Slade wasn't the greatest criminal in town, but he was low enough in the mob's hierarchy to stay off Batman's radar.
That was, until tonight.
He and some of his fellow henchmen were out with their boss, Oswald Cobblepot, to meet with and strike a deal with Jonathan Crane. Ever since Batman had ruined his operation, Crane was doing his best to lay low, as many major criminals did these days.
Slade stepped out the back of the van, which had been opened by the driver. Oswald stepped off first, one of the other henchmen handing him his cane. Oswald was a short man, who frequently wore a top hat and monocle, with whatever fancy suit he had just bought with the money from whatever bank he just robbed. His enemies had taken to calling him 'The Penguin.'
That is, Oswald was the king of Gotham until a new criminal started robbing Oswald's targets. The one that called himself the Joker. Oswald was meeting with Crane purely to bring up the Joker.
Crane was standing a ways away, with his scarecrow mask on.
"Do we have to do this with the mask, Crane?" Oswald asked, limping over to the doctor.
"It's part of the look, Mr. Cobblepot. Why don't we skip the formalities, and get to business. It is the night, you know. And he loves the night."
"You were the one who advised us to do this at night."
Crane chuckled. "So I did."
"Crane, get to the point."
Slade heard a faint whoosh from above. "Uh, boss?"
"What, Wilson? I'm in the middle of a conversation."
Slade didn't get a chance to answer as Batman dropped down from above, in between Crane and Oswald. He punched Crane, knocking him back a ways, then turned to Oswald and his henchmen.
Batman threw a batarang at Oswald, which the stocky man deftly knocked to the side with his cane.
Unfortunately, the batarang hit Slade and scratched his right eye.
Slade fell over and held his bleeding eye in pain as the other henchmen opened fire on Batman. He blocked the shots with his gauntlets, then threw a small explosive in the middle of all of them, knocking them back but not lethally hurting them.
Police sirens wailed in the distance as Batman engaged with Oswald.
"It's over, Penguin!"
"You think so, huh?"
Oswald raised his cane, which launched an explosive, throwing Batman back and stunning him for a moment. Oswald took this opportunity to run.
Unfortunately, Batman had already gotten back up, and had fired his grappling gun into the ceiling above, swinging into Oswald's back and throwing him over, knocking him out as well.
And as Batman carried Oswald away, there was only one word stirring in Slade's mind as he clutched his bleeding eye socket.
Revenge.
—-
(Y/N) grappled onto the top of the GCPD building, carrying Penguin over his shoulder. As expected, Gordon and a pair of cops were waiting.
(Y/N) set Penguin down and the two cops grabbed him and took him downstairs.
"With Cobblepot gone, maybe this city can finally start to return to normal," Gordon said, half joking about (Y/N)'s appearance.
"Crane was there. He escaped."
"We'll get him one day. There's something more important going on."
"Which is?"
"S.H.I.E.L.D wants you for a special mission. An agent by the name of Coulson came by earlier today, said to meet him at the port tonight."
(Y/N) nodded, then glided off the building.
—-
Coulson glanced at his watch. He had been waiting over an hour.
He looked up to make sure (Y/N) wasn't above him. When he looked back down, the caped crusader was standing there.
"Where have you been?" Coulson asked.
"I've been a little busy," (Y/N) said. He looked behind Coulson. There was a large jet parked on the dock. "Is that our ride?"
Coulson nodded. "We've got one more guy to pick up. Everyone we're recruiting is going to learn who you are. You don't need the mask."
"The mask is to protect the people I love."
"75% of the people where we're heading have never even been to Gotham. The rest don't know anybody there, safe for maybe a random cop."
(Y/N) nodded, then stepped onto the jet. Reluctantly, he pulled the cowl off his head. "What's the situation? And who're we picking up?"
"A man named Loki stole this." He handed (Y/N) a tablet with an image of the Tesseract and Loki on it. "We need your help to find it, and bring Loki in."
