Chapter 43

Disclaimer: If you recognise it, surprise, I don't own it.

Chapter 22– Bad Meeting.

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It has been a few days since I cornered that young man and managed to force the information about the mob boss meeting from him. After that, and after I realised someone had taken one of my batarangs and I had no way to know who, I left to track down the man in the suit that took the package.

Long story short, it was just another Friday night, and I found a drug den though it was a lot more organised and professional than the usual run-of-the-mill operations. That didn't mean it was any tougher to take down. In fact, I might even say it was even easier due to the scheduling and the literal rota I found in their base that told me where they were all stationed that day. The package was actually just instructions for the next supply being delivered, though it was written so that I could not interpret it correctly.

After that, I just did what I usually did and terrorised as many ne'er do wells as I could and rinsed them for information. Then, using that information, I kept hitting numerous places, breaking in, kicking ass and shutting them down hard. But the one piece of information that kept coming up consistently was that the mob bosses were going to have a meeting, and I quickly got the date of the meeting, but the location and time were not revealed to me.

I kept running through the lowlifes on the street but never got any accurate information, so I decided to go up the ladder. Not using force or power since that wouldn't work in this situation, I used subtlety and stealth. Finding out the location of a member higher up in the organisation, I snuck up to him when he was alone and used my extraordinary fear tactics on him and derived the location and time of the meeting out of him.

I didn't worry about the guy letting loose that I knew or informing the bosses to stop the meeting or change it, I was told of the details, and those details would remain the same. In a workplace environment like the mob and other criminal organisations, letting people know that you talked, even if you tried to rectify it after the fact, is a one-way ticket to sleeping with the fish. You can't be trusted, you have loose lips, and therefore they will become dead lips.

With that information, I have been preparing in whatever ways I can, such as stocking up on and improving upon my equipment. I also kept up my normal activities since I didn't want to tip anyone off by acting differently, and I was also checking other sources and confirmed several times that my information was correct.

And so, here I am, returning home after doing my daily activities and relaxing because now it is closing in on the time of the meeting, and so I have to go and scope the place out. I have already done so several times, but as far as I have seen, it is a random run-down building in a very secluded area. This is most likely why they chose it since it has no affiliation to them, and so they can have their meeting away from wandering eyes.

Walking through the hotel hallway on one of the highest floors, I reach into my pocket and take out my room key while sighing to myself. Honestly, in the beginning, I was kind of happy to finally have the place in my name, and so I wouldn't have to keep sneaking into the home and never leaving through the door. But now I miss it, the sheer amount of time I have spent in boredom coming through the hotel lobby, spending ages waiting in elevators that are sometimes too packed and then dealing with all of the staff.

Opening my front door, I can't help but miss those times when I could just ignore people knocking at the door and not worry about anything but playing my video games. I had been working my way through the Yakuza games and was now on Yakuza 4. I genuinely envy Felicia, who doesn't have to deal with any of that, though I suppose she doesn't have time to take advantage of that since she is being worked to the bone.

And speak of the devil, as I enter the penthouse, I spy Felicia sitting on the sofa in her Black Cat costume though it is hard to make out in the darkness. She hadn't even taken notice of me coming into the room, just sat there, her face highlighted by the bright, harsh light of the television, which was constantly flickering. I can see that she is sitting there quite listlessly and absent-minded, as if there is something that has taken up much of her thoughts, and she is in deep thought about it.

Curious as to what is taking up so much of her thoughts, but not wanting to get too involved or sucked in, I decide to just skirt by her and go to my room. I don't have time for any of this right now. The time of the mob meeting is coming up soon, and if I don't leave now, then I will be arriving very late, and I don't know how long this thing will last, and if the slightest thing goes wrong, they could all run off. So I want to get there early and set up inside, so I won't have to bypass any security to eavesdrop on the meeting since I will already be inside the building, probably in a vent or something.

Moving silently, I try and slip by behind her and just slink into my room. I go slowly and surely, keeping an eye on her as I do so, trying not to rouse any attention. I am skirting by behind her when I chance a glance at the TV, and I can't help but pay attention to it as the show that is on is one of my favourites. The Office is on right now, and truthfully I can not in the slightest understand how Felicia is ignoring it because one of the funniest moments of the show is on television right now.

It is the episode where Stanley has a heart attack because of Michael, and Michael gets scared, so he brings in a CPR teacher, and they all start fucking around with the test dummy. I got here just in time for the instructor to tell Michael to do CPR to the beat of the Beegees 'Staying Alive', and he got it wrong and started doing it to Gloria Gaynor's (I think) 'I Will Survive.

"First I was afraid I was petrified- No, it's ah, ah, ah, ah stayin' alive, stayin' alive" He is corrected by the instructor, and then with some stuff said by the other characters, he starts to do it again to the correct song. Damn, this episode also had a brilliant cold open. The one where Dwight locks all the doors and windows and then simulates a fire breaking out and making a lot of smoke, making everyone panic and freak the fuck out, driving Stanley to a heart attack.

