For the Star City duo, being shot at with a rocket launcher was… a bit much.
They'd seen criminals with guns, maybe the occasional grenade — but Gotham? Gotham skipped all that and went straight to anti-aircraft warfare.
Thea immediately ordered Catwoman to pull the chopper higher. "Gain altitude! Quick!"
Then she turned to Felicity. "See if we can land near the GCPD, the city hall… or maybe one of the billionaires' mansions. Those guys always have private pads."
Felicity's fingers flew across her tablet, eyes squinting against the whir of the rotors. "Alright… hacking Gotham's grid now…"
She froze mid-sentence.
"Oh my God. Uh, Thea? We're not landing at city hall. Because I just found their new mayor."
She rotated the tablet screen.
On it appeared a bald mountain of a man, easily two meters tall, muscles like coiled steel, and a black metal mask covering his mouth and nose.
Thea gave him one look and sighed.
"Yeah, that's definitely not a civil servant. Whoever hired that guy won't have a government for long."
That was Bane — no doubt the "final boss" of this city's nightmare.
Still, something about the whole situation felt off.
According to the reports she'd gathered — and what Selina had told her — things had started like the Dark Knight Rises movie: Bane broke Batman's spine, took over Gotham, unleashed chaos.
But then… everything went weird.
⸻
After his grand televised takeover, Bane had hijacked Gotham's airwaves, showed off his nuclear reactor, and threatened annihilation — the full villain package.
Then he waited.
And waited.
But Gotham didn't panic.
People still ate breakfast, shopped, fought in alleys, and even held their nightly rooftop barbecues.
No riots, no hysteria — not even trending hashtags.
Confused, Bane double-checked the broadcast system. Everything worked. The city had simply… ignored him.
In disbelief, he grabbed a random old man on the street, proudly explaining how terrifying and powerful he was.
The old man nodded sagely.
"You seem like a good lad. But you're too honest — honesty doesn't last long in Gotham. You've got to look deeper. Take me, for example — seventy-six years old, certified law-abiding citizen for sixty years. Want to buy a dirty bomb? Half off if you take the sarin gas too."
Bane's jaw nearly hit the pavement.
Just to be sure, he asked a few more locals.
Same result. Nobody cared. Nobody was afraid.
In Gotham, "You think I was raised on fear?" wasn't a threat — it was a fact.
This city was immune to terror.
In gaming terms, anyone born in Gotham automatically spawned with +50% Dark Magic Resistance.
⸻
Realizing his intimidation campaign had completely failed, Bane turned to his partner — Talia al Ghul, daughter of Ra's, occasional lover of Batman, and mother of Damian Wayne.
Talia, ever the scholar of ancient strategy, advised him:
"If you can't scare them yourself, make them scare each other — fight darkness with darkness."
So Bane, eager to test this "Eastern wisdom," opened the gates of Blackgate Prison.
For good measure, he released everyone in Arkham Asylum too.
The result was… spectacular.
Gotham devoured itself.
The city's criminals turned on one another instantly. "Gothamites don't hurt Gothamites"?
Lies. They hurt Gothamites harder.
In less than a day, the streets ran red.
And when the dust settled, Bane found himself standing alone in the carnage — his nuclear reactor safely dismantled and tucked away.
After seeing firsthand how insane this city truly was, even he was terrified one of these lunatics might wander over and "borrow" his reactor to light a cigarette.
Now, Felicity's live feed showed the mighty Bane — once Gotham's conqueror — sitting outside city hall alone, tossing pebbles into the street like a bored NPC.
Thea blinked.
"…Yeah, let's not bother him."
⸻
They checked the police stations, hospitals, and central square next.
Everywhere they looked was in ruins — broken windows, bullet-ridden walls, corpses lying in haphazard piles.
Judging by the mess, the cops had put up a good fight but lost badly.
The surviving criminals now roamed unchecked.
Thea frowned. The situation was far worse than she'd expected.
She turned to Selina. "You said you had a rendezvous point with Robin and Batgirl?"
Selina's face twisted. "…Yeah, about that. The place we planned to meet? It's… kind of on fire now."
Thea groaned. You people have one plan, no backups, and zero foresight. Without Batman holding your hands, it's a miracle any of you are still alive.
⸻
Sighing, she looked to Felicity. "Alright, Plan B. Use facial recognition and try to locate Commissioner Gordon. Big guy, mustache, permanent look of moral exhaustion. His face is practically a Gotham landmark."
Felicity nodded, fingers flying across the screen. "I'm on it… but their satellite network's encrypted like crazy. It's going to take time."
Thea leaned back, watching the smoke rise from the city below.
Gotham was a warzone — and they'd just flown straight into the heart of it.