Chapter 7

The Insidious Getaway

"You gotta be freakin' kidding me!' yelled one of the goons with irate disbelief, 'The Bat found us here!"

"How could he have known?!" yelled one.

"Who the hell cares, just kill him!" returned another.

With that said, the six men advanced upon the Dark Knight with futile aggression. Batman stood there motionless, while Yuki clung to the bars with sweating palms. Some of the attackers had brass knuckles and knives that they had kept in their pockets, while others found chains and steel poles that were kept around the warehouse, to use as impact weapons.

Yuki felt her stomach curl as the first man in line, swung a pipe for the vigilante's head. Batman quickly ducked under it, slugged the man in the gut, then followed through with an upper cut then grabbed his lapel and delivered a head butt, then seized the pipe as the henchmen fell.

Quickly from behind, another goon came in with a wild swing, but was stopped by Batman's arm as he spun in and belted the man across the face with the pipe, causing him to stumble back and fall.

From the right flank, came down a chain, in which the Dark Knight barred the attack with the steel pole. It wrapped around the shaft, in which Batman twisted it 360 degrees, kicked the the man in the stomach, getting him to relinquish his grip, then swung the chain-pipe around, striking three others in the face, then dodged an attack from another goon, snuck behind him (back to back) wrapped the chain around the man's throat and threw him over his shoulder and into the ground, taking him out of the fight.

The remaining five surrounded him and closed in. To avoid annihilation, Batman lashed two in the eyes with his cape, then threw a set of bat-arangs with pristine accuracy at the heads of the others, then jumped over one, grabbed his shoulders, kicked out a leg, then slammed his head into the ground, knocking him out.

The henchmen next to our vigilante, recovered, and began to swing and jab wildly with his knife. The bat did his best to dodge and out maneuver the edges but was caught up and received a few slits in his suit. When the knife-man came in for a cross swing, Batman caught the arm lengthwise and delivered a powerful thrust kick into his side, cracking the ribs. He let out a terrible gasp before having his arm twisted in such a way that flipped him over on his back, then with a strike with the forearm, inverted the man's elbow.

He let out a dreadful cry of agony in which the spectator, Yuki, covered her mouth and went pale. The three others charged at the knight simultaneously, Batman caught the one in the lead by the neck and threw him behind him, sending him sprawling into Yuki's cage. He then rushed to meet the other two, grabbed their faces and drove them straight down.

The henchmen closest to Yuki, arose, turned, and made another attempt for the bat. Our formidable vigilante, faced him, ducked under a haymaker, and threw the goon back into the cage. He then advanced towards him, threw two fists into the gut, then grabbed his face and then pounded his skull into the bars.

He sank to his rear while grasping his head, with Yuki looking upon him with bewilderment. The other two got to their feet, one grabbed the pipe while the other rushed in and grabbed Batman around his chest, pinning his arms to his sides and turning him around, so that his partner could hit him freely with the steel pole.

The knight lifted up his feet and pushed his assailant back with both heels, causing him to stumble and fall. Then threw his head back into his holder's nose, stomped on the foot, then twisted his hand into a wrist lock, forcing him to bend over, turned around and threw his knee up into the henchmen's face, breaking the nasal cavity.

The goon with the pole came back but was answered by the crusader's fist, then was popped in the eye by the end of his own weapon before it was taken from him. Batman then hit the goon in the sciatic nerve above his knee and tripped him up with the pipe. The man fell on his back, then saw the dark knight part his feet before driving the steel into his groin. The henchmen recoiled horribly, turned to his side while curled in a ball, and vomited.

Yuki only stood there and gazed upon the caped fighter, who stood triumphant amongst a throng of broken and beaten men, who moaned and writhed in agony upon the ground. He then strongly opened the door to the cage and approached her. She fell back and scurried away and threatened, "Don't come near me, I'm warning you!"

Batman returned, "It's okay Yuki, your safe now."

"How do you know my name?"

"It's a long story, but we need to go, now…!" he became more forceful in his tone.

"I'm not going anywhere with you!" said the fearful girl.

"Listen, I know you're afraid, but I need you to trust me, your mother is waiting for you."

Eventually Yuki stood, and complied, it was then when Batman realized he was a child short, "Where's your brother?"

"I don't know…' she said, 'one of the men said something about taking him to a cryogenics lab."

"Do you know who he was?"

"I think they called him Two-face."

As they walked out of the cage and into the open towards the exit, Batman asked, "Do you know who else Two-face was working with?"

"Ummm, Joker…Penguin…and…um' she thought as they made it to the door, 'Some monster, like a big green, ugly…."

As the door opened, a roar followed by a green hand shot through the frame and grabbed the Dark Knight by the throat and lifted him up as Croc walked in. "I thought I could smell a rodent!" he bellowed.

