Reindeer Games

The fighting inevitably spilled out from the Stacked Deck. It filled the little parking lot in front of it and spread out towards the streets.

Matches Malone came stumbling out of the mob, the recipient of a punch to the side of his face. He ran into the side of a car, the man leaning against it as he tried to quickly get his bearings back. A couple men slammed into the same car, though they landed on the hood, rolling across it as arms and legs swung and kicked out wildly. The two men ended up falling off the opposite side and to the ground.

Shaking his head, Malone glanced to the fighting behind him and decided it was time to leave. This was only going to get worse and he had lost his mark. There would be another time to pick back up on the scent.

"Hey! Jerk!" a voice roared. Forcing their way through the scrum, out came Vinny, holding up a pistol that was aimed right at Malone. It was pretty clear who he was shouting at and who he was planning on shooting.

Until the gun jerked out of his hand, the man yelping in pain. This was followed by a figure in purple crashing down on him, knocking him to the ground. There was a flurry of movement and several nearby men found their legs getting knocked out from under them as a staff seemingly appeared out of nowhere and swung around in a low circle. They all collapsed to the ground, revealing a crouched Huntress with her bo staff in hand.

Ah, the cavalry was here.

Coming in from one side, was Black Canary, who vaulted over a car and went into a flying kick, one that nailed a gangster in the face. From another came the newly-dressed Katana, no longer sporting a red and yellow outfit, but one that was solidly black, save for the white mask over her face, one that sported Japan's Rising Sun on it. She was a flurry of movement herself, having yet to draw her sword as her hands blocked, disarmed, and then countered the men she ran into. There were screams of surprise elsewhere, most likely Manhunter getting into the action somewhere else.

Malone watched Huntress take on two gangsters for a moment, her staff jerking back and forth between them as she rammed one end of the weapon into one man and the other end into the other, trading blows back and forth until they both collapsed.

Yeah, they had this handled. Moving around the car, the man began to slip away when he noticed a familiar figure also leaving. Considering the size…yeah, that was Rhino. Looked like he hadn't lost his mark yet.

Picking up his pace, Matches followed after Rhino, leaving the fighting at the Stacked Deck behind him. He was having to keep up a fast pace surprisingly, though perhaps that shouldn't have been a surprise considering Rhino had such long legs. He took one step for every two Malone had to. He was also trying to get away from here as fast as he could.

It seemed he was going to have to put in more effort to keep up than he planned.

Rhino passed by an alleyway, then quickly reached the corner of an intersecting street. It was here he made a left turn and disappeared from sight due to the building there. Malone increased his pace, wanting to get his eyes back on his target as soon as possible. He passed by the alley—

Suddenly, his legs jerked together. Eyes widening, Malone toppled over, landing hard on his stomach. Before he even had the chance to figure out what was going on, he was dragging across the ground and into the alley. His legs then jerked upwards and he was then hoisted up into the air, rising higher and higher as he passed by one level of a fire escape, then a second and then…

No, he stopped at the third and found himself dangling upside down in the air. His hat was gone, lying on the ground below as it had fallen off of his head the moment he was pulled upward. Arms hung over his head, his coat nearly flipping inside out as it too fell in line with gravity.

Looking down, or rather up, to his feet, he saw some sort of cable line wrapped around his legs, pinning them together. Tiling his head back, he then caught sight of the person that had done this to him. They were dressed in a rather form-fitting suit, one that showed off a lot of feminine curves. Then came their face.

Catwoman's face.

Well, this was certainly unexpected.

Now, he wasn't the type of man to be interested in all of this ancient history mumbo jumbo, but Bullock could freely admit that that should not be anywhere in any museum. Well, maybe one dedicated to the loony bin, because you would have to be loony to think that looked good.

Blue, red, yellow, that sure didn't fit together. The question marks he didn't like. Looked like something a kid would make. How did they get it in there? Weren't these things supposed to be locked?

The detective didn't bother to look, he could hear the guy who ran this place freaking out. He'd better because it wasn't going to be easy replacing any of this old stuff. Good luck to the mook having to get a statement out of the guy.

