Robert Smith, chief of the South Hinckley Police Department, stormed into the town hall like a gust of wind. Inside, his uncle, Hal Smith, the mayor of South Hinckley, was leisurely sipping tea.

The moment he saw Robert, Hal scowled and barked, “Foolish!”

Robert froze mid-step, his face stiff, but he dared not talk back.

“Tal White,” Hal began, his voice heavy with disdain, “is indeed the chief of the East End Police Department and one of the mayor’s trusted associates. Even if you planned to get rid of him, why act so hastily?” He set down his teacup without a tremor. “How many times have I told you, Bobby? If you’re not absolutely certain, don’t act so recklessly!”

Hal’s piercing gaze bore into Robert, his authority unmistakable.

“But he was here to investigate our operations,” Robert mumbled defensively.

“And he didn’t have evidence,” Hal snapped, his glare icy. “You could have easily deflected him, misled him. Instead, your impulsiveness has exposed everything.”

Taking a deep breath, Hal gave his next order: “Deal with the mine.”

“Everyone?” Robert hesitated, his voice faltering.

“Everyone,” Hal confirmed coldly. “That includes the women and children.”

Outside the town hall, Robert’s expression darkened. He clenched his fists, muttering curses under his breath in the local dialect. At over 40 years old, he was still being scolded like a child by the head of the family.

What’s worse, Hal seemed to know everything that happened at the station before Robert had even reported it. How long would it be before Robert could wrest control of the family from Hal? When could he become mayor?

“Has anyone gone into the mine?” Robert asked one of his officers.

“No,” the officer assured him. “We’ve been guarding it tightly.”

“I went into the mine,” Tal White said with his usual stoic expression. “It’s bad. We can’t handle this alone.”

Inside the room, sealed off with six nails, Tal’s situation was much like Jason Todd’s—no one could get in or out. His words drew grim expressions from everyone present.

Not that you could see through Jason’s hood, but Vivi could spot the flashing icons on her map. A fleeting [Concern] had flickered over Red Hood’s marker before it was replaced by [Anger] once more. Vivi couldn’t help but wonder: How is this guy not exhausted, toggling between fury and rage nonstop?

She toyed with her gun. “Red Hood, the last time I saw you, you were chasing down drug dealers, but your reputation makes you out to be their protector. I can’t tell if you’re friend or foe. Do we keep fighting?”

Jason was silent for a moment before muttering, “I’m here to deal with the problem.”

The slight wince as he shifted revealed his injuries. Vivi sighed, pulled out her hammer, and broke down the barrier wall. Then she turned to Victor Fries.

Victor hesitated. “I haven’t been down there. I only know bits and pieces about South Hinckley.”

Victor had suspected the drug operation was in the mines and had chosen South Hinckley as a base precisely because of its chaos and isolation. The town was aging, its young people rarely returning, leaving a closed-off, antiquated community behind. The mayor had long rented out warehouses and land, clearly aware of tenants like Penguin or Victor. Yet, despite all the commotion outside, no one had dared raid Victor’s warehouse.

Tal described what he saw in the mine. “There are many people—women, children, and elderly—most of them aren’t locals. Some of the men are either disabled or mentally impaired. They all have drug addictions and are being forced to… work.”

His words drew frowns even from the most stoic among them.

“I managed to take some photos,” Tal continued, “but the supervisors aren’t just stationed above ground; there are some hidden among the workers. If we’re going to save these hostages, we’ll need to be prepared for the supervisors to use them as leverage.”

Jason groaned, clearly impatient. “So, we need to take out the supervisors, right? Are you sure you weren’t spotted when you snuck in? If not, we still have time.”

Tal glided toward Jason without a word, his movements eerily silent. His hand pressed down on Jason’s shoulder, almost ghostlike, but he paused when Jason aimed his gun squarely at Tal’s hand.

The two locked eyes before silently withdrawing from their standoff.

Victor coughed and glanced at Nora. Before he could speak, Vivi said, “Nora should stay here. This place is secure for now. You, Victor, lack combat capabilities, so I’ll leave White to protect her.”

Tal blinked. “White?”

“Oh,” Vivi grinned and gestured. Her little white horse trotted over, nuzzling her palm affectionately. “My horse, of course.”

She hugged the little horse’s neck, mumbling a few words before turning her attention back to Victor.

Victor: “…”

Bound by the contract, he reluctantly admitted, “Yes, I know a shortcut to the mines.”

Vivi rewarded him with a radiant smile.

Red Hood silently observed them, his thoughts opaque.

Under Victor’s guidance, the group set out in a line: Victor led the way, Tal followed closely, Red Hood took the middle, and Vivi brought up the rear. As they walked, Vivi grabbed Tal’s sleeve, stumbling a little as she tried to keep pace.

“I’ve never seen an enforcer as unscrupulous as you,” remarked their temporary ally, the unreliable leader of drug dealers.

Vivi, struggling to multitask while controlling her secondary avatar, responded wryly, “I’ve never seen a gang leader leading the police before, either.”

Tal and Red Hood knew of each other but weren’t familiar.

After all, one was a gang boss, the other a police chief. It would have been stranger if they didn’t know of each other.

Red Hood said something else, but Vivi was too preoccupied with controlling her secondary character, Bella Bettywen, to catch it. She let Tal guide her along while keeping her focus elsewhere.

