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Three weeks passed without Batman slowing down the missions before Clark finally talked him into letting the League members get a bit of a break. Mallory had spent a few days with her parents and brother, and then told Clark that he could take a few days off patrolling to take a vacation with Lois. The reporter had helped convince him, and promised to return the favor somehow when they got back. Now, Mallory was flying through Metropolis, looking around. The city had been pretty quiet so far, with all of the big names safely locked up. Still, she kept a sharp eye out, not willing to let her guard down.
She was about to call it quits for the day when she spotted an armored Lexcorp truck leaving one of his warehouses near the docks. 'Huh,' she thought, 'I thought that was just a holding place for overseas shipments.' She landed on a roof and watched the truck's progress. It went to another warehouse, one owned by Wayne Tech, and several men jumped out. She watched as they cracked the code on the door and loaded several crates into the truck, then she followed them as they drove off. They made one more stop at the tech center where several companies, including Lexcorp and Wayne Tech, were showing some of their latest developments, then drove on to the business district. Mallory followed, jumping from one roof to another, only using her fire if she didn't think she could make a jump. It was early evening, so she was confident that any flames would blend in with the setting sun. The truck drove right to Luthor's main office and pulled into the parking garage.
Mallory narrowed her eyes and looked up at the top floor where Lex's office was. She couldn't let him get away with something that so obviously led to him. She knew that Clark would be furious with her, but she shot straight up, going right to his office window anyway. She'd rather ask forgiveness than permission, and he wasn't there to run it by anyway. She hovered outside the window. Luthor was at his desk, someone was in the chair opposite him. The client saw her first and stood, nodding to the window calmly. Luthor spun in his chair and tilted his head when he saw her, her arms crossed, flames surrounding her. He pressed a button on his desk and the windows slid open.
"Well, Inferno, to what do I own this unexpected and unappreciated visit?" he asked calmly.
Mallory waited for the client to shut the office door before coming in and dropping to the ground. She glanced around the office quickly before letting her eyes land on Luthor. "I want the truth. Why are you having your people steal technology across the city?"
Lex cocked an eyebrow. "I'm sorry, I'm not sure I know what you are talking about," he said.
Mallory narrowed her eyes, craning her neck up to be closer to his height. "I'm not in the mood for games, Luthor. The truck had your logo on it, the men had the codes to your buildings, they're in your parking garage right now."
The corners of Lex's mouth twisted up into a smug smile a second before Mercy's boots crashed into Mallory's side, sending the pyrokinetic sprawling across the room. She managed to break her fall by shooting flames out of her hands behind her, stopping herself midair right before she crashed into the side of the shark tank. She clocked the bodyguard, who had her arm opened into the gun, and she shook her head angrily. "You never learn, do you?" she asked.
Mercy started shooting, and Mallory dodged the shots, going over, under, back and forth until she was right in front of the woman. She touched the top of the gun, melting the metal over the opening. The next shot blew up the gun and sent Mercy slamming into the opposite wall. She slumped to the floor, unconscious, and Mallory turned back to Lex.
"Now, answer me."
Lex still looked as calm as ever. "You say that they are in my parking garage right now?" he asked, moving behind his desk.
"That's where I followed them to."
He pulled up the cameras in the parking garage, flipping through the views until he found the van. He wrote down the license plate and ran a search on the laptop next to the computer, and tilted the screen for Inferno to see. "This truck was reported stolen by one of my employees weeks ago," he said. "However, I will send some men to assess the situation."
Mallory nodded and watched the camera screen while Luthor radioed his security team to go check things out. Nothing moved until the team came into view. They moved towards the truck cautiously, their guns aimed, then threw the doors open. The truck was completely empty. Luthor dismissed the team, and Mallory said, "pull up the old footage."
He did as she asked calmly, and rewinding the recording until right before the truck pulled in. There was an unmarked black van next to it, and as soon as the truck pulled to a stop the men jumped out started transferring the stolen goods to the van. They finished the job quickly, got in, and drove away. Luthor followed the footage until they were out of the parking garage, heading for the highway.
"Now, does that conclude our business here? I had nothing to do with this, and it would seem that you have some stolen property of mine to track down," he said, his face smug.
Mallory crossed her arms. "Not quite. Even if you aren't behind it, you know who is."
He tilted his head, leaning back in his seat. "Possibly. But why would I tell you?"
