By the way, please tell me you get who the Red Hood is by now. It's a bit of a pain to keep avoiding his name. *sigh* either way I'll reveal it in the next chapter. I understand there is quite a bit of dialogue from the movie in this, but it's really important for that scene.
Barely able to walk, Dick had long-since returned home with a badly sprained ankle by the time I got back to the cave. Landing next to Bruce I mentally prepared myself for a lecture about safety and recklessness and all that jazz, but he was silent. Chair on the verge of toppling, he just stared at the primary monitor screen like it was a cobra moments away from striking. Worried, I shifted to see around his broad shoulders. The monitor had sound specks up from earlier when... oh.
"Stay here. I'll be gone for a while," Bruce whipped around to leave.
"No way," I glared, putting a hand firmly on his arm. I softened slightly, "you don't have to go through this alone. If you're not going to let Alfred in, at least let me come with you."
Bruce hesitated, but shook his head and fled to the batmobile. Sighing, I let him leave; if he didn't want my help, I shouldn't exactly force it on him. After he was out of sight I sat down on the med table and let feeling return to my ankle, grimacing as I saw the damage. Swollen and inflamed, my foot was twisted at an odd angle to my ankle. Alfred chose that moment to walk in with some hot chocolate, nearly dropping the tray when he saw my foot, "Why didn't you come back sooner! Goodness, you're lucky I've dealt with worse from- "
I waved him off, "I just need to reset the bone; looks like a compound fracture and aggravating it made some bone fragments come loose." Exhaling slowly, I felt my mind reach into my foot, caressing the tender muscles and ligaments as I brought the bone pieces back into alignment. Once everything was back where it should be, I lit up the bone, wincing slightly as the cracks melted and re-formed into the right shape. I double-checked my work, making sure the fibers and cells were just as strong as they had been.
"You never cease to surprise me, Mistress Kylrm," Alfred smiled in wonderment.
Shaking my head I chuckled, "You really don't need to call me that. I'm not even really part of the family."
My earpiece buzzed, "Kylrm, is Bruce there?"
"No... he just left. Remember what we talked about last night?" he stiffened slightly. Sensing the change in direction, Alfred set the tray on the main desk and went upstairs, not even bothering to make an excuse.
"Yeees, what of it?"
"He broke down the audio of last night, and... well, let me play it for you," I switched the earpiece to speakerphone and played the audio,
"You haven't lost your touch, Bruce."
"...there's no one else who knows. It would have to be one of our own," Dick sighed. "So, where did Bruce go?"
I shrugged, "There's- hold on..." I switched on the batmobile's front camera, displaying a rusty support beam a few blocks from the East End drug trade headquarters. "Looks like he's by the East End bridge, maybe near Qular street?" I switched to Bruce's cowl cam, only to see him fighting the Fearsome Hand of Four... with help. "Dick, they're fighting against the fof. Let me handle this."
"Wait, you ca-" I switched off his feed, making him snort in annoy...ance.
Huh, when did that start happening, I thought. Shaking my head, I suited up and took the batpod; flying would be too risky. Engine roaring, I sped through the streets of Gotham, watching for the tell-tale swoomph and light blue swords that- there! I turned sharply onto 25th, a couple blocks from Qular Street, Well, I guess I wasn't that far off. I parked next to the batmobile and was about to grapple up to the roof when a bulgingly fat black man burst out of the front door, nearly bowling me over. "Woah, what's your hurry?" I swept him onto the batmobile, cuffing his blood-slick wrists. Sniffing, I definitely caught a whiff of Jason. "Just hang out here for a sec, 'kay?" I left him mumbling something about assassins while tied to the batmobile as I grappled to the roof, ducking just in time to avoid a nasty gash to the head as I hit the top ledge. "Someone's edgy today," I grinned at the assassin.
"Who the heck are you?" a somewhat feminine voice spat behind the mask.
"Pinkie, meet Phoenix. Phoenix, Pinkie. Shall we continue?" bewildered, she just stared at me for a moment, a big mistake considering my speed. Smirking, I whipped around her, delivering a 1-2 punch to her side before dancing away, jumping back slightly to avoid her light saber-like weapon.
