Batman and Robin came home early from patrol that night. It had been a fairly routine run, oddly quiet, but not entirely unexpected with all of the 'big names' safely locked up in Arkham. Although neither hero would have counted on them staying there much longer, Arkham suffered from a 'revolving door complex'.
"It's only 2am!" Tim said cheerfully, hopping out of the Batmobile, "And no-one's injured, no big battles, we're home early, it's a going to be a good day. I can get my homework done before I go to bed."
"You should get some sleep," Batman said, somehow already having managed to slip behind the computer.
Tim snorted, "Riiiiiiiight, like I could ever fall asleep anymore before 3, come on Bruce you know better than that. My internal clock's all wac-a-doodle."
Bruce said nothing as he methodically began to update files, but he didn't contradict his charge either.
Alfred came down the stairwell, "Welcome back Master Bruce, Master Timothy, I see that you will not be requiring my services this evening."
"Not unless you've got a new remedy for papercuts," Tim said, holding up his finger with a grin.
Alfred shook his head, "I'm afraid you're going to have to suffer in silence my boy."
"Ah well, such is the life," Robin shrugged.
"That could get infected," Batman said absently.
Tim rolled his eyes, "And you could smile, I'd say the chances are about the same." Tim bounced over to the computer, "And what could you possibly be updating? There was nobody big, not even the regular crime bosses, just the every evening common Gotham scum."
Batman shut the file down quickly, "I'm temporarily suspending a case."
"A case? What case? I didn't know you had another case." Time was intrigued.
Batman shrugged off the cowl, "Personal case, but at this point Luthor and the League need to take precedence. Alfred, is Kayla still awake? I need to let her know."
Tim laughed, "Bruce it's two in the morning, you wake her up and she'll kill you, right Alfred."
They both looked to the butler who had a slightly stunned look on his face, "Master Bruce, may I assume from your comment that you are unaware of Miss Kayla's nightly actives?"
"She's out" it was neither a question nor a comment that poured from Batman's mouth, just a growl.
The butler checked his watch with a brief glow of anger flashing in his own eyes, "She should be home within the half-hour sir. I suggest we wait to meet her."
"Alfred," Tim was concerned, "Where is she?"
"Currently she's being a Wayne, in under thirty minutes, she'll be in trouble." Alfred said curtly, "provided of course that she's in any state to understand, which if she's true to form, is unlikely."
The three men made their way up to the manor as Alfred explained, "Miss Kayla came to me a few days ago and expressed an interest in joining 'the party scene' as she called it. I told her to take the matter up with you Master Bruce; she assured me that she had so I did not interfere." Alfred shrugged his shoulders, "she had not lied to be before and I saw no reason to bother you. I'm surprise you didn't see her in the Gotham Gazette yesterday morning; there was a whole article on her exploits."
"Tim takes the LifeStyle section." Bruce said bluntly.
The boy wonder shook his head as they left the cave, "It was missing yesterday, I assumed you had it." His eyes sparkled slightly, "Props to her though for fooling the world's best detective."
The girl in question promptly stumbled through the mansion's front door yelling over her shoulder, "S'Night boys, go'way, my dad'll kills you," then bursting into giggles as she sank to the carpet, "Hellllllllllooooooooo," she sang upon spotting the trio.
Alfred went over to help the girl up but Bruce stopped him, "Where were you?"
Kayla tried to think about it, "uuhhhhhhh, the places with the purple flamingo, s'then the zoo and the silly monkeyshs and maybe there was three, sheven, ten, at lot of places," she said giving up. Staring up at her father she said, "You look all shquinty, angry, squishy, batty, glare, creepy man, that's silly," she giggled again, "I'm helping." She said getting to her feet and falling towards Bruce, who instinctively caught her.
"Squishy?" Tim asked under his breath trying not to laugh at the sight of the Batman trying to hold up a drunk teenaged girl.
