It had been a long time since they had been trying to out-maneuver each other. Batman couldn't really recall the last time he had used something out of his quickly-depleting utility belt, nor Superman actually trying to dodge his blows. No more skills, no more techniques, they were just wailing on each other, matching punch for punch without much regard for their own safety.
Batman's head jerked to his left as the Kryptonian's fist smashed against his cheek and chin. Spit flew from his mouth and he stumbled a step, but that was all the ground he was willing to give. Immediately, he lashed out, throwing his own fist and slamming it into Superman's face. His foe stumbled back a step, but he recovered almost immediately, throwing another haymaker that resulted in the vigilante snapping his head to the right this time. Undeterred, he retaliated with his other fist, forcing Superman's head to jerk to a side as well. Back and forth they went, unable to dodge, unwilling to give up pummeling the other.
Gritting his teeth as another blow knocked him back a step, Batman had to take a moment to fight through the pain he was feeling throughout his body. He hadn't taken a beating like this in a long time, somewhere around the time he had first begun training. He was older now and his body couldn't take the same amount of punishment as he could back then. The suit was helping in protecting him, but even that would only do so much after awhile.
Seeing Superman's next blow coming, Batman immediately ducked down, the arm flying over his head. Springing forward while keeping low, he rammed his fist into his opponent's wide open stomach, hearing the dark-haired man gasp as the air in his lungs was forced out. Taking advantage of Superman's daze, the vigilante shifted to one side so that he could send a punch right into the dark-haired man's side. One punch landed, then a another, the dark-clad man rammed his fist into the man's kidney, making him flinch back from each blow.
All of this seemed to have happened in slow motion. Both men were deaf to their surroundings except for the grunts they forced the other to make. As his sense of time began to speed up, the vigilante let out grunt after grunt as he switched arms, returning to pummeling Superman's stomach, pounding fist after fist into his abdomen. Each blow forced the other man back a step, keeping him stunned.
Finally, for the coup de gras, Batman swung a fist upward, landing a vicious uppercut to Superman's chin. His head snapped backwards immediately as he stumbled several steps backwards, even turning around to leave his back vulnerable to him. That was an invitation the dark-clad man could not pass up.
Forcing himself forward, the vigilante prepared to perform a flying kick, only for Superman to spin right back around, swinging another fist at him. He saw it coming, clear as day, yet there was nothing he could do at that last moment. He took the brunt of the blow to his solar plexus, this time being his turn to lose his breath as he stumbled backwards.
Raising a leg, Superman then kicked out with his, landing it again Batman's open torso. The Dark Knight was sent flying backwards until he landed on the floor, his back hitting it hard as he skidded to a stop.
For a moment, he had a chance to catch his breath. The next moment, he saw the Kryptonian above him in midair, his other leg raised up and ready to stomp him into the ground. Eyes widening, Batman rolled to a side, Superman's foot smashing down the floor, causing it to crumble beneath his boot.
Rolling over and over, Batman ended up on his hands and knees, pushing himself up as fast as he could. He had lost count of the number of body blows he had taken and if it weren't for the kryptonite-fueled suit he wore, he was pretty sure his internal organs would be paste right about now.
Which reminded him: he was a trained martial artist. Why the hell had he fallen into this absurd punching contest? His teachers would bow their heads in shame had they seen the way he was fighting, especially since he wasn't as young as he used to be.
Batman raised his arms up just in time for Superman to close the distance between them again. As he swung his latest haymaker, the Dark Knight blocked it, pushing the fist away. Seeing that the dark-haired man had his other fist already drawn, he waited to see it be thrown, sliding to a side as he shot up his other arm, his hand meeting up with Superman's arm just below the wrist. Extending his own arm, he pushed the fist away, bracing up against a backswing should it have come.
Pivoting on his feet, he then spun in a circle around Superman, ending up with their backs facing each other, though he stood a step to a side of his opponent. Raising up his arm, he bent it at the elbow and then jerked it back, ramming the elbow into the back of Superman's skull. He heard a cry of pain and Superman stumbling forward, but he didn't give chase. He needed to catch his breath and this seemed as good of a time as any to do so.
