Gotc: Yeah, so this story was sorta born out of the…..well lack is the wrong word, but the gap in updates on existing BMWW fics out there. Of course, I do have what could be classified as a borderline obsession with the couple on which I blame DC and the writers for Justice League. Anyhoo, since this is a new chapter, I'm gonna go ahead and proceed with all the usual legal junk.
Disclaimer: I do not own JL or any of its characters or affiliates, because if I did, Batman and Wonder Woman so would have gotten together already.
So with that out of the way, let's get you good people reading something a little more substantial than dialogue! And as an added note, this story takes place a few months after the episode "Doomsday Sanction".
Quarantine
CHAPTER 1: Contact
What sounded like another small explosion, rocked the building from top to bottom, threatening to jar the hair trigger charge balanced in the Batman's hands. If he'd had a free hand not busy with the explosive less than a foot away from his face, he would have had a few creative expletives for the red and blue clad meta several floors above. However, since he didn't, the grumblings echoed uselessly in the dim light of the basement.
Mercury trigger rigged to three pounds of C4 explosives, magnetic couplings, multiple bombs on two floors, all wired to detonate like some twisted game of Operation and made no easier by the constant rolls and pitches the building was making from the fighting above. Yes, Kent might have been keeping Luthor's hired meta-squad busy, but that didn't mean he could ever use an ounce of finesse while doing it. Then again the boy Scout's answer to anything was if at first you don't succeed, find a bigger bus.
"Nhgn…How…'s it coming….down there?" Superman's strained voice came through, followed shortly by the sound of another crash.
"This is as fast as it gets, Superman," Batman shot back, finally getting a hand around the detonator and pulled the tangle of disconnected wires free , "They've got charges rigged every 50 feet, each one set to detonate the next if something tampers with it."
"Fine…. Do you need some help? I think Flash is just about-"
"No. You need to make sure none of them get down here. I can't disarm a bomb and fight at the same time."
"So the Dark Knight can't be everywhere at once?"
A small grin came to Batman's face as he heard what sounded like something very big and very heavy connect with the Kryptonian. He didn't believe in karma, but it certainly did come in handy every now and again. A hand went to his cowl and quickly scanned the area he was in for any missed devices. Small blips lit up his field of vision from the useless dismantled bombs, but found nothing that the Dark Knight had left intact.
One of the building's maintenance men had found the bombs on the upper floors and made the call to 911. Normally it would have been something the bomb squad could have taken care of, but when the group of metas responsible for planting them made an appearance, 911 placed a call to the Justice League. It wasn't anything they hadn't handled before; Grundy, Star Sapphire, Bizzaro and Cheetah at the entrance, trying to keep anyone from reaching the explosives. Of course, "trying" was the operative word. Flash, Superman and Wonder Woman were more than a match for the villains, which had given Batman the opportunity to slip past their defenses.
What worried him, was the apparent lack of any sort of a timing device, radio receiver, or any other sort of a remote way to detonate the charges. That meant that whoever had made them had no real intention of setting them off in the first place.
The charges on the lower level weren't hidden nearly as well as the ones above him had been. Batman moved through a few more of the bombs, leaving a trail of wires and broken plastic in his wake, before something started to change in the construction. They weren't the meticulously crafted devices he'd started disarming; these just looked like a brick of C4 tied together inside of their plastic casings. Wires weren't even connected to each other anymore.
"Superman," He called into the com link, after the fourth dummy, "The bombs are decoys. Whatever that group's doing here, it's not to set these things off."
"What?! Then why rig this whole place with C4?"
"This is Luthor we're talking about," Batman reasoned, a prickle running down the back of his neck, "For all we know this could have just been a trap to lure you out into the open."
A mocking laugh echoed in the shadows next to him, the dim light reflecting a predator's smile.
"Close, but I'm afraid you're still a bit off."
A metallic flash barely missed tasting the flesh of his neck by a breath. His attacker wasted no time coming at him again, and again, leaving him fighting to regain the upper hand and put some distance between himself and the knife lunging for his throat. And there were the blocks of C4 still scattered around the floor around them to worry about. Disarming them was one thing, his focus had been to put them out of play first before he concerned himself with clean up, but now fighting amongst them was like a ballet dance through a mine field. The close quarters provided him some advantage however, even with the sensors in his cowl, had the assailant been more inclined to a distance weapon, he would have never had been able to make out the lithe body that was far too graceful to have belonged to a man.
He finally managed to avoid a scalping strike, leaving his assassin's knife wedged firmly in the drywall over his head. He wasted no time in aiming a stiff kick to her midriff that knocked her a couple yards back, giving him a moment to breathe and reassess his situation.
