Bruce looked at the four caped figures before him. Tim, Barbara, and Orpheus already knew the lengths of what was happening around Gotham City, but it'd gotten to the point where he'd needed to call Dick in. His three protégé stood in front of him, all clad in their personal personas. It was sights like these that made him remember Jason. The boy would've been turning 18 soon.

Nightwing slightly nodded his head as Batman reached the end of his debrief. "Wow, Bruce. I didn't think you'd ever let Gotham get like this." Batman didn't react. His anger towards Stephanie had dissipated near minutes after his confrontation with her. He wouldn't hold a grudge on something that he himself also took blame in. In the end she was trying to help like all the other protégés he'd trained. He'd take their failures as his own.

The criminals of Gotham would not get the same attitude.

"Barbara, I want you to focus on Burnley. The fall of Burnley Town Missive shattered the area, there won't be any centralized powers there for a while. You are to make sure that while lasts a lot longer," Batman said, addressing the girl clad in black and yellow.

"Tim, your focus is Chinatown. The Yakuza were better organized than most of the groups hit. They'll be weaker than before, but they'll still have more numbers than most of the groups in the area. Smother them out and then your role is the same as Barbara's."

"Orpheus, your focus is The Hill. Your Hill Gang has been able to keep the local rowdiness in the area down, but that doesn't apply now. Cindercorp was the most undamaged from the fights at Grant Park. They might have even grown stronger since then. Your goal is to try to establish a positive relation between your gang and theirs. We don't know much about them, so you are to act as a scout unless you are able to reprehend their leader.'

"Dick, you have the East End. Black Mask is growing in power by the day. We cannot allow him to gain a monopoly of the underworld."

"Well what about you?" Orpheus butted in.

"Two Face has decided now was the time to pop his head out again." Batman said coldly. Nobody else questioned their role afterwards. There was a small window of silence between the caped crusades of Gotham City. The heroes looked among themselves, mentally preparing themselves for an inevitably long night. The silence only lasted a few seconds, and the protectors of Gotham were out into the night.

/0/

Cinder looked at man in front of him. He'd long taken to wearing his Cinder attire during the darker hours, so his identity wasn't capitalized when the sudden figure appeared at the entrance to his main base of operations. It was still early into the night, so Greenburg Garden wasn't at it's peak for costumers. Still, he could have made this new appearance out from a crowd easily. Not many people walked around in an all black attire and a helmet as futuristic as the one the figure was wearing.

His time spent in the Underworld of Gotham has taught him to strike first and ask questions later, especially when you ran into someone dressed the way he was. Whether they were some psycho or a cape, it was best to ensure one's personal safety when encountering someone with such a unique look. Cinder noted the hypocrisy in his rule. He guessed he fit into the former category now.

Cinder quickly grabbed the handgun sitting next to him, letting off a few shots aimed towards the mysterious figure. It ducked behind one of the shelves, and the few people who had inhabited the shop quickly scattered their way out.

Good. He didn't want to kill any potential customers.

Cinder threw the handgun towards where figure had ducked off, detonating it when its fall was above the shelf. The figure quickly scattered away to another hiding spot, protecting its body form the small blast. Cinder rushed towards its location keen on initiating close combat. He'd grown proud of the way his fighting skills had grown, and if push came to shove he'd have plenty of options to return the fight into a distance battle.

The figure rolled away from the stomp aiming for its head, grabbing Cinder's leg and bringing him to the ground. Cinder quickly but his guard up, blocking the two jabs aiming towards his face. The blows made his arms ache, which definitely meant this was a cape.

Cinder kicked his leg to the side, causing the shelf station there to tip towards the figure. The figure moved to dodge, allowing Cinder to grab onto the bottom of it's long costume and pull. He didn't expect to pull the figure down to the ground with him, but the slight tug allowed him to get clipped by the shelf. Of course Cinder, who was directly under him, suffered more than just a clip.

Potted plants clashed into him, breaking to reveal the firearms hidden in their pots. Cinder grabbed the nearest one and shot toward where the figure had previously been before lifting the shelf off of himself. The figure was nowhere to be found, keen to use its stealth as most Gotham City heroes did.

Unfortunately, that wouldn't work on him.

He felt his heat immediately, firing his gun towards where he'd been hiding behind and assortment of boxes. The figure quickly abandoned stealth, rushing forward with its fist raised. It was fast, so the attack was able to get through his guard. Cinder's arms locked around the extended fist of the figure that had just made contact with his face. He gathered up as much heat as he could, aiming to burn through his attackers protective armor.

