Disclaimer: I don't own Batman the Animated Series.
Batman
"Dent." I hiss to my earpiece. My eyes stay locked on the partially masked man.
"Where?" Nightwing asks quickly.
"Entrance, extreme right." I relay.
Brief silence. Then "We see him. What do we do?"
"Nothing for now. We can't fight him without causing a scene." I say. "Knowing Two-Face, he'll probably be leading us somewhere soon enough anyways."
"If you say so." Nightwing says uncertainly.
I take my hand away from my earpiece and focus back on Two-Face. He is talking to some random partygoers in the corner. As if sensing my gaze he turns his head and glances side long at my hiding place. He turns back a moment later when one of his companions speaks up.
He obviously knows I'm here. I have no choice but to wait for him to make the first move.
And so, I settle into my perch, and watch.
Gotham Tonight
"Hello folks! Once again it's time for your favorite show! Where we try to kil- err, I mean where we watch our local heroes fight it out with some of Gotham's top villains!" The Joker says with his trademark grin plastered on his face.
"Tonight we are going party crashing at the Iceberg Lounge, and by "we" I of course mean Batman and his little sidekicks." Joker snickers. "Oh, and what a party it shall be! Little do our flying friends know that there are EMP emitters planted all around the building. Which I will be activating to stop them from getting any outside help." The clown gives a lopsided grin as he holds up a remote with a big red button on it. "On the count of three. One... Three!" Joker jams his finger down on the button.
A small screen next to Joker lights up showing the inside of the darkened Iceberg Lounge. "Time for some action everybody! AHAHAHAHA!"
Batman
I keep my eyes trained on the supervillain until I am interrupted by a call from Alfred.
"Master Bruce!"
"What is it Alfred?"
"The show has started! Joker said something abou-" Alfred's voice is cut off abruptly along with all the lights. Someone screams.
"Just calm down folks." Cobblepot says calmly, stepping up onto a table. "This is all part of tonight's entertainment!" The floor below everyone distorts slightly before clearing. Despite that it had seemed to be completely normal wood, it was in truth reinforced glass, assisted by mirrors to resemble wood. "This is going to be a special event, shown live on Gotham Tonight! Featuring your truly!" Cobblepot takes a bow as some of his guests gasp. "I shall be going now. My foe shall enter the arena in a minute or two." The short man waddles out of the room in a manner befitting his villain name.
'That probably means me.' I think to myself. 'He's to vain to fight Nightwing or Batgirl.' I almost try to use my earpiece before remembering the EMP. The only things working seem to be the arena below us and the previously unnoticeable cameras mounted everywhere.
"BANG!" A loud gunshot splits the air, interrupting my thoughts. I look across the room to see Batgirl and Nighwing chasing Two-Face down a hallway and out of the room.
I leap off my perch and grip the edges of my cloak. I glide down to the entrance of the hallway, but it is sealed off with bars before I can go on.
"Come now Batman, were you really planning on abandoning our match? I'm offended." Cobblepot's snarky voice sounds from over the speakers. Looking down through the glass I can see him standing on a pillar at one end of an arena situated below us. I notice how small he looks, the arena must be rather large.
I ignore his taunt and take out acid capsules from my belt. I'm about to break them open and melt the bars when Cobblepot stops me.
"If you don't want to fight me Batman, that's fine, but the lives of everyone else here are forfeit!" The Penguin laughs and I grimace. I notice small red lights turning on all around the room. I put the capsules away.
"This way Bats." A guard says, motioning for me to follow. I comply and notice two more guards fall in behind me. I'm so distracted that I don't notice one of the guests slipping off into another hallway.
Growling quietly, I consider my battle plan.
Batgirl
We were watching Two-Face when he suddenly whipped out a pair of pistols and fired a shot at us. We rushed after him and got cut off from Batman, and that's not even the bad part.
Currently we are pinned down behind a few steel barrels in what would seem to be a delivery area. Gunshots echo all around us, provided by Two-Face and his squad of goons that surprised us when we first entered the room.
"It's times like this when I miss my bullet-proof teammates." Nightwing mutters from beside me before pulling out a freeze disk and hurling it over the top of our cover.
"I'm sorry for not being mostly metal, an alien, able to turn into armored dinosaurs, or able to use dark magic." I say dryly.
"You know I didn't mean it like that." He sighs. "I have nothing against you or your abilities. I guess I just miss my team." Nightwing chucks another disk.
"It's only been three days!" I say in exasperation. I toss freeze pellets around the side of our shield and hit a few thugs that had been sneaking around to try and catch us off-guard.
"You can't hide back there forever!" Two-Face calls from across the room.
"Just watch us!" Nightwing calls back. Turning back to me he says "Well excuse me for getting homesick."
