Don't own BTVS or Batman characters they belong to Joss and DC Because if I owned them I would tell the editors to make a comic book and reap the benifits.
Dawn sighed as she was returned to the rest of the prisoners. She was glad that she was back amongst people that she knew weren't deranged. Here she knew that they were all just waiting there wasn't anything that was as likely to drive her mad. She didn't know why, but she knew that she had felt fear earlier yet now her memory was blank. She had also been screaming extremely hard if her throat was anything to go by. What had been in the room that had shaken her up? She sighed as she realized that the radio device that Tim had handed her was still in her pocket. She obviously hadn't found anything in which to use to boost the radio signal. Sighing she looked over at Tim who gathered her in his arms.
"How bad was it?" The dark haired teen asked her worriedly.
"I wish that I could tell you." Dawn mumbled in to his shirt. "I remember being scared, but I don't remember what I saw." The girl scowled at this in annoyance not liking the fact that her memory wasn't working. "Either I was scared so bad my mind is blocking it, or someone messed with my memory."
Tim nodded as he thought of the people that could do that. Mad Hatter and Scarecrow were on the top of that list. Hatter could do a number of things with his specially designed powders and drugs while Mad Hatter's control hats often left people feeling amnesic. He didn't see the point of scaring and then wiping her memory of the incident though as it wasn't as good way to make the lesson stick. Unless the lesson wasn't for her, but for the group as a whole he figured. Dawn had been one of the most self assured figures of the prisoners but was now shaking in fear and rage making the other kids nervous.
The shaking girl went to sit down and a frowning Tim wanted to join her but the sooner that he placed the transmitter up the sooner that his SOS could get out. Sighing he made his move and disappeared into the crowd while everyone was focused on Dawn. He stuck to the corners and waited. Everyone was watching Dawn to see what she would do next and this was the chance that he needed to make his move without anyone noticing. He took his belt off and underneath it was a rope cable and a few tools that he kept there for emergencies like these. He would have to move fast before the guards noticed him missing. Moving he managed to scale up the side of one of the walls and got near the top. He ran the sensor and grinned as he saw that the ceiling was weak here just what he needed hopefully the wall would be weak enough if he released one powerful communication burst. The communicator would probably burn itself out, but Oracle should be able to notice where they were or at least be able to narrow the search area down to a few mile area.
He slid down from where he was hiding. He looked up as one guard noticed him and he kicked himself he had been noticed. He thought about trying to slip into the crowd but a hand caught him from behind. He turned to look and saw that it was the knife meta that was holding onto him. "Let's go kid." The thug said. "The boss wants to have a word with you. And after you decided to play Spiderman up there I think that it's a good idea. You really shouldn't try and look for an escape or cause a commotion. It just means that the boss has to make an example out of you."
The thug led Tim through the door he noticed that other kids were noticing that the guards had another person and there was whispered surprised as they saw who they now had. He saw Dawn coming to the edge of the crowd and staring at him in disbelief before the door shut. He shook his head he should have just tried to make a move so that he could be taken to this part of the base then he could have deposited the communicator somewhere. Oh well he would just have to do something else. He thought to himself as they were walking through a darkened area where there weren't any guards. He made his move then. He grabbed the thug by the wrist and with a well practiced twist broke his hold on him and with another move flipped the guy off of him. He placed a quick kick to the face that knocked the guy out. Tim moved quickly by tying the guy up and placing the guy out of the way. Now all he had to do was wait for the others to show up when the communicator released a comm. burst. The timer had it going off in three more minutes. Melting into the shadows the boy waited for the next thing to happen.
Oracle's computers had already been set to begin focusing primarily on the countryside of Gotham. All of the information they had pointed to an out of the way hideout more obscure than even Two-Face usually used on his hideouts. When the timer ran down on the countdown for the communicator they were prepared and narrowed in on the area that they needed to know before said communicator blew its power and died.
Oracle smiled as she saw the coordinates that had popped up from the transmission burst. "Batman come in. I have the coordinates for the area that we're searching for." She said to the leader of the Bat Clan.
"Download it to my computer," Batman ordered, "I want to know what it is that we're getting into."
"Doing so now," The young woman returned to her former mentor. "Do you intend to share this information or do you want us to handle it ourselves?" She questioned him knowing that he was likely to go either way when it came to sharing this information. The fact that Tim was in trouble would probably be the only reason that he might consider sharing the location of the kidnappers. The computer hacker had to admit that they had been of a lot of help particularly in finding vampire and demonic safe houses.
