Glimpses of Nostalgia

Night eventually gave way to dawn, the rays of the sun pouring over the horizon. Gotham's skyline slowly began to appear, the buildings a mass of uneven black blocks. As morning took hold, the features of the buildings began to appear.

Bare feet slapped down on the floor as Bruce lumbered out of his bedroom and into the main room. His pajama bottoms covered his lower half, an open robe his upper, leaving his chest bare. The usual aches and pains wracked his body, but they were slowly receding as he moved. He had done some light stretches getting out of bed already, though more was soon to come.

Venturing into the kitchen area, he found Cassandra sitting on one of the bar chairs, a glass of juice in front of her, a spoon in hand that fed her cereal from a bowl. Her dark hair hadn't been combed as random ends stuck out. She glanced at him once, then returned her attention to her breakfast.

"How was last night?" Bruce grunted as he made a beeline for the coffee maker. There was a fresh pot already brewed, the coffee maker having been prepped and activated on a timer. He opened a cabinet door and pulled out a mug.

"Like yours, I guess," she grunted back. If it weren't for her voice being a few octaves higher than his, she would have sounded just like him. "Those monsters are getting worse."

Bruce grimaced as he set his mug down, closing the cabinet door. He picked up the coffee pot and began to pour himself a cup. He had his back to her, so she couldn't see his face at that moment. "Yes, they are. How did you handle yourself?"

"I'm still alive. So is the Batclan."

So it was that way, huh? He put the pot back onto the hot plate. Turning around, he took a sip of his black coffee. "Found any way to destroy them?"

Cassandra finished munching on her bite of cereal before she answered. "Not really, unless there are more antennas we can drop on them."

Bruce snorted. With the trajectory they were going, tonight promised bigger, stronger, and more numerous monsters. That simply couldn't happen. His confrontation with Crane had been less than promising, but he felt it was the right direction. What he needed was more proof; something he could present that Crane couldn't dance around. At the very least, he could shove his head in the toilet again, with or without the electrical wiring.

"I'm sure you know I prefer that you didn't engage these constructs," the dark-haired man said then.

Cassandra's dark eyes flickered over to him. "Constructs?" she questioned.

"From what I've been able to find out, they're manifestations of a meta's powers due to fear. It's why they don't bleed when injured."

"I see. Who did you find this out from?"

"Red Robin and his team. They're in town at the moment."

She nodded. "I know. They found my base."

This caused Bruce to raise an eyebrow. "Oh? How did they manage that?"

"They were looking for unusual power surges, ones in places there shouldn't be, or so they said. They must have detected the generator powering the base and went to check it out."

Hmm, there was a logic to it. No doubt they had been looking for places where such power demand shouldn't have been warranted. It made sense if the person that had kidnapped Raven were hiding out in an abandoned building. It seemed he needed to address that so the Batclan didn't have any more unwelcome visitors.

"I'll see what I can do to reroute those power readings so it doesn't happen again," he told his daughter. A moment passed. "What happened when they found your base?" he couldn't help but ask.

"I tested them. They failed."

A smirk appeared on his face. "That's my girl."

A small smile appeared on Cassandra's face in response.

"Father!" a voice bellowed.

Her smile dropped. "I think someone wants you," she deadpanned.

An instant later, Damian stormed into the kitchen. He was tying a knot in the sash of his robe, closing it around his small frame. "We have matters to discuss."

"Lower your voice, Damian, and we will," Bruce returned evenly, taking another sip from his coffee.

"What is the meaning of the harlot, Father?" the boy demanded.

Bruce raised an eyebrow while Cassandra scowled. "Don't make me hit you again," she growled.

Damian turned his glare onto the girl. "I wasn't talking about you, woman. I was talking about the one in the news."

The news? "I'm not sure who you're talking about," he said.

That's when Damian fished his phone out of his robe pocket. He turned on the screen and held it up to him. "This one."

Bruce reached for the phone and took it from his son's hand. On it was a picture of him with Selina Kyle during their lunch. "That was a business meeting, Damian," he responded after a few moments. "Why do you ask?"

"You look too chummy for a 'business meeting,'" the dark-haired boy retorted. "What was this about and why wasn't it with my mother?"

"Well, I'm done," Cassandra announced as she stood up from the bar chair, pushing it back with legs as she stood up. "I'm heading out. Bye."

Bruce watched the girl withdraw; how strategic of her. That just left him with a fuming Damian. "I'm failing to see how this is 'chummy.'"

