Family
Chapter 4: Dark Knight
Disclaimer: all characters are property of their respective owners.
Spoilers:to the end of season 7 of Buffy (I'm not including the season 8+ comics in this continuity), general spoilers for Batman and mild spoilers for X-Men: Evolution season 1.
Author Note: the version of the Batman that will appear here draws from several versions.
Gotham City. Rooftops on the Bowery district
Buffy stopped when she reached the edge of the rooftop, cursing softly as she assessed the situation. The Bat had used some kind of grapple gun to jump over the street, and then he kept running. Looking around, she could see that there were no arches or catwalks between this block and the next and the distance… she would need to do a running jump, but it was doable.
After the jump and the somewhat rough landing on the other side, she looked and saw the Bat in the distance. So she started to run, trying to reach him. The rooftops on this block weren't as flat as the earlier ones, and she had to use her scarce knowledge of parkour to the max, in order to start gaining on him. She was shortening his advantage steadily, until he suddenly made a sharp turn and disappeared behind the rooftop access of one of the buildings.
As she kept going, she heard, weakly, a sound of groaning metal, and then, the faint sound of something dropping on the ground. When she reached the point where he had disappeared, she saw that there was an open trapdoor in the rooftop, the source of the metallic sound she had heard, and where the Bat had presumably descended.
She closed her eyes and listened. Other than the noise of traffic and the usual background noise of a city, loud enough to drown a heartbeat, certainly, she didn't hear anything. She pursed her lips; this had "trap" written all over it. Her estimates of the Bat grew several points, as she hadn't noticed anything that indicated that he had detected her...
She smacked her head in realization. The jump over the street, of course. And now, thanks to that and the subsequent obstacle course through the rooftops, he probably had a rough estimate of her capabilities.
"I fucking hate smart adversaries." She cursed under her breath. As if to underscore the point a slight drizzle started to fall. "And now rain, that's just peachy."
She looked down, through the trapdoor, and didn't saw anything. It was dark as a dungeon down there. Not that she had seen a real dungeon… well, except the ones in Dracula's castle when they went to check if something was there.
"Well, may fortune favor the bold, and all that jazz." Buffy said to herself before jumping inside.
Buffy landed gracefully, and as she had seen from up there, it was quite dark, with the only light coming from the trapdoor she had used to enter. She closed her eyes and tapped the floor with her foot, listening to the echoes, trying to make a mental map of where she was. Unfortunately it seemed to be a closed room.
'The Bat must have gotten out of here very quickly.' She thought. 'And now, the unavoidable attack…'
Then she heard an electronically distorted voice, coming from several places in the room.
"Why were you following me?"
'He wants to talk this over? This is a first.' She thought, before saying "Hey, shouldn't you present yourself first?. Common courtesy and all that?"
"You were the one chasing me, Ms. Summers." The voice said, after a pause "And you know who I am."
"You are the Bat. Or do you prefer Batman?" Buffy said, sarcastically. She was sure that the Bat wasn't here, skulking in the shadows, as she wasn't hearing any heartbeats. He was probably transmitting though some speakers hidden somewhere.
"Batman will suffice, Miss Summers. I repeat, why you were chasing me?" Batman said.
"Oh, I saw you leaving that poor guy tied to a pipe, and…" Buffy said, flippantly.
"That 'poor guy' was Truck Barrett, convicted by several felonies, and who admitted when I interrogated him that he had been in contact with a notorious criminal gang, the Red Hood." Batman said. "He admitted to me that the Red Hood was planning a assault on a possible competitor, and that he had provided some contacts to make that assault possible."
"Wow, wow. Slow down." Buffy said "So you are a vigilante? And why not let the police do its job?" She added as she thought,'Okay, this is really a first.'
"Because close to half of the force is on the payroll of the mob. And the ones who aren't are too cowed to do anything." Batman said "I know you fight against vampires using your gifts, but what of the people accosted by common thugs? What recourse they have when the police are being paid or intimidated by those same thugs to look the other way?. That's one of the reasons why I became Batman…"
"…to help the helpless." Buffy said, remembering Angel Investigations motto. She then heard a very slight noise to her back, she turned quickly, expecting an attack.
"A good way to put it." Batman said, appearing in the direction where she had been looking until a moment ago. Okay, this was really freaky. "You came to that street because of the Ripper murders."
"Yes. Corpses ripped that way? A ritual sacrifice, or maybe a demon feeding. They are gross that way." Buffy said "But first, how do you know that I'm the Vampire Slayer? And where the hell were you hiding?."
"Answering to your first question, I have acquaintances that have dealt with the British organization in the past. Giving Sunnydale's history it was not difficult to connect the dots." Batman said "I assume that Rupert Giles was your contact with them."
"Yeah, he was my Watcher, and all around paternal figure." Buffy said.
"I must warn you that my acquaintances don't have a great opinion of the Watchers." Batman said, "Bloody tossers, he called them."
"Wankers is the term that Giles uses. But things are better now." Buffy said "After the Council got blown up a year ago, we have been trying to rebuild them in a less asshole basis."
