221. A Hard Act to Follow part 6
SHATTER!
The glass windows of the pilot's compartment exploded everywhere as the flaming bazooka sailed through.
Clock King, Poison Ivy, and the Mad Hatter ducked…flinching.
I dove murkingly to the side, rolling out of the way of the burning projectile's trajectory.
Bane stood his ground. His teeth clenched and his muscles tightened as the weapon flew directly into his chest.
SWOOOOOOOSH-THWUMP!
He caught the nose of the rocket propelled grenade in two meaty palms.
"Nnnngh!"
He slid back two meters from the thrust of the bazooka rocket he was gripping. He planted his heels firmly into the ground at the last second, pivoted his weight, and spun around with a massive swing of the explosive.
FWOOOOSH!
He flung it back out another window in the direction from which the threat entered. "RAAAAUGH!
CRASH!
The glass shattered outward. The rocket flew out, spiraled, and exploded ten meters off the hull of the zeppelin's bridge.
The airship rocked from the explosion.
The villains—both conscious and unconscious—rolled around from the jolting.
Bane struggled to stay on his feet. "Nnnngh…nngh!"
In the meantime, I had gotten up on my knees and was catching my breath. A burst of smoking energy coursed through me and I propelled myself blurringly towards the lone chair where Fox was strapped in. CHIIIING! I produced Myrkblade and began slicing at his bindings. SN-SNAP! SNAP!
"MMmmmmm….," Fox drooled and grinned—drugged—at me. "Mommy….are the Pop-Tarts done?"
"……," I paused and raised an eyebrow above my shades.
Yeah………
GRIP!
A meaty hand around my shoulder.
I winced.
Ah shit……
SWOOOSH!
Bane tossed me across the room and into a window.
SMACK! CRKKK!
Spider web fractures formed in the glass.
I slumped to the ground, panting. Weakly holding Myrkblade.
St-Stomp! Bane stood before me, cracking his knuckles. "Time to pay for your tuition, kid…."
I gritted my teeth and looked up at him.
My eyes flickered.
Bane's image faded. A limbless, sparking Cyborg levitated in his place. Smoldering and hisssing: "All hope is lost for you, Noir. As it is loss for the rest of the Titans!"
"!" I clenched my eyes shut. Hissing….panting….
Scarecrow's potion……
It's not gone from my system yet.
I-I gotta do this blind……
SWOOOSH-SMACK! Bane's foot slammed into my side.
I ricocheted of the wall and tumbled across the room. Coughing up blood. Eyes clenched shut more in pain than in desperation.
Right……THIS will be easy……
I stretched a hand outward and sent a pulse of spatial sense outward towards the rest of the cabin.
Bane was marching towards me. Arms outstretched. Muscles rippling to pull me literally apart….
From the distance: PFTOOOOOOOO!
Mad Hatter's Voice: "It is another fiendish fowl! Incoming off the bow!"
A shudden yanking to the controls.
I gasped and steadied myself. My black eyes flickered open for but a second under my shades. I saw a smoke-trailing projectile out the window. It soared beneath us and exploded. Rocking the craft from underneath after barely missing.
RUMMMMBLE!
Poison Ivy's Voice: "Dent? It has to be Two-Face! He's trying to fend us off!"
Clock King's Voice: "N-No! We cannot be off time! We must stay on schedule! Someone help me drop the Fox!"
Bane's snarling voice: "Like Hell we will! We need to keep this blasted balloon up in the air! HATTER! Send in your choppers!"
"Right away!"
Bane's Voice loomed over me: "I'll take care of this pathetic little…."
I was already leaping towards his 'form'.
FWOOOSH!
TH-THRUMP!
"DAAAUGH!"
I found myself entangled with his torso. I teleported, perched on his shoulders, and slammed Myrkblade repeatedly into the square of his head.
THWACK! SM-SMACK! CLANK!
Either his mask or his skull bore the brunt of my blows. Perhaps both. He grunted and absorbed it all as he lumbered about, arms flailing. He finally managed to grab me by a leg and fling me around like a caveman club against the walls and flooring of the place. "HAAAUGH!" THWAP! "NNNGGGH!" CL-CLANG! "RAUGH!" SMACK!
The last blow sent me rolling till I inevitably struck a wall.
WH-WHUMP!
I winced all over. Hacking…
WHAM! His foot pressed down into my hip and pinned me to the floor.
I mutely yelped in main.
"Nnngh….heheheheheh….," he stood 'on' me. Applying more and more pressure. More and more weight. He leaned his head down and hissed: "Adios, hermano. You're a laughable guerrero. Daring…but laughable. Mis condolencias para los demonios en El Infierno."
I took a deep, painful breath under his weight.
I'll show you 'El Infierno'……
I stretched my left hand out. I extended the titanium thumb, its metal digit pointy and jutting out sharply. I swiftly swung my wrist around and jabbed my thumb straight into the center of his ankle. THUNK!
"Augh!" his body jumped back as with a hotfoot.
I sensed him standing on one leg.
I snarled mutely, spun up, and slashed Myrkblade out…tripping his other leg.
TH-THWUMP! He landed hard on his back.
Panting…eyes clenched….I got up on my knees and sprang towards him with Myrkblade swinging madly.
Aaaaaaaaugh!
THWACK!
In the background, Poison Ivy tried to revive Harley Quinn. Clock King bit at his fingernails. And a desperate Mad Hatter adjusted the dials of his computer console while shifting his mind-controlling top hat around his pale cranium.
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Down in the lead-peppered streets of Gotham City, Bullock and a dozen other officers were still flinching. Still breathless. Still frozen in front of the line of police helicopters and their spinning miniguns.
"……….."
But no high caliber bullets fired. The pilots inside looked dazed. Zombie-like. They blinked under their flight goggles and visors before a desperate breath surged through each and every one of them simultaneously. They jerked at their controls and swiftly pivoted all four choppers around until they beat their way upwards in heated formation.
Bullock bliked. He swallowed down his lunch.
As the rotary blade noises decreased and the air-vibrating aircraft swished away, Montoya and a dozen other cops walked over with guns at ease.
"Que raro…," Montoya blinked. "What is up with them?"
"They look like they were totally stoked!" Bullock uttered. He swished his hat off and dabbed the bulbs of sweat gathering around his scant strands of black hair. "I'm surprised I didn't see no marionette streams in them flight compartments of theirs!"
Another officer remarked: "It makes no sense! Why'd they stop and turn around?"
Bullock turned and frowned. "What's it to you? You regret that I'm not swiss cheese right now?"
The officer simpered.
"He's got a point, Bullock….," Commissioner Gordon walked back out with his own entourage. "There's no reason to explain why they stopped. But there is to explain why they've taken off."
"Huh?"
Gordon pointed straight up towards the summit of the Kane Building. "Look for yourself!"
Bullock and Montoya tilted their faces up.
Police and SWAT Team members also gazed.
A commotion ran amongst them at the sight of a fiery explosion dissipating off the side of the huge 'Vreeland Cosmetics' Zeppelin. The four helicopters flew up to join formation again around the craft. They were moving much faster than ever before now.
"Well how do you figure that out?" Bullock murmured. "There's a party up there and I think we're not invited!"
"Mind control….," Montoya thought aloud. "What's the likelihood that Jervis Tetch might be in on this gig?"
"Mad Hatter? Oh gods…here's elementary school all over again!"
"We need more backup!" Gordon said, half commanded. "Looks like Batman's not showing for this one! We're alone!"
"The way I like it!" Bullock pulled out his gun and cocked it. "Morgan! Harry! Get the Seventh Precinct here! Montoya…how's about you and I get a little more familiar with these losers?"
Montoya smirked and loaded herself with a shotgun from a nearby squad car. She glanced over: "With your permission, Commissioner."
"Take some men with you…," Gordon nodded. "And keep in contact! Report when or if you learn exactly what in the blazes is going on up here!"
"Come on, doll! Let's go!" Bullock ran ahead. Montoyoa motioned, and three other officers ran with the two detectives as they made a bee-line for the Kane building. None of them paid much attention to the unsealed manhole cover lying just besides their sprinting feet as they approached the structure…
T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Ya blockheads! Ya missed a second time!"
"They're really high up there, boss!" Rhino nervously shuddered. "I told ya we should have ran up the Kane Building!"
"What are ya? Stupid?"
"Duh….."
"Save your breath! I'm smart enough to know the answer to that question! We can't go inside the Kane Building cuz CROC has got the Kane Building!"
