Batman and the associated characters are owned by DC. James Bond and the associated characters were created by Ian Fleming. With thanks to Cmar for beta reading this for me and thanks to all the reviewers and readers so far! All reviews welcome.

Golden Bat – Chapter Twenty-Five

Blofeld turned to one of his men. "Send out a patrol to the crashed helicopter and bring me back their bodies."

"Sir!" The soldier turned to three other men. They were all in jungle fatigues and looked dangerous. "Alpha squad, you're with me. I'll take point. Keep in radio contact." He turned back to Blofeld. "We'll be back before you know it, sir."

"Good."

One of his technicians spoke up. "Sir, the missiles we sent after the meta-human have disappeared!"

"What, they've exploded?"

"I assume so," the technician looked baffled. "The meta-human has disappeared from the radar but I could swear the missiles disappeared before they hit him."

"Who the hell was that meta-human?"

"He is not appearing on our database of known meta-humans but we were getting garbled reports of some kind of super being loose in Gotham…"

"Who?"

"The police station said they were under attack from Damian Alvey before they were cut off…"

"Damian Alvey?" Blofeld looked baffled. "I thought Speen said he killed him."

"He did, sir, and that is something else. The transmitter we had fitted into Speen's artificial arm has stopped functioning. He was in the police station at the time of the report."

"And now Batman and Bond are at my door…"

"Yes sir."

"The transmitter would only stop working if Speen was dead, wouldn't it?"

"Yes sir."

"Good."

A huge seven-foot man loomed into view.

Jaws, the metal-toothed assassin, walked up to Blofeld.

"Good," said Blofeld. "You have returned from Gotham. Have you got the…" He looked at Jaws' face. There was a scratch mark down the side of his face and his arm was bandaged as well. Blood was just seeping out of the wound. "Package?" He chuckled to himself.

Jaws nodded, although he winced a bit as he walked, showing he had a few more bruises than were showing.

"Lively little one, isn't she?" said Blofeld. "If Bond and Batman somehow survive their jungle experience she'll be a good hostage."

The radio crackled into life. "Command centre, this is Alpha one, we have reached the crash site…"

"Report."

"The helicopter is wrecked and burning sir," said the voice. "Nothing could live in there. Alpha two and three, circle round the helicopter wreck and check for tracks."

"Yes sir."

Four monitors flickered into life above Blofeld showing him what his soldiers were seeing. Flames were licking up the side of the blackened wreckage and pouring smoke into the pristine sky of the tropical rain forest.

Two of the cameras started running round the other side of the helicopter.

"No sign of anything round here sir."

Blofeld spoke. "Look inside the cockpit."

"Yes sir," crackled the voice. "Alpha four, check out the cockpit."

"Yes sir." One of the monitors showed a camera approaching the flaming cockpit. "I can't see…" A black shape loomed above the camera for a fraction of a second before it flickered and died.

"Alpha four, come in," crackled a voice. "Alpha four, report, damn it!"

"What's going on?" asked Blofeld.

"We've lost Alpha four. Alpha three, see what the hell he is doing. He probably tripped over a root or something…"

Blofeld approached Alpha three's monitor with a morbid curiosity. The monitor crackled and died but not before Blofeld saw the face of James Bond. He physically staggered back at the shock of seeing his nemesis. Bond's face was dark and handsome but still a killer's face, and he was merciless and ruthless as a foe. He only looked at the camera for a fraction of a second but his eyes seemed to bore straight into Blofeld's eyes and rip out his black soul.

And now he was here in the jungle with the Batman, a man steeped in legend. If even half the stories about the Batman were true…

Blofeld looked around at his base, his eyes nearly rolling in his sockets. His heavily armed guards, gun towers and missile launchers, far from looking effective, looked as threatening as a damp lettuce leaf.

Control yourself.

It is only one man…

Well, two men.

And they are both mortal.

They can both bleed.

They can both die.

Alpha two's voice crackled over the airwaves. "God damn it, I see it, it looks like…" His screen crackled and died as well.

Blofeld spoke out. "Alpha one! Get back here! Get back now!"

"That's an affirmative sir, returning to…" His monitor crackled and died as well but not before he saw Bond and a demonic looking Batman standing next to each other. The Batman seemed to twitch and the camera crackled and died. He didn't even see what he did to the man…

Blofeld turned to his military commander. "Triple the guards. Seal this place down. Jaws, you are my personal guard. If Bond or Batman appears, kill them."

