The chamber was cold. This was due to the amount of ice contained within its walls. The assassins known as Talons were restrained with this ice, various body parts entombed, from arms and legs to torsos. It was different for each man or woman, but then Mr. Freeze was not concerned with uniformity.

Seated on a large block of ice, the man rested, his eyes closed behind the red glass of his glasses. His ice gun was sitting on his lap, his arms crossed over his chest. There was no concern that someone would approach him and retrieve his weapon because there was no one left to contest his supremacy.

That just left him with one thing to do.

Sounds began to emanate from the entrance ahead, causing the bald man to open his eyes. He stared at the doorway, hearing the noises grow louder and louder. They were most certainly policemen, possibly SWAT. They would arriving any second now.

As predicted, men in black SWAT armor rushed into the room, their semi-automatic weapons clutched in their hands. Each man slowed to a stop at the sight of the ice, the entombed assassins within them. "Dear sweet Jesus, what happened here…" one of the men trailed off.

"I happened," Freeze answered simply.

That made the SWAT team jump in their boots, their weapons immediately trained on him. It was a reaction that he had anticipated, thus the reason why he did not hold his ice gun. "Freeze, scumbag," one of them demanded as he stepped closer to him.

"I mean you no harm," the bald man said.

"Oh, right, like I can believe that, Iceman," the same officer retorted. "I don't know how you escaped Blackgate, but you're coming with us."

Freeze ignored the officer. He had expected such a chilly reception, so there was no need to antagonize these men. "How do you wish to dispose of my ice gun?" he asked calmly.

"By not moving a fucking finger," the officer barked. "Ramirez, secure the suspect's gun."

The officer known as Ramirez followed the order immediately. Keeping his gun trained on Freeze, he approached him until he stood right next to the refrigerated man. Letting go of his gun with one hand, Ramirez reached to the ice gun slowly, his eyes focused completely on Freeze. Keeping still, the bald man watched this until the officer suddenly snatched the weapon from his lap and quickly retreated.

"Good, that wasn't so bad," the leading officer spoke. He then reached to his belt and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. "Now, let's try these."

"You have no need for those," Freeze informed him. "I surrender myself willingly as per the agreement with your commissioner."

The leading officer snorted. "You made a deal with Gordon? I find that to be a load of bull."

"Call him with your radio if you must. You will find no resistance from me."

"No, no way, man. You aren't the one calling the shots here."

There was a pause before Ramirez spoke, "Ya know, it wouldn't hurt to ask."

The leader turned his head and glared at his man. "You're agreeing with this freak? Who's side are you on?"

This had gone on far enough. Standing up, Freeze earned every policeman's attention, the barrels of their guns jumping as they readjusted their grips. "Seat your ass back down," the leader demanded.

"You seem to believe that you are in control here," Freeze remarked. "Allow me to explain the situation: the refrigerated suit I wear is bulletproof. You and your men will shoot me until you are all out of bullets and not a one will harm me. If I wished it, I could break your entire body and leave you to die with these Talons, as they are called. But I will not do that. One way or another, I will return to custody, be it in your company, or without. The choice is yours."

Before any of the policemen could respond, a violent tremor suddenly shook the room, causing them all to use the semi-ice sculptures to balance themselves. Instantly, the leader scowled right at him. "What the Hell did you do?"

Freeze was losing his patience. Where he expected and even accepted the initial distrust, the fact these men were looking to blame him for anything was irritating. "I do not know what caused that," he answered stoically. Looking up to the ceiling, he added, "It seems to have come from above us."

"No shit, Sherlock. I want to know what it was that did it and how you made it."

Freeze...ignored him. "That's where the Batman is," he murmured to himself.

What was going on up there?

In the middle of an empty intersection, Huntress swung her bo staff in front of her, using it to block one of the two swords her opponent was wielding. Forcing one end forward and then the other, she stopped the Talon's blades from slicing and dicing her as he continuously struck at her.

Some time after she had left Thorne's place, she had gotten herself into trouble—namely she kept running into these assassin guys. Some had blood on them, indicated they had killed one of their targets while others looked as if they picked up their cheesy black uniforms from the laundromat. The one in front of her happened to be one of the former, something that angered her to no end.

