Dread Before the Storm

Tracking Red Robin down wasn't as easy as one would think. They had no central base like the Birds of Prey, or the Batclan did. Scouring the city wasn't an option because Gotham was large and she would have been looking for a needle in a haystack. So what did one do in a situation like that?

Cheat, of course.

After getting dressed, Batgirl had used her BatCave's computer to look up the locations of the comm links in the area. Considering the time and day, there was only one active and it wasn't anywhere near the Roost, the BatCave, or one of her father's many Bat-Bunkers. Satellite imaging showed it was a possible parking garage.

That proved to be accurate. As the sun was setting over Gotham, Batgirl used a set of binoculars to scan the building and found Red Robin's team on one of the upper levels.

Bluebird and Spoiler weren't there, which made the silence around her rather odd. She had gotten used to the banter those two brought with them, so it felt strange not to hear it. They hadn't been at the BatCave when she was preparing herself, but then, they were probably on their way from their day lives.

Part of her wanted them included on this. The other part wanted to protect them.

You can guess which part won out.

After reaching the parking garage, she perched herself on the cement railing that prevented cars from overshooting the parking spots and plunging to the ground below. She saw the odd vehicle Red Robin's team used, the various team members scattered around. None had seemed to notice her presence.

Then Red Robin suddenly stood up right next to her. He must have been sitting on the ground next to the wall she was on. He had a hand raised up to clutch at the back of his neck, the young man rolling his head from one side to the other. He hadn't noticed her presence either, right next to him as she stared. Then the blonde girl, Wonder Girl stood up next to him, using one hand to wipe the sleep out of her eyes.

As if that were some sort of signal, more activity happened. Cyborg and Beast Boy emerged from the open side door of their vehicle. Starfire walked over from another part of the parking garage, the heels of her boots clicking and clacking across the cement. Kid Flash seemingly appeared out of nowhere, stretching his arms above his head as he yawned.

"It's almost sundown," Red Robin stated then. "We have enough time for some food, but then we need to be ready. Raven's constructs will be appearing any time now."

"Red Robin, if I may?" Starfire interjected then. "We have the company."

"The company?" he repeated.

The Tamaranean simply pointed a finger towards Batgirl, which caused the team of teenagers to turn their heads. Red Robin jumped upon seeing her, which caused the young girl to turn her head to look at him. "When did you get here?"

"Just arrived," she grunted back.

"Dude, how did we not see her?" Beast Boy asked, his eyes blinking even after he used both hands to rub them clean.

"Blurry vision, man," Cyborg answered. "We couldn't see anything."

"That makes sense. Wait, you have a cybernetic eye. How did that miss her?"

"...blurry cybernetic vision?"

There was a silence.

"That checks out," Kid Flash confirmed.

"Idiots," Wonder Girl grumbled.

"To what do we owe the pleasure of your appearance, protege of the Man of Bats?" Starfire greeted the dark-clad girl, getting things back on track.

"I came to get an update on your search," she answered, still keeping crouched on the cement wall.

Red Robin nodded his acknowledgement. "Cyborg was able to get a location: it's Arkham. We're thinking it's the cave system underneath it as we couldn't find anything obvious on the grounds surrounding the asylum via satellite."

Arkham? Now that was a place she didn't think of to search. Which meant that it was still unsearched. She could rectify that.

"It will be looked into," Batgirl told him. Then after a moment, she tossed in, "Thank you."

"I'm assuming you'll be informing Batman," Red Robin said as he looked to the rest of his team. All of them turned their attention to their leader, so Batgirl took that as her cue to leave. So, she hopped off of the ledge and fell towards the ground. Grabbing onto the edges of her cape, she spread her arms out as far as they could go, opening her cape to form a makeshift parachute. This slowed her descent down until she landed on the ground.

That's when she heard loud voices from above. "Holy crap! She did the thing!" a high-pitched voice shouted.

"She totally did the thing!" a deeper voice agreed.

"What thing are you two talking about?" a female voice demanded.

"The Batman vanishing thing! She did the Batman vanishing thing!" the high-pitched voice answered.

