In the alley he found a black SUV waiting for him. He climbed into the back seat. There were three other people in there with him. They were in all black outfits like he was. One of them leaned over from the front seat.
"Are you… Honey Badger?" He asked in confusion. His accent was foreign, he was probably a mercenary brought from outside of the city.
"Yeah," Ricky answered. He had told Red Hood his codename earlier in the day. He must be suing it already.
"Boss said he wanted you in charge of our group." The front seat person told him. "We just finished a job coming in from Europe. Hope you do not mind, but we are loyal to profits not this Red Hood guy."
"I do not. I am not loyal to him either. But he still pays me so I do not mind working for him." Ricky told them. "He probably put us together because we are more loyal to a payday than whatever his objective is."
"Then why did he say you are in charge of us?" The woman to his left asked.
"Depends… What exactly did you do?" Ricky asked with a chuckle.
"Nothing. We are all from out of town. We work freelance and usually alone." The driver explained. "There are ten of us and we told him ahead of time that we will leave if he gets grabbed."
"While I am a local. So I know my way around. Then I guess he figures I work alone as well since I gave the vigilantes a chance to grab the people I had with me last time." Ricky realized that he might have not flawlessly completed his last mission in that case.
"Was it on purpose?" The woman to his left asked. The SUV had started moving through the streets.
"No, we had taken to long and were going to be tracked down anyways. So I had them take three different vehicles and split up. While I left with the objective on a hidden fourth route. Granted from what I was able to piece together, it seems like almost all of the vigilantes showed up so I would say three out of seven was pretty good." Ricky pointed out with a chuckle.
"Then what happens if we start getting chased?" The driver asked.
"We split up, just keep in mind at the moment all we are doing is driving around with illegal guns. If we ditch them and they do not have fingerprints we would get off just fine. But our identities would be exposed. I am not sure if that is as important for you guys as it is for me." Ricky informed them.
"Would that work?" The driver asked. "Most cities would be suspicious of us having bullet proof gear."
"Ha, this is Gotham. Let alone its reputation for being dangerous. It has a record for being corrupt. Chances are the lawyers would be able to get us out in only a few hours. You just have to be careful of what you want to expose." Ricky explained.
"Hmm… seems like-" RING! RING!
Ricky pulled out his phone and answered. "Yeah."
"Ri- Honey Badger, put me on speaker phone." Ricky did as Red Hood asked and put him on speaker phone. "Listen up, Honey Badger you and the people in that car will join me and the other lieutenant at the meeting spot. The others will be in nearby buildings and waiting in the cars on the streets. I already texted you the numbers of your new subordinates. Make a group chat or something."
Red Hood then hung up. He quickly started making the group chat and sent a single text once he received the destination from Red Hood. They were soon grouped up in a line of three cars. They followed the lead car that should have Red Hood in it.
They soon pulled into a car garage and went up to the third floor of the four story car garage. They pulled up to an open area and parked.
Ricky was out first, he looked at the other cars and saw Red Hood climb out of one of them. Out of the other came his lieutenant who was dressed in a black and red outfit with white lines. The rest of his soldiers hopped out as well, they were dressed in red and white outfits. While Ricky's band of mercenaries were in all black.
Ricky looked around. They were on one side of the parking garage which had another parking garage next to it. Then there were a few other buildings nearby but none with a clear line of sight like that other car garage has.
"They will be here in only a few minutes. Honey Badger and Tank, come with me. The rest of you keep a watch around. Look out for anything suspicious. I have a feeling he is going to try and kill us." Red Hood's words had the mercenaries looking around and alert.
Ricky joined Red Hood and 'Tank' standing in an open area. Ricky made sure to check his grenade launcher confirming that an incendiary grenade was set up in the chamber. Ricky looked over to see Tank had an assault rifle.
"Honestly I am hoping Penguin picks a fight. I want to finish him off. But if he ends up obeying that would be just fine." Red Hood told them as he pulled out his dual pistols and checked them over before spinning them and putting them back in their holsters. He then looked over at Ricky. "Are you sure you do not want a better weapon, Honey Badger?"
"I am good, I am not very good with guns in the first place." Ricky answered.
"How are you a mercenary and still not good with guns?" Tank asked with a chuckle.
Ricky sighed and shook his head, "I only did freelance work until this guy forced me into a position where I had to work for him."
"You mean you did odd jobs for criminals." Tank grunted, "so you are just a crook."
"Yeah." Ricky shrugged in response. It was the truth of what he was. There was no denying it and it was not like he planned to hide the truth. He considered himself a crook and wanted to stay below the surface and out of sight of the big names in this universe.
"Ha, then I guess you are just-" Tank stopped talking as they heard several vehicles. They watched as three vans that had Penguin's refrigeration logo on the side pulled up across from them. "Guess they are here."
"Indeed they are." Red Hood agreed and Ricky just grunted.
Half a dozen soldiers trickled out of the vans followed by the chubby form of Penguin. These days he was looking a little more worse for where. Instead of wearing a full suit he just had on he vest and a monocle. He carried his signature umbrella in hand.
His goons were in heavy leather coats with a penguin on their back. They were all holding some heavy duty hardware. With balaclavas covering their faces.
Penguin hobbled toward them with a grimace and growl. "You're the little shit that has been destroying my places!" He yelled as he hobbled halfway forward. Red Hood came forward as well waving at Tank and Ricky to stay back.
After a moment Penguin grinned. "You really know how to make an impact! I'll tell you what. Let me take back the docks. In exchange I won't fight over the part of uptown that you snatched from me."
Red Hood chuckled, "How about-" Ricky stopped listening as he could suddenly feel the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. This was his danger sense ability triggering.
He looked around and then spotted it. In the car garage that had a clear view of them. A black van. The back doors opened up and he could see the barrel of a gun pointing toward them. Ricky quickly yelled, "GET DOWN!"
BANG! BANG! BANG!
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