Chapter 4

Wesker dodged the first Batarang, and swatted the second aside with ease. Nightwing charged in, escrima sticks in a blur as he rained blow after blow upon Wesker. Every blow was either parried and block by the man, or had no effect when it connected.


"Nightwing," the voice of Batman echoed in Nightwing's headset. "We cannot beat him on sheer strength and speed alone. Everything we can throw at him, he is able to surpass it." Batman jumped into the fight, grabbing Wesker from the back in a firm head lock. "I'm calling for backup."

Nightwing wasted no time, striking Wesker on various places from the neck to the groin and knees. A normal person would be out of action by now. Wesker, however, was no normal person.

"Oracle, we need backup. I need you to call Robin and Batgirl here immediately." Batman said trying his best to keep Wesker in his grasp.

Raising his muscled arms, Wesker broke Batman's grip, and grabbed his head. He threw Batman into a door a few feet away, breaking it in two. Batman groaned as he got up, and charged in once again to battle. But this gave Nightwing just enough time to execute a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu move. Before he knew what had just happened, Wesker was no longer standing. His arm was held behind his back, his body pinned painfully to the ground. Batman grabbed a nearby chair and slammed it hard onto Wesker's head, breaking the wooden furniture into smithereens.

At this, Wesker just growled and flipped Nightwing off his back and onto the floor. Wesker was on top of Nightwing this time, ready to rain blows to the superhero's head. Batman quickly did a turning kick, followed by a powerful back thrust, knocking Wesker off Nightwing.


Jumping high into the air, the youth did a double back flip and landed hard on Wesker's chest, finally getting a groan out of the man.

"Flash!" Batman yelled, as he rolled a pellet towards Wesker, turning to hide behind his cloak. Nightwing did his signature quadruple somersault, landing on a table about thirty feet away, his back to Wesker as the pellet exploded. For a fleeting second the room was exploded with a blaze of dazzling light, temporarily blinding the metahuman.

Somersaulting back to Wesker, Nightwing flipped the blinded man on the ground once again in a Judo throw. Raising his sticks high, Nightwing brought his two sticks down hard onto the man's throat, causing the man to mutter an audible sign of pain. Batman flicked another two batarangs at Wesker, both of which embedded themselves into Wesker's mid-section. Wesker groaned in pain, as blood rushed to his head in anger.


Partially regaining his sight, Wesker stood up swung wildly at the shadow of Nightwing, who just flipped him again onto the ground, hitting him hard on each temple with his sticks. Batman had closed the distance again, and performed a lethal karate chop to Wesker's throat.

Bringing his legs up, Wesker kicked Nightwing hard in the chest, knocking him into the same wall Nightwing had landed on previously, breaking it and causing Nightwing to fall into the room behind it. Batman's backhand knocked him to the ground again as Wesker tried to get up. Wesker was pissed, and it showed in his eyes. Absorbing the punches and kicks Batman threw at him, Wesker grabbed Batman by the throat.

"You have been annoying, Batman, and its time this ended." Just as Wesker was about to break Batman's neck, a clawed hand grabbed him by the shoulders and flung him into Nightwing, knocking them both to the ground. Nightwing muttered a multitude curses under his breath, before throwing Wesker off him and somersaulting away to another table.

Batman looked at the creature that had probably just saved his life, and saw death. In more ways than one.

Wesker rose to his feet and froze. A momentary flash of memory - that of being impaled on a set of claws - and an ache in his chest heralded the arrival of the Tyrant, almost identical to the one that had "killed" him in the Spencer mansion. He watched the huge, white-skinned death machine towering over Batman. The thing's soulless gaze tracked the Caped Crusader as it took a step forward.

And then it changed direction, veering towards Wesker.

Hell! The samples!

The damn thing must be after the samples Wesker had stolen. Somehow, Wesker must have missed the labs the Tyrants were being stored in. Stupid, stupid.

The Tyrant took another giant step towards Wesker, its face betraying no emotion, its teeth in a mirthless, eternal smile. Wesker heard cursing beside him, and glanced that way to see Nightwing watching the Tyrant in awe as it calmly marched forward. Wesker snapped his gaze back to the Tyrant as it took another step, and realized that the Umbrella bio-weapon was close. Very close. Too close.

