Disclaimer: I don't claim any sort of ownership of Young Justice
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Previously in A Lone Bird
"I don't know, you haven't escaped from it yet" he said mockingly. Bane glared at him.
"I just haven't tried" he replied beginning to pump Venom through the tube attached to his head. Karasu smirked beneath his mask. Perfect.
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Chapter 10
Bane's muscles grew larger and he grabbed a hold of the cage, ignoring the electricity. The man pulled it over himself and threw it at Karasu who ducked down narrowly avoiding the cumbersome projectile. He stood and glanced back at the wall the cage had destroyed with raised eyebrows then turned back to Bane.
"Someone's touchy" the bird commented. Bane snarled in response.
"What? Not up to talking to me today?" Karasu asked the enraged villain.
"You've insulted me niño, I don't take kindly to that" Bane said.
"Oh, and how did I do that?" Karasu asked smirking beneath his mask. If Bane was angry enough he might act more recklessly. As long as the fight stayed in the building Karasu had an advantage – slim but there. Bane couldn't move as well in the confined space and Karasu had some surprises set up.
"Implying that I could not escape your little trap" Bane replied with disdain.
"I don't know, you just kind of broke out; you used brute force – not intelligence" Karasu chided.
"I don't need intelligence to deal with the likes of you" Bane stated charging toward the bird. Karasu raised an eyebrow.
"Are you insulting me now?" he asked calmly – hoping to infuriate the man further – while jumping out of Bane's way. It was working so far since the man had simply charged with no intent other than to run him over – which was easy enough to dodge for the acrobat. Bane stepped back through the hole he had just made in the wall.
"You know, I think I'm gonna have to bill you for all of this damage" Karasu said observing the two large holes.
"I'll have it fixed when I take the building" Bane said.
"You still going on about that?" Karasu asked in an amused tone.
Bane shot forward and feigned a right hook only to grab Karasu's arm and sling him down the hall. The acrobat rolled a little ways before smacking into the far wall.
"Ok, oww" Karasu muttered picking himself off the ground in time to dodge Bane's next charge. The villain went right through the wall again. "Really?" Karasu exclaimed gesturing at the newest hole. Stupid flimsy office building walls. Bane chuckled while brushing some of the rubble off himself.
"Are you ready to give up?" Bane asked condescendingly. "You are at a disadvantage in strength."
"You forget, this is my house" Karasu retorted as a trapdoor opened beneath him and he slipped out of sight. Bane moved to look through the opening and caught a glimpse of the acrobat as he ran through the hall a floor below.
"Clever niño" he said heading down the hall – the hole was too small for him to fit through and trying to break through only to become stuck in the floor would be rather embarrassing.
So stairs it was.
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(With Karasu)
"Let's see, he'll probably come down the stairs so that gives me a little time" Karasu muttered to himself as he filled a syringe with his anti-Venom serum. "There's no way I'm going to be able to just walk up to him and just stab him with a needle, so I'll have to be creative."
Karasu looked up and noticed that he had run into his makeshift gym. He grinned.
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(With Bane)
Bane opened the door to the stairwell and walked into the hall.
"Now where did you go?" he wondered heading in the direction Karasu had taken off in. Bane looked up as he entered a part of the building that had been hollowed out and had ropes and bars hanging from different heights along with some training equipment on the ground level.
Bane looked around; he knew the boy was here. He could feel it.
"Niño" he called. He whipped his head to the side at the sound of rustling cloth and saw a rope near the ground sway. Bane's eyes narrowed and he looked up.
He was just in time to see Karasu land on his shoulder and shove a needle into his neck. The acrobat sprang back up grabbing hold of a rope and using it to gain momentum. He swung a few times and released letting himself fly through the air. Karasu flipped three times before landing in the middle of the room.
Bane stood still for a moment trying to see how whatever it was that was in the syringe would affect him. Thirty seconds later nothing had happened.
"Your drug didn't work" he stated, a smirk forming on his face. Karasu raised an eyebrow.
"How would you know? Any idea of what it does?" he retorted.
"Probably a sedative" Bane replied with a smug look. Karasu shrugged.
"Whatever you want to think" he said with a smirk.
Bane glared and charged forward. The acrobat slipped under his legs and jumped up kicking him from behind and causing him to stumble forward a couple of steps. Karasu landed and back flipped out of the larger man's range.
If he could stay out of range he might just win this. All he needed to do was wait it out.
The fight, if you could call it one, went on like that for awhile with Bane trying to hit Karasu and the bird dodging each blow – some of them just barely – while attempting to stay out of the range of Bane's fists. Suddenly Bane's muscles shrunk back to their normal size. He stopped fighting with a confused look on his face.
"Would you look at that – three minutes exactly" Karasu commented with a smirk.
"What did you do niño?" Bane demanded clinching the fist of the hand he had been staring at.
