Nightwing's arms pumped at his sides as he ran. Nearing the edge of the roof, he leaped into the air, soaring over an alleyway until he landed on the building across the gap. Never once breaking stride, he kept running, glancing to his right and down to the street.
There was an armored truck, the latest in the GCPD's arsenal in transporting high priority arrests. In front and in back of the truck were squad cars, their red and blue lights flashing even though they were driving the speed limit. It was as if they were announcing to the entire city their recent arrest.
Right now, Spoiler and Red Hood were in that truck. While they had all been aware of the mayor declaring martial law, its impact was now hitting them. They were targets now, not just Bane, or street level criminals. Gotham had effectively declared what everyone already knew, but had been lax in upholding: the vigilantes were lawbreakers and they would be captured just like any of Bane's mercenaries, Ra's al Ghul's ninjas, and the Blackgate and Arkham escapees.
That issue could wait until there was a moment to reflect on it. Right now, the priority was to get Spoiler and Red Hood out of that truck before they reached whatever precinct they were heading for.
Speaking of, that was when Manhunter spoke up over the comm link. "I can think of two precincts...this truck can go to. The main HQ is maybe a mile or two...from here while the West branch...is a straight shot from here. My money is on Main...since it's closer."
Manhunter was saying all of that through the occasional gasp. The exertion of keeping up with the vehicles below was enough to wind the brunette vigilante. Thankfully, since the transport caravan was going the speed limit and obeying the traffic lights, the Network was able to keep up. Nightwing suspected Oracle had hacked into the traffic control center and was ensuring that each light the caravan reached was a red light.
While nice, the Network was still having to play this smart. Each one of the vigilantes was spread out of the city as they followed the caravan. That was so that if the transport took a turn, there would be another vigilante right there to pick up its new street. It also allowed them to basically surround the caravan from all sides, be it ahead or behind, to the left or right.
"Then we need to plan how we're going to get those two out," Huntress responded. "We can't keep trailing them forever."
Reaching the edge of the building he was on, Nightwing pulled out his grapple and fired up to the next building, one that was much higher than the one he ran across. He repelled up the structure, reaching the roof in a matter of seconds. Disengaging the grapple claw, he resumed his run.
Huntress was of course right. There was only so much longer any of them could keep this up. Adding to the fact they had all just come out of fighting a swarm of frightened hospital patients, they were already tired. They needed to slow these guys, if not stop them right there on the street.
"Hey guys, I think I might have an idea," Green Arrow said over the comm. "Who's the furthest ahead?"
Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.
That single phrase was on constant loop in Stephanie's head. Here she was, handcuffed inside of a police transport truck and on her way to be booked and thrown in jail. She, Ms. Popular, Ms. Beautiful Teen, Ms...whatever other goddamn title she had, and she was about to have a record.
Mom is so gonna kill me.
That was the worst part. Her mom was going to find out that she had been sneaking out at night to dress up fabulously and beat up bad guys. Her father didn't even factor into the equation since he was always at work, though he would most definitely have something to say about his image taking a hit. It was always the ratings with him.
Still, at least she wasn't alone. To be locked up by herself and be freaking out would've driven her crazy. She was spared that because she hadn't been arrested by herself. Jason was right there with her, scowling as he sat on the opposite side of the truck, slumped against the wall behind him.
Okay, she would've preferred someone other than Jason at that moment since she didn't really get along with the guy. She tolerated him better than the others and he wasn't as harsh with her as he was Nightwing, so they had that going. Harper would've been so much better, though. Hell, she would've taken some time with Red Robin, at least he would've been coming up with a plan to get out of this mess.
But now she was stuck here with the new recruit and he seemed resigned to going to jail like it was another Tuesday night for him. Maybe it was for all she knew.
God this sucked sooooo much.
"This bites," Jason grunted, echoing her thoughts.
"Yeah," she agreed softly.
"I didn't sign up for this," he continued to grumble out loud. "This is complete bullshit."
Stephanie...no, she was Spoiler right now. Having the costume on meant she was Spoiler and not her popular alter-ego. Spoiler didn't bother replying since it was clear the guy was venting. She could get that, but it was doing nothing for her nerves. After they got booked, she'd have a chance to make a phone call and she was not relishing the idea of waking up her mom and asking her if she knew a good lawyer.
"I mean, I get why you're here, but I shouldn't be."
Hold up, what's that supposed to mean?
Spoiler glared at Red Hood. "Uhh, what do you mean by that?"
Hood glanced at her. "Let's face it, you're not the best vigilante here. You're clumsy as hell and it was only a matter of time before you got caught."
