Gotham's Heroes is a collective story from SparkyCSI, Aphina and Axellia (please read the author bio for further information).

Whilst we own our OC's, even when we combine our savings, we are not even close to owning a percentage of CSI: NY - so don't sue us!

Gotham's Heroes

2. Déjà vu

Cory looked around the bank, the sense of unease traveling up her spine. Carmen noticed the immediate change in demeanor and decided to ask her what was wrong. "Cory? You okay?"

Cory shook her head. "I'm not sure. My FBI spidey sense is tingling. I don't know why."

None of the women noticed the bank manager walk by them at that moment or the flash of concern that moved across his face as he looked towards the double doors. Neither did they see his hand reaching to his pocket and take out a small parcel and drop it into Cory's bag.

Turning around, surveying the bank's interior, Cory continued, "It's like a sense of déjà vu. I feel like I've been here before."

Taylor looked at Cory, knowing the hell she had just been through with Ortiz. "Girl, you're just jumpy after the whole Ortiz thing. This is why you suggested the vacation in the first place. It's just—for lack of a better expression—battle fatigue. My dad was like that whenever he came home from a mission."

Cory just shook her head, unable to get the unease out of her gut. She turned again and looked out the banks front doors. Seeing the masked men about to enter, she quickly grabbed Carmen and Taylor and pulled them to the side, behind a kiosk.

"What the hell are you doing, Cory?" Carmen exclaimed.

Cory just motioned for silence as the men entered the bank and began to yell in Italian.

Carmen and Taylor looked around the kiosk carefully and noticed the bank robbery in progress. Carmen looked back at Cory in surprise. "How did you know?" she whispered.

Cory just shrugged her shoulders and motioned them both for silence. What I wouldn't give for my gun right now.

Carmen's thinking mirrored Cory's at that point, the longing for the familiar piece of metal was palatable.

Unlike the others, Taylor's daytime job meant that she wasn't accustomed to using guns, so instead she just crouched behind the two cops, hoping that their hiding place was not discovered.

Carmen's senses were on high alert and she noticed a man, slowly and carefully making his way towards them from behind a desk. Eyes wide with fear, she motioned for him to stay where he was, but he ignored her. He had almost made it to them when his good luck ran out. Just as he had crawled towards the kiosk, one of the masked men saw him and began to yell in loud Italian again.

The two cops shared the same thought, I wish I spoke Italian. The masked man grabbed the man and dragged him to his feet, in the process seeing the three women hiding. He pointed his gun at the women and began to yell at them in Italian.

Cory just looked at him. "I'm sorry, I don't speak Italian."

The masked man laughed and switched to English. "What do we have here, three American turisti? My lucky day. Stand up and walk over here," he said, pointing to where he wanted them to stand with his gun.

Cory studied the gun. It looked like a 9mm Glock 19. With that in mind, she tried to study the other weapons discreetly. They all looked like they were military issued, but the men holding them didn't look very familiar with them. She tucked away that bit of information for later.

The masked man, who had discovered them, approached her and began to lightly stroke her cheek. "If I had known that American women were so beautiful, I would have traveled over there long ago."

"Get your hands off of me, you slime ball," Cory growled. The man ignored her, so she quickly slapped him.

The man laughed as he holstered his weapon and wrapped his arms around her, trapping her. Luckily, Cory had managed to turn around. She slightly nodded to Carmen, who caught the look in her eyes.

Carmen saw that Cory was planning something, so she decided to try to distract the other men. She did the only think she could think of; she lifted up her top, causing a momentary distraction.

Once they were looking at her, Cory made her move yelling, "Taylor, get down!" Once Taylor was out of the line of fire, Cory elbowed the man in the gut. Reaching behind her, she grabbed the gun, then proceeded to throw the man over her shoulder. She managed to pull off his mask during the move and was shocked to find out that he couldn't be older than twenty.