"Don't tell them just yet." Batman returned to her. "I want to examine the information and perform some recon on the area before I decide whether or not these others would be of use in the rescuing of these children. Have N, H and Cat Woman meet me there. We'll see if there are any possible magic's in the area before we involve them."
"Understood, we'll withhold the information for now and wait to see what it is that comes up." The woman returned as she began transmitting the data to the others. Once that was done she began giving him a report on strange activity. "According to our sources someone attacked Riddler and Mad Hatter recently and took off with them."
"Explain." Batman instructed.
"The leader is a meta of unknown origin female has blue hair, eyes, wears blue leather, and her skin might be blue tinted as well. Abilities seem to include enhanced speed, invincibility and super strength. She's reported as speaking about herself in the third person. Her companion was much weaker but had superior strength speed and durability as well. This one was dressed as a Billy Idol wannabe, had a scar on the right eyebrow, spoke with a cockney accent, and smokes. He's reported to calling the other one Blue which could be a shortening of her alias or could simply be the name she is going by as well."
"Have you run a program with any known associates of Riddler and Mad Hatter to see if the pair had any previous dealings with either of them or someone they've worked with before" Batman quizzed her.
Oracle with held an eye roll at his questioning her competence like that. "A program is working through that along with seeing if minor altercations to the bodies bring forth any possible matches." She reported to him.
"Keep me informed B out."
Oracle nodded as she began planning her own attacks if the Batman or the supernaturals should fail. She had to figure that any attacks would likely consist of Huntress and Cat Woman so that pulled them off any Birds of Prey team that she would put together that still left her with about a dozen others that Black Canary could get to help her out with their own rescue if they needed it. The woman wondered if she could convince the Slayer and other members of her team to either join or work with the Birds of Prey. The addition that they had would be useful, their knowledge on magic would also make them helpful particularly since it would probably be easier to get information from them as opposed to some of the other magical who all seemed to horde their knowledge or depend on word of mouth information to communicate. It was hard to hack information when it wasn't entered into any of the computers of the world.
Buffy sighed as Faith kicked down yet another hidden door. She and Xander had disabled the electronic security systems while Willow had disabled all of the wards. The group had become very adept at the system while they hunted. They had been doing this for a couple of hours looking for any information on who was behind the kidnappings and had so far come up with nothing for all of their hard work. They had played all sorts of parts to take care of the demons in this town whether it be the ones that hid in the sewers or the ones that had mansions. Part of the problem though was that the supernatural element in Gotham was incredibly small. For a city the size that it was it was insane actually, but the supernatural population was only about half the size that one would expect from a city of this size. The four of them were currently in a demon restaurant that was for high class demons. The group looked around till they spotted a person that had the most minions around him. The two Slayers led with Xander in the middle watching their backs while Willow covered their exit if something should happen.
The minions fearfully moved forward to intercept the group. Faith smirked at the group as she eyed them. "Do you really think that you can stop us?" She asked them in her husky voice. "I mean come on boys, we been going at this for a while now and we're all losing patience with no one knowing anything. What's to stop our witch over there from just lighting you on fire hmm? She asked them in a sugary voice that had no mercy to it." The demons shifted nervously, but held their ground waiting for orders or for fists to start flying.
"Bored now." Willow said, as she telekinetically grabbed the pair of demons and tossed them to the side.
The demon overlord glared at the group of friends angrily as they brushed aside his guards. He sheathed and unsheathed his claws a few times before he rose to meet the group of demon hunters. The creature looked like a cross between a giant cat and a lizard as it had all of the figure of a human like cat, but instead of fur it had scales and a forked tongue that darted in and out of its mouth. The demon did not look happy to see them as it took their measure in before it began to speak. "I underssstand your anger Ssslayersss, Knight and Witch. The risssing sssun youngling hasss been taken and now you mussst act lessst you appear weak. Even more importantly and binding though, isss the battle bond that exissst between you all."
"That is one hell of a lisp that you got there." Xander pointed out to the demon. "Have you ever considered having a doctor looked into it, or going into speech therapy to get it taken care of?"