"Yuki run!" Batman instructed.

Croc threw the caped crusader into the ground as Yuki fled the scene. Croc went after her, but found his legs tied up by one of the vigilante's bat-lassos. He fell with a thud, then cut the cable with a claw and turned his rage on the dark knight. As the bat rushed to jump and land on Croc, he was knocked off to the side and into a crate by his scaly hand.

The alligator man got to his feet and picked the bat up and pinned him into the crate, "Y'know wolves have no place in Japan, and neither do bats!"

As Croc was about to bite his face out, he staggered and found a brown wolf biting and pulling at his heel. With a snarl, he turned and kicked her like a football. She whimpered and hit the ground with a yelp. Batman was then able to get a foot up and belt the monster under the jaw. He let go and shook his head, then grabbed the knight and laid him into the concrete and went for the kill.

Batman caught the face of Croc and began pushing back, as his jaws snapped repeatedly while streams of saliva oozed from his teeth. Just then, Yuki jumped on the beast's back and latched onto the flab of skin at the back of his neck and began to pull. Croc arched his head back and yelled, in which Batman withdrew a bat-arang and stuck it vertically in Croc's mouth. With a point sticking into the tongue and roof of the mouth, the enraged giant shook the wolf off before getting kicked back in the chest by the knight.

Batman kipped up and began running for the door, but noticed in the pandemonium, Yuki was running up the stairs to the rafters. "Yuki wait!" he cried out, but she did not heed.

At this point, Croc got the object out of his mouth and threw it at it's owner, who stepped off to the side and evaded it. He then shot his grapple up to the rafter that Yuki ran along and pulled himself up before the beast could get to him.

Croc then grabbed a radio found on one of the henchmen and switched it on and said, "Get your men down here, we got a rodent infestation!"

Batman got himself over the railing and tried to keep up with Yuki, but she was much faster on all fours. At the end of the pathway was a door, when the she wolf got to it, it opened as a man with an automatic rifle in his hands stood in the frame.

Yuki stopped dead in her tracks, in which the thug exacerbated with wide eyes, "Oh crap how'd she get out!?"

From behind the wolf, emerged the winged embodiment of what every criminal in Gotham fears. Landing between him and the girl, the goon took aim at the knight, who knocked it upwards before it discharged a few rounds. Batman then threw his knee into his stomach, then took hold of the back of his belt and flipped him over the railing. The thug fell about five meters and landed at Croc's feet.

Growling, the beast said to him as he got up, "You were supposed to kill him!"

"uggghhhh….. sorry…." he pled.

Croc then knocked him off to the side with total disapproval, he then radio'd, "They're heading to the roof, I'll see if I can cut them off!"

Meanwhile, the dark knight made his way up the stairs, failing to keep up with Yuki. Eventually the wolf girl made it to the door at the top and realized that her only hope in opening it, was with her opposable thumbs. Therefore she transitioned back into her sapient form and began jostling the nob, but to her dismay, it was locked.

"Fortunately for you,' came the deep voice of Batman, she then turned to see him, who then finished, 'I have the key to every door."

The caped being then sprayed the same gel on the knob and blew the components to pieces. Yuki went to go in, but the hand of her dark hero fell upon her shoulder. She looked up at him who said, "Let me go in first."

"Wait,' said Yuki, who then partially changed over, and began to smell the air, and twitch the ears, 'there are more of them…"

"….Coming up the elevator." Batman finished.

She nodded as they looked at the shaft doors, the knight then informed, "Each man is armed, we can't say here."

"How do you know that?" asked Yuki who then noticed that Batman was already heading to the next flight of stairs. As the girl followed after him she asked, "Wait, who are you anyway?"

Without looking back, the caped figure said, "Someone with a promise to keep."

She paused a moment, then continued her pace. Suddenly she heard the men making their way to the stairs. In a panic she went back to all fours and rushed passed the caped crusader who called out, "Yuki, Wait!"

But the only answer was the resonating echo of his own voice. Speaking of echoes, the bat heard the cluttering of rubber soles to concrete coming up the stair way. He withdrew his explosive gel as he made his way up.

He sprayed a streak on a stair ledge and pressed, 'Prox. Det.' on his tool. Then looking up, could see Yuki's shadows quickly ascending up the flight, therefore he used his grapple to catch up with her. As Batman pulled himself up, a sudden bellow of thunder shook the air, followed by some men screaming and swearing.

Yuki kept dashing up the flight of stairs at an unreasonable pace, she noticed that the latest door she passed was labeled 'floor 28' and wondered to herself how tall the building was.

Suddenly, at floor 30, the door slammed open, and there stood a most familiar, green, giant, scaly monster. "Where do ya think your going?!" he snarled.

