Frost in the air, warm blood on my face. An old feeling. Me and Him killing each other. An old fear. Making this yet another one of my nightmares come to pass.

Bruce thought to himself as shot after shot connected on his opponent, his most hated adversary.

It was always going to end this way.

There was a time, not so long ago at all, back before Dick left for Bludhaven, when that idea would've seemed psychotic to Bruce, more rantings and ravings from a butcher...but now, it was all too familiar.

Just another thing we now agree on.

Bruce was shaken from his reflection on better, more stable times by the pain of an iron crowbar hitting him in the cheek. The obnoxious chuckling voice that followed just added more fuel to the rage he felt building inside of him.

"Uh-oh! That one looked like it hurt!"

Joker charged him again. In the back of his mind, he wondered, Wait...there's flames all around me...so why am I so damn cold?, but his conscious brain was entirely on the monster before him, who'd almost ruined one of his best friends, who'd crippled his second student, killed his son and so many others, almost too many to keep count of.

Almost.

A few more strikes, a shattered rib here, a shivved knee there, and soon enough, they were little more than walking ghosts, still struggling to do more damage, cause more pain with what time they still had left. Bruce was hobbling forward for one last swing at that stupid, macabre smile, when the ever present laughter stopped, and a gunshot rang out from behind him.

Bruce blinked from shock, and when he opened his eyes again a split-second later, the clown was slowly stumbling backwards, a fat whole right between his eyes. He lunged forward and caught his old enemy as he fell, laying him to rest. As he shut those evil, yellow eyes still burning with sadistic joy, he heard another laugh from behind him that made his eyes go wide. A far less taunting, almost childish laugh that he knew he should've been able to place and, yet, he couldn't.

"Stop.", he said, as he looked back at the man in red looming over him from within the circle of flames. But it wasn't a growly threat like that statement normally was when he said it. He didn't want to fight this man. Didn't want their budding rivalry to end the same way his first just had. That would be yet another failure in his corner, even more innocent bystanders to mourn. He wanted, instead, to understand him, though he still didn't recognize why in the world he felt that way.

"Let me help you.", he continued, his hand outstretched.

"It's too late...you had your chance a long, long time ago, Old Man.", his new foe replied in an almost melancholy tone as the fire he stood in started rising up, covering them both as he continued.

"And I'm just getting started."

Chad Graham, the second and better Prometheus, was having a hard time seeing why he was needed here. The newest batch of recruits to The Society needed weapons, and this place had them. Who gave a shit? But, apparently, Tommy had decided to keep recommending him for the jobs that were way below his paygrade. It would be almost a bro move, if Chad didn't already know that his old ally only did it because he considered him to be an incompetent.

Whatever. Tommy'll get his one day. Everyone back there who's laughed at me, they'll all get theirs.

The thought of it had brought a smile to his face and skip to his step as he'd led Vic and Schott further into the swamps. Now they stood all but victorious, with the rats scurrying into their little fort or dead.

And they called my plan moronic, as if I'd waste actual thought on a smash and grab job like this.

The fort was impressive for what it was, mostly reused wood and metal used to make the old concrete framework of the Soviet outpost relatively secure enough for their uses, but it wasn't exactly a modern-day castle. Graham already knew he was going to destroy it, raze it's walls to the ground for daring to stand in his way.

He was smiling at the thought when it began.

In a flash, his small team had been hit with a nine-banger, throwing him off and causing Toyman to start screaming in fear, while his little "tanks" started firing at enemies he could not see. His mask was still trying to adjust, when Graham heard Vic begin fighting back against whoever was ambushing them.

His mask's anti-obscurity hardware finally kicked in, but whatever this red shit was, his mask couldn't do anything to let him see through it. He was so busy trying to fix what he thought was a flaw with his own tech, he had to remind himself that he was in a fight for his life.

Pulling out his guns far too late, he was blasted point-blank by what his suit determined to be a military-grade flamethrower which would've hit him in the mouth and roasted his brain in his skull if he hadn't dodged at the last millisecond, responding to his unseen attacker with a flurry of shots, with no way of knowing if he was even hitting anything.

"Watch the blindfire, Graham!"

Lady Vic was too busy to help her "leader" at the moment, her hands full with whoever it was that was trying to rip her throat out. She probably could beat whoever this was, if she wasn't blind and alone.

Hey, where is our backup?

"Toyman?"

She could just barely hear his response in the distance.

"EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF!", he screeched as he ran away, deeper into the swamps.