The demon ignored the interruption except for letting the group see him pop his claws out in annoyance. "You were willing to let me remain in control and only attacked anything unlessss you came acrossss it doing sssomething that it ssshould not. Sssomething I onccce had sssoldiersss of my own do. A war with the Bat isss not one that any would win. While we might win against the Bat it isss unknown cccertainty besssidesss if our war became too much the Ssstar Child, the Amazonian Champion, and possssibly Nabu's Champion would intervene. Againssst sssuch oddsss we could not win. In order for thisss city to return to itsss old waysss we must give you the information that you want."
"Are you saying that you're willing to help us out after having us run all over the city to find you?" Faith asked in disbelief.
"Yess Dark Ssslayer I am." The demon returned to her. "Asss the only overlord left, it iss my choicce to make. The others fled leaving the final call to me. I want a return of how thingsss were before the Bat became aware of usss." The demon explained to them.
The blonde Slayer snorted at this and crushed the demons hopes with her next words to him. "It's too late for that now scale face. He knows you're here in his city and he will make it his job to destroy you. His level of success though could be changed if we have my sister. You have no plans here to end the world so I have no reason to go to war with you." She tempted him with a smile.
:I sssee," the demon said. "I ssshall consssider all that hass been sssaid. To end thisss hunt on our homesss though, I have here information where it isss believed that the younglings are being held. We cannot get you closer than the area though. Perhapsss your witch can figure it out if ssshe only hasss to worry about a sssmaller area." The demon suggested to them.
Xander chuckled a bit as he realized something about the demon before them. "Careful with him Buffster. This guy isn't near as powerful as he wants us to believe he is. He's a power, but not the power. I'd say that the real power left the city when he heard that there were two Slayers on the warpath, and is just relaying a message to us."
"Which means that he ain't got any room to give orders about what happens afterwards." Faith said in understanding of what the former carpenter was saying to them. The demon growled at the pair angry that it had been found out by the others. "Oh put a sock it." The Slayer returned to the defiant demon.
Buffy smiled at the now nervous looking demon as one of the minions gave them the area that they were to look for Dawn and the missing kids. "You do realize if this information is wrong then your boss is going to have to discover a new puppet to use when we're done with you right?" She questioned cheerfully as she took the paper and passed it behind her to Xander who passed it to Willow.
"I am aware." The demon said as it bowed its head slightly and the group slowly walked out the door.
Once they were outside Buffy turned to look at her friends. "Willow, can you get us there?"
The witch nodded her head. "Yeah it shouldn't take too long to get us there." She assured them. "It's just a bit outside the city limits. We can get Giles and then get Dawnie and then we can get going and do our thing." The others nodded and waited for the witch to finish the spell that would get them to where they needed to be. A tornado erupted around them and they disappeared from view.
Angel looked up as Spike and Illyria entered the hotel room that they had been given. Lorne had traveled right up to the room and had proceeded to help the others in trying to find out how someone could manage to perform the number of teleportation spells yet not leave any signs of what it was that they were doing. The person had to have powerful protections around them to somehow manage to block everything that they had tried so far. "Where have you two been?" He questioned them in annoyance.
Illyria returned his angry scowl with one of her own haughty stares. You are not my master as the others appear to regard you nor are you my guide if I decide to take a walk with my pet and make much violence then it is of no concern to yours.
Spike chuckled as he listened to her defy his sire. "In other words Peaches it ain't any of yer bloody business." The vampire returned to him with a grin as he lit another cigarette.
"Spike, you're not really helping the matter right now." Angel returned in annoyance. He might not be able to do anything to Illyria but he wouldn't hesitate to beat on Spike if he continued to play his power games right now. Buffy was likely on her way if not already in the city meaning that he only had hours left before the top on this blasted city blew up and he would most likely have to clean it up. It didn't help that the last time he and Buffy had exchanged words he found out that the reason that he had started all of this no longer believed or trusted in him.
"Up yours," The blonde vampire returned to him before he waltzed the rest of the way in smirking at Angel who was visibly retraining himself from lunging at him. "Blue and I went around asking questions and didn't get a whole lot of feedback from the local wankers. Looks like we're gonna have to try something else if we're going to get anything done here."
"And what do you suggest we do captain peroxide?" Angel growled at him. "We've already hit every cop and demon bar out there that we know of."
Spike scoffed at the other vampire. "It's real simple mate, so simple that anyone with half a brain should have been able to figure it out. Course, that probably explains why you never did." He sneered at his grandsire. "Just offer to pay some bird to tell ya everything there is and you'll find them easy enough."