Superman seemed to have the same thoughts as well as he slowed himself to a stop, standing up straight once he realized he wasn't been followed. Slowly, he turned around and stared the vigilante down, breathing heavily. "You're not holding back," he remarked casually.
"You aren't either," Batman grunted back.
"Can't say I'm surprised. You only restrained yourself with criminals, never against friends. I'm pretty sure that had I not taken the 5-U-93-R, you would've fractured my skull by now."
The dark-clad man shrugged. "Are you complaining? You could do that with a flick of your finger once."
Superman leveled his gaze at him. "I can still do that even now. Do you honestly think I'm going full strength with you? Please."
He was trying to bluff him; Batman knew one when he saw one. Considering Superman was actually panting, chest rapidly expanding and contracting as sweat glistened down the side of his face, he was definitely giving it his all.
"I will admit, that little 'super-suit' of yours is sturdier than I would've thought. It's a shame I have to break it once we're through here."
"You talk as if you're going to win."
"Of course, I am. That's because heroes always win; I'm the hero and you're the traitor to the cause. It's how every story ends."
"Except when the hero has blinded himself to his every atrocity he's committed; when he's the only one who hasn't realized he's become the villain," Batman countered.
"Using that old rallying cry by the Insurgency?" Superman tsked as he shook his head. "I expected much better out of you, Bruce; I really did. If I thought trying to talk you down was the way to go, I would do it—but that's not going to happen, is it?"
When Batman didn't respond, the Kryptonian continued. "There's only one way this fight is going to end between us. One of us is going to have to kill the other—there's no other way around it. We've already established that you won't kill, but I will. What does that tell you?"
"That you're overrating yourself," the vigilante countered. "You're also forgetting about one little thing."
"And what's that?"
It was Batman's turn to level his gaze at his opposite number. "I don't give up."
His foe nodded once, a sign of acceptance of what the other man said. "Then be prepared to die."
Superman charged at him then, fists drawn back and ready to go. Batman raised both of his arms up, ready to block whatever was thrown at him.
Immediately, the vigilante found himself throwing both of his arms from side to side, alternating between which arm blocked Superman's blow while the other braced the other against its force. For every step forward the Kryptonian took, Batman took one back.
Then, out of nowhere, as Batman blocked a punch, he then quickly extended the same arm so he could grab onto Superman's arm, refusing to let him draw it back. This didn't deter the man from throwing his other fist, which the vigilante latched onto as well. Holding both arms out, he then pulled down on them as he jumped up, keeping one leg up and bent at the knee.
A moment later and he rammed his knee into Superman's face, causing him to stumble back a step. Releasing his hold, Batman dropped back to the floor, then bounced forward, aiming to deliver yet another body blow.
Only this time, Superman wasn't as defenseless as he thought. The Man of Steel caught his fist, refusing to let it go. In fact, he used it to hold the vigilante still, not letting him pull away. He raised his other hand up, throwing the fist soon after.
In return Batman caught it, holding it off as he felt the strain throughout his arm. Almost as if they were thinking the same thing, they maneuvered their hands from either a fist or holding a fist, to holding the other's hand, fingers entwined with each other. Both men poured as much strength as they could into pushing against the other, letting out a grunt every so often.
Batman could feel his feet edging back across the floor, which he immediately corrected by shifting it back into place, only for it to start sliding back again. Superman was doing the same thing as well as they pushed and strained against each other.
"You can't win," Superman gritted out through clenched teeth.
Batman wished he could've said something witty to that, but it was taking everything he had just to hold off the Kryptonian. The muscles in his arms were burning and screaming from the strain, which he had no idea if the same was happening to his opponent. His teeth clenched down hard as he continued to struggle.
Right up until a green-glowing blade exploded out of Superman's chest.
