Getting a call from Aquaman was always a surprise. Usually more bad than good but a surprise all the same. Despite being a member of the League he still mostly kept to himself, rarely showing up at all in the last few years. Perhaps the League's growing transparency with the U.S government made him feel threatened. Either way, Batman really had no right to judge him. He couldn't exactly call himself a people person.
"What do you think he wants?" Wonder Woman asked setting the Javelin down onto a custom made Atlantean landing pad.
"Whatever it is, it can't be good." Batman replied stepping out of the Javelin and onto the Atlantean architecture. Wonder Woman followed suit accompanied but a small squad of Atlantean guards who escorted them to the palace. It was still a sight to behold if he were still being honest with himself. A brilliant mix of classical architecture and futuristic technology that made the Atlanteans feared and respected both throughout the ancient world and the mondern. They found the king himself sitting on his throne staring down at the newcomers with an ever present look of annoyance.
"Took you long enough to get here." The king snapped at the surface dwellers.
"Sorry, busy day." Wonder Woman replied, not appreciating the tone. She and Arthur never did get a long so that was the nicest reply he was gonna get from her and he knew it so he turned his attention to Batman.
"What is it Arthur?" He asked in his usual grim tone.
"I'm hoping you can tell me." Aquaman replied motioning for the to follow as he walked away from his throne and left the throne room all together. Their journey didn't take long and after a flight of stairs and several hallways, they arrived at a large room filled with Atlantean guards and scientists seemingly going over some rather fascinating data as their perplexed looks were from the papers they held and not towards the other heroes. The trio moved passed them quickly and came to a glassed off area of the room, guarded by a squad of about ten heavily armored Atlantean guards who stood facing the glass at all times. One of the guards turned to his king and gave a small bow.
"My lord."
"Anything new?" Aquaman asked.
"The usual." The guard replied unenthusiastically. "The surface dweller seems to have quite the vocabulary."
Bruce and Diana moved passed them to get a better look at who was the target of discussion. Inside the cell behind what was probably two or three layers of Atlantean safety glass, stood a heavily scared man clothed only in a ragged pair of black pants. His hair a joyless shade of grey and and sporting two strange purple eyes that seemed fixated on the chains that held him to the floor. His mouth was moving constantly which confused Wonder Woman.
"Is he talking to someone."
"See for yourself." Aquaman replied pressing a button in the side of the wall. Just as the man pulled on his chains in a main attempt to escape.
"GOD DAMN IT! MOTHERFUC…"
The audio cut back out as his words doubtless continued on. Wonder Woman fought off attempt to smile at the man's immaturity. "He isn't exactly charming is he?"
"Not in the slightest." Aquaman replied walking up beside her. "We found him earlier today inside an Atlantean temple. When my soldiers moved to engage, he fought them off. Shattering their bones in a feat of strength that's beyond the average surface dweller. Not quite as strong as say you or me but a fierce warrior nonetheless."
"Than why doesn't he look more bruised up?" Diana asked noticing that none of the scars the man had on his chest, or arms seemed fresh and he was half the warrior Aquaman seemed to make him out to be, she'd figured there would be fresher marks.
"He's a quick healer." Aquaman explained. "Add to that, he just sort of collapsed in the middle of our fight. My guess is he was more tired from something else rather than fighting."
"Hm. What do you think…" She turned to her compatriot who wasn't there but rather right next to the glass. "Batman?"
The caped crusader seemed to have ignored the conversation entirely, moving towards the glass that separated him from Aquaman's prisoner, glaring out towards him in the way he often did when he locked eyes with some violent punk who didn't know any better. When his eyes met Hidan's though, he didn't see anything that resembled just a punk. He wasn't scared, angry sure, but not scared. Not in the slightest. Hidan's outbursts quieted down when he took notice of Batman's glare and took issue with it.
"See something you like, jackass?" Hidan yelled out towards the dark didn't respond, surprising no one but sending Hidan into another annoyed frenzy. "You're just asking for it. I'm not good enough for you to talk to or something?"
Batman remained his typical stoic self taking note of the man's rather animalistic movements. Not that they resembled any animal in particular, but in just but in how erratic they were. His paces, his pulling on the chains, his blinking even. Their was just something off about all of it and it gave him the impression that this man wasn't quite human.