"Fucking spineless COWARD!", Chad bellowed, still too caught up in his own fight to chase their traitorous squadmate.

"Shut up and fight!"

Toyman couldn't take their screaming anymore, so he ripped the comm straight out of his ear and threw it down into the mud as he ran with all he could, tripping and falling periodically as his toy tanks swarmed around him, on the lookout for whoever had just turned as simple job into a brush with death.

He knew he was a coward for it, but who cared? They were all murderers and thieves anyhow, and cowardly would hardly have been the most awful thing he'd been called. He'd thought The Society would be different, that he'd get some respect, but even there all he ever heard were insults and threats about what the others would do to him if they could.

As if they had any leg to stand on in terms of "justice". Whatever. They could all die for-

*bang*

Schott was stopped in his tracks as a bullet went clean through his back, his chest, and, finally, his right coat pocket, slamming into the control device he used for his sentries. He fell to his knees, looking down and clutching the wound as his toys all stopped dead tank barrels lowering as they shut down, now unable to even fire back on his attacker in revenge for their creator.

"Unfair...un-"

"Such is life. Should've grown up while you still had the chance.", were the last words Toyman ever heard, and they were followed quickly by the execution-style headshot delivered by an old "friend" from Arkham Asylum.

Back in the smoke cloud, things weren't going well for that friend's fellow Outlaws, as neither had been able to kill their opponent yet, and the smoke was slowly starting to dissipate. It was taking everything Buck had just to keep Lady Vic on the defensive and Arkham's matchup with Graham seemed far too even for Two-Face's liking.

Heads for Buck, Tails for Jeremiah, they thought, giving their coin a split second to flip before they caught it and looked at fate's choice, never stopping their run back to the fray. Her fate sealed, they were lining up a shot with the silhouette of Lady Vic's head, when, out the corner of Harv's eye, they caught sight of an RPG being reloaded. Harvey's eye snapping over in a second, they saw that some of The Masks were attempting a counter attack.

Not happening.

They unloaded both their mags into those they could see, rushing for the nearest possible cover, a nearby fallen tree thick enough to maybe stop a round or two.

Jeremiah managed to force Prometheus back for a second using the antiquated forcefield technology he had equipped his suit with in cases of absolute emergency just long enough to turn, and hit Lady Vic in the back of the skull his sword's hilt, giving Buck the opportunity to knock her out with a swift uppercut. She was about to kill the mercenary, when Arkham intervened.

"No! She may have information that we need, and Toyman isn't exactly an option for us to interrogate, and neither will Prometheus be pretty soon. Put mag-cuffs on her and go help Two-Face."

"Got it."

Arkham turned back to his opponent just in time to see him draw shatter the small red field surrounding him with the massive energized nightstick which had been the original's trademark.

"Now...now it's really gonna fucking HURT!", he screamed as he leaped forward, Arkham being just quick enough to avoid the impact which left a small crater in the muddy terrain.

Jeremiah took out his shield in time to block the next, slightly more restrained attack and hold him back, so Graham tried a different trick. Arkham's mask was all that saved him when his opponent's helmet began emitting nearly blinding series of flashes meant to hypnotize him.

You wanna play mind games, you manchild? Let's play some damn games.

Prometheus chuckled as Arkham's arms went limp and his head went down, an obedient dog waiting for his master's command.

"Good, good. Now let's go kill your little friends."

Prometheus, mainly due to his armor, was far too much for Arkham to subdue non-lethally. But, this new man wearing the purple was nowhere near his predecessor, and as he listened to the man-child speak, keeping up the ruse of being a shambling slave to the would-be supervillain for only a few seconds, Arkham recognized that he truly was egotistical enough to fall for the simplest of tricks, but only when he had already when he'd already been tricked into believing he had the upper hand, as Jeremiah could tell he now did by the smug smirk and tone of voice.

Knowing he couldn't get him off center like this again without letting him kill Dent and Buck, Jeremiah immediately decided to pull a very, very, risky maneuver. As Graham pushed past the man he now believed would be completely obedient to him, he continued his talking, only turning back when he began to give orders.

"It looks like they've gone inside, chasing our shared enemy. You wil-"

Before he'd even brought his eyes back around to his front to face the man he was turning to, before he'd so much as finished what would be his final words, Jeremiah, relying on his training directly from Jason in the arts of swordsmanship, drew his sword from it's sheath, planting it right in the mouth of the taller man. The golden blade went directly into his brain, the sword killing him, while still refusing to cut through his helmet.