She jumped out of the way of his grasp and doubled her efforts to make it to the roof. She looked behind and panicked as Croc was barreling up after her like a guerrilla. At one of the landings, which was by a window, the alligator man pounced on her and held her down.

"I don't care if they need you alive,' he growled, 'I'll enjoy feasting on your bones!"

Yuki let out a howling scream as his sharp teeth came down for her face. At this time Batman came over the railing, got on Croc's back and pulled back his forehead. He shook and twitched violently like a bucking bronco. Thrice he slammed his back into the wall, with Batman still holding on. Seeing herself free, Yuki ran away again.

Croc bent over, grabbed the dark knight, and slammed him into the glass, making it crack. The beast made a straight punch for the head, but Batman ducked as his fist broke through the window. Croc quickly chambered up his knee and belted the knight in the chest with a straight kick, sending him through the casing. The green monster then peered over the ledge and could not see his enemy. Then with a shrug, went after the wolf girl.

The exit to the roof opened swiftly as Yuki (now in human form) made her way and could see almost all of Tokyo. She then realized the colossal mistake she had made, when seeing that she had reached a dead end.

"No where to run to now!" came Croc's raspy voice.

She turned and saw his massive body come through the door, who then shut it then twisted and contorted the knob, so that it may not opened again without force. Yuki then slowly haunched over, and allowed herself to change yet again. Then with a straight tale and bristling fur, she growled and challenged him.

"Go ahead,' he mocked, 'give me your best shot!"

The she-wolf then rushed for him, lunged, and went for the throat. With lightning fast reflexes, Croc took a swipe at her, knocking her out of the air and to the side. She yelped and rolled before coming to a stop. She held herself up and felt a terrible pain that left her favoring a paw.

On the ground she saw a smear of red that sprayed itself from her shoulder. Looking down at it, found her own flesh and fur gashed open. Then setting her eyes on the man beast, found his claws dripping with scarlet. Croc then began walking to her, while licking one of his fingers.

"Hmmm, quite tasty…" he said.

Yuki then switched over to her humanoid self, so that she may clutch the wound and compress the bleeding. She scurried away from the monster until she hit the ledge of the building. Peering down she could see the cars and lights that looked like a collection of steel beetles and docile lightning bugs from that height.

Croc raised his claws again for another swipe, before Batman had glided in and hit him from behind. The scaly giant flipped over the ledge and began to plummet to the earth below. The dark knight then grabbed his hook shot and propelled it towards the periled individual, who was caught by the ankle. Croc smashed into the window adjacent to him, and was knocked out.

His weight almost pulled Batman over, but he dug in his heels and managed to secure the line before checking on Yuki.

She sat there with a grimace over her injury. Batman kneeled by her and said, "Let me see it."

She slid her reddened fingers away, in which the dark knight withdrew a roll of gauze and began binding up the laceration. When finished Yuki asked, "How do we get out of here? There's no way out!"

"There's always a way." returned the caped crusader, who began typing in a series of buttons on his forearm. Yuki watched with curiosity, wondering what he was doing. Unbeknownst to her, within the C-5, a set of headlights came on followed by the sound of a V-12 engine coming to life.

Looking down at the tethered line that held Croc's dangling body, she questioned, "Why didn't you let him fall?"

"That's not how I do things." said he.

"He tried to kill me, he tried to kill you!" she protested.

"Croc's just an animal, who belongs in a cage, not a morgue."

"An animal like me…" said the girl with a heavy frown.

"Only if you choose to be." said the knight.

Just then, the access door the roof began to pound. The gunmen were trying to break it down from the other side. Yuki stood up quickly in terror, as her protector simply arose with casualness.

Batman felt Yuki bury her head into his cape as the door broke open and the armed men came through.

"Stay calm." said the knight.

Yuki grasped the hems of his mantle and trembled as the goons raised their guns on them. One of the men then coaxed, "Ok Batman, hand the girl over nice and easy, and maybe we won't blow your head off…"

Yuki looked up at the vigilante who seemed unfazed, she only thought to herself, "Batman? Really…?"

Just then Yuki heard a slight bleeping noise coming from his gauntlet. In response, the dark knight began to back her up to the ledge. Yuki pushed back as her heels began kicking grout over the side, "What are you doing?" she whispered with alarm.

"Hang on…" returned the bat calmly.

"Hang on…what!?"

Suddenly, Batman threw a small pellet to the ground causing a thick cloud of smoke to engulf the line of fire. He quickly grabbed Yuki and dove off the the building with a barrage of bullets zipping through the smoke screen.

Yuki closed her eyes and screamed uncontrollably as she felt them free fall story after story within only a few seconds. Batman, however, impassively withdrew his grapple and shot a line to a nearby building before impact. Coming to a stop, he then gently lowered them to the sidewalk, safe and sound.

