Chapter 9
Firefly
"Talia, Jericho. We have a situation. GCPD have found multiple hostages on the pioneer's bridge through Surveillance. The suspect is airborne with jet-pack and is carrying a flamethrower." That was Bruce informing the Al Ghuls on their earpieces about a new problem at hand. They just got back to the topside and was trying to figure how to stop Bane without having to exposing their identities.
"Firefly. He must not know that Harley is behind bar and he's taking hostage to get to us." Jericho said in realization of who the suspect is. As if there wasn't enough of this shit going on tonight. Great.
He rubbed his forehead to keep his frustration, he really just wished this night to end right now. But now wasn't the time to think like that. "Who's the Officer in charge?"
"Lt. Anderton, Gordon and Bullock are on another case." Batman answered "Meet me at Sheldon Park I'll explain more when you get there."
"Got it." he and Talia left the bowery and headed down to the Sheldon park where he was waiting for them.
"What's the situation?"
"Anderton is about to send her men to save the hostages at Pioneer but I'm afraid that she'll send them to her a death trap."
"What do you mean, beloved?" Talia asked,
"I hacked into the Firefly's communications and listened to a conversation between him and one of his henchmen. They placed bombs all over the bridge. He said he'd detonate them if any officer steps a foot on the Pioneers Bridge." Batman explained,
"Fantastic." Jericho muttered, "Any bright ideas?"
"I got one." He replied as he pressed a button on his arm computer computer calling out the BatPlane.
"Oracle, change of plans. Firefly got hostages on Pioneer's Bridge. We need to deal with him before we get back." Jericho told her
"What!" Barbara exclaimed in disbelief, "You can't! Not after what we just learned!"
"I know that. But I can't take that risk. He's doing this for bounty. Once he's dealt with, we'll heading back."
Firefly was having a blast as he blew the cars on the bridge with his flamethrower, he enjoyed the smell of burning flesh and the fireworks are off the charts! Oh, he is so enjoying this! he'll probably post it on Youtube if he had a camera with him. he cackled manically just thinking about it.
Just then an bat shaped aircraft came by and flung past him barley. He grinned under his mask knowing whose plane was it. He tapped into his earpiece to inform his men.
"Listen up, the bat gang are here. If any of those stinkin' pigs steps a foot on this bridge, set the timers. We'll blow all them to hell!" he then took off chasing the plane.
"We don't have much time. If we warn Anderton right now, she wont give her men the breaching order." Batman stated as they were on a rooftop in the lower east section on the bridge. The jumped down to a pavement where there was a front door to maintenance room. They entered the room and saw Anderton in phone talking to her daughter Rebecca.
"I know, sweetie. Just stay at home, it's for your own good. I'll be back once the Firefly is dealt with. Love you too." she hung up and turned around to see them. "Well, I was wondering when you're gonna show up."
"Don't send your men in. Firefly has the bridge rigged with explosives."
"What?" she asked confused, bombs? There weren't any reports about bombs
"Bravo 2, Command. We're in position How should we proceed?" an officer said on a handheld transceiver on a table. Anderton went to answer it.
"Proceed with caution You have a go." Jericho snatched the radio receiver away from her, That was not they wanted to hear.
"Call your men back! He'll trigger the bombs if he sees any uniforms on the bridge."
"I am the commanding officer, you aren't. you know what Garfield's trying to collect the bounty on your head. " she reminded snatching it back, That statement was going to back and haunt her when the officer she spoke to called for help.
"Bravo 2 command, requesting back up!"
"Officer Mendez, report!" she commanded,
"I told ya, Lt. Anderton. The only ones I want settling their foot on this bridge is the Bat Family." Firefly said, "Test me again and things might not bone well for… officer Mendez is it!"
"Anyone have eyes on Mendez!"
"Negative, command." Bravo 2 reported
"Bugger." She cursed; then turned around to the vigilantes, "Alright, you said Firefly planted bombs. Elaborate."
"Come on, Jeri. We're gonna miss your mother if we don't hurry." Shawn and Jericho ran towards the sidewalk near the City Hall where a group of activist were protesting against Mayor Hill regarding the release of Mob boss Salvatore Maroni, the head of Maroni crime family who was and the allegedly accusation of him and Maroni working together along with Commissioner Loeb. His mom was a leader of an activist group that fights for justice and integrity in 10 years ever since he was kid.
"Geez, excited much, Shawn?" he asked sarcastically
"We want Hill gone!" the group declared, holding signs that expressed their feelings about their Mayor and it had some interesting words to describe, like Rot in Hell, Pig Hill etc. the usual. "We want Hill Gone!"
