"I really do not like this place," Starfire said. "It is so dark I am amazed I can see the ground." She flew with Nightwing and Batgirl hanging on to her, and she on to them. "Why has this Klarion gone and twisted the land in this way?"
"Some people are just sick, Starfire. They need to let their sickness spill over into the lives of others to make them feel better about themselves."
"I just hope between all the heroes that are here, we can turn this around somehow," Batgirl said. "I'd hate to see the whole world end up like this."
"Me too," Nightwing said.
"How much farther to Robin, Starfire?" Batgirl said.
"We are getting closer, but I am unable to give an exact distance. Oh, I do hope my Robin is OK, and my other friends as well," Starfire said. Then, suddenly, Starfire stopped, forcing Nightwing and Batgirl to grip her even tighter lest they fall. "Robin, he is below us!" Starfire said with a smile and started to descend rapidly.
"Whoa!" Batgirl and Nightwing said simultaneously.
Starfire came to her senses, and slowed her descent. When she got close to the ground, she let Nightwing and Batgirl down first and then touched down herself. Starfire cheeks were a bit red and she rubbed the back of her neck. "I am sorry, my friends. I did not me to startle you."
"It's all right, Starfire. We know how you feel about Robin, and we want to get to Robin too, but you shouldn't let it distract you so much." Nightwing said.
"Yes, you are right." Starfire said sheepishly.
The heroes looked around. Large rock formations surrounded them, each one as big as a house or bigger.
Batgirl removed a pair of binoculars from her utility belt and looked in the direction of Klarion's dark castle. "We're about ten kilometers from the castle," Batgirl said. She put the binoculars back in her belt and took a step forward. There was a scream, but it was not a human one, and Batgirl stumbled back into Nightwing who caught her. She looked at the ground and saw she had stepped on the half trapped body of a cat. It was melded with the ground and clearly suffering.
"God," Batgirl said.
"No!" Starfire said. "This Klarion is truly evil." Starfire rushed to the animal's side and knelt beside it. I will free you, furry friend!" Starfire said. Her hand started to glow green with starbolt energy.
"Nightwing put a hand on her shoulder, "Starfire, no, wait. Remember, the cat's merged with the ground by magic. You're better off to leave it where it is until we can somehow reverse what Klarion has done."
Starfire looked up at Nightwing, "But it is suffering!"
"So are a lot of animals-and people. I'm sorry, but unless you're planning to kill it, you're better off leaving it where it is."
Starfire looked down at the cat and then lowered her fist, the green energy in it dimming as she did so. She let her shoulders fall with the helplessness she felt and then decided to reach down and stroke the cat-to offer it some comfort, but it shrieked before her fingers reached it. Starfire drew her hand back as if she'd been bitten. The cat's reaction made her feel even worse than before. It saddened her to realize the cat was too scared and too much in pain to accept even a small act of kindness from her.
"Starfire, focus on Robin again," Batgirl said.
Starfire stood up, closed her eyes, and put her mind back on the mission. "He is here. He is very close, but I cannot tell exactly where." Starfire cupped her hands around her mouth. "Robin! Robin! Where are you?"
Nightwing moved quickly behind Starfire and put his hand over her mouth. "Let's try something that draws a little less attention." He let her go.
"Yes, of course, Nightwing. Again I am sorry. But how do you suggest we locate Robin?" Starfire said.
"I'm still getting nothing but static from my communicator," Nightwing said.
"Hey, these formations are pretty big," Batgirl said as she put her hand on one of them. "You don't suppose—
"We should try an ultrasound scan?" Nightwing finished.
"Exactly," Batgirl said and then both he and Batgirl removed the exact same device from compartments on their utility belts. After pushing a few buttons on them, they started using the devices to scan the surrounding rock formations. To Starfire, the devices looked like the hand-held video game Beast Boy sometimes played in the Titan's Tower rec-room.
"What do those machines do?" Starfire said.
"They'll tell us if any of these big rock formations around us are hollow," Batgirl said.
"It is possible my Robin could be inside one of them?" Starfire said.
"That's the idea," Nightwing said.
Batgirl moved over beside Nightwing. "I just hope he's not in the rock the same way that cat is in the ground," she whispered to him so Starfire could not hear.
"Me too," whispered Nightwing, and he glanced over to Starfire who was now walking away from them. "I'm not sure how she'd react if she saw him that way, caring for him as much as she does."
"Is that a bad thing—caring about him like she does?" Batgirl said, without looking up from her ultrasonic scanner's display.