"Ohh, the silent treatment. New's flash jackass, all that does is piss me off more!" Hidan yelled out, spitting across his prison cell. Splashing right on the glass where Batman's face was. Once again not getting a rise out of him, Hidan's eyes peaked over to the woman who accompanied him. He quickly laughed at the sight of her garb.
"I think that one's for you." Aquaman said over to Diana. A slight twitch of her eye displayed her annoyance. "Can he hear us?"
"Now he can." Aquaman replied pressing another button. Wonder Woman moved towards the glass.
"Who are you?" She asked. Hidan, surprised by the voices, replied immediately.
"Who the fuck are you?" He asked right back. " Did the blonde bastard decide to give me some company or something?"
Diana's eyes narrowed in annoyance, but she continued. "No. We're trying to help you. Just tell us who you are and we can….."
"Who the fuck am I?!" He yelled out pulling his chains once again. "Bitch, I'm Hidan! Now let me out of here!"
Diana sighed and clenched her fist. Did the man not realize who they were or where he was? Or was he just an asshole? A gut feeling told her both.
"You attacked Atlantis. Nearly killed my men. "Aquaman called out to the Jashinist. "You're not going anywhere."
"Oh, the blonde bastard speaks at last!" Hidan turning his gaze towards the king. "Well, listen to me harpoon hand, you can take your shitty guards and shove them up your ass! It's gonna feel like candy compared to what I'm gonna do to you when I get out of here."
Aquaman's only reply was a sigh before a twisted smile stretched across the prisoner's face.
"Or maybe I could have a nice chat with the redhead you were with….."
That got a reaction. Arthur's eyes narrowed and a rather dark scowl took over his face. "I've heard enough." He growled out. "Open it."
"Arthur….." Diana placed a hand on his shoulder to try and calm him
"No one threatens my family, Diana." Aquaman replied brushing it away. "No one."
The glass slid open and Hidan let out a laugh as Arthur marched in. "C'mon! Let's just see you try that aga- Gah!
A particularly strong punch smashed into Hidan's mouth, knocking him to the ground and putting him out like a light.
"Learn to shut him up." Aquaman staring down at the now prone Hidan.
"Brilliant. Except now he can't talk to us." Batman told him coldly as Aquaman moved back towards them.
"Look, you got a good enough impression of him." Aquaman defended. "So he ring any bells or not?"
"I can put his name in the data base and see what pops up. But I don't recognize him." Diana said crossing her arms.
"And more importantly, he didn't recognize us." Batman replied.
"What are you getting at?" She asked.
"Despite his hostile nature, his body language suggested he was confused. We may be dealing with an accidental teleportation."
"Accidentally teleporting into Atlantis? That doesn't sound like a bit of a stretch to you?" Wonder Woman asked raising an eyebrow.
"What is anymore?" Batman asked right back to the Amazon. She had to give him that. "The point is, I don't' think he was sent here to kill Arthur or anyone else….."
"Batman?" The familiar voice of the Wayne butler rang through his cowl.
"What is it?" Bruce asked back.
As Alfred explained the situation, Wonder Woman noticed a few drops of crimson dripping down from Aquaman's only hand.
"Hit him too hard?" She asked over to him.
He looked down towards the cut and brushed it off. "Must've just caught it on a tooth of his."
"Batgirl and Robin seem to be under the impression that you've been taken hostage by one of Penguin's goons."
"What?" Batman asked right back.
As Jacob sat quietly in the bathroom handcuffed to a pipe of a newly refurbished sink, h began to wonder where exactly he was on the grief ladder right now. He couldn't exactly be angry, Penguin hadn't exactly kept his hatred for rats a secret. Panic? No that came and went when they first found him out. Acceptance? Well he still didn't want to die, let alone get eaten by a shark so that was a no. Bargaining, might work. He had talked himself out of bad situations before, so there was still hope on some end that he could come to some sort of arrangement with one of his captors. One of which was a medium sized man who he had never gotten along with and the other a big bastard who knew to keep his mouth shut and follow orders...Maybe he could do it.
"Hey…." He started
"Shut it rat." The smaller replied with annoyed edge.
"You know, my dad was a stock broker." Jacob continued.
"Jesus, Jacob. Can't you just spend your last minutes in respectful silence? This point you're just begging for him to hit you." The big guard said.
"I'm about to be fed to a shark!" Jacob yelled back. "God forbid, I try to weasel some way out of it."
"Then you shouldn't have been a rat." The other guard replied turning around to stare at him. "Or at the very least, told Cobblepot who you're working for. It might've been a bit quicker."
