Tavi, the leader of the Joker's gang, was having a hurriedmeeting with his men. Fifteen men were busy putting on body armour and loading ammunition and guns into their combat webbing. Tavi looked at his men with confidence. Just two of them had shredded one of Gotham Cities SWAT teams with a rocket launcher and a machine gun. Now he was sending fifteen of them against this so called Batman. He just traded on his name and a Halloween costume. We'll soon see how tough he is against some real soldiers.
"Alright lads, get kitted up. I want everyone in full riot gear with guns and grenades." He held his hand to his ear to listen to his blue tooth mobile. "We've got a sighting of him on the second floor. Remember the Bat freak has got no powers and he won't kill. Now you boys have been chosen for a reason, you are all ex Special Forces, you've got big guns and you will kill."
Dane, one of Tavi's men started speaking. He was a big man with a heavily tattooed neck. His face bore the marks of several knife fights. "Okay you heard the man. Alpha force you're with me." Five heavily armed men stood up and walked up to him. "This is a standard urban incursion. Nobody enters a room without throwing a grenade in first and two bursts of machine gun fire. Also this guy is big on martial arts, poetic movements. We don't have any of that rubbish and we don't need it. We're gonna use blades and guns, shoot to kill. Put the helmets on as well, if he punches one of us, all he will get is a broken hand. Okay move it team!"
Tavi spoke up again. "Beta team, you're with me, Gamma team you are with Levine. Remember stay in constant radio contact. Gamma team you take the lift. Alpha team you take the west corridor, we'll take the east."
Tavi and his men stormed up the stairs to the second floor. Kicked open the door and threw a hand grenade in. Boom! Plaster came down from the ceiling in a gentle rain.
Tavi opened the door and fired his machine gun in two short professional bursts. "Corridor clear!"
Dane's voice came through the radio. "Lift clear, we'll be with you shortly."
Bing. The lift opened and five men bomb burst out, pointing their guns up the corridor.
Dane, a giant of a man, stepped out of the lift, pointing his M16 rifle. "What now sir?"
"Room clearance, Dane you are our backup. Keep to the walls lads, give Dane and his boys space to shoot."
The lights suddenly flickered and died. The emergency lights came on, bathing the corridor in an eerie orange glow, this lasted about five seconds then that too died.
"I didn't order anyone to cut the power?" Said Tavi, lowering his infrared goggles.
Dane lowered his infrared goggles. "Okay boys we're on infra red, stay sharhchhhecc!" There was a thump like a fallen tree, followed by two other crashes.
Tavi looked around at his men, now bathed in a red glow of his goggles. In the three seconds of total darkness since he put on his goggles, three of his men were knocked out! He looked about the corridor. There was nothing, not a single movement in front of him. A wild chatter of machine gun fire broke the silence as his men blitzed the corridor. Bits of plaster, pictures, doors and walls were all chewed to pieces by the machine gun fire.
"Shut up! For God's sake!" He shouted. Slowly his men stopped firing and reloaded their guns. "What's happened to Dane and the boys?" One of his men checked him out.
"He's unconscious."
"I can see that, why?"
He pulled a small dart out of Dane's neck and showed it to Tavi. In the small gap between his body armour and helmet Batman had somehow thrown a dart into his neck.
"What the…"
"Silence!" Tavi held a hand up. "Shhh!" In one of the rooms up ahead was a very light tapping noise. The door was bullet ridden.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
It sounded like someone knocking on the door? With a creaking sound the door slowly opened. Tavi unclipped a grenade from his webbing and threw it into the room. Boom. The door went flying off its hinges and into the corridor. The tapping noise continued but was getting louder. "Beta team, take point. Follow me."
Tavi licked his lips nervously. The tapping noise was continuing. He had just thrown a fragmentation grenade into an enclosed space. He knew from his own experience in the forces that nothing could survive that. What the hell was causing that tapping sound? Everybody said the Bats had no powers. Everybody said he doesn't kill. What if everybody was wrong?
