Cinder's motorcycle slowed to a halt as he reached the meeting spot. At first he'd been cautious to accept the invite to such a meeting, but the people attending were more than enough security to ensure he'd accept.
That didn't mean he wouldn't bring any extra security, however.
He was starting to embrace the role of 'Cinder', and so he'd gotten himself a disguise to go along with his new self. He wore black combat pants, each pocket strapped with knives and small handguns. He wasn't the best shooter, so he'd taken to using cheap guns that wouldn't sell for much as small grenades. The knives were quite the weapon when heated up as well.
On his upper body he wore a dark red sleeveless compression shirt with a bulletproof vest underneath. His abilities had given him an advantage against anyone opposing him, but 'bulletproof' was no one of those advantages. He'd gotten a face mask as well, it's dark red color hiding the upper half of his face.
Accompanying him were his two bodyguards 'Nail' and 'Hammer'. The two were brothers who'd gotten kicked out of his boxing club for their drug problems. Luckily, Cinder didn't care for things as trivial as that, and their excellent fighting ability made any debate on hiring them crumble.
The two brother's weren't the best with guns, but they weren't the worst either. In a gun fight Cinder didn't know how they'd fare, but in terms of hand-to-hand they were probably the best he knew.
Well, not counting Robin at least.
Meeting at Grant Park were the current kings of the Gotham Underworld. A man named Matches Malone invited them to a meeting to form an alliance. Malone had promised that the alliance would be to combat Batman and his numerous companions, and that the Underworld would once again run unchecked like it were in the past.
Cinder didn't know much about the Underworld's past, nor did he care. He came to this meeting for the opportunities it'd bring. Under this alliance, Cindercorp could grow uninterrupted without having to worry about the capes breathing down his neck. He'd finally been able to do something for himself and take control over his life, and he wasn't letting anything take that away from him.
The money was good as well. He was researching on ways to establish Cindercorp as a legal business to mask his illegal products, but had only been in the planning process until now. Under this alliance he could get help from those more experienced than he was and polish those plans to perfection.
It seemed he was the last one to arrive, the various different bodyguards and mercenaries loitering around Grant Park signaling as such. The leaders were supposed to meet by the lake, where Malone would properly explain his alliance.
The Yakuza, the Five Families, the Lucky Hand Triade, the Ghost Dragons, the Latino United Front, the Escabedo Cartel, and the Burnley Town Missive. Those were all of the gangs and families Cinder had been able to make out from there outfits and the people they surrounded themselves with. The fact that someone had been able to gather this many powerful people made him even more excided. Having someone like Matches Malone on his side would make everything so much smoother.
The leaders of the Underworld sat waiting near the lake for another 10 minutes, and Malone still hadn't appeared. He could tell it was starting to irritate some of the leaders; Abel Crown of the Burnley Town Missive and Manuel Escabedo Cartel being the most irritated.
"Such a waste of fucking time," Escabedo said out of nowhere. "We could have been making money right now. Instead we're sitting around surrounded like people like you."
"The fuck that's supposed to mean?" Crown called out in response. He seemed to wrestle with the idea of saying something else but ended up dropping it. "Whatever, I've got something for this shit." Those words put everyone who heard them on edge, and the fact that Crown was reaching in his pocket for something didn't help. In seconds the awkward silence was replaced by the sound of a gunshot, and Crown's body dropped to the floor, bleeding from the throat.
For a split second time seemed to freeze. Everyone was caught by surprised, but they weren't going to be next in the crossfire. The park erupted in gunshots, everyone scattering for cover. Cinder removed a handgun from his pants, taking a couple of shots of his own as he fled to a nearby car to protect himself. Every gunshot was leaving a heat signature, and the massive amount of signatures scattered seemingly everywhere were starting to mess with his senses.
Cinder let out a grunt and he slammed into the car, quickly hurdling over it and ducking away from the fighting. He'd been training his 'heat sensing' so much that it was starting to become second nature to him, and was on almost all hours of the day. The outburst of gunshots had felt like a sledgehammer being slammed into the insides of his head. It hurt so much he could barely even thing, let alone try to involve himself in the chaos around him.
His hands flew to his head, clutching at the mask covering his face. He let out a rough yell, the pain seemingly increasing out of nowhere. "Are you alright boss?" Someone said. He couldn't tell if it was Nail or Hammer. He didn't care either. Right now, his focus was on fixing himself before his brain turned to mush.
The only way he could think of getting rid of this pain was to get rid of what was causing it, so he started absorbing. He didn't care to try to absorb any specific heat, instead pulling whatever heat he could towards his body. The thumping of his head started to slow, finally allowing him to remove his hands from his head.
They were now a bright orange color, and flakes of burnt fabric rose to the air any time he moved. Bits of the lake closest to him had frozen, their heat viscously sucked away from them. The gunfighting still remained, but this was enough for him to operate at the moment.
He tried to use the car he was behind to lift himself to his feet, only for the metal to bend and melt at his touch. Cinder paid it no mind, slowly rising to his feet and taking the situation in. The previously clear night had been replaced by a thick cloud of smoke, bodies and blood scattered around in the chaos.
A Burnley Town Missive member seemed to see Cinder rise from the car, moving away from his hiding spot and taking aim towards him. Cinder acted quickly, directing heat to the firearm in his hand. The gun exploded like he'd intended to do, but it seemed he'd sent more heat than expected. The thugs clothes burst into flames, screams of pains filling the ears of anyone around. Cinder quickly retracted the heat, but the damage had already been done. In only a few seconds, half of the thug's body had been burnt to a near crisp, the other half disgusting shades of yellow, purple, and black.
