CHAPTER 31: Part 3 - "The End Of Innocence"

*Detective Rene Montoya, GCPD Headquarters

"I HAVE BEEN SET UP!" the musketeer dress criminal Cavalier shouted before being slammed into the ground by Rene.

Keeping her knee firmly against his back, she reached behind her and grabbed her extra pair of handcuffs. The primary pair was being worn by Eggmaster.

In comparison, Blackgate was being laid siege by what appeared to be mercenary groups, Major Crimes was dealing with loads of street gangs, and the GCPD got all the weirdo costume freaks.

Sometimes fact really was stranger than fiction in Gotham.

The attack against the GCPD had only lasted perhaps 20 minutes before swarms of officers overwhelmed the dozens of gimmicky crooks. It was actually kind of pathetic to see crooks armed with nothing more than bats, pistols, and minor meta abilities that typically were the equivalent of changing colors.

What did they expect would happen when they attacked the largest police station not only in the city but also in the world?

Rene secured Cavalier before handing him off to a couple of uniforms before taking a moment to lean against a squad car and take in the situation.

Before rushing to the GCPD HQ (it was closer to her apartment than Major Crimes), she had been working, reading the various Penguin Mob's paperwork on payrolls, tax sheets, and expenditures. So far the vast majority she had read had only been money transfers to restaurants, legal services, and so forth. She had written a few names down to further investigate but was not confident they would pan out.

Then the attacks broke out and every police operative in the city was called in.

From the street, 3 squad cars hopped the curve and drove into the small garden area that made up the front of GCPD HQ. From the middle car hopped out Commissioner Gordon.

Taking a moment to look around, Gordon gave a relieved smile as he walked over to her.

Rene gave a quick salute, "Commissioner."

Gordon shook his head, "At ease, and don't salute me."

He leaned against the car with her, "Looks like things are good here?"

"Ya, not sure why we got all the freaks in costumes but just glad it's mostly the rejects from Halloween stores." She sighed in relief.

"Hmmm," Gordon hummed.

They stayed there leaning against the car watching the various uniforms go about their work. Most were hopping in squad cars and rushing off to other parts of the city that had looting happening. A handful were off to Major Crimes to help relieve the officers there. It was Blackgate that Rene felt worried about.

"Should we be moving to the prison?" She asked.

Gordon took out a cigarette and lit it, "Our resident Bat is there and supposedly has already started routing the mercs. I also got the mayor to call the governor and the National Guard is sending troops in to help."

Rene felt her eyebrows raise, "How did you convince the mayor to do that?"

Gotham's mayor, Marion Grange was a tough if complex political ally to the GCPD. She had always made sure to ensure they were well funded but often was more interested in the political game that drove Gotham's government. Police matters and security were expected to be handled entirely by Gordon and his lieutenants. In her mind, it was a waste of political capital to become involved with it, and her focus was needed elsewhere.

Such as her eventual campaign to run for Governor of the state.

So for her to expend capital to convince the Governor to get involved was a bit of a surprise.

"I just painted a picture," Gordon smiled, "Gotham overrun by mercenaries, psychos, and street gangs does not make for a positive news headline. But the Mayor of the city successfully rallies citizens will pay for an entire campaign of good PR."

She gave him an amused look, "Why you have never run for mayor is beyond me."

"Because I can barely handle the political games in GCPD much less city hall," Gordon shuddered.

"Despite what many think, Grange is a supporter of us and one we need to keep close. She knows exactly how to keep the political sludge moving with dare I say a proficiency you do not see in American politics."

He gave her a look, "We need her as much as she needs us, it is not perfect but the symbiotic nature helps Gotham."

Rene stayed quiet at that. She personally did not agree with Gordon on that. Grange was an opportunist which meant her loyalty would only go so far. If things were to go south she would throw Gordon under the bus and wiggle out of responsibility.

Just then Gordon's phone started ringing and based on the caller ID it was someone very important.

He clicked accept, "Gordon here."

She respectfully took a few steps away, she was not the Commissioner and there were some things she was not allowed to know. Whatever it was, based on Gordon's face turning pale it was serious.

"Alright, I am heading there now, let me know when you get on the scene!"

Pocketing his phone he started grabbing officers, "You, you, you three, and everyone else who is doing nothing come with me."

He motioned for Rene to join him in his squad car, hopping in he grabbed the radio and changed the frequency to all channels GCPD had.

"All available units report now to Gotham City Mall, this is priority 1 as ordered by the Commissioner. I repeat All available units report now to Gotham City Mall, this is priority 1 as ordered by the Commissioner."

When the officer driving their squad car hopped in Gordon shouted, "You heard me! Drive, get us to the mall now!!!"

The frightened cop gunned it.

Sirens started blaring to clear the streets as they made haste to the mall.