"It's just Woman, idiot," she growled. "I'm the one who holds this group together."
Baited, I thought and smiled, playfully bouncing, "Of course, I just thought your skin was such a pretty blushing pink, Pinkie."
Howling like a banshee the woman ran at me, laser sword pointed at my chin. I swiftly dodged the attack, sidestepping away from the Dynamic Duo to dance closer to the roof's edge. "Call me Pinkie again and I'll slit your scrawny little throat!" she screamed, momentarily drawing the attention of her comrades.
"Phoenix, what are you doing here!" Bats growled over the com.
"Looking for attention, obviously," I bantered back.
"Oh, how sweet, you found another sidekick," we both glared at the third wheel. Well, technically he was why we were here...
"Just shut up and fight," Bats sounded like he was about to-
"Mmph!" distracted, I felt my arm half-tear from the laser's impact. Patch it up, patch it up, don't let them see, I backed away, casting an illusion so they wouldn't see the flesh searing back together.
The woman's triumphant grin turned into a sour, confused frown as she thankfully didn't appear to see any - or at least much - of the damage, "I coulda sworn I saw..."
I cut her off with a batarang, clipping her right shoulder to implant a tracker, "You two ready to finish this or are we going to keep beating around the bush?"
"It's not, as easy, as it looks!" I could almost hear Bats glaring at me through the com. Glancing over, I noticed they were both pretty much on the edge of losing it.
"Hey pretty boy, wanna play?" I danced closer to the duo, jumping over a saber swipe to kick Bulk in the stomach. I winced as my still-tender foot sent streaks of lightning up my leg - and not the good kind. Twisting mid-air, I almost managed a graceful landing but was grabbed by Bulk and swung into the side of a guard house. Growling, I leaped to my feet, taking a moment to blink the stars out of my eyes. Too lon-
Bulk fisted my neck, long, thick fingers digging rough nails into my suit, "Now who's the pretty boy?"
Scrunching up my face, I just loooked at him for a moment before he realized what he had said. Momentarily confused, he loosened his grip slightly, giving me the freedom to swing my legs back then straight into his groin. This time it was his turn to grimace as he tried to recover. Dropped, I sucked in a deep breath and slammed into him shoulder-first, driving him back but out of his trance. Growling, he grabbed my shoulder between his two dragon-like hands and squeezed, snapping a few layers of tissue and bone. Gasping in pain, I stumbled back, right shoulder and arm now practically useless. Breaks and fractures were easy enough; knit some tissue back together, reform connections to cells, but he had practically pulverized parts of the bone and tissue!
A swoomph made me duck, but I should have jumped. Reinforcing my bones, I still hissed in searing pain as the Woman's laser nearly cut my feet out from under me. Her saber lodged in my bone made me stumble forward with full force, throwing the Bulk back a few feet. Startled at my new weight, I hesitated a moment before bunching my leg muscles and full-out launching at the hulk of a man - waaait, I feel like there was someone named Hulk... nah, that would be too weird - catapulting him off the roof and into another building. "Ha! Did you see that?" I grinned, nearly tripping over my feet as I tried to turn back to the fight. Rolling my eyes, I grabbed the saber and yanked it out of my legs, bringing it up in time to block- "Oh, come on!" The moment I touched the saber it returned to a normal sword, slicing in half as hers came down.
Just before jumping away, still a little wobbly from my healing legs, I deployed a time-release napom glob, capsule, thingie, onto her leg from my gauntlet. Spinning towards Batman, I caught Red Hood picking up the fight with her just as Bats knocked Baton out with a sucker punch to the face. "Ooo, that's gonna hurt in the morning," I smiled, looking Bats over for injuries: nothing too serious. The Woman cried out as the napom gell exploded burning acid onto her leg, giving Red the window to- well, that's unconventional - to headbut her into unconsciousness.
Turning slightly back to us, Red heaved, "I must say, I've missed watching you- LOOK OUT!" Startled, I grabbed Bats, yanking him out of the way as Red pushed.