Jaws had been watching the four guards taken down in seconds by Bond and Batman and, far from scaring him, he actually chuckled at it. At last a challenge worthy of him. The huge man nodded once at this and cracked his huge knuckles together. His metallic teeth glinted in the light.

Many stories were told about how Jaws lost his teeth. Tales of fights against heavyweight champions as a child, how he lost his teeth to KGB torture masters. How he was the result of cruel experimentation from his CIA overlords…

The truth was much more mundane, as often it is…

As a child he had a poor diet and got scurvy and hence lost his teeth.

The story of how he got his metal teeth was much more interesting.

The Group of the Red Scorpion, a small faction of South African assassins with a flair for dramatic names, found the boy Jaws, a boy to their mind with a wonderful capacity for violence and a lack of the moral guidelines that most people live by, and after many months of painful surgery fitted his ravaged mouth with titanium teeth and reinforced his bones with titanium to increase his strength and hitting power.

It would be unfair to say they created a monster, but they certainly gave him fangs. Unfortunately for them the first people he tried them out on was them.

He was very effective.

This seven-foot unstoppable killer soon got the attention of some of the bigger terrorist groups in the world, and he found he could make serious money killing professionally. Which is why Blofeld employed him.

A rumbling sound started, nearly knocking Blofeld off his feet. The lights flickered and several monitors sparked about him.

"Seal the control centre," said Blofeld. Huge two-foot thick steel doors hissed down. Hugely thick steel shutters came sliding down over the windows. The whole place was hermetically sealed and they got their air from an internal supply. Not even a nano-droid could enter the control centre without them knowing about it. "Look alert." Blofeld pointed at the huge steel gate, he was breathing deeply to control his shakes. "I want anything that comes through that door dead."

Bond had a blood-stained bandage wrapped round one arm. Batman had pushed them both through the glass of the cockpit milliseconds before it exploded behind him. He himself had burnt his left arm. It still stung and he had a patch like sandpaper next to his elbow, but he was fortunate to be alive. His cape had several burns and rents in it as he had used it to protect Bond and himself from the explosion.

Bond shrugged and tried not to look concerned. "That's your plan?"

"Got a better one?"

"Not at the moment. Okay, I'll either see you in an hour's time or in hell…"

"Remember don't…"

"I know, don't kill anyone." Bond shook his head. "I don't know how you got your reputation as the bogeyman of Gotham. Singing out of key?"

Batman climbed up the lianas of the jungle tree as easily as if it was a skyscraper in Gotham's lower east side. He even clambered past a monkey suckling its young without disturbing them.

Bond was covering the ground level. He had told him the trees were strictly for the monkeys.

At least all the guards were alive…

From here he could see Blofeld's base. It was a huge stone pyramid covered in jungle creepers and ferns. A parrot flew lazily past Batman's face, the beat of its wings giving Batman a much-needed breeze.

It was hot out here.

The air was like being stuck in a Turkish bath.

Once, as a child, Bruce had been playing hide and seek and had hidden in an airing cupboard in Wayne Manor; the temperature was like that here. All his friends from his eighth birthday party had been there.

It had been a good spot.

A great spot indeed.

It had taken his friends twenty minutes to find him. In fact it had taken Alfred to find him actually. It was just a shame he missed the jelly and ice cream though.

The temperature was just like that here. Hot. Humid. Sweaty. Rivulets of sweat poured down his back. Huge insects skittered away from his progress, their huge antennae waving frantically at his passing.

He checked his watch.

Less than two hours to go before people started dying in Gotham.

They had to get in there and shut it down now. He looked below and could see Bond walk towards the base.

Bond looked just at home in the jungle as he did in the casino where he had first seen him. In seconds Bond had disappeared from sight. Now he just had to be patient.

He was good at the patience game normally.

If there was a criminal he was waiting for he could wait for hours normally.

Today was not a normal day. Gotham was suffering. Tim was suffering and near death. He had lost one Robin; he could not, would not countenance another.

Alfred and Dick had been surprised when he had taken on another Robin. What would the loss of another of his charges do to him, they had said?

He had just said in his gruff voice that he needed a partner. Someone to watch his back and maybe someone to pick up the cape when he retired.

But that wasn't true. He was like a boy pulling at a scab to see if it would bleed. He needed to show to himself that it hadn't changed him. That he could look after another Robin, that the first death had not affected him.

The scars ran deep though. Maybe not like a bullet or a knife wound. His soul had already been twisted by the murder of his parents; the murder of Jason Todd cracked it and he might never truly be healed.

