Daughter of the Red Hood

Events Set into Motion

Next Day
Black Mask's Office

"Son of a-!" Black Mask's swore. "Are you telling me those scumbags stole my guns AGAIN?!" One of Black Mask's bodyguards gulped nervously. "No, sir." Ms. Li spoke calmly. "They destroyed them. Blew up the truck, the drivers..." "Damn it. Of all the-." Black Mask quietly said as he clenched his fists in anger before he stood up and slammed his fists on the table. "DAMN IT!"

"Previously, they were just enlisting anyone under our province to come work for them." Ms. Li explained. "Now they just seem to be...killing them." "Oh, so now we got another Batman and Robin?" Black Mask's questioned. "Ones who don't mind the blood?" "No, sir, they're no Batman and Robin." Ms. Li said. "They're still taking huge cuts off the streets. But now they're eliminating the competition. They're coming after you." Hearing this Black Mask straightened up and fell silent. A tense moment of silence went by before one of Black Mask's bodyguards cleared his throat, snapping Black Mask out of it.

Black Mask gritted his teeth and yelled as he angrily tossed his desk to the side, Ms. Li remaining unfazed as he stormed past her and yelled. "YOU WANNA TELL ME WHY THESE GUYS AIN'T DEAD?!" "We're trying." Ms. Li said as she turned to face her boss as he stormed over to his guards. "We sent the Fearsome Hand of Four." "Four?" Black Mask said as he punched one of his guards in the face, sending him crashing to the floor. "Guess they're gonna need a new name."

He was of course referring to Shot, whom Red Hood has killed the night before. Black Mask proceeded to walk over to another guard and punched him in the gut, sending him to the floor. "Why hasn't Batman wiped these little smears off the face of the planet?" Black Mask's questioned. "Maybe he doesn't want to." Ms. Li offered. "Perhaps he's letting you and Red Hood and Dice war it out. He could be waiting-."

"To take on the winner?" Black Mask's interrupted before he punched another guard in the face. "What do you think this is? A TENNIS TOURNAMENT?!" he said as he punched his final guard in the face. "I'm just saying-." Ms. Li began only for Black Mask to cut in as he walked past her and to the window behind his desk. "YOU'RE AN IDIOT! AND YOU DON'T KNOW BATMAN! He's not letting these lunatics just run wild! He can't catch them either!"

Black Mask's expression then turned to one of thoughtfulness as he quietly said. "Or...it's something else. Can't you feel it? We're stuck in the damn crossfire." Black Mask's pondered this as Ms. Li quietly pushed up her glasses and began to write on her clipboard. Just then Black Mask took notice of a little red dot slowly creeping up his face. He gasped and quickly looked out the window only to find Red Hood, a rocket launcher in his grasp, waving as Dice, who sat next to him, blew him a kiss from the rooftop across the street.

The red dot of the scope of Red Hood's rocket launcher finally came to rest on Black Mask's forehead who simply said in a blank voice. "Ah, hell." Black Mask's then quickly ran away from the window and to the door, shoving one of his guards who'd recovered from his beating to the floor. Ms. Li watched in confusion as her boss booked it to the door before she glanced out the window, quickly seeing why he'd fled she also took off towards the door. The doors to Black Mask's office burst open surprising the guards standing outside. "Sir?" one of the guards questioned when Black Mask booked it out of his office, Ms. Li and his guards soon coming out after him.

•••

"Wow, he sure can move when he really want to." Red Hood said in mild surprise as he and Dice watched Black Mask book it out of his office, Dice laughing in amusement at what he said. Red Hood got back to business as he aimed the launcher them fired, the rocket quickly sped towards Black Mask's office, smashing through the window before landing on the large meeting table in the room and exploded on impact.