Hello, all my wonderful fans. Sorry about the wait on this, but I've been trying to catch up some of my other stories. And before we get started, a few announcements: as you may have already heard/seen, Tronmaster5704 sadly can no longer continue "The Bat and The Monkey King", so hopefully someone is willing to pick up where he left off.
Luckily, we have some good news to balance this out: Nacoma23 has taken the challenge to write Jaune's journey through Arkham alongside the Dark Knight: He already has a title: "Two Knights in Arkham". So congratulations and good luck on taking the challenge and I know we're all looking forward to what you come up with.
Now, without further ado, let's get back to the Dark Knight and the Light Dragon... Or will we?
"Sounds like the Detective and the tomboy will be busy with the Joker for a while, don't you think?" Catwoman asked Neo, who nodded as they stood on a rooftop, looking at the nearby entrance to Strange's vault. "Good. That means these kittens have some time to play." She said, making Neo silently giggle.
Neo then pulled out the phone Selina had gotten (stolen) for her and typed down a message. [And these kitties need to get some treats. :3]
Selina giggled at the message. "That's exactly right. Now, how do we want to go about this. Find Croc and have him rip a hole into the vault?" She asked, Neo shaking her head and typing another message.
[That guy's an animal. Can't trust him.] It read as Neo had a deadpanned look on her face.
"Ask Penguin for some explosives?" She asked again, but Neo once again shook her head.
[Not exactly subtle.] She typed down.
"You're right. Not our style. I've always preferred a woman's touch in these situations." She said, looking at Ivy's abandoned flower shop.
Neo nodded at this. [She owes me for taking care of her plants... like YOU were supposed to. -.-] Neo typed shaking her head with a look of disapproval at Selina.
"Oh, knock off the sass, you!" She said with a smirk, giving Neo a playful swat on the butt. "Stay where you are, Ivy. We're coming for you." She said.
[Maybe we should get our tools, just in case.] Neo typed.
"Good idea. No way I can face Ivy without my things. I'd be naked without them." Catwoman said.
[Wouldn't be much of a stretch. ;P] Neo typed, giggling silently.
Catwoman rolled her eyes, but smiled anyway. "Come on, let's get going." She said. Catwoman used her claws to scale up buildings and Neo used a grappling hook in her umbrella's handle, similar to Roman's cane's hook, to reach the ledges Selina climbed up or the buildings she swang across to with her whip. The two traversed the city, dealing with a few thugs along the roof tops on their way, before. finally reaching Catwoman's apartment. However, they soon discovered there were thugs inside the fencing of their apartment.
"So? How are we supposed to find out where they live, anyway?" One of the thugs asked. Selina and Neo glared at the thugs through the bars, before looking up at each other. Selina put a finger to her lips as a sign to be quiet, only for Neo to narrow her eyes in annoyance. They opened a window and clung to the ceiling and made their way above the thugs.
"Two-Face said they live somewhere near here." Another thug explained, before they descended on the thugs, lowering themselves with their whip and grappling device respectively, landing on a thug's shoulders and grabbing their heads with their legs and flipping to slam the thugs into the ground, knocking them out, before they engaged the remaining two. Catwoman wasted no time unleashing a flurry of strikes on one of them, finishing with a devastating knee to knock the thug back into the bars. Neo, meanwhile, deflected a punch with her umbrella, allowing her to kick the thug directly in the face, grabbing his arm and throwing him into the bars, knocking him out.
Neo looked at the thugs with a smirk, drawing the hidden blade from her umbrella in preparation to finish them, but before she could bring the blade down on them, Catwoman grabbed her wrist. "Neo, we talked about this. A little blood here and there is fine, but we don't kill." She told the mute.
Neo rolled her eyes and pulled her hand away, sheathing her blade and typing a message on her scroll. [Because your boyfriend would get mad?] The message read, along with a couple of kissy faces.
