Almost done with the story! I am terribly sorry for the horrific delays in-between posts. I am an awful poster! Anyhow, here we are with part 10 of 'No 'Ship Like Partnership' in which Tim and Cass get the chance to kick a little bad-guy bottom and learn that plans don't always go as one wants them too.

Enjoy!

Remember FB is a good thing ^_^

~*~

The duo found their way into the main electrical system without further incident which both were grateful for. Once inside of the room it was almost laughable how easy it was to find the main power switch. Clearly, Tim felt, these contractors had no imagination for sitting in front of them was a large switch label 'Main Power'. Without a word, Cass walked up and threw it. Instantly darkness fell and the entire warehouse was as black as a starless sky. The pair of crime fighters stood still for a moment allowing their eyes to adjust to the darkness. Granted they didn't have the night lenses they were use to, but they still knew how to fight and work in the darkness. Many hours training with blindfolds had perfected this, and also a few blind train rides, Tim thought with a mental smile and a silent thank you to Dick.

Cass was the first to move and although Tim could not see her, he followed the light sound of her footsteps as they made their way back towards the main room. The young man felt Cassandra stop moving and did the same; instantly he extended his hearing trying to find what had cause the girl to ask thus. Almost within his first second of listening he knew what had caught Cass' attention. There was a sound of muffled yelling along with the rumbling of feet running towards a destination. It was then that the same thought hit the two teens.

The doors that opened the entrance of the warehouse were electronic. Tim mentally scolded himself. He should have remembered how Amber had opened the door! Of all the stupid and important things to forget. Now there was no way for anyone to get out and, no doubt if the sounds reaching the two teens ears were any hint, everyone was panicking. Guards with guns panicking was never a good thing either. Tim looked in Cass' generally direction and spoke.

"I'm gonna run back and turned the power back on. You have about two minutes to take out some of Two-Face's goons. Once the power's back on it'll go insane so be ready."

Instead of uttering a word, Tim felt her give him a push back the direction they just came from as she ran to the center of all the craziness. He felt bad leaving her, but also knew she was much better suited to deal with Two-Face's men then he was. Besides, he reasoned and he ran, he'd be back by her side in a matter of minutes.

Cass moved in the dark in complete silence around all the teenagers who were running around aimlessly. She quickly sidestepped a young girl who nearly ran straight into Cass and released a sigh as she moved again to avoid a young man this time. Why couldn't everyone just shut up and sit down?! It would make her mission much easier. Yet even in the midst of frantically running kids, the young crime fighter gracefully moved around everyone until she made her way up the stairs towards the goons of Two-Face. Now she was in a place where the young drug dealers had no bother to venture since finding the way up the stairs was trying in pitch blackness. As she walked, Cass was mildly surprised to realize that none of Two-Face's men had tried to move down the stairs or had fired any shots. Either they were just as scared as the kids were or too mindless to do anything without their boss' consent. Cassandra hoped they were the latter cause that would make taking them down much easier for their 'fire first - think later' skills would be lacking.

She knew as soon as she reached the top for there was one of Two-Face's men standing although he had not sensed her presence. She could tell he was facing away from her by how he breathed and she also noted he seemed a bit tense for his breathing was short and quick. He certainly did not seem to like the turn of events Batgirl thought with a smile. Not really bothering with a real fight, Cass hit the back of his neck at a very convenient pressure point and the man went down.

Stepping over him, she moved along to the next man. Even though there was no light, Cass' eyes had adjusted enough that she was able to make out shapes amid the darkness. This, of course, meant that others could do the same and so the crime fighter used all of her stealth skills. Slowly, but effectively, Cass worked her way down the row of Two-Face's men who stood in the darkness too confused and scared to do anything. By time the lights came flooding back on, she had dealt with four goons and was close to the fifth one. However, with the new burst of light Cass no longer had the protection of shadow and the man she was just about to take down saw her and trained his gun directly on her. He fired without thought and Batgirl idly wondered what these men had against shooting in the darkness for they had no problem firing away in the light.

