Faith allowed herself to be lost in the euphoric feeling of swinging through the city. The wind rushing through her hair, she couldn't prevent herself from smiling.

'No one I tell is going to believe this…' she thought.

Before she realized it, they had stopped. Landing in one of the many back-alleys of Gotham City. Inside, was hidden the infamous Bat-mobile.

Faith whistled in awe at the impressive vehicle, "Now THAT is a set of wheels…" she said allowed. 'Probably makes Dominic's set look like a go-kart…'

With a push of a button, the hatch opened up. "Get in" Batman told her.

"Don't have to tell me twice!" she exclaimed, leaping into the passenger's seat with a puckish grin, like a toddler leaps onto the lap of a department store Santa.

Batman himself soon joined her in the drivers seat, but in a much less enthusiastic manner. The hatch slid shut and they zoomed off into the night.

Faith began to reach toward one of the many control panels, when Batman snapped, "Don't touch anything."

There was a pause before Faith spoke again, "Was I reaching for the ejection seat?"

"No"

"Then what was I reaching for?"

"If you had flipped that switch, it would have sent a powerful electric shock through your seat, enough to throw you out of the car if the door was opened."

"So is was the ejection seat."

"Not Technically"

*

Faith found herself immersed in legend and enjoying every second of it…for the second time in her life. She was buzzed, almost gitty. As she tried to absorb everything around her, Batman's hand moved toward her.

"Put this on" He ordered.

It was a blindfold.

"Gee, that secret identity stuff really does make you paranoid, doesn't it?" She smirked.

"Humor me."

"Ok, why not…won't be the first time a guy asked me to be blindfolded, thought for entirely different reasons I assure you" Faith grinned. Batman did not react, to her disappointment.

'Yes, I just tried to hit on Batman, And why not? He's ripped, and I bet he's pretty cute under that mask…' she told herself as she tightly put the blindfold on. 'Too bad he's too broody to react.  I really do wonder if he's met Angel…there both hot, broody guys who enjoy dark clothing, I'd bet they'd be great friends.'

*

"You can take off the blindfold now" She heard his deep voice and obeyed it. For the third time that night, she was awed. She slowly stepped out of the bat-mobile and took a quick look around the bat-cave.

She whistled, "Nice…now, we're the weapons?"

"What would you suggest?"

"Swords, Axes…something to slice odd the things head. Best way to kill a cockatrice."

"Wait here-"

"And don't touch anything? Figured" Faith resided herself to sitting down in front of the bat-computer as Batman made his way up a long flight of stairs.

She spun a little bit in the chair in order to stem her excess energy. She spun at such a rate that she did not hear the chair's supports slowly weaken. Well she did, but by then it was too late and the chair collapsed, sending her to the floor in an ungainly manner.

She winced as she hit the floor with a large 'thud'.  She groaned as she slowly rose into a seated position on the floor. When she opened her eyes. She saw Batman staring at her.

"Um…Oops…" Faith tried to grin.

Batman threw a pair sheathed small Japanese swords, twin wakazashi, at Faith's feet, "Will these suffice?"

"What about you?"

"I have my methods"

Faith grabbed the two-sheathed swords and put them on.

Batman walked over to her and handed something else to her. "Put these on as well"

Faith looked into her hands, it was a pair of contacts.

"They should nullify the effects of their eye beam" Batman told her, "but don't be to eager to test them"

"…Ok…Should I even ask how you got these, where they came from and what the hell they are?"

"No"

"Figured"

*

Faith and Batman re-entered the Bat-mobile and began their hunt for the cockatrice. Faith hoped that their hunt would be successful, for the city's sake.

After Faith had her blindfold removed, she looked around and something outside caught their eye.  Whatever it was, it was traveling parallel to them, and seemed to be closing in as well.

A demonic crowing sound echoed through the night as the cockatrice shot towards the bat-mobile, it's blade-like wings extended and severed the engine from the passengers in one fell swoop. The front end of the bat-mobile spun out and crashed into a building and promptly exploded, fitting in with a bad-movie cliché. The part containing Faith and Batman also spun out of control. It flipped end over end before coming to a stop.

