Batman: Dark Side 2 – Dark Prince
Chapter 6: Dark Rescue
Prince Xizor's Castle, Imperial Center…The Batman regarded his two allies as they checked themselves over and ensured that their equipment had made the trip to the top of the castle. It was only through the efforts of the Huntress, who was becoming very adept at using her female attributes to her advantage, that they had been able to secure the services of a transport. The driver, a scruffy human with one cybernetic eye, had regarded her with extreme lust and the Batman was actually proud that she had not killed the man for his thoughts.
"What's the plan, Bats?" Arsenal asked. The Batman considered using some sort of cryptic tone to put the younger hero back in line, but considered it useless at the moment. Roy Harper had been raised by Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow, the world's biggest smart-mouth.
"Huntress, scout the perimeter to ensure we didn't set off any alarms; Arsenal, verify any and all exits so that we don't have anyone sneak up on us. I'm going to try something," he said, pulling a small transmitter out of his utility belt.
The other two heroes said nothing, but instead moved to carry out the orders of their leader. Each was, in their own way, a professional and now was not the time for arguments. They had all agreed to obey the Batman for this particular mission and they were nearing the climax. Somewhere in this massive structure, looking like something out of a science-fiction movie, was Richard Grayson, the hero called Nightwing and the Batman's adoptive son.
Arsenal was doing his best to hide his concern for his friend, for he and Grayson had known each other for well over a decade and he knew that there was no question he would give his life for the Batman's former partner. After all, how many times in the past had the dark-haired hero put himself in the path of danger for Arsenal?
The Huntress, however, had different thoughts as she checked different lights and panels. She and Nightwing had been lovers at one time, feeding off their mutual need for companionship. Their particular style of life, putting on costumes and jumping into a fight, did not leave much time for a social life and so romantic encounters, especially those that were passionate and satisfying were always a welcome distraction. Though they were no longer involved, there was a warm spot in her heart for him and besides she thought, there may always be a next time.
The Batman adjusted his transmitter and looked up at the sky. He just noticed that there were no vehicles passing overhead. Boba Fett had claimed that the owner of this building, a man named Xizor, was very powerful, perhaps as powerful as the Emperor. The Batman knew about the Emperor and the size of his empire and realized that this was not some common kidnapper he was dealing with. Arsenal and the Huntress had looked into Boba Fett and likened him to Deathstroke the Terminator from their world. Fett was a high-priced hireling that only worked for those he considered worthy of his services.
They would have to be very quick and so the Batman took the transmitter and began moving in a circle. It was set to the frequency of Nightwing's Titans communicator. Just as he thought he was getting a signal, something moved through his line of sight. Batman whirled and pulled out his batarang, only to see that Arsenal had beaten him to the punch. Flinging a loose piece of roofing, Arsenal smashed the flying probe that had been watching them. Before the unit could strike the roof, it self-destructed in a muffled explosion.
The Huntress ran up, cursing. "I think I set off one of the alarms." Both Batman and Arsenal gave her a sharp look. "What? I'm a lover, not a damn electronics expert. You want that, you should have brought Booster Gold!"
"Might be nice to see how you like spending all of your free time with Blue Beetle," Arsenal said with a wry smile.
"Better a night with him than a moment with you," she replied, sticking her tongue out.
"Enough," Batman said, switching his cowl lenses to infrared. He saw a hidden hatch on the roof, indicating that bodies were collecting underneath it. "We're about to have company. First chance you get, break away and find Nightwing. Once you have him, radio on the private frequency and we'll meet back up here."
"Then what?" Arsenal asked, unfolding his composite bow and notching an arrow.
"Then Blue Beetle and Booster Gold better damn well be here!" Huntress yelled as the hidden door opened and crimson armored troops poured out.
Arsenal let fly with a series of red-shafted arrows, hitting drawn weapons in their muzzles and rendering them useless. Many of the troopers appeared astonished, despite being masked to cover their faces, and a few of the more foolish ones tried to fire their weapons only to have them explode in their hands.