"Whoah-Whoah-Whoah!" Mugsy remarked. "Croc's in on this?"
"This is Triangular you oversized dodos! EVERYONE is in on this!"
"Yeah, but is he on our side or….?"
"He's on the side that wins! Now stop yakking! The zeppelin's tryin' ta get away! Yous rats blow it out of the sky before I stuff you in my Tommy Gun and shoot you to kingdom come myself!"
"Y-Yes,
boss…."
"Don't waste the bazookas this time!"
Rhino loaded another missile into the launcher.
Mugsy steadied it.
They both aimed.
The shadowed figure in the stairwell of the Hampton Building rooftop uttered: "Fire!"
PFTOOOOOOO!
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Bullock and Montoya were running up a stairwell with a tall, gothic stretch of windows bordering it and filtering the bright noonday sunlight from the outside world.
At the sound of the bazooka launch, they both gasped and spun to look. The three cops with them also froze.
They braced themselves as a spiraling rocket skimmed the surface of the Kane Building and arched up towards the blimp circling overhead.
Fire and smoke trails fogged up the window frighteningly close to the trembling, ascending officers.
"Gazooks!" Bullock barked. "Who phoned in the Apocalypse early?"
Montoya pumped her shotgun and frowned: "Let's get a move on…"
And they hurriedly rushed up…
T-T-T-T-T-T-
From the piloting computers: Beep! Beep! Beep!
Poison Ivy's Voice: "Another bogey!"
Beneath me, Bane fought back my stabbing Myrkblade and glanced aside to snarl: "Hattttter?"
"I am working….on it…..," the petite mind-controller struggled to say.
I raised Myrkblade with a sharp breath to even more sharly carve into Bane's skull.
He gripped me by the scarred neck.
I wheezed.
He grunted and head-butted me.
WHAM!
I quivered, shuddered, and fell back cold on the floor.
THWUMP!
Exhaling…..
That……
………hurt.
"Nnnngh….," he stood up. I sensed him shaking his head and groaning. "Hatter?"
"Fear not…."
T-T-T-T-T-T-
SHOOOOOOOOOOM!
The missile sailed up…up….up….
It soared straight towards the body of the zeppelin.
Rhino and Mugsy stood on their tip-toes.
Arms pumping.
Faces bright.
"Come on…."
"Gettin' there……Gettin' there!"
The figure in the stairwell was silent.
SHOOOOOOM….POW!
Stray minigun fire sailed in, pelted the rocket, and exploded it in midair. A frothing amber-and-red explosion mushroomed downward in the air from the point of combustion.
"Auugh!" Mugsy flinched.
"God dammit!" Rhino gritted his teeth.
"Yous blew it!" the figure shook.
SWOOSH!SWOOSH!SWOOSH!SWOOSH!
Two of the four helicopters suddenly descended upon the explosive party atop the Hamptom Building. The pilots inside gazed numbly as they trained their beating aircrafts' weapons on the three figures.
"Yaack!"
"Oh Mary Mother of Mohammed!" Mugsy quivered.
"Eh……super……"
And the miniguns began to rotate.
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Mad Hatter smiled a toothy grin.
"Hello…would you like some tea?"
Bane shouted: "Smoke 'em!"
FWOOOOOSH!
Something big and metallic speedily blurred past the pilot's compartment of the blimp.
Both Mad Hatter and Poison Ivy gasped and looked out through a shattered window pane.
"……..," Clock King stared confusedly at Bane.
"What in the world was that?" Bane uttered.
SWOOOSH! GRIP! I teleported up and grabbed him in a metal-armed choke hold.
He snarled and gripped his neck to pry me off of him.
I struggled to stay on as he paced around the room and proceeded to slam his backside into metal support struture after metal support structure.
CLANG! SMACK! WHAM!
I struggled and winced…clinging on…..
T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Whats you standin' around for? SPLIT!"
Rhino and Mugsy yelped like little girls and spun around to run away.
"No! Grabs da bazookas! Grabs da bazookas, ya blockheads!"
"Nuts to that!"
The two helicopters began to fire.
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!
The bullets barely began to trail at the heels of the two henchmen when suddenly the helicopters' fire was cut short by two explosions. A pair of missiles flew in suddenly and took out both helicopters in one fatal swoop.
FWOOOOOOOSH-POW!
FWOOOMB!
Shards of helicopter chunks and rotary blades splashed about heatedly.
Rhino and Mugsy spun around, panting.
As the two aircraft littered the edge of the Hampton Rooftop and the distant streets below, another hulking metal body flew into view.
FWOOOOOSH!
A HIND helicopter.
Two pilots were inside.
They saluted the henchmen darkly for a split second before the lumbering, metal beast took up to the air around the Kane Building again.
SWOOSH!SWOOSH!SWOOSH!SWOOSH!
"Hey!" Rhino smiled wide.
"Well, whaddya know? It's one of Dagger's birdies! We be lucky chumps, eh boys?"
"You can say that again, boss!"
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Down in the streets of Gotham, officers and distant, onlooking citizens pointed up and gasped.
Murmuring.
Commissioner Gordon stared through binoculars.
His graying eyes thin.
He lowered the device and squinted further.
"A HIND Helicopter…..military issued….," he looked through the binoculars again. "N-No…..scrapped! It's the same model as that killer that swarmed around the Titans on November Fourth…."
An officer walked up. "We've got backup, sir." He glanced up nervously at the fiery battlefield in the air. "Where in God's name did that helicopter come from? It took out two of our birds!"
"That's a good question, son. A good question indeed…."
T-T-T-T-T-T-
SWOOSH!SWOOSH!SWOOSH!SWOOSH!
Inside the belly of the HIND beast, the pilot of the lower cockpit pivoted the vehicle around until the blimp was in the chopper's sights.
"…….," the pilot reached down with a free hand and flipped a switch. "We've taken down two of the targets, Mr. Dent sir. The Troupe's flying headquarters is in view."
"Good…," Two-Face's crackling voice electronically hissed through the sound system. "My thanks to Dagger for being such a benevolent partner in a time of need……"
"What are your orders, sir?"
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Two-Face sat at the desk in his hideout's office.
He flipped a coin and glared a mutated eye towards the intercom beside his seat.
"Take out the other two birds. But leave the airship to Croc and Trent. I want those stupid punks to get the picture. Triangular rules the roost in anyway we see fit. They're nothing to us."
"Understood, sir. HIND out."
SNkkkkt!
Two-Face switched the intercom off. He stared blankly ahead through space. He flipped his coin.
Once.
Twice.
Grabbed it.
"…………."
Silence.
"Heads: we blow 'em out of the sky. Bad Heads….the Parasite roasts their asses first."
Flick.
Flip.
The coin took on a spinning arc and landed in the darkness of the floor beyond Harvey Dent's desk.
"………..heh….," Two-Face ran a blue hand over his face and sighed. "Perfect….."
T-T-T-T-T-T-
The pilot flicked the intercom off.
He turned around.
He motioned to the pilot in the upper cockpit.
The second man returned an 'okay' signal.
The front pilot re-gripped his controls and pushed the HIND forward.
SWISH!SWISH!SWISH!SWISH!SWISH!
Air beating heavily, the hulking craft curved around the zeppelin and zeroed in on the remaining two helicopters.
FWOOOOOOOOSH!
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Inside the blimp's pilot compartment, Harley Quinn was just starting to come to. Scarecrow still laid dormant. Poison Ivy sat behind Harley, her hands on her shoulders. She glanced out the window at the circling HIND and said: "Its Triangular's all right! Has 'Dagger' written all over it!" She glanced across the compartment. "Bane, don't you think….holy honeysuckle!"
"Eeep!" Harley ducked and Ivy with her.
SWOOOOSH! I soared over their heads and blindly slammed into a console of sorts.
CRUNCH!
I winced. Sparks danced on either side of me.
I heard Mad Hatter gasping just to my right: "N-No! Not here, Bane!"
I made the mistake of opening my eyes. I was momentarily grazed with the image of 'J' (Mad Hatter), Aqualad (Clock King), and Speedy (Scarecrow) burning in flames. But running through the flames was a big, meat-muscled demon with Bane's growling voice. "YAAAARGH!" The demon sailed his burning 'claw' at me.
I clenched my eyes shut and teleported away. FLASH!
SWOOOOSH! CRKKKK!