Moving with all her normal grace, the young girl took shelter behind a pillar as the goon continued to fire at her. Unfortunately, the calm that had spread over the bottom of the warehouse at the return of the light was shattered once again with this random firing. Everyone ran two directions. The brave made their way for the guns they left behind when the lights had cut out, the other moved to the exits. All the while Cass stood behind her pillar waiting for the man to stop firing at her for just one second.

Right as Tim broke into the main room again he was instantly in the battle. It was, as he had said to Cass, chaos. He heard the distinct sound of a single gun firing, but surveying the scene before him he noticed that all too soon this single shooter could have an entire room full of guns going off. On the floor of the warehouse stood twelve young teens with their guns aimed someone in the rafters where Two-Face's men were perched. These men, for their part, had their guns trained on the kids below. Both parties were tense, but luckily no one had fired yet. Tim only prayed that no one did decided to fire because it would be an all out blood bath.

Finally, the single gun that had been firing stopped and Tim caught his breath as the complete quiet settled in the warehouse. In this moment, the young man cut his eyes about the building searching for his partner. He found her behind a pillar while a man with a gun moved closer. Clearly, this man had been the one that was firing and Cass had also been his intended target. Watching carefully, Tim noticed she looked to be in control of things and so the young man looked back out to the scene in front of him trying to figure out how to get some resemble of control. Yet, everything was still hanging precariously by a thread as everyone had his or her guns trained on someone.

"No one move!" A loud voice commanded and Tim instantly recognized it as belonging to Two-Face

"Drop the guns!" he ordered and the kids, looking purely terrified, did what they were told without so much of a word. The young crime fighter turned slowly and looked up at Two-Face. The psycho looked down at him and smiled.

"Hey, sonny. You're the new one right?" Before Tim could answer he continued, "This was a pretty crazy evening. It normally isn't like this."

The young man only nodded mutely and wondered what on earth happened now. He didn't have to wonder long.

"Boss!" The man with the gun trained on the pillar Cass was behind spoke up. "I've got a live one."

Tim felt his heart sink knowing that the goon was talking about Cass.

The young girl hadn't moved from her spot once behind the pillar waiting for the right time to act and now she knew it had come. With a quick crack of her neck she sprung out from behind the pillar on flipping forward to land on her hands. A gunshot went off but missed as she got closer to the man using all the aerial ability she possessed. By the time another shot was fired, the man found himself face to face with the young girl's fist. He fell to the ground unconscious. However, her work wasn't done yet. Another hired thug had advance on her, firing aimlessly while she avoided the shots and moved closer.

All the while, the kids down below looked on in awe not knowing what to do. Two-Face was also watching as his remaining five men went to the girl. He felt his temper rise as his men slowly fell one by one at the hands of this young thing. He then realized something as he looked at the kid that was still standing before him.

It was her brother.

Tim could sense the movement and danger but not soon enough. The back of a gun caught him on his skull and he crashed to the ground half conscious. He felt himself being hulled up by Two-Face (the only person behind him) and then felt the barrel of a gun being jammed into the back of his neck.

"Stop or I'll kill your brother!"

Cass heard the warning in mid-tumble and landed in a crouch in the midst of her attackers. She spared a look in Two-Face and Tim's direction noting that her partner was being held by Two-Face with a gun to his neck. Instantly, Cass relaxed and held out her hands in a sign of surrender.

The men jumped her and since she did not fight, they were able to drag her down the stairs in mere seconds. Two-Face looked at the small girl with a smile.

"Nice to see you have a soft spot for your brother." He turned to his goons, "Bring them into the hall and deal with them. I don't need new punks messin' everything up for me."

The men grabbed the two teens and began to move them away. Two-Face looked back out at the crowd of left over Jackals. There was still work to be done and they were the ones who had to do it. And so he raised his gun at them. "Back to work." He ordered.