Jeremiah didn't have much time to lament the loss of a semi-interesting subject, nor to be thankful the fact that the original Prometheus was still in whatever hellhole The Martian Manhunter had placed him in.

For barely had the body hit the floor, before he heard a rapid countdown begin.

"Shit, shit, shit!", he said aloud as he quickly threw Lady Vic over his shoulder and began sprinting as fast as he possibly could away from the blast.

Seconds and yet somehow an eternity later, they made it back to the tree line. He hastily set her behind a thick, sturdy tree stump before trying to make it to a nearby tree for cover, but a second before he could get there a blinding white light blasted his eyes, his ear erupted with ringing, and his entire body was racked with a violent jerk that sent him flying roughly through a nearby tree and into the murky marsh, battered and unconscious.

As he looked through the tree line, Alexi couldn't believe what he was seeing. As usual, Jason just smiled at the thing confounding him, like a child would at a birthday gift. He saw opportunity in all things, somehow...even whatever the hell was going on in The Mask's "soup shop".

A cutesy name for a world-wide kinda horror show. He, Rose and Jason were kneeling in the marsh, concealed by thick vegetation, and were at the front of the formation, their men were fanned out behind them, hiding in the brush and awaiting orders. Scouts had been sent to just check in on their first stop on the way through the swamps, the small, abandoned village before them, reporting back with images of the maelstrom they were now looking at: a small tornado of vines surrounding the site where there first target was.

Through the thin vines, the silhouette of a village could still be seen, but not clearly made out, as dust, dirt and mud mixed with chlorophyll flying through the air had given the site one hell of a smoke screen. The only thing allowing them to see was the ongoing fire somewhere within the consumed area, creating a small light that they could just barely see, but which added ash into the screen and sent smoke into the sky.

It was quite the site, but they had places to be, people to kill. It seemed that it would always be Alexi's job to remind Jason of that when he was too busy taking in a site, or losing himself in thought.

"So...what are we doing? Going around, or..."

"No, no...just...did the scouts ever get back with a report on the second location?"

"No, but-"

"Alexi, call Bane and Shiva. This'll probably take too long for us to make it, they should go on without us. Rose, you divide up the men into two groups so that you can take one, Alexi, the other. Circle around the clearing in those groups, link up on the other side, then on ahead to the drugs depot, and secure it."

"What about you?", Rose asked, already knowing the answer to her question.

"I'm gonna go meet an old friend...see what's goin' on.", he finally looked back to her, and seemed to only then realize that she was worried. He quickly added, "Worst comes to worst, she might rough me up a bit, but...I'll be fine."

"You sure?", Alexi asked, his task already done.

"Always.", Jason replied, never looking away from Rose.

"Okay...if you're sure.", Rose said hesitantly before the two shared a kiss and she moved back to tell their men about the change of plans while Jason kept still, his mind probably thinking through all the different ways whatever plan he had could go wrong based on his demeanor.

"Good luck, Krasny."

"And good luck to you, brother."

With that, Alexi followed Rose back into the swamp, and soon enough the men were divided up into two groups, which quickly broke up and began moving around the clearing consumed by the tornado of plant life.

Jason waited, watching the trackers he had in their armor through his HUD, for them to get far enough out that they wouldn't come rushing back the second they heard a commotion. Like she normally did when she thought he was being stupid, Rose waited for the entire group to pass her before she started heading on from the place where the divided force again became one, on the opposite side of what had been their first target. He felt bad, as he usually did when he worried her.

But, if he was right about who was creating the small swirling mass of plant life, he had to do this alone, as he had no idea how Ivy would react to being ganged up on after apparently dying months prior. If she reacted how he had when it had been done to him post-resurrection, there would be nothing left of Gotham City before long.

And if he wasn't...well, he only knew of one other being on Earth that could perform that kind of holy perversion of the natural world, and if it was that thing...it would win, regardless of who he could've brought as his backup.

Deciding to be slightly optimistic, Jason thought back to his various brief interactions with Poison Ivy, over his few years as Robin.

She always terrified him. So many of them did, really. Croc, Clayface, Langstrom...they were terrifying to an overthinker like him. Bruce was able to put their abilities aside when he'd beaten them.

To let them just be case files, rather than the monsters they actually were.

