A/N— The major battle. Thanks as always to my fantastic beta Hepburn and the wonderful touches she adds to my stories. Thanks as well to Icha for telling me the name of the swords that The League of Assassins uses. Please read and enjoy.
Spoilers—none
Disclaimer—I don't own Justice League or any characters in the DC Universe and I don't own the lyrics to "It's The End of the World As We Know It" and I am making no money from this story.
Six o'clock - TV hour. Don't get caught in foreign tower. Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn. Lock him in uniform and book burning, blood letting. Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate. Light a candle, light a motive. Step down, step down. Watch a heel crush, crush. Uh oh, this means no fear - cavalier. Renegade and steer clear! A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies. Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.—It's The End of the World As We Know It by REM
Chapter 25-The End of the World As We Know It
Bruce, Diana, J'onn and Robin crouched behind the crates as bullets flew around them and the alarm sounded.
"Looks like we are going to have to fight it out," Diana said as she drew on the cold rage she felt toward Talia and Vandal Savage and prepared for battle.
"Yeah, it looks that way." Bruce said as he pulled explosive batarangs from his belt. "Robin, first chance you get, I want you to get out of here. Superman will be arriving with reinforcements in less than fifteen minutes."
Robin just glared at him and Batman could tell he wasn't going to listen. Why did he have to raise such pig-headed boys he wondered? He didn't have time to worry about Tim right now. It was time to fight.
J'onn went first, phasing his body so that the bullets passed through him, then he grabbed a couple of soldiers and knocked them out. Diana emerged and started deflecting bullets and fighting soldiers as they came at her. Robin shot a d-cell line and flew up into the high rafters of the room launching batarangs as he went. He landed on top of some more crates and continued his batarang assault. Batman launched several explosive batarangs causing the soldiers to scatter and started fighting. He landed a roundhouse kick to one guy's head while punching another very hard in the stomach knocking him back a few feet.
"Well if it isn't Wonder Woman and her friends! I must say I am impressed you found us so quickly; I figured it would be at least another couple of weeks before I would get the opportunity to kill you? But one should never look a gift horse in the mouth!" Vandal yelled and started shooting at her with a Ruger MP9 submachine gun.
Diana was so busy deflecting Vandal's bullets that she didn't notice Talia coming up from behind her with her own Ruger MP9. Tim, who had just launched his d-cell line again saw her and yelled, "Wonder Woman!" before he swung down and grabbed her pulling her with him a second before Talia opened fire. Diana immediately aided Tim in his rescue by using her power of flight to carry them up to the top of some more crates.
Talia ended up shooting a few of her men as well as Vandal and she shrieked at Diana's retreat. She swiftly spun towards Wonder Woman and Robin determined to kill her and not caring at all about the injury and death to her own soldiers that she had just caused.
Vandal looked at his bleeding shoulder and cried out, "Dearest, please be more careful!"
Talia simply glared at him with a look of pure hate giving Wonder Woman time to recover her bearings.
"Thanks Robin," she said patting him on the back before deflecting the bullets as Talia opened fire on her again. Several of the deflected bullets hit some barrels of gasoline nearby and it leaked all over the floor. Diana removed her lasso and flew across the room. She did not attack Talia because her rage towards her was so strong she wasn't sure she could control it enough not to kill her. Instead she focused on helping J'onn dispatch soldiers. She roped a few of them and flung them against the wall.
Robin dropped to the ground and joined Batman who was fighting off several soldiers with scimitars, a highly lethal curved sword favored by the League of Assassins. Soon they were fighting back to back like old times. Nightwing, Shayera and Batgirl arrived and quickly joined the fray. Nightwing and Batgirl went to aid Batman and Robin and Shayera flew swinging her mace to help J'onn and Diana. She deflected some bullets with her mace and hit the gunman in the head, knocking him out.
Talia was pissed at Vandal for distracting her while Wonder Woman was vulnerable. Talia had missed her opportunity to kill her and she doubted she would get another chance as good as that one. She saw Vandal standing to the side with his hand over the wound on his shoulder.
"You made me miss my chance to kill Wonder Woman!" Talia shrieked at him, hate and rage sparkling in her eyes.
"My love, you will get another chance, I will see to it." Vandal said in a soothing voice.
Talia had put up with Vandal long enough she decided. She was going to end this charade and his miserable life now. Turning slightly away from Vandal, she removed the syringe. Then she walked towards him, her body swaying sensuously with an enigmatic smile on her face.
"How is you shoulder doing, dearest? Let me take a look?" She purred while removing his hand. Of course the wound had almost healed but she needed an excuse to come closer to him in order to strike. Vandal pulled her closer in order to kiss her and was about to when he felt a sting in his neck. He looked down to see a grinning Talia pulling an empty syringe from his neck.
"My love what have you done?!" he asked as he felt pain shooting through his muscles. He felt confused and suddenly very alone.