Droplets of blood spattered against Batman's face and chest, his eyes widening much like Superman's. Both men stopped pushing against each other as they looked down to the blade. They then looked back to each other, still in shock.
Then Superman dropped to his knees, revealing Cassandra standing behind him, hands on the hilt of the blade. The Kryptonian leaned forward, which caused Batman to dart out of the way, watching as the man collapsed onto the floor.
Yet, Batman found himself looking in horror at Cassandra. Her mask was no longer on her face, so he could see her cold stare clearly. It was the same one she had worn when he first met her, an apprentice undergoing her final trial to becoming an assassin. The very sight of it sent a cold shiver down his spine.
"What did you do?" he whispered.
The dark-haired woman looked to him. Her expression never changed even as she answered him in a soft, blunt tone.
"I saved your life."
Over and over, Starfire pumped her arms back in forth, throwing starbolt after starbolt. None of them hit their target as they maneuvered through the air gracefully, fluttering from one side of the room to the other.
Starfire was unsure of how long she had been at this, but she was slowly coming to the conclusion that this was not working. She had thought long-range attacks would be the way to beat Hawkgirl, but she was not one to be taken down so easily. Not one of the starbolts had hit her, which was quite concerning.
Oh, and the Thanagarian was rushing towards her.
Perking her head up, it took Starfire a moment to realize just what thought had crossed her mind, right before the head of a mace slammed into her face. She was sent flying backwards as pain throbbed in her face. Before she knew it, she had crashed into one of the walls of the parking garage.
Concrete crumbled against her back until open air buffeted against her streaking form. Starfire cracked open her eyes and saw that she had been launched out of the parking garage, leaving a crumbling hole in her wake. She was now sailing through the air backwards, her arms and legs trailing after her.
Then, flying out of the hole, was the reason why she was not flying of her own will. Holding her mace low, wings spread out, Hawkgirl chased after her, eyes focused directly on her.
Shaking off her daze, Starfire stopped her unintentional flight, drawing a hand up and above her head. A starbolt came to life in her palm and she threw it at her approaching adversary.
In response, Hawkgirl swing her mace up, knocking the starbolt away as if it were nothing to her. Before Starfire could charge up another one, the Thanagarian was upon her, swinging her mace at her. Immediately, she flung herself to aside to avoid the attack, being successful in that endeavor.
That was until Hawkgirl performed a backswing and the head of her mace slammed into her stomach. Once again, Starfire found herself being flung away not on her own power.
Hawkgirl was proving most difficult. Though she had expected a fight out of a seasoned Thanagarian warrior, she had not expected it to be this tough. Faintly she wondered if it had been such a good idea to change sides as she had.
"Haaaaaaa!"
Jerking her head up, she saw Hawkgirl right on top of her. Before she could react, the redhead's mace nailed her in the side of her head, sending her careening back into the parking garage. She hit the wall just below an opening, bursting through it as if it were nothing. Her body then collided with the concrete floor, which sent her bouncing off of it several times until she came to a stop.
This was not good. Grimacing, the Tamaranian slowly got onto her unsteady feet. That had really hurt and she was quite through with being pushed around. Her starbolts were not working on this foe, that much she was certain. It was time to change tactics.
That was when Hawkgirl soared into the parking garage. The winged woman had entered a short distance to the Tamaranian's right, which caused her to turn so she could follow. Hawkgirl flew until she reached a point parallel with the red-haired woman, then made a sharp turn, rushing towards her. With another war cry, the Thanagarian swung her mace towards her head.
Immediately, Starfire raised up one hand and caught the mace with her bare hand, stopping her attacker in midair. Green eyes widened as the Thanagarian looked from her imprisoned weapon to Starfire's serious face.
Before the winged woman could react, Starfire threw a punch to her face, one that sent her flying backwards from the force of the blow. She flew so far and so fast that she plowed right through a cement wall, leaving a hole in her wake.
