A/N: Once again, thank you very much for the reviews!
Batman & Benson
Four
"Slaves"
When Olivia awoke, she thought she had been asleep in the "crib" at the SVU, because the cot she lay on felt very uncomfortable. Even when she saw that her right wrist was been handcuffed to the metal frame of the cot, she assumed it was just another stupid prank that one of her fellow detectives pulled on her. Probably Elliot.
'Elliot, I'm gonna kill you,' Olivia thought, as she reached for the handcuff keys, which she kept on her belt.
But they were not there.
"What the hell?" Olivia muttered, as she gazed down and saw that all of her cop gear—including her gun holster and badge—were gone. And then her eyes grew wide with shock once she got a good look at her surroundings. Olivia quickly realized that she wasn't in the "crib" at the SVU. She wasn't even in New York City. The cot she lay on was in the center of a vast, empty room that was dominated at one end by a massive arched window with opaque glass.
"Oh Christ," Olivia muttered, as her bizarre encounter in the hotel room with the strange, squat man came back to her. "That creepy little bastard kidnapped me!"
Still clad in the clothes she wore when she was abducted, Olivia hoped her captors didn't frisk her too closely while she was out cold. She sat up on the edge of the cot and removed her left boot. When she shook it, Olivia smiled as a spare handcuff key fell into her lap. She used the key to free her wrist from the cuffs. Then, after putting the boot back on, she got up from the cot and trotted over to the nearest door.
Olivia opened the door just a crack and peeked out at a dimly lit hallway. It looked like the coast was clear, so she carefully left the room and made her way down the hallway, following a bright light at the end.
The hallway opened up to reveal an empty loading platform, but as Olivia walked out onto the platform, she heard the deafening sound of dozens of people all talking at once. She slowly glanced to her left, and saw the most horrifying sight in her life.
The platform connected to a massive storage area, where there were cages upon cages stacked atop one another, all linked together by a series of catwalks. And inside these cages were women. Olivia stared in horror at the poor souls who were locked up. There must have been at least fifty women imprisoned before her. They called to her, most in several different languages, yet she still understood perfectly what they all wanted: her help.
"Hey, you!" a burly man yelled as he came running up to Olivia. He wasn't armed, but he carried a wooden stick. "What are you doing out of your cell?"
Olivia let him get close, and then she feigned a weak punch to his face, to which he easily dodged—yet this maneuver allowed Olivia to get close enough to the man to bring up her leg and knee him hard in the groin.
The thug let out a croaked gasp as he doubled over in pain. This provided Olivia the opportunity to grab a metal bucket from the floor and bash him over the head with it. That put him down for the count.
Olivia heard a roar, and glanced up to see the imprisoned women were all cheering heartily at her. Apparently, their jailor was not well liked.
Olivia frantically frisked the unconscious man for keys to the jail cells, but could not find any. She stopped when she distinctly heard a woman's voice cry out her name.
'No that can't be right,' Olivia thought, as she gazed at the various women who shouted at her in several different languages.
And yet there it was again: out of all the shouting, a lone female voice called, "OLIVIA!"
It was a voice that she was intimately familiar with. A chill swept up Olivia's spine as she scanned the women in the cells before her. 'No, it can't be her,' she thought. 'She couldn't possibly be here!'
And yet there she was. A lone woman was waving frantically at Olivia in a cell near the ground as she called out her name once more. Her hair was now short and black, but that face—that lovely face—was still the same as Olivia remembered it.
"Alex!" Olivia cried, as she ran over to the woman.
Alex Cabot was both laughing and crying at the same time when Olivia arrived at her cell. As much as she wanted to hug Alex, Olivia settled for tightly grasping her hands through the cell's bars. "Alex, honey, are you all right?"
"Oh, God, Olivia," she said in amazement. "What are you doing here?"
"What am I doing here?" Olivia almost laughed. "Alex, what the hell happened? How did you—"
Alex's eyes grew wide with terror as she stared at something over Olivia's shoulder. "Liv, behind you!" she hissed.
Olivia turned to see the squat little man leading a group of men intothe storage area, all armed with Uzi machine guns. The squat man waved his umbrella as if it were a sword.
"I'm coming back for you," Olivia firmly told Alex. "You hear me?"
"I know, just go, Liv," Alex said. "Save yourself, hurry!"
Uttering a curse under her breath, Olivia ducked into a narrow hallway in-between the cells. She climbed up a flight of steps to the second level catwalk in a frantic attempt to find an exit, but the place was a maze.
"There's no use in running, Moiré," the squat little man called, his voice echoing in the vast storage area. "You may have escaped the handcuffs, but you won't escape this room. There's no other way out. We're blocking the only exit! Waugh, Waugh, Waugh!"
'He still thinks I'm this Moiré broad,' Olivia thought. 'Who the hell is she, anyway? Was that who the Batman thought I was?'
