No man is an island, Liz read, almost bored with the poem already. entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; She looked up as her mark walked passed and she smiled. “It tolls for thee," she finished to herself. The poem, at least, was slightly more interesting than she had given it credit for in the beginning, knowing a little more than most people how everyone was connected. Of course she didn’t think of it in the poem’s context, she knew there was always someone out there that could be used against someone else. Quite like the man she had been following around.

Connections. Everyone has them. Even him. He wasn’t at the top of his particular food chain, but he was a rather important link. Someone who made the business run smoothly. And this business needed to stop running so smoothly. The Red Hood’s business. A sort of calm had fallen over the criminal underworld in most parts of the country and she had traced it back to here. To him. Liz didn’t want to cut off the head and let the whole thing implode. That would be too much attention and chaos. She needed just enough to throw everyone off, back on their heels, scrambling to fix it so they wouldn’t focus on her and what Intergang had planned.

She watched him walk from across the street over the top of the book, keeping an eye on where he was headed. She had a fairly good idea of where, so she gave herself time to blend in and not look suspicious. Slowly, she closed her book of poems and packed it away in her inner jacket pocket and got up off of the bench she had been sitting on and followed after him. She slipped on her sunglasses as she stepped off the curb to cross the street.

She had been following him for a better part of a week, getting to know his habits and rituals, changing her disguises from day to day. One day she was an old man, the next a young woman, the next a rather rotund gentleman and so on, all rather nondescript, nothing memorable that could identify her. Today she was more closely resembling herself, with just a few alterations; middle aged, blonde and graying, a tired housewife. Shoving her hands in her pockets, she kept her eye on him half a block ahead, slowly quickening her pace to catch up with him.

Pulling out her phone, she pretended to talk as she readied the object of his demise. Poison was always a subtle choice. She didn’t really prefer it, but out in broad daylight, it was most effective. She put more purpose in her stride, and raised her voice as she walked, pretending to have an intense discussion.

”No, I have no idea what he does all these late nights. It sure as hell isn’t working, I’ll tell you that. I know! Trust me Betty, I know. I’m going to hire a PI to follow that asshole I call a husband around.” Most people had the good sense to get out of her way, hearing her coming. All, except for him. She walked right into him, going full bore. He didn’t even feel the prick of the needle as she practically fell on top of him.

“Watch where the hell you’re goin’ lady! Geez.” He practically pushed her off of him. “No wonder your husband’s sleepin’ around on ya, ya dumb broad.”

”Ah! she shouted indignantly before slapping him. ”How dare you! Get the hell out of my way, asshole, before I run you over for real.” She shoved him out of her way and kept walking, easily hiding the smile that wanted to form. She heard the shouts of surprise as the man toppled over and she turned a corner, her disguise changing as she walked. Now she could get out of this city and back home. The whole place was starting to make her skin crawl.

Owen was waiting for Manny to meet him. He'd been lying if he said he wasn't just a little impatient. Manny was helping Owen move money throughout the various organizations that Red Hood had... inherited. A good portion of the money ran through him and then into some legitimate concerns to clean up the money a little. Red Hood wasn't really a fan of the laundering aspect, but the system came with the business concerns he had, so Owen was going to make full use of it. Impatient, he went out on the rooftop and followed Manny. It would give him something to do, if nothing else.

He saw the money man, bump into a middle aged blonde. The man had no manners, apparently, but that wasn't why Owen paid him. He made sure that Owen's money went to purchasing the things he needed and paying off the people who needed paying off. That was what he was good at. He was glad to see that the man did tarry to beat up a house wife. Then Manny collapsed. Owen raised an eyebrow.

His instincts told him to ignore Manny. He was probably dead at this point. His assassin though. She was more interesting. Instinct told him to follow her. Owen remained in the shadows, watching her change her disguise as she moved. He dropped down to a fire escape, quietly and then leaned over it. Clearly, she must have thought something of herself, if she was operating in Gotham. The Bats hadn't caught her yet.