"Ooooohh!" The Joker held his head with his hands. "What hit me?" He looked down to see a tin of mixed fruits. "Batman is getting fruity in his old age." Above him he could hear an explosion and a chatter of machine gun fire. "Tavi is having a party and didn't invite me?" An explosion made the chandelier shake above him and a small plume of dust landed on his head. "They sound like they are having fun, I wouldn't want to disturb them." The Joker pulled a long stiletto knife out of a pocket. "I'd better see how bird boy is getting along…"
The tapping sound was getting louder. In fact it almost sounded like a ticking sound now? What the hell could it be? Tavi remembered from his service in the jungles the natives used to talk about the Guija. It was supposed to be a phantom that used to appear at night and steal your soul clean away. Tavi used to laugh at them. Back then the only thing he believed in was an M60 rifle and full pouch of ammunition. This Batman was just a man. He knew that. He knew that! So why was he shaking? He moved into the room, firing two bursts of machine gun fire as he went. His men went in behind him and cleared the en suite bathroom the same way. The tapping noise continued! Tavi looked down. There was a shoebox on the floor and the tapping sound was coming from that.
"Trap pull out!" Tavi yelled and threw himself out of the room. Tavi started to breathe deeply. See he was only a man, he was setting traps like an old soldier. God, he was getting jumpy in his old age. "Trap team! Clear the area, ten yard radius."
One of his men got out a small remote controlled robot and a remote controller that had a small screen on it to show what the robot could see. Tavi took the remote control. The robot trundled on its little caterpillar tracks up the corridor and into the room. He deposited a small timed charge next to the shoebox and turned the robot round. Boom. Crack!
Two of the men next to Tavi sank soundlessly to the floor as gas started filling the corridor, released from the gas canister in the shoebox. "Gas, gas, gas!" Tavi shouted as he put on his gas mask. He looked at the screen on the remote controllerand it showed a broken shoe box, a cracked gas canister and a small CD player...
Where the hell was Batman? The gas soon cleared and was taken up by the air conditioning and out of the several large holes in the windows. He looked up at the ceiling at the air conditioning vent… Tavi, ripped off his gas mask, stood up and started firing at the roof. "He's in the god dam air conditioning! Shoot the ceiling you fools!" There was another minute of ferocious shooting as they peppered the ceiling. Water started leaking from burst pipes above them and started dripping on their heads.
There was a fizzing sound and then the lights came back on. Tavi ripped off the infrared goggles and looked at the corridor. It was wrecked, it was a mess and he had five men down! Five! And he hadn't even seen him. Unbidden thoughts of the Guija soul stealer entered his head. The lights started flickering as the water interfered with the electrics. No he was human, he had to be. He couldn't allow himself to think like that. For God's sake he had fought in some of the most inhospitable regions of the world and here he was getting spooked fighting in a hotel? He almost allowed himself a chuckle. He looked around at what men were still standing. All he could see of them, through the gas masks, was wide blood shot eyes and white skin. One of them collapsed soundlessly to his knees, a dart had appeared as if by magic in his neck. This was insane!
One of Tavi's men took off his gas mask and said - "I'm getting out of here, I ain't getting paid enough for this sh…" Tavi silenced him by grabbing him one handed by the neck and started throttling him.
"Shut it! There is only one of him and still nine of us. We'll send the robot to scout out the rooms ahead."
"He's a ghost!" Said one of his men, eerily repeating what Tavi had been thinking.
"Shut it, just shut it!" Said Tavi, his voice starting to sound out of control. Jeez he had to get a grip! He stopped throttling the ex soldier, who dropped to the ground and started coughing. He threw the robot's remote control to Levine. "Levine, check out each room with the robot. Everybody just get a grip, concentrate on the job in hand. We aren't splitting up; we stay together. We can get him. We CAN get him!"
His head was aching; his jaw ached. He felt like he had fallen down the stairs. Oh god! How did he get here? Oh yeah, the Joker. Well he was alive, that had to be a plus. He opened his eyes and saw the Joker grinning in front of him. Some blood was trickling from his chin from where Alfred had knocked him out and he was holding a thin stiletto knife.
"Hello bird boy! Did Batty ever tell you what happened to the last person in your job? Ooh! You should have asked more questions in the interview! Would you like to meet the old Robin?"