Disclaimer: Again, all of the characters portrayed herein are the intellectual property of DC Comics, Inc., and I own nothing.
Ascension of the Beast
Chapter XVII
Ballroom Blitz
Before Raven could finish that simple syllable, that short four-letter word, the moment's violent demise came with a rapidity that shocked even the speedsters in the crowd. In a succession so quick that the sounds could not easily be differentiated nor the images properly processed, glass broke, loud bangs echoed throughout the ballroom, each bang accompanied by a blindingly bright flash of light, and finally the room began to fill with what appeared to be a green smoke.
"Talia al-Ghul," and authoritative voice resonated through the chaos a moment later, "you shall pay for your crimes!" After a pause which lasted no longer than a tenth of a second, automatic weapon fire resounded throughout the hall. And a hell of a lot of automatic weapon fire, at that.
As Raven's senses returned to her, she immediately became conscious of three facts: her back was to the floor, her erstwhile dance partner was sprawled on top of her, using his body to shield hers, and the green smoke was not smoke at all. 'Dust?,' the thought confused her even more.
Garfield was saying something, but she could not initially hear him over the sound of ringing in her ears. Raven had been in dangerous situations in the past—hell, she technically died on the night Trigon used her as a portal to invade the Earth—but never had an attack left her this disoriented. Finally, as he was literally dragging her off the floor, she heard what the changeling was saying: "Raven, we need to find cover, now!"
"What the hell just happened?" Raven finally found herself able to speak as Gar pulled her to safety behind a makeshift barricade formed by a table Diana had tipped over. Thankfully, this was the home of Batman, and it could be trusted that these tables were bulletproof as a matter of contingency planning. Raven looked to see the others hiding behind this particular table: Diana of Themyscira, Donna Troy, Kate Kane, Margie Sawyer, Roy Harper, and Bette Kane.
"First they hit us with four—maybe five—flash-bangs," Diana responded, "then came a gas grenade spewing out this aerosolized green dust."
"Then they started firing machine guns while calling Talia out," Donna added. "But what's bothering me is, what the hell is this dust? Are we gonna die breathing this stuff in?"
"I doubt it," Kate replied. "Fast-acting chemical agents would be symptomatic by now, and a slow-acting chemical agent or any biological weapon would be extremely pointless under these circumstances."
"Who the fuck are these guys?" Gar asked.
"The one with the minigun is Lock-Up, the one with the prosthetic gun is KGBeast, and the one with the flamethrower is NKVDemon," Batwoman responded, in the exact same calm and collected manner one might expect someone of her history to exhibit under such a situation. Had it not been for Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the fact that she was caught engaging in an affair with her West Point roommate, Kate would have followed her father's footsteps in the military. Staying cool while under fire was in her blood.
"I think the better question is 'what are they doing?'" Bette inquired. "I mean, they said they're after Talia, but they're just standing around shooting at anyone who seems to be moving. They've either got to be incredibly dim-witted, or something else is going on."
"From all of the information Bruce shared with the League, Lock-Up is a brilliant tactical analyst, so I think we can rule stupidity out," Diana noted.
"Yeah," Kate agreed, "they're just using suppressing fire to keep us immobilized. There's definitely something else going on—the question is what?"
"Maybe the Injustice League is raiding the Batcave?" the changeling suggested. Kate, Diana and Raven all looked at him like he'd said the moon was made out of chocolate.
"You do realize how well the Batcave is protected, right?" Batwoman responded first.
"Besides, none of these guys has any known connection to the Injustice League," Diana noted. "I mean, sure, Anatoli and Gregor are mercenaries who can pretty much be bought by anyone, but Lyle, no. And every time Lyle and Anatoli have teamed up in the past, it was always Lyle who was in charge, so we should assume that Lyle's probably in charge now."
"Either way, this situation needs to be resolved ASAP," Kate interjected. "We need a plan right now."
"Well, you and Bette are out, seeing as you don't have any of your equipment on hand," Diana noted. "Donna wouldn't last a second against that minigun. If it weren't for that minigun, I could probably attempt an attack while using my bracelets to deflect the bullets, but there's no way in hell I could keep up with that thing, and I don't want to risk a stray bullet hitting a civilian anyway."
"Maybe I coul..." Raven choked out, but she was interrupted by Diana before she could finish.
"No, there's nothing you can do in your soul self form, Raven. Each of them is wearing an amulet with a charm on it—protection from you, Zatanna and Constantine, I'm sure."
"I could pull the falling whale routine on them," Gar said.
