Okay, I made a mistake last time. Alfred says Master Bruce not Master Grayson, whoops ^_^'. So, I want to thank all of you for revieiwing and staying with me as I put off updating but new chapter and it's really late right now, just got done editing. So I'll say it again, THANKS TO EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU WHO'S READ OR REVIEWED! I hope you enjoy!
"Deadshot," Raven glared, her eyes glowed black. Multiple objects immediately flew towards the sniper, a vase, a lamp, a table, chair, light bulbs. The moment the objects began to levitate Deadshot raised his wrist gun. His steely gaze locked onto each incoming projectile from under his mask and then, with uncanny marksmanship he proceeded to reduce each incoming projectile into a nearly literal pile of dust. Quick as a flash, Deadshot's raised his arm and set his sights on his unconscious victim. Raven quickly, bolted into the assassin's line of sight and raised a telekinetic shield. The bullet hit the shield and came to a screeching halt before simply hovering in mid air.
"Not bad," Deadshot admitted, the eye holes on his mask narrowing to slits. "But you're dealing with the world's number one marksman here. I never miss, or at least no one that I've ever missed has lived to tell the tale. This bastard dies tonight." He boasted. Raven's eyes caught Deadshots hand reaching for another gun holstered at his side.
Before she could stop him, Deadshot had drawn his other weapon, taken aim and fired. The bullet flew directly at her, Raven kept her shield up and the bullet sank harmlessly in. Then in began to beep.
"Explosive charge," Deadshot shrugged, backing away. Raven quickly dropped her first shield and wrapped another around herself. The initial blast knocked her off her feet. It had been an exhausting hour, Raven felt her legs weaken, with some effort she raised another shield to protect herself and Kid Flash. Bullets flew at her, each one aimed at her head.
"If I can focus the energy of my shield to that one spot…" Raven thought to herself. Just then a bullet ricocheted off the steel frame of a maintenance door and into a weaker area of her shield. Deadshot laughed as he casually fired off one shot after another. This sort of thing was child's play for him. Raven's eyes glowed again, the black shield exploded in all directions. Deadshot jumped backwards and aimed his guns.
At that moment two batarangs flew down from the ceiling. Even to Raven's trained eye they looked like nothing more than speeding black blurs. The speed that Deadshot's hands moved at was incredible. He whipped his guns back up to focus, trained his sights on his targets and pulled the triggers blasting them out of the air. The entire scene had taken less that half a second. Just as the batarangs hit the ground, Deadshot was already scanning the ceiling for Batman. The Dark Knight landed directly behind Deadshot, in the opposite direction from which the batarangs had come. Deadshot spun and tried to put some distance between him and Batman but he was far to slow. There was a resounding crack that echoed through the halls and Deadshot collapsed onto the ground.
"How?" Raven asked, taking a deep breath as she collapsed onto the ground in exhaustion.
"Remote controlled batarangs, I used your flare as a distraction to launch them," Batman said simply, retrieving his weapons. "Stay down, you're in no condition to fight." He continued pushing her back down to the ground.
"I'm fine," Raven growled standing back up with effort, pulling her hood back over her head. "What's going on here?"
"Who's that?" Batman asked moving past her towards the figure on the bed in the room behind them. His fists balled up again as soon as he saw Kid Flash. He turned and swiftly marched out of the room, his cape waving behind him.
"Batman what is going on?" Raven demanded in a stern tone. The man stopped and turned.
"Slade, he's got the entire criminal underworld tied up, every single organization is somehow working for him and now they've managed to hack my systems and I've got no idea how to stop it!" Raven backed off a bit, Batman seemed to almost be on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. "Now Kid Flash is…" he stopped, growled and turned started walking again.
"I'm coming with you," Raven said immediately.
"No, stay here and heal Kid Flash," Batman responded fishing a gadget out of his utility belt.
"He's got a bullet in the back of his head Batman," Raven stressed a bit coldly. "Attempting to remove it would be dangerous, deadly if I messed up, it's lodged in there pretty deep. I'm going to need some equipment and a much…calmer, area to remove it."
"I'm not going to let another hero die in this city, stay here and do what you can to help him," Batman ordered. "I don't want you coming along."
"Well you're not going to have a choice in the matter," Raven said whisking past Batman. "This is your town, fine, but these are my friends, this is my job and this is what I do…after all," she said stopping at the hall entrance "This is what you trained me to do back on the Titans wasn't it?"
Alfred raised the rifle at the crowd of thugs and fired. The crooks who'd only had time to reach for there guns scattered, desperately trying to find some cover. Alfred swung in the other direction to face Two-Face and quickly pulled himself behind the railing as a round of shots blew the lamp of the table that he'd been standing in front of moment earlier to pieces.