"Great idea Spike, except for the fact that we don't have the time to hunt down an informant." Angel returned to him.
"What did ya think that we were doing out there Peaches getting our hair done?"
"Actually, with all the work that has to be done to both of your hair that's actually possible." Gunn noted to the others with a smirk getting a glare from the blonde vampire.
"That's real funny Charlie boy." Spike told the lawyer dryly. "Anyways we did managed to spread the word on what it is that we're looking for. If we're lucky we can get this mess cleaned up before the Slayer and her lot decide to blow into town."
"You fear the Slayer and how she shall act." Illyria noted to the others disdainfully. "Why do you fear this muck? Have you not destroyed two of their number before my pet?"
"Well yeah sure I have Blue, but there's something different about Buffy not to mention she's got all sorts of help to back her up when she needs it. She's got Red, the Watcher, Droopy, and all of the little mini slayers that will come if she gives a holler out to them. It's enough to make anyone to be a bit nervous." The Slayer of Slayers admitted to the primordial being.
"Bah, when I was at my full power I would have used such creatures as these slayers to clean my teeth or to service my armies in whatever ways that it was that they desired of them. I doubt but any but a few of them would have been worth more than the lowest of my warriors." Illyria declared while glaring at the group. "The one known as Faith would have made a most amusing pet alongside of Spike." She added as an afterthought as if she was considering collecting the dark haired slayer for that duty.
Spikes eyes glazed over as he considered all of those young slayers and Buffy being at the beck and call of the Old One or those loyal to her. It almost made him wish that she was still at her old power and had her army to call upon. 'She had to like him more than Peaches right?' The bleached vampire thought to himself as he daydreamed.
They were interrupted as a a knock on the door happened. The group exchanged looks before a nod from Angel had Wesley opening the door. The group looked and saw that a demon was standing there. "Angelus, Spike, Illyria, and company." The demon greeted, sneering at the other members of the group. "I bring you word. The place where the half-breeds are doing business has been found."
"Why are you telling us?" Wesley questioned suspiciously.
After a look from Angel the demon began to explain his reasons to them. "The Bat has learned of our presence and we shall have to curb much of what we do as it is in our efforts to escape from his sight." The demon replied looking annoyed at the idea that they would have to hide themselves from a human. It was one thing to hide from a Slayer another to hide from a human with no mystical abilities. "While there are those that feel confident in their ability to take him, they are not interested in the return of the original Lantern or in the prospect that the Amazon would come after us. No, our community will have to learn on getting by at half its original strength for years to come now." The demon complained to Angel. "It is because of those half breeds that we have been brought down to this." The creature growled.
"You're Scourge." Angel said angrily as he remembered Doyle, and what his friend had done to save those like him.
"No vampire, I am not. I have clan mates in the Scourge, but I do not have any other connections to them other than that." The demon informed the vampire quickly. "Do you really think any self respecting members of the Scourge would have anything to do with a vampire? Particularly one that helped destroy one of their finest creations."
"You're hoping we'll go in there and weaken or kill a bunch of half breeds and then you can take their places with the least amount of business loss to yourselves then." Wesley said in understanding of what the demon was trying to get them to do. "You plan on taking advantage of the power vacuum that they leave and try and give yourselves an even firmer grip here."
"The Bat has in his own way made the city a safe haven for the half breeds to live out their so called lives in peace." The demon sneered at them. "If we move now we can make a move that will give us more power in this city than we've ever had. The old lantern knew what to watch for, but the Bat doesn't. We can profit from the fallout of this after the Batman is done with his games."
"Give us the address and we'll check it out mate. If you really want us to do the job so badly." Spike said witha bit of impatience.
"There was a promise of payment though." The demon said.
"And you want us to help you set up the half-breeds. Seems to me we both want things and that it will be with dealing that we're all gonna get what we want. Its real simple either you tell us and there's a good chance that we end up killing a lot of folks or you wait for this Bat poofter to find it and you don't get as good of a deal. I hear the bloke's not real big on human blood being spilt. Have him do it and you know that not a whole lot is going to happen to em. Let us do it and blood we'll have at least a fifty percent chance of happening if they make trouble for us." The demon scowled but tossed a piece of paper with the address on it toward the blonde before walking out. "Pleasure doin business with ya mate." Spike said with a grin before he passed the paper off to Wesley who then handed it to Angel. "Easy as pie." Spike bragged as he popped the collar of his duster.