Two of the attackers, armed with glowing batons, went after the Huntress, who obliged one of them with a roundhouse kick to the side of the face. The helmet cracked and the trooper spun from the force and fell back. The other one managed to get a strike in on her and she felt her left arm go numb immediately. She backhanded her adversary and stepped back.
Batman saw what was happening to the Huntress and jumped over a trooper that was barreling at him headfirst. The trooper passed underneath him and slammed into an antenna. Another took a shot at the moving Batman, but only singed cape before Arsenal punched him in the stomach and then broke his bow over the trooper's head. Seeing that Batman had things well in hand, Arsenal pulled out several small throwing knives and headed to the open secret door.
With a battle cry, he jumped leg-first into the hole, landing on top of a couple of rearguard troops. His sudden appearance caught them off guard and he dispatched them with ease. He looked down at their rifles, lying unattended and inviting, but shook his head. The Batman was completely against guns, and while Arsenal was the best shot out of all of them, it wasn't worth suffering the wraith of the Dark Knight. He started to move off a dimly lit passageway when he was stopped by a feminine voice.
Turning slowly, he saw a blonde-haired woman step out of another secret door into the passage. Though he couldn't make out her exact features, her silhouette made him drool. "Hey, honey," he called. "This is no place for a pretty girl like you."
Guri said nothing but stomped towards Arsenal. Inside her android brain, she was recording his features for future reference as she analyzed his death to verify her efficiency rating. He was smiling as she approached, a typical male human response she noted. She reached out for his throat and he made some attempt to block her, but his weak human muscles were not match for her servomotors.
He gasped as she made contact and squeezed. He punched her in the face and cried out in pain as he bruised his fist against her synthetic skin and bone. So far, he was reacting in a manner consistent with 79% of her assassinations by strangulation. That changed some 1.87 seconds later when a smile began to creep over his reddening face.
Guri's defensive protocols immediately overrode her offensive programs as her logic circuits determined that there could only be two reasons for the apparent happiness on Arsenal's face. The first was that he was welcoming his approaching death with a cheery attitude, which simply didn't make sense when dealing with human, unless they were insane. This person did not appear to be completely out of their mind. Instead, she had found more often than not that it meant that he had seen something that indicated to him that his rescue was imminent.
Dropping a wheezing Arsenal to the passage floor, Guri turned around in time to have a crossbow bolt wedge itself into her toughened outer skin. The crossbow bolt managed to find a structural defect in her shoulder. Maintenance logs were immediately updated as she realized she had actually been wounded. Small pumps began to leak synthetic blood as part of the human disguise.
Guri regarded the human female standing before her in the black and purple outfit. By any standard, the garb was ridiculous; she looked like an actor playing a bounty hunter. "You just made a serious mistake, woman," Guri said, clenching her fist.
"Bitch," the Huntress said, barely avoiding a right cross. She countered with a backhand karate chop to Guri's neck, but it had no effect. The Huntress pulled her hand back, feeling as if she had hit steel.
Arsenal, recovered sufficiently enough to move, jumped up and landed on Guri's back. "It's like fighting Wonder Woman!" he cried to the Huntress. The other hero responded by firing another crossbow bolt into Guri posterior. It bounced away doing no damage. "Buns of steel!" Arsenal cried as Guri tried to reach up and dislodge him.
The Huntress kicked out, aiming for Guri's pelvis and there was a definite crack as she did so. Guri realized that the reinforced boots the other woman was wearing had somehow managed to damage her feminine stimulation gears and she snarled. Her logic circuits told her that her master would be very upset when he would have to pay to have them replaced. It would require massive payoffs to keep Guri's non-living status a secret and there was no way she be allowed to continue to operate without that function ability.
Emotion simulation programs altered her skin color in an effort to better convey her rage towards the insignificant humans. "You will both die slowly!" she promised.