Olivia ducked behind a support beam that was just barely wide enough to hide her. One of the female prisoners called out to her, but Olivia frantically waved for her to be quiet.
"Penguin," another man's voice called out. "I've checked her out, and she's not Moiré!"
Olivia peeked out from around the side of the beam and saw that a man clad in a suit had strode up to the squat fellow, whom he called 'Penguin'. Olivia supposed that the name fit, since the little guy looked somewhat like a penguin, thanks to his dapper black suit and waddling walk.
"If she's not Moiré, then who is she?" the Penguin demanded.
The other man held up Olivia's badge and ID. "Exactly who she appears to be: Detective Olivia Benson of the NYPD's Special Victim's Unit. I was supposed to meet with her earlier today before you ordered me to bail out."
'That's Detective West!' Olivia realized with a gasp. 'He is a dirty cop after all, working for the Penguin.'
"All this means is that our little guest isn't as lethal as we thought," the Penguin said. His cigarette holder shot upward as he grinned broadly. He pointed at a cell with his umbrella and said, "Bring that woman here!"
Olivia watched as two of Penguin's goons hauled a young Asian girl out of her cell and forced her on her knees before him. The Penguin grabbed the back of her neck with one hand while he held up his umbrella with the other.
"My dear Detective Benson," he called. "I know you're here, and I know you're watching. So please observe."
He flicked a switch on the handle of his umbrella, and a gleaming blade slid out of the ferrule. The Penguin held the blade to the frightened young woman's throat. "You have ten seconds to surrender yourself, Detective," he called. "Or else I shall slit this pretty neck of hers from ear to ear! One, two, three…ten!"
"WAIT! STOP!" Olivia shouted, as she stepped out from behind the support beam. "You've got me. Don't hurt her. I'm right here!"
"Get down here, now!" the Penguin ordered.
"All right, I'm coming," Olivia said, as she obeyed.
As she strode up to the group of men with her hands held up, Detective West pulled his gun out and held it on her.
The Penguin continued to grin malevolently at Olivia, as he shoved his young hostage to the floor. Then the young Asian woman cried out in pain as the Penguin gave her a wicked slice with the blade, creating a thin red line of blood on her arm.
"NO!" Olivia cried, as she collected the sobbing girl in her arms. She pulled out a wad of tissues from her pocket and pressed it against the girl's cut. "What the hell are you doing? I surrendered myself, didn't I?"
"You weren't fast enough," the Penguin said with a sneer. He pointed to one of his goons. "Get that one back in her cell."
The Asian woman was taken from Olivia's grasp and dragged back to her cell. Olivia had a chance to examine the wound the Penguin gave her, and it was a superficial cut, at least.
The Penguin gestured to another of his goons. "Ronnie, if you'd please?"
The goon named Ronnie grabbed Olivia by the back of the neck and shoved her into a kneeling position. The Penguin came over to Olivia and roughly stroked her hair. "Your resemblance to Moiré is stunning. But had I known you were a mere constable, my dear, I would have snuffed you out right in your hotel room."
"I would have gladly have snuffed you, as well," Olivia angrily shot back.
"Waugh, Waugh, Waugh!" the Penguin laughed. "My, but she's a feisty one, isn't she, boys? Being a member of the NYPD's elite Special Victim's Unit, I suppose a steel will is a requirement, eh, Detective Benson? I must thank you and your SVU comrades, by the way, for ridding me of that pesky New York slave ring operation. With them wiped out, I will now control the entire eastern seaboard. If only you could have nailed my stupid partner. However, he is but a mere trifle, and shall be dealt with in all good time—as will you, my dear Detective Benson. Detective West!"
West perked up just then. "Yeah Penguin?"
"Are you loyal to me?" the Penguin asked.
"You know I am, boss!"
A cruel smile slid across the Penguin's face. "Then prove it. Kill her. Now."
'Oh shit,' Olivia thought, as she watched West slowly pull his SIG handgun from his holster. Ronnie, the goon who held Olivia in place, released her and quickly got out of the line of fire.
"Noooooo!" a lone woman cried out from the cells. She began to sob hysterically.
Olivia was heartbroken when she realized that it was Alex.
'I'm so sorry, Alex, baby,' Olivia thought as she helplessly watched West aim the gun at her. 'I've found you, only to have you watch me die….'
She flinched when there was a flash, along with a loud explosion. But Olivia was not shot. Instead the Penguin and his men were thrown into disarray as the whole area around them erupted into thick white smoke. Olivia instinctively dropped to the ground to avoid being hit by any accidental gun discharges, and as she lay on the concrete floor, she glanced up at the ceiling, and saw a sight that was both marvelous and terrifying at the same time.
