Chapter Seventy-Six: Twelve Days of Christmas Part Two.

Chapter Seventy-Six: Twelve Days of Christmas Part Two.

In the Clocktower, Oracle was perched in her chair. She had things set up in such a way where she could lean forwards to work on some homework and check her e-mail. She also had a headset on so she could monitor the Police Band for any sign of trouble.

'It's oddly quiet tonight,' she thought. She barely heard a peep. Not even some petty thug, never mind the usual gang activity that happened during this time of year in Gotham City. She shrugged. 'But it is the middle of winter time, so I guess that could be the reason.'

No matter how she tried to convince herself of numerous reasons why it would be quiet out there, she couldn't be unsettled. Black Canary, Talon, and Batman were all on patrol out there. They were pretty spread out though. All of them decided that it was best to take a different island tonight. All of them appeared to be quiet, at least nothing that demanded immediate attention. There was this unsettling calm before the storm feeling that Barbara couldn't shake. It unsettled her greatly.

'Well, I guess nothing is going to distract me from this,' Barbara said. She put the edge of her pen in her mouth and sighed.

She was looking at her chemistry homework. There was something about the thermodynamic effect cell division has on a chemical reaction or something like that. Barbara's head was spinning on the thought of it. Her chemistry professor wasn't that good and she was getting a slight headache just thinking about what she had to do.

There was this thought that she could call Harry to help out. And honestly, given how bored she felt right now, it was too hard to resist the temptation to do so. Taking a moment to pick up her phone, Barbara did just that, she called Harry.

She waited patiently for a moment or two. It might have seemed like longer.

"Barbara?" Harry's sleepy voice answered.

"Oh, shit, I woke you up, didn't I?" Barbara asked. She sounded sheepish.

"No need, you wouldn't have woken me up if there wasn't something important," Harry said. He took a moment to shake himself away but he sounded more alert than ever before. "So, what is it?"

Barbara bit on her lower lip. "Well you know my Chemistry professor, I don't know what the hell he's talking about. There's something on here about themodynamic effect of cell division, you know what it has on a chemical reaction, and I feel like I'm learning Greek here. Actually it might be easier to learn Greek here."

"For many people, it will be," Harry said. "Just take a deep breath and tell me to the best of your abilities what the problem is."

Barbara took a deep breath and tried it again. She heard Harry sigh over the phone.

"Am I am idiot for not grasping an obvious concept?" Barbara asked.

"No, your professor is an idiot for oversimplifying it and thus confusing you," Harry said. He frowned deeply. "Okay, just forget pretty much everything that you've ever learned about that."

"It shouldn't be too hard," Barbara grumbled underneath her breath.

Harry went into detail about the process. More detail than the Professor did anyway. When he finished, Barbara sighed deeply. She understood it out even though it was far wordier than what her Professor said.

"You know, I wish you were the one who taught the class," Barbara responded.

"If that's what the professor was teaching you, I almost wish that I was teaching the class as well," Harry answered. She could sense that he sounded amused. "But I'm a little too busy to teach a full class, you know."

"Oh yeah, right, of course," Barbara said, shaking her head. She figured that Harry would have an extremely full schedule. His schedule was far more insane than many people's after all.

"But if you'd like, I could arrange regular tutoring sessions."

Barbara chimed in with excitement. "Oh that would be really great!"

"Great, then it's settled then," Harry said. He was amused by her passion.

"Oh, great, that's great," Barbara said. She bit down on her lower lip for a moment. "So, what are you wearing right now?"

Harry chuckled and there was much amusement coming through the various girls in the bond link.

'Oh she has some real balls,' Donna commented. That was a statement that was agreed to by all of them. There was much amusement.

Before Harry had a chance to respond, the sound of the elevator going off in the Clock Tower echoed. She jumped up halfway.

"Um, I got to go," Barbara said. "Goodbye Harry, talk to your later."

She turned around and came face to face with Sarah Essen. That caused Barbara to go extremely pale and she was afraid that the jig was up.

"Please don't tell my Dad," Barbara said. The redhead bit down on her lip. She reacted like any teenage girl would in her situation.

Sarah chuckled and Barbara frowned. She wondered what was so funny. Sarah leaned in towards Barbara. "Well, I would have to bust myself."

Barbara wondered what she was talking about.