He might never truly heal but at least he could reach atonement in some small way, to his mind, by taking criminals off the street to stop them forming another monster like him. His eyes took in the pyramid in the distance. Over there was a criminal against humanity and he would face justice.

A thunderclap boomed around him and the trees shook around him, dropping a shower of dead leaves and small insects.

That was no thunder. A cloud of black smoke plumed above the trees. The staccato chatter of a machine gun broke the air. The strange oddly muted sound of an AK47 belying its lethality.

Several others broke out in the area.

Batman had already left his perch and was swinging through the trees towards the pyramid.

This was what he was born for and despite what he thought, the deaths had not twisted his soul, just shaped his purpose. Even if he had had a happy normal childhood with his parents he would still be here today. Some people seek justice no matter how many or how few injustices had happened in their life.

Several monkeys saw his shape and skittered away in fear. They might not have seen him before but they recognised a predator when they saw it.

Below him he could see Bond calmly loosing off a couple of shots towards the guards. He was sitting behind the buttress roots of a huge tree. He might have been sipping a martini for all the fear he showed. Bullets were chewing up the side of the tree, sending splinters flying.

The diversion was working, though. Bond was drawing guards like wasps round jam. They had agreed that Bond would cause as much destruction and mayhem as possible whilst Batman infiltrated the base and found a way to stop the nano-droids.

Didn't mean he wouldn't need a bit of help. Batman sent two drug tipped darts to fell two guards as he passed.

He had blown up one of the helicopters in the landing area.

BOOM!

Another helicopter exploded sending oily black smoke into the sky. Bond used the opportunity to sneak through the line of guards attempting to outflank him and run further into the jungle.

There was a rumbling sound.

Jeez, they even had a tank here. Blofeld had a regular little army. The sound of the heavy machine gun on the tank was drowned out by the whistling sound of the shell.

The shell bounced and scraped off several trees before exploding in a shower of a flame and metal splinters in the distance.

Bruce smiled to himself; Bond would lead them a merry dance whilst he went for the piper. He landed with panther-like grace on the roof of the pyramid and crawled down the side of the building.

As silent as a shadow, he crept into the building. The corridor looked dark compared with the bright sunlight outside. An alarm sounded as he entered and a door slid shut behind him with a permanent-sounding thud.

He cursed to himself. A simple motion detector alarm system. His entry was not as quiet as he had planned. He heard the sound of several boots running down the corridor. A quick flick of his wrist sent a batarang to smash the one bulb in the corridor.

"He's killed the lights! Switch to infrared. Kill anything that moves!"

The sparks from the broken light burnt images onto his retina for a few seconds, ruining his night vision. Batman stood behind a pillar while the guards ran towards him. He closed his eyes to better concentrate on the sound of running feet. There were three of them. Quite burly judging by the sounds. Wearing standard issue GI boots. The clanking sound revealed ammunition belts and guns.

Still with his eyes closed he sent a kick to the windpipe of one of the guards whilst simultaneously punching the second one into the path of the third.

They were all three down in just under two seconds. He slid his starlight lenses over his own eyes and looked down the corridor.

He had a few surprises of his own here. He roughly pulled up the sleeve of one of the unconscious guards. He pressed the artery down to make the veins stand out and jabbed in a small hypodermic he had in his tool belt.

He then got out something from his pack and put it on the man's head. In seconds the man was awake and jabbering like a man possessed.

In a sense he was.

He then crept down the corridor as silent as a ghost.

Jaws was watching the screens and grinned to himself. The heat vision showed a man creeping down the corridor dressed in a cape.

The Batman.

He lumbered to his feet and grabbed an M16 rifle on the table next to him. He pointed to two guards. "You two, follow me."

"Restore lights to the corridor," he said.

"Yes sir," said one of the technicians.

Jaws ran to the heavy reinforced doors at the entrance to the control room. They swished open and he ran into the complex.

Adrenaline was coursing through his veins. He had never fought a costume before and he was looking forward to the battle. The doors opened in front of him until he reached where the Batman had last been spotted. But where he had been… Nothing.

"Control, this is Jaws, where is the Batman?"

"He was right there a moment ago sir."

Jaws gestured to the two guards. "Fan out. Find him."

A foot lanced out of the shadows to his to his side, next to a pillar, catching Jaws' hand a stinging blow and making him drop the gun. He adopted a defensive pose.

The two guards tried to defend themselves against him, but the masked man kicked their guns out of their hands and then punched one of them on the jaw whilst simultaneously kicking the other one in the stomach.

