Sincerest apologies for the slow update. Finals testing is coming up and I've been getting a whole new slew of work from my teachers for some reason.
Only a couple chapters to go!
Disclaimer: Don't own Batman and whatnot. I own Eve, Charlotte and Greg in this chapter!
Talk about being confused. "Wait, you know this guy?" I asked, looking incredulously at Charlotte, jerking my thumb in the direction of the old fart. "How do you know this guy?"
"Charlotte and I have been acquaintances for a while, my dear," Ra's replied.
"I'd call it a parasitic relationship, you leech," Charlotte seethed. "I should've known it was you the minute the transmutation circles showed up. I knew it wasn't Greg." Her fists were clenched tight, her knuckles white. "He'd never do anything like that."
"You would be surprised as to what Gregory would do when provoked," Ra's replied coolly. I snapped my gaze back to him, face flushing.
"What did you just say?" I asked. "If you did anything to hurt Greg, I swear to god you'll be a grease-spot on the asphalt when I'm done with you, you bastard." Now my fists were clenched to match Charlotte's, and I was still wishing I hadn't thrown my communicator into the gutter. "You think you can just come in here and start acting like you own the city?" I asked, a trembling anger in my voice. "You're sadly mistaken, buddy. You've got 'til I count to one to get your ninjas and get the hell outta Gotham before I kick your ass." I could see a bemused grin spread across the villain's face, and he chuckled at me, shaking his head.
"Oh, the naivety of today's youth," he said. I was flattered he thought I was a youth (not that twenty-five was old or anything) but he wasn't going to insult me by calling me naïve.
"Go ahead and laugh it up, Ra's," I growled, my hand going to my belt and the various gadgets Bruce had stored there for me. Smoke grenades, flash-bang grenades, actual grenades, shuriken, weighted cable, grappling hook, and—
A proverbial light-bulb lit up over my head as I realized I had a spare hand-held communicator on my belt. That's it! Now I can call Bruce and tell him what's going on! I thought happily, momentarily forgetting that unarmed Charlotte and I were facing down four ninjas and some psycho old guy with a mustache-beard combo that made him look like a Chinese emperor. If I could just get in touch with Bruce and get him over here, then we could lock this guy up where he belonged and—
"Kill them."
I was so caught up in the realization I still had means of communication that I took my mind completely off of the situation at hand. I snapped back to reality just to fall backward to avoid the thrusting katana of one of the ninjas.
"Whoa!" I shouted, landing on my back and rolling to avoid his next attack. "Not cool!" I rolled again and sprung up onto my feet. Charlotte sprinted past me, muttering , "I hope you have a plan B."
Yeah, I hoped I did, too. At least, I hoped I could come up with one. I knew there was no way I'd be contacting Bruce with one hand and fending off a ninja with the other. Speaking of ninjas, two were in front of me, and the other two had dashed off after Charlotte. Dammit! I thought as I dodged another katana blow, blocking the other with my Kevlar-clad forearm. Can't let them catch up to Charlotte. I hope she knows what she's doing. I blocked another blow and another, constantly on the defensive, trying to keep one eye on the ninjas and my other on Charlotte. The only problem with that plan was Charlotte had disappeared, the two other ninjas with her. Oh no, I thought, letting my guard down for a fraction of a second as I searched for that familiar head of brown curls. A sharp pain in my arm brought me back to the fight on hand as one of the katana sliced through the suit, between the plates, on my right bicep.
"Asshole!" I shouted, ducking and rolling to the left to avoid the twin strikes thrust at me. My arm stung, but I ignored the laceration and dropped into an offensive stance, clenching my fists. Guess Bruce'll have to wait.
"Alfred." Bruce's voice crackled through the communicator the old butler held as he tried to monitor where Evelyn was on the Cave's supercomputer.
"Yes, sir," Alfred answered promptly. "Miss Larrabee went into the city, sir."
"I know," replied the billionaire with an air of irritation in his voice. "She threw away her communicator." Alfred felt the beginning of a headache. Of course she did, he thought.
"Were you yelling at her, sir?" Alfred asked politely, already starting to track the hand-held communicator's GPS from Evelyn's belt. Bruce was silent on the other end for a moment, and Alfred inferred that his charge had indeed let his irrefutable temper shine through. "She's only trying to help."
"It's too dangerous," Bruce said. "Ra's is behind the whole thing." Alfred's headache pounded just a bit harder.
"Shall I try contacting her on her belt's communicator, sir?" he suggested, already pulling up the frequency, ready to contact.
"No need," Bruce replied. "She's calling me."