Nightwing did not say anything at first, which made Batgirl think he did not wish to enter into the topic, but after a few moments he said. "A relationship is a double-edged sword when you're a costumed hero. It can make you stronger, but at the same time make you vulnerable. It can make you happy, but at the same time drive you crazy. It can give you incredible focus and it can distract you terribly. It may even make you want to hang up your costume altogether. I mean, let's face it, every time you or your lover walk—or fly—or teleport—or whatever-out the door to fight crime or save the world, there is a very good chance of either of you or both of you getting killed. It might be some super-villain who knocks you off, or just some punk who gets lucky."
"So, it is a bad thing then. It's better to remain unattached or, at the very least, have relationships that go nowhere," Batgirl said.
Nightwing looked from his display to Batgirl. "I didn't say that. I'm just saying you both have to be strong enough to accept the truth that each day together may be your last."
"People who are married to cops, firefighters and people in countless other dangerous jobs face the same problem," Batgirl said. And, it's not just those people, I mean, your average person could be walking down a alley one night and bang. That doesn't mean you shouldn't-"
"Nightwing, Batgirl, look!" Starfire said.
Nightwing and Batgirl looked in Starfire's direction. She was carrying a cat. It was not the trapped cat she found earlier. Instead it was a brown cat with a white underside and yellow eyes.
"Where did you find him?" Nightwing said.
"He was wandering around lost over there," Starfire pointed. Oh, it brings hope to my heart to know Klarion's magic has not affected everything here. Starfire brought the cat's nose close to her own. "You are okay, are you not, my new friend?"
"Hey, I think I've got something," Nightwing said. This rock formation is—
Batgirl suddenly felt a cold chil of realization, "Starfire, No! That cat, it's—
The cat hissed.
Starfire screamed.
Batgirl and Nightwing looked over and saw Starfire with her hands on her face.
Starfire fell to her knees, sobbing in pain. The sensation of her own blood running through her fingers only heightened her suffering.
"Dammit," Nightwing said.
The cat had landed on its feet-its back two. Nightwing and Batgirl watched in horror as the cat finished morphing from a cat to a catwoman. It was a swift, but disturbing process—like watching a human skeleton suddenly stretch out inside a cat. In this new wereform, the creature growled like a jungle cat and launched itself at Batgirl.
Batgirl survivor's reflexes were stronger than her fear. She fell to the ground and managed to get her feet under the incoming monster. She used the werecat's momentum and her own strength to launch it over and past her. The werecat landed some distance away, again on its feet and came rushing back at her.
Nightwing, over his own initial surprise, moved swiftly between Batgirl, who was already on her feet again, and the charging werecat. Batgirl leapt up onto and off Nightwing's shoulders at the creature, where she whipped her leg around and delivered a spinning roundhouse kick to the monster's face.
The werecat stumbled back from the blow it had mistakenly expected to come from Nightwing.
Batgirl rushed in and followed up with two cross punches. The first punch hit the werecat smack on the jaw, but the monster caught the second and used Batgirl's momentum to whirl her around by the arm, and then let the red-haired crime-fighter go. Batgirl flew through the air for an instant and then slammed into one the big rock formations nearby.
Nightwing whipped a couple of his larger than normal shuriken, or "wingdings" as Batgirl had nicknamed them, at the werecat, but the creature leapt up and over both of them. The werecat came down towards Nightwing and reached out with her clawed hands to rip off his face, but he caught her wrists, brought her over his head and slammed her back-first to the ground.
The werecat pulled her wrists free, rolled over on her stomach, got to her feet, and came at Nightwing again. Nightwing threw a punch at the monster's face, but the werecat ducked low under the punch and slashed Nightwing hard across his midsection with her claws. Her claws found flesh, but not as much as she had wanted. The reinforced material of Nightwing's costume kept his midsection from being ripped open and his guts from spilling out onto the cold dark ground.
As Nightwing staggered back, Batgirl, who had gotten to her feet again, ignored the pain her body was registering and ran at the werecat. The werecat lashed out with the claws on its right hand, aiming to take Batgirl's head off in one swipe, but Batgirl dropped down under the attack, came at the werecat's legs feet first like a baseball player sliding into home plate. She caught the werecat's legs in a scissor lock and twisted her body to the left. The werecat lost its balance and fell to the ground front first. Batgirl was on the werecat's back in an instant. She placed one hand on the creature's left shoulder and raised her right hand to deal a sharp blow to the back of the monster's neck, but the werecat managed to buck her off using its superior strength before she could land the attack.
Batgirl managed to hit the ground, and roll back up onto her feet. She moved in beside Nightwing who was holding his bleeding stomach with one hand. You okay?" she said.
"I'll live," Nightwing said.
"This is Klarion's familiar, Teek'l," Batgirl said.
"Yeah, we should have recognized her sooner," Nightwing grunted.