Yeah, so this was quickly becoming a shitshow. Security feed had been tampered with, no one saw anything, the display case had its lock picked, and the stolen whatever it was had a double that no one would buy as being the original. But wait, there was more. A note had been left inside the replacement, and someone had glued a lot of cut out letters to it.

I gleam from the skies of Lucy and you find me hanging on you or on display.

Someone was running that back to the precinct, getting the lab geeks to go over it. If it was anything like the last one, there might be a problem with prints and everything. Speaking of, the case itself was dusted and no prints. Someone had started to wipe it down too.

This would be the time when a fellow detective would walk up to him, usually Montoya, they would chat, compare notes, and then see about catching the mook who had pulled this off. Montoya wasn't here, but you know who was?

"Tell me we found something." Commissioner Sawyer had walked right up next to him and not sounding the least bit happy.

"Spick and span. We made more of a mess than the perp," Bullock remarked. Toying with a toothpick between two of his fingers, he continued, "We're trying to get everyone situated when this gets pulled off. Had to've happened after they shut the place down, kicked everybody out. Not a lot of time. They rig the cameras, and swipe this…"

"Vase," Sawyer said.

"Yeah, that." That sounded funny. The a sound sounded more like ah than ay. "Then somehow they get it out of here. So whoever this was was quick, smart, probably had this whole place scouted out before we got here."

"Then why mail us? Why leave a clue behind?"

"We already had a lunatic who used riddles. Lucy and her skies sounds like that riddle nonsense to me," the detective said, shrugging his shoulders.

"We've already verified that Edward Nashton is still in Arkham. We've had security heightened and everything," the commissioner countered.

"And when has heightened anything stopped any of those creeps?" The toothpick found itself clenched between his teeth. "One of them found a way to do a lot of damage without leaving the nuthouse. What's to say Nashton didn't find a way? Hate to admit it, but the bastard is crazy smart."

It was easy to say that he wasn't a fan of anybody in Arkham, but that didn't mean he looked down on them. They were dangerous, every single one of them. In one way or another, each had brought the city to its knees. He could name call them all he wanted, but Bullock knew better than to underestimate any of them.

Seemed Sawyer might agree with him, even if she wouldn't say it out loud. "We'll check for any tampering of the security feeds and surveillance. In the meantime, we need to figure out what the next place is going to be. Somebody wants attention, it's the only reason they sent us that first message and the reason they left another here."

Because everyone wanted attention nowadays.

"I think I can agree with that. It's like those crooks who pull off something just for the attention. They want people to notice them. Well, we noticed and we need to find the asshole," Bullock stated. "First it starts with some robberies, then they're holding up the whole city for ransom. We know the drill."

"All the more reason to catch them as soon as possible," Sawyer quipped back. "Keep me in the loop, grab whoever you need to, and keep this on the quiet side. If nothing else, let's not start a panic. Not this close to Christmas."

People were already panicking this time of year, but it was all over getting the right gift at the last minute. Good thing that Bullock didn't have anyone special to run that rat race for. His cats more than made up for that kind of company. Least none of them ran out because he couldn't call off during a citywide crisis.

Right, time to get to work. This mook wasn't going to get himself caught by himself—hold up.

"What do you mean by them?" he called after the retreating commissioner.

"Women can be burglars too. Let's not write them off just yet until we have proof. You know, what we're all supposed to be looking for?" Sawyer threw right back at him.

Sheesh, now woman burglars? Oh sure, there was that Catwoman, but she hadn't been making waves in a long time. Probably booked it after that whole thing with the Riddler. Probably on the other side of the country.

Yet…wouldn't this be something she could pull off? Well, yeah, but…didn't seem her style. She always broke in and did it late at night. Why change her M.O.? Still Sawyer had a point. No sense writing off half the population without some proof to back it.

Fancy that, that was his job as well, wasn't it?

"What do you mean by them?"

"Women can be burglars too. Let's not write them off just yet until we have proof. You know, what we're all supposed to be looking for?"

Well, the bug was certainly working.