"Like hell you can!" Raven used her powers to restrain him with haste. "There's no way I am going to bury you before I have a chance to finish what I was going to tell you." His eyes opened a little wider and he raised a finger as he was about to reply, but Raven quickly answered what he was going to say. "No, now is not the time for it." His ears and eyes simultaneously lowered in defeat—he wasn't going to argue with her.
"Raven's right, Gar," Diana was also opposed to the idea, "even if you fly there in a form they can't see and dropped down on them in the form of a whale, it would probably only incapacitate Lock-Up. KGBeast and NKVDemon have cybernetic and chemical enhancements to the point where you'd only briefly surprise them and, as soon as they got their bearings back, they would probably proceed to kill you."
"And before you try to think of some argument to weasel your way into letting you do this," Raven wasn't done lecturing him quite yet, "ask yourself this simple question: do you really want the last memory that Rita, Steve, Larry, Cliff, Dick, Vic, Kori, Bette, Donna, Roy, Wally, Garth, Clark, and I—as well as everyone else here who considers you a friend—have of you to be watching you die and failing to prevent it?" She figured that particular approach should make him think, considering his past and his own issues with survivor's guilt. Would he really want to subject his friends to that same monkey on their backs? Ultimately, he chose no.
"Too bad Roy doesn't have his bow," Gar said, letting the idea the he would himself do anything slide.
"Wouldn't matter anyway," Roy responded. "The way these assholes are going about this, Lock-Up would probably saw the bow in half with that minigun the moment I tried to raise it to take aim."
"They seem to have planned this out very well," Donna said.
"Yeah, attacking in the middle of a social event where none of the heroes who rely on weapons will have them on hand," Gar noted.
"They seem to have contingencies to keep everyone except for the Kryptonians in check," Diana added. "Flamethrower to keep the Martians at bay. Protective amulets to neutralize the threat posed by the magic-users..."
"Using suppressing fire to keep all of our heads down and make sure we can't attack as a group," Kate added.
"Even Kori's powers are worthless at this point," Raven noted. "She needs a line of sight on her targets, but Tamaraneans, unfortunately, aren't bulletproof like Kryptonians, and that minigun would probably turn her into hamburger before she had a chance to even conjure a starbolt. I guess all we can really do is wait for the Kryptonians to act." At that moment, Zatanna teleported to their little safe spot.
"Sorry, but that isn't going to happen," Zatanna informed the group. "It turns out their countermeasure against the Kryptonians is the green dust, which, judging by the effects it's having on Clark, Kara and Conner, it's almost certainly kryptonite."
"Well, I'll be damned," Diana's eyes widened as her hand moved over her mouth. "Cadmus. But how?"
"Cadmus?" Gar honestly had no idea what that meant.
"Project Cadmus is a top-secret metahuman genetics project," Diana responded. "The Project was actually responsible for creating Conner, but that's immaterial. Project Cadmus also produced a number of countermeasures, ostensibly to be used in case one of the metahumans who they studied went rogue. This is one of those countermeasures—a gas grenade dispensing aerosolized green kryptonite dust, which was developed for use as a countermeasure again Clark and Kara." The Amazon furrowed her brows. "But what I can't understand is where they got it. Only Checkmate is supposed to have access to these grenades, and, usually, Checkmate is understandably quite serious with security."
"These are probably questions that can wait for later," Kate interrupted. "First we need to figure out some way to resolve the present situation."
"You're right," the Themysciran Princess responded. "Especially since, the longer Clark, Kara and Conner are exposed to this stuff, the more damage it'll do to them. We need to get them to the Watchtower as soon as possible—only the medbay there is capable of clearing the kryptonite from their systems. As a less immediate concern, the rest of us are probably going to need it too—Lex Luthor found out the hard way that prolonged exposure to green kryptonite can cause cancer in humans."
"Maybe the speedsters could resolve the situation?" Bette thought aloud. It was well known among the various heroes who were present that Barry Allen, Wally West and Bart Allen each had such a great connection to the speed force that at times they could even control their vibrations to the point of being able to phase through projectiles and weapons.
"That minigun would still be a problem even for them," Diana noted. "A hundred rounds a second is a lot to be conscious of, and they need to have precise control to be able to phase through a bullet. Moving and retaining the vibration rate needed to remain unseen would take a lot of that control away from them."
"I have an idea," the changeling proclaimed.
"No," Raven replied. "We've already covered this ground, Garfield."
"Come on," Gar responded. "If we don't get this situation resolved now, the supers could die. I can promise you my plan will work without me being harmed, but you have to trust me."
