A/N: I don't own any members of the Justice League. They belong to Cartoon Network, Marvel, and DC Comics. I do, however, own Taipana.
Chapter 12: End Game
As soon as they entered the building, the Leaguers were bombarded with guards. They started duking it out with all the guards, slowly making their way to the top of the building, to Lex. Superman had just punched a man way from him and straight into Shayera's path. She was busy punching a man on her right, but quickly retaliated by backhanding the other man on her right as he tried to recover from Superman's blow. Meanwhile, Vixen and Batman were clashing back to back with guards of their own. They would block hits a few times before the guard would try to take their heads off. Luckily, they would always duck and get them in the gut. All four proceeded to knock out their remaining opponents and looked around.
"Let's go," Superman ordered and the group made a mad dash towards Luthor's office. The secretary outside tried to stop them, but Vixen pushed her aside, which allowed Batman time to bash the doors open to Lex's office.
"Ah, the Justice League," Lex said leisurely, leaning back in his chair, hands folded in front of him, without a hint of worry. "Superman, Batman, Hawkgirl," he greeted, "and I don't believe I know you, miss," he said, looking at Vixen.
"Good news for me," she replied scathingly.
"Is it a membership qualification that all of your little friends must break into my home and offices at some time or another and behave like barbarians," he asked, looking at Superman.
"I'll show you barbarian," Vixen retorted angrily, claws ready.
"Bet you will," Shayera muttered to herself, but Vixen heard and glared at her.
"Ladies! Not the time," Superman told them impatiently, and Lex chuckled in amusement.
"Tension among the ranks? How wonderfully delicious," he commented with a slimy smile. "Guards," he shouted, pressing the intercom button. Immediately, a couple of body guards stormed the large office to surround the Leaguers. Batman, less than concerned about the men, stepped forward to walk towards Lex, but a guard pushed him away.
"Stay away, infidel," the guard ordered, brandishing a night stick.
"Forgive my guard," Lex said sincerely, smirking darkly. "He feels that no one should precede me. Call it "overzealousness.""
"I think I'll call it "strike one,"" Batman retorted, sizing up the guard, but Lex continued to simply chuckle, unperturbed.
"We're done here," he told them amusedly. "Guards, please, escort my guests out of the building," he ordered, and one guard reached for Shayera's arm.
"Touch me, and that hand will never touch anything again," she warned, holding up her mace for the added effect and the guard backed off.
"Sir," the head guard asked.
"Get rid of them," he ordered, rising from his chair and turning away.
The guards immediately lunged at the group, and two were immediately thrown back. Shayera backhanded a man on her right again before turning to punch out another man. Batman was not far from her, and had thrown one man across the room, over Lex's desk, and turned just in time to see another man, who was about to punch him, but he leaned back in time to dodge it. He grabbed the guy's arm and pulled him into him so he could kick him in his gut. He proceeded to headbutt the man, and he fell to the floor, unconscious.
Meanwhile, Vixen was punching a guard on her left before gracefully performing a roundhouse on his head, effectively knocking him. Another man now had shown up before Superman, who had already knocked out three guards, with a nightstick raised above his head to attack him. Honestly, what was that going to do against the Man of Steel? Still, he ran at Superman, who knocked it from his hand with ease, shocking the guard. While he was stunned from the simple maneuver that had rendered him helpless, Superman punched the man in the face from underneath and he fell to the ground, bloody and defeated. Sighing quietly, Superman looked around and saw that the other guards were down.
"I think we're done here," Shayera commented.
"Give it up, Lex! You have nowhere to run," Superman ordered as the last guard was knocked unconscious.
"On the contrary, I have plenty of places," he retorted, and took off through a secret passage behind his vast bookshelf. Typical. As soon as they tried to follow, more guard rushed in and started to attack them.
"Infidel!"
Batman turned around to see the head guard, the same one from before, was up on his feet.
"If you only knew how sick I am of you calling me that," Batman said, and punched his lights out. He stood over the guard for a moment longer, making sure the knock-out effect stuck. Thankfully, and not surprisingly, it did.
"Well, that was fun. And pointless," Shayera announced sullenly. "Lex is gone."
"He went through here. Come on," Superman ordered, and the others joined him at the open doorway. "Elevator of some kind. No telling where it goes."
"Could be a trap," Shayera added seriously before smirking. "Let's go," she said, moving to step into the elevator.
"Are you out of your mind," Vixen shouted, grabbing her arm. "You said it yourself! It could be a trap! Are you complete out of your mind," she asked, and Shayera pretended to think for a moment.
