To all of those who have looked at and/or reviewed, thank you so much! I'm glad that you're enjoying the story! Now upwards and onwards, shall we?
The bottoms of his treaded boots hit the ground before the aircraft did. He took quick, urgent strides forward as the carrier touched down. A large group of soldiers hurried up to greet him.
The Arkham Knight jerked a hand over his shoulder. "Prep the Cloudburst," he ordered. "Not you." The nearest handful of soldiers stopped in their tracks. "Come with me." He began to lead them away from the landing zone.
A nearby lieutenant noticed them. "Sir, the Cloudburst—," he began.
"Is being taken care of," the Arkham Knight interrupted briskly. "Let Scarecrow play with his new toy for a while. I have matters of my own."
"But what if he asks where you've gone?"
"Then tell him that there's something that needs my inspection. If Scarecrow needs to reach me, he knows how. Now get out of my way." The Arkham Knight continued forward. He led his men out onto the streets. The roads were empty, save for a few flickering streetlights, stripped cars, and cowering vagrants.
"Keep your eyes open," the Knight ordered. He was looking for something, but not Batman. No, if Batman managed to get off the blimp, Scarecrow would keep him preoccupied in Chinatown. And oh, was he in for a surprise.
"Sir, what are we looking for?" one of the men asked.
For once, the Arkham Knight wasn't sure how to answer. "Anything out of the ordinary," he answered. "If you do, keep your weapon trained on it. But don't fire unless I give the command."
All while he was on Stagg's airship, an itch had nagged him. It grew and grew in the back of his mind until he could no longer ignore it. He had to go see and make sure. Now, as he walked the streets, he still clearly remembered the way. It had been years, but he still knew how to find it.
Finally they came upon a tunnel. Before, it had been constructed under the intent of becoming an underground road. The project was abandoned shortly after construction began, so it only ran a quarter of a mile underground.
The Arkham Knight stopped at the entrance to the tunnel. The soldiers paused behind him. With a raised hand, he gestured sharply to the ground. "Wait here," he commanded. "Move out only when I give the say so."
The men watched as their commander walked into the tunnel. Eventually, his figure vanished into the darkness. One of the soldiers raised his rifle and rested it against his shoulder. "Man, what are we doing here?" he wondered out loud. "I doubt this is part of Scarecrow's plan."
"The Knight's got his own agenda, remember?" another militiaman answered. "Something about a personal crusade."
"Yeah, but that's got something to do with the Bat. Unless he's still on that balloon, Scarecrow's baited him to the safehouse up in Chinatown. What are we doing at some creepy old tunnel?"
"I don't know, but it must be important if the commander himself is at it."
"Will you two just shut up?" another soldier grumbled. "If the Knight catches you guys gossiping like a pair of hens, he's gonna raise hell on all of us."
Up ahead, the Knight found himself enveloped by black. Infrared vision had been activated in his helmet, but there was still very little that could be seen. It didn't matter, though. All he focused on was the concrete wall that ran beside him. He wondered if it still even worked.
At last, he found it. The Arkham Knight stopped and faced the wall. His hand ran over a few cracks that ran through the course concrete. Then, he dug his fingers into a certain crevice and pulled. A section of the wall swung open like a safe door. Behind it was a small, lens-like circle that emitted a faint blue light. A retina scanner.
The Arkham Knight casted a quick glance over his shoulder. He raised his helmet and lined his eye with the scanner. A blue light passed over it. It gave a little chirp, and then a large section of the wall slid away to reveal a descending flight of stairs.
He inhaled a sharp breath as he looked down the steps. A peculiar feeling washed over him. His skin tingled, and a dull pain pounded in his throat and chest. He quickly cast away the feeling with a brisk shake of his head. The Knight yanked his helmet over his face and began to descend.
A low whine sounded behind him. The Knight looked over his shoulder. The hidden door attempted to shut, but could merely twitch an inch. This place was old and rundown. Everything was falling apart. He considered heading back up to close the door himself, but changed his mind and continued down.
The stairs led to an underground room. It was considerably larger than Oracle's clock tower loft. The place was dark, and everything was covered in tarp. Even then, he could still recognize the room as it had been years ago. The tallest tarp-covered structure at the other end of the room was the main computer.
The Knight walked forward. The footstep echoed through the chamber, rebounding again and again in the empty space. What was he doing here? What was he looking for? It certainly wasn't closure, because there was none to be found. Every second he spent here hollowed him out. After all, he could no longer bear to think of her again.
His next step produced a crinkle. He looked down. A faded photograph was pinned under his boot. The Arkham Knight crouched and picked it up. Its worn image showed two smiling people lying in the grass, looking up at the camera. God, they looked so happy.