"Okay, then what's your plan?" asked the Azarathian.
"Just get ready to act after you hear the minigun fire," he said, before turning into a housefly and flying away before anyone could protest.
"Damn it, Gar!" Raven cursed the changeling under her breath. "If he gets himself killed, I'll go to the spirit world and bring him back, just so I can kill him myself for beings so stupid."
The green housefly took an indirect route toward his target, flying far enough away from the assailants that he would be able to remain inconspicuous. As he reached the end of their field of vision, he flew straight for his intended destination: Lock-Up's back. Transforming into a common chimpanzee, Gar quickly took a grip on the man's shoulders and, before Lock-Up could react, proceeded to knock him unconscious with a full-force blow to the back of the head. Fluidly transforming into a mountain gorilla, Gar quickly righted the unconscious man and turned both Lock-Up (who was now propped up against the gorilla's chest) and himself toward the remaining assailants. Taking control of the minigun, Gar then used its insane firing rate to sever KGBeast's prosthetic gun and then quickly used the remaining rounds to puncture the tanks of the flamethrower NKVDemon was wearing.
Under normal circumstances, NKVDemon should have been relatively safe. The minigun was not firing incendiary rounds, so there should have been nothing to ignite the fuel. Even under the present circumstances, NKVDemon would have been safe if he had been using a napalm-fueled military grade flamethrower, but he was, fatefully, using a commercial-grade propane-fueled flamethrower on this day. It should also be noted that Gar had no intention of detonating the flamethrower; ever since the various villains of the world figured out that Martians were vulnerable to fire, it had become increasingly common to see the villains who faced off against the Titans be equipped with some form of flamethrower (especially since no one could really predict when Miss Martian might happen to be in town), and Gar had seen and experienced enough to know that Hollywood seriously exaggerates the danger of flamethrowers exploding. However, unaware that his propane tank had actually been punctured and that he was now being surrounded by a colorless cloud of flammable gas, NKVDemon's immediate reaction was to do the worst thing he could possibly do for himself: he aimed the flamethrower's gun at the changeling and pulled the trigger.
The flamethrower did not throw a flame at the changeling. There was no-longer enough pressure in the tank for that to happen. No, instead, at the moment the piezo igniter sparked, the cloud of propane around Gregor Dosynski became a fireball, which in turn ignited the propane that was still in the tank. The Russian accidentally caused a bomb to detonate on his own back, the force of which sent all four combatants flying through the windows onto the terrace outside.
Beast Boy and KGBeast came back to their senses at roughly the same time, and the latter was understandably quite angry. Both his employer and his protege lay unconscious, possibly dead, and all because of this little runt, who was supposedly the weakest of a group of teenagers. And on top of that, his prosthetic gun was missing. This boy was going to pay. The former KGB operative immediately leaped into action, pummeling the boy with his remaining fist. This was particularly punishing as, in addition to his inhuman strength, KGBeast also sported a pair of spiked brass knuckles which fairly efficiently tore into the young adult's flesh.
"It was not Lock-Up's intent to be killing you," the deadly assassin, who had previously been responsible for the deaths of at least two hundred people spoke as he cocked his fist back for what he intended to be a fatal blow. "But now, little brat, I am killing you," he said, before he suddenly felt a cutting sensation pierce through his torso. Looking down, Knyazev saw the foible of a sword sticking out of his abdomen. Looking behind himself, he saw a very pissed off bride.
"Today was to be my day," the wife of the Bat said in a dangerously calm voice which somehow still managed to emote the burning rage she felt. "But you and your friends have abased it, and now you are assaulting and threatening to kill one of my husband's friends? Did you truly believe the daughter of Ra's al-Ghul would tolerate such an invasion upon the sanctity of her wedding reception? It is now your move, assassin, but I assure you that I will kill you if you do not cease your assaults against the changeling." The assassin could see that there was some other reason behind Talia's defense of the one known as Beast Boy; in reality, Bruce Wayne barely knew Gar except for the fact that he was Steve Dayton and Rita Farr's adoptive son and a friend of Wayne's own adoptive son Dick Grayson. But he could not see what it was, nor did he particularly care. From his perspective, the brat had shed first blood, and no one gets away with assaulting KGBeast.
Merely annoyed by the sword which had impaled his torso, and certainly unfazed by the words of the woman who stabbed him, KGBeast merely gave Talia a strong backhand to the face. This particular backhand was enough to send the woman flying six feet back and knocked her out on contact. The bulky bruiser then proceeded to use his good hand to pull the sword out of his own body, arming himself with it and intending to use it against the changeling. Except, he discovered when he looked down, the changeling was not there anymore.