"She did the Batman vanishing thing!" the deeper voice agreed.

"How did she even do that?" another male voice demanded. "She was right in front of us!"

Batgirl just glanced up towards the parking garage level the teens were on. What vanishing thing? She just left when she felt she couldn't get any more information. It's what her father did. It wasn't her fault that they weren't paying attention when she left.

You could feel tension throughout the day. While the precinct had its normal level of noise, it was more muted than usual. There weren't as many arrests, as if the criminal elements had also picked up that something was up. Naturally, none of those elements thought to let law enforcement know, but that was usually how it went.

What wasn't usual was when Hardy showed up and told everyone to pack up and leave early for the night. Do not worry about pay being cut, your overtime more than made up for it. Get home, lock yourselves in, and wait it out.

That was the message, from looking at how Hardy's face was, Barbara figured it was best not to poke this bear. If anything, this was a golden opportunity; after the last few nights of being denied access to everything Oracle, she could fulfill her role and help out with the impending disaster heading their way.

It was going to be a disaster. Whatever was behind the monsters had not been discovered yet, and Barbara herself only knew about the metahuman Titan that was involved. How the hell was she supposed to pass on that information? There would be questions, lots of them, and all wanting to know how she knew.

Oracle was still an alter ego, one that no one here needed to know about. At least the Network knew. They should know at least. Hopefully Tim hadn't been resting on his laurels and had made some progress. They were going to need it, and she doubted anyone wanted one more night.

So she packed up and wheeled her way out. Other forensics techs led the way and followed after her. She was just another one of the lab boys, lucky enough to not be called on to take up a gun and wait for tonight.

It was still early, though, even with the sun edging its way to the horizon. She was going to need to take the bus. Which one was on its way again…the 89. That one led the other way and not in the direction of her apartment. The first one that would, at least at this time, would have to be…the 12. That was nearly an hour away though.

However, she found a familiar face up ahead, one that had spotted her first and was making his way to her. Barbara directed her chair out of the moving swarm of technicians and moved to intercept.

"Heard the commissioner wants all unnecessary personnel to book it," Dick told her once she had come to a stop right in front of him. "All off duty officers are being called in. Sawyer's getting ready for a battle."

"More like war from the sounds of it. I heard a story that inventory was being taken in the armory. I wouldn't be surprised if someone was eyeing evidence too. Everyone here knows it. Tonight is going to be awful," she answered.

Dick gave a nod. Both of them agreed with that. Even with their own understanding of what was happening, it was still uncertain as to who was truly responsible. That person had yet to make that crucial mistake, the one that would give away the game and reveal what needed to be done to stop them. Was it someone new? Someone old doing something new? It was too hard to say.

However, Barbara saw an opportunity here. "You used a car didn't you?"

"Would have done a plane, but Redhorn decided to be cheap this time. Train was also not accepted," her former partner told her. "Why? Need a ride?"

"I could wait for a bus, but then we'd be too close to nightfall and my boss said to get home as soon as possible. That means no quick stop to grab dinner." She cocked an eyebrow, playing her part in front of anyone that might be watching or listening. You could never quite tell in a precinct.

"A car might be able to change that," Dick remarked. "Might be enough time to pick you up a bite to eat. And if I can afford it, myself included."

"What, you don't have to heed the call to arms yourself?" Barbara asked, both to keep the pleasantries up but also out of curiosity. If Dick had been able to hear from Sawyer herself what the department was planning, wouldn't she want to draft anyone, including officers from other jurisdictions to help?

"Blüdhaven. No authority over me unless she wants my inclusion on the investigation." Broad shoulders shrugged. "While it would be nice of me to lend a helping hand, I got a feeling I can be more useful elsewhere."

No argument there. Another pair of boots on the ground would be needed. However, "I can notify a superior that you're sticking around."

It was obvious who the superior was, and under these circumstances there might be one less threat to have the Blüdhaven detective running out of Gotham.

"If you wouldn't mind. In the meantime, may I offer a ride?" There was a winsome smile on a face that she had nearly forgotten could be so handsome, boyishly so at times. Damn, she missed it.

