AN: For everyone following this story, yes I know it's been a year. And for everyone following me in general, I know it's been a while since my last update.
So the thing is that my health took a bad turn these past three months and I don't want to get too much in detail about it but bottom line is that daily doses of pain didn't exactly help with my creativity so I felt like I had to take a break.
But don't worry, it's nothing too serious. I'm fully vaccinated now and I am steadily recovering.
So anyway, about this chapter: I just want to put this out there just in case people get the wrong idea and that is Batman DOES NOT kill anybody in chapter. There a scene written in specific way for a specific reason and you'll know what that reason is the coming chapter(/s).
I'm disappointed that I didn't get to write as much as I wanted to this year but regardless, I hope next year will be much kinder to me.
With that said, Advanced Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year and I'll see you guys in the next one.
CHAPTER 04: A Fitting End
Inside Lab 0
He leaned back against his chair, forearms propped up and the tips of his fingers steepled in front of his cunning smirk; the posture of a true Machiavellian.
Before him shone a monitor screen displaying, within green scan lines, layers of profile pictures with accompanying text.
"This will be too easy." Damian internally sniggered.
It was quite fortunate that Lab 0 had detailed dossiers on all ASG operatives, it was already proving to be useful in his planned assault on Lab 8. It was also quite fortunate for him that Lab 8 was filled with a bunch of pathetic losers.
With one tap of a key, two of the layers of profiles were brought to the foreground. One was Dagonian, a shark type, named Stanley Whitefin who was their head engineer. The other was the director of Lab 8, an elderly elven man, Dr. Avian. Eliminating him or both of them at the earliest would send the Lab in disarray.
Of course, they would have their defenders.
Another key tap brought forth another profile into view: Iluem. She was a masked woman whose body was grotesque coils of flesh like intestines and had metal drills sticking out from her shoulders.
Damian remembered hearing about her, one of Lab 8's Synthetic Parasite projects and someone who apparently used to work with the Last Hope before he was born. It was mostly recon and sabotage missions but from what he was told, she never really was able to fit in with the group and he knows why: she was a bleeding heart with motherly tendencies.
Ileum had personally taken it upon herself to care for the children test subjects like they were her own offspring and that, Damian concluded, was her biggest weakness. If he could use the safety of her children as leverage, she would no doubt fold. Never underestimate how far a mother's love can go.
Damian felt his stomach twist as the image of Valentine popped in his mind.
"tt."
With that scoff, he forced his thoughts clear and brought up another profile.
Big Band. His file came with both a photo and a complex blueprint detailing the inner working within his coat. Damian wasn't concerned about him, he's more musical instrument now than man. It shouldn't be too hard to sabotage his internal mechanisms.
Two more profiles were brought to view, one was of a blonde boy named Leduc and the other was about a girl with lilac hair called Hive. The son of Valentine stretched his smirk even wider, they were both rank amateurs who were hardly worth his time.
It was only when he got to the next file when Damian felt some semblance of a challenge.
The title of the file read "Project Peacock" and was littered with blueprints and schematics. His mother had warned him about her once, told him that she was a wild card and not to be underestimated. He admitted to himself that she could be an unknown factor but he seriously doubted that-
"DAMIAN, COME TO MY OFFICE. THERE'S SOMETHING WE NEED TO DISCUSS."
Damian froze momentarily just as his thought process was suddenly interrupted by a voice that echoed in his mind. He then snarled as he angrily rose from his chair before storming out of the room.
After a short trek through the Lab's corridors, the young boy entered through a pair of metal doors that slid open automatically into a well lit room. The surroundings looked typical of a mad scientist's lair: complete with doohickeys, doodads, glass tubes and tesla coils.
At the center of the room was a lab table that was tilted upright and had some incomplete human shaped robot lying on it. By its side, busily working on its arm with screw driver was a man sitting in a chair.
"Ah Damian, welcome. I was just about finished." said Brain Drain without looking up from his work.
He was a tall individual wearing a brown double-breasted coat with fur collar and cuffs but that was where all normalcy ended. His hands were cold steel with needles at his fingertips and his head was a metallic mask with red eyes, spikes arranged at four corners below his skull which was a glass housing that held his brain, the only organic part of him that remained.
Brain Drain rose from his chair and turned to his visitor.
"This is R-000, a little project I've been working on." he said as he patted the robot. "Say hello, R-000."
[ARE YA WINNING, SON?] the mechanoid sounded off.
This caused the Psychic Director to sigh and rub the bridge of his 'nose' in annoyance.
"It still needs a little fine-tuning. R-000 is still only a semi-functional prototype but it can be used as basis for future models, once I find a suitable design to work off."
"I hope you didn't call me here just to show off a clear waste of Lab resources." Damian stated coldly with a look to kill.
This evident hostility didn't seem to offend Brain Drain and he only chuckled.
"Still as prickly as ever I see. Fine, I called you to ask about your dear mother. You wouldn't happen to know where she is, would you?"
Damian scowled in silence for a short moment before responding.
"I have no knowledge of her whereabouts nor do I care to know."
If the lips of Brain Drain's metal face could smirk, it would.
"Hmmm, is that resentment I hear? Then perhaps you and I should cooperate, I'm not a big fan of her myself." he said almost gleefully.
"And I'm less of fan of YOU." Damian responded.
"My only goal, child, is to see our mission through as well as ensure the smooth operation of Lab 0. The absences of you and your mother of late has been a concern to me."
The Psychic Director stepped forward towards the boy with his arms behind his back.
"If by chance I find either of your activities to be a hindrance or even endanger our missions, then I would be forced to take drastic action. You do understand, don't you?" he asked.
But the young boy was far from intimidated and his lips stretched into a toothy smug grin.
"What I do understand is that IF it comes to that, you'd lose. BADLY. Now, If you're done prattling, I have better things to do."
And with that, Damian about-turned with swish of his draped lab coat and marched towards the door.
"Despite what your feelings are about me, I think we're more alike than you think. I miss your Auntie Christmas too." Brain Drain called out.
This caused Damian to freeze in his tracks just before he exited the room. Behind the boy, Brain Drain contemplated tapped the needle of his finger against the chin area of his mask, making faint "tink" sounds.
"I wonder, why do you wear that coat around your shoulders? Didn't it used to belong to Director Darrk?"
In a blink of an eye there was rush of air and the sound of metal being pierced. Brain Drain then glanced to the side behind him where the scalpel, that had just barely scraped the side of his mask, had embedded itself deep into one of his devices.
He turned back to see Damian who had spun halfway with his arm extended like he had thrown the weapon.
"Next time, stay out of my head, Brain Drain. Or I'll use that pink blob in your head as a pin cushion!" the boy growled before leaving.
There was a pause from Psychic Director before he chuckled to himself.
Cartwright Expressway
In the dead of night, the usual silent roads of New Meridian were stirred by the high-pitched whines of a turbine engine. The volume gradually approaching until something went by with a WHOOSH!, kicking up dust and littered paper, before fading away.
The few citizens who caught a glimpse of the dark midnight blue vehicle looked on in bewilderment as it zoomed away, cutting through the night like a sharp razor blade. They had clearly never seen anything like it.