"Nightwing sent me here," she confirmed.

"Oh that means you're in bed with him, and I mean, that you're working with him, not actually in bed, in bed with him, unless you are in bed with him, which I don't blame you. Not that I'm accusing you if you're not but…" Barbara said and she trailed off. "Oh god, I'm babbling aren't I?"

"Yes, you are," Sarah said. "He told me to meet him here and…..I suppose that it shouldn't be much of a surprise that you're Oracle."

Barbara conceded that she had a point. It was a wonder that more people didn't put too and too together.

"But you would have to know the person really well before you could come up to that conclusion," she responded.

"Right, right, yeah," Barbara said. She was looking at Sarah extremely curiously for a moment, almost trying to feel her out. "Why exactly are you helping Nightwing? No offense, but isn't that a conflict of interest with your job?"

Sarah didn't say anything. She walked over towards the coffee pot that hung over to the side. She poured herself a cup of coffee. The woman sipped on it, looking thoughtful.

"I wanted to make a difference," Sarah explained. She casually sipped on the cup of coffee. "That's why I wanted to become a cop in the first place. I've been trying to do so through the legal means and by following the law. This is Gotham City though, where the law is morally flexible and favors those who are able to call in favors. So, in some instances, it's not possible."

Sarah looked thoughtful some more when she drained her cup of coffee. It was almost like she chose her next few words carefully and that's what she was doing.

"If I can do that by helping Nightwing, I will," Sarah said. She drummed her finger carefully against the cup in her hand. "Even if that means going outside the law, then so be it. That's what I'm going to have to do. But I'm sure I could ask you the same question, about what drives you?"

"Long story," Barbara commented.

"I've got an idea," Sarah said. She drained the rest of the coffee with one more drink and smiled.

Speaking of Nightwing, he made his way out of the shadows just a moment later. This was an action that would cause most people to jump in surprise. Both Sarah and Barbara were used to his arrival, suddenly and out of the shadows.

After he gave them a nice nod in response, he decided to get down to the point. "Did you bring what I asked for?"

"It took some doing," Sarah said. She gave a long sigh. "But I was able to get it."

Barbara looked at both of them in confusion. What the two of them were talking about might as well have Greek to her.

She decided to jump in bluntly as possible. "So what exactly is going on?"

Nightwing smiled when he turned towards her. "I asked Sarah to bring me a sample of the explosive device that was found earlier this morning."

"Oh," Barbara said. That made a lot of sense.

"We can use a program here on the Clock Tower to analyze the chemical composition of the explosive and then the information could be fed into the map,' Nightwing said.

Barbara, being quick on the draw, was able to figure out where they were going. "In theory…we should be able to track the bombs."

"But are you seeing the same problem I'm seeing?" Nightwing asked her.

Barbara snapped her fingers. "The scanning software for the map is connected to the suit. We need to be in close enough proximity to the location of the bomb so that it shows up on tour radar."

Barbara paused and added as an afterthought. "You know that's a pretty severe limitation."

"Yeah, I'm hoping that I can fix that in the future," Nightwing agreed. He held the box Sarah gave him. "Right now, it's the best option we have right now.

He finished setting things up. Everything was slowly coming together and that was a good thing. He frowned deeply.

"Very impressive," Sarah commented. She meant that honestly.

Out of the blue, a loud explosion could be heard. Nightwing dropped whatever he was doing and made his way over to the window.

Barbara and Sarah were jarred by the bomb and the explosion that went off. Both of them looked on in confusion and there was an extremely loud ringing sound that continued to echo.

"What the hell is going on?" Barbara asked.

That was a good question. The only problem was that Nightwing was gone. Both of them sighed, they got used to him doing that. That didn't mean that they had to like it.

Johnny Viti sat in the passenger seat of a Cadillac SUV with three other guys. If Johnny resembled Moe of the Three Stooges after a eating binge, then the other three henchmen looked like they could be dead ringers of Shemp, Curly, and Larry. There were some differences but in general, the idea was there.

"So, Sofia, she's really being a bitch, isn't she?" "Shemp" asked.

"Yeah, that's just how she is, she's just some uptight dyke," "Curly" commented.

"No, you're fucking kidding me right?" the one that resembled Larry asked. "You know, she was married."

