Gotc: Omg……so tired……
Ace: She's out walking 30 dogs in 103 degree weather right now for her job.
Gotc: So much dog sh-
Ace: Ratings!
Gotc: Oh fine! Sorry it's been so long folks, I've been working close to 40hrs for two weeks now and have had very little time for writing.
Ace: So shut up and get on with it then.
Gotc: Right. Squeaky!!!!
Squeaky: Squeak……(It's too hot……..)
Gotc: Ok, refer to the other chaps for the annoying disclaimer. Now for the fic!
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: Ancient Power, Modern AgeCHAPTER 10: Stakeout
"Why are we doing this again?!?!?" Flash whined.
"Because you guys insisted on coming along," Ace growled irritably as the group approached the asylum.
"So what's the plan?" Lantern asked.
"Flash is going to hide and wait here," Ace said shortly.
"I like this plan already," Lantern smirked.
"Hey!"
"Focus will you?" Ace snapped, "You'll stay here because this is the only way in or out of Arkham. Hawkgirl and Superman, I need both of you to fly as high as you can out of sight to scan the building in case there's someone we miss. J'onn, you'll need to take the place of one of the guards, and Lantern and Wonder Woman will back you up."
"And me?" Batman asked already guessing the answer.
"You and I are going inside to wait," Ace said starting up the path, " This is your territory, and you know the layout of the building better than I do."
Ace turned around to face the League. Nobody had moved at all.
"Well," he said, irritation growing in his voice, "are you just going to stand there? Your multi-colored pajamas are pretty easy to spot."
"We don't take well to being ordered around like a bunch of kids," Hawkgirl said crossing her arms in defiance.
"Too bad." Ace said sharply, "You wanted to get yourselves into this, so you'd better buckle down and go along for the ride. You're in my world now, and if you want to come out with something more than a headstone and an elementary school named after you, then you'll stop whining and do as I say. Got it?"
No one said anything.
"Good," Ace said taking the silence as a yes, "Now let's go before the sun comes up."
Batman scowled, but headed off with Ace, while Flash ran off to find a hiding place and Superman and Hawkgirl soared off out of sight.
"Well, let's go," Lantern said with a sigh, "It's going to be a looong day…."
Wonder Woman shrugged, and followed him, but stopped as she noticed J'onn wasn't moving. He was staring off into space, his orange eyes faintly glowing in the growing light.
"What's wrong J'onn?" She asked.
"Something's here," He said quietly.
"What?!" Lantern said suddenly alert, "Is it our hit man?"
"No…" J'onn said, his brow furrowing, "It's…not human."
Wonder Woman and Green Lantern exchanged quizzical looks.
"Then what is it?"
"I don't know," J'onn said, snapping out of his trance-like state and morphing into a brown suited guard, before beginning to head up to the asylum.
"Wait! Shouldn't we tell the rest of the League?" Lantern suggested
"No," J'onn said casually, "It's not here for any real reason. It's just… waiting."
"For what?" Lantern asked, without a response from J'onn.
"Well," Wonder Woman sighed, "I suppose we'll find out eventually."
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Hour after hour passed with hardly and event to tell them apart. Batman and Ace lay silently in wait high in the rafters of the maximum security ward of the asylum. Every few minutes or so, Bat man would glance over at Ace staring down at the cell that held their bait. He hadn't moved form that position since they'd arrived early that morning. There were times he wasn't even sure Ace was really there, and not just a figment of his imagination. By the time the clock struck midnight, Batman couldn't stand it.
Carefully, he stood up and stretched his aching legs and tried to get the blood flowing to some of the more cramped places.
"I'm impressed," Ace said not taking his eyes off of the two men below, "I didn't think that you would last quite that long."
"What do you mean?" Batman asked settling into a more comfortable position.
"I mean you didn't even so much as stir the dust up here until just now," Ace said, " I wasn't sure that you were even there with that outfit of yours."
"I was just thinking the same thing," Batman said, "So why Ace?"
"Excuse me?"
"J'onn said you're an Atlantean," Bataman said, "So I'm assuming that Ace isn't your real name."
"Well 'Batman' isn't yours, is it Bruce?" Ace said slyly, "And how is it that a man like you falls in love with an Amazonian princess?"
"How did you-"
"What? Know your name, or about Diana? Because I don't exactly hear you denying either."
Batman didn't know what to say.
"It's the way you act when you're around her. Like when she fell on that vial of Shade," Ace said, "You didn't even check to see if your Martian friend was alright. As for you? I never forget someone once I've met them."
"We've met?" Batman asked.
