"Basil, take care of her," Duela said, taking over the controls.
The former actor nodded and left the cockpit, drawing his gun, but an arrow slammed into his right upper arm and he cried out, dropping the gun as a result. The Huntress kicked the gun towards the hole in the hatch, her elbow simultaneously slamming into Basil's jaw, then struck him on the thigh, before throwing him against the opposite wall. However, Basil recovered quicker than she expected, his fist crashing against her face, but thankfully, her mask took the impact and she spun with a low kick, clipping him on the inside of his kneecap, followed by her fist slamming into his cheek. Basil hit the wall again and the Huntress drove her fist straight into his jaw, bouncing his head off the wall, the forceful blow rendering Basil unconscious and he dropped like a sack of potatoes. Placing a tracker on him, the Huntress then strapped a parachute to him and tossed him out of the plane while pulling the cord so that he was safely deposited in the ocean for pick-up later.
"Well, I guess if you want something done, do it yourself," Duela muttered to herself.
She set the Javelin onto auto-pilot and swung out of her seat in time to drive a kick into the Huntress' stomach, forcing her back from the cockpit. Drawing a pair of long daggers, Duela lashed out at the Huntress, as she backed up while dodging the blades, catching a dagger on her bladed gauntlet and she quickly fired a punch into Duela's ribs, making her back up.
"You have quite the strength. I hope you still have that quality when I torture you to death," Duela said.
"In your dreams," the Huntress said, snapping out her quarterstaff.
"Why not? You did kill my father. After so long, I finally get to meet him and you took him away from me."
Duela lashed out, striking the quarterstaff as she attacked in a rage, forcing the Huntress towards the hole in the hatch, intending to knock her out of the plane, but the Huntress held fast against the vicious, yet accurate blows, deflecting a dagger and smacked Duela across the face. She staggered from the blow, but maintained her footing as the Huntress followed through by hitting her in the stomach with the butt of her quarterstaff. Parrying a swing of the quarterstaff, Duela sliced upwards and across, a fine line appearing on the Huntress' mask and she recoiled from the near miss, as Duela then did a jumping spin kick, the blow hitting the Huntress in the chest and she hit the floor hard, bringing her quarterstaff up in time to stop Duela's daggers from impaling her in the eyes.
"You know, even though you killed my father, we actually haven't had a chance to really bond. I mean, we're both freaks. The only difference is that I admit it," Duela said.
"You're insane if you think we're anything alike," the Huntress retorted.
"Did you ever stop to consider that maybe I'm the only sane one and the rest of the world is crazy? That I'm doing this world a service?"
"You murder innocents just for fun and you think I'm insane?"
"Well, Buttercup, who's running around in a mask and cape fighting against crooks? And just so you know, innocent is a pretty strong word to throw around for those you protect. But hey, my father was innocent too. Until you killed him."
"You and I have different opinions on the term innocent," the Huntress said.
She curled her body up, planting her feet against Duela's stomach and shoved hard. Duela scrambled into the cockpit, as the Huntress flipped onto her feet, and she manually overrode the autopilot, turning the Javelin towards Gotham City. The Huntress slipped her quarterstaff over Duela's body, pinning her against her torso and the jet fighter pitched, allowing Duela to drive her elbow into the Huntress' ribs and slip out from the hold, punching the Huntress in the face. As she staggered back, Duela took her chance and straightened the plane, resuming the autopilot, then performed a forward front flip kick that caught the Huntress on the shoulder, dropping her to her knees and she followed up with a kick aimed for the Huntress' face. She blocked the kick and punched Duela on her opposite thigh, making her retreat and the Huntress went to pursue, but Duela whipped out her revolver, thumbing back the hammer.
"Yes, be a little good girl and stay there, unless you want to get shot," Duela said, "You are not going to get in the way of me destroying Gotham as punishment."
"Punishment? Because your father was locked away for his mass-murdering crimes? You really are insane if you think that's completely normal, but hey, with parents like yours, it's probably no surprise," the Huntress said, "A little girl, raised and warped by a psychopath of a mother. I'd feel sorry for you, Duela, but I think we're past sympathy at this point."
"Shut up! You know nothing about my life. Nothing! So don't you dare presume you know anything about me. My mother loved me."
"No, she didn't. She just made you into her little foot soldier to bust the Joker out. You were nothing to her but a pawn. It's not far from the truth that you are really just a lost, alone little girl."