"Yeah, but the guy was just a beard, you know, because that wouldn't be proper for the family business," "Curly" said.

"I don't know, maybe she could be bi, you know, she could swing both ways," "Shemp" commented. "I'd take a shot at her…"

"Please, it's not like you have a shot at her," "Larry" said.

"Yeah," "Curly" commented. "Because she likes the clam."

"Larry" shook his head. "I can't believe that you said that….."

"Look, I don't get a fuck, my cousin's being a bitch, and she better watch how she talks around my Ma, or she'll be in trouble," Johnny said. The three goons rolled their eyes.

"Right, of course boss, yeah what's the next play….."

No sooner than Johnny said something, his cell phone rang. He got on the phone.

"Yeah, it's me," Johnny said. "Mario….it's a go? Good, ready for it."

Johnny motioned for his men to leave the SUV. They followed him.

"Alright, you know that little operation we talked about earlier," Johnny told them. "Well, people aren't respecting this family that much. So we're going to have to learn them all some respect."

He ripped open the hood of the SUV and reached into the trunk. He pulled out an impressive looking shotgun. He motioned for his men her suit.

The quartet walked across the street to their destination. It was basically a dive bar but it was a dive bar that belonged to an extremely important member of the Irish Mob.

"The two of you go around the back of the building," Johnny said to the two thugs that resembled Curly and Shemp went around to the back of the building.

Johnny was left with the thug that remained. "Five, for, three, two, One."

The door was kicked open. A grenade hurled into the building. They ducked for cover right before the grenades went off.

The grenades took out most of the people inside. Whoever wasn't taken out was dusted off with some shotgun blasts.

By the time the mobsters were done, no one was left standing in the building. All of them met in the middle of the pub. It was done so they walked out of the building.

They made their way to the direction of the car. Only for the god damn Batman to take out Shemp and Larry with a double flying clothesline knocking them out.

Curly looked up with a slack jawed expression. Batman drilled a knee into his solar plexes and doubled him over. Another one to the groin took him down.

That left Batman standing face to face with Johnny. Johnny's mouth hung open and he looked like someone who was slack jawed and stunned. That didn't last when his brain finally rebooted and he realized that he had a shotgun in his hand.

He fired a series of pot shots at Batman. Batman dodged them by weaving back and forth diagonally in Johnny's direction. He couldn't get in a shot. He flung a trio of Batarangs at him. This attack caused him to drop the gun to the ground.

Batman delivered a huge punch and knocked Johnny on his back with one fluid motion. With an audible grimace, he strung up the other three thugs. They didn't know what hit them. None of them had a chance to defend themselves.

The half dazed Johnny was grabbed by the ankle and pulled into the shadows for some one on one interrogation.

The sight of the explosion was not far from the Clocktower. That was where Nightwing took his perch and he suddenly swooped down. He got a good look at what was the intended target.

"Okay, this is quite interesting and a bit odd," Nightwing said.

Oracle jumped on it right away. "Why is it odd?"

Nightwing was only too happy to explain. "It's a distribution that belongs to a subsidiary of Wayne Shipping."

There were many questions that were left unanswered. Exactly why did this person attack something like this?"

"I'll look into it, see if I can dig up anything else," Oracle commented. She was about as baffled as he wasl.

Nightwing moved around to see if he could see anything else. At first, there was nothing too out of the ordinary. At least until he reached a certain area that stood out like a really disgusting sore thumb. The explosion was restricted mostly to the office areas of the building. The damage was extensive and that area of the building was now pretty much gone.

It was reduced to a huge gaping wound in the middle of the building and nothing else. He searched for the location.

He may have hit the jackpot. There was what appeared to be a Cargo Van parked right against the building or at least whatever was left of it. He flicked his scanner in his HUD.

'Okay,' Harry thought. He was speaking this information both out loud to Barbara and also talking to anyone who was listening in the bond link. 'It's an explosion that was caused by a mixture of semtex, C4, and ammonium nitrate fertilizer.'

'That sounds extremely similar to what the IRA used in Manchester last year,' Rose commented.

"Yes, it sounds like something similar to what the IRA used in Manchester last year, same mixture and everything," Oracle said. She cross referenced what she was doing. "I'm curious about why this place of all places was targeted."