"Ms. Brown and her idealists are on my back again. That's the third time this month." He sighed in frustration, rubbing his forehead as he watched the group from the window of his office, "I don't like this, Gillian. Ever since the bat freak showed up, he started to become a pain in the ass. The city council is starting to show doubts. Starting to look into things. If they find out about election…"
"Relax Hamilton, you worry too much about this. it won't happen. Besides, the bat freak had his 15 minutes of fame and at Christmas, he'll be finished." Gillian declared,
"You sound like you know something, Gillian." He stated, turning around to the commissioner,
"I just had a call from Sionis and well… I can't go into details but rest assured he's got a very special Christmas present for Batman." He revealed
"It better be a good one. Maroni is breathing down my neck." he hissed, "What should we do about the idealists?"
"I sent Branden to take care of it. it will be over soon."
"Alright, kids, you had fun." Branden ordered as he and his swat Team came by and tried to calm the situation down but their presence only infuriated
"Fuck off, Branden. Don't you have a paycheck to pick up from Black Mask?" Melanie said,
"Hey, watch it if I were you. Don't make me send to jail again, Ms Brown. Considering you have a son to think about." That remark earned him a slap to the face.
"How dare you?!" she exclaimed, "You pig!"
Branden chuckled, "You know for that, it just earned you a night in jail after all."
"Go to hell." One of her friends went to punch Branden in the face for the abuse of power and all hell broke loose. Suddenly it was GCPD vs the Activists and
"Mom!" Jericho called out as he tried to get to his mother who was in the all out brawl that has turned out to an riot. He tried to get to her through the crowd but it was too tight to get through and suddenly a gunshot was heard stopping the chaos. As he finally came through, his heart sank of what he saw in front of him. his mother, Melanie was lying on the ground with eyes looking up to the sky with a bullet hole to the head and a swat member who looked gulitridden of what he just done like
"Mom!" he howled in sorrow.
"How many bombs are on this bridge?!" Jericho questioned as he held one of Firefly's thugs from ledge, the thug was on the edge of diving all the way to the sea water. After Batman explaining to Lt Anderton about the bombs and hostages, she gave them a 30 minute time limit to find the bombs before she gave her men the breaching order. They got to the boiler room by the elevator and walked through the corridor outside where they entered through the ventilation shaft and they discovered one bomb that was guarded with firefly's men. Once they took care of them, Jericho went to interrogate one of them.
"Four! Ugh! One here, one directly above us…. in the bridge sublevel. Two more at each end of the bridge." He told him,
"I wish you a good night then." Jericho picked the thug back up and knocked him out. During the interrogation, Batman disarmed the bomb but it wasn't without difficulties.
"First bomb is disarmed." He declared, "We should split up. Talia, you take the sublevel, Jericho and I will take each end of the bridge." Jericho and Talia nodded in agreement as Talia went to the Maintenance elevator while Batman and Jericho departed their ways to the pillars of the bridge.
Talia was now in the Train station maintenance once she stepped out of the elevator. She ascended a ladder to the upper level when the maintenance floor shook for a few seconds by an explosion from the bridge then it went back to normal. That can't be good. And her hunches were right when a GCPD Chopper reported to Lt Anderton regarding the explosion on the Police feed.
"Five Two, command. The target hit a gas main with his flamethrower. Fire in the north end." Bravo 2 reported,
"Bollocks. I'm remotely engaging the fire floor in that section to protect the hostages." Anderton declared as Talia walked towards a wooden wall. She planted explosives and got to a safe distance. Then she detonated, blowing a hole and what she saw was some of Firefly's men along with officers that were taken hostages earlier. One of the men had a knife with him. he charged at her but she grabbed his arm disarming the knife and popped it out of place. He yelled in pain, she punched him in the chest and caught a coming fist. She twisted it and broke his arm by hitting the forearm, it dislocated in two.
She tsked in disappointment, expecting more from them as she went to untie the officers. After telling them to head back to safety, she climbed up the ladder to the train station where she saw the hostages hold up in a train cart with the bomb on the rooftop. there were two men with firearms on the catwalk and two more below them. she knew that she had to take them out sliently one by one. She went to take out the two once they were separated. She then climbed up on the ledge of the catwalk shimming towards the remaining men. She jumped up bumping their heads into the railing and threw them off the catwalk.
"There's a control room. To your left, that's how they raised the train here. Lower it so we can get out!" one of the hostage told Talia,
"Stay where you are and do not leave the train until I lower it." Talia commanded and took off to the control room. She pushed the red button lowering the train. Once she done that, the hostages took off as she left the control and ran back, she ascended the ladder to the catwalk and climbed up to the rooftop where she ripped the panel open. She took out her device and hacked the panel where she fiddled with the controls to find the right password. She was down to 8 seconds when she unlocked the password. It was Nitroglycerin. Once the bomb was disabled, a explosion erupted on the bridge level. That didn't sound good at all.