But Jason didn't talk to anyone for a week after his first run in with Basil without keeping them at arm's length, just in case. He didn't go anywhere near a body of unclear water for so long after The Croc's first appearance that he feared he'd forget how to swim. And after seeing Ivy's vines rip a group of pyromaniacs intent on lighting Eden Park ablaze into small chunks of bone and flesh, he thought for the longest time that he'd never again walk through the vibrant grounds of The Manor without constantly looking over his shoulder for any unnatural movement.

Bruce never knew about these fears...or at least, he never asked Jason about them. Maybe he knew it wouldn't have helped.

Maybe he just knew me that little.

Didn't really matter, the fact remained: he was a grown man now. Most of those fears...they'd left him long ago, or he'd forced himself to set them aside and all but forget them. Poison Ivy was dangerous, yes, but with the things Jason had faced, fighting her would be a simple warm-up, in the grand scheme of things. However, as Jason approached the swirling mass of vines, hands up with his hood held in his left, he reminded himself that she was also a natural ally.

One of the first problems he intended to solve when he'd cleared away the distractions of The League and the various other "Superteams" of the Earth was humanity's increasingly rapid destruction of the environment.

He'd have to try, try, and try again to be diplomatic about this, if he didn't want to cost himself a very useful asset, or gain yet another enemy.

Jason had long since given up any notion of cover, walking out in the open towards the mass, when he stopped about a yard out from it. He was about to call out, try and get someone's attention, when a massive green fist launched out at him, just slow enough for Jason to dodge. He took a leap back, instinctively trying to put some space between himself and his attacker, and he watched as two hulking forms came walking out of the vines that had hidden them from sight, the green whirlwind slowly winding down.

One was the giant block of pure, undead might known as Solomon Grundy, the other was an abomination he recognized as the mutated Waylon Jones.

Fantastic.

Their fists were covered in blood, they each seemed to have quite a few bullets in them. Croc even had a bowie knife lodged in his shoulder.

Props to whatever poor fuck managed to pull that off.

They were obviously doing work for Ivy willingly, as unlike mortal men who could be easily manipulated, these two had never fallen for Ivy's tricks or toxins before, not that he knew of. Just as he'd put back on his helm and was pulling out his sidearms, wondering if that had changed or if he could try and reason with the behemoths he was now faced with, he heard a giggle right behind his back that made him instantly turn, guns still in their holsters.

"Ivy?"

While he'd been expecting a redhead in leafy corset, he didn't expect to see one with green skin, lips and yellow-tinted eyes.

Again chuckling far too much like a hunter who'd caught a rabbit in a trap, she replied, "And you are?"

"Uhhh...a friend?"

"No friend of The Joker is a friend of mine.", she said as she began to motion for her the two monsters behind him to attack.

"Woah, woah, you are REALLY out of the loop, here, I'm mainly in town to kill that piece of shit."

"Then why do you wear-?"

"Why does Batman dress like a bat?"

"Because he's completely insane."

Jason laughed at that, "I suppose. But then, so is everyone who tries to make it day-to-day in this town."

"I suppose. So, what do Black Mask's men have to do with The Joker?", she responded, letting her arm relax. He did the same, flicking the safety strap on each of his holsters, locking his guns in place, then taking off his hood once again to show he was no threat.

"It's...complicated. But, for now, let's leave it at "hurting Black Mask and hurting The Clown are the one in the same"."

"Hm. Good. Had I known this little excursion would injure Him, I would've done it sooner."

"Why are you here? Last I heard, you were dead. Knew it wasn't the case, but-"

"I was...weakened. Allowed myself to be so that I could help some...people that I cared about."

"The Eden Children."

"Hm...Since then, I've been reconstituting my powers, as well my own body."

"Looks like you went a bit overboard."

"Yes, well...something is different now, about The Green. Mother Nature feels like she's woken up, and her soldiers are being called...", she paused and seemed to get distracted, almost as if there was another voice in the air only she could hear, but soon enough continued, "...and in my semi-conscious rush to return to My Grand Work, my powers spun out of control, and...this happened."

"Here I would've thought you'd be happy with a transformation like that."

"Happy? No. Proud, maybe...but it's not exactly easy to be conspicuous with chlorophyll running through your veins."

"Yeah, I'm sure they help a lot with that.", he said as he pointed behind himself. Grundy didn't react, from what he could tell. Croc, however, growled so harshly that Jason could feel it shake him where he stood.

"No, no, these poor boys and I met while on my way here. We decided to join together when I realized that we're all searching for the same thing."

"Can I ask what?"

"...Something we thought was in this little shack village, but it's either been moved...or it never existed."

