Author's Notes: Ack, real life caught up with me! Sorry for the delay, enjoy!
I dont want no one to squeeze me - they might take away my life
I dont want no one to squeeze me - they might take away my life
I just want someone to hold me and rock me through the night
This youthful heart can love you and give you what you need
This youthful heart can love you and give you what you need
But Im too old to go chasing you around
Wasting my precious energy
Tracy Chapman - Gimmie One Reason
Self control was only worth so much, King thought to himself as he tore the little plastic seal off the cigarettes. He tapped out a cigarette from the soft-pack (because they felt better in your sock when you were running someone down.) and placed it with a well practiced flick into his mouth. The click of the lighter, a deep inhale, and oh...
A cigarette after two days of not smoking was better then sex.
But not by much.
Wonder Woman sighed at Agent Faraday, "Isn't that bad for you?"
"As bad as long hair and earrings when you're fighting dirty."
She ignored the comment and went back to patrol, "I don't see why you have to be here."
"Last time you went solo, I had three bank robbers with dislocated jaws. One with two broken legs."
"They broke the law."
"Unnecessary roughness."
"They deserved it!"
"Probably, but the government can't be giving out anymore lawsuits from crooks who claim you kept punching after they said 'Uncle'!" he took another drag and debated on buying another pack if she kept this up.
She paused, "What does 'uncle' mean?"
He slapped his forehead, "Jesus Christ lady..."
She frowned, "No really, what does it mean?"
"It means they've given up!"
"Oh."
He rubbed the bridge of his nose and took another drag, this was going to be a long day.
Agent Faraday had information that there was going to be a break-in at the Gotham Zoo today. No one knew exactly which animal would be taken, but alerts had it that it would be today.
Being on a stake-out with Wonder Woman...
... He should have bought the extra pack.
Batman knew the night was his. He breathed it in, and it breathed in him. The cool air felt natural against his face and he enjoyed the sensation for a moment.
But now, it was time to work.
Thomas Blake's apartment was empty, save Blake, who slept in his bed.
The door to the patio opened easily, being unlocked and all. He crept in the shadows and stared at Blake who moved fitfully in his sleep, as if he knew he was being watched.
It took Batman a long time to prefect a look that woke a man from a sound sleep.
When Blake woke up, Batman stayed in the shadows, "Tell me."
Blake bolted up in bed and went to reach for something on the nightstand, A bat-a-rang flew out and pinned itself neatly in the ornate wood, "Why the front?"
Blake stammered, "I-I don't know what you're talking about!"
"The artifacts, stolen, bought, tell me why."
Blake shivered, "I'm an honest man now, you can't--"
"Catwoman stole a statue for your museum four years ago, "The Eye of Ra, The Lady of the Flames", why?"
"I don't know what you're talking--"
Batman leaned closer, "I'm loosing my patience."
Blake sneered, "There's nothing you can do to me! It's all perfectly legitimate! I didn't know the statue was stolen when I acquired it! I bought the Eye of Ra with the profits from the museum! The Sistrum of Bastet was in an old woman's basement! How can you possibly--"
Batman's arm flashed out and pinned Blake to the bed, "Summoning Bast is a dangerous game Blake, I won't let you do it."
Blake growled, "You can't stop me! The power of Bast will be mine!"
Batman shoved him back and stepped back in the shadows, "I'll be watching you Blake. Just wait."
When Bruce got home he was angry.
Angry was putting it lightly, he was infuriated.
Somehow, Blake had all three of the Bast treasures, he knew how to summon Bast with them, he was going to be utterly powerful... and Batman didn't even know how it all worked.
He grabbed the mask and sighed, he needed to talk to Selina, as Batman. It was early morning, which meant she was probably asleep. He took the back way around the mansion and let himself over the balcony to her suite. Opening the door, he saw her sleeping in her bed. He watched her for a moment... not so much wanting to wake her... but he rarely got to see her being this... peaceful.
Finally, he sat down next to her on the bed. He was going to have to answer a lot of questions to get the few precious answers he needed. This was coming, best to get it over with now.
He put a gloved hand on her shoulder, still feeling the warmth in her skin through the glove, "Selina."
She stirred slowly, he knew she saw him and took her deliberate time to wake up. "Coffee." she muttered in her sleep, "Pills next to the pot."
He smirked and turned on the coffee pot she kept in her room. He got a glass of water for her and the pill bottle. She took the bottle and opened it, shaking out a pill and tossed it back with a gulp of water.
"Thanks." she looked up at him, "Well?"
"I need answers."
"So do I."
Batman sat at the edge of her bed, "I know."
"Why?" she said softly. "Why didn't you see me?"
