Title was inspired by the Muse song "Invincible"
Follow through
make your dreams come true
don't give up the fight
you will be all right
because there's no one like you in the universe
Don't be afraid
of what your mind conceives
you should make a stand
stand up for what you believe
So tonight we can truly say
together we're invincible
During the struggle they will pull us down
but please, please lets use this chance to turn things around
and tonight we can truly say
together we're invincible
Do it on your own
it makes no difference to me
what you leave behind
and what you choose to be
and whatever they say
your soul's unbreakable
During the struggle they will pull us down
but please, please lets use this chance to turn things around
and tonight we can truly say
together we're invincible
During the struggle they will pull us down
but please, please lets use this chance to turn things around
and tonight we can truly say
together we're invincible
I own neither Batman nor Muse. I'd never leave my house if I did.
John Blake stood on the top of one of the roofs near Arkham, scanning the area. Police scanners were full of chatter about increased robberies and attacks in the area, and given who the sole remaining inmate at the asylum was, it seemed like a good idea to check it out. He rolled his shoulders uncomfortably, still feeling out of place in the batsuit Wayne had left him. Lucius Fox had made some adjustments on the suit, but he still did not feel entirely comfortable in it. Maybe it was the shoes he was filling.
Bruce Wayne had a mansion and a trusted butler, a five-star education, ninja training, and unlimited funding. All he had was Wayne's old penthouse apartment, a limited supply of weapons and defenses from Fox that had not been destroyed during Bane's occupation, and a few years of training coupled with what little time he had spent in the field with the Gotham PD before throwing his badge off Gotham bridge. Hell, he could barely figure out the computer systems in the cave!
Not to mention that the few gadgets he had needed to be treated carefully and used only in emergencies. After Bane's attack on Wayne's company, essentially bankrupting the billionaire and nearly sinking his family's company, Fox was finding it difficult to funnel what little profit the company was making to the Applied Sciences division that had supported Batman's lifestyle and seemingly unlimited flow of gadgets. When something broke these days, he had to make do. Nothing Batman owned was instantly replaceable, if at all.
And that meant he had to fight using mostly his own wits. While he was spending his off-time training more intensely than he ever had, it would still be nothing compared to the training Bruce Wayne had undergone.
It was a lot of pressure.
Bringing his eyes back to street-level, he once again found himself cursing Wayne for not leaving him an instruction manual.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw something start to escalate between a shop owner and a few angry thugs. At least he knew he could handle this one, though if someone like Bane or the Joker surfaced, he was pretty sure Gordon or Father O'Reilly would be planning his funeral after a short while.
Securing his foot on the ledge of the roof, he pushed off and sent an electric pulse through the material of his cape to turn it into a built-in glider, and felt himself glide through the air toward the thugs. In the back of his mind he realized it was a good thing he was not afraid of heights.
He steered himself toward the group of three and landed on the thug at the back of the group, thankfully knocking the guy out cold. The two in front of him spun in surprise, allowing the shop owner to duck back inside.
Blake's hand shot out to the thug on his left, grabbing the man's arm as he reached into his jacket to withdraw something - gun, knife, it really did not matter. He pulled the thug toward him and into his fist, knocking the man to the ground. There was a distinct snapping sound that told him he had very likely broken the thug's nose.
He was so focussed on the man he had just knocked down that he almost did not notice the other thug pulling a gun on him. With a quick, low kick, he dislocated the last one's knee as he heard the shot ping against the cement overhead.
As he was about to knock the man in front of him unconscious, he felt a sharp pain in his side, burning through the protective layer of his suit. He turned his head to see the first guy he had knocked down grinning down at him as he twisted the knife in Blake's side a little.
How the Hell did Wayne do this?
He shot his elbow back into the man's nose, suppressing a scream as the knife twisted a little more when the thug fell backwards. He was going to have to find a goddamned doctor or something, unless Fox already knew one who would be willing to help in secret.
With Fox out of town, though, he would probably have to get Commissioner Gordon to help for tonight. They were the only two people he saw no point in keeping his identity from. Only four people knew the identity of Batman and all four had been at Bruce Wayne's funeral. It would not be hard for the remaining two, with Pennyworth away indefinitely from Gotham, to figure out just who was donning the cape and cowl these days.
It took a lot of effort, but he ignored the pain in his side and tied the men up in the most uncomfortable position he could think of - served them right for stabbing him! Then, as he was about to leave, he noticed something that had fallen out of the jacket of the guy whose knee he had broken. As he bent to pick it up, he noticed it looked like some kind of computer part - a hard drive maybe?
"What's this?" he growled at the man. That had been another fun part of assuming Wayne's alter ego - teaching himself to mimic the growl.
Although the men in front of him remained silent and stared straight ahead, he got the distinct impression that they were more afraid of their employer than of him.