Disclaimer: Don't own...so don't sue.
A/N1: Another story from my sister, enjoy!
A/N2-Hi there! Just so you know, the inspiration for this story comes directly from the episode of Batman: The Animated Series called Batgirl Returns and her dream sequence at the beginning of it (although this isn't a dream sequence!). And I'm sorry if you think my characterization is rather light, because I designed this story so it would be exactly what it is billed as: an action/ romance! Okay, now you can carry on!
Three
The heavy, deadly, silent night air held a sense of typicality for the Batman as he swung towards the Gotham City Justice Building. So far, it had been a relatively uneventful night for the crimefighter-three muggings, two drug busts, and an attempted jewel theft, he mentally counted as his boots slid gracefully onto the gravel coating of the Justice Building's stretching roof. This was the three-fourths mark for his East Side patrol route. If it had been a tough night in town, he usually would have rendezvoused with Robin, Batgirl, or Nightwing and proceeded to stay out even later in order to scout out any brewing trouble.
I'm not used to it being so quiet around here, he thought as he walked to the edge of the roof. The sounds of sirens wailing are what make this borough so distinct. But as Batman peered over the well worn granite cornice, he didn't see a cop car in sight. There were no beats of plodding rap music booming out of an open apartment window, and no signs of the teenage gangs that prowled through the area's alleyways. For any other person, this would have been the sign of a job well done.
For Batman, peacefulness was an indicator for unseen trouble. And unseen trouble meant he had to be suspicious of everything.
He pressed a hand to the underside of his cowl and activated the infrared lenses set into the mask's eyepieces. As grey buildings of dilapidated brick were tinted into shades of flame red, he considered the option that he might be able to continue on the normal route that evening. Wouldn't be a bad night for that to happen, he thought, the League's been wrapped up in those financial investigations of Lex Luthor and Roland Daggett for days, and since Daggett left Gotham for Metropolis yesterday, we need to act fast…And Lucius wants a meeting about potential Waynecorp stock incre-
A flash of movement by a dumpster caught Batman's eye. Quickly, he leaned over, feet crunching on the rock beneath him. His knees tensed and his gloved fingers slid to his grapple gun. He readied himself for a jump off the building, and analyzed all the routes the criminal could potentially take in his getaway…
And a dog took off down the deserted street, wagging its tail jauntily as it jogged away.
Batman relaxed his muscles as he shut off the special cowl lenses. It was time that he should continue on and make up for the minutes he had already wasted. He turned and walked towards the opposite end of the building, passing the worker's door on the way. Seeing the Metro Center nearby, he aimed his grappling hook towards the nearby landmark.
BOOM!
Batman felt himself being launched through the air; dizzily, he saw the Metro Center become smaller and smaller as he was flung backwards by the force of an explosion by his feet. He felt the grapple fall out of his hand, but his reflexes were too slow to grab it back…His blurry vision could make out three hazy figures watching him sail downwards…
He yelled as his head cracked against the cornice he had just left behind. A searing, aching pain erupted from behind his eyeballs, boiling up so fast that complete darkness threatened to close over his vision. But his spinning brain overpowered the urge to give into the nothingness because he could hear quick, crackling footsteps creep towards him, along with eager, familiar, maniacal voices…
"Ha! Entrapped before you could even liberate yourself, you masked curmudgeon!"
"Wow, Pengy, you managed to hit something! Can I call you Annie Oakley now? Hee hee hee!"
"Stop your cackling, you miserable buffoon, before I turn my weapon upon you!"
"Ooh, I'm so scared of your big, bad umbrella…Annie. Ha ha ha HA!"
The Penguin and the Joker, Batman thought as a little bit of focus returned to his senses. Shit! Now he could see the Joker leaning over, consumed by hysterical laughter. He could also see the squat figure of the Penguin, who was currently holding a long umbrella. Its tip was smoking slightly at its end.
