Gotham

Gray's hideout

'I knew the police force in Gotham is corrupt, but this is too much...' I mused, frowning as I browsed the private database of the city's justice department.

I've already met with detective Deborah and entrusted her with enough evidence to get her reinstated in the force, get her corrupt captain fired and earn her a promotion as a bonus.

Though reluctant and suspicious in equal measures at first, the lure of getting her job back and realizing how far her captain went to sabotage her proved a good enough temptation to get the detective to trust me.

Deborah's captain did not only try to frame her and get her kicked out of the police force (to which he succeeded) but also robbed her of various meritorious services over the years.

However, despite the condemning evidence I left in the detective's hands, things weren't going as swimmingly as I'd expected. Far from it, actually, believe it or not.

Even now, with enough evidence to send him away to prison for the rest of his life, the police captain was still putting up a good fight against Deborah and might even get away scot-free thanks to his connections in the internal affairs department and district attorney's office.

'Is this the narrative fighting back, or is the city really that corrupt...' I pondered, rubbing my chin in thought as I watched a live video of the detective getting rejected by yet another internal affairs officer.

The man didn't even bother to give the evidence in Deborah's hand a look before letting her know she wasn't welcome and that she should give up the wild goose chase to find a new career.

'No matter... I'll see it through to the end...' I frowned as I began digging for dirt on the various higher-ups of the GCPD internal affairs department and the district attorney's office.

'Even if I have to expose the entirety of Gotham's law enforcement departments for the crooked pieces of shit they are...' My expression darkened as I started working, having already decided to invest most of my time into getting Deborah her job back.

...

Gotham Downtown

On top of a six-floor apartment building, a man in a red and chrome-colored tight suit could be seen, humming a pleasant tone while tending to his sniper rifle, gently cleaning its barrel with a white cloth.

The man then set the rifle on the roof's parapet and peeked through the scope, intently watching a black Mercedes with shaded windows sandwiched by two GMCs as it moved through the street, gradually slowing down to stop in front of a hotel with a luxurious facade.

Muscular men wearing black suits, sunglasses, and earpieces got out of the black GMCs, and one of them walked to the Mercedes, opened the passenger door, and stepped back while still holding it.

Soon, an old gentleman dressed in a grey, white striped suit stepped out of the passenger door and hurriedly walked to the hotel's entrance with a phone stuck to his ear, seemingly in a rush.

The man on the rooftop grunted as he saw the old gentleman, his finger tightening around the trigger. He adjusted his aim to compensate for his target's movement and prepared to take the shot.

However, he stopped at the last second as a pleasant ringing tone sounded from his pocket, causing the man to sigh as he put away his rifle and retrieved his phone.

"This better be good. I'm in the middle of a job," the man said as he picked up the call, frowning under his chrome mask as he leaned on the roof's parapet.

"Hmm? How much?" the man asked, pausing slightly after the caller explained he had a job for him. "That's a lot of zeros... must've pissed you off real bad..." he said in an amused tone as he lightly chuckled at the target price the caller was willing to pay.

"Yeah, yeah, quit the grandstanding, pal. I'll do it," the man said, shaking his head as he ended the call and let out another chuckle at the caller's tone, which quickly turned offended.

"Now... where were we..." the man remarked as he set his rifle and started looking for his target, only to find no trace of the older gentleman, as the latter was already inside the hotel.

"Looks like I'll have to cause a scene after all..." the man remarked, clicking his tongue in annoyance as he took a remote control device with a single red button.

He waited for several minutes and then pressed the button, nodding as a massive explosion occurred on the hotel's top floor, shattering most of the building's windows.

"Another day... another job..." the man remarked, shrugging as he picked up his rifle and turned to leave.

...

Bludhaven

Avalon Heights

"Bollocks!" Elain Marsh-Morton loudly cursed, speaking in a heavy English accent, having already flipped the entire apartment in search of her target, and found no trace.

She sighed at her last lead to her target disappearing, at a loss for where she could get the next paycheck to prevent foreclosure on her improvished family estate.

She was a descendant of a long line of British aristocrats and mercenaries, thus the one and only heir to her family's state, which proved a heavy burden on the young woman's shoulders instead of a boon she expected it to be.

Elain's family had long lost their fortune due to generation after generation of idling bums, who refused to contribute anything to the family while leeching on their ancestral wealth.

Unable to abandon her family estate and history and in desperate need of funds to keep it afloat, Elain decided to continue the family's legacy, took the name Lady Vic and became a mercenary.

Though the recent generations of her family were nothing more than lazy bums who refused to do anything productive and benefit the family, they at least made sure to pass down the skills they've honed since olden times to their descendants.

Elain used those skills, which included martial arts, weapon mastery, and marksmanship, to earn money and maintain the family estate, which finally led her to work under her current boss, Blockbuster.

Returning to Blüdhaven to collect a fee for an assignment she had performed for gang boss Antonio "Angel" Marin, she was upset to find Marin missing.

Elain tracked down his lawyer and threatened to kill the man's young daughter if they did not pay her— a threat she definitely would have carried out if Nightwing had not intervened.

She later found out that Blockbuster had disposed of and replaced Marin. The man was willing to give Elain her pay and even offered a bonus if she worked with him. She agreed.

And here she was, tracking one of Blockbuster's subordinates, a woman named Tarantula. The gang boss had ordered her to eliminate his former ally as she had disobeyed his orders.

The pay would have been enough to maintain her family estate for one year at least, but luck was not on her side this time, as she had already exhausted all of her leads to Tarantula's whereabouts with nothing to show for it.

Elain removed the saber hanging on her back as she sank into the comfortable couch, heaving a tired sigh as she took out her phone and began searching for temporary work to keep herself busy until new leads about her current target showed up.

"Hmm...?" Elain hummed, perking up as she found a possible well-paying job on one of the many private forums dedicated to sharing information between people of her profession.

'With this much money... I'll have enough money to maintain that bloody estate for at least 20 years...' Elain mused, feeling no small measure of temptation to go for the job.

However, the target was considerably challenging as he had no known base of operation or places he'd visit, not to mention the rumors flying around him.

Even Elain, who usually stayed in Bludhaven, heard of the target who'd never strayed far from Gotham since his debut as he was rumored to have killed the KGbeast, one of the most feared mercenaries on the planet.

The many zeros in the number the client offered for the job only proved how dangerous the target was, and Elain knew she would be risking her life, but the temptation was too great for her to ignore.

'I won't be the only one going after him... I'll just let someone else test the waters for me to see if it's worth...' Elain concluded after some thought, picking up her saber as she stood up.

She quickly called her boss to inform him of her leave and promptly made for Gotham with haste.

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