It was sleek, low to the ground, and rectangular in profile with a long narrow bonnet that ended with a large face plate in front of the car; shaped like a V-plow in the visage of the bat, complete with pointed ears and yellow angular eyes. The other notable features were at the back where fixed on top of the roof was a straight scalloped fin that resembled a bat's wing and below it, at the very end of the vehicle, was a rocket exhaust nozzle from which the afterburner blasted like a steady hot flame*.
With his hands firmly gripped at the wheel and his foot on the gas, Batman silently commended Alfred for thinking two steps ahead. Although he enjoyed his time with Parasoul, he initially thought he wasted too much time and that he wouldn't be able to reach his destination in time.
But Alfred informed him as they returned to the manor that he had arranged with Lucius to deliver the newly built pursuit vehicle to the cave.
It was something Lucius and his old colleague, Stanley Whitefin, had designed during their time together at Lab 4 (the fin on the roof was apparently Stanley's idea) but it never went beyond the concept stage until now. Bruce, Alfred and Deep Violet had only seen it in the form of blueprints.
Violet had affectionately named it the "Batmobile".
Regardless of what it was called, it handled like a dream. Batman could tell from the low hum and vibration the incredible amount of RPMs this machine was capable of. He couldn't help but feel a boyish thrill course through him.
He immediately pushed away such feelings from his mind and focused on his approaching destination, the thought bringing a grim scowl to his face.
Ace Chemicals. He never thought he'd be returning there again, the site of his first night as the Batman...and what could've been his last.
One year ago
So far, he would say the months of training had paid off. The costume proved to be more effective than he imagined and made him realize how foolish his earlier outing was. Stealth and fear tactics were key.
After managing to get in undetected and take out the stationed guards effectively, he crept over a walkway that overlooked the large storage hall where the refugees were being held. Voices could be heard as he neared the center. Or more accurately, it was one person's laughter.
"Ha! Ha! Get a load of this gal, folks! She thinks she's funny!"
He peered down and recognized the man who spoke, previously reading about him from the police files he procured: Jack Napier. It looked like Grissom sent him to do Lorenzo's dirty work as usual.
With two other Medici goons standing guard, the refugees were huddled at the walls with fearful eyes but one of them in particular stood out. She laid on the floor in front of Napier while scowling defiantly at him; A young girl, couldn't be older than twelve, with short orange hair and was wearing a bloody ragged cloak over a maid outfit that was in tatters.
Batman flinched at the sight of her.
"How could they do this to a child?!"
Napier knelt down in front of the girl, cupped her cheeks with both his hands and drew her up his eye level. She glared back at him with grit teeth.
"I like you, funny gal." Napier said to her with a wide grin. "You're just my type."
Batman was wondering why didn't she push away from him until he then noticed the girl's arms.
"Dear Goddess, what did they do to her arms!?"
"But I love your eyes the most." Napier spoke again. "So green, so full of fire..."
Napier's smile grew sinister.
"That I just wanna squish 'em!"
Just as he said that, Napier suddenly thrust both his thumbs into her eye sockets, causing her to scream and fall back but Napier didn't let go and straddled her with his thumbs still digging into her skull as he let lose a crazed laugh.
"Jeepers Creepers, how'd you get those Peepers!? HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!"
The refugees recoiled in horror, knowing full well the poor girl couldn't fight back due to her lacking functional arms. Batman's whole body momentarily froze in shock before he felt a heated tremble from within. Everything in his mind went completely blank, his fists clenched so hard that the purple gloves he wore were stretched to their limit, teeth began to tightly gnash and the white eyes of his mask scrunched to a dangerous angle. And before he knew it, he leaped down with his cape spread.
Like a bird of prey, he ferociously swooped down and stomped on one of the Medici gangsters to the ground, alerting the other gangster and Napier who released the girl and spun around startled.
"What the hell!?" Napier exclaimed in shock.
The remaining goon opened fire with his Tommy gun but the terrifying sight of the Bat-Man caused his aim to be unsteady and the refugees to scream huddle for cover. Batman took advantage of this by ducking under the hail of bullets and quickly closing distance, cape slinking fluidly over the floor. The goon could only scream in fright before his face was bashed in by the Bat's fist.
"I'm getting out of here!"
Batman looked up to see Napier feeling up the stairs that led to a catwalk and then through a door. He quickly took out his grappling gun, an older model, and fired a line that snagged on the railing before reeling himself after him.
But just as he was about to go through the door, he heard a loud bang behind him. He turned his head to see the main double-doors at the entrance to the hall being rammed from the outside, almost knocking the hinges off, until they blew open to allow a large tall arm-less man to rush inside.
He was dark skinned and appeared to be completely draped in a brown coat that had three circular metal pads on the sides of his body. Protruding from his back was what looked like the back end of a saxophone from which tubes went around his neck to some kind of breathing apparatus. And on his head was brown fedora hat.
"Nobody move!" Big Band commanded.
To the surprise of the ASG agent, both Medici goons were already unconscious and a shadowy figure stood by the door atop of the catwalk. Batman only briefly regarded him with a stony expression before bolting through the door.
Big Band would've given chase if not for the wounded girl who he spotted lying on the floor.
"Huh? Hey, kid! You okay!?" he asked as he worked his mechanical legs to run to her side.
"U...gh... Le-lemme at 'im... I'll splat 'im." the blinded girl croaked out.
Seeing her in that state made him sharply suck a breath, he was no stranger to atrocities during his days as a police officer but not something like this.
"Big Band to all ASG agents..." he radioed through his breathing/blowing device. "The refugees are safe but somebody beat us to the punch. And I found a girl here, she's hurt real bad."
Elsewhere, a loud 'THWACK!' echoed through the factory as Napier staggered back from nearly having his jaw knocked off. He fell his rump upon a grilled catwalk that overlooked several large vats, crawling back away from the dangerous costumed man before him.
"H-hey, take it easy, fella. I was just acting under orders, honest." Napier chuckled nervously.
A gloved hand grabbed Napier mercilessly by his lapel before pulling him up to be thrown against the brick wall next to the catwalk. The gangster was then assaulted with more punches before being raised like a rag doll and slammed against the metal platform again.
Napier gasped and groaned as he weakly pushed himself up on fours. His face was already bruised with a black eye and the edge of his lip bled. He looked up to see the Bat-Man glaring hatefully at him, grit teeth bared like a wild animal. Napier never thought much would scare him but at that moment, he was getting nervous and briefly wondered who was this whack job? Was he with the Egrets?
Despite the pain and injury, he smirked. It didn't matter if he was arrested or if this man was with the authorities, the Medicis had enough people on the inside to get them back out again. And so with a wince, he sat up.
"Guh, (gasp), okay, hehe." he snickered and put his palms up. "You got me, I surrender."
In response, Napier got a boot smashed into his face.
After falling on his back, the gangster quickly pushed himself up in a fit of anger. Blood freely cascaded from his nose to join his mouth.
"What the hell is the matter with you!? I said I surrender!" he yelled.