Unfortunately, she was getting the feeling this guy was one of those trained Talons considering he had been countering everything she had thrown at him. Now that she was depended on her bo staff to defend herself, she felt that if she didn't at least attempt to attack, she'd never get the chance.

So she forced the issue. Blocking yet another sword strike, Huntress jumped backwards, putting a small distance between her and the Talon. As expected, the assassin charged at her, not wanting to give her the chance to breath much less attack. Refusing to let him continue his attack, Huntress turned to a side and jabbed the end of her staff at the charging killer. Because he had rushed so fast, he was unable to so much as dodge as the bo staff collided with his face, snapping his head backwards.

Taking advantage of his new development, the purple-clad vigilante drew back her staff, shifting her grip on it off-center until it was closer to one end. Arcing her staff up high, she then swung it down as she knelt to the ground, angling the weapon at the last moment to sweep the legs right out from under the Talon.

The Talon did just as she planned, dropping to the ground hard on his back. However, before she could continue her attack, the assassin immediately rolled feet over head until he was back up on his feet.

Oh c'mon! Give me a freaking break! she seethed in her head. Here she was, finally making some headway on this guy and what does he do? Be an asshole and make sure she can't knock him out. To his credit, he seemed to be holding back, staying where he stood rather than launch another attack.

For that Huntress was thankful. She was already breathing hard, not from this guy mind you, but from all she had done tonight. She was tired, sore, and she wanted nothing more than to go home and have a nice soak in her bathtub. This pause in the fight was...acceptable...for now. She'd catch her breath then try again—

Suddenly, a loud BOOM! rang out. Had she been younger and a hell of a lot more green, Huntress would have immediately looked to see what had exploded. As it was, she knew whatever blew up wasn't where she was, otherwise she'd be in a giant fireball at the moment. She was content to know that, so she kept her eyes focused on the Talon. He was probably waiting for her to divert her attention so he could attack too, the...the…

Was it just her or was this guy not looking at her?

The longer she stared, the more Huntress became certain the Talon wasn't looking at her. Frowning, she chanced a glance to her side in the same direction the assassin seemed to be interested in. She had to do a freaking double look too when she realized what was so captivating.

Because the road sloped downwards further down the street, this afford Huntress a prime vantage sight. Right in the middle of downtown, the top of one of the skyscrapers had blown up, replaced by a cloud of fire that sat on the building like a hat. And it was getting bigger.

Holy Hell, what the fuck is going on over there?

Nightwing and Robin stood at the edge of roof, staring out into the skyline of the city. Several blocks in front of them, the two young men could see the top of a tall building explode, the giant fireball reaching out in all directions as if it were the top of a fiery mushroom. It was spectacular to behold.

The blast had been sudden too. Figuring traveling by rooftop would give them an easier time of tracking down the other Talons roaming the city, the vigilantes had been racing each other on the roofs, leaping over alleyways when they came to them, and using their grapple hooks to scale the taller buildings. That's when a deafening explosion rang out and they came to a skidding stop.

"So, how much do you want to bet that's where Batman is?" Robin asked, his eyes transfixed on the sight.

"No bet," Nightwing grunted back. "That's where he's got to be."

A silence. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"If what you're thinking involves us going in to bail his big, bat butt out, then yeah, we're on the same page."

Again, another silence. "First one there's a rotten egg?"

Nightwing finally tore his eyes from the fiery spectacle and gave the younger vigilante a dubious look. "Seriously? You want to race over there using a playground insult as motivation? After everything that's happened?"

"Well, it's either the insult or we could both do our best Batman impersonations, though I think we'd be pushing the gloom factor together."

"...rotten egg it is, then. You're on."

Simultaneously, they pulled out their grapple guns and fired them across the street. The moment they felt the lines go taut, they leaped off the building they stood up, swinging into the night air as they raced towards the exploding building.

The world was spinning, the wind screeching all around him, buffeting against his body. Over and over, the ground changed to sky and back. This distracted from the feeling of falling that Batman was sure was there.

