See No Evil: Unexpected Surprises (ch. 43) (Patreon)

There were few people that had managed to infuriate Bruce on a fundamental level quite like Oswald Cobblepot. Since the very beginning of Bruce's career as Batman, the Penguin had been a constant needling thorn in his side. He wasn't like the other rogues that seemed to obsess over getting his attention. If anything, it was the exact opposite.

The moment that Batman had taken down the Falcone Crime Family, Oswald had already made moves to cut off a sizable chunk of their crime empire. That chunk had been whittled away over the years -- rival mobs, himself, but most of all it was Oswald dropping the businesses that would have made him a priority. Human trafficking, weapons dealing, money counterfeiting… one by one, he cut them out of his mob.

Oswald survived this long by making sure that he was too low of a priority for Batman to deal with. For years, nearly a decade at this point, that had worked. It would still be working now if he were being honest with himself, especially now when so much more was on his plate. But, Vergil St. Jude changed that. Cobblepot's best and worst mistake.

His best on account that he put Vergil in a position to help others, regardless of Vergil's personal motives. His worst mistake on account that Vergil wanted everything that he had without worrying about hidden fees and strings.

Batman sailed through the window he broke through, shards of glass falling like rain as the two below him rushed to cover their eyes and duck. He noted the pallet of cash off to the side -- an estimate of twenty-five million. The same amount as Vergil's debt, and Batman had confirmed that Vergil sought to pay it off by the bug he had planted on his suit at the gala when they first met.

The timing was suspicious, however. Too suspicious.

He landed on the desk, and Vergil sprung into action. A card darted to his feet -- blank and featureless. Annoying. There were few things he detested more than unknowns. Batman locked eyes with Vergil before he threw himself at the young teen…

And Vergil winked.

Hm.

Batman narrowly avoided being trapped in a type of foam that ballooned out to cover Cobblepot's desk. Vergil fell back, tossing another card, trying to deter his approach. All the while, Cobblepot howled in anger(,) but crawled away to avoid conflict. A self-serving coward. The card flew wide as Batman closed the distance.

Vergil nodded, a hand going out to flick another card at him. Batman lashed out, catching his wrist with ease -- surprisingly, Vergil attempted to counter with a knee to his stomach, only to have his other foot knocked from underneath him. Vergil was physically fit, and according to Jason, sparred frequently with Tifa Lockhart. However, it would seem those sparring sessions must have been a cover for having sex(,) because Vergil was inexperienced.

"Stop where you are," Batman growled, gripping Vergil's wrist in a hold, ready to break it while he pried his deck out of his hands. The sound that Cobblepot made told Batman that he had frozen stiff. Vergil looked up at him with a pained reaction, his blue eyes darting to the wall before he spoke.

"I think that's our line, Batman," Vergil said, a smile affixed to his face. He was putting on a show, hoping that he was here to bust the Penguin instead of him. All so that the Penguin wouldn't suspect him. Vergil was trying to use him. He had admitted as much.

He wanted to do good, but he wasn't willing to accept punishment for the bad he'd done. It was just a question of how much of that bad could be laid down at the Penguin's feet. That, and how much taking down the Penguin would make up for what Vergil did of his own free will.

"I think this counts as breaking and entering unless you have a reason to be here?" Vergil continued, his voice confident(,) but fear lurked in his eyes. What that fear was, not even he knew… but he suspected it was of him. Not what he would do, or what he wouldn't -- Vergil was afraid of Batman. He had reason to, but that fear ran deeper. Though, he didn't have to guess why.

Vergil had told him that Batman was a death sentence.

If things didn't proceed to plan, that was a worrying possibility.

"The tunnel system. You expanded it," Batman growled, the pressure on Vergil's wrist growing, as did the pained expression that he tried to hide behind a fake smile.

"I did," Vergil confirmed, not even bothering to hide it. As if he had nothing to hide. An order from the Penguin? "But that can't be what this is about. After all, Bruce Wayne should have told you what's going on since you're all buddy buddy."