Confused by the sudden disappearance of his chosen target, the mass murderer scanned the parterre, hoping to see any sign of the changeling. Suddenly he felt the impact of two chairs to his back, as the voice of Dick Grayson commented "why don't you have a seat, Anatoli?" Looking to see Grayson and Bruce Wayne in fighting poses, Knyazev now found himself in combat with (unbeknownst to him) the original dynamic duo.
"The choice is yours, Anatoli," Bruce noted. "You can continue to fight and we will defeat you, or you can put down that sword, surrender and save yourself the trouble. But know that if there is any dishonor in your defeat, it will be on your head." The Russian acted as though he were thinking about it for a moment before he suddenly struck, beating Wayne with the pommel of the sword. The Dark Knight was struck with such intensity that he was thrown onto his wife.
"Beloved, perhaps we should have dispensed with the talking and done more fighting instead," Talia commented. Her husband merely grunted in response.
Meanwhile Dick was finding himself in a pickle as a mass murderer who did not seem to be fazed by any sort of pain advanced on him. With each step, Anatoli swung his sword. With each swing, Dick was able to avoid the point only by less than an inch. After one swing advanced the point of the sword far enough to slice a slit in Dick's shirt, the Russian was suddenly hit by a massive wave of sonic energy. "Boo-yah!" Vic Stone shouted his combatant catchphrase.
As the assassin got back onto his feet, sword still in hand, he suddenly found himself on the ground again after sustaining what felt like really strong punches to the face and gut (the later actually being quite painful, considering the stab wound that was already present) out of apparent thin air. As it turned out, the three speedsters got their jabs in, Barry going for the face, Wally the gut and Bart took the sword.
As Anatoli got up again, trying to decide upon what target to attack next, a loud roar resounded from the parterre, where stood a Tyrannosaurus rex. Turning back in search of some weapon—for he knew he could not take on the dinosaur with a single bare hand—KGBeast was shocked to discover a sixty-foot tall Elasti-Woman. The analogy of being caught between a bear and her cub came to mind, but one would be hard-pressed to find a bear that was sixty feet tall on her hind feet and a cub that was thirteen feet tall at the hip. Either way, the seasoned assassin and mercenary knew the jig was up; he had already lost a substantial amount of blood, and, despite his improved physique, he could not handle any more damage. Raising his hands (or rather, hand and stub), he surrendered. The last thing he saw of the encounter was the form of Zatanna Zatara advancing upon him to remove his amulet and speak the words "Ilotana peels."
With all three assailants now neutralized, Beast Boy returned to his normal form. Earlier that day, Steve Dayton had given him a cigar in commemoration of the fact that Gar had been acting so much more like an adult in recent times. The gift was initially something that the changeling saw in a symbolic light—he had never smoked before, nor did he have any intent to actually smoke it at the time it was given to him, but he decided to hold onto it anyway as a representation of Steve's pride in him. The fight, however, changed that. Still standing in the parterre, the mildly shocked changeling pulled the cylinder of tobacco out of his pocket, placing it between his lips. Without emoting a single thing, he then proceeded to light up as began his trek back to the mansion.
Taking drag after drag, he took the time to finally observe the damage the battle had done to Wayne Manor. The wall separating the grand ballroom from the terrace overlooking the parterre had been so blown to pieces that there wasn't really a wall there anymore. Thinking to himself, Gar hoped that wall wasn't load-bearing. Before he was even done walking up the steps, Rita—now back to her normal 5'6"—rushed up to him and locked him in a firm hug. "Garfield, honey, are you alright?" the concerned maternal figure asked.
"Yeah, mom, I'm good," her adoptive son replied, albeit with an emotionless and somewhat exhausted-sounding tone.
"Good work kid," Mento patted Gar on the shoulder. "I'm sorry I couldn't be of help, I didn't bring the helmet."
"Naw, it's fine by me dad," Gar said. "Just as long as the bad guys were stopped." Walking over to Bruce Wayne, the changeling took a more apologetic tone. "Sorry for all the damage I did, sir."
"It's not your fault, Gar. You just singlehandedly took down two very dangerous adversaries, and softened the last one for a team effort. I should be thanking you, actually; had it not been for what you did...I was on the verge of extreme measures that could have gotten a lot of us hurt."
"So, what's the damage?" Gar asked, with a hint of curiosity in his voice.
