Chapter 10: The Battle for Gotham City

Batman set the Batmobile on hover near the location Bruce sent him: the Visions of the Future building. Irony couldn't be ignored. He got out of the vehicle and scouted the area. He saw no signs of anything besides the panic of the city but he did notice that there was a small hovercraft that seemed like it was ready to takeoff but wasn't going anywhere.

That must've been how his enemies were planning to escape after destroying Gotham.

That wasn't going to happen.

He descended down from the Batmobile and landed in the center of town. It was weird to see so many people and none of them taking notice of him. He looked around, knowing he was at the exact place that Bruce sent him but he just saw the people rioting. He looked down at a manhole cover.

Underground. Of course. Shriek always was hiding in the sewers with the other rats. He entered the sewers and followed a muffled humming sound to underneath a nearby building office building. He went to an unused area of the sewer where he caught sight of the giant Sonic Shockwave. It was easily the size of two semi-trucks standing up vertical and as long as a semi as well. No wonder they needed Blackwell. They could have never gotten this thing without a crew. There were stairs that led up to a small catwalk that led to up the control panel where Batman took notice of Shriek's lackey, Ollie. He was in the right place.

The Dark Knight walked towards it, trying to figure out how he was going to shut it down. That plan, however, was put aside when he saw his two adversaries staring right at him, blocking his path to the controls. Actually, that worked out better for him: he preferred to beat them then stop their plan; though, if he could accomplish both at the same time, that would work, too.

"It took you a little longer to get here than we thought," King said. "Have trouble finding us?"

Batman said nothing. All he could see was Tai Ji's face upon his death and the two men before him who killed him. He was amazed that he was breathing regularly considering how badly he wanted to smash both of their faces in.

"Like the Sonic Shockwave?" Shriek asked. He looked up at it, "I was so proud when it was complete. I always wondered where the Agency put it. Now, that it's mine again… it's like getting back a member of my family." He looked back at the hero. "My previous device was simply going to drive the city insane, make everyone's eardrums rip apart and send them into madness." He pointed to the Shockwave. "This'll rip the city in half."

"Call it a penance," King said. "For a city that drove us to this. Had everyone, including you, just let us act as we see fit, none of this would be happening. But no. You, the police, even those common citizens with the backbone to stand up to us. All of you… you all must pay."

Batman still remained silent. He could only think of his ally and his death and how he needed to stop these monsters before the destroyed his home. He advanced, readying a batarang.

"Really?" Shriek asked. "You got nothing to say to that?"

"No threat?" King asked. "No promise of broken bones? I was so looking forward to some witty retort."

Batman growled. "RETORT THIS!" He threw the batarang at the duo; it was of the explosive variety. Once it detonated, they scattered.

King looked up just in time to see the bottom of Batman's boot hitting him in the face. The Dark Knight dove for the sound genius but Shriek blew him back with a sound blast. Batman used the extra momentum to fly off and launched a flurry of batarangs at Shriek, most of which he blow away or avoided. He hid in the darkness of the sewers and readied another batarang. He jumped from his hiding spot and threw the batarang, slashing across Shriek's shoulder, not damaging it enough to weaken the apparatus any, unfortunately. Shriek fired a sound wave but Batman dodged and tackled him. He punched him in the stomach, got them both to their feet, and elbowed him in the helmet. He kicked him away and just barely dodged a sword swing from King. He deployed a cable and wrapped up King's arms to give him a better chance. He punched the pretend royal in the gut and follow up with a headbutt. He was going to follow up but Shriek interfered again, knocking Batman against a far wall.

"He's rather obstinate," King said as Shriek freed him.

"I noticed," Shriek replied. "It's going to make killing him so much sweeter."

Batman took a few breaths to get himself gathered together. He let his mind wander for a brief second.

Tai Ji. The Black Tiger. A man of power, terror… and honor. Batman may not have trusted him but he proved himself to be one of the most honorable people he'd ever been around. He must've known that he stood no chance against these two but he fought them anyway to allow Batman to save people who had bearing his life at all.