"Yeah," she replied seriously and stepped in the elevator. The men soon followed and Vixen sighed, crossing her arms.
"The things I do," she muttered to herself and stepped inside. The doors snapped shut and moved upwards at an alarming speed.
As soon as it stopped and they stepped outside, onto the roof, they saw Lex about to take off in a small, private jet. The thing was probably built for occasions such as this. Without a second thought, Superman super-sped over and pulled Lex from the jet. He protested, of course, but it meant nothing as he was set on the ground once again. By this time, the others were there and Batman picked up Lex and punched him.
"My admiration for you was well founded, detective," Lex said to him, holding his jaw in pain.
"Too bad I can't say the same," Batman replied tersely, holding Lex to his face but his suit collar.
"Why don't we go back inside, and I pour you a cup of tea, Batman? It'll make you feel better," he offered sarcastically, smirking. Why he continued to smile like that, none of them knew. It wasn't like he was able to get away.
"In a snake's eye, Lex," Batman replied, mentioning Taipana in the smallest way possible to scare Lex. It worked, and Lex paled. "There's only one thing I want from you."
"The antidote," he questioned, and Batman nodded slightly. "Certainly. When you've earned it," he stated, and the Dark Knight glared at him, his grip tightening. "You see, humankind must be forced to serve the planet instead of its own appetites. Kendra Harrison is the perfect example."
"That's it," he said and punched Lex again. Once he was on the ground, he grabbed his collar again and dragged him to the edge of the roof.
"What are you doing," Superman exclaimed in alarm, following and watching as Batman held Lex over the edge of the roof by one ankle. "This isn't how we do things, you know that!"
"You and your rules. Rules are made to be broken," he retorted and looked at Superman, almost pleading for him to give him a break, just this once. "Five minutes."
"Superman, please, help! Help me! Stop him," Lex called in a panic. Superman looked over the edge to Lex and then back to Batman.
"Don't make me regret this," he said and walked back to Shayera and Vixen. Batman turned to look down at Lex and smirked.
"All right, scum bucket, it's you, me and thirty stories. You're gonna tell me exactly what I want to know."
"I'm not telling you anything!"
"Then I let go and you die," he said, pretending to lose his grip on Lex's ankle, making him scream. "Want to rethink your decision?"
"All right! All right! Kendra was working for Scarecrow years ago, but she got busted and went to jail! She made parole and became a freelance bounty hunter! She made a lot of money, then went back to work for Scarecrow on the splicing shipping's!"
"I know all that. Skip ahead," he ordered impatiently.
"What you don't know is that she was working for Scarecrow again as an undercover agent for the Gotham PD! She was trying to get me arrested, the stupid reformist!" It was here that Batman paled, remembering what Taipana had said before he left.
"Someone purposely injected me, Bruce. It was planned; I know it, I can feel it. So, the question is, who wants to get rid of me?"
Well, now they knew who and why.
"The injection wasn't just some random accident when she was at Oz Corp. You wanted it to happen, so it did."
"Yes! All right? Yes, I made it happen, all right," Lex shouted up panicky.
Batman now realized that he was wrong about her. Everything he said and did to her, the threats to throw her back in jail, they were all for nothing. Why? Because she was innocent. Taipana was completely innocent. And she was dying at the space station because of him. If he hadn't left her to invade the building alone, she wouldn't have been hurt. He should've believed her.
"I'll make you a deal," he shouted up, and Batman rolled his eyes. Lex was always making deals to get out of something. "I'll tell you where to find the antidote, but you have to do me a favor! You take care of a problem at the docks for me!"
Batman remained quiet and looked over his shoulder to Superman, who he knew had heard everything. Superman just nodded, and Batman looked back to Lex.
"Deal," he agreed. "Where's the antidote?"
He watched as Lex reached into his inner zipped-up jacket pocket. After a moment, the billionaire pulled out a thin vile of some purple liquid. Hopefully, the antidote. Batman pulled him up and snatched the vial from his hand, examining it.
"If this is fake, I'll come and drop you for real," he threatened, placing the vile into his utility belt.
"It's real. But, what do you care? Ms. Harrison is just another criminal, Batman. You give her that, and she'll just continue to work with the Scarecrow. A tiger can't change its stripes," he said with a devious smirk. "Now, about the docks…"
"Forget it," Batman said immediately and walked away.
"We had a deal," he shouted angrily.
"Thought it over," he replied. "Didn't work for me."
"Merry Christmas, Luthor," Shayera said with a triumphant smirk before the group flew off, Lex glaring at their backs.
P.S.: Five pages total.