"Bravo two, this is command. Report." Lt Anderton demanded,
"The source of the explosion was an oil rig. Massive damage. No casualties though." Bravo 2 informed
"Copy. Keep me informed." Anderton said,
"First bomb is disarmed, brother." Talia informed on her earpiece to her brother, "Have you located the one at the end of the bridge?"
"Yeah, but i'm occupied at the moment." Jericho replied as he spin kicked a big man in the stomach and did a flying kick to the head knocking the big man down. "But that's taken care of." He was in electric room at the South Pillar where he just beat most of Firefly's men. He seriously needs to invest in better muscle. He spotted a bomb in the corner but the fence was rigged with electricity and he knew better than to approach it. he looked anywhere for a switch few minutes before finding it. With a push of the button, he turned off the electricity and then went through the door to the bomb. He ripped open the panel and took out his cellphone. He linked up with the timer and in about five seconds, he disarmed the bomb. He chuckled of how ahead today's technology is. Thank Lucius for that.
"Oracle, the bomb at the south pillar is disarmed along with the bomb at bridge sublevel." He informed as he left the room
"Great, only one more to go." Oracle declared, "Have you heard anything from Batman?"
"I'm half way through. But there are complications." Batman answered and to prove his point, Jericho was standing in ruins of the bridge section when he spotted Firefly using his flamethrower on the top of the bridge to hit a few cars. It hit the gas tanks causing a massive explosion.
"Yeah, I figured that out." Jericho said,
"He's burning vehicles now. Half the bridge is on fire." Bravo 2 reported,
"Keep your distance. Do not provoke him." Anderton commanded,
"Affirmative, command." Bravo 2 obliged, however Firefly spotted the chopper away so he threw a set of grenades towards the tail rotor. It blasted the tail rotor off, making the chopper to lose control.
"Mayday! Mayday! We're going down. repeat, we're going.." Bravo 2 crashed into the bridge as the radio went off.
"Bollocks! Anyone have eyes on Air 1!" Anderton demanded
"Air 2 to command! That's a negative. No survivors." Air 2 informed
"Oracle, how much time do we have left?" he asked, getting a bit worried about timeline
"Five minutes. If Firefly keeps this up, Batman won't be able to make it in time to disarm the bomb." Oracle told him,
"I'll keep Firefly occupied so that Batman can get to the last bomb." He stated,,
"Jericho.."
"Don't argue with me, Barb. You know this is only way." Jericho interrupted
"Actually, I was about to say good luck."
"Oh." He said genuinely surprised of what she said as he grappled on ledge to the top of the bridge. "Thanks, darlin'."
"Be careful." She said and then the she went offline. He took a deep breath mentally preparing for what he's about to do. He came out in the open with arms spread out.
"Hey, Firefly! You want me!" he called, "Here I am!"
And right on cue, the man who was called out showed up with his remote detonator. Jericho could imagine that Firefly was excited about this. wish he could say the same thing himself.
"SO… how do you want to die?" he asked is it… quick, incinerating flash of an explosion, or a nice, Slow Burn?!" he used his flamethrower again but Jericho rolled out of the way from the fire. The fire hit some vehicles that moved a few inches.
"Harley Quinn is behind bars, there's no more prize money. Give up now, or I can make you surrender. Your call." He demanded not expecting a yes from Firefly and unsurprisingly Garfield was going to ignore the first option.
"Don't hate me. I just wanna melt your face." He said in a childlike voice which earned him a scowl from Jericho.
"Hard way it is then." Jericho thought as he took out his batclaw and fired at Firefly's hand that held the remote detonator. Firefly made a few jerks of the claw before realizing Jericho seized it up before leaping as Firefly took off to the other end of the bridge. He bumped into some trucks before putting his feet on one of the pillars restraining the arsonist while still holding the batclaw. He tried to pull the remote detonator towards him but Firefly's hand wouldn't let go of the detonator so he threw a batarang hitting his hand. It caused firefly to drop the remote detonator all the way to the bridge. He flew off the pillar rolling through his landing on an ice cream truck. He jumped off the truck once he saw an incoming fire attack. He looked around to see where the remote was and it was nowhere in sight.
"Any last words?" Firefly asked,
"Yeah, go fuck yourself." He retorted, pulling out an ice bomb and threw it at Firefly taking the arsonist off guard. he froze in spot as Jericho fired the batclaw at him dragging him towards him with everything he had. The first thing he did was to strike his air jet, causing some damage on it. He then punched firefly in face and pushed him off.
"Alright, you got me good. But let's see how you handle the heat when it's turned to Maximum!" he laughed as he fired another round from his flamethrower. Jericho rolled to the nearest cover which was a wrecked car. Thinking, he jumped out of his cover firing a remote claw to Firefly's chest. It fired a line to a oil rig, it dragged the rig to Firefly in mid air causing a explosion that left Arsonist staggered. Taking advantage of the situation, he used bat claw once again to drag Firefly to him.