"Well, I figure it'll probably cost me a couple hundred thousand dollars to fix this wall and get all of the kryptonite cleaned out of the house, but otherwise the results weren't bad at all. Sure, we've got three sick Kryptonians who we need to get to the Watchtower soon, but other than that, the only other people who need medical attention are you and the assailants. No one died. Lock-Up will need to be evaluated for brain damage when he wakes up, but he'll survive. NKVDemon has third degree burns throughout his upper body and probably a broken vertebrae or two, but he should recover. KGBeast has a multitude of injuries and has lost a lot of blood, but he'll probably survive as well. On the bright side, Blackgate prison is unlikely to fit him with a prosthetic gun, so that won't be a problem anymore. Lock-Up will go back to Arkham, KGBeast and NKVDemon will go to Blackgate, and, assuming the state's new policies stick, we shouldn't be hearing from any of them for a while."
'Well, that eases my mind,' the changeling thought as he stumbled back into the ballroom. 'I could still use a drink, though,' he made his way over to the bar and served himself a shot of bourbon. As he drank it, he heard Bruce requesting that Zatanna seek information on who hired the men before wiping their memories. 'I still bet it was the Injustice League. It sucks when no one will trust my instincts, though.' As he finished that thought, Raven walked over to him and promptly healed the wounds KGBeast had inflicted to his face, then slapped him in the back of the head. "Ow! What was that for?"
"That was for risking your life when I specifically told you not to," she replied, before pulling him into a hug. "And that was for saving the day." The dissonance of the response confused him more than anything, but that was always ultimately a driving force in his relationship with Raven.
"So, what was it that you wanted to tell me earlier?" he asked, still wondering what she was going to say, and hoping for a particular thing. He heard what little of that word she had an opportunity to say, and while there could have been a wide variety of things she might have been trying to say, he knew very well which one he hoped it was.
"It should probably wait until we get back home," she replied. "I was actually coming over here both to make sure you didn't get too banged up and to tell you that Diana wants us to escort J'onn and the Kryptonians down to the Justice League transporter in the Batcave. She's says she's not particularly worried, but it's best to be on the safe side just in case there's more villains in the house." Gar was having a very bad feeling about this, which he could not shake no matter how he tried. But lacking in any substantial evidence, there was not much he could do but agree to the task.
As soon as he stepped out of the elevator, Gar's sense of smell began to bother him. "Uh, Rae," the changeling whispered quietly into the Azarathian's ear, "do you sense anyone other than the six of us in here, or is my nose going crazy?"
Raven, feeling creeped out for reasons she couldn't fully understand, quietly nodded. Her empathic senses were also picking up on the presence of others in the Batcave, but she did not know what to think of it. The Batcave was the single most secure location in the State of New Jersey; there should not be anyone present, especially without at least having been detected by the security systems. Her confusion was compounded by the fact that she could see no physical signs of anyone despite the fact that her senses were leading toward a location which was clearly visible. Yet, for some reason, this caused a chill to run down her spine rather than convincing her that no one was there. "Two. But they should be right there," she pointed after whispering her response in a voice so quite it approached the minimum decibels the changeling, with his enhanced senses, could hear.
"Do you want to check things out?" the changeling asked. Gar really did not like the feeling of sensing people he couldn't see. For that matter, neither did Raven.
"Not yet," the empath replied. "We'll finish our task, and then we'll investigate after J'onn and the Kryptonians have teleported." She was finding the situation quite creepy, but they had a mission to stick to before they could get to the bottom of this.
"Okay, but stay on guard."
As the group approached the teleporter, J'onn could sense the uneasy disposition of the group's escorts, but it was not presently his task to worry about that. Normally, the Martian's own senses should have been able to pick up on whatever it was that the duo was sensing, but he was at the moment focusing most of his attention on the three sick Kryptonians who were in his care. "This'll be fairly straightforward," the Martian said as he punched the security code into the transporter's console. "Just push the button that say 'engage' when we're ready to be transported and remember to clear out the security code when the system confirms that the teleport is complete."
"Okay," the semi-distracted young adults said in unison. J'onn could tell that something was bothering them, and when he took a moment to sense his surroundings he figured out why.
"Don't forget to clear the security code," he repeated. "We've had problems in the past." While he did not give them any specific examples, he did have in mind one example of the horrors which unauthorized access to the Watchtower have led to in the past: the tragic incident that happened to Sue Dibny.
After fulfilling the Martian's request, the chromatically challenged duo began their sweep of the Batcave. The presences were very mobile, forcing the two Titans to split up to pursue one each. Gar followed the trail of his target into the trophy room, whilst Raven's senses led her toward the crime lab. Momentarily, the empath stood still, though she could sense the presence of a person circling her. Suddenly, out of no where a familiar figure appeared, walking circles around the woman.