But the Bat only struck again with a back fist, spraying blood and knocking a tooth out in the process. From there, the Bat-Man continued to whale on him until Napier was left leaning against the catwalk railing. In his brutalized state, the gangster drew ragged breaths and only took a break to spit out blood.
"Alright...(pant)... I can see that maybe...(gasp)... I overstepped a few boundaries." he wheezed out.
Batman watched with an unforgiving scowl as he allowed Napier to pull himself up, with the railing as support, to a stand.
"But Hey, ..."
Napier reached into his coat pocket but Batman remained rooted on the spot. He was mentally daring this scumbag to try, JUST TRY, to pull a gun; he'd be ready for him. But that's not what happened. Instead, what he pulled out and placed over his face was a pair of fake eyewear.
"You wouldn't hit a guy with glasses, would you?" he grinned with his bloody mouth.
The vigilante snarled, unavailable to believe that this slime had the audacity to joke despite what he did. And without hesitation, he smashed his fist through the glasses and into Napier's face which caused the man to stagger and fall back over the railing. Napier grabbed the railing just as he fell but the sudden weight caused the joints to snap which caused the portion of the railing to bend downwards.
In that single moment, the reality of the situation hit Batman like a freight train and he reacted with widened eyes as he dove to the edge of the catwalk.
"Give me your hand!" Batman yelled, stretching out his arm.
Dangling over a vat filled with greenish liquid, all traces of humor vanished from Napier's face. The man tried to reach with his other hand towards the vigilante's but his grip on the railing began to slip bit by bit till it was finally too late.
As the Bat looked in horror, Napier screamed until his body splashed into the unknown substance. His body bobbed up with flailing arms sloshing the surface, struggling to stay afloat. Batman could only watch with a hollowed feeling while the gangster slowly seemed to drown. And with one last air bubble popping at the surface, there was nothing.
Everything was a blur for Bruce after that and the next thing he realized was that he was back in the manor slumped in an armchair by the fireplace. The only part of his costume he had taken off was his cowl and cape which was tightly gripped in his hand.
"Bruce? Are you in here?"
He heard her voice and glanced to the side to see an older bespectacled buxom woman enter the living room. He recognised her of course, it was Ms. Victoria, Deep Violet's alter ego and the person who had been training him for the past several months.
Seeing him being unresponsive, Victoria squatted before him so their eyes could be level.
"Bruce, talk to me." she tried to coax him. "Alfred is really worried about you."
It took Bruce a few seconds to ignore the sick feeling in him and summon the strength to use his vocal functions.
"A fitting end for his kind." he uttered with a frown.
"What?"
"That was my first thought when I saw his body disappear in that vat. I'm starting to wonder if I was talking about myself." he added the last past wearily.
"You're not making any sense."
"I killed a man, Devannah." Victoria blinked with a slight gasp, Bruce very rarely addresses her by her first name so she knew he was being serious.
"When I saw him do what he did, I lost myself. At that moment, I never once thought about those refugees. I never once thought about helping that girl or finding someone who could help her. All I could think about was smashing that son of bitch's skull with my fists. And that scares me."
She continued to listen to him quietly and then watched him raise his cowl to stare at it.
"When I started this thing, I never realized how far I would go. What I would become, what IT would become. I want to keep my promise to my parents, more than anything. But I..."
Bruce sighed as his arm dropped, he looked utterly defeated.
"I don't think I'm really cut out for this."
Victoria remained silent with an unreadable expression before she then pulled out something from out of Bruce's view and held it out to him. From the golden wing patterned cross guard, he recognized it as the Puzuzu Whip.
"This whip has made me do things that I'm not proud of either." she said. "Sometimes in this line of work, the horrors of this world can change us and warp the way we see things."
She put the weapon away when she saw him turn his furrowed gaze away in guilt before then surprising him by gently cupping his face and bringing his sights back towards her's. The orange hue of the fire reflected off her specs as she spoke softly.
"But you, Bruce? That shame you're feeling right now only proves that you HAVEN'T your lost your way. You're more than just someone who wants to punish the wicked. You're someone who wants to save lives and make New Meridian a better place."
Grabbing his wrist, she held it up so the cowl's eye sockets faced him again.
"And that's EXACTLY why you're cut out for this." she finished.
Ace Chemicals, Present Day
"Well? Think you can get us in?" asked Jason.
At the base of a dark and decrepit building complex that was flanked by two towering chimney stalks, the duo stood in front of a pair of double doors that was securely bolted with a thick padlock.
Getting past the area fence was easy enough for them and they didn't need to worry about alerting any security as it was apparent that the facility had been shutdown for months.
"Neow let's see, ..." Nadia hummed as she bent to take a closer look at the padlock.
"A Corwin 440, double reinforced, six levers...With a bit of work I could get it open. Orrrr..." she trailed off in a hinting manner.
Jason rolled his eyes and decided to take the bait.
"Or?"
Nadia straightened up, facing him with a grin and a snapping her fingers into a finger-gun.
"We break in through the service entrance, of course!" she chirped.
"What's the difference?"
"See, folks who spend big Bones on these high quality locks don't usually think that a thief can also come in through the back. The back entrance always have cheaper locks and are much easier to pick."
"Are you sure?" Jason asked with a skeptical look.
The Feline Feral took the lead, hopping down the stairs and gestured Jason to follow as she was on the verge of turning around the building.
"Sure I'm sure!" she assured. "Who do ya think you're talking to?"
"The same girl who forgot the safe combination during that jewelry job?"
As the two of them began to walk by the side of the building, Nadia objected to Jason's last remark in mock outrage.
"I did not forget! I just got the last two numbers mixed up, that's all."
"You're always forgetting something, Nadia. Remember when you left my ammo clips behind at the Yu-Wan's?"
"Well maybe you should be carrying your own stuff." she said, looking at him with half-lid eyes.
Jason strolled up ahead and shrugged innocently.
"My pockets are full."
Behind him, Something caught Nadia's eye and her lips curled up into a mischievous smile.
"I'll say."
Rushing by him, she utilized her quick pick pocketing skills to snatch the rolled up floppy book that Jason wedged at the back of his pants, behind his jacket. The boy reacted, feeling for it to confirm it was gone just as the Feline Feral skipped in front him to show it off in its unrolled glory: a Pin-up magazine.
"Full of LITTER-ature." she teased with a slow wolfish whistle.
Jason blushed vividly in embarrassment but then tried to save face with a stern expression.
"I'll have you know, that's an invasion of privacy. Now give it back."
But Nadia rolled it back up again and rapped him on the head with it.
"Ow!"
"Aren't you a little too young to be having something like this?" she scolded.
"Oh come on!" Jason whined. "I'll be eighteen in a couple of months."
"A whole year is not a couple of months!"
There was a subtle yet distinct sound that made the two suddenly pause in their tracks. It was a light rattle that echoed alongside the scrunching of gravel and thumps of footsteps.
Sure enough, five men dressed in pinstripes and fedoras walked out from behind the building towards them. And sure enough, the light rattle of the drum magazines attached to the tommy guns they were carrying confirmed the danger that Jason and Nadia had sensed.
"Going our way, gang?" one of them sneered.