Hey, she had been doing this almost as long as Bluebird and certainly longer than Red Hood here, the jerk. So she wasn't as proficient in hand-to-hand combat; none of the others were when they first started. They grew into it just like she was. She was miles ahead of this guy too.
"Well, if I'm so bad at this, what does that say about you," she retorted snidely.
That caused the jerk to glare at her. Ha, she struck a nerve. Served him right. "I'll have you know that I was kicking ass long before I ran into you clowns."
"Yeah, so you've told me...over and over…" she drawled as she adjusted herself on the bench she sat on. "And as me and Nightwing and Bluebird have proven, we're still better than you. I'll admit, you're picking up on this thing fast, but you need to tone down the attitude. It rubs people the wrong way."
"I didn't get into this to make friends, Blondie," he shot back heatedly. "Hell, we make enemies every time we stop a crime. That's how this thing is. Stopping to make sure everyone likes you is asinine. I don't have to be friends with the others. If they can't do the job, then they shouldn't be doing it."
Ugh, asshead. He barely had two months, maybe three, under his belt, but he was talking like he'd been doing this things for years. That just pissed her off.
"How about we both be quiet from here until we reach jail? That sound good?" she suggested sarcastically as she crossed her arms over her chest, absently doing the same with one leg moving to rest over the other. Well, at least she tried to cross her arms, but the handcuffs around her wrists kept them too close for the full effect. "Sounds great to me."
"Hey, don't give me that. You can't say you got into this because of some higher calling bullshit. Everyone of us likes hitting people even if it's just a little bit."
Oh, there's someone I want to hit right now, she groused in her head as she continued to glare with narrow eyes at the boy in front of her. "There's also something called professionalism," she said then. "It includes treating people with respect. Pretty sure you missed that lesson."
"Bitch," Red Hood grumbled to himself.
Thankfully, he went quiet though. Spoiler wasn't sure what she would've done had he kept going; the urge to punch him was growing stronger with every word he had said. That would've undermined her entire professionalism argument and no doubt be another charge added to her looming rap sheet.
Suddenly, there was a vibration, causing the truck to shake. Both of the vigilantes perked their heads up, glancing to the ceiling and turning their heads from side to side. "Did you feel that?" Red Hood asked.
She nodded. "Yeah. Any idea what it is?"
The shaking seemed to get worse before she felt the truck begin to slow down. "A flat tire?" the boy suggested. When the truck came to a stop, their bodies jerking since inertia wanted to keep them moving but found it couldn't. "Probably a flat if they're stopping."
Oh boy, stuck several more minutes with Red Hood. God must've hated her if he was going to force her to spend more time with the twerp. Time seemed to crawl by then, though thankfully her travel buddy seemed content in staying quiet. That was at least a little blessing.
Suddenly, she heard sounds coming from the door. Turning her head to look, she stared for awhile before she noticed the upper part of the door and part of the ceiling raise up. That was when Nightwing came into sight, holding up the upper portion of the door as he looked down on her and Red Hood. "Are you two ready to get out of here?" he asked them.
"Oh hell yes," she stated as she hopped up onto her feet.
"What took you so long?" Red Hood demanded as he stood up too, though slightly less eager as the pink-clad girl.
"Oh, we just wanted you both to sweat it out a little in here," Nightwing told him as he moved one hand to his belt before tossing a set of keys to the floor where they landed by Spoiler's feet. "Think of it as a lesson on why we don't want to get caught by the cops. Now get those handcuffs off. It's time we got out of here."
"What the hell happened here?!"
Petit was pissed. His anger only increased as he took in the scene before him. Multiple flat tires, with arrows—who uses those anyway?—sticking out of the back-trailing squad car and the transport. The squad car in the front also had some flats but right now, it was hard to tell what had caused those.
With both of the squad cars, the windshields were broken, and officers inside unconscious. Someone had found canisters inside, ones that the SWAT commander recognized as having some kind of off-brand knockout gas. Whoever attacked this small convoy had come in prepared.
Outside of flat tires, the transport didn't seem to have much damage to it, not unless you counted the arrows that were pinning the doors shut. There was still a haze in the cab, an obvious sign that the gas in there had yet to dissipate. Once they got the arrows out, they were going to have to let it air out first before they retrieved their boys.
Worst of all, the crooks being transported were gone, and when taking all the evidence together, the answer was obvious as to what had happened. Someone had attacked these officers for the sole purpose of getting those costume-wearing criminals.