The boy snatched his phone out of the older man's hand, dragging his thumb across the screen a few times. Then he shoved the phone back, this time an image of Selina with her hand on his arm. "Then what do you call this?"

"A woman touching me."

"A woman that should be my mother!"

Oh boy. Bruce was starting to envy Cassandra's hasty retreat. If only he could do the same thing.


The morning sun seemed too bright. It stung more than it prodded, a gentle push to get you motivated to take on the day that it clearly wasn't. What was worse, it was a weekend too.

Not to mention the Teen Titans were still in Gotham post Batman scolding. The big man was taking charge himself, and still no one had any idea as to where Raven was being kept. Cyborg might be able to figure it out, and the large Titan was still hard at work on it. If his body wasn't majority mechanical, there might have been some worry about his back due to the hunched posture he had assumed, eyes on his lower left arm.

For the first time since they had arrived in the city, the Titans were assembled and staying in one spot, waiting. Batman had told them to get some rest, after all. Standing in plain view of the rising sun, Starfire sought out the warmth from the star, though how much of the ultraviolet radiation she was absorbing was anyone's guess. Camping in the car was Beast Boy who was stretched out on the backseat and audibly snoring. Kid Flash had taken to laying against the T-car itself, legs stretched and spread wide open, eyes droopy.

Red Robin also sat on the pavement, though his back was against the barrier-like perimeter that kept people from accidentally driving off the parking garage and falling several stories to the street below. Beside him was Wonder Girl, quiet, arms crossed, but her breathing was even meaning she was taking the chance to get some rest.

The exhaustion had finally hit them, as if Batman's own words had torn down the floodgates and allowed fatigue to set in. Two days and three nights, searching nonstop and in shifts, and still…

The teen vigilante's body felt so heavy right now, both from how tired he felt and…and some of it had to do from Batman's own words. Hard choices… Responsibility…

Burden.

Would things have been different if he had been there and not in Mexico trying to uncover the H.I.V.E. link there? Would Raven still be with them, making this trip to Gotham unnecessary? Would there have been a need for all the things that had gone down with breaking up that trafficking network that had touched all their lives in one form or another?

He was leader by default, but even that meant he was still the leader of this team. None of the others were stepping up unless circumstances demanded it. Cyborg followed unless he wasn't there, slipping into the role easily. Starfire's path would demand she become one. The rest didn't want it for one reason or another, and what would happen on the day they had to?

The exhaustion made it easy to ruminate, to focus on Batman's words, and then compare to every single damn mistake that had happened.

Comparisons would have to wait when Cyborg suddenly said, "I got her."

Anyone that was still awake jumped where they sat or stood. Only Beast Boy had to be woken up, and that had been a slight fight until Wonder Girl physically pulled the shapeshifter out of the car. Eventually, they all gathered, circling Cyborg who stood up, his back to the car.

Holding his lower left arm out to Red Robin, the masked teen took a look at the uncovered panel, taking in the map on display from the visible screen. "I narrowed it all the way down to that spot. She's within two hundred feet, all in that circle right there." The circle in question was large, white in color, and it settled on one point in the map. This…this was great.

The map itself was satellite imagery, all top and down. He could see a lot of green, a park perhaps? Last he had been updated, Cyborg had been tracing Raven's returning powers to the northwest. Was there a park in that direction? Definitely not Robinson.

There was a large building complex, though; however, the circle did not cover any of it. That wasn't making a lot of sense, though. It placed the circle itself over a lot of greenery.

"What else can you tell us?" he asked, not needing to look at how the rest of the team was starting to get a second wind. Energy was coming back into their young bodies, eager to save their missing teammate.

"Well, it's not really in the city proper," the cyborg answered, and that got Red Robin's attention. A lot of green, not quite in the city, a large building complex, and it's to the northwest… "It's nowhere where we thought it was going to be, and much of the electrical usage is being covered up by that big building right there. Masks it. Like, it's tapping into the electrical grid through that building."

Which of course meant it wouldn't have caught their suspicions before. Pieces were being put together, and he was not liking the picture he was getting.

"You're the guy who knows this place better than the rest of us," Beast Boy piped up. "You got any ideas of what this place is?"

Hanging on to the last bit of hope he might have, "You know what the nearest road is? Where this building is?" he asked, hoping that his voice didn't come out raspy.

When Cyborg told him, that all but sealed it.

Putting a hand to his face, fingers covering his eyes, he told the others. "That's Arkham."

