CHAPTER 12: Part 1 - "Aut Caesar Aut Nihil"

Pain!

Followed by his first conscious thoughts being, 'Owwwwwwwwwwwwww.'

That was the first thing James felt when he awoke. Interestingly, it was a pain in several different ways.

He could feel that his chest was wrapped in white bandaged cloth with 2 distinct dark spots below the right shoulder, still bleeding from the wounds. It felt like some chunks from there had been ripped out leaving an empty space that made moving quite unpleasant. His head also was wrapped with part of the bandage covering the left side of his head that had a pulsating irritation. It honestly felt like someone took a butcher's knife to that side.

Opening his eyes brought a flash of white and deep penetrating pain behind his eyes. Quickly closing them to try to force the pain away he focused on remembering what had happened.

'What happened, where am I, and why does it hurt so bad?!?' He thought.

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*A Block From Sionis Cosmetic Factories, 13 Hours Earlier.

"Are we all set?" Penguin asked the assembled crew.

Several black SUV's and a few unmarked vans dominated the parking lot of a Narrows supermarket. With a wide swath of men in suits either standing around or smoking, the scene would have looked comical.

Except all the men were armed.

Most had pistols, several carried shotguns, and a handful were packing uzis. All of which left a very dangerous-looking flash mob to the uninformed.

Penguin had been talking with his lieutenants going over the general plan when he walked over to where James was standing at their car.

James shivered slightly from the cool early morning breeze, the sun would be up in a few hours which would bring some warmth to the February air. He was still wearing his last-minute getup of jeans, running shoes, and a black hoodie with a sports mask covering his lower face.

"Told you, you should have brought a heavier jacket," Penguin stood next to him looking up at the taller young man.

James rolled his eyes, "Thanks Mom," he snidely said.

"Watch that lip boy," Penguin said teasingly.

Penguin then gave a deep yawn, he was getting too old for these late-night hits. Though calling this a hit was a bit of a misnomer. Looking around at the parking lot, he had more than 40 of his men armed and ready to lay siege to this abandoned factory. It really looked more like a D-Day invasion. All to take out a street gang that got too high on their own laurels.

"When we get there, I want you to stay in the car. Don't come into the factory, the crew will take care of them. If I need you I will call for you..." Penguin paused.

James felt his eyes get drawn down to the shorter man and he stared back into the unblinking eyes of Gotham's underworld king.

Penguin's voice grew deadly serious, "You will not disobey me on this, only come if I call." He took his trademark umbrella and tapped his shoulder. "I will not accept defiance with this, am I understood?"

James was quiet for a brief second before nodding his head.

Penguin stared at him before also nodding, "Good, and if those vigilantes show up?"

"I run for it," James responded.

"Why do I get the sense you are just saying yes when you are going to do the opposite," Penguin said somewhat annoyed.

James couldn't help but give a silent laugh at that and though his mouth was covered the signs of him smiling could be seen in his eyes.

Penguin did not look very amused.

"Get in the damn car, you moron!" He huffed climbing into the SUV.

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*Sionis Cosmetic Factories

Black Mask stood on the ramparts of his old family factory watching as from a distance he could see the large convoy of Penguin's driving up the main straight.

Abandoned and rundown buildings flanked the one-way street leading up to the factory, well abandoned as in, no one owned them. The Narrows populace always filled up the empty tenant and warehouses that dotted their island. Most likely quite a few crackheads and other forgotten members of Gotham's society were in those buildings.

Tonight though along with the less fortunate, the buildings had another few occupants... Black Mask's men.

A slightly slurred voice startled Black Mask, "F&*%king bastards, I 'hiccup' hope you kill the lot of them!"

Black Mask swung around and punched in the jaw the Blackwater Chief who had gotten even more disheveled and drunk as the night wore on.

The Chief fell flat on his rear, the alcohol seemed to of dulled his senses since all his response was merely a complaining "ow."

Black Mask stood over him, "Don't ever sneak up behind me like that again Tony! I swear if you were not paying me I would gut you like a fish!"

Considering that Black Mask had done so to one of his associates a few days ago, one would think that the Blackwater Chief would be more cautious with his words.

"F&*k you Roman, f^&k you, and f&^k this city, f*&k all the people, f#$k f^%k f*&k it all! I have been abandoned by my bosses and left to get torn apart by Penguin. I am allowed to gloat a bit at his death!" Tony snarled, before taking another long swig of his bottle of 'liquid courage.'