How much time had passed? Since starting this, since teaming up, since…since…

For a brief second, she felt tired. So many years, so many changes, and still, the fight continued. Right now, though, was not the time or the place to get lost in it. This was one of many precincts controlled by the Gotham City Police Department, her colleagues were everywhere, and this blast from the past could not be the thing to put her over the edge.

She had not come this far just to let a distant rosy past to blind her. There…there was still work to do. The act had to continue.

"Keep it under the speed limit," she quipped.

There was something in the air, a static, an energy that just buzzed and fluctuated. It tense at times, and calm at others, the proverbial calm before the storm. There were dark clouds on the horizon, the incoming storm promising to be a bad one.

Okay, yeah, some of that didn't make sense when put together, but Harper wasn't known for her prose, alright?

If last night was anything to go by, tonight would be that and more. What had started off as odd rumors had become frighteningly real, and then massively monstrous. Tonight, Harper entirely expected the entire city would become one giant monster at the rate they were going.

So she was taking steps. After getting dressed, sans the mask, she got to work on fine-tuning her tasers. By fine-tuning, she meant jacking up their voltage levels. She left one of her handgun tasers alone because she may need a lesser voltage for some idiot criminal that got in her way. As for the other handguns and her taser rifle, yeah, they were getting a boast. While she wished she could get a million volts, she would have to settle for seven fifty.

See, her handgun tasers could generate up to a hundred thousand volts, she just never set them that high. Your average taser generated up to fifty thousand, which was more than enough to bring a grown man down. As for her taser rifle, yeah, she designed that to get to half a million. Good enough to cause cardiac arrest in an entire crowd of people if she used it right.

As she made her little tweaks and modifications, she made mental notes for a better weapon design. You never knew when you were going to go up against monsters that could handle higher levels of voltage, like tonight. After this whole mess was over, she was going to invest in an arsenal that let her handle any situation, kinda like Batman.

And the best part was that he would be funding that, courtesy of the budget he gave his precious girl bat.

"You know, I think we need to invest in some bazookas," Stephanie spoke up, interrupting the silence that had filled the BatCave, you know, aside from the sounds Harper made as she worked on her arsenal. "We are seriously under-armed for dealing with giant ass monsters."

"Put in a request," Harper suggested. "The worst case, Batman says no. Though if we tell Cassandra, maybe she'll find a way around him and get them ordered anyways. She's pretty determined when she wants to be."

"Doesn't really help us right now though," the blonde girl pointed out. "We only have so much C4 and I can only carry so much. Gotham only has so many antennas we can drop too. Eventually, we're going to run out."

"If only we could get our hands on more." Harper smirked at her friend, who just gave her an annoyed look. "Our supply might not be as limited as you think. I mean, Batman has bunkers all over the city, so they should have supplies we can use. Cassandra, no doubt, has access to them."

"That's a good point," Stephanie agreed. "But what about the antennas? And what if we fight one of these things in a place that doesn't have one nearby? We're screwed then."

Yeah, that would be a problem too. Then again, with how things were going, dropping pieces of a building might not work on the next batch of monsters. Hell, their current weapons weren't making much of a dent either.

That gave the blue-haired girl pause. What were they going to do tonight? Running around Gotham until they found a monster didn't sound like a good strategy at all. Hell, with what was going on, she was honestly she hadn't heard a Network call from Oracle by now. This caused her to frown.

"What is it?" Stephanie questioned. "You have a look on your face. You know, the one you make when you're actually thinking."

"I was wondering—" she cut herself off. "What do you mean when I'm 'actually thinking?'"

"Harper, you like to go by the seat of your pants. That doesn't take a lot of thinking," Stephanie pointed out. "Hell, the only time I think I see you think is when you're doing your magic with electronics."

Harper glared at her so-called friend, but left it there. "Whatever. I was just wondering why we haven't heard from Oracle yet. Why the Network hasn't been activated yet."

That gave the blonde idiot pause. Ha! So who was actually thinking now? "You know, you're right," she said dumbfounded. "Why hasn't the Network been called?"

