Gotham City General Hospital

[jla_extras]

The hospital ER buzzes into a flurry of activity as EMTs try desperately to peel the battered armor of a man who, mere moments before, apparently fell from the sky, crashing into Robinson Park. Ultimately, maintenance crews with welding torches were called in, and at long last the helmet comes off, revealing the battered and moustached face of a

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[anotherknight]

A police presence at the door will not be enough to keep him away.

[jla_extras]

It's late, and industrialist and former Outsider Geoffrey Barron -- sometimes the battlesuit-wearing superhero known as Technocrat -- lies asleep.

His medical chart rests on the foot of his bed -- he's been in and out of consciousness, after what seems to be a brutal beating. Considering how powerful his battlesuit is, the assailant must have been superhumanly strong.

[anotherknight]

The meager lighting does little to mask the livid bruises present on the man before him. The force required to inflict such damage isn't lost on the towering figure. Nor is the significance of the attack itself. Geoffrey Barron represents the second in a pattern of assaults. The circumstances of Looker's surfacing were suspicious in and of themselves. Barron's present state solidifies his concerns.

He steps closer to his former teammate, searching for signs of awareness.

[jla_extras]

The movement seems to stir him. Groggy, barely aware ... he moves his head to the place in the darkness where he would expect someone to be.

"B ... B... Batman?" he asks into the night. His throat seems parched, his voice, thin.

[anotherknight]

A shift to the right brings him into Barron's line of sight.

"You're at Gotham General," he replies, his voice purposefully neutral. The statement serves as both acknowledgment and reassurance. Barron may rest easy with a watchful eye at his bedside.

[jla_extras]

If anything, Barron seems more determined now. His voice is halting, increasingly frantic as he struggles for words.

"Tried ... tried to reach you. You're the only one ... who'd know how to find us. How to warn everyone."

[anotherknight]

Someone else also apparently knows how to find them. Or desperately wants to.

"Who's responsible for this?"

[jla_extras]

Geoffrey Barron was never the best of superheroes, or the most committed. He got into the business for all the wrong reasons, and faded out almost as quickly as he came. Once in awhile, he turns up with everyone else when all hands are called onto the deck.

Now he's barely coherent, struggling to remain coherent long enough to tell Batman something.

"Don't ... don't know. They didn't ... they said they were looking for 'The Outsider'. Something about 'The Great Darkness.'"

[anotherknight]

The reference means nothing to him at the moment. The urge to question is kept tightly in check. He knows Barron's time is limited.

[jla_extras]

Barron starts to say something else, and then his eyes grow wide in pain, and his chest heaves upward. Every device in the room suddenly springs to life, and alarms blare everywhere as the sound of running feet approach.

Technocrat is coding, and the hospital staff is in a hurry to stop it.

[anotherknight]

By the time the hospital staff floods the room, the unannounced visitor has already fled. He doesn't travel far though. On the ledge outside the window, he waits. He knows there's nothing he can do to assist his former teammate. That time has come and gone without intervention.

Fingers reflexively curl as his anger rises.

[og_outsiders]

The Batman is not alone in the dark.

"So you've figured it out, too," says a voice from the shadows.

To the side stands Tatsu Yamashiro, the warrior known as Katana, founding member of The Outsiders.

"We are under siege."

[anotherknight]

"Tatsu."

The curt acknowledgment comes without a wavering glance. His attention still rests on the activities occurring within, on the monitors he can read at a distance, on the patient's movements. Or lack thereof.

[og_outsiders]

Katana stands to his side and watches, also. Inside, a defibrillator is quickly applied to the man's chest. Someone shouts "CLEAR!" and electricity courses through the sometimes superhero. Then again. And again, until finally, the doctors relax.

"We got him," says someone. "Prep him for surgery," says another. "We can't wait any longer to operate on him."

And with a flurry of activity, Technocrat is wheeled down to ER.

"Barron is in good hands," says Katana, after the medical crowd has done its work. "He will be all right."

[anotherknight]

The silent figure doesn't necessarily share his companion's optimism. The details on Barron's chart were explicit.

"Report," he orders.

[og_outsiders]

Katana nods and, for the first time since they've encountered each other outside this window, he hand leaves the hilt of her sword. She's more tightly wound than she's inclined to show