Part 5

Manx looked around the room at the three shadowy men that stood in the dark. "Where is Omi?" She said, sitting down on the large box that she had brought with her, stretching out her long pale legs in such a way that her white sock fell fetchingly around her ankle.

"He's upstairs, asleep." Aya answered.

"Is he okay?" Manx asked softly, she actually sounded concerned.

"Just a little banged up, Manx honey," Yohji said, "he's only sleeping because of the meds, just a few broken bones. He'll be fine, he'll just have to sit this one out." He leaned forward, "have I said how lovely you look this afternoon?"

"Three times." Manx answered wryly. "Well if Bombay isn't going to join us, I'll just start with the briefing, it's a bit rushed, so I don't have a video." She stood up and opened the box, handing each of them a large package, wrapped in brown paper and string. "Due to outside intervention Kritiker has applied operation JLA, what that means is rather than going out and hunting dark beasts we're setting all of our active teams on random patrol, in those packages you will find new uniforms and whilst Batman," she said the name with a trace of venom.

"He's not real." Aya interrupted. "They made him up to scare Americans."

"He's real." Manx said firmly, "and he's in Tokyo. So until he goes away again, you're being downgraded to non lethal, more or less, we want you to go out, stop minor crime."

Ken had opened his parcel and held out what looked like a cat suit. "And you want us to wear these?"

"They're kevlar." Manx answered, "not enough to outright stop a bullet at point blank but some armour, as you can see it's as flexible as spandex. There is also a mask for each of you."

Aya opened his to reveal a white chevron over one shoulder, "what the hell is this?" He asked, "is there something you should be telling us, Manx?"

"The suits were kind of expensive." She said with a little smirk, "so we had to get a little corporate sponsorship."

Aya looked horrified, "and who's sponsoring me? Rightguard, Tokyo's going to think I have body odour."

Yohji sniggered but said nothing.

"No, Abyssinian, you are sponsored by Nike." She said, "you should be grateful, Siberian was very nearly sponsored by cup'o'ramen." Yohji sniggered again. "Instead Birman managed to arrange that you all got sponsored by Nike, the rest of you just have the tick sign on your feet but whilst Batman," she managed to keep her tone even and even conversational but when she said that name it was with venom, "is in town you are all going to have your own super hero identities." Aya groaned and lowered his head.

"Abyssinian, you will be Shiroi Tsubasa." She said looking at the costume he had sprawled over his lap, "hence you have the chevron where it can be seen, because we've downgraded you to non lethal there are non-lethal variants of your weapons here." She reached into the box and threw him a boken, as he muttered under his breath "white wing".

"Balinese, we spent a long time working out yours," she pressed her lips together as if swallowing a grin. "You are going to be Shiroi Kumo."

"The white spider!" He asked indignant. "I'm too attractive to be a spider."

Ken had his fist pressed into his mouth and was keeping quiet. "We were going to have Omi as Shiroi Usagi," a squeak escaped the fist and Ken was going blue at the thought of Omi as the white rabbit, "but we'll have to put that on hold after the accident, "and you Siberian, will be the Shiroi Mouka."

"I can live with being the white tiger." He said.

"No fair, how come he gets to be the white tiger and I get stuck being the white spider?"

Manx grinned, it was her biggest most disarming grin. "Well," she said, "you are Weiss, that does mean white." She said, sounding like she was doing her best not to laugh as Ken held his costume out, "and you use threads which suggests a spider."

"Don't worry about that," Aya protested, "I'm being sponsored by right-guard, Tokyo's going to think I smell."

"My costume's zebra print!" Ken shouted, "Shouldn't this be Youji's?"

"It's tiger print, and it's only that bit across the ribs." Manx protested, but it looked like she was about to swallow her own lips.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" Yohji said, crossing his arms across his chest.

"No," she said, pressing her lips together, "not at all. There are other instructions for you in the box, and you know the drill that I want photos of you in the costume for the Kritiker newsletter." She looked at Yohji, "and make sure you put on your hood."

"Hood?" Yohji said, pressing his hands to his hair, "Crawford said I had really frizzy hair and you're making me wear a hood?"

"Your hair is really distinctive." Manx said, squeezing her hands together.

"And Aya's isn't?" Yohji protested.

"No," Manx said, "not at all, there are lots of Japanese men that dye their hair red, but most women in Tokyo know your hair." Normally when she left the Koneko it was at a run looking for all the world like she was about to have a nervous breakdown, but she seemed to be enjoying this meeting, a lot.