Batman then thought about Bruce, Max, his mother, Matt, Dana, Chelsea, and everyone else in his life. Everyone these two madmen were threatening, purely out of spite. He couldn't save Tai Ji but he wasn't going to let what happened to him happen to anyone else, not while he could still stand up and fight.

Max knew she was crazy but it had never stopped her before. So, what was one more time? Tracking Terry was all too easy for her; she figured out how to keep tabs on the Batmobile after only a couple of months. That and Terry's phone number basically connected to the systems of his mode of heroic transportation. He might as well have given her a tracking device for as easy as he made it. Of course, she had never used it before, not in earnest anyway. She followed a signal trail to his location. She hoped. To make sure, she figured the Sonic Shockwave probably used a lot of power and tracked a massive power surge to where the Batmobile was located. Bingo.

She was wearing a hooded pullover, a bandanna she tied into a mask, and black leather gloves. She figured, if she was going to be stupid enough to go help Terry and Bruce, she better cover her bases and conceal her identity. She even brought along an aluminum baseball bat she retrieved her storage for obvious reasons. 'Yeah…' she said to herself, 'I am crazy. I swear I might as well be in Arkham with all the stuff I do.'

Making it through the insanity of the city, the dark skinned teen found herself in front of the Visions of the Future building.

'God, bad guys can be sick with their irony.'

Despite that, it was a clear sign that she was in the right place. She had a flashback to when Terry was missing and she and Bruce went looking for him. That memory made her immediately look at a sewer opening. Unfortunately, it made the most sense. She checked for the signal which confirmed her suspicion.

She groaned in disgust. "The things I do for love…" She proceeded down the sewer drain.

The Dark Knight used his rockets to take for the ceiling, dodging a sound blast. He fired a barrage of batarangs. The villains ducked and Batman dove down for King. He tackled him and pushed him into a wall. He moved quickly to get to Shriek before he had the chance to get a good shot off. Shriek did fire a few blasts that Batman managed to dodge. He jumped in the air to dive down but Shriek unleashed a wave strong enough to knock him back. He went sailing into the wall and was knocked for a little bit of a loop.

As he tried to gather himself, Shriek advanced on the young hero. "Finally got you where I want you." He aimed his gauntlet.

Batman looked up… but looked over Shriek's shoulder. What the Dark Knight saw left him in shock.

"And this time… nothing is gonna…"

A large fist from the Bat Armor punched Shriek right out of the way. King moved toward him but the Bat Armor launched a batarang from his gauntlet that knocked him away.

Batman got to his feet. He knew Bruce was in the armor. Who else could it be? Who else even knew he was here? "Tell you didn't…"

"Had no choice," Bruce replied. His voice was altered through the armor. "We have to stop them."

Terry decided to go ahead and point out the obvious problem of Bruce's mortality rate in that contraption, "It'll…"

"If it does… this is how I choose to end it. Never thought I'd make it to this age, anyway."

Batman looked at his adversaries. "Let's finish this quick. I want you out of that armor in ten minutes."

"Are you giving me orders?"

"Yes."

Bruce admired his tenacity. "Let's go to work, then."

"I'll take Shriek!" He took off after the sound professor.

"No surprise there!" Bruce ran for King.

The teacher and student went into battle.

At the control panel of the Shockwave, Ollie was making a few last minute adjustments when he was suddenly struck right in the back of the head by an aluminum baseball bat, knocking him out.

Holding the bat, Max stepped over him, "Sorry, buddy." She looked at the controls, "But this really isn't the time for me to be nice. Not that that happens all the time, anyway." She looked at the controls and looked for a way to shut down the Shockwave. She found herself completely unable to figure out the machine, either do to her mental state or the complexity of the machine. It was like the time bomb incident all over again.

And, just like that incident, she came to a rather abrupt solution.

She looked at the bat and looked at the machine. "Oh, slag it!" She slammed the bat into the controls over and over again.

The battle between the heroes and villains ceased when they saw that the control panel for the Shockwave was starting to spark and catch fire, parts of it even starting to explode.

"What is going on?!" Shriek screamed. "Ollie! Ollie, what did you do?!" He looked and saw the hooded Max standing with the bat.

