing for a while. It's confirmed back in Chapter 20-something that both Natalie and Oswald are bisexual, but that their society (the world of comic books) reacts to female and male homosexuality in different ways. There isn't as much of a selection of Gotham slash fanfiction on Fanfiction, you probably want to go to AO3 for that sort of thing. On BOAF, from the way the story is planned out, there will be more chances to explore the slash aspect, but only within what canon will allow

Ed will be appearing in the next chapter. He and Natalie are going on an adventure :D And thanks, I often avoid writing Ed because I get insecure on how I write him. It's hard to keep the balance between not making him nerdy enough and overdoing it, especially this particular incarnation. What little romance there is between them is very one-sided, specifically on Natalie's side. I think I've had Natalie state/imply that she'd dump Oswald for Ed, but Ed just isn't interested. Kirsten Kringle is more of his type anyway. And as for Harvey Bullock, Natalie hasn't really had a chance to get to know him, but maybe one day fate will bring them together ;)

Erik-is-my-angel1234: Thanks, Oswald is strangely sympathetic for a murderer, isn't he?

Guest: Welcome aboard! I'm glad you like Oswald and Natalie as a couple, just for reference, their ship name is Pixie (for Penguin x Trixie). It's good to hear that people are still reading The Doctor Is In, and while I hold that story near and dear to my heart, I'd almost consider BOAF to be a pre-sequel to it at this point. If interest in BOAF severely declines, I might consider it, I actually didn't intend to end it there, it's just that BOAF has just become so time consuming that it's the only high-effort story I can really do on a regular basis

It's fine if you don't watch Gotham, you can follow along regardless. I don't agree with everything they've done either, which is partially why I started writing TDIN and BOAF, to rectify or at least explain away some of their more...questionable choices

Thanks! :)