"Look, it's the Bat!" A thug says to his gang. "Time for some payback!" Pulling out an assortment of weapons, they approach the barely conscious Dick. Dick can barely see anything, but the lights from the alleyway are hurting his eyes. Suddenly, everything is plunged in darkness, as a lone, small figure lands in between Dick and the thugs.
"Robin?" Dick asks weakly, before passing out.
"Not anymore Batman. You can call me BATGIRL!" Stephanie Brown declares. Pulling out a bo staff, she beckons the first of the five thugs to come at her. The thugs look at each other and then all run towards her. She runs at them, bo staff in her left hand, and she slips her right hand into her utility belt. Pulling out some smoke capsules, she tosses them in front of her, clouding the alleyway in smoke.
"Batgirl, get Dick and get out of there." Comes the voice over her comm links.
"Oracle, I can handle these no-name thugs," Stephanie responds, indignantly. As she says that, she spins the bo staff in a sideways arc, knocking the legs out from several of the thugs. Pressing her advantage, she rushes forward, using the closest thug in front of her as a springboard, leaping over him and delivering a spinning kick to the one behind him. As she lands, she smashes the bo staff against the temple of the last standing thug, satisfied when he hits the ground. "See? I took care of them." She heads towards Dick and checks to see if he has any broken bones. Not feeling any, she hoists his arm over her shoulder and tries to half carry, half drag him out the alley.
"Do you need help?" Barbara Gordon asks, her worried tone laced with slight amusement. Not hearing any solid answers than some grunts, she sends the Batmobile over the location she tagged Stephanie at. When the car arrives, she hears an exhausted thank you from Stephanie.
As Stephanie loads Dick into the passenger seat of the Batmobile, unbeknownst to her, a thug started to get up. He reaches for a pipe and attempts to swing it at Stephanie's head. Before it could connect, a batarang whizzes past Stephanie and sinks into the thug's hand. Howling in pain, he drops the pipe, only to collide with a blur and crash down onto the ground, unconscious.
"You missed one, Brown." Damian's smug voice irritates Stephanie, but not as much as…
"Codenames only in the field munchkin," Stephanie states, trying to keep her annoyance level in check. "And what are you even doing here?"
"Batman's emergency beacon went off, and while Dra- I mean Red Robin was otherwise engaged, I decided to come to save the day. Did these ordinary miscreants cause this level of damage to Batman?" Damian questions, with worry in his voice. Stephanie's anger fades, and she reminds herself that he's just a kid, his father is dead, and his older brother has been found in an alley unconscious.
"No, I don't think so. It looked like they had just found him when I showed up," Stephanie replies. After she loads Dick into the Batmobile, she pauses as she hears Oracle relay instructions to her. She gestures to the front seat. "Aren't you gonna get in?" A purple motorcycle drives up, and Stephanie looks happy to see it. "Oh, and Robin?" She calls out as she's getting on her bike.
"What?" Comes Damian's answer.
"Oracle said to call her as soon as Batman is conscious. And if you don't, she will do unspeakable things to you." Stephanie states, driving off.
A Few Hours Later…
"Dick, you have 2 broken ribs and a concussion from that fall!" Tim shouts as he tries to convince Dick not to suit up. "I called Barbara and she agreed that you're lucky Bruce padded the suit more after his fall when Hush showed up."
"I need to find Jason. He did this. He cut my line and almost killed me." Dick states flatly. "I want to know why."
"Dick… Jason didn't cut your line." Tim says softly. "Look at this footage." Pressing a few buttons on the Batcomputer, Tim brings up the footage from Dick's body cam. Dick's grapnel latches on to the building, but then the glint of a knife cuts it before the line can go taunt, causing Dick to start falling. Dick turns his head towards the roof, and the camera shows his arms spread as he's using his cape to glide before settling on the roof. A shadow jumps from the roof, and the camera blurs as if Dick was hit in the head. The view changes from a slow descent to a tumble, where sky and ground seem to have no meaning, and the camera spins faster until Dick hits a pile of trash and the camera goes dark.
"This doesn't prove that Jason didn't cut my line," Dick says, his annoyance obvious.
"Yes, it does. Look at the shadow." Rewinding the video, Tim pauses it before the shadow can fall out of the view of the video. "Turning up the brightness in this shot allows us to barely make out some things about our assailant. Like his eyes and this symbol on the mask." Dick isn't impressed by the dark yellow goggles but is drawn to the spider-like symbol on his mask.
"The Black Spider. An assassin from the Council of Spiders. And it looks like I'm his next target. How do we find him, and by extension the person who wants me dead this time?" Dick asks as he fastens his cape around his neck.
