Castle Of Glass | B. Wayne

[18]

The dark streets of Gotham were the same as Batman and his vigilantes patrolled the city. But unlike usual, things had been fairly quiet for the past few days and that in itself was a warning that something big was brewing in Gotham's underworld.

Whenever there were a few peaceful nights, it was usually the sort of silence before a storm. It had happened too many times earlier for him to be mistaken.

Gotham was indeed the sort of city that could never have peace without a hidden cost or aftermath.

Robin and Red Robin were on patrol alongside him and he made sure that things were going well on their end too, connected to both of them through their comms. However, he received intel that something fishy was going on in the Toxic Acres and they would have to check it out.

Toxic Acres was an abandoned district in Gotham in close proximity to the city's waste dump. Living conditions there were not conducive so it had not been inhabited by the citizens, instead it had become more of a temporary hiding spot for criminals.

The vigilantes had received reports of sinister activity possibly being carried out underground so it was necessary for them to inspect the place.

Bruce instructed his sons to search the ground level of the facility and keep watch while he would go underground himself. Red Robin was insisting to come as well but he told him he would call him only if it was absolutely necessary.

He was Batman and there were some things he did not want his boys to be on the front line to face. True they could handle it but he wanted to keep them safe as much as possible.

Or perhaps that thought had gripped his will even tighter ever since he had told Calmia his secret and she had pointed out how much danger he had put his children through. He did not want to repeat that mistake again.

So he descended cautiously into the underground tunnels of Toxic Acres, eyes on the lookout for any disturbance.

"B, reception is bad. Can't hear... You..." Red Robin's voice was cutting in and out through the comm due to poor signals.

That meant if he didn't hear Bruce respond for the next ten minutes, he would come underground too.

His watch would already be indicating Bruce's location to him due to the tracker inserted in his Bat symbol. As long as the red dot kept moving, Tim would know there was nothing to worry about.

A pungent smell surrounded him and not knowing whether it was poisonous or not, he fixed his gas mask over his face. One thing was for sure though; the facility wasn't as abandoned as it seemed from the ground level.

"You there?" Tim's frantic voice reached him again.

"Yes," he replied, edging closer to the network of tubes laid out ahead of him, "I found something. I'll check and if I'm not out..."

But his voice was cut off not due to the poor signals but the thwack of a heavy object hitting him. He spun around just in time to be hit in the head and get knocked out, hands closing onto the massive metal block that had been used to attack him.

"Robin, backup plan!" Red Robin's voice drifted through the comm, and it seemed as if he had guessed something was wrong on Batman's end.

Bruce threw the block aside and saw that there was no one holding it in the first place. It was a trap set up to go off in its programmed time of an intruder accessing the underground facility.

"Red Robin, Robin, this place is set with traps," he tried to warn his sons who were probably about to come down as well to help him, "I'll come out after I'm done checking the rest of it."