"May I remind you that Gotham is your home?" I say, raising an eyebrow.
"May I remind you that Gotham was my home?" He replies, mimicking my raised eyebrow. "I have a new home. Titan's Tower."
I sigh. "I guess people do move on." We stop talking for a few seconds as we beat back some thugs. As soon as we are in relative safety (as safe as one can be with bullets raining down on you) I speak up, saying "We miss you sometimes you know. Me and Bruce."
"Didn't think he had enough of a heart to care."
I scowl. "We both know very well that he cares about all of us. He's just... Overbearing." I admit.
Nightwing grins. "You got that right, the guy's a jerk. I suppose you're also right about his care. I just have a tendency to portray him in the worst possible light."
I nod. "As long as you know." I pull out a batarang. "Now let's beat some scum!"
He grins, pulling out a birdarang to match me. "With pleasure."
From across the room we hear yelling. The gunfire is suddenly turned away from our position. Not questioning our good fortune, we leap over our barrels and hurl our respective boomerangs at separate thugs. We knock the weapons out of their hands and attract their attention. The two of them rush at us while all the others seem to be trying to shoot something behind them.
Nightwing blocks a punch and kicks his thug in the chest before finishing with an overhead smash. I, on the other hand, didn't bother to wait for my foe to strike first. I lunge a meter forward and knock him out with a single punch.
"Duck!" A female voice calls out. Me and Nighwing drop to the floor as a pair of shots are fired, hitting the spots where our heads had been a moment before.
Our assailant, Two-Face, levels his guns at our prone forms and fires. We roll out of the way and pull out batarangs and birdarangs as we get to our feet.
"Game over Two-Face." Nightwing shouts. "Surrender, and maybe we won't beat the good side of your face to match the bad!"
"No can do birdy. I'm needed to make sure the show keeps running, so I'll have to pass up your offer." Two-Face replies in his raspy voice. He presses the triggers of his pistols and we lunge out of the way. Steadying ourselves, we return fire with a stream of projectiles. Dent blasts our attacks out of the air.
"Having trouble there Two-Face? Perhaps you just need to be whipped into shape!" A whip follows the voice coming from behind Two-Face. One of the pistols are knocked from the villain's hands.
Two-Face backs up to a truck parked in the loading area, keeping his remaining weapon steady. "I'll be taking my leave now. I've done what I came to do." He quickly raises his pistol and shoots a shelf just beside us, causing it's contents to topple on top of us. He jumps into the truck and slams the gas pedal. The heavy vehicle goes rocketing out of the building.
"I hear he never did handle pressure well." Says our rescuer, stepping out of the shadows. "Or maybe he just isn't a cat person?" Catwoman jokes, giving us a sly smile.
Batman
I'm shown to a small door somewhere in the basement. Looking around I can see numerous pipes and dials.
"Ladies and gentlemen, now entering the arena, my fearsome opponent! The one, the only, Batman!" Penguin cackles as the doors opens and I'm pushed in.
Regaining my balance, I study the arena. The floor is icy, as are the pillars that start to appear about halfway to Penguin, gradually get higher as they approach his side of the room. Between the pillars the ice seems to be cracking. It would be unwise to risk treading there unless completely necessary.
Penguin himself stands on a tall, wide platform at the other end of the room. An umbrella stand next to him holds several of the weaponized rain blockers.
"Do your best Batman, we're performing live! En garde!" The small man hefts one of the umbrellas and unleashes a hail of bullets at me.
I immediately start running towards the pillars in a zigzag pattern, dodging the deadly projectiles. Snapping off a batarang at my foe, I take cover behind one of the first pillars.
The batarang is deflected by the tip of Penguin's umbrella as he raises it in defense. He quickly exchanges his umbrella for a different one. Hefting the new weapon over his shoulder he aims down at me and fires.
The front of the umbrella comes flying down at me. I dive out of the way and pull up my cloak as a shield. The umbrella front impacts the ice where I had just been crouching and explodes. The heat scorchs me slightly, but the main threat, shrapnel, is blocked by my special cloak.
"Just going to cower down there Batman? I'm disappointed. I was expecting at least a little fight out of you." Penguin teases as he pulls back out his original umbrella gun.
"It's not called cowering, it's called intelligence." I counter. "Something you seem to lack."
"Why you!" Penguin hisses, and once again starts shooting at me. "I'll blast a million little holes into you!"
"You need to be able to aim to do that." I taunt, putting a plan into action. "I doubt you could hit the side of a barn from three feet away."
"Gah!' He growls. His shots become more erratic as he tries to hit my agile form. I duck, dodge and weave until I finally hear the sound I was waiting for.
"Clink."
Chapter 10 complete.