Starfire and Kid Flash had no visible reactions; the name meant nothing to them. Wonder Girl was sending him a look, but because he was covering his eyes, he didn't quite see what expression she was giving him; let's just say he could feel her eyes on him and that was why he knew she was looking at him. Beast—

"Wait, Arkham?!" Beast Boy exclaimed, his voice going up an octave. Maybe there was an actual voice crack to help with the pitch. "The full of the worst of the worst, nightmare-inducing, give up hope all ye who enter Arkham? That Arkham?"

No one could say Beast Boy didn't know how to be dramatic. Maybe he should reconsider acting.

"The A-listers who Batman rumbles with are kept there. All the crazy ones," Cyborg confirmed grimacing.

Tell him about it. People were going to hate what he was going to say next.

"We can't go in there. I'm giving Batman a call," he said, pressing his fingers harder against his face.

"What? Why not?!" Kid Flash exclaimed, zipping from his spot in the circle to stand next to the masked teen. "We know where she is! We got powers! What's the worst that can happen!?"

Red Robin pulled his hand away from his face to regard the speedster, the teen from the future's arms held out and away from his lithe runner's body. Eyes were wide and questioning, unable to understand why the team leader had said what he said.

"Kid Flash is right about that part," Cyborg said, looking like he said something sour. "We're not exactly powerless. We can take care of ourselves."

Red Robin turned his attention to the cybernetic teen first. "Remember those headbands I had you make? The ones you made before we went to Colorado? You know who made those headbands? He's held in Arkham right now. Tech genius, like Gizmo; what would he do to you if he got his hands on you?"

There was a frown, soon followed by Cyborg's human eye widening, expressing the horror he felt. Yeah, that's what he figured. "You mean…you had me build something an insane asylum patient came up with?"

"The guy figured out mind control. Portable mind control. Last I heard, they don't let him get anywhere near a cell phone. Apparently he can recreate his device with two phones and an old radio." Oracle had let that slip out after the whole supervillain war that had broken out.

"But aren't they all locked up?" Kid Flash asked. "They'd have to get out of their cells or whatever first!"

"There's been at least two breakouts in the last five years. The Joker was said to walk those halls without setting off any alarms. People who give Batman a challenge are all held there, and are starting to give the place this reputation of being a revolving door. That there hasn't been a riot yet is a miracle, and that's not even the worst. No, we're good, but we're not good enough for what's in there. We're not going in."

With how spooked Cyborg and Beast Boy looked, there wasn't going to be any immediate arguments from them, but give them an hour, think about Raven's plight, and they'll start coming up with them. Kid Flash looked a little disturbed, but he would be coming up with his next point any second now. Wonder Girl was keeping quiet, but the way she was eying him…

"Is there something you are not mentioning?" Starfire asked, expressing concern not to the situation, but to him. Green eyes looked him over, the Tamaranean not holding back and wearing her feelings on her sleeve. "You appear very stressed, my friend. There is something you are not saying."

Now that got everyone else's attention, and he was the center of it all. Red Robin hadn't noticed, but his arms, at his side, were tense, hands balled into fists. They were starting to tremble slightly from the pressure he was exerting.

Then Wonder Girl took a step forward. "There's someone in there, isn't there? Someone you're scared of."

Of course he was scared. He could feel the fear welling in him. Didn't need a fear toxin to recognize that. His breathing was a little shallower, coming and going quicker and quicker. Damn it, he needed to keep his head cool.

"Will you not tell us?" Starfire asked, keeping up the double team unwittingly. "Will you not share with us your pain?"

The teen vigilante was unable to help it; his gaze was captured by the alien's expressive ones. Hell, who could resist Kori? The big, maternal sister that everyone would want, who if you had her trust, you had someone backing you up for life against the world itself. You had to be a monster, like Blackfire, to feel nothing.

He cracked.

"It was years ago. There was a police convoy; they were transporting a mob boss." Down went his eyes, and his gaze was now on the Tamaranean's purple boots. "The new big bad at the time, Harvey Dent, calling himself Two-Face, was dead set on getting his hands on that mob boss. On Reagan, he attacked the convoy. It was bad, violent, so of course it was exciting. My old partner, Nightwing, both of us tried to protect it. I jumped onto the transport van with the mob boss, making sure no one got too close to it.

"When the van turned off Reagan, and no one chased after, I felt relief. The driver was going to sneak out, Two-Face would be distracted by the rest of the convoy, we'd get to where we were going, and it would be a job well done. Except, Two-Face got one of his goons to be the driver, and he stopped the van, I got dragged off and beaten up. Then I get taken to Two-Face's hideout."