There was a terrible cracking sound indicative of Mad Hatter's electronic device being crushed by Bane's misguided girth.
"Nooo!" I sensed Mad Hatter's body clutching his hat and yelling. "My pretty birds!"
"……," I flicked a wrist. I felt for his hat. My spatial sense found it….and soon, so did my sword.
SWOOOOOSH! SLIIINK!
I sliced the apparel of his head. The electronics inside sparked and sizzled dead.
"Bah! Impossible!"
"……," I smirked blindly.
TH-THWIP! A cord of some sort latched around my chest from behind.
I gasped.
"Time to bury you, Titan!" Poison Ivy's voice shouted. And she proceeded to yank hard on the slimy green vine she had produced. "Nnngh!"
I was tossed across the room like a blind yo-yo.
THWOOOSH-CRACK!
T-T-T-T-T-T-
In the meantime…
"Nnngh…," the pilot of one of the two police helicopters came to. He dizzily eyed his cockpit and the length of the Kane Building stretched far beneath him. "What in the….." He blinked and droned: "What am I doing up here?"
Silence…save for the beating noise of the chopper.
"……….," he looked up.
He saw the zeppelin. Huge and menacing. Encompassing half of his cockpit window alone in its immensity.
"Good lord!" he gasped.
FWOOOOOOOSH!
A HIND helicopter suddenly surged into direct view, its missiles flaring.
The pilot's eyes bugged. "Good lordier!"
PFTOOOOOO!
Hellseekers streamed towards his aircraft.
He gritted his teeth, unbuckled, and kicked the die door open. With a rush of air, he leapt out of the aircraft. "Yaaaaaugh!"
In almost perfect synchronization, the pilot of the other surviving police chopper simultaneously leapt out. Both men pulled open their parachutes and drifted down softly towards the quiet streets below as the missiles in the chaotic streets above sailed into their targets and impacted.
POW!
PHOOOM!
The air-beating HIND soared over the mid-air flames and circled around the zeppelin at a distance.
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Mad Hatter stood, gazing out a cockpit window and trembling. "They….jumped! My pretty birds jumped and went to flames!"
Bane grumbled, standing up and rubbing his aching head. "Save the obituary!"
They both turned and looked at the opposite end of the room.
Ivy was yanking me back and forth with her green vine around my waist.
I was tossed against a metal pylon, a bulkhead, and the floor on several occasions. SM-SMACK! CLANG!
I winced, bleeding in a few spots. My combat jacket was heavily tattered. My black hair disheveled.
Still, I forced my black eyes shut. For fear of the poison gas. For fear of what actually letting myself 'see' would do. For fear…..
"Nnngh!" Ivy tugged again.
THWOOOSH! I was yanked into the center of the room.
"HA!" A thin foot slammed across my cheek. THWAP!
I jerked from the impact, spitting blood.
I hissed and oppened my eyes by accident.
The cockpit was a burning City Park with the bodies of the Titans lying dead and bleeding all around me. Jinx in a metal mesh apprentice outfit cartwheeled towards me with a Cheshire Cat Grin from Hell. She chirped in Harley Quinn's voice: "Hold 'em still, Red! Brace yourself, kid! This is for ruining my punchline!"
I clenched my eyes shut. I tensed my feet.
Harley's spinning, rotating limbs blurred at me and spun with a head-splitting jump kick towards the center of my cranium. "HYA!"
"Idiotas!" Bane barked. "Don't you see that the chico senses movement?"
SWOOOSH! My metal arm lifted. CLUTCH! I grabbed Harley's clown foot on the rise and held it before it could smash into my face.
"Er…..," Quinn sweatdropped.
I gritted my teeth and shoved against her.
FWOOSH!
"YAAAAUGH!" she flew back and slammed into Mad Hatter's tiny form. TH-THWUMP! "Ackies!" "OOF!"
"Harl!" Ivy remarked.
And as for you……
I gripped the green vine and yanked with all my might.
SWOOOSH!
"Auugh!" Ivy's body flew towards me.
I gripped Myrkblade and slapped her over me like a cricket stick.
THWACK!
She exhaled, twirled, and landed quite awkwardly in the stranded Fox's lap.
PL-PLANT!
"Nnnngh…," Ivy snarled and raised her fists at me from where she 'sat'. "Wait till I fill your intestines with thorn bushes, I swear to…"
"Heheheheh…," a drunken Fox hugged her from behind with one arm freed from my rope-cutting earlier. "Heeeeeey, cutie!"
"Daah! Let go of me!"
He cooed into her ear. "Wanna show me your rosebud? HIC! Heheheheh….I'll show you my dandelions!"
"Let…go….of…..me….you…..stupid……sweaty…..nngh…..MAN!"
I exhaled.
Stomp!Stomp!Stomp!Stomp! (From behind.)
I flinched. I leapt straight up and backflipped.
Bane charged beneath me, grabbing nothing but air.
I stuck Myrkblade into the ceiling of the compartment. CH-CHUNK! I hung by my hilt and kicked him in the back.
THWUMP!
He stumbled once. "Nnngh!" He spun with a snarl and fiercely backhanded me in the chest. "RAAUGH!" WHACK!
Myrkblade was yanked out of the ceiling, along the rest of my body. I flailed until I landed in a sliding stand across the floor. I panted, holding Myrkblade.
SLIIIINK!
Something slashed across my shoulder.
I howled in pain and ribbed my bleeding backside.
"Heheheheh….," the Clock King's voice chuckled beneath me. "Your sense of time needs to be a little sharper, my boy…."
I spun, frowning.
My spatial sense caught the slicing down-swing of a huge minute-hand cane.
I dodged my skull to the left and swung my metal hand up. GRIP! I caught the slicing cane. I jabbed Myrkblade towards the face of the spectacled man.
His lips curved. He too sidestepped, gripped the cane's handle with two wrists, and twisted.
My metal hand was wrenched from the sharp bludgeon. I teetered back.
Clock King spun on one tow and jabbed his cane down low at me. "En guarde!"
I jumped back and planted myself against the wall, barely avoiding the tip of the sharp blade.
"Stiff upper lip now!" and proceeded to slice the cane up through the air to lop off my nose.
I flattened myself against the wall, took a breath, and teleported into smoke form at the last second.
FWOOOSH!
His hute 'minute hand' sliced through black smog.
I morphed across the room and solidified with a pose of Myrkblade. I gritted my teeth and swung at him.
He twirled about and held his cane horizontally across his chest. CL-CLANK! Our weapons grinded together.
He leaned forward, smirking. "You're timing's off. Allow me to wind you down to size…"
He swung his cane down at my feet.
TH-THWAP!
I was tripped.
I landed on my butt before him. TH-THUMP!
Clock King chuckled, reached into his jacket, and produced an explosive pocket watch. He spun the thing on the end of a golden chain like a slingshot. "Here comes Rush Hour!"
"No!" Bane stretched a hand out. "Not inside here!"
"HA!" Clock King let the explosive watch fly.
I lifted two feet and kicked his shins at the last second.
Th-Thwap!
That jolted the man's whole body. "Ughh!"
The watch he tossed consequently flew over my head, bounced off a demolished computer console, and sailed out the nearby window…
PHOOOOMB!
The resulting explosion sent us rocking every which way inside the floating disaster.
"Arrrgh!" Bane clutched his skull with angry fingers and all but ripped his mask off. "I swear! I am surrounded by total frickin' idiots!"
I stood up on wobbly feet. Struggling to keep a grip on Myrkblade.
Must……get……F-Fox……
Bane snarled. He clenched his eyes shut and ran like the berserker he was straight at me. "Someone…anyone…GET THE JOB DONE!"
Yeah……sure……
Take it all out on me…
THWACK!
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Near the top of the Kane Building stairwell, Bullock paused before the top level door to gaze out at the wobbling Zeppelin.
An explosion on the side of the bridge of the aircraft could be seen fading.
"Did that just come from inside the ship?" an officer panted.
"Something's going on inside of the zeppelin," Montoya muttered. "A firefight?"
"We're here to find out…," Bullock grunted and shoved the door open.
And Killer Croc grinned in his face. "Howdy!"
"…..," Bullock started. Eyes wide. Then he sighed: "Aw nuts…..not you…."
GRIP!
"HrresssshhhhHHHAAA!" Killer Croc mightily flung the obese detective over hid gnarled, pale shoulder.