For a moment everything was black, but I forced my eyes open in time to see Shot on all fours pinning Red down. "Bats, Bats!" I gently shook him back from the darkness, wondering what to do. Yes, he was a former comrade to Bats, but in light of recent events...
Bruce started awake and leaped silently to his feat, pulling out a tazer, "Let go of him and back away. now."
Shot jumped up, backing towards a wall a little before twisting Red into a headlock, "A tazer, really? You shoot me, you electricute him, too."
"Maybe that's his plan," Red chuckled forcefully. A small device ejected from his right sleeve into his palm, and he slammed it through Shot's mask, causing massive electrical surges around his head.
"Wait, stop!" stunned, I rushed to the assassin, but his head exploded, smattering blood across the wall and even a bit onto us. I slowly turned around, shocked he would kill so, so readily in front of Batman.
"Just be happy I only killed one of them. They're all assassins!"
"And what are you?" Bruce practically whispered, hands starting to clench.
"I'm cleaning up Gotham! More than you ever did," Red started to walk away, leaving my eyes to dart between them nervously.
"You're stealing territory from Black Mask and killing anyone who gets in your way. You're becoming a crime lord."
"Black Mask? He's just part of the plan," Red stopped, putting his hands up in frustration. "And yes! You can't stop crime; that's what you never understood. I'm controlling it. You're ruling them with fear, but what do you do with the ones who aren't afraid? I'm doing what you won't. I'm taking them out!"
Batman paused, eyes narrowing before he took a step forward, arms outstretched, "Tell me what happened to you. Let me help."
Red jolted, surprised at the offer, but withdrew, shaking his head, "It's too late. You had your chance." Casting a smoke bomb, he slipped into the shadows. Activating our gas masks, Bruce motioned for me to stay, "Don't. come after me. again."
Stealing a glance at him, I noticed how hard his jaw was set, the glint in his eye, the tension in his shoulders; if I came after him for Jason, there would be consequences. Nodding, I followed him down to street level but decided to switch the batpod into civilian mode for a night on the town. "I need some time to clear my head," I called over the com as he drove off. No response came.
Settling into a small restaurant bar off of 30th and 9th, I ordered a stiff whiskey with a shot of tequila. Gulping down the near-vikingly potent mixture, I tried to get a warm buzz so I could at least bear the pain better. Shoot, it's not supposed to hurt this much to heal a couple of bones, I sighed heavily. After about seven rounds my head was still clear, but I kept going, waiting for the night to end or my head to buzz, whichever came first.
"I'll have a diet coke with an ounce of rum," I cocked my head, noticing the room was quickly emptying. Turning to look at the new stranger, I realized the liquor perhaps had more of an effect than I thought as my eyes took a moment to focus properly on the red mask. "So, rough night?"
Blinking slowly, I nodded, rubbing my temples, "Let's just say it did not go well tonight. I see your reputation precedes you?"
He chuckled and watched the bartender squirm as he tried not to stare, "Well, at least I have a reputation here. I'd never even heard of the Phoenix until a couple weeks ago."
"That's because there was no Phoenix," I sighed. "Now why are you really here? It's obviously not to drink unless you're going to risk taking that mask off."
"I thought we could talk," he motioned the bartender away, who by now was shaking too much to really do anything.
"About what?" I looked at my glass, newly refilled.
"Oh, you know, Bats. How you two met, why he's resisting, how he's doing..."
"Honestly?" I turned completely on the stool to face him, making my head swim slightly. "He's terrible. Joker... killing you really changed him. He almost broke, but Dick returned to help, and now he's got someone to train again, if only for a little while."
"What, and then you're going to move?" he sneered.
I deadpanned, "In a way, I suppose. I don't know when, or how, but I will leave eventually; we all do, don't we? Dick to Bludhaven, Barbara to college, you to..."
"You still haven't answered my other two questions," Jason set down a knife on the counter between us, making me raise an eyebrow.
"You threatening me?" I chuckled darkly. "You wouldn't want to see how that played out. And your questions..." the force of the liquor was finally starting to kick in, leaving me a little tipsy. "Perhaps another time." The world seemed to sway - although from my legs or the liquor I didn't know - with each step as I strode into the pre-dawn darkness.