For Appearance's Sake
By Teala373
Chapter 12
In our last chapter: Nightwing and Batgirl begin taking out villains and releasing the hostages from the crate. Once released, Batman enlists the help of Blue Beetle, while Batgirl gets a lift from the Man of Steel.
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Nightwing looked down at the timer in on his communicator. "Seventeen minutes and twenty-three seconds," he murmured to himself. "Not bad."
Satisfied that he had taken down Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn in a fair amount of time, he began to head towards the Top of the Plaza, where other hostages were being held. He had barely taken several steps when his instincts alerted him that something wasn't right. Just as he turned around, a thunderous crack announced Bane landing on the ground before him.
"This is going to suck," the young hero sighed to himself as he whipped a pair of escrima sticks from his gauntlets.
(o)O(o)O(o)O(o)O(o)O(o)O(o)
With the remaining hostages of the ball all cowering in the right far corner of the room. It made it easy for the Blue Beetle's flying bug to make a surprise entrance. Crashing the nose of the aircraft through the window, Two-Face and Firefly were thrown backwards.
Batman made his way into the ballroom and quickly targeted Firefly. Three precisely thrown batarangs sliced through Firefly's gear, disconnecting his flame throwers from the fuel cache on his back. He then prepared himself as Blue Beetle was quickly by his side to take on both Riddler's and Mad Hatter's goons heading their way.
Two Face was slowly regaining his senses, after being knocked through a table and into a wall. He staggered towards his gun, laying only a few feet away. In his peripheral vision, Batman could see Two Face leaning over the weapon; however, he had seven large men currently monopolizing his primary focus.
Narrowly avoiding a large vase coming down on his head, Blue Beetle was also ill equipped to stop Two Face as he desperately dodged wave after wave of attack before getting his own punches in.
Raising the gun, Two Face began taking aim. Grimacing beneath his mask, Batman gained a new strength from the wild release of adrenaline in his veins. He fought the men off with a new vigor, hoping to get to Two Face. He had such hopes that Harvey would rehabilitate this time, that it was a devastating blow to see his former best friend aiming a gun at his head. He had such hopes that Harvey would take to the rehabilitation this time. The devastation of seeing his former best friend raise a gun towards him fueled his rage. In most cases Bruce would try to separate feelings from duty. But, not with this. It is too much, even for him…to see his former friend, once again, become that which Batman has struggled against since he was a child: a crazed man…with a gun.
In the midst of the melee, Blue Beetle was able to take down three of his assailants, but still had two to tackle. Throwing bolo whips at Riddler and Mad Hatter, he then set his sights back on his last two attackers.
Batman began to prepare for dodging Harvey's bullet. He planned a calculated fall that would allow him to also keep the bullet away from Blue Beetle.
Two Face pulled back on the gun's hammer, loading the bullet into the chamber.
Elbowing an assailant in the face, Batman began the motions for getting out of the bullet's path.
The trigger of the gun slowly disappeared behind Two Face's grotesque finger…
Bam!
Milliseconds from being fired, the gun flew unused from Two Face's hand a second time as Batgirl seemingly appeared out of no where, crashing into him and knocking them both to the ground. Quickly securing him with handcuffs and rope, Batgirl ran past Batman and Blue Beetle.
"Hey!" Blue Beetle called out as he landed a hard punch. "Where did you come from?"
"I got a lift from a friend!" She yelled over her shoulder.
While Batgirl released the remaining hostages and ushered them out of the ballroom, the remaining criminals were restrained.
"GCPD are on their way," Batgirl called out breathlessly as she ran back into the room, the last hostage packed into an elevator. She was about to say more when her eyes suddenly went wide. "Gas!" she cried, pointing up to a green smoke just beginning to filter in through the vents.
Grabbing the neatly tied up Riddler and Mad Hatter by the scruffs of their neck, she began dragging them out of the room and into the hallway. Following suit, Batman tossed Blue Beetle his spare breathing device before securing his primary one. They began rounding up the defeated criminals and getting them away from the vents.
