Chapter 3
"He's smiling. It's freaky."
"Leave him alone, I haven't seen him smile like that in a while." Montoya snaps, glaring heatedly at Bullock's statement.
Edward couldn't care less.
His past two outings with a certain Professor had brought a sort of light to his life. Rays shining down where he had been stuck in the rot and darkness for ages. It was refreshing, and enlightening, to meet someone else that not only could they discuss a complex topic with, but debate back in an opposing manner.
"I think he's going out with a girl."
"Bullock, I swear to god-" Edward smacked the sounds away as he types his report. For the day, no more villainous plots had occurred, but there was a recent breakout from the asylum, and the station had been tense since it happened.
Few notable rogues had gone missing, and it had fallen into Edward's hands to go through surveillance to find those criminals.
Up until now, he was able to spot killer croc by the park, Two-Face in a casino, and Harley Quin, the most obvious of the lot, breaking into the zoo to reclaim her pets.
His shift finally ends, and he checks his phone.
A smile appeared on his face.
"See, that's the face you get when you know you're going to get some-" A smack was heard, and Edward's face immediately drops as he glares at the detective.
"Excuse you, at least I have a date. What about you? Another night with a doughnut?" He seethes, stomping away from him.
"Now look what you did!" Montoya yells at her current partner.
"I didn't mean it!"
"If you must know, it is a simple dinner. It might be spent discussing the mentality of the city and the culture its surrounded with to accumulate a mob's movement." He said, only to notice that the two other officers were giving him strange looks. "What?"
"Your date's talking about this stuff?"
"Why shouldn't we?" Edward asks, interested in learning how normal plebian minds operated. But Montoya was far too polite to be insulting his habits.
"I think it's cute that you guys share a hobby, no matter how obscure it is. Where's dinner going to be?"
"Oh, it's going to be in the Rose." He said, and Bullock lets out a loud and long whistle as he heard that response.
"The Rose? Getting serious here, aren't we?"
"Not really, it's because of the Poison Ivy incident. He wanted to see the mark it left on the place, and I agreed, I want to see the Staff's coordination even after so many years."
"That sounds cool- He?" Bullock whispered to himself. Edward was just glad that he did. Usually, the man yells out whatever was in his mind.
"Well, don't let us stop you." Montoya told him, waving at him as she discreetly smacked Bullock's head. "Be quick about it before Loeb finds something for you." She reminded him, and Edward grimaced at the thought. Acting Commissioner Loeb was the worst person to replace Gordon, in fact, everyone was sure that there was someone else in place instead of that specific man, knowing how much Commissioner Gordon would advocate for a more law-abiding officer. Some people even thought that Bullock had more chance of being acting commissioner even if he was a morally grey and lazy man. It was a sad thing that he enjoyed being a detective more than branching in ranks.
He had spent half a year as a shift commander before picking his successor and leaving the GCPD for a while.
No one could figure out what he had done in that short stint out of the law's pockets.
Either way, he wasn't chosen as a replacement, and everyone was stuck with the stuck up Loeb. Edward especially hated him, hated how the man dismisses most of his thoughts and notes, hated how he never lets him continue on some cases to solve them easily with just a few clicks.
He can tell that Loeb was corrupt, but should he expose him?
Not now, not when the GCPD was swamped and the batman wasn't in sight. His little birds truly did a good job, but no one was as good as Batman in fighting off crimes.
Exposing the head as part of the people that you're trying to fight off will cause a large amount of chaos, it will slowly spell over everyone else, and could end up with everyone under the microscope. He did not fool himself into thinking that he wouldn't be the first suspected to be delved into corruption, or even be framed.
He was not a nice man, he showed his hate and loath to anyone wasting his time, and many of the officers there are exactly that, wasting his time. There would be a good chunk of the precinct willing to frame him for a compromising act.
He reached the shopping district just as five o'clock hit. Many couples were out and about, making him wonder if it was normal for people being out so early. Maybe they were the afternoon crowd leaving instead.
That's when he spots the man, walking down the street in his coat, the very same one he had seen him wear that night in the hospital, and many times after.
Was this a date?
Or just a simple dinner between friends?
Someday, hopefully soon, he will get his revenge on Bullock for planting such thoughts in his mind.
"I am glad that we both had arrived at the same time. I'd hate to be too early or too late."
"Us? Making a mistake? Do not sell yourself short, Dr. Crane." He jokes as they enter the café.
It was nice for the short time that they had spent together. He knew he went away with himself, talking animatedly with the stoic man, but seeing as Crane hasn't stopped him at all during his monologues, he did not bother himself in correcting his own actions. Crane would add some minor comments from time to time.
When the man himself spoke, it was always straight to the point, scientific, and resembled what one might imagine a textbook would sound like. Edward enjoyed it, for unlike many other people, his words were more mentally stimulating than the usual conversation he is forced to partake with his division.
Crane was halfway into explaining how they had discovered a new way to use a certain hormone on different mammals, and gain results that were contradictory if it were used on a human, when his pager went off.
Edward groaned.
"Apologies, Jonathan, but it seems that I am being called in."
"Yes … I forgot that you were an officer for a moment."
"I'm a digital forensic, not an officer. Really, I'm only a civilian worker who happens to lead the tech department in the GCPD." He said as he took out his pager and looked at the text.
He stopped breathing for a second.
"Oh, no." He said as he got up, pulling out his wallet to pay for his part, only to find that Crane had raised his hands, giving him a resounding no. "I can't just let you pay for all of this."
"It's alright. You need to go anyways, it seems that you have an emergency."
