McGinnis hid himself underneath the platform, using the electromagnetic energy of the suit's feet, at the top of the staircase located where the hover pads were. Coba made herself invisible and sat down directly underneath the staircase, aiming to let her leg rest for a minute before the main fighting between the siblings and the villains would commence. They eavesdropped on a conversation that Powers was having on his cell phone with a security guard.
"You said they wouldn't be a problem!" Powers snarled. "Well, deal with it!" He angrily shut his phone, not wanting to hear any more from the guard.
Fixx ran towards his employer urgently, gasping for breath. "Almost... finished loading sir," he gasped in exhaustion. "The intruders... I ran into one... but she got away... the other is... is nowhere to be found!"
Powers put his phone away. "The sooner we're done loading, the better," he said, ill-tempered. "I don't want those Bat-wannabes showing up and interfering."
A guard was walking across the platform when something strange caught his eye. "Hey, look!" he called out. "There's the Batman!"
Time to get this party started, Terry thought. He caused the magnet's grip on the platform to release, allowing him to glide away as some blaster bullets struck at where he was just sitting. More guards lined up in front of Powers and Fixx with all guns blazing, but Batman was quickly ready for them. He made a couple of loops in the air, then dived down at the guards, bulling all of them over. He landed on the ground and mightily leaped directly in front of the two villains.
"You're out of business as of now," McGinnis said in a deeper, gruffer voice than his own as he looked at Powers. He looked at Fixx angrily, unaware of a forklift heading straight at him. "And as for you Fixx, I'm taking you in for the murder of- -ugh!"
The forklift threw Terry aside before he could finish his sentence. Without turning off her invisibility, Coba ran to the hover craft that had the shipment and somersaulted into it. Fixx pulled out a pistol, knelt down, and aimed it at the teenage boy. Powers walked over and took the weapon out of his employee's grasp.
"Get that hover craft into the air!" Derek ordered, gesturing towards the vehicle.
Fixx stood up and ran to the hover craft. Powers lifted the pistol to his shoulder so it was pointing into the sky before stalking over to where Terry was being squeezed in his thighs by the forklift. The big man got into the cockpit of the hovercraft, fully unaware of his sworn young enemy's presence.
Batman pulled out a batarang and threw it at the guard operating the lift, breaking through the glass and knocking the guard senseless. Terry fell from the forklift to the ground. Derek aimed the pistol at him and fired several shots. Terry jumped backwards, avoiding the bullets of the small gun. "Where are you, Coba?" he whispered into his com-link.
"I'm in the hovercraft," Coba answered in a low voice. "It's about to lift off. You'd better get in here right now."
Terry snarled as he threw a batarang at Powers, watching as the businessman shot it accurately. "Like shooting skeet," Derek said mockingly.
"I'm a little busy right now with getting past Powers," Terry whispered back. "I'll catch up in a minute. Hold off those guys as long as you can."
"Roger that. Good luck, Batman."
"Right back at ya... Batgirl."
Coba grinned. Hmm, I kinda like this, she thought. She walked silently along the corridor of the hover craft, skillfully avoiding the three guards' attention until she was directly behind them. "Oh, boys!" she said in an obnoxious high-pitched voice.
The patrolmen turned around in surprise, but they saw nothing. "Where are you?" one of them demanded to know.
"Oh, somewhere," Coba replied.
"Where are you?!" another patrolman said, echoing the first guard to speak.
The first patrolman to speak was knocked senseless. "Right behind this unfortunate moron... moron," Batgirl mocked.
The two remaining guards jumped headlong at their companion's body, only to bump into each other and fall to the ground, dazed but still conscious. They felt their uniforms being grabbed from behind and could do nothing as they were dragged up the ladder to the hatch and thrown to the concrete below.
Coba climbed down from the hatch. Huh, that was easy. Almost too easy, it seems. She wandered over to the cockpit as she turned off her suit's camouflage feature. "Now to find Fixx," she muttered.