"Hopefully from old age!" Arsenal managed to jibe just prior to being slammed back into a plasteel wall. "Helena! Do something!"
The Huntress limped on her sore foot, the ankle already swelling from her last attack. Guri reached out and put a vise-like grip on the Huntress' shoulder and squeezed. There was another popping sound and she went down to her knees. Guri shrugged and pushed the Huntress to the floor.
Arsenal jabbed a finger in Guri's eye and was rewarded with a small electric shock, just before she smashed him again into the wall. He felt the wall begin to give away and he was certainly thankful that his costume was padded. Guri brought a foot up and then down on the Huntress's back and Arsenal was afraid that it was a deathblow.
Snarling, the Huntress rolled away before the android could strike again. Wincing in pain, the Huntress tried a leg sweep but found that Guri weighed far more than what she looked. "It's like trying to trip a bull moose!" she gasped.
"No kidding, babe," Arsenal said, slapping both of Guri's ears. There was no effect and he slid down to stand on his own two feet again. Guri elbowed him in the stomach and he head-butted her between the shoulder blades. "Damn!" he said as he split his forehead open. He moved to avoid the next elbow and let it hit the plasteel wall, which split. Arsenal felt a slight breeze blow through and he figured that whatever was behind the wall had to be better than having a long-legged blonde beat the hell out of him.
Guri stepped forward and turned in order to face Arsenal. Statistics ran through her main processor as she realized that the longer she delayed in killing these two, the more likely it was that they were going to get away. There was no fear for her own destruction, as she had no emotion simulators for true fear and the odds of two humans with archaic weapons doing her any serious damage were minute.
Arsenal gave her a left hook in the nose, a spot where it was actually a synthetic polymer and was not of the same strength as the rest of her face. Though it didn't break, it did bend and automatic subroutines, programs that had not been initiated since her activation, caused her to jerk back in simulated pain. She even began to leak tears as small water pumps in her eyes were turned on.
The Huntress took advantage of Guri's confusion and kicked her in the kidneys, while also wrapping a loop of nylon line around her leg. Arsenal tried a heart punch as Guri stumbled forward and was rewarded with a sock to the jaw that sent him through the tear in the wall.
Arsenal found himself tumbling down a ventilation shaft headfirst in complete darkness. His head bounced off the bottom of the shaft and immediately it seemed as if the darkness swallowed him.
Prince Xizor studied the holoprojection being fed to him in real time by a hidden probe on the roof of his castle. The Batman, this Dark Knight that had bested the Emperor's apprentice Darth Maul, impressed him. Or at least held his own against him.
The rooftop was a scene of total chaos as the Batman easily dispatched Xizor's rapid response troopers. Of course, because of their flawed performance against an unarmed opponent, they would all die, but at least they had provided Xizor with some entertainment.
On another monitor, he cast a cold reptilian glance at footage of organized movement as Imperial stormtroopers moved out to surround the shuttle that had just brought Darth Vader to Xizor's residence. The dark lord was investigating the appearance of a ship inside the Imperial starfighter proving grounds; a ship that was in the employ of Prince Xizor. Of course, the dark lord only suspected that Xizor was even remotely involved.
There would be no way to tie Xizor to the ship because the ship was currently buried deep in the bowels of the city-world, hidden until such time as he would have need of it again. Lord Vader's sudden arrival was not totally unexpected; his current zeal for pursuing the rebels responsible for the destruction of the Death Star had taken him all over the galaxy. Xizor remembered a human saying about leaving no asteroid unsearched.
He saw Vader turn his head upwards towards the rooftop. The dark lord must have sensed the violence going on above him because he immediately began pointing and issuing orders to the assembled stormtroopers.