They all scrambled to a desk and started to work right away. Two-Face smiled and took a seat to watch his little minions work away.

Cassandra and Tim allowed the men to drag them away from the other Jackals although the young man was still a bit woozy from the hit he had taken earlier. As they were dragged back into the hallway, Cass began to think that perhaps this wasn't the worse of spots to be in and she felt pretty certain Tim would agree if he could think straight. Away from the eyes of the other kids they could easily take care of these goons without having to worry about what everyone saw.

The young girl looked over at her 'brother' hoping to catch his eye. She was concerned that she'd have to deal with these men by herself which she could do, but then she'd have to keep an eye out from Tim during the fight. However, the young man looked at her and gave a small wink. He actually had a pounding headache and the edges of his vision were slightly fuzzy, but it wasn't anything that he couldn't push aside and fight against. Besides, like Cass, he knew that this was a better opportunity to deal with Two-Face's men.

The five men pushed and dragged the teens to the dark hallway and then stooped suddenly. They shoved both of them forward and Tim felt the world spin slightly, but kept his balance and look at the men. Cass, next to him, also watched intently.

One of the burly men cocked a gun and aimed it at the pair. Before the man had a chance to pull the trigger Tim and Cass dove to different sides.

The young man hit the ground and rolled to his feet while working with his earring. He pulled it off and yelled in Cass' direction, "Black Canary!"

Then he broke off the back of the earring and put his hands over his ears. Although he blocked most of the piercing cry, he could still make out the muffled sound and waited until it stopped. Once it had, he moved out to look at the men and found that all were on the ground, victims of the patented Canary Cry. Tim looked over and saw Cass moving out from the shadows and he sighed thankful she had understood his warning.

The headache that he had felt from the clubbing of the gun, now had intensified due to the swift movements and high pitched sound that had reached his ears. He could feel the lump on the back of his head growing and his entire face and body was covered in a brown dust from his little tumble on the floor just now. He looked over to his partner and noticed she looked just as she had before they left the apartment save for a slightly more winded hairstyle. Tim held back the groan that he felt rising inside and stood next to her.

"We should move back to the main room and deal with the drugs."

Cassandra only nodded and began to move, but Tim reached out and grabbed her arm to stop her.

"We need a plan." He stated with no room for argument. "The kid's still have gun have guns and Two-Face is there."

The young girl stare at her partner with a look that clearly said 'I don't need a plan'.

Tim persisted though, "Look we can't just jump in the of the middle of everything without harming the kids or ourselves. Everyone's pretty stressed out and on-edge right now and seeing two kids that they had just thought were dead come back won't help the situation any."

Cass crossed her arms and the young man had a sudden flash back of just earlier this evening when they had argued about coming to the warehouse. Tim no longer doubted the fact that they had made the right choice. Josh's death from the drugs and Two-Face's persistence that they drugs get packaged, clearly spoke of foul play. But, that did not mean that he would risk everything with an unfinished plan or, worse yet, without one even.

"No more undercover." The young girl stated. "Stop this now."

Tim grabbed Cass' shoulder and looked her straight in the eyes. "Fine. We might no longer be Cat and Luke, but we sure aren't Robin and Batgirl. We need a plan, okay?"

The young girl looked hard and noticed Tim wasn't backing down. She smiled at his show of strength in this situation that had gone from bad to worse. "Okay." She agreed and saw Tim smile with relief.

Two-Face watched his kids pack and count his wonder drugs. This was one of, if not the best, idea he'd had in a long time. People in Gotham would fear his name and what he was capable of after tonight. When the bodies of kids began to show up dead in the streets from an apparent drug over dose, Two-Face would smile. Then we the police found more and more bodies and realized this was no a simple drug problem, Two-Face would come out into the light of day. He would tell the people of Gotham that this is what happened when he wanted it to. They would fear him! The Joker would be a thing of the past and they would respect him and the name Two-Face.