It was another blow to his chest. He wanted to tear it up and release the pain it brought him. But he couldn't. Instead, he lowered it back onto the ground. There was a dark splotch on the edge of the picture where he had held it. The Knight looked at his own hand. The tips of his gloves were coated in a fine layer of dust. Everything about this room had been forgotten… well, almost everything.
Rising to his feet, the Knight's eyes fell on the covered computer. Was it still functional? He wandered over to it, leaving the photograph behind. He remembered when it was in the height of its activity; it had been quite the machine. The Arkham Knight stopped in front of the main terminal. It, like everything else, was covered. But something was a bit off about it.
Reaching forward, he touched the tarp. Then he rubbed the tips of his fingers together. There was not even a single speck of dust on it. The Knight lifted the tarp and peered at the keyboard underneath it.
There. Dark little dots on certain keys indicated that someone had recently touched them.
Suddenly, there was movement. The Knight's eyes darted to the motion tracker in the lower corner of his helmet's display. Something was approaching him from behind. Instinctively, he dodged to the side just as he heard the whistle of a blade cutting through the air. He quickly backed away from the terminal as he scanned the area. There was no one there. But he was not fooled; the motion tracker said otherwise. The enemy was cloaked. That could only mean…
The Arkham Knight whipped out a firearm and pointed it at the direction of movement. His finger, however, stayed off of the trigger. He suddenly felt something take hold of the barrel and force the gun, and his arm, upward.
It was then the attacker appeared, materializing in front of him. It was a woman wearing a silver, skintight exo-suit. Pale, thin plates of armor covered most of the suit. Her face was covered with a helmet. Her left arm, the one that was forcing the gun up, was entirely robotic.
The Knight froze with shock. But… it couldn't be. "That arm…" was all he could manage to say.
"It's not just for show," she replied. There was a loud scrunching noise as the barrel of the gun was crushed. She suddenly ripped it out of his grip and threw it aside. Then she struck out with a fist, aiming for the Arkham Knight's head.
He sidestepped and caught her arm by the wrist. With his other arm, he rammed his elbow into her side and forced her onto her knees as he pinned her arm to her back.
She let out a breathless chuckle. "You're good," she mused. In a flash, she stood up. The Arkham Knight found himself gripping onto nothing. He looked up as she stood over him. A blade suddenly shot from the mechanism on her wrist. "But you can't beat what you can't touch." She slashed at his neck, but he ducked. Crouched on the ground, he shifted behind his opponent and slammed his fist into the small of her back. She stumbled forward from the blow.
This presented a window of vulnerability. The Arkham Knight swung his leg around, attempting to kick her feet out from under her. His leg passed right through her ankles.
With no hesitation, she whirled around. Her foot connected with the side of the Knight's head. The kick threw him onto the ground and caused his vision to swirl.
Something pressed tightly onto his chest, compressing his lungs. The Arkham Knight gazed up at the girl, gripping at the knee that was pinning him down. He saw as she raised her blade. In the second it took for her to drive it down, he had drawn out his own combat dagger and raised it in front of him.
The dagger caught onto a nook in her blade. The two weapons quivered as the both of them pushed against the other.
"Stop this!" the Arkham Knight ordered, his voice tight from the effort to keep the blade off of him.
"This is only going to end one way," she replied darkly. Suddenly, she looked up. A gunshot blared out. The Knight felt the pressure on his chest release as she phased through, allowing the bullet to pass through her. He quickly rolled onto his feet. Soldiers swarmed into the room, their guns trained on the silver figure.
"Hold your fire, damn it!" the Arkham Knight barked. He slid his dagger back into its sheath.
The girl hesitated for a moment. Then, she slowly raised her hands and rested them on the back of her head.
"Smart move," the Knight said. He reached over and ripped a small, disk-like device from the back of her neck. "Let's keep that little 'ghosting' ability of yours from recharging. Oh, I know you used up all of your suit's energy in that little scuffle of ours." He looked over to his men. "She can still cloak. Be alert. Use your motion tracker, should it come to that."
"How the hell do you know so much?" she hissed. The Arkham Knight looked down at her.
"All questions will be answered in due time. Now on your feet." He took her right arm—her human arm—and yanked her up by it. The soldiers filed behind them as the Arkham Knight led the specter to the stairs.
As he walked, he heard a crinkle under his boot. It was the photograph on the ground: a picture of a young man and woman together.
Addendum: Action scenes are hard to write. Especially when it's the wee hours of the morning and you're sleep-depraved. Heh.
Also, those soldiers totally disobeyed the Knight by barging in. He's going to give them such a spanking after this.