Partners

Chapter 25

Batman and Shriek matched wills across the stage for nearly a minute before they moved. They acted in unison, Shriek leaning forward, thrusting forward both hands and sending tightly controlled beams of sound shooting at the Bat.

Batman was in full control now, not Terry. The dark spirit had drowned him in the urge for combat, causing a reaction even before he consciously registered the attack. He stepped forward and to the side with a speed that should have been impossible. He felt the edge of the strike bull past him like a speeding truck and something behind him exploded.

The part of him that was still Terry tried to react in any of the normally sane ways, like screaming, or getting the hell out of there. Batman didn't let him, instead simply taking in the power and range of the weapon and filing it away. Batman twisted, letting one hand slide past the back of his belt as Shriek tried to follow him with his cannons. His hand came around, letting the momentum from the turn send the pellets he had palmed flying at a surprising speed. His visor switched over to another setting as the flash bombs triggered in mid-air.

Shriek howled, flinching back and sending the still cascading sound waves across the stage, carving an arc out of the backdrop. The actors that had been huddling on the couch dived sideways desperately trying to find cover.

Those cannons were a problem. They were the only real weapon Shriek had used so far, and it was safe to say that devastating was an accurate description. They became the target for his next attack.

A flick of his wrist launched a pair of baterangs; only to have Shriek deflected them with a short contemptuous laugh. Shriek started talking but for once Batman wasn't in the mood for banter. He closed the distance while the other man boasted.

Batman flicked the claws on his left hand open, using them to dig into the hairline joints in the armour of Shrieks wrist. His other hand came up at his opponent's face, getting inside his defences and attempting to take his balance. Shriek tried to swat Batman away with his free left hand. By accident or intent he fired a sonic blast up into the murky gloom of the ceiling.

Where his previous shots had been tightly controlled laser fire this was a cannon ball of almost sub-sonic frequencies. For a moment Batman's world went silent as the suit shut down all external auditory input so he wouldn't be permanently deafened. It came back on just in time for him to hear the twisting screech of metal and the high pitched buzz of suddenly cut wires as the blast tore through the space above them. In the background He registered debris starting to fall. He prayed it just enough attention to make sure it wasn't going to hit him then pushed it out of his mind.

Shriek turned away from the grasping hand coming straight at his face, trying to pull his wrist out of Batman's grip. They threw their strength against each other, Shriek taking advantage of his greater size while Batman used his more solid stance to counter him.

Batman pushed forward keeping inside Shriek's range and twisting his hips enough so that the flailing blows landed mostly on his armored back. Hunching down he planted his forward foot in the middle of Shrieks stance and lowered his own, still twisting the wrist he held away at a useless angle.

Shriek saw the throw coming and used his greater weight to break Batman's stance. This time he was ready for the move, stepping out and behind Shriek. With a bump to Shriek's elbow and a twist of his free hand he twisted the man around into the beginning of an Ikkio take down.

Shriek howled, locking up his elbow and causing the cannon to go off explosively once more. Batman saw the terrified expressions on the crowd and the silent explosion at the back of the hall as his auditory input was temporarily shut off once again. He pushed all the excess information away as he used his hips to try to complete the take down. For a moment it looked like he was going to succeed before Shriek threw himself into the move, using the added momentum to pull Batman off balance. Shriek's arm was ripped out of his grip as they both tumbled into the small orchestra pit.

Batman hit hard, curling into the angle between the floor and a wall. He wad dazed even from the relatively short fall. It wasn't therefore very surprising that at first he thought the voice he was hearing was inside his own head.

"Terry it's Wayne There's a radio in your cowl, you can subvocalize to speak to me."

Batman sucked in a breath, but before he could give any kind of answer Shriek entered his vision wielding what looked like a music stand. Swinging it one-handed he practically threw himself at Batman. Forced onto the defensive, Batman rolled back and kicked out. It wasn't a strong attack, he had no leverage, but it bought him enough time to get into a more defensible, kneeling stance.

"Sub What?"

He tried to pay attention to the response, he really did, but Shriek stepped forward and began to crudely hammer away at him. Batman was forced to bring up his arms in an attempt to ward off the worst of the damage. In between the surprisingly fast attacks, and the ringing clangs they created, he did manage to catch some of what the old man said.

"Subvoca- mikes are sensitive - pick up vibrations - too low to be heard. - enemies - realize you're - someone who isn't there."

Well, that made about as much sense as, wait, no, that made absolutely no fragging sense.

"Fine, whatever, but I'm kind of in the middle of something here." Seriously, if Wayne interrupting him in the middle of a fight was a normal then Terry had to wonder how he hadn't ended up seriously injured before now.

He managed to catch the end of the music stand and twisted it out of Shriek's grasp. Not that it was all that hard, the hands on that suit of his weren't exactly made for holding things. Instead of tossing the improvised weapon aside he swung it back at Shriek's legs, forcing some distance between them as well as providing a moment to breath.

"Yes, I know. You need to get Shriek away from the hostages. If you can get him backstage the police can get them out of there." Wayne's voice came through clearly this time, and the pompous old know it all actually sounded annoyed.