Two-Face was just about to move down to the floor and scare the kids into working faster when he felt the small projectile fly past he left ear. He turned to see what was thrown, but didn't have a chance to determine anything, because a large and blinding smoke puff filled the room. Two-Face heard the kids start to panic for the second time that night and felt his temper rise. Someone was messing with him and he didn't enjoy it.

It was time for the game to end.

Barely a minute after the smoke had fallen in the warehouse he took his gun and fired into the crowd of kids just in front of him. There was no screaming to be heard and Two-Face smiled broadly at what this meant. The smoke had slowly began to dissipate and Two-Face looked out to the floor.

There were no signs of any bodies. No kids anywhere. Two-Face felt his face turn red; he should have gotten one or two of them with his firing. The man looked around and saw that the crates of drugs had a few holes in the and there was a few places on the ground were powder, obviously upset in the commotion, had finally settled. Still, there was no sign of the kids.

Two-Face moved down the few steps in front of him and looked around the warehouse for any signs of life. He raised his gun and carefully stepped forward.

There was a sound of something hitting the floor to his left and Two-Face turned completely brining his gun with him. He saw nothing. With a frustrated groan, he turned forward again.

In front of him, however, there stood a young girl and boy both of the same age. He instantly recognized them as the two that had caused problems before. How they had gotten away from his men didn't even cross his mind for a blind rage had taken place of any sane though.

"You two are dead." He suddenly felt as if these two were the cause of all his problem this evening. It was suppose to be just a night like any other; the kids would sort and package the drugs for tomorrow and all would be well. Everything would have been find, he knew, if not for these two brats.

"You two have cause me too much hassle." Two-Face raised his gun. "Say goodnight."

Tim stepped slightly forward with a small smirk. "You might want to put down the gun."

Two-Face shook his head, "Smart ass." He tightened his finger on the trigger.

Then, faster than a bullet, Cass moved and swung her feet at Two-Face's knees. At the same time, Tim kicked up and out at the gun being aimed at him. The gun flew out of the man's hands and clattered to the ground harmlessly, Two-Face landed with a solid smack on the pavement. Cassandra was on top of him in a second and one well placed punch knocked him out.

The young man went back and retrieved the gun while removing the clip and throwing it off to the side. He smiled at his partner and looked down at Two-Face.

"Nice work." She smiled back.

The pair quickly found some rope that had previously tied the crates of drugs together and bound Two-Face. Once that was completed, they walked around the room and gathered the already package drugs, throwing them in boxes. They then went into the far corner of the room where they were the remaining Jackals huddled together. Their plan had been a risky one, but it had paid off. While Tim had thrown the small smoke bomb into the crowd of teens, Cass was waiting down on the floor. The smoke bomb had been filled with knockout gas (this was an assumption that Tim had made and it had paid off). Cass had been waiting down in the shadows and was ready to either knock the teens out if the smoke did not or move the bodies out of the center of the room. By the time Two-Face had started to fire into the smoke, the kids were all on the ground unconscious and out of harm's way from the projectiles since Two-Face fired at waist and head level. Tim had then joined Cass and they moved the dead weights to the corner as the smoke was hanging in the air. Once the smoke had dissipated there was no signs of the kids anywhere and the two crime fighters where already hidden in the shadows.

After all this, Tim still felt his head swimming, but also felt relived. Somehow, after all that had gone wrong they had succeed. They had stopped the drugs and, with Two-Face heading off to Arkham, they probably had put an end to the Jackals. Not to mentioned there was a pile of ten bound drug dealers still in the shadows.

Cass looked at him and smiled. "Good work?" She asked.

Tim nodded and said, "Good work."

The young girl looked down at her wrist and the bracelet that rested there. With a sigh she opened the clasp knowing that Batman and perhaps Nightwing would soon be on their way to the warehouse. What would greet them would be quite the site and she couldn't wait to see their faces.

TBF(inished) in epilogue.