Buenos Tardes! It's been a week and I'm back with the next chapter. Honestly, I would've posted this yesterday, but my phone was being a jerk, so all's well that ends well (or something). I just wanted to thank the three to five people who've started following and favorited this story in the last week, as it means a lot! Before O move on, I'm going to respond to one review-
Shian1998: Thank you!
So please, review if you can! Critique, say what you liked, make predictions, or anything else you'd love to do - It makes my job as a writer here all the more beneficial.
And now, on to chapter eleven!
A couple of hours ago, Finger Avenue had been a somewhat decent street, part of the collection of tarnished pathways intertwining the skyscrapers of Gotham. It wasn't a landmark, but at least it meant something to the people of the neighborhood. Unfortunately for the populace, that was before things had hit the fan.
Amidst the fires and rubble, cars were wreaked and flames were as lively as ever. Hidden behind their trashed vehicle were detectives Harvey Bullock and Renee Montoya. He had a splash of blood on his forehead that was slowly getting wider. Renee on the other hand had her pistol out and looked wildly for any sign of danger.
"Hold on, Harvey!" She said.
"Don't worry," the semi-unconscious Detective retorted. "I'll…manage. Just watch out for Two-Face."
Renee's vision flipped to the end of the street, but she could see nothing destructive. How could Two-Face, slightly more monstrous, do all of this?
Forget that, her inner thoughts said. Right now, what matters is staying alive and finding him.
Gun in hand, she peeled around the edge of the car and at the street. A massive flame was encircling the middle of the space, flickering intensely. Quickly, several shadows began to emerge from the fire. A grotesque version of Man-Bat with green and yellow appendages on his wings. Firefly's normal yellow appearance was infringed upon by black chunks of something…alien, and Zsasz had a look on his face that wasn't fully seen because of the multicolored blob covering a quarter of it. Leading them all was none other than Two-Face, even more ugly because of the rapidly growing spec on his chest
"Crap," Renee said. Looking back between Harvey and then the approaching villains, she decided to take a stand. She gripped her gun tight, took aim, and released all of her rounds at them. To her shock, the bullets bounced off or barely made cracks in their forms. Some breathed heavier and others grunted in horrible laughter.
"Screw You!" She shouted.
At her comment, Firefly raised his gun and ignited his all-too familiar blasts. Renee tried to move, but the fire was just upon her as she tried to hide with Harvey. She closed her eyes and waited for the pain to start.
What happened next was hard to a surprise , to say the least. Renee opened her eyes and realized that some sort of pink barrier was encircling her from harm. Her eyes searched for who had come to her rescue, and to her shock saw the very same boy from earlier that night. He was holding onto the bubble with a strained look, keeping a watch on the villains in case they made another move.
"You okay?" Steven asked.
"…yeah," Renee said. Well, nothing makes sense anymore. That's official.
"I can't hold him off for much longer," he said urgently." It was that moment she realized that Firefly's fire had never gone out, and thta he was still spraying the flames at the bubble intensely. "When I lower the bubble, can you jump out?"
"Sure thing."
"Now!" He yelled. The bubble's wall began to fall, but Renee had already shot to the ground, taking Steven with her. Where they would've been was soon occupied with the final extent of Firefly's flames. Once they found nothing to hit, the oxygen took over and they evaporated.
Getting up, Renee said, "Thanks, kid. You really saved my bacon there."
"Your welcome," said Steven. "My name's Steven."
"You two alright?" They turned to find Batwoman standing there, flanked by the other vigilantes and Gems.
"Kate…what's going on?" Renee asked intimately.
"I can't explain right now," said Batwoman, " but it's a long story." Her gaze flickered to Harvey, who was still curled up behind the bottom of their police car. "Orphan, help get the detectives out of here."
"Okay," she said. Orphan moved forwards and started to help Bullock get up, much to his unbalanced displeasure.
"…the hell? What's goin' on?" He mumbled groggily and half-awake. Renee and Orphan both got under his arms and started walking to the nearby corner slowly.
"Helping," Orphan said.
"Don't worry, you'll be fine, Harvey," Renee said assuredly. She gave one last gaze at Batwoman before taking off.
With the civilians out of the way, Batwoman and the others turned to gaze upon the monstrous villains. They looked relatively untouched and suddenly began to advance towards the heroes.
"Eww," Nightwing said. "What happened to them all? It's looks like Two-Face got even uglier."
"It can't be...," gasped Pearl.
"Can't be what?" Batwoman asked.
"It's a Cluster Gem," said Steven. "They're these… monstrosities or formed fusions created by evil Gems from Homeworld. They weren't meant to be, and because they're so lonely, they try to fuse with everything they come into constant wit."
"Sounds like the sort of creature you shouldn't touch," Azrael surmised.
"Of course," Peridot said, "though it appears those villainous clods have somehow became fused with them…hmm.."
"They're a danger to everyone here," Batwoman said. "Take them down!"
The four Gems and three vigilantes ran right at their enemies, dodging the fire and getting into individual fights. The monstrous villains responded with horrifying grunts as they went to attack, too.
