Not counting the author's note and the chapter title, I actually finished working on this chapter before the first one! This chapter is very fun to type, in my opinion, and I hope you will enjoy it!

Chapter 2
Invaders?

It wasn't only Gotham City that had its vigilantes coming out to fight crime at night. Star City was also one of those places where its vigilantes were mainly active night.

One vigilante living there had just finished his job of pinning a jewelry store robber to a wall using two arrows that were fired at his jacket's sleeves. Ignoring the thug's plead for mercy, the hooded archer of Star City, Green Arrow, answered his communication device, which sounded shortly after he caught him. "It's me, Green Arrow. What is it, Cyborg?"

"Our time-space detector has detected several boom tubes, and there are some in Star City," Cyborg told him from the other side of the device. "You're probably out doing your job right now, so would you mind go investigate them?"

"Boom tubes? Are we expecting the folks from New Genesis or Apokolips?" Green Arrow asked.

"Don't know… All we know is that someone or something likely came out from those boom tubes," Cyborg told him. "We don't know if they're friendly or not… Since several of them have appeared at more or less the same time, it may be the beginning of an invasion… Anyway, I'll send you the location of the ones closest to where you are now, so use it to find them."

"And what do I do after I find those visitors, or invaders?" Green Arrow asked him.

"Subdue them if they are dangerous, and then contact me to transport them to the Watchtower," Cyborg told him.

"All right," Green Arrow said. "Just give me the locations, and I'll see if they are unwelcomed guests or not." After taking the communication device off his ear, he looked at its screen and waited for Cyborg to send over a map, which he did after a few seconds. "Okay, the closest one to me right now is… the Glades? A bit far, but whatever…" So he left the scene to look for the "invaders", leaving the thug at the mercy of the cops, who were closing in on his location, as evident of a police car's siren.

Within an alley of a dark and silent city, Meiling, Nazrin, Chen, and Kurumi were lying unconsciously on the ground.

Meiling was the first of the four to get up. "Ow… What happened…?" she asked while rubbing the back of her head and looking around the place. She saw walls on three sides and a passage on one. "What is this place…?"

She noticed the other girls starting to get back up. "Where are we?" Nazrin asked while looking around.

"I was wondering the same thing," Meiling said to her. "Anyway, are the three of you all right?"

"I'm all right…" Chen replied, and then she looked around. "What is this place?" Then she looked up at the sky. "And why is it nighttime already? Did we fall asleep?"

"Well, we just woke up from passing out, so that's probably a logical explanation," Nazrin said. "Not sure how long we passed out, though…"

"I believe it was afternoon when we defeated those invaders from another dimension," Kurumi told her, "so judging by the night sky, I'd say we passed out for several hours."

"Maybe…" Meiling said. "Where is everybody? I remember everyone else being around us when we were all sucked up into that… hole in the sky…"

"I was going to escape into Mistress Yukari's gap, but was too late…" Chen said.

"I remember being close to Elly and my mistress as well, but I also remember getting separated from them after we found ourselves being tossed to and fro inside that portal…" Kurumi said. "Guess everyone went separate ways after going in there and then got grouped together randomly… Why else are the four of us together, even though I don't remember any of us standing close to each other when that happened?"

"Guess you have a point… That portal separated us from each other when we all got sucked inside it…" Nazrin said. "I only hope that it didn't separate us far from each other…"

Meiling looked at the passage and said, "Let's go out there and see if we can find out where we are first."

"Not so fast!" said a man's voice in perfect Japanese. All four girls became cautious when they heard that voice. They looked around for the source of it, and then Kurumi pointed to the source, which came from the top.

Everyone looked at where she was pointing to and saw the silhouette of a person standing on a balcony, but because of the darkness, they weren't able to see his details. They could, however, tell that he had what appeared to be pointy ears at the top sides of his head.

The four girls got into defensive stances to get ready to take on whoever that person was. The man didn't hesitate to jump down from the balcony and land a few feet in front of them, right underneath a light attached to the wall at the side.

Considering herself to be strongest of the bunch, Meiling got in front of the other three girls and asked that man in a voice that was meant to threaten him, "Who are you?"

Batman, the person who showed up before them, answered in voice that didn't sound too friendly, "I'm Batman."

"Batman?" Chen curiously said.

