#40: On The Hill, Pt 1 (Vasquez / wildlifehoodoo)

[/b]
Edited by House Of Mystery[/div]


Sounds of sirens are nothing new in Gotham City. Neither is violence, especially in the inner-city neighborhood known as the Hill, where streets lined with deceased, young minorities are as common as the sunrise. The Hill has always been in competition with the other neighborhoods for highest mortality rate in the city. Staggering considering that this area was hardly frequented by any super villains, or the Gotham Underworld. The general consensus was that it wasn't worth the trouble when there were more lucrative and controllable areas of the city. But that was the old guard of Gotham's underworld, and its new face was interested in not just the money, but control and domination of ALL Gotham, including the Hill and he was big on sending messages to people who would cause him any trouble.

That's what brought Detective Crispus Allen to the Hill, riding down Winick Avenue where rows of people were lined up looking at the message sent to them. He parked his black sedan amongst the cavalcade of police cruisers and motioned for his partner to get out. He was normally partnered with Renee Montoya, but she had the day off so tagging along with him was Detective Anna Ramirez, a rookie on her first night. They got out of the vehicle and began to walk where GCPD Vice and CSI personnel were congregated, hearing gasps of bewilderment along with standard insults reserved for the people in their profession. After exchanging pleasantries with the other officers Detectives Allen and Ramirez finally saw what they came to the hill to see.

"Oh my God..." Detective Ramirez said as she covered her mouth. A young African-American male in his twenties had been impaled on a pole like a scarecrow. His face was swollen and heavily bruised, beyond recognition. His eyes seemed to be melted shut, with a trail of crusted blood from the corner to the cheek. His skin was flayed from his neck to his waist and his stomach ripped open. "Oh God..." Detective Ramirez repeated again.

"Welcome to the show kid," Crispus said as he walked closer to the corpse and crouched down and looked at the sidewalk. "Why don't you go ask if anyone seen anything?"

"Okay," the young detective said as she began to walk towards the crowd. Crispus looked closer at the scene. Not much blood on the ground... Must have been moved here recently Crispus thought, as he looked down at the victim's feet. "Is his foot shorter?"

"Yes sir," a young CSI technician said. "Looks like it was sliced, my money's on a meat slicer."

"That’s a new one," Detective Allen said as put on a set of vinyl gloves he stood up as he looked at the jacket the victim was wearing. “Looks like a high school varsity jacket, maybe East Gotham High?” Crispus noticed a piece of paper in the victims pocket and pulled it out. He unfolded it to and it read:

To the Detectives of the GCPD,


Please do something about this Orpheus menace, before more people get hurt.


Your friend,

Black Mask

“Great,” Crispus said as he saw Ramirez walking towards him. “Anyone see anything?"

"No one’s talking," Ramirez said. "Unless you count all the insults I got."

Crispus laughed and put his hand on her shoulder. "You got a lot to learn." He fished into his lapel pocket and pulled out a pack of Camels and lit one up. He walked towards one of the abandoned buildings and leaned against the derelict wall as he took another drag of his cigarette, savoring the flavor. His pleasure was short lived as it was interrupted by a harsh and gruff voice from the adjacent ally to where Crispus was standing.

“Good evening Detective Allen,” Crispus looked into the alley and saw nothing but darkness. He looked up and saw a silhouette of a teen age boy with a cape flapping in the wind pointing down towards the alley. He looked in one more time and saw a faint outline of a man and pointed ears at the top of his head, along with hollow, white eyes.


“It would be a lot better if I didn’t have to deal with your ‘friend’ leaving his messes all over the city,” Crispus said taking another drag of his cigarette, not letting Batman forget about the alliance he forged with Black Mask during the Joker bombings. Of course, Crispus Allen didn’t know that this wasn’t the same man under the mask, but like most that have dealt with Batman, he had a hunch. While it may have seemed that Batman had patched up his relationship with Commissioner Gordon, Crispus wanted to let this guy know that he still wasn’t on good terms with Batman. “Which is why I assume that you’re here and not to investigate the murder of some poor kid from the hood.”


“You know Black Mask isn’t going to go this far on some random kid to send a message,” Batman began, ignoring Crispus’s snide comment, “Especially when he never went this far when taking over the gangs in the Hill.” Batman took a breath and continued, “Who’s Orpheus?”