"Miss Kayla," Alfred tried to intercede, "perhaps it would be best if we finished this conversation when you are once again fully in control."
She grinned tried to step towards him and got tangled up in her own legs, "I alwaysh have controlssss," then dropping her voice she growled, "Caush I'm Batman."
"Of course Miss." She wasn't paying attention, "TIM!" she stumbled towards him, "little brother, you undershtand ri?" Tim shook his head grinning at the look on Bruce's face, a unique mixture of 'oh shit' and 'why me'.
"Well," Kayla said conspiringly, her breath smelling of alcohol as she threw an arm around his neck, "if I'M Kayla Wayne then he," she pointed a shaky finger at Bruce, "doeshn't have to be sho Bruce Wayne. Shomone hash to be the idiot for the peoplesh to shee, then yoush'all can be batties forever. I'm the, uhhhhhh, shmokestakc, nooooo, smokescreen, yaaaas, that." She grinned triumphantly.
"Why don't we get you to bed Miss?" Alfred asked eventually.
"Nooooooooo," she moaned, "I've gotsh to partizlle."
The three men eventually managed to wrestle her into her bedroom where she promptly dropped onto the bed and fell asleep, seeing no other choice they left her as she was. Tim went off to his own bedroom while Alfred watched Bruce absently wander downstairs.
"I have no idea what I'm doing Alfred," the man said at last.
The butler chuckled, "A refreshing change of pace sir."
"I'm serious Alfred," Bruce reiterated, "I'm going to mess this up, I'm going to mess her up, I don't even know how to talk to her."
Alfred patted Bruce on the shoulder, "You'll talk to her the same way you do to everyone else, one word at a time. These things will come Master Bruce, and sir if I may be so bold? Of course you're going to mess her up." The bruised knuckles tightened tightly on the table until Alfred continued, "That's the job of a parent sir, to take a child and mess them up in their own special way. And knowing you sir, it will be spectacularly done."
"Shayara drop!" Superman yelled as he threw the nearest lightpost at the man speeding towards her head. It connected with a definitive 'thunk' as Sinestro was thrown twenty feet down the street. It was an unusual collection of villains Sinestro, Deadshot, Shade, Bizarro, Livewire, and the Royal Flush Gang minus Ace.
Superman barely had time to turn around before he was smashed into a nearby building by Ten and electrocuted by Livewire. The Man of Steel may have been invulnerable but that didn't mean electricity wasn't annoying. Every time he started to get to his feet though, Ten would pound him again.
Batman flipped over a the remains of a hotdog stand as a piece of metal ripped through the air precariously close to where his head had been. He'd taken care of Deadshot but unfortunately there wasn't a lot he could do to Queen from this distance, all of his projectiles were metal and she would only turn them against him. He made a mental note to fix that later. Lobbing a smoke bomb over his shoulder he rolled forward, trying to regain his advantage in close quarters.
Flash had his own problems trying to clear civilians from the area. He could never quite understand why people ended up running back towards disasters and although catching them wasn't hard, it was distracting. It didn't help that King was shooting fireballs at them, but every time Wally went to knock him out there was one more cry for help from a civilian about to be crushed by debris or who'd fallen down something.
J'onn found himself faced with Bizarro. Although he was currently intangible the monster continued to pound away at him, the only thing this was accomplishing was that it was preventing J'onn from regaining enough matter to hit Bizarro back. Reaching out to the beast's mind was pointless as well; it was a chaotic mess that would take even J'onn years to decipher. J'onn was effectively stuck where he was.
Green Lantern took off after Sinestro, furious that he'd even given the Yellow Lantern the opportunity to go after Shayara. Creating a large, green hammer John took a little bit of joy in watching his opponent get smashed. Sinestro countered with a hammer of his own and the two were off again in an evenly matched battle of power.
Wonder Woman was dealing with Shade, surprised that he'd even attacked her seeing as her lasso could repel any darkness he tried to consume her with. The man was being intentionally illusive, disappearing into his shadows the second she came within punching distance, readying the lasso she attempted to catch him in it but he pointed his cane at her and the black magic sent her flying back.