The figure didn't give him much time, quickly following his first attack with as gut punch and a kick to the knee that made him buckle. Cinder quickly straightened himself, but his opponent got in two more good hits in that same time. Cinder directed heat towards the broken pot near the figure's feet, causing the hidden handgun to explode. The surprise and sudden attack on his legs allowed Cinder to collect himself, smashing another vase as pulling out the weapon inside.

He didn't shoot it this time, instead detonating it right in front of the figure's helmet. The helmet was made of durable material, as he wasn't killed or even knocked out from the blast. He was stunned however, which allowed Cinder to hit it with two 1000° fist to its exposed lower face. The figure howled in pain, and Cinder would capitalize on it's even more stunned state.

With a bit of skilled from when he'd played soccer as a child, Cinder kicked a gun laying on the ground into his hands. He pressed the gun inside the howling figure's mouth before it could compose himself.

*BANG*

The sound of the body thudding to the ground was music to his ears. Cinder was ecstatic. This was the first cape he'd ever beaten. He was sure he'd only won because of the place they'd fought in, but he didn't care. That should teach anyone who'd hoped to attack him at his base of operations a lesson.

The removed the helmet from his dead opponent's head, revealing the shocked face of a black man. Cinder shook his head. He'd hope this figure would get him a clue of the identities of the known names in Gotham. It was public news that Batman didn't like other heroes in his city, so this man had to have his permission to be here.

The now dead man didn't help him one bit. He had no idea who this man was. He'd taken a couple of pictures just in case he was someone big that he didn't know of, and filed that up for later research.

He quickly discarded the man of his gear, leaving only the naked, dead body. He didn't like the way the gear looked, and it didn't fit into the 'Cinder' persona, so he wouldn't be claiming it for himself. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable with the stuff showed up and bought it from him. Until then, it'd sit with the rest of the merchandise.

Cinder carried the body towards the more open back room and covered it in gasoline. He directed the heat to the body, causing it to erupt in flames. This took a lot less time than carrying the body to a body of water did, and his ability made it so the fire never grew out of control. After a minute or so, the only thing that was left were ashes. He shrugged to himself. He must have directed more heat than he'd intended. He swept the ashes and charred floor up and discarded it into the dumpster.

Finally, after the body had been properly disposed-of a smile grew on his face. He'd been excited when he first killed the hero, but his body quickly went into clean-up-mode. It'd become second nature for the amount of unruly customers and gang members he'd had to put down.

He was making huge strides. Just a year ago he'd have probably fainted the second the figure showed itself, and spent the rest of his life imprisoned because of it. He'd promised himself that he'd never go to jail when he first joined the crime industry and his promise was still being held up to this day.

Who would have known that he'd be able to actually have some sort of influence on his he did or not.

Riley didn't let it get to his head. He wasn't going to go out and call for Batman's head now, as his first victory was against someone he hadn't even known the name of. The man was an adult, so he was probably not one of Batman's underlings.

Still, he was in Gotham City so that meant he had some sort of connection to Batman. He'd have to be more careful now, unless he'd wanted to face The Bat himself.

/0/

The days had begun to blur together for Stephanie Brown ever since her conversation with Batman. She didn't realize has integrated her crime-fighting activities were to her life until they were gone. For the first few days she'd stay awake a night, just to watch the stars. Eventually she fixed her sleeping schedule. There was no point in being up so late if she wasn't doing anything.

She wanted to go out there. She wanted to don a mask, whether it was Spoiler, Robin, or some new persona. She'd seen the look on Tim's face at school. The constant action seemed to drain him even more than his work with the Titans did. She imagined Barbara was just as exhausted.

She wanted to go out and help, but she couldn't shake the fear that she would do the opposite. She was the cause of what happened at Grant Park. Not the Yakuza or the Five Families. The Riddler wasn't the reason that Gotham was in its current state. Not even the Joker was. The reason everything was happening as it were was because of her, Stephanie Brown.

The hunger to go out there and help gnawed at her every day, but the fear that she'd just make things worse easily overpowered it. And so she didn't. Almost a month had passed since she'd given up her crime fighting ways. She hadn't talked to Tim since. How could she? She was the reason he was so stressed recently. He probably couldn't even go off and be with his Titan friends because of the mess she made.

The constant battle inside of her head was starting to get to her. She barely interacted with anyone anymore. She didn't pick up any new hobbies, or even get a job. She just existed.

Stephanie liked to suffer by herself. She didn't want to get anyone else involved in her pain, and so she suffered alone. Her need to do it her way had gotten her into this situation. She guessed old habits died hard.

That was why she was currently in the library. The library was usually empty, especially on Saturdays. People had better things to do with there life and it was only September so the influx of studying students hadn't yet arrived. Stephanie decided this was the best place to spend her time, which she had a lot of now.

