Batman was about to swing over to the next building when bullets began to fly toward him.

He knew that the shots were coming above, and the rate of fire told him it was from at least a semi-automatic pistol. Batman took advantage of a pause in the gunfire to look up.

Swooping around was the figure of Blackwing, riding a small rocket-powered glider. Blackwing raised his pistol and let loose with another volley of fire. Batman dodged most of the bullets, but a couple bounced off his bulletproof cape.

Batman recognized Blackwing from the story Batwoman had told him of her battle with the bat-themed villain.*

*(During Batwoman's first adventure, in Batman Secret Files #1)

"Oh, it's you, Blackwing!" Batman shouted mockingly. "I would have thought a third-rate knockoff like you would have given up the super-villain business by now!"

Blackwing shouted back. "It's the famous Batman! What are you doing protecting Nighthawk? Go catch some shoplifters or something, and stay out of our business! This is between me, Slipknot, and Nighthawk!"

Blackwing pulled a large pouch from behind his back and opened it. Out flew two giant bats, which were directly intent upon attacking Batman. As Batman dealt with their swooping dives, Blackwing flew away.

Batman covered himself with his cape as the bats nipped at him. He pulled out a small but high-powered sonic emitter that he often used to keep the bats in the Batcave from roosting on his computers and other equipment.

Standing off to the side was a new addition to the group, a small but powerfully built man. His hair was styled into two equally pointy eyebrow-like stalks, and his eyes were slitted like a bird's. He wore a dark green coat and suit.

His voice was soft and sonorous for one so evil. "Penguin, I have considered your plan carefully. I'm astounded that you came up with one of such soundness and complexity, and a plan of such economy, too. We will be able to take over the city with only relatively inexpensive technology."

The Penguin tapped the tip of his long cigarette.

"Quagh quagh! Yes, Owl, you are correct. All of us here, of course, appreciate your membership in this group." Penguin raised an almost questioning eyebrow. "You're a good sport to not be sore about the . . . differences that you and I have had in the past."

"We both stand to gain from this, Penguin. It will take two brilliant minds to take over New York. The Owl and the Penguin shall rule the town!"

"Are the rest of us chopped liver or something?" said a burly man in a crested black costume.

"You'll have your part in this," Penguin scolded. "All of us will. And we will rule Gotham, and New York, by the end of the week!"

The Penguin, the Owl, and the beautiful and mysterious Jackdaw all raised champagne glasses and clinked them together, except for Killer Shrike, who raised a large can of beer and downed it without clinking. Even as a veteran of numerous schemes and suicide missions, he wondered whether this plan would really work. Killer Shrike had been in enough schemes that seemed really good at the start and then failed - but he always got paid, that was the one thing that was always the same.

He wondered whether the plan could actually work. Especially in a town protected by the Batman.

Blackwing was over there, loading Nighthawk onto a larger glider that he and Slipknot had readied for Nighthawk's capture.

Suddenly, the rooftop door opened and three police officers came out.

"Hey, it's Batman!"

"Nice work, Batman!"

"We owe you a lot for taking this cop-killing creep out." Two of the officers began to handcuff the unconscious Wrath.

One of the officers noticed Batman watching the events across the alleway. "You need our help with anything, Batman?"

"No, thanks. Just get that cop-killing Wrath creep into a jail cell. I'll handle the business across the alleyway."

Batman pulled out his Bat-grappling hook, attached a suction-cup tipped projectile to it, then fired it at the side of the other building. He then slid across the line to the other building without the two villains noticing him.

When Batman crept up to the other building's rooftop, he could see that Slipknot now had Nighthawk in a less deadly but still just as effective bind. Nighthawk was no longer throttled by a rope, but he was certainly unable to move, as his arms had been pinned by ropes to the glider. There were large bruises on Nighthawk's face where someone had punched him.

At the moment Nighthawk was facing away from him, Batman threw a flash bomb at the pair of villains.

Both of them were not expecting the attack. As the flash bomb exploded, Blackwing clutched at his eyes while Slipknot fumbled blindly for one of his ropes.

Batman used the confusion to silently leap between the two of them. A quick haymaker punch and a solar plexus strike knocked Blackwing to the ground.

Slipknot was already recovering when Batman flew into him with a high kick. The rope-wielding villain staggered back, and reached for something to use to ensnare the Batman. But he was too slow.

The Caped Crusader kicked Slipknot in the jaw; even Nighthawk, from his prone position on the glider, could hear the teeth crunch. Slipknot tried to throw a punch at his opponent, but it was easily blocked. Batman aimed a strike at Slipknot's tricep, almost disabling him.

