Ben walked through Chinatown, the closer he got to the presumed gang hideout the less populated the streets became. With more people staying inside, the buildings were more decrepit and covered in graffiti, not to say that buildings before were not covered in graffiti but things were different beforehand the graffiti where composed of a multitude of things ranging from actual art, political messages and the occasional gang sign but now the only thing painted on the walls is a yellow heron.
"I wonder what Paradox meant," thought Ben "He never makes things straightforward, what did he mean by me needing to act like a traditional plumber? How does fixing pipes and toilets help me in a new dimension,"
Being too absorbed in his thoughts Ben doesn't realise he has walked into someone.
"Sorry about that," Ben stopped talking as he looked at the person who walked into.
Big. That's the first thing that stuck out to Ben. Big in height and mass, not fat but muscle. This goliath of a man towered over Ben, piercings in his left ear. Examining Ben.
"You one of us?" He asked, his voice commanding respect.
"Yeah," replied Ben.
"The jacket doesn't fit you," He said "You sure you didn't steal that?"
"They didn't have any my size at the time so they just gave me this," Ben replied.
"That so?" the man questioned staring at Ben.
An uncomfortable silence filled the air as both men stared at each other the bigger one slowly crouching down and coming closer till there was hardly any space between the two. The larger man got back up, looking somewhat impressed.
"At least you're not a wimp. Impressive for a string bean like you," He said raising his left hand and forcing it on Ben's shoulder causing him to slightly buckle, "If I find out your lying I will break you," He said before walking off.
"Jeez he's strong," said Ben to himself as he moved the shoulder that was grabbed. "Told you Rook. I can keep my cover," Thought Ben chuckling to himself.
Proceeding on Ben noticed something. There was a lack of regular people he could see, anyone he saw had the same jacket, the same yellow heron. At this point, it was almost impossible to not see a yellow heron either on the walls or the people. Trying to avoid suspicion Ben walked into a nearby alley. Navigating the alleys and climbing over the odd chainlink fence and garbage bin.
Climbing into a broken window of an abandoned building Ben walked to the end and peered out of a window that was still intact and he saw it, the warehouse. The windows were broken, the paint dull, and litter of all sorts surrounding the building but still active he saw both lorries and people moving in and out of the warehouse.
"It's obvious they are storing something, but what? There has to be a lot of whatever they have for them to use a warehouse that big," he said to himself, "I could go in now and use Humongosaur to get the job done but that won't give me answers, I should probably go at night so I have a better chance of sneaking in but looking how it's still bright outside its gonna take a while for that to happen," He mused "I guess I could take a nap I haven't got any rest for I don't know how long, but where? This room is empty,"
Exploring the floor he finds an old brown sofa, covered in stains and dust. The cushions rock hard from age and lack of use.
"Oh well it's better than nothing," Ben said whilst smacking the sofa the remove the dust whilst covering his mouth with the jacket to ensure a coughing fit doesn't ensue. After cleaning the sofa he proceeds to lie down on it. "This will not be a comfortable nap," Ben lamented.
Damian paced in his room, wondering, contemplating what is the link between a blue moth and a monkey.
Sure the fact that there both blue is one, but that could be a coincidence and most likely is. The green hourglass is what connects them but that's not enough, it's not enough for Damian to conclude and he hates it. He hates the feeling of frustration that comes with being unable to solve an investigation due to lack of information and then there are the new gangs popping up from the dissolving of Oswald Cobblepot's gang, that much is obvious and judging by the naming scheme there's another one assuming that the choice of colours is based on the primary colours but that leads to a new question why three? Why three gangs specifically? What happened during Oswald's prior control of Chinatown for there to be enough value that there could be three gangs in the aftermath? Another thing to figure out, shouldn't take too long to find out, knowing his father's tendency to keep information about everything no matter how minute or irrelevant on the Batcomputer, for his father's abundant talent in investigations and martial arts he seems to lack the ingenuity when it comes to names, at least it's straightforward.
Damian walked towards his bedroom window, peering outside and seeing the butler, the only butler Alfred trimming the hedges. He wonders how an old man has managed to survive this long in a city like this, at this point Damian thinks he may be an immortal, another mystery of this city but not the highest priority... for now.