"Let's go." Angel said grabbing some weapons as he headed for the door. The dark vampire really needed to kill something now after listening to that demon and what he intended to do to half-breeds. The vampire really hoped that there was a demon of some sort there for him to kill. The others nodded and followed after their friend and leader.
The Batman led Nightwing, Batgirl, Huntress, and Catwoman towards the building that was standing before them. The plan was to do recon and if it was possible to ahead and break the children out if they could find a way to get in. The fact that they could do it without the Slayers made it all the more easy as far as the Dark Knight was concerned. Having outsiders getting in the way always caused problems. Gotham was his city and he was going to ensure that they knew that.
"So, that's the place then?" Nightwing asked as he looked through a pair of binoculars at the building. "Do we have a plan or do we want to try the basic sneak and grab scenario?" He asked as he passed his binoculars to Huntress.
Batman nodded his head in agreements and was about to gesture them forward when a small tornado appeared before them. Each member of the group drew a weapon from their belts and prepared for the first level of security that they might be facing. When the tornado disappeared though, all that was left was the Slayer and her team alongside them was a new figure wearing a trench coat, hat, and mask over his clothes. "What are you doing here?" Batman hissed at them in anger not returning his batarang. Had they had only been pretending to help and had been leading them around for the last few hours, while they figured the best way to take them down was already filtering through his mind. If they had merely been stalling them with talking about the supernatural and showing him the demonic underground while Robin was in danger then he would make them all pay.
"Same as you big guy." The brunette girl said as she turned to glare back at the Bat Clan. "Can't help but notice that you guys look like you're about to go in. I thought the idea was to go in all together to save the kids? Or was that something I'm imagining and I misheard things?" She mocked as she looked the group over.
"Like you weren't going to do the same?" Nightwing asked in amusement. "So who's the new guy?" He asked nodding toward the unknown.
"Him? Oh, uh just call him Watcher." Slayer said quickly while the other man huffed. "Hey, it was that or your nickname from Spike." She told the older man. This seemed to quiet the man down somewhat though he did continue to glare at the young woman.
"We can worry about it later." Batman growled as he turned away from the group to observe the building again. "O, what kind of information can you tell me about this place?" He questioned the hacker.
"It's supposed to be one of your basic country areas the particular building you're interested in used to belong to a church though. It was used as a drop off point for various smugglers that were trying to move things inland without having to pay any tariff taxes." The woman replied.
"This area was also used for a number of various sacrifices to various Gods over the years as well." Watcher told them. "The area is just the right distance away from all of the primary elements to be a good area to be used as a sacrifice area. The built up energy has for the most part been untapped. All of the excessive magical energy makes it rather hard to get a read on anything which is why we missed it when we first started out. However something is using the energy now, not a lot of it but a bit of it. This probably means an amateur or someone with low power levels. It could also be that they were trying to avoid detection though and they figured that the best way to do that was only to use small amounts of magic."
"So we could be dealing with someone that is about to blow the lid off of everything then." Batman said with narrowed eyes as he watched the group. The Slayer and her followers seemed to accept everything that the man had just rattled off to them meaning that he was most likely one of their main sources of information. If they were allowing one of their main information sources in they might be somewhat on the level.
"Yes, something like that." The man agreed with him. "So how do you plan on getting in? I'm afraid my expertise in breaking and entering is rather limited to sacrificial halls and usually only during ceremonies."
It will be a piece of cake right Cat Woman? The Slayer asked the professional thief who merely nodded her head in agreement with the other woman.
"There are no outside guards." Huntress said from where she was still watching. "We can slip in before they even know that we're here."
"Er, Wicca, check for any kinds of wards." The Slayer told her companion.
The witch nodded and with a few mumbled words and gestures the woman began searching. She frowned as she looked the group over. "It has some fairly basic detection wards set up, but they're pretty good because they have so much juice in them."
"Can you get past them?" Batman demanded of her.
"Yeah sure I can get past them, hell the old man here could probably get past them." The girl said nodding toward the man.
"Good. We'll slip inside then and take them down quietly they won't even know that we're here."
"I highly doubt that we could manage that successfully with this large of a group." Watcher pointed out to the caped crusader. "There are simply too many of us to move around with any level of stealth.