"How the hell did you get in the Batcave?" she asked in a voice loud enough to be heard in the trophy room, flabbergasted that this person even had the capability of entering such a secure locale.
"You seem confused, Raven, but I shall enlighten you," the maniacal man replied. "I was sent here to retrieve information from the Bat Computer, but I find you so much more interesting," he said while walking behind her, running his finger across her shoulders. "You see, that mission no-longer matters to me. No, but understand that once I was a truly great villain—someone who posed a credible threat even to the Justice League. But then they captured me and they made me the 'sad little man' you so easily defeated. But..."
As the empath's voice echoed into the trophy room, the Shadow Thief was momentarily enraged. 'Damn it, Light! Mockingbird specifically ordered us not to make our presence known under any circumstances!' the stealthy villain thought. Without any options otherwise, he homed in on the changeling. Gar could smell him, but he could see nothing but shadows.
Without warning, a foot materialized from the shadows, striking the changeling in the face and causing him to fly back with enough force to knock over the giant penny which stood behind him. "Dude!" the changeling exclaimed. "What the..." Another kick landed on his rib, emitting an audible crack. Gar had frequently been underestimated as far as his intelligence was concerned, but he could easily put two and two together; whoever he was fighting—or, rather, whoever was fighting him—must have been using the shadows for cover. As a result of this realization, the changeling quickly morphed into a cheetah and escaped seeking a location with better lighting.
For Zatanna this was pretty much business as usual. Whenever the Justice League needed something erased from someone's memory, it was always her they would call upon to do it. If they needed information retrieved from someone's memory, it would also likely be either her or J'onn J'onzz who would be given the task. It wasn't like they had many options anyhow, as she and the Martian more proficient at this kind of work than anyone else within the League, even if she was herself more of a reservist. Hell, she was even responsible for neutralizing the threat that Doctor Light formerly posed.
"No!" she muttered as she located the information as to who had hired the mercenaries from Lock-Up's memories. The information was actually quite shocking, as she was able to find not only who had hired them, but what the overall plan was. "Vic, get over here!"
"What's up, Zee?"
"Get on your T-Communicator and tell Raven to get out of the Batcave, now!" she said with a shaky voice that was almost threatening to cry. There was no possible way Raven knew how much danger she was in at the moment.
"Dude," the changeling endured a number of additional hits as he attempted to stay in the light, "this is so not cool." Looking around, he realized that the shadows were broken; there was no possible way that someone who was using the shadows as cover could have continued attacking him, 'unless he actually is a shadow,' he thought. The other Titans probably would have ridiculed him for that, but it was the only possibility that he could deduce. And, as his eyes confirmed when he saw the shadow crossing in between shadows, he ultimately recognized it was the truth.
'Okay, so this dude is a shadow when he's not attacking, but then he takes a physical form to attack,' Gar thought about the situation. 'Then I just need to...' His thoughts were interrupted by another kick—this time to the kidney. "For fucks sake! Why can't you face me like a man?" He already knew the answer to that question, and, although it didn't show through his current frustrated state, he understood. This was merely his adversary's fighting style. He just needed to find a way to out-think him.
The changeling began to constantly track the shadow, using his peripheral vision so as not to give away that he was watching. No, if the shadow knew he was watching, it wouldn't attack, but the only time this shadow person was vulnerable was when he was attacking. While Gar was tracking the figure, he almost casually walked under one of the large fluorescent lights illuminating the central computer terminal. 'From here I should be able to see him coming and it should give me some reaction time,' he thought.
Pretty much as soon as he finished that thought, however, two things happened within a millisecond of each other. First, he heard a female voice screaming. It was a very familiar female voice indeed, borne by someone he had known for years and with whom he was still presently cohabiting: Raven. In that fraction of a second, the one thought on his conscious mind was: 'Fuck! I need to finish this and I need to help Raven.'
The next thing that happened was that he saw the shadow materializing as a man out of the corner of his eye. Wasting not a fraction of a millisecond, the changeling turned to face his adversary, all while transforming into a beast whose form he'd never taken before. The previous night, Gar and Raven had watched Jurassic Park, largely because, although she'd read the book, Raven had never seen the movie and Gar wanted to change that. With his expansive knowledge on the subject of zoology, Gar was very much aware of the fact that there is no evidence that the Dilophosaurus had the capabilities that were presented in the film, but that did not stop him from transforming into exactly the animal he saw in the film if he so willed—and he definitely willed so at this point.