"She's strong-Batgirl said as she threw one of her batarangs at Teek'l, but the werecat backhanded it away and it hit somewhere way off target—'and real fast."
"We've got to get to Starfire. We don't know how bad she's hurt," Batgirl said.
"But we've got to take Teek'l out first. Here she comes again," Nightwing said.
Teek'l roared and leapt at the two heroes. They stepped apart and she landed between them. Teek'l was close enough to both heroes to throw out a clawed hand at each one of them. Nightwing and Batgirl both blocked her blows—their gauntlets protecting them from her claws, but they were unprepared when Teek'l dropped down swiftly and did a circular sweep that took the crimefighters' feet out from under them.
Teek'l leapt onto Nightwing. He managed to grab her wrists again, but the werecat expected this and slammed her forehead into Nightwing's face. When she felt the hero's grip on her wrists loosen from the shock of her head butt, Teek'l drove her fists into his gut to force the air out of him and at the same time kicked her legs straight back at the incoming Batgirl, knocking the wind out of female caped crusader as well.
Batgirl doubled over and staggered backward. She could only watch the ground and worry about Nightwing as Teek'l sprung backward off Nightwing onto her feet, spun around, and delivered a fierce roundhouse kick to the side of Batgirl's head. The kick caused blood and a tooth to fly out of Batgirl's mouth and sent her sprawling to the ground.
Then Teek'l spun around to reengage Nightwing who was coughing as he tried to get back on his feet, but before she could attack, a green blast of energy knocked her sideways.
Teek'l landed on all fours a short distance from her previous position and, while wincing in pain from the energy blast, looked at her new attacker. Nightwing, still coughing but upright, and Batgirl, getting to her feet slowly, her own blood running down her chin, followed the familiar's gaze.
Starfire stood several feet away, her hands in fists at her sides glowing with green power.
"No," Batgirl gasped. Nightwing grit his teeth. From where they stood, Nightwing and Batgirl could see only Starfire's right eye—like her fists-glowing with green light. Her left eye, which she had just cauterized with her starbolt energy to keep from bleeding, was an unsighlty mess of scratch lines, cooked flesh, and blood.
"Bad kitty," Starfire said to Teek'l.
Teek'l smiled at the challenge and bolted toward Starfire as the orange-skinned Teen Titan let loose a powerful volley of her green starbolts. Teek'l was not impressed. She dove into the starbot volley-twisting and turning to dodge the energy blasts as they came at her. Starfire, amazed at Teek'l's agility, started taking steps backwards to maintain the distance between her and the werecat, and let loose another volley of starbolts from her fists, but the werecat kept on coming, avoiding these new starbolts as well.
When Teek'l was almost on top of her, Starfire took to the air, but the werecat managed to get a hold of the Tamaranean's ankle and slammed her back-first onto the ground. Teek'l pounced on top of Starfire and was about to rip into the Teen Ttitan with her claws, when a weighted-line wrapped around Teek'ls right leg.
Nightwing, on the other end of the line, pulled hard. Teek'l tried to dig her claws into Starfire's chest to prevent being pulled off her, but she only managed to get them through and shred Starfire's purple costume top before Teek'l flew leg-first off Starfire and landed face down in the dirt close to one of the rock formations.
Starfire started to get up.
"Starfire, me o tojite!" Batgirl shouted.
In a nearly fluid motion, the werecat rolled over and cut the line with one swipe of her claws then lied down and then whipped herself back up onto her feet. She got her bearings just in time to see another batarang coming at her. She slapped this batarang away like she had the first one—or would have if this one had not detonated on impact with her hand. A magnesium flash filled the air. Teek'l cried out in pain and anger-surprise, and the familiar brought its hands to its eyes.
Nightwing, watching Teek'l suffer through the protective lenses in his mask, charged. He covered the distance between himself and the werecat quickly and, with all his strength, drove his shoulder into Teek'l, lifted her off the ground on it, and slammed her into the rock formation his line-pull earlier had landed her near. To the unprepared off-balance werecat, Nightwing's hit was like being hit by a football teams' entire defensive line. Immediately after his attack, Nightwing stepped back and dove to the right. Meanwhile, Teek'l staggered forward like she was drunk-and right into a massive blast of energy from the combined power in both of Starfire's fists. The force of the blast sent Teek'l backward through the rock formation's face and—to Stafire's surprise—into the formation's hollow interior. Teek'l flew for a few feet, with pieces of the rock she had broken through, and then landed on the ground, bounced once, and then laid there unconscious, where, after a moment, she reverted back to her original brown cat form.
As the dust from the blast cleared, Nightwing poked his head inside the hole Starfire had made to see if Teek'l was down.
"We'll look who the cat dragged in," Beast Boy said when he saw Nightwing's face.