Selina rolled her eyes and gave Neo a light smack in the back of the head. "He's not my boyfriend, but yes, that would make him quite mad. And you'll need every last ounce of that aura of yours so he doesn't put you in a body cast." She warned, causing Neo to shiver at the thought. "Now, come on. Let's get our things." Catwoman said as they climbed into their apartment.
[Home, sweet home.] Neo texted.
A few moments later, the duo emerged, Catwoman observing a metal ball containing her caltrops, before swinging around a bolas. She looked Neo and smiled as the smaller girl also twirled a bolas and tossed an orb of caltrops into the air, catching it as if came back down. "Alright, then. Time to find Ivy. I'm sure she'll be happy to see us, since we left her plants so happy and healthy." Selina said.
Neo frowned. [Since I left her plants happy and healthy.] Her text read.
"No one likes a glory hound, Neo." Selina said as they exited the cage surrounding their apartment.
From their, they climbed to the roof of their apartment building and Selina jumped off, diving a great distance, yet landing gracefully like a cat on the bridge below without any negative affects, despite the large drop. She then turned around, slightly impatient, but also amused as Neo descended towards her with her umbrella. Neo chuckled and brought up a video on her phone. "I'm Mary Poppins, y'all!" Came the infamous line from a certain movie.
Catwoman rolled her as at the reference as Neo landed beside her. "That's it, no more movie marathons for you." She said, causing Neo to pout, before they continued on their path. The two then climbed up a nearby building with a large number of thugs on it.
They were quickly spotted by the thugs on the roof. "What's Catwoman doing here?! And she's got that punk little sister with her!" One of them snapped as they all rushed in. The two looked at each other and smirked, each dropping a container of caltrops. The thugs attacked them, only for their images to shatter like glass, all of the thugs instead stepping and tripping on the caltrops.
The two were quick to take out the thugs while they were on the ground, Neo pouting angrily. [I'm not a punk!] She typed, kicking the thug that called her so.
"Aww, how sweet. You didn't deny you're my little sister." Catwoman said, Neo's jaw dropping as she realized she didn't have a comeback, causing her to pout.
The two of them made it to the next building, which attached to Ivy's lair, but several guards, clearly under the affects of Ivy's pheromones, patrolled the area with assault rifles and would no doubt prevent the girls from reaching Ivy. The two nodded and split up, Selina taking out the one closest to the ledge they crawled up. Neo hurried under the catwalk another guard was on, sticking her umbrella through the stairway as the guard came down from the catwalk, tripping him and sending him to the ground, allowing Neo to quickly knock him out before any other guards were alerted.
Catwoman then hurried to the guard across the roof from the one Neo took out, climbing up as his back was turned to them, jumping up on his shoulders and choking him out with her legs. "Well, that's all of them. Now to drop in and pay Ivy a visit." Catwoman said, Neo nodding as they went under the walk way to get past the gate blocked by vines, coming up through a grate behind the gate and entering the domain of the plant woman.
The two looked around cautiously. "Hello? Ivy? You here?" Catwoman asked.
A couple of nearby bushes opened to reveal Ivy on a throne of vines. She smiled when she saw the younger thief. "Hello, Neo. Good to see you again." She said.
Neo smiled and waved, showing her message on the phone. [Hi, Ivy! How are your plants doing?]
"They're doing fine, thanks to you." She said, before looking to Catwoman. "Even though YOU were the one who was supposed to be watering them!" She snapped.
"Oh, c'mon. You're not seriously going to hold that against me forever, are you?" Selina asked.
"You would've killed them!" Ivy snapped.
"They're just flowers, Ivy. You've got plenty." Catwoman said dismissively, Neo shaking her head worriedly as Selina said this.
In retaliation, almost immediately, a vine shot out of the ground, wrapping around Catwoman and pulling her through the floor, as well as the floor below that one, landing on the third floor. Neo tried to go after her, but a vine wrapped around her and pulled her back to Ivy. "You know, Neo. I always did want a daughter. What do you think about me being your new mom?" She asked.
