I have killed so many Orcs...Sorry. Anyway I ended up getting around to this sooner then I thought. Thanks to everyone who followed and reviewed the story thus far, here's chapter 12!
The three security guards on their knees with their hands on their heads are seriously hoping that the talk of a new superhero in town are true, as there are several man with very big and fancy guns around them now, emptying one of the dock's many shipping containers, and the guards' odds of survival don't look good. "This shit is heavy! What the hell's in these boxes?" one of the armed men asks as he's helping to haul out a crate.
"How about you ask Grodd the next time you get a chance. I bet he'd love...eh...take the time to explain it to ya," the other man answers.
"Yeah, fuck that," the first man says.
"Hurry up! Thats the last crate, and the sooner you get it on the truck, the sooner we can get out of here," the men's masked leader tells them.
"When can I finish the rent-a-pigs off?" one of the men holding guns on the guards asks.
"Unless they give us trouble, why would you? Why would we want the hea..." before the criminal leader can finish his sentence, the man he was talking to and the one next to him are both knocked out and on the ground, as a red blur streaks past them.
The crate is dropped as every hood there pulls their gun and looks around in terror. "Its the bat!" one of the men shouts.
"I didn't see any wings. Keep your eyes open and look sharp!" the men's leader shouts.
Some giggling can be heard to the group's left, and instantly everyone there fire's all their guns in that direction. When the shooting in finished the leader looks to his right and notices that the guards are gone. "He rescued them before we could use them as hostages. Smart," he says.
"Can you stop admiring the freak, and try and figure out how to get us out of here?!" one of the remaining men shouts. A second later the streak passes him and he's knocked out on the floor.
The masked leader looks at the only other member of his gang still there and conscious and says, "Sorry," before he shoots him in the gun arm and in the leg.
The red streak comes to a halt in front of him and he can see that it is a teenage boy in a red hoodie with yellow bandanna over his face and a pair of goggles on. "Why would you do that?!" Wally asks.
"Everyman for himself," the masked leader tells him. "You hero types aren't the sort to watch a man bleed to death, and even if you do know where the nearest hospital is off the top of your head, taking me out might just take a few to many precious seconds. Seconds that you can't spare right now if you want this man to live." Wally looks between the injured criminal and the cold hearted man pointing a gun at him. "Tick'tock boy, tick'tock," the masked man says.
Wally grabs the man and speeds off. After a couple of wrong turns he finally finds a open clinic in this part of town. The speedster zips in and deposits the man on an empty bed and yells for help. An elderly woman quickly rushes over, doesn't even ask about the get up of both men, and immediately starts prepping to help the man. Wally is about to speed away, when the gunshot victim grabs his arm and says, "Snart! The bastard who shot me...his name's Leonard Snart!"
Wally finally gets the man off of him and zips back to the docks as fast as he can. When he gets there though, the gang's leader is gone. "Oh this is not over Snart! When I'm done with you, you're going to be as ugly as your stupid name!" Wally yells into the empty air.
…
Across the dark and gothic city, a group of men are in an abandoned night club, disusing the sail of very large amount of drugs with another group of men. The buyers are dressed in dark suits, not unlike the 1920's era of gangsters, and the sellers are Chinese men dressed in yellow and white. In the rafters above them Batman and his new partner hang in the shadows and watch the proceedings. "The men in black work for Oswald Cobblepot, a local low level crime lord called the 'Penguin'. The others are out of towners who work for a man named Chang Tzu, a powerful Triad leader called the 'Egg'," Batman whispers.
"What are Chinese gangsters doing selling drugs to a lowlife in Gotham?" Diana quietly asks.
"Thats a good question," Batman tells her. "They would make more money producing counterfeit clothing or selling pills to factory workers back home, so what is the Egg up to?"
"Why don't you just call him Chang Tzu?" Wonder Woman asks.
"Comes with the costumes," Batman answers.
"Fair enough," Diana says. "You got a plan?"
"Yep," he answers.
A few minutes later the criminals are finishing their deal. "Does your boss really look like an egg?" One of the tough guys off to the side asks one of his opposite number.
"Does yours look like a Penguin?" the Triad member asks.
"Kind of, yeah," the American answers.
"What, is he a mutant, got a beak?" the Chinese man asks.
"Na, nothing like that. He's short, chubby, and got pale skin and a long nose. If you saw him, you'd see it," the gangster explains.
"So not a mutant, just a freak?" the guy in yellow asks.
"Hey, YOU said that, not me," the Gothamite clarifies. "So what about your boss?"
"He looks like a big yellow egg with arms and legs," the Triad man answers.
"No shit?" the American asks.
"Yeah. Don't know if he got any powers though, he usually just shoots..." the criminals' conversation is interrupted when door is kicked in from the other side, to reveal Diana just standing there.
"Sorry, am I interrupting?" she asks. In answer every criminal there pulls a gun and starts firing at her. Much to the villains' surprise and horror though, Diana flings her arms before her at amazing speeds and causes the bullets to bounce off of her bracelets.
To the criminals' credit, they start getting clever, spreading out and aiming at different parts of her body, forcing the Amazon to work harder to shield herself from the flying lead. However what her attackers don't realize, is that one by one their numbers are being thinned. Finally one of the shooters looks behind him to see the Batman choking out one of his friends. The gangster swirls to shoot, and only gets a batarang upside his head for his trouble.
Soon whats left of the bad guys realize that they are being attacked on both sides and decide to split their fire between the two heroes, but with less slowing Diana down she's able to charge forward, and between her and her dark partner, the mutants swiftly beat down the remaining opposition. When the last bad guy, one of the Egg's men, realizes he's alone, he drops his gun holds up his hands. Diana then knocks him to the ground and puts her foot on his head.
"Why is your boss selling drugs to Cobblepot?" Diana asks the man, politely.
"I don't know!" the man shouts.
"You're lying, I can tell," she answers back.
"You don't understand! The Egg...what he'll do to me is far worse then what you could," the Triad member explains.
"Yeah? Is it worse then what he'll do?" Diana asks, pointing.
The man looks up (as best as he can with someone standing on his head) and sees the dark menacing form of the Batman staring down at him.
…
Later that night the two arrive back in Bruce's cave, and dismount his subway car. "Do you think that stuff can really do what he said it does?" Diana asks.
"Maybe, I'll have to analyze it know for sure. Temporary super powers aren't anything new, there is a super steroid called Venenon that is rumored to bestow superhuman level of strength and resilience to its users," Bruce explains, removing his mask and putting the sample of the drug into a machine.
"But this isn't just any super powers, their Mutant powers. Can you imagine what people could do with this? Magneto and his gang would probably try to add it to the drinking water like fluoride," Diana says.
"Given whats been going on in this town recently, that might be the least of our problems," Bruce tells her. "Its going to take the computer a few hours to give us any answers, we should get cleaned up and turn in for the night."
"Alright, but I'm using the shower first," Diana says, taking off her mask and heading to the cave's washroom.
As she walks away, Bruce looks over at her and asks, "So, how was your first night as a dangerous vigilante?"
Diana stops, looks over her shoulder at him, smiles, and says, "It was fun," before continuing on her way.
Bruce smirks at that. "Actually, it was," he says to himself.
TBC. Reviews are always welcomed and appreciated.
