Author's Note: With Dark Arts of Enchantment complete, Seventy-Seven Shattered Souls will resume the normal Monday and Friday updates. Enjoy.

Fear Itself

The human settlement sprawled below Starfire as she ascended higher and higher into the sky. Above her, the massive avian construct governed the sky and unleashed its unceasing hoard to terrorize the humans below. Her friends were among those fighting down there, but so long as more enemies took to the field, defeat may be what they would earn.

This enormous beast needed to be defeated first before there could be a hope of victory.

Clasping her arm, Red Robin's comrade Nightwing held up with a grip of death, not that she would lose her hold on him. She did not know the full extent of his abilities, but that could mean that he may be capable of aiding her all the same.

Eventually, her flight took her face to face with the monster, its massive beak and red eyes glaring at…no, through her. She was familiar to this; many a time a Gordanian had done the same with such an expression. Unlike then, she possessed much more power.

"I got no idea what I'm doing up here, but try throwing me onto it!" Nightwing called up to her. "Distract it, I'll try to hit it with something…hard. I'll come up with something."

"Take the care," she responded, spinning her body which swung the human along until she released her grip and threw Red Robin's comrade. Arching upwards, the dark colors of his uniform allowed him to blend in with that of the avian's.

When she heard no screams or calls for help, the Tamaranean focused on her gigantic adversary. Her hands emitted her life energy, her eyes radiating with the power from within, and then she began to fire one after the other. She could see the detonations against the face, and yet there was no indication that her attacks were causing any noticeable harm. Bringing her hands together, she focused enough energy to fire off a more concentrated blast, one which struck the beak.

Green flared, and yet the construct did not respond. Very well, a different tactic. She surged forth, racing through the air and prepared one arm by cocking it back and flexing the muscles. Once she had decreased the distance between herself and the construct, Starfire lashed out, striking her fist into the side of the bird-shaped head. She witnessed a ripple spread across the black surface and retreated back several mid-sized measurement units to take in the effects of her attack.

Where her life energy had failed, her physical strike had drawn those four red eyes to focus on her. Other than this, there was no other indication that she truly had the construct's attention. To underscore this further, several winged constructs flew into range to deal with her.

Unwilling to allow such a distraction to further deter her, the Tamaranean fired two optic-based beams, her life energy carving through the wings and causing the approaching constructs to plummet to the settlement below. It was quick and efficient, which allowed her to quickly return her attention to the avian construct.

It was starting to look away from her, a dismissal of the rude variety. Thinking quickly, she brought her hands together once more to power up another concentrated Starbolt. She aimed carefully this time, seeking a source of potential weakness, considered the bodily structure of the construct and comparing it to other lifeforms, and then fired another beam.

This was one aimed for one of the four eyes, and the gigantic head flinched, a simple blink blocking the energy. Nevertheless, all four of the blazing red eyes returned to her, regarding her as little more than a pest.

What would it do this time? How would it retaliate? Summon more constructs to fight against her?

What outcome it had decided in, it would need to wait as a plume of flames detonated from the back of its head. Starfire was reminded of Nightwing and she flew up as the construct gave a shake of its head, yet did not act against her. Smoke billowed from the head, but it was decreasing as no flame was able to feed off of the construct's hide.

Close to what a human would deem a forehead region, the Tamaranean was able to identify Nightwing's concealed form, the male crouched down and shielding his face with an arm. He was able to catch sight of her, and then he called out to her.

"I tried C4! I don't think it even felt that!" the costume human told her. "Any ideas?"

Not many. Her training with the Warlords of Okaara had neglected this kind of combat. Nevertheless, they could not surrender here, not to this creature of massive might.

"We must uncover a weakness as soon as possible!" Pausing, she twirled out of the way of an airborne construct and repeated the identical maneuver with slicing off the wings with an optic-based beam attack. "It will not cease to produce more opponents unless we accomplish this!"

Starfire was uncertain that gaining the construct's full attention could be accomplished in that manner; she was hoping that it required a certain amount of attention to continue with the production of creating more and more smaller constructs. To disrupt this attention may be the key to providing relief to their allies on the ground.

"Try for orifices!" Nightwing responded. "Those tend to be weak spots no matter what you are!"

Starfire gave a sharp nod of her head. This was noisy reasoning, but reasoning she could understand. Perhaps another attempt with the eyes? It was at least an action she could take, and so she would.