Unceremoniously throwing Riddler and Mad Hatter into an empty elevator, Batgirl cursed under her breath. "It has to be Scarecrow!" Stepping on Riddler's shoulder and Mad Hatter's stiff hat, electing protests from both, she pushed up the panel to the top of the elevator. Once inside the elevator shaft, she shot a jump line straight up and began her ascent.
When Batman and Blue Beetle began bringing the others out to the elevator, they were greeted with a disgruntled Riddler chastising Batman on the manners of his companions.
(o)O(o)O(o)O(o)O(o)
Nightwing was doing about as well with Bane as Batgirl had done with Clayface. Completely on the defensive, it was all he could do to stay out of the massive man's way while he wracked his brain in desperations to develop a strategy.
Any ropes or bolo whips he tried to secure him with were discarded. Throwing objects, even sharp ones, had little effect, and martial arts moves were almost ineffective. As Bane wore a protective piece over his nether region, hitting that was out of the question. He tried to pull the tube out of his neck, but Bane was well aware of that Achilles' heel and guarded it well. Nightwing had tried kicking out his legs, striking his windpipe, even poking his eyes, but it was all to no avail.
Flipping away from another attack, Nightwing tried to think of a way to use his surroundings to get Bane off guard. He began formulating a plan to get him into the water, but quickly had to abandon it as Bane splintered the crate he had been crouching on into hundreds of pieces. He desperately tried to maneuver the giant towards the dock's edge, but before he could, Bane was able to grab hold of him.
The behemoth held the slim hero high above his head in a nearly bone breaking grasp. "How many of your vertebrae do you think will break?" He growled as he prepared to crack the hero's back over his knee.
Nightwing struggled to pull anything out of his gauntlets in an attempt to get free as Bane laughed heartily. Just before he could produce a weapon, he was hurled to the ground, accompanied by the sound of a loud crack behind him. Quickly getting to his feet, he saw that Bane had also been knocked over.
Not sure what had happened, Nightwing stepped back, still planning to lead Bane to water as he watched him rise to his feet. But, before Bane could take another step, Superman came down hard upon him, slamming him into through he pavement.
The now unconscious villain was half-buried in a crater of Superman's design. Running over, Nightwing quickly disconnected Bane's tube and called into the GCPD.
"Thanks, Big Guy," he greeted the Man of Steel. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you!"
Superman smiled. "You're welcome. I just delivered Batgirl to the ballroom, but I could use your help defusing bombs."
"There's more bombs?"
"Oh, yeah."
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Having made her way to the roof, Batgirl spotted Scarecrow lurking in the shadows. She wasted no time in addressing him.
"Not so fast, Crane!" she called out to the retreating figure. As he turned, she pulled a small, modified oxygen mask to cover her nose and mouth, should he choose to shoot poison at her. Her other hand prepared a bolo whip to secure him with. However, before either party could complete a defensive or offensive move, a shot rang out. Blood spurted wildly from the Scarecrow's head as he fell to the ground.
It was followed by very distinctive maniacal laughter.
Turning, Batgirl saw the moonlight illuminating the Joker. A smoking gun was held lightly in his hand as he laughed over his dead aim. "Serves you right for not inviting me to your soirée, Crane!" He called out, his crazed voice dancing on the wind.
Batgirl jumped into the shadows and ducked behind a vent. The Joker was too wild and unpredictable for her to be out in the open without a plan.
"Come out, come out, where ever you are, Bat-wench!" The Joker yelled over out to her. "I did you a favor! The least you can say is 'thank you'! We're on the same side! We both want to get rid of these vermin. You don't want them dropping the crate and I want to make them pay for letting me rot in Arkham while they planned a grand caper!"
Batgirl quickly called Montoya on her communicator and updated her on the situation. "Check Arkham for casualties and other escaped inmates," she warned before cutting the connection. She gripped the bolo whip tightly in her hand as she prepared to face the greatest villain in Gotham's history.
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The Joker's laugh had carried across the entire bay. Batman and Nightwing quickly began making their way towards the rooftop where the Joker was jumping towards an advancing Batgirl.