"Sounds like English for 'bat man'," Kurumi said.

"You know English?" Nazrin asked with her head slightly turned to her.

"Yeah," the vampire replied with a nod.

While the four girls stared at him, Batman took his chance to get a perusal out of them.

All of four of them spoke Japanese, but only two of them, the one with cat ears and the one with mouse ears, had faces that look like they're from that country. The red-haired woman in Chinese clothing was obviously Chinese in origin. While she spoke Japanese fluently, her accent managed to give it away. The blond girl with purple wings resembling that of bats' appeared to have both Western and Eastern characteristics, and she even spoke Japanese perfectly earlier. A mix-blooded, perhaps?

Other than the Chinese woman, they were all wearing casual-clothes one would normally see worn by people every day, which raised the question of if they were really the ones who arrived here using a boom tube, as that kind of portal was mainly used by alien life forms.

At first glance, the two youngest girls appeared to be wearing fake animal ears and tails, but upon closer inspection, Batman realized that they lacked human ears. Were they simply covered by their hairs, or were those animal ears actually real, thus making it unnecessary for them to have human ears?

The girl with cat ears appeared to be ten years old or so. Other than the cat ears and the pair of cat tails that were swaying around in the air slowly as if they were real, she also had red claws at the end of her fingertips. It wasn't the first time Batman encountered people with cat motifs, but other than Wonder Woman's metahuman arch nemesis, Cheetah, he never saw one with claws that actually appeared to be part of their fingers. Catwoman wore gloves with claws at the end of each of their fingertips, while Catman occasionally wore gloves with claws attached to their wrists, but this girl appeared to have actual claws. He could've shrugged them off as claws placed over her nails, but he remembered seeing them popping out all of a sudden when she spotted him. Perhaps she was a cat metahuman after all?

The girl with mouse ears had gray hair, and even if it was dyed, it was considered a weird choice of color for someone her age. She carried a pair of dowsing rods with the first letters of the four cardinal directions at their ends. Judging by the way she was holding them and the stance she was in, she was obviously using them as weapons. Also, she was carrying a basket using her tail, and there was a mouse in there, also staring at him. The fact that she was able to hold something with her tail convinced him that it was a part of her body, as one shouldn't be able to do this with a mere accessory.

The blond girl with wings made him question whether or not they were real. He hadn't seen them move yet, but they looked very real.

The most normal-looking one was the Chinese woman, but her red hair was unnatural-looking, so she probably dyed it, unless having strange hair colors was something normal in where they came from. Another thing Batman concluded from her was that she appeared to have skills in Chinese kung-fu, as the stance she was currently making was all too familiar to someone who had mastered almost every known martial arts and fighting styles to mankind.

"What do you want from us?" Meiling asked him, snapping him out of his observation.

"It depends on who you are and what you're doing here," Batman replied. "I've give you fifteen seconds to answer me!"

"Are you threatening us?" asked Nazrin, not liking his attitude. "Normally, I would give in to threats without much of a hesitation, but since I'm not alone here, I feel safer, so I don't feel as threatened."

"You must be one of those invaders!" Chen said. "Those invaders came out of that portal, and since we got sucked inside it, we must be in their homeland!"

"Oh yeah… Why haven't I thought of that?" Kurumi asked no one in particular.

"Invader?" Batman curiously said.

"If what Chen said is true, then you are an enemy! I'll take you down right this instant!" Meiling angrily said, and then she charged at him. Batman quickly stepped to the side to avoid her dashing punch, and when she followed up with a roundhouse kick, he jumped over it and then backed out of the alley, as the space out there allowed for a better fighting advantage.

"If you won't answer my question, then don't blame me for dealing with you all the hard way!" Batman said with a raised temper.

Meiling closed in on him and continued to attack him with a series of punches and kicks. Batman managed to block and dodge her attacks, and at the same time, he managed to make the observation that she was without doubt an expert in Chinese kung-fu.

Deciding that he wanted to fight fire with fire, Batman back away from her and got into a kung-fu stance that made Meiling ask him, "You know Chinese kung-fu as well?"

"You'll see," Batman replied.

Both sides charged at each other again and traded punches and kicks. Neither side succeeded in landing serious blows against each other. Whenever a seemingly fatal blow was going to connect, they would either dodge or block it.

