Chapter 10: Battle on Infinity Island.
It had been a month since Tim and Bruce patched up things between them. Now they could focus on the more immediate problem: Ra's Al Ghul and the League of Assassins but they were harder to track and since last month, Bruce and Tim were unable to track Ra's despite asking help from Question albeit reluctantly from Bruce's side until last week when they found something, something really strange.
Flashback,
A week ago,
Bruce and Tim were dressed in similar looking grey spandex and a black mask. It was Bruce's idea because he thought that if this warehouse lead was true and this was related to League of Assassins, then they might want to stay hidden and dressed as Batman and Nightwing would be the worst idea.
Bruce took out a small spherical device and threw it on a security camera before stepping out in the open of a dark warehouse.
Tim had escrima sticks behind his back and some explosives in his utility belt. Following Bruce's instruction, he quickly moved from behind the door of the warehouse and into the open. He took out a torch and started looking around for weapons, files, USBs, anything but there was no such luck. He checked all the rooms while Bruce looked around in the living room but there was nothing to be found. The duo was just exiting the warehouse until they heard a beep.
Tim looked towards Bruce who signaled him to scatter and search. Bruce took the rooms and practically ravaged the rooms searching for that beeping sound and suddenly it stopped and from a room came out a man. He was badly injured, his leg was twisted and broken and he was limping and whole of his face was covered in bruises and cuts. He wore some sort of robe which was now torn to shreds leaving the man naked if it weren't for his undergarments.
"Help me," The man muttered as he limped towards Bruce and Tim but collapsed on the ground due to his extensive injuries. Tim moved to help him but Bruce's firm hand on his shoulder told him not to. Tim then eyed Bruce and the look on his mentor's face made him step back.
Bruce activated his voice modulator.
"According to my lead, this is a secret warehouse for a global terrorist organization but you don't like look someone who would be a part of it, Who are you?" Bruce questioned the injured man in his disguised voice. He was aware that he was taking a risk by revealing anything to this potential threat but this was a risk worth taking but the man wouldn't reply so Bruce decided to bait him.
"You tell me what I want to know and I can give you this medical kit," Bruce said as he took out his own medical kit, "It is your choice," Bruce said carefully.
The man looked down on the floor and he trembled. Bruce smirked because he knew that the man would die if he didn't take some help. From his broken expression, Bruce saw desperation and his resolve strengthened. The man was definitely contemplating using the medical kit.
The man sighed, Bruce won.
"I am a member of an organization that was committed to destroying the League of Assassins," The man said as he breathed. He had to tell his story fast or he would die.
"Was?" Bruce pushed further. He had to know everything.
"This organization was wiped out by Ra's Al Ghul and I was the last member of it. Four months ago, I learned from a friend that Ra's Al Ghul himself was in Gotham and was in this warehouse alone so I planned to kill him and so I started doing that. It was all going really well. I had everything planned out, his schedule, how long he would stay and even information on their HQ, Infinity Island but one night, Ra's abducted me and beat me, tortured me and kept me prisoner for weeks until he left me and since then, I have been kept here," The man said his story and also cried, probably because of the painful memories brought back.
"You tell me where that information is and I can get the best doctors to help you and I can offer you protection from Ra's", Bruce pushed his luck
"No, he will kill me," The man said while breathing heavily as if speaking was taking his breathe away.
Bruce growled and took the man's arm and twisted it and yelled, "WHERE IS THAT INFO!"
The man cried," Ok Stop! I will tell you. It is in a box in my room. The password is 4587," Bruce let the man's hand go who clutched it and sighed with relief.
Meanwhile Tim went to retrieve the files and came back a few moments later.
Bruce took the files from Tim and checked it for any bugs, he could never be too careful with Ra's. He then checked the file, turned pages. This was everything the man said it contained but he knew that everything was useless, except probably one thing: plans for League Headquarters, Infinity Island.
"Tim drop this scumbag to GCPD and meet me at the base," Bruce said cryptically as he opened the door and deployed the grapple gun and flew away.
'Wow, Thirty years of working with him and he still is so cryptic', Tim thought as he picked up the man and prepared to drop him to GCPD as he took out his own grapple gun and shot it and flew.
An hour later,
Tim had just dropped the man at the GCPD and came back to Wayne Manor as fast as he could. He was sure that Bruce had figured everything out: attack plans, blueprints etc, He stepped on to the secret elevator that led to the Batcave underground and saw Bruce on the Batcomputer, downloading the files into digital data.
"Well I am here," Tim announced and Bruce only nodded.
"So are we going to do this," Tim said as he came up to the Batcomputer and stood beside Bruce.
"Once the floor plans are downloaded and digitized on the mainframe, I will brief you about my plans," Bruce said as he moved from the computer and took out some tablets and ate them.
"Is all this giving you a headache?" Tim asked, amused.
Bruce only growled in response.
Bruce never liked to be reminded that he was getting old. It would always make him think that one day, his age would result in someone's death, his age would slow him and someone would die.
