Dawn
February 22th , 2014.
Gotham City
Batgirl looked at Nightwing, uncertain of how he would react once he returned to the land of the aware. He hadn't said much since the burning bat symbol had appeared on the bridge. He'd seemed to be in some sort of daze. It only lasted a few minutes, thankfully. She had no idea what he was thinking. Batman were alive. Bruce were alive. His sort-of dad were alive. She could almost imagine what he was feeling. The enormous relief. And the fear of the one problem still at hand.
We still have a bomb to deal with. And Bane. And the League of Shadows.
"Nightwing?" asked Batgirl, placing her hand on his shoulder.
That seemed to snap him out of his daze and he looked at her. "Yeah?"
"What now? What do we do?" her words seemed to reflect the thoughts of the policemen standing behind her.
"We free the trapped policemen of Gotham. We need them. Now."
"Any ideas?" asked Gordon, looking at the stone blocked tunnel entrance. "It doesn't look like we can move those by ourselves. It's too heavy. And using machines wont work either, we wouldn't get anywhere before we'd get caught. "
Nightwing smirked. "I have something in my pocket that may be of some help."
A few minutes, a very large bang and a lot of dust later and the first few cops appeared. Shocked, covered in dust. But alive. And looking far better than any of the heroes could've hoped for. In a few minutes almost a hundred cops had appeared, with more coming by the second.
"They look okay." said Batgirl as she and Nightwing observed the Gotham police men getting back their freedom.
"They are Gotham Cops. Everything considered, this isn't the worst they've been put trough. Thank goodness the commish managed to get food and water to them. I wouldn't like the idea of going up against Bane and his men without some sort of backup."
When sure he could be excused commissioner Gordon turned to the two vigilantes.
"Thank you for your help, both of you." he looked at Nightwing. "What now? Do you have a plan?"
"We help Batman." Nightwing looked up. "Isn't that right Catwoman?"
The other policemen and Batgirl looked up and were surprised to see the infamous cat burglar of Gotham hanging over their heads, smirking.
"Way ahead of ya'." Catwoman jumped and landed gracefully on the ground in front of them.
The policemen moved to get their weapons, and Nightwing raised his hand.
"Don't worry, she's not with Bane. She's been helping trying to keep the city some what sane these past months." Nightwing looked at Catwoman, his face serious.
"What can you tell?"
Her smirk disappeared. "We need to move. Now."
"Where's Batman? You've seen him?"
"Yes. He found me. And told me his plan so I could tell you."
"Why can't he tell us himself?"
"I don't know where he is. He needed to get.. something." she winked.
Nightwing tensed with this new piece of information, clearly not happy with her answer.
"Okay – what must we do?"
oOo
London, Europe
"Kid!" yelled Miss Martian, as she watched Kid Flash being thrown across the road, into the opposing building. The team paused for a moment, as they waited for their comrade re reappear, hopefully unharmed. A few seconds later Kid Flash reappeared, covered in dust. "I'm okay." he croaked, as he started to cough. "Damn that hurt!"
"I'm glad. That it hurt." The Team returned focus on their opponent, Klarion the Witch Boy. Klarion had put on quite a fight. When the Team arrived in London it hadn't been hard to locate the chaos kid. The entire downtown had been absolutely chaos.
They had split up – Kid Flash, Zatanna, Bumblebee and Miss Martian had attacked Klarion while Superboy, Artemis, and Rocket had helped the civilians escape. They'd left Beast Boy with at the Watchtower, he was too young and untrained. Mal had also remained behind, taking over the monitoring from Flash. Flash had been happy to comply and had rushed off to Kenya where the animals had gone wild and were threatening the population. They suspected that Brain was behind, like the time he captured captain Marvel. Wonder Girl were with Wonder Woman and Black Canary, helping rescuing survivors from an massive earthquake that had struck the region of Hunan, China.
Klarion laughed as the team faced him again.
"You haven't had enough yet? Very well!" the witch boy laughed and flew high in the sky, dark red clouds of chaos magic appearing around his hands. "Come and get me, dumb ki..!" he was cut off when Zatanna charged him, causing him to loose focus.
"Hey! I spent a whole five seconds on that spell!" Klarion yelled, obviously insulted by her interfered with his spell.
"Take him!" yelled Miss Martian, and Kid Flash charged.
Artemis and Rocket watched from a distance.
"We need to finish this, we need to get back to Gotham!" Artemis said, as she watched her boyfriend attempting to capture Klarion. The chaos god disappeared with a sickning laughter only to appear beside Miss Martian, breathing fire towards her, causing her to crash down.
Artemis, Superboy and Rocket were on their way back to assist, having managed to get the civilians were out of the way.