His body was completely out of his control. With his senses disoriented, it made it that much more difficult to slow his descent. To combat this, he stretched his arms and legs out as far as he could, trying to create as much air resistance as he could. He wasn't sure if it was working, but it provided a slight comfort.

Twisting his body against the spinning, the world around him began to slow. C'mon, stop spinning! his mind roared. Stop, stop, stop!

As he began a downward arch, he was given a great view of the city streets. It was hard not to notice the red-and-blue flashing lights of squad far below. His view changed to the side of the Powers building, his head pointed straight down to the ground. Bearing his teeth, he willed his body to go against the spin, kicking his legs forward and leaned his back as far back as he could.

And it worked. With his back facing the ground, head towards the building, he finally stopped the spin. And high above him was an enormous fireball reaching as far as it could throughout the sky. It was like Hell was erupting from above.

However—his introspection notwithstanding—he felt something was wrong. It was as if there should be someone else with...him…

The girl!

Batman's head jerked left and right, eyes searching frantically for the girl. She was clearly not above him, thank God. She'd be a burnt crisp if she had been any higher. She wasn't anywhere in sight or around him, which left…

Turning himself to his right, he was soon facing the ground and three stories below was the girl, her body twisting around as she fell. Right now she had her back to him, her arms and legs stretched out as much as she could, attempting to slow herself much like he had been doing.

Steeling his face, Batman leaned his body down, falling head first. Tucking his arms in, he made himself as aerodynamic as possible, cutting down on air resistance. He could feel himself picking up speed, the distance between them beginning to close. Was it closing fast enough though, before they hit the ground?

He needed to go faster.

As the vigilante drew closer, the girl began to turn. Soon she was facing him, that same blank look on her face. It...it was almost as if she were accepting of what was happening, what would happen to her, and that she didn't care that she was falling to her death. It was a sickening thought.

No wait, was that…? A flicker, some show of life flashed on her face for the first time that night. It was as if something clicked in her head that something was actually wrong. Her eyes began to grow wide, her mouth dropping open slightly. One of her arms moved then, reaching out towards him. Batman could see the fear finally taking over even as her dark hair whipped about her desperate face. Though she had been trained to be a stone-cold killer, she was still a teenage girl. And it was that teenage girl that was silently screaming out in terror for him.

Far be it for him to disappoint her.

The wind screamed into his ears as it constantly buffeted against his body. The entire time he kept his eyes trained on the girl, losing sight of her face as her hair repeatedly covered and uncovered it. Though they were short, they did enough to begin obstructing the terrified look she wore, even as longer blonde ones began to mingle.

Blonde hair?

Batman thought he was seeing things, but there was indeed long, flowing blonde hair whipping around the girl's head. Then, as if that were enough, the hair blew away, revealing the very different, though no less terrified face of Alice Simmons. Her panicked scream echoed in the Dark Knight's ears, distant, yet clear.

His face hardened. This time he would not fail.

Two stories separated them now. As Batman continued to close the gap, the blonde hair vanished, along with Alice Simmons' face, leaving only Cain's protege. One story now, ten remaining feet. Nine feet...seven...

Six...almost there...four.

His heart pounding in his chest, the blood vessels in his ear created a continueous beat, deafening him to all else. He could practically smell the girl, both of her arms reaching out now. Two feet...one…

Contact.

Shooting out his arms, Batman wrapped them around the girl's body, she doing the same around his neck. Her legs swung up and wrapped themselves around his waist as her body pressed tightly against his. He had her. He had her and that was all that mattered now. Well, swinging them to safety was just as important and would be more ideal.

Letting go with his left hand, Batman moved it to his back to retrieve his grapple gun, only to find that it wasn't there. Damn it, he must have lost it sometime during the night. He really needed to carry extra, especially when every night represented a chance to lose it. That was fine though, he did have his cape, so long as the circuitry wasn't damaged in one of his many fights.

Bringing the arm back, he brought both arms as close to each other as he could, one hand activating the electrical current in his left gauntlet. Moving his left arm back, he grabbed the cape and instantly felt it open and stiffen. There was just one problem.

The glider form opened up with the two of them falling vertically.

Goddamn it.