"I created a poison that will kill you, you Savage and I have just injected you with enough of it to kill a herd of elephants! You see I need you out of the way so that I can be with my love, my beloved. You have served your purpose, and I have no further use or need for you. I would like to thank you if it's any consolation, for your diligent research in trying to unlock the key to immortality. I will finish your research and use it to make my beloved and I immortal. He and I will rule this earth and remake it in our image! Batman is my beloved and true consort the only man worthy of me, not some deluded caveman with insane notions of power and grandeur who happened upon a glowing rock thousands of years ago! Oh and by the way, your touch makes me feel ill! There was never enough bath oil to get your stench off of me!" Talia said giving him a hate filled smile. She then turned to walk towards Batman with a look of joy and love on her face. She was going to get her soldiers to stand down then introduce them to their new master, but Vandal grabbed her arm.
"You heartless viper! Did you really think I would just let you walk away to start your new life while I slowly die, now who is the deluded one? I may be dying after thirty thousand years but I'm taking you with me Dearest." He hissed while slapping her hard across the face. They started fighting but even poisoned Vandal's strength was far greater than Talia's and his rage lent him even more strength.
Talia screamed to Batman for help, "Beloved, please help me! I spared Wonder Girl just as you asked me to! Help me to get rid of this barbarian and we can be together like we planned!" Vandal slapped her hard again this time knocking her down.
"Talia, I have no idea what you're screaming about, but I won't let him kill you! You saved my life once and honor demands that I return the favor, but I will see that you are put in prison when this is over!" Batman yelled back.
Vandal started laughing at Talia's look of shock. "Ah poor Talia it seems that your beloved has forsaken you? You should have stuck with me, my love. These superheroes don't understand the sacrifices that are necessary for power and progress!" He then punched her in the stomach, causing her to double over. He was about to hit her again, but he began to sway due to the effects of the poison making him dizzy and starting to slow him down.
Batman was working his way over to them when a spark from a bullet ignited the gasoline on the floor. Flames shot up spreading quickly across the floor as some crates caught on fire. The soldiers and heroes quickly moved away from the flames. Batman was cut off from Talia and Vandal.
The members of the Justice League and the Bat clan had almost defeated the soldiers when Superman and Green Lantern arrived. They had taken out the rest of the soldiers in the bunker. Superman started to use his cooling breath to put out the flames but he was too late as the fire ignited the explosives in the crates. One crate exploded spreading shrapnel across the room but GL was able to shield the heroes from receiving major damage.
Another crate shot into the air before exploding and knocked a big hole into the ceiling. Batman watched as chunks of metal and cement fell on Talia and Savage. More debris was showering the room though GL did his best to block it. There were still several crates on fire.
"We need to get everyone out of here!" Superman yelled as another crate exploded. Soldiers that were still conscious ran down the corridors towards the exits. GL scooped up the rest in a green bubble and flew through the hole in the roof.
J'onn grabbed Nightwing and Batgirl and followed GL out the hole in the roof. Shayera grabbed Robin and did the same. Batman, soon joined by Wonder Woman, was trying to dig out Talia and Vandal before the room blew.
"Batman, Wonder Woman there is no time to dig them out; the room is going to blow up soon! You need to get out of here!" Superman yelled as Batman and Diana continued to dig.
Superman grabbed Batman who struggled against his hold and took off through the ceiling with Wonder Woman following as the room began to explode. A large piece of shrapnel imbedded itself into her leg and she hissed at the pain. Superman heard her and asked, "Are you all right, Diana?"
Bruce stopped struggling and looked at Diana. She could actually see the look of worry on his face.
She half smiled and said, "Just some shrapnel in my leg, I'll be fine."
They landed nearby where the rest off the Justice League was rounding up soldiers and preparing them for transport to the authorities. John and Shayera had taken charge and everything seemed under control.
Once Superman released him, Batman immediately dropped down and examined Diana's thigh. The piece of metal stuck in her leg was large and imbedded deep. Blood ran down her leg.
"Diana we need to get you up to the Watchtower and have the shrapnel removed," Bruce said and she could hear the concern in his voice.
"I am not going anywhere without Donna! I need to find her, if she didn't get out I am going back in there!" Diana exclaimed, determination written on her face.
"Then you might as well transport up to the Watchtower. We found her before we went to help you fight the soldiers. Flash took her up to the infirmary." Shayera said and added, "From the sensor reading we've taken nobody is going to be going back into the bunker. The explosion in the main room has collapsed several of the corridors and support beams and it wouldn't be safe to go in there. We're lucky we weren't caught in an avalanche after that explosion. John and I are trying to load the prisoners as fast as possible before something causes this mountain to fall on us."
Bruce felt a little sadness as he realized that Talia was dead. While their relationship had ended years ago and he had moved on he still felt the loss. Talia had once been a good person if a little misguided. Considering who her father was and how she was raised that was saying something. He felt disappointed that she had eventually chosen a darker path.
He shook off thoughts of Talia as soon as he looked at Diana. He loved her and needed her and she needed to get to the Watchtower before the wound in her leg became infected. He stood. Picked her up and carried her in his arms.
"Let's go see your sister," he said gently before he had Mr. Terrific transport them up to the Watchtower.