"I had things to do." Blunt, to the point, and completely avoiding everything.
She shifted herself so she was sitting more upright, she winced slightly and closed her eyes as the pain stopped waving.
"That's why," he said in response to her wincing in pain, "I wasn't around. I was working with the Justice League when I should have been in Gotham."
"You mean, you were out saving the world and trying to have as much of a normal life as you could with someone who's morals didn't fight with yours." She took a breath to steady herself, "You were being you. I was out being me. What's to forgive?"
"I should have been there."
"To protect me? I'm a big girl Batman, I can handle myself... most of the time." she sighed, "I wanted to say 'Thank you' for saving me. But you need to stop saving me now."
He looked at her with a confused look.
"This," and she gestured to herself, "Problem, is mine. I made the choice to save Maeven and run off in the heat of the moment. I made the choice to take the bullet. I... deserve this. And I need to finish this. You told me I need to summon Bast. I can do that. I mean, the statue is the first step. I'll... take a few pills and hope I'm not too loopy to do my job. I'll get the statue and move to the next phase. Or research the next phase. Something, but I can do this."
"Thomas Blake has all three pieces, or will shortly. He knows how to summon Bast and I don't."
Selina frowned, "That is a problem."
"I need your help."
She shook her head, "I know a little..." she paused, "One of my old contacts told me a little poem about it when he heard, that's how I knew what it was capable of." she smiled at the memory, " Give me a minute... and the coffee, I think it's about done. Two cream, one sugar." she added after she had already been lost in thought.
By the time the coffee touched her lips, she had remembered most of it. "There's a key... I don't know what it means by that, but..." she paused, "It unlocks something..."
"What do the statue and the medallion have to do with it?"
She closed her eyes, "Give me a minute, there was a rhyme... She who sleeps and guards the sun, Guards the moon when day is done." she looked a little proud of herself, "I remembered the first part. Considering how old that poem is, you should be proud of me too."
"Do you remember anything else?"
She thought for a minute, "something, something, items three... Bast will hear your plea... I think it was Bast. It was some weird name for Bast... If I remember right. Statue... gold and stone, something about being the goddess's throne..." She gave an irritated sigh, "It was Egyptian, translated by some flowery English poet. He butchered so much of it. I'm guessing most is symbolism... but..." she grumbled, "The next part... about the key. Somehow you'll see the place the key goes. And then you sacrifice something and she appears." She shrugged, "It's the best I can do. The last copy I know of died with my contact; I'm told, was a suspicious fire."
Batman nodded, "It's a start."
"So, we get the three items; The statue, the medallion, and the key--"
"Sistrum is shaped like an Ankh, some believe Ankhs were keys to the underworld."
"So Blake has the key to Hell?"
Batman nodded.
"I'll get my suit."
Batman blocked her path, "Selina, not this time."
She stood up slowly, "Excuse me?" He stayed where he was, "Don't think I'm just some wounded stray someone took pity on--"
"Is that what you think?"
"Move."
It took Selina a split second to know he wasn't going to move. She bit her lip and swung a kick at Batman. He blocked the kick and pushed her leg away, "Selina, what are you--?"
She hissed and used the momentum to land on the foot he pushed away while using the balance to fling her other foot out at him and catching him across the face.
He leaned on the bed while his head stopped spinning. Selina took this opportunity to use her energy to give him a right hook right under the jaw, sending him falling on his back. She put both her feet on his arms to keep him down and leaned down. Her face didn't mask the pain she felt, but she still smiled down at him, "Please, make me do that again."
Unfortunately, she was light and he easily jumped up and knocked her over on the bed and pinned her arms down, "Selina, stop this!"
"No! I will not be something broken! I will not be saved, not by someone who can't even look at me without pitying me!"
"I don't—"
"Proove it! Proove you feel something!"
"Selina, calm--"
She pushed him off and away from her. She panted, facing the bed in a sitting position. "Get out."
Batman took a deep breath and calmed himself, "You're acting-"
"Crazy? Irrational? I know. I'm allowed." She snapped her head and looked at him with an almost feral look, "I get it, okay?" She gritted her teeth and clenched down the pain boiling inside her, "Give me a minute, then I'll give you a piece of my mind."
He frowned and stood in the doorway of the balcony, waiting for Selina to catch her breath.
She looked up at the ceiling to center herself and push down the last of the angry buzzes of pain she felt. "What do you want from me?"
He raised a brow.
