psychopathic gambler

Soon they led both Mary and me to the limo seemingly eager to begin the talks.

Once inside, both of us found our seats opposite the trio, and the driver drove off towards S.T.A.R labs.

"so about th..." Aiden tried speaking but I interrupted.

"Before we talk business, do any of you happen to have a lighter on you?" Hearing my question, they were confused. The last they checked, I was too young to smoke, so why would I need a lighter?

"No"

"No"

"I left mine in the office" Darwin said checking his pockets.

As soon as they answered my question their eyes glazed over. Seeing this Mary stared at me in understanding as she had seen me do the same to the maids back home.

Originally I wasn't planning to use my ability as I quite enjoy, the whole negotiation sabotage nonsense that they try to pull every time I come, but this time seeing that they had removed Emily, the main reason I came here in person, from the negotiation, I wasn't going to waste my time with them, plus they need to pay for removing my fun.

"you will agree to the terms of the contract I'm giving you, along with an increase in the cost of materials at 15% market value, you will also add a termination agreement that makes it so I can end the deal at any time but you can't, you will forget about this interaction thinking that we spent the whole day discussing this and you managed to trick me into this deal and go tell Harrison about the good work you've done, when he discovers the contract errors you'll beg him to get Emily to come renegotiate the contract as you guys are clearly incompetent and need her help" I stated the suggestion and also gave one to the driver to make him go to dinner in my place and drop me of at my villa.

...

(Batman)

Back in Gotham night finally arrived.

I along with Tim and Cassandra got ready for the break-in, we were currently surveying the area of the estate as something was off.

"There's no one here" Tim said confused.

For 1 hour we've been here and yet we haven't seen a single guard around the premises. The lights are left on so it's easy for us to see inside, but even then not even a maid is visible.

From prior reconnaissance the security here is tight with a strict guards regiment, while the place is swarming with maids tending to everything even at night they're some wondering around working.

But now not a single person in sight, one would think that Iver went with them, as where else would they be, but according to CCTV cameras, Only Iver and his maid Mary went to the airport.

"We should go in, since we know no one's home investigating would be easy" Tim a.k.a Red Robin said after another round of scouting.

"True, though that doesn't mean we shouldn't be cautious" I said still finding this situation odd but this doesn't mean the mission has changed, it just means there more to investigate.

Cassandra Cain a.k.a Orphan stayed quiet ready to invade.

Since that was decided, we decided to break in using the easy way, though it still required some finesse, to avoid the multiple cameras and hack the sensors. Using our grabbing hooks to enter the property and land at the top of the mansion, there we find our entrance point, a glass ceiling over the house library, from here we cut a hole through the glass to grapple down.

Inside we find a library three stories tall, occupying of large portion of the main to the east wing of the house. 

"how many of those books do you think he actually read" Tim said looking around astonished at the sheer amount of books in here.

"these enough to open a library" he said exploring the room.

 Cassandra and I did the same and checked out the books.

After around 10 minutes we were done investigating. One thing I noticed when looking through all these books is the leak of personality, all the books in this entire area, in all three stories range from, school textbooks from grade school all the way to college level material, books on philosophy, history, business management, psychology, biology, physics, est.

While this shows he is knowledgeable, if one looks closely at the details one can notice that this place is closer to a public library rather than a private one, take the books for example they are all organized in a weird alphabetic numeric order, written in multiple languages, and spaning multiple genres with no focus. 

This is someone reading for the sake of knowledge rather than a desire to learn or an interest. Heck, there's not a single fantasy, sci-fi, or romance book you'd expect from a boy his age, yet all the books in here leak character.

'it's as though...' I thought until Cassandra said.

"It's as if he doesn't exist" Cassandra said slightly frowning. Cassandra had a good sense at reading people, given the way she grew up, whether it was in combat or interactions, she could read people easily, to the point of copying there mannerisms, so her saying he doesn't exist would mean she couldn't find anything to read his personality.

Soon we move on from the library and sneak through the rest of the mansion.

Through our findings, we discovered a few other things. First, Iver may not like images of himself being made public, but he's certainly in love with his looks, judging by the dozens of pictures of himself plastered around every corner of the house. So far, I counted 54 photos of different sizes. He had 9 with both or one of his parents in the picture, 13 with Mary, his maid, in them, and the rest are just him.

"So he's a narcissist, hm?" Tim said as he admired another photo. "I can't blame him," he said this time with a bit of envy seeping through.

Cassandra nods at his statement looking at the portrait, of Iver mounted on the wall.

"Focus" I say snapping them out of it, as we move to the study. 

Of the many self-portraits on the wall, the house also had stand-alone photos of his maid here and there, around 4 so far, but these photos are of as in all of them even the ones with Iver she's seen in full uniform. From what I know she's never seen next to Iver without it, even Dick said he saw her in uniform at the restraunt.

Even in his room, we found maid outfits in the drawers of different styles and colors judging by the size I assume it's hers, and with the condoms and birth control in the nightstand cupbaord, I can assume their relationship is more than boss and employee, most likely lovers.