It wasn't well known on Earth, but Tamaranians were very strong. This was most likely because she had grown to prefer the use of her starbolts; yet, physical strength was abundant in her people's graceful forms. It had been quite some time since Starfire had tested to see just how strong she was, but she was quite confident she had more than enough to...how did the saying go? Wipe the butt with Hawkgirl's floor? Yes, that was it.
Walking to the hole, she looked through it, finding a ramp below. Straight ahead was another wall, one that was covered in cracks. Looking down from it, Starfire found Hawkgirl lying on the ramp face down, slowly starting to stir. Stepping out into thin air, the Tamaranian hovered for a moment before floating down to land a short distance away from her opponent.
By the time she had landed, Hawkgirl had gotten back to her feet. "Damn, that hurt," she said as she cradled her jaw with one hand. "You hit as hard as Diana."
"I am quite strong," Starfire informed her jovially. "I recommend surrender before more harm comes to you."
The Thanagarian glared at her. "Yeah, right; I'm not the one that's going to get hurt."
The winged woman then lunged at her throwing a fist at her. Starfire merely raised a hand up and caught the strike, holding the fist with a vice-like grip. Without breaking stride, she formed a fist with her other hand and swung it up, landing an uppercut to Hawkgirl's chin, which sent her flying rapidly up towards the ceiling. She watched as Hawkgirl slammed into the roof hard, before dropping back down to the ground. Taking a step back, she waited a moment before she leaned to one side, raising one leg up. With excellent timing, she swung a kick in time to hit the falling Hawkgirl with it, sending her careening through the air, where she eventually dropped low enough to bounce off the floor. She went into a rough tumble until she came to a stop. Weakly she tried to raise her head up, but then collapsed to the floor.
"Hooray!" Starfire cried out as she jumped for joy. She had bested her opponent!
Excitedly, she looked around, searching for where her new comrade, Element Woman, was. "Oh, Element Woman!" she shouted, head turning this way and that. "I have successfully defeated Hawkgirl! Do you require any assistance?"
That was when a stream of what looked like gas moved into her sight. It flowed from somewhere behind the red-haired woman and moved around in front of her, then took on a solid form. Soon, Element Woman was standing before her, looking just as excited as she was. "Really? You did? Super!"
"Yes, I did! How about you? Did you fare well?" Starfire asked.
"I did too! I beat Green Lantern and beat him good, I did. This is so awesome!"
"Yes! Totally awesome!" Starfire then paused as a thought occurred to her. "Now what do we do?"
Element Woman stared at her for a moment before she ran a hand through her pink hair. "I'm not entirely sure. I guess we should contact one of the others and see if they need our help."
"That is a great suggestion! Please, get a hold of our comrades and let them know that Element Woman and Starfire are ready to lend them a hand!"
The pink-haired woman squealed with joy. "This is so exciting! I so have to write about this in my journal!"
Despite the cape and cowl he wore, there were many things the Batman feared. Being unable to stop a murder before his eyes, screwing up an investigation, destroying a man's life over a misunderstanding. A couple of these had happened admittedly, but he had done his best to minimize their occurrences.
It was only a couple years ago, maybe more, when something new was added. Seeing a young girl going back to the only thing she knew and kill someone. He had taught and struggle with that side of Cassandra since the moment he had taken her in. For twenty years he had been a success.
Now it laid in shattered pieces along with Superman's body.
"Save my life?" Batman repeated. "You just killed a man, Cassandra. How is that saving me?"
Cassandra looked away from him, her eyes falling onto the fallen Kryptonian. His blood was pooling around his body, forming a puddle around him. "You wouldn't understand," she practically whispered.
No. Batman moved to her and roughly grabbed her chin, forcing her head up so that he could look her in the eyes. "Explain it," he demanded. "Explain it until I do."