“Orpheus? How did you know…” Crispus asked with surprise in his voice, looking down at the piece of paper he took out of the kid’s jacket pocket. “I don’t take kindly to you tampering with my crime scene.”


“Detective Allen, whatever feelings you harbor towards me, you should know …”


“Save it, the only reason I’m even talking to you is because of my respect for Jim Gordon,” Crispus said, exhaling cigarette smoke, almost yelling at the shadows before continuing. “Anyway, Orpheus is sort of the Robin Hood of the hood… that is if Robin Hood stole the stuff rich people were selling to the poor and sold them to the same poor people at 25 to 50 cents on the dollar. Runs with a crew, usually small and targets mostly people in the drug game and is said to be one of the reasons the Gotham Underworld stays away from the Hill. With that kind of rep, you can see how he grew into some kind of cult hero around here and how easy it is for them to over look the fact he’s keeping these streets flooded with drugs and dead bodies.”


“The M.O. seems like it could fit with the shooting around here the other night.”


“You’re talking about the shooting the other night at Gotham Heights?” Crispus asked taking a final drag before stomping the butt out. “That was the first thing that came to my mind, but we can’t corroborate it. Those people aren’t exactly a talkative bunch, but if you can work your magic and get something, then more power to you. That’s assuming Orpheus is real, because so far, he’s been nothing but an urban legend, but then again, so were you…” Crispus looked into the alley and no one was there. He looked up and saw the teenage boy wave at him before swinging away. “I don’t know how Gordon puts up with that @#$%.”


He turned and walked back toward the crime scene, walking past a young African American man wearing all black and a black trench coat. He narrowed his forehead and gritted his teeth as he clenched his fist. A young woman, African-American with big hazel eyes, placed her hand on his shoulder.


“I’m sorry Gavin,” She said. “I know you two were close.”


“He’s gonna pay,” Gavin said with anger. “He’s going to pay hard.”


[/b]


I’m so close, Roman Sionis, known throughout Gotham as the Black Mask, thought as stood in his secret office staring at a wall-sized map of Gotham City. So close to having it all. He turned around to look at his new consultant, the Flesh-Monger, a woman who has the ability to control of the flesh she touches. “I assume that the message has been sent?” Roman asked as he sat down at his desk, unbuttoning his suit jacket and putting his feet up on the table.


“Yes it has Mr. Mask,” Flesh-Monger replied, remaining standing, crossing her arms as Black Mask sat. She wore a trench coat and left it open, revealing her shapely body, and the black corset and leather that she always wore underneath. “If I may ask, why even bother with this Orpheus? Why waste the time and effort when we have more important things like the Batmen to deal with? “


“Because if you don’t deal with these little problems, they will eventually become big problems,” Roman replied as he popped some pain killers. “I let him get away, then other people will think its okay to steal my @#$%. We can’t be showing any weakness.”


“It seems so petty, so beneath us,” Flesh-Monger said, with a hint of disgust in her voice.


“I’ll decide what’s too beneath us to deal with,” Black Mask said. “Are we any closer to finding out who this guy is?”


“We’re working on it,” Flesh-Monger said. “We got a name from a boy that was shot during the stick-up and looking into the East Gotham High School records to see if there’s a connection.”


“Good, cause I’ll give that kid credit, he didn’t snitch, not after I sliced his foot with a meat slicer, and not after you started ripping his flesh off,” Roman said, popping two more pills. “But that’s going to be nothing compared to what I’m going to do to Orpheus.”


[/b]


Darion Kemp walked into his dark apartment, with the assistance of a cane and a noticeable hitch in his step, having had slugs removed from his right leg earlier in the week. Tired after a day working the stairwells of the east tower in the Gotham Heights Projects, he failed to notice the ominous white eyes staring at him from behind. He flipped the light switch in his living room and reached into the pockets of his jacket and grabbed handfuls of cash and vials of drugs and placed them on his coffee table which had a mirror surface caked with drug residue. After emptying his pockets, he finally noticed the reflection of the famed cape and cowl of Gotham’s protector.


“Holy @#$%,” Darion screamed as his head was slammed through the surface to the table.


“The shooting a couple of days ago at the east tower… talk,” Batman said with his growling voice.


“@#$% you,” Darion said, but before he could get another word out, Batman dug his fingers into the wraps of his injured leg, eliciting a scream from the young man.an said in his growling voice.shed through the surface to the table.the Caped Crusader placed them on his kitchen table


“I’m still waiting,” Batman said as he squeezed a little harder.


