Hub City, the one city with perhaps the worst crime rate in the country. Yes most people talked about Gotham being terrible, only because they had big names. That had your Joker, Riddler, Mad Hatter, Royal Flush Gang, Penguin and so forth. But for real over all crime rate, Hub trounced Gotham handily. But not for long, Roxy had seen enough terrible things in the last few months to know she wouldn't let it happen any more. Sure she should be hunting down Chari and Adam, or Death as he was now known but she couldn't bring herself to do that, not yet. But one day soon she'd get a hold of Chari and make her pay and she would stop Adam, some how.

She'd had a new costume made by JJ Grayson, her temporary guardian. He felt terrible and blamed himself for what happened to her. Sure she didn't blame him but she also didn't seem to be trying to ease his pain anytime soon. Why should she be the only one who suffered? She'd dubbed herself Miss Furie, a little cliche and sounding like a 20's comic book but she didn't care. She also knew once Adam came around he'd appreciate it, it seemed like his style. But first she needed to deal with Hub City. She still remembered last time she was patrolling this city she was still Robin and was running with Cassie. Then they'd taken out a small group of Intergang, it was fun, but she knew if she wanted to clean up the city it'd be even harder.

The sun had only set 3 hours ago and already she'd taken out two robberies, one gang fight and one attempted mugging. After re stocking she went back out and didn't have to wait long. Soon enough after leaving her safe house she heard sirens.

'Hearing reports of a hostage situation at Slasher Stadium where some STAR Labs people are having a retirement party. I'm sure it's a coincidence. Might wanna call in back up Furie.'

"No"

She signed and knew the mic would pick it up. It took a few tests but so far it still worked. She'd upped the sound of her 'voice' to be deeper and more intimidating. But still it didn't quite fit. She fired a grappling arrow and quickly swung to another roof. Then she took off on a run, knowing the stadium wasn't too far from her current location. Once she got there she surveyed the stadium. The parking lot was full and now the police were there as well as SWAT rolling in. She saw a helicopter coming in only to be shot down from someone on the roof. She used her goggle and focused and saw two men on the roof with Javelin rocket launchers.

"High end equipment. This is not some rag tag group."

She headed over to the parking ramp and was planning on going from there to the roof and then inside. She landed in the shadows, hidden behind a van.

'I got a patrol up there, two snipers who are watching the roofs and the parking lot. Lights out in 3...2...'

With that the lights went out plunging them in darkness. Roxy made her move, condensing her bow down to the 13 inch escrima stick. She took off at a run and first came to one man who was preparing to take aim aim the cops down below. She jumped and hit him in the back of the head knocking him out before rolling and landing in the darkness. The other guy began calling for his partner. She brought her bow to full size and grabbed a net arrow, taking aim she fired and the man was now pinned to the side of the ledge, unable to move. Two down, an unknown quantity to go. With her bow at the ready and a standard arrow  notched she was hopefully ready for whatever she was running into.

Jax had another bad night and sleep did not want to come. “A run at least will be productive” thought the young man. He put on his only pair of sweats, dark blue, plain and workman like. He left the dirty motel room and moved down the hallway. The smell of urine and other bodily functions permeated the air. “Damn nose is a curse at times” 

  As he exited the elevator he saw a pink bandana someone had discarded on the cheap worn leather couch in the lobby. He picked it up and held it under his nose, pleasant smells masking the urine smell in the lobby. “Perfume, the smell of warm skin and makeup, Maybeline?” Jax slide it into his shirt as he exited to the cleaner air of the city.

  Beginning his run he quickly found a brisk rhythm, something fast enough to work him out, yet not fast enough to warrant attention. Buried in thought he was startled by the short blast of a police siren. He looked around spying Slasher Stadium. There were dozens of police officers swarming the parking lot. SWAT had just arrived and the Fourth Estate was setting up their cameras all eager to get the next big story. A police helicopter was approaching the Stadium, searchlights actively stabbing through the dark.

“Not my problem, those days are over” he reminded himself as his incredible hearing started picking up details from the police band. Oddly he also heard two sets of encrypted communications.
The hissing roar of what could only be a handheld rocket added cacophony of sounds. The heavens lit up as if birthing a new sun. The now burning copter plummeting to the ground, sheading flaming steel and plastic as it struck the street. New fires sprang to life as several cars began to burn. Fortunately the police vehicle did not explode on impact, but this only presented a new set of concerns for first responders.

  
“DAMN IT, I can’t just walk away from this!” He muttered as he pulled the pink bandana over his face, doing his best to hide all of the features below his eyes. Quickly scaling up a nearby building he surveyed the area. “Standard OP, acquire the high ground”

 
Jax squatted and observed the commotion below him. The first responder’s scurrying about trying to deal with the new threats and to restore some sort of order. The SWAT teams beginning to disperse to their various tactical locations. He knew it would only be a matter of time before he had to deal with SWAT snipers targeting him as a potential threat.
Slasher Stadium appeared to be intact. No broken windows or people on the roof. This solved one issue for him, no external threats on the building. “Most likely they are relying on the hostages and the building structure to prevent a roof assault.”