"Are you calling me a tart?" Yohji asked with his hands on his hips.

"Not at all," she said sounding only slightly sarcastic, "would I do such a thing? now why don't you boys run upstairs and try the costumes on and I'll take the photos."

"Manx?" Ken said, as he stood up, "maybe it's just me, I know I'm not the sharpest crayon in the box but," he looked at the floor, "if Kritiker had this much kevlar for costumes how come we had to work in our own clothes before?"

Aya looked at Yohji who looked back. "That's a good question." He said.

"Yeah, how come we're forever being shot at but it's only now you whip out the kevlar?"

"Cost cutting." Manx answered seriously, "kevlar's really expensive and we weren't in the international eye before."

"and why are we now?" Yohji asked.

"Because Batman's in town." Manx shouted, "the same reason you've gone non lethal, because if he mistakes you for the bad guy there will be hell to pay. He'll leave you zip stripped and naked for the police to come and get you, and we won't bail you out because we'll lose standing, so for the moment you and Crashers are going on random patrol and stopping crime as it happens. Now are you going to put the suits on?"

Muttering under their breath collectively they climbed the spiral staircase to their living quarters, Manx was sure she heard Aya say "and the neighbours thought we were hosts before."

"No," Schuldig said fluffing out the ends of his hair, "I don't care about the pay rise, no. I'm not doing it either."

"I second the motion." Farfarello said, "I'm not doing it either."

"Then the vote carries." Crawford said, "we'll just tell Esset that we're not going to go out and pretend to be super-villains until Batman goes away, or until Nagi recovers, whichever comes first." He looked at Farfarello. "And I admit that Batman's real, but that really is no excuse for you to still be wearing that googly eye."

"He might recognise me." Farfarello whined, "I have to blend in."

"And I'm sure the plastic eye looks natural." Schuldig said, "and that he won't recognise the only scarred albino Irish man in Tokyo."

"See." Farfarello said looking at Crawford, "it's a good disguise."

"Then fine," Crawford said admitting defeat, but not about to point out to Farfarello that Schuldig was being sarcastic, "but you have to tell Nagi about what happened to Mr Fluffy Bunny, and," he paused letting the light catch on his glasses, "clean up the pilling from where you dismembered him."

"Okay." Farfarello said with an evil grin, "where's the vacuum cleaner?"

Crawford looked at Schuldig who looked back with a look of horror. "It, um, broke." Crawford managed, "use the broom. Yes," he stopped a little wild eyed, "use the broom, and the dust pan, and not the vacuum, definitely not the vacuum."

The three eldest assassins of Weiss didn't descend the steps as stomp, as if they were trying to work their feet into a rather unwilling pair of boots. Manx bit her finger to stop laughing. Yohji came first, his hair bound into a small hood so that only a few wisps escaped to frame his face, it came down over his eyes and nose to form a cowl effect. The skin tight kevlar actually made him look very tall and spidery indeed. She doubted that the ladies of Tokyo would find him quite as attractive, even though the Kritiker armoury had gone to the bother of giving him a crop top and pants rather than the all in one ensemble the others had gotten. (Omi's was a rather utilitarian suit that covered every inch of flesh with a matching jacket, he was only young after all, and she had practically raised him from when he was seven, she didn't want the Tokyo underworld leching after him.)

Ken's suited his musculature perfectly, clinging to chiselled muscles with three white slashes to accentuate his abdominal muscles, the kevlar shadowed nicely, and the white lenses over his eyes, that were a feature in the mask, actually made him look intelligent.

Aya on the other hand looked like he had born to the costume, it made him seem taller, and the stripe of kevlar over his eyes gave his fine cheekbones definition, the white chevron, rather than bringing attention to his shoulders, made them seem wider and the loosely slung belts (he was wearing three) made his hips look slim and inviting. He looked like a super villain's wet dream. Manx wondered if Queen had had the same reaction when she had dressed Crashers.

She raised the camera but before she had a chance to click the button Aya turned around with both hands on the small of his back and his ass stuck out, "does this make my butt look big?"

"Makes you look like you have one." Siberian said, the kevlar was doing wonders, in Manx's opinion for his soccer calves and thighs.

"I look like a stick insect in a gymnastics class." Yohji whined.

"Come on, boys, smile for the camera."

Author's Note

Just a quickie, this isn't so much a batman crossover as an AAW story that features batman because it gives me fodder to work with. Hope you're enjoying it.