"Oh nothing – just came up with a little concoction that makes your Venom useless" Karasu replied casually.
"No matter, it won't affect the outcome of this fight" the villain sneered.
"On the contrary, now my hits will actually damage you since you don't have all of the muscle to protect you anymore" Karasu said.
"It will not matter" Bane replied.
"Oh, shall I up the difficulty then? How do you feel about fighting in the dark?" Karasu asked. He was used to the darkness himself and knew the layout of this room well enough to navigate with no light.
"Lights, off" Karasu called without giving Bane a chance to answer.
The entire room went dark, the only light coming in thin streams from the cracks in the boarded up windows.
Bane looked around trying to find the acrobat in the darkness. It was a fruitless effort that he soon abandoned. The villain closed his eyes and concentrated on what he could hear.
There was a swish of material to his left then a light footstep directly in front of him. Bane thrust his arm forward toward the sound.
Nothing.
"What's wrong Bane, didn't you want to fight?" the bird asked – his voice seemingly coming from everywhere at once.
Bane jumped slightly when he felt a puff of air on the back of his neck. He swung around, but the bird was gone. He heard a blade being unsheathed.
"Did you know that another word for bane is pest? Fitting I'd say" Karasu's said, his voice taking on a more malevolent edge as it again came from seemingly every direction.
Bane heard the creaking sound given off by a rope when weight is applied to it and tensed in preparation. He felt the wind as Karasu swung past him.
He struck out again but, like before, hit nothing.
He heard movement behind him just before something hard impacted the back of his head, effectively knocking him out before he could react properly.
"Lights, on" Karasu said. The lights flickered back into existence as Karasu re-sheathed his dagger. He had used the flat of the blade to hit Bane's head while swinging at him from behind. Momentum adds a lot of power to a strike.
"Well…that's that" he said observing Bane's unconscious form. He grabbed the man's leg and started dragging him through the building. Too bad he didn't have to go down any staircases…
Karasu froze when he reached the garage.
Almost every single trap had been sprung – leading him to believe that this is where Bane broke in at – and his motorcycle was on its side near the far wall. He dropped Bane's leg and moved forward stiffly.
Karasu bit his bottom lip noticing the dents and scratches across the sleek bike.
"My baby" he whispered miserably. Then his mood took a 180 and he was angry.
"Oh, he's gonna pay for this" he hissed. Karasu pulled the bike upright and got a long chain attaching one end to the back of his motorcycle and the other to Bane's leg.
"C'mon Baney-Boy, let's go for a ride" he muttered darkly, starting the bike.
He dragged Bane through the alleys – maybe hitting more bumps and slinging the unconscious villain into more walls and poles than was really necessary - to the more populated part of Gotham. Once he got there he painstakingly hoisted the unconscious villain up to the top of a building and tied him to the tallest point.
Karasu pulled out his dagger and severed the tube Bane used for his Venom.
"Don't want you waking up and breaking out of here" he said to the unresponsive man. He smiled creepily and patted the man on the head.
"Be a good boy now" he said pulling out a bunch of fireworks from… somewhere. He set them up so one would go off every few minutes. Karasu scattered a bunch of red feathers around the area. He turned to survey the setup before nodding, lighting the first firework – which would cause a chain reaction lighting all of the others – and disappearing into the shadows.
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(15 minutes later – Mt. Justice)
A blinking icon showed up on the monitor where Batman was working alerting him to a breaking story in Gotham. He clicked on it and a newsfeed was pulled up.
"I'm reporting from downtown Gotham where a man was found tied to the top of a building and surrounded by red feathers while illegal fireworks went off every few minutes with seemingly no one there to light them" the reporter said.
"A noise complaint was issued with the Gotham PD which is how the man –" the woman stopped putting her hand up to her ear. "I have just been informed that the man has been identified as Bane, a villain who has been seen in the area lately. It seems that the police have taken him into custody" she continued.
Batman cut the feed. He had no reason to respond - the situation was obviously under control.
Bane must have done something pretty bad for Karasu to go through so much trouble to have him taken into custody.
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(Gotham – Karasu's garage)
Karasu was buffing out the last of the dents on his motorcycle. All that was left to do was cover the scratches in the paint. He rubbed his hand across the bike.
"I promise I won't let something like this happen again" he murmured in a soothing tone.
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I just had to add that last bit
Ha ha! It's not late! Accomplishment~
News on the scarf – some people want it to stay, others want it to go, and some have proposed a compromise – seeing as the feathers are important to his character the scarf would go, but feathers will be added to another feature of his costume. Whether that be something pre-existing (like one of his belts or his gloves or something) or new (jordylilly777 suggested a cape with feathers on the inside)
Tell me what'cha think – stay, go, compromise? If this is happening then it's likely to be soon so I need to know
BYE!