The butler peeked over the edge of the rail and squeezed off a shot before ducking back down as Two-Face answered fire. He creped over to the area where the stairs met the rail only to be forced back behind it by the former district attorney's dual pistols. Bullets ripped through the railing as Alfred stayed as close to the ground as he could, hands over his head. This wasn't good, the thugs had probably gotten there bearings by now, if he tried to get off another shot at Two-Face they were liable to turn him into Swiss cheese, Alfred pondered to himself. He needed a distraction.
Taking a deep breath, he jumped out from behind his hiding and fired at the bandolier of the thug with the rocket launcher that he'd been forced to leave behind. The shot hit an explosive squarely in the middle and set off a small chain reaction. Alfred assumed the fetal position as an enormous explosion rocked the front of the mansion. A deafening explosion followed by a wave of heat crashed over him.
"Oh my," the butler muttered to himself as he began to tumble in one direction. The blast had taken out half of the railing and the supports on the other side. He stuck his feet out, keeping himself from going over the edge and grabbed the gun as it slid past him. Falling much faster than he was comfortable with, he let himself fall, tucking and rolling as he hit the ground. The butler groaned as he stood up, his bones ached and his ears were ringing, but he was alive.
"Big mistake old man!" Two-Face roared. Alfred, slipped back into a defensive position in shock. It was amazing that he had managed to survive the blast. "Find that stinking British chump and fill him with lead!" Alfred raised his gun again and peered through the smoke and fire to see a total of four thugs approaching him. He fired off another shot into the smoke and tried to fire again. The gun clicked, out of ammo.
"Blast!" Alfred mumbled to himself. As the first thug emerged through the smoke, the butler raised the butt of the gun and jammed it into his face sending him sprawling to the ground. Alerted to his presence, the other rushed at him. Alfred dropped his gun and fell into a defensive stance. As the second man appeared and delivered a punch to his face, Alfred raised an arm to block, trying to remember his old MI6 training. Alfred found himself forced backwards, the punch almost knocked him onto the ground. He certainly wasn't as young as he'd once been. He rolled to one side to avoid a kick from the thug and swiftly delivered one of his own to the man's stomach. Hastily struggling to his feet he was able to deliver a kick to the man's face sending him to the ground.
As another thug rushed at him and give a powerful wide hook, Alfred deflected his blow, grabbed him by the neck and directed him towards a wall. Slipping back into a boxing position as the last thug gave a wild punch towards his head, Alfred instinctively tucked his head in, the thugs fist crashed into his skull and immediately pulled back. The thug was gritting his teeth and holding his hand in pain. Alfred delivered a kick to his head and sent him to the ground.
Sighing he picked up his gun, loaded another bullet and carefully walked through the smoke. Two-Face was waiting for him on the other side, Alfred raised his rifle. But when the gun was only halfway up, Two-Face was on top of him throwing a right hook. Alfred raised one arm and with some difficulty bated it harmlessly to the side. Two-Face immediately regained control of his arm and spun with lighting speed, aiming his elbow directly at the Alfred's face. Alfred ducked, only to find Two-Face's foot planted securely on his chest. Two-Face knocked him down onto the ground, the gun went sprawling from his hand as the former district attorney pulled out a pistol and his coin.
"Heads you die, tails I'll let a couple of bullets in your limbs decide how long you stay with the living," Two-Face commented getting ready to flip the coin keeping the gun trained on Alfred. As the coin was flipped up into the air Alfred spied his rifle on the ground. Without a second thought he dove for it. Two-Face quickly raised his gun and fired. Alfred didn't scream as the bullet passed through his leg, he swept the rifle up took aim and fired at the coin. A slow moving 3 inch target at near point blank range, child's play for a former MI6 sniper. Two-Face on the other hand let out a loud desperate cry as the bullet blew a large piece of his precious coin off.
"I can fix it!" he screamed, mostly to himself desperately scanning the ground for his coin. "If I can find all the pieces I can put it back together! I can fix it! I can fix it!" He looked up to see Alfred charging towards him, determination etched on his face. Two-Face raised his gun and fired, the man stumbled and his eyes went wide with pain as it passed through him but he didn't falter as he rammed the butt off the gun into his opponents face, knocking him out.
Alfred coughed before collapsing, a fierce grimace crossed his face as his brain finally seemed to register the pain that he was in. He slowly opened his eyes to see the red substance on his hands and on the floor.