The audio was coming in as if they were standing right next to Lieutenant Bullock and Commissioner Sawyer. It had been planted on Bullock damn near when he arrived. In fact, it was as he was getting out of a car, a black shade had rushed by, moving as silent as a still breeze. He hadn't noticed it and the bug's location would not be revealed.

That said, it would need to be retrieved. Bullock wasn't exactly the biggest advocate of vigilantism.

The museum was crawling with the police and forensics. A vase made by a Greek artist Sophilos had been stolen. Batgirl really wasn't one for art, but she had been told anything at the museum could be sold for quite a bit of money on the black market. Oracle was scanning such markets for the appearance of the vase. Such an artifact was rare and would stick out like a sore thumb.

"It's him," Bluebird grunted as she stood at the ledge of the roof the Batclan had positioned themselves on. She stood as straight as a rail, her arms crossed over her chest, a scowl on her face. "It's Riddler again. I just know it."

A riddle had apparently been left behind. That seemed to be in the Riddler's M.O., so it was understandable why Bluebird had jumped to such a conclusion. The blue-haired girl also had a history with the riddle-obsessed man, one she took quite personally. Apparently beating the man up during the Arkham War hadn't calmed down her feelings in the slightest.

"What makes you think it's him?" Spoiler questioned. She was standing further away from the roof.

"The riddle that was left behind, duh," Bluebird retorted. "That's all I need to know."

"Is there any way we can get our hands on that riddle?" the lavender-clad girl asked, looking to Batgirl as she knelt near the roof's edge. "If this is the Riddler—"

"It is," Bluebird growled.

"—then that riddle will tell us what he's up to next," she continued, ignoring her comrade's interjection.

"We'll leave it to Oracle to get her hands on a copy," Batgirl said. "The police have it and they'll have it scanned into their database before too long. No point in trying to take it with all of the police around."

"We don't need a damn copy; we know exactly where that riddle-loving freak is." Bluebird whipped around and took a step towards the two. "I say we go right to the source. We make him admit to what he's up to and bam, it's finished. No three-day virtual reality traps; no city-wide messages; we take care of this now."

Batgirl gave the girl a look. While that was…an idea—not a good one, even in theory—she was talking about going into the figural belly of the beast. Arkham was not a place to tread lightly; she had learned that quite recently. If they went there, they could just as easily find themselves on the wrong end of a hostage situation.

And going to see perhaps one of the most intelligent minds there, that was perhaps just asking to end up in a bad spot.

Worst still, they could find themselves injected with fear toxin and forced to fight their loved one. Unconsciously, she reached to her neck, right where she had been injected with said fear toxin. The needle marks had long ago healed themselves, but it was still a spot that reminded her that she was not ready to take on Arkham's worst. Crooks and thieves; assassins; renown martial artists—all of those she could handle.

Sick, depraved minds were something else entirely.

"Are you certain we can handle that?" Spoiler then questioned. "Don't you remember the last time we were there? I can't say it was something for the highlight reel."

"We're more experienced and the entire asylum population won't be on the loose," Bluebird scoffed. "And we've got Batgirl. There's not a single physical threat there that she can't take down. In fact, I'd love to see them try."

"No," Batgirl said bluntly. "That is not a place we are ready for. The threats there are not physical."

"I don't care what they are, they can't take a few thousand volts of electricity." At this, Bluebird patted a hand where her handgun taser was holstered. "One wrong move, one wrong word, and I zap them."

"I said no."

Bluebird narrowed her eyes. "Says the one that went on her own, and got herself in over her head. You don't have a leg to stand on here, Batgirl. At least I'm saying we all go."

"I said no," Batgirl pressed, her tone lowering.

It seemed the blue-clad vigilante wasn't going to back down that easily. "I say yes. You can't protect us forever. Eventually, we are going to deal with that sort of maniac; it's just inevitable. Why the hell not now? When we could stop a potential city-wide threat? I say we put this to a vote, just the three of us. Majority rules."

In the past, Batgirl would have just put her foot down and that would have been that. The problem was that Bluebird was right, she had gone on her own and gotten herself into trouble. It was hard to argue that. At the very least, she had been given an out.