Two large hands tightly grabbed her shoulders from behind before tossing her against a nearby wall. Coba had no time to react as her assailant grabbed her around her arms and chest in one of his powerful arms. "You should've been alert, runt," the attacker mocked. "I was right behind you the entire time you were on board."
"What's in it for you, Fixx?" Brooklyn asked gruffly, struggling for freedom from Fixx's grasp. "Why are you doing this?"
The large villain grinned malignantly. "I knew that you'd get involved, Coba Brooklyn." He chuckled wickedly when he noticed his prisoner suddenly freeze in surprise at the mention of her name. "That's right, I knew who you are behind that mask. I recognize that limp of yours anywhere." Fixx pulled out an electric band and put it on his massive free fist. "I'd kill you right now if it wasn't for your Bat-friend's presence at the hover pad."
"You aim to kill both of us!" Coba accused angrily. "You want me alive so you can lure him to you!"
Fixx nodded. "You've got that right." He shocked his captive for a moment, causing her to scream in agony. He tightly tied her to the metal pipe behind the captain's chair with some rope. "Those screams of yours should be enough to bring your friend over here."
"Your plan won't work this time, Fixx!" the girl said angrily.
The man grinned even more evilly than he had before. "I wouldn't be so sure, Bat-brat," he taunted. "You're stuck to those pipes with no way out, and that friend of yours will undoubtedly come for you. I have a fool-proof plan that will bury the both of you six feet under."
Brooklyn struggled hard in her bonds once Fixx turned to the chair and sat in it, focusing on getting the hover craft into the air. I've gotta get free somehow, the girl thought. If I don't, Terry will get killed in my place. I can't let that happen to my family- -not again. Wait a minute, maybe there's a feature in this suit that'll help. Ah-ha! There's something!
A batarang appeared from her wrist. As silently and quickly as she could, Coba worked her way through the ropes with the sharp blade.
~!~
McGinnis heard his half-sister's agonized scream through his radio receiver. "Coba," he whispered quietly. Hang in there, sis. I'll be there in a minute.
Terry saw a container of gas right next to him, giving him an idea. Without giving his plan a second thought, he grabbed the container and, once Powers had his back turned to the teen, threw the container at his foe. Powers shot it instinctively, immediately regretting this action. The container knocked him to the ground and leaked out the deadly gas from the cracked glass of it.
"No," Powers said anxiously at first. He looked closer at the canister and immediately shouted fearfully, "NOOOO!"
Without waiting around for the gas to attack him, Terry flew after the rising hover craft and grabbed hold of one of its outer vents. He extended his hands out, making some claws draw out from the suit's finger tips, and he climbed across the right wing of the ship. Once at the edge of the wing, he jumped forward mightily onto the hatch. He cautiously pulled it open, not sure if there were any guards nearby. Upon seeing the only guard left (who was coming out of unconsciousness) coming after him, Terry grabbed him and threw him into the sea below.
Now to find Fixx and Coba, McGinnis thought as he ran down the corridor. He caught sight of the captain's chair and a severed rope lying below the nearby pipe, causing him to sprint faster. With another mighty jump, he kicked the chair around to face him, only to find it was empty. He looked at the dashboard to see the "auto pilot engaged" button flashing. Where are they?
"Look out behind you!" Coba's voice warned urgently.
Batman instantly ducked as a large fist with an electric band flew past him. Turning around, the young man punched his assailant in the stomach forcefully. Unfortunately for Terry, the much larger man's other fist sailed into his face, causing him to hit the windshield and fall back down to the floor.
Fixx charged at Terry in a split second. Coba threw herself on the ground directly in front of her enemy's feet and curled into a tight ball. Having no time to dodge the young girl, Fixx tripped over her and landed on his electric fist bands just inches away from the teenage boy. Coba sat up painfully as Fixx was electrocuting himself.
"Now do you see how it feels, punk?" she mocked.
The villain rolled off of the electric bands before he tackled Coba to the ground and pulled out a knife. "Not through my left eye, thanks to you," Fixx snarled. "I've been waiting for two years to kill you for it. Now, die by the knife that killed your mother!"