She glared, "We've been doing this dance for years, and we're both getting older. I'm not going to dance forever." She gestured to the room in itself, "I'm trying to find someone I can come home to. Bruce is a wonderful man..." she shook her head, "But part of me keeps wanting to come back to you. It has to stop. Let me prove to you I'm not broken, let me show you that I don't need you to save me, to protect me. Then," she looked at him directly, "Let me walk away, please."
Without one mote of emotion, he replied, "You know I can't do that Selina."
He walked over in silence as Selina hung her head in defeat. He put a hand on her shoulder. He had known her long enough to know if he denied her this chance to prove herself, it would be worse then anything else he'd ever done to her.
"You could die."
She looked up at him and smirked, "Where have I heard that before?"
He sighed, "All right, but we're going to need help then. We're dealing with Egyptian gods, and there's only one person I know who's dealt with gods before."
Selina frowned, "You can't possibly mean..."
But Batman already had a hand to the radio transmitter in his ear, "Wonder Woman, this is Batman."
Wonder Woman tapped her ear-piece and wore a slight frown, "Go ahead."
Agent Faraday looked mildly interested and decided to listen in.
"We're going to need your help."
"We?" Diana raised a brow, "What is it? I'm on a mission."
"I have information that Thomas Blake is going to summon the Egyptian goddess Bast, soon. I need someone who has a better understanding of the situation."
Diana sighed, unavoidable, "Alright, I'll be there shortly--"
"--We'll be there." King interjected.
"We'll, be there." Diana muttered in the intercom.
"Whatever." Batman responded, "I'll send you the coordinates."
"Under--"
Diana was cut off by the loud explosion over by the feline exhibit. When both she and Faraday looked over, there was a large ball of fire and smoke bubbling up around the fire ball. She tapped the intercom again, "There was an explosion over at the Gotham City Zoo's feline exhibit--"
She heard Batman talking to someone else, "Didn't you say there was a sacrifice?" she heard Batman sigh, "Probably Blake, be careful Diana, he usually has a few tricks up his sleeve."
She nodded, "Understood." She tapped off the intercom and looked at Agent Faraday, "Looks like this is connected."
"I heard." He had finished strapping on his jet-pack and took the safety off his gun, "Alright Princess, let's roll."
Blake had blown a large hole in the cement wall to the area his giant cat had been kept after Selina and Batman had scattered his people.
The large cat had been getting a drink of water. It's head was lowered and it growled menacingly at Blake. It lowered it's shoulders and was just about to pounce when Blake aimed the tranq gun he was holding and fired straight at the cat's huge shoulder.
The effect was almost instant and the cat fell to it's side, sound asleep.
The gorilla man was by his side, "Truck's ready. Doc says to make this fast."
Blake frowned, "I remember." two half-cat men and the gorilla man grabbed one of the cat's huge paws and began to drag it away with their augmented strength.
"Not so fast!" Wonder Woman cried out.
"You'd like something a little slower? I believe that can be arranged!" he aimed the traq gun at Wonder Woman and a laser shot snapped it out of his hands and on the ground. Blake turned to see a man with white hair in a gray suit flying towards him in some type of jet-pack.
"Visiting hours are over."
Blake's jaw dropped, "This is my cat! I made him!"
Faraday lowered another shot at the gorilla men, "You didn't fill out the proper paperwork, paws off!"
The cat-men hissed and stepped back. One sprang up in the air at Wonder Woman and began to frantically claw at her. She gasped and fell rapidly. The cat-man jumped on the ground on all-four and pounced on her again.
While Wonder Woman dealt with him, the other went after Faraday with the same maneuver. Faraday saw it coming and shot the cat-man before it could attack him. While he was busy with that, he didn't see the rock the gorilla man threw. The rock hit him straight in the chest and knocked him out, sending him falling to the ground.
Wonder Woman saw it, "King!" she yelled as she launched the cat-man off of her and flew straight to Agent Faraday and barely caught him before he hit the ground.
"Can't--" He was wheezing, "Can't bre-breathe--" he wheezed once more before his eyes rolled back.
"No!" Wonder Woman tilted Faraday's chin back and put her lips to his. She began CPR and by the second compression, he began to cough.
He opened his eyes and took in a few brittle breathes, "Damn, felt like a rock smashed into my lungs..."
She smiled, "It just did."
He winked at her, "It was worth it." he rasped. He looked around, "Where's...?"
Diana looked around and saw that the cat was gone, as well as the four bad-guys who took it. She tapped her ear-piece, "They got away with the giant cat."
She heard Batman exhale in frustration, "Who was with him?"
"Two cat-men, and a gorilla man."
"Grod?"
She shook her head, "No... he seemed more primal then any gorilla man I've seen. Said something about about a 'Doc'."
Batman sighed on the other line, "Dorian is in on this too. Great."
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