Author's Notes:
Here's Chapter 2! When we last saw the two heroes, they were sneaking into the Grand Hotel as Mad Stan was about to detonate another bomb. Will they stop the madman in time? Also, will they find out who Stan's partner is? The answers to those questions will be revealed in this chapter. Please R&R and enjoy!...
An electric batarang-bolas hybrid shot through the air, wrapping itself to Mad Stan's right arm. Terry switched off his suit's camouflage feature before he launched himself at the disturbed explosives expert. Stan tried several times to get the electrocuted bomb switch to work, but to no avail. "You fried it!" he screamed in rage at Batman. "You—" Batman suddenly flew into Stan, knocking him into a wall.
Batgirl managed to move the large pile of rubble away from the main exit. She switched off her suit's camouflage feature and turned to the crowd seriously. "This way, hurry!" she urgently said to the startled citizens.
Luckily for Coba and the hostages, Stan was too focused on Terry to notice their exodus. "We live in a world of injustice and mental corruption, Batman," he angrily told the hero. "The people supporting them must all be destroyed!"
"Not if I have anything to say about it," Terry growled. He slashed off Stan's explosive vest with his wrist blades and tossed it aside as the villain detonated the small weapons inside it. "I'd normally try to talk people out of doing these things to think about what they're doing, but you obviously thought about it and have your heart set on it—" he grinned roguishly— "not that you even have a heart."
Stan snarled at Batman. "Harass me all you want, man!" he spat. "It won't stop me from eliminating the problem: everyone!"
Terry smiled even bigger. "Where is this 'everyone' you speak of?"
"What?" Stan looked around the room in confusion. Not one person was in sight! "Why you—oof!"
McGinnis had slammed his fist into Stan's face at that instant. "Why are you blaming me?" he inquired. "I was here fighting you the whole time!"
The giant madman punched Batman forcefully before he ran in the other direction, breaking through the nearest cement wall and into the main hallway. The warrior flew after his adversary, knowing that Stan had a very large explosive somewhere in the large building. Unbeknownst to both of them, Commissioner Gordon ran after them, her pistol out and loaded.
~!~
Coba dashed up the stairs of the immense building painfully yet with great determination. As she and her half-sibling had planned, she led the hostages to safety and was now searching for Mad Stan's partner. I personally hope that he's close by, even if he does happen to have several explosives with him, she thought grimly. My crippled feet are killing me anyway!
Brooklyn froze at the sound of evil laughter. "My my, little Bat," a sinister, hissing and mocking voice echoed through the hall. "Aren't you the brave and foolish one?"
"Maybe so, Spellbinder," Coba shot back, "but at least I'm not the one who uses expertise in psychology to play tricks on the minds of other people. Are you not satisfied with how it effects you? Is that why you do this to others?" Although the evil psychologist made the blood in her veins freeze with fright, Coba knew that the best way to hide her fear was to mock her opponent.
Spellbinder, whose real name was Ira Billings, knew this too.
"Mocking me is not going to hide the fact that you're scared half to death of me," he hissed, stepping out of the shadows.
"Tell me something, Billings," Coba said as boldly as she could, shooting the villain an icy Batglare. "Are you working with Mad Stan?"
Billings smiled evilly at the young Bat. "You guessed correctly, runt: I am indeed working with that muscle-headed oaf. He held up a strange sphere. "I bet the truth is making you even more uncomfortable. Let me help ease your fear."
Batgirl immediately looked away from the villain and the sphere. She knew that to look at the ball Spellbinder was holding would mean the loss of the sense of reality. "No thanks," she muttered.
The teenager swore she could hear Spellbinder smile even more wickedly. "I knew you'd say that."
"Oh, you did?" Coba could not help but remark mockingly. "You may be a psychologist, but you don't know everything about how people think."
Ira grabbed Coba by her right arm and yanked her towards him. He quickly slapped handcuffs around her wrists, unaware that she had already switched on the video link in her cowl for Wayne, just in case the villain made an illusion. "Let's see how funny you think this is, runt!" he growled as he held the sphere in front of his captive's face.
Coba wildly struggled to be free, but Billings's grip was too strong. Her eyes were shut tightly to avoid staring into the deceptive ball. "What do I do, Wayne?" she whispered quietly into her com link. "I can't get away."
"Look into the ball and go with whatever Spellbinder has planned," Bruce's voice answered gravely. "I'm sorry I can't come up with anything better."
"I forgive you. I can't think of anything better, either," the girl replied.
Brooklyn reluctantly looked at the ball. She blinked painfully and cried out in surprise a moment later as the ball flashed a brilliant white light. An overwhelming sense of environmental change filled her senses, her shock at the sudden change causing her to faint.
Author's Notes:
Another suspenseful note?! I know, I'm bad. :P Please leave a review in the box below! I love reading those: they help me figure out what's good about my stories and what's not as good.
