Chapter 6

Hood was being bandaged by a medic as he sat on a chunk of debris. The middle aged doctor wrapped the soft fabric around the bullet wounds, and used some sort of injected medicine that eased the pain.

It worked well. It felt like there was no wound at all, and side effects; cool medicine, he thought.

Hood watched SWAT tanks roll in to defend the bridge from any more clowns or Riddler thugs that might cross it. The same had been done for every other bridge, the plan to take back the Northern Island worked.

"How is it?"

Hood looked over his shoulder to see Catwoman. Her goggles were on her head, revealing a pair of mildly tired eyes.

"I'm fine" Hood said, nodding to the medic as he finished his work. "Pretty sure that I'll get worse sooner or later, so I won't worry about a little bullet wound"

Catwoman sat next to him. "You're a surprise to me. You learnt almost everything Bruce has to teach you, and you did quicker than any of the three Robins"

"Probably because of the situation were in now" Hood replied, taking off his mask and goggle's, leaving the scarf around his neck. "Where's Freeze?"

"Back at Arkham, getting a new gun" Catwoman replied. "You know, he kind of makes me wonder. That the four of us are fighting for something other than Gotham City" she said.

"What do you mean?"

Catwoman looked at the buildings across Sprang River, the skyscrapers in the middle of Gotham…Wayne Tower.

"Just look at the state of it…do you really think Gotham can be saved, after everything that's happened since last year?"

Hood, Kevin, looked at the city as well.

Since the first night this war started, Gotham had become Hell on earth.

The first night, followers of the Joker and the Riddler fought against each other. So many innocent lives were lost, cars were blown up, buildings were destroyed and every street was filled with what was left behind by the carnage; blood, corpses, car wrecks, gang brawls.

Anything that added to the destruction of Gotham filled the streets.

It was within the first week that military forces surrounded the city. Once all civilians had left the city, the military forces were given permission to shoot on sight. The only way in or out of the city was through Arkham Island, any other route meant death.

Now, three weeks after the first night; the war raged on.

Kevin shed a tear. His home, was dying.

"If it's not the city we're fighting for" he managed to say "then, what is it?"

Catwoman took a deep breath

"Love" she said. "It's all that we have left in this city. You have Hailey, Freeze has Nora and Bruce and I have each other. We're fighting for the people we want to spend our lives with; at least, that' what I've been clinging to these past three weeks"

Kevin nodded. He had to agree.

"Sun's coming up" he said, looking in the direction of the ocean. The sun wasn't going to shine through the smoke that drifted over Gotham, he thought.

Batman stood in a circle of mirrors. The reflections of Dr. Marshall looked at him, unmoving.

"What about the Riddler?" Batman asked. "Will you kill him off too?"

"Oh no, of course not" Marshall replied. "Marshall and I might be insane, but we have great intelligence. A mixture of insanity and intelligence just can't go to waste. Look what I've accomplished; what both of us have accomplished.

Once Gotham is wiped off the face of the planet, we're going to move to another city that must be saved from insanity…I hear Bludhaven is not doing too well right now?"

Batman shook his head. Marshall was a lost cause; his plans were becoming aimless and filled with nothing but death and destruction. Any further and he might become another Joker, and he really didn't need that right now.

"Now Batman, Bruce" Marshall pulled a gun of some sort from his coat. " I bid you farewell". The reflections aimed their guns at Batman; wherever Marshall was, he was aiming a gun at the mirror in front of him.

"So long, Dark Knight"

Marshall fired the gun several times. From almost every direction, lasers deflected off mirrors; speeding from one to another, until the House of Mirrors was filled with them.

Batman was quick. He dodged them from wherever they came.

Marshall's reflections were gone; the mad doctor had left the building.

Batman fired his grappling gun at the ceiling. He zoomed up, dropping an explosive batarang behind him.

Batman retracted the hook, then fired it again at a support running across the ceiling of the House of Mirrors, and swung out a window. There was an explosion behind him, and the House of Mirrors was no more.

He dropped to the ground, rolled and stood up again. He quickly scanned the area for any sight of Marshall.

The motor of a boat was running somewhere. Batman ran to the Amusement Mile wharf, and caught sight of Marshall jumping into a boat with two Riddler thugs. They drove away, water spraying behind them

One of the thugs fired a harpoon without a roped which landed at Batman's feet.

Their was a note tied to it, a green question mark scribbled on the paper. Batman tore the note off, ready to hear the riddle written on it.

There was a map of Gotham City on one side of the paper. Three lines had been drawn to form a triangle, their corners stopping at the three bridges that allowed entry into the city. He turned it over, the riddle read "ONLY THE OPPOSITE IN THIS TRIANGLE WILL LEAD YOU TO ME"

Batman stared at the words. He was lost in this one.

"Bruce, are you there?" Oracle asked through the earpiece

"Yes Barbra, I'm here" Batman replied. "I need to meet Kevin, Selina and Fries at Amusement mile. I have a riddle for them"