Enter: Red Hood

[newoutsiders]

Perfect. Absolutely perfect. If there's one thing you can always count on, it's Batman ruining everything. Even when he's who-knows-where, the vacuum he doesn't even realize he's leaving rushes to fill up with garbage.

Two weeks ago, that kid of his kicked Two-Face out of Gotham Harbor. Great. Very nice for the harbor. A parade for Robin. But did he really think that would make things better for the city? Did he think Two-Face was just going to shrug his asymmetric shoulders and go, "Oh well, I guess I'll just take a smaller piece of the pie"?

No. He's going to expand elsewhere. Obviously. And that "elsewhere" is exactly where you don't want him.

After the last big gang war which left Black Mask in charge of everything, you showed up and redistributed. You've spent a long time pushing those dividers. Making crime controlled. Manageable. Keeping it away from the poor, hapless folks who don't go looking for it. And you've been more successful at it than Batman ever was, even with his whole "Matches Malone" shtick.

But now, Two-Face is questioning those borders he was never even meant to see. He's started expanding to racketeering small businesses. Arming otherwise harmless street gangs. And, if the rumors are true, Two-Face's outfit has begun breaking your number one rule: pushing drugs in schools.

It's time to send him a message. That's why you've called this meeting with your lieutenants. They're all waiting for your next move.

One of your men slinks into your conference room, and whispers a message to you. There's been an explosion down at the docks. One of your men, Rusty, has been undercover as a dockworker there. Batgirl was on scene- he didn't say which one. So many bats to keep track of these days. Rusty fired at her, but she got away. He did say that a tanker full of some weird, orange chemical arrived there and was driven away off the books, but then the explosion happened, and the guy who waved it out is laid up in the hospital.

Comments

[exdeadexrobin]

Jason... almost laughs. Damn, he's glad he'd checked that route out first. Using the Riddler's MO against him like that was clever - he's gotta wonder if old Eddie was in on that, or if it was a Paul original - he's usually got a weird sense of honor about this type of thing, but the dead rat does seem to cinch it.

"Hood Rat." He likes that one.

Well then. He's just making enemies all over the place this week, isn't he? But despite the loss of Rusty, it's looking like this little gambit's left him ahead - even if Pallbearer had spotted his bugs from earlier after all, he's still got the tracer on his car, and whatever else Aaron may know now working for him.

He lets Pallbearer leave for now. He can backtrack the tracker's trajectory later, and it's less risky than following him.

Besides, now that his friend Paul's gone back to the drawing board, Jason's gotta turn his priority to another problem.

He needs to find out what's up with this Meta Brawl thing. And there's only one way to do that.

He wonders if there's still tickets available for the next match.

[newoutsiders]

You wonder who to call to get into that sort of event. You can't just show up at Pearl's. Not after Bruce's visit last night. Charlie? Sweet kid, but as much as he pretends, he doesn't have any pull.

You might be best off calling one of your underbosses. Donny knew about Meta-Brawl, maybe the others know a way in.

[exdeadexrobin]

Roulette's big thing is gambling. Between the competition between Roulette's club and the Iceberg Lounge and gambling's general legality in Gotham, Jason doesn't do a huge amount with that. There are some shadier rings, sure - such as Roulette, obviously - but it's not a pot he's ever felt the need to do much with. But if there's one thing he knows, it's that gambling rings and money laundering have always gone well in hand.

He takes a few minutes to get somewhere reasonably secluded, then calls up Darin - he knows the man flat-out refuses to text.

"Got an interesting question for you, Dar."

[newoutsiders]

"Interesting questions are my specialty, Sir Robin," he says jovially. You tend to let that go, because his nickname for you is just a coincidence. Finding himself using his financial expertise to do community charity for once in his illustrious criminal career, Darin has taken to thinking of your organization as a band of merry men- robbing from the rich, giving to the poor, and carousing in between.

[exdeadexrobin]

Jason rolls his eyes at the nickname. The same old song and dance.

"Well, through a long and complicated series of events here... I've found myself needing a ticket to a certain Roulette special event. Meta Brawl. You've been in this game for a while, I know you've got some numbers in that Rolodex of yours. You have any idea how I might go about doing just that?"