Mallory smiled and leaned closer for emphasis. "Because they're stealing your technology, which, unless you arranged for them to do, is a slap in the face to you and your little organization. And we both know that you can't let that slide, so why wouldn't you take advantage of someone offering her services for free?"
Lex chuckled. "Well, that is an excellent point. You really are smarter than you look. Smarter than the flying fool, too. You remind me of your friend Red Arrow. Tell me, have you heard from him lately? I do hate to lose track of my creations."
Mallory didn't say anything, but her hands tightened into fists at her side and she had to physically stop herself from punching him through the open window.
Lex smiled with satisfaction. "As it turns out, I did recognize one of the men as the right hand of one of my business adversaries. Your culprit is in Gotham. That won't be a problem for you, will it?" he asked, looking at her with mock concern.
She narrowed her eyes. "Just give me the name," she snapped.
Luthor sighed, faking offense. "Very well. His name is Rupert Thorne."
Ten minutes later, Mallory was at the outskirts of Gotham. It was now completely dark. She'd thought about waiting until the next day, Batman didn't like supers in his city at all, much less while he was out, but she'd decided against waiting. She needed to handle this while there was still a chance of getting the tech back. She didn't know a lot about Rupert Thorne, but she did know that his situation was similar to Luthor's, a corrupt billionaire that had hired many people in the past to get rid of Batman, and she knew where his office was. She'd helped Dick watch it once to catch him accepting a payment for smuggled diamonds.
As soon as she got into the city, she saw a robbery in progress. There were three police cars following one blue car with two men with masks inside. The one in the passenger seat stood up through the sunroof and started shooting a machine gun at the cops, who were forced to slow their cars to avoid catching the bullets. Mallory swooped down from the side and grabbed the gun in one hand and the scruff of the criminal's coat with the other and shot straight up. The man yelled in surprise and his partner pulled the car over with a screech of tires and brakes to see what had happened.
"Hey, put me down!" the man yelled when he realized what had happened.
Mallory made a point of looking down at the straight shot to the pavement three hundred feet below. "Is that really what you want?" she asked.
The man made a grab for the gun, and Mallory let it fall. "What do you want? You want to be cut in? We cleared twenty thousand tonight, easy," the man gushed, looking frantically between her and the flashing lights and sirens catching up to the parked car. The partner pulled out, screeching down the road, and Mallory flew in front of it, landing on the road about a mile down. The car didn't slow down at first, and the man Mallory had caught sneered and said, "Sid'll run you to the ground before he'll stop."
Mallory smiled at him. "You'd better hope he stops, or neither of us will need to worry about what we're wearing tomorrow."
The man's eyes widened as he realized his predicament. Mallory didn't give the car any more choice in the matter. She shot flames out of her feet, sending them down the road. They melted the tires and the car skidded to a stop, crashing into a street lamp a few feet away. The cops caught up to them in another second, and she gladly handed over her prisoner, chuckling at the man's complaints that it wasn't fair for some meta to move into Gotham.
She continued her pursuit quickly, not even staying long enough to see if the police were ok. She finally found the building that she was looking for and she landed on a nearby rooftop to check for security and look for the van. She spotted it parked on the street, though the tech had doubtless already been removed. There weren't any guards on the roof or at the windows that she could see, which she thought was strange enough to warrant a little extra caution. At closer inspection, she saw that there were two dark figures on the roof she was watching. The larger of them was holding the other by the throat and getting closer and closer to the edge. She watched carefully, getting ready to jump off herself. A moment later, the larger person pushed the smaller one off the roof.
Mallory heard the terrified screams and jumped off the roof. There was a shot somewhere in the dark that she ignored. She was just about to catch the victim when another figure appeared in front of her, catching him. It was too late for her to stop, so she crashed into the new arrival and the three of them ended up tumbling across the roof across from them.
The first thing she did when she rolled onto her knees and skidded to a stop was look at the top of the roof to see if the would-be murderer was still there. She saw him dart towards the center of the roof, and a sweep of a cape and distinct pointy ears told her that Batman had that covered. She passed up the Robin suit at first, hardly giving the kid a second look as she knelt next to the victim to check for a pulse or injuries. The pulse was strong, and the victim was unconscious.
"What was that?" Robin said behind her.
Mallory stiffened at the male voice and turned to face the kid. "Uh, who are you?" she asked, squinting slightly, trying to understand why there was a stranger there instead of Jessica.