“Eat a @#$% mother @#$%er,” Darion said.


“Fine, we’ll do this the hard way,” Batman replied as he dragged Darion through his apartment by his injured leg, through shards of his broken table, money and drug vials that scattered on the floor, on to the balcony. Batman picked him up and hung him over the edge by his ankle.


“Ah @#$%, my stitches are tearing,” Darion screamed as he saw the pavement several stories below.


“Then you better start talking because my arm’s getting tired.”


“Okay, okay,” Darion screamed through gritted teeth. “It was Orpheus and his crew, some dude and a girl, took us while we were getting re-upped, took cash, drugs, chains, everything. @#$%ing shot me in the leg.”


“Tell me something I don’t know,” Batman said while lowering Darion.


“The dude that was with him started getting anxious while Orpheus was taking our chains, watches and @#$%. He called Orpheus Gavin.”


“And the kid whose guts are spread out over the Hill,”


“Orpheus’s boy… please, my leg,” Darion pleaded before he felt himself thrown on the balcony of his apartment. He opened his eyes and to see that Batman was gone.





"Something wrong Tavy?" Gavin asked sitting in the front seat of his white van, loading his shotgun.

"Do you think it's smart to go through with this stick-up so soon after Jody died?" Tavy asked from the passenger seat while they waited across the street from the courtyard of an abandoned apartment complex. While all of the buildings have been boarded up and declared inhabitable, it didn’t stop people from making homes of them and serving as a major hub for the inner city drug trade.

"We've been watching staking this place out for weeks. We know tonight is the re-up, so It's now or never," Gavin said as he continued to load the gun. "And we can do this just as well with the two of us."

"I'm just not sure your head's in the right place, or mine," Tavy said. "I just think it's too soon."

"Tavy, when you and Jody hooked up with me, I told you that if either of you had any doubts about anything you're free to go whenever," Gavin began. "But right now we need to hit this Black Mask $&@# right now and hard. He's got a mark on our heads and sitting around, grieving for Jody isn't going to do us or him any good." Gavin reached under his seat and pulled out a 9mm and offered it to Tavy. "I got a plan Tavy, you have to trust me."

"Well, you've never let me down before," Tavy said as she took the gun from Gavin. Out of the corner of her eye she saw two men enter the abandoned building they had pegged as the stash house. "The re-up is here."

"Remember," Gavin said as he reached behind him and pulled out a black helmet and put it on. The helmet covered his whole head except for around his mouth. He pressed a button on the side of it that caused the foam on the inside to mold around his head and harden onto place, holding it firm and activated, causing the red visor that stretched across his eyes to glow subtle shade of red. "When we're working, call me Orpheus."


[/b]


Marcus Broadus sat on a dirty and moldy couch in the middle of the courtyard, peeling an orange while waiting for the re-up to be finished so business can get back to normal. He yawned and put a piece of orange in his mouth as he saw a young woman with short hair and big hazel eyes walking towards him. “Hey sweetie,” she said playfully as she smiled at him.


“Yo, what’s a pretty thang like you doing out here at this time of night?” Marcus said, standing up and flirting back. “Place like this isn’t safe this time of night.”


“Well, I’m just looking for a little something… you thing you can help me out?” she said as she traced a line down Marcus’s chest.


“I think I can,” Marcus said, getting close to her and lowering his face to her ear. “What you looking for?”


“Everything,” Tavy said as she kneed Marcus in the groin. She drew her gun and struck him across the face with the handle, knocking him to the ground before placing the barrel on his temple. “Get up mother @#$% and put your hands up.” Tavy helped drag him to his feet, then put the barrel to the small of his back and guided him towards the stash house.


“What the @#$%,” the lookout outside the stash house said as he saw a bloody Marcus walking towards him with his hands raised. Before he could say anything or give any warning, he was struck across the face with what felt like a club, but he didn’t see anything. Bleeding from his eyebrow, he looked up and saw a man in black materialize from the air. He wore a black trench coat and a black helmet with a glowing red visor and was wielding a shotgun.


Orpheus grabbed the lookout, kicked in the door to the stash house and threw him in. “Stay the @#$% down,” Orpheus yelled to the look out as he pointed his shotgun at the two guys sitting at the table and now were standing with their hands up.