Batman stepped into the zone illuminated by the trapdoor, allowing Buffy to finally get a good look at him. He seemed to be a tall, broad shouldered man, close to 6' 4" or 6' 5", dressed in a dark grey bodysuit, with a black belt full of pouches and pockets, an stylized bat emblazoned in his chest, black boots, black gloves, a cape and a cowl with two long "ears" with a pointed end. His eyes were hidden by some kind of lens embedded into the cowl that made it look like they were white from some distance. The ensemble should have looked ridiculous, straight from a bad superhero movie, but somehow it worked.
"To answer your second question, the door you heard is fake, as well as the wall that was in front of you." Batman said. "I was hiding behind the fake wall."
"Oookay." She said, still miffed she hadn't caught on that.
"There is something else that you should know, I have come to some info on the Bowery Ripper murders that didn't make it to the press." Batman finally said "Something that probably makes it fall squarely on your turf."
"And I suppose that you want something for that info." Buffy said.
"No, I could do that, but what good would that do?." Batman said, "Sometime this week, the Ripper is going to act again, murdering two or three people." He paused and added in a tone that it made clear, he didn't like what he was about to say; "The truth is that I never thought I would have to fight supernatural elements in Gotham, as every one of them seems to avoid the city, so I'm ill-equipped to fight demons or vampires. A situation that I intend to remedy."
"You need my help." Buffy said.
"Yes." He said, almost gritting his teeth. "With the Bowery Ripper first and training later."
"Why didn't you say that from the beginning? We have a deal, Batsy." Buffy said, not bothering to suppress a smirk when she saw Batman pursing his lips when she called him Batsy "So what was that info?"
"The dismemberment of the victims was done post-mortem, and the cause of death was severe blood loss." Batman said, "In addition, the neck area seemed to have received special attention from the killers in the mutilation process."
"So the ripper is a vamp or a group of vamps, most likely. Although there are a few demons that feed on blood" Buffy said, thinking aloud "But there is something weird about this."
"Such what?" Batman asked.
"Almost all blood-sucking demons do it as part of a rampage, and as bad as the Bowery is, I think that a blood sucking tentacle-y thing would be quite noticeable." Buffy said.
"Yes, it would." Batman said.
"But, there is aproblem. I know vampires, I know how much blood they need. You see, two or three victims in six weeks would be enough for a vamp. But they would have needed to be drained over a period of time, and, believe me, most vampires are not disciplined enough not to fully drain a victim when they attack." And then she added looking at Batman squarely "Maybe they were kidnapped before, and when they were too weak they were drained and disposed off."
"Impossible." Batman said, shaking his head "Several of the victims were seen the same day their corpses where found." He then seemed to realize something. "Although... come with me." He said, walking toward the darkness again, where she heard a door opening, and some light in the other side. She followed and saw that the door opened to a catwalk over the main space of a warehouse, and sitting there she saw a sleek black car, with some modifications to make its front to look bat-like, as well as a good battering ram.
"Let me guess, the Bat-mobile?" Buffy said, enjoying the annoyed glare that Batman gave her.
"I want to check something. The car has a wireless Internet connection." He said, refusing to rise to the bait.
Buffy didn't bother with the stairs, jumping down from the catwalk, while Batman used his grapple to keep pace with her.
"Useful gizmo, can I have a pair? And can get them done in pink or sky blue...?" Buffy said and then she added, seeing Batman's permanent scowl deepen, in her best Valley Girl voice. "Pretty, pretty please? With a cherry on top?"
"You are trying to annoy me on purpose, aren't you?" Batman said, grumpily.
"Moi?" Buffy said with a very fake hurt expression.
The truth was that there was something about the situation that bothered her. She had the feeling that she should know Batman, despite the electronically distorted voice and the mask. It was the cadence and the inflections of his speech, she decided, there was something familiar there.
While she was considering this, the driver door of the Batmobile slid open and Batman pressed a button in the driving wheel, turning on a screen, and as soon a mini keyboard appeared under it, he started to key at high speed.
"What'cha doin'?" Buffy said, keeping with her attempts to annoy Batman.
"Looking for reports of missing people on the day of the murders, and the days afterwards." He answered, reading the data.
Buffy slapped her forehead.
"Why didn't I think of that?" Buffy said, "You think that they are kidnapping people to drain them slowly, and the people who the police found ripped apart are a snack on the road."
"More or less, and as I thought, there is a spike of missing people reports on those days." Batman said, "Between six and ten over the average of the rest of the month..." he started to say when an alert appeared on the screen.
"What's that?" Buffy asked.
"The Red Hood, the gang I told you earlier, is on the move." Batman said, sitting down in the driver seat of the Batmobile.
"I'm going with you." Buffy said, jumping over the car to the companion seat door.
"No way." Batman growled.
"Yes way." Buffy answered, her arms on her hips on a challenging posture. "Or I will be chasing you down the streets, I can run at over 60 miles per hour." She was bluffing and she knew it, but she counted on Batman not knowing the full extent of her abilities.