FWOOOOSH! "WAAAAAIEEEE!" Bullock flew out onto a loft lounge and smashed through a set of chairs. CRASSSSH!
Montoya gasped. "Harvey!" She pumped her shotgun and charged out of the stairwell along with the other three officers. They immediately froze—not at the sight of Killer Croc—but rather in response to the huge line of gun-toting thugs aiming their barrels at them. About fifty in a count. And at the forefront of the group was Mr. Trent from the Gothe Nightclub.
"Hello, Missy….," Trent smirked. "Unless you want yourselves pumped full of more lead than you can spit out, I suggest you put your guns down…."
"…….," Montoya frowned. She grunted over her shoulder at the other officers. "Lower 'em…."
The cops nervously dropped their guns.
Montoya's shotgun fell to the lounge floor.
"Oh super….," Bullock struggled on his back like a big fat turtle amidst the chair splinters. "Wally Gator and Pals…."
Killer Croc paced over across the lush interior. "It's a pleasure seein' your fat keister too. But I'm kinda sorta fasting today…," nevertheless he licked his sharp teeth.
Trent motioned to his closest thugs, who marched over and manhandled Montoya and the three officers to stand over above Bullock.
"Yeesh….," Montoya's nose scrunched. "You smell like the sewer!"
"My kind of crowd," the shirtless Killer Croc shrugged. Smiling toothily. "But don't you worry. You'll be smelling plenty of it from here on out. The Gotham sewers are always the best place to dump the likes of your carcasses…."
Montoya hissed: "What's keeping you from shooting our brains out now, you dumb cluck?"
"Reneeeee….," Bullock sweated nervously.
"Simple…," Trent interjected. "We've gotta conserve our ammo."
Montoya blinked. "For what?"
A humming sound.
Killer Croc glanced out the windows of the Kane Building's top floor patio.
The heavy bulk of the zeppelin loomed outside.
He smiled. "For the grand finale…." He turned to the thugs and pointed a gnarled hand out the doors. "Everyone! That's our cue! Move your tails! GO!"
Trent cocked his pistol, grinned, and led the charge.
The thugs shouted and growled in fury as they charged out the door, bursting the entrance open. CR-CRACK!
The officers watched helplessly, shadowed by a chuckling Killer Croc.
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Trent and his fifty-odd men ran out onto the sunlit patio as the blimp drifted closest to them. He took aim with a squinting eye and shouted as he fired first: "Let's give them the old Gotham greeting!"
"Let 'em have it!"
"Woooo! Ha ha ha ha!"
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
BLAM! BL-BLAM!
BANG!
RAT-A-TAT-TAT!
BANG! BANG!
The barrels of the guns burst in flowery splashes of amber and yellow as streaks of heated lead burned through the air and sailed hotly into the inflatable chassis of the blimp, the turbine engines, the metal bridge underneath, the fans, the rudders, and every other bit and piece of structure from 'head' to 'toe'.
TH-TH-THUNK!
P-P-P-PING!
CLANK!
POW!
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Inside the zeppelin, Bane was kicking me again.
TH-THWACK!
I rolled across the floor of the pilot compartment, wheezing. Sputtering.
Bane stomped towards me, seething. He raised his hands to smash down on me when the compartment suddenly became Swiss Cheese.
P-P-POW!
CRACK!
SHATTER!
Bullets streamed through and punched hole after hole through the metal structure of the interior. Kaleidoscopic pinpricks of sunlight shone through the fresh dots. Harley was grazed in the leg bloodily. The last remaining shreds of the Mad Hatter's hat was blown off his skull as he gasped. Shrapnel littered the lap and shoulders of William B. Fox, and an entire pylon collapsed on Bane's shoulders.
SWOOOSH! CLANG!
"Nnngh!" the huge mercenary struggled with the metal bulkhead.
"It's Triangular!" Clock King shouted. "They beat us to the punch! Infernal wretches!" He frowned and pointed at his 'teammates'. "If we had just stuck to my schedule…"
"I….am going….to BREAK YOU old man!" Bane shouted. "This was doomed from the start!"
"Harley! Stop clutching your leg!" Ivy shouted.
"Owieeee, Red! A bullet bit me!"
"Just keep still," Ivy crushed a seed in two fingers. It morphed slimily into a ring of vines which she wrapped tightly around Harley's head like biological gauze. "We'll have you out of here soon!"
P-PING!
CR-CRACK!
"We'll do no such thing!" Clock King shook his fist. "We must not show weakness! We WILL fight back against Triangular!"
"Uhm….," Harley frowned. "I distinctly remember saying 'OWIEEEEE'!"
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!
POW! CRKKK!
More and more holes exploded around Harley and Ivy's side of the pilot compartment.
Ivy clenched her teeth. "You know, boys…it just occurred to me. The winter time is the absolute worst part of the year to try planting good seed…." That said, she promptly hoisted Harley over her shoulder, turned towards the smashed windows on the other side of the compartment, and ran. "You can have the troupe on your own. Ciao!" She dove overboard with Harley in tow.
"WAAAAAAIEEEEE!" Quinn shrieked.
At the last second, Ivy shot her wristband crossbow with a grappling hook. She embedded the cord into a building and swung off towards urban obscurity as more and more bullets sailed into the compartment behind us.
Bane struggled still with the bulkhead. Just as he was about to toss it off of him, another stray bullet struck the ceiling above him and caused it to collapse even more. CRASH! "OOOF!" Pipes burst loose. Gas steamed everywhere. Consoles, controls, and lights started to spark. Somewhere…everywhere….I smelled smoke starting to billow forth.
"Noooo!" Clock King shook furiously. "This is an absolute travesty! What happened to decent villains anymore? Nothing is ever done by the book! It is all chaos! A carnival of crass cruelty! Red, tooth, and claw! Have all the gentlemen of the underworld gone to ruin?"
Mad Hatter shook, swallowing. "Might I advise another occasion to vent…" He gestured. "…to triumph this day, we were not meant."
"I am not a coward…"
"You're dead once I climb out of this loco metal heap!" Bane snarled muffledly from under the debris.
Clock King sweated. "Then again…."
"Nnnngh….," the Scarecrow finally awoke. He stood up with his jaw clattering. A pale hand stroked his bony (temple?) (mask?). "My dreams in the darkness have turned bright….I dislike it…."
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
P-PING!
"Huh? What?" he looked up at the shattered compartment. The urban world started to descend outside. "Confound it! What did you imbeciles do?"
Clock King hooked his arm around with him. "Crane…it is time we exited the not-so-friendly skies…," he smirked and waved his cane. "Your fear gas is still loaded in the warehouse as backup, correct?"
"Most certainly!"
"Then…away we go, my good man….," he ran off, helping a limping Scarecrow along with him. "Bon Voyage, Terrible Troupe! You lived up to your name! Feh!"
"You dirty…rotten….," Bane cursed as he started digging his way out. "…Voy a motarle!"
"Red, tooth, and claw, Mr. Bane," Clock King tipped his hat. "Red, tooth, and claw…." He then looked Fox's way. "I hope you enjoy dying the less-fashionable way. But I suppose there is something romantic about burning flesh."
"Hehehehe….," Fox leaned back and forth and drooled. "….so….many….petticoats…."
Clock King and Scarecrow made a run for it. A heavily panting, nervous Mad Hatter scrambled after them. "W-Wait for meeeee!"
"NnnnnghhRAAAUGH!" Bane shoved the debris off of him.
All the while, I stood on the sidelines. Gathering my breath. Praying that none of the stray bullets sailed through my body as the blimp was mercilessly pelted from the outside with gunfire.
I sensed a stirring on my left side.
I glanced over. I dared to open my eyes….
My vision was fuzzy. And the sight of sunlight stabbed my heart with paranoia and adrenaline. But the hallucinations seemed to be wearing off….
Dr. Langstrom stirred awake besides me. Rubbing his head. "Nnnngh…." He blinked. "Where in god's name am I?"
I bit my lip. I looked at him. I looked at Bane struggling to his feet. I looked at the sparkling controls. I looked at the bulletholes increasing alongside the compartment's hull.
Langstrom fought to stand up on the rapidly teetering aircraft's floor. "Ughh….I….my god….I-I think I was transforming again!" He blinked. He looked directly at me. "J-Just who are you?"
GRIP! I siezed him by the arm.
He gasped. "What the….?"
WHAM! I kneed the scientist in the chest.
