Chapter Text
Uniform off, hood on.
Elise couldn't risk anyone catching a glimpse of her- not a single soul. For one, it would create an uproar if people found the daughter of Arthur Mercer infiltrating the base of Caramine Falcone.
Two, it would cause problems with her career if the big guys found out that she was snooping around. She had worked hard to become a police officer- she would be damned if she was fired or something worse before she even got a chance to become a detective- heck, she had just finished her probation period not three months ago.
For three, well, Assassins were not supposed to exist in Gotham anymore. Not since before Elise's birth. There had been a huge "Assassin hunt" as her parents had called it, a few years before Elise had been born. Her parents had been lucky to escape the hunt as they were only Assassin allies, not Assassins themselves.
Elise didn't really understand this... Assassins versus Templar war. Both sides had good points and if they ended up working together, they would have probably achieved something good. Instead, they turned against each other and fought it out till one of their forces was completely diminished.
They didn't seem to understand that victory would never be permanent. One could wipe the other out, but at the end of the day, they weren't fighting people, they were fighting ideologies, and there was no victory in such a war.
Well... not like it mattered to Elise now. The current templars were clearly not people she could ever work with. Corrupt officials, mob bosses, greedy businessmen. Those were the Templars she had to deal with as the sole Assassin of Gotham. And she had no official training to boot- nothing but the old writings from Assassins before her time and an old house that doubled as headquarters, training area and actually anything she needed it to be.
And then again, Elise wasn't dumb. She knew she couldn't take out the Templars on her own- after all, she was just one person.
Which was why she went through all the trouble to make sure she wasn't seen by a single person.
The Templars had eradicated the Assassins, sure. But they had either forgotten or didn't know the existence of the safehouse, which worked in the Assassin's favor- reigniting the spark and giving them one blade in the dark. If they found out she existed- what little was left of the Assassins would be wiped out as well... along with her existence.
That was fine.
She knew what she was getting into. She had plenty of opportunities to back out and she still hadn't. This was something that Elise was willing to do. Something that would help fix the city she loved so much.
But to get to that point, her information had to be updated. Which was why she found herself sneaking into The Roman's head quarters- to find proof that he was a Templar like her predecessors had assumed.
It had been going hilariously easy.
She had camped out of the building for a while- her week long of recon sessions had given her a good timeline on the guard switches and weak links within the group of guards. She had... ahem, acquired, the blue prints to the building as well, so she knew there weren't any alarms to the window- she could open it, climb in, and close the thing behind her- easy as that.
So she moved. She got down the rooftop she had been perched upon, down onto a more easily accessible location. Keeping to the shadows, she reached into her pocket for the small things she had gathered- gravel, pebbles, nails- anything that would make a loud noise, looked like it would belong in the environment, but light enough to carry around.
She waited till the guard reached the closest point to her and then threw the handful he had gathered into the direction she wanted him moving.
The distraction worked.
The guard, a scrawny man who looked like he would prefer to be anywhere by there, turned around at the sound. He paused for a moment, peering into the darkness to find the source of the sound. When he found nothing, he raised his gun a little and moved towards the sound. The second he took his first step, Elise moved in the opposite direction, swiftly jumping off the building, silently rolling onto the pavement and running to the window.
The tar was rough on her bare feet, but Elise had no other option. Shoes would have made perceivable sound and she wasn't very eager to be found by the enemy yet.
Making quick work of the lock, Elise raised the window and slipped in just as the guard turned back. Slowly and silently, she lowered the window down again and let out a silent sigh, her body untensing as she took note of her new surroundings.
Two guards near the main door.
Two more near the elevator
One near the staircase.
She glanced up and grinned under the hood when she spotted the ledges that ran through the place.
She dove into the shadow of the corner and used the practice from her training to quickly scale up the wall, getting onto the ledge. It was a small, dusty place, but Elise had practiced with worse. As long as the ledge beneath her feet didn't crumble, she'd be fine.
Slowly and carefully, she made her way towards the staircase, slipping in behind the guard, who didn't once think about checking above his head.
Once she reached the top of the stairs, she closed her eyes, willing her sight to activate.
Immediately, her vision darkened, the world around her washed in a bluish-grey. For a second that was all she saw, till she concentrated a little more. Colour came into view, highlighting the five guards in the floor beneath her and the five guards in the on the floor she was on in a deep blood red.