Under Imperial law, this castle was essentially a place of diplomatic treaty, where Lord Vader, technically, had no authority. That, however, was only in word and not deed. Despite his hatred for the Sith and his overwhelming desire to destroy him now, Xizor was shrewd enough to know now was not the time to strike. Like a predator, he would lull Vader into a false sense of security before he struck home the killing blow.
And before he could strike, he would need the blessing of the Emperor, or at least his assurance he would not interfere. Calmly, he reached over and tapped a button on his desktop communication unit. Immediately there was a response. "Yes, my lord."
"There may be a problem with the local authorities. Have the samples delivered immediately to the Emperor with my compliments and kill the prisoner."
There was a slight pause. "My lord, the prisoner has escaped."
Xizor's tone took on a darker shade of green. "Let me speak to Guri."
"Sire, she's not here." There was definite fear in the man's voice.
Xizor pulled in a cooling breath of air through his nostrils. "Send the samples anyway, or are they missing as well?" He put a sinister edge to his voice, indicating that a negative response would have fateful consequences.
The man on the other end of the communication stated that he indeed did have possession of the samples and that they would be given to an official Falleen courier to take to the Imperial Palace within minutes. The man signed off and Xizor turned again to the hologram.
The Batman had pulled out the small electronic device again and the prince glanced over at the security panel. There was an increase in simple radio waves being emitted from the rooftop. Xizor found that odd since radio waves were traditionally only used on the most backwater of worlds. His mind raced as he went through a list of items a small radio-wave transmitter could be used for.
He pressed the button again. Without waiting for an acknowledgement he spoke. "There is a radio transmitter on the escaped prisoner, probably in his uniform, undoubtedly something that we did not find on our initial search or thought it was something else. Send a command to the battle druids to home in on any such transmissions." He cut the transmission off and stepped away to look out the large window of his office. Lord Vader was entering the military shuttle and Xizor knew where it was he was heading.
Moving with dignified grace over to his well-stocked bar, he poured himself a drink of Alderaanian gin, part of the last shipment to ever leave the doomed planet. On top of the bar was another communication module and he pressed a blue stud. "Guri?"
There was no immediate response and that caused the Falleen some concern.
Guri watched helplessly as the male escaped her grasp for now. Even as she turned to face the little human witch that was become increasingly annoying, a floor plan of the castle came up and she traced all of the possible locations that the male could come out. The most likely scenario was that he would take the first exit he could, unless he was unable, at which point he was dead for he would fall straight down into the huge ventilation fans.
The woman stood there, smiling, flicking her head so that her dark hair would not get in her way. In her hand, she held a primitive missile weapon. "You really don't think that something as simple as that is going to hurt me, do you?" Guri asked.
The woman smiled and spoke in accented Basic. "Explosive tip."
Before Guri could reply, the woman pulled the trigger. The android leapt out of the way, narrowly missing getting struck. In that time, the other woman had run and jumped into the hole, following the same path as her companion. Trying to fathom the logic of such a move, Guri was moderately surprised when she saw the simple arrow-like projectile sticking in the ruined plasteel bulkhead. It had been a ruse and Guri had fallen for it.
The only sign of her frustration was the slight clenching of her jaw as she moved off for the nearest turbolift.
Nightwing ducked and spun on one foot while making a sweeping motion with his other leg. The move caught two of the gangly robots and caused them to crash down hard. They were coming out of the woodwork, except, he noted as he dodged another laser blast, there didn't seem to be a whole lot of wood around here. Having gained a few seconds of respite, he glanced over at his companion, the young and beautiful redheaded girl.
Her laser sword slashed through the robots like a hot knife through butter, and molten metal slagged onto the floor, burning the strange carpet. The smell was like nothing Nightwing had ever smelled before, almost as if the material was made from recycled flesh. "How's it going?" he asked her as the last robot fell.
Again, he could tell she didn't understand a word he said, but she apparently got the meaning from his tone. She nodded once and extinguished the blade. The weapon itself was impressive, as were her moves, especially given her apparent age. There was a slight problem with her technique, though. To him, it seemed forced, as if she would rather have another weapon instead. Then he remembered her pistol.