As Shayara dropped a few feet to avoid the murderous Lantern above her, she felt two hands reach out and grab her feet, pulling her back towards the ground. It was Jack and Shayara grinned at him evilly, knowing that do to his elastic nature this was one bad guy that she could actually hit with her mace and not feel guilty.
Batman's mind was whirling as his peripheral took in the information around him, his instincts screaming that something was wrong. Dodging a pathetic blow from Queen he leaped feet first and pummeled her to the ground. She responded with an army of small metal shards that flew towards him like dogs with a scent. Mentally wincing he continued on his chosen path, dropping and whirling he knocked her unconscious with a quick jab to the windpipe and although half of the shards dropped, the rest had enough momentum to continue towards him, most hitting his suit and some even going as far as to pierce it.
Batman ignored his instinct to rush to the next villain, pausing instead to look at the scene. Watching his teammates he found them playing keep-up with their opponents instead of the usual pummeling. He watched as Shade baited Diana only to disappear, King keeping Flash busy, Jack pull at Shayara instead of attacking, J'onn stuck out of the battle, Superman forced onto the defensive, Lantern locked onto Sinestro's tail. They weren't trying to accomplish anything that he could see, nothing to steal, capture or kill. They'd just shown up in the middle of street and started blasting until the League had appeared.
That meant the League was their target. Batman's brain whirled faster at the thought. They weren't powerful enough to imprison the entire League meaning that they were after an individual. The brain worked harder, it would have been easier to capture a particular member on an individual mission outside the League. In fact planting a device or even killing would have been easier on an individual scale.
They wanted the League to watch, they wanted to make it a show. Batman's pulse increased, they wanted to kill. You don't make a show out of small schemes. The only question left was the target. But none of the villains were working hard enough, desperately enough, to be attempting murder. They seemed focused on incapacitating only, a distraction.
One quick jaunt on a grapple later and he was watching the scene from higher ground, sweeping it with his eyes, watching, analyzing. The eyes widened behind the cowl as realization hit, mentally cursing for his own mistake.
Launching himself off of the building he spoke into the communicator, cutting off Flash as he asked who needed help, "Everybody leave your partner and get Shayara out of here."
"Bats, what?" the Speedster had time to ask, even while zipping back to the scene.
"Now," Batman almost shouted.
Flash had already made it to the top of a building and was trying to dislodge Jack's grip from Shayara but any punch he threw hardly made an impression on the flexible skin. Diana too had listened to the order, she flew beside her friend using her super strength to physically pull Jack off. Batman landed on building beside Flash, eyes still scanning for the man he knew had to be out there.
"Why are we leaving the bad guys?" Flash spared a microsecond to ask.
Batman pulled out his binoculars, "They're trying to kill Shayara."
His words seemed to set off the very thing he was trying to avoid. Batman finally spotted Deadshot, very much conscious and on ground level with a gun lined up, his finger on the trigger. Batman's brain calculated the trajectory for him automatically, then noting in shock that Wonder Woman was directly in the bullet's path, Shayara behind her, both focused on Jack. Batman didn't need his lip-reading skills to know what Deadshot was saying,
"Two for one,"
Batman didn't think. Throwing a grapple instinctively, he leapt off the building and took the bullet in the shoulder. Feeling it pass all the way threw his body, his only hope was that the solid matter had deflected it enough to miss its original two targets. Sheer determination kept his hand locked tightly onto the line until he could topple onto a nearby school roof.
Review are lovely.
Props if you know why I need Kayla to exist. Some of you have mentioned the Mary Sue aspect, I like to think I've stayed away from that but warn me if you think I'm drifting too close so that I can hit myself upside the head for multiple reasons.
Fair warning, I've got some fairly nasty stuff planned for our heroes. I do have to get them to the breaking point after all.