Ch. 2 Batman versus Vega: Dance for Vengeance, waltz for death.
Batman leaves the hospital to work on his partner and his ex-partner. The death of Mr. North was a decoy and he could not see it, could not be there in time to save them. He steps up to the bat mobile and gets in to start the engine. He starts the engine and heads off into the night, his destination the scene of the crime.
He arrives and gets out shutting the engine off and locking it. He then steps up to the crater in the sidewalk where he had found Nightwing. He then traced the path up and follows it with his grappler to the roof. The rain has slowed to a sprinkle but it had already done its damage, on a dryer night he might could see more evidence, blood and such. He walks over to the edge and inspects the side, it seems someone must have grabbed onto it with a desperate strong grip…Nightwing must have pulled himself up. He looks down and sees the windowsill edge on the second floor where the edge of it has a place that is slightly broken, a second fall and then came the attack that caused the crater. He repels back to the sidewalk and notices a place where a puddle had been disturbed slightly, the dirt already settled but still clear to the trained eye. He then mentally measures the distance of the spot to the crater…roughly twenty-twenty one or two feet. And then came the leap to kill but then right above the crater the window was shattered where Batgirl had hit the attacker. He steps inside and the first think he notices is a lot of blood…where he had found her, her torso having been stabbed and also the bloody broken glass that had cut her. He looks up and sees where the attacker must have landed and then leapt to stab.
He straightens up and sighs…it had taken him only less than forty-five seconds to get there. More than enough time for the attacker to get away. It took another few minutes to get to the hospital to see Barbara and Dick taken in and then now he is hearing the sirens finally. He heads to the batmobile, opens it and steps in and then he contacts Alfred to tell him the story.
"Master Bruce, what's the story?" pipes in Alfred from the cave.
"Dick and Barbara are at the hospital, in critical condition." Replies Bruce.
"What happened sir?"
"They were attacked by someone, I was drawn away with a decoy kill, Jon North."
"That martial artist? I saw him on tv he really was quite good for all the showboating. How was he killed?"
"By the same attacker that attacked Dick and Barbara, apparently an extremely skilled fighter."
"Anyone we know?"
"No, Ive never seen this kind of skill beyond very few. No this guy is new…he could jump over twenty feet from a crouched position and from a rough estimate it only took him less than twenty-five seconds to beat them and he only left because he knew I was coming."
"They must have been taken by surprise, in a fair fight they'd have put up a much better fight they are both considerably better than Mr. North, especially nightwing."
"Fair has no place in a street-fight like this Alfred, and this was more like ninja work…the attacker must have been an assassin but why would he go after them…if not…Alfred he must still be around, I'm his target, they were the bait. Im going after them!"
"Please be careful Master Bruce" Alfred signs out.
Batman gets out of the car and uses his night vision binoculars to scan the area and then a flash of metal in a window of a five-story warehouse across the street. He is there in three seconds. The third floor is without walls but it's supporting columns of steel are still there at ever ten feet throughout the entire floor, each beam was three feet in diameter, the ceiling ten feet high. Perfect for an ambush. He puts on his night vision goggles and scans the area.
SLASH!! Three foot-long claws slash through the goggles straps and Batman blocks an uppercut but he misses an accompanied knee, the uppercut was a decoy and the first hit belongs to the attacker. Batman retaliates with a left jab and a right hook followed by a side-kick, however the attacker nimbly dodges the punches and leaps the kick for a kick of his own finding that Batman is ready for him rushing in and dodging the kick. Batman finds his mark with a punch to the attacker's solar plexus and a kick that knocks him backwards into a support beam. However the attacker unexpectedly twists in mid-air planting both feet into the beam and shooting off claws extended. Batman dodges to the right but is too slow as his left shoulder is slashed.
He clenches his teeth at the pain but is ready for the fight again in time to catch a right punch in the face, a left slash to the chest and then a vertical kick that rocks Batman from his feet and into a back flip to land on his feet. He looks for the attacker but he is gone…and then he realizes and looks up just in time to save his head, but not in time to save his backside which takes a triple marked three-foot slash from the back of his neck to the small. He again resists the urge to cry out in pain and jumps back and again is on the defensive, he needs to cause some damage. He does a backflip to avoid a kick and comes in fast with a right punch to the attacker's face, again the right to the chest and then the left to the face again and then a kick pinning the attacker to a support beam with his foot and holding him there with all his strength.
It is now that their eyes meet…Batman notices his attacker's mask, his evil glare, the dark stare of a snake eyeing it's prey. "Who are you?!" growls he growls at the masked man and the man replies only with his claws which despite the fact that Batman was ready for it was still too fast to dodge and the claws dive into his right calf. Batman jumps back and in one motion dives back in quickly with a left kick which hits the beam only while the attacker twists and dives his claw in at the knee. Batman this time cries out as his left leg is cut open and he falls back to endure a punch to the face, and a knee in the face knocking him on his back but he recovers in time to block another slash and another punch and jumps this time and with his bleeding right leg kicks the attacker back and into a beam where he bounces to the floor but quickly dives to his hands and turns into a ball that rolls at an impossible speed. Batman jumps back and jumps off of a support but his slashed legs cripple his jump and he actually falls right on top of the attackers ball and flattens him out for a second before a quick strong spin puts them both on their feet again.
Batman decides it is time to change the rules a bit and out comes a pellet and a small mask for him. On goes the mask and extra goggles as the tear gas shoots out around him and the attacker who moves away quickly however the initial first exposure is enough so that the attacker is now temporarily unable to see well and in jumps Batman taking advantage of the gas. Over and over he attacks the attacker, punch, kick, punch, to the stomach and face over and over until finally the mask cracks a bit and the attacker falls back and only slowly gets to his feet. He coughs several times and pushes his mask up a bit as blood hits the floor. Batman walks over still cautiously despite the coughing and fallen fighter and one last kick to the face drops the fighter. Batman bends down and checks his pulse it is slow he will be out for a while though.
Batman pulls out a pair of cuffs and some wire to tie the fighter up and as he moves to put them on SLASH!!!. Three claws are deep inside of him, at least ten inches deep right into his vital organs.
"AAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhggggggggg" He cries out and a kick sends him to his back and unconscious but not without a final pellet, this time nerve gas and both are rendered unconscious.
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Out of the shadows walks a lone figure right up to the fallen fighters…a flash of light and all three are gone.