Her safe-haven wasn't so safe today, though. Jenny, the librarian, rarely saw people these days so she'd left the library to her. Stephanie had protested at first, but after the first weekend of no-visitors, she'd settled in. The usually quiet space of the library wasn't so quiet today, however.

A teen boy sat at one of the computers, typing loudly. Stephanie found it hard to concentrate on her book. Not like she was reading it, she'd only come here to be alone with her thoughts.

Finally she had enough and turned towards the boy. "Hey!" she spat, causing the boy to turn. He looked to be about her age. He had fair skin and wavy brown hair that stopped just before his shoulders. The thing that stood out the most were his eyes, which were an orangish-red color.

"Can you please quiet down, I'm trying to read here." The boy kept looking at her for a few seconds before shrugging.

"Hmm, okay," he said. For a second he looked like he wasn't going to listen, but he figured it wasn't that important. "Who are you? There usually isn't anybody else at the library."

Stephanie rose her eyebrow. She was here almost everyday and she'd never seen the boy. "I should be saying the same thing. I haven't ever seen you, and I'm here everyday."

"I'm usually here during school hours, and I've been more busy lately so I haven't visited as often," the boy paused, seemingly considering something before blurting it out. "My name's Riley by the way. What's yours?"

"Stephanie," the blonde said. "And why do you care anyway? You didn't seem interested in me before I said something."

Riley shrugged again. "I've been needing some more age-appropriate friends. My life has been going so great recently and it was the only thing I lack."

Stephanie's eyebrows rose again. Had he been living under a rock? How could anyone be happy with what was happening in the city currently. "Quite the opposite for me. You wouldn't want me as a friend anyways. I tend to bring more harm than I do good." This caused Riley to completely change the position of the chair he was sitting in to face her.

"What king of harm?" He said. Stephanie thought he was joking at first, but the brunette seemed serious. "Is it 'steal my best friends boyfriend' harm or 'Murphy's Law' harm?"

Stephanie was very confused. "Neither of those." The boy just simply nodded.

"Maybe you do the same kind of harm that I do. Is it 'rob someone for all they own' harm or 'Crime Alley drug dealer' harm. Or maybe I need to take it more literally. Do you kill people, Stephanie?"

Stephanie's eyes shot open in shock before it all donned on her. This boy was a criminal. How else would he be enjoying the state that Gotham was currently in.

"You're a criminal." She spat. For the first time since her conversation with Bruce, her hunger to do the right thing was beating out her self-pity. She didn't know what it was about this boy, but right now she wanted to hand him to the authorities.

Riley seemed oblivious to this though, isn't he nodded his head like he did to everything else she said. "Look at the times. How else are you supposed to live freely? If you aren't one right now, you should really become one. The streets are a little hot right now, but I know a guy who could show you the ropes. He'd never turn away a face like yours. The capes have their hands full too."

Stephanie had enough. She didn't have her suit right now, but that didn't matter. Robin and Spoiler didn't need to make an appearance right now. Maybe taking down this criminal as Stephanie would help bring back her passion.

The quickly rose from he seat and threw a kick towards the boy. Much to her surprise, he'd actually dodged it. "Woah it was just a joke," the boy said. It was clear he wasn't taking her seriously. "See, you really do have the heart to be a criminal." Just based off that kick he could tell she was more skilled than the average thug he'd fight.

Stephanie didn't fall for his taunts, instead pivoting into a roundhouse kick. The boy ducked under, her colliding with the bookcase and causing her to slightly use balance. It had only been four weeks and she was already rusty. That wasn't helping her spirit.

Riley, now noticing that he wasn't being attacked for his previous joke, had finally made an attempt to strike back. "Don't tell me you're a hero or something? I hope you know you've gotta check in with Batman before you put on the costume."

That was the first thing the boy said that actually made her mad. She easily swiped away the right hook aiming for her ribs, retaliating with a quick jab to the side. The boy grunted a little, surprised in the amount of power put into the punch.

Riley was starting to catch on. Stephanie wasn't trying to become a cape. She already was one. The fact that she was a woman and around his name deduced her down to one in three people. Just his luck to run into another hero so soon after his first win. He'd been so happy to beat the first one, and they'd been nameless.

Riley dodged away from the strike aiming for his knee, kicking out his longer legs while he did so. He managed to clip her side. He'd grabbed a book off the shelf and hurled it towards her. He couldn't use his powers willy-nilly because it was day and he wasn't wearing his Cinder attire. Cops would be here in seconds. If she really was a cape he'd have to be cautious.