"Glad, I could've been…some use," Alfred mumbled to himself. "Not bad…for a British chump," he finished closing his eyes.
"Hehehehe," a man in a top hat giggled emerging from the shadows of the room.
"I know you," Greta half whispered. "The Joker?"
"Joker? My, my, that's a name that I haven't heard in a very long time," the man giggled. "The Joker has been dead for some, oh ten or so years. He was Gotham's greatest citizen I think and then, and then, and then…" the man stuttered. "Then he pushed Batman too far. Of course you my dear!" he began with a bow, "May call me the Mad Hatter!"
Greta braced her mind, the air was suddenly full of physic waves. Her mental shields went up as the Hatter laughed and clapped. "Mind control devices of my own design," he chuckled pulling a glass vile out of his green coat. "They're all over this room! Now I really must ask, have you ever fallen down thee Rabbit Hole?" The vile tumbled out of his hands and shattered as it hit the ground. Greta felt dizzy, the world around her seemed to be growing. It fazed in and out, as if she was looking at it through a bubble. "Oopsie," the Hatter said looking down at the vile and shrugging before giving her a menacing grin. "It really is a magical place."
Arrowette back flipped off of the roof that had become completely submerged in vines and weeds before firing and explosive arrow into the entanglement. Almost as soon as the area had been cleared another set of vines came and filled the void. By that time, Starfire was hovering level with the vines and firing off a barrage of star bolts.
"So, I'm just saying that now I'm not so sure about this," Arrowette said casually as she fired a tow cable at a nearby tree to swing to the ground. "I had another talk with Raven, and it got me thinking, I mean if you think about it, marrying thee Batman…"
"You have to remember that you shall be taking on all his baggage, all that extra crime fighting, very little leisure time, all those sleepless night…and not necessarily in a good way, eep!" Starfire said dodging a large vine that had sprung up to her right and had tried to swat her away. Arrowette fired another explosive arrow blowing the vine away.
"You're killing my babies!" Poison Ivy shrieked as Starfire resume blasting the thick vines away.
"And you are obviously concerned because we all know that they don't grow on trees," Arrowette shot back, receiving a whack in the stomach as a response from a plant. "As you can see, I'm not that good with quips." Starfire landed beside her and as the large vines of the plants flashed towards her she raised both arms and plunged them straight into the plants. Starfire gave a yell as she began to pull the plant out of the ground. There was a ripping sound as the roots detached from the soil.
"No!" Poison Ivy screamed, her eyes widened for a brief second as she was forced to hit the dirt to avoid an arrow that flew over her head and exploded raining down knockout gas. "So you want to play it that way do you?" the villainess asked her eyes narrowing. Starfire launched the plant into the air and sent a massive starbolt blast in its direction blowing it to pieces.
"Heads up!" Arrowette yelled as another vine shot down at the two from Poison Ivy's perch. The two dodged in opposite directions with the head of the vine turning in Starfire's direction. Artemis fired and explosive arrow at the vine, blowing it apart. Starfire stopped in mid air only to find herself caught in a group of smaller vines. Poison Ivy raised her hand, those smaller vines definitely wouldn't hold her for long. Suddenly, the dead plant that Artemis shot gave one last twitch, executing one last command from Ivy. A bulb on the vine exploded sending green gas in Starfire's direction just as she broke out of the vines.
"Star!" Artemis yelled as she saw the gas wash over her friend. The 'gas' turned out to actually be…dust. Artemis looked up again. Starfire was looking at her with a blank stare, nonchalantly gazing in her direction. "Oh boy." Poison Ivy gave a smug grin.
"Get her," was Ivy's only order. Starfire sprang forward at lighting speeds forcing Artemis back on the defensive.
Batman and Raven raced into the main hall but soon stopped cold. Batman's face contorted, his fists balled up, his muscles went stiff, he bared his teeth and immediately set himself in an attack position, every inch of his body ready to kill. Raven resisted the urge to move away from him, this wasn't like his past temper tantrums, his anger was reaching unnatural levels. There in the middle of the atrium, Slade stood over the bodies of Two-Face and the butler Alfred.
"It's a pity that he had to go down so easily," was all that Slade said, the words sliding perfectly off of his tongue like silk. That was all it took, Batman snapped, he let out a yell of complete rage and flew forward in a black blur, there was a white flash as Batman's first punch collided with Slade's arm gauntlet sending a loud crack through the air and resonating throughout the building. A large crack appeared on Slade's steel gauntlet and several pieces fell to the ground. Slade didn't flinch, he kept his arm steady, keeping Batman back. "Now that you're here Batman lets get started shall we?"