Gordon stared up into the sky. He was still feeling the aftershock from the explosion atop Powers Hotel, along with the other officers with him. He had just gotten out of his car when the roof exploded, causing everyone to duck down out of instinct. Half of Gordon wondered just how many maniacs had their hands on C4 explosives. It seemed to be everywhere when a crisis was happening.

By the time he looked back up, the Commissioner had a sense of deja vu going on. Underneath the flames, he could just pick out two black dots falling off the building. Taking a set of binoculars from a nearby officer, he was able to pick out a young girl twisting and turning in midair. And above her, the Batman was doing the same.

"Oh Jesus," he breathed out. It was a repeat of the Duchess, where Alice Simmons fell several stories down, Batman giving chase until one of the other vigilante's swooped in for the save. This time, Gordon felt, there would be no last second saves. Either Batman got the job done, or there was going to be a mess on the street.

God, he prayed that didn't happen.

Pulling down the binoculars, Gordon stared at the two growing dots. If he wasn't mistaken, they seemed to be drawing closer to each other. No wait, that really was happening. "C'mon, c'mon, you son of a bitch, get her," he chanted lowly, anxiety filling his chest as he watched the spectacle unfold.

And then Batman caught up with the girl and relief exploded within him. "Yes!" he cheered, pumping a fist up. It was going to be alright; everything was going to be—

That's when Batman's cape opened up, pointing downwards. Though he wasn't completely familiar with all the equipment Batman used, he knew a glider when he saw one and he was pretty sure the nose shouldn't be pointed straight to the ground. That had to be a problem, a major one in fact.

Goddamn it.

Lowering his eyes, Gordon noticed all of the scattered police cruisers parked in the street. Darting his sight up to the falling vigilante and back to the road over and over, it soon occurred to him that if Batman managed to right that glider of his, he was going to need some room to use it. Narrowly skimming over cars was not the way to fly.

That needed to change.

"Back away!" Gordon shouted, drawing attention from all of his cops. "Clear the area! Clear it! Move! Do it now!"

The officers sprang into action then, many of them jumping into the driver seats of the cars. Engines revved as the cars either moved forward and turned, or were put into reverse and backed away. Soon, a clear strip extended from the Powers building and down Garfield Avenue. It couldn't have been clearer as far as Gordon was concerned.

Looking back up to the two falling figures, he found himself swallowing out of nervousness. "C'mon, pull up," he murmured. "Pull up."

When Batman had first added the glider cape feature into his suit, he had performed a series of scenarios to fully grasp what he was capable of using it for. For the situation at hand, the closest scenario involved him having to use the glider feature with an unusable arm, mostly due to injury. He had performed this exercise over and over within the confines of the cave. In most of the trials, he was able to pull up and angle the glider.

The difference between that scenario and the one he was currently in was that he had done it without added weight and with his strong arm. Right now, Batman had a teenage girl on board, with one arm securing him to his body. He would be damned if he removed that arm, so it was staying.

Sucking in air, Batman began pulling hard on the stiffened cape, trying to alter their head first flight into the pavement. Already he could feel strain throughout his arm, muscles burning from overuse.

Pull up.

So far his efforts weren't working. The discomfort he felt in his chest was growing more prevalent, reaching the point he couldn't ignore it for much longer. In addition, his protesting arm muscles were screaming at him, causing his arm to shake under the strain he was putting it under.

They were running out of distance here. They were easily ten, nine stories above ground and those floors were disappearing way too fast. He needed to see more favorable results and he needed to see them now.

PULL. UP.

He bared his teeth as all he felt in his arm was a continuous scream of burning pain from hand to shoulder. The appendage was at its limit. In his other arm, the girl let out a whimper as she clung tightly to him. Images of their bodies lying on the ground in a giant red puddle filled his mind. Slowly he could feel the glider raise up, but it wasn't enough—not nearly enough.

C'mon you son of a bitch, you can do this. You have to do this. If you don't, you're dead. The girl's dead. The Court of Owls and the rest of the Gotham filth win regardless of the number of people saved tonight. Now get your damn act together, and pull this God forsake cape up.

"Pull up!" he screamed out loud, eyes squeezing tight.