"What do you think I've been trying to do?"

Shriek took advantage of the space to once again utilize his cannons, blasting away at Batman in short rapid-fire bursts. There was no time or space to move even if he could have dodged the invisible shots.

The first impact hit him in the center of his mass. Even through the suit he felt like his insides had been liquified. He barely felt the second blow hit his side and send him spinning, through all the pain. He tried to push it away gritting his teeth and using it to sharpen his focus. The third blow hit him in the small of the back and he was engulfed in a white static haze as his senses overloaded.

He tasted blood and gave up on counting the shots. He was pinned against the wall, every moment providing more pain. There was no clever way out of this one, no trick or device was going to pull his ass out of this fire.

Terry had been hurt before, maybe not on this scale, at least not that he could remember, but there were plenty of times he could remember where his mouth had gotten him into trouble. He'd been attacked by entire gangs on more than one occasion. Back then he had learned one simple thing about fighting when you're down. You can't let them get any momentum. If you let them start beating you, didn't matter if you were half dead or pleading, didn't even matter if the cops were on the way, they wouldn't stop. If you let them get started then only they would decide when it ended. If Batman let Shriek get started he wouldn't stop until he was satisfied, and in this case satisfied almost definitely meant dead.

He drew up all the anger and fear and determination he had, throwing it at the pain in a thinly layered defense. He howled, twisting to face Shriek and bulling straight for him. The rockets in his boots came to life as he hit his opponent like a linebacker; shoving his shoulder up into Shriek's breastbone and grabbing the man's waist.

Batman had misjudged the force the suit gave him, with Shriek caught off guard and not braced for the attack, the two combatants were propelled through the air in an arc that took them out of the orchestra pit and crashing into the floor to ceiling velvet curtains which covered the left half of the stage.

They hit about fifteen feet off the ground, entangling themselves as the mass of fabric ripped free from the ceiling and collapsed on top of them. Batman released Shriek as gravity reached up and grabbed hold of them once more.

He tried to fly away, to get out from under the wave of fabric, but whatever had been guiding Terry's actions through the fight, abandoned him, as he desperately tried to remember what it was that triggered the wings. As he hit the ground his head decided to imitate a soccer ball.

Someone was speaking to him and he tried to answer, but even in the dark the world wouldn't stop spinning. He didn't try to move. A voice that sounded like his moms spoke from a memory, about how head injuries could be messy if people tried to move too soon. In any case with the pain, the weight of the curtain pressing down on him and the receding anger he didn't think he could move.

He slowly sucked in a breath and tried not to black out.

Matt, Robin, he may not have the costume at the moment but he was still Robin, looked up at the stage. At Batman's appearance he had gone still and silent. He wasn't hiding, no, he was just watching very carefully, yeah that was it, watching. Beside him the cop went from shell shocked to contemplative.

"Can he distract Shriek long enough for us to get these people out?"

Robin glanced at him. "Probably. If I could tell him without paining a target on us. Any help from… umm, your radio is blinking."

The cop turned, laying his hand over the softly blinking red light. The two of them looked at each other, then turned to look up at Shriek. The villain's attention was apparently fully occupied, they hadn't been noticed. Robin ducked down behind the seats and gestured for the cop to keep watch as he fiddled with the radio. He turned off the sound and instead tuned his ear bud in to the police frequency.

He immediately heard the frantic chatter as half a dozen groups tried to coordinate with a rather confusing chain of command. Robin paused, mentally mapping out who was where and doing what. They seemed to be using numbers to tell who was who and where, with unit one being whoever was in charge outside. When he knew the basic movements of the cops outside he turned on the borrowed radio, and spoke in a low whisper.

"Unit one, this is Robin. I have eyes on the inside, do you copy?"

There was a surprised silence for a second or two before the answer came.

"We copy, what is your situation?"

"Main theater, about two hundred in the audience, with three actors on stage. I think the rest got away, or maybe they're hiding, or something. Shriek and Batman are fighting up on the stage. No one's been killed yet." a particularly loud explosion cut off the second half of his sentence. "May have spoke too soon." he said risking a glance from behind his shelter. The battle had apparently moved into the orchestra pit. With the limited light Robin couldn't tell much more then the fact that Batman was still active, and Shriek was still fighting back. "Listen, we need to get these people out of here. I went through the lobby, maybe five minutes ago and it was empty. We can give you a heads up if Shriek heads in that direction."

"Incoming." shouted the cop, pulling Robin bodily into the isle as a blast scoured the back wall down to the soundproof padding. Robin took a moment to pull air back into his lungs. He stared up at the shadowed ceiling with the cop sprawled beside him. He really had to remember that guy's name, it had been something short he remembered that much.

Slowly his eyes came back into focus, though it wasn't much different considering that seeing was something of a luxury at the moment. From his vantage point, nearly on top of the emergency lighting, the illumination seemed to backlight the whole world, or at least that patch of ceiling directly overhead. He paused and actually looked at the ceiling. The idea that formed was a crazy one, and he absolutely loved it.