"Not that you can remember I'm sure," Ace shrugged, "A billionaire has too many thing to do than to remember every person he meets."
"That doesn't answer my question about you though," Batman pointed out, "Since you didn't deny that Ace wasn't your real name either."
"Out side of an Atlantean, there are a grand total of three people that know my name. One's stranded on a desert island the middle of the pacific, one is a traitor, and the other is dead, "Ace said with malice in his voice, "Sound like a club you'd like to join?"
"So what was it the that made Argon a traitor?"
Now it was Ace's turn to be silent. Moments of strained silence passed between them.
"What Argon did.." Ace seethed, "I will never forgive."
"Batman!" Flash's voice came in over the com-link, "There's someone heading up the road!"
"Superman, Hawkgirl, can you see him?" Batman said into the link.
"Yes," came the response, "He's in black, and moving fast. It's our guy alright."
"Shh…" Ace whispered, crouching further into the shadows.
The echo of grating metal made every muscle in Batman's body tense with anxiety. Seconds seemed like hours, before faint footsteps reached his ears. A masked figure came creeping into sight. He came up to the cell that held the former dealers and stopped before reaching into his pocket for something.
Ace never gave him the chance. He dropped down from the rafters right on top of him. The man sprawled on the floor with a painful "umph", but still managed to pull a syringe from his pocket.
"Oh no you don't," Ace said knocking it out of his hand, "One of your buddies already pulled that on us."
Batman quickly bound the man's hands and feet, then pulled mask off.
"Jonathan?" Ace said incredulously, "How'd you get demoted from dealer to hit man?"
"I screwed up a shipment," The ex-dealer snarled, "You know how it works Cooper."
"You know each other?" Batman asked.
"He's the one I bought the Shade off of." Ace replied.
"I'm surprised to see you here Cooper. Alive at least," Jonathan said, "Last I heard, Argon had sent out a hit on you and you little super pals."
"Yeah well why don't you just tell me where he's hiding so I can correct him on his mistake?" Ace said.
"Yeah right," Jonathan scoffed, "I'm no idiot Cooper. I'd take you over Argon any day."
"That so?"
Before Batman could react, Ace had grabbed the back of Jonathan's shirt and had hauled him off down the hall and out of sight.
"Guys, you need to get in here now," Batman called over the com-link before heading after Ace, "I think we're about to have a problem."
Batman followed Jonathan's cries of protest through Arkham's wards, until he reached a maintenance entrance opening up on to the cliff the asylum had been built on. Batman stopped in his tracks as he watched Ace swing a screaming Jonathan out over the edge.
"Now," Ace called over the roar of the waves below, "Lets try this again. Where's your boss?!"
"You're insane!" Jonathan screamed, "You would never-"
Ace relaxed his hold on Jonathan enough to let him slip a few inches.
"Argon and I are a lot alike you know," Ace said, "Neither one of us cares what happens to you."
Ace let go a little more and Jonathan saw just how serious he was.
"1113 Wharf avenue!!" He screamed suddenly, "The old factory on the other side of town! Please, don't drop me!"
Ace glared at Jonathan for a moment, searching his face for any kind of deception. Batman looked on as horror swept across Ace's face. The rest of the League met up with them just as Ace made the connection.
"1113 Warf avenue…, My old apartment was only ten blocks from there…"He murmured as if saying it would make it any less true, "I haven't been following Argon….He's been following me…"
Ace threw a sniveling Jonathan at the League, and slowly backed away from the cliff's edge.
"Warf avenue is on the other side of the bay," Batman said pulling up his mental map of the city, "If we hurry, we can get to the Javelin in two minutes and be at the factory in under 7."
"I don't care about the factory," Ace said, panic growing in his voice.
"Anna…" Wonder Woman said to herself as Ace's words sunk in. She and her mom lived in the same part of town.
"Well then we still need to get to the Javelin," Batman insisted, "if we're going to go anywhere. You can't walk on water."
"Who said anything about walking?" Ace said turning his head towards the League.
"Ace, wait-"
"Fastest way between two points is a straight line."
Ace gave them no time to react, before running and taking and arching dive off of the edge of the cliff.
"Ace!!"
Suddenly an ear-splitting roar shook the night air around them as a wall of ebony scales boiled up from the sea below. Leathery wings beat the air with a massive downdraft, forcing the League against the side of the asylum as it disappeared into the night.
Disbelief accompanied the silence that followed the stunned question.
"Was that…a dragon?"
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Gotc: Thank god it's done. Ok long chap for you guys, hope it's enough to tide you over til my next post! Later!! Remember to R&R!!