Just as Duela pulled the trigger, the Huntress dropped, firing the blades off her gauntlets, piercing Duela in the torso and she cried out, dropping the revolver as a result. The Huntress quickly got up and moved for her, but Duela drew a hidden knife and hurled it, stabbing the Huntress in the thigh and although her first instinct was to remove it, she left it there to prevent herself from bleeding out, especially with no first-aid kits on board. With her opponent on the ground, Duela turned back to the controls, seeing that they were coming up onto Gotham City, the computer scanning the city for any weak points to cause the most destruction and once they were found, Duela fired all three missiles. They blasted off through the night sky, screaming towards their targets, as Duela turned to the Huntress with a triumphant smile, ignoring the pain of the blades in her body.
"You lose, Huntress. I've got to really thank that guy who used to run Wayne Enterprises. He wanted to make a bit of extra money and he offered the missiles to me. Silly man. Now, this city is going to burn and it's all thanks to the greed of mankind. Money is the source of all evil."
"Coming from an evil person, it's kind of hilarious to hear you say that," the Huntress said, trying to stem the flow of blood from her thigh, "But what makes you think Gotham will burn?"
"What are you talking about? I've already fired the missiles."
The Huntress opened a program on her phone and punched in the required code, thus disabling the targeting system on the missiles. Two missiles exploded harmlessly in the sky, as the Huntress entered another code and the third missile twisted around, returning straight back to its source. Duela looked outside, seeing that the missile was heading right for them.
"Ohh, you crazy bitch, you really did it, didn't you?" Duela growled.
"This is a dangerous weapon and as you've proved, very dangerous in the wrong hands," the Huntress said, painfully getting up, "I can't allow it to exist."
She threw a mine bomb towards the busted hatch, blowing a larger hole in the jet fighter and she reached for Duela, but the madwoman instead grabbed onto her arms, pulling her close, then wrapped her hands around the Huntress' throat.
"If I'm going out, so are you," Duela said as she squeezed, "I'd rather die than go to jail."
"Sometimes, we don't get a choice."
The Huntress broke out of her grip and smacked their heads together, then grabbed a parachute and hauled Duela towards the hole, jumping out into the air just as the missile slammed into the Javelin and destroyed it with an almighty explosion, the burning, twisted remains of the wreckage falling towards the ocean. The Huntress was tossed by the explosion and with fear charging through her while she tumbled through the air, she managed to open the parachute while keeping hold of Duela, watching the destroyed Javelin sink beneath the ocean's surface and she aimed for the red and blue flashing lights on the Admiral Docks, the remainder of Duela's men being marched from the Warhammer and into the awaiting cars. The Huntress touched down, wobbling a little due to the knife in her thigh, depositing Duela to the ground and she was instantly surrounded by several police officers, while the Huntress was approached by a concerned Jesse, along with Foley stepping forth and producing a pair of handcuffs.
"Foley, what are you doing?" Jesse demanded.
"There is an arrest warrant out of the Huntress," Foley explained, "However, given the events of tonight and how she had saved this city, I think we can let her off just this once."
"That's good, because you wouldn't have been able to catch me anyway," the Huntress smirked, then nodded towards the arrested Duela, "Make sure she's locked up without a chance of freedom. I think her father's cell in Arkham Asylum would suit her just fine. Here," she added, handing Jesse her phone, which showed a red blip on the screen, "You're going to need that to find Basil. I suggest you get to him quickly."
She casually dropped a small, round object that exploded into a cloud of smoke upon contact with the ground and while everyone was blinded by the surprise attack, there was the sound of a grappling gun being fired, the Huntress soaring towards a warehouse and far out of reach. She saw that the Batpod was being guarded by two police officers, but with another code punched into her phone, she brought the motorcycle to life, startling the officers, but even more so when she glided down and landed on its seat, then took off onto the streets. With the majority of the police at the docks or returning to the stations to process the arrested criminals, the Huntress was able to ride undeterred to the cave, the loss of blood from her knife wound making her feel faint and she was thankful when she finally crashed through the waterfall, coming to a stop, as John joined her.
"Congratulations," he said, "You did it."
"Yeah, I did," the Huntress said, "I'm awesome."
Then she pitched over, falling off the Batpod and slipped straight into unconsciousness.
-X-
AN: Originally, I was going to have Duela die in the explosion, a la Ra's al Ghul, but with everyone wanting to see Duela thrown in jail, I decided to go with that idea, since having her locked up in the very same cell as her father was a lot better than letting her off by dying. Now with the threat over, the final chapter will be up tomorrow.