"Robin. Why are you in Gotham? Isn't your territory Metropolis?"
"Uh, yeah, I guess. I have some business with Thorne. Um, what happened to the last Robin? And who are you?"
"Why should I tell you anything?" he asked, crossing his arms.
Mallory sighed and glanced at their victim to make sure that he was still unconscious. He was, but she still dropped her voice to a murmur. "Ok, let's try this another way. I thought Jess was still Bruce's sidekick, so who are you and how long have you been around?"
The new Robin's eyes widened at the names, and he hesitated a moment before saying, "My name's Tim Drake. Batman took me in, but the public doesn't know about me yet." He smiled a little and added, "but how did you know who Batman is, Mallory? Did Clark tell you?"
Mallory eyed him for a moment, then broke into a grin. "Oh, I like you. Nightwing told me his name, and I figured out the rest. How did you know about me and Superman?"
Tim scoffed. "Please, I figured out who Batman is by myself. All I had to do to confirm my suspicions with you two is draw some glasses on Superman and color your hair black."
"How did you know to color my hair?" Mallory asked.
"I know about the School for Paranormals. Nightwing may have covered your tracks with it, but I'm pretty good with a computer."
"Huh," she said.
A thud and a sharp snap of fabric announced Batman's presence, and they turned to face him. He glanced at the still-unconscious man, then Robin, before setting his full attention on Inferno.
"Is he ok?" he asked, nodding to the victim.
Mallory nodded. "Yeah, just passed out," she replied shortly, waiting for him to say what was really on his mind. It didn't take him long.
"What are you doing in my city?" he asked, his gravely monotone making the question sound threatening.
"Rupert Thorne had some of his men steal some tech from Metropolis, two of the big company names being Lexcorp and Wayne Tech," she said, saying the last name pointedly. "I came to Gotham to get the stuff back and maybe pin something on your guy for once. But while I'm here, I have something to ask you. Why do you have another Robin? Doesn't he make it your third one this year? What happened to the last one?"
Batman narrowed his eyes, glaring at her, and he didn't answer. She stared right back at him, in her mind planning out how long it would take her to get to the edge of the roof in case he decided to attack. She was pretty confident that once she was in open air, she would be relatively safe.
After a long period of silence, Bruce said, "I'll find out about the robberies for you and let you know how it turns out by the end of the week. If that's your only business here, you can leave." He turned away from her without another word, going to collect the victim to bring him to the hospital.
Mallory sighed, watching his back as he walked away. When he was out of earshot, she turned to Tim and said, "Be careful, kid. I guess I'll see you around the cave if you decide to join the team." He nodded, and she dove off the roof and flew out of the city. She wasn't familiar with the zeta tube locations in Gotham, and she didn't feel like trying to find one. She zetaed back to the cave from a tube in Metropolis, and as soon as she got out of the shower she called Dick.
"Hey, what's up?" he answered.
"Oh, I don't know, you tell me. I just met Tim," she said.
"Oh, how'd you meet him?" Dick asked calmly.
"Does it matter? Dick, why is there another Robin? What happened to Jess?" she said, her words coming out quickly.
"Relax, Jess is fine, she just went back to being Jett," he replied.
"Why? What happened?" Mallory asked.
"You know she doesn't really get along with Bruce these days. They had another argument, and she just decided that she couldn't do it anymore. Besides, Tim was already around when she decided it, and she figured that it didn't really matter who's in the suit, as long as Batman has a Robin, they're keeping Jason's memory alive."
Mallory sighed. "So, is she still on the team?" she asked.
"No, she never loved it, so she's just gonna go back to running solo. Don't worry about her though. I'll keep an eye on her, and even if Bruce won't admit it, he will too."
"So, is Tim going to join the team?" Mallory asked.
"Yeah, I'm gonna bring him on Thursday. I think he'll be good, he's got a level head, and he knows how to fight."
"Well, is there anything else?" Mallory asked.
"Uh, yeah, actually. I'm also bringing Batgirl to join the team on Thursday."
"Batgirl?" Mallory asked. She'd seen the vigilante on the news, but she hadn't really known that she was a part of the Bat Family until now.
"Yeah, she's kind of an old friend. You'll like her."
Mallory sighed. "Ok, well, I guess I'll see you Thursday," she said.
"I'll see you," he replied, and hung up. Mallory sighed again, looking at the flames on her phone case. Things sure had changed since Dick had made those cases for the team.