Two-Face aimed a tommy gun and fired wildly. While the rest scattered to find cover from the bullets, Peridot remained where she was and raised a hand. The maniac's gun flew several feet in the air and vanished from sight. When he realized that he was now defenseless, he shouted inaudible words at her in hatred. The short Gem was only amused at his reaction.
"Take that, you c-ugh!" Surprisingly, she gasped for air as he attempted to strangle her. Fusion Two-Face held in his hand several inches over the ground, his grip tightening by the second. This makes…ugh…no sense!, Peridot thought. I don't need to breath…what's he…ugh…doing to me?!
"Peridot!" Steven cited in worry. As concerned as he was, he was too focused on matching Zsasz's knife parries with his shield to help.
"I've got her!" Nightwing yelled. He gripped his two escrima sticks and vaulted into her direction. Coming upon Peridots increasing suffocation, he jabbed one into Dent's jugular. The villain gurgled and dropped Peridot onto the ground, slightly bruised but able to breath normally. Nightwing then dashed to his frontside and delivered a kick to his stomach. Surprisingly, it had little effect, and the mutated villain just grunted in annoyance.
"Well, ok," he said," this isn't working!"
"Tell me about it!" Azrael yelled from nearby. He and Amethyst were ganging up on Firefly, but to seemingly no effect. The villain's flames forced the knight to hold up his cape in protection, while Amethyst was knocked back by the searing intensity. She landed on her head and rubbed it for a bit. But when she got back up, it could be seen that there was a murderous look in her eyes.
"That's it," she said irritably, "I'm officially ticked off!"
Amethyst's body transformed into a more muscular version of herself as she ran right to the psychopath. Her two arms gripped Firefly and chucked him into the side of a building, causing him to painfully collide and bricks to be blasted off. A soft moan was heard before the villain went to sleep.
"Nice work," Azrael said as he came up to her spot.
"Yeah, no problem," Amethyst said nonchalantly, morphing back into her normal self. "It's then we have to worry about." She pointed to Man-Bat and Mr. Zsasz, who were currently engaging the others.
"Let's go help, shall we?"
Above them all, Pearl jumped from a window several stories up and managed to grab onto Man-Bat's brown foot. He screeched eerily and flapped his wings in an attempt to escape, but it was all futile as she knew what he was planning. In the scuffle, they went right into a lamppost. Pearl was held back with an "Oof!" while he went forwards and crashed somewhat gently onto the street.
Managing to get down, she whipped out her spear and went right for him. However, her attempts were interrupted by the surprising emergence of a small cluster arm from his mutated wing, which quickly gripped her spear and held it in place.
"Ugh," Pearl groaned as she tried to grasp for control of her spear. "Let go!"
"Screeeee!" Man-bar bellowed in a massive sonic blast. Pearl closed her arms in an attempt to protect herself, but even being a Gem didn't stop the sonic waves from blasting her back. She managed to gain her footing when shot half a mile down the street, but felt more unnerved than ever.
"Need some help?" Batwoman asked as she ran up besides the Gem.
"I guess," Pearl said. "We need to take this…thing down."
"I get the wings, you get him in the stomach," Batwoman said efficiently. It amazed Pearl to no end how quick and decisive the vigilante could be about solving problems. Maybe she was a warrior who had a past too?
A question for another time.
"Got it!"
Batwoman and Pearl began running at Man-Bat together, the wind blowing in their faces but showing no signs of effect. He inhaled a great deal before releasing another sonic attack. The two luckily saw it coming and split to the sides of the street, dodging in time what would've been incredible deafening. Now free to do as she pleased, Batwoman quickly snatched a grapnel from her utility belt and whirled it at Man-Bat's right wing. He immediately tried to rip it off with his cluster appendages, but she was already prepared for this; a sudden jolt of electricity went through the wire and shocked him immensely. He howled in staggering pain, yet the only sound that came out was unrecognizable to humans.
"Not this time, Langstrom," the vigilante remarked coldly.
In his time of weakness, Batwoman whirled another grandpa into his other wing, then pulled them together. The creature hollered when his wings were unfortunately locked next to one another, and this gave Pearl the perfect opportunity to attack. She leapt forwards and dove right into the brown-furred chest with a trio of punches before ending it all with a quick kick. As the set of attacks took their time, Man-Bat gasped for air and then collapsed.
"Well, that's one less bat in the Belfry," Batwoman remarked. Pearl looked at her in surprise.
"I didn't know you made jokes," she said.
"Only when it's appropriate," replied Batwoman. "I can't help myself when there's an actual, grown bat in my midst."
They both chuckled before suddenly stopping and feeling embarrassed. Then a shout for help got their attention.
"Guys! A little help?" Steven asked in a panic-like voice. He was currently lodged up against Victor Zsasz, who despite the clusters on his body was deadlier than ever.
"I'm going to cut you, little boy!" He said maniacally, then went to take a swipe at the child. Steven blocked it with his pink shield, but the ferocity of the strikes were getting closer.
"Steven!" Pearl cried in worry. She was about to get to him when a hand rested on her shoulder.
