The Scars Left Behind
This is the Sequel to the Harlequin and the Bat and The Harley and The Ivy.
Important notes: I do not own Batman or any portion of the franchise. I give all credit to DC Comics and respective owners. Except the characters I wrote in my profile.
Warning: Violent scenes to come. These stunts are done by highly trained professionals and should not be imitated by anyone. Except those proficient in martial arts training and weapons, even then it shouldn't be imitated and some psychological scenes to come.
Chapter 15
*March Eighteenth*
(No-One's POV)
The fires raged and Harry was still unconscious in the car, he groans to find himself incarcerated in a burning vehicle '*groan* what…happened? I…fire…I have too…' he thought to himself trying to lift himself up "ARGH!" he howled in pain, he thought he may have broken something 'I'm…I'm going to die…' he thought to himself again then through the flames came a shadow that landed on the front of the car 'B-Batman…?' Harry thought before passing out.
(Bruce's POV)
'Why didn't I think about Susan? Harley's going to question my loyalties to her now.' Batman thought to himself as he and Bat-Shard travelled to the scene of a destroyed car.
"What do you think happened here?" Bat-Shard asked
"That's what we're here to find out." Activating detective vision Batman examined the evidence and deduced this: "It looks like Firefly was here; he caused the car to crash, someone crawled out and ran, he took that person and flew off."
"Okay…anyone we know?" Bat-Shard asked looking at the wreckage and saw that the front window was broken into "Looks like whoever drove must've been taken as well." Bat-Shard observed
"Perhaps…but I think a second person grabbed the driver. There are different footprints here in the scorch marks." Batman pointed out
"An accomplice?" Bat-Shard asked
"Possibly…but why only take the one person and leave the other behind?" Batman retaliated "we should head back, let's inform Commissioner Gordon and let him collect the evidence."
"Sure…" Bat-Shard answered with a twinge of sadness, this got Batman's attention
"Harley…about what happened earlier. I want you to know…" Batman began using Harley's real name
"Bruce…let's just leave it till we get home, okay?" Bat-Shard answered as she exited using her grapple gun with Bruce following behind her.
(Harley's POV)
'Who else was there Bruce? I trust you…who or what made you deadpan like that?' Harley thought to herself as they flew into the Bat-Copter
They arrived back at the Manor; Alfred went to Bruce and spoke "Master Bruce, I've been asked to inform you that Miss Ivy has arranged a meeting with someone of interest…Good evening Miss Harley."
"Thanks Alfred…" Bruce answered
"What person of interest?" Harley asked
Bruce gave out a sigh and spoke "Harley I think it's better if we talk in the living room?"
"Sure…" Harley spoke with sadness.
(Tim's POV)
"Man…why did things have to get this crazy? I mean no offense to your mum but: what the heck was she thinking?" Tim asked Venus as they were in the garden.
"I don't know Tim! I don't know every one of my mum's plans! I don't know what she did back before all this!" Venus shouted defending her mother's honour
Snapping to his defence "Okay, okay I'm sorry!" 'Jeez having a girlfriend is hard…' Tim thought to himself.
"I'm sorry…I know it's not my fault but…what did my mum do to cause this?" Venus asked
Tim answered in honesty "She made plant people to marry various bigwigs in Gotham and then kill them so the plant people would have access to their wealth…"
"And Bruce married one of them..." Venus came to the realisation
"Yeah; but after they were exposed as plant people they were destroyed…Susan, the plant woman who Bruce married, well we don't know if the marriage was annulled or not." Tim nodded his head
"I wonder how Aunt Harley will take it." Venus expressed concern for her technical Aunt.
(Dick's POV)
Inside the Bat-cave Dick and Barbara were examining the crime scene details, Dick broke the silence with a sigh; Barbara turned to him asked "Penny for your thoughts?"
Dick answered "It's this whole "false marriage to Ivy's plant person" thing going on. Bruce and Harley are fighting and god knows what else." He finished with a sigh.
"They'll come through. They've gone through worse…" Barbara offered her optimism.
Dick held Barbara's hand and smiled "Where'd you get that crazy optimism?"
"I had a good teacher…" Barbara smiled as Dick kissed her cheek "if only we can bottle that hope Tim give's off." Barbara
"Oh give off, Barb." Dick laughed then saw the results "Looks like Firefly's back in action."
(Bruce's POV)
*around the same time *
"And that's everything…" Bruce exhaled in his embarrassment and grief. "After everything that's happened…I just forgot about her."
