A/N: Guess who's not dead!
Sorry about the long... what was it, 2 week wait? Yeesh, I'm horrible. Excuses, excuses, the school year is wrapping up and I have no time to do anything, yaddah yaddah. I apologize in advanced, because it might be a little wait for the next chapter, too. Shouldn't be too long, but just in case.
Anyway, thanks for supporting this story by reviewing, favoriting, and following! It means so much to me!
Here's the next chapter! I'll admit, this is one of my favorites. Don't know why, but I liked it, and I hope you do too!
Eve strolled down the street casually, a breezy grin on her face. She had just sent her men to return to the warehouse with Cobblepot's weapons. While she oversaw the shipment (as to not repeat the utter fiasco with Crane), she felt light-hearted enough to walk herself home. Despite the cold weather only about four days ago, the sun had made a rare appearance in the Gotham sky, and it raised the temperature to make it a comfortable day.
Her cheery mood instantly diminished as a screech of tires roared from behind her. Another squeal followed it. She didn't even have time to glance back when they raced past her, revealing that an armored truck was being followed by an all-black sports car. The tint was far too dark to be legal. Never seeing it before, she instantly assumed it to be the Batmobile, but when the windows rolled down and a masked thug began shooting out of it, she knew it to be otherwise.
Instead, the car belonged to Two-Face.
Eve stood on the sidewalk, frozen, as another truck came from the intersection and T-boned the armored truck, sending it on its side.
She glanced around, surprised and confused that no one was around. That was, until she remembered her location. It was an uninhabitable section of the Narrows, with every door and window boarded up and every wall singed. Ever since that one night Scarecrow teamed up with Firefly to take over Gotham (a part of Gotham's history that no one ever wanted to recall. No one.), this particular section was deemed to undergo construction. Construction never came.
With that in mind, Eve wondered just how the hell she happened among this.
All three vehicles stopped, and the doors opened. Three thugs came from the backseat of the car closest to her (parked a few meters from where she was standing). The driver's side opened and there he was: Two-Face.
Ironically, she only glimpsed at his profile at first. It was his unhampered side, containing smooth black hair, a strong jawline, and full lips. When he turned to give orders to the men nearly in front of her, she saw it all. The bright blue eye on his left side was nearly falling out of its socket, the flesh was horribly warped, and his mouth was pulled back into a perpetual snarl. His suit complimented his appearance; a suit that was half white on his "good" side, and black on his "bad" one. He pulled out a twin set of pistols from his pockets, revealing one arm to also be mutilated. All in all, he didn't look so dissimilar from one of her victims, but, seeing as he was also drenched in acid, she shouldn't be surprised.
A few of his thugs from the truck had managed to bust open the lock on the armored truck, and had begun stuffing the money and gold into bags. Like a scene from an action movie, four police cars had surrounded the intersection. When all the police were on the street, it revealed that two cars had carried cops that had batons, and the others carried guns. It was only when two shots from Two-Face hit a cop directly in the eyes that they began firing.
Eve stood there in slight shock, wondering just how the hell this kind of stuff happened to her. First, Edward contacting her, then, the Joker thinking he needed her help on organizing a crime (and subsequently getting out of one), then Scarecrow, Killer Croc, Penguin… and now this. She almost wanted to blame Edward in all of this; if the blasted Riddler hadn't gotten involved, then maybe she could have lived her life as a lower criminal, and not be running into all these other Rogues.
As if fate decided to laugh at her misfortunes once again, Two-Face turned back to her. "Listen, girlie, we're gonna need you to fight. You got a weapon on you?" his deep voice managed to ring out over the sound of gunfire.
Eve gaped for a brief second, then nodded. Ah, her day was already blown to hell because of this, what could some fighting do? Kill her? "You don't need to worry about me. I've got my paint."
He subsequently stared at her as if she had three heads, then shrugged. "Ah, whatever. Just help get rid of these cops, will you?"
A smirk tugged at her lips as she pulled out her aerosol can of paint, the paint being neon green today. Eve wasted no time in stepping into the battlezone. A guard carrying a baton approached her. Before he could even lift his weapon, she lifted hers, and sprayed him in the face with the most minimal amount of paint that would still be deadly. The man immediately collapsed, clutching his sizzling face until he knew no more.