"Ughhhhh!" He bent over, sputtering. Wincing in pain. "That…..hurt…." His eyes reopened, and it was no hallucination of mine when he frowned and those very same eyes flickered a pale yellow. "That……H-H-HURT!" Fangs grew out of his mouth and his body started to grow coarse hair a mile a minute. "Wrssssssshhhhhh……"
Yeah……
I looked at Bane.
CATCH!
SWOOOSH! I tossed him across the compartment.
Bane turned around.
"Como?"
SMACK!
The blimp lurched suddenly right as Langstrom's body sailed straight into Bane's. The two slammed into a window support structure, weakened by bulletfire. CRAAAACK! The beams gave way and the two flew with a spray of shrapnel out and into thin-air.
"Aaaaaaugh!"
"Wrssssh!"
I leaned wearily against a computer conosle, panting. I limped across the inclined blimp bridge towards Fox…
T-T-T-T-T-T-
SWOOOOSH!
Bane and Langstrom tangled in mid-air as they fell…fell….fell over the spires of Gotham below.
"Nnnghh! Oye! Let go!" Bane hissed.
"Wrrsssssshhh!" Langstrom's scream turned into a shriek as his face turned into huge fangs. Man-Bat shrieked in Bane's face and flapped menacing, leathery wings.
"……….," Bane blinked under his mask. "Bueno…"
SM-SMACK!
The two slammed down onto a rooftop, much to their surprise.
Man-Bat flapped about, shrieking.
Bane jumped up to his feet. He tried to get his bearings when…
SWOOOSH-THWACK!
Man-Bat's wing bitch-slapped the mercenary across the rooftop.
"NNNGH!" Bane flew back and crashed through a huge t.v. antenna.
CRACK!
Man-Bat stood up on his hind quarters and shrieked, wings flexing. "WRESSSSSSSH!"
Bane gritted his masked teeth. He stood up, picked up the very same antenna he smashed through, and launched it at the mammalian monstrosity like a javelin. "Nnnngh!"
SWOOOOOSH-THUD!
Man-Bat was knocked back. It shook its fanged snout, hissed, and roared angrily at Bane. "WRESSSSSH!"
Bane frowned. He flexed his arms and tapped a button on a wristband. Click!
Venom pumped through his orange tube and fed into his neck. Arteries throbbed visibly. His muscles flexed and ballooned out like a mountain of expanding lava. He shook granite-tight limbs and heaved. His breath snorted vaporously in the November air like a giant ox or bull.
"……," Man-Bat's clear eyes blinked.
"Si….I've been waiting ALLLLL DAAAAY to break something!" and Bane charged at the winged mutant. "RAAAAAAUGH!"
THUD!
Man-Bat went sailing for twenty feet.
T-T-T-T-T-T-
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!
P-POW!
BLAM!
BLAM!
Even from down below in the Gotham streets, the onlooking police and citizens could hear and witness the distant gunfire from the Kane Building summit sailing into the blimp. The dirigible began smoking, its bottom rear half deflating. It 'crunched' halfway and tilted earthward. Slowly descending. Gradually plummeting. A column of flaming smog billowed heavenward.
"It's a war zone….," a cop muttered.
Gordon was breathless. He whipped out a communicator and shouted into it: "Bullock! Montoya! What's going on up there?"
Silence.
"Detectives? Respond!"
T-T-T-T-T-T-
"I've lost contact with you! Please answer me!"
Bullock's hand jerked towards his communicator.
"HRESH!" Killer Croc spun and snatched the communicator away.
Bullock gasped.
"……," the reptilian freak smirked, popped the communicator into his mouth, and chewed the sparkling electronic to bits. Crkk! Crkkk! Crkk-Crkk!
Montoya made a face.
Croc flexed his neck, swallowed, and licked his jaws. "I like your minutes…."
"Stuff it, ya oversized purse!"
CLAMP! Croc's sharp fingers clutched Bullock's neck. The other officers gasped.
"Ohhhh….how you wound me, chump," Croc sneered. "Just sit back, shut up, and enjoy the show…"
The officers nervously watched the trigger-finger mob fire volley after volley of lead into the body of the blimp. All the while they whooped and hollered like Confederate Soldiers going AWOL and shooting deer for sport. Suddenly, overhead, the HIND zoomed above the burning dirigible and hovered over the building tops.
SWISH!SWISH!SWISH!SWISH!
FWOOOOOOOSH!
The framework of the building trembled.
Killer Croc sneered.
Trent laughed maniacally.
T-T-T-T-T-T-
SN-SNAP!
SNAP!
I ripped the bindings off of William B. Fox's hands with Myrkblade.
The drugged heir giggled and cooed. "Oooh…are we going for a ride around Tampa Bay? Drop me off at the strip joints! ALL OF THEM! Ha ha ha ha!"
"……," I sweatdropped and worked at his leg bindings.
SNAP!
"Hehehehe….let me hold you. I've had my shots!"
I took a deep breath. I looked over my shoulder.
The world outside the windows dipped forty-five degrees as we started to plummet….
"Ring around your rossssieeee….hahahaha! What's the matter, lady? Out of beer? I bet THOSE kegs are fermented! HA!"
I exhaled.
I turned back around.
I hate to be politically incorrect.
But……
SMACK! I punched him in the gut.
"Oooof!" the breath left him and he slumped forward. Out cold.
I took a breath. CHIIIING! I sheathed Myrkblade and hoisted him over my shoulders.
That's better.
GROAAAAAAANNNN!
CRKKKKK!
The entire airship shook and wobbled.
I strained and struggled for grip.
I took a deep breath.
Managing Fox's weight on my wounded shoulders.
I'm agility based.
On strength based.
Son of a……nnngh……
Keep……moving……
I counted my lucky stars that the fear gas was wearing off and desperately 'climbed' my way across the cabin towards the rear of the ship where an exit might be located….
Exit to where exactly?
GROAAAAN!
I hurried….
T-T-T-T-T-T-
"RAAAUGH!" Bane charged. Venom-pumped fist flying.
SWOOOSH! SMACK!
"WRESSSH!" Man-Bat helplessly took the brunt of the steroid induced bludgeoning. THWACK! THUD! "WRSHHH!"
Bane snarled, brought both his hands apart, spun, and slammed ten pairs of knuckles across the mutant's chest.
WHAM!
Man-Bat flew off, slammed through a metal chimney, and lie limp on the rooftop. Stirring….wincing….nearly out for the count.
Bane heaved. Panted. Seethed. The venom was still pumping into his neck. Arteries in his throat throbbed. A week's fill of fury and frustration came to a boiling point and he could rip a hole through the Earth if he had to.
SWISH!SWISH!SWISH!SWISH!SWISH!
"……….," the meaty mercenary spun around. With round, bulging eyes he glared up as the HIND circled overhead.
T-T-T-T-T-T-
The lower compartment pilot of the HIND looked every which way through his black bubble of a window. He spoke into a mic while controlling the craft.
"No sign of the fleeing targets. They must still be inside the falling dirigible. Unless, of course, there's more to this rooftop than meets the eye."
"I think I just spotted movement!" the other pilot uttered. "There! Wrecked debris! And one of the subjects! Langstrom! He's down! Should we finish him?"
"Negative," the first pilot shook his head. "The other target's more important. Switch your visor to thermal imaging…"
SWOOOOSH-CLAMP!
A South American mercenary on steroids was suddenly clinging to the front nose of the helicopter.
"Holy shit!"
"Whoah!"
"NNNNNGH!" Bane snarled muffledly from the outside. Teeth gritting and arteries throbbing, he raised a fist that could move mountains and sailed it straight into the cockpit bubble of the mid-air, hovering behemoth.
SHATTTTERRRR!
Glass spilled with sunlight all throughout the lower cockpit.
The front pilot's face was splashed with sharp shards. "Grrgggggllgggg!"
The other pilot screamed: "AAAAAAAA---!"
Bane roared, raised his fist again, and flew it in a second time.
THUNK!
And blood splattered all across the interior controls.
T-T-T-T-T-T-
BL-BLAM!
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!
POW! P-POW!
BANG!
The fifty thugs on the Kane patio fired and fired and fired and fired…
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
BL-BLAM!
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
Click!
Click!
Click!
Click-Click-Click-Click!
"I'm out!"
"Me too!"
"That did it!" one shouted. He marched over and pointed down at the burning, descending dirigible. "Look! Thar she blows! Ha ha ha ha!"
"Yeah! Hahahahahaha!"