Harley looked down at the floor, then the empty fireplace and then finally at her engagement ring. She spun it on her finger slowly, not intentionally taking it off, each facet of the gemstones shining back at her. Still holding her fingers on the ring she looked on at Bruce and had tears in her eyes. Bruce went over hoping to console her; he didn't say anything but Harley wept "Was it real?"
Bruce looked at her and answered "No…it wasn't." wiping her tears away.
Harley laid her head on Bruce's shoulders and whispered something "…"
"What?" Bruce asked with a hopeful smile
"I'm gonna kick Ivy's ass…*choked laugh/cry*" Harley replied once again.
Not knowing what to do; they just stayed together until they felt a presence emerge from the window, Bruce saw the figure: The Rogue, just standing there as still and as silent as always. He nodded his head and handed a report to the duo and wanted to leave but he was tugged by Harley who had caught his cloak. Not struggling he didn't oppose her and then turned to see her tear filled eyes, he saw her with him. He didn't say anything nor did he intervene but Bruce had caught his eyes: Blue…just like Harley's only they had the darkness that plagued Bruce's. "I guess Harley was right about your eyes." Bruce spoke breaking the silence, The Rogue bowed his head and felt his cloak being released and then left through the window leaving them to themselves. A few minutes of silence and Bruce broke it again "Harley…"
"Yeah?" She asked
"I'm sorry…" Bruce apologised looking into her beautiful blue eyes.
"*Sniff* Bill was right…you did date crazy women." Harley sniffled with a laugh
Bruce gave out a small chuckle and heard the Bat-Caller go off "On the clock again…"
"No more angst…we'll get it right." Harley said wiping her tears away.
(Cassidy's POV)
*around the same time as Bruce and Harley's talk*
Awaking from what she hoped to be a nightmare, Cassidy found herself in on a bed in a secluded warehouse. 'Where-where am I?' she wondered to herself rubbing her head trying to remember the last few hours. 'I-I remember…' she thought to herself again then the door opened "Gar…"
Garfield Lynns AKA Firefly Cassidy's ex-boyfriend and former pyrotechnics mechanic turned stalker and pyro-maniac villain, his armour has been significantly upgraded since last time…much more. "You're awake…you were unconscious when I brought you here Cass. Don't worry thing will be different this time." Firefly answered through his mask.
"What-what do you mean by this time? Why Gar?" Cassidy asked in terror
"The Bat is distracted, that Rogue kid is nowhere to be found and now…now I have you back! Everything will be better: you'll be back as the burning star you were meant to be and me…well I'll be by your side…" Firefly explained with his own deranged theories then grabbing her arms "So you never go away again!"
Cassidy was stricken with terror; all the fear of the fire gel that Firefly made to burn Gotham to ash, came flooding back in orange and yellow: burning fire. The thing that once made Cassidy's career skyrocket was now the thing that struck terror into her the most. All she could think was: being engulfed in the fire with no way out, suffocating from the fumes and lack of oxygen, her skin blistering and being scarred, her person being reduced to a charred corpse…
(Author's Note)
"Sorry everyone about this, I've researched and seen burn victims in media. I guess with some things I get too carried away. But on a serious note, The New Batman Adventures there is an episode called "Torch Song" which explains this story's backstory. You never see TV shows like this anymore, these neo-noir shows were and still are awesome! Now what do we have: Pac-Man Adventures? Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal? Teen Titans Go!? Get your priorities right TV Stations and TV show designers! Leave Pac-Man and Yu-Gi-Oh to videogame platforms and what was wrong with the old Teen Titans art style? That was way more impressive than this MLP style (not that I know what that is) Teen Titans! And what the hell happened to Ben Ten?! You found a style…TWO styles that complimented the show well (Original Series, Alien Force and Ultimate Alien), now we have: Ben running around looking like something that he should be yelling out "TITANS GO!" the hell?!...oh sorry I seem to have diverted from the story let's carry on shall we?"
(Cassidy's POV)
She just stared into Firefly's lensed eyes and trembled in fear, she struggled to free herself which she did and fell backwards "Stay-Stay away from me Gar! You're a monster!" she yelled sweating from fear.
"I'm the monster? I'm the monster?" Firefly asked then yelled then composed himself "You're the one who started this! You couldn't see what I did for you, not a thing; you dated around, acting all high and mighty like you could do no wrong. This…this is what you've made; I've reaped what you've sown!" Firefly accused her as she cowered but then his tone changed "But I'm looking to look past that. All you have to do is…?" he asked her
"Go back to you…" Cassidy answered holding herself in a foetal position
"I'll give you some time…we've got work to do." Firefly spoke as he left her in her terror.
