Wizards? In Gotham?
It was supposed to be a quiet night. Not that a night is ever truly quiet in Gotham. Most known supervillains were already locked away in Arkham from earlier encounters in the past few weeks, and with the cold front and snowstorm escorting the upcoming winter holidays, most sane civilians wouldn’t be out committing petty crimes.
Most doesn’t mean all, though; and on a rooftop, overseeing the few civilians out of their homes despite the dreary and cold weather, sat Nightwing and Red Robin, watching the streets below for any sign of someone in need of help.
“Hey, Nightwing. Don’t think we’re gonna be seeing much on this side of town in this kind of weather. Maybe we should check the docks, then head back in for the night, yeah?” Red Robin; rather, Tim Drake; asked quietly, teeth chattering from the cold as he spoke.
“Hood is patrolling that area tonight. Something about an illegal weapons shipment from overseas, I think.” Nightwing;rather, Dick Grayson; replied. It was obvious the cold was getting to him also, despite his best efforts to hide it. Before he could speak any further, a flash of movement and color from the street below caught his attention.
On the street below, a familiar young boy raced after a shadowed figure, giving chase as his cape streamed out behind his red uniform. He didn’t appear to see the two figures on the rooftop above as he gave chase.
“Robin. Report.” Nightwing’s finger went to his ear to activate his comm-link to the boy on the street. Without waiting for a response, he vaulted off the roof with a flip, landing safely on the ground below before turning and joining in the pursuit of the shadowed figure.
“Grayson! This fool has stolen from the magician woman and has insulted my honor. I will take him down, I do not require your assistance in this matter.” Robin; rather, Damian Wayne; exclaimed angrily as he skidded around the corner into the dead-end alley they had chased the figure into. “I can take care of myself- huh?”
Both pursuers slowed to a stop in shock, peering into the empty alleyway. From the roof, Red Robin neatly jumped down to join his companions on the ground. By the way he was also looking around in shock and confusion, he had clearly been giving chase from the rooftops.
“Where did…?” Nightwing thought aloud, walking farther into the alley in search of any signs of disturbances left by the figure they had been pursuing. Upon finding nothing in his brief search, he returned to his two brothers, who had started arguing about how the figure had gotten away.
“This is your fault, Drake. If you were watching from the rooftops, you should have seen which way he went!” Robin huffed petulantly, crossing his arms in annoyance.
“Names in the field” Red Robin complained snarkily, clear he was only actually slightly annoyed. As Nightwing approached them, he turned to the older man to ask. “Did you end up finding anything?”
“No,” Nightwing replied, pausing to take a breath. “But we should probably ask Zatanna what was stolen from her. Did you happen to see what they grabbed?” As he turned to face the group’s youngest, Red Robin pulled away slightly and pulled out his holographic computer display, hacking into nearby security cameras in search of any clues.
“Some kind of gemstone, though I know not what its purpose is.” Robin spoke evenly, but it was obvious to the two by the anger in his tone he was still upset about losing his target. “Why was the magician in Gotham anyways? Does she not reside elsewhere?” When he spoke this time, the anger had given way to half-concealed confusion.
“At the Justice League meeting last week, she mentioned an unusual spike in magical energies in Gotham recently. She’s been staying in that hotel to monitor it as a precautionary measure.”
Robin seemed dissatisfied by the explanation but made no move to ask more. Instead, he turned to Red Robin, who had closed his projected computer in annoyance. “Well?” The young boy demanded.
“Nothing.” Red Robin replied, looking pensive. “All of the cameras that should have caught him malfunctioned as soon as he got closer to them. Do you think he might have some kind of localized EMP tech or metahuman ability, maybe?”
“Could be.” Nightwing seemed to think for a moment before turning back to Robin. “Was Zatanna there when you caught him stealing? We should regroup with her for more information.”
“She was not present at the time.” Robin confirmed. As he went to say more, he was interrupted by all three vigilantes’ comm-link crackling to life in their ears.
“Yo. Losers.” A voice called over the link. “Get to the docks ASAP. I need backup, and I think you’ll want to see this when you get here.”
As the comm-link went silent once again, the three exchanged looks before taking off in the direction of the docks.
As the trio got closer to their destination, they were flagged down by the man who had called them there to begin with, hiding behind a shipping container next to a dock warehouse. Standing there and motioning them to keep quiet was the Red Hood, also known as Jason Todd.
“What’s going on, Hood?” Nightwing asked as he jumped down to join the man behind the shipping container, his two companions dropping down soon after.
“If I knew that, I wouldn’t have called you for backup.” The helmeted man replied sarcastically, gesturing the three to follow him closer towards the warehouse. As they pulled up next to a shadowed window in the back, they opened the window silently, listening in on the figures inside.
“-excellent progress. Things are going just as the Dark Lord has planned, aside from some… minor complications.” A cold, accented voice tinged with satisfaction drifted through the open window.
“What kind of bloody lunatic gives a child a sword? That brat nearly threw off our operation completely when he caught me there!” A different voice, significantly more angry than the other spoke up.
“Silence, Avery. We will speak of your failure to remain unseen later. For now, we have much more work to do here.” A third voice. This one appeared to be in charge by the tone of his voice alone, giving an aura of twisted leadership as he spoke. The four vigilantes exchanged looks, clear by their matching expressions of grim determination they all knew things were bad without even having to say a word.
“Who do we approach first?” Asked the cold voice they had first heard upon listening in. “All we were instructed to do was to recruit these… supervillains… to the Dark Lord’s cause. As far as I can tell, none of them will be of use to us if they get caught and restrained that easily by a glorified costume party.”
“Recruitment? I thought this was supposed to be a weapons shipment.” Red Hood muttered quietly to the group. “And who is this… dark lord? Is there anything in the Batcomputer’s databases about a villain by that name?” At his words, the group all turned to Red Robin, who was already pulling out his holographic computer to check.
“There’s nothing in the files. Either they’re giving their boss a nickname, or this is someone new. From what I can tell by their accents, it’s likely and overseas villain from England is trying to recruit the villains here.” As he put the computer away, he frowned, deep in thought. “We should alert the police department and Arkham that new villains might be looking to stage a breakout at the asylum, just in case.” As the group nodded their assent to the plan, they noticed it was quiet.
Too quiet.
“Well, what do we have here? A group of eavesdroppers listening in where they are unwanted.”
“When did-“ As the vigilantes startled, looking around in surprise to where the voice had come from, they noticed they had been surrounded without any of them noticing.
With nowhere to run, the four braced for a fight.