He then looked at the computer, the data digitization was complete.
"Come on," Bruce called Tim as he opened the blueprints of Infinity Island.
Bruce clicked on a box, "This is the personal chambers of Ra's Al Ghul, we can assume that anything on Ra's plans for Gotham would either be kept here," Bruce then clicked another box, "Or at this place, according to the files, this is a library where most of the history books about Ra's and League of Assassins. In these books, there could be some plan about Gotham or some book where Ra's did something terrible and he wants to recreate it."
"Ok, we know where to attack but how do we penetrate a fortress of deadliest assassins in the world?" Tim asked.
"We knock," Bruce smirked but it didn't reassure Tim.
Infinity Island
"Master! Everything is going according to the way you have planned. We were successful in putting the asset on location and the Bat and the brat took the bait," An assassin reported to Ra's who had his back turned and was meditating, legs and hands folded, eyes closed.
"Well, we should be expecting them till midnight at least so properly greet them," Ra's said, calmly, eyes still closed.
"Yes, master!" The assassin bowed down and exited Ra's chamber.
When the assassin left, Ra's stood up and went to a grand mirror in his room and said, "Activate Voice command."
The mirror mechanically purred and responded, "Active".
"Open mirror," Ra's responded and the mirror opened up, revealing a holographic computer.
It had plans for Gotham City, he clicked the box labeled 'City Hall' and the floor plans for the City Hall appeared on screen.
Ra's smirked and soon his smirk evolved into laughter.
A few miles from Infinity Island,
Batman and Nightwing were in the Bat-plane and were approximately three miles from the HQ of League of Assassins.
"You know that even with your plan to attack head on, I am still not convinced, we will be able to get inside without being dead or barely alive," Tim said, he was worried whether they would even survive this ordeal.
"Ra's wouldn't be expecting us so we have an element of surprise," Bruce said as he steered the Bat-plane to avoid the hailstorm.
"Are we expecting back up?" Tim asked in curiosity
"No" Bruce replied casually.
Tim only grumbled in response and sat back with an annoyed look while Bruce smirked in anticipation.
There was no further conversation.
Infinity Island, five minutes later.
"Master! The Bats are nearing our territory," The assassin said, panicking.
"Activate the aerial defenses and have someone ready my suit," Ra's said calmly as the assassin bowed down and ran out of the personal chambers to carry out his orders.
Outside Infinity Island,
The Bat-plane was almost at the HQ until missiles started coming out of nowhere.
"There are missiles heading our way," Tim said, worried.
"Good command of the obvious," Bruce said as he tried to steer clear of the three missiles but the missiles kept following them.
"They have locked on to us," Tim stated the obvious, again as he took out a tablet from his seat and started hacking the missiles.
"They have firewalls built inside them so I can't hack them, that means no changing their trajectory," Tim was frustrated.
Bruce only smirked as he pressed a button and released four missiles out of the Bat-plane locking his missiles on to the enemy missiles while trying to stay ahead of the enemy missiles.
"Could have done that earlier," Tim complained but he felt a bit relaxed but a question popped into his mind, "Where did these even come from?"
"Ra's knows we are coming so it is best to lose the plane," Bruce said as he prepared to eject them both out of the plane.
Tim was not even going to say anything, he just prepared himself for the worst that would come along.
Bruce pushed the eject button and they were ejected out of the plane and their seats and they were in air and activated their jetpacks and started flying toward Infinity Island.
A few minutes later, they were levitating above the Infinity Island.
"Why are we not landing," Tim asked Bruce who seemed to be scanning his surroundings as the 'eyes' of his armor were glowing red.
"Did you not study the blueprints," Bruce asked and Tim's only reply was a sheepish grin and a hand rubbing the backside of his head in embarrassment while Bruce let out an exasperated sigh.
"Once we land, three machine guns will come out of the floor and charge at us while simultaneously alerting Ra's Al Ghul and his men of our arrival and according to my calculations, they will be on top of us in a minute and even if we fly into the gates undetected, there are DNA scanners all around the place and if it detects any foreigners, a system of high tech lasers will make short work of us," Bruce explained the layout of the place.
"What is stopping any of their traps from shooting us from the sky like a bunch of pigeons," Tim questioned.
"We are levitating above the altitude level that would alert or activate their traps", Batman said.
"Nightwing," Batman looked at his comrade and said, "I will activate their traps, they will all assemble here and I will distract them and meanwhile, you find an entrance and get inside the base and get all the information about anything regarding Gotham and meet me in a secure location," Batman gave him the instructions and fired a batarang on the floor and it was destroyed by the machine guns inside the floor.
Sirens began ringing and Nightwing took this as his cue to leave and he activated his jetpacks and flew behind the palace to find a back entrance.
In a few minutes, all of the members of the League of Assassins including Ra's were there and Batman powered down his jetpack and came down.
"Detective, looks like old age has gotten to you," Ra's said and smirked.