“What the @#$%’s going on down there?” Orpheus heard someone yell from upstairs and heard two people running down the steps. He reached behind him and grabbed a handgun and shot both of them in the knees as they came into his field of vision, his aim aided by the helmet he wore. As they howled in pain, Tavy came in with Marcus and threw him to the floor. She turned around to make sure no one would get the drop on them.


“The stash and the cash, now,” Orpheus demanded as he repositioned his shotgun to the two standing at the table, but both hesitated. Orpheus turned to the taller of the two and shot him in the leg. “What about it shorty?” he asked as he now turned to the shorter of the two.


He turned and walked into the kitchen, stepping over his associate who was cursing and cradling his knee. He reached into a cupboard and pulled out a large garbage bag and a smaller paper bag. He walked to Orpheus and handed them over. Orpheus looked into the bags and examined their contents, pleased with what he saw. “Is that it?” he asked.


“Yeah,” the kid said.


“Alright then,” Orpheus said as he walked backwards, keeping his focus on the crew inside. “Well, gentlemen, it’s been a pleasure.” Orpheus and Tavy turned and sprinted out of the house and towards their van, but their progress was impeded by a series of batarangs. Both looked up and saw Batman and Robin staring down at them from above on a rooftop.


“This way,” Orpheus screamed as he pulled Tavy into an alley. They sprinted hard to the end and hopped the chain link fence that was separating this abandoned complex with one adjacent. They sprinted through the next courtyard with the Dynamic Duo in pursuit. “In here,” Orpheus said, kicking in the door to a random abandoned building, pulling Tavy in with him.


[/b]


Batman and Robin followed Orpheus and the girl into the abandoned building. The past two days haven’t given them many leads as to who Orpheus was. The victim from the other night has not been identified, since his prints weren’t in the GCPD database and no one has reported anyone matching his description missing. The only leads he had were the school jacket the victim was wearing, and the information he pried from a drug dealer a few days before, so he had Alfred searching the East Gotham High database for anyone named that went there named Gavin, which produced multiple people who could’ve matched Orpheus’s description. After paying visits to some of the other drug dealers in the Hill, they had gotten one to snitch about a shipment of new drugs coming into the Courtyard and played a hunch that it might be Orpheus’s next target.


“Be careful Robin,” Batman whispered as they entered the pitch black building. They saw and heard nothing except the sounds of small animals scurrying about.


"Where did they go?" Robin asked. “They couldn’t have just vanished into thin air.

"Switch to infrared lenses, Robin."


“Why not use the night-vision?” Robin asked.


“I got a hunch,” Batman whispered as he presses a button on the temple of his cowl and the eyes of his mask turned from a white hue to a glowing red. Batman scanned the room and didn’t notice anything unusual right away, but upon taking a second glance around, he noticed the faint infrared reading. It outlined an odd shape near the exit across from them. It fluctuated, one second it was there and another it was gone.

He reached to his utility belt, grabbed a batarang and threw it in its direction. The razor-sharp weapon grazed the bubble, but cut it enough for a warm liquid to pour out of the wound. The bubble shot up and grew onto the shape of a man who pointed his shotgun at the caped crusader. He took one step and disappeared. Batman could now see the infrared signature of the girl, but before Batman could take action, Orpheus pulled the trigger, shooting Batman in the stomach. The body armor of his suit prevented the shells from penetrating, but did not absorb all of the shock as Batman fell to the ground.

"Batman," Robin yelled as he ran to his partner, helping him to his feet as Orpheus and his partner ran out of the building. "I'll get them." Robin said running after the pair.

"No, wait," Batman said, grimacing as he held his ribs and stumbled his way outside. He saw that Orpheus and the girl had climbed up the fire escape and now were on the roof. Robin shot a grapple and followed them up. Batman grabbed his own grapple gun from his utility belt and shot a line to the roof. Once he felt it secure, he pressed the release and shot upwards, overshooting the edge and landing on the roof.


He saw Robin pursuing the peeps across the rod top. Once they reached the edge, Orpheus grabbed the girl and together they leaped to the next building. Robin was about to follow suit, but Orpheus threw his shotgun, side-armed like a club at the Boy Wonder and the handle hit him in the head mid-jump. Robin immediately went limp. The events seemed to move in slow motion as Batman grabbed his side and ran to the aid of his partner, trying fighting off unconsciousness. He collapsed as Robin was about to fall onto the street below...