"Wait," Batwoman said. She pointed to the battle and looked as if she had a prediction on what was about to happen.
Out of nowhere, a fire emerged within Steven's movements. His eyes became darker and he yelled while holding his shield. Zsasz faltered for a moment, which was all the chunky boy needed to push his back in a series of powerful blows.
"I don't care who you are or what happened to you," Steven said in a heavy voice, "but nobody threatens me and my friends!"
Zsasz was knocked back farther and held up his knife in defense, but Steven put all the force he could into his arm and brought his shield up. The blow smacked into the madman's chin, sending him into the pavement with a slow moan. He huffed and puffed before letting the shield evaporate into his control.
The boy suddenly noticed his allies walking towards him on the wrecked street, some bruised and one or two carrying an unconscious villain.
"Nice work, Steven!" said Amethyst, impressed at her companion's victory.
"Agreed," Batwoman said. "That guy isn't a pushover."
Rubbing the back of his neck and blushing red, Steven said," Uh…Thanks. It was nothing, really."
Nightwing and a slightly disheveled Peridot made their way to them all. The former boy wonder turned over an unconscious Two-Face to the ground, his body covered in bruises but still breathing.
"Well, Dent's done," He said. "The others are down?"
"Yep," Amethyst said. "Sure was fun, huh?"
"Not for me," Peridot said annoyed. "I for one do not want to have to deal with another clod that tries to strangle me into being poofed. And I don't need to breathe! What's up with that?"
"'Poofed?'" asked Azrael, obviously not understanding the concept completely.
"I'll explain later," Pearl said.
A sudden shadow joined the group before melting into the lights of the flames raging around them.
"Orphan, where are the officers?" Batwoman asked.
"Safe," she replied.
"Good."
"So what's our next move, chief?" Nightwing said. "Bring these guys back to base and figure out the villainous plan?"
"That would seem right," said Pearl," but Emerald is still on the loose. If this was only an appetizer, I hate to see what she has planned for the main course."
Everyone present suddenly pictured the Gem and shivered at the idea that she was totally untraceable. Truly, they had no idea of what she could do.
…
Back at the Belfry, Garnet, Batwing, and Batman stood in front of the main computer analyzing the energy signal of the canister. It had been remarkably the same for some time on Finger Avenue, until it began to shrink five minutes ago and then disappeared.
"Well, that's…off," he said in surprise. "Wonder what happened to the villains?"
"Why would their energy signatures turn off?" Batman said.
"Maybe the cluster parts of them got destroyed or something." Batwing turned to Garnet after noticing her lack of a response. "Garnet, what do you think?"
The purple Gem stood their for a second, not moving and clearly absorbed into her specs. Before either of them said anything, she focused and looked at them. "Attacking a street and causing destruction wouldn't do much, even if she were stranded on this planet." Garnet started pacing in the same strides, holding her hand to her chin. "Emerald is a warrior and scientist first. She had something larger at play here…I can feel it."
Suddenly, Robin came bolting in and walked up to them in a hurry. "Father, I've found something!"
"What?" Batman asked.
"The police got an emergency call from the Iceberg Lounge. Something happened in the basement and now there remains a massive crater in the establishment. From what the call reported, witnesses said the Joker, Poison Ivy, and a green woman escaped the building with others following them."
"Hm…so Joker is involved," Batman said. "Why would he…no…"
"I've read up on your Joker," Garnet mentioned. "Why are you more worried than normal?"
"Joker stole an experimental chemical asphyxiate from A.C.E. Chemicals last night," Batwing provided. "If he's working with your Emerald bad guy, maybe he plans on combing it with her cluster container…the results could be VERY bad."
"We don't know for sure," Robin said definitely.
Batman suddenly looked as if he had struck gold. "Luke, where in Gotham can you find the most cutting-edge technology and resources to splice DNA and genetics?"
Even under his mask, Batwing could sense what his mentor was getting at. It obviously didn't sit right in his stomach, but he had to respond.
"…Stagg Industries."
…
Joker gawked at the massive skyscraper that was the home of Stagg Enterprises. He honestly had expected it to be a bit more like the more mundane buildings of Gotham, but lo and behold, it was unique in more ways than one. The color palate was mainly white and a bit manilla, and the windows carved and edgy. It looked relatively pretty.
He couldn't wait to make it his very own masterpiece.
"Where are we, Clown?" Emerald asked impatiently. "I can already feel our distraction fading though this canister."
"Right where we need to be, right Joker?" Poison Ivy said assuredly.
"Oh, you don't know the half of it," he chuckled creepily. "This place is going to be VERY helpful to what we have in mind, and I know a certain millionaire who'll be dying to help our scheme out. Now," he said indicating the high climb, "how about a little help with the heights, Pam darling?"
"Call me that again and I'll tie wrap up in vines so hard, you'll look nothing more than a deflated balloon," she replied with dark-cutting words of venom.
As Ivy began to work her magic, Emerald chuckled. Things were off to a great start.
Things are heating up, with next chapter giving an idea of what their "plan" is. Until next time, followers!