She looked away from the explosions, saw Shriek looking in her direction, and swallowed, nervously. "Oops."

Terry recognized it was her immediately and whispered, "Crazy girl…" He smiled to himself. 'No wonder I fell for her.'

Shriek stared at the girl, breathing in heaves. He didn't know who she was and, right now, he didn't care. He had his plan to end this once and for all and, just like that, he lost everything. "YOU WITCH!" He threw sound waves at his enemies and in Max's direction, causing her to fall from the catwalk.

He was going after her but Batman tackled him in time. They wrestled on the ground while Max got behind a few extra crates avoiding the exploding control panel.

Shriek saw his device was now useless and, needless to say, was livid. This another time he had Batman dead to rights and he was cheated out of his victory. He feverishly swung his claws at Batman, trying to strike him. He was going to end this, with Batman's life.

But not before he got some revenge first.

He shoulder tackled the hero again and threw him against a wall. Shriek saw that the exosuit wearer had just knocked King down so he blew a sound wave at the exosuit, taking him out of the equation for now. Shriek looked over to where Max was hiding. He blew away from of the crates and stared at her.

Batman shook off the attack and his eyes widened when he saw that his girlfriend was in trouble. He turned on his boosters and flung himself at Shriek. The sound villain knew he was coming and used his sound to blow him away. The Dark Knight landed on the ground with a thud. Shriek gave another blast that forced Batman against a few more crates, dazing him. Shriek blasted the roof above, partially burying the Gotham Knight under some rubble; it wasn't enough to hurt Batman or trap him completely but mobility did become an issue. The sound villain looked back to see Max was trying to hide elsewhere but he fired again to cut off her path and corner against a wall.

"I don't know who you are," Shriek said. "And, frankly, I don't care." He picked her up and aimed the claws of his gauntlet at her, "but you shouldn't have gotten in our way."

"SHRIEK, NO!" Batman couldn't help but scream out.

Shriek whipped his body around to face his nemesis, pulling Max along, as well. "A friend of yours, Batman?" He looked at her, "That fits. I'd ask who she is… if I even cared. People tend not to matter once their dead."

Batman growled and started to make his way out of the rubble. He had to save Max.

"STOP!"

The hero paused.

"You wanna save her? She already destroyed my machine. I can't even wreck Gotham like I wanted to now." He looked at her then shook her hard one time, "Maybe I should get, at least, one death in tonight!"

Max let out a yelp at his force. She hated crying so she didn't let herself. But, the more time ticked by, the closer she was starting not care how she looked with a few tears.

"But you wanna save her, I can tell. That's your gimmick, after all. So, I'll make you a deal: let me kill you… and she goes free."

Choices like this were what Terry was always would happen to him someday and a small amount could be direr than this one. Live and let Max die or die and save her life. Terry imagined that if he let Shriek finish him that would, at least, leave Bruce to save his girlfriend. The Dark Knight looked at the machine. It was definitely out of commission and that was the reason he came here, primarily. He could die knowing that his city was still standing. These criminals would get it from another hero. If no one else, the Justice League would take them down. He was confident in that.

Batman just sighed. He partially worked his way out of the rubble. "You win, Shriek. Let her go… and I'll let you finish me."

Shriek smiled. Perfect. "No."

Batman gritted his teeth. He wasn't all that surprised.

"Now, I know how much this girl means to you… making her death all the sweeter."

"Don't!"

Max found it hard to breathe. She knew what was coming. But as scared as she was, she didn't have any regrets. Shriek would get her but Terry would get him and Gotham would still be safe. Even if it meant she had to leave him, she didn't regret a thing. When it came to him, she realize, she never really did.

"Shriek, don't do this!"

"A shame, eh, Bats?" He slowly activated his sound gauntlet. "Someone else is going to die… all because you couldn't save them."

A/N: ...

Next Chapter: "We are all Monsters"

The battle for Gotham City will come to an end but not before one more life will be taken in this war. Who will it be? Who will live? Who will die? Who will win? Who will be left standing?

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