"Way to go, boys!"
"Yeah! We smoked them!"
"Classic! Woo! Ha ha!"
Trent smirked. He pocketed his pistol away and lit a cigarette.
"This will go down in history! Cleaning the Clock King's clock! Ha!"
"Delivering the hammer to Bane….never thought I'd see the day…"
"Maybe Dagget will hire the likes of us again?"
"Dagget…Schmaggot….it's Two-Face all the way!"
"Triangular, baby!"
"Hahahahaha!"
Trent smiled proudly. He took a puff of his cigarette. "…………." A shadow in the noonday sun suddenly appeared around him. "Hrmmm?" He exhaled a vapor. He looked up. "……." His jaw dropped. The cigarette flew out of his mouth.
Swoooooosh!
A dozen thugs looked up too.
"Huh?"
"Whoah!"
"Holy shit!"
"RUN! RUN!"
SSSSSMASSSSSSH!
The smoking metal body of the HIND landed explosively across the patio. Fire and ash and chunks of metal flew every which way, crushing over twenty thugs in a single burning instant. Bodies twitched…crushed and lacerated into wet red shreds. Those still alive under the collapsed aircraft clutched what was missing from their persons and howled endlessly in pain.
Before the rest of the shaken mafia could struggle back to their feet….
SWOOOOSH-PLANT! Bane landed after the HIND on the patio. He instantly grabbed two thugs by the scruffs of their necks—snarling—and tossed them reverse over the side of the balcony where they plummeted to their death.
"Aaaaah!"
"Jesus! Aaaaaugh!"
Bane snarled. His eyes flaring. His muscles throbbing from the venom.
A line of trembling thugs all aimed their guns at him.
Click!
Click!
Click!
They panted.
Jaws drooped.
Whimpering.
"NnnnnnggRRAAAAAUGH!" Bane stomped towards them, shoulders first.
WH-WHAM! POW!
Thugs' bodies rolled and bounced across the patio floor, one or two of them sickly landing on their neck with vertebrae snapping. Crkk-Crkk!
Bane ended each charge with a backhand of his forearms. "Raaaugh!"
Bodies went flying every which way.
One or two more thugs slipped over the balcony side, screaming forty-stories to the pavement below.
A stupid henchman whipped out a dagger and dove—yelling—at Bane's back.
Bane merely grabbed the man by his ankles, swung him high up into the air and flung him head-first back down to the patio floor. SPLKKK! His cranium burst in red jelly.
The leftover thugs screamed and ran back into the open lounge of the Kane building.
Bane caught up with a straggling half-dozen of them and crushed skulls together, headbutted nose cartilage into brain matter, and dislocated shoulders with massive, gripping palms. He stood momentarily in the bloody shower of the carnage and flexed his red-stained torso to the Gotham Sky. "RrrrrRRRRAAAAAAAAAUGHHH!"
Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp!
"?" Bane looked straight ahead.
"HRESSSHA!" A reptilian shadow charged madly out of the lounge and dove like a missile into Bane's chest.
WHUMP!
Killer Croc and Bane tumbled across the bloodied patio, slammed through the balcony railing—CRACK!—and plummeted over the space above the streets below.
SWOOOOOSH!"
"Raaaaugh!"
"HRSSSH!"
As the two soared off like a pair of meaty rockets, a dazed Montoya and Bullock sauntered to the door along with their officers and looked out beyond the horror.
"Mi Dios….."
"Holy…."
T-T-T-T-T-T-
SWOOOOSH!
Bane and Croc sailed over the street-space and landed on the rooftop of a thirty-five story building across the way.
TH-THWAP!
They grinded together through the gravel before Bane grunted and kicked Croc off of him.
Whap!
Croc landed on his scaley feet and flexed his pale muscles.
Bane hobbled up to a standing menace. He clenched his teeth. "Well…if it isn't everybody's favorite second best….?"
"You owe me a broken leg, big guy….," Killer Croc pointed a sharp finger. "…and an arm….and a shoulder…and a pair of ribs!"
"Yes…and a skull and an ego…," Bane seethed. "So…they have worthless sewer filth like you working for Triangular?"
"I go where the green stuff takes me…," Croc said. "And you know what green stuff I'm talking about, don't ya?"
"Don't care…," Bane paced around Croc. "I prefer red myself…."
"Hehehehehehresssh….stole the words out of my pretty mouth," Croc paced around Bane. "Yes, I do the dirty work for Triangular. Pretty proud of it too! However…this is just between you and me…."
"So what?" Bane managed a slight snicker. "So you can even a useless score?"
"You're smiling, Bane," Croc said. "That means your neck is softening up. Running out of that green slime stuff, ain't ya?"
Bane motioned Croc forward. "I can still finish you off, scum."
"I'll be sure to laugh over that," Croc's eyes narrowed. "After I'm done stripping the bones from your neck with my teeth!"
"Nnnngh! Let's fight to the death."
"Always glad to lead the dance!" Croc surged forward. "NnngHRESSSSHAAA!"
"RAAAAUGH!" Bane flew in with his fist sailing.
The two muscular behemoths clashed in the center of the rooftop.
THUD!
T-T-T-T-T-T-
CRACK!
I kicked a door open and dashed across the twisted metal compartments of the blimp's precarious interior.
Everything was groaning around me.
Lattice work of metal crunching.
Bulkheads bending and shrapnel and rivets popping.
The 'exiting' turned out to be a nearly seventy degree uphill blur as the blimp plummeted….plummeted…plummeted…
I panted…sweating instensely.
My body ached to its limit as I trucked Fox along.
I summoned murk to push me along. To make my limbs move. To empower myelf in a way that only an adept of the Spectrum could.
How was I to have the strength to interrogate this loser after all of this was said and done?
How was I to tap into Wayne Corp?
Fleetings images passed through my head in the belly of that dying, dirigible beast. Raven meditating. Cyborg and Beast Boy sharing a joke. Starfire humming gently to herself. Tempest treading water in the Bay. The birdarang…the birdarang….
The birdarang…
And then….
Rrrrred Aviarrrry……
I gasped.
I nearly collapsed.
Wincing.
Knees wobbling.
I panted….panted….panted…..
Red Aviarrrrrrryyyyy……
I gulped.
A sharp chill ran up my metal limb.
Like a beacon. Like the lighthouse. Flashing and pulsing over the dark bay waters of a clay-strewn Gotham.
My god……
It can't be……
N-Not here……
Not now……
I shuddered.
I reshuffled Fox over my shoulder and pressed myself crazily onward.
Red Aviary.
He followed me.
He followed me into Gotham City.
And now……I am in the absolute heart of it.
I shuddered and kicked open a blindingly bright doorway to the outside air.
CRACK!
I am uttertly……hopelessly……screwed.
I dove out.
FWOOOSH!
T-T-T-T-T-T-
THWACK!
Killer Croc elbowed Bane in the chin.
THUD!
Bane kneed Croc in the stomach.
SLASSSH!
Croc teetered back, snarled, and swiped Bane bleedingly across the chest.
THWACK!
Bane's hands slapped on either side of Croc's skull.
"Hressssha!" Croc clutched his head and stumbled back, wincing all over.
Bane held a hand over his bleeding chest, teeth clenched.
The two panted…standing in a stalemate across from each other atop the rooftop.
"You are so dead….," Croc hissed.
Bane hissed back: "You first, you snake!"
Beep! Beep! Beep!
"………," the two blinked at each other.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
A vaporous red chill filled the air.
"Que in el mundo?" Bane murmured.
Killer Croc blinked. "D'You hear that?"
The two glanced over.
Nestled between an antenna and an A/C unit…
Three explosives suddenly there.
Strung out in a row.
Beeing. Blinking. Strobing.
Bane's jaw dropped. "Carbonite!"
"Holy…."
Bane leapt off towards the distance.
Killer Croc likewise dove as inevitably….
Beep! Beep! Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep!
PPPPPPPOWWWWWWW!
T-T-T-T-T-T-
The first thing I did when I ran along the top of the partially deflated blimp was gasp at the familiar noise.
My body tensed.
Deep inside, something froze over. The sound of the explosion resonated in my head and I could have sworn I heard the screaming voice of Starfire followed by the grinding sarcophagus of the radioactive depository.
Positioned precariously atop the descending blimp-top, I turned and gazed left at the top of a thirty-five story building as it rose past me and Fox.
A huge plume of fire vomited outward from the summit like a volcano. Hot, flesh-melting fire.