You'd think someone would interrupt by now, but no one had. Even someone with questions like Kid Flash, or any potential geeking out from Beast Boy or Cyborg, they were keeping quiet, letting him talk. Wonder Girl was watching him intensely. It was almost like being on the Ferris wheel again. Starfire kept nodding her head, encouraging him to talk.

"His goons tried to take off my mask at some point. Failed. Then Two-Face shows up, and he's smart. Really smart. He figured out how to take it off, and then he recognized me. We had met before, before he became Two-Face, had a heart-to-heart talk, he gives me a morale boosting speech, never expected to see one another again. But he recognized me, he knows my name, and he was standing there, as close as you are to me, Star. He knew who I was, and he knew who my parents were.

"I got lucky. Two-Face has to flip a coin to make any major decisions, and he was going to flip for my life. Batman shows up, I'm saved, and I have to leave. You heard him earlier. By doing something stupid, I not only nearly got myself killed, but I could have gotten my parents killed too, and they wouldn't have known why. But Batman was able to stop him, and I leave Gotham, move to Jump. You all know what happens next. We meet, come together to help one another, and here we are.

"But do you know where they sent him, Two-Face? Arkham. He's still there now. I get regular reports to make sure. It's been years, I've changed, have a new costume and everything, but he's still in there, and if he sees me, recognizes me, he might not have a reason to come after the Teen Titans, but if I remind him, then Two-Face will have a reason to come to Jump. He turned Gotham into Hell; what do you think he'd do to Jump? All he has to do is look up everything about it, and so much is public. Alderman is loud enough and keeps us in the headlines.

"He'll know where I am. He'll figure out where my parents are because he's smart. They'll be in danger, again, and it would be my fault again. I can't put them at risk. They wouldn't understand why they were being targeted in the first place, because Two-Face is Gotham and has no connection to the T.I.T.A.N. Initiative so why come after them? Even for Raven, I can't risk them. I've already risked them enough as is."

An arm came from behind him, wrapped around his chest, and a body pressed into his back. The teen vigilante found out how much his body was trembling, the strength of Wonder Girl holding him still. A forehead pressed into the back of his neck, blonde hair tickling against his skin. Light reflected off the golden gauntlets, and it caused him to close his eyes.

"It's okay, Tim," Wonder—Cassie told him. "It's okay. We're not going to let anything happen to your folks."

"Right," Cyborg agreed, nodding his head. "They're too nice." The cybernetic teen might not have the best relationship with his father, but he did recognize not everyone had the same family problems he did.

"Yeah, wouldn't want anything happening to them," Beast Boy added, scratching the back of his green head.

It seemed the point had come across.

"Batman would also not want us going there," Red Robin said quietly. "He'd ground us in an instant, insist on doing it himself. We're deep enough in it as it is."

Because not only was there Two-Face, but there was all the rest. All the ones Batman would warn them against, people who regularly took him on, they may be crazy, but none of them were stupid. Those people had their reputations for a reason, and Red Robin knew this all too well.

A hand cupped his chin and raised his head up. Star was looking right back at him, mirroring the grace of an angel. "We understand, my friend. We shall not enter that dark abode without the proper experience. Shall we pass along our findings to your mentor?"

Yeah. Yeah, let's do that. On this matter, they would at least stay on the Dark Knight's good side, and at the very least not give any of those maniacs an opportunity to make things worse. Somehow, one way or another, they would.

"Maybe we should find out why it's showing she's on the premise but not in that building," Cyborg said. He had returned to his arm and was fiddling with it. "I'm getting the bird's eye view, but if she's outside, someone would have seen her by now."

Raven wasn't in the building. She wasn't in Arkham, but she was right next to it. Something was missing. Like Cyborg said, she couldn't be in plain view otherwise there would have been reports and hell, satellites above them would be spotting her. If she wasn't on the ground or in the building, then where could she be? The only other way to be in that location would be…

Like a lightbulb, it clicked in his head. Looking to Cyborg, Red Robin asked, "Is there anything underground?"

Cyborg blinked at him, then narrowed his human eye. "You think there might be something underground?"

"Check for cave systems, anything that might run under Arkham," the teen leader instructed. "She's not out in the open because she might be under it, where no one can see her. There's caves running all around Gotham, what are the odds that she's in one of them?"

Because no field trip from a Gotham school didn't go to one of the cave systems. Bald Hills was a tourist attraction, one he himself went to as a kid on a field trip. The guide then had said many of the caves connected with one another, which made it huge and easy to get lost in. Stick to the path or no one might ever find you.