That wasn't good.
There was one stationed right outside her target- the golden door in Elise's vision.
With another imperceptible sigh, she opened her eyes, her two forms of vision blending together while her special sight slowly faded out.
Elise quickly started building another plan- she had to distract the one guard without alerting the other four who were a distance enough to not interfere with her mission. But any distraction she made in such a small place was sure to attract the attention of all five guards- an outcome she didn't want.
She started planning another idea when suddenly, the entire building lost its power. Not wanting to go in blinded, she closed her eyes, letting her sight activate again, giving her a visual just as a commotion was heard in the floor beneath her.
A figure of blue had entered the building, fighting with the red figures.
She didn't know who this person was, but her vision showed him in blue, which meant she could probably rely on the intruder to be on her side.
A gunshot rang through the air, alerting the five guards on her floor. Apart from the guard who was guarding the door, every one of them rushed down, clutching their guns to their chest as they made their way to the ground floor.
Perfect.
Her target was alone. He wasn't expecting her.
He was vulnerable.
And Elise was ready to attack.
Elise quickly made her way across the room, still maintaining her height advantage. Once she was right above him, she grinned, vicious and gleefully. She had been practicing for this moment for so long and she was finally getting to do it.
Feeling a little giddy with the glee, Elise jumped, landing on his shoulders, silently pushing him down as her hands moved- a well aimed hit to his temple that was sure to knock him out.
The man would never know who hit him.
Once she was sure he was knocked out, she dragged his body and pushed it down the stairs, so when people found his body, they'd think it was the casualty caused by the intruder below, keeping her out of the narrative.
She activated her sight once more, just to check if she had missed or anything or anyone. She frowned in effort as she willed herself to see beyond the door.
No one.
She was alone on the floor.
Feeling the rush of accomplishment, she walked into the room, closing the door silently behind her.
She knew the intruder was still keeping the guards busy behind her, which meant she had time to go through Falcone's documents thoroughly.
But she wasn't here for police work though. Any incriminating information she found now would be of no use as it would be inadmissible in court. So she filed away the unrelated information, it was knowledge that would help sure, but it wasn't what she was after.
She was after a Templar Cross. Or a signet. Or anything, really, that would prove to her that Falcone was part of the Templars.
There-
A letter between Loeb and Falcone.
So the police commissioner was in bed with the mob bosses. Maybe templars too? Or just the mob- Loeb was a bit dumb, she wouldn't be surprised if the Templars kept him out of the know, only using his position for their benefit-
Oh no.
Elise held up one letter, reading through it. It talked about how Falcone wanted some witness silenced, and though it wasn't mentioned outright, there were themes of 'control' and 'order' written everywhere in the letter.
Two more papers down, she read a document signed by both Loeb and Falcone- that was definitely Abstergo's logo on that paper. Yeah so- Loeb knew about the Templars, but he wasn't high enough up in the chain to brag about it. Falcone on the other hand was clearly a big shot in Gotham Templar business with all the letters going back and forth to different people ranging from political personnel to Abstergo's representatives.
Maybe if she dug around a little more-
Elise panicked when a hand closed around her mouth, an arm around her waist, pulling her away from the desk.
Shit. She hadn't heard the person walk in- had she been that engrossed in her work?
She struggled in the person's arm for a moment, before the person threw her against the wall.
She tried to gather herself, her head feeling light with the sudden movement and impact, but before she could even try to get onto her feet. The man- he was clearly a man- lifted her easily, holding her against the wall by her throat and another at her waist so that she wouldn't strangle and die before he got his answers.
Her body moved on autopilot, engaging her hidden blade to strike the man in the visible weak point- his neck. He let go of her to block the attack and Elise used that distraction to move away from him. She didn't get far though, when the man in the weird horned cowl tackled her, grabbed her arm and wrestled it behind her, keeping her pinned to the ground by placing his knee on her back.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" He asked, his voice a low growl that was distorted by an obvious voice modulator.
"I could ask you the same question." She shot back. "Why is man dressed in a fursuit running around Falcone's building?" Elise regretted the sass when the man put more weight onto her back, making a low sound of discomfort escape from Elise's throat.
He didn't ask another question- didn't wait for another snarky comment. Her panic came back full force when she felt him grab her hood.