"You realize it would be easier finding a list of people who don't want Batman dead, right?" Tim responds. "But before we do all of this, why did you think it was Jason?"
"Because Jason is one of the only people skilled enough and has the resources to cut one of our lines. It's the logical choice." Dick pulls on his cowl and starts heading towards the vehicle bay.
"Dick, you can't go back out there!" Tim pleads.
"Gotham needs Batman," Dick responds, his voice void of emotion. "And Batman needs to chase down leads on the Black Spider. If he's after me, there's no telling who else is too." He hops on his motorcycle and speeds out of the cave. As Dick enters the city of Gotham, his comms starts to buzz, indicating someone is trying to contact him.
"Dick, Tim tells me that you're still going off despite the injuries you have," Barbara admonishes.
"Injuries never stopped Bruce. He went out there with a fractured skull, Babs." Dick replies. "Besides, Gotham needs Batman." He hears an exasperated sigh as a response from her.
"I'm sending you backup and the Batmobile," She informs him.
"Babs, I'm fine. I don't need backup. Besides, I'm sure your definition of backup includes Steph and Dami, and I'd spend more time trying to stop them from fighting than actually fighting criminals."
"I'm sending you backup Richard," she repeats with a more serious tone.
"You're sending me backup. Got it," Dick immediately responds. "Who's being sent. And where are they being sent?"
"There seems to be an outbreak of panic at Gotham Plaza, but something is killing all video feeds. And I'm sending Stephanie and Damian. I'd ask Tim too, but I need his assistance on something." Dick isn't thrilled about the prospect of having backup, but there's no arguing with Barbara when she takes that tone. "Oh and Dick?"
"Yes, Babs?"
"Please be careful."
"Copy that." As he gets closer to Gotham Plaza, he starts hearing screams. "Gotham needs Batman. Batman out."
Barbara is worried about Dick. She knows that there's something wrong with him, and the way he's acting is confirming it. It's like she can see the walls being erected in his head to keep everyone out. Whatever is going on, she hopes Tim and her can figure it out.
"So I haven't told Dick this yet, but I've gotten a bead on where to find Black Spider," She informs Tim, as she wheels herself to the Batcomputer. "I've been looking into the Council of Spiders, and they didn't dispatch him on this attempt, meaning whoever did this went directly to Black Spider himself. I used facial recognition across as much traffic cam footage as I could in the past week, and have found 3 criminals who aren't normally active in Gotham, and one that facial recognition didn't get a hit on at all."
"Why do I feel like there's one more huge thing you're about to mention?" Tim asks, dreading the answer.
"Because the one person that I couldn't get a hit on, along with one of the criminals were seen together, and if you look at this photo, it looks like they wanted to be picked up by cameras." In the photo Barbara shows Tim, both people in the photo are staring directly at the camera. "Facial recognition tagged the one on the left as Eric Needham, who was one of the Black Spiders. I think he's connected to this current Black Spider, the one that the Birds of Prey tangled with a while ago, who's a metahuman with unknown powers."
"Look at the person next to him. Doesn't he look familiar?" Tim asks, stepping beside Barbara and typing some things on the computer. "These photos are in black in white, but if I add some colors here, and here, and get rid of the hair on this guy…" Tim looks a mixture of pride for figuring things out, and horror for what he just figured out. "We need to tell Dick about this now!"
"I'm calling him now!" Barbara says frantically. She hears Dick pick up the line. "Dick! Tim and I figured it all out!"
"Oracle? I… … hear you. There's so… …cking the comms… … going on-" Dick's voice fades in and out and is replaced with static.
"Dick, we found out who hired Black Spider!" Barbara yells into the comms. "It's Deathstroke!"
"Killer Croc? We have to fight Killer Croc?" Stephanie asks as the trio stands on a rooftop overlooking Killer Croc's rampage.
"If you want to go home Brown, nobody is stopping you," Damian retorts. "My father has beaten him countless times."
"Codenames only in the field Robin," Dick reprimands. "Batgirl, do you have any ice capsules or exploding gel? We just have to slow him down. And then we're going to use the car's taser to pump enough juice into him to knock him out."
"That sounds easy enough," Stephanie responds sarcastically. Dick just ignores her and gives the signal to attack. Sighing, Stephanie follows suit and jumps off the roof after Batman and Robin. As they glide down, they start tossing gas pellets. Landing in the smoke, Dick immediately confronts Killer Croc head on and starts tossing explosive capsules at him. Croc staggers back and then attempts to punch Dick, who dodges it. He looks at Damian and gives him a quick nod. Understanding what Dick meant, he runs towards him. Dick pivots towards Damian and cups his hands. Damian leaps onto Dick's hands, and Dick catapults him in the air. While in the air, Damian kicks Croc in the face at the same time Dick sweeps his legs out from under him.