Jason and Nadia quickly turned around made a run for it but just as they neared the corner of the building, two cars pulled up by the road in front of them. As both boy and Feral skid to a halt, the mobsters inside the cars filed out armed with their own tommy guns.
Seeing as they had no choice but to fight their way through, Jason pulled out his handguns but at that moment a burst of bullets stuck the ground behind him and alerted both him and Nadia to the men behind them.
"Ah, ah! Drop 'em and put your hands in the air!"
To Jason's surprise, Nadia held her hands up in surrender.
"Just do what he says, Jay-jay." she told him, being uncharacteristically serious.
He growled in frustration and dropped the guns before holding his own hands up. Jason wanted to put up more of a fight but it was obvious that they were outnumbered and outgunned. And besides, they didn't know the extent of Nadia's regeneration abilities but they did know that Jason's body was still mortal.
"I take it that you guys are with Lorenzo Medici, huh?" Nadia spoke to the surrounding mobsters.
The men in front of them stepped aside to make way for the Ventriloquist to shuffle forward, holding Scarface in his hand.
"Pretty smart for a flea-bag." Scarface's wooden lips flapped.
"A puppet?" Jason asked with a raised brow.
"Huh, he's kinda cute...in a creepy nightmare-fuel sorta way." Nadia remarked before addressing Wesker. "Hey Mister, can you do that bit with the whole drinking water thing?"
Wesker looked surprised that he was actually being spoken to.
"W-who? M-m-me? Oh, y-you don't understand, Mister Scarface doesn't-"
But before he could finish, Scarface began to flail about angrily.
"Alright, enough with the yammering! Boys, search the punk." the doll gestured towards Jason.
The young man glowered dangerously as he allowed the surrounding mobsters to pat him down and empty his pockets. They had already taken away his handguns but would then find that he carried an extra gun along with ammo clips, stiletto switchblades and even an extra hand grenade.
"Well, looky here! Kid thinks he's some walking armory." one of the men laughed alongside a few of them.
"But no gem." Scarface noted before turning his head towards Nadia. "Then that means she has it."
One of the gangsters gestured his gun towards Nadia's raised hands.
"Alright kitty, what's that thing you're holding there?"
"What? This?" she asked, realizing that he meant the rolled up magazine that she was still holding.
When she brought the mag down and unrolled it before them, the armed men around her surprisingly reacted with shock.
"Wait a second, is that this month's issue of Prance Magazine!?"
"Ya mean the one with Goldie Hartford on the cover!?"
"I hear La-La Lenore posed full on nude in this edition."
Almost like clockwork, most of the men gathered around her like starving children and caused her to slightly recoil back with an awkward expression.
"Hand it over!"
"No! Give it to me!"
"I saw it first!"
"HEY! Stay focused on the job, you morons!" Scarface bellowed out.
Nadia saw a golden opportunity and grinned, her snaggle-tooth glinting with a mischievous nature.
"So you fellas want this, hmm?" she asked before suddenly throwing the mag up in the air. "Then catch!"
Taking advantage of the goons attention being drawn upwards, Nadia stiffened her tail and 'stood' on it while spinning her body like a top as all four of her limbs segmented off from their cuts, being held together by stretchable tendons and muscles. The men surrounding her were caught off-guard and either had their hands slashed from her claws, making them drop their guns, or were knocked out but her detached limbs.
Jason also quickly took advantage of the commotion by sucker punching the Medici goon beside him, grabbing his gun and unleashing a spray of bullets at the group of mobsters near him. Some of them were tagged, others managed to dive out of the way. Unfortunately, Jason soon found that the amount of bullets left in the drum barrel was a lot less than he expected as the gun was empty in almost no time.
Two gangsters who weren't shot saw the opportunity and readied their guns to pepper him with their own bullets but Jason thought fast and immediately unclipped the drum barrel and flung it like Frisbee. It smashed against one of the goons' nose and distracted the other long enough for Jason to rush and strike him with the gun like a baseball bat.
"W-wh-what do we do, Mister Scarface?" Wesker trembled in fear as he took a few steps back.
"Get to car, Dummy!" the puppet yelled after slapping Wesker with his limp arm.
Unknown to those involved in the skirmish, someone had been watching them the whole time. High up above them, a figure hung from the side of the large 'ACE' sign board.
"Well, Well...this certainly got interesting." Valentine internally commented.
With ninja-like agility, she sprung off from the board before somersaulting and landing into a crouch atop of some overhead pipes in order to get a closer view.
"I thought perhaps tailing these clowns would lead me to Lorenzo but instead it looks like I've stumbled upon a wholly unique specimen."
The subject of Valentine's sudden interest just happens to be Nadia who fended off more Medici goons with her extendable limbs and for good measure, plucked off her own head and swung it like a club which subsequently caused her to feel a bit dizzy.
"That Feral's body had clearly been hacked to pieces and yet not only is she somehow intact but she's able maintain control over her body parts. Color me intrigued! Whatever is animating her could be invaluable to my research."
The nurse smiled deviously behind her mask as she squatted down like a spider at the center of her web.
"This calls for further observation. I'll let the rest finish each other off and then swoop in once the dust settles."
Meanwhile, at the behest of Scarface, Wesker had managed to sneak through the fighting to one of their cars where he opened the driver's seat with full intention to make a getaway.
"Not the front seat, Dummy!" Scarface yelled in his ear. "Open the trunk! It's time to show these brats who has the biggest gun around here."
Wesker's brows shot up in fear, realizing what Scarface was asking him to do.
"B-bu-b-bu-but Mister Scarface, that's too dangerous."
"Shadup and do it!"
During this time, Nadia and Jason continued to fight off Scarface's men; not allowing them a chance to retrieve their tommy guns. Even when some of them did, they found themselves disarmed again thanks to the duo's quick agile attacks.
Jason did so to one Medici goon with a spin kick but it was right after that when his sights just happen to land on where the two cars were pulled up.
His eyes first blinked in disbelief before widening in alarm.
"Oh crap. Nadia, RUN!" he yelled taking a few steps back.
The feral looked him in confusion after taking care of another Medici goon with her detached tail.
"Huh?" she asked.
"Just run!"
Jason exclaimed before taking off, prompting her to take his lead and run after him. Behind them, and the unaware mobsters who were recovering from their beating, was Arnold Wesker hefting with some difficulty a M1A1 Bazooka over his shoulder.
"So you little shits wanna play rough, huh!? Okay." Scarface said, still held by Wesker's other hand. "Say hello to my little friend!"
With a loud bang and a recoil strong enough to knock Wesker on his rear, the rocket was launched at slightly more upward angle than they had intended. Their gang, who had been dazed from the beating they received, were certainly brought out of it with a start when the missile sailed just above them and then exploded against the side of the building. The impact sent rubble and debris tumbling into the back of the compound wall, effectively blocking Jason and Nadia's path.
The duo halted in their tracks and whirled around to look back.
"What the hell was that!?" Nadia exclaimed.
"Anti-tank rocket launcher." Jason answered. "Probably left over from the war. Don't know how that bastard and his piece of wood got a hold of one."