"I'm pulling up any and all maps and I'm gonna compare with mine," Cyborg stated. "Give me a few minutes, I'll get this figured out."


The body was really feeling the late nights now, but work did not care how tired you were, get in here and do your job. Cases were piling on top of one another, crime scenes were growing colder by the second, this needed to be rock solid before it went to the DA.

That Barbara couldn't blame or at least bask in the sense of accomplishment that came with doubling as Oracle made this feel all the more insulting. She was being kept up late due to the constant emergencies and being held here of all places. Who knew a precinct could serve as a jail for its own staff?

Nevertheless, she wheeled herself in, going through both the front and through the first security check. Her badge was scanned, she went through the scanners, and then she was heading for Forensics. It was time to get to work and she would wheel herself there without any assistance. She wanted her coworkers to know that one way or another, she was pulling her own weight and not riding or being pushed by the Gordon name.

However, this morning decided to throw her a curve ball. He seemed to slip out of the bodies that moved around her and he stood in her way. It caused Barbara to grab on to the wheels and stop her forward momentum. This was definitely a switch up; normally people moved out of her way.

As her head tilted back, the wheelchair-bound young woman gazed up at the man—and it was a man—who was blocking her way and—

"Dick?"

The young Gordon blinked her eyes rapidly, as if that would change the sight in front of her, but no. No, right there, in front of her, dressed more formally than she was used to was none other than the alter ego of her former Batclan teammate. The tall young man was giving her a warm smile and damn, she had no idea how much she had missed seeing him. Only hearing his voice but not seeing…it almost made her tear up from the nostalgia.

"Been a while," Dick greeted.

Shaking her head, "What are you doing here? Don't you have a job you need to be doing?" She couldn't give away too much, not here. Too many eyes, too many ears, and some of them were paying attention if only in passing.

"I am doing my job," Dick answered. "Detective Grayson," he said a little too loudly, "Blüdhaven PD. Got a case of my own, one that I need to speak with Commissioner Sawyer about."

It sounded so rehearsed, especially the commissioner part, but this was a man who was long used to saying Commissioner Gordon. Some practice in a mirror might have gone a long way.

"Check near Major Crimes, she's using the former Commissioner's office. Staying close to the detectives and the bullpen," Barbara answered almost automatically. Then, "What kind of case are you walking on and why does it bring you to Gotham?"

Dick glanced casually out of the corner of his eye, definitely observing all the other officers who were still moving around them. "Heard that Gotham has a new monster infestation. We're having a little trouble with something similar, and Chief Redhorn wants to know if they're connected. So, here I am."

It took Barbara a second to recall that Blühaven PD didn't have a commissioner; that position had been eliminated decades ago by an anti-corruption committee; ironic that despite all the anti-corruption efforts, the department over there was still as corrupt as ever. The Chief of Police was the highest ranking officer there, and Dick had enough suspicions that Chief Delmore Redhorn was in cahoots with the organized criminal elements there. Something was going to come to a head with that situation, especially with the vigilante Nightwing lurking about the streets.

They didn't have a Jim Gordon in Blüdhaven, and the corrupt officials had taken notes on Gotham. It was going to be a very long fight over there.

Still, that there was now a case that connected both cities together, and that Gotham was naturally ground zero for it, this was more like an opportunity for Redhorn to rid himself of an upcoming Detective Grayson if only for a short period of time. Also, Dick wasn't about to say no to paying his old stomping grounds a visit.

"Talk to anyone around here, they'll let you know," Barbara said instead, not letting her reflections cause her to hesitate. "It was pretty noisy last night."

As much as she wanted to chat and enjoy some quality time with her old friend, this was not the place to do it. This was work and so she—no, they needed to be professional. Dick did understand this, though.

"Other than a few looks, I've got a lot of grunts and others saying that tonight's going to be worse," the Blüdhaven detective quipped. "Don't really blame them, haven't heard anything about someone being responsible. Though, I did hear something was done with the local clown population, some Merrymaker being taken off the streets. That one has a lot of people wanting to be in a cell alone with him."

A reference to the currently incarcerated Byron Merideth. After that stunt with the child abduction, you had cops both clean and dirty wanting to give the fallen psychiatrist a little bit of their minds. If there was at least one thing that could bring those elements together, even for a short period of time, you didn't mess with children.

"They might get a chance once his ribs heal," Barbara remarked. "It's been nice seeing you again. You look great. Maybe when things calm down, we can meet up. I've—"

"Yo! That's a face I haven't seen around here. Yer not giving the miss here any problems are ya?"