Whatever this world was, he immediately decided he didn't like it. Too much killing or desire to kill. "We need to get out of here," he said, speaking slowly and loudly. He almost smacked himself for his own stupidity. It wasn't that she was deaf or that he spoke too fast or softly. They simply did not speak the same language.
She said something and pointed at his crotch, and he shook his head, indicating his non-desire. At least that gesture seemed to be universal. She looked frustrated and marched over and reached down. He started to back away when she grabbed at his belt buckle and pulled. He was about to verbally protest when she held a small transmitter. It was his Titans communicator and the call signal was flashing.
She began pointing at it and angrily explaining something to him when another door opened and three more of the robots stepped out into the passageway and immediately headed towards them. The one in the center said something that Nightwing did not understand, but the weapon it pointed at them had a clear enough meaning.
To the young hero from Earth, it seemed all was lost until it seemed the All-Mighty dropped salvation before him. From above, a ventilation hatch literally exploded and the familiar form of Roy Harper, Arsenal, came tumbling down between Nightwing and his rescuer and the robots.
However, he noticed that Roy was not moving and he feared the worst. He started to move towards his fallen friend when the middle robot, obviously the leader, shouted something. Nightwing stopped just as the Huntress came shooting through the ventilation duct and landed with cat-like grace.
The robots were momentarily disoriented as they tried to situate on the targets. The red-haired girl once again ignited her laser sword and attacked two of the robots head on, while the Huntress kicked a weapon out of the third one's grasp. Nightwing took advantage of the situation to attend to his friend. "C'mon, Roy, this isn't funny!"
Slowly, Arsenal opened his eyes to see his friend's face staring down at him. Then came the Huntress and finally a young woman he did not recognize. "Hey, hey, wassup, red?" he said, giving his best woman-killer grin.
"He's okay," Nightwing said as helped his friend up. He noted that the robots were all deactivated by dismemberment.
The Huntress nodded and spoke to the red-haired girl. Nightwing's jaw dropped and Roy looked at him. "It's a long story, buddy," he began as the girl started to talk. "She says that you gibber-jabber like a hyperactive Jawa. You also need to quit staring at her."
"Tell her I appreciate her help, but she needs to get out of here. This is no place for a young girl like her."
The Huntress smiled and replayed Nightwing's message. The girl got a disgusted look on her face and walked over to Nightwing and proceeded to kick him in the groin.
"You tell this son of a Hutt that the Emperor's Hand does not take orders from the likes of him, bounty hunter scum!" Mara Jade said. She almost spit on the handsome man. It was one thing to be attracted to him, it was quite another to take orders from him.
"That attitude runs in his family," the Huntress offered. "My name is Helena."
"You can call me Talana. Now, my mission is to get him out of here and deliver him safely to my master." Mara locked her lightsaber back on her belt and put her hands on her hips. "And tell him to turn off that radio transmitter; it's attracting the Battle Droids!"
"She says that Titans communicator is attracting the bad guys," the Huntress said after a brief pause, she continued. "Oh, and you are officially her prisoner."
"How come there are no babes wanting to take me hostage? I'm cute, right?" Arsenal asked, putting a pitiful tone in his voice.
"Like a pot-bellied pig."
Nightwing ignored their banter and looked at Mara. "Tell her I'm not going with her. She'll have to kill me."
Roy translated this time and Mara simply shrugged. If they wanted to do it the hard way, then so be it. There was no requirement that the other two live, and she was sure that despite the dark-haired man's obvious fighting skill, he was no match for her Force ability.
Mara struck first with a backhanded slap to the Huntress. It lacked the power of the Force, so exhausted she had become. She was about to strike out at the red-haired man when the Huntress clubbed her on the back of the head. The strike was not enough to knock her out, but she was stunned and disoriented.