He let out a small wolf whistle. "Lovely night for an assassination, isn't it ma'am?" There was a pause as Owen assessed her. "I don't really give my employees much in the way of benefits, and they don't really deserve much in that way as they are the scum of the Earth, but still... You kill one of my crew, there has to be some sort of reckoning, you know?"

Quickly, several options presented themselves to Liz as soon as Red Hood addressed her. There was, of course the annoyance of being spotted after she had thought she had been so careful. But she didn't let it show on her face as she looked at him for a moment, weighing her options.

One: she could scream and pretend to be beset upon by this masked villain. It was Gotham after all, not completely unheard of. However, it also being Gotham, people tended not to put themselves on the line for others and shuffled on. She had seen it first hand on a few occasions while she had followed her mark around. So, that option wasn't exactly the best.

Two: She could run back the way she came and find a crowd to fade into and change her disguise to blend in. The problem with that was she might have to go inside a building to find a big enough crowd to fad into. She didn't feel like being boxed in just yet, but it was still an option.

Three: fight him head on. She was not a fan of this option. She did not have her gear, but she did have enough faith in her abilities to not necessarily need it against him. It was still a much bigger and unnecessary risk than she needed to take. Vandal had been reluctant to send her to Gotham to begin with, something she had tried to understand and never fully grasped. But taking that kind of risk on a matter of pride and potentially ruining the rest of the plan was not something she felt like getting yelled at for. Or worse. At least not until Chari was done with her "alterations".

Option two it was then. Liz didn't feel the need to answer his stupid question. She simply turned and ran, remaining very aware of his location. She also prepared herself for the possibility he would catch up to her before she could fade away. And she would need to find herself a better weapon than a needle full of poison. But more subtle than the blaster that looked like a watch on her wrist. She didn't want to attract that much attention. Yet.

Impassive. That was the look this woman had on her face, as she looked up at him. She didn't care that she'd been caught by him. She cared that he followed her and looked like she was weighing her options. Owen had to say that was a first. She was clearly a professional. There was no remorse on that face. That was mildly concerning. He'd probably have to shoot her and then he'd have no answers.

He watched her, measuring his own options. Then Red Hood watched her run away. He had to admit, that wasn't entirely on his planned list of responses for her. "Damn. Losing my touch. Didn't even get a number." He pulled out his grapnel and fired it at the roof across the street, and swinging over to the rooftop. Red Hood moved along the rooftops, following her. He had a much easier time up there, than he would have down on the street.

Any good professional would know where he was. They wouldn't send someone who didn't to a place like Gotham. That was a good way to get nabbed by the local Bat infestation. But there was an advantage to that for Owen too. If she knew where he was, then he wouldn't bother messing around with the pretense of stealth. That meant that he didn't have to slow down and pretend to hide. Judging by the kind of infiltrator she was, she'd probably go for a crowd and use a disguise of some kind.

There was a park up ahead. There were always crowds there for the random musical festivals there this time of year. He wasn't about to lose her there. Red Hood would have to make a move on her soon to avoid losing her. Owen bounded across several rooftops, in pursuit. There were days where he wished it was like this. Today, though, he was hoping for an easier kind of night. He was still hurting from the fear toxin overdose of a few days ago. Red Hood wasn't quite at full strength yet. This was probably going to be another bad idea. He could almost hear Dinah's voice in his head. Four blocks until they got to the park. He just had to make a move before then.

Her feet moving of their own accord, Liz could hear the music coming from the park, the beat seemingly matching to every footfall. Her body seemed to know where it was going while her mind worked on exit plans and alternative stratagems. There was a familiarity to her surroundings, something bone deep and reflexive, like she knew every inch of sidewalk where she was going. She didn’t stop to think about it, she’d have time to reflect on it later. Right now she used it to her advantage.