"You," Robin pointed at the cop, pushing himself up from the ground. "Stay here. I'll give you a distraction, get everyone out and tell Gordon we'll deal with Shriek." he didn't wait for the man to nod, just turned and ducked behind the last row of seats heading for the door marked "backstage".

"I know you're there Batman, I can hear you muttering, or are you too afraid? Do you even know what I'm talking about?" He laughed like a man with a stranglehold on the few pieces of sanity he had left. "You know, I could just kill everyone here, that would take care of you, but I'll let you off the hook. Show yourself, surrender and I might just let some of them go."

The computer had automatically identified the voice as Shriek, a villain who had quite a history with Terry according to the files. Bruce had been trying to find an obvious weakness when the mike in Terry's monitor picked up the words. He looked up at the screen, then ordered the computer to play back the lines.

There was something off about what Shriek had said. A simple algorithm created a text version of the audio file, letting him study it without the intonations and emphasis. He went over the monologue sentence by sentence as Terry began fighting on the other end of the line. For a moment Bruce was torn between concern for his student and the matter at hand but Logic quickly reasserted it's self. He could do nothing for Terry from here except provide guidance and information. If there was a clue in these words, he would find it.

He found the first inconsistency in the second sentence. The mike in the cowl was fine enough to pick up sub-vibration; Terry hadn't said a word. By the same coin, Shriek was a sound expert if he said he heard muttering then there must have been a reason. The question followed then, Why had Shriek thought he heard Batman?

The taunt about being afraid was common enough so he passed over it to the next section. 'Do you even know what I'm talking about?' the question didn't make any sense. That had been what set him off laughing so there was some importance there

The importance of the line flooded over him in a moment of insight. Shriek knew about the memory loss. He hadn't gleaned the information through contact either, he knew before he had seen Terry act. He was boasting.

The computer recognized a new voice through the police frequencies: Robin. "Unit one, this is Robin. I have eyes on the inside, do you copy?"

Bruce turned his mind back to the matter at hand. Time enough to ask the hard questions when none of them were fighting for their lives.

The police responded predictably. They didn't even verify the boy's identity. Then of course there was the question of how Matt had gotten himself into such a situation in the first place. When this was finished he would have to have a talk with him.

Robin outlined the situation for the police. At least he was making intelligent choices it seemed. Getting the hostages out was indeed a priority, although it wasn't the only thing hindering the operation.

Bruce flipped up the switch to establish a link with the suit. "Terry-" he was cut off by a muffled grunt that might have possibly held an expletive. "Terry, it's Wayne. There's a radio in your cowl, you can subvocalize to speak to me."

"Sub What?" was the boy's response between the muffled grunts and screeching of combat.

"Subvocalize." Wayne spoke slowly so that Terry would hopefully understand him. "The mikes are sensitive enough to pick up vibrations even if you are speaking too low to be heard. That way your enemies won't realize you're having a conversation with someone who isn't there."

"Fine, whatever, but I'm kind of in the middle of something here."

"Yes, I know. You need to get Shriek away from the hostages. If you can get him backstage the police can get them out of there."

There was a pause filled with several grunts, as well as a number of oofs and thuds before Terry responded. When he did answer his voice was tense and angry, filled with dark fire and venom.

"What do you think I've been trying to do?" Terry started to say more but was apparently distracted.

Bruce tapped into the suit's censors and did a sweep of the area as Terry managed to move the fight back out of the orchestra pit and bring down the left side curtains.

"The area under the stage is empty. There are two trap doors, first one is four feet to your left."

Terry grunted in response, but didn't move. Bruce waited, watching the reports he was getting from the suit. Seconds ticked by until he realized that he was sitting there waiting for an event that he could not predict or effect. Bruce growled at himself cursing the lack of forethought. If he waited until someone needed him he would move to late to help them. He had to predict what would be needed, shape how events would fall out.

He broadened his thoughts and saw where he was needed.Terry seemed to have not even noticed the blackout but the others were being seriously hampered by it. Finding the source of the blackout and fixing it would be time consuming. Bypassing the whole problem and rerouting power into the area through the old systems wouldn't work for long, an hour at best but, provided the old wiring held up, but it would do for the moment. He set about making it happen.

First off, this this chapter marks the one year anniversary of this story. I first posted chapter one on January 9th one year ago. I always knew I wouldn't abandon this story but I had no idea it would grow into something this big.

Thank you to everyone who has been along for the ride, lets have another good year hopefully finish off this thing properly.

And now back to your regularly scheduled author's comment.

Here's a fun fact about this chapter: Terry's section was actually written last. I started with the first half of Matt's section then wrote Bruce's section, finished up with Matt and only then went back to write Terry's section. And let me tell you that fight scene was not easy.

I must also thank both Rose, and River's Dream for betaing this chapter. When I realized the aniversery was coming up I was frantic but both of them managed to get edited versions back to me in less then 48 hours. They deserve a round of applause. Clapclapclapclapclap

and thank you to V, Aura-leek, Harm Marie, Lenorathetrekkie, Jimmy Candlestick, Ethuil, MirokuTK, and Fireinu for reviewing.

Cheers and have a happy new year everyone.