Within a fraction of a second after the transformation was complete, Gar extended the neck frills that real Dilophosauruses probably never had and proceeded to spit his venom into the eyes of the Shadow Thief. Gar's aim was perfect, as both eyes were completely covered by the substance which immediately triggered a reaction rendering his adversary blind. Before the disabled villain even hit the floor, Gar was in the midst of transforming yet again, taking the form of a cheetah and stepping over the man who he had just so craftily defeated. Only one thing was on his mind now: he had to make sure Raven was alright.
"I've defeated you more times than I can count, Light," the empath was initially more than confident in her abilities. She had never heard the full story about Arthur Light's past. Light himself had just revealed that Zatanna had altered his mind, making him an incompetent buffoon, but that more recently his 'associates' had found a way to reverse the effects. Had she heard what happened to Sue Dibny, perhaps she might have been more conscious of the danger she was presently in, but that was a matter that the Justice League was still so shocked by that they withheld it even from the information transfer they made with the Titans. "Give it up, Light, or I'll just reintroduce you to your nightmares."
"No, I shall have my revenge," he said, as he scanned the demi-demoness's body. "Perhaps I have not enlightened you enough, but there is still one more thing to bring to light," he said as he presented his amulet—exactly like the ones worn by Lock-Up and his team up stairs. Raven's powers would not help her now.
"Well, I'll just have to use my corporeal form to kick your ass, then," she said before she punched him in the face with all her might. It was enough to knock him down, but not out.
"Kinky," he taunted as he got up. Walking toward her, something seemed even more creepy about him than anything she'd ever encountered from the pathetic excuse for a man before. As he advanced, she would step back. That process continued until she found herself with her back against the wall. Before he came within arm's reach, he used his mastery of the power of light to afflict the Azarathian with temporary blindness, so she could not fight back.
As the villain stepped closer to the now-helpless woman, his eyes drank in her every visible feature. As he came closer, he ran his hand along her hip. "DON'T TOUCH ME!" she screamed with such volume that he was almost sure anyone else in the Batcave would certainly have heard it. He know knew that the changeling would probably be on his way to rescue the empath as soon as he could shake the Shadow Thief, so Doctor Light determined that now was a good time for an exit. Forcing her arms into restraints, he threw her over his shoulder and began to make his escape. All the while Raven was screaming "LET ME GO!" and "HELP!"
Doctor Light hurriedly carried the focus of so much of his hate toward the ramp leading out of the cave. Pulling out a key chain, he pushed a button disengaging the cloaking feature of what was to be his and the Shadow Thief's getaway vehicle—which they apparently backed in, seeing as the car was facing the exit but in front of the Batmobile which was currently parked on the turntable. Pushing another button, the trunk swung open.
As Doctor Light threw Raven into the trunk of the vehicle, Gar arrived and saw what was happening. The cheetah began to shift into another form.
Author's Notes
I have to suspect this might be the weakest chapter I've done yet, but I've not given myself enough experience at writing action scenes and this chapter was definitely hard for me to write. But here's an even more evil cliffhanger for you.
The speedsters were kind of a problem in this chapter. I needed everyone to be somewhat helpless, but the speedsters are basically overpowered Gary Stus whose only real vulnerability is that they get tired if they skip a meal (seriously...it's a hell of a lot easier to kill Superman than it is to even injure one of the speedsters). As a consequence, I kinda/sorta wanted to de-power them a little (and subtly had to in order to make this chapter work). Either way, I will say that I find the speedsters' overpowered nature to be extremely annoying—I mean, seriously...all of the big three are more vulnerable than the speedsters with consideration of canonical abilities. If you put Bart Allen in a deathmatch against Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, and that fight depended entirely on their canon abilities, he'd win hands down. I particularly find it annoying because there's no element of danger with the speedsters, since what few weaknesses they are given, villains don't really have much control over. I mean, someone like Mister Freeze could probably slip them up by using ice to rob them of the friction they need for their feet to grip on the surface they're running on, but otherwise, there's not much a villain can do to them, which makes fights involving them utterly boring because you know the outcome—unless their own powers somehow kill them or their powers are removed (which really makes the suspension of disbelief difficult to maintain), the speedsters are going to come out of it alive.
As far as Gar knocking Lock-Up out goes...Lock-Up is a big dude, but there's no way a human is going to come out of being punched in the back of the head by a chimpanzee at full force and still be conscious. In fact, Lock-Up should probably be dead after such a blow, considering chimpanzees are known to be about five times stronger than humans, and even a punch to the back of the head from a human can be fatal (since it can damage the brain stem).