"It's REAL Ivy. I told 'ya. Sionin-grr-Sionon-RAA! SIONIS MUST HAVE MOVED THE FUCKIN' THING!"

When the beast started to scream, Jason took a step back, only to feel Ivy's hand on his shoulder.

"Don't be afraid.", she said when Croc threw both his fists into the dirt, breathing heavily while fighting his increasingly intense animalistic urges.

"I'm not. I'm reasonably cautious."

"Hmpf...Waylon's just angry at his failing intelligence. He's not a mindless animal."

Letting out a monstrous chuckle, Waylon regained himself and stood, adding, "Not yet."

"Good. That means I can still help you find whatever you're looking for before you're a complete lost cause. If I can help, that is?"

"I don't know...Boys?"

"No."

"Grundy thinks little bird could help. Doesn't want Batman to show up, though."

Croc and Ivy looked slightly confused for a moment, while Jason's eyes grew wide beneath his mask.

"...Grundy, do you...How do you know who I am?"

"Clown told Grundy.", the zombie said, innocent as a toddler.

At that, Ivy and Croc seemed to grow worried, Jones taking a step back from his fellow powerhouse in shock.

"Grundy, this is important. How did you meet this clown, and what, exactly, did he say?"

"Grundy was in mirror room. Hiding. He show up, tell Grundy about little bird. Tell him you back, like Grundy back. Laugh at that...a lot. So hard Grundy laughed, too. Don't know why. Told Grundy to bring old book here to bird, that you could use it to help Grundy."

Jason, who was gripping his hood so hard that he could feel his knuckles growing white beneath his gloves, was trying not get too mad at the "like Grundy back" comment. It wasn't working.

"That piece of...wait, that doesn't make any sense, I get it's a joke but...why would he say I would help you? I will, but-?"

"Clown say you would understand Grundy better now that you back. Say we both "zombies", now."

Jason's scowl was now so severe it was cartoonish, but he didn't care, and no one laughed. For Ivy and Croc, it had finally clicked just who Jason was, and for Grundy...all he knew was that little bird was very mad, and it was his fault.

"Grundy sorry."

At the giant's childish fear, Jason realized what he was doing, let loose a sigh, and began to cool off. Closing his eyes for a second, he slid his helmet back on, before turning back to Pamela.

"So this book, you're sure it isn't here?"

"...Yeah, we're sure."

"Good. Let's get to the next village down by the shore, and make sure my men don't destroy the damn thing."

"Let's.", the plant woman said, deciding to shelf her own thoughts as he had his, so that they might actually accomplish something. Before Jason knew what was happening, Ivy had wrapped him in a vine or two, and they were both lifted a few feet off the ground, shooting towards the second site, Grundy and Croc both racing after them with incredible speed.

As they went, he heard Ivy whisper, "Sorry."

They both knew what she meant, and it had nothing to do with his old fear of getting snagged in her vines.

"...Thanks."

"Daddy, Daddy! Get UP! You have to find us, Daddy!"

"What...Eliza...where-", Jeremiah mumbled, trying to get up...where am I, again?

He struggled just to get his eyes open, but his vision was cloudy and blurred.

"Shut up, old man. You may have blood in your lungs.", he heard a very different voice reply from just above his head, the ringing in his ears just barely letting the words come through.

Still not understanding what was happening, or where he was, or why his entire body was numb and sluggish, he kept mumbling unfinished questions as the stranger held him up, "What? What's-"

"If you're gonna keep talking, tell me how to get these fucking cuffs off so I can help you better."

"I can't...I can..."

Suddenly, his world was shaken as a noise louder than any he'd ever heard rang out, and made him jump in the stranger's arms.

"Get the HELL away from him and put your hands up!", a new voice yelled near by.

"I'm trying to-"

"HANDS UP!"

Jeremiah fell back down onto something soft and warm, as his apparent savior's hands went up in surrender. Still not quite in his right mind, he held up a hand, trying to let whoever it was that had just shown up that they could stop, but he still only mumbled nonsensically, his brain not understanding what his soul was trying to say.

"Just from what I can see, he probably has a concussion, and his armor's so damaged it's starting to cut into him.", the woman right above him said, "I'm the best field medic you could ask for. Let me help him."

"Why would you-?"

"Simple. Because, live or die, I don't wanna be in someone else's debt if I can help it. He saved my life, now I wanna save his, that way we're square. Now get me out of these damn cuffs."