   
Jax was left with two real options, clean up the immediate threat of the rocketeers in the parking garage or enter the building for a direct assault. He examined the two men on the roof, “not police TAC Gear, military and not the stuff you buy through standard channels. Those rockets easily a Million plus a pop”. These were professional killers and well-funded.

 The young man scanned the roof again gauging his distances and making decisions. Suddenly the surrounding block went dark. “Wait a moment, who is this?” A young woman with some kind of combat stick and body armor had appeared on the roof. He watched her effortlessly take down the first merc and follow up with a net arrow. The combat staff had quickly altered its shape into a recurve bow.

  “She is good but not good enough to be Speedy, so that pretty bird was not on the list. Not many archers running around with that tech. So the smallest of the Arrow Protégés or someone new?”

   
Jax moved back and sprinted toward the edge of the building, launching himself across the opening. He struck the building about 5 feet below the roof edge, hopefully low that the noise of sirens would cover the sound of his impact. He quietly scaled up the side of the building and slipped onto the flat roof.

   
  Slasher Stadium’s parking, like most such buildings, had little cover. Jax studied the random sampleing of vehicles and of course the obligatory short concrete dividing walls. Jax squatted in concealment behind such a wall, counting the vehicles and trying to locate the parties on the roof.

He easily smelled the Mercs; gunpowder and sweat lingering around the van that they had chosen for cover. He studied them, his senses having little difficulty in this nighttime hunting ground. They were wearing Amertek Medium body armor, and what looked like standard infrared goggles. They both had sidearms holstered in their web gear and seemed to be well equipped.

  “Well sneaking is not going to be of much use here.”

  
   The first merc slowly raised his weapon and locked it on the last visible location of the Archer, Jax could smell the phosphorus in the rounds. “Incendiary? You have to be shitting me. That is going to make a mess”.

 Jax launched himself over the wall. His 230ish pounds of muscle landing on the back of the unsuspecting gunman easily drove him to the ground. His rifle skittering along the hardened surface of the garage. Meanwhile Jax, almost gently, put his large hands on the back of the second man’s head. Guiding the merc’s face to meet the concrete as Jax’s knees hit the ground. A quick kick to the gunman’s head and both mercs were out. Jax never stopped his motion as he rolled to the front of the van. He quickly surveyed the situation again and saw the Archer watching him, her face calm an arrow knocked and ready.

 
Jax grinned behind his pink bandana. “Dam this does bring back memories, I wonder if she has anything I need to worry about hidden up her sleeve. I know Speedy always did.” Out of curiosity he made a secret hand recognition gesture used by the Arrow Team, one of the few he had picked up with Laurel while a Titan. 

As the guy in the pink bandanna rolled out from behind a van she nearly put an arrow in his collar and pinned him to a van. But he was dressed differently and made no move to attack. Then he made a hand gesture, one she was vaguely familiar with. At the very least he wasn't a threat and could even be an ally. She looked at his hand and simply shook her head, and then she was on.

'That guy looks familiar Furie. Well as familiar as someone with a pink bandana can be. I'll see what I can dig up, but he might be useful, or at least not a hindrance.'

She nodded her head in response and nodded her head to the side, took off running. As she ran she hopped one wall, dropping down to the next floor with a roll. She fired one arrow, hitting one guard's pant leg, pinning his leg. He panicked and looked down at it before raising his gun to fire. She continued to run and slid under the gun fire, driving her bow into the man's crotch. As he doubled over in pain she popped up behind him and brought her leg up, driving her heel into the back of his head. She slowly approached the door to the skyway leading to the stadium. She began flipping through visions on her goggle and saw nothing. But her time with Owen had actually taught her something. If she'd learned anything it was that the obvious entrances were always heavily guarded. Only one guard tells her the door is alarmed in some way. She stopped and turned to him after placing her bow on her back and began signing, knowing the gloves would do the work.

"The door is alarmed and likely booby trapped. We need to find a way around it."

She wasn't concerned about the cameras as she knew Question would take them out. They were likely watching looped images of a very bored guard. She knew they didn't have a lot of time before he was figured out and kicked out of the system. Oracle had apparently taught him a few things and he had Herald's backing when available. But it was a stop gap measure, not a solution.

She began examining the wall near the door.

'That's a pretty solid wall Furie. So unless Guardian has been outfitting you with serious arms we are....he has hasn't he?'

Guardian was the code name for JJ as Question wasn't aware of his role as Blue Bat, officially. She knew he'd figured it out, being the Question and all, but was more polite than he used to be. She motioned for Jax to stand back and stepped back a bit pulling an explosive arrow out of her quiver. She calmly aimed trying to figure out the weak point then settled and released. She turned and shielded herself from the explosion and as the dust settled there was a hole half way up the wall. Not ideal but it would do.

She ran and jumped through the hole, tucking and rolling. Once up she grabbed the fans on her back that had doubled as decorative wings and was ready to fight. The hall was empty, near as she could tell. Sure enough the door had wires attached to it leading to a couple claymores pointed at the door.

'Simple but effective.'

She thought to herself as she moved through the hall, sticking to the shadows.