Batman's eyes narrowed into slits, but he said nothing. Vergil continued.

"A lot of favors are being called in and a lot of strings got pulled, but… Lowtown is legal now," Vergil stated with honest pride in his voice. Batman fought off a reaction to the words in favor of mulling it over.

That should be impossible. Lowtown was extremely illegal. The number of permissions that Vergil had broken creating Lowtown was honestly incredible. It was impossible that Lowtown could be deemed legal.

Provided that legal means were used.

Which, based on Vergil's words, were not. Vergil was incriminating the Penguin while pretending to cover for him. He worked dangerously well under pressure.

"He should have gotten the memo -- Lowtown is the next big district in Gotham." His words did sound familiar, but Batman had doubts. Interest in Lowtown had been growing since Vergil's debut to high society when interested parties began sending their own probes to it. However, the fact that a secondary city was being built underneath Gotham would have been mentioned. "It's all legal. It was going to be announced soon enough, so you just broke a window for no reason. I think you owe Mr. Cobblepot an apology."

Twenty-five million dollars. The timing was off. Sainthood Enterprises could afford it provided that they were willing to go into debt, but it went against Vergil's profile. He wanted to pay off his debt, but he was also practical. He wouldn't push that strain onto Sainthood Enterprises, and he also didn't need to pay it all back at once. He had to understand that Cobblepot wouldn't pressure him for the money because it provided leverage. Additionally, he wouldn't have to pay it back at all if the Penguin was incarcerated.

Vergil lacked the connections to pull off what he was claiming had been done. He simply didn't have the clout, the money, the favors, or the power. However, the Penguin did.

Either Vergil was attempting to pull a fast one on the city, or Cobblepot was arranging for Vergil to take the fall for him. Both were equally likely. However, given the circumstantial evidence…

Vergil realized he was being maneuvered into a corner by the Penguin. That prompted him to speak to Jason, to speak to Bruce Wayne, to pass a message to Batman. Vergil was trying to have him take down the Penguin before Vergil was forced to take the fall. He was trying to use him, Batman, while pretending that he was still in Cobblepot's corner.

Batman's pressure on his wrist grew, and Vergil offered a nod. That wasn't the message he was trying to send Vergil. Batman hesitated for a moment before he complied and broke Vergil's wrist, making the boy's face twist in pain before he clutched his wrist to his chest. Batman's lips thinned -- it didn't sit well with him, but it was better a broken wrist now than death later(,) because he agreed that it would help sell Vergil's noncompliance to the Penguin.

Still, it was deeply unsettling that Vergil was willing to accept that cost so easily.

Batman turned around to round on the Penguin, who found his courage and took aim with his umbrella. Batman darted to the side, raising his kevlar cape as a shield that caught the buckshot from Cobblepot's umbrella gun, knocking it back but protecting him from harm. A batarang was grabbed from his utility belt, pinched between his fingers(,) before he flung it out the same instant he lowered his cape. The batarang arced out, sailing through the air before it slammed into the side of the barrel hidden inside the umbrella to knock it off course.

The Penguin fired again as Batman pivoted, the shot going wide to tear through marble walls. Batman closed the distance between them, the smaller portly man taking a swing that was deftly caught before Batman slammed his palm against the back of the Penguin's elbow. This time, he felt no residual guilt for breaking the bone, making Cobblepot scream in pain.

He reached down and grabbed Cobblepot by his suit lapels, effortlessly lifting him up before he slammed him against the wall. "Enough," Batman growled. He didn't speak about the attempts on his life. The single word captured everything that Cobblepot had done.

It had been a mistake, Batman decided as he looked into Cobblepot's eyes. There had always been a higher priority. There had always been another issue that needed his immediate attention. For years, Batman had allowed a cancer to fester unchecked simply because of a lack of time to deal with it.

He had made a compromise. He had chosen to save lives from disasters at the cost of letting a fewer number be ruined if not killed.

