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]

The docks? Damn, looks like the brat's efforts hadn't even kept the area clean long - probably too much to hope it was just Two-Face trying to regain his foothold, he's sure, meaning that there's yet another power vacuum to investigate. "Send Rusty in for a report tonight. I want to know who and what we've got by this time tomorrow." He waves him away.

Jason turns to the rest of his lieutenants. "First order of business- we get Dent out of the drugs," he starts without preamble. "I'll take care of the school dealers myself, but we're going to cut this off at the head, and to do that, I need to know where the hell he's getting his smack. This has never been his game, and no way he's put this line together from scratch, which means he's either taken over existing methhouses or started importing. Maybe a little of both. So we're going to figure out who the hell is supplying him and put them out of business."

"Second. I don't like this arms shit he's got going down. We're up in drive-bys and we've got a lot of upstart idiots with shiny new AK-47s on the edge of our territory. I want our guys to set up a buy and find out who he's got in charge of this stuff. No one does anything until I figure out who and where we're taking out - we do this all at once or we'll be chasing the leftovers for months."

"Now, reports, everyone."

[newoutsiders]

"Well, maybe this won't surprise no one," one lieutenant says, "But my nephew says there are two strains of the drugs. Pretty much identical in every way, but one's basically baby aspirin, and one's got a kick like, ba-BOOM. And ya never know which you're gonna get."

"Now that you bring it up, boss," another lieutenant pipes up, "the sputniks over at the Dimitrov family used to do a lot of meth stuff around here. But between Batman and, uh, vigilantes, they been closing shop. Two-Face could be, heh, expediting the process."

Your other lieutenants murmur in agreement, and swap some pretty tasteless Russian jokes.

[exdeadexrobin]

Oh, great. OD in a bottle. This just keeps getting better and better. He raps his knuckles against the table, half to help him think and half to interrupt the charming digression. "Anyone got any contacts there we can use, or am I going in myself?"

[newoutsiders]

"I used to," says one guy unhelpfully, "But, uh, you-know-who picked 'em up a while back. They're in for a nickel at Blackgate."

The others all kind of look towards each other, each expecting someone else to speak up.

[exdeadexrobin]

Jason sighs. "I'll check it out myself. Just get me anything you have. Anyone else have anything to report?"

[newoutsiders]

"Profits all around are up!" your money guy says, happy to report some good news. "We haven't had any, ah, unexpected drop-ins or seizures in the last month."

"Hey, maybe we should think about expanding ourselves," one lieutenant jokes.

[exdeadexrobin]

He snorts. "Yeah, well, who knows? Might be adding the Docks to our territory, depending how this pans out." He waves a hand, standing. "Darin. Let's keep to the usual profit split for now - funnel the excess to a separate account, we might need it in reserve for the Two-Face shit. I'll figure out who gets what once that's fallen out. Donny, I want the undercover lineup by tomorrow night - we need that gun buy set up ASAP here. Bel, I'll pay a visit to the cop's been harassing your girls. And anyone, keep a fucking ear out for whatever's been happening at the Docks - we're catching this one early."

"Meeting over. I got shit to do."

[newoutsiders]

Everybody files out of the room, patting Darin on the back on the way out for lightening the mood. He's a hero tonight.

"Oh, and Boss," one of the lieutenant's capos- Van, you believe, one of Donny's- turns around after everyone else has left. "The coin landed bad face up."

Van opens his left palm, shooting a column of flame at you.

[exdeadexrobin]

"Sh-" Jason dives for cover, reaching for his gun. If he can get it, he'll aim a spray of bullets at his assailant.

[newoutsiders]

You grab your gun from inside your coat, as the column goes wide. Van turns around and seals the door with a blue hot flame from his index finger.

"Two-Face may have sent me, but I want you to know your killer," he says. "My name is Cover Fire. And it's the last you'll ever hear."

[exdeadexrobin]

Crouched behind the smoldering wood of his conference room table, it occurs to Jason that he will perhaps have to move quickly. Gun in one hand, he reaches in his jacket for a smoke bomb. "One question."

