In The Web Of Gotham

Awry

It was mayhem, the fire department, the police, even the paramedics had to give the flaming fear factory a wide birth. It wasn't until the two heroes showed up that the emergency support flocked to them.

"We need the GCPD block off the perimeter, inform people that this area is now an active and high risk biohazard area. Fire department, there's a few hydrants around the corners of these buildings here. Snake your hoses to the rooftops and get your most agile to man them from the roofs. Paramedics, you're going to need to get some oxygen ready for if people are still inside of the warehouse. Spider-Man and I will go in and search for any injured," Nightwing said as he looked towards the Spider-Man and gave a nod. The two acrobatic avengers leapt into the burning warehouse to search for anyone that might have survived.

The lenses of Nightwing's mask turned blue as he began to search for people. Spider-Man keeping low, crawling along the ground on all fours like an actual spider. Lurking around to try and find anybody who might be injured and caught in this building that has an atmosphere abundant of aerosolized aberrations. The air saturated with literal nightmares that Spider-Man only has a small metallic apparatus safeguarding his respiratory and central nervous system from a wide grade irritation and panic attack.

"I'm not seeing anybody trapped in here, seems like everyone managed to escape before the building went completely up in flames," Nightwing said initially, Spiderman crawling beneath a large piece of rubble, his senses latching onto the smell of burned flesh and blood amidst the chaos of sensory stimuli. Giving the rubble a shove from beneath, he saw the sight before him. It was Ian Hall, with a large array of holes punched directly into his chest.

Intracardiac Injection points... The young vigilante recognized immediately. The wounds were relatively fresh, blood still pooling in the holes. The man's face being twisted into a look of pure terror, light leaving his eyes an hour before the flames took full hold over the building. Electrical, chemical and thermal burns on different parts of his body. He could tell that something more was happening.

Spider-Man waved over to Nightwing, signalling the Dark Knight's protege to come over. Nightwing rushes over, pulling out a small device from another compartment of his wrist gauntlets. It looked comparable to a lancet, with a small red button on another side of it.

Jabbing Hall's wrist, a click was heard as the interior of the lancet's head flushed red. A small panel flipping open on the gauntlets of Nightwing as he watched the results of a sort of chemical analysis pop up, he scowled. It was clear even through the rebreather that he was scowling.

"He got a megadose of Fear Toxin directly into his heart. He was hyperventilating from horrors dancing rent free through his head," Nightwing said in frustration. Spider-Man seeing the connection immediately, the police did this to Ian Hall. Simply by capturing him, the GCPD had unknowingly marked him for death. A thought crossed the now regretful detective.

How did Scarecrow know that Ian Hall turned traitor? The thought lingered as he helped Nightwing search the rest of the building, even afterwards. Once the two retreated to a far rooftop to survey and help the emergency response maneuver the catastrophe.

"You seem quiet, and not just from the rebreather. What's wrong?" Nightwing asked, removing his respirator. Spider-Man doing the same to the small apparatus from his mouth.

"That man...he was someone who told the GCPD how he connected to Scarecrow's operation. He gave information about what he does, where he falls on the board. He sounded like an integral part of the distribution network Crane had in this part of the city. So why was he dead?" Spider-Man explained.

"Probably as an example of what happens when you double cross the Scarecrow," Nightwing quickly deduced. Spider-Man just quietly shook his head.

"Something doesn't seem right...Crane would have needed to know that Ian Hall had talked. Something only the GCPD, Batman and I knew up until now. Plus, doesn't it seems weird that a chemical fire in a pharmaceutical warehouse was able to be extinguished with nothing more but just regular water? The combustion reaction would be introducing new factors, something that would require CO² extinguishers. Not just water, right?" The scientific mind of Spider-Man inquired.

"You....you have a point. Even if we do just assume the warehouse was firebombed. The chemicals catching fire would make this a class B fire, which would need a different procedure to handle it. What are you thinking?" Nightwing asked.

"I think the warehouse was intentionally burned, leaving Ian Hall to be panicking on the inside. Like you said, he would have been hyperventilating. Taking big gasps or rapid shallow lungfuls of smoke. If the warehouse was full of burning fear toxin, then why would Crane give Ian a megadose of full concentration Fear Toxin?" Spider-Man deduced. Giving Nightwing a brief moment of pause.

"Ok I see what you're getting at. We might need to get a full detailed analysis on the building once the flames die down. Which looks like it'll be a few minutes with the way the fire department is working at it," Nightwing instructed. Once the flames died down, Nightwing looked towards the now smoking remnants of the building.

"Alright, time for a new part of the training. Time to test your deductive reasoning," Nightwing instructed as he leapt down, Spider-Man following close behind, the two detectives prepared to gather more information about what happened.