But where's the third? Batman wondered. He tried to push himself off the ground with his hands so he could see the unknown person.
"You idiots, shut up! He's getting up!" Batman's view of the Joker and the Penguin was obscured by a pair of feet. On the left foot was a jet black loafer, but the shoe on the right was pure, almost blindingly white. The white foot suddenly vanished before the Caped Crusader's eyes. Dodge! Now! He tried to follow his own order by ducking, but his muscles felt like strands of rubber. He couldn't even move his arms to drop down; all he could do was wait-
Two-Face's kick slammed into Batman's chin with a sickening thwack. Again, he had to fight to stay conscious as he fell face first into the gravel. He barely had time to spit out the rock in his mouth before he was barraged by more blows; his ribs felt like they were splintering, his lungs were about to collapse, his head was being pounded into pieces…
"Hey, Harv, don't hog all the fun!"
Two-Face growled at the Joker, but he did step away from Batman's sprawled body as the clown advanced towards the Dark Knight.
"Bats, you wouldn't believe how much work it was to arrange this little group therapy session!" Joker crowed triumphantly as he seized Batman's throat and hoisted him off the ground. "Not only did I have to use some of my hard earned money to bribe some guards, Harv and Pengy-Anne here wanted in when they heard I wanted to arrange a break out!"
The swollen, blood red lips of the disfigured side of Two-Face's head formed a grimace that seemed to be an attempt at a smile. The Penguin appeared to be a little disgruntled by the use of his new nickname, but he still managed to look suitably happy about his escape from Arkham Asylum.
"The authorities and the media will find out about our flight from that ghastly sanitarium on the morrow, because they will discover your corpse with our signature criminal touches on it!" The Penguin exclaimed confidently, once again brandishing his thin, black umbrella.
Batman's mind raced as the Joker's grip around his throat tightened, and his alarm increased as Two-Face and the Penguin edged closer to his arms. Normally, it would take two kicks and a hard punch to the clown's head to get out of a similar situation. But right now, his limbs still felt inoperable, and his brain began to feel sluggish as oxygen loss began to take effect. He needed a way to fight, but he had no options…
Then he heard a dim crackle of gravel from behind the Joker.
"I think that it would be wise for you to put him down."
Batman wondered if he was hallucinating; how could he be hearing that voice here? Why would she be in his city? Yet he saw her walk out of the shadows, the silver of her bracelets glinting in the moonlight. Her hands were placed on her hips prominently displaying her arm muscles, and her dark hair flowed behind her in the blowing wind. But even in his drowsy state, Batman could see that Wonder Woman's eyes were narrowed into threatening, cobalt colored slits, and that her fearsome, imperious gaze was leveled at his would-be murderers.
The Joker's head turned towards the Amazon Princess, and Batman gritted his teeth as he saw his enemy's yellowish eyeballs slither over the curves of her body. The clown let out a small wolf whistle. "Wondy, you're looking as fine as ever…I wouldn't want that to be spoiled by the likes of this town." The leer plastered on his chalky face widened substantially.
"Indeed, I believe you are a novice in the likes of the Gotham City underworld, my sweet," the Penguin stated politely as he pointed his umbrella at her. "It would be most ungentlemanly of a suave fellow such as me to inflict such a disastrously painful lesson on the splendid likes of you."
Batman saw Wonder Woman's hands start to clench into tight fists.
"The Bat's ours, lady, and you aren't gonna be able to do much about it!" Two-Face hissed as he took a step in her direction. "Didn't anybody ever tell you we've got a bad reputation around here?"
An expression of rage and shock appeared on Harvey Dent's face when Wonder Woman responded to his warning with a witty half smile.
"I might have heard that from someone," she said calmly, eyes fixed firmly on Batman. "But I've faced gods, demons, and aliens-what kind of threat could boys like you pose to me?"