The two heroes crawled from the twisted, burning wreckage. Their hearing was assaulted by the sound of an engine slowing down, before their eyes landed the cockatrice---on jets.

Its body was encased in metallic armor. Its wings replaced by curved, silvery blades (many of them, in a fan-like formation on each side of the body), patches of its body were covered in electronic components. This was beast was a cyborg.

It crowed again, this time its demonic voice whirled with electronics and gears.

"Well, that's not…good" Faith spoke, just before the cockatrice lunged toward them. Its metal body hit cement with a loud clang as Batman and Faith both dodged their attacker.

Shaking the cobwebs out of its head it turned again to face them, its eyes glowing red with power. A beam of power lanced from its eyes and, as Faith ducked, the ray gouged a hole in the brick wall behind her. Before the Cockatrice could ready a second beam, Faith lunged toward the monstrosity, both blades drawn and held before her. The Cockatrice leapt into the air, allowing Faith to sail underneath him, and crash into the earth, sending one of her swords fling off in a wild direction before landing in the earth. As the Cockatrice landed, its legs were tied together in Batman's bolo's and it fell to the each rather ungainly.

In a blur of black, Batman was on the crowing beast, with a blade to its throat. The creature bucked wildly as it attempted to dislodge the Dark knight.  Batman dug the knife deep into the Cockatrice's scaly flesh. Its crow became garbled with blood as it flipped Batman over its head.

Batman quickly rolled away as the creature's beak came crashing into the earth where he fell. He righted himself, only to see two ports open on either side of the cockatrice's body. Twin sub-machine guns revealed themselves. The wretched beast ginned wickedly.

Batman was just able to dodge as the bullets struck the walls and windows with bright green flashes. Batman ran as fast as he could to avoid the rounds.

As he ran, he detected the sound of steel slicing through flesh and bone. He turned to see Faith, blood-covered sword in hand, standing over the writhing body of the cockatrice. It jerked one final time and was still.

Both heroes were winded from the battle. Batman stalked over to the body and began to examine it.

Before an in-depth analysis could be made, the mechanical parts of the organism began to move again, a slot opened up and a hologram revealed itself.

"Very well done" it told the dark duo, "you defeated the cockatrice faster than I had anticipated. Very well done"

"Luthor…" Batman hissed.

"So, this is the real reason why you sent me here" Faith glowered at the hologram.

"Correct. This was a failed experiment in cybernetics. I'm glad you two were able to clean up this ANIT-S weapon." Luthor informed them.

"Anti-S?"

"Anti-Superman…this thing was loaded with Kryptonite." Stated Batman

"Artificial Kryptonite, but only a very small amount. No where near strong enough to kill, only to weaken-"

"And let the soul-suction do the rest…whatever, I don't care, what are you going to do with us? With me?" Faith shouted.

"Nothing"

"What?! But, you said-"

Luthor chuckled, "Please, I had no intention of turning you into the Council of Watchers. And why would I when you're so easily manipulated?"

Faith roared in anger and stomped on the body of the cockatrice, crushing it flat, and expelling organs and mechanical parts.

As the parts hit the air, an odd reaction took place and the body of the cockatrice and all of the mechanical components disintegrated.

Faith breathed heavily as she let the anger pass through her system. "Sometimes, I wish I would allow myself to kill…just once…just once…"

*

Luthor gained a mild pleasure from the consternation of his 'toys'. He needed to get rid of that particular mistake. Especially when there were other projects that could be jeopardized by that creature's existence…such as Project-E

Project Evangelion.

*

"Well" Faith sighed as she turned to the Dark Knight, "I guess I should be getting along now…caused enough trouble for you as it is…" 

"Here" Batman said, as he placed a small device in her hands.

"Let me guess, If I ever decide to drop by again, or need to contact you?"

"You catch on quick."

"No, I've just read to many comics…" Faith then asked "Can I keep the swords?"

Batman simply smiled "Sure"

She smiled in return. "I have the feeling this won't be the last time we do something like this…Well, bye"

As Faith turned to walk away, to experience her knewly realized freedom, Batman called to her. "Faith…"

She turned, hopefully "Yeah?"

"Try not to get in Etrigan's way"

"Bats…I'm the Slayer, I'm not Stupid." She chuckled and walked into the mists.

*

The End