X X X
"Wow," Klarion exhaled as Chimera slowly removed her lips from his. Meanwhile, B'wana Beast's helmet, which Klarion had dropped while Chimera kissed him, rolled and fell off the raised platform on which Klarion and Chimerastood. It hit the floor below, rolled some more, and came to a stop just a few feet from The Batman.
Klarion smiled sheepishly at Chimera. "Now, if you could put me down now, my love, I'd like to have a final word with our guests."
"Of course, baby," Chimera said and she set Klarion, who was more than a head shorter than she was, on his feet.
The Question gritted his teeth. The Batman's eyes narrowed.
"Oh, and I need you to do something for me," Klarion said and he gestured for Chimera to lower her ear to him and he whispered something to her.
"Yes, of course, my love," Chimera said.
"Oh, and here." Klarion snapped his fingers and Chimera's nude form was suddenly covered in a blue gown, which left all but her most private bits hidden. The rest of her was quite visible through the gown's extremely transparent material. Her silver hair was done up as well, bound into a thick ponytail. Then Klarion raised his hand and opened a section of the castle roof with his magic. Chimera spread her wings, leapt into the air, and took off through the opening. It sealed back up once she did. Then, Klarion turned to face the Justice League men he held captive on the walls of the round stone room in which he stood.
"When I get my hands on you, you aren't going to have head to put a helmet on!" Green Lantern roared.
"What he said," The Flash shouted.
All the heroes struggled once more against the magical force holding them, save Jason Blood and The Batman. The former was too weak with age now to fight anymore. The latter knew the action was a waste of energy. Klarion raised an eyebrow and the force holding Green Lantern and The Flash became so strong the two heroes could not even move their mouths to speak.
Klarion dispelled the platform on which he was standing. The platform became like liquid and melted slowly downward as Klarion's magic went out of it. It lowered him down and became part of the red-carpeted floor once more.
Klarion walked over to Jason Blood first. "My, Uncle Jason, you're looking more wrinkled than any prune could hope to be. And, I bet your heart is just as wrinkled now. How long do you think you have? Maybe another twenty minutes, one minute for every liver spot?" Klarion laughed.
Jason grimaced tried to say something, but all that came out of his wrinkled face was a wheeze that would have had trouble making a candle flicker.
Klarion patted Jason Blood on the cheek twice, the third time Klarion slapped him hard. Jason wheezed in pain as his brittle jaw broke. "It's been fun Uncle Jason. Rest in Peace knowing that I'll be taking good care of Etrigan and, albeit in a different form now, Zatanna will be taking good care of me."
Tears rolled down Jason's cheeks.
Next, Klarion walked over to The Batman. Klarion bent down and picked up B'wana Beast's helmet from the floor and put it under his left arm. "And as for you, Dark Knight, not so lucky now are you? No Uncle Jason or Etrigan to save you at the last minute this time, is there? Not even your little Robin can help you."
"At least no one can call me a liar when I die," The Batman said.
"I beg your pardon?" Klarion said.
"While we climbed those castle stairs of yours, you said you weren't fixated on one woman, but you lied. I recognize Chimera's face. It's Carlie Greene's face, the girl you turned into a mermaid and left in the ocean, the girl who turned you down flat."
"What, of course not. I didn't- He thought back to Chimera's face. The Batman was right. Why hadn't he noticed it before. "It's no more than a coincidence," Klarion said.
The Batman smiled mockingly back at Klarion. "You have all that power, but all you can do with it is make a magical Carlie-clone because you aren't man enough for the real Carlie to even have a cup of tea with you."
"Silence!" Klarion spat.
"You may have gotten older and look more like a man now, Klarion, but inside you're still that poor little witch boy you were when I first met you. Maybe instead of joking about conjuring a flock of woodpeckers to attack me that night, you should have tried conjuring a pecker for yourself."
Klarion's eyes went wide at the Batman's last words. Then, his eyes narrowed and his expression changed to one befitting the devil horns his hair was styled to have. He raised his right hand up and it and his eyes crackled with green energy. "You die now," Klarion hissed.
Then, the Batman exploded.
X X X
Somewhere else….
"Well, shoot my monkey," he said, his mouth full of popcorn.
"Was that supposed to happen?" she said looking at him pointing at the TV, her other hand full of popcorn from the bowl in her lap.
He laughed nervously and then held up his hand in a reassuring gesture. "Oh, yeah, of course it was. Have I given you any reason to doubt me?"
She rolled her eyes.
"Recently," he said.
She rolled her eyes again.
"Fine, be that way," he said. "It'll all work out. You'll see. You'll get exactly what you wanted and so will I." He took another handful of popcorn from her bowl and shoved it in his mouth.