"Agreed. But that witch boy is slippery. I think we can praise ourself lucky he haven't disappeared yet." Rocket answered, as she began to form a bubble witch both of the knew wouldn't hold the kid of chaos.
oOo
Gotham City 08.20
Batgirl and Catwoman ran. Together, along the rooftops of Gotham. The sun had just risen and the city was bathed in the red light. They ran without a word, focusing all their energy on the task at hand.
To remove the signal blockers.
10 minutes earlier
"This is.. madness." said Gordon when Catwoman had finished telling them about Batman's plan.
"Yes." Catwoman agreed, facing the police commissioner. "But it is our only chance. Either we do something now, or we are all dead in a week. Bane has to know that Batman is back. The trigger isn't safe anymore. We may only have a few seconds left to live." Catwoman turned to Nightwing.
"You agree?"
Nightwing nodded. "It's our only chance. Now go!" Catwoman and Batgirl nodded, before disappearing. Nightwing turned to Gordon.
"They take down the signal blockers, allowing Batman to active the Batwing. He'll get the bomb and fly it out of the city, to a place where it can't do any harm. Hopefully a member of the JLA can assist him, tossing the bomb out in outer space."
Gordon nodded in agreement, with the nod ending in a shake of his head. "It seems crazy. But then again, that is how you lot operates."
Nightwing smirked. "Now, commish, I'm off to City Hall. Care to join me?"
Present time
"Do you even know where it is?" yelled Batgirl while she and Catwoman were momentarily in the air, allowing them to take deep breath.
"I have a good idea. But it'll be very well guarded, so you better bring your A-game little girl." Catwoman replied, shooting Batgirl a mocking glare.
Batgirl scoffed. "Just lead the way, and I'll show you game old cat!"
Catwoman laughed as she landed on the rooftop.
"You know, I'm really starting to like you!"
"Wish I could say the same." Batgirl muttered, which caused Catwoman to laugh even louder as they continued their search.
At the same time Gordon and his men were marching towards city hall. The policemen, who hadn't seen daylight in months, were quiet. They walked in silence, as they watched the mercenaries take place in front the building. Bane appeared, walking slowly down the stairs.
"What's this?" the villain said, watching the the Gotham City Police Department with what some might call humour. Other might call it mockery.
"How'd you escape your underground prison, hm? I thought I had you locked up good and tight."
"Think again Bane!" Gordon replied, taking a stand in front of his men. "We won't give up our city to somebody like you."
"Is that so? Very well then." Bane spread out his arms in a welcoming manner. "Then come at me little people! Show me your courage!" he yelled, stepping forward.
Then, a unknown weight landed on his shoulders, setting out and causing him to lose balance for half a second. Bane whirled around to face this unknown attacker. His eyes narrowed at the unknown, black clad, man with the domino mask.
"Who are you?"
A spark, and the two escrima sticks had activated.
"Nightwing." the white eyes behind the mask narrowed. "And I owe you an ass kicking, Bane."
Bane's eyes turned suspicious for a second and took a brief glance around.
"Where are your little friends, niño pequeño?" the mercenary asked, a cold smile slowly working it's way to his painted face.
"Don't worry, you'll have your hands full with me."
Nightwing attacked.
oOo
Batgirl jumped and kicked the gun out of her opponents hands. The man screamed as she broke his wrist and fell down to his knees. She quickly spun around, trying to locate Catwoman. The thief had disappeared when their target were in sight, leaving Batgirl to take down most of the guards.
Batgirl tried to catch her breath as Catwoman suddenly appeared beside her.
"Thanks for the backup." Batgirl said, her voice dark with sarcasm.
"Oh, I knew you could handle these guys darling." Catwoman kicked to the still kneeling man, knocking him unconscious.
"Where were you?"
"Trying to figure out of how we take down this thing!" Catwoman pointed at the transmitter.
"It doesn't have an off switch and I don't know a thing about electronics. I can hack a computer, but this thing isn't connected to the web. It runs its own circuit."
Catwoman kicked the large transmitter, which had been blocking all signals in Gotham for months.
Batgirl starred at her. "Seriously? That's what stopping you?" Batgirl laughed, stepping over the men she'd floored before Catwoman reappeared.
Catwoman shot a dark look. "Don't use that tone with me girl. And what are your idea? Being a bat must mean you have some computer skill. But as I said, this isn't a normal computer! I don't even know what it is, other that it blocks every goddamn signal in this city!"
"And preventing Batman from go sky high." Batgirl looked at the transmitter for a few seconds.
"Seems simple enough."
Catwoman closed the distance between them. "Simple enough what?"
Batgirl grabbed something in her pocket. "Nightwing gave me this." she opened her hand, showing of a small, compact explosive.