'Why…why has he come after me after all this time?' Cassidy thought to herself 'I've changed haven't I? What if he's right…am I just a bad person? Can I ever be anything more than that burnt out star that created Firefly?' she began to harshly judge herself; but then she heard Firefly shout out.
"What the hell? What are you doing here?" Firefly roared Cassidy went to the locked door and saw a helmeted figure standing in front of Firefly.
(Hyde's POV)
"Firefly…" Hyde sighed shaking his head "This is an abandoned industrial factory. Get it: Ab-An-Don-Ed. So if there's smoke coming from it someone's going to investigate." Emphasising the word "Besides; it's not really smart to open up shop, right next to The Suicide Squad HQ." Hyde said pointing outside
"What?" Firefly sounded deadpanned then looked over Hyde's shoulder "Oh crap!"
"So…what's going on?" Hyde asked in annoyance
"None of your concern!" Firefly shouted sneaking a fire-pistol from his back.
"Oh I think it is my concern since you've set up shop here…"Hyde moved in closer cracking his knuckles. "One last time: what are you doing?"
"This!" Firefly shot a flame charge at Hyde hoping to burn him. He laughed hoping to see him fry but Hyde shrugged it off. "What?" he shouted in disbelief
"Fireproof armour…" Hyde explained then he ran towards Firefly with his fists ready, even without his Impact Gauntlets.
(Cassidy's POV)
Cassidy saw the flame engulf the hero and she shot back from the door out of instinct, she moved far from the door to prevent herself getting burnt. A figure appeared before the door and kicked it open; there was a cloaked post-teen, the figure looked a lot like Batman except instead of the Kevlar style armour it looked more cloth like "Who are you?" she asked, the figure didn't answer only that he held his hand out. "What do you want?" she asked again as she heard fire being plumed out of Firefly's gun and Hyde's roars. The figure moved his head indicating to free her; "You want to help me?" she asked aiming for his hand, the figure nodded once. She grabbed his hand and with a snap he pulled her up and aimed for the exit.
She looked back and saw the helmeted figure fighting Firefly; she saw the plume of flame shoot at him, she froze in her tracks and screamed. Firefly saw her and the cloaked figure "Hey! You won't take her!" he said flying upwards aiming for them.
"Hey we're not done here!" the helmeted figure roared as he fired a grapple gun onto Firefly.
"Let go Arkham brat!" Firefly yelled as he struggled to break free giving the cloaked figure and Cassidy the time to escape
"The name is…Impact!" Hyde roared donning his old moniker, snapping off the grapple claw disorienting Firefly
'Impact…' Cassidy thought to herself as she went into a foetal position the cloaked figure tried to get her up but she couldn't move from her Pyrophobia. "I-I can't!" she cried but she felt herself being pulled up "What-what are you?" she asked then saw him pull a similar grapple gun and fired it into the skylight. The force pulled the both of them up as Cassidy flew in the sky she saw the cloaked figure differently; to her he seemed like the: strong and silent type, brave and unafraid, she felt safe with him holding her and getting her to safety. The two escaped to the roof and were immediately targeted; a bullet whistled past the cloaked figure's head, Cassidy screamed for her life as she held onto the cloaked figure that then used a large cloud of smoke to disappear with her to a different location.
(Deadshots' POV)
"Crap, I missed." Deadshot groaned
"Fool! If Hyde has gone rogue because of that imbecilic pyro-maniac then let him burn…as for the Rogue track him!" Waller ordered over the radio
"Yes Ma'am." Deadshot groaned again from: the order and getting up from his shooting position. "Great…The Bat's here!" Deadshot groaned sarcastically
(Harley's POV)
"Batman down there!" Bat-Shard pointed to a now burning building.
"I've got it. You grab the Rogue and Miss Cassidy I'll handle Firefly." Batman ordered
Bat-Shard kissed Batman on his cheek he turned and saw her wonderful smile. "Meet you back at base." Then she leapt out the Bat-Copter and flew to the smoke trail that The Rogue left.
'Stay safe Harley…' Batman thought to himself hoping for his wife-to-be's safety.
To be continued
I hope you've enjoyed reading this chapter as I have writing it.
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And thank you to all the people who have reviewed and followed my story thus far.
The next chapter coming up soon.
Thank you
Additional notes: "I'm sorry about that "little" rant I had earlier in the story…I sometimes write what I think sometimes, I hope no-one is offended by that part. Thank you all once again.
Happy 2015 everyone; let's keep this ball rolling!
Respectfully yours
GhostKaiser23