They, of course, chose to co with .
I healed Johnny as best I could. There were faint burn marks on his limbs and face—not enough to disfigure him, but enough to get Ricine on my new group's trail.
That's why I made Johnny agree to a Binding Vow. In exchange for his life, he'd lay the bla squarely at Will's feet—a jealous boyfriend who wanted him dead for macking on his girl.
As for the rest of the team, I wanted to be thorough. I led them to my old apartnt building and set up chairs. After a joint interview, I separated them and started with Selene, whose last na was Jones.
T was short for Tyler Hendricks.
Both were orphans and had begun their little criminal enterprise a few months ago, after their orphanage burned down during a fight between Batman and Scarecrow.
It turned out Will had started the fire after the whole orphanage was bathed in Fear Toxin. The exposure had awakened his ta-gene and empowered a few other orphans.
Selene was one of them.
She was like Poison Ivy without the plant powers. She could compel people to do things for her—within reason. Actions completely against her victims' self-interest, like murder, giving away all their money, or harming loved ones were out of the question, but she had a lot of latitude within that nebulous gray area.
Selene likened her powers to alcohol.
"Kinda wears down their better judgnt," she said, tugging her hair, leaning back in her chair, flashing her cleavage.
"Like Johnny," I said.
"Yeah," she admitted. "He might've never followed into that alley if I wasn't pushing him."
That brought a scowl to my face. "So, you made him a pedo."
"We saw each other for a month before tonight," she said evenly, then looked up at . "We would've ended up in that alley sooner or later."
"Why are you telling this?"
Her leg brushed mine under the table. "Why do you think?"
I felt sothing surge into , heat flushing across my cheeks. She leaned forward to steal a kiss.
"You boys. You act all tough, but you're all the—"
My hand shot forward, grabbing her by the neck as I stood, pitching the table sideways. With a casual flick, I sent her crashing into the wall, and she fell on her ass.
T ca rushing in, gun raised, and fired. I leaned to the side, dodging easily, slashed the second shot with a Katana summoned mid-swing, and swatted the third aside with the flat of my blade.
I thought I'd searched him. God knew where he had that stashed.
His eyes went wide, hands shaking, but he didn't lower the weapon.
"So that was your play?" I asked, stepping forward with my blade dripping energy. "It seems I've underestimated you two. A sha I'll have to start looking again."
"You didn't give us much of a choice," Tyler ground out, putting himself between and Selene. I let him.
"I told you I loved Will," Selene managed with a strained voice.
"You never abandon family," Tyler added.
"I could've left you to deal with your ss," I pointed out.
"We'd have been dead in under a week," he said. "There was no choice at all."
"And you thought you stood a better chance against than Ricine?" I almost laughed.
"One vs. an army," he said. "I liked our odds."
This ti I actually laughed. "Nine out of ten tis that would've been the right call."
Tyler swallowed. "But this is that one out of ten."
"Just so."
"What are you going to do to us?" Selene asked, her voice small.
I settled back into my seat and vanished my sword. "Finish the interview if you're still interested," I said. "Not that we can do it here anymore. Sobody probably called the cops. You can also leave if you want to."
Selene and T shared a look.
"You have to take Will on," Tyler finally said.
"Why?" I asked.
"When he's not out of his mind," he said, "he's a pretty good fighter."
"He doesn't listen," I pointed out.
"He will to you," he said. "You beat him."
"His mistakes are your mistakes," I said, pointing at both of them. "Don't make regret it."
–
The rest of the interview went a lot better, and I even walked away with an interesting tidbit. Kids had apparently been disappearing from their orphanage before the incident with Batman and Scarecrow. It happened infrequently, but every six months or so, a kid would vanish in the dead of night.
For the longest ti, people thought they were runaways—a common enough phenonon at orphanages in Gotham—but Tyler swore he saw one disappear. There one mont, gone the next.
I'm sure Batman would find it mighty interesting. It might even be enough to distract him from the tunnel explosion fiasco.
Before returning to base, I called Cat and asked what I should say if Batman questioned about the accident in the sewers. She suggested a version of the truth.
And I stuck to it vehently when Batman contacted via the base's computer.
"I went down to Gotham based on a hunch a friend gave about Penguin. Apparently, he was preparing to skip bail. Turns out it was a trap. Sobody fed him the intel, who then fed it to . Killer Croc was waiting down there. I tried incapacitating him and investigating the vault, but the tranquilizers and smoke bombs didn't take. It got violent, and I had to fight decisively to get out alive."
"You killed him?" Batman demanded.
"I didn't have much of a choice," I said, scratching the side of my head. "The internet severely downplays how durable he is. I started with knives, then smoke bombs, flashbangs, and sleep grenades. None of them took. I tried 50-cal rounds next, but even those weren't enough to buy ti to investigate and escape. I ended up splitting him in half after a grisly fight in the sewer channel."
Batman let out a breath. "And the bombs?"
I snapped my fingers. "Oh, that. I deployed those to cover my escape when Ivy unleashed an avalanche of vines and roots. Barely got out alive."
"Why?"
"Why what?" I asked, playing dumb.
"You could've spared Waylon if you really tried," Batman said slowly. "I've seen you train. Move. I know what you're capable of."
"Training in a controlled environnt is one thing. Facing so half-crocodilian monster on its ho turf is another," I said. "If I was anyone else, I'd have been dead after the first attack." I shrugged. "I warned him to back off more than once."
"I will get to the bottom of what happened down in the sewers," Batman promised. "If anything is out of place…"
I waved a hand. "I know, I know. You'll cuff . But the Gotham trip wasn't all a waste."
I retold Tyler's story about the disappearing kids and suggested we lean on Shelim.
"He's moved into Gotham proper. Taking a more active role. He's probably First or Special Grade."
"Which ans?"
"He's far beyond in technique output, expression variety, and curse energy manipulation at the very least," I said. "He was the only sorcerer I clocked when I went to his base, but there's bound to be more now. Might even run into a few shadow monsters."
"Given everything you've told about him, it sounds like a non-confrontational approach might be our best shot at getting sothing from him," Batman said. "Perhaps a eting sowhere open to gauge his reaction."
"It could get hairy," I pointed out.
"We'll have the team standing by."
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