"I don't know about you, but I don't think anyone wants to use this anymore anyway."
Catwoman glared, then smiled. "I do like you."
"Blow it."
oOo
London, Europe
"Team, report in!"
"Here." Artemis replied, hiding behind a building when her com link went off. The rest of the team were still fighting the manic laughing Klarion.
"This is Superman. How are you fight going?"
"We could use some backup. Klarion is toying with us. Zatanna is the only one with a real advantage against him and he managed to knock her out a few minutes ago. Bumblebee is trying to wake her, but she took a nasty blow to the head."
"I'm sending Doctor Fate. He should be there in a matter of minutes."
"We'll sure appreciate it."
"The civilians?"
"Safe."
"Good job. Artemis, when doctor Fate arrives I want you and the team to head back to Gotham. You are needed there, and are the only ones who are available."
"
What is going on?"
"Mal just reported that the signal blockers are gone."
"
WHAT?" Artemis quickly moved as Superboy crashed down beside her. "Will you repeat that?"
"The blockers, they are gone. Enter the city, and help Batman and Robin take down Bane. The rest of us will be there as soon as we can. Superman out."
Superboy groaned as Artemis helped him back up. "Who were you talking too?"
"Superman." Artemis explained, as Kid Flash and Miss Martian appeared while Rocket were fighting Klarion. Artemis looked at her boyfriend, smiling.
"Doctor Fate will be here soon, taking over. And then we head to Gotham."
oOo
"So Bane, have you gained weight?" Nightwing ducked the blow, and managed to kick two of Banes goons unconscious in the same movement. Chaos were everywhere. Mercenaries and policemen in close combat, with bullets flying everywhere. Still, the Gotham Police had the advantage of numbers.
The hispanic mercenary laughed, as he managed to grab on Nightwing's leg, throwing him into one of the pillars, crushing it. Nightwing tumbled to the ground, gasping for air.
Thank you for making my suit Alfred!
"You know, your taunt's wont get you anywhere, ácaro." Bane answered, walking closer, cracking his hands. "Now, it's time for you to die."
Nightwing quickly jumped up, over the man. He pounded the escrima sticks into Bane's back, releasing the current which caused Bane to tumble away, dazed.
"Oh, they will. Keeps my spirit up." Nightwing answered, before charging again. As he attacked, Bane whirled around, catching him between his arms. Nightwing struggled in the death grip.
Uh oh.
Bane smirked, as he began to squeeze. "Time to say goodnight, héroe."
Not good, not good! Nightwing struggled to get out of the grip of the venom empowered man, to no avail.
If I could only.. Nightwing's arms were locked, leaving him unable to do anything. He could feel his bones giving in under the pressure. He gasped in pain, as Bane laughed.
"I'll also break your back. Like I did your mentor." Bane taunted.
Nightwing went cold, for a second. Then the boiling anger exploded inside of him.
" No-you-WONT!" he pressed the button on his escrima sticks, allowing the current to flow freely. It backfired, he felt the current move up through his arms, connecting with Bane. A second later and the force behind the electricity made a small explosion, forcing the two men apart. Bane flew back, as Nightwing dropped to the ground. He couldn't move for a few seconds. He waited patiently for the current to leave his body before he slowly raised himself. Bane were also getting back on his feet.
"Nice move kid. But all you did were to save yourself a few more seconds."
"Really?" Nightwing lifted his hand. A small device were in his hand, no bigger than a match box.
Bane's eyes widened, as he quickly searched his pockets before turning to face Nightwing, his face twisted with rage.
"Thank you for getting me close enough to get this from you." Nightwing quickly jumped away as Bane charged like a mad bull.
"After all, without the real trigger your bomb isn't worth much, is it?"
So, the weather has been beyond amazing here in northern Europe this past week. Meaning I don't like sitting around inside, starring at my laptop. At least not as much as I normally do anyway.
What I'm trying to say is sorry chapters are so far in between, but I can't help it. I think a lot about them though.
I believe I'm making Catwoman far more heroish than she is. Oh well, not much to do about that now.
I really don't like writing action. I'm more of a 'and then they kicked all of their asses and the day was saved' kind a person, so actually making these stories last longer than a few lines is actually quite difficult for me to write.
I prefer a good angsty scene. Maybe one or two is coming up, who knows.
Also, I decided to go with the YJ Bane look (weird facepaint) indstead of Nolan's mask.
I loved Bane's look in DKR but it is easier to describe him when you can use face mimics.
Still, the face paint is weird. Seems like Bane have some unresolved childhood-circus-problems. Most likely because he was born in a prison. Well, can't blame a man for that.
I'm aiming to finish this story with a least 40.000 words. I want it in the sacred halls of the half-long stories!
Stay tuned and awesome as always. Please review!