"Who're we picking up?" (Y/N) repeated.
"His name is Steve Rogers."
"Captain America?"
"You bet."
—-
They had picked up Steve Rogers and were now heading towards base. (Y/N) sat across from where Steve was standing, a little ways away from Coulson.
"This is you?" Steve asked, pointing to the tablet, where he was learning about the other members of the team. On it was a grainy video of (Y/N) fighting Falcone's henchmen, his first night as Batman.
(Y/N) nodded.
"Not bad."
"You know, I read about you in my history class."
"Really? What did it say?"
"I don't remember. I didn't really pay attention in history. But who knows, maybe one day you'll be doing PSA videos about staying in school."
Steve chuckled. "Maybe I will." He scrolled over to a video of the Hulk, also known as Bruce Banner. He would be on this team as well. "So, this Dr. Banner was trying to replicate the serum they used on me?"
Coulson stood and walked over. "A lot of people were. You were the world's first superhero. Banner thought Gamma radiation was the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula."
"Didn't really go his way, did it?"
"Not so much. When he's not that thing though, guy's like a Stephen Hawking."
Steve looked confused at this.
"He means he's smart," (Y/N) spoke up. "So Banner's going to help us locate the Tesseract? No need for the big green guy?"
"Exactly."
"I hope we're the men for the job," Steve said.
"Oh, you are," Coulson said, fanboying a little. "We made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input."
"The uniform? Aren't the Stars and Stripes a little old fashioned?"
"With everything that's happening, the things that are about to come, people might just need a little old-fashioned."
—-
The jet landed a half hour later, onto what appeared to be an aircraft carrier. Steve, (Y/N), and Coulson stepped out, with (Y/N) carrying a duffel bag that contained his bat suit. He glanced to his right to see the Batmobile being lowered down by a jet.
He pointed. "That's my car."
Coulson nodded. "We had it secretly airlifted here. You might need it."
A red-haired agent walked towards the three of them.
Coulson introduced them. "Agent Natasha Romanoff, Captain Rogers and Mr. (L/N)."
"Ma'am," Steve said.
"Pleasure," (Y/N) said.
"Hi." Natasha turned to Coulson. "They need you on the bridge, they're starting the face-trace."
Coulson hastily made his way towards the bridge while (Y/N), Steve, and Natasha conversed.
"It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice," Natasha said to Steve. "Thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"
"Trading cards?"
"They're vintage. He's very proud." She turned to (Y/N). "Yet another billionaire S.H.I.E.L.D wants to talk to."
"Is that the only thing they know about me?"
Natasha nodded. "Fury told them you were going to be helping Banner find the Cube. Then he said Batman would be coming, and he'd need his own private area so nobody found out who he was."
"They bought that?"
"Apparently."
Steve noticed a man looking around, confused, not far away. "Doctor Banner?"
Bruce walked over. "Oh, yeah, hi. They told me you two would be coming."
"Word is you can find the cube."
"Is that the only word on me?"
(Y/N) spoke up. "Other than the fact that you can turn into a giant green guy, which I don't particularly care about? No."
Bruce chuckled. "You had me the first half, not going to lie." He turned to Steve. "Must be strange for you, all of this." He was referring to Steve having been frozen in ice for 70 years.
Steve looked at a group of soldiers running in line not too far away. "Well, this is actually kind of familiar."
Natasha stepped forward. "Gentlemen, you might want to step inside in a minute. It's gonna get a little hard to breathe."
A loud whirring noise could be heard. The three men made their way to the edge, looking over.
"Is this a submarine?" Steve asked.
"Really, they want me in a submerged pressurized container?" Bruce said.
"I don't have training for being in a submarine," (Y/N) said. He looked back at Natasha. "Do you need training for that?"
Propellers began to spin on the edge of the carrier and it began to lift into the air.
"Oh, no this is much worse!" Bruce said.