"Y-Yeah. Someone sent in a data pack, it's-" He stopped. He can't really tell Crane about this, can he? "We're afraid it's a rogue, they're the only ones who do these things." He admits before sending him a greeting and leaving, running as fast as he could to the station. No point of picking a cab when it's rush hour.
Back in the store, Jonathan Crane hummed as he leaned back on his chair. A slow creeping grin forms on his face, as he takes a bite out of his treat.
0o0o0
"No …" Montoya whispered as she looks at the monitors. Every other officer in the room were either shocked or filled with grim acceptance.
Edward couldn't help but slam the desk with his fists.
The data pack continued a video of the mad hatter, prancing around a tied up Batman. The vigilante was limp, bruised, and bleeding. However, a headband could be seen atop the vigilante's head, one shaped to look like a rabbit's ears, a white rabbit in fact. That could only mean one thing.
Mad Hatter had mind-controlled Batman.
"There's nothing else? Anything?!" Loeb shouted above his head, and Edward turns to glare at him.
"That's everything! Be glad that I could even salvage anything after you let the incompetent dollops handle it! This file was corrupted!"
"You're a whiz kid, you can do something more about it."
"I-"
"Alright fellas, it's not the time to fight. Eddie, any ideas?"
"Yes, I want to hear what Forensics say about the package itself, at least they are mindful." He growled. It took a while, a couple of hours at least, but what came back to them was that the package held some machine oil, alcohol, and messed up prints that couldn't be salvaged because of the aforementioned incompetent cops who handled the thing.
"Sorry, you had to be pulled out of your date." Montoya told him just as she hands over a cup of black coffee. Edward stared at the swirling liquid and grimaced as he forced himself to take a sip of the slug. Admittedly, he never drank coffee, it's always sweets for him whenever he wants some energy boost. If he were to drink some, it would be from a coffee shop, not the machine in the station.
Like the coffee shop he had been spending his time earlier that day with a very pleasant company ... until he was interrupted, he thought bitterly.
"It was just dinner, he was understanding. We might reschedule later- Oh, what is it this time." He groaned as Montoya's own pager sounded off, cutting him off. She sighed, pulling the machine and read through it before shaking her head.
"You won't believe it, but Scarecrow's stole from a jewelry shop."
"He had to at some point, where do you think he gets the money?"
"But a jewel shop? Not the bank?" She said, leaving him to go pursue the situation. Edward was left behind once more, staring at her back.
He growls.
Batman was out, the rogues are getting out of hands, and the city needs a savior.
Yet here he was, unable to do anything simply because of what?
His safety?
"Well, Nygma, looks like you're going to do something either very foolish or truly brilliant." He said to himself.
0o0o0
He had sat on top of a building in the rowdiest part of the city, where he knew from years of watching that the Bat family usually passed this area as their monitoring destination. This is the old infamous Park Row, after all, where Crime Alley resides.
Not to his surprise, he was able to see one of them run across the rooftops. He stood still, breathing lightly as the protégé, the third one? Yes, the red and third one, passed him.
"Robin, or Red Robin, whatever you go by, I need to speak to you." He said, surprising the teen and making him halt by tripping on his own leg. He winced a bit as the child – child – turned and flipped on the ground before skidding to a stop and groaning loudly.
"You had to do that?"
"Sorry, I just needed to talk to you. I'm called Nygma, I'm part of the GCPD." He said, raising a badge. The teen looked at him skeptically before taking a glance of the badge and nodding in confirmation. It was just an ID, for the building, but at least it can be used to identify himself.
"How did you even know I'll be here?"
"It's simple, you and your family need to change up your routine. This district always sees a significant amount of traffic from you lot. And don't worry, I'm not here to arrest you or anything, in fact, I have some info." He said, pulling out a file that he had discreetly printed before leaving the station and a USB.
"What sort of info?" The teen was still doubtful, not ready to trust him.
"I know that you people stake out the police radio. This one hasn't hit the network yet, but it's crucial for you. Take it, inside, you'll find some samples I managed to pick up. It can probably tell you where Batman is."
"What?" The kid sounded surprised. Edward scoffed.
"Mad Hatter sent a data pack into the station. What I don't believe is that he was the only one who had taken your father figure-"
"He's not a father figure." The child states. He sent him a look.
"Kid, it's so freaking obvious. The first three robins are probably unrelated to Batman, the last Robin is definitely related, but had taken training with no input from the man when he first showed up. The girls are also unrelated, but I know for a fact that the first Batwoman had been Gordon's child-"
"Whoa, chill, how do you know all of this!"
"How? I use my brain! Now, take this to your secret hideout and go search for that man. I'm only doing this because I know Loeb would have ruined the samples and investigation later."
"Acting commissioner?"
"Corrupt. The man is getting paid." He said grimly before looking at his back and to the sides. He was relieved that they were still unmonitored. "If you need an encryption code or something like that, search for me, I can at least give some expertise on the matter." He said before turning around and leaving the bird alone.
There, he had done something. Even if it somewhat pulled him out of the investigation, it was still something that would some conclusion to this madness.
Riddle: They brandish stitches by befriending others. Who are they?
Answer: Snitches.
Conclusion: For a snitch, his skin has a lack os scaring.
AN: -
Bullock and Montoya partnered up at times during the Animated Series, if I remember correctly, they had a third rookie character with them.
The rose is a cafe where Poison Ivy and Harvey Dent broke the news to Bruce that they're engaged ...
Yeah, that actually happened.
Also, in Arkham Origins, Edward was the head of the Cyber Crime Division.
Also, excuse the really lame riddles at the bottom. When I first wrote this, I thought it was neat to have little segments with riddles. Re-reading makes me cringe because it's all cannibalized from other riddles or really bad wordplay. I even remember one of the riddles being translated from its original language, so the tone is off in English.