"Hey-" She complained, thrashing a little in his hold, which only awarded her with tighter grip and more pain. "Let go-" She tried in a vain attempt, her breath coming out fast and unregulated.
Whoever this guy was, he was going to see her face. If he was a Templar associate- which Elise was hoping he wasn't, else she was dead meat- he would know her face. He had seen her use her hidden blade- he would immediately make the connection and know that she was an Assassin.
So this was how her run as an Assassin was about to end- short and hardly across the starting line.
She closed her eyes, her body automatically noting the danger and activating the sight without her having to command it.
In that bleak world, the man above her shone a bright deep red- an enemy she had to get rid of right now if she wanted to survive.
Too bad, body. She thought to herself. This man is way more stronger than me.
When her hood was finally pulled away from her head, she felt the man above her slightly shift.
Everything around them went silent for a moment.
Then, breaking that fragile silence-
"Elise Mercer." It came out almost like a gasp.
Silence ensued again and Elise took the chance to look at the man in front of her. Her fading sight showed his color switching from red to a slightly red-blue color while her actual vision catalogued the man who was pinning her down. Tall, muscular and dressed in blue and grey. The splash of color from his yellow utility tied up his look well enough. And his face was mostly obstructed by the cowl she had caught sight of earlier. Those 'horns' were actually supposed to be ears- she could tell now. His entire imagery and the big bold logo on his chest screamed 'BAT'
So Elise had met with the new player on the street- Batman.
Loeb hated the dude, which meant Elise would give him a chance, even though he was pressing down on her, hurting her arms and her ribcage.
"What are you doing here, Miss Mercer?" He asked, his voice clipped and cold.
"I'll tell you-" She ground out when he doubled the force on her back- "if you get off my back."
Immediately, he moved away, now crouched by her side, but still holding her hands behind her.
"Speak." He demanded
She had to think fast- she couldn't bring just about anyone into the Assassin Templar war. The way he handled her hands clearly spoke that he didn't know the dangers of the hidden blade, so she could safely assume that he wasn't a Templar. But he knew who she was- he knew identity. If he had kept up with the news, he would know that she was also a police officer.
Good.
Hopefully she could run with that. She could use the information she just learnt from the papers lying on the desk mere feet away from her.
"There was word about Falcone shipping in some of the hard stuff." She told him. "I needed to make sure."
"And what were you going to do with that information?" He asked and Elise watched as the white lenses that sat over his eyes narrowed, making look like he narrowed his own eyes.
"I don't know man." She tried for a shrug, but winced when her shoulders pulled weirdly. "It's not like I can act out on my own- Loeb would happily have me kicked out of the force at the first sign of insubordination. But maybe I could get people talking, you know- nothing makes the commissioner sweat more than public pressure."
He let go of her hands and stood up. Elise sighed in relief, rolling over onto her back, she pushed herself up into a sitting position as the Batman walked over to the desk, checking the papers she had been looking at not a few minutes ago.
"What do you know about the shipment?"
"Not much." She answered as she pulled the hood over her head again. "He's moving it via sea, as usual, but this time he's using new players- some local moving contractors and a fresh bunch of crooks he recently recruited off the streets. He's trying- and succeeding- in keeping his name away from all the dirty pies he has his fingers in."
The response she got in return was a grunt of acknowledgement and a nod as he continued to go through the papers himself.
He lifted one of the leaflets, turned to her, poised like he was going to ask her a question, when the alarms blared.
"Shit." Elise cursed as her eyes widened underneath her hood.
She couldn't get caught. She just couldn't.
"I need to get out." she muttered as she ran for the window. She closed her eyes briefly, using it to check the conditions outside. No guards, no witnesses. Good for her. She lifted the window, the Batman following right behind her. The moment she got onto the window sill, the man grabbed her with ease, raising his other hand, holding something that looked suspiciously like a gun-
No way- he wasn't about to kill her, was he? She had proved to him that they were both on the same side. Did he just decide that she was done with her usefulness?
"Hey wait-" She protested just before he shot the gun.
Elise clutched her eyes close, waiting for the pain.
Instead, she felt the hand around her waist tighten, pulling her to the Batman's chest as they both jumped off the building. She opened her eyes and saw that the man was clutching the 'gun' still- a sharp glinting wire pulled taut was swinging them to the building on the other side of the road.
Oh.
A grapple gun.
Genius.