"Fine, a vote," she reluctantly agreed.

"I got one yes and one no." The two girls then turned their heads towards Spoiler, who looked as if she were a deer in the headlights. "You're the tie-breaker," Bluebird declared. "What do you say? Who's night are you going to spoil?"

Spoiler glared at her friend. "Ha, ha," she deadpanned.

Bluebird grinned. "C'mon, here's your chance for your tagline: SPOILER ALERT."

"I'm starting to see why Batgirl's brother doesn't like you," the blonde girl grumbled.

"We don't have all night here."

Spoiler rolled her eyes, but then actually looked as if she were in deep thought. Her blue eyes glanced from Bluebird to Batgirl and then back.

And then she voted.

"Well, well, what do I have here?" Catwoman seemed to purr.

Malone just stared at her upside down. "Eh, what's a dame like you doin' in a place like thiz?" he managed to say in response.

"I could say the same for you." She leaned her face closer to him. Her hands were gripping onto her whip, which seemed to be wrapped around the bars of the fire escape. The end of the whip…was naturally wrapped around his legs. So that was how he ended up here. "I hear you've been asking questions."

"Youz got ta ask questions. How else are ya ta find work in this town."

"Work, huh? What kind of work?"

Malone rolled his eyes. "What every wiseguy is lookin' fer. Now, if youz don't have any fer me, howz 'bout youz let me down. I waz just talkin' with a guy."

Catwoman held a hand out between them. Flexing her fingers, claws appeared over each fingertip. "Tough talk from a guy I just have to let go and he cracks his skull on the ground. Now how about I use you as a scratching post?"

"Oh, catz are yer thing. Malone leaned his head towards the woman. "I'm from Joysey, so yer gonna have to do better than that."

Catwoman brought her claws towards his face, brushing the edge of one of them against his cheek. All she had to do was dig in and she would cut him. "Jersey, huh? No wonder you're acting so tough." She began to dig in. "Let me show you what I do to tough guys."

Whatever she had in mind, she never got the chance to do. An arrow whizzed by her head and impaled the brick right next to her.

Jerking herself, the burglar looked around until her eyes found the shooter. Malone had done the same and spotted Huntress at the mouth of the alley, holding up her crossbow. "Alright, I don't know what this is, but you're gonna turn him over to me," the purple-clad vigilante declared.

Catwoman narrowed her eyes. "Don't you have anything better to do? Like beat up those other mobsters?"

"Already did that." Huntress pulled out another bolt and loaded it onto her crossbow. "Now I want yours. He did come running from that fight."

There was a groaning sound, which caused both Malone and the cat burglar to look down. Climbing onto the lowest level of the fire escape was Katana. Had it not been for the ill-maintained metal framework, she would have still gone unnoticed.

Which was probably why Huntress had shot at them, to draw their attention to her and away from Katana.

Catwoman didn't look the least bit pleased by this. "Looks like our time together just ran out," she told Malone. "I hope you know the golden rule."

"Whoever haz the gold, makes the rulez?"

"The other one: always look out for yourself."

Suddenly, the whip around Malone's legs loosened. Gravity immediately took hold and the man went falling headfirst to the ground. Initially, his eyes went wide, but he went into action fast.

As the second level of the fire escape passed by him, he twisted his body so that his back was towards the fire escape. This was so he could reach out with his hands as he quickly approached the first and last level and not do so at a bad angle. His hands grabbed onto the railing of the fire escape, which caused his body to swing downward and then into the fire escape.

"Gyah!" he cried out, but held on tightly. Immediately, Katana was next to him, reaching over the railing and grabbing onto him.

The sound of Huntress' crossbow firing rang out, the two looking towards her. Her crossbow was pointed to a point higher than the two of them, no doubt trying to take down Catwoman. They looked up, only to see no sign of the thief. It was quite clear she had gotten away.

"Alright, you can drop him, Katana," Huntress then called out.

Suddenly, the Asian woman's securing hands pushed against him. It was so rough and sudden that Malone lost his grip and he went falling feet first to the ground. He landed and promptly fell onto his back, the man grunting from the landing.