"You and I both," Nightwing said. The distribution center had trucks drive in to drop off cargo and then drive out with cargo that was supposed to. "And as I mentioned, it's parent company is a subsidiary of Wayne Shipping."

"What organization in Gotham would want to attack it?" Oracle asked.

"That's the thing, I don't know," Nightwing said. "It's bad business for anyone to attack any major companies. It's like the GCPD. It's a war that most of the major mob outfits would like to avoid. Wayne, GothCorp, RAO, the like, they're off the table."

"Unless someone else is trying to start a war, some kind of third party," Oracle commented.

Nightwing did one more sweep around. There weren't many clues there. Whoever did this explosion did their work.

"They're only after the office area and it was gutted," Nightwing said. He frowned when there were more pieces to this mystery. "The warehouse section wasn't badly damaged, and most of the cargo appears to be intact."

It was in the floor's manager's office in the back of the warehouse. That was about as good of a place as any to start. Nightwing made his way over in that direction.

He opened up the office door and made his way inside. It was a pretty messy place.

'Not one for cleaning, is he?' Donna asked.

'Well likely a slob in his day to day job then,' Faora thought.

Harry searched the room carefully. He saw the clipboard that included details of various shipments that were in and out of the building.

"Well that's interesting," Harry muttered. "This places ships in and out various Wayne Enterprises sub-companies, LuthorCorp, Queen Industries, AmerTek, Dagget Industries, and Janus Cosmetics. In fact, this is one of the company's major distribution centers."

Perhaps Harry was reading too much into it but that was a red flag if there ever was one. He didn't have a chance to investigate things further. The sound of wailing sirens were heading in his direction.

It was time for him to exit. He pretty much had all that he had here anyway. Nightwing slipped out of the backdoor just as emergency services came by. There were many more questions than answers and that proved to be interesting.

Johnny Viti's eyes flickered open. He realized that he was in a world of shit when he was strung up like a side of beef. If he was in a better frame of mind, he would have realized the irony of the situation. Given that he weighed just as much.

His arms were tied up nice and tightly behind his backs. His ankles were as well and he was dangling over an extremely busy street. His heart started to rush when he saw the traffic rushing past. There was one of those situations where they would tell you, they would remind you not to look down.

The one problem was that he did look down. Oh god, he did look down. His heart kept racing when he swung like an extremely ugly pendulum high above Gotham City.

There was also another problem. When he looked up, he came face to face with the god damn Batman. The freak looked down at him, like he was judging him. And he found him absolutely guilty without an object.

Johnny waited and shivered. Batman didn't say anything. That was more unnerving than anything as far as the mobster was concerned. A hard punch cracked him across the area of the floating ribs. He screamed out loud. It was pain beyond anything he ever felt in his life.

Then without preamable, Batman let him drop towards the traffic. He kept screaming but the traffic drowned him out. He was about ready to fly towards the direction of the street below.

He stops suddenly and smashed hard into the wall. A couple more ribs were likely to have broken from the impact. Johnny realized how close he was to becoming street pizza.

Batman hauled him up.

"You're going to tell me everything you know about Carmine Falcone and what you know about his plans," Batman said. His voice was low and it left absolutely no room for argument. "Do, you understand me?"

Johnny felt sweat go down his face and he feigned passing out. That was one of the worst mistakes he could have made. That sent him almost hurling into traffic again. Then Batman pulled him back up.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure," Johnny said. He was whimpering. "But….you….see….I don't….um know much of anything."

"Tell me what you do know now," Batman growled. He could see that Johnny would do anything to save his own skin. Especially if someone persuaded him to do so.

Johnny was going to sing like a canary.

"Well, the Roman, he's keeping things close to his chest, and I got my marching orders from Mario Falcone earlier this evening," Johnny whimpered. He looked down fretfully for a moment, which was a mistake. His head jerked up suddenly. "I didn't even know what I was supposed to do, until I an hour before I was going to do it. And….there's going to be more attacks tonight, but I'm really not sure where they're supposed to be….all I know is that they're going to happen, sometime, somewhere."

Batman didn't say anything. Johnny was doing all of the talking.

"The Roman wants to send a message to all of the facts and why it's a bad idea to mess with the Falcones," Johnny whispered.

Batman cupped him by the face hard and pulled him up to face him. "What was killing innocent people in that Pub earlier supposed to accomplish?"