Damian left his room and walked through the manor. Tradition, heritage and wealth exude from every pore of the building. Paintings, vases and some small sculptures are located in almost every hallway of the manor and considering the size of the manor there are a lot of hallways. As Damian walks through the manor he can't help but wonder what are the intents of the hourglass beings. The moth seems benevolent but the monkey is more of an unknown and assuming those two are working together makes the moth an unknown as a result as well, so back to square one. Then there's the crater which added more complexity than he desired.
"So this is what Richard meant by things becoming more complex and convoluted whenever Father leaves the city," Damian said to himself.
Damian walks through the manor, arriving at one of the many living rooms the manor has and looks at one of the many paintings above a fireplace, this one being part of a tradition where Alfred commissions a family painting for the new year. This painting in particular consists of himself, his father, Richard and Alfred. Damian stares at the painting, pondering what to do. He could call Richard for help but decides against it, he wouldn't be able to live it down if he asked him for help. The other brother he wouldn't be able to approach in the first place to ask. So it's between him and Barbara to solve this case. To be honest? He prefers it like this, Barbara is one of the few people he considers to be intelligent and tolerable to begin with. However, waiting for Barbara to come to the Batcave after work will take some time.
Ben woke up feeling sore and tired from sleeping on the sofa. "That was not pleasant," he said, stretching his arms. He checked his phone and realized that the battery had drained. He put the phone away and walked over to the window. As he peered outside, he noticed that it was already dark outside.
Looking at the supposed hideout, he saw that there were no more lorries but the number of people tripled. The people he saw were moving in groups of three, often repeating the same paths and overlapping with other trios. While moving, the trios would stop and look in certain directions, often shining a torch above them, behind certain objects, or at the roofs of other buildings. Whenever the light of the torch shone towards Ben's direction, he would quickly duck underneath the window to avoid being seen.
"Well that's odd," Ben thought "It's almost as if they're expecting something," looking at his Omnitrix, "let's hold off from transforming for now, don't want to attract too much attention right now," he said.
Ben made his way out of the building making sure he had the jacket he took, still on. Weaving through the abandoned streets while trying not to arouse suspicion was harder than expected, especially with Ben's history of stealth.
Whilst on the streets Ben kept on hearing mention of The Bat. Which he assumes is a person but in his experience, it may as well be a bat.
"It's good to know this place has a hero, it needs it. Maybe I could help them while I'm here a city this messed up needs all the help it can get," Ben thought to himself.
Making his way to the warehouse Ben noticed something about the gang members, they all had weapons. Well, gang members normally have weapons, but these were the ones he saw Colonel Rumlow's soldiers use regularly.
"This is concerning and the fact that that all of them have a gas mask doesn't help," he thought.
Getting closer to the warehouse Ben can see how heavily guarded the base is. "That's a lot of people, I can count at least thirty people at the front. How do I get in?" he whispered to himself as he hid behind the building.
Whilst contemplating this Ben couldn't notice a small shadowy figure making their way into the warehouse through the roof. After watching the base, Ben realised something. The guards were getting tired; their patrols were getting slower, they weren't thorough in their checks and their responses began to slow down. All results of them being tired he assumes.
"No matter how good their security is, doesn't change the fact that they're not professionals and extremely tired," Ben thought.
Using this to his advantage Ben slowly crept towards the warehouse hiding behind the occasional crate and barrel on his way. Deciding not to go through the front entrance Ben made his way to the side of the warehouse. When he got there he found an open window.
Hoisting himself up and through the window. Ben quickly hid behind a pile of storage crates.
Looking at the interior of the warehouse Ben saw that there was a multitude of crates all stacked on top of each other and in rows. Weaving in and out of these rows he saw more gang members but their weapons were different, sure it were the same type as the ones he saw outside but they seemed to be augmented; there were parts added to them, and wires and cables could be seen on the outside connecting to various parts of the gun but that didn't worry Ben. After all, he spent his life dealing with alien tech so augmented human tech didn't worry him as much even though it may be alien technology that has been used. It doesn't change the fact that human weaponry doesn't give much for the augments to improve on, in comparison to alien weaponry. However, one thing did worry Ben upon seeing the augments. The colour and type of technology that was used as augments, some were a shade of maroon and some were a dark red. Upon looking at the augments something about them seemed similar, so similar he instinctively reached for the Omnitrix but stopped himself when he brought the watch into his view.