Batman frowned but nodded his head in agreement at this. "You are correct we will need to make a distraction out here. Slayer, take your team and come at the other side. While you are doing that my team will slip inside."
"Will that work though?" Knight asked curiously. "They've seen us working together do you really think that they'll accept that we wouldn't come with you?"
"Isn't that what you were going to do anyways?" Cat Woman purred out to the young man.
"Well yeah, but do you think that they'll know that though?" The young man questioned with a cocky answering smirk. "So what we do is have a group go in through the front door making a lot of noise while the real rescue is coming in from the side door."
"Doable." Batman grunted in agreement. "Cat-Woman Batgirl assists them."
"Watcher, Knight your with them." The Slayer told her own people. Batman glared at her for pairing him with some of her people. He had people trained to do the job and didn't need amateurs messing things up. "What, they know the best ways to hit demons without relying on extra abilities. They're the best ones to do it. Besides how were you planning on getting past the wards without detection if Wicca is with us?" The Slayer pointed out to the Batman. "We'll bang on the door you just slip through the window."
Nightwing smirked a bit as he heard the young woman use logic against his mentor. She was right and they all knew it. The young woman was about to be one of the few people to actually win disagreement with Batman. Usually it was only major heroes like Superman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman that had that title.
"Fine. Go." Batman ordered ignoring the smirk that Nightwing was wearing. The Slayer had pointed out a good tactical reason for both of her members to join his so he couldn't very well ban them. The group nodded and took off to head for what could be thought of as the front entrance.
"Okay Wicca, knock on the door the rest of us are going to be on protection detail." Slayer told them all. "At least for the moment." She said with a grin before she turned to the Gothamites. "Cat Woman, how long do you think it will take them to get inside and find the kids?"
Cat Woman grinned as she got an idea of what the young woman was suggesting. "Depending on how big the place is inside and how many guards they have to take out or avoid? If there are only light patrols then he needs fifteen to twenty minutes head start on us to make sure that no one important is going to get hurt."
"Right, someone set the clock then. After twenty minutes we're going to move forward." The Slayer told the others with a grin. "Can't let them have all of the fun after all. Besides after twenty minutes we'll have dealt with anyone that will have come up anyways." The blonde smiled as she nodded toward the witch who formed a ball of magic in her hand. She held it and let it charge before she threw it. They all watched as the beamed slammed into the wall of the building. The building shook and like ants several demonic looking creatures led by what looked like a small army of vampires steamed out of the building.
"Sweet," the Dark Slayer said as she saw all of the creatures that she was allowed to kill. She drew one of her daggers and in the other hand she carried a stake. "Time for us to go have some fun." She called outd with a smile before she charged at the vampires ignoring the others.
Slayer shook her head in amusement at her friend before she turned to the others. "Protect the witch, she's the main distraction we got. Her job is to break the wards completely which takes a lot more power than simply slipping through them. If they're vampires stake them and if they're some of these half demons knock them out and we'll sort them out later." The two nodded as they each took a stake from the Slayer before they watched the young woman draw her scythe from her back and charge into the group.
"So do we stand here and let them have all the fun?" Cat Woman asked as she uncoiled her whip.
"Our job is to defend." Batgirl reminded the woman as she took up a guard position beside the witch. Cat Woman sighed, nodding her head in agreement. The vigilante/thief shouldn't have worried to much as more and more came at them some rushing past the Slayer and her companion an and heading for the witch. The pair of vigilantes moved to intercept them. Batgirl could have been mistaken for a slayer or a potential with the fluid grace in which she managed to destroy each and every one of the creatures that came at her. The young woman had no problems as she pushed her stake into the chest of one vampire while she broke the leg of another. The young woman was in her element there was nothing but the fight right now. Cat Woman was in her own way just as efficient using the claws in her costume wounded her opponents while the stake went and entered the heart. The woman had a simple system that was making her just as dangerous as the others were. The Slayers were either killing or knocking gangster unconscious and the guns that were being drawn were dealt with by the bullwhip, batarang, throwing knives, or the use of a magic spell that intercepted the bullet and stopping it before the gun was turned red hot causing the half-breed to drop the weapon in pain.
Angel looked the building over and with a nod from his friends they slipped inside. They had found a sewer entrance and despite the complaints of Lorne had decided that it was the best way to get in. The vampire entrance would make it the easiest way for them to get in and out. It was probably the easiest way to approach without being seen. As they approached they saw the guards looking Lorne over with uneasy looks. The vampire swallowed nervously before he came up with an idea. He looked at Spike and sneered at him. "I told you that the food there was going to do this to green boy but you never listen. You know that when he starts to have his allergies that he can't stay in human form."