"Thanks Jerry, I could always count on you to be a Wayne tower sized prick."
Before Jerry could do anything to respond to the insult, a door opened up revealing another gun toting henchmen.
"Jerry, you gotta see this."
"What?"
"Cobblepot's caught the Batman."
Jerry's eyes widened to dinner plates and a smile the likes of which Jacob had never seen appeared.
"You're serious?"
"Hell yeah!" The new guy replied practically beaming. "He's taking him to Brutus right now. Let's go see who he is before he's fish food."
Jerry bolted out of that room faster that Jacob had ever seen. Pushing past the new guy who quickly followed suit. Leaving the door wide open and leaving Jacob alone with just one guard.
"You not going Wallace?" Jacob asked to his big former associate hoping he would follow Jerry out of the room.
Wallace sighed. "Jacob, you know Cobblepot will have my ass if I leave you here."
"Yeah, but we played poker together. Surely you'd be fine with…." Jacob stopped when he saw Wallace slowly shake his head.
"C'mon man. I'm not risking my life and paycheck for you. If I actually thought you had some cash on ya we could talk but like you said, we played poker together."
Jacob's hope faded with those words and he drooped his head. He had to get stuck with one of the few not so asshole-ish people in Penguin's gang. Figures. Was that acceptance now? Was he finally on that one? He pulled the cuffs against the pipe, trying desperately to somehow will himself super strength. No, he'd stick with bargaining right up until it killed him.
"Gather round boys. Gather round." Penguin called out to his encoming soldiers. Twenty to thirty now came into the big empty room each one looking like Christmas had come early. "We've got ourselves a Batman."
Batman himself now sat up against a the outer wall of a large pool of salt water his hands cuffed behind him and still sporting his signature cape and cowl. His eyes were shut and his heart rate low telling everyone there that the beating he must've gotten from K, had been a brutal one. Whispers of disbelief rumbled through the crowd. That couldn't actually be him could it? The mythical Batamn, caught and unconscious just waiting to be killed.
"I know that a few of you are surprised. And hell I'll level with you, so am I." Penguin called out to a wave of minor laughs. "Batman himself, sitting here like a damned daisy just waiting to be plucked. I won't be pissed if you want to rub your eyes." He picked pointed to the unconscious knight. " But here me now boys. It's true! And I think we're all owed a little vengeance against the freak!"
A chorus of loud "yeahs" and approving yells rang out from the group giving Penguin all he needed to walk towards Batman without any hesitation in his step. "And I'm sure you all know Brutus here has quite the appetite when it comes to freaks." Penguin laughed clapping his hand on the pool's outer wall. He sneered towards the fifteen foot Tiger shark inside who swam inside eying the prey that sat outside. With another snarl of pleasure, he bent down to a knee. "But first, let's just see who the bastard was that caused us so much trouble!"
His hand stretched out towards the legendary cowl that held the identity of his enemy for so many years. He could feel sweat drip down the side of his head, eagerly waiting to see the bastard's face. It was almost too good to be true.
Which naturally, meant that it wasn't.
The second his hand touched the cowl, The white slits that covered Batman's eyes vanished. Revealing a pair of blood red orbs that peered right into Cobblepot's soul. Not a second later, Batman exploded in a fantastic showing of white smoke filling the room. Within moments, the sounds of Cobblepot's agonized screams filled the room and his thugs began to draw their guns.
Then the lights went out.
"Since the nineteen eighties?" Sasori asked towards his masked associate, he placed his newly empty shot glass on a nearby table. Kakazu's hand pulled back from the assortment of switches in a box labeled "POWER".
"Yeah pretty much. Nineteen eighty five I think." He sighed.
Sasori curled a finger under his chin. "And you never looked for any of us?"
"I did at first. Just sort of gave up after a while." Kakazu explained. "Not exactly profitable to waste money on finding people you're not sure ended up in the same place."
Sasori tilted his head in understanding. Kakazu had always prioritized money over anything else. The bounty hunter sighed yet again looking around the room Sasori himself had been in just a few moments ago. "I never understood why you'd put the power box in your private room. I'd look in a broom closet somewhere and have people watching it twenty four seven."
Sasori raised an eyebrow. "Strange you never opened an enterprise yourself, I haven't been here as long as you, but I know there's plenty of money to be made in a variety of things."
Kakazu rubbed the back of his neck with a shrug. "I tried a few times, here and there. But things never seemed to work out."