Returning to his survey of his surroundings Ben saw a staircase to a mezzanine floor above to which he saw a room and wooden boards pushed against the edges of the mezzanine acting as a barrier. Looking at the room in the mezzanine he noticed that there was a window and the door was open. Allowing him to see the light coming out of the room and from the multiple shadows he saw he knew that there were people in the room.
Damian in his Robin suite on a rooftop looking over Chinatown. He knows that today is supposed to be a reconnaissance mission but he also knows that the likelihood of it going wrong is incredibly high. Turning on his earpiece "Batgirl, have you got any information for me?" he asked.
"Alright...looking at security cameras around the area there should be a warehouse south of you that should be abandoned but judging by past security footage in the surrounding area something is going on," Barbara replied.
"Copy Robin out," said Damian as he grappled into another building.
As he makes it to the warehouse Damian can't help but look at the streets below. Seeing how the streets slowly change from busy and bright to dark and empty. How the civilians are slowly replaced with gang members all with military-grade weapons. Adding to the urgency of this mission, if he fails then this gang will increase in size with more weapons harming more and more innocent people and he won't allow that in his city, his responsibility, in his Gotham. Not realising how similar how similar he is to his father he sees the warehouse.
Perched on top of the building he looks over at the warehouse. Clearly showing signs of activity, looking closer he sees that it's gang activity and by looking at the people outside and by the way their moving. It seems that they are expecting him or any member of his family to come across this warehouse. Smirking at the challenge he makes his way towards the warehouse, descending the building much like a cat.
Although the guards had the right idea when it came to patrolling they were not professional whatsoever. They were lazy in their checks, too loud in their approach and their timings were all too predictable. He faced this level of difficulty when he was a child in the League of Assassins. Easily slipping through the guards he made his way to the roof and entered through a roof window and nesting on the rafters.
He surveyed the area noting the mezzanine and the amount of crates there was on the ground floor. He then saw the weaponry the gang members had within the warehouse. They were military-grade but augmented with something, that was unlike any of the technology he had seen at all. Pressing his earpiece, he whispers "Batgirl start recording the footage through my mask,"
"Understood see any—What is that on the gun Damian?" asked Barbara worry evident in her voice.
"I don't know," said Damian "But we have to take down this gang quickly,"
"I'll try to see if I can get any clues on what those augments are on my end. Barbara out," replied Barbara urgency filling her voice.
Looking at the mezzanine Damian sees that there are people in the room located on the mezzanine. Making his way to the mezzanine and landing on top of the room trying to listen in on the people in the room.
"You sure that this thing can make our weapons stronger?" a gruff voice asked.
"Yes," replied a flat voice "We already did the testing,"
"You Blues are always crafty," replied the gruff voice.
"And you Yellows are always simple brutes," countered the flat voice.
"And the Reds?" the gruff voice asked.
"You know the answer, their snivelling cowards," the flat voice huffed "Their assistance would've been useful, the Bats are starting to close in on us and the rumours going around about these new... obstacles are not helping at all,"
"You're not wrong there," the gruff voice agreed reluctantly.
After hearing this Damian moved along the rafters to get a better vantage point. Once he positioned himself, he saw another person. Judging by his attire he was part of one of the gangs, the yellow one going off his jacket but unlike the other ones with the augmented weapons he had nothing; no weapons or armour whatsoever.
"Great I'll have to save a lowlife," Damian muttered to himself.
Looking from his vantage point Damian looked for an opportunity to pounce. Looking for a chance to exploit a weakness; a guard too slow in their patrol or not observant enough but he couldn't find anything. The drastic change in quality between the people outside and inside was noticeable.
"Maybe they're higher up in the gang hierarchy, maybe they got more training or experience" Damian pondered.
Shaking the thought Damian observed the patrol pattern.
Seven guards.
Four occupy the four corners of this building patrolling the perimeter but only doing so when another guard meets up with them. Two minutes to cross, sides parallel to each other moving in sync. Taking one of them out will have his presence exposed sooner rather than later.
Two patrolling the centre, constantly weaving in and out of the made labyrinth of crates. Often meeting up with each other, timing is not consistent but ranges from one to three minutes depending on where they are. Logical targets but places a timer on his actions.