One of the two ninjas was finally down. It was easy, really. I was kneeling on the ground, he had be by the throat, ready to run me through at his boss's order, I guess. What he didn't see was the transmutation circle I'd drawn in front of me, small, but effective. I told him, "You've got something on your shirt." Before he could look down and get the joke, a green light erupted and a column of asphalt shot up, snapping his elbow back the wrong way and slamming into the bottom of his chin, knocking him out and to the ground.
I scrambled to my feet and ran backward, the other ninja in pursuit. I figured this would be a good time to call Bruce, and I freed the communicator from its holder and pressed the side button. "I could use a little help!" I said in an exhale as I sprinted away from my adversary.
"Where are you?" Bruce asked as I skirted down an alley to my right, hurtling over upturned garbage cans and bags.
"A few blocks north of Wayne Tower," I panted as I sprinted over a family of rats. "You'll see us. Trust me."
"Are you hurt?"
I contemplated this for a moment, glancing back to see the ninja only yards behind me. "Not yet," I replied, then shoved the communicator back into its snug holder. All right, Eve, I thought as the mouth of the alley rapidly approached. These guys think they know what you're going to do. So the best thing to do would be the unexpected. I didn't think about how to pull something unexpected on a ninja of all things, but I took improvisation classes in high school, so I had an idea. I took a smoke grenade from my belt and dropped it as I ran. It bounced, made a metallic pink! and then thick white smoke came out all at once, filling the alley. I heard the footsteps of my pursuer stop, and I took this chance to take out my chalk once more and draw a transmutation circle on the ground. Last transmutation of the day, I thought grimly as I placed my fingers on it. Let's make it count. The green light of my transmutation penetrated the smoke, and I could see the ninja ready to lunge, katana poised. That was, of course, before my wave of concrete upturned him, sending his weapon flying one direction, and sending him flying the other.
"Yes!" I cheered, feeling light-headed from that last transmutation. I gave an exasperated exhale, then a sharp gasp. "Charlotte!" I sprinted back through the dispersing smoke and back onto the road where Charlotte and I had parted ways. Ra's had vanished, and I rushed to the alley Charlotte had gone down. It was empty. "Charlotte!" I shouted, whipping my head around, looking for her.
"Over here!" came her voice, and my eyes shot up to the fire-escape. Apart from a bit of dust on her person, she was unscathed. She came down the ladder as I ran for her, and embraced me tight. "Bet you didn't think I had it in me to defeat ninjas," she said, releasing me with a wide grin.
"No. Not really," I said honestly.
"Thanks for that boost of confidence. I am an alchemist."
"And a nuisance." We both spun to see Ra's at the mouth of the alley. "You two are becoming more of a problem than I initially thought."
"Sorry to put a kink in your plans, Ra's," I said, stepping forward, the pain from my wound ebbing into a dull throb. It wasn't bleeding too terribly, and I hadn't had time to wrap it, so I had been leaving a trail of blood droplets wherever I had been. Maybe it would make me easier to find for Bruce.
"A minor kink," Ra's replied. "Nothing that can't be dealt with."
"You don't scare me, Confucius," I said, inwardly laughing at my little joke. "Like I said earlier: get out of Gotham before I wipe the pavement with your face." Yeah. Big words for someone who's going to pass out if she tries another transmutation, I thought.
"You don't scare me either," Charlotte said. "You were a lousy alchemist and an even lousier cabin-mate."
"That was decades ago, Charlotte," Ra's replied, his voice low. "I think you'll find my alchemy much more up to par. Perhaps surpassing even you, my dear." Charlotte snorted, a sound I wasn't used to coming from her slim frame.
"Right," she said, voice laced with heavy sarcasm. "I've been around since before you were in diapers, Ra's. I've been around the world more times than I can count, and I've been doing alchemy since I've been able to walk. There's no way you're a better alchemist than I am." I could tell Ra's' comment had prodded at a prideful place in Charlotte's heart. She didn't even let Greg say he was a better alchemist, and he'd been doing it for longer. Hell if she was going to let this old guy tell her he was best. I could see a wolfish smile on Ra's' face, and he reached into the pocket of his slacks, withdrawing a piece of chalk.
"We shall see," he said. Charlotte fumed, her face scarlet, hand already clenched around her own chalk piece. Great. We're about to have a battle of the alchemists, I thought, rolling my eyes. Then I really thought about it, and my face paled. Oh no. We're about to have a battle of the alchemists. Whenever Charlotte and Greg had battled with alchemy, it had been in the stretches of forest Ireland offered, and the comfort of not having anyone around to disturb you or get in your way or get hurt. Here, in Gotham, there were civilians, buildings, pets, kids. Oh god. They can't do that here. I grabbed Charlotte's wrist, and she jerked her head to stare at me.