"Attack!" Ra's yelled as all of his assassins charged forward and attacked Batman.
Batman kick an assassin in the stomach but someone punched him from behind and kicked him in the back causing Batman to fall down but he detonated a smoke bomb and jumped to a pillar and threw and explosive batarang at the assassins that were assembled causing an explosion that threw a lot of them off balance and jumped down to take them out. Midst all that fight, he could only hope that Nightwing was doing well on his own side.
Tim was inside the base but he had to use an explosive to make an entrance from the backside. He was scouting for any information regarding plans for Gotham's destruction. He had even sent a spy drone to already look ahead but he had not received a feedback.
While he was looking for that, he found a room. Tim opened the room which turned out be the personal chambers of Ra's Al Ghul himself.
It was a lot bigger than he had imagined. There were various portraits of the previous title holders of Ra's Al Ghul and surprisingly there was one of Genghis Khan as well. There were several books that Tim thought would contain the exploits of the League of Assassins. Who knew Ra's was a bookworm. There were swords, knives and daggers on the wall. It seemed like an armory more than a room but it was room of Ra's Al Ghul.
He then snapped himself out of these thoughts and began searching for any plans but he was having no such luck. Suddenly Bruce's voice rang through, "Have you found anything yet?" Tim could even hear some loud indecipherable shouts.
"It is a big room, I need more time," Tim said. He was doing everything he can but he was only a human.
Bruce, on the other hand was doing well. It was either that or Ra's had told them to hold their punches as Bruce might be needed for something else, he suspected that it was the latter.
He kicked an assassin in the face and jumped high from an assassin's back. He had to get to Ra's and take the fight directly to him.
"Ra's! I am coming for you!" Bruce cried as he charged through assassins to get to his mortal enemy.
Bruce finally got to him. Now it was time for Plan B. Stall Ra's Al Ghul to buy Tim some time.
"Ah! No matter how old you get, you still have the same power that you had in your prime," Ra's said in a true admiration of his energy.
"What are your plans for Gotham?" Bruce asked.
"Do you take me for a fool?" Ra's shot back.
"Your own child, Daniel lives in Gotham and you are willing to destroy it even them," Bruce tried to reason with Ra's but he was trying to stall him. He had to buy Tim more time.
Tim was barely getting anything done. He had even recalled the drone back to his person and tasked him to scout the books but even them it would take them a lot of time until his drone flew up to him and said, "Sir, I have encountered an electronic interference in a particular area of the chamber."
Tim instructed the drone to take him to that place.
It was the shelf that contained scrolls but they weren't conducting any electronic interference.
"You sure your scanners are accurate, these are just scrolls," Tim asked the drone.
"There is something beneath these scrolls that is dampening my scanners," The drone said.
Tim then took the scrolls away and destroyed the wooden shelf but there was only a wooden wall. Tim took out a few explosive devices and planted them on a wall and stepped a little far from the wall.
KABOOOM! There was an explosion and what Tim saw, he was shocked to say the least. There was a computer screen that had various plans and one of them was titled 'Gotham'. He clicked that plan box and saw the Gotham city structure, floor plans for every important building, water and sewage system and even the City Hall and even the Mayor's office but there was something more, the box titled 'City Hall', it was highlighted with a red marker on it and as if epiphany struck him. He realized what Ra's Al Ghul was planning. He had to tell Bruce now and with his top speed, he ran.
Bruce was still talking to Ra's Al Ghul but time was running out.
"Detective, I have always admired your persistence and your drive to save Gotham and that fire has protected Gotham but today it all ends," Ra's said as he took out his sword and drew it on Bruce who gripped it and punched Ra's but he stepped sideways and took the sword from Bruce and tried pushed it inside his leg but instead received a kick on his face and a punch on his face but Ra's reacted by jumping back and again charged towards Bruce again as the latter fired a batarang at him but it was swept off by Ra's sword. Bruce charged in with a punch but Ra's dodged it and put the sword inside Bruce's chest as he screamed in agony, "AAAHHH!"
Bruce collapsed with the sword still inside his chest but he mustered up the courage and stood up.
"I knew of your plan all along because it was I, who set in motion. I planted the asset in the warehouse and I gave you the plans for my home," Ra's struck Bruce with the realization and it all finally started to make sense. The person in the warehouse, the plans, everything was a part of Ra's plan and suddenly Tim came from behind. He looked flushed and tired.
"He plans to destroy the Gotham City Hall!" Tim screamed from behind. Bruce was terrified, now.
"Correction, I don't plan to, I already have destroyed the City Hall. I called you here so that I could attack Gotham City Hall but I told them to continue destroying everything till Gotham remains no more," Ra's revealed his plans and hearing this, Bruce fell down. This was bad.
"Go back to Gotham. The people need you," Ra's said as he turned away and went inside his base along with his army leaving Bruce and Tim alone on the battlefield.
Bruce rose, they had to get back to Gotham, assuming it wasn't destroyed.