At this point Jeremiah was starting to get even more out of it, trying to stop confusing himself further by listening in on the conversation. Faintly, though, the voices continued coming through the haze.

"Hell n-"

"If you want him to live, I need both my hands, now."

"Here. This better not be a trick."

"Maybe it is. Maybe I'll sneak an explosive into one of his wounds and use him as leverage for my escape."

"And maybe our men overseas will burn that precious ancestral home of yours back in England to the ground the second you're "free". You wanna live? Quit threatening me and help him."

"...Let me make sure he's stable enough so that we can move him, then we need to get him out of this mud."

He felt a faint prick in the side of his neck, before dreams of those he'd long since lost again consumed him.

When the old man was finally okay to move, Vic wrapped his arms across his chest and put her arms beneath his torso, picking up his top half while her mysterious ambusher carried the other. They quickly began moving towards the fort she'd been sent to raid, and Vic quickly asked her counterpart how she knew about her home.

"Because I'm a Paladin of The King of Outlaws. It's our job to know everything about his enemies, potential or otherwise."

"The King of Outlaws, huh?"

"The title was given, not just made up."

"Hm. Yeah, that totally makes it normal."

"Not ten minutes ago, you were happily working side-by-side with a pedophile who used toys to kill people. Don't talk to me about normal."

"...Touché."

Rose and Alexi had already met back up with their scouts, and were surrounding the larger village. It had more or less the look Alexi had suspected, with the old moonshiner shacks having been converted into barracks and storehouses. The tiny dockyard had a few speedboats, but the main way of getting to and from Gotham's shores lay in wait in the center point of the target area: a small helipad.

According to their men, they were outnumbered three-to-one, but Sionis's boys didn't have anything that could counter their superior equipment and training.

They were, however, on high alert, putting the element of all-out surprise off the table.

Masked sentries patrolled in and around the village, and a long line of unarmed ones carried crates full of what Alexi assumed were various drugs and/or valuables to the helicopter in case of attack.

Alexi wanted to just start lobbing their explosives into the zone, thin out the herd a little, but Rose was his superior, and she had decided for more subtle approach, not wanting to risk any civilian casualties in case their masks somehow weren't picking up the full scope of the place.

He thought she was overthinking things, but could defiantly see the wisdom in caution.

According to Rose's plan, their men, broken into teams of two, would quietly kill those outside the village, plant explosives on the boats after each one had been thoroughly searched, then quickly form up into quads of four before moving in, going shack to shack eliminating hostiles, while making sure that any civilians present didn't get caught up in their crossfire.

At that point, Rose and Alexi would rush the helipad. Rose would disable the aircraft's main and tail rotors before it could get off-ground, while Alexi would clear it's cabin of targets.

Relatively solid plan, provided nothing went wrong.

Which it will.

"You worry too much.", Rose said, kneeling beside him in foliage.

"You're one to talk."

Rose was monitoring their men and Alexi monitored the enemy comms while their men initiated step one: disabling the perimeter guards. Without a hitch, their boys pulled it off one patrol at a time, checking in when they each met the individual quotas.

A few close calls, but nothing serious.

"Nice work so far. Move on to the docks.", Rose whispered in their ears.

The Outlaws moved around the village, carefully avoiding any other patrols, until they finally made it to the small "dockyard". Killing the two guards on watch there, four men stayed outside on watch, while four others searched each boat, amounting to twenty-four men in all.

Again, a few close calls, but it was still done quietly and smoothly enough.

Alexi and Rose were preparing to run out of the brush and make their mad dash straight for the helipad, right through enemy territory, as Rose gave the final command.

Instantly, gunshots rang out as an anticipated yet unprepared for raid started to ravage the village from the side opposite the two commanders. Letting a few seconds go by so that Sionis's men could both rush off headlong into the fight and conveniently clear a path for them, Alexi lit up his gauntlets while Rose took out her pistols.

Frying and shooting any men left around, they ran from their cover, right down a muddy main "street". Rose and he were seconds away from the now starting helicopter, when it finally, as he'd known it would, turned to shit, and a hulking figure appeared in the helo's open doorway.

From the shadowy cabin, two glowing red eyes made contact with theirs, as the form they belonged to stepped out into the afternoon sun, it's hunched posture becoming straightened as it's ginormous frame came into full view. Standing taller, and buffer than any man could, the android's head stopped just shy of the rotor blades now spinning just above it. With the robot's orange skin, green "uniform", and enormous widow's peak, the machine's make was unmistakable. But, as they always did when first activated, the bot plainly stated it while it checked it's internals for damage as it mockingly pretending to crack it's knuckles.