[newoutsiders]

"Well," he laughs, "Funny you should mention that. I was just on my way to buy a pair of tickets to go with Lydia tonight. Last night's show was, er, 'rained out,' if you understand, but bless that Roulette, she always pulls out the big guns for the make up shows. Perhaps we could double date?"

Lydia, you know, is one of the newer girls under Bel. Darin's a fun guy, and very shrewd, but he has a bad habit of dating in house and half his age. He's always good to his dates, though, and knows how to take no for an answer- but the no rarely comes. He's a real charmer.

[exdeadexrobin]

"Is that so?" He rolls his eyes a little when Darin mentions Lydia, but he's largely lost his wariness here. Darin knows how to handle himself - fortunately enough, since, and Jason'll admit this one, he'd hate to lose him. He's too useful. "Well then, that sounds like a plan, doesn't it?"

[newoutsiders]

"Lovely! Dress nice, but bring the hood. They love a costume down there. Curtain call is traditionally midnight, but the festivities begin earlier. We'll be there at eleven. The entrance is in the back of that Sundollar where that nice French restaurant used to be. You know the one?"

[exdeadexrobin]

"I do. I'll meet you there."

... he's pretty sure he's still got a suit lying around.

[newoutsiders]

"Oh, one more thing," he says, as if it occurred to him at the last moment- but you know he's been meaning to bring it up since you called. "What do you have planned for lunch? I have a free day and would love to catch up."

This, of course, is Darin-speak for "it's time for our post-meeting budget plan." For a long time now, you and Darin meet privately the day after the first underboss meeting of the month. When it's been bad news, it happens in your office. When it's been good news, you usually go out to lunch.

[exdeadexrobin]

"I'm free. Meet at the usual place?"

[newoutsiders]

"Next stop after I get these tickets," he says. "See you there."

[exdeadexrobin]

"See you there." Jason hangs up, then takes a bit to head back to his place. He can't exactly show up all Hooded out here, and Darin's got a fairly singular level of trust as his organization goes. Jason stashes his helmet, then slips his mask off, replacing them with the usual pair of sunglasses. He trusts Darin, but there's a certain level of eye cover he likes to maintain whenever he's out on "business" like this. He removes any visible holsters and weapons, and then heads out to the meeting point.

[newoutsiders]

You arrive at Gotham Bistro before Darin has, and are greeted as you take a table. You take a menu from your waitress, Tammy. Darin makes his appearance before you even finish mentally comparing soups.

"Robin," he says perfunctorily, sliding into the seat across from you.

It's not entirely his fault. The nickname, that is. You never gave him your real one. You never give it to anyone. The boss has to keep some secrets.

[exdeadexrobin]

"Think I tell you every time to stop calling me that," he says, though there's no heat in it. He does find the nickname a bit annoying, but he's not about to push the issue enough to make Darin really question why exactly it bothers him.

It's harmless enough, he supposes. And he's not about to give out his real name.

"So, what's the full report?"

[newoutsiders]

"As I've said," he begins as he looks through his menu, "Our income has more than doubled over the past month. We're nearly reaching the projected estimates that would come with complete non-interference from the vigilante and rival factions. Now, other than maintenance, and paying the staff accordingly, I can safely say we have some room to increase the, er, 'community footprint offset' fund. I'm happy to say our latest Falstaff project to increase lighting in Robinson Park along the walkways is finished. It seems to already be decreasing the number of attacks in the area. So, that frees up some funding too."

"Falstaff projects" are public donations and efforts made to the city through your dummy benefactor, Gregorian Falstaff. Falstaff is a real person- former business mogul and senile recluse who lives in a loft in the financial district, and hasn't left it in 20 years. He signed power of attorney over to Darin years ago, so you've been using him as a smokescreen for those community improvement projects. The man's a goddamn hero at this point- almost as popular as Bruce. You and Darin share an inside joke about this, where he brings by invitations for Wayne Foundation fundraisers that are always getting mailed to Falstaff.