One by the stairs of the mezzanine, never moving. In constant line of sight by at least one member. Won't be preferable to ambush, will be caught almost immediately.
Then there's the random lowlife, movement based on avoiding the guards. Relies on crates to obscure lines of sight, and shows some understanding of stealth but not on the same level as his own family.
Upon deliberation, Damian assumes his best bet is to target the central guards when they are farthest from each other, then to move on the perimeter and catch two guards at once. He could go straight for the mezzanine but too many unknowns on what's in the room.
He could go for the unarmed lowlife but it seems like a waste of time and deems the lowlife as not a threat.
Having assistance would be preferable as it would be easier to deal with the potential threats but he's alone, this is not the first time and it certainly won't be the last. All he has to do is wait for the perfect moment for everything to line up, either that or a distraction to break the pattern ever so slightly for him to pounce.
Almost on cue, he sees one of the perimeter guards catch the lowlife, his interrogation breaking up the pattern allowing him to do his work, Damian wondered to himself the odds of something that specific occurring at that time. As he slinks into the darkness.
Ben wonders if this universe hates him as well, he wonders if his ability to have the universe bend over backwards to screw him over is something innate, something the Celestialsapiens gave him as a caveat to him having access to Alien X, something the universes have a pact between each other to put him in situations like these constantly or he is just that unlucky.
After all, he spent all this time being sneaky, double checking every step he takes, taking it slow, not transforming right away and more just to walk into one, not even facing the guards but walking into one whilst walking backwards.
So here he is being interrogated by the guard or so he thinks, his current embarrassment at himself is taking more precedence than the guard questioning him. He can already picture Kevin laughing at him hunched over almost breaking into a coughing fit, Gwen scolding him for such an outward expression but holding in a snicker herself, Rook just facepalming at the rookie mistake he made and Grandpa just amused at the situation that he gets himself into. It hasn't even been a week and he misses all of them this much.
"Oi! Look at me when I'm talking to runt!" the guard snaps at him.
Breaking Ben out of his stupor. Ben reasses his situation. He's currently being interrogated by one of the guards who is waving one of the augmented guns around.
"What are you doing here?" the guard asks.
"Can I not be here?" Ben tries to ask innocently, but seemingly only angers the guard more.
"Of course, you can't be here you idiot, where you not here in the morning for the talk Boss gave us?" the guard questions.
"Uhh no, I wasn't here for that. Was ill in the morning but I'm here now ready to do my job," Ben responds.
"Even then you should kno-" the guard stops mid-speech realising something. Pushing the gun to Ben's head, "Who are you and what are you doing here, tell me now before I blast your skull to bits!" the guard said.
Ben raises his hand in response to having a gun pointed at his skull not too worried as if the failsafe work against the Big Bang it should work against a gun. Taking this time he analyses the gun's augments. He now knows what about the augments were so familiar. They were Vilgaxian in origin. Ben's face darkens.
"Where did you get that?" Ben quietly asks.
"Huh?" the guard responds.
"Where did you get that tech," Ben orders.
"Shut up kid! I give the orders and ask the questions. Now answer them before your brain is found all over this room," the gang member says.
Ben slowly moves his arms in front of him. His right arm slowly met up with his left. The watch on his left arm slowly wiring to life. A dull green light emits from the wrist. The unease on the gang member's face slowly turned to panic as his finger tensed around the trigger, slowly squeezing it.
Bang!
A vibrant green light filled the room.
"Where did you get those augments?" a new voice asked.
The voice was deeper than Ben's. The words have a slight edge to them not as sharp as one would describe a knife made of metal but sharp in the sense that it was a crystalline knife being used rigid, fluctuating slightly but sharp nonetheless.
Replacing Ben was now a tall humanoid seemingly made of crystal, with literal spikes coming out his back. He was wearing some sort of green and black outfit. He now towered over the gang member. His pupilless yellow glowing eyes locked onto the gang member's eyes.
"Now it's my turn to ask the question," Ben asks as he spits out a bullet, clearly the bullet the gang member shot, "where did you get those augments," said Ben in his crystalline form.
"I don't know, I swear," the guard stuttered.
"Of course, you don't" Ben sighed, "the henchmen never do,".