"Amazo, Model IV, online."

The two were still frozen still, when they heard a voice they both instantly recognized shout from within the helicopter's cabin.

"AMAZO, ATTACK!", the Boss of Bosses in Gotham City cried out. Roman Sionis himself, assistant and all, was there. They'd almost had him without even knowing it. But, thanks to his tin soldier, their shot was now gone.

Alexi didn't have much time to lament their missed opportunity, however, he was too busy fighting to stay alive. The second Sionis's command had been given, the bot leaped for them, the two narrowly avoiding the airborne android's fists.

The chopper lifted off into the sky, Sionis personally closing the sliding door, while Alexi and Rose were using every ounce of energy they had to stay alive. Their men were keeping the attention of The Masks, at least, but beyond that they couldn't do much. The few rounds they tried to put in the damn thing just pinged of it's metal hide, not making a single dent.

"Any advice? Jason never told me about how to fight these things!", Alexi shouted as he dodged blow after blow, each one a few inches from connecting.

Rose kicked the thing's false spinal column, throwing it off by just an second, allowing Alexi to throw himself between it's legs and regroup with her while shouting, "Yes, he did, you ignor-!"

"Whatever, tell me something I can-!", he screamed back as the bot turned and fired a beam of light across the tow of them that his personal shield could hardly absorb in time to stop it from slicing him in half.

The more agile Rose dashed forward and under said beam as she yelled back in reply, "It's an older model, no extra equipment, no previous combat experience to have learned from!"

"We're lucky, then! Weaknesses?", he yelled back as Rose managed to get close enough to jump into the air and plant her boots in it's face, each one for each eye, as she extended the blades concealed within each, catching the space between the eyes and the metallic skull.

It recoiled backwards in an attempt to throw her, which she then used to her advantage. practically standing on top of it, she hit the small buttons on each ankle of her boots, sending the blades even further inward while sending her flying. It's hands coming up, failing to catch her, and then falling behind it's head, The Amazo caught itself midfall and it's eyes started glowing, about to roast her alive, when the explosives at the end of each blade finally ended their three-second countdown, the thing's face exploding in dual shaped charges.

It's head enveloped in smoke, the bot stood back up, it's hands clutching it's robotic face. When the smoke cleared, it's jaw was hanging on by one hinge, eyes both wrecked and faceplate almost completely gone, exposed circuits coming loose.

"There's one!"

"Got it!", he yelled back as he charged the machine that now faced him, gauntlets surging with a dangerously high overcharge of electricity. Only a couple feet away, he leaped into the air, hands both open, miniature lightning bolts crackling from his palms. To stop the goliath from just crushing him like a beer can, Rose shot her twin wrist-mounted Johyo into the thing's elbows, both going clean through the slits in the thing's metallic flesh and getting caught in the inner joints. She then used her suit's internal low-grade gravity matrix to ground her in place, thus preventing it's arms from coming forward in defense, provided it couldn't break the mechanism her suit used to control her Johyo.

When they made contact, Alexi planted his boots in the machine's chest and held on to it's busted face as hard as he could, the android doing it's best to toss him off, flinging it's neck and upper body around and it's legs bucking wildly in an attempt to throw him. All it managed to do was put itself on it's back as the circuits within it slowly fried.

It's battery core overloading, the bot's last failsafe activated, and it's artificial chest cavity exploded like a shaped charge, Alexi physically recoiled in pain as the blast rocketed into and around him, but still, he never let go. He didn't let go until it's head went lifeless in his hands, it's limbs falling limp shortly thereafter. His armor screaming in his ear, his head ringing and heart pounding, Alexi stood victorious over the Amazo's remains.

A victory well earned, but not one he would get to revel in.

For as he caught his breath and raised his head, he saw that their men were firing at Sionis's helicopter, which had apparently been circling around the treeline surrounding the village. Before he could ponder what the maniac was doing, he saw a complex-looking square cube drop from the helicopter, which his HUD instantly identified for him as an Amazo Mark III container.

"Oh great. He's got more of these fucking-...Men! Form up in town, use the shacks for cover. Rose, can you take that thing down? My suit's practically fried, I can't-."

Rose, who had also just noticed what Sionis was up to, shook her head while she replied, "No...I...stupid, I was trying to take that thing down fast, I didn't...Damnit!"