Also, technically, Gregor Dosynski should have been dead long before this story, but I just kinda figured there's no harm in including him, as this continuity is divorced enough from the continuity of the comics that it doesn't matter so much.
Radamwriter- Well, I updated, but sorry about the fact that this chapter also ends with a cliffhanger.
SimplyaCritic- Do you mean that in a good way, or in a bad way?
shugokage- I kinda felt like Chapter XVI was better than Chapter XV, so thanks. Unfortunately, I don't feel the same about this chapter, though.
Annatheavidreader- Not all of the characters are gonna get a lot of 'screen time' (so to speak), though. Gar and Rae are very much the central characters of this fic, and, although other characters have important roles, a lot of that is implicit rather than explicit. I'm glad you liked that chapter, at any rate. I'm hoping this chapter at least ranks as okay in that one's shadow, though. I'm glad that Raven's conversations struck that balance that you noted, though.
Guest- I can totally get that, but you can tell in how Talia's written that the writers' intentions for her changed a lot, and as the writers' intentions for her character changed, her character itself basically changed. The Talia al-Ghul who fell in love with Batman, resurrected Jason Todd, helped Bruce regain his faith in himself to rescue Gotham during the No Man's Land storyline, and sold all of LexCorp's assets to the Wayne Foundation, and the Talia al-Ghul who put a hit out on her own son are basically two different people, and I definitely favor the former more than the latter.
newboy- My lips are sealed about what's going on that hasn't already been revealed, but keep reading and you'll see if your prediction pans out. :)
Zeta Marz- Sorry about that. It's kind of one of those things where I genuinely do like playing with the tension surrounding the question of will they or won't they, but I've also got other things going on in the order of how I want the dominoes to fall, and there's still a couple of dominoes standing between the present point and that particular domino at the moment. Worry not, though, things will be settled between them relatively soon, one way or another (especially since there's a point at which a particular tension stops being interesting).
hoozemy- I actually did want the conversations between Raven and Zatarra and Diana to be at least somewhat funny. In addition to serving as a means to build up Raven's social confidence, I felt that subplot could work as a humorous sideplot as well (counterbalancing the somewhat sad plot element of Donna being on the verge of losing custody of her son and the more serious element of Gar and Dick's shop talk).
ravaginghunter- To be honest, I feel kinda flattered that you like my story even though you're not a fan of the main pairing that's being (well, heretofore) teased. Thanks for the review and I hope you continue to enjoy the story.
Hairul The Nightrage Beast- I don't think there's a 'probably' about that. I'm pretty certain that if you took Roy's bow away and set Roy and Terry up for a mano-a-mano fight, Roy would utterly kick Terry's ass. Put 'em in a boxing ring, and Terry wouldn't make it through the first round without getting KOed. I figure they had Donna marrying Terry to begin with because she liked his sensitive side, but then every now and again subtle hints of chauvinism would start showing through the cracks (especially when he would question her ability to do her job without getting killed—I mean, she's the god damn adoptive sister of Diana of Themyscira and an extremely powerful Amazon in her own right; I'm pretty sure she can take care of herself without needing a whiny professor second guessing her just because of what reproductive equipment she happens to have) and by the end he was being a total asshole. As far as Rage goes, I don't actually see Rage being a sub, to be honest; maybe a dom/sub switch (although more likely dom), but that emotion would never tend toward submission alone. My thoughts are that Rage likes the Beast because of the qualities that she sees in 'him' that are like 'herself'—there's not really anything else in Raven's life that can match Rage's passion, except for Gar's Beast...so it's kind of a common ground thing.
Green Bunny- I think it probably has something to do with maturity and security. If I had written this story ten years ago, I'd probably have been having problems with accepting constructive criticism, simply because at that point I was still too damn insecure to see that the constructive criticism is actually helpful. But I've come to realize constructive criticism is very useful because otherwise a person is never going to move forward with perfecting the craft in which they happen to be engaged. It also helps because no one can really see from all perspectives, and constructive criticism adds considerations from perspectives other than the one from which the person is looking. Either way, thanks. I hope this chapter is not too much of a disappointment after the last one, though; I don't really feel like I got it right.
JasonVUK- Nope, not Nyssa. Although Nyssa is probably going to get a line or two pretty soon.
McDiggity- If you don't like cliffhangers, you're really gonna hate me for this chapter. But, yeah, I'm glad you like the story, and thanks for the support.