"I ain't no henchmen," the guard tries to respond.
"Eh, you're doing the same job as one," Ben counters looking at the room on top of the mezzanine "I bet the leaders of this operation would be there, now what to do with you?" mused Ben looking at the gang member in front of him.
The gang member in front of Ben began to fidget uncomfortably unsure of what was going to happen to him. Ben raised his left arm. The guard flinched and was promptly knocked out by Ben hitting the gang member on the top of the head.
"Heh, that was easy," Ben admitted.
Knowing the nature of the Omnitrix and how unsubtle it can be sometimes, Ben knew he didn't have long until someone else came to see what the flash of vibrant green in a dark damp warehouse was caused by but if they did come what are they going to do to him as Diamondhead?
Sure their guns have been augmented by Vilgaxian tech, but it's still human tech at the end of the day. It's essentially like adding a jet engine to a bicycle, the bike would go faster but the limitations of the bike wouldn't allow you to use the full potential of the car engine without breaking the bike itself. So Ben had nothing to worry about really all he had to do is walk up to the leader of this gang and kick his ass.
Simple.
No extravagant plans to take over the world to foil, no alien politics and laws to tiptoe around. Just a simple mission.
Making his way to the mezzanine through the labyrinth of crates Ben made his way to the stairs of the mezzanine seeing the guard situated at the bottom of the stairs. Ben looked up at the room at the top of the mezzanine seeing two people come out of the room. The first one was the mountain of a human being he met earlier and behind him was another man looking eerily similar to that one professor at Gwen's university but more hunched and skinnier, the name of the professor Ben couldn't remember her name for the life of him.
"What the hell is that!" the skinny man proclaimed.
"I don't know but whatever that thing is will regret coming here," the bulky man said, "Oi you!" he said pointing at the guard at the base of the stairs, "Shoot him!"
Ben now looking at the guard pointed his gun at him. Unfazed by him. Ben pointed at the guard's head and shot a blunt crystal at his head knocking him. Making his way up the stairs Ben eyed the bulky man dig his hands in his pockets and taking out and putting on a pair of metal knuckle dusters.
"You know in these situations you guys should surrender," Ben told the buff man imitating him, "but then again you guys are never the smartest,"
The buff man was irritated by Ben's taunting "Oh yeah?, Well I don't think you're the smartest to walk into my base and come up to me and act like I won't beat you black and blue," he said.
He ran up to Ben throwing a wild haymaker. Ben ducked and returned with a punch to the face followed by a push kick sending the buff man to the railings of the mezzanine. The buff man charged at Ben attempting to tackle him. Forming spikes at the bottom of his feet Ben met the tackle head-on, not moving an inch. The man looked up seeing Ben's taunting smirk.
"Told you," Ben said as he forced his way out of the grasp of the muscular man, "You're not the smartest" before forcing the man to be upright with his arms before headbutting him, promptly knocking him.
Ben walked to the skinnier guy, who obviously was afraid of him "You however seem smart, so if you don't want to be knocked out like macho man over there," he said pointing to the knocked-out man on the floor, "Where did you get the tech for the augments,"
The skinny man stuttered "Well we found the—" A bird-like throwing star whizzed across his face imbedding itself into the doorframe.
Ben turning in the direction the object was thrown from saw a child. A child in a red and black suit with a hood that turns into a cape. His face, obscured by a domino mask and an improvised face mask from the front of his hood cape. Looking at the kid's posture, he was perched on top of the railing one hand holding the railing aiding him in balance and the other grasping the hilt the hilt of his sword. His body, tense ready to react to any sign of hostility whatsoever.
"You will answer my questions now."
A/N
Hey, guess I am back. Sorry it took so long but heres the second chapter. Originally when I said I don't know if I can keep a consistent upload schedule this is what I mean to an extent.
But I have some good news to share, I will try and complete the first arc(if its even called an arc when it comes to stories) before deciding to stop as judging by the gap between ch1 and 2 it can seem like I decided to give up on the fic.
Onto the bad-ish? news i guess, I don't know how long it will take me to complete the first arc especially since I don't have a consistent schedule in mind or to follow but I hope you lot stick for the ride.
Constructive critisism is always wanted,needed and appreciated. I hope to see you in the next one.