[CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/9PGM5Xe.png[/IMG][/CENTER] [b]Gotham City, Dini Plaza The Bowery 1:00 AM[/b] [color=#6d9eeb]"S-Stay away! Stay the hell back or I'll cut the bitch! Believe me, I'll do it!"[/color] [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/LK674wA.png[/IMG] It’s not that I don’t believe him. I just don’t happen to have enough faith in the combat capabilities of a trembling seventeen-year-old holding a switchblade to a woman’s face in order to hesitate in my attack. The kid is right to be scared out of his mind, given I already knocked his associates unconscious, but the all-consuming need he has to put distance between us through an empty threat makes him vulnerable in ways that he cannot even begin to comprehend. The woman’s safety is barely in question as I can already tell that her captor is green. Hasn't brought himself to kill, much less wound, to survive living in Gotham. So in the best way that I know how, I try and let him off with warning. [b][color=DimGray]"I'm going to put this delicately…"[/color][/b] Immediately throwing the cloak infront of me to cause him to flinch, I seize the given opening and grab the hand carrying the knife. The kid loses all interest in his captive, who looks at me with the same gaze of horror and quickly flees into the shadows while clutching her purse. He struggles as I lift him off of the ground by his own arm, kicking and panicking as I lean in. The expression on my face making my displeasure more than clear enough to turn his complexion pale. [b][color=DimGray]“If you or your friends so much as [i]think[/i] about pulling a stunt like this in the future? Consider me the reason to remind yourself not to.”[/color][/b] Just as the kid starts to think that he’s in the clear, I reach up with my other hand and easily rip the switchblade from his grasp. Reeling back to go in for a stabbing motion, I wait until he cries out and shields his face before thrusting the knife forward. To his surprise, he looks back up to find it embedded in the brick of the wall he’s pinned against. Inches from his face. [sub][color=#6d9eeb]"Holy fucking shit!"[/color][/sub] [b][color=DimGray]"Indeed."[/color][/b] With a hard precision kick to the face, I send the back of his skull colliding into the wall. His eyes roll to the back of his head as he hits the ground, out cold and hopefully having learned a serious lesson: Never try and pull a knife on someone in the dead of night in Gotham. It only ever ends one way. Letting out a quiet sigh, I survey the alleyway behind me, freshly littered with unconscious bodies. I should almost feel relieved, all things considered, to have dealt with such a considerably low threat as this. Ever since the Five Families began clenching their remaining operations closer to the chest following their lieutenants ending up in GCPD lockup, subsequently forcing them to rethink their distribution strategies, Alfred and I have been putting in a more considerable effort in trying to uncover their next move. Which has dealt the unexpected consequence of driving my attention away from the smaller crimes. Of course, there are other things threatening Gotham than just the mob, lately. Firing a grapple line up to a nearby rooftop, I ascend into the shadows and leap, spreading my cape outwards so that I can easily vault over the scaffolding without error and land into a running sprint. The entire purpose of dividing up my routine patrol tonight was to allow the time to strengthen Ace’s signal as it began a citywide search for the known components linked to two metahuman fugitives. Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze. So far, I’ve been coming up with nothing of note. An earlier sweep of The Narrows, where I fought an Ivy-controlled Jessica Jones, produced no apparent remaining trace of the pheromone extract that I suspect Ivy used to initiate the manipulation of Jones’ will in the first place. Meaning that the extract was likely concocted to dissolve with time, rendering it untraceable if not immediately noticed. And in the case of Freeze, there appears to be no discernable temperature drop in any area of the city that seems out of place. Grocery freezers, meat packing plants, produce lockers. But nothing big enough to hide a seven foot suit of technologically advanced cryogenic armor, nevermind it’s occupant. Grappling up to a gargoyle overlooking the skyline of the financial district, I land into a perch and stare outwards, hoping for any lead to pop up in the ongoing scan of the city. I’ve already began to hate this feeling. Knowing that these types of individuals with special abilities are out there. Hoping that I can even devise some method of capturing them. Doubting myself in the face of the unknown. None of it feels right, chasing these larger-than-life extrapolations of the common criminal. When I created The Batman, I did so under the impression that no one would even think of going to the very same and particularly extreme lengths of theatricality that I would. The knowledge of having this advantage against my enemies instilled me with a certain amount of confidence. An unshakable determination to hound the thugs that had oppressed Gotham for decades back to whatever hole they originally crawled out of. This is something entirely different. And I’m not sure how to handle any of it, beyond pressing forward and hoping for the best. Likely an approach that’s going to get me killed, but I don’t have any other options left. It isn’t as though I could have trained to anticipate an evolutionary phenomena, or however one would classify the metahuman uprising. With a frustrated grunt, I raise my gauntlet and press the button to open up the secure channel linked to my cowl’s earpiece. Maybe Alfred’s had better luck than I have in tracking down these perversions of science. I only know how to work so many angles on my own. [b][color=DimGray]"Tell me you've found something."[/color][/b] [color=8882be][i]"Nothing of interest on the surveillance feed, Bruce. Just the usual string of petty thefts and drunken brawls that one has grown so very accustomed to in regards to the Gotham nightlife."[/i][/color] Dammit. [b][color=DimGray]"Keep looking. Ace hasn’t given me anything to work with, and I'm running out of ideas. Ivy and Freeze have evidently found a way to cover their tracks."[/color][/b] [color=8882be][i]"Will do, lad. And in the meantime?"[/i][/color] Standing atop the gargoyle, my cape billows out behind me as I prepare to make the leap. [b][color=DimGray]"Word on the street is that Maroni's got a small group of officers working the docks later tonight. Some kind of security detail on a shipment off the books. Until I can pick up a trace on the other two, I'll be staking that out. Could be something."[/color][/b] As I go to move for the dive, something unexpectedly drops onto my shoulder. At first, I think it’s just a passing flock of birds. But as I reach over to that shoulder and feel for it, I realize that whatever’s hit me is much denser. Thicker, almost of the same texture as… I pause, examining the substance in my palm. What the hell? [b][color=DimGray]"Clay?"[/color][/b] [b][color=#783f04]“Heh. Guess I tipped my hand a little too early, huh?”[/color][/b] Alarmed by the completely unexpected voice that originates from the very building that I’ve been perched against for the last minute, I immediately spin with knuckles raised in a defensive stance. But the sight that greets me is enough to completely turn that instinct on it’s head. I… have no idea what I’m looking at. But whatever it is, it’s growing. Fast. [b][color=#783f04]“When they busted me outta lock-up, they told me the only stipulation was that I had to go and kill a super. Seeing as how you’re the big man causing a scene around here, lately…”[/color][/b] [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/2yWsfAe.png[/IMG] [b][color=#783f04]“I’m guessing that means [i]you[/i].”[/color][/b]