Jaws lashed out against him but the Batman ducked under the blow, seemingly with ease.

He tried again but it was like trying to hit a shadow. Jaws cursed loudly and fluently as a boot hit his knee, nearly toppling him. He used the momentum he got while falling to grab the Batman's cloak and slam him against the wall.

He was gratified to hear the sound of Batman's cry of shock at the force of the blow.

While Batman was still winded he picked him up by the throat with one huge hand and started throttling him.

"Jaws!" came a voice through his earpiece.

He ignored it. The Batman's face, what little he could see of it, was going red and mottled. "Jaws! Obey me Jaws!" It was Blofeld.

The big man dropped him contemptuously and he fell in a heap at his feet.

So much for the big bad Batman.

"Bring him to me, Jaws."

"Yes, sir," he said. Dropping as much contempt as he could into the last syllable.

He kicked the two guards none too gently to wake them up and dragged the Batman by his cloak behind him.

Blofeld was waiting for him. "You caught him. Excellent. Where is Bond?"

Jaws shrugged. The sound of shooting and explosions was disappearing into the distance. "Still playing catch with your men."

"String him up. See what he knows, then kill him."

Jaws smiled. "Best news I've heard all day." He grabbed Batman by the hands and handcuffed them.

Batman groaned and Jaws punched him again in the stomach and dragged him into one of the side rooms.

"You two guards follow me," he gestured at the two who had followed him earlier. They were still nursing bruises the masked man had given them earlier and they were not in the best of moods.

They walked into a dark dank room which had a strange smell of mildew and rotting meat in it. In the centre was a rusty chain with a hook that hooked through a metal loop

In the corner was a barrel. Its surface was a writhing mass of flesh eating maggots.

"Know what these are, Batboy?" said Jaws, pushing the masked man's face close to the surface of the barrel. "These are flesh eating maggots. Tell me where Bond is and what his plan is or I'll drop you in it. I've seen these things skin a man in thirty seconds."

"Hee! Hee!" Batman chuckled.

This was not the reaction he was expecting.

"You think I'm joking, Batboy?" Jaws picked Batman up by the neck and threw him against the table at the end of the room. The table smashed under the impact.

"Ha! Ha! Ha!" Batman laughed at him.

Someone tapped him on the shoulder. It was one of the guards who had followed him. The other guard was lying unconscious at Bruce Wayne's feet. Jaws started to stagger. Bruce Wayne kept his hand on his shoulder. "Do you know what this is?" Bruce kept up the pressure. "It is the carotid artery that runs through your neck and supplies blood to your brain. Not even a man like you can sustain this for too long."

Jaws tried to flail out to stop the pressure but he was weakening and Bruce easily avoided the blows. With a final struggle Jaws collapsed unconscious to the floor. Bruce quickly chained the big man up and removed his cape from the luckless guard who had been impersonating him.

Under his cowl he had put one of the Mad Hatter's brain control chips whilst he had the master one. He had caught the Hatter a while ago and removed and analysed the chips and found out how they worked. The drug he had injected had removed what little self control the guard had, to allow him to direct him.

People often saw what they expected to see. Jaws had been expecting Batman and had seen a controlled guard in a cape and cowl. It had been a matter of seconds to take the place of the other guard and follow along dutifully behind Jaws and right into the highly fortified control centre.

Now all he had to do was take out the guards and Blofeld and stop the nano-droids.

BOOM!

There was a huge bang from outside the door and the whole pyramid shook.

He opened the door and was shocked at what he saw…

Where before had been a buzzing control centre with technicians and armed guards was now a scene of devastation. In the side of the pyramid was a huge hole and bits of rock and rubble was piled around him.

And standing in the middle…

Alvey.

"Batman," said Alvey. His eyes glowed blue as he x-rayed him. "Or should I say Bruce Wayne."

Alvey seemed to flicker and in a fraction of a second he was holding Batman by the neck. "I always wanted to be better than you, Bruce, and now I am."

The Kevlar gorget stopped him from passing out from the stranglehold. "You don't know what you're doing." As final words these were rather poor he had to admit.

Suddenly his feet were not touching the ground and he was flying, held up by Alvey.

"Oh but I do, Bruce, I do." said Alvey. "I'm going to see how much oxygen there is at 90,000 feet."

The wind was whistling past Batman's ears and he could feel his ears popping and the air get colder and colder as they got higher and higher. He shuddered as they flew through clouds.

"I'm going to let you go and see how you fly, Bruce…"