Katana then threw herself off of the fire escape, landing next to him. Huntress joined them a moment later, her crossbow unloaded. "Now, what to do with you," she spoke out loud.

Malone just closed his eyes before opening. "Howz 'bout a hand?"

"Only if you tell us why you decided to come North from Jersey. We don't need anymore gangsters up here and if you're about to cause trouble, then we're going to put you down hard and fast."

"No worries, I ain't about to cause youz no trouble."

"Our intel indicates otherwise," Katana interjected.

Malone began to push himself up, climbing onto his feet. Casually, Huntress reached to her belt and pulled out an H-shaped shuriken. Katana just rested a hand on the hilt of her sword. Malone paused in mid-shift at this, then just stood up, dusting himself off. "I gotta thank ya for yer timely intervention. Wasn't expectin' the burglar."

"Then you can thank us by telling us why you're here," the dark-haired woman pressed.

Malone glanced at her, then he dropped his voice a few octaves, losing his accent in the process. "Establishing myself in the Gotham underworld."

The two women's eyes widened. "Bats?" Huntress questioned incredulously.

"Huntress," he returned evenly. "I appreciate everything you and the Birds have done for me tonight."

"What…but…what was this all about?!"

The disguised vigilante turned around and spotted his hat nearby. Taking a couple of steps, he knelt down and picked it up, placing it back onto his head. "There was a botched meet between the Triads and the Calabreses last night. I wanted to see what I could learn about it by going undercover." He turned around to look at the two vigilantes.

"O…kay…" Huntress trailed off. "So why involve us?"

"I needed to cement myself and what better way than to get caught up in a bust? Your timely intervention at the Stacked Deck makes me look legit, even if I did turn tail and run."

"So…you used us? Why not tell us about this plan!"

"I needed you to be very convincing. I don't need preferential treatment during a brawl." He then rolled his head from side to side until he felt one of his vertebrae pop. "And for your efforts, you busted a lot of mobsters tonight."

"So what happens now?" Katana then questioned, interrupting whatever tirade her comrade was about to go on.

"Now? You go back to the others. I got away, so I'll 'lay low' for a couple of nights, then come back out. You can even let it be known the Birds are looking for me. It'll help with my street cred."

"You seriously want us to make you some notorious street criminal?" Huntress nearly burst out.

"That's exactly what I want."

Huntress stared at him. Then she threw her hands up into the air. "Ugh, fine! We'll do this, but next time, you just tell us your dumb plan. Now I get what Canary was saying about you being freaking manipulative."

That sucked. All he wanted was some cold ones. That's it. Shouldn't've been a problem. So of course there was a problem, and when that happened he left.

Had it been before, Rhino would have been in the middle of it all. He liked a good fight like any other man would. But this wasn't before and the Boss had been very clear about getting into trouble.

Don't.

The Boss was a smart guy, wisest of the wise guys, and Rhino wasn't about to cross him. With hands crammed into his pockets and his breath steaming out of his nose, the large man marched his way down the sidewalk, not caring who ran into him. People either got out of his way or didn't and found out.

Wait, wouldn't that get him into trouble? That second cop car drove by and he side eyed it. Even through the window, he could see the cops watching him, turning their heads to keep an eye on him. Rhino slumped his shoulders and lowered his head, breaking eye contact, but this time he started getting out of peoples' way.

No trouble, don't go looking for it or making it. The Boss wouldn't be happy about it.

Just like he wasn't happy about that asshole, the one asking about a job. Did he think he was stupid? Like he made the calls. No, if someone else wanted in, they'd have to ask the Boss and the Boss…uh…well, would the Boss have said yes? Maybe he should ask about that, make sure. Yeah, yeah, that's what he would do. Ask the Boss what to do if someone wanted to get in on the action. Maybe next time he'd get to enjoy the brew.

There wasn't going to be any action tonight. Not after last night. Boss had to cash in the goods and then he would get his cut of it. Boss had never failed him there, and it was such a sweet gig too. It had been years since he had so much money coming in. There was going to be plenty more too if the Boss had it his way.