At first, she was dodging around people lazily walking along on the sidewalk, but the chorus of angry shouts as she shoved some out of her way that was following her made some curious people look back and try to move. The side walk opened up for her like the Red Sea had supposedly parted for Moses. She grinned. He had a pretty open path running along the roof, more time for him to set up anything if he wanted to stop her, or kill her. It was a wonder to her he hadn’t shot at her yet, though that probably had something to do with all the other people around her. He seemed to believe himself on some moral high ground, or so she assumed, as he had called the man she had killed and others like him in his employ “scum of the Earth”.

Human shields would be a great advantage if this ever came to a fight.

A car pulled to a stop in the middle of the crosswalk ahead of her and she didn’t let it slow her down. Planting her hand on the edge of the hood, she slid across smoothly and picked up her stride once again like it had never been broken. Of course the honking and shouts from the driver drew more curious stares, but she did not have time to think about it. Had she known she would be running so much today, she would have worn different shoes. But as it was, the heels were thick enough not to sink into the grass if she made it to the park. The concert was close, so close she could feel the bass in her chest and she wasn’t even in the venue yet.

But there was always that chance he could drop on her as he ran out of rooftop to run on.

The urge to shoot was strong. That was why Red Hood was resisting the urge. He knew that Dinah wouldn't approve of human casualties. Not that he cared what she thought, but it would make functioning in Gotham harder, if the whole Bat-family came down on him. If that was all it took, he'd keep the casualties down to one or two. From the vantage point on the roof, he could see the park had some kind of concert going on in it. That made sense. She just killed someone right in front of him, so she wasn't against human shields.

The crowd was parting below her and people were staring and throwing angry taunts. Owen watched her bound over a car without breaking stride. "This chick must think she's in a Dukes of Hazard episode..." He noticed that he was running out of roof very soon. The only opportunity he was going to have to catch her was coming up. Once she made it into the crowd, his job would become very difficult. There would be cops as well, and he wasn't looking forward to that.

Red Hood leaped from the rooftop and into a nearby tree. He dropped down near the woman and drew his gun. "Lady, this isn't very nice of you. You killed my employee. I'm not happy." Rather than continuing to banter with her, which was his usual mistake, he fired a bullet at her. If it hit, he'd be thrilled. If not, she'd at least know he wasn't messing around. Something he sensed told him that this woman wasn't to be underestimated. And his recent track record with women showed he'd been doing that a lot.

He was quick, Liz would give him that. She thought she could have gotten to the crowd before he decided to join her on the ground. But he seemed rather determined to have a go at her and who was she to disappoint. She went still as he pointed his gun at her. She looked at it for a moment, noting the model. Colt 1911. She could field strip it in 8 seconds. It was a reliable handgun and seemed well cared for. Red Hood seemed to have some grasp of what he was doing with it at any rate.

Liz saw his finger twitch at the trigger as he fired. She was moving on instinct at that point, turning slightly, dropping her shoulder and tilting her head away from the bullet's path as it left the chamber. She felt it go by, rather too close for her comfort but he was done playing around. Which was too bad, she was just starting to have fun. Seemingly defeated, she put her hands up in surrender.

"The costs of doing business. You might lose a person or several. And you seem the type to not be happy even if nothing happened."

The crazy woman dodged his bullet. He'd seen a lot, but near super-human reflexes in an assassin were going to be rather hard to deal with. He'd almost wished he'd had time to use one of his power ups. That would have stacked the deck in his favor. Now, he was going to have to hope for the best. This plan hadn't even been active for 10 minutes and it had already gone to hell.

"Well, true on all accounts. But I don't go wandering into your neighborhood and shoot up your staff. It's simply not good for business. I mean, granted you are a rather fetching woman, but if I let you off the hook, then I lose my respectability. Before you know it everybody in Gotham is making a grab for my territory. And I'm just not willing to let that happen."

Several options ran through Owen's head. He could grab his second gun and discharge both in the hopes that she wouldn't dodge one, but the gunfire had already been heard and chances were, that police were already on their way. He really needed to make more charitable contributions to the department. Entirely too many run ins with Gotham's finest were starting to happen. It was making him rather grumpy.