Batman had to admire Diana's nerve, but as the Joker's smile became shark-like and low growls issued from Two-Face and the Penguin, he wondered if she knew the kind of danger she was putting herself in. And why had her eyebrow cocked up in his direction when she had spoken?
"Well, well, well, glamazon, when did you actually get a sense of humor? With a mouth like that, I think the three of us need to teach-UGH!"
Wonder Woman had leapt before the Joker had finished his sentence; vaulting effortlessly through the air, her fist struck his mouth only a few seconds after she touched the ground. The Joker lost his grip on Batman's neck as he staggered from the blow, giving much needed oxygen to the Dark Knight as he fell onto Diana's arm.
"You can stand, right? Nothing too badly damaged?" She asked in an undertone.
"I'm fine," Batman said hoarsely. His sense of mild relief was lessened when his sharpening senses heard Two-Face charging towards them. "But-"
"Just stay here, I'll take care of it!" The arm supporting Batman vanished, and Diana, Princess of the Amazons, ran into battle.
Two-Face aimed a fistcuff towards her gut, but Wonder Woman spun gracefully to avoid it, her sprint hardly interrupted. Her elbow crashed into Dent's shoulder as she turned, causing him to tumble. As he fell, her hand clamped down on his wrist and in one fluid motion she swung him into the Joker, who had just been recovering his balance. The duo was tossed backwards, and they careened into the brick wall of the stair portal. Batman looked at the two of them; due to their slumping backs and closed eyes, he saw they were out for the count. Impressive…
"That's quite a feat, Amazon, but your physical might is a pitiable foe next to my intellect and sophisticated weaponry!"
Batman tried to call out a warning, but the Penguin fired a volley of miniature explosive devices from his umbrella. Diana whirled from her position, crouching low and executing a perfect somersault as the Penguin continued to take aim at her. But when her momentum began to slow, he saw his opening. As she came back to her feet, the Penguin leveled the umbrella at her head and pulled the trigger-handle.
BANG!
No! For the first time in a long time, batman felt his stomach drop. Why wasn't she trying to avoid the blast? His worry increased when he saw that she was raising her bracelets in defense. These are bombs, Diana, not bullets…Don't die defending me, there are better things to-
SP-TANG!
The Penguin's mouth formed a perfect O of surprise when he saw that Diana's head was still attached to her shoulders, protected by bracelets that were covered in a gauzy layer of black soot. Wonder Woman took a fast glance at Batman, and he could see that she was giving him that mysterious grin again. He glared at her in response. Much to his displeasure, her smile became wider and brighter.
They were distracted when they saw the Penguin toss his umbrella down and make a run for the door. Batman searched his utility belt for a rope, but Diana was faster; by the time he was ready to throw it, she had already snagged the criminal's flipper-like feet with her golden lasso.
"Unhand me, you, you vixen! This insult will not stand! I will-"
His speech was suddenly interrupted when he was flopped face first on the ground. Diana muttered a few incomprehensible words to herself as she stopped pulling on the rope, walked over to the Penguin's squirming back, and pinched a nerve on his neck. Satisfaction seemed evident on her face when her catch went limp and unconscious. She then looked up at Batman, and he unexpectedly found her face to be filled with concern.
"Are you still holding up? You looked awful when I first got here; I thought you were about to black out…"
Me too.
"I was stunned by one of those bombs," Batman explained, "And there wasn't a lot of time to recover and fight."
Diana picked up the Penguin up and balanced him on her shoulders like a sack of potatoes. As she strode towards Batman, his eyebrows went up interrogatingly.
"What are you even doing here? I don't remember giving anybody in the League permission to be in Gotham tonight."
She walked past him and placed the Penguin with the other unconscious super villains. As she strolled by, he saw her shoulders relax and an expectant smile form on her lips.
"If you want to blame someone, blame Alfred. He's the one who told me where you were."
"Alfred?" Batman did a fast scan of the eyelids of his lifeless enemies to make sure they hadn't heard his name in connection to Bruce Wayne's butler.