Before they could get further on this curious topic, the door to the BatCave opened. The two girls turned their heads, fully expecting Cassandra to be arriving.

Instead, Damian slunk in, a sour look on his face.

The two girls just watched the boy approach them, the door closing behind him automatically. That was an upgrade Harper added in after their unexpected Teen Titan guests. If you were going to fix something, why not improve on the old design, right? "You look like someone pissed in your Wheaties," the blue-haired girl observed.

Damian hadn't been looking at anyone or anything particular. Now he looked at her, and his sour look became his familiar scowl. "I wouldn't touch that sugar-ladened abomination if it were the last thing on Earth."

Oh, how she missed the boy's attitude. "Then I hate to break it to you, but we got a bulk shipment of it in the back and we need help eating it. So if you're going to hang out with us, you're gonna have to eat some."

Damian just stared at her. "I have not missed that mouth of yours."

"I love you too, S.O.B."

"What brings you here?" Stephanie interjected then, an attempt to stop the pissing contest between the two before it really got into gear. "I thought you were with your dad now."

Damian's scowl deepened, if that was even possible. Well, apparently it was possible because he was doing it, yeeesh. "I have been unjustly punished for actions I will defend as justifiable."

That was a lot of big words just to say he had been grounded. "It sucks to be grounded, doesn't it?" she remarked

"As if you would know anything about that," the boy bitterly responded.

If Harper had been made of softer stuff, that would have offended her. She had a dead mom and a frequently incarcerated absentee father. No doubt that was the target of the little shit's barb. But, she was a big girl, hardened and shaped by the streets, so verbal taunts were nothing to her.

"Your big sister grounded the both of us when she first brought us on board this operation, I'll have you know," she retorted. That's right, she referenced Cassandra in this because she knew just how much Damian liked being told he had a big sister—meaning he absolutely despised it. This time would be no different.

"That Usurper is not my sister," Damian all but spat back. "I would sooner be related to a baboon than acknowledge her as my kin!"

"Well then, don't bring up my family situation if you don't want me bringing up yours," she responded pointedly. "Because unlike you, I can take whatever venom you got. You can't handle the splinter I send back, much less my own venom."

A grimace appeared on the dark-haired boy's face, the only indication that he knew he had misspoke. "Very well," he murmured.

Harper had to resist frowning at that response. She had Damian pegged as hard-headed and spoiled beyond belief. He would belabor a point until it was long forgotten just to be right. So this acceptance was weird.

"Speaking of," Stephanie spoke up then. "Has anyone seen Batgirl? I thought she would have been here already. She usually beats us all here."

That caused all three of them to turn their heads back and forth, searching the lair for Cassandra. While Stephanie was doing it more for show since she probably already scanned the place already, Harper and Damian were actually searching and there was no sight of the dark-clad girl.

Getting up from her workbench, Harper physically went looking, because there were actually places not in sight of the main silo. The dressing area, for instance, was its own separate room. That was the first place she was going to check.

The reason for that was simple. That was where the Batclan kept their armor, so if the Batgirl armor was still there, then Cassandra hadn't shown up. Simple logic, right? However, when she peeked her head in and found the stand where the armor was kept was empty, a cold feeling set in her stomach.

"Guys, her armor is gone," she called out as she returned to the main hub. There were frowns on the other two's faces.

"Did she already leave?" Stephanie asked. "Wouldn't she say something?"

That caused Harper to clench her hands into fists. She didn't like the idea, but she was getting the feeling they had been left behind. She really didn't like that feeling.

As useful as the Black Blade of Mordred had been, his modification into a full-length arm guard turned out to be limiting. Perhaps if the blade had been shorter, it would have worked. Instead, when the blade was stored within the arm guard, it prevented bending of the elbow. When fully extended, while giving a much longer reach, he had to be aware of how he held his arm. Letting it dangle at his side caused the tip to scrape on the ground, and again, the length made it cumbersome to swing.

So Bruce removed the blade from the arm guard and reattached it to its hilt, then placed it back within its normal scabbard. Further experimentation would be needed later to make adjustments to the set up.