Blue Beetle quickly finished rounding up the criminals in the elevator before heading back to the Bug. He had a feeling it might be needed.
Superman continued with deactivating the bombs. The Joker was one thing, but the Joker plus bombs was another. He kept his ears open in case the three Gotham heroes needed extra muscle.
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The Joker's wild unpredictability, total lack of fear and complete disregard for human life (including his own), made him a formidable enemy. While Batgirl was confident in her abilities, she knew that this wasn't the average super villain. Formulas, equations, and airtight strategies were out of the question. Going up against the Joker involved trying to be one step ahead of his cockamamie brain and being flexible in defense against his psychotic attacks. She wasn't fighting a person so much as she was fighting a walking psychosis.
Dodging bullets, Batgirl finally was able to use her batarang to knock the gun from his hand. She ignored his insane babbling and concentrated only on his movement. He became irritated with her complete lack of response to his quips and questions, and produced a collapsible pogo stick that he quickly assembled.
Bouncing around and dropping small bombs, his laughter continued to fill the night air. "You're boring me, Bat Chica! At least ol' Batsy attempts to humor me? Where is old Bat Ears, anyway."
Wildly turning his pogo stick at an insane angle, he quickly produced a gun from within the folds of his jacket. This one different from that brandished against Scarecrow earlier. Firing it at Batgirl, a giant rubber fist on a spring smacked her square in the throat, causing her to stagger backwards and smack her head soundly into a heating vent. Dazed, she barely registered the Joker dismounting his pogo stick and giving her a swift kick to her behind, resulting in her flying off the edge of the roof.
(o)O(o)O(o)O(o)O(o)
Both Batman and Nightwing felt time shrink around them as they watched a nearly unconscious Batgirl go tumbling off the roof of the Gotham plaza. Each shooting jump line, they made their way to the scene.
Nightwing swung his line sharply in the direction of the falling body. Knowing that he was going to come up short, he jumped off the line and collided with her body as she fell. He wrapped his arms tightly around her and grabbed her jump line. He was able to shoot out the line and secure it, but he had trouble both holding on to Batgirl and keeping control of his momentum.
Seeing the Bug flying below him, he let go of the line and fell squarely on the aircraft's roof. A small panel near his feet opened.
"Get her in here!" Came Blue Beetle's voice from inside.
Wasting no time, Nightwing lowered Batgirl through the opening, before entering himself. He had just enough time to secure her in one of the seats before Blue Beetle was forced to make a sharp turn. Nightwing crashed into an electric panel, but being no stranger to being tossed about in a wildly flying plane, he made his way to the co-pilot seat and strapped himself in.
"We need to get her to a doctor!"
"Anywhere in particular?"
"Thompkins clinic in Old Gotham."
(o)O(o)O(o)O(o)O(o)
In a blinding rage, Batman had zipped up his jump line to the plaza rooftop. Immediately grabbing the Joker around the throat, he slammed him down. Hard.
"Batsy… (couch)… what…"
Batman punched the Joker with such force, three of his giant yellow teeth went flying with a thin line of blood.
That was only the first punch.
Batman continued to pummel the Joker. The beating was so merciless that Joker himself began to quiver with anticipation that he was finally going to die at the hands of his greatest adversary. He was given relief when Superman appeared behind Batman and pulled him back.
"That's enough!"
Catching his breath, Batman shrugged Superman's hands from his shoulders and stalked to the edge of the roof. He looked down, hoping not to find one or both of his partners splattered on the ground below.
"He caught her," Superman stated, guessing Batman's thoughts. "Blue Beetle has them in the Bug and they are heading North West."
Guessing their destination, the Dark Knight heaved a sigh of relief.
Bending a large piece of scrap metal around the Clown Prince of Crime, Superman leaned Joker against the heating vent for the Gotham Police to pick up.
"I think it's time for you to go home," he gently instructed, laying a more comforting hand on Batman's shoulder.
Looking down at the blood on his gloves, the other man nodded.
"Need a lift?"
"Thanks," Batman shot his jump line out across the night, "but I've got it."