Coba held on tightly to Fixx's wrists as he aimed the knife and an electric fist at her face. The sight of the knife's insignia, however, gave her the same boost of vengeful energy she had the other night when she found a similar knife next to her father's corpse. Without having a second thought about it, the angered teen kicked Fixx off of her, sending him flying directly into the right shelf holding some of the containers of gas. Miraculously, none of the containers were damaged.
Fixx jumped up and charged headlong at Batgirl with his knife raised. Before she could counter the attack, Coba was struck across her right eye by the dangerous blade. The large man punched his much smaller opponent forcefully in her stomach before hitting her in the face both times with the high-voltage fist bands. Blood trickled from Coba's eye and mouth as she stumbled backwards into the pipes she was bound to moments before. She tried to stand back up, but found that she had no energy left to fight or escape. All she could do now was wait for her sworn enemy to kill her.
"Not on my watch, dreg!" Terry's voice shouted.
Coba watched in horrified fascination as Terry jumped between her and Fixx and grabbed the villain's wrists tightly. Fixx tried to push the young man back, but Terry pushed him until they were directly in front of the back of the pilot's chair. Seeming to gain the upper hand of the fight, Fixx pushed his opponent up against the chair. No matter how hard he tried, though, he could not seem to get his weapons close enough to the teen's body to hurt him.
"You're pretty strong- -" Fixx gruffly remarked- - "for some clown who thinks he's Batman."
"I am Batman!" McGinnis growled back.
Before Fixx had a chance to react, Terry headbutted his chest, causing him to back up. The young Batman punched the evil man across the face twice, unaware of Coba lifting herself up from the floor. Fixx snarled at Terry before preparing to punch him back. To Fixx's surprise, Terry's right fist collided with his face as Coba kicked him in the stomach forcefully. The momentum of the kick sent Fixx sailing into the dashboard. Fixx screamed in agony as his electric fist bands collided with the metal dashboard.
The hover craft flew with its nose facing the sky, sending the two siblings backwards to the ladder. Some of the gas containers fell out of their places on the wall the next moment. Terry instinctively jumped out of the hatch as the containers came crashing down at him and opened his suit's wings, managing to glide safely away.
Coba, however, was less fortunate.
One of the canisters landed on Coba, crushing her between it and the ladder. The hover craft flipped upside down the next moment, dumping her and the canister out. She opened her suit's wings, but the canister hit her once more, knocking her out of balance and thus making it impossible for her to glide after her half-brother. She painfully screamed in terror as she plummeted towards the sea.
The sound of Coba's horrified shout struck fear into Terry's heart. He chanced a look behind him to see the hover vehicle plunging into the sea, but the sight that concerned him the most was that of his half-sister falling towards the sea helplessly. He quickly flew in the direction of the young girl. "Coba!" he called out urgently.
Brooklyn was barely a few feet above the sea when she felt herself being ripped from the air. Her eyes were shut tight in fear for a moment before she realized that she was not in the water already. She lifted her head and opened her eyes with a start, immediately recognizing her rescuer. "Terry," she murmured in relief.
McGinnis looked back down at Brooklyn and grinned reassuringly. "I got ya, Coba. Hang in there, alright?"
"Where are we heading?" Coba gasped.
"We're going back to Wayne," Terry answered. "Only a few more minutes till we're there. Hang in there," he repeated.
It was only a matter of seconds before the teenage girl noticed her injuries. The pain took its toll on her at an intensely accelerating speed, making her weaker and weaker with each passing second. "Brother..." she gasped. "It... hurts... bad... death... soon... goodbye..." Coba's voice trailed off as her vision blacked out, her body going limp as it did so.
"Coba!" she was not able to hear Terry's voice plead. "Coba, wake up!"
Author's Notes:
Yes, I ended this chapter on a suspenseful note. Will Coba survive to tell the tale? Or will her injuries kill her? Find out in the next chapter!
The character poll is still on my profile page if you want to cast your vote on your three favorite characters from this story!