"Ah, ah, ah, ah stayin' alive, stayin' alive. Ah, ah, ah, ah, stayin' alive, stayin' alive. Ah, ah, ah- Oh, you can tell by the way I use my walk I'm a woman's man, no time to talk. Music loud, women warm, been kicked around since I was born. Oh, it's all right, it's okay, you can look the other way" Michaels starts performing it correctly, and then Andy suddenly jumps in and starts singing it and dancing, and then the rest of them start joining in as well.

"Yeah, okay, you didn't maintain 100 beats per minute, and the ambulance didn't arrive because nobody called 911. So you lost him." The instructor shouts, annoyed with them all.

"Okay. He's dead. Does anyone know what we do next? Anybody? Rose? I have no idea- We bury him." Michael says, clearly not understanding that the practice is finished and keeping it going, and someone replies with a sensible option when Dwight speaks up.

"Wrong. Check for an organ donor card. If he has one, we only Have minutes to harvest." Dwight says, absolutely serious. "He has no wallet. I checked. He is an organ donor.- he is? - yeah." Creed answers him, and then Michael makes the executive decision that the dummy is an organ donor, and Dwight runs away with it.

"Give me some ice and a styrofoam bucket. Here we go. - Oh, my god!- Dwight! Dwight! What are you- What are you doing?!- We search for the organs. Where's the heart? The precious heart." Acting quickly, Dwight pulls out a knife and ignores everybody screaming and stabs the dummy through the chest and starts to cut it open, and I can't help the snort of laughter that escapes from me. Immediately I noticed my blunder since I was trying to be silent and escape Felicia's attention. Still, it was just so funny that I just ended up standing there and watching it, completely forgetting my surroundings and ending up laughing, which you will always do when watching The Office. It is inevitable.

"Huh- Oh, Ben..." Felicia's head suddenly jerks up at my sudden laughter, and she twists her neck around to spot me standing behind the couch right behind her, which would be pretty creepy, all things considered, so I quickly go to answer her.

"Hey, Felicia. I was just on the way to my room, but I had to stop for a second to see this bit." I say, explaining why I was lurking silently behind her all this time. She doesn't say anything to my explanation and instead looks to the TV to see what I am talking about before nodding her head. I guess she was in such deep thought that she wasn't even aware of what was on the TV. Usually, she would be very aware of her surroundings and the going on, but for her to be this lax, something must be wrong.

"Oh, yeah, this is a funny one. Haha..." Felicia says to break the silence but just enhances the awkwardness instead since I really don't know how to act around her since that day in the mall. I know she is thinking about something, and I care. I really do. But I can't afford to care as that will just keep me in this troublesome city, especially not right now when I need to go and crash the mob boss meeting.

"Yeah... Well, I have something I need to get to. It is quite urgent, so... I'll see you later?" I end questioningly, and not waiting around to see the results of the stupid words I just said, I resume my walk to my room to change into my Batsuit.

"W-Wait, Ben! I actually have something I want to talk to you about. I have some news, and I-" She starts to say, standing up and turning towards me to keep the conversation going. Getting a bad feeling that she is trying to talk about the mall, and about emotions and our relationship going forward, and desperately wanting to void that, I speed up my gait.

"Sorry, Felicia, but I have a mob boss meeting to drop in on and crash. It's happening soon, and if I don't leave right now, I might miss it, so I will see you later. We can talk then, yeah?" I push her off and open the door to my room. I know that I will probably have to deal with this at a later date, but I am going to push this off as much as possible and just hope all the problems will be solved before I have to confront it.

"Ah, wait, Ben! You don't have to! I have-" I slam the door shut behind me and quickly walk over to the walk-in closet to start changing. I can sense Felicia outside my bedroom door and saying something. Still, I decided to ignore whatever she was talking about entirely and focus on changing as fast as possible and then running the hell out of there.

Used to putting my costume on by now; it doesn't take me more than three minutes to suit up and boot up. Walking over, I open my bedroom window instead of leaving from the balcony like I usually do since I don't want to interact at all with Felicia at the moment. Then I jump out the window, completely ignoring Felicia, who is still outside the door, trying futilely to talk to me.

Falling through the air, I take a minute to just enjoy the wind whipping in a frenzy all around me and just forget about everything. Falling through the air, the gusts of wind rushing past me and barraging my eardrums, and I think about absolutely nothing as I plummet to the ground. And then I spread my arms wide, activating my wings and catching the air behind me, giving me a lot of momentum to level out in midair and start travelling forward, even rising in height as I do so.

Onward to the meeting, I go to put my foot in Wilson Fisk's ass.