"It's fine, let's find some cover before-"

"You wanna hide from killer robots that shoot blasts of pure sunlight from their eyes...in wood shacks?"

"Well...what else can we do? Come-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the helicopter stopped circling and began flying back to Gotham proper, all the Amazos apparently now on the field. Sionis himself actually leaned out and gave them a half-hearted salute as he flew away, quickly getting back in before any of their more accurate shots could manage to catch him. As Alexi looked around, he could see the bots' eyes start glowing in synch as their men regrouped around them. One of their newer recruits, Graham, flat out asked Alexi as they looked around, seeing the dozens of glowing red eyes charging up in unison, if they could do anything about it.

As Alexi answered "No.", their salvation arrived in the form of ginormous vines which erupted from the ground all along the wall of metal men preparing to annihilate them all. Hundreds, thousands of them, some as wide as trees, burst from the grass, grew from the bark the Amazos had been surrounded by, quickly consuming each one. They all looked around for a culprit, finding her as Jason, Poison Ivy, Killer Croc and Solomon Grundy came into view, Jason and Pamela carried by plants, Solomon and Waylon by their immense strength.

Alexi chuckled.

"Get back to securing the site men, the boss's got those ublyudki."

Ivy looked to her companions, obviously straining to keep the various bots in place.

"I can keep them still, you have to go get rid of them!"

"Already on it.", Jason replied, already hacking into the various bots via his suit's mainframe using the backup he'd designed using Lex's notes on their construction by Ivo. A few seconds later he was in, and immediately activated the self-destruct sequences for most of them, the few left alive having been, in a way, "jailbroken". Ivy sensed them growing hotter, and threw them into the air before they could blast apart, aiming a couple at Sionis.

"Little head's up next time?!"

"Sorry. And try not to kill Roman, otherwise The Joker'll take over Gotham in his place, and then we'll have a shitshow on our hands."

"Got it! Grundy, Croc, I'll keep the rest down, can you-."

Before either of them turned back, the other two members of their small team had already left, Croc going left and Grundy going right at they slowly picked through the remains of the battleground, ripping the Amazos still active to shreds.

Their men similarly mopping up the remains of Sionis's little village, it seemed the battle was finally done, and they had won a landslide victory. They'd only lost three men, based on the info that Jason's heartbeat sensor array was feeding him, and Sionis was flying away in defeat, to lament the money he'd just wasted and lick his metaphorical wounds back in The Hill.

As he watched that helicopter fly back to the city, Alexi and Rose had made their way to his position, between the path back to Site A and the southern outskirts of Site B. Rose and he shared a hug, both just glad they'd made it out the other side once again, while Alexi took in the sight of Pamela. She just smirked.

Men.

"So...are they with us now?"

"I don't know, I don't think they're exactly convinced yet."

"I will be if you can find that book."

"Book?", Alexi interjected.

"An ancient tome of spells written in Sanskrit."

"If your fancy book is here, Jamila, it will be found. You have my word.", the Russian said as he took an exaggerated bow, then quickly storming off on his new quest to impress.

Ivy, who was still half-struggling to keep a handful of still-active death bots restrained, again laughed as she looked back to Jason and Rose.

"So...how are we planning on getting out of here?"

Coming over his comms, Liam responded, though Ivy couldn't hear him.

"Ah-em...You called?"

Jason nearly started telling her about the ship, but interrupting him, was the ship herself. Now between Paris Island and their position, the three had a full view as Es Securus, a massive battleship of incredible design, The Scourge of The Black Sea, partially let down it's cloaking field for just a few seconds as it slowed about half a mile out from shore, stopping fully as they took in the sight, small transport boats already on their way out.

"Excellent timing, Liam. Status report on Buck?"

"Jeremiah appears to have been injured, but his heart's still going strong so the docs don't think it's too serious...but we're picking up a distress beacon coming from Site C, so-"

"We should get a move on."

"Exactly."

"Got it.", he said, clicking off his comms.

He looked to Ivy, "If we can't find your book for...whatever reason, at least let us take you back to the mainland."

"Sure. Consider it our payment for your rescue."

Soon enough, Alexi kinda bitter that he couldn't find the book Ivy'd been after, they'd boarded Es Securus. While Alexi had his suit fixed and the men decompressed, mourning the dead below, Ivy, Croc, Grundy, Rose, and Jason rode at the front of the deck as the ship closed in on Mooney Island, dusk now starting to settle in as the large island slowly came into view.