It was no surprise to Nadia that Jason was well versed when it came to guns and ammunition but right now she doubted any trivial knowledge was going help them out of this situation.
"What gives, Boss!?" one of the recovering mobsters balked. "You could've blown us to smithereens!"
Wesker shakily picked himself and wiped his bald head with a handkerchief but the wooden dummy was unfazed as usual.
"For letting them get the drop on you, you're lucky I didn't. Now pick your guns up!" Scarface ordered.
Nadia whipped her sights around her surroundings looking for a way out. The path in front of her was obviously no good since that way lead to a bunch Medicis and one clearly disturbed Ventriloquist with a rocket launcher. And the path to her left was blocked off thanks to said rocket launcher. So what did that leave her with?
She glanced behind at the tall brick perimeter wall and had the urge to smack herself on her head. Of course, what was she thinking?! She's a cat! She could use her claws to climb herself out. There were coils of barbed wire at the top but it shouldn't be anything she couldn't heal from before.
But now the only issue was Jason. As capable as his is, he was lacking in certain...Cat-egories.
"Grab on to me, Jay-Jay!" she called out. "I'll get us out of here."
But on cue, as if they knew what she was planning, the wall was suddenly dotted above her head with bullet holes accompanied by the sound of gunfire.
"You two just had to be cute, didn't you?" the puppet's voice rang out.
Both surviving members of the Fishbone Gang looked to see that the Mafia goons had already rearmed themselves and slowly advanced towards them like a wall closing in, flanking by the sides of the Ventriloquist who was at the center. Scarface's mug remained as expressionless as ever but the shadows cast over his wooden features seemed to give off a murderous aura.
"We could've done this the easy way but now...we'll have to do this the easier way."
Jason and Nadia tensely backed up against the wall as the Ventriloquist stuck out the wooden doll who gave the order.
"Boys, fill them full of lead."
VRRROOOOOM!
Just as they squeezed the triggers, there was a sudden burst of grey dust along with chunks of bricks and mortar as the Batmobile tore through the side wall in between the mobsters and their prey. The sudden appearance of the large hunk of dark metal certainly surprised Jason and Nadia but out of reflex, they crouched and huddled behind the thing while it shielded them from the hail of bullets which ricocheted off its surface.
The gunmen ceased fire with bewildered looks and even Scarface and his Ventriloquist were uncharacteristically quiet. They didn't get the chance to further process the situation as the car's canopy suddenly slid open to allow a shadowy figure to shoot up the air before it unfurled its frightening wing-span.
"It's the Batman!" one of the mobsters cried out before getting a landing boot to his face.
From behind the Batmobile, Nadia could notice a flash of machine gunfire briefly flickering across the building's surface before being interrupted by a punching impact followed by the thugs yelling out in pain. The sounds of slamming fists made her long dark ears twitch and slowly pulled at her curiosity. There was a bit of apprehension, she knew all too well about cats and curiosity, but nevertheless she found herself poking her head up from her hiding spot to take a peek.
Nadia's teal eyes widened at the sight, witnessing the masked vigilante pretty much manhandling the mafia goons single-handedly. Honestly, she never really paid much attention to the news and only had vague knowledge about the so-called Bat of New Meridian. From her first impression, she found his costume a little strange and she was sure she could find a corny joke in there somewhere.
And yet she couldn't help but find herself wonderstruck.
"Whoa..." she let out.
Jason on the other, seemed to have his attention on the Batmobile and wondered what a car like that would go for.
"Nice wheels." he commented, looking specifically at the tires.
Just as the wheels in his head began to turn, he noticed Nadia abruptly stand up and hop over the vehicle.
"Where do you think you're going!?"
Much to his surprise, the Feral ran ahead while looking back at him with a grin.
"Can't let him have all the fun!" she called back cheerfully.
One of the larger thugs was trying in vain to land a punch against Batman but the Dark Knight fluidly dodged every fist coming his way before he ducked under the last punch and sent the crook falling with an uppercut.
Although he didn't turn his head, he could sense the last goon rushing at him from behind with his own fist raised. But he was ready for him.
What he wasn't ready for was for someone else intercepting the goon with a flying kick, knocking the last of them out.
Batman quickly turned around to see Nadia standing over the down man, she looked like she was a little caught off-guard now that she had his full attention but then she gave a sheepish grin while waving her hand awkwardly at him.
"Eh-hehe, hiya." she chuckled.
Jason had no idea what had gotten into her but any further thoughts about her behavior instantly vanished when his sights caught a certain Ventriloquist inconspicuously closing in on them while shakily hauling the Bazooka on his shoulders.
"Look out!" the boy called out as he rushed forward.
Batman and Nadia didn't need to hear him, Nadia noticed the way the Dark Knight suddenly tensed up and looked behind to see the immanent threat. Batman kept his eyes and lips taut as he allowed his cape to curtain around his arms to conceal the act of him priming a batarang in one of his hands. He could tell that Wesker looked nervous and unsteady while having both his hands occupied with Scarface and the large stovepipe; if he acted fast, he could disarm him before the timid bespectacled man could even blink. Unfortunately, he would never get that chance.
"Let's see you slink your way outta THIS, Bat-Freak!" Scarface's lips flapped.
But at that moment, Wesker's eyes darted to the side and became aware of Jason running towards him. The already skittish man was taken by such surprise by the sudden movement that he quickly pivoted his aim towards him. Jason reacted by going into a slide baseball style and kicking at Wesker's legs, causing him to fall backwards while squeezing the trigger in panic.
As one would expect, the projectile shot up with a loud bang and a faint trail of smoke. And then, to everyone's alarm, it arced in a curve and detonated upon one of the large smoke stacks. A splash of dust and debris rained down as the structure caved like a chopped tree, the foot of it shattering over the surface of the building.
To say that the situation was bad was beyond an understatement.
Seeing the hail of rubble heading his way, Jason scrambled out of the way in one direction while Batman grabbed Nadia and leaped in the opposite direction. This left Scarface lying supine in Wesker's hand to see the toppled structure about to fall on him. Although the wooden dummy couldn't widen his eyes, his jaw opened to its maximum and his head shook side to side in terror.
"AAAAAAAHHH!" Scarface screamed.
Wesker immediately recovered, pulled the dummy to his chest and quickly rolled just as the smoke stack impacted against the ground, its side where it landed collapsed in a heap of broken bricks. A thick cloud of grey dust floated above the ground, causing Wesker to cough a few times before releasing Scarface from his embrace to inspect him.
"Ar-are you alright, Mister Scarface?" he asked with concern.
Scarface surged up and angrily got into his face.
"YOU IDIOT! YOU NEARLY HAD ME CRUSHED!"
Just a few feet across from the Ventriloquist, Jason stirred with a groan and had to shake the disorientation off his head a few times before his eyes snapped wide open with a dreadful realization.
"Oh fuck! Nadia!"
The young boy pushed himself off the ground and rushed to the collapsed chimney that effectively acted like a high wall.
"Nadia!? Answer me, Are you okay!?" Jason cried out with worry.
And that was all Jason would be able to say before something struck him hard at the back of his head, hard enough to send him down into unconsciousness. Standing behind his prone body was one of Scarface's remaining men, Mugsy, armed with a leather blackjack.