Above them, gargoyles flew, silently surveilling the local police as they gathered near the forest. Vivi decided against contacting Winston directly this time.

Last time she’d deployed SWAT forces with an inside ally, but this operation offered no such excuse, and drawing attention to Winston could spark suspicion. Winston, her “official double agent,” continued feeding her valuable intel on the Court of Owls.

Instead, she coordinated through Bella and the Gotham City Police Department (GCPD), mobilizing a covert force of 200 officers and wardens into South Hinckley.

But there was only one road leading into the town, and Vivi couldn’t rule out the possibility of the drug dealers blowing it up. She’d learned long ago not to underestimate their ruthlessness.

To ensure nothing went awry, one by one, the gargoyles’ eyes glowed red in the darkness. Their stone wings unfurled, slicing through the black sea air as they flew toward South Hinckley.

Previously, Vivi had used a silver-tier item to alter the locals’ perception, convincing them that all anomalies could be explained away as magic tricks.

As her motorcycle roared down the road toward South Hinckley, Vivi allowed herself a brief moment of relief. She’d done everything she could. Then she came back to her senses.

The walls shook. The entire underground tunnel quaked.

Victor’s expression darkened. He grabbed Vivi’s hand, ready to bolt.

“There’s been an explosion underground,” Victor said, his words quick and panicked. “I specialize in temperature; my senses are sharper than yours. That was definitely an explosion! I can’t die—if I die, Nora dies too—”

“Give me your freeze gun, and you can go back,” Vivi replied just as quickly. As they argued, the two men ahead exchanged grim looks and bolted deeper into the tunnel.

Victor exhaled sharply, tossed his gear to Vivi, and tried to leave, only to realize the frail-looking girl had anchored herself firmly. Her slim legs didn’t budge.

As she pursued the others, counting the tools in her inventory, Vivi muttered to herself. The mine was exploding. They had underestimated the criminals’ resolve. Even though the police had left, the criminals had chosen to erase all evidence—including blowing up the mine.

Fortunately, Tal had left behind evidence. The photos he’d taken had already been sent to the police station.

But South Hinckley was far from Gotham proper. For now, their only real backup came from the gargoyles above.

The uncharted map of this area left Vivi unable to locate Tal or Red Hood. Switching to her Magician outfit on the run, she realized there was no need to uphold the mysterious aura of “C.” Her secondary character, currently on a motorcycle, would simply collapse if she tried to channel him here.

She hurriedly activated her magician outfit, completing the three inevitable failed tricks required to trigger its guaranteed success mechanic, before switching back to her regular gear.

The deeper she went, the higher the temperature rose. Flames roared, illuminating the scalding tunnel walls.

Then came the screams—a cacophony of hoarse cries, despairing wails, and desperate pleas for mercy and divine intervention.

The light, once warm and promising, had become a scythe of death. Vivi murmured, “Why does this game make suffering feel so real?”

It was the same with the East End’s sex workers and now with the miners.

The anguish was too vivid, too visceral, for her to brush aside as just pixels on a screen.

Vivi leapt from the tunnel’s entrance and pulled out—

[Silver Blueprint: Adaptive Bridge].

The criminals had decided to blow up the mine along with everyone in it. Jason seethed with rage and helplessness. Helplessness only fueled his anger further.

This wasn’t new. Jason often found himself in situations where his fury and frustration boiled over, a constant reminder of how unsuited he felt to be a hero.

Using a tool to block the wall of flames offered only a temporary reprieve. His head spun as the explosion’s drug-laced dust filled the air, a deadly toxin to anyone caught within.

He wanted to save them, but it was futile. These people… so many of them… had no way to escape.

They were either chained to the walls, their legs broken, or so devoid of hope that the thought of running didn’t even cross their minds.

Living had become so unbearably painful that, as death finally came roaring in with the flames, why bother to flee?

Dazed, Jason lifted his head.

Was he waiting for rain to fall and extinguish the fire?

But there was no rain. Instead, he saw a figure.

The naïve brat. Batman’s new favorite. The vigilante known as Night Watch. That girl hadn’t run away with Victor.

Jason watched as she leapt into the air.

Then, impossibly, a bridge appeared, spanning the entire mine. It caught her as she landed, and with her arrival, an intense cold descended upon the cavern.

The entire bridge transformed into a transparent ice bridge, radiating frost into the surroundings.

The cold jolted Jason’s mind into clarity. He immediately stood, scooping up the nearest child, breaking the chains from a nearby woman, and carrying her on his back toward the bridge.

The others began to feel the chill too, instinctively moving toward the icy surface.

It was as if they were all drowning, and the girl on the bridge was the only one standing above the waters. She looked down at them, gazing into their desperate faces, at the hands reaching out toward her.

Then she stepped back, as if retreating into the faint glow surrounding her. The light enveloped her entirely.

The cavern ceiling groaned under the strain, stones breaking free and crashing down. The entire mine was on the verge of collapse.

The girl’s pale lavender cloak billowed wildly in the scorching wind. She seemed to take in everything before her, or perhaps… she saw nothing at all.

She snapped her fingers.

The cold surged outward, bypassing the people entirely. It extinguished the flames, froze the falling stones into icy stalactites, and transformed the entire mine into a frozen wasteland.

Then, she collapsed to her knees on the ice bridge, her body tipping sideways as she fell unconscious.