A carbonite blast……
"Fancy this unfolding! That's what should be happening to Fox, boy!"
"!" I spun and looked towards the rear of the zeppelin.
Clock King stood before me, leaning on his sharp cane. He was flanked by Scarecrow and Mad Hatter. The smoking, flaming stern of the airship framed their three iconographic figures.
"You should both be burning….everyone interfering in the structure of this City should be burning! Triangular…Two-Face…and now a two-bit Titan like yourself!"
I was only half-listening to what he had to say. Because the chill rushing up through my metal arm was unbearable. My whole body shook and wobbled. My insides were turning to ice and I nearly fell or nearly dropped Fox or nearly all of such in between.
Clock King's lips moved, but only muffled echoes came out as the smoke beyond him became an all-encompassing horizon swallowing the carnage and noise.
"No wonder the great Batman and his troupe haven't showed up as of late! They must be ashamed! They must be ashamed of how pathetically cold and unartistic this City's rogues have become!"
I looked past him. My black eyes turned round. A breath escaped me. Vaporous. But not because of the November air.
Time slowed down as I saw the first red streams of him. Crimson clouds. Scarlet mist. He pierced through the smoke and ran out of the smog. With feet of ice, he came blurring down the length of the zeppelin behind the three villains. Straight towards me. They just happened to be in the way. That was all. They didn't need to be there. And they didn't see it coming. In molasses motion….in frozen sluggishness, what could they have done?
I stood stock still. Iced to the bone. And as the figure ran closer and closer like a demon sperm out of Hell, reality came screaming towards me. And I knew for once that the fear toxin of Crane had gone away. For this was the real horror. This was the nightmare come true. Every part of me throbbed and ached in utter horror. Paralyzing fear. The same thing that pounced on me in the cemetery….that stalked me in the Lexcorp hallways….that loomed over me when Robin was blown to bits.
And somehow, I felt like it was a part of me. A ticking time bomb inside the mitochondria of my cells just waiting for the proverbial sands of time to run out so it could all stop pumping life juice and I would fall down to the ground, a corpse that I was solely born to be. And this spectre…this ghost….this smoke and mirrors…it was simply pushing the hour-hand along faster. It was pushing me over the cliff earlier. It was reeling death in and shoving it down my throat.
Red Aviary wanted to jump-start my last breath, and as it billowed towards me along the length of the zeppelin, it dropped a string of carbonite charges and extended outward from its red-vapor-obscured form a two-edge sword of red fury.
CHIIIIIIIIIING!
I saw it. I saw the Mad Hatter turning around slowly. The Gotham Villain of a solid decade and a half of infamy bearing his eyes open wide for the last time as his whole body flinched and his screaming lips kissed the sword.
SLIIIIIIIIIIIIIICE!
In slow motion, Mad Hatter's chest opened like an exploding pot pie in the microwave. The white of bone, the red of meat, the wet ribbons of everything in between splashed like reverse dew drops and vomited sideways off the body of the zeppelin.
Scarecrow got a (face?) (mask?) full of his teammate. His jaw clattered in the wet soggy horror before the red-billowing phantom blew past him and shoved the scrawny figure off the edge of the dirigible, screaming.
Clock King was the last to turn around. And when he did so, it was the slowest of all. It took an agonizing eternity for his body to completely do a one-eighty. And when the back of his tranquil head was finally facing me, it divided. A sword came down the hat, danced down the skull, swam down the neck like a knife to butter, and parted the genteel villain apart like slices of bread loafs, giving room for a frothing fountain of freezing, wet red to scream towards me.
Rrrrred Aviary!
My black eyes flickered. A touch of white against the inner black lenses.
And….
I fell.
I simply dropped back and fell beneath the swing of a sword tip.
SWOOOOOOSH!
I fell.
I fell…
I fell…….
Down the buildingside.
Fox's unconscious body flailing under my arm. My numb arm. My numb body and thin eyes.
Sleeping.
Descending to the earth.
Gazing up at the silly airborne whale that was the blimp.
….
….
….
PPPPOWWWW!
The 'whale' exploded. And when it did, time resumed.
I blinked.
FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSH!
I gasped.
I was plummeting a story-per-second.
The exploding, flaming blimp was soaring after me.
I panted.
I spun.
I faced the blurring buildingside beside me.
I gritted my teeth.
I flexed an arm free from around Fox.
I gripped Myrkblade's hilt.
CHIIIIING!
I produced the sword.
I held my breath.
I stabbed into the glass and concrete of the Kane Building.
SCRKKKKKKKKCRKKKKKKKKKCRKKKKK!
Sparks flew.
Pebbles and shards scattered.
I grinded, grinded, grinded into the building.
Desperately slowly our descent.
And yet as I did so, the flaming debris of the blimp flew closer down at me.
A burning wall of death.
To finish me off.
Crud!
God in heaven!
I billowed murk into the sword.
Panting.
FLASH!
The blade turned even sharper and carved deeply into the buildingside.
FWOOOOOOOOSH!
The hulk of the blimp was upon me. The heat curled my hairs. Scraps of burning metal grazed my body and Fox's.
I clenched my amber-stabbed eyes shut and planted my feet against the breast of Kane.
Nnnnnnnaaaaaaugh!
Murk pulsed through my ankles.
FWOOOOOSH!
I kicked off the building with Myrkblade yanking free.
I 'flew' sideways away from the tower.
The blimp breezed hotly past me.
SWOOOOOSH!
I flailed in mid-air, twirled about, and sailed down to the buildingside across the way.
I panted.
Balconies.
Alcoves.
Awnings.
AWNINGS!
I desperately glided the heavy pair of us with murking limbs down…out…down…out…down….out….forward….
FWOOMP!
Fox and I landed smack-dab in an awning.
RIIIIIIIP!
We collapsed through and crashed through a dining table on the balcony beneath.
CRASH!
Fox tumbled to the left.
I tumbled to the right.
I flinched, clutching my metal arm as the chill lessened….lessened….lessened….
I panted. Sweating all over. Teeth clenched.
Red Aviary……he's gone……
I shut my eyes tightly.
He's gone, Ana……thank God……h-he's gone……
I gulped.
F-For now……
I didn't so much as flinch when the blimp wreckage landed in the Gotham streets below.
T-T-T-T-T-T-
CRASSSSSSH!
PHOOOOOOOMMMMBBBB!
Officers and city workers ran away from the cloud of fire and collapsing debris in the center of the street.
People were pushed back safely from ground zero.
Radios squabbled.
Panicked voices shouted commands.
Sirens wailed as firetrucks swarmed to the scene.
Commissioner Gordon stood outside of the blast zone, staring with his aged eyes wide. "Good God almighty….."
The fires of the blimp crackled…billowed smoke.
"………," Gordon tilted his head up.
He gazed at the balcony floors of a building across from Kane.
The Hampton Building.
T-T-T-T-T-T-
"…………," I struggled and strained to get up.
Panting.
Eyes weakly shut.
Don't pass out……
Whatever you do……
Don't p-pass out…………
I got up on my knee. Shuddering. I stood up. I held Myrkblade loosely, trying to regain my breath.
"……………."
I blinked.
I realized something.
Fox……he's missing……
Desperate, my black eyes darted around.
I saw a body. A thick, heavy-set body. A thug was carrying Fox's unconscious form away.
Dammit! Who the Hell?
I snarled mutely and ran towards him.
The thug turned and glared at me. His muscular face shouted: "Mugsy! Jump 'em!"
SWOOOSH! SMACK! A thinner thug dashed out with a fist flying across my cheek.
"!" I stumbled back, hacking.
'Mugsy' stood, his fists raised at me. "Take Fox, Rhino! I got him!"
"He's a Titan, Mugsy!"
"He's about to croak! I can handle him!"
"Da punk's right…," a corny, villainous voice said in a mafia styled accent. "……he's at da end of 'is rope! Give me the chance to administer da coipe'de'grace!"
"……….," I squinted into the shadows.
My shaded eyes spotted a figure walking into the light. He was a balding old man with gray hair, large, reflective glasses…and a small, mopey mouth. Cradled in his arms was wooden puppet of super-deformed build dressed to look like a bastard child of Al Capone and some Dick Tracey villain. A tiny 'cigar' rested in the puppet's mouth as he bore a scar and carried a pathetically tiny tommy gun. The wooden mouth of the doll moved as a grunt voice said:
"I've always wanted to off a Titan! Must feel like stealin' candy from a Baby! Heh! Than stabbin' it in the little shrimp's jugular!"