"You're good!" Meiling commented in the midst of throwing attacks at him.

"Same goes for you," Batman told her.

"But I bet you can't do this!" Meiling said as her fist suddenly became covered in a rainbow-colored aura. Not wanting to take the risk of letting himself come in contact with a fist like that, Batman quickly dodged it and then jumped back from her, landing next to a streetlight.

Meiling ran up to him and performed a roundhouse kick, and the moment her foot left the ground, it became covered with a rainbow-colored aura. Batman jumped back again to avoid the kick, which tore the streetlight off the sidewalk and sent it into the wall.

This came as a surprise for Batman, as he knew that no matter how skilled a normal human was, he or she shouldn't be able to kick down a streetlight that easily, so he concluded that the aura must've enhanced her attacks. This also raised the question of how she did that.

Running on all fours at a fast speed, Chen approached Batman from the side and then leaped at him, ready to slash him with her claws. The Dark Knight realized that she was approaching, so he quickly moved back. When Chen landed, she glared at him for about a second before pouncing at him while crying like an enraged cat. Batman quickly brought up his arms to use his gauntlets as protection against her rapid claw strikes.

In the midst of defending himself against the claw strikes, Batman quickly pulled off a roundhouse kick that successfully sent Chen flying into the building wall at the side. Immediately after that, Meiling ran at Batman and threw a punch at him, but he quickly brought up his arm from below to force her fist upwards, making it go over his head. At almost the same time, he attempted to punch her in the abdomen, but being an expert in close-ranged combat, Meiling knew what was coming and thus brought her other hand to that place fast to block his fist. Using both hands, Meiling swung the Dark Knight in a circle and then flung him across the street and into the wall.

Batman grunted in pain as he fell onto the pavement, but he quickly got back up again. Chen ran towards the Dark Knight and then pounced at him with one arm pulled back, and at the same time, Nazrin ran towards Batman from the side. When the latter swung one of her dowsing rods at Batman, he quickly caught it and then forcefully pulled it in Chen's direction, causing the mouse demon to be pulled into the air and hitting the nekomata. Both the girls tumbled onto the pavement.

"You're both children, so unless I'm sure you have skills, don't make me look like I'm bullying you!" Batman said to them. Suddenly, he was carried into the air by the arms. "What the?!"

Kurumi carried the Dark Knight higher than the buildings in the vicinity before coming to a stop, and then she said to him, "So… you're dressed like a bat… Is there a reason for this? Are they your favorite animals?"

Ignoring her questions, Batman tried to escape her grasp by struggling, and then Kurumi threw him onto the roof of the nearest building. Before he could get back up entirely, the vampire quickly flew at him and pinned him down by the back of his neck. "It's useless trying to fight against the strength of a vampire," she told him. "Speaking of which, I've been in a heck of a fight not very long ago, and now I feel thirsty, so…"

Acting quick, Batman reached for his utility belt and took out a small pellet that he quickly brought in front of Kurumi's face and then squeezed. The pellet exploded in his hand and released a burst of light that caused the vampire to cry with her hands brought over her face. Batman then got up, which caused her to be pushed back off the building. He ran over to the side and saw her hitting the pavement. At first, he feared that he accidentally killed her, but then he remembered that vampires were supposed to be very durable, so a fall like that shouldn't kill her. This was assuming that she really was a vampire…

However, he didn't really have much time to wonder whether or not Kurumi survived the fall, as what he saw next surprised him. Meiling, Chen, and Nazrin were all floating in the air in front of him. "Let's see you take on all three of us at once!" Nazrin said to him while crossing her arms in front of herself with the dowsing rods gripped tightly in her hands.

"Flower Overhead Slam!" Meiling shouted as she spun vertically once before bringing down her rainbow-powered leg onto Batman, who jumped back to avoid it and thus witnessed the damage done to the floor.

Chen flew at the Dark Knight at a fast speed and tried to slash him, but he moved back in time. Nazrin charged at him from the other side and swung one of her dowsing rods at him, only for him to duck underneath it.

Batman quickly performed a couple of back flips to keep his distance from them, and then he took out a pair of batarangs to throw at Chen and Nazrin, who were closing in on him. Chen managed to avoid the one thrown at her, but Nazrin got hit by the other one and fell on her back.