He was supposed to be heading to the Boss' place, but he was running early and figured getting a buzz wouldn't hurt. What had been that asshole's name again? Started with an M. Wasn't Mugsy. Mugsy was a good guy, and that asshole didn't look a bit like'em. Whatever, forget about him.

With snow falling lightly, Rhino continued on his way, or he would have had something on the ground not caught his eye. It hadn't started on the ground; some guy walking his way had pulled his hands out of his pockets and blew into his hands. When he had did that, something had fell out.

Slowing down, Rhino got a good look at it, then bent down to pick it up. Well what do you know, a wad of cash. There was a clip holding it together, but it looked like a decent amount. Perhaps enough to make up for not getting his buzz earlier. Well, finders keepers.

"Hey. Hey, you! Give that back!"

Scowling, Rhino turned around and faced the former owner of the cash. Guy was shorter than him, like everybody else, and had that handsome look to him. Also looked like one of those fat cats whenever something didn't go their way. He was also holding out a hand, like Rhino was just going to put the money right into it.

"Well? I'm waiting," the little bitch demanded.

Rhino held up the money, clip and all, in front of him and made a show of looking at it. "You mean this?" Then the large man leaned forward, his shadow falling over the wannabe tough guy. It seemed the little man was starting to figure out that he might have picked on someone bigger than him.

"Th…that," the little guy said weakly. Even to Rhino, the little man meant the money.

"That what?" Rhino pressed, sneering.

Eyes shifted from Rhino to the money hand back. Didn't look so confident now, did he? "Uh…I…nothing."

"Really? I thought you were looking for a fight," he taunted, stretching out the fingers of his free hand and curling them into a fist.

Now holding both hands up, "I didn't mean it! It's yours! It's just…a misunderstanding!"

"You sure?" Rhino could never help pressing his luck.

"Yes! Uh—Merry Christmas!" And there the little bitch went, tail between his legs. Heh, couldn't stand up to a real man when it counted.

Rhino looked back to his prize, smirked, then stashed it into his pocket. That had been nice. Now, to the Boss. Had a few questions to ask and make sure he was still on his good side.

Watching the hulking man practically skip off, Shreck watched through narrowed eyes. He had had a view of the show from the backseat of his car and he hadn't liked a second of what he saw.

The door opposite him opened, and in slid Chip. His son rubbed his hands together quickly, trying to warm them up. He blew into them, then gave a little shake before rubbing them again.

"He took the bait, Dad."

Chip had volunteered to be the one to make contact. Brave lad, but he shouldn't have put himself into that kind of danger. Still, Rudolph the roided-up reindeer there took that money clip, tracking device and all. That was what mattered, but in his mind it came to a close second to his son's welfare.

"You weren't…hurt, were you?" Shreck turned his head just enough to give his boy a once over.

"It's no problem, Dad. I know how to handle creeps like him," Chip waved off. "I had a better chance of getting hypothermia than getting hurt."

"Still…that was a big risk…you took." Loading up his phone, Shreck pulled up the app that the tracking device was linked to. There we were, a nice little moving red dot and it was right about where that thug was. Everything was in working order.

Beside him, Chip began to shrug off his coat, followed by the sportsjacket, then the necktie after that. Strong fingers nimbly began to unfasten the buttons of his dress shirt.

Giving his son, his heir, another look, "You're not serious…about this next part?"

"I'm not letting you go in there alone," Chip stated, the dress shirt coming off and revealing the tight-fitting black shirt under it. The thin cloth hugged his son's torso in all the right ways, really showing off some of the musculature. "The boys and me are going in with you, no questions."

Shreck watch blankly, then, "The boys and I. Not me. I. And if you insist."

Thin, fingerless, leather gloves were now being slipped on. "I do."

"Can't argue with that." Shreck gave a shrug of his shoulders, then said in a louder voice, "You can start…following now. And turn up the heat. No one…needs to freeze…before we get there."

The driver, one of Chip's boys, put the car into drive, then the vehicle pulled out into the street, melding into traffic. It would be hard to miss the walking Neanderthal, but even if they did lose him, the tracking device would keep them on his tail.

Happy huntings indeed.