'I'll need more info on this maid' I thought passing by another portrait of her and Iver.

Entering the study we quickly split to look for any interesting information, going through business documents highlighting the operations of SMITH industry, and other businesses under Iver's name, aside from that nothing worth mentioning was found. As I was moving towards the exit red robin called me.

"Batman, check this out," he said, waving a stack of documents. I reached out and read through the papers. It seems to me like an employment contract with a guy named Johan Liebert for the V.P. position at SMITH industry. What stands out is his responsibility. He would have control of the entire company, from managing to financing and resource allocation. This would be more of a contract for the C.E.O., not the V.P.

"Why would someone who manages his companies by himself randomly give his control to someone else?" I asked, trying to figure out who Iver was.

"Maybe he just got tired of the responsibility, his a kid that would make sense" Tim said rationalizing my thoughts.

"or maybe he needs more free time" Cassandra said absentmindedly.

We soon put this matter aside so we could properly analyze him when we got back to the Batcave.

Moving through the house we searched every room and confirmed what we already thought, there was no one home.

Soon we finished looking through and bugging the house and made our way to the basement,

unlike the rest of the house the basement was dark, we looked but couldn't find the light switch so opt to use the night vision in our cowls.

Checking out the basement we were shocked by the size as it spanned double the whole property, and was filled with a bunch of materials such as copper, steel beams, tungsten alloy, factory machines, and a lot of creates and shipping containers containers.

We begin searching the room to see if there's anything odd here, but aside from the size we find nothing worth mentioning. We move towards the only door down here aside from the entrance, by the layout I would assume this is a sort of bunker-control room, as I haven't yet found where the cameras are powered to so I assume they lead to this room.

Red Robin got close to the door and moved to open but before he could enter.

"bang!!"

A gunshot rang out and Red Robin stumbled backwards onto the floor. Seeing this I rush towards him and drag him out of the shooter's way while Cassandra quickly rushes to the shooter.

I look at Tim and see him now standing breathing heavily, it seems that the bullet was caught by his armor merely knocking the breath out of his lungs.

Standing I move into the room to assist Cassandra.

When I enter the room I find a young man with short, middle-parted platinum blond hair, light blue eyes, a striking face, and pale skin, sitting on a chair with a book on his lap, both his hands raised in the air with a gun in his right. he sat there looking at Orphan.

"Oh dear, my apologies. I wasn't expecting visitors this late at night" said the guy I recognized from the papers we went through as Johan Liebert, the recently made V.P. of SMITH industry.

We stood there glaring at him in a pointless attempt to intimidate him as he just laughed to himself.

"Though I wouldn't call you guests seeing as you broke in" he said, continuing to laugh to himself.

"Who are you" I said with my usual integration deep voice.

"well I'm Johan Liebert but you already knew that seeing as you went through my employment contract earlier" he said glancing at the wall of C.C.T.V footage.

"and the correct question is why are you here, as this isn't your house"

I ignored his question and continued to glare at him.

"well I wasn't expecting an answer, from what Iver said you do more brooding than speaking" he said looking me in the eye.

I narrowed my eyes at this statement "What do you know"

"Nothing really, no matter how much I question Iver he refused to tell me anything about you other than your character" he said shrugging.

Red Robin and Orpan look at each other in understanding and then move to subdue him, remaining cautious still unsure on his level of threat.

"I wouldn't do that if I was you. though I may be harmless I doubt Iver would take kindly to you kidnapping me seeing as he left me in charge of managing his company"

"and how would he know we were involved" Tim asked already stopping to hear what he had to say.

"well he's the one that told me you're coming tonight, he knew you'd be coming about a month ago and told me to come handle the situation" he said getting up from the chair.

"Handle?" Tim asked.

I frowned slightly "What happened to the workers"

"Workers? oh, those workers well, if I remember correctly they were all fired earlier today"

"Why"

"Why indeed, to be honest, I'm as clueless about this as you I only recently found out about this change of plans" he said sighing.

"Oh before I forget, Iver said to give this to you, word to a friend I would advise you act quickly." he handed me a folded piece of paper.

Moving closer I grabbed it out of his hand and read it.

..

Dear Batman I hope this letter finds you well.

By the time you read this, I should be in Central City, so sadly, I won't be there to entertain you. As a gift, I would like to give you a mission, if you will.

You see, I originally wasn't planning on doing something this dramatic, but I couldn't resist the temptation of giving you a parting gift.

thus in the spirit of introductions, I left you a challenge, you see as I was planning on how to make my introduction I couldn't help but notice that this city is awfully full of people trying to make their mark, and we can't have that can we.

your mission is to capture 31 villains/big-time crooks every day this month, as for who, or what happens if you don't well Johan will explain.

may this task prove no match for the caped crusader.

Iver Smith

..

"What is this!!" I burst out.

he simply smiles at me calmly saying "I believe Iver called it 'Act 1 Scene 2'"

(batman breaks in and Johan is waiting)

(stay in central city)

(business deal)