In fact, Mugsy was one of the three surviving goons; the rest of them were unfortunately buried under the ill-fated chimney.
"Goddess, what a mess." Mugsy sighed.
The other two mobsters took it upon themselves to help the Ventriloquist up, which of course resulted in Scarface yelling at them but they paid him no mind because something else caught their hearing. It was faint but undoubtedly something they were all too familiar with: the sound of approaching sirens.
"M-Mister Scarface, the police." Wesker informed.
"Shut up, Dummy! I can hear them." Scarface said with exasperation and then addressed the remainder of his gang.
"Alright boys, we're clearing out. Each one of you take a car, we'll meet back at the ol' safe house. Mugsy, you're with me."
"What about that Feral dame and the gem? Mister Medici ain't gonna be happy 'bout us coming back empty-handed." one of his men asked.
The Ventriloquist's doll tilted its head towards Jason's unconscious body.
"Then we'll take the punk with us." Scarface said. "He oughta know where we can find his partner. And besides..."
Wesker loomed Scarface menacingly over Jason.
"He's got a lot to answer for."
On the other side of the fallen chimney were scattered smaller chunks of debris. Nadia could see them littered on the ground from where she lay and was sure that she would've been covered all over by them had someone not shielded her. That someone's body hovered over her's, held up by his arm and knees, the top of his abs a half an inch from her breasts and his other arm gently cradling the small of her back.
Nadia couldn't help but feel her cheeks burn from their proximity, proximity made uncomfortably aware by her sharp senses. His scent was the first thing that held her attention; she wasn't sure if it was cologne or his natural masculine musk but for some reason, she couldn't get enough of it. And then there was the fact that his grey bodysuit did little to hide his muscles.
"Damn, he's built like castle." she remarked.
Her gaze trailed up to his exposed face, particularly his chin which she found beautifully chiseled with faint traces of stubble over that powerful jawline. She had an almost primeval urge to run her tongue over it.
"WHOA! Slowdown, Pussycat!" she mentally balked at herself.
"What're you doing simping over this guy? You barely know him. For all you know, the rest of his face could be ugly or he has a frog's voice or something."
"Are you alright?" he asked.
Her ears felt like they could melt.
It was the first time she heard him speak, deep with a soft rumble like a lion's growl. Definitely not a frog's voice and definitely a turn on.
But since he was now addressing her, Nadia pushed aside any hint of attraction and answered in her usual jokey manner.
"Err, Yup, Still in one piece. In a manner of speaking that is." she said awkwardly, the last line more her than him.
Batman pushed himself back into a stand and offered his hand to help her up. The pieces of debris fell off him to leave his cowl and cape slightly coated with grey dust which although Nadia found funny, it didn't make him any less appealing to her. She grabbed his hand with a smile.
"You must be Nadia Fortune." Batman stated as he pulled her up.
"And you must take meowt to dinner sometime."
Seeing him raise a brow at her made her aware what she said and felt like smacking her head for the umpteenth time.
"Dang it! Did I say that out loud!?"
"Ah-hahaha! Never mind." Nadia chuckled while waving the whole thing off. "Bad puns are kinda my thing. Always say them when I'm..."
The Feral trailed off when her mind began to register what had previously happened and a horrible realization dawned on her.
"Wait a minute, where's Jay-jay!?"
"Jay-jay?" Batman asked.
Without a word, Nadia pushed past him towards the fallen chimney.
"Jason!? Are you over there?" she called out.
She paused as her face etched with worry.
Batman surmised that her feline ears must have picked up the activity on the other side and what ever it was, it wasn't good. But there was one thing his own hearing did pick on: the approaching police sirens. It was safe to assume that Scarface's gang decided to make themselves scarce and as much as he didn't want to, he figured he'd better do the same as well.
However, that left the question about what to do about Fortune. After all, she still had a big target painted on her back. He could let the police take her over into custody but he knew that as long as Leob was in charge, handing her over to the NMPD was a big no-no.
When Nadia felt his gloved hand grasp at her shoulder, she spun to him with questioning eyes.
"We can't stay here." Batman said to her.
He released her and walked towards the Batmobile, where the canopy slid open obediently for its owner and driver.
"I think you better come with me for the time being." he added without looking back.
"We can't just leave!" Nadia protested. "What about- HMMMFFPP!?"
Suddenly Nadia found herself bound and gagged by bandages before being enclosed inside a zipped up black body bag.
Batman whirled around in alarm to see the body bag slung over the shoulder of someone he had never seen before. Her appearance certainly gave him pause; she was tall, big breasted with blue hair tied in a spiky ponytail and wearing what appeared to be a nurse's outfit along with a medical eye patch on her right eye.
"Don't mind me cutting in but I insist she comes with ME." Valentine smoothly stated.
"Let her go!" barked Batman.
"And leave behind such a valuable guinea pig? I don't think so."
The bag slung over her back shook with Nadia's muffled protests, evident that the feral didn't take too kindly to being called a pig, guinea or otherwise. Nadia tried to slash the bag from within but her arms were just too tightly bound.
Valentine ignored the struggle from her captured prey and kept her sight focused on the Cape Crusader in front of her.
"So you're the Batman the press has been raving about. How laughable that they actually think you're associated with the Skullgirl. Why, you're just a crazed man in a Halloween costume."
"And what are you supposed to be?" he asked in an almost deriding manner.
The tone wasn't lost on Valentine and within her mask, her lips curled sideways with a 'hmph'.
"Someone with a tight schedule on her hands but don't worry I'll fix an appointment for you at a later date."
As she spoke, her free hand slowly went over her large mounds and her finger dipped down into her cleavage. Batman remained unfazed by her actions, letting his cape curtain over his arms which were ready over his belt. But to his surprise, what she pulled out was a lollipop in a red wrapper.
"Here, have a lolly." she said as she threw it to him.
Batman caught it by the stick with barely any effort and then inspected the thing, only for the wrapped ball to suddenly explode in a thick plume of smoke.
The vigilante coughed and swatted the air around his face. This was all the distraction Valentine needed to run past him, jumping on and springing off the Batmobile's bonnet before escaping through the opening in the compound wall.
"Toodleloo." she called out as she ran.
With an annoyed growl, Batman broke into a run and chased after her.
The open area besides the main building was a dense obstacle course of undulating pipes connected to arrays of capsule shaped tanks and silos, alongside loading equipment like crates and cranes. Even with the occupied body bag on her back, Valentine wasn't slowed down by the environment in the least and was still ahead of him thanks to the head start she had but Batman soon managed to slowly gain up on her.
The Nurse-Kunoichi glanced behind her with her good eye to see the Dark Knight dogging at her heels. Then she looked ahead toward a large crate, mentally mapping out her course of action before executing it. She first jumped on the crate and then sprung off it, somersaulting once before landing on a horizontal metal cylinder being suspended by a crane.
From there, Valentine lashed out a long bandage upwards like a whip towards the neck of another nearby crane where it snagged on it thanks to the small metal hooks attached to the ends of the band. With it secured, she used it to swing herself at a considerable distance towards the another crane which was angled much lower.