The thing was within forty feet of Wesker when its calm stride transformed, shifting into a fluid and silently terrifying charge. The Tyrant rippled forward, covering the distance between itself and Wesker in a matter of a second or so, its clawed forearm cocked back as if throwing underhanded-

-and Wesker dove away, his superhuman reflexes getting him past the Tyrant's claws, and he snapped right back around, sending a concrete-busting side kick to the bio-weapon's gut. The Tyrant took a step to the side, absorbing the shock, and then spun, its forearm smashing across in a backhand that connected with Wesker's side, hurling him back and through another wall.

Wesker rose, shaking his head as he did so. He glanced at Batman and Nightwing, but only for a second before returning his gaze to the soulless death machine that was the Tyrant. The dark knight and his prodigy were nothing compared to the Tyrant, by Wesker's estimation. What could mere humans do against these things?

Wesker then recalled what he'd heard and seen before. Chris Redfield and his merry S.T.A.R.S. team had killed the Tyrant in the Specer mansion with a rocket launcher. There had been other instances of Tyrants going down to mere humans as well, such as the one that had been running loose in Birkin's lab the day before the Spencer incident, and the ones roaming Raccoon City, or the one on Rockfort Island...though those had demanded extreme firepower.*

But all Wesker had were his fists. Well, he thought as he clenched them, they would have to be enough.

The Tyrant took another step towards Wesker when a volley of whipping Batarangs struck it, burying themselves into the bio-weapon's chest and shoulders. The Tyrant turned, its eyes focusing on Batman and Nightwing. It took a step towards them, much to Wesker's relief. He smiled and saluted the foolish hero and his prodigy.

"Thanks for buying my escape!" Wesker shouted, turning to run.

And the wall next to him exploded, hurling him off his feet. Wesker looked up at the source of the explosion-

-and the ache came back as he saw not one, but two more Tyrants standing in the gaping hole in the wall. They raised their clawed forearms and advanced like death.

The two heroes watched as the Tyrant took another menacing step towards them. Of course, they could have stepped aside as Wesker got slapped around by the Tyrants. But neither Batman nor Nightwing could find it in them to leave Wesker alone. No man, villain or otherwise, deserves to die. And besides, these Tyrants could wreck havoc on Gotham city. Batman would never allow that.

"Nightwing, no way we can take these things on hand to hand." Batman said, rolling a pellet towards the approaching Tyrant. "Best we end this ASAP." Batman and Nightwing somersaulted away as the Batgrenade exploded right underneath the Tyrant, rocking the building in a huge explosion. Batman and Nightwing watched as the smoke began to clear.

"Da-yam! A Batgrenade right under the bugger, and he's still standing!" Nightwing exclaimed, as the Tyrant took another step towards them. Aside from its skin smoldering, it seemed to suffer no other ill effects.

CRASH!

Batman and Nightwing looked up to see a bruised Wesker fly upwards, and seemed to be flat on the ceiling for a whole second, before he fell to the ground with a crack, the Tyrants only a few feet away.

"No time for him." Batman muttered, as he dodged a clawed strike. He could hear Nightwing pounding hard with his escrima sticks on the Tyrant's back. The Tyrant swung around, knocking the annoying human away. Nightwing flew twenty feet, landing sprawled on the ground. Batman took this moment to deliver a flurry of punches and kicks to the midsection of the Tyrant, but it was all in vain. With a swing of its arm, the Tyrant knocked Batman to the ground. The Tyrant raised its claw and swung it, its goal being to remove the head of the Dark Knight himself.

A crack was heard as the Tyrant's arm was knocked away by a batarang. Before it knew what had happened to it, it was hit with another stream of batarangs, before being thrown against the wall. Only one person could throw a Tyrant of that weight with such speed and power. Correction, only one girl.

"Sorry about taking so long." Robin smiled, Batgirl next to him. The four members of the Batclan took their places around the Tyrant, readying their stances.

"You're going down!" Nightwing yelled, charging in with his escrima sticks, soon followed by the other three.

*References to various Resident Evil games that featured Tyrants. The Spencer mansion was RE1, Birkin's lab was RE0, Raccon City was RE2 and 3, and Rockfort Island was Code Veronica.