Dick's comms start ringing as Croc starts to get back up. He picks up the line and hears Barbara's frantic voice.
"Dick! T… …red it…!" She screams in his ear, with Dick mostly picking up static.
"Oracle? I can barely hear you. There's something blocking the comms. What's going on? Hello? Hello?" Comes Dick's panicked voice. In his worry, he didn't see Killer Croc swing his arm. Croc's arm slams into Dick's chest, resulting in Dick being knocked further down the street. Collecting himself, he turns toward an alley and sees a figure attached to the side of a building. Looking at the figure, he sees yellow goggles. Instantly recognizing the figure, Dick's eyes narrow in anger. The Black Spider nods towards Dick and starts running up the building. Without hesitation or alerting his team, Dick pursues.
"He left us to fend for ourselves against Killer Croc!" Stephanie yells at Damian as they retreat further up the street. "He was supposed to be right here, but where is he?" As soon as that question was asked, she sees the silhouette of Batman chasing someone across the rooftops above them. Activating her comms, she attempts to radio Dick, but all she gets is a painful earful of static. Before she can say anything else, Killer Croc hurls a car towards them, with them diving to either side of the street to avoid it.
"Batman would never abandon us. There has to be a reason he's chasing someone else without telling us." Damian responds, a twinge of self-doubt in his words. "The car is nearby. Slow him down while I get it ready."
"And why am I about to 1v1 the aforementioned KILLER Croc?!" Stephanie asks, highly annoyed.
"Because I know how to drive the Batmobile and you don't," Damian answers. Seeing the anger on her face, he decides to elaborate on his plan. "I don't need you to get in his face. Just focus his attention on you while I fly in the Batmobile and use the taser to take him down." Damian starts running towards the Batmobile.
"Ok Batgirl, you can do this. It's just a giant lizard man no big deal," Stephanie reassures herself in between dodging Killer Croc's punches. "That munchkin better hurry up." As soon as that sentence leaves her lips, she sees the Batmobile, airborne and aiming for Killer Croc. A wire shoots out of it, attaching to his back. Damian presses a button and sends a huge electric current through the wire, causing Killer Croc great pain. He staggers forward, but before he falls, he turns and grabs at the wire and uses all his strength to pull the car down. Killer Croc goes down to his exhaustion and pain from the taser and the Batmobile crashes straight down on the ground.
"Robin!" Stephanie yells as she runs over to him. She sees him leaning against the side of the car, breathing heavily.
"Did we get him?" He asks in between wheezes.
"Yeah, we got him munchkin. Croc is down!" She exclaims.
"I told you my plans always work," Damian says, with a small smile. He quickly passes out after that, with Stephanie catching him before he hits the ground.
Dick is effortlessly keeping up with Black Spider as he leads Dick across various rooftops. Dick tosses a few batarangs after him, which Black Spider dodges without turning around. As they near a rooftop across from a high rise building, Black Spider jumps and shoots a red web from his wrist, attaching to the building. He swings across the intersection and then runs up the side of the high rise. Dick stares, dumbfounded at what he just witnessed.
"All the crazy villains in the world and I'm stuck with this Spiderman," Dick mutters to himself. Taking a leap, Dick jumps from the rooftop and fires a grapnel at the top of the high rise. Bracing himself for the sudden pull on his arm, he presses the button that allows him to travel up the rope. After reaching the top of the high rise, he sees Black Spider at the other end, jumping off. Taking off after him, Dick heads to the other end and jumps, seeing Black Spider land on a rooftop partially shadowed by the high rise. Using his cape to glide, Dick dives down, then spreads his arms to slow his descent. Letting go of his cape altogether, he attempts a flying tackle on Black Spider. Black Spider dodges Dick's attack, and then uses his webs to web Dick's hands together.
"I got nothing against you, Batman. I don't suppose you'll let finish you off and go about my web-slinging ways?" Black Spider asks.
"It's going to take a lot more than you to finish me off," Dick says, sounding more confident than he feels. He can't break the web, no matter how hard he pulls. Black Spider tosses a gas pellet towards Dick, who starts coughing at the gas.
"I'm not alone Batman." Black Spider states, gesturing to the darkened corner of the rooftop they're on. "We're always surrounded by fear."
"Grayson." A calm male voice starts talking. A small shadow emerges from the corner, growing steadily larger as it reaches the light.
Dick's eyes grow wide with fear as he's confronted by one of the worst enemies he's ever had to fight.
"Blockbuster?!" Dick shouts in surprise.