Blasting down the pitch black halls, Batman followed Diana's scent as it wafted through the stale air and caressed his sensitive, wet nose. Still wary of any poachers who may have been wandering the dark halls trying to figure out what happened to the power, he stealthily made his way through the warehouse, as silent and swift as a shadow. As he continued to move further, he stopped for brief intervals to get his bearings and try to determine Diana's location based solely on the faint scent he would pick up from the air, floor and walls. Venturing further into the dark hallway he came to a large staircase, leading downward to another level of the building. Looking down the dark stairway, Bruce saw the dull flickering of a light coming from one of the rooms and was suddenly hit again by the aroma of his missing teammate. "Diana," he said to himself as his assumptions were confirmed: she had to be downstairs in the basement. Sniffing the head of the stairs, he was officially assured of her location, but upon taking a final whiff of the steps, Bruce's fur stood on end as another, all too familiar, scent was recognized… 'Blood!' Immediately, Bruce bounded down the stairs and made his way for the dimly lit room at the end of the hall, but he found himself suddenly cut short by the sounds of voices exiting a nearby room. Quickly, he slipped behind an open door and hid in the dark as two men suspiciously scanned the hallway.
"-I'm telling you I saw something," said one of the men, an aluminum bat clenched in his fist as he and his associate searched the open doors.
"Aww what's the matter Phil? Afwaid of the dark?" taunted the other man as he aided in the search. "It's just a blown fuse. Someone's probably checking it out as we speak." He said as they passed Bruce and continued to search the hall.
"You heard O'Brien," Phil replied. "Some of those fur balls upstairs got out: Luthor's lion and that hellhound!" he shouted, frantically waving the bat in his hand. "Ya ask me, there's something wrong with those fleabags; they ain't normal!" he shouted. As the two men continued to bicker in the darkness, Batman stealthily crept from his hiding place in the shadows, and made his way down to the closed door at the end of the hall. Slowly he crept forward, wary of the sound of his claws tapping and scratching against the cold, concrete floor. Ignoring their discussion, he paused in front of the closed door and peeked inside the small window on its surface. The room was pitch black and devoid of any windows, but taking in another whiff of the air, he impulsively proceeded to open the door with his paw and enter the room.
"Diana?" Bruce whispered as he searched the dark room. Despite the lack of light due to the blown fuse, the dull flickering of flashlight from the room across the hall, allowed him to see the unmoving body of a leopard, lying in a heap on the steel operating table in the center of the room. "Diana?" he said a second time, as he leaned against the table and examined her unconscious body extensively. Though she remained unresponsive, he could hear the soft whispers of her breathing. Assuming she had been tranquilized, Bruce wasted no time in his attempt to get her out and away to safety. Hopping onto the table beside her, Bruce tentatively managed to get her off of the table and onto his back as he eased his way down from the table and proceeded to make his way out of the room; but before he could make it to the door, Bruce was stopped in his tracks by the sound of the two men making their way down the hall.
"...If you ask me, I think Luthor was using them for some kinda lab testing, and he made them so smart that the only way to get rid of them was to have them all stuffed!" Phil ranted as they searched another room. "I'm telling you Ken, something fishy's going on here."
"Yeah whatever," Ken sighed as he cleared another dark room. "Come on, let's go check on the Amur," he said as the door's handle began to turn and the two men stepped into the room. "If that cat gets away, it'll be our skins that Lex'll have by his fireplace!" The two men joked, as they strained to see in the empty darkness of the room. "Jeez, you'd think they'd have the power back on by now?" they groaned as they blindly tiptoed further into the room. "Hey Phil, you still got that flashlight?"
"Yeah, right here," Phil replied as he turned the bright light on and used its beam to survey the room in sections; but when the light was shone on the observation table, the two men were shocked to see that the unconscious leopard that had been left in the room was missing! "What the-" they exclaimed as they frantically waved the light around the still dark room, staring at the stainless steel table in a baffled stupor. "Where did it go?" Phil shouted as he continued to grip the flashlight in his hands and aim it at the table. "It can't be awake already! We just knocked it out!" he exclaimed, still flashing the light around the room in search of the rogue cat; little did they know that their fugitive feline was still unconscious, draped over Batman's back as he remained hidden behind the vacant table. As the men began to move further into the room in search of the runaway leopard, Batman cautiously crept from under the table and made a break for the door. Alert and wary of the trailing flashlight, he tried to remain in the shadows as best as he could. Barely slipping past the two poachers, he was mere inches from the half-open door as he heard the soft sounds of a whisper over his shoulder.
"Hmm... Bruce?" Diana moaned weakly. Immediately, his ears perked up and he placed his paw over her own as he softly responded and whispered for her to remain quiet and calm. Just as Batman reached for the door and prepared to ease it open and make an escape, he was suddenly cut short by a low buzz and the sudden flash of blinding light as the building's power was restored, illuminating the room and revealing his location to the two stunned poachers who impulsively began to shout and charge at the 'thieving black wolf' that swiftly bolted out of the door with the semiconscious leopard draped over its back!
Blasting down the hall and back up the stairs, Bruce sped past the startled men throughout the building, hurriedly searching for an escape to get Diana to safety. Sprinting down the halls, trying to maintain her position on his back, Bruce struggled to stay on his feet as his paws would lose and regain their traction, slipping and skidding along on the slick concrete floor. His claws clicked and clattered on the ground as he skidded down another corridor and spotted an emergency exit at the end of the hall. Picking up the pace, he charged toward the heavy steel door, ignoring the shouts and swears of the pursuing men who followed behind him. Still sprinting forward, his eyes darting back and forth as he scanned the open doors and empty rooms in hopes that Superman and Flash had already found Green Lantern, and were nearby and ready to aid in the escape. With no sign of his other teammates in sight, Bruce pushed on, growing closer to the door, Diana still draped over his back, the feeling of her limp limbs and tail, arrhythmically bobbing and bouncing against his body as he ran. Lowering his head and closing his eyes, Batman prepared to ram the door and force it open. Knowing that by opening the emergency exit he would trigger the building's alarm system and alert Superman and the others, and hopefully send them a signal that it was time to escape; but before he could slam through the door and make his way to safety and freedom, the fugitive wolf was stopped short as one of the men leapt in front of the door. A rifle clenched in his fists, he stood his ground and stared off with the inky black wolf.
With Diana still sleeping on his back, Bruce methodically paced back and forth, studying the situation and brainstorming a plan. Staring at the sleek black hunting rifle in the poacher's hands, Bruce considered the circumstances and took a confident step forward. Frantically, his opponent gripped the gun tighter, and aimed it at the wolf's head! Taking into consideration that he and the others were all sent to this dungeon to be skinned, stuffed, and modeled into Lex's new trophies, Bruce knew that these poachers- as low as their intelligence was- would not risk ruining a loaded check by damaging the 'product'; he knew the gun wasn't loaded, and called the fake gunman's bluff. Fearlessly, he rushed the man blocking his escape; his sharp, pearl-white fangs were bared as he growled at the now terrified poacher. Dropping the gun in fear, the coward shut his eyes and crouched terror as the victorious black wolf leapt over him and forcefully blasted the door open and, with the emergency alarm blaring, vacated the warehouse and proceeded to rush his still weak friend to safety.
*A/N: Yeah, it's been a while, but that's what happens when the new semester starts up and you get slammed with HW within the first week XP Will update, hopefully sooner than later, and as always, please leave a review!