"I have a ping on a system," Barbara informed him, speaking through his earpiece. "It's encrypted from remote access, but you can force it open. It's under his desk."

Batman's eyes narrowed into slits before he dropped the Penguin(,) cuffing his hands behind his back. The doors were barred and blastproof -- a safety measure to keep enemy gangsters out was being turned around to keep reinforcements away. Vergil was sitting up, clutching his arm to his chest and watching Batman carefully.

"Stop him! Stop him!" Cobblepot howled when Batman stood before his desk.

Vergil got up to obey. His cards summoned to his hand, breaking free of the container that he had worn to prevent such a thing.

Batman attached a small yield explosive to the desk the same moment that Vergil threw a card, the shockwave knocking the card off course. The desk was reduced to splinters, and the secret passageway was revealed. Batman used the dust to mask a set of bola's that he flung towards Vergil. The young man cursed as he fell(.) His broken wrist was likely agitated, but with his hands and feet pinned, he was no longer a threat.

The Penguin was done for, Batman decided as he strode down the steps that were barely illuminated by safety lights. He had been at the bottom of his priority list for far too long. There was no telling how many lives he had ruined, how many lives that Batman had let him ruin.

However, taking down the Penguin didn't mean helping Vergil. The young man, regardless of his intentions, had willingly and flagrantly broken the law to suit his own ends. Good intentions didn't justify everything. Breaking housing laws? That, Batman could accept.

But, if Vergil was just another murderer with delusions of grandeur and thought that the ends justified the means?

Batman would take him down. The heads of Lowtown and Sainthood Enterprises would be replaced. The good that they did would continue, they just wouldn't be free to escape the consequences of their actions.

He reached the bottom of the stairs and he found the server room. Cobblepot made an effort to avoid electronic communication to avoid monitoring, but it was the modern era. You needed servers and electronic communication if you were going to run an international crime syndicate. Until now, Cobblepot had done well to hide the hub of his network. Batman would have suspected it would have been in a far more remote location… but it seemed that Cobblepot had greater trust issues than he thought.

Stepping forward, Batman plugged in a device, intent on copying the information to then be decrypted.

However, it seemed that Barbara had a different idea. "Take it out!" Barbara shouted so urgently that Batman instantly complied with the order. "Our systems were just probed -- encryption is held, but the servers have some kind of automated defense."

Of course they did, but the difference was that the defenses were something that Barbara seemed worried about. Meaning that whatever they were, they were a few steps beyond a normal firewall.

"I'm isolating our servers to download the information into them. It's done. You can insert the batusd now," Barbara said, and Batman swallowed a sigh. That trend would never end. It was amusing when Dick was nine, but now most people assumed the naming scheme came from him. His thoughts went back to the issue at hand when he heard Barbara suck in a breath, "The information is being deleted."

That made his stomach sink , "I'll preserve the hard copies," Batman said, his hand going to unplug the servers. It would pause whatever program was deleting the information. It would likely resume when they turned the servers back on, but by then they would be prepared. The only issue would be escaping with the servers, but the batjet could be used.

That was the plan, at least. His hand paused when he saw a device next to the servers. A small gray cube roughly the size of a brick that was attached to the back of the server. Batman knew what it was. A magnet.

The hardware wasn't just being deleted. The hardware was being destroyed. Cobblepot wasn't taking any chances. Data recovery would be minimal. If Cobblepot was doing this then that meant that there were back up servers, but even still, Batman tried to save what he could.

Batman grabbed the brick and ripped it free of the server with no small amount of difficulty before he shoved it in the protective casing that had dropped when a program on the servers was activated. It took him all of two seconds, but there were six servers in the room. It would take too long.

"Grab what you can," Batman ordered. Partial data was better than no data.