Chen dashed at Batman, who expected her to go for a direct attack, but instead, the nekomata dashed around him, leaving behind a bluish-white trail that formed the shape a five-pointed star. "Pentagram Flight!"

The nekomata moved away from Batman after that, and he realized that the pentagram was glowing brighter and brighter. Sensing danger, he quickly leaped back out of the pentagram before the area in it exploded.

KABOOOOOOOOOM!

As he stood back up, Batman realized that he underestimated the girl with cat features. Her speed was definitely not one that normal humans could achieve, and the way she swung her claws looked like someone who had skills in doing such a thing. Creating an exploding pentagram was definitely something out of the ordinary as well. Lastly, all three of them were able to fly using the help of seemingly nothing…

These people were definitely not ordinary…

When Chen leaped at him to attack with her claws again, Batman managed to grab her hand and then flung her to the side. Almost immediately after he did that, Meiling ran at him and attacked with a flying kick that successfully hit him in the side. Batman was sent flying off the building. Acting quickly, he spread out his cape to use it as a glider, and while he didn't succeed in gliding, he managed to slow down the fall. Combined with the fact that he designed his boots to absorb impacts from long falls, he landed without hurting himself.

Looking up after the landing, Batman saw Meiling falling towards him with a rainbow-powered fist pointing at him, so he quickly got out of the way and then witnessed the crater left behind on the pavement. While not a big one, its size was still considered incredible for one created by a punch.

Chen suddenly dropped down in front of him and slashed him across the back. Thanks to the cape and his protective suit, however, it barely hurt him. He quickly moved back to the middle of the street while facing the two, and he was suddenly struck in the back by something.

BANG!

Batman cried as he fell forward, and when he looked back, he didn't see anyone or anything that could've hurt him. He then saw a beam fired at the building wall, and it bounced off it and in his direction, so he quickly jumped out of the way. Looking up at the building he fell from, he saw Kurumi with her hand pointing at him, and then a beam was fired from her palm, so he quickly dodged it.

"You can't escape forever!" Kurumi angrily said as she continued to fire laser beams at him, but the Dark Knight kept on dodging them by running and jumping. Eventually, he took out his grappling hook to aim at the top of a nearby building. Just before he was hit by a beam, he quickly used the grappling hook to pull himself onto the top of that building.

"What's all that noise out there?!" shouted a fat, middle-aged man with a moustache as he approached his apartment room's window. "Can't one get a shut eye around here?!"

After landing on the rooftop of the building belonging to that man, Batman took out a batarang and threw it at Kurumi, who easily dodged it. "Ha! Missed!" she laughed, only to get hit in the back of the head when it flew back, like all boomerangs do. "Ow!"

On a building at the other side, Nazrin threw her pendulum at Batman, and it shot through the air like a bullet. He didn't only dodge it, but he also caught its string. Nazrin felt herself being pulled forward when the Dark Knight pulled it, and though she tried to pull back, his strength was greater than hers, so she found herself losing this game of tug-o-war. "Let go of my pendulum!" she shouted in frustration.

"As you wish!" Batman said before using the same batarang he hit Kurumi with to cut the string, and Nazrin fell on her back as a result.

Meiling and Chen flew onto the same building as Batman and then closed in on him together to attack. Batman tried his best to defend himself against their attacks and parry them whenever he had the chance, and as skilled as he was in fighting up close, he found himself having a hard time trying to keep up with two skilled fighters attacking him from two directions at the same time.

Knowing that he couldn't take them down easily in a direct confrontation, the Dark Knight hopped back and reached for his utility belt to get out a smoke capsule, hoping that it would help him in some way. Just when he was about to get it, Kurumi caught him by the arms and carried him into the air. "You're not getting away this time!" the vampire said to him. "Now I'm going to suck dry your…" Before she could finish speaking, something hit her in the side of the head, making her cry in pain and letting of Batman. "Yeow!"

Batman landed on his feet and then turned to see who it was that saved him, and on the rooftop of a building across the street, he saw two people. The first person looked young and was dressed in red and black, not to mention a green mask covering only the area around his eyes and a yellow cape. The second person was older and was also dressed in red and black, but instead of a green mask and a yellow cape, he had a black cape and a same-colored cowl.