Valentine let go and landed atop of the base of the crane's neck before running up its length. She didn't count on Batman following her thanks to his grappling gun. He landed at the same spot shortly after she did and continued to give chase, following her all the way to the end of the crane's neck.
Just as she kicked off from the edge, Valentine spun once in air and threw her arm in an arc to unleash three scalpels at her pursuer. Batman's eyes widened and immediately reacted by swerving to the side, grabbing the side of the crane to prevent him from falling.
With the wind billowing his cape, Batman pulled himself back up and rushed to the edge to see Valentine, in the middle of her free fall, throw something on the ground. This thing that was small and black, upon impacting the ground below, suddenly inflated into a large body bag which acted like an air cushion and allowed Valentine to plant her feet safely before then somersaulting off it and resuming her escape.
Batman's sharp eyes tapered but a small part of him admitted that he was quite impressed by the woman's skills. Nevertheless, he had no intention of letting her get away and kicked off the edge while spreading his cape into a glide.
Racing far ahead, Valentine was confident that she lost the Bat. That is until she noticed a shadow passing over her. She quickly skid to a halt in time to see him land in front of her and attempted to about face and run in the opposite direction, only for her to suddenly dodge to the side to avoid the Batarang hurled at her.
She would've scoffed at that split moment for him making such a ballsy attempt but she then realized that he hadn't been aiming at her but at the relief valve connected to the pipes that ran adjacent to her.
When the spinning projectile struck the valve, a gush of scalding vapor burst in front of her path and effectively cut off her escape route.
"Tch."
With no other alternative, Valentine bolted to the right through a different path which Batman soon followed after her. The two then found themselves running through a maze of shipping containers. Throughout the chase, Batman attempted to cut off her exit with his exploding Batarangs but everything he did, Valentine would veer off to a different path. However, uneasiness began to settle in Valentine's mind due to a distinct feeling that she was being corralled.
Her suspicions would prove to be correct when her feet stopped over the wooden surface of the boardwalk pier and found nothing but the ocean ahead.
"Damn." Valentine cursed.
"End of the line." Batman said behind her.
Seeing as there was no way out, the blue haired nurse's posture began to relax as slowly turned around with a smirk behind her mask.
"Look's like we'll be having that appointment sooner than I thought." she gave a short chuckle.
She unceremoniously dropped the black body bag from her shoulders behind her, causing poor Nadia to yell out muffled protests which Valentine continued to ignore.
"I admit I underestimated you, Batman." Valentine said as she armed herself with her trusty bone saw. "But I'm afraid your diagnosis isn't looking so good."
Her voice softened with mock sultriness as she readied her other hand with a syringe, squirting little of the unknown liquid out through the needle.
"Shall I break it to you gently? In my professional opinion, you have just about ninety-nine seconds to live."
At this point it was abundantly clear to Batman that any chance for the situation to resolve peacefully was thrown out the window and that the woman wasn't going to release Fortune without a fight. He then got into his own fighting stance; If it was a fight she wanted, he was more than ready to accommodate.
"And in my opinion, you need your medical license revoked." he fired back at her.
Valentine made the first move by dashing towards him, torso low to the ground, with her bone saw primed to deliver a horizontal slash. Batman knew that the pier wasn't wide enough to dodge out of the way so he vaulted over her attack into a forward roll. The Kunoichi-nurse skid as she turned before taking advantage of his back turned towards her by pouncing on him with her syringe ready.
From his crouched position, Batman quickly spun around and grabbed both her wrists as she knocked him on his back. The two fought and struggled until Batman used his thumb to slip into her hand and force the syringe out of her grasp. With that danger out of the way, he rolled and flipped her on her back, pinning her arms.
The nurse below him only smirked behind her mask.
"Mmmm~" she sensually hummed. "Someone's feisty."
Without warning, she suddenly locked her legs around his waist and surged her head up to butt him on his skull. Batman recoiled back and this allowed her to grab behind his shoulders and slide around him, so she was positioned at his back.
With her legs wrapped around his waist and having a lock on one of his arms at the shoulder, Valentine attempted to saw at his neck with the bone saw but Batman managed to grab her wrist with his free hand.
"Stop...struggling." she grunted, wrestling for control. "This will...only sting...a bit."
Valentine held on him so tightly that he could feel her large soft boobs partially sliding around the back of his neck. With his teeth grit, Batman forced himself up into a stand with her still trying to decapitate him. He was hunched as he stood but then suddenly threw himself back to slam her hard against the pier surface.
That did it and she released him with a gasp. Batman spun around to drive his fist down but Valentine rolled back out of the way into a crouch.
With the two fighters temporarily disengaged, Valentine reentered her fighting stance while Batman rotated his neck with audible popping sounds before putting his dukes back up. It was time for round two.
Valentine threw something at her feet which exploded in a large plume of smoke which dissipated and revealed her disappearance. Knowing this trick well, Batman immediately looked up to see her leaping towards him with her bone saw primed to slash down.
He deflected the attack by holding his gauntlets up, metal meeting metal with a loud clang.
Undeterred, Valentine kept the offensive with slash after slash but each one was expertly deflected until he caught her by surprise by grabbing on to the frame of the saw and locking the fins of his gauntlet in between the gap of the instrument.
This allowed him enough leverage to wrench the weapon out of her grasp by pulling his arm away while delivering a punch to her gut with his other arm. This made her stagger back with gasp and he tried to follow it up with a sweeping kick but Valentine recovered and ducked under it before deliver her own back kick.
As she did, the bandages around her calves came undone and the pink 'dead cross' shuriken, that was normally fixed on the side of knee, shot forward and spun like a yo-yo. Batman side-stepped the attack and spun to strike the side of her head with a backhand, causing her to momentarily stagger before she quickly recovered.
Valentine huffed in frustration and decided to switch up her approach. From her medical hip bag, she pulled out two long metal poles which she connected together in front of her to form a long staff. On one end, four claw-like prongs extended while on the other, two sharp prongs extended out like a tuning fork. In the middle said fork, a small blood bag unfurled itself.
The instrument looked like an IV stand and it kind of was: it was an IV Naginata, a memento from one of her fallen comrades, Patty.
She started off by charging with a quick thrust of her weapon. When he side-stepped from it, she spun around counterclockwise to strike at him from the side but he used his gauntlet to guard himself. She kept up the offensive, her attacks steadily increased in tempo that Batman was beginning to struggle from avoiding and blocking.
It was only after he dodged to the side to avoid her bringing the Naginata down in an overhead smash, that she finally found her opening.
Without changing her position, Valentine trust the "legs" of the IV stand in between Batman's legs and used it to hook his foot and pull it upwards, catching him by surprise. Just as he landed on his back, she quickly detached her weapon from its center and drove the ends of the two rods on to his wrists. Not to stab him, but to trap him by having the prongs slide past his arms and firmly embed themselves into the wooden planks underneath.
Batman grit his teeth and tried in to pull his arms free but it was in vain. Attempts to use the rest of his body was also for naught because by then, Valentine had already seated herself on his pelvis; straddling him.
