In The Web Of Gotham

Shadowy Game

The Spider-Man and Nightwing leapt, bound and swung throughout the city of darkness. Trying to get an idea of what the small timers are trying to do, how these movements line up. At this moment, Nightwing was watching intently as Peter dove through electronic devices in a scrapyard.

"So what's your plan on proving your theory to Batman? Right now, it's nothing but conjecture and scattered thoughts," Nightwing asked as the Arachnid Vigilante took a laptop and started dismantling pieces of it.

"There's a mysterious phone switchboard in Cape Carmine. I tried to hook up a tracer to that device, but I don't think it was fully locked in enough. So, I'm improvising," Spider-Man said as he grabbed a bunch more pieces of electronic junk, circuit boards and switches, antennas and panels.

"And your plan is to...?" Nightwing asked in confusion.

"Try to build a IMSI Catcher device. To try and see if the mysterious operator makes their calls through burner phones. If they do, I can track their movements and trace their location," Spider-Man said as he started wiring and connecting these pieces together into the laptop.

"...You...do know that the Batcomputer can do exactly that, but like exponentially faster right?" Nightwing said. Spider-Man stopped for a moment and then thought....really hard.

"...I'm still used to putting my gear together from garbage I find. I'm not used to having access to all of these resources, dude," Spider-Man defended.

"We also have the Midnight Mission to help look into the weeds on these things," Nightwing added as he pushed a button on the side of his mask.

"Hey Oracle, think you can patch through to the Midnight Mission system? Oh and add Spider-Man to the comm channel," Nightwing asked nicely. Suddenly, Spider-Man's Oracle Link device began buzzing. As he plugs the Oracle Link into his phone, he answered the call as well.

"So what do you need Nightwing?" Oracle asked once the three were in the same communication line.

"What's the phone traffic looking like around Gotham? Anything unusual?" Nightwing asked as the two vigilantes began parkouring around the city once again.

"You're going to have to narrow it down, because phone traffic in Gotham is weird anyways," Oracle joked.

"Are there any phone calls that sound like they're giving instructions to someone?" Nightwing specified, giving a chuckle.

"Let me check, the Gotham Underworld is a bit shaken up right now," Oracle said as the sound of typing was heard. However, Spider-Man caught what she said and was confused.

"Wait, what do you mean shaken up? What happened?" Spider-Man asked in concern. It was then that he saw it, amidst the dark skies of Gotham City...smoke. Black smoke billowing into the skies as a tinge of orange was glowing beneath.

Was it a fire? No, there's too much smoke not enough flames. The thoughts began to swirl through his head before Nightwing came to the easiest solution.

"An explosion. Oracle, what's the status on the emergency response?" Nightwing asked, switching to a tone that sounds like Batman's. An intense tone that resonated seriousness, but Nightwing still maintain his own form of levity.

"From what I'm hearing from dispatches and seeing from CCTV footage, Ichabod Pharmaceuticals just got bombed. No casualties, but a whole lot of injured," Oracle explained.

"That means that there's an entire warehouse worth of Scare that just got blown up and taken off the streets," Spiderman said. To which Nightwing had to interrupt and correct him.

"Close, that means there's an entire warehouse worth of low grade Fear Toxin being heated up and aerosolized into concentrated Fear Gas. Which means that there's going to be an entire block...no a mile of Gotham City that's going to be undergoing a full dose of Scarecrow's Fear Gas," Nightwing explained as he grabbed a black mouth cover and placed it over his face. The sound of latching clasps was heard as Nightwing's breathing began to sound mechanical now. A rebreather, with an air filter strong enough to filter even the smallest of microbes from passing through.

"What about me? I'll be defenseless against the fear gas!" Spider-Man shouted out, Nightwing nodding. Reaching around to one of his arm gauntlets, opening it up and giving another rebreather. It was small but effective

"Fair enough, here put this in your mouth. It'll protect you for about an hour," Nightwing said, his voice now being modulated through the rebreather. Spider-Man lifted his mask and bites down onto the small rebreather before pulling it back under his mask. Leaping onto action, the two vigilantes mobilized to check on the scene and investigate this bombing. Something that seems like it throws a huge wrench into Peter's theory of moving pieces.

"So why did you need to know about instruction based phone calls?" Oracle asked Nightwing.

"Spider-Man has a theory that someone is trying to consolidate power on Gotham City, but by helping the Crime Syndicates in Gotham move in ways that'll benefit them," Nightwing explained.

"Holy shit, that's a scary thought. I'll keep on the lookout for anything like that," Oracle called before she disconnected. Putting the phone away, Spider-Man began going full speed. Swinging from his webs and using his lanky frame to propel himself through the air, keeping up with the gymnastic avian avenger.

"What purpose is there in blowing up Ichabod Pharmaceutical? That takes a heavy chunk out of Scarecrow's operation, and if you're right. Hinders whatever movements involve Scarecrow and Bane," Nightwing asked Spider-Man. The now silenced superhero only had his eyes narrow, the lenses becoming black lines across the white mask to reflect. He was trying to think about what this could do... what's the play here?