Spike glared at Angel. "Oh so it's my fault that your boy here can't handle real food then is it you wanker? How the bloody hell was I supposed to know that you're little green man here can't handle anything beyond those Sea Breeze things of his? He needs to learn how to drink real drinks instead of those kiddy things of his." He sniped at the dark haired vampire as they continued to make their way toward the door. "Next thing I know you're going to tell me it's my bloody fault that Fred here is like she is."
The guards nodded and let the group pass by never noticing that one was a pure demon and two of them were fully human. As they passed by the group nodded toward another doorway and slipped in. "Alright now what?" Gunn asked them curiously. I don't think that show of our is going to full them forever when they realize that they don't have any Billy Idol wannabe vampires. How do we find the man in charge of this place?"
"Wes, can you do a spell that will give us a general direction to go?" Angel questioned the British man curiously.
Illyria ignored the group as they were chanting and placed her hand over a great and seemed to be listing to whatever the plants were saying. She then toward the group. "There is a sewer entrance to the main hall where are prey resides if we go this way then we will find it."
The others looked at her dubiously before turning toward their mage. "Wes?"
"It's not like we have a whole lot to go on." The former Watcher said shrugging. The others nodded as they turned to Illyria who was already ripping the grate off.
Spike scowled as he looked at the sewer water. "It's always blood and sewers with us ain't it?" He groused as they followed after Illyria.
Illyria made them stop a few moments later. "The guardian is here." She said after a moment.
"Guardian?" Angel asked as he drew his weapon and began looking around nervously.
"Yes, the guardian is here." She said and then turned her eyes toward one of the tunnels they all followed her gaze and saw a giant worm or snake like creature. It will provide us with much violence I hope."
"Oh bloody hell." Spike complained as he jumped back as the creature shot acid at them. "You are so picking up the cleaning bill for my jacket Peaches." He told his grandsire before he bared his fangs and waving his sword he lunged at the beast. The others followed his example while Wesley pulled back and drew his guns and began firing into the beast.
Batman led the others into the building while the group above them gave them the much needed distraction. Huntress and Nightwing were bringing up the rear while the Watcher and Knight walked in the middle of the group. The Dark Knight looked around for a possible way to deal with the forces that they were arrayed against. 'He really hated magic.' The man thought as he considered all the various spells and traps that they had been forced to stop before so that the Watcher could mutter a few words in Latin before they could move forward. He couldn't even deny that they weren't doing anything since he would see a broken smoky line break or a shimmer of light as a shield was shattered. He was familiar with seeing such things on the few occasions that he was forced to deal with magic so he knew that the man was doing everything as he said he was it didn't mean that he had to like it though.
They were still in some unknown area when the Batman paused as he heard something. "Someone is up ahead." He said to the others." How long until the next ward line?"
"One hundred meters give or take." The man said.
Batman nodded there was a large space of area then before the next shield or defense came up that meant that there was plenty of room for them to fight if it came down to that. "Wait here." He told the older man. "H, you're with me." The two caped figures slipped out of sight and down the hallway. Batman held his hand up as he listened, Huntress waiting patiently behind him for a signal on what to do. Another gesture and the woman leaped over him and fired her weapon while he threw his batarang another. There was muffled curse and the pair walked into the dark and saw a pinned Timothy Drake held against the wall.
"Batman, Huntress." The teen greeted the pair as he tugged against the weapons that now had him.
"Robin." Batman greeted as he reached behind his back and produced a folded costume for the young man. The young man thanked him as he quickly placed the uniform on over his own clothes. As he fastened the belt on he looked toward his mentor. "Where's my cape?"
"Nightwing has it." Batman returned to his youngest protégé." Move forward." He shouted out to the group behind him. A moment later the other three joined them. Nightwing smiled at the younger hero and passed him the cape that he had been holding for the young man.
"Who is this?" The Watcher asked with interest as he watched the young man hand a cape over to a boy.
"Robin has been part of an advance infiltration." Batman returned to the older man. "His job was to locate this place and then signal the rest of us. Unfortunately for us though we were unaware of the mystical element in our foes so we were unaware that we would be dealing with magic that would interfere with the way that our communications work. He managed to find some way to broadcast a short message though that gave us the coordinates of where he was."