The blonde effortlessly blocked the book thrown at her, rushing in to meet her foe once more. He dodged the two quick strikes aimed for his head, but failed to see her leg rise up to meet his mid section. He double over her extended foot, allowing her to deliver and elbow that brought him to the ground. He tried to sweep out her feet but she easily jumped over it, landing on his already exposed back in the process.

Riley let out a groan as the weight of his attacker fell onto him. He quickly grabbed her ankle, directing as much heat as he could to his palm. Stephanie's eyes shot open at the sudden burning of her skin. She delivered a swift kick to the back of his head before jumping backwards.

Riley's head bounced off the floor. He was thankful the library invested in carpets, but it still hurt. Still, he couldn't stay down. He used the moment of confusion to rise to his feet, starring down his blonde attacker.

"You're too good to be an amateur," he spoke, catching Stephanie off guard. "Which one are you, Batgirl or the girl Robin? Or maybe you're that Spoiler chick who showed up a while back."

Stephanie didn't let his words effect her. "Why would I tell a criminal." Besides, she was starting to deduce who her brown-haired opponent was. "Especially one like you, Cinder."

Riley didn't hide the shock as well as Stephanie. After just a second of using his powers, she'd already deduced who he was. He'd probably have to be Cinder full time now. And get a new house.

Riley put his hands up as if he were going to surrender. "I'm just going to assume you're Spoiler. Don't want you having a one-up on me."

Stephanie didn't display that he'd guess right. He had a 66% to get it right anyways. "I'm going to have a one-up on you once you're in jail, Cinder."

Riley shook his head. He was just starting to enjoy his life, he wouldn't let his freedom get taken so soon after. "I thought you'd make a good first friend. Imagine that, Cinder and Spoiler being friends. Where did you go, by the way? You'd think with what's happening Batman would be called for all the hands he could get. What, did you guys fall out or something?"

Stephanie hadn't been able to hide her expression as well this time. Riley surely caught on to it. "What does it matter to you, Cinder?" She spat.

Riley nodded, just like he did when they were talking regularly. "So I'm guessing you aren't on the best terms. Since that's the case do you mind telling me who Batman is? Would help my research a lot." Riley was keen on turning Cindercorp into a distributor of everything, information as well. Selling Batman's secret would probably make him more than all of his other merchandise combined. Batman did have a lot of fanatic fans in the Underworld that'd pay a good price for it.

Stephanie didn't answer, but he didn't expect her too. He was just testing the waters. "We've been standing here for quite a bit, and you haven't attacked me. Have you started to consider my offer to be friends?"

The only reason she hadn't attacked was because she didn't have her suit to protect her from the burns. She didn't know the full extent to his abilities, so she'd wait it out. "I'll never be friends with you, Cinder. The only friend you'll have are the prison cells in Blackgate."

"I'm not asking for friends for Cinder, Stephanie," Stephanie was surprised he'd used her name. "I'm looking for friends for Riley. It'd help to have a few alibies in case I fell into the hot seat. Not that it'd hurt me."

"Like I said, I'd never be friends with a villain like you-"

"Can you stop with the hero villain thing? We both know that Batman fired you, and the fact that none of my guys have reported seeing you in so long means you weren't planning on getting back in the business."

"That's where you're wrong, Cinder. You were just the wake-up call I needed."

Riley nodded again. "Well how about this. No heroes come to Gotham without Batman's say so. If you two already have beef I'd doubt he'd let you slide. Honestly, I hope he'd beat you like he would the rest of us, but that probably wouldn't happen. We can make a deal. I value my freedom a lot, and you value being a hero. So, in exchange for my freedom (and my friendship) I'll help you get back at Batman. Or get back on his radar. Or whatever you have to do to be a hero again."

Stephanie considered the words he was saying. "And how would you do that? I'm sure handing you in would get me back on his radar just fine."

Riley shook his head. "There's a bigger fish. He's been getting too strong too fast and I'm scared he'll come after me before I'm ready. Trust me, I gain just as much out of this as you do."

"And who would this 'bigger fish' be?"

"Well none other than Black Mask himself. The biggest fish there could be."

Stephanie paused. "Fine, I agree. But know that you're next on my chopping block after this."

Riley smiled and extended a hand. "Wouldn't have it any other way."

Stephanie walked up to the brunette and shook his hand. It was an unlikely alliance, but it'll do for now. That same fire that had gotten her into this miss had appeared. She'd prove herself no matter what, and this time she wouldn't mess up.

I'm really liking how this chapter and this arc in general is turning out. This was my most action-heavy chapter, but even then it wasn't much.

Hope you enjoyed the read!

Sincerely, Six.