"...Holy shit," a voice behind her said. She turned to see Two-Face a few feet from her, staring down at the dead policeman with both awe and incredulousness on his face. "Where'd you even get that stuff?"
Eve didn't exactly want to proclaim herself as an up-and-coming Rogue, one that, with time, could rival Two-Face in number of thugs under their belts. Instead, she gave him a secretive grin, then turned to continue the fight.
She had taken down another guard when a loud orchestral piece blared into her ear, making her wince and immediately press the button. Just yesterday, Edward had provided her with an earpiece (a Bluetooth, of sorts). He gave it to her to ensure quick communication in between the two. She had humored him, and told him she would wear it the next day to pick up her gun shipments.
Now, she was severely regretting wearing it.
"Hello?" she snarled out in between clenched teeth. A policeman tried to hit her from behind, but she saw his shadow and ducked, punching him in the gut as she was down.
"Would you believe the audacity that Batman has to try and outsmart me? This has been a horrible day for me," Edward's voice angrily belted out on the other end of the line.
The cop managed to block her arm and hit her hand, causing the aerosol can to drop and fall to the ground. She hardly had time to mourn its loss, seeing as how she had to win a fistfight now. "My day's been pretty… horrible, too."
As Edward rambled about his latest scheme to try and beat the Bat, Eve had her hands full in dispatching this policeman. She hardly even heard what he was saying, since gunfire was ringing in her ears, as well as the sounds of their grunting.
Eventually, she surprised the cop with a pushkick to his chest, knocking the wind out of him and sending him back stumbling. Eve reached down for her paint and shot her paint into his neck. Seeing his body on the ground, she stood there for a few seconds, panting.
"Eve? Eve, are you even listening to me?" Edward said on the other end of the line.
She sighed. "Look, I'm a bit busy at the moment."
He was silent for a moment, before piping up, "Are you in a fight?"
"Maybe."
She could almost envision his smirk. "Well, if that's what you're doing with yourself nowadays... Try not to get killed, will you?" With that, he hung up. It took all her willpower not to slap her hand to her forehead.
Her mind was taken off of that by a bullet hitting a stop sign directly behind her. She glanced up, incredulous, to see a cop across the street, reloading. Eve was rather determined to escape this ordeal without a bullet wound, so she sprinted towards him. Since he was too focused looking down to reload, he did not notice her approach him. He would soon regret that decision when he was lying in a pool of his own blood and burning flesh.
The fight lasted for another few minutes. Eventually, Two-Face, his men, and Eve managed to put down all the cops. They knew more were on the way, so they rushed, grabbing whatever they could from the truck.
Two-Face, who was barking out orders on the top of the truck (where he hauled himself up on), suddenly glanced down to face Eve. "Hey, you," he said to catch her attention.
She paused from nursing her bruised cheek and aching abdomen. "Yeah?"
"We appreciate your help. Unfortunately, no one was supposed to know about this little scheme of ours today." He pointed the gun he held on his marred side towards her. Her eyes narrowed and she shifted, uncomfortable.
"But let's let the coin decided." He produced his half-burnt coin from his pocket and flipped it in the air. Eve tensed, ready to run at a moment's notice.
She saw his emotions play out on his face; first distaste, then acceptance. He holstered his gun and then hopped down from the truck with more grace than she thought he would have. "You're in luck: you live. I guess now we'll give you something to compensate for your help."
He reached past where his thugs were busy stuffing money into bags, and pulled out a couple stacks of money and what looked to be a golden necklace of sorts. Two-Face tossed them towards her, and she managed to intercept them before they hit the ground. Eve grinned when she saw the necklace had a ametrine stone attached to it, the gem sparkling purple and brown in the sunlight. She would eagerly add it to her outfit (or sell it if it was hefty enough).
Glancing back at her a final time, he said, "Buy yourself something pretty with that, alright? You look like you need a new jacket, that one's a bit dirty." With that, he returned his attention to the armored truck, completely forgetting about her.
Looking down at the stacks of money in her hand, she was convinced. There were no Rogues. There were no malevolent criminals obsessed with money, or power, or their goals in general. There were no dangers to society that were all determined to kill the Batman in one way or another.
No. They were all, to put it simply, antagonistic fashionistas.