"It's what I said earlier….all about sending a message," Johnny said. His breath grew even more heavy. "In this case, it's the Commission, since the Irish gangsters who operated out of that location are affiliated with them. They need to get told that they don't belong here in Gotham City. About all they're good for is picking potatoes anyway."

Batman allowed himself to soak in all of the information.

"You better drop me, my Ma is going to hear about this, and the Roman, and then you're going to be dead, do you hear me, Batman, dead?" Johnny asked. He thought that he had his balls back. Batman raised his eyebrow. "DROP ME DO YOU HEAR ME!"

"If you insist."

Johnny screamed like a little girl and Batman released him once again. He hurtled until he reached twenty feet above the ground.

The rope held and he started to breath. Then it snapped and he fell crashing onto a police car that belonged to Harvey Bullock.

Speaking of Bullock, he was sitting in a diner, eating dinner with Montoya. He chowed down on a large greasy hamburger that was about was nearly big as his head. Montoya opted for something a bit more modest and to be honest, sitting there with Bullock was doing wonders at destroying her appetite.

They were in the midst of having a debate about the news.

"If you ask me, this Calendar Killer is just some punk, who doesn't have the balls to face anyway straight up," Bullock said. He took a big bite out of the hamburger and caused crumbs and grease to drop everywhere on the table.

"I wouldn't write him off, he's stayed one step ahead of the police," Montoya said. She decided that she was done eating.

Suddenly, she saw something out of the corner of her eye.

"Yeah, well the GCPD's spread awful thin…..if he's like that Blackfire nut, he might be someone of prominence, he has a day job, he might be a respected member of the community," Bullock said. "Could be even a cop for all I know. Or someone in the force. That Nashton kid looks a bit shifty, if you ask me."

"Is that because….." Renee said. She never finished that sentence and saw something slam against the squad car.

The impact of the car caused the alarm to start blaring. That caused Montoya to drop what she was eating out of shock. She rushed out, past the door.

"Hey, hey, you're not skimping out on…." Bullock said. He saw it, it was someone who was slumped against the hood. Sweaty and bloody but somehow still moving. "Well, I'll be a son of a bitch."

Bullock finished up his burger and headed out to check out what happened.

"Damn it, I hope our insurance covers this."

Elsewhere in Gotham City, Talon made her way through Gotham City. So far, it was a quiet night for her. There was nothing that was out of the ordinary that she ran out of at least. At least nothing as severe was Batman and Nightwing ran into. It was only a matter of time before she ran into something that she figured.

'Then again, I'm in one of the nicer areas of the city,' Jaime thought. She stopped at the edge of the building and looked down. 'So far, so good, it looks like….'

She trailed off. The crippling quiet was extremely eerie when she looked around. The quiet meant normally in Gotham City that something was going to break. And given that this was Gotham City, that something could in fact be anything.

She was proven right. There was a ping on her HUD. It was synced up to search out what was on the device that was found in the Department story earlier on that day.

'I think that I have something,' Talon thought.

The woman dropped herself down and swung forward. She was crossing her fingers and she hoped that she would find something.

'Any luck,' Faora thought.

Talon frowned deeply. 'I'm heading in the direction of…the Gotham City zoo.'

'That doesn't make any sense,' Harry thought. He snapped his fingers. 'Then again, it would fit into this entire mess perfectly of things that weren't making sense.'

Jaime dropped down and became extremely mindful of her surroundings. She noticed an extremely expensive sedan pulling out of a parking lot just as she arrived. That ragged a rather interesting red flag in the back of her head.

The park was closed for a while. Then again, it would be an ideal location for someone to meet up with a prostitute to partake in their services.

Jaime frowned, she had to keep moving forward. She convinced herself that it was likely nothing when she kept moving on in. There were more important things that she had to deal with presently.

She made her way through the Zoo. There was one of those eerie as hell vibes that you would get only when going through a place in the middle of the night.

Talon stopped and found her way in front of the Ornithological exhibit. She frowned. It was beginning to click what she was looking for.

She found herself in front of a display of two mated Turtle doves. Talon quickly swept around the area. She had to find it. Her HUD display was going nuts and she was getting extremely close.

She found it, stuck underneath a nearby bench. There was a bomb stuck to it.