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*James (Krios), Gotham City Mall

When taking this job, James was concerned with the risk he was putting himself in. This was after all the heist of the century if pulled off, with the added risk of acts of terrorism being slapped on them if caught.

Not only that but it was almost guaranteed to have vigilantes show up eventually to stop them. The idea of facing Batman was no small thing, the guy broke bones just for shoplifting.

But now with both him, Riddler, and Deathstroke on the roof of Gotham's Mall the thing that caught him most off guard... was how boring the first half hour was.

He was not sure what he was expecting when he joined his colleagues on the roof. Poison Ivy, a very lovely sight and someone he could have a conversation with had soon left to distract some heroes downstairs. Why there were heroes at their specific location confused everyone, but considering they hadn't rushed to the roof suggested that it was just dumb luck.

After Ivy left with a sway in her hips (she has to be doing it on purpose!) James was left with Riddler and Deathstroke.

Riddler was busy with the makeshift device he had set up. Several of the pieces to the device were familiar to James as he had stolen them. They had been hardwired into a bulky laptop which had a thick cord connected to a satellite dish.

He looked entirely focused on his task of typing commands into his computer and the few times James had asked a question he was shhhh by Riddler and given a death stare by Deathstroke. Considering Riddler was getting their paychecks and Deathstroke was fiddling with his large rifle, James figured it was best just to take a step back and be quiet.

That is all he did for that half-hour. He had tried to ask a question to Deathstroke about what type of rifle he was using. Small talk after all could help loosen up the tension.

He only got a glare and a clear unspoken message to shut up.

So he found himself staring out into the city of his birth.

The evening rain had become a trickle thank goodness, he was not sure if Riddler's gear could handle the thunderstorm. And at this time he felt grateful he had a sweatshirt on to keep him warm.

Despite the crowds and the evening time, it was still fairly bright out. The haze of the rain helped keep the traditional Gotham smell down and provided a fresh scent of rain.

It was actually kind of beautiful in a city landscape way.

Of course, being Gotham it had to be ruined. Sirens were becoming the dominant distant sound as flashes of the police lights could be seen. It seemed time was running up.

Riddler seemed to also notice the sirens, "Krios, head down and help Ivy deal with the heroes, I only need another 20 minutes or so and we can leave."

Deathstroke growled, "You said you would be done by now Riddler."

Riddler ignored Deathstroke, "If the cops show up take hostages, they are always suckers when you do that," and went back to monitoring the computer.

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*The Team, Gotham City Mall

The situation for the team had improved slightly in the destroyed food court.

Many of the possessed civilians had been either tied up or knocked out in the fight. The only thing left was to bind down a half-Kryptonian who was running off berserker rage.

'Rightttttttt' was everyone's thought.

And at that moment, despite his best efforts at dodging Robin soon found himself flying through the air and crashing into Batgirl who had been on her way to assist.

They both crashed and rolled into the ground. Connor gave another roar of rage and began running towards them but got hit by an explosive arrow from Artemis. Wally followed up by doing hit-and-run punches which with the added super speed raised Connor off the ground and fell flat on his back.

M'gann seeing the opportunity swooped down behind his head and gripped his head, eyes closed she began to concentrate.

Dick entangled with Barbara gave a low groan.

"Get off me," she muttered as she pushed him over.

Seeing M'gann working her magic she gave a breath of relief. She did not fancy fighting Connor when he was in such a state.

Wally sped to stand next to M'gann, "Is he back?"

The Martian kept her eyes shut and muttered, "No but I am making progress so please don't distract me."

"Okay, so how long... OW!" he rubbed his head.

Artemis had walked up behind him to check on Connor and hearing M'gann thought it wise to shut the speedster up before he kept bothering her. Considering she had turned off their thought communication link, she must really be struggling within Connor's mind.

"Anyone seen Kaldur?" she asked.

"No," Dick said quietly, he was scanning the area for any sign of Ivy or Kaldur.

"While M'gann breaks the hold on Connor I want us to find Kaldur."

"Guys..." Batgirl said, "I think I found him."

At the far end of the mall, Kaldur walked in a low stance towards them. He had his hands out to his sides and his tattoos were glowing a light blue. As he stalked towards them water gathered and solidified into two swords. But what really threw them, was the bloodshot eyes that were reminiscent of Connors right now. They were orbs filled with pure fury and indicated exactly what he wanted to do to them.

Wally and Artemis got into defensive stances to guard M'gann, Barbara was about to follow suit but Dick nudged her arm. Motioning with his head he indicated to the third floor on the southern end which looked normal except...

Her eyes widened, and several of the lights were out casting some of the area in darkness and obscuring anything from view. With how crazy the looters and possessed civilians got it wouldn't be crazy to see broken lights.

What was weird was that they were the only ones.

Glancing back at Dick she could see his mind working.

"You think she is watching from there?" she whispered.

