Naila al-Kimyai is the Demon's (head) wrote in rooms, @ 2014-08-21 04:27:00
In which Ra's catches himself a jackal Who: Ra's and Eddie What: Eddie goes to investigate something in the Sewers... Where: Gotham When: Now Warnings/Rating: A wee bit of violence. Wee.
The Riddler liked to think of himself as King of Arkham City. Perhaps to some it would be a sad, worthless title. To him? To him it was progress. He had already helped a neighborhood petition for a newly paved road so that they could put shops and apartments and theaters and parks in that dead space that used to be a giant prison. He knew every inch of it all the way down to Slaughter Swamp. Every electrical current, every wifi password, every water pipe. His mind melded with the heartbeat of that part of town. He was going to make it better. He was going to bring something good to Gotham. He was going to 1 + 0 for once in his life.
While he was working on the new apartment complex, he realized there was something weird going on with the electricity. The lights would flicker madly for a few seconds before going completely dead and that didn’t make any sense unless there was something down below fucking with all the wires and circuits. So, he ventured down to see what all the hubbub was about.
Dressed in a classic Riddler suit of bright greens, question marks and a golden tie, he liked to think it made him look less like Gotham’s janitor. That’s what Stephanie thought he was, right? He could be in the Watchtower making alien tech exclusively in case there was some Marvel shaped invasion, but it was lonely up there and pointless. The Justice League was dying, the Watchtower was a waste of energy and nothing compared to the connection he had with Gotham. His wife could think his efforts were as silly as she wanted, goddamnit, Eddie knew in his heart that this was the best way to utilize all that genius he had rolling around in his skull.
So, he climbed, climbed down and down to the depths of Gotham. Any rogue would call the catacomb below Gotham home. How many cops had he lost down here because they didn’t know the maze? How many goons had died because they took one wrong step into a Riddler trap? God, sometimes, he really missed making those.
“Riddle me this!” Eddie hopped down into an empty, echoing tunnel and clicked a light on from his question-marked shaped cane. “Oh, someone’s been a bad, bad crazed Arkham escapee down here~” He saw that circuits were changed, some wires were cut and there was just something about the tunnels that felt like someone had recently moved in. He turned, chuckled at his own silliness and then everything went black.
And, maybe Eddie should have been more careful. Maybe he shouldn’t be doing things like this knowing that Steph could have a bun in the oven.
But, this was Gotham, wasn’t?
It wasn't meant as a trap for the Riddler.
Fate was the prayer of lesser men, of men who didn't understand how to make a well-conceived plan and didn't make allowances for things that could go wrong.
Like the tapping into electrical circuits to establish a secondary point of entry into Gotham's mainframes managing to draw the attention of someone who was willing to come into the sewers to investigate. It was one of the few times that Ra's had chosen to go below himself, the shiny shoes of his commandeered body left at Rex in favor of his calf high boots. Nothing came out of Gotham's sewers without being soiled.
His men stilled at the sound of feet - a single pair - on the rungs of ladders that led this deep into the twisted intestines of Gotham. They fanned out, long used to stealth as a man clad in classic Riddler green descended.
Ra's didn't need fate, but he never turned away an opportunity that presented itself. Especially not one wrapped in a golden tie. He signaled to the men in the tunnel. Silence. Take. Do not kill. He was fond of Eddie, of his mind. There was no challenge there like there was with the Detective, but they were both wild animals living within a civilized world, made of concrete and metal and glass. Ra's sought to end it; Eddie sought to live within it.
Stillness. The sound of breathing muffled behind the masks they wore even this far beneath the street surface of Gotham. His mouth cocked upwards at Eddie's catcall, watched as he turned and his ninja's descended. Fast, hood over his head, temple to the brick wall and he went limp.
It wouldn't kill him. But Eddie was starting to get a little too protective of Gotham for his own good. A nod, nothing more than a bob of his head and four of them lifted him up. Where to? What to do with Eddie?
Keep him close. That was the dictation of instinct.
"Take him to Rex." Not the basements though. Upstairs, one of the suites where he could keep things a little further under control. The members of the League left, Eddie's body hanging from their grip and the rest returned to their work, the interruption easily forgotten.