"Damn, so you already had an ace in the hole then with the kid hero then?" The Knight questioned from where he was watching shaking his head in disbelief. "Is there anything that you don't plan for?"
Batman shook his head at the young man before heading off. "If Robin has made it this far without breaking any of the wards then I can only presume three possibilities. Whoever was in charge of security didn't count on Robin making it this far and the wards on the inside are not very good, something else has a similar feel to Robin, and sticking to the shadows which reside mainly in the ceiling which means that you probably jumped through the doorways instead of walking. Either that or you are under some form of mental control."
Robin nodded his head in agreement with his mentor. "There are also a number of air ducts that make it easier to slip in and out of without having to worry about walking across guards." He pointed out to the group. I'm guessing that there aren't very many wards up there because they didn't think to place them there."
Batman nodded his head in understanding. "We are therefore dealing with someone unused to people that don't walk. This means that the mystic we're facing while somewhat powerful is not nearly the power house we might consider him to be and may only know a few fancy spells."
"You got all that just by figuring out how your guy managed to sneak past the guards?" Knight asked in disbelief of the man.
The others nodded as they followed after the man. The Watcher was shaking his head as the man figured various things out about their opponent by merely figuring out their methods. The man was truly remarkable the elder man thought ass he followed the others deeper into the room.
They paused at a pair of double doors finally. "Here's where the kids are being kept." Robin said nodding toward the heavy doors." Over that way is where the head honcho is stationed though." He explained pointing farther down the hall. They were taking me that way when I managed to deal with my guard he explained.
"Are any of the children hurt?" The Watcher asked curiously.
"No, they're all okay some of them are scared but not a one of them has been hurt." Robin answered.
"Good," Batman said as he passed the door with the children in it and headed toward where the person in charge of this whole mess was.
"What about the children?" The Watcher questioned surprised that the person was ignoring them and heading for the other doors.
"The children are fine," Batman returned in annoyance, "if we stop the person in charge though then we stop the entire operation. Once that's done we can get them out of here without any of them getting hurt. They may already be gone due to the show we have being put on outside though. They should be perfectly safe right where they are since none of them are currently injured. Unless you want to risk the children getting hurt with all of the magical spells that are flying around outside?" He questioned the man darkly who took a nervous step back from the vigilante.
"Very well, but I don't like it." He told them.
"You don't have too." Batman returned before heading towards the door. The group slipped into the other hall and found a large antechamber with a thrown on it and sitting on that thrown was none other than Harvey Dent, A.K.A the Two-Face. The man was well known for his dual nature and coin flipping rules. The group all followed silently the two non Bat clan members took a few steps back and watched as the other three moved in. A full blooded demon in chain mail and holding a sword stood there with a regular human that wore some sort of tech suit with all sorts of gun ports. The demon sniffed the air and frowned as if there was something wrong and pulled his sword up into the ready position as it began looking around. The three superheroes moved in as it was obvious that they had been detected. Huntress and Nightwing dropped in front of the demon a crossbow bolt taking it out in the eye while Nighwing threw his own version of the batarang knocking the sword out of his grasp the two then made short work of beating the creature down. Batman had an even simpler time with his opponent as he landed on it deposited an EMP emitter jumped back watching as the armor fell. The hero then walked forward and dug a batarang into the back destroying the primary battery. A reboot without full power would take nearly twice as long if it was even possible.
"Batman." Two-Face growled out angrily as he glared at the Dark Knight. There was no way that he could go for his guns as the Bat would simply throw his weapon and knock them out of his grip.
"Two-Face." The masked figure returned. "We can do this the easy or hard way."
"I'll take you on! He snarled as he went for his guns only to have them knocked from his grip by the weapons of the other two heroes.
Batman then leaped and delivered a kick into his face before he tossed the person around the room a few times and then slapped a pair of cuffs on the former D.A. "It's over Harvey." Batman growled as he hauled him to his feet.
Now that they would no longer be in the way the other two joined them. "Very nicely done." The Watcher congratulated, he then turned to the criminal." Now then, where's your accomplice?" He questioned the man curiously.
"Why I'm right here Ripper." A voice said they all turned and saw an older man with thinning hair and a smirk on his face step out of the shadows. "Got to admit Ripper, that's an interesting new look for you."