"Ya, too coincidental and she would want to keep an eye on her thralls to make sure they did the job," he muttered

"You going up there to handle her?"

He glanced at her and took out his collapsible bow staff, the sound of it snapping into place was a loud crack.

"I need you to handle her, I have trained with Kaldur a lot and have the best chance of taking him down with Artemis and Wally. Whereas you have face Ivy and know her typical fighting style."

He began walking towards Kaldur who had broken out into a jog towards them.

"You got this!" he shouted over his shoulder before swinging his staff to block Kaldur's hardened water blades.

She wasted no time, running off to the side she shot a grabbling hook to the third floor, and once she got purchased she activated its rewind function. Immediately her grabble gave a low whine as it re-foiled itself and pulled her up to the third floor.

Reaching there she took out a few of her batarangs and carefully rounded the corner to the dark section.

Admittedly what she saw took her back a bit.

Poison Ivy was there alright, but she was sitting laid back in one the the courtesy chairs the mall had set everywhere with her feet up on another. The small table next to her had a few open drinks, water mostly though surprisingly a few sodas which Barbara could never imagine the stuck-up eco-terrorist would ever touch. On her lap, she had a small plastic container with some sort of orchid which she must have grabbed from one of the stores. She paid no attention to the chaos downstairs or Barbara but merely stroked the plant.

Barbara made her way slowly towards her, her batarangs at the ready to incapacitate should she move. Eventually, she got close enough to hear Ivy whispering softly to... the plant?

"So pretty... so lovely... I was so surprised to see you in such a horrible place... don't worry though, I will get you out."

Keeping her eyes on the plant Ivy spoke up, "Always a pleasure to see you Batgirl."

Barbara moved to just a few yards away from Ivy before stopping, she was close enough to dodge out of the way if Ivy attacked but also in range to throw her projectiles with confidence.

"You know," Ivy began, "I hate working with Riddler. We did a gig a few years ago when he tried to download everyone's brain waves into his head. Not only did it not work but it got me, Bane, and even Freeze locked up for a whole year before we escaped."

"So why are you helping him," Barbara asked while her mind whirled. They didn't know who was behind the attacks but Ivy just gave it with no problem. Batman hadn't given specifics or suspicions about what was occurring, and with the chaos of the mall, it hadn't seemed very important.

Ivy looked up to Batgirl with a sly smile, "Money of course my dear, he offered the right amount and I took it."

Reaching over Ivy grabbed a small bottle of water which she took a swig from before giving a look of distaste.

"I swear the amount of purifying chemicals you people put in your water will kill you quicker than you killing the planet." Her eyes seemed to glitter with happiness at the thought of the extinction of the human race.

Barbara felt nervous, Ivy was far too laid back and comfortable for her liking. She had something up her sleeve.

"Still though," Ivy continued waving her hand lazily over the other drinks on the table, "Better than these soda drinks, they literally are pure sugar and melt people's teeth."

"I will admit I was surprised to see you drinking soda considering your convictions." Barbara started to look around more carefully, something was up.

Ivy's voice tinkled with laughter, "Oh no! I would never touch these drinks."

She smiled and looked over Barbara's shoulder, "But my associate can't seem to get enough of them."

Barbara felt the hint of air swooshing which was all she needed to backflip out of the way of a concussive blast that blew through the guard rail sending glass and metal down below.

As she flew backwards through the air she could see a figure a few yards away throw his fist forward sending another blast her way. Landing on her feet she dodged to her right, feeling the pressurized air swoosh dangerously close to her.

The one thing she didn't expect was seeing a chair careen directly towards her, she managed to dodge it mostly but still got clipped lightly. To add insult to injury multiple chairs started lifting off the ground hovering for a moment before taking aim and shooting in her direction.

Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive, and Dodge!

Those thoughts were her whole focus as she impressively made it look like a deadly dance, from others' perspectives it was a beautiful display of skill. That didn't stop her attacker though releasing another concussive blast in between her dodging that caught her off guard.

The blast punched her directly into the chest causing the armor to platting to groan with strain as the momentum threw her body across the ceramic floor through the glass window of a clothes store. The window shattered and slowed her momentum as she crashed into mannequins wearing overpriced designer clothes.

'Okay... that really hurt,' her body felt bruised but fine, save for a few cuts from the glass she was fine.

Ivy was laughing a little louder in the background which was ignored by her associate as he walked over to where Barbara was.

With determination, she untangled herself from the mannequins and got into a crouching position where she saw who Ivy's associate was.

It was the one face... or she should say the hidden face she hated the most recently.

"Hello," she snarled, "Hound..."

His eyes were swirling with the strange black energy he emitted making him look demonic with his covered face.

"Good to see you again Batgirl."

The glass around her started hovering before drifting over to him in an almost protective orbit around him.

"By the way, I go by Krios now..."