The blue-haired nurse panted steadily in exhaustion before her sounds morphed into a humming chuckle. Her gloved hands on his chest slowly pulled back, dragging her fingers over the yellow oval bat emblem up to his abs as she reared her posture up in a domineering fashion.
"Not bad, you actually put up quite a fight." she sneered.
He paid her no mind and continued to pull at his arms. The weapons still held his wrists firmly but he could feel one of prongs begin to loosen; if he kept at it, he should be able to break free. Valentine found it amusing the way he struggled.
"So much tenacity. Do you really don't know when to give up? Or is there some secret behind your drive?... Where does a man keep that much willpower?"
As she said this, she trailed one hand to her medical hip bag until her expression morphed into an evil grin as she pulled out a scalpel.
"What do say we cut you open and find out?"
Valentine leaned and loomed over him, bringing the scalpel close to his face while he snarled at her in defiance. He continued to work his wrist from his bounds and could feel it loosen a bit more, he'd have to work harder to get his hand free in time.
But at that moment, something odd happened. Valentine suddenly froze in place and her sinister expression dropped, what was on her face instead was a look of puzzlement. Her free hand trailed up over his exposed face and she tentatively brushed her fingers over his cheek. Batman maintained his fierce visage but internally, the action did throw him for a bit of a loop.
She couldn't explain why but for some reason he...looked familiar to her.
Whatever moment there was had vanished because at that point, something struck Valentine against her head hard enough to knock her off his lap. That something was another head, Nadia's.
Apparently, the Feral had managed to bite her way out of her gag and then detached herself from her body to escape from the body bag. Seeing what Valentine was about to do prompted her to attack by rocketing towards her with blood gushing from the bottom of neck.
Unfortunately, she may have overdone the velocity as after she struck Valentine, her head bounced off the impact and found itself sailing over the pier towards the waters below.
"OH CRAP! I DIDN'T THINK THIS THROU-OOOooooo...!" Nadia's voice cartoonishly faded as she fell.
Batman's eyes widened in alarm and with one powerful tug, he managed dislodge the Naginata holding his wrist before pulling out the other one, pushing Valentine off him and scrambling towards the pier's edge.
He strained his sights at the bottom where the sea's waves crashed against the wooden pillars but as hard as he looked, there was no sign of her.
"What a pity." came Valentine's voice behind him.
He turned back to see that the nurse that already collected the body bag and was at the entrance of the pier.
"To lose such valuable data. But oh well, three-fourths of a specimen is better than nothing. Until next time, Batman."
With that, Valentine threw a lollipop to the ground which exploded and engulfed her in smoke. When it dissipated, she disappeared.
Batman wanted to give chase again but Fortune's life came first. However, there was a doubt if she actually survived the fall; the seas in these parts were pretty brutal. She should be buoyant enough to float to the surface but there was still no sign of her, which meant she was sinking. Dread gripped his entire being, this was the kind of failure he could never forgive himself for. He'd have to take chance, no matter how small it was, to save her life.
But just as he was about to dive in, his hearing picked up on something.
"hee-aerh."
He paused, first considering that it was maybe a trick of the wind until he heard it again.
"Hee-aerh! Obeh hee-aerh!"
He looked again, this time pivoting his sights underneath the pier and that's where he found her. She was desperately gripping on a long rope by her teeth, dangling from a loose coil that was wrapped around one of the pillar joints.
"Don' jush shtan deh! Hep me up!" she said through her mouthful.
Batman figured it was probably a long forgotten mooring line and that she was fortunate enough to find it on her way down. However, in an ironic twist, her fortune was about to run out. The age of the rope in question reared its ugly head as Nadia could see a section of the rope above her began to unravel and snap.
"Oh Cra-AAAAAAHHHH!" she screamed as the rope finally tore away.
She continued to scream, hurtling towards the sea below. The unforgiving waters rushed up to her when suddenly...and finally, she stopped.
Hanging by his grapple line over the waters, Batman held the Feral's head securely with one arm while his other hand held on his grapple gun.
"Can't stay out of trouble, can you?" he asked, expression unchanging.
Despite the dangerous situation she was just in, Nadia could help but chuckle sheepishly.
"Eh-hehehe. I guess not."
He pressed a button on his grapple gun which caused the line to retract and reel them up. As they slowly ascended Nadia began to speak.
"Sooo... I bet you're wondering about the whole disembodied head thing."
"You stole a gem from Lorenzo Medici that's capable of immortality and restoring the dead." Batman stated matter-of-factly.
"How'd you know?"
"As strange as it is, it's the only conclusion where all the facts makes sense."
Not much of tonight made sense for Nadia at the moment, nor did the comforting feeling she felt having her head held under the mysterious man's arm. But then again, she could hardly complain. It was only after him stepped back on the pier, when she spoke again.
"Now, where'd that creepy nurse lady go?"
Batman made a sound that was mix between a 'hmm' and grumble, he wasn't pleased that he let that woman get away but he figured that there was still a chance to pick her trail.
"Don't worry, we'll find her. She couldn't have gotten far." he assured her.
"Never mind her!" Nadia suddenly called out. "We need to save Jason!"
With his attention piqued, Batman held Nadia's head in front of him so they were at eye level.
"Do you mean that boy who was with you?" he asked.
"Yeah! Jason Todd. I think he was taken by that guy and his talking dummy. Overheard them saying something about going back to the old safe house."
He had little reason to doubt her. Although his encounter was with the Ventriloquist was brief, Batman was somewhat knowledgeable about Arnold Wesker's background or at least from what he had learned from the police files he 'borrowed'.
"That's worrisome." Batman said. "They're clearly holding him to get to you, particularly that gem. Am I right in assuming that it's currently with your body?"
Nadia grinned in embarrassment.
"Err...more like it's IN my body."
Batman didn't seem to react to her words but he instead mulled over the information. He was sure there was more to the story of Fortune and her young companion but that would have to wait for another time.
"That's also a problem." he said grimly.
"Why do you say that?" asked Nadia.
"That gem is probably what's keeping you alive. If the woman who stole your body were to excise it..."
He trailed off and Nadia's eyes widened, understanding the implication.
"I know. But Jason...he..." she spoke sincerely and pleaded him with her eyes. "He's the only family I have left."
This was a conundrum he didn't expect to find himself, he'd have to risk one of their lives to save the other. He wished he could find a way to safely secure them both but he was on his own and he had to make a decision. He could only pray that it was the right one.
"Alright." he sighed and nodded. "Jason comes first, then we'll get your body back."
Nadia let out a relived breath and smiled gratefully at him as was about to voice her gratefulness when suddenly the wind kicked up, billowing both her white hair and his cape.
The two of them slightly winced from the sudden bright light shone on them and they strained their vision towards the source and could make out a certain dark shape hovering above them, a shape evident from the tell-tale beating sounds of its rotor blades.
"BATMAN, THIS IS THE POLICE." the megaphone from the helicopter blared. "SURRENDER AND COME QUIETLY OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE."
"Oh you gotta be kitten me!" Nadia exclaimed with exasperation.
TBC
AN:
*What I was going for was a fusion between the BTAS Batmobile and the 1950s Batmobile from the comics.