"I don't suppose I can just ask you who you're working for and you'd just tell me? Then we could start negotiating like normal business people. You have skills, obviously. So, I doubt you'd sell your skill set to some low bidder. So, you must have someone pretty powerful backing you. Someone like that, I'd be interested in doing business with."

Liz couldn't help it. First, she cracked a grin then actually started to laugh, keeping her hands up where they were. She was fairly sure the laughing would be enough to make him consider shooting at her again. It usually sounded a little haughty, and stupider people had taken offense to that. Of course they always wound up dead so she had the last laugh. Killing him right now would be counter productive and she wasn't the one to do it anyway.

"That's adorable really. That is. Me, work for someone. No." She kept the smile on her face while trying to keep an ear out for sirens or any of the cops assigned as security for the concert. He was the one with the gun after all, they'd all be looking at him. It all came down to appearances, something she excelled at.

"And your 'territory' as you put it, is...safe, for the most part. I think much bigger. Though if your little operation limps along for a bit because of cash flow problems...well...can't say I don't benefit there. But," she leaned in to deliver this last little bit like it was the world's best kept secret. "Hospital bills can be rather expensive, especially with those experimental procedures." She straightened back out slowly, looking around, spotting a few boys in blue coming their way.

"And I could make them go away, but of course there are always strings.

The madwoman smiled. Then she actually started laughing. He gave her a lot of credit. This was a tactic he'd used once or twice on lesser thugs. It usually worked. He didn't let it unnerve him. Owen knew she was probably better than he was. He was coming to grips with the fact that he needed more training as of late. There were quite a few holes in that incomplete training.

Her tone and the things she said suggested that she was the leader of the organization. That was interesting. You rarely ever saw the leader of an organization get hands on in the field, himself excluded. That made him wonder about her. He'd just seen this crazy woman kill a person and dodge a bullet. That was special.

Owen was about to make commentary when she alluded to his brother. Owen gritted his teeth under the helmet. She knew who he was then. That was impossible. Will was under an assumed name. Had been for years. With her leaning in, Red Hood contemplated just shooting again and ending it there. But that wouldn't work. This woman was methodical. She probably had a contingency or eight.

The sound of police cars was approaching. Finally, Owen managed to find words. This wasn't going to go away. Owen would have to play her game and then find a way to turn the tables. "What are you offering in trade? Clearly, you seem to want something from me."

Keeping her smile small and devious, Liz didn't want to give too much away. She had been rather methodical in doing her research of Gotham before coming here. She wanted to know about all the players, who to avoid if she didn't want attract too much attention too soon, who she could get away with picking a fight. She would admit, though never out loud, that Red Hood had covered his tracks very well, but money always left a trail. Well...it did when you tracked it. Erratic payments to weapons dealers never gave her any red flags. Regular payments in incremental amounts however, meant he was paying something or someone consistently.

It had taken her a few months to find the boy in the hospital. There was little else for her to find after that. His name brought up nothing, though she figured it was fake anyway. Didn't much matter to her who he was, just that it seemed important he stay alive.

"What I want...what I want....hmmm" Liz made a show of thinking it over, tapping her index finger to her lips. "Firstly, probably should put the gun away. Second. I want a favor. Could be from me, could be from one of my emissaries. We can work out the details later. Point is, I will ask you to do something, You do it. No questions allowed. And then poof-" she waved her hands dramatically for effect. "No more money problems or hospital bills."

Liz peeked around the tree, gauging how much time they had before being interrupted. didn't seem like much, a minute at most. "Tick tock, time's a wastin'."

As the woman made her request, Owen just stared blankly beneath his helmet. He wasn't sure what to do in this situation. This woman had him over a barrel. She knew about Will. His immediate thought was to kill her. Get close and shoot her. Leave her bleeding out in the gutter like the trash she was. But that hadn't worked so far. She was quick enough to dodge most of his shots and probably a more skilled combatant. But then again, who wasn't these days. Owen mused again that he needed to get more training.