"Already on it," Barbara said, her tone grim as Batman attempted to save some data by grabbing the magnets. It only took seconds, but magnets needed less than that to completely destroy the hardware. "I didn't get much, so I focused on what was most heavily encrypted. I won't know what it is until the encryption is broken, but it could be good." Could be. Or, it was just as likely to be a partial file.

It was unlikely to be used as evidence.

"This was our loss," Batman decided. The evidence was deleted and destroyed. Lowtown was being recognized as a legal venture. As Batman, this had been a complete loss. He could do nothing else.

But Bruce Wayne might have some options. He needed to investigate who was approving Lowtown, find the strings that were being pulled to find who benefited most. Those that benefited likely had connections to the Penguin. Those connections could be exploited and Batman could find evidence.

"Maybe not," Barbara said as Batman strode up the stairs. "We still have the evidence Vergil collected. We could use him to gather more. He's our best shot at building a solid case against Cobblepot."

Batman reached the top of the stairs. The door to the room was bouncing as Cobblepot's men tried to break in. Cobblepot was unconscious, likely blacking out because of the pain. Vergil, on the other hand, had a card in his mouth that he was trying to spit onto his bindings. Their eyes met, and Batman considered it.

He didn't trust Vergil. There was something that he wasn't telling them. The possible AI defending his systems was a red flag… it was possible that Vergil was just a young man that saw an opportunity and went for it, but Batman didn't know. He didn't know what Vergil was hiding, only that he was hiding something. Until he discovered what, Batman wouldn't be on his side.

But, perhaps Bruce Wayne could be.

Turning around, Batman fired off his grappling hook and left the Iceberg Lounge behind him.

Vergil's fate was determined by what he dug up.

…

It was hard seeing Vergil in pain, Cass thought to herself. His face showed a smile, but his body screamed that he was in pain. The restraints made it worse, but when she knelt down to free him, he shook his head.

>Batman does not trust you. Suspicious.< Cass informed him, earning a slow blink of Vergil's eyes. He tried to project calmness, but he was irritated. Annoyed. Fearful.

He blinked twice. A silent question. Curiosity. Worry.

Cass nodded. >Didn't notice. I placed magnets where you said.< To that, Vergil's body radiated with relief. He tried to spit his card onto his restraints, only to miss. Cass reached out and adjusted the card so his arms were free. Vergil hissed, shooting her a look but his body told her that he was grateful. Cass smiled lightly in response, adjusting the bag that she carried over her shoulder.

She looked down, but she couldn't see it. Or her shoulder. Or her hands and body.

It was a suit that Vergil gave her that turned her invisible. He used a whole lot of invisible ink markers to do it. It had taken some time to adjust to not seeing her body when she moved, but she got the hang of it quickly. Vergil was proud of her.

Vergil spoke, but the words were gibberish to Cass. They meant nothing. They had meaning, but it was lost on her. She was working to change that but progress was slow. Still, it was much better than before she could sign. Vergil believed that she would be normal one day. He had faith, confidence, and hope. And because he did, she did.

Stepping back, she watched him undo his bonds with his cards before he walked over to Penguin. His body projected confidence, fear, respect. He woke the man that Cass had knocked unconscious. It had been according to the plan if Batman came alone. Vergil said the more he spoke, the higher the chance something went wrong. A simple nerve pinch knocked him out easily.

He woke up just as easily -- his body screamed fear, confusion, then fury. Vergil and Cobblepot exchanged words, their body language telling Cass that Vergil's plan was working. Cobblepot's body language shifted throughout the conversation. Anger, fury, fear, terror… then honesty. To that last one, Vergil felt complete relief and suspicion while he projected panic and fear.

Vergil looked back at the door and at her before he said something to Cobblepot. Cass began to sign, >He's angry, afraid, and honest.<

The suspicion vanished as Vergil went to the door. He grabbed the handle and twisted, the safety blocks sliding out of place, letting the door swing open. Vergil stepped back, gesturing to Cobblepot, while speaking. Cass silently stepped out of the way. His gaze slid to her, offering a small nod while pure relief radiated off of him until his body language sang with it, no matter how much he tried to hide it.