"You can't be serious," I said. "There's no way you can fight here. Not in the city. Not with all these people." I gripped her wrist tight, and she cast a sideways glance at Ra's before snapping her gaze back to me. "Charlotte, we can't fight him with alchemy. We've already done who-knows how much damage to the city, and I don't think Mayor Garcia would appreciate us doing more. He hates vigilantes as much as it is." As if talking about the mayor summoned the police, sirens sounded. The GCPD had been busy enough trying to get all the transmutation circles off the streets and buildings around Gotham. I guess that collapsing building from earlier had caught their attention, finally. "We've got to get out of—" A blindingly bright yellow light lit up the alley from where Ra's had been standing, and Charlotte pushed me and screamed, "Move!"
I didn't need to be told twice and I started to sprint in the opposite direction, but the light engulfed the two of us and I couldn't see anything and I stopped running. I felt Charlotte run into my back and I grabbed her, turning my back to the transmutation and shielding her with my body. It was a good thing I did, because half-a-second later something hard—something stone—slammed into my back, propelling the two of us forward. I bit down hard as we flew out into the street at the other end of the alley, hitting the middle of the street and rolling until we hit the building opposite the alley.
"Still think it was a good idea to not hit him with alchemy?" Charlotte asked as she pushed herself up onto one hand, grimacing as several abrasions flamed up red on her exposed arms and legs. I coughed, rolling onto my back and staring up at the sky as I tried to get my head to stop spinning.
"We're onto plan C," I said, rolling onto my stomach and wincing as my chest alighted with pain. I pushed myself up onto my hands and knees, panting.
"What's plan C?" Charlotte asked, staring down the alley to see if Ra's was following us or not.
"Improvise everything," I said, pushing myself onto my feet. "I've got an idea. But I need you to be a distraction."
"I'm good at being a distraction," Charlotte said flatly and with a frown.
"That won't be necessary." I recognized that voice instantly, and I practically pirouetted an about face to see the familiar black suit with the emblazoned bat on the chest plate staring at me. In two long strides I'd pressed my cheek against Bruce's chest, hugging him around his middle, grinning. With his image to uphold, I didn't expect him to hug me back, so I released my hold and took a step back, still grinning. It faded, however, when I saw his clearly disapproving expression beneath his mask. "I told you he was dangerous," he said, his voice gruff and accusatory. I frowned, my eyes stinging with premature tears.
"I'm fine," I said, sounding as stubborn as he usually did. "Scout's honor." I just hoped Bruce didn't know I was never a Girl Scout, and that I was referring to the Indian Scouts, who were notorious liars.
"Where's Ra's?"
"Well, just follow the path of utter destruction," Charlotte said, trying to see her injuries in dim light offered by the street lamp. I couldn't even begin to imagine what time it was. To think all this started because we thought that stupid drug deal was just that: a drug deal. Now look at where we are. I was becoming incredibly fed-up with the entire evening, and I was pretty sure that last hit I took re-cracked some of my previously broken ribs.
"Look who decided to show up." From the alley Charlotte and I had been so recklessly flung from came Ra's' voice, and he stood on the transmuted asphalt.
"Ra's." Bruce's voice was far from jovial. I might even go so far as to say he was really pissed off about this whole thing. Without taking his eyes off Ra's, he spoke to me. "Get back to the Cave."
"And what, leave you here to deal with this loony alone?"
"Go." That was the last of our conversation, because Bruce sprang into battle with Ra's, and I lost them in the shadows of the alley. I made to go after him, but Charlotte grasped my arm to stop me.
"He said to go back to the Cave," she said. "We can have Alfred bandage you up. Bruce can handle himself." I was about to dejectedly agree when I processed what she'd said and whirled to face her.
"What did you just--?!" She cut me off with a sly grin.
"I'm not dense, Evelyn," she said. "Bruce has been gone ever since this snafu happened. Then you reappear in Wayne Manor with that—" She motioned at my outfit. "—and you expect me to think it's all some sort of weird coincidence." Her smile widened. "I wasn't born yesterday, you know."
"No, but sometimes I wish you had been," I replied. I knew she'd find out. Dammit!
"Let's get you back," she said, starting to pull me toward where we'd parked the Ferrari (wherever that was). I started to let her drag me, when an idea sparked in my head.
"I've got an idea," I said, jerking my arm out of her grasp.
"No. No no no no no. We're getting you home. Now." She reached for my arm again, but I was already off in the direction Bruce and Ra's had gone. "Eve! Eve, what are you thinking?"
"I've got a plan!" I said, jumping up onto the transmuted asphalt. I just hope I can pull off one more transmutation.
Thanks for reading!