CHAPTER THREE Back on the roof:

In the helicopter Barbara Gordon couldn't believe what she had just seen. Her and her team had just made it to the scene when she saw Batman go flying off of the roof of the building and was ready to shoot the person responsible.

Though she didn't worry for too long because she caught sight of Batman's boot thrusters kick in. She then saw the figure that had done this. It was Death the international hit man. Bruce had only finished briefing her on this guy an hour and a half ago. She picked up the megaphone as she leveled her weapon. She spoke into the megaphone, "Put your hands up wear we can see them and surrender." She said this even though she knew it was pointless.

As she expected he just turned and began to run towards the opposite side of the roof. But she didn't expect him to jump off of it. She told her pilot to circle around and find him but when they reached the other side of the building he was gone and she silently cursed herself for not getting there sooner.

'Oh well, since the kid was able to fly away I guess I'll just have to find out what happened from him. After I talk to the witnesses' Barbara thought to herself.

In the Bat cave:

Just as Bruce was going to ask what Terry meant by the tone in his voice Terry cut the audio link to his suit. "McGinnis!" Bruce tried in vain to get McGinnis to answer him but to no avail. All Bruce could do was watch as Terry tried to get the hostages to safety by distracting Death.

After Terry was thrown to the side of the roof the visual link was cut off. Bruce then started to look for other frequencies to which he could access the video link but came up with nothing. "The transceivers in the head set must be damaged." He said to himself. He then turned on the system which tracks the suit but that came up with nothing as well. 'Perfect'.

Some where in Gotham:

Half an hour after the confrontation on the rooftop Death had entered one of Derek Powers' abandon factories and entered the old supervisors office. He took a seat in the high back leather chair and turned to the computer console. He flicked on a switch and dialed a number and waited.

A moment later a face appeared on the screen in front of him. The face belonged to that of Derek Powers, his employer. "How did it go, were you successful?" asked Powers.

"No, a distraction forced its way onto the scene and prevented me from accomplishing the main directive," stated Death calmly.

"Let me guess," seethed the man on the screen in building rage, "Batman reared his pointy eared head."

"Yes," stated Death. As he watched he saw Powers skin begin to peel to reveal a glowing green. This interested Death. "Do not worry he will not be causing us any more trouble."

As the peeling continued a ghastly grin was taking place of the anger. "Were you able to terminate him?" came the malice filled question.

"Not to any degree of certainty. I was interrupted before I could end it but if he is still around he will not be in fighting form for months."

The smile on Powers face became a scowl that threatened to swallow him whole. "Don't be so sure, he'll probably be back and on our trail before you know it. He has a nasty habit of recovering quickly." Soon all of the fake skin that Powers used was gone from his face.

Death straightened in his chair and looked intently at the screen, "If he does interfere with my objectives again you can be guaranteed that he will be disposed of. He did not appear to be much of a threat."

"Good. How soon can you be ready to go for the witnesses again?"

"I'll try again in two days when the police have had a chance to settle down and the locations of all the witnesses is confirmed. I pride myself on efficiency."

"That's why I hired you. Don't fail me," the last statement was said as a warning. Then the screen blanked out and Death leaned back in his chair.

Contrary to what he had told his employer the Batman had been a challenge. He had only come across one other who could measure up to that kind of skill. Curare.

He thought a moment about the events of the past. He was the greatest out of the society of assassins. Even the founding members were afraid of him. He chuckled to himself at the thought of the fear hidden on the faces of the council whenever they called him for a job.

After he was tired of the thrill of being the best in the Society he moved on to better prospects. The council had objected to his decision of course but were to afraid voice their opinions.

After five years of making his infamous name even more so into the most feared man alive he heard of the newest member of the assassin's elite. Curare had interested him with her skills and her talent, the same way Batman's had although his was just raw untrained talent, where Curare had honed her abilities. He had toyed with the idea of going against her to test her skill but the opportune time hadn't come yet.

He then caught word that Curare had failed a mission because of the intervention of Batman. He had wondered about this for a little while before he received a call. It was from the society. They offered a large sum of money to him if he would get rid of Curare.

He accepted of course but only if the money was paid in advance. The deal was made and he set to work. A day later he received word that Curare had killed all of the council members. He didn't much care though he was impressed by her swiftness.

Four days later though he had caught up to her in Arizona and faced off against her. She was formidable in many ways but was eventually struck down by Death. He then turned his sights back to increasing his power in the under world.

Then one week ago he got a request from trillionaire Derek Powers. He had accepted the job and set out to complete it. It had been an easy job until Batman showed up. Now he wasn't sure. If he had have missed the Dark Knight with his disrupter he may have well been the one to a beating, but such was not the case. It had almost been a shame to drive down the Dark Knight. Pity, he could have made a fine student. But things turn out as they will and there just simply never was the chance to capture the Bat for training and conditioning. 'Oh well, back to the task at hand.'

Four Hours Later:

"Finally the interrogations are over," Barbara sighed to herself as she stepped into her car. "Now, I can go find out what they now about this." Commissioner Gordon went straight to Bruce's Manor.

When she got there she expected to see Ace come running to her but as she went up to the doors there wasn't so much as a bark but she did see McGinnis's bike out front. A thought struck her as she entered the house. She figured that Terry must have been injured and it was just taking a while to patch him up.

She went straight for the cave hidden behind the clock. As soon as she entered the cave she called out to the suspected occupants, "Bruce, Terry? It's me Barb."

"He's not here," came a low response from the dark. Barb looked over to the computer to find a furiously typing Bruce sitting in the control seat.

"What do you mean, he's not here?" Barb asked Bruce. "I didn't think that he had gone home yet because his bike is still outside."

"He hasn't come back yet," said Bruce. "I've been trying to locate him for hours. I lost contact with him during that fight Death. The video and audio links are inoperable and the suits tracking device isn't operational. I had hopped that you would have known what happened to him."

"The last I saw was he had been knocked off of the roof but I didn't worry to much because I saw him use his thrusters to fly away from the building." She said back to him. "I came here in hopes that you two would be able to tell me what had happened on the roof with that hit man. Where's the Batmobile? Shouldn't it have come back by now?"

"It did. I called Terry's friend Max when he didn't come back with it and I sent her out in it to look for him." Bruce replied just as the Batmobile came flying into the hanger.

As Max jumped out of the car she saw the commissioner with Bruce at the computer and was hopeful that she knew where Terry was. Those hopes were only to be dashed when the commissioner asked, "Did you find Terry?"

"No, I didn't. Wayne were you able to find anything on the computer?" asked Max.

"No."

A/N: what do you think of Death's character. I'll go into more detail on him in later chapters. How do you like the story so far? Please review and ask any other BB fans if they'd read and review my story as well I love getting feed back and your suggestions give me new ideas. I'll update the next chapter soon. Bye!