Gotchard in DC Ch 16

"Smaphone, how long until the police arrive?"

After failing to communicate with the children, Isaac could only do one other thing: he turned to Smaphone Chemy, which was floating beside him, and asked.

“Estimated arrival in three minutes.”

In response to Isaac’s question, its screen flickered, as if receiving information, and after a moment, it spoke.

Three minutes, huh? Better get moving.

Knowing the police were about to arrive, Isaac wasted no time; he flickered and vanished from his spot, followed by a continuous series of snapping lock sounds.

When he returned to the iron cages, all the iron cages holding the children in the warehouse had been opened, and he had also conveniently thrown the gang members, whose hands and feet were tied with steel bars, into an empty iron cage, and used another steel bar to hoist that iron cage into the air.

"Alright, that should keep them busy for a while."

Standing with his hands on his hips beside the Shadow Gang boss's sofa, Isaac's gaze swept over the children, and suddenly, a girl with purple-black hair, about the age of a middle schooler, caught his attention.

Unlike the other children who had already started to huddle together, she stood quietly in the corner of the iron cage, her expression blank, appearing out of place.

Weird, why isn't she with the others?

Although he was somewhat curious about the girl's actions, Isaac's gaze did not linger on her for too long; after all, staring at others for too long was impolite.

The siren sounds gradually approached the factory and entered Isaac's ears; to avoid unnecessary trouble, he decided to leave first to avoid running into the police head-on.

Just as he was about to use the jumping ability of his Steamhopper Form to leave, the purple-black haired girl he had observed for a while suddenly looked up at him, a purple-black light flashing in her eyes.

He did not know what she did, but her figure suddenly vanished from the iron cage, startling the children in the same iron cage, who instinctively let out a gasp.

The next second, the girl's figure appeared silently behind Isaac, her slender, pale hand reaching out and gently gripping his white scarf that hung behind him.

A faint purple light flickered in the girl's hand for a moment, and when she released her grip, a small, delicate purple-black mark had quietly appeared on the pure white scarf.

“Who are you?”

Hearing the children's gasps behind him, Isaac instinctively looked back, and when he saw the purple-black haired girl standing silently behind him, he immediately jumped back a few steps in alert, putting some distance between himself and the girl.

To be honest, Isaac was indeed a little panicked right now; although there were many people in the world who could appear silently behind him, he did not expect to encounter one so quickly.

If he had not heard the children's gasps just now, causing him to instinctively look back, Isaac truly would not have noticed her presence.

Is she a meta-human? Or maybe... an alien?

Although he was very puzzled as to why the girl appeared behind him and whether she had done anything to him, listening to the increasingly close siren sounds, Isaac still temporarily gave up the idea of continuing to investigate.

With a powerful push from his legs, Isaac leaped, and in a few bounds, he disappeared into the factory, and along with Isaac's figure, the girl with purple-black light flashing in her eyes also disappeared from the factory.

Police cars drove into the factory, and fully armed police officers rushed into the warehouse, expecting to encounter resistance, but only found terrified children and gang members suspended in iron cages in mid-air.

"What the..." One of the officers muttered, staring up at the suspended cage of gangsters with a bewildered expression.

On a tall building not far away, Isaac stood quietly, watching the police officers busily moving in and out, and he also breathed a slight sigh of relief.

He still had a certain degree of trust in the National City Police Department; after all, this case was significant, and if handled properly, the police would also gain considerable honor.

“Mission perfectly completed.”

Floating beside Isaac, Smaphone Chemy projected the surveillance footage from inside the factory while reporting, and for some reason, its voice sounded very happy.

“Hmm, wait, where’s that girl now?”

Retracting his gaze from the direction of the warehouse and looking at the screen projected by Smaphone Chemy, Isaac subconsciously nodded slightly, but then suddenly realized that he did not seem to have seen the girl who had been standing behind him in the surveillance footage just now.

He had Smaphone Chemy control the Alchemist creatures in the warehouse to scan again, but still did not see the girl's figure; Isaac could not help but frown, he had a hunch that he was about to encounter big trouble.

I have a bad feeling about this.

After pondering for a moment, Isaac turned his head back to Smaphone Chemy beside him and instructed, “Smaphone, I need to trouble you with something. When you collect information recently, pay more attention to see if there are any traces of that girl.”

“No problem~”

Waving its hand lightly, the expression on Smaphone Chemy's screen transformed into the word “OK,” indicating that the matter was fine to be entrusted to him.

After confirming that there were no omissions, Isaac then turned to leave, his white scarf fluttering in the wind, a purple-black mark faintly visible.

At the same time, in another corner of the city, the purple-black haired girl stood at the top of an abandoned building, her gaze fixed on the direction of the factory, her lips subtly moving, as if speaking.

The night wind blew, and her figure gradually dissipated into the darkness, as if she had never existed.

After the brief welcome, the Chief led Dick out of his office and introduced him to the team. "Everyone, this is Detective Dick Grayson, our new transfer from Bludhaven. He'll be working with us on major crimes."

The detectives in the bullpen looked up, some offering nods of acknowledgement, others just a quick glance before returning to their work. One detective, a woman with sharp eyes and a no-nonsense demeanor, approached Dick with a hand outstretched. "Detective Montoya. Welcome to National City. Hope you're ready for a whole different level of weird."

Dick shook her hand, a slight smile playing on his lips. "I've heard the rumors. Ready for anything."

"You say that now," Montoya chuckled, "but National City has a way of throwing curveballs you never see coming." She gestured to a desk piled high with files. "That's yours. Start with the Shadow Gang case. Those kids they were trafficking? We need to find out where they were headed and who's pulling the strings."

Dick surveyed the files, his expression turning serious. "Right. I'll get on it."

As Dick settled into his new workspace, Montoya leaned closer, lowering her voice. "Word of advice, Grayson. Keep an open mind. This city has its share of… unusual elements. Vigilantes, aliens, you name it. Don't let it distract you from the real work, but don't dismiss it either."

Dick met her gaze, a hint of understanding in his eyes. "Thanks, Montoya. I appreciate the heads-up."

Vigilantes and aliens, huh? Sounds like my kind of town.

Dick began to sift through the case files, the images of the rescued children fueling his determination. He was here to make a difference, to bring justice to those who couldn't protect themselves. And if that meant dealing with a little bit of weirdness along the way, so be it. National City was his new beat, and he was ready to clean it up, one case at a time.