Ah, and there was Papa Bear Bullock. Since her father wasn't here, the lieutenant was acting as a bodyguard whenever he could. Sure he was a gruff man, but he had always been nice to her, even back during the early days when her father had just been named commissioner. The constantly disheveled man was a teddy bear underneath it all.

"He's just asking for directions, lieutenant," the wheelchair-bound woman said over her shoulder, looking back to the large frame of her father's right hand man. "Has a case that might be connected to one of ours. Needs to speak with the commissioner about it."

Bullock eyed Dick up and down. "You got an appointment?"

"Some strings had to be pulled, but yeah," Detective Grayson answered, keeping a cool head himself.

"Then you might not want to be late for it. We're a bit busy here," Bullock said. "I'll show you where you need to go. And you," now he was looking down on her, "you got your own department to get to and you don't want Hardy to get his panties in a twist if you're late."

She couldn't help but give a little salute to that. "Roger that."

With a grace most wouldn't expect from a man like him, Bullock stepped around her and reached out, taking Dick by his shoulder and guiding him around the stationary wheelchair. "Let's not give the little miss any trouble, eh? Follow me."

"You got it," Dick replied, facing forward.

As the two men set off, Barbara found herself still in range of hearing Harvey when he said, "Have I seen you from some place? You remind me of someone."

Naturally, Dick had an answer. "You look like the kind of guy no one would ever forget. Going with a no on that one."

Better be careful there, Dick. Bullock was much more observant than he led on. Still, that was her former partner's problem and she needed to get back to her desk.

Still, it felt like a last minute reinforcement had arrived. Barbara agreed that tonight was going to be worse than last night. It was a gut feeling more than anything, but that was how it went in Gotham. Everything got worse before it got better and a lull was highly suspicious.

They were going to need as many boots on the ground as they could.


It wasn't often that Cassandra felt herself overmatched. She was confident in her abilities to fight anyone she came across; that included the thugs that plagued Gotham's streets to trained martial artists. She had even gone up against the best of the best a time or two.

But now she realized there was one area she was overwhelmed by.

By that, she meant monsters. Those constructs—or so her father called them—were the most recent example. She had been reminded of the Man-Bats because of them, the first time she had been overmatched in her life. Her ability to read body language was rendered moot because of their instinctual reactions.

Faintly, she recalled a training session, one where she ate the mat, and was promptly told that her defense was atrocious. That she relied too much on reading her opponent that she hadn't developed any sort of defense.

Right now though, it was her offense she found herself lacking. She was firmly restricted to what she carried in her utility belt, all of which worked well against your average person, but had done little to help against those constructs. Spoiler had the same problem as her while Bluebird had her arsenal of taser-based weapons. Though what worked on one monster didn't work on another, so it was spotty at best.

And yet, despite having the same limitations, her father had remained effective. He had simply pulled out a sword and began chopping the constructs to pieces. That's what she needed to be, someone that could adapt like that. Those monsters weren't slowing down because she was ill-prepared for them.

Thanks to her father, she knew what they were now. She knew what was making them, some meta Red Robin and his team were interested in finding. With this knowledge, perhaps figuring out a way to fight these monsters wasn't the way to go; maybe the best way would be to find this meta instead. If she got to the meta first, before they made more of those monsters, ones that were becoming stronger and stronger with every passing night, then she could stop it from happening entirely.

She rather liked that idea a lot.

Therein lay her next problem: finding the meta. It had been three nights and there had been limited success. Now, she hadn't been actively searching because there had been more pressing, more human matters to attend to, that being the League of Smiles. They were no longer a factor, so she could put her mind to this latest problem.

No doubt her father would have the same train of thought. He also probably knew where to get more intel as well, if he hadn't already. That didn't help her nip this problem, unfortunately, as he probably would keep her out of the action.

So she needed to do her investigating on her own. He had trained her after all, so she knew everything that he would do. In this case, he would want to know what Red Robin's team knew. They were the ones actively on the case, their sole focus being it. If she got their intel, she could follow up on it.

That needed to happen before nightfall. Nightfall was when those monsters came out, so she needed to be on the ground, narrowing down where the meta was. Because doing so in daylight just seemed wrong, she would have to do it in the evening, as the sun was setting. No doubt Red Robin's team would be gearing up then to fight the monsters too, so she could meet with them, get the intel, and go from there.

The timing would be tight, but she had been taught by the best when it came to detective work. She would need to put all of those skills to work to bring this to an end.