In the meantime, Bruce attached a strap to the scabbard. Sticking one arm and his head through the loop the strap made, he rested it on one shoulder, which left the sword's hilt to stick up over that same shoulder. He made a few more adjustments, tightening the strap until it was comfortable.

Alright with that done, he removed the sword and sheath and set it down on a table next to his computer. On that same table was his utility belt, one he had been stocking up with his usual assortment of weapons, along with a few meant to take on metas. He wished he had some that were more effective against magic, a blind spot that would be remedied at the end of the night, regardless if Raven was found or not. Zatanna would be of help there, if not Dr. Fate.

Yes, he had both sorcerers on speed dial. You never knew when you would need a mystic in short order.

Damian would not be present tonight, his grounding still in effect. He hadn't seen the boy since their talk in the morning. He was still upset that he had been seen with another woman by the paparazzi. Considering the current strain in his and Talia's relationship, he was curious as to where this was coming from. That would be something that would have to wait until after this Raven mess was cleaned up.

After their talk—and in fact after having some brunch—he had turned in for the day, thankful it was a weekend. Bruce needed rest for what he was certain was to come and he wanted to be at his best. This whole matter stemmed from fear and fear had a way of robbing someone of their strength and will. He suspected Crane was involved, despite the thin man's denials and stonewalling, he just didn't know how.

Picking up his belt, he wrapped it around his waist and shoved one end into the buckle, clicking it into place. Speaking of fear, the dark-haired man glanced to an airgun, one with a vial of green fluid attached to it. Picking up the airgun, he pressed the barrel of it up against his neck and squeezed the trigger. He grunted as the fluid was forcibly infused into his body, the vial empty in a second.

This was the antidote to Crane's fear toxin, and he had just inoculated himself with it. Whether this was necessary or not, he'd rather play it on the safe side in the event he did come into contact with the toxin. While it wouldn't make him immune to its full effects, especially if Crane made a new strain, it would at least lessen it, weakening the toxin effect on him. He'd be wearing a gas mask too, so this was more of a backup than anything.

He was known for planning ahead, so he might as well live up to that reputation.

Already dressed in his armor, Bruce set the airgun down and picked up his cowl. Placing it over his head, he then tapped a button on his gauntlet, activating the systems within the cowl, along with the cameras in the lenses. His preparations done, Batman then activated his comm link. "Red Robin," he said evenly.

It was a moment or two before he received a response. "This is Red Robin."

"Any progress on your end of the investigation?"

There was another pause, one that curiously went a little longer than expected. Then, "Uhh, yeah. We have. You haven't heard about it yet?"

Batman raised an eyebrow. How would he have heard about it if they hadn't been in touch? More than likely, he had sent a message to Oracle to get in contact with him about their updates and the hacker just hadn't gotten around to getting in touch with him. She had been MIA as of late. "Tell me what you know."

This time the response came quicker. "Cyborg managed to triangulate a location on Raven. According to him, she's at Arkham."

Batman clenched one hand into a fist. He knew Crane was involved, he just didn't have the proof. Now he did and there was nothing the fallen university professor could do to stall him any longer. "Where in Arkham?" he pressed.

"Best we can gather, its some place underneath Arkham—"

Whatever else Red Robin said, Batman didn't hear it. There was a cave system underneath the asylum, one long since forgotten by most of the city. It was a rather ingenious location, admittingly. The whole time, the Teen Titans had been looking for abandoned places drawing in large amounts of power, which made logical sense. Kidnappers didn't hide in heavily-populated areas.

In this case though, the power was being hidden by an existing, active location. The cave system wasn't patrolled or guarded, so that meant very few eyes were on it. It also ensured that Crane could remain on the premises, able to pretend innocence.

"I'm on it," he said when he noticed Red Robin was no longer speaking.

"Are you certain you hadn't heard this already?" the young vigilante asked.

"No, why?"

"Well, someone already came by and said they would relay all of this to you. I'm guessing they haven't."

Batman narrowed his eyes. "Who did you talk to?"