"……….," my brow furrowed.
Who the Hell is this Imp?
"Boss…just get the job done, will ya!" Mugsy hissed.
"Yeah! We got Fox back, Scarface! Two-Face will have your little wooden neck if you don't finish him off quickly!"
The puppet turned its head to shout at the thug: "Who are ya callin' wooden?"
The old man cradling the puppet simpered: "Y-You, Mr. Scarface…"
The puppet's arm moved and 'slapped' the old man in the face. "Rhetorical statement, dummy! What do I pay you for, Professor? Honestly!"
"……..," I blinked.
'Scarface' turned and 'faced' me. "The Fox kid goes back with us where he belongs, kid!"
"……..," I stared quizzocally at the elderly Ventriloquist.
Scarface was suddenly hoisted in the path of my black eyes. "'Ey! What am I? Air? Look at my kissah when I'm talkin' to ya!"
"……."
You've got to be friggin' kid of me……
Cl-Clak!
The Tommy Gun aimed at me.
"You know what………screw it! No monologue for you! Kid heroes dese days! Bah! They've all got attention defficate disorder!"
"M-Mr. Scarface," the Professor bit his lip. "Don't you mean attention def---…"
"EVERYBODY SHUT YOUR YAPS!" He aimed the gun again at me. "Especially yous, choir boy!"
I took a deep breath….then stepped towards the puppeteer…
BANG!
The 'prop' Tommy gun ricocheted off the rooftop between my feet.
I gasped and hobbled back.
Holy……!
"That's right! Better recognize Triangular, handsome!" the puppet leaned forward and practically spit out its cigar. "ALL of Triangular!"
I panted. Utterly exhausted. Devoid of energy.
Sweating, I looked over at the two thugs with Fox.
I have no time for this.
Even if I could grab Fox, I wouldn't have the energy to run off with him.
And to where?
For the love of Allah, I'm not about to be pincushioned to death by Howdy Doody's illegitimate brother……
"Dance, kid!"
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!
I merely stepped back….and like on the zeppelin before….I fell.
FWOOOSH!
The Professor gasped.
"H-He jumped!" Mugsy murmured.
"Serves him right!" Scarface 'cocked' his tommy gun and raised it towards the sky. "Let's go home, boyz. Nothin' ta see 'ere….heh…"
"Sure thing, boss!" Rhino smirked and carried Fox off as the three retreated into the Hampton building.
T-T-T-T-T-T-
FWOOOOOOSH!
I fell into the belly of Gotham.
And as air and buildingsides once again blurred past me….
I seemed to enter a dream.
My black eyes grew thin.
I all but dropped Myrkblade along with my soul.
Somewhere, Ana's smile swam through my fingers and I clung onto it like silken strands above the Elysian Fields.
And I had this sudden…goofy urge to just….
Let go…..
Heh……
Red Aviary won't find me there……
But before I could drift away, the rocketing world around me snapped roughly to a stop when…
TH-THWIP!
SNAP!
A leather whip lashed out and wrapped around my ankle.
Y-YANK!
I gasped, dangling still above twenty-stories of death.
The fires of the blimp and the lights of squad cars danced below me.
"…………..," I panted.
There was a shadow.
Then…
A deep, womany voice.
Purring.
"Are all Titans this clumsy?"
"…………..," I dangled.
"Hang on, little man…."
FWOOOOSH!
I gasped as I was hoisted up and gripped by a strong, shapely forearm. A body that was used to leaping from building ledge to building ledge did just that, but with me in tow. I saw the world as a bobbing ocean, with the fiery chaos and detritus of Triangular and Red Aviary and the Terrible Troupe receding away like the morning tide. And soon everything grew comfortably dark as the Earth drew near and the endless alleyways and dark brick walls of Gotham City ate us.
Us?
Who's us?
"My god…you're lighter than I thought! Hrmph…all the better."
Who……?
FWOOOOSH!
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Commissioner Gordon stepped out onto a balcony.
A balcony where an awning was ripped, an eating table lay smashed, and shell casings from a Thompson semi-automatic rested underfoot.
An officer escorting Gordon on the elevated floor above the burning scene whistled. "Something definitely happened up here! I wonder if it has anything to do with the gang war in the skies?"
"…….," Gordon studied the scene with thin eyes. Speculating. Studying….
"Commissioner?"
"Whatever it is…we're too late…," he walked out to the edge of the balcony. He glanced down.
Burning blimp remains. Police and rescue squads.
"………."
He glanced up.
The top of the Kane Building. HIND wreckage. Charred buildingside and officers mapping out chalk and yellow tape on the patio for the massacre.
"Gawd….ya know….it feels kinda like November Fourth all over again. Only….hell….this time it's close to home….," the officer murmured.
Gordon took a deep breath. "Yes. It does feel like that." He eyed a thin slice in the Kane buildingside rivering down the glass and concrete facing. Like a sword scar. "And as a matter of fact…..I think some of November Fourth was dragged here in person too….."
"Sir?" the officer curiously blinked.
Gordon scratched his chin. "A hunch….."
Silence.
"Did we have photos taken of the blimp when it fell?"
"Yes, sir. They're under scrutiny by the evidence team as we speak."
"I want to take a look at them as soon as I can," Gordon said. "And I want a call patched through to Maggie Sawyer of Metropolis."
"Maggier Sawyer?"
"Again….," Gordon gestured. "A hunch…."
Scrkkk……! "Commish! This is Bullock! Come in!"
Gordon picked up his communciator. "Gordon here. What is it, Harvey?"
"Renee and I have something to show you, chief."
"Can it wait?"
"Better yet……SOMEONE to show you, Commish!"
"…………I'm on my way," Gordon pocketed the communicator away and shuffled off the balcony.
T-T-T-T-T-T-
The stranger let me down on a metal fire escape in a dark alleyway four stories up.
I sat smack down and leaned against a railing.
Panting….
Dizzy….
She stood before me, stretching taut limbs. "Phew! Last time I'm carrying someone that distance! That's a job for Batgirl…."
"……….," I clenched my eyes shut and meditated for just enough energy to summon a last stretch of vision.
Meanwhile, I heard…
'Mrowwwww……'
"Isis! Hehehe…did you miss me?"
I opened my eyes.
A woman stood in the shadows. Clad in a gray and black bodysuit. Cuddling an egyptian feline to her chest. The woman had on a mask with gentle, sloped ears. A whip was bundled at her side.
"Don't mind the stranger…," Catwoman nodded towards me. "He's on our side…..relatively speaking."
I leaned my head to the side. Utterly confused.
Catwoman smiled down at me while 'Isis' blinked its slitted eyes. "Forgive me, if you will. I meant to come to the 'battleground' much sooner. Guess I got there just in time. Batman may have vanished, but it's good to see some quasi-heroes doing something brave for this bleeding City."
"…………."
"Oh for mercy's sake, Mr. Titan! Don't look so glum. You've apparently got a lot to do in this City….but don't spend all your nine lives in a day."
"…………"
"I'm only here to help you. And…..perhaps….you can also help me?"
"…………."
"Mr. Titan?"
"…………."
"Noir?"
I had already long collapsed, unconscious.
T-T-T-T-T-T-
In the center of a ring of ambulances and paramedics, a weary Bullock and Montoya stood with a throng of other policemen.
Gordon walked onto the scene. "Yes? What is it?"
Montoya bit her lip.
Bullock—somberly for once—bore a straight face and stepped aside to point the way towards a stretcher being loaded into one of the ambulances. "Take a look for yourself…."
Gordon craned his neck. His jaw gradually dropped….
The Scarecrow was bandaged all over. His arms, lower limbs, parts of his shaded cranium. His jaws clattered as two pinprick eyes twitched in time to his writhing body beneath the bandages and restraints on the stretcher. "Nnnngh….Nnnghh! Ugh….Oh G-God….R-Red…he's after me….after us…all of u-us! Nnngh…R-Red…..RED! Ohhhh Goddd…nnghhh…fhefhh…..R-R-Reddddd….."
Gordon stared. Stone silent.
Bullock leaned in. "What on God's green earth would freak the shit out of the Scarecrow?"
The writhing villain was shut away in the ambulance and away from the noonday light.
Gordon swallowed and ran a hand through his gray hair.
Shakily.
"What indeed…."