"Robin! Red Robin!" Batman called out to them.

Reisen looked around in fear. She had every reason to do so, because she was in an unfamiliar place that didn't look friendly at all.

Trash was all over the place, graffiti was seen on various buildings walls, and some buildings were even torn down. She even saw people lying on the floors inside some of the buildings, and she couldn't tell if they were still breathing or not.

If it weren't for the fact that she was with familiar people, she would've been even more afraid. Luckily for her, she was ejected from the portal alongside three people: Shizuha, Parsee, and Sara. She knew who the goddess of red leaves was, though she never really had the chance to get to know her or have a conversation with her. Parsee came to the surface a few times, and Reisen saw her before, but they never interacted with each other. Sara, on the other hand, was completely unfamiliar to her. She didn't even know that Makai had a gatekeeper.

Despite not being familiar with them, it was better to be with someone who came from the same place as her than someone else. The four girls stuck close to each other as they walked through the dark and quiet street of the city called Bludhaven. Reisen had a bit of knowledge in English, so that was how she learned the name of this place when she saw a sign not too long ago.

"What a horrible place…" Shizuha commented with a displeased face while looking around the place. "The Human Village looks a lot cleaner and friendlier than this, even if it looks more primitive!"

"I thought the outside world was supposed to be livelier and more… pleasing to the eye…" Sara said. "This is nothing like what I heard and thought…"

"Look at all those buildings… I'm so jealous that we don't have buildings like these where we come from…" Parsee commented in slight anger while looking around the place.

"You really know how to find things to be jealous about, don't you…?" Reisen asked her.

"This place isn't safe," Shizuha said. "Since we were attacked by thugs shortly after we arrived here, we should find a place where we can be sure we won't be attacked again and turn in for the night there. I'm sure this place will be livelier and safer in the morning. I suggest that we get onto the rooftops. It should be safer there."

Suddenly, they heard the sound of glass being broken, and up ahead, they saw some people throwing things at a building and also beating on its door until it was broken. "Looks like burglars…" Reisen said. "We better not have anything to do with them…"

Instead of following Reisen's advice, however, Shizuha walked towards that building and said, "I won't let those lawbreakers get away with it!"

"Shizuha! I said not to have anything to do with them!" Reisen said while reaching out her hand to her.

"I'm with the goddess!" Sara said while cracking her fists and following Shizuha. "I'm not a fan of lawbreakers not getting what they deserve! Someone will have to show them the consequences of breaking the rules!"

By the time Shizuha got in front of the building, the burglars had all gone into the general store they were going to rob. She took a few seconds to look at them getting their hands on whatever they could and throwing them into large bags, and then she shouted at them, "Hey you!" This caused them all to turn to look at her. "Breaking into a store and robbing it is against the law! Stop whatever you're doing at once, or else I'll make you regret it!"

The burglars didn't understand what she was saying, but they knew what language she was speaking. "Sorry, lady! I don't speak Japanese! You'll have to speak English if you want us to understand you!" one of them said.

Sara eventually joined Shizuha, and shortly afterwards, Parsee dragged a scared and unwilling Reisen over. Since Reisen knew English, Shizuha told her to communicate with them. The lunar rabbit trembled in fear and stuttered as she said to the burglars in English, "It's… It's… not good… to steal… Please… stop… whatever you're doing… at once…"

Hearing this, the burglars laughed out loud.

"Hahaha! If you're trying to scare us, then you're doing a laughingly bad job at it!"

"What can girls like you do to us?"

"Yeah! You don't scare us at all!"

While this was happening, a man dressed in a black and blue bodysuit and a black mask that covered only the area around his eyes appeared on the rooftop of a building opposite the grocery store. He watched as the girls backed away from the general store when the burglars came out with weapons such as chains and sticks in their hands.

A burglar holding a stick approached Shizuha while lightly tapping it against his palm. "So… how are you going to punish me? Slap me silly in the face?" he asked her in a mocking manner.

Without saying anything, Shizuha performed a roundhouse kick and kicked him away to the side by the waist, a sight that surprised the other burglars and the man on top of the building. Shizuha then got into a martial arts stance while looking at the surprised burglars. "You're forcing me to do things the hard way," she said in a threatening tone.

TO BE CONTINUED