She nodded back, idly smiling to herself as she headed to the door to leave the building. Vergil could talk with her freely when he wasn't surrounded. She deftly stepped between the guards that took up positions around the door, effortlessly weaving through them while both Cobblepot and Vergil were taken care of. In no time at all, she was downstairs and striding through an open door as people were being forced out.

Cass walked down the pier, her suit protecting her from the cold as she carefully stepped in the footprints of those that had walked in front of her. Down the street was a car, the same one that she had arrived in(.) The door slid open, revealing Tifa, who got out to grab a sweet-tasting coffee. Cass slid into the car before Tifa closed the door. A few minutes of waiting passed before Tifa opened the car door again with two cups.

Anxiety rolled off of Tifa in waves until they started driving off. >Okay?< Tifa signed at her with one hand as Cass began peeling off her suit. The interior was just as invisible as the exterior, making it difficult to keep track of as she exposed her body to the cold.

But, now that she was no longer invisible, Cass could sign even as Tifa seemed embarrassed. She didn't seem to like nudity, for some reason. Odd, considering that she and Vergil were frequently naked together. Cass would ask, but Tifa grew more uncomfortable whenever Cass questioned her about Vergil.

>Batman broke Vergil's wrist.< Anger and fury was Tifa's nonverbal response. >Wanted him too. Vergil was happy with the outcome.< Tifa was worried, annoyed, frustrated, but unsurprised.

>That's good. Very good.< Tifa signed back before taking a sip of her very sweet coffee. She was anxious. Fearful, but trusting. She had faith.

Cass smiled before she reached back and grabbed her book bag that carried her homework and clothing. As she dressed, Cass heard the sound of a phone ringing and Tifa began to speak. It was… frustrating not being able to understand what they were saying. Especially when Cass heard Vergil's voice. Without him being here with her, she couldn't communicate with him.

For her entire life, she had been crippled. Words were just sounds. Letters and numbers were symbols that held no meaning. That had suited her fine before. She was alive. She could survive just fine without understanding the world around her. That was until Vergil showed her just how much she had been missing out on. How freeing it was to understand another person. To tell them what she felt, what she wanted(,) and have them understand.

She wanted more. She wanted to be able to speak. She wanted the sounds other people made to hold meaning to her too. She wanted to be able to read books like other people. She wanted to understand why people would stare at pages for hours on end.

Vergil believed that she could do it, but Cass was beginning to have doubts. Her workbook was filled with perfect copies of letters and words but they still mystified her just as much as the first time she laid eyes on them.

Cass was broken from her thoughts when they arrived at home. The building that made people feel safe and happy and loved. Lowtown. Getting out of the car, she grabbed her drink and her book bag that now contained her invisibility suit. Vergil said to be very careful with it since it would be easy to lose.

Tifa stayed in the car a moment longer to continue speaking to Vergil, but Cass walked into the building. The room was very full. All the tables were filled, so people stood up and leaned against the walls. The counter was also packed, but when Revy raised a hand to beckon her over, other people made room for her.

Revy didn't know sign language. Cass didn't think she was making an attempt to learn either, but Revy still cared. She was really bad at hiding it too.

Revy said something, sipping her beer before she pointed to the tv. Cass looked to see that a bright red screen with a pretty woman was on it. She was surprised and confused even as she smiled pleasantly.

The red screen went away to reveal Vergil, which caught her attention. His arm was in a cast and he stood in front of the kind doctor's clinic that Revy brought her to after Vergil had shot her. However, there were a bunch of people around him, making Vergil feel uncomfortable. However, at the same time, he was… resolute.

Cass tilted her head as she watched Vergil speak, reading how people felt in response to his words.

Shock. Awe. Fear. Amazement. That came from the people on the TV screen.

The people in the bar?

Love and adoration.

Cass had no idea what was said, but people clearly liked it so she smiled along with everyone else.