The Batman dived out of the blackness of the ceiling and down to the floor, his leathery cape unfurled at his sides like two massive wings. One of Penguin's goons begin screaming in horror as the Batman landed right on top of him, knocking him down to the floor with a heavy thud—and instantly ending the man's screaming.
As soon as Batman hit the ground, he turned into a swirling black tornado that attacked each of the dazed goons. One man went down with a crushing kick to the stomach, while another got belted in the face so hard he spun around before falling to the floor. Batman grabbed Detective West by the throat and threw him into another goon before he could bring up his Uzi.
Olivia was startled when something hit the floor in front of her with a loud jangling sound. The smoke had dissipated enough for her to see that it was a ring filled with keys. Seeing her chance to free Alex and the other imprisoned women, Olivia grabbed the keys and ran for the cells.
She smiled at Alex and joyfully held up the keys.
But Alex pointed in terror at something behind Olivia.
"UGH!" Olivia cried, as a muscular arm abruptly wrapped itself around her torso. She found herself in the tight embrace of the Batman. "What are you doing? Let me go!"
"Reinforcements are coming," Batman told her. "We've got to get out of here."
"No, I've got to save Alex and the others!" Olivia stared longingly at Alex, who was so close and yet so far. "ALEX!"
"Benson, we'll save them," Batman promised her. "We'll save them all, I swear! But right now, we've got to save ourselves."
He stabbed an arm right at the ceiling, and a rope shot upwards, the metallic claw at the end grabbing onto a piece of the support beams above.
"Hold on," Batman told her.
Olivia's stomach flew into her throat as they both shot up into the air at an amazing speed. She watched over Batman's shoulder as a squad of about twenty more of the Penguin's goons entered the storage area. They all opened fire with their Uzis in the direction of the ceiling, but Batman had already pulled Olivia behind a thick steel girder that provided ample protection from their bullets.
Once the firing ceased, Batman grabbed her hand and led Olivia across a catwalk to a doorway.
"You idiots couldn't hit the broad side of a pelican!" the Penguin roared with rage. "Arrrrrrrrr!"
Olivia's last sight of the Penguin was of him breaking his umbrella over his knee in frustration. If nothing else, it was a pleasure for her to see him so disappointed.
Batman led her out onto the roof, where they quickly ran to the edge. Olivia glanced over and saw a sleek black car parked in the alleyway below, yet there was no fire escape, or ladder, or any way for them to get to it.
Batman pulled out another gizmo from his belt and fired a metal hook straight into the street. There was a rope attached to it, and Batman secured the other end to the edge of the building.
"Oh no," Olivia said, once she realized what was going to happen. "No way in hell!"
"Just hold on," Batman said. "And close your eyes."
Olivia let out a cry of fear as Batman grabbed her and they both dived over the side of the building. Olivia clung to him, keeping her eyes tightly shut, convinced that they would be splattered all over the asphalt. 'I was saved from one maniac only to get killed by another maniac!' she frantically thought.
But she soon opened her eyes as they slowly descended on the rope, coming to a perfect landing right beside the car, which was a lustrous dark monster with plenty of curves and what looked like a rocket thruster sticking out the back. The roof slid open to reveal a passenger compartment for two people.
Olivia abruptly thought about making a run for it, she still didn't entirely trust this Batman—until she saw a band of Uzi-armed thugs emerge from a doorway down the alleyway.
"Get in!" Batman told her.
Olivia didn't have to be told twice. The roof slid over them, cocooning them within the massive automobile as Batman hit the ignition and the monster they sat in roared to fire-breathing life. Olivia watched in the side mirror as the goons fired in desperation at the car as it raced away from them. Their bullets bounced harmlessly off the car's armored skin.
'Alex!' she thought, with a pang of guilt. 'Oh God, she's still back there!'
She turned to Batman and said, "Don't you even care that he's gonna kill them all?"
"He won't kill the women," Batman firmly said. He never took his eyes off the road.
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because they're his merchandise," Batman coolly replied. "Those women are worth more to the Penguin alive than dead. Trust me, Benson, he won't harm them."
Olivia shook her head and slammed her fists into the armrests of her seat as the pent-up rage and aggravation of the night's events finally got the better of her. "Never mind Arkham Asylum, this whole frigging city is insane!" she screamed. "You're all a bunch of maniacs in a goddamn freak show! The worse perversity I've seen in New York City is a frigging playground compared to this madhouse!"
"You may well be right," Batman calmly said. "Now please be quiet while I drive."
"Where are you taking me?" Olivia demanded.
"To a safe place."
"In Gotham City? There's no such thing," Olivia bitterly muttered, as she leaned back and placed both hands over her face. 'Oh God, Alex. I'm so sorry I left you," she thought. 'Somehow, someway, I'll find you again. Just please stay safe, sweetie…stay safe…please, please, please, stay safe….'
To Be Continued...