That's when he felt air current hitting his body differently. Eyes shooting open, the world around him seemed to slow down as the drop came to a steady stop, his flight arcing until he was parallel with the street. Momentum kicked in and Batman found himself flying straight over the ground, the pavement mere inches from the girl's back as they skimmed over it.

The Dark Knight wasn't finished, however. Using his still-protesting arm, he forced it up until they began to raise higher up and away from the ground. The two soared up into the night's sky, passing over several roof tops. A sigh escaped Batman's lips as he began to relax. They were in the clear; they were safe.

That was right until they came up to a building much taller than the ones next to it. Though they were level with the top, their climbing speed was slowing. Leaning backwards, Batman attempted to get his feet up so that they could land.

Unfortunately, the ledge proved to be higher than he hoped, his feet hitting the edge. This caused him to tumble forward with his cargo, his left hand letting go of the cape as it instantly went slack behind him. Wrapping his arm around her, Batman twisted his body to a side so that they landed on the roof on his side, skidding across the rooftop and leaving a trench in the gravel in their wake. Eventually they slowed to a stop and Batman finally relaxed his stiff body.

Glancing down, he could only see the top of the girl's head, noting her trembling body against his. Taking several deep breaths, Batman gathered himself before he asked, "Are you okay?"

For a while, it seemed the girl wasn't going to answer him, content to staying where they lay. Just when he was about to give up on hearing a response, the girl moved her head, looking up to him. Her emotionless mask was back in place, as if neither of them had been plunging to their deaths mere moments earlier. That was alright though, Batman wasn't really in the mood to be calming down a terrified girl.

"Hoot, hoot."

Batman's body went rigid before he jerked his head up, seeing two Talons standing nearby, both of them looking down at him. Damn it, not now. He was not up for fighting off two of them, not after when he had just done. Exhausted didn't begin to describe how he felt.

"This is the end of the road, Batman," one of them spoke as they strolled towards the vigilante and the girl. "Prepare yourself for the final—"

"Back off!"

A new voice rang out, causing both Talons to stop their approach and spin around. That's when the two vigilantes, Nightwing and Robin soared up over the edge of the roof, seeming to hover high above the assassins before they dropped down on them.

Robin was the first to land, crouching low in front of one of the Talons. Immediately, the assassin responded by drawing out a dagger and swinging it at the youth's head. Darting to a side, the young man raised a hand up, something bulky grasped in his fingers. The moment a bolt of electricity danced on the objects head, Batman realized it was a taser.

Thrusting the taser forward, Robin pressed it against the Talon's leg, causing the muscles to spasm painfully as the man cried out shrilly. Dropping to one knee, the assassin grasped his thigh. In the meantime, Robin moved behind him, standing up to his full height as he tossed the taser away and clasped his hands together. Swinging them down, he jackhammered the Talon on the back of the neck, knocking him out as his body fell limply onto the gravel.

While Robin did this, Nightwing chose to do a less involved method to take out his opponent. Holding an escrima stick at one end with both hands, the other end glowing blue, the older vigilante landed on top of his Talon, one foot pressed against the assassin's chest while the other landed at his hip. Bringing his arms down, he shoved the blue end of his escrima stick into the Talon's face, the sound of crackling electricity mingling with screaming filling the air.

That was all it took to bring that assassin down as he fell backwards. Nightwing assisted with the fall, using the falling assassin as a springboard as he flipped into the air and landed on the ground with the ease of a gymnast. The force of his kick-off made the Talon's body crash hard on the ground.

Both young men looked to each other, throwing a satisfied smirk to their opposite number. "So Batman, need anymore help?" Robin quipped as he turned his attention to the Dark Knight.

In response, Batman...said nothing. Instead he looked down at the girl in his arms, who had returned her attention to him. It seemed they were having the same thoughts at the display they had just seen. Sighing, Batman dropped his head down, making a soft thud on the roof.

As far as he was concerned, this night was over.

The inspiration for the explosion of Powers Hotel and Batman's subsequent fall came from the Arkham City game, where Hugo Strange blows up Wonder Tower and Batman and Ra's al Ghul are left to fall. Obviously this one had a different result lol.