A door creaked open a few feet away from them and Sasori's eyes narrowed.
"Maldito Penguino….." Grumbled a large, familiar looking man whom he had just played cards with. Bane's eyes immediately locked on to the two other occupants in the room. Especially the one he hadn't seen previous. "K….."
Kakazu's eyes didn't narrow like Sasori's but they did harden like they had countless times before he'd engaged in a fight. "Bane, long time no see. How's the arm?"
"Oh, still laughing about that are you?" Bane growled out. His calm demeanor from earlier now completely gone. "I've got something you can laugh about." Bane's hands drifted towards his neck.
"Bane, perhaps we can come to an understanding." Sasori said putting up his hand to try and calm the mercenary.
"Shut your mouth Kobayashi!" Bane yelled touching something on the back of his neck. "This is personal."
Bane's already enormous frame begin to increase, his muscles and veins growing so much against his skin Sasori thought for a moment it might peel off. But it didn't and they kept growing and growing until he stood at three times the frame he had been, now dwarfing the pair of them by a a considerable amount.
"You're gonna pay for Juarez." Bane groaned, his bloodshot eyes not fully focused on Kakazu.
" Juarez?" Kakazu asked back smiling under his mask and cracking his knuckles. "What about Istanbul or Hong Kong?"
Bane roar of rage followed and he charged towards his prey only to find his prey not backing down in the slightest. Sasori for his part wisely leaped out of the way before the pair clashed and made a beeline for the door. He slammed it behind him just in time to block the poker table from flying into him.
Sasori sighed as the sounds from behind the door only increased. He needed to get out of here.
"Transportation in thirty minutes. Couldn't have said what car it was or anything useful could?" He thought as he made his way back out towards the casino floor. With any luck, that brawl would be over quickly and Kakazu could come out and join him as they wait for Itachi. Everything could still go off without a hitch.
Then the lights went out through the entire Lounge.
"Yeah it wasn't him." Tim explained over to Barbara. "He's in Atlantis right now."
"Great, which means some jackass dressed as Batman just got…." Her words stopped in her throat as the every neon sign and light that covered the Lounge faded to darkness and murmurs of confusion from the crowd below made their way to her ears.
"Well, that can't be good." Tim said walking up next to her. The pair shared a nod and leapt off the side, intent on figuring out what's going on. Unfortunately their investigation was cut short when two men came crashing through the Lounge building and onto the street beside them narrowly missing a few parked cars. Batgirl's eyes widened when she recognized one of them as the man who had broken Batman's back years ago. She pulled Tim away from that man and a little closer to the other who had crashed just beside a small Cadillac. She was almost certain he was dead until he heard a groan of… mild annoyance? The man picked himself back up and stared at the pair that he now towered over.
"Watch it kids." Kakazu warned before facing his foe who also stood up a few feet away. Bane roared and picked up a large limousine over his head, launching towards them. Kakazu charged and leapt to meet it in the air smashing into the limo with his full body and causing it to explode in a spectacular showing of orange and red.
"What's with that guy?" Robin asked.
"No idea." Batgirl admitted. Perhaps it was some new hero she just hadn't heard of yet but something about the man told her other wise. "He could be from the League."
"No, I mean he's the guy who took in the Batman lookalike." Robin yelled back. Batgirl looked back to the fight with renewed confusion. Why was Bane fighting him then? Was it a pride thing? A contract? Either way, the new seemed to be a match for Bane so that freed them up to get back inside and search for the Batman lookalike. One look at all the escaping patrons of the Lounge through the main entrance told them they'd be better off going through the hole Bane had made.
Itachi almost pitied the poor fools. He didn't know who this Batman was but they must've instilled a great amount of fear into their souls. Almost everyone one of them screamed at the top of their lungs once the lights went out and muttered about Batman's history of breaking their bones and spirits. That's where the almost came in. They really should've found different professions if Batman consistently achieves victory.
"FIND HIM! FIND THE BASTARD!" One particular voice rang out. "He broke my freakin' hand!"
Why was it crime bosses always cried the loudest when hurt? Doesn't really set a good example. But maybe that's just him.
One particular bullet whizzed by echoing through the rafters on impact and bringing Itachi back to reality. Right, time to get take them out. With his Sharingan piercing through the darkness, he grabbed a handful each of shuriken and kunai just as a few of the smarter men below finally pulled out some flashlights.
