Gotham City. The Financial District. After the funeral of Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne is contemplating past events whilst out on patrol.
This was not the situation Bruce had anticipated himself in 6 months ago. With almost all the computers and facilities destroyed or damaged, the Batcave was unrecognisable. Worse still, Bruce had never felt so unequipped.
He stood on top of a crane, looking down at the building site below. Intel from the Homeland Security (whose meetings Bruce was now privy to) had mentioned that Penguin's weapons deals happened in this area. We may be in at war, but the mission hasn't changed. Having arrived 3 hours, Bruce was relieved to see an unmarked jet-black car drive into the site and park side-on against one of the walls of the building. Nice to see the intel isn't bad. He didn't recognise the first man to step out of the vehicle. The man was wearing tactical gear, reminiscent of a private militia soldier. Lack of an insignia on the uniform clouded the matter further. Had the tech in the Batcave been working, facial recognition would've solved the problem.
After another half-hour, an unmarked van, followed by two cars pulled into the site. From their van stepped out 3 members of Penguin's crew. The door from one of the cars swung open and another man, well dressed stepped out and went over to the passenger side. As he held the door open, Penguin stepped out into the open. Bruce pressed a button on his cowl and pulled out a small microphone from his belt. He attached it to the end of his finger and pointed it at the meeting.
"Fan out, lads" Penguin said, "I don't want any interruptions." Accompanied by his men, Penguin ventured forward towards the middle of the site. On the other side, the unknown militia soldier walked to meet him.
"Good evening, Mr Cobblepot" the soldier said, "my employer would like to thank you for meeting with us on such short notice."
"Well, when your employer makes an offer like this, pretty hard to refuse" Penguin replied, "however, you could tell 'im to get out of the car and talk to me face to face?"
"I'm afraid due to the nature of this deal, they wish to remain anonymous. Your discretion is appreciated." The solder gave a polite but obviously forced smile. Penguin, on the other hand, did not.
"I don't do business with a man without looking him in the eye." Penguin folded his arms.
"This time you will." The soldier said sternly.
"Really?" Penguin laughed, "Well I'd love to know how you plan to make me." The solder looked down and smiled.
"My client knew you would react like this. I was instructed to tell you, in the event of your resistance to do business on our terms, that your routes into Gotham through the southeast freeway would no longer be overlooked by the authorities presiding over that area." Penguin raised an eyebrow and took a puff of his cigar. "You will also no longer be held in high favour with those who run the Docks, and any shipments bearing your fingerprints will be destroyed or handed over to the police."
"Is that so?" Penguin raised a hand and three of his men turned their weapons towards the soldier. "You don't get to threaten me and live to talk about it, boy." The soldier smiled again and raised his hand. Suddenly several red dots appeared over Penguins chest.
"It would be in your best interests, Mr Cobblepot, to continue to stay within my client's favour. I would suggest you reconsider your position." Penguin sighed.
"Show him the merchandise" he said, waving towards the van behind him. Two guards together carried a long military case from the van, towards Penguin and the soldier.
"Open it" the soldier said. The two guards popped the lock and lifted the lid.
"ARC140. 30 calibre bullets. Holds 4 rounds before reload. I've seen people take out the driver of a moving car from 800 yards with this."
"What's the set-up time?" the soldier asked, examining the barrel.
"Well, a trained marksman such as yourself could get this unpacked, built and ready to fire in about 6 seconds. Pack-up time's slightly shorter, helpful for you if you're taking out Bruce Wayne, you'll want to do a runner pretty bloody quickly." Batman immediately put his microphone away and leapt off the crane. Just as the soldier and Penguin were about to shake hands, Batman landed next to them.
"Bollocks" Penguin shouted, "What is he doing here?" As Penguin's men raised their guns to fire, Batman reached to his belt and threw out a series of magnetic devices. The coin-shaped devices latched onto the guns and immediately sent through an electric charge, causing the men to drop the them in pain. As the guns hit the ground, the devices then exploded, shattering the guns and rendering them useless.