"...Fine." Batman said, gritting his teeth as he pressed the button that opened the other door "But when we arrive, you do what I say you."
"Sir, yes, sir!" Buffy said, with a mock salute, before getting inside the car.
Wayne Tower penthouse
Dawn had been listening to the full exchange between Buffy and this… Batman. She had giggled when Buffy had started to do her annoying blonde impression, and had outright laughed when she said "Pretty, pretty please? With a cherry on top?". It had been one of her favorite phrases back when they were growing to try to wheedle something out of D… out of Hank.
Unfortunately the laugh had awakened her headache again, so she took another Tylenol, not noticing the spark of light that momentarily came into existence behind her as the headache spiked.
"Okay, Red Hood." She said looking at the info she had called before the first time they appeared in the talk. "They appeared first time three years ago and quickly carved a territory, mostly in Gotham's old industrial district. They are vicious assholes, specially its number two, Smilin' Jack, who likes to mark his victims with a 'Glasgow grin'…." She paused for a moment, with a sickened expression when he saw pictures of Jack's victims. "…as well as other cuts. That guy is a nasty piece of work."
She took a deep breath to steady herself before continuing the exposition.
"Nobody knows who the Boss is, as he always wears a red mask and concealing clothes." Dawn continued "Captured members have said that they had never heard his voice, usually speaking on Jack's ear, and then he speaks for him." She paused for a moment before continuing. "The full members wear black as well as a red bandanna, and go around in black cars with a white line from the front to the back, as well as the hood painted red. And that's all what I can find about then. I could dig more info, but I'm not really a hacker."
Dawn received a message telling her, that it was good enough. She smiled, and sat back in the sofa, closing her eyes. It had been a long day, and all she wanted to sleep a little, but duty called and all that. With a sigh, she went to prepare herself some coffee, before a sudden spike of pain in her head made her fall on her knees, and a disk of unearthly energies appeared before her.
Back in Bayville, in the lower levels of Xavier school, this was registered by a running program in Cerebro, that sent an automated message to its creator, Charles Xavier, as well as awaken the remaining faculty in the school.
Dawn looked mesmerized at the disk. It looked like a smaller and calmer version of the portal that had been opened when Doc had tried to sacrifice her, in order to open the path for Glory to return to her home dimension. She got up with difficulty, and looked it with more detail. It wasn't expanding, which was good news, in fact it simply seemed to sit there, waiting.
Her mind went back to the dizziness and headaches she had been having the last days. Maybe it was this... 'power' trying to surface?. Anyway, it was a foot across, and from the side it didn't seem to exist.
'It's two-dimensional? The one back... then had a definite thickness.' She thought, amazed that she was not freaking out about this yet.
"Dawn? What is happening?" she heard Buffy voice through the earphone. 'She must have heard the fall.'
"Nothing that can't wait, Buffy." She said, trying to sound calm "I'm not hurt or anything, just something came up, something that is... keyed to me, so to speak."
"Keyed? What the...?" Buffy said, and Dawn could almost hear the lightbulb turning on Buffy's head "Oh. Keyed, of course. Are you sure you don't need me?"
"Positive, don't get your panties in a bunch." Dawn said, using the code phrase they had agreed to mean things were going well.
"We'll talk when I come back." Buffy said, not trying to hide her relief.
"Fine for me." Dawn said, nonchalant. 'Let's see if I can do something with it.'
Batmobile. Racing down Gotham's Industrial district
"Is your sister well?" Batman asked.
"She says so, and she used a code phrase we agreed upon to mean things were going well." Buffy said.
"An intelligent measure." Batman said "How much of that Valley Girl persona is real?"
"All of it." Buffy said, and then added seeing Batman expression, "What? I have layers."
Batman only answer was a non-commital 'Ahum'. Buffy rolled her eyes. She had been trying to get Batman to unwind a bit, but she wasn't having any success. 'What a grouch.' She thought.
"We're here." Batman said, parking the Batmobile in a place between two buildings, in a way that you should be practically upon the car to see it, as well as being able to get out in a moment notice. "We have to climb to the roof of this building." He added, handing another grapple gun to Buffy.
They both climbed to the roof and Buffy followed Batman to the front of the building, a place where the front entry to the Monarch Chemical Plant could be seen. As well as the people who was there.
"I gather than the ones closest to us are the Red Hood." Buffy whispered, observing the red bandannas that everybody in that group was wearing.
"You can see them that clearly?" Batman whispered back.
"Enhanced senses, all part of the Slayer package, Batsy." Buffy said, in a whisper, still observing them.
The two on the forefront were Smilin' Jack and the Red Hood. Jack was a thin, tall man with his lip cuts in the way Dawn has said he liked to cut his victims, while the Red Hood was roughly the same height than Jack, he wore clothing bulky enough to conceal his build and body shape, as well as the infamous red mask, that looked like a red version of Cobra Commander cloth mask. Behind the Red Hood there was a man...
"Fuck." Buffy said when she realized that the guy was the cause of the familiar gut feeling. "The guy with white hair, wearing a trenchcoat. He's a demon of some kind."
TO BE CONTINUED…