There was a flicker of life in her haunted eyes. She swallowed deeply. "I came in here and found you fighting him. You didn't see me; he didn't see me. But I could tell—you were going to lose. He was overpowering you, slowly, but he was doing it. I...I couldn't let that happen. I couldn't let him hurt you." She looked pleadingly at him. "I know that if you were going to stop him, you would have to kill him and I couldn't let you do that. Superman said so himself...and...I couldn't let you taint yourself."
"So you killed him instead." That was not a satisfactory answer, not to him. She must have come in right as he and Superman were trying to overpower each other. While it was true they were on their last legs, there was still plenty of fight left, he could feel it. But now, there was no way to find out.
Tearing his eyes away from the woman, he looked to the weapon she had used, staring at its green glow. It didn't take him long to realize what it was. "You took this from the Cave," he said as he returned his eyes to her. He had seen the way she had stared at the kryptonite sword, almost admiring its craftsmanship. Now he was certain she was planing on how she could use it.
Cassandra nodded. "When you went to distract Wonder Woman, I took it. I thought eventually we would meet with Superman, and I wanted to make sure we were ready for it."
Never mind that she probably didn't need the kryptonite—considering Superman's lack of superpowers—she had carried a weapon with the determination to use it. After everything he had taught her, how could she do this?!
Apparently, she could read him, even after everything. "I know you are angry. I know why you did everything you could to keep me from...killing...someone." She looked down at her hand, stained with Kryptonian blood. "This feeling...there's this feeling. It's...I feel sick. I...I can't...it's too much. It won't go away."
She fought back the emotions that were welling up with her, her face twisting with remorse as tears began to leak from her eyes. Immediately, Batman pulled her to him and she began sobbing against his shoulder, her body trembling against his. Her hand grabbed onto him, refusing to let him go. He could feel how tight her grip was, even through his suit.
"This won't ever be right," she cried. "I can't be alright."
Batman shushed her, gently cooing into her ear. A part of him was glad to see this; as heartbreaking as it was, he could see and feel and hear her regret. She hadn't embraced this murder like every assassin before her. Her mind, her body rejected the siren's call, much to his relief.
"But you can still save me."
Her tone had changed, catching his attention. Slowly, Batman drew back, looking at her in bewilderment. Gone were the tears and a stoic look was on Cassandra's face. Trails of tears down her cheeks was the only sign of her crying present. "You can stop this—all of this. You can wash this blood off of my hands."
He frowned. "What are you talking about?"
"When you go back in time," Cassandra spoke slowly, "you can erase of this. None of this has to happen."
"It's not that easy," the vigilante warned her. "I can't forget this."
"All the more reason for you to keep teaching me; to never give up on me."
Batman looked away from her. There was too much going on right now for this talk. They were both emotional right now and they needed to get some kind of control. They needed to get away from the body, one he was sure that would haunt his dreams for many nights to come. "Let's get out of here," he told her as he began to walk away.
Cassandra didn't move. He found this out when he felt his arm being tugged behind him. Turning his head to look, he saw a resolute expression on her face. "Are we going to be alright?" she demanded.
"Now isn't the time to ask that," he warned her.
"Are we going to be alright?" she repeated more forcefully.
He turned to fully face her, absently turning off the kryptonite power source to depower the suit. The green light faded until the armor was all black. "Now isn't the time. Ask me again when we're long gone from here."
She tilted her head up, almost defiantly. "I will."
"Good."
This time when he turned away, both of them were walking to the door. It was shut closed, which made the Dark Knight wonder how Cassandra had gotten through without either Superman, or him knowing. It was a testament to her ability for her to do that.
They came to a stop, Batman reaching a hand out of the control panel. However, before he could enter the code, the door slid open.
Standing in the doorway was Diana, a frantic look on her face. Her blue eyes fell onto him and Cassandra before darting to look over their shoulders, zeroing in on Superman's body. Her eyes widened as they fell back to the two vigilantes before finding the blood on Cassandra's hands.
Oh—
Before Batman could react, a powerful blow smacked him across the face. For a moment he blacked out, but when he came too, he had crashed into the wall and fell onto the floor, somehow ending up on his butt, legs sprawled out in front of him. There was a sharp crackle, a brief moment of static flashing over the lens of his cowl before sight was restored.
