Notes: Random plot bunny that appeared out of nowhere and stared at me like there's no tomorrow.

Notes2: So, someone sent me a nudge about this fic I promised. It's still not done :/ Been busy doing several other things and I kinda got lazy to write. I'm...three or four chapters in this fic so far, but I'll only post this prologue first until I finish the whole fic. My thanks for waiting, and if anyone asks, I have a Tumblr account. My handle there is jennysy ;)

**Prologue

Nothing was happening again tonight. Batman settled back on his heels to let the roving spotlight pass over him before bringing up his binocs again. He and Robin had been staking out this particular warehouse for a week now, and still they hadn't come across anything suspicious.

But Gordon's intel was trustworthy; the tip he'd passed on to the Dynamic Duo should have been solid. And still there was nothing.

Wait, not nothing.

Batman adjusted his binocs to zoom in on the town car that was just coming in and memorized the licence plates. If the guys they were trying to catch were any good, they'd have either stolen the car or stolen the plates to keep them from being traced - but Batman wasn't dismissing the chance that the plates could be legally registered instead.

A soft thud and footsteps behind him signalled Robin's appearance.

"Activity?" The boy asked.

"Lots of them." Batman answered without turning around. He was too busy watching the second town car similarly come in and park opposite the first.

"They were expecting visitors." Robin observed as several men came out of the warehouse by a side door, every one sporting either a handgun or a rifle.

Batman reached up to the comms in his ear and tuned into the frequency of the bug he'd planted by the warehouse entrance. Gone was the lazy small talk the workers inhabiting the warehouse had been engaged in for the past few days. Instead, the voices that Batman heard were deadly serious.

"Well? Where's the fish?"

"It's coming. Just wait till the bosses talk."

"We been waiting for our share for days! And all they been doing is yapping."

"Pipe down. You'll get your share of fish soon enough."

" 'Fish?'" Robin asked with a disgusted frown.

"Code for Deeps. These must be Stent's gang." Batman explained, rising to his feet.

Deeps was the name of a new designer drug hitting Gotham recently. When taken, it causes a floating sensation - a kind of high similar to morphine and is mostly harmless. But when taken by an unhealthy teen or adult - as most addicts are, or by anyone with a weakened immune system - as a lot of Gothamites are thanks to the weather; it causes respiratory problems as though the victims were dry-drowned. There've already been eleven fatal cases and GCPD wants to keep this new drug out of the streets yesterday if only to keep anyone else from dying.

Batman had traced the main distributor for Gotham as the Northerners gang, led by one Marty Stent. A check on the Northerner's registered and unregistered properties revealed the address of this particular warehouse. Batman and Robin had been watching the building for a few nights now, waiting for the drug runners to reveal themselves so GCPD could come in and arrest them.

Batman pocketed his binocs and pulled out his grapple gun. Beside him, he saw Robin doing the same. He aimed for the arm of an overhead construction crane when something pulsed out of the corner of his eye.

He whipped around only to get a bright light directly into his eyes. Robin hissed beside him; then there was a cry of protest.

"Robin!"

He blindly grabbed for the boy, but felt only air. His vision cleared in the next second. Batman wildly searched for his partner as soon as he could.

But he was alone on the rooftop.