7

IMPACT

"Tom, head back to the room," Bruce said as he ran. "Launch a drone and keep it on me. When it's bingo on fuel, bring it back and launch another. Stay on me until we're done."

"Acknowledged, sir," Alfred said as he quickly made his way to the hotel.

"The drone is unnecessary," Oracle said to both. "I will maintain visual contact with Beals. Eagle can scrub the hotel room and return to the Cave."

She knows everything, Bruce thought. He didn't like having his orders countermanded, but she was right. It was an overlapping of resources. The hotel room needed to be scrubbed and vacated as soon as possible. If this "Oracle" was an enemy she could burn him either way. He decided to trust her. In for a penny, in for a pound, as Alfred would say.

"Do what she says," Bruce ordered.

"Acknowledged sir," Alfred replied. He immediately began breaking down the equipment and packing.

Oracle. Oracle. Bruce kept repeating the word in his head as he ran down the street. Something was nagging at his mind, he just couldn't quite place it. He quickly arrived at the alley he was racing to and went in. He walked halfway down and went to a stairway leading to a basement apartment. Bruce punched in a code on the keypad lock and went inside. He ran to the bathroom of the apartment and up to the mirror. He put his palm on the mirror and spoke.

"Bravo Alpha Whiskey zero five one nine three eight."

Ten seconds passed before Bruce heard a slight click come from the bathtub. He walked over and pulled it four feet away from the wall. A section of the floor dropped on hidden hinges, revealing a ladder. He climbed down into the tunnels that ran underneath Gotham.

Oracle had given him the address where Beals was going. It was a warehouse in the Tricorner yards a few miles away. Beals was already on the subway and had a head start. Bruce might be able to beat him there if he used the tunnels. He quickly removed his jeans and began running. As he ran he tossed his hoodie and took his cowl and gauntlets out of the backpack and put them on. He had run less than two blocks when he reached one of the many four wheel ATVs the Team used throughout the tunnels. Batman attached his cape to his cowl and mounted the ATV.

"Oracle, do you have eyes on Beals yet?"

"He's just exited the platform and making his way topside... he just hailed a cab. He's going to beat you there."

Batman started the ATV and began riding toward the warehouse.

Beals paid his cab and got out. He looked at the the warehouse, unsure of what to do. Obviously his life was in danger. His past had caught up with him. And it seemed that someone wanted to help him. He didn't know if it was one of his contacts. Three others from Project BEAST also lived in Gotham. They had remained friends after coming to America and saw each other regularly. Are their lives in danger too? he wondered.

Bobby walked through the gate of the chain link fence of the property and walked twenty yards to a side door. He tentatively knocked on the door. No answer.

"Hello?" he asked as he stepped into the dark warehouse. He was immediately grabbed by the wrist and thrown ten feet across the floor. The lights of the warehouse came on. Beals looked at his assailant. It was a large man in black cargo pants, a dark blue t-shirt and a black windbreaker. He was wearing a black balaclava that showed only his eyes. Two distinct red blade designs ran down each side of the face. Beals immediately recognized his attacker. "Beast!"

"Yes, you loved calling me that, didn't you?" Anatoli Knyazev aka the Beast said. He walked over to Beals, leaned down and backhanded him across the face. Beals screamed as blood began to flow from his split lip. "I don't have much time. Tell me the next name on the list. Now." The Beast produced a Permyak knife from his cargo pants. Beals looked at the knife, terrified. He knew what Knyazev could do. But he couldn't betray his friend.

"Fuck you," he said in Russian.

The Beast grabbed Beals by the right wrist and lifted him off the ground with one arm. Anatoli quickly and expertly sliced Beals from the bottom of his armpit all the way past his ribs and to his hip. Beals screamed in agony.

"The name. Or there is much more pain to come."

The Beast heard a metallic clink on the ground. He quickly dropped Beals and closed his eyes and covered his ears with his hands. Still, he saw the bright flash of light through his eyelids and heard the deafening rumble as the flash bang went off. The Beast immediately rolled to his right.