By then he heard the screams. Shaking off his daze, Batman saw Diana lashing out at Cassandra, who was doing her best to duck, bob and weave, and otherwise avoid the Amazon's rapid punches. The older woman pushed the younger one back, Cassandra actually blocking the blows, her face twisting with pain from each block.
Immediately, Batman hit the button to power up his suit, only for nothing to happen. He hit it again and again, even as Diana suddenly dropped low to the floor, a leg extended out as she swung it forward and kicked out Cassandra's legs. The younger woman was flung backwards, falling to land on the floor on her head, only for her to catch herself with one hand and go into a one-handed flip. She ended up back on her feet, crouching low as Diana launched herself at her.
It suddenly dawned on Batman why the suit wasn't powering up. When Diana had hit him, she had hit him so hard that damage was done to the system when he had hit the wall. That had been why he heard that crackling sound. Goddamn it!
Reaching to her belt, Cassandra pulled out a shuriken and threw it at the approaching Amazon, who batted it aside with a wave of her arm, her bracer knocking the projectile away from her. With her other arm, she threw a fist, one that went over the young woman's shoulder as she leaned to a side. Shooting a hand up, she grabbed onto the Amazon's outstretched arm and used it to swing her lower body up, ramming both of her feet into her foe's stomach, the two women hovering over the floor, one above, the other below.
Diana instantly lost her breath, Cassandra letting go as she dropped the short distance to the floor. As for Diana, she careened forward, only to catch her breath and stop. Whipping around, she then launched herself forward once more.
It was so fast. Before Cassandra could even spin around to defend herself, the older woman rammed her shoulder into her, causing her to cry out as she was pitched forward. Before she could go too far, Diana grabbed onto the cape that trailed behind her, using it to swing Cassandra around. They spun in a circle until Diana arced the girl high above her head, and then slammed her down hard on the ground.
She...she was trying to kill her. Horror overwhelmed the Dark Knight. In this state, Diana was nigh unbeatable. She had the strength, the skill, and the will to do whatever she pleased and that was to kill Cassandra. Every blow Cassandra had blocked had been Diana using her full-strength, holding nothing back. The Amazon was even using her reflexes to their fullest as she moved faster and reacted faster more to overwhelm the younger woman.
He couldn't let this continue any further.
Unfortunately, he needed power and enough of it to stop the Amazon cold. The kryptonite-powered suit could do that, but that was not an option anymore. Damn it all! He needed power and he needed it—
Wait...he could still get it!
A hand dropped to his belt and Batman clumsily opened one of the pouches. Reaching in, he pulled out the super pill he had taken from the guard back in the cell block. This wasn't really his style, but there wasn't any other choice. Shoving it into his mouth, he dry swallowed it.
Diana pulled Cassandra up by her cape, holding her up so that she could get a look at her face. There was a murderous gaze in her eyes and she snarled at the girl, right before she drew a fist back and rammed it once, twice, three times into her stomach. Cassandra cried out in a mixture of pain and a choked gasp, right before Diana released her cape and she fell to the floor. Somehow, she ended up on her knees.
That's when it hit Batman. Strength, power, it flooded his body, emerging from within his core and filling out every nook and cranny, going down his legs, extending out into his fingertips. This...this was amazing! In an instant he had pushed himself up, getting his feet under him.
And then Diana stood behind Cassandra. Reaching out with both hands, she placed one against the younger woman's jawbone, the other at her temple.
Batman froze.
At that moment, Cassandra's eyes found his. They were filled with fear and sadness, a silent plea begging him to help her.
Then with sharp jerk, Diana twisted her head to a side, her neck snapping loudly.
It started low, but grew louder with every passing second. Staring at the whites of Cassandra's eyes, a scream ripped out of Batman's mouth, one that threatened to never stop.
To Guest: Pretty sure the last scene answered your question