Meanwhile, Batman had turned his attention to Penguin and the soldier. Penguin had stepped backwards towards his car, while the solder remained as he was. Batman examined the man standing in front of him. A closer look than before allowed sight of a tattoo of a magpie across the soldier's neck.
"Good evening, Mr Wayne" the soldier said. "I trust you heard most of this conversation on that crane?" He pointed to the crane Batman had been perched on.
"Who are you?" Batman replied.
"No one of interest to you, I assure you." As Batman walked towards the solider, he felt a very sudden and very hard thump that hit the back of his head with such force that it made him buckle onto one knee. Dazed, he looked up to see an escrima stick rolling away. He stood up and slowly turned around to see Robin standing there. But it wasn't Robin. Damian had considerably altered his suit since the last time he saw his father. The cape had gone, as had the Robin symbol on his chest. The red of the suit had been significantly darkened to the point that it resembled wine or blood. Long sharp blades curved out of his forearms and the shiny armoured-plating glistened in the streetlights.
"Hello Father" he said.
"Damian what are you…" Batman stopped speaking as heard the sound of the soldier's car screeching away. He turned away from Robin to follow the car, but was swiftly stopped as he felt something sharp press against his neck.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you" another voice said. Batman looked down and recognised the orange plates on the gloves holding the sword.
"Hello Slade" he said. "What brings you out of retirement?"
"Do I really need to answer that?" Slade replied. The sword moved away from Batman's neck. "Turn around." Bruce turned to see Slade in full Deathstroke uniform with Damian standing next to him.
"You can come quietly, Father, or we can drag you. Either way, you're coming with us." Damian said, folding his arms. Batman sighed.
"Is this what it's come to?" He said, "My own son actively fighting against me?"
"Don't forget about me, rich boy" Slade said. "I want a piece of this too." Batman took a step back and moved into a defensive stance.
"You're very welcome to try." Slade and Robin both leapt towards him. Dodging both their attacks simultaneously, Batman parried Slade's stronger second attack, while Damian's follow up missed. As Slade stumbled back, Damien moved forward and aimed a cartwheel kick towards Batman's head. Stepping back, Batman grabbed Damian's leg and pushed it, overpowering Damian's momentum and throwing him to the floor.
Hearing the scrape of the sword against the floor, Batman turned once again to see Slade leaping at him with his sword. Parrying multiple swings with his gauntlets, Batman fended off Slade's ferocious attack until he sidestepped and caught the sword between the blades on his gauntlet. Bringing up his other arm, he used the blades to snap the sword in half. Deathstroke retreated back, looked at the blunted weapon in his hand and threw it to the ground. Batman wiped the sweat from his cheek as he turned to glance at Damian. Hearing Deathstroke's footsteps behind him, Batman darted looks between the two of them as they circled around him.
Damian paced around his father.
"Move 21b" he said, as both he and Deathstroke lunged at Batman once again. This time they were much more co-ordinated. This time the heavy attacks were coming from Damian. While Slade was stepping in to take the return blows, Damian was already gaining momentum for his next move. Blow after blow, Batman was slowly starting to wane. He was taking too much damage to last much longer. Suddenly, he started to notice a weakness. The more blows he took, the more ferocious and wild Damian's attacks were becoming. Just as the right moment came, Damian telegraphed his kick, which Batman caught and parried towards Deathstroke. He reached into his belt and threw down several smoke pellets. As the thick cloud spread around him, he shot a grapnel hook behind him and pressed the retract button, pulling him inside the half-finished building and into the shadows.
He took a few seconds to compose himself then pressed a button on his cowl and a small fragment of metal came out from the side and covered his nose and mouth.
"He's not showing up on thermal vision" Damian said.
"That's impossible, even in the mud, your tech is too sensitive for him to avoid it" Deathstroke replied. Damian smirked.
"This is my father we're talking about"