Petit was willing to bet he knew who the attackers were—more of these so-called heroes, these law-breaking vigilantes. He wasn't surprised that there were a bunch of them coming out, trying to be like Batman and all. It wasn't the first time that had happened. Most didn't know what the hell they were doing, putting not only themselves, but everyone else around them in danger.
The ones responsible for this weren't any of those morons. Whoever they were, they knew what they were doing. They were organized and better equipped than any of the other wannabes on the street.
Until their brothers in blue came to, they wouldn't be getting any kind of answers, the kind that the GCPD was going to need. However, Petit, while pissed, felt something else in him.
Justification.
This here was an attack on the GCPD by another front—the vigilante front. The Commissioner may have turned a blind eye to the problem before, but here was real ammunition, the kind the cops that had come before, the ones that had wanted to do their jobs and arrest these vigilantes, had never really had.
With the state of the city and the war against Bane, Gordon would have to retaliate somehow. This could not, would not, be ignored and swept under the rug.
Before this was over, Petit swore to himself that even if he had to do it himself, he was going to clean up the mess these vigilantes were making in his city. If he had to hunt them down one by one, he would do it.
All thanks for this gift could be laid at the feet of these criminals and who was he to refuse it?
"Well, that was definitely a close one. Let's not have to do this again," Green Arrow said as the Network gathered around in their Bat-bunker. With Spoiler and Red Hood freed, it was time to make themselves scarce and figure out what the hell had happened.
First thing was first, though.
"Let's get this out of the way; is Strange still alive?" Huntress took over, her eyes trained on Spoiler. Before the cops had come barging in, it was this young girl who was the last one to be near him.
"He was before I got arrested," Spoiler answered. "That heart machine was still beeping and everything and I didn't see any blood anywhere."
A feeling of relief spread over the group. There was the confirmation they needed, another success to notch on their proverbial belt. Despite all the challenges from Hugo Strange and his Monster Man, the Phantasm was now another enemy that they could say they had thwarted.
"Let's not get too far ahead. That guy's still out there and it's only a matter of time until he tries again," Red Robin pointed out, bringing the high mood down a little.
Taking this in stride, Huntress nodded her head. "We're going to need to figure something out about that. There's no way we can watch Strange twenty-four seven and go after Bane's Venom at the same time. Eventually, we're going to slip up and that's all that has to happen. We gotta find where the Phantasm hangs up his cloak and get him before he puts it back on."
"Any ideas on how we can do that?" Manhunter asked, leaning forward in her seat. "It's not like anyone here knows this guy's secret identity."
"Batman probably knew," Nightwing muttered to himself. It would be their luck if that was the case. A real shame that the big daddy of all vigilantes was missing.
"Got a question," Green Arrow spoke up. Continuing before anyone could give him a prompt, "Does a guy in burlap ring any bells to you guys?"
There were frowns all around. "Burlap?" Nightwing found himself asking.
"Back at the hospital, I ran into someone who wore a burlap sack over his head. Or, I think it was a burlap sack. Had stitching on it that made it look like a mask," the Emerald Archer explained. "He jabbed something into my neck and the next thing I know, I'm seeing monsters."
"Wait, you didn't see the Phantasm?" Black Canary half-asked, half-demanded. There was a frown on her face that expressed confusion.
"I was at the museum, so I know what that ghoul looks like," Green Arrow said. "The person that snuck up behind me didn't look a thing like that."
"Did he have, like, needles on his fingers?" Red Hood asked.
"Not sure, but I did get something in my neck," Green Arrow answered, rubbing a hand on the right side of his neck.
"Let me see," the blonde-haired vigilante ordered as she got out of her seat and made her way to the Star City native. Batting away the green-clad vigilante's hands, Black Canary took a look at the bearded man's neck. "There's track marks here."
"Were there four of them?" Red Hood pressed. The younger vigilante had a bit of urgency in his voice, the others were starting to pick up on it.
"What's so important about that?" Bluebird questioned.
"Yeah, there's four," Black Canary confirmed barely a heart beat later.
Huntress was narrowing her eyes. "You seem to know something about this."
"I ran into this guy back in the hospital too. Had what Arrow said over his head, some kind of sack with stitching on it," Red Hood explained. "He also had these...creepy needles on his fingers, kinda like Freddy Kruger, and yeah, he tried to stab me with them. I kicked his ass, but he got away just before the cops showed up."
This wasn't really making any since, at least to Nightwing it didn't. It just sounded too weird, but hey, since this was Gotham, weird was kinda the normal. Was this someone new?
"Did he say anything? Give a name? Anything?" Manhunter questioned, fishing for additional intel.