"We had a development in the Daggett-Luthor case," Diana continued, "Lantern managed to hack into the Bank of Switzerland's mainframe, and he found that Lex has been receiving huge sums of money from somewhere-"
"And Daggett's account's gotten smaller at the same time."
"Exactly. But when I came down to the M-"
"Watch it."
"The cave," she said coolly, "My mistake. When I made it down, Alfred told me you had gone on patrol and that you were probably at the East Side by now." Her face hardened again. "It was a good thing that he was right."
There was a silence. As much as Batman wanted to, he couldn't disagree with her words.
"Are you taking them back to Arkham?" Diana asked. "If you want to go home, I can wrap things up for you here."
"I'll do it, they're my responsibility," Batman spat out, sounding extremely hasty in his answer. Part of him was wary about letting an outsider do what was his duty. But there was another thought nagging at his subconscious-how could he let her go to Arkham in his place? She had already done too much for him that night, and her presence there would cause his foes to talk… But, he thought, why does my skin crawl at the thought of her going someplace where she could be in danger?
"Batman, stop being an idiot," Diana said flatly, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "You've been bombed, punched, kicked, and the right side of your face looks like it's been attacked by Hades."
Gingerly, he put a hand to the side of his chin. Diana almost looked triumphant when he winced at the small stabs of pain his touch caused.
"You need rest," she said, "Besides, if I can handle your enemies outside of prison, I'm sure they will be just as easy to deal with on the inside." She drew closer, and Batman noticed that her face was somehow bright, nearly sparkling in the gloom of night. "Does that sound reasonable?"
"Do I have any choice?"
Don't give in! He thought frantically. What's happening to me?
Batman felt his pulse grow inexplicably faster when Diana stepped within a foot of him. Their faces, he estimated, were inches apart.
"Not tonight, you don't," she said in a playful tone that did more damage to batman than any of Two-Face's kicks had. "I'll get out of your way in just a minute, but first..."
She leaned towards him, and for the second time in his life, he felt Wonder Woman's smooth, warm lips touch his cheek.
"That's a 'you're welcome' for saving your life," she whispered in the same tone of enjoyment she had used before. Batman felt his insides do a pleasurable double flip when she then placed another light kiss on his other bruised cheek. He could have sworn that the heat he felt from her touch had nothing to do with his wounds.
"And that's for sparing you a trip to Arkham." She drew her face away, but her body pressed against him gently, and he felt her palm grasp his hand.
"If you follow my instructions, you might get a third the next time I see you."
Diana squeezed his hand tenderly, and before Batman could even consider a response, she was walking away, her wavy mane of elegant black hair trailing behind her. He knew that he should look away, but the Dark Knight could only stare in fascination as Diana piled the Joker, Penguin, and Two-Face in her arms. He watched as she made her way to the building's edge. But before she left, she turned to face him again. Her oceanic eyes seemed to be cutting through the space separating them.
"Remember when you gave me your reasons why we couldn't be anything more?" She asked, with all hints of humor in her voice gone. Batman nodded. It was, he considered, a very memorable, very firm list.
"I believe you're only down to two reasons now," Diana said slowly, "Will you consider that?"
She soared into the sky, and Batman never let his eyes leave her as she became a dot on the horizon. He stood still for a moment, letting her voice, her words, and her actions imprint themselves on his memory. He thought of her smiles, his hand in her hand, her quick defeat of his worst foes…
Batman walked towards the northern end of the building, the side which would lead him to the route to Wayne Manor. Going back to the cave is the best decision, he told himself, I can make sure I don't have a concussion, check out the state of these bruises, hear from the League about Luthor and Daggett…
And, he realized, he wanted to listen to Diana. It was impossible to deny the fact that he wanted that third kiss. Much to his inner shock, his sense of logic wasn't functioning. Strangely, he was having a hard time thinking of a third reason why they shouldn't be together.
THE END