Batman missed his kick as the assassin quickly rolled to his right. He's quick. Six five, white male, well muscled. Good training. He grabbed two batarangs from his belt and threw them at the assassin. The assassin caught one in each hand and immediately threw them back at him. Batman raised his gauntlets and blocked them but couldn't move out of the way in time to avoid a flying kick from the assassin.

Batman's head snapped back and he fell to the ground dazed. The assassin was immediately on top of him and delivered five viscous blows to Batman's head. Batman stopped moving. Blood poured out of his mouth and nose.

The Beast spun around and went up to Beals. "Did you see how quickly I defeated him? Now I have all the time in the world." He found his knife on the dirty floor and picked it up. Beals cowered.

Ten minutes later Anatoli had the name he came for. Beals lay on the floor dead, surrounded by a pool of his own blood. The Beast walked over to the Batman and looked down. He was still breathing, but small, shallow breaths. The Beast pulled one of his Sig Sauers out from his waistband and pointed it at Batman's head.

There was a loud bang and the Beast stumbled back and fell to the ground. He had been shot, but the Kevlar vest he was wearing took the brunt of the impact. Bullets started hitting the ground around him. He rolled away and came up returning fire through the door the shots had come from. He emptied his clip and went to reload. A man wearing a black t-shirt, jeans, combat boots and motorcycle helmet stepped through the open door. He was aiming a Glock at the Beast.

"Get the fuck back!" the man in the helmet said.

Sounds young? the Beast thought. Good. "I surrender," he said and dropped his gun.

"Yeah, right," the man said and began firing.

The Beast ducked under the volley of fire and rolled forward as the man emptied his clip.

"Oh, shit," he said as the Beast came up and uppercut to his helmet. The man dodged, but the powerful blow still grazed him, knocking him off balance. He stumbled back as the Beast sent a roundhouse to his thigh. The man fell to his knees as the Beast punched him in the directly in the helmet, shattering the tinted face mask. The man fell onto his back and the Beast was immediately on top of him, raining blows down on his helmet.

The man felt his right hand touch something on the ground. He grabbed what he thought was a knife and plunged it into the Beast's left eye. Anatoli screamed and fell backwards. The man stood up, pulled the pin on a flash bang, dropped it on the Beast and ran. The Beast closed his uninjured eye in time but didn't protect his ears. The explosion was deafening. He could now hear nothing but a high pitched ringing. The Beast stood up and pulled the batarang from his eye and looked around. The man was running out the door. The Beast stumbled out after him.

Anatoli exited the warehouse and looked around. He was in excruciating pain from his wound. He knew that his left eye was destroyed. He was going to kill the man in black slowly. The Beast walked to the street and looked around, trying to figure out where the man went. He never saw or heard the Batmobile as it plowed into him at 32 miles per hour. The Beast was thrown up onto the hood and rolled up over the cockpit and landed on the ground behind the car. He didn't get up.

The man in black drove the Batmobile up to the entrance to the warehouse. He opened the cockpit and got out. He was still disoriented from the attack and limping from the kick to his thigh. The man went back into the warehouse and grabbed Batman by the arms. He dragged him to the Batmobile and put him in the passenger seat. The man got into the driver's seat, closed the cockpit and drove away.

The man pulled into an alley a mile away from the warehouse. He looked over at the Batman. His cowl was cracked and the man could see that the lenses were knocked out of place. The man carefully took the heavily damaged cowl off. Holy shit. Batman is Bruce Wayne?

He pushed a button on the dashboard and activated the comm systems.

"Hello?" he said. "Is anyone there? I need help! He's really hurt."

"I can't get the car to go to autodrive," Oracle replied.

"Yeah, I disabled that part," the man said. "Sorry. Look, I have to get him to a hospital."

"No, follow my directions. Are you injured?"

"A little, kinda dizzy. I can drive."

"I'll tell you where to go. What is your name?"

"Jason. My name's Jason."