"You can let go now…" said Batman to the teen who was still holding on to him for dear life. She slowly released her grip while letting out little huffs of adrenaline, then with shaking legs, walked into the street.

To her right, she was blinded by two bright lights that roared up to her. With a shriek she braced herself with her hands. When nothing happened, she opened and eye and saw the the monstrous bat-mobile rumbling from the idle in front of her.

The canopy opened as Batman vaulted into the driver's seat and said sharply, "Get in!"

Yuki, still recovering, weakly clambered over and fell into the back seat. As she flopped inside an alert tone began chiming in from the center console. She got to her knees and pressed herself forward between the driver and passenger seat and looked out the windshield. The intersection in front of them was suddenly blocked off by two black cars.

Batman switched on the rear camera feed and found likewise with the intersection behind the bat-mobile. He turned his head to Yuki and said, "You may want to sit back."

Before the girl could speak, the dark knight hit the accelerator in which the vehicle lurched forward with no forgiveness, sending her flying back into the seat. The tires squealed and sent out a white cloud as the demonic vehicle barreled forward.

Yuki covered her eyes and braced as the bat-mobile rammed into the sedans up front, pushing them off to the side. The other vehicles behind peeled out and started the pursuit.

Yuki felt her body flatten against the backrest as her ride accelerated, she looked out the window and could see the city lights scream by with ungodly velocity. Up ahead, was a traffic jam in which Batman simply steered off into the opposite lane of traffic. Yuki saw nothing but dodging headlights and swerving metal before he took a hard right and drifted into an alley.

She was thrown hard off into the side but managed to recover. The vehicles chasing them were now numbered in four, the other two having smashed fenders.

"Doesn't this thing shoot guns or something?" asked Yuki.

Batman then hit a switch which dropped a series of caltrops behind the afterburner. One car swerved, while the other had all four tires punctured, grinding the vehicle to a halt. The two that followed were able to steer clear and continue the chase.

The car in the lead pulled up close to the Bat-mobile as the alley took them into another street. Peering into his camera, the crusader was able to see that he was about to be forced into a pit maneuver. The front fender hit the rear wheels and the bat-mobile was sent spinning sideways.

Batman quickly turned his steering column and flipped the vehicle around then stuck it in reverse. Face to face the two vehicles proceeded down the road until the dark knight was able to spin it around. Then hit the brakes, getting his car next to the other, flicked a different switch which shot out two spikes from his hub caps, and shredded the rubbers on his enemy's sedan.

The car sunk and pulled off to one side and failed to keep up as the other two blew past it. Seeing the remaining duo, Yuki said, "Any other ideas?"

Batman then hit a sequence of buttons, in which the screen on the center console said 'auto drive-on.' The winged driver then said calmly, "Stay here, I'll be back."

He then pulled up on a lever, in which he was shot out of the drivers seat and into the air, leaving Yuki behind who called out, "Where could you possibly be going?!"

Batman shot his cape out and glided overhead. Then dove straight down and smashed into the hood of the car on his right. The driver hit the brakes then pulled out his gun and started firing through the windshield. The dark knight then jumped off and flipped over the roof then shot his grapple to the other sedan and pulled himself over to it.

The driver of the first car was confused until seeing a streak of blue gel fizzing on the hood and over the windshield. Suddenly the gel exploded, blasting out the glass and rupturing multiple engine components. Thus ending the driving days of this automobile.

The final car was found with it's driver and passenger looking at each other with one saying to the other, "Where'd he go?"

Suddenly a fist broke through the driver side window and pulled the man out with a scream. Stunned at first, the passenger then tried to take control of the wheel but crashed into a building.

After this episode, Yuki saw the canopy of the Bat-mobile re-open as her dark defender sloped back into the seat. At this point the sound of sirens filled the air, as the police were hot on their heels. Batman got out of the city limits and headed for the country with flashes of red still flickering behind him.

"You're not going to fight the police are you?" asked Yuki with some worry.

Batman did not respond, he only hit the thruster in which the Bat-mobile shot forth with ungovernable fury. The high way road stretched on for a few kilometers, then Batman pulled off to the left and turned the running lights off. Leaving the unsuspecting officers to unknowingly zip past the black vehicle in the night.

He then pressed another button which brought a screen down over the windshield and displayed their surroundings in infrared night vision. The Bat-moblile was then steered off into the field and went a few leagues further, before approaching a C-5. The nose and ramp presented itself so that the car could drive up and in.

The engine was shut off, the awing opened up and the dark knight got out. As Yuki proceeded to do the same, she then noticed where the seat belts were located. She rolled her eyes and shook her head, but alas, she was safe with the Batman.