Once he was down, she pointed the gun at him and looked at the other men. "Drop your weapons!"

They ignored her and began to shoot.

Carmen leapt at the masked man to her left, grabbing at his wrists and forcing the gun upwards at the ceiling. A sudden boom echoed through the stillness of the bank as the gun went off, causing panic to radiate through the air, as a scream followed. She pressed her body up against the bank robber's fighting for leverage as he forced his weight down upon her.

The two remaining bank robbers trained their guns on the two fighters but were unable to shoot as the struggle continued. With the robber's weight was bearing down on her, the muscles in Carmen's shoulders were beginning to protest. Knowing she couldn't last much longer, she drove her knee into the masked man's stomach driving the air out of him, and wrenched the gun from his hands. Before he even had a chance to recover the weapon was pressed to his head.

"I won't hesitate to blow his brains out." She yelled into the room, panting with exhaustion.

Taylor peered out from her hiding place as one of the bank robbers raised his weapon at Carmen's back. Without thinking she leapt at him, driving all of her weight into the man. As they hit the floor the gun went off suddenly and a scream of pain erupted through the room, cut off quickly by the rush of sirens.

Taylor's eyes rose to meet a puzzled Carmen who was still standing, gun still trained unwavering on the would-be thief in front of her. She twisted her head further and spotted the source of the noise.

The bank manager was slipping onto the floor as blood poured out of his chest.

Seeing both Cory and Carmen a little preoccupied with the men they were aiming their guns at, Taylor scrambled over to the bank manager. She turned him over, swearing as she caught sight of the blood that was pumping from the wound. As she placed her hands over the wounds in an attempt to stem the flow, the strangest sensation came over her. And then she realized she was staring at the ghost of the manager.

"You have to stop it," he told her, his voice strangely calm considering the commotion occurring around them, and the fact he had just died.

"We have stopped it," Taylor told him. "So just get back in your body. Help will be here soon."

"Stop it," the ghost repeated as he faded away.

"Taylor? Are you alright?" Cory shouted over at her friend seeing that she had frozen, staring into the space in front of her.

"Mettere le pistole giù!"

Taylor didn't have time to reply as the Italian equivalent of SWAT burst through the doors.

"Cadere le vostre armi!" Carmen's head twisted to Cory's her eyes wide. This was an absolute nightmare.

Cory nodded signaling for Carmen to put down the weapon. Carmen stepped back from her captive and bent down dropping the weapons to the ground. She looked up as Cory went to do the same.

"Mettere le vostre mani sulla vostra testa!" Carmen raised her hands as the member of SWAT screamed in her face.

"I don't understand Italian," she said as softly as she could manage.

"He's telling you to put your hands on your head." Taylor called to her. Carmen dropped to her knees doing as she was told, as did Cory.

"Tell him we're police, we were helping!" Taylor shot off a phrase in Italian as the SWAT team moved to handcuff not only the suspects but Cory and Carmen as well. The SWAT man ignored Taylor and cuffed the two girls as well, gesturing for Taylor to come along he took them all into custody.

After a vigorous two hours in the Italian police station between Taylor arguing in Italian and Carmen and Cory's protesting in English, the girls were cleared and returned to the hotel to hopefully finish the rest of their holiday in peace.

~G~H~

AN:

Madison Bellows – This is Sparky. You don't have to be in England to write a story with us! I'm in Texas! I'll admit that the time change makes it a little difficult (6 hour difference) but thank God for IM and email! I hope you enjoyed your vacation!

Swede85 – Aphina here! Glad to see you found it interesting, we all put a lot of hard work into this; it's kind of like our joint child or at least a pet project. I'd love to hear any more thought you have on it.

Meadow567 – This is Sparky and Aphina answering back for Axellia because she is overloaded with work. From Sparky-As far as I know (since I'm her beta) Tay and Flack are in it for the long haul in WTECS. Unless her crazy muse decides to really change things up, that is!