The Chief slowly stumbled back onto his feet to stand looking out at the view where he could see the long convoy of cars make their way to the main gate of the factory.

Growling at Black Mask he said, "Why are you not attacking them?!? They are right on top of us! I swear if you are backstabbing me I will..."

The Chief did not finish his thought due to Black Mask backhanding him back to the ground. This time the red imprint of his hand could be seen on the tubbier man who was rubbing his face.

Black Mask ignored his groaning to pick up his tool for the night and began to fiddle with the safeties.

"Your problem Tony is that you think you're an actual gangster, well you are not!" Black Mask spat the last word with venom.

Propping his tool onto his shoulder he began to adjust the sights. The convoy at this point was only a few yards away from the wired gate, it looked like the lead would smash through allowing the rest to drive in.

Black Mask cracked his neck, "If it wasn't for the fact that damn bird with his pet dog blew up all my product I would have never taken your damn money! But alas desperate times call for desperate measures."

Black Mask glanced down in disgust at the man, he was a wanna-be mobster, a phony crook. He was lucky his bosses decided to give him the chance to take over the Blackwater gang.

"Watch and learn why I am still relevant, and why your money was well spent on me." Black Mask focused the scope on the front vehicle that was just about to crash into the gate and pulled the trigger...

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*Northern Narrows, Unknown Rooftop.

Robin was feeling a little frustrated.

He had lost track of the convoy when it split up in multiple directions. And though he had managed to nail one with a tracker, the device had fallen out when the van had hit a particularly hard speed bump and dislodged it.

'Batman will not let me live that down,' Robin bemoaned over that fact.

He knew that the target would have to be somewhere in the Narrows, even organized crime avoided crossing the area unless they had business. Partly because of the danger, but mostly because every drug dealer and druggy would snitch in a second. Hell, Batman had a small network of informants there that would keep him up-to-date just for a couple of bucks.

Vibration from his communicator cut his thoughts.

He answered it quickly, "Barbs you have anything on your end?"

A young female voice responded, "No, I was finishing up a call with Bats over at the airport when you called, some smuggling thing. I am almost at the Narrows. What is your status?"

"Shit, I was afraid of that," Robin said frustratingly. "I lost track of the convoy, but the target has to be the Narrows. I am currently on the North end trying to get reoriented."

"Don't curse, and is the Boy Wonder losing his touch?" The voice asked in a teasing tone.

Robin rolled his eyes, she was always trying to get him riled up. It did not help that when she joined the team and found out his age that she was able to smugly gloat about being the older one. By a single year did she have him beat yet she acted like she was the wise old sidekick of Batman while he was the new guy.

It irritated him to no end, and she knew it. What the deal was with girls was something he would never understand.

Taking a breath he said, "Bad luck and they started moving before I could get ready. Let's meet up and we will go from th..."

BOOOOOOOM!

Clack Clack Clack Clack Clack Clack...

Robin nearly fell off the perch he was on when a loud boom echoed across the streets of the Narrows followed immediately by the distinct sound of multiple automatic weapons firing from a distance.

Startled Robin asked, "Did you hear that!?!"

The voice took a more serious tone, "Ya, sounds like someone brought something bigger than a peashooter to the fight. I am fairly certain it came from the old factory district. I am just a few minutes away. I will head there now."

"Wait! Don't go yet, we need to meet up and coordinate, then we need to inform Bats. He was serious about not telling him..." Robin began before being interrupted.

"Oh please, like you did at the docks?" The sound of whooshing air indicated she was already swinging across the rooftops to the sound of the battle happening.

"That amount of gunfire suggests you were right, this is a full-blown fight, we can't wait for backup when bystanders can get hit by some of these idiots."

Robin had also at this point taken off and was jumping and grabbling off the roofs to the factory district. "Listen I am at least 15 minutes away, the cops will take maybe an hour if we are lucky, just wait for me!" He almost shouted the words.

Though he couldn't see her, he knew she had her typical look of determination that was eerily similar to the Commissioner.

"I can almost see the scene, multiple fires, and armed assailants. Looks like a massive crater from some sort of explosive device near the entrance of this abandoned factory. I am sending my coordinates to Batman and you... I am going in, Batgirl out!"

The voice hung up before Robin could even respond.

Sigh, "I think I am starting to get how it feels to be like the old man." Robin grimaced at the thought as he swung off, heading in the direction of Barbs coordinates and where he could maybe see the faint outlines of fire.