Whoever she was, she had been extremely well trained. Her attacks with the blade hadn't been the blind thrusting and slashing he came across on a regular basis from back-alley thugs and drug dealers. She was dressed from head to toe in a skin tight body suit that even went so far as to cover her entire face in an impenetrable veil. Aside from an approximate height and weight, she had left no other distinguishing features uncovered, and the suit allowed her to move effortlessly through the shadows the dim lighting so adequately provided.
"Hmm. I see you haven't lost your touch." She said, placing a hand on her hip.
"Who are you?" Batman glared at her through the darkness.
"Now, now, I thought that was up to the Great Detective to figure out." She scolded him, "Just like why someone would want to blow everyone on this building to the next world."
"You're the one who planted the bombs," Batman accused, not really leaving room for a denial. His attacker merely shrugged, not at all concerned. "But your target's not the workers or even the building itself. You placed real charges on the upper floors to make this all seem like a real threat and get the League's attention, then left a trail of dummies for us to follow."
"Oh no, Knight of Gotham," Her voice almost dripped with a grin, "Not for all of you. My friends made sure of that. I'm afraid, the only one I'm interested in today, is you."
As sharp as his reflexes were, she was upon him again before he had the time to react. Her elbow dug its way into his chest and hurled him halfway across the room and into a concrete pylon. Dimly, he heard the crack of bone echo somewhere in his chest, but the flaring pain spreading across his back had most of his attention. The rest of it was focused on the woman in black who appeared to have turned her head to watch his several unsuccessful attempts at getting off of the ground, before she ripped the knife out of the wall with the same amount of force Superman tended to use when plowing a bus halfway through a two way street. It wasn't hard to see why the knife had gotten stuck in the first place; a thin sheet of drywall was the only thing between the room and bare concrete beneath it and she'd managed enough power to drive her weapon a good four inches into it.
What worried him more, was there wasn't a scratch on the knife, and now it was coming back at him.
Batman hooked an arm under his damaged ribs, trying to stifle the protesting cough that seethed between his teeth. He hurt, but didn't have time for the pain. She'd only touched him once, and had put him on his knees, twice might very well kill him. She stepped over a piece of C4, as she reached down to haul him back up to his feet by the neck, too busy toying with the blade in her hand to notice the minuscule pellet that had found its way into his.
There was a ridiculously long list of hundreds of people that could have been hiding behind the black mask in front of him. Right now, the only thing that he needed to know was the person intent on killing him was a meta and hopefully an excellent shield.
He couldn't tell if she saw the subtle flick of his wrist or not, but she sure as hell noticed the sudden firestorm that suddenly erupted from behind her. She let out an angry shriek as the bulk of the force caught her hard across the back, and her grip loosened enough for Batman to flip a foot under her chin and wrench himself free before the flames reached him.
Smoke and dust created a hazy fog, the glow of the fires reflecting off of the millions of airborne particles swirling in the air. Batman pulled his cape protectively around himself as a shield against the heat rolling off of the dancing flames, as his eyes scanned the fires for any sign of his assailant. Every nerve in his body was standing on edge, waiting for her to come launching out of the blaze at him. Instead, there was only the briefest flash as the knife was launched from the aftermath of the explosion straight at him. He twisted to the side a second too late, feeling the impossibly sharp edge slice cleanly through the layers of Kevlar and into the muscle of his arm before it embedded itself in a storage container behind him.
"Surely you didn't think you were going to get rid of me that easily?" Her voice chuckled, as her form stood out in the orange glow.
"I was about to say the same to you," Batman growled, reaching for another pellet in his belt.
"Which is almost cute…," Her laughter carried, "…considering you've already lost."
"You sure it's not your friends you're thinking of?" A red blur zipped into the room, bringing a plastic crate smashing into the side of her head, "Cause you're the last one standing. Take five Bats, I'll finish up here…"
"Flash! Wait-!"
The Scarlet Speedster however, was already rushing at his target at full speed. Instead, he only met with empty air and hot concrete, as she moved out of the way at the last second, letting Flash's momentum send him crashing into a pile of rubble. She picked up a larger chunk over her head and casually strolled over to where Flash dazedly held his head. A whizzing noise split the air a fraction of a second before another smaller explosion detonated next to her head. Flash picked up on the opportunity and came to a skidding halt next to Batman, who already had another batarang ready in his fist.
"Thanks for the save-" Flash grinned, earning himself a glare from the Dark Knight.
"Stay out of this," Batman snarled at his fellow Leaguer, "She's after me."
"Aww…" Superman's voice sounded from the stairwell entreance, "Didn't your mom ever tell you it's not nice to exclude people from the group?"
"I'm afraid I've never gotten along well with others," The assassin replied simply, "And this game seems to be getting a little too unbalanced for my taste."
She took a couple steps backward, only to bump into the familiar star-spangled uniform of the Amazon Champion herself. Diana floated only an inch or two off the ground, the sight added height giving her enough of an imposing figure that would have had most criminals turning themselves in of their own free will rather than go a round with her. Her blue eyes narrowed dangerously at the veiled fugitive, the command to stand down pouring off of her form.