"Some people take things way too fucking literally," Jaime grumbled. She did a quick scan of it using her wrist computer.

Without another word, she disabled the bomb and sent it vanished.

"The suspect as fled the area," Talon said, checking in with mission support. She slapped her hand down onto the side of her hip. She shook her head. "But we know more about what the Calendar Killer is using."

"The more we know the better, hopefully can nail down a suspect," Oracle said. "But there's more going on tonight than that."

Black Canary dodged behind a corner, trying to get an advantage in the fight. She was in the middle of dealing with a four way gun fight involving Falcone's men, the combined forces of Penguin and Black Mask, and various other mobsters who fought, who were part of the crime commission.

She slowly worked through the situation in her mind. The fact Black Mask and Penguin worked together at any point was not an ideal situation. They took it to the commission. When the forces of the Falcone Family arrived, they started firing on both groups. Then it slowly shifted into a dangerous free for all.

The dangerous hardware on the street added to the mess. The Commission was the first group taken out of the fight, with most of the lucky ones getting while the getting was good. Black Canary scoped out the situation, in both man power and fire power. The gangs of Penguin and Black Mask looked like a potent one-two combination. And it was obvious that the Roman was out for blood, the blood of any of their enemies."

"We've got a problem, I could really use some back up," Black Canary said. She heard the cackling over the communication network.

"I'll get over there as soon as I can, but I need to wrap up something here," Nightwing said. "Just hang on tight."

"I'll see you when you get there, but I have to act right now," Black Canary said. She pulled herself to feet.

She hoped that Harry would arrive in time or at least arrive in time to help her mop up. She took a clear inventory of everything around her. It was really obvious that the stealth approach was going to be bext for her.

Black Canary fired the first shot. A flash bang caused everyone to be blinded.

She swooped around and took two of the nearest out. She jammed her elbow down onto the back of her enemies neck.

Black Canary swooped into the shadows and hurled an EMP grenade. There was a loud pop and their weapons were disabled.

"Get her, she's around here, get her!"

Black Canary was not going to go down that easily. She swooped into the shadows. She took out a smoke grenade and hurled it to the ground. It busted open on the ground and released a cloud of choking smoke. The thugs scrambled around in an attempt to get her.

That didn't end well for them, given that they were blind and deaf because of the attacks. Those who didn't get their guns fried by the EMP device started to fire in random directions but they didn't hit their intended target. They hit their fellow men.

Black Canary swooped down and knocked one of her enemies down with a solid crack. She was cutting through the numbers of the Thugs on both sides. Some of them slowly regained their senses.

She didn't need to worry about that, for Nightwing arrived to give her relief. Nightwing grabbed two of the thugs around the back of the head and clonked their heads together. He flipped back the back of the thug and drilled a running knee to the back.

The costumed crime fighter disarmed one of the thugs and snapped his arm. He moved around. They thought that they surrounded him. In reality, they only fed into his attacks. Nightwing slammed his fist into the side of their faces.

The remaining enemies decided to focus their attention on one enemy and that was him. That played right into Nightwing's hands. He swooped into the shadows, disappearing suddenly.

"Get him, get him, he can't have gotten far!"

That allowed Black Canary to move in for the attack. Their numbers were split in half, so it was pretty easy to take them down. Both sides appeared to form a tentative alliance with the other but it was obvious they didn't trust each other at all.

She unleashed one of her Canary cries. That caused the thugs to stagger back. Some of them covered their ears and others knocked into each other. The thugs toppled over like they were bowling ball pills.

She took out some of the remaining thugs with a swift attack. She knocked the final thug out with a roundhouse kick.

"Well, this was far easier than I thought it would be," Black Canary said with a sigh.

"You keep moving the goal posts on what your definition of easy is," Nightwing commented. "But they had to be here for a reason."

Black Canary looked around and smiled. "I think that was the reason."

There was a cargo van which the Penguin's men were protecting. At least they were protecting it before all hell broke loose.

"This is what we have right now," Nightwing said. He sighed. He kind of wished that he didn't knock all of the goons out now.

The goons were down on the ground and Black Canary walked over the back of the van. It was unlocked which seemed to mean to her it was a drop off point of some sort.

She clicked open the door. A second click indicated the van exploded with Black Canary and Nightwing right in the crosshairs.