He pulls the pin and lobs the smoke bomb towards the ex-capo. "Really? All the good fire names taken?"

[newoutsiders]

The smoke bomb hits his raised right arm, and fills your half of the room with an opaque gray.

"If you're such an expert on fire guys, why would you use a smoke bomb? I breathe this stuff!"

From an extended left palm, he shoots a volley of fireballs at your conference table to get you into the open.

[exdeadexrobin]

"I'm just saying, I'm not feeling it." Conference table now in open flames, Jason takes a cautious breath, testing how the breathing filter on his helmet is holding up against the smoke quickly filling the room. Yeah, it's time to move. "Maybe if you had actual fire guns or something?" He returns fire at Van, strafing deeper into the concealment of the smoke.

[newoutsiders]

He walks towards you and raises his right arm again, as if holding up a buckler shield. The bullets ricochet right off the air in front of him.

"Not that kind of cover."

He fires at you again, from his left hand.

[exdeadexrobin]

"Agggh!" Damn it. Jason manages to avoid most of the jet, but part of it still comes close enough to send searing pain across his right shoulder. The good news, at least, is that this flame seems... colder, than the one before. This plan might work yet. "Okay..."

Jason rolls to the side, gritting his teeth behind his helmet. He drops his gun as he does so. Damn.

"I'll admit..."

Jason stands cautiously, fumbling in his jacket with his good arm for another smokebomb.

"It's better... than 'Firefly'."

[newoutsiders]

The bomb lets loose as Cover Fire snickers and prepares another blast. The flame only makes it halfway to you before it sputters out.

"Oxygen's running low. Cutting down on my flames. Smart move, Hood."

He pulls out an uzi from his coat.

"But I'm still a capo, remember?"

[exdeadexrobin]

Jason drops to the ground and rolls, at the same time pulling a bolo from his jacket and flinging it at Van's legs.

[newoutsiders]

The bolo hits its mark, and Van cushions a fall to the ground with his right arm. He flexes his leg, snapping himself free, and starts getting up.

[exdeadexrobin]

The good news about leather is that it's not terribly flammable, especially when you've got kevlar woven body armor right beneath it. He knows it's a gamble, but it's the best shot he's got right now- Jason dives across the room and grabs for Van's gun.

[newoutsiders]

Van fires at you again as he scrambles to the wall, hoping to get you in close proximity. He does, and it hurts pretty bad- but you have his gun now.

"Another time, 'Boss,'" he says to you. "And next time, Two-Face will be ready for you."

He leans his right arm against the wall, blowing open a man-sized hole to the outdoors. He makes for a two-toned car with his right arm behind his back.

[exdeadexrobin]

Jason has enough presence of mind left to fire the gun at Van's retreating figure, not that it really comes terribly close. After Van is out of sight, Jason hurriedly pushes himself up - the blast of oxygen had brought several flames back to life - and limps through the hole. He hurts basically everywhere right now, but the full body protection did its job well enough - it's not the worst burn he's ever had. Not the worst nonfatal one, even. But he'll be spending some time at his nearest safehouse with some antibiotic cream before figuring out whether or not to track down a sufficiently bribeable doctor.

... ironically, he could really use a cigarette right now.

[newoutsiders]

You make it back to your safehouse in one piece. The conference room is no big loss- it's not like you didn't expect to move around if you got infiltrated. It comes with the job.

Your burns hurt, but they appear superficial. They'll heal in time, and might not even leave scars if you're lucky.

[exdeadexrobin]

All right. Well, he's alive and mostly intact - he's going to count this one as a win, considering the circumstances. He downs a few painkillers and gives bed some serious consideration before realizing exactly how much he doesn't want to wake from those particular memories with fresh burns everywhere.

He calls up Donny.

[newoutsiders]

"Go for Donny," says a gruff voice on the phone.

[exdeadexrobin]

"Something came up with the arms shit, " he says. "Not gonna risk prying ears, we need to meet. I'll be at the warehouse on 7th and Peterson in 15. Don't be late."