"You'rgghh good," Slipknot said through a mouthful of broken and chipped teeth. He staggered back a little bit, hoping to regain some of his strength so that he could run away.

Batman did not allow him the chance. He grabbed Slipknot by the shoulders and pulled him close.

"Tell me who you're working for, loser."

"Yourghh . . . the loserrr . . . "

A rope detached itself from Slipknot's belt and looped itself around Batman before the Masked Manhunter could back away. Batman was busy trying to extricate himself as Slipknot prepared to get away on the glider.

That was when Nighthawk's wing lasers blasted him full in the chest.

"Got him!"

Slipknot crumpled to the pavement.

"Wings to me, in three!" Batman whispered into his gauntlet.

Blackwing struggled until he got back up. As Batman attempted to get out of his bonds, Blackwing walked over to the glider to which Nighthawk was strapped and revved up the engines.

"If we aren't going to bring you in alive, Nighthawk, at least we can report that we iced you for good! You'll blow up real good when you impact against the side of a building!"

"Some help, Batman?"

"As soon as I get out of my own tight spot here!"

Batman used the small range of motion he had available for his pinned arms to pull a small laser-torch from his utility belt. He carefully removed it and pointed it at the ropes that were binding them. Fortunately, they were not made out of a material strong enough to resist the small but powerful laser.

"I'll let him go, Batman, I swear!" Blackwing threatened.

"You won't get the chance!"

Batman pulled a bolo-like projectile from his utility belt and threw it at Blackwing. It caught him around the neck and sent him falling backward.

The impact of Blackwing falling on the glider was enough to send it flying off into the air. Nighthawk struggled; his movement knocked Blackwing off the glider.

Blackwing fell through the air down toward the street below. He landed inside a dumpster--an empty one. Beyond the broken bones, he wouldn't be bothering anyone anytime soon.

At that moment, the Batcopter swooped down out of the sky. Batman quickly removed the ropes and attended to Nighthawk. He switched off the glider's engines and began working on the ropes that were holding Nighthawk down.

It took Batman a good while before he finally figured out how to melt through the titanium rope that was holding Nighthawk in place. He had to get the strongest portable laser from his Bat-copter to cut through the bonds.

Nighthawk was soon back on his feet.

"Thanks, Batman!"

"Don't mention it. The streets will be safer without these two dopes around, and so will you. I know Tobias Whale," Batman remarked, "and I know that his hunt for you isn't over with the capture of these two. He's going to keep sending more goons after you until he finally gets you."

"I know. That's why, when I get my skills good enough, I'm going to go right to where he is and face him myself."

Batman almost chuckled at Nighthawk's naive assertion. "If it were only that easy, Nighthawk. I'll tell you something," he said as he finished loading the unconscious forms of Blackwing and Slipknot into the Bat-copter. "If you ever think you have a way to finally take Tobias Whale down, you just let me know. I want to be in on it when someone finally brings him in."

"You got it, Batman."

Nighthawk was preparing to fly off when he remembered something he had to tell Batman. "Hey, Batman. A couple of weeks ago, I got an offer to join a new supervillain group. Some mean-looking guy with a crested helmet and a beautiful black-haired woman with wings wanted me to join this group called the Aerie. They said that they had something going on that was going to let them take over all of Manhattan, but I declined."

Batman grimaced at the news. Another villain team on the loose in New York. He knew that he would have to at least try to stop the Aerie before they made good on their plans.

The sun rose over the warren of apartment buildings in the Bronx. In one sunny kitchen, the fall air was drifting in and mixing with the delicious smell of pancakes and bacon.

"Shilo, you want some more pancakes?"

Shilo Norman was not paying attention. He was too intent upon watching the news report about Batman, and the battle against Blackwing and Slipknot that had taken place last night.

"Shilo!!"

"What, mom?"

"My boy's still asleep even though his eyes are open! You know you always want more pancakes! Don't you want some more?"

Shilo nodded his head no. He left his half-finished breakfast on his plate and picked up his backpack.

As he kissed his mother goodbye and walked out his apartment door, it came to him that he just had to see the Batman up close again. The next crisis or supervillain team that attacked New York, Shilo was going to be right in the middle of it. He really did not care how dangerous it would be.

Maybe he could even help out Batman, like he had helped out all of those martial arts guys a few weeks before*.

*(Batman #21)

Shilo did not know that, very soon, Batman, and the villains that he fought, would soon change his life forever, and send him in a direction that he could never have predicted.