Just as the first powered on, it's owner fell to the ground crying in pain. A kunai knife embedded in his chest right above his heart. The action set off a hail of bullets up towards the rafters and Itachi took it as time to test his agility. Dancing through the gun fire as if he were the dark knight himself, Itachi leapt from rafter to rafter. Throwing down a kunai or shurikan every chance he got and each one finding its mark in his enemy's chest. One by one each man fell to the ground crying in pain before falling silent save for breathing.
"You're gonna want to be careful with those by the way." He thought back to an exchange of words he had with Sasori. "I had them specially coated in a paralyzing agent. Slightest cut and you're done for at least a twenty four hours. Though I'm sure that doesn't matter to you."
It was a welcomed add on. He could afford to be less lethal and just as effective. Three more shurikan glided through the air and found their targets. That made twenty by now. He was making good time, but he couldn't see Jacob anywhere. A part of him wondered if they were too late, so he looked back to the shark pool and saw Brutus still swimming around, very eager for something meaty to fall into his hunting grounds.
"The thing about sharks is, you can always tell when they've eaten by how skittish they are. The more excited, the more hungry. Always remember that if you go swimming."
He'd really have to thank Kisame for that little speck of knowledge if he ever saw him again. With a nod of farewell to the still hungry Brutus, he leapt down to the ground and swiftly began to cut his way through the rest of the thugs in his way.
Once the lights had gone out, Wallace had immediately pulled out a flashlight and put it against Jacob's face as if he were Batman.
"Jesus Wallace, I'm still here!" Jacob yelled out annoyed.
Wallace after a sigh pulled away and put the light up against the door. "Sorry, can't too careful." He pointed his shotgun up towards the door, dropping the flashlight just as the sounds of gunfire and running footsteps could be heard just a few feet beyond it. A few more seconds of that chaos and then silence save for a single pair of footsteps that stopped just outside the door. It creaked open at first worrying both Jacob and Wallace as to who it was before Wallace glimpsed a familiar pair of red eyes.
"Itachi?" Wallace asked. Itachi blinked in surprise at the sight of the man he had met yesterday.
"Wallace, good to see you." He said giving the man a small smile that seemed far more creepy then it was meant to with the light on the ground still illuminating it. He slipped a pair of sharp blades back into a pack strapped to his leg.
"What the hell's going on?" Wallace asked lowering his gun slightly. "What are you doing here?"
"Rescuing him."Itachi pointed to Jacob. Wallace turned to his captive who just shook his head signaling he didn't know what was going on.
"Paul and Frank went looking for you after you vanished. Glad to see you're ok." Wallace said with a laugh.
"You too. Now let's go." Itachi said walking past him and towards the chained up Jacob.
"C'mon dude, exactly how are you going to get these things off….." Jacob's voice slowed to a stop with a quickl slash from Itachi's kunai went right through the cuffs. Jacob's eyes blazed back and forth from the cuffs to Itachi. "Who are you again?"
"You're ticket out of here. Wallace, let's get to the roof." Itachi ordered. Wallace had himself a laugh.
"Itachi, c'mon I can't just let you leave with this rat right?"
Itachi raised an eyebrow at the idea of some actual loyalty to Cobblepot and decided to test it."I know a man who will pay thrice what penguin is."
His test proved him right.
"Let's go." Wallace replied moving past the two. "Cobblepot's got an elevator for private guests of his just down the hall."
"So just to be clear, you don't believe I could've paid you, but this red eyed ninja barges in and you buy it?" Jacob asked following behind Wallace as Itachi covered the rear.
"What? I had dinner with him. Big difference from poker." Wallace explained sneaking a few looks back down the way Itachi had come and seeing what he guessed was probably about a dozen prone bodies. "Exactly what do you do again Itachi?" He asked. Itachi shrugged his shoulders as if to say "a lot of things". The three arrived at a small elevator at the end of the hallway. With the press of a button the doors lid open and the trio stepped in.
"So exactly what's on the roof?" Jacob asked still not entirely sure if this situation was real or if he had just fallen asleep back in the room.
"I'm not entirely sure." Itachi admitted. "My friend mentioned something called a helicopter."
Wallace and Jacob looked over to eachother each with questions burning through thier minds before sighing in unison.
A/N: So, yeah. This one took a bit longer than I thought it would to get out. Sorry about that, the next one shouldn't be as long. But hopefully you've liked this one all the same and I can't wait to read your thoughts.
See ya later.