Until Orpheus reached over the edge and grabbed Robin by the collar of his uniform, and pulled him up to safety. Orpheus took one look at Batman, before taking off. Batman activated his emergency beacon, hoping Alfred would be able to come get them, then passed out.


[/b]



"What the $&@! am I paying all of you for?!" an angry Black Mask screamed to eveyone within an earshot. In the room with him was the Flesh-Monger, his main henchman Henderson and Marcus Broadus, who was tied up to a rack-like device, bruised and beaten.

"B...b...boss--" Henderson stuttered.

"It was a rhetorical question!" Black Mask screamed. He then turned his attention to the Flesh-Monger. "Please tell me you have something on this $&@!."

"Well," she began, seeming slightly annoyed and disinterested. "We think his real name is Gavin King, went to school with the boy from the other day. Last known address is his family's house in Otisburg..."

"Good, you two pay them a visit and make sure this time that the message isn't lost on Mr. King like the last one."

"But Mr. Mask," Flesh-Monger objected. "I don't get..."

"I don't give a $&@!," Black Mask interrupted. Flesh-Monger gave him a scorned look before walking out of the room. She motioned to Henderson with her finger to follow her and he did so like a puppy.

"Now as for you Mr. Broadus," Black Mask turned to his captive. "You're going to deliver a message for me to the other hoods in the Hill to start tightening $&@! up."

"No problem Mr. Black Mask, I'll tell them whatever you want," Marcus stammered.

"Who said anything about you saying anything," Black Mask said as he grabbed power drill from his workbench





"Oh God," Dick Grayson groaned as he woke up in his bed at Wayne Manor. He touched his ribs and grimaced in pain as they were still very sensitive. "God, my ribs…"

"Well, they have seen better days Master Richard," Alfred Pennyworth, faithful servant of the Wayne family said as he entered Dick's room.

"Tim, is he okay?" Dick asked.

"Master Timothy has a concussion, but he is healing up nicely."

"Good," Dick said through his teeth as he struggled to sit up. "The suit…"

"Yes, the suit did a spectacular job in protecting you," Alfred commented.

"No, his suit... Orpheus, I recognized it as an early Wayne Tech prototype."

"Oh, of course, as did I once I had the opportunity to review the footage of the cowl-cam," Alfred said. "Stealth Suit Alpha if I recall correctly. Almost invisible to most forms of surveillance and able to
mimic the look and texture of any surface it comes in contact with. As a matter of fact, a lot of its stealth circuitry was a precursor to what is used in the bat-suit."

"Is there any way to trace it?" Dick asked.

"I have contacted Mr. Fox and he said that the helmet has an analog tracking device inside... and that he will have something ready for you tonight," Alfred informed.

"So now the question is how did he get his hands on it?"

"Well, Mr. Fox was informative on that ad well," Alfred said. "The man who designed the stealth suit was named David King, who had a son named Gavin. Lucius said that they had a falling out shortly after
Gavin finished high school at East Gotham High and they recently reconciled."

"Great work Alfie. Help me up, I need to get back on the street," Dick said, reaching his hand out to Alfred.

"Master Richard, you’re in no shape..."

"Alfred, this spat between Orpheus and Black Mask is going escalate if I don't do something about it, now," Dick said as Alfred helped him up gingerly. "And it's probably going start by getting personal."





"Why do I have to pretend to be your girlfriend Gavin?" Tavy asked as they walked from the bus stop and turned onto Dino Ave, where Gavin's parents and little brother and sister lived.

"My parents are old school Tavy," Gavin said as they walked up to Gavin's childhood home and up the steps of the porch. "They won't understand any other way why I'm bringing an attractive young woman to meet them."

"Gavin, you know we don't have to pre--"

"Tavy, we've been through this already," Gavin began as he knocked on the door, which opened on the first hit. A rank odor seeped out, causing Gavin and Tavy to pinch their noses while they walked in. The
odor got stronger as they walked to the living room.

Once there, they saw Gavin's family, sitting on the furniture, their bodies cut open as if they were being dissected for a science class, with their guts hanging out. Their faces looked as though someone had sealed the eyes, nostrils, and mouth with their own flesh. Gavin fell to his knees and his eyes started to well up.

"I'm so sorry," Tavy said knelt behind him and put her arms around him. Gavin just sat there, silently as he mourned his family.