Mara examined her situation and decided that the best course of action was to run. The legions of Battle Droids that she had to take down in her battle to get out of the castle had taxed her reserves. Humiliation burned in her as she realized that she had failed her master. Summoning the last vestiges of the Force to her, she leapt up into the open ventilation duct and was gone.
"You certainly have an effect on women, Dick," Arsenal said, amazed as the leap the young woman had made. Nightwing quickly relayed the events that had brought him to this point and Arsenal rubbed his chin whiskers. "Sounds to me like this Emperor dude wants you pretty bad; probably because he thinks you're the Batman's apprentice."
Nightwing started them moving down the corridor, double-checking to make sure he had turned off his communicator. "In case you forgot, Speedy," he said, referring to the name Arsenal used as a youth, "I am the Batman's apprentice."
"No, dummy, they think you're some kind of warrior knight," the Huntress added as they approached a door. There appeared to be no way to open it until they stepped closer and it opened on its own. There was nothing in the passage ahead. "This entire culture revolves around some sort of perverted religion, good versus evil and all of that. Darth Maul represented the evil and Batman represented the good."
Arsenal snickered and Nightwing hushed him quickly with a gesture. He reached up and manually locked his infrared lenses in place in his mask. "Looks like a laser grid. I think I see the master controls across the room."
Arsenal nodded and pulled out a collapsible bow and arrow set. As he put it together, the Huntress continued the narrative. "Time seems to have passed a bit more quickly here than back home. It's been a few decades since Darth Maul was around, and his boss apparently runs the galaxy. According to the guy who kidnapped you, you're being used as a pawn in a giant game of political chess. Whoever turns you over first gets the attaboy."
"I don't know; I think that Talana wanted me for some other reason. I've been kept locked up for a long time," Nightwing replied as Arsenal launched an arrow across the room. There were sparks and a sputter and the laser grid went down. "I'm willing to bet the green guy who was studying me hasn't told anyone about me."
"Makes sense," Arsenal said as they hurried across the room to the next door. "That way he can keep raising the ante." The door opened and they were welcomed with a breeze. "Smell that fresh air!"
Nightwing wrinkled his nose. "Smells like the rear end of the Batmobile on a bad day!" Cautiously, they moved out to find themselves in an open hanger bay. There were several futuristic fighters sitting around, but nobody doing maintenance. Nightwing was about to say something when a large craft descended from above and settled in the bay.
The door behind them suddenly shut and Huntress cursed as she looked down to see some sort of keypad. "We're locked in here!"
The ship came to a complete halt and a ramp came down. Several white-armored men came running out, all armed to the teeth. "Is there anyone around here that doesn't carry a weapon?" Nightwing asked as they approached.
From behind the armored men, who took up positions several yards away from the trio, came the sound of heavy breathing. A tall, black armored man slowly descended the ramp and approached. This figure radiated a blackness that threatened to overwhelm them, and Arsenal had to reach over and grab the Huntress's hand. Her teeth were chattering.
The figure slowly approached them, a dark cape billowing behind him. Nightwing noted the hilt of a laser sword clipped to his belt and several lights blinking on and off on the man's chest. It was his breathing, though, amplified by the large space of the hanger that was most frightening. For a moment, Nightwing imagined the horror and terror young women must feel when they get an obscene phone call, as some pervert gets his jollies on the other end of the line.
The figure regarded them and pointed at Nightwing. He said something, his voice cold and metallic, deep as the caverns of hell itself. "He wants you, man," Roy whispered.
Nightwing nodded and stood up straight. Perhaps if he went with this person, his friends would be spared. There was no way to get around the crack troops in front of them. These were not mindless robots, but men who could react and plan and seemed very professional. "Tell him…"
"Tell him that he better back away slowly," the Batman said as he emerged from the shadows.
Darth Vader turned to face the Dark Knight and behind the black breathing mask, he smiled.