"Get! Off! Me!" Firefly said as he struggled, trying to gain some altitude but he wasn't psychically strong as Jericho was. He hit firefly again and then his jet-pack, ripping some cords off. Just then he spotted the remote detonator not far from where he was.
He knew that if he couldn't get to it first, everyone on the bridge would be at the bottom of the river. He ran as fast as he could to the detonator but unfortunately Firefly beat him to it as he flew and picked up the detonator. Jericho's stomach tied knots as a horrifying thought came into his mind. He'd failed.
"Well, looks like it's a merry christmas for me!" he said in a giddy voice.
"NO!" he yelled as Firefly pressed the button and nothing happened. Confused, Firefly pressed a few times wondering why the bombs didn't go off while Jericho let out a sign of relief knowing why. Batman made it to the last bomb. he sure took his time. Getting nowhere with the detonator, he tossed it away in frustration and focused now on Jericho.
"Getting warmer!" he declared as he threw a handful of grenades to Jericho who moved away from the blast radius and jumped down to ruined bridge section down below. He grappled onto the railing. He crept on it before climbing up back to the bridge. He ran through a clear path but he stopped as a line of fire came in front of him from Firefly. He ran through the fire and jumped over a hole on the bridge. He then slide under a truck and was now out in the open again.
"Running out of places to hide!" Firefly taunted,
"I'm not lookin' to hide, glow worm." He shot back as he saw smoke coming out of firefly's jet-pack.
"Glow worm!" Firefly exclaimed offended by the nickname so, he launched an series of grenade throws on Jericho who avoided Taking advantage of the opportunity he threw another ice bomb freezing the arsonist in mid air. He fired the bat-claw and dragged firefly to him again. He this time damaged the engine big time before jumping off him.
"Time to get into his face." Jericho thought as he ducked more of Firefly's grenade, he knew that Firefly was angry at himself for not killing Jericho and anger makes you careless. So he grappled on Firefly's leg for the grand finale
"What are you doing? You just never give up do you!" he asked failing to get rid of the rope so he flew off with Jericho hot in his heels. He held on to his grapple with both hands as he was taken for a ride.
"Shit!" Jericho said as he ducked his head under a sign, that was a close call. As they went up and down at bridge, Jericho was getting closer and once he reached Firefly, he delivered a punch to the face and then destroyed the jet pack by cutting off the kerosene fuel and smashed the engine. He also cut off the propellers that was attached to his wings.
"Incoming!" Jericho announced as they bumped off some pillars before crash-landing on the ground. Once it settled, he ripped off the wings and punched Firefly just for good measure. He was defeated.
"You're toasted, Garfield. On the air and on the ground." Jericho stated tossing him back to the ground as Garfield went out cold.
"Barbara? Barbara are you there?" Jericho asked as they were heading back to the batcave once Firefly was taken into the custody. Jericho and Talia were in his car while Batman was in the Batplane. Jericho called to her on the comms and her cellphone but he was getting no answers. He was getting a bit worried but he knows that the Batcave is safe. Fortunately that wasn't the case on this occasion as a very familiar face appeared on the car computer.
"I'm afraid Señora Gordon is absent at this time, Al Ghul." he stated,
"Bane." Jericho snarled,
"Come home. Say your goodbyes. Once you had time turning grief to anger, then you'll be ready to face me." He said then he cut off the connection by smashing one of the TV's. The car computer went static. "I left enough life in her for some final words. If you hurry."
"Barbara!" he yelled out as he drove as fast to Wayne Manor. "Hang on Barb."
And I leave you at that. A Ciffhanger, i know but we are almost at the finish line.
Also here's a preview from the upcoming chapters of the Son and Daughters of the Demon.
"Sara Lance." Jericho said letting go of her fists and adjusted his leather jacket.
"Jericho." Sara drawled,
"You look pretty good… for a corpse." He commented, assessing her for a moment,
"After the Earthquake in the Glades, I've realized that there's no better place like home." Sara told him,
Beaten, humiliated, embarrassed and outmatched. That's how Isabel Rochev was feeling right now. Not only was she striped of her powers but also Jericho spared her. This was not going to end like this. Not this way.
She let out a battle cry as she charged at him with her dual swords, Jericho turned around to see two swords piercing through his armor and into his chest area. Time seemed to stop at this moment as everyone in the tunnel turned around and froze in spot once they saw what just transpired.
"That tickled." He groaned, as he gripped the dual swords and Isabel's expression went from anger to bewilderment. How is he still alive? The others were also puzzled, wondering the same thing.
"What are you?" she asked in disbelief, he gave her a cold intimating look before he answered.
"The Wolverine." He growled out before grabbing her head with his hands and twisted it backwards with a loud snap. She crumbled to the ground lifeless while Jericho pulled out the swords as the wound healed itself.