Cinder pushed that to the back of his head. What mattered now was getting himself away from the battlefield. His motorcycle was on the other side of the park, so he'd have to hurry to get there before it was riddled with bullet holes.
Cinder took off in a sprint, Nail and Hammer following close enough to not get burned. He'd given anyone who'd raised their weapon towards him the same fate as the Burnley Town Missive member, leaving the flame behind to consume whatever it wanted. Doing as such had seemed to exhaust some of the heat he'd gathered around and inside his body, his arm slowly returning to its regular color after a sixth gun was raised toward him.
Finally he made it to his motorcycle. It was relatively undamaged, seeing as everyone had been near the leader's meeting place when everything started to happen. It had a few scratched obviously from bullets, but nothing to stop it from driving. He hopped onto his motorcycle, discarding the scene behind him and making his way towards the East End as fast as possible. The further away from that mess he was the better. He was sure Batman would be attracted to it soon enough.
/0/
Spoiler stood in awe at the scene before her. Flames danced across any tree they could find, lighting the dark Gotham sky a shade of orange. Hundreds of bodies lie dead on the ground, whether from gunshots, burn wounds, or anything else. She'd seen the few people that'd gotten away leave. She could have chased after them and caught them if she wanted, but she was in too much shock for any of that.
A familiar shadow dropped behind her. It's arms firmly grasped her shoulders, turning her to face it. The Batman stared down on here, visibly filled with rage even behind the mask. "What did you do?" Batman asked, his voice harsher than she'd ever heard it before.
Spoiler struggled to answer. How could she? This was all her fault in the first place. She'd overestimated herself. She thought she'd find Matches Malone in just a few days and carry the plan on, but those days passed quickly and Malone never appeared. Eventually the day of the meeting occurred, and with no Malone to go along with her fake promises this happened.
Spoiler looked up at Batman. "Bruce, I.. I was trying to prove myself. I wanted to show that I had what it took to be with you guys. This wasn't supposed to happen. I just-"
"Go home, Stephanie," Batman spat. "I told you your hotheadedness was a problem, but I never expected it to reach these levels. I thought taking away your role as Robin would cool you down - make you more level headed. I was clearly wrong."
Tears started to form in Spoiler's eyes. She shook her head. She wanted to deny him, to tell him he was wrong, but how could she. She pulled away from Batman, taking one last look at the caped crusader before making her way home. Bruce was right. She wasn't ready for this, not even in the slightest.
/0/
The aftermath of the now dubbed 'War of Grant Park' were the biggest Gotham had seen in decades. For the common people, Grant Park had burnt down. The fires had spread to a few buildings nearby, but were quickly put out before they were able to claim more than a few lives. For the Underworld, however, it was much, much bigger.
Very few made it out of that park, especially after the flames started to spread. Some of the groups there had been entirely wiped out, others losing very important members. From what Cinder knew, Black Mask was the only other leader to make it out of the hell-arena. That left pretty much most of Gotham up for grabs. Everyone in the Underworld was active, from the big shots like Penguin to a random pick-pocketer.
In the 2 weeks since, hundreds of gangs and groups were born, and killed in the rush to gain as much as they could from the situation. Riley had started expanding much faster than he was previously. The burnt remains of Grant Park had become a big spot, and Riley wasted no time establishing himself there. He'd given up most of his territory in the East End, instead controlling a majority of the eastern portion of The Hill.
That positioning put him closer to Little Italy and the Five Families, but that didn't matter at the moment. The Families were hit much harder than Cindercorp. They'd have a lot of rebuilding to do before they came knocking at his door.
Riley also started taking action of his legal mask. He'd gotten hired by an old lady who owned a bouquet. The money he'd get from his legal job wouldn't match even a 10th of the money he was receiving from Cindercorp, but that didn't matter. Ms. Greenburg, the owner of the bouquet, didn't have any living relatives nor did she have any other employees working the shop. It didn't take much to earn the old woman's trust.
Disguised as a nature-loving teen who'd gotten kicked out of school because of his tendency to get into fights wasn't an easy role for Riley to play. It wasn't that much different from his actual backstory, so it made it all the easier. Riley spent a good portion of his day hours at the bouquet. He'd been Ms. Greenburg's first friend in a very long time, which is why it was completely believable that the bouquet found its way into Riley's hands once Ms. Greenburg grew very sick.
The woman suffering from heat strokes this late into the year would definitely raise a few eyes, but none could point any fingers at Riley. After the old woman's passing, Greenburg Garden was in the sole possession of Riley Faris.
Riley would leave it as a bouquet for the moment. Completely changing the store's products would ruin his story. That didn't stop him from using the bouquet as both a storage house and a meeting point for buyers, however.
The current city-wide war happening in Gotham allowed Cindercorp to expand the diversity of their products. It didn't take much to hit the drug stashes of most of the gangs nearby, as well as the illegal vehicles some owned as well. Cindercorp had expanded their repertoire past just guns, and was now a distributor of all things illegal.
It was safe to say that the decision brought in a lot more money.
Riley sat in his apartment, counting all the money he'd made from the night before. In the end it totaled 50 thousand, the most he'd ever made in a singular night. With Greenburg Garden as a valid laundering spot, he'd actually get to use some of this money too.
He wondered what to buy first. Maybe a new car? Although, he was starting to grow fond of his motorcycle. Perhaps a new house, one closer to The Hill. The homes located there weren't that expensive, but he'd wanted to keep his resting place away from his growing empire for as long as he could.
In the end, he'd just sit on it. When he had a reason to spend his money he would, but until then it'd continue to grow in his pocket. For the first time in his life, things were looking up. He'd make sure not to take the moment for granted.
Shortest chapter so far, I had a bit of a block writing this.
Hope you enjoyed the read!
Sincerely, Six.