Neo shook her head at this, quickly typing and showing Ivy the message. [Thanks, but I'm fine where I am.]
Ivy frowned at this. "Oh, come, now. Don't be like that. I'm sure you'll be able to see things my way..." Ivy said, starting to release pheromones to control Neo. But suddenly, the image was shattered by a bolas that continued to go on and hit Ivy in the face, revealing Neo standing back by the entrance. Ivy let out a short cry of pain, before glaring at Neo. "Well, it seems you'll need to learn some discipline first!" She snapped.
Background Music: "The Mighty Fall" by Fall Out Boy
Ivy raised a small bed of thorns under Neo, but the younger girl flipped forward, dodging Ivy's strikes and even leaping over the plant woman to avoid a couple of vines shooting up like drills from below her. Ivy wheeled around to try and backhand Neo, but the multi-colored girl spun and ducked, hitting Ivy in the stomach with the handle of her umbrella, doubling her over, before bringing the umbrella up to hit her flat in the face. She then opened her umbrella and swung it at the former doctor, who managed to back out of the way, before Neo did a jumping kick to knock her back into a wall.
"Not bad, little girl. But I'm not finished yet." Ivy said, creating Dartura Hammer and raising a strange plant monster known as "Pukey".
Neo cringed at this, quickly typing a message on her phone. [Ew! Super gross! XP]
Ivy growled at this, winding up her hammer as Pukey... well, puked at Neo, who hid behind her umbrella to avoid the shot, daring to lower it just long enough to see Ivy swing the hammer at her. She dodged this strike, only to notice Pukey was gone. The creature had used the opening to tunnel underground and take Neo's feet out from under her, managing to hit her with the hammer this time, nearly knocking her over the edge and down into the poisonous gas Selina now struggled to escape.
However, Neo managed to catch the edge with the handle of her umbrella and swing back up. She rushed in at Ivy and jumped at her, swinging her umbrella down her. Ivy managed to block it, but Neo's image then shattered, Neo appearing on the side and tackling her. She tried to hit Neo with the hammer, but the tiny mute managed to wrap it around her umbrella, yanking it out of Ivy's grasp and hit her several times with her umbrella, before knocking her back with another kick.
"Enough!" Ivy shouted, creating some sort of armor with her Rhytidome skin, making Neo's next couple of hits seem completely ineffective. She struck out at the young mute once again, but Neo continued to dodge her attacks like before, albeit this time with some extra difficulty. She avoids another vine drill attack and flings several bolas at Ivy, breaking up the armor slightly, before rushing in, jumping over another bed of thorns and flinging a container of caltrops through Ivy's feet. Ivy created and swung another dartura hammer, but Neo dodged the attack and swept her off her feet, causing her to land on the caltrops, destroying the armor.
[Time for your discipline!] Neo typed, backflipping and dropping on knee on Ivy's head, taking any fight the green woman had right out of her.
End Music
Catwoman flipped back up to the first level as Neo knocked Ivy down. "Not bad, little one." She said.
Neo smirked at this, typing a quick message. [Big things come in small packages.]
They then turned their attention back to Ivy. "Look, Red. Your flowers are fine. Neo watered them, so no big deal." Selina said.
"But it was YOUR job. You should've watered them, not make Neo do it!" She snapped.
[Hey, isn't one missing?] Neo typed out.
Ivy sighed at this. "Yes. Strange took it. It's locked away in his vault." She explained.
"Well, what a coincidence! We want into the vault, too. So, help us get in and we'll get you your plant. Deal?" Selina bargained.
Ivy thought for a moment, before sighing. "Fine." She said.
[We'll see you later, "Mother dearest". ;)] Neo typed as they left.
Ivy scoffed at this. "What a troublesome little girl... She would've made the PERFECT daughter." She sighed.