Favors like this were pretty basic. You did them for the villain, they were costly and then they would want another and another. That was why he'd taken such steps to avoid letting Will's identity being known in the first place. It was a basic tenant of blackmailing people. It would never end. That's how these things worked. Not unless he removed the leverage.

Will's life was at stake. He needed to protect Will at all costs. But then again, he also knew that a fight here, with so little time would probably get him sent away for a long time. The options were going back and forth in his head. He could agree to it and move Will somewhere else. That would be a good idea. He could agree to the favor and then put Will back into hiding. Maybe Dinah or even Jason could help him. He'd do her favor, but at least that way, no one else would get hurt. And her leverage would be gone.

Owen holstered his gun. "Fine. I'll do your favor. Just don't hurt him. I'll do whatever you want and then we're done here." He pulled out his grapnel. "I take it you'll know how to get in touch with me?"

Watching the gears work in someone else's head to the inevitable conclusion she wanted was always fun. She gave them "choices", made them run around in their own head until they went where she wanted them to go. She hadn't wanted to run into him today, but she always had a plan for if she did. She watched as all the pieces fell into place in his head, what she was offering, what she threatened, what he had to choose. The smile fell from her face as he holstered his gun, signalling his choice. Surely, of course, trying to figure out a way to remove her leverage over him. A temporary measure, she was sure. Shouldn't take her too long to find him again.

Her hand slipped into her pocket casually, pulling out a small pellet between her fingers. Looking beyond him for a moment, she could see they had about 30 seconds. If he was good enough, that's all he'd need. And if he wasn't, well that wasn't her problem. She held up the pellet for him to see. "I'll be in touch," she said before throwing it down, releasing a cloud of smoke for her to disappear into. After that, it was easy to get lost in the crowd, changing her features again with a simple touch of her pendant and a thought.

~0~

Liz waited patiently on a park bench, fiddling with her necklace as she people watched. On this rare occasion, she found herself using her own face, no glamour at all for this meeting. He wouldn't know any better, just think it was another one of her many disguises. Or someone completely different. She had on a mid-length bright cobalt blue cotton dress and knee high boots. She didn't know what it was about the city, but it made her want wear blue, even though red seemed more her color.

She had sent him a simple message through one of his contacts, alive this time. It simply said a time, and a place, signed with the tiniest little bat in red. It was about time people knew she was in town. Even if it was just one person, he had far reaching influences who would spread whispers of her presence.

She crossed her legs, resting one arm on the back of the bench as she casually scanned the area, watching people stroll through the park, taking in the nice weather. A perfect place for a secret meeting. She wondered, for a brief moment, if he'd be silly enough to wear that helmet out in the day time. She'd find out soon enough, she supposed.

Post by Marty Jordan on a few seconds ago
"I'll bet you will be. I have no doubt."

The smoke pellet hit the ground and Owen was off. He wasn't about to be arrested by Gotham's finest. Laughable though that thought was. Owen was fairly sure that the fine cops of Gotham couldn't catch a cold if they were trying to. But he wasn't about to kill some dumb rookie cop over incompetence. He imagined that the woman made it out too, but if she didn't, then Red Hood wasn't broken up over the idea.

---------

The message had come in through normal channels this time. Living channels. It was unusual to say the least. It made Owen leery of the whole thing. His initial thought was to put a bullet through the messenger's head from half a mile away and call it a day, but that would still leave Will in the crosshairs. He thought briefly about involving Jason or Dinah, but then scoffed at the idea and decided he'd much rather get drop kicked by Superboy than either of those options.

So Owen walked through the park towards the meeting point, wearing a zipped up brown leather jacket, jeans and Gotham Knights Ball cap. The ensemble was topped off with a pair of mirrored aviators, large enough to cover his mask. That would be enough to disguise him from anyone who might be taking an interest.

His contact was not what he expected. Probably someone else who was indentured to the Batwoman. Owen wondered idly what the She-Devil had on this woman. She was rather attractive. His mind started to fill in the blanks, before he pushed his imagination out of the way and went into work mode. Owen approached the bench and looked down, from behind the shades.

"You rang?"