[exdeadexrobin]

Jason nods. He flips through the menu idly, though he's not paying overly much attention to the entries. "Things have been heating up with some of those 'rival factions' here. We've got the savings to absorb some expenses - that's what they're there for - but I'd rather play this one careful. Let's put an extra 5% into there. As for the rest?" He's silent for a moment, weighing it over. "They've been upping the gentrification in a lot of the old neighborhoods. We've got a lot of people out on the streets. I wanna find out where they're going, and make sure there's enough room for everyone. That's more to the shelters, but also just low income housing." He fidgets idly with the straw on his water. He's always doing something with his hands, when he's thinking. Darin might've noticed. "How's the women's shelter over in Central Heights been doing?"

[newoutsiders]

Darin nods. "Burnside's been moving out a lot of the lower class," he says, "But some of them are finding homes in Amusement Mile- either finding care under a few brave landlords, or squatting in boarded up buildings. Sorkin Street, in particular, seems to be where they're mostly headed. Worth looking into, maybe."

He winces a little.

"The shelter, I'm afraid... is sub-optimal. It's right in the territories Two-Face is expanding into, and I'm hearing it doesn't feel 'safe.' Either we move the shelter, or we push back."

[exdeadexrobin]

"Amusement Mile, huh?" He tears at the paper of the straw's wrapper. "You know if there's already anyone there trying to set up a low-income housing project we can fund, or if that's something we'll need to be more hands on with?"

Jason's expression flickers at the news of the shelter. He glances at his hands, taking his gloves off. He'd forgotten to earlier. The skin is pretty scarred up all over. Slowly, he says, "He's been pushing us pretty hard already. I'm not keen on rolling over. But you know my feelings on collateral here. We'll try to take back the territory, but won't win us anything to dig our heels in on this. It can't even be linked to us. We move the shelter."

[newoutsiders]

"Sir," he says, a little sardonically, "Come on. Of course I know." Darin always comes to these things prepared for almost anything you could ask of him. He can come off as kind of laid back, but he works harder than pretty much anyone. He pulls out a folder, profiling three landlords. "These three have been doing more for Amusement Mile than anyone, and could probably use some 'angel investors' to expand their operation. You might find one or two a little... surprising... but it looks legit to me."

He fans out the files. They're marked "KEENER, EZRA", "HAWKE, CONNOR", and "QUINZEL, HARLEEN".

"I know, I know," he says. "Ezra Keener, the pre-NML slumlord king. But it really seems like he's turned a corner. And, yeah, her."

[exdeadexrobin]

"I'm not giving money to fucking Harley Quinn," he says. He pulls the file towards him. "The other two look promising... Keener's really shaping up?" Jason flips through the files idly. "This looks like another Falstaff project. Make it happen. How much does that leave us?"

[newoutsiders]

He chuckles. Of course- that third suggestion was more of a joke than anything else. He does that sometimes. Like last month, when he suggested seriously taking a second look at Arkham. "They do great work!"

"Let's see..." he shuffles through the papers. "After moving the shelter... there's a good place in the Fashion District actually, a little pricey, but definitely safe... well, between our ongoing projects, payroll, and the war chest... I suppose that's it, really. I mean, we're rebuilding The Joker's old stomping grounds into a place hospitable for humans. I'd say that's a pretty big deal."

[exdeadexrobin]

"Yeah."

Jason stops, breaks off and just... laughs. It's a moment before he stops. He does not explain it.

After an additional moment's silence - and then the subsequent food order - Jason starts again, "Show me the plans for the place in the Fashion District. We don't exactly need a fortress, but I want to make sure they've got options if someone with a gun tracks anyone down."

[newoutsiders]

Darin takes your reaction in stride. It was a long time ago, but he's used to a boss prone to those sorts of outbursts.

"Building plans?" he humors you. "Now why would I have those on me? I'd have to be some kind of crazy person to just be carrying those around, expecting you to ask about them."

After placing his order as well, he produces the plans. It's a former sweatshop which had begun conversion into an apartment complex, but the funding fell through before it could be finished. It'll need some major development, but other than that, it's kind of perfect.

[exdeadexrobin]

Jason nods approvingly. "How soon can we have it finished?"