Red Robin #1 - New Cowl, New Case
Location - Gotham City, New Jersey.
Ramon Bach was one of the managing directors at Gotham's F.E.A.S.T. centre. The man had dedicated his entire life to helping those in need, spending the majority of his free time volunteering in soup kitchens, and taking part in various disaster relief efforts. Many like-minded people in the hellscape that is Gotham City would've had their spirit broken years ago as a result of the constant terror of Gotham's underworld, but not Ramon. He was one of the good ones, which is what made his tragic demise even more of a tragedy. He had just discovered that one of his co-workers at F.E.A.S.T had been skimming money from their donations, using it to fund one of the city's various crime lords.
Believing his co-worker would rectify his actions, Ramon had given him 48 hours to return the money he had stolen. Not even 24 hours later, Ramon Bach found himself lying in a pool of his own blood in his lowly apartment in the Narrows.
Years ago such a story would've come as a shock to Tim Drake, but after years of watching countless lives be lost in this city, he was sad to say he was unsurprised by the whole ordeal. He let out a small sigh from under his cowl, as he rose back to his feet and away from the corpse. Deciding to leave his personal question of when he had become so cynical until later, Tim set to work. If anyone was going to solve this case, it was the Red Robin.
He had arrived on the scene mere minutes after GCPD had received reports of gunfire coming from this apartment. The killer had been long gone by that point. It seemed they had left the same way that Tim had entered, through the ajar glass door leading to the apartment's cluttered balcony. That at least offered some clue into the culprit's identity. Given how high up this place was, it was clear that whoever the culprit was, either knew how to scale a six-story building or had come from the air. Adding how clean the shot was, it was clear that they knew what they were doing.
As Tim's mind pondered over Gotham's usual subjects, his index finger moved to the side of his cowl, activating its HUD. The graphical interface erupted into life around his eye line, as he scanned the room. The advanced forensics examination device had been one of Tim's more recent projects, and while nothing could beat the fine eye of a detective, it did a damn good job. That said, from that brief scan, a damn good job wasn't going to be good enough today. It seemed that the killer had also covered their tracks well. They were good.
The make of the bullet however was easy to discover. An experimental round from Kilgore Arms. Rare enough not to have been used by your common Gotham thug, yet common enough not to truly narrow down the exact user. But then there was the angle of the bullet wound itself. That was the real giveaway here. Using the angle, Tim could calculate the trajectory. Whoever fired it was around 5'6″ or 5′7″. They were shorter than Tim expected. That helped things though. He could definitely work with that.
The nearing sound of voices from the apartment building's corridor was the sign Tim needed to draw his forensic investigation to a close. That wasn't a problem though. He had all he needed. Quicking off his cowl's HUD, with a quick flick of his finger, the cape crusader slunk back into the shadows of the room. The apartment's door began to rattle as he moved, as the cops outside banged their fists against it loudly, shouting for the occupant to open up as they did so.
Earlier in his career as Robin, Tim may have been inclined to do so. He had believed in the system at that point. Now, after years of practice, Tim knew that it was best to just disappear instead. It was easier that way, just like his mentor had always said.
Plenty had changed since those early days as Robin. Previously he would've been here simply following the lead of his partner. Now, one new alias, and a significantly darker costume later, he was doing it all by himself. That meant finding his next lead all by himself. That was progress, right? Wasn't that what he wanted?
The banging on the door grew louder, shaking Tim out of his brooding.
Red Robin moved silently back out onto the balcony, rappelling away into the city skyline after a single shot from his grappling gun.
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