"I think you've made enough of a mess," Diana warned her.
"You have no idea, Princess."
Just like that, the woman kicked a brick of the explosives into her hand and pelted it hard into one of the still burning pieces of debris next to her. The explosion rocked the building, and threw more debris and smoke into the dust choked air. Even before, the dust managed to settle away, Batman could already tell his attacker was long gone, the explosion creating a hole into the city's miles and miles of sewer networks. He pulled up an mental map of the tunnels that ran under the building and found almost a dozen different conduits that a person could fit in and make an escape. Even if they were to go after her, it would be nearly impossible to track which one she would have taken. A breeze ripped through the floor, courtesy of Flash, to expose the gaping hole where the assassin had made her getaway.
"Well, four outta five ain't bad," Flash said, trying to lighten the mood as he peered into the hole.
"I'm sure that's exactly the sentiment Waller will share when Cadmus and the rest of the world is picking apart such a sloppy performance," Batman silenced Flash, aiming a glare in Superman's direction, "I had it under control until you three decided to break from the plan."
"We felt the first explosion from almost six stories up," Superman tried reasoning with his friend, "We thought that you needed-"
"Something just didn't seem right," Wonder Woman cut off the Man-of-Steel before he could use the "H" word, "We had no idea there was someone else down here."
"Which is why you should have let me take care of it," Batman growled, striding away from the other three to where the knife was still embedded in the storage crate.
Superman didn't say anything more, sensing a useless argument, and put his hands in the air for a second before he and Wally gathered the scattered pieces of bombs and moved to the upper floor for the rest. Wonder Woman remained behind, examining the hole for any clue as to which way the woman had fled. Only when they were alone, did she speak again.
"That wasn't fair Bruce." She casting a sideways glance at him, "Kal was worried one of the bombs had gotten you."
"It's no excuse." Batman replied shortly, prying the knife free with some effort and dropping it into a clear sealed bag, and made to leave, "He knows what the risks are every time we're called to help, and last time I checked, I didn't need a sitter."
Daian frowned and flew in front of his retreating form. Batman gave her a paint-curling glare that very plainly stated "Get out of my way.", but she remained impassive. That look might have worked on anyone else in the Watchtower, but she knew by now when she was the one getting it, it was an empty threat. Her eyes wandered down to the gash on his arm, and had seized it before he could pull away.
"You're hurt." She said accusingly, her eyes boring into him.
"That's nothing new, Princess." Batman pointed out, glancing passively over his injury himself. The wound was deep, but not serious. The blade had been hot when it cut through the skin, leaving melted bits of Kevlar stuck to him, but also had acted as an effective means of cauterizing the injury. He'd need stitches and a course of antibiotics, but what little bleeding there was had already begun to stop, making tending to the wound a low priority.
"You're still supposed to be taking it easy," Diana said, letting his arm go, "The doctors say your won't be back to 100% for another few weeks or so-"
"And no one needs to know that except for me," He glowered back at her, "They need to see that I can take a hit and still keep coming at them."
"So possible suicide is worth that? That incident at San Baquero scared us all," She said calmly, not looking away from the lenses that hid his eyes, "We almost lost you before we even knew what you were doing-"
"You didn't need to know. Neither of you did. You had a job to do and I made sure that you could finish it," Batman said, "Just like today."
Diana's eyes sparked angrily at him.
"So you want to be a martyr?" She said, taking a step closer to him.
"I am what I'm needed to be Diana," He snarled back, "That's what the Justice League is. You know that."
"If that's even remotely true," Diana said, "Then why can't that apply to the people who care about you?"
Batman felt his fists tighten at his sides, the blood flow to his fingertips slowly being choked off as the pressure increased. He'd given her his reasons all before, however irrelevant they might have been concerning the two of them. It wasn't like he had many enemies that could even so much as scratch her flawless skin, but at the same token, he'd been the one watching helplessly as she disappeared in front of his eyes. Seeing it once had almost torn him apart; he didn't think he could stand seeing it again. Clark certainly hadn't been the one to inspire his actions to literally tackle a nuclear warhead.
He'd tried several times to coax the words from his throat before, to no avail, and tonight was no different. He knew she could tell there was something waiting on his lips to be spoken, yet they remained stubbornly shut as the Dark Knight pushed past her to leave Diana standing alone looking after him.
"Because that's just the way it has to be."
Gotc: Well? Better this time right? Dialogue, action, troubled romance? Not enough? Fine. Well, it gets better here pretty shortly. After all, I'm sure you still have questions that are going to need answering……Buahahahahaha! Anyway, this is just the pilot chapter really, so if you all out there would like to know where it goes from here, theres that little button at the bottom of the screen. Yeah, no, to the left. Little more…. Stop! That's the one. Click it, tell me what you think and I'll get working on chapter two!!!! Laters!