"He called himself a doctor, though I don't think he was one. He was probably making a joke because we were in a hospital. Um, it began with an S. Like Scar…Scare...I wasn't really paying too much attention because those needles were freaking long, you know?" By then, Red Hood was babbling.
"Real boat load of help that is," Bluebird quipped.
"Like you had it any tougher!" Red Hood retorted.
"Hey Oracle, you make out anything from what Hood said?" Red Robin interrupted, thankfully, to get everything back on track.
"From the bits and pieces, yes," Oracle replied. "And I have something. Tell me, Hood, does Scarecrow ring a bell?"
Red Hood took a moment before answering, "Yeah. Yeah, that sounds about right."
"Then I found something. Real name is Jonathan Crane, and hey, he really is a doctor. He used to work at Gotham University in the Psychology Department, and get this, his area of expertise is fear."
"I can guess where this is going," Green Arrow commented with a grimace.
"According to these records, he was kicked out of the University for ethical violations, in particular how he treated his research participants. He exposed them to a substance he invented that was suppose to bring out their deepest fears and he got more than just that."
"Don't tell me, this Crane guy invented the fear toxin that the Phantasm uses," Nightwing said.
"Oh Christ," someone moaned, but it was hard to tell who.
"He was fired soon after, and then after that he was arrested years ago trying to break into the now closed down Phizer plant just out of town. He was wearing this outfit that makes you think he fell on hard times, but instead of going to prison, he was sent to Arkham."
"And got out when the Joker let everyone loose," Huntress finished. "What are the odds that Crane ran into the Phantasm soon after. If that murderer had run out of fear toxin, going to the guy who knows how to make it would be on the top of their list. Is there anything else you can tell us about Crane?"
"Make sure you're all sitting for this next part. When he was getting his Ph.D., guess who his mentor was." Oracle didn't even wait for anyone to answer her. "Hugo Strange."
"Oh, wow," Nightwing found himself remarking. He didn't think he had been expecting that. But wait… "Wasn't Strange working at Arkham? Like, when Crane got arrested?"
"He was Crane's damn therapist. What are the odds it was from Strange that the False Face Society got their hands on that fear toxin?"
"That's a lovely trip down memory lane, but how does any of this help us?" Huntress asked aloud. "Isn't that fear toxin suppose to be something you breath in? From what Green Arrow said, he was injected with something just like the fear toxin."
"Maybe he's made a new kind?" Spoiler suggested.
"Whether it's new or not, it works," Green Arrow stated. "That is nothing I want to go through again. Though...there are a few people I know who definitely deserve a dose of it."
"If the Phantasm and Crane are working together, then that means Crane must be making more of his fear toxin, so…" Here, Nightwing trailed off. He was on the verge of something, but the information overload here was getting to him.
"He has to have a way to get its ingredients," Black Canary finished for him. "Oracle, can you pull up the formula for this toxin and everything that goes into making it? Cross check that with any shipments coming into Gotham, or any of it that's been stolen in the last few months. If we can find a trail, it'll at least lead us to Crane, and with enough pressure maybe we can get him to give up his partner-in-crime."
"That definitely sounds like a plan," Huntress seconded. "Anybody have a better idea?"
"What about Bane?" Red Hood asked, once again filling his role as a broken record.
"I don't think the plan with him has changed; we keep looking for his Venom, and don't argue with me about it," Huntress stated while tacking on a warning. She even gave the younger male a hard look, challenging him to press his luck. Maybe because it was the events of the night, or he was finally taking a hint, but Red Hood said nothing.
It was still easy to tell that the guy didn't like that answer.
"How long will it be until you find out what we need to know?" Red Robin prompted their resident computer hacker.
"I'll need a couple hours to make sure. In the meantime, you guys can either try to lay low, or go out and see if you can finally find a Venom cache. It's all up to you," Oracle responded.
Personally, Nightwing felt that maybe they should call it a night early, what with fighting off a hospital full of fear-poisoned people and then taking out a police convoy. The cops more than likely were not going to be happy about any of that.
But like Red Hood kept pointing out, Bane was still out there and they did need to find a way to hurt him. This night was starting to look a lot longer than it already felt.
Yet, this is what they were going to have to do if they were to save their city.
The transport truck Spoiler and Red Hood are in is based off of the one from Batman: The Animated Series. Perhaps a good example of it is the episode Zatanna, when Batman breaks Zatanna out of police custody after she was accused of robbing a bank during one of her shows.
To Guest: Thanks! As for Jason's needle fear, that was AV's attempt to develop some of Jason's character. I don't believe he has that fear in the comics.