Her friends were counting on her success.


As expected, the Children's Hospital was becoming a target.

Whatever these monsters were, they were about to find out just how bad of an idea it was to mess with little kids.

While it would have been nice if the hospital had safeguards, like steel doors and such, those were quite lacking, so they couldn't seal up the building. Thankfully the number of exits were…never mind. The damn hospital was more of a complex than just a single building, meaning there were a number of buildings interconnected by a hallway, or an elevated tunnel. That meant there were far more entrances that could be used.

Naturally, there was the main entrance, which was the largest. There was also the ER, which was open 24 hours a day. At the moment, protecting the main building was the objective since most of the patients were located there.

So they were divided into two groups to cover these areas. Huntress put herself front and center at the main entrance. Seeing as Katana was quite effective at watching her back, she was with her. That left Canary and Manhunter at the ER.

And crawling through the parking lot, over asphalt and parked cars, were the monster hoard.

"You ready for this?" Huntress questioned, sparing a glance to her Asian counterpart.

"I am," Katana acknowledged.

"Then let's get this show on the road."

Holding up a hand, Huntress held a small detonator. With a press of a button, explosions began to erupt throughout the parking lot. Random cars all over the parking lot blew up into massive fireballs, consuming nearby constructs, whether they were right next to them, or crawling on top of the cars. The smaller, airborne monsters immediately went shrieking higher into the air to avoid the flames and smoke, at least the ones that were either knocked out of the air, or consumed by the explosions.

A thick cloud of smoke covered the parking lot then, hiding it from sight. Well, that was an unexpected result. Huntress tossed her little detonator away, pulling out her crossbow, its arms swinging out from the body and extending out. She pulled out her bo staff as well, flicking the switch that allowed its ends to extend out from its center.

Katana, naturally, had her sword ready.

Then, out of the smoke, the monsters appeared, snarling and raging. Immediately, Huntress fired her bolt, nailing one of them in the face. It immediately yelped as it dropped down to the ground headfirst.

Katana went on the move then. She became a blur of red and yellow, the steel of her sword flashing in the light from the nearby streetlights and hospital. She began cutting down whatever came near her.

Though she wanted to load up another bolt, there just simply wasn't any time. Tossing her crossbow a side, Huntress held up her bo staff before lashing out with it. A wolf monster with an odd hump on its back, where a tail grew out of, came lunging at her with its gaping mouth open, and clawed paws.

Huntress spun to one side to avoid the lunge, her staff slamming into the side of the monster, knocking it out of the air. She continued spinning, keeping her arm up as her staff swung through the air. She nailed one of the flying insect monsters right out of the air. She then promptly dove to the ground, avoiding the wolf monster leaping at her again. Going into a roll, she spun around to see the creature also doing the same.

Something touched her foot, causing the dark-haired woman to look down. What looked like some weird giant centipede was crawling by, its needle-like legs stabbing down on the ground as it moved by. Hoisting her staff up, Huntress drove one end down, stabbing it down onto, and then through the monster, causing it to shriek, its body thrashing. The purple-clad woman used her staff to leverage herself up into the air, swinging a leg up so she could extend it to its full length.

Her timing was on point as her foot collided with the face of the wolf monster, which had once again lunged towards her. Her kick knocked it backwards, which was perfect timing as Katana flew by. In one clean cut, she slides off its head, effectively ending it. As the red-and-yellow woman pivoted on her heels to face another monster, her eyes widened before she reversed her grip on her sword and shouted, "Huntress!"

Then she tossed her sword towards the dark-haired vigilante, even as she landed on her feet. Widening her own eyes, she let go of her staff and caught the sword. She then spun to one side, kneeling down as she did even as she swung the sword.

A towering crocodile monster just happened to be there, one that stood on two legs and had quite the six pack. Someone was clearly copying Killer Croc's look, just more crocodile than man. Katana's enchanted sword cut right through its abdomen, causing it to snarl and hiss, jerking backwards from the gash left in the blade's wake.

Pressing her advantage, Huntress lunged towards the monster, driving the sword right through it. That seemed to be all it could take as it went still, then fell over backwards. Well, so this was what it was like using an effective weapon. She really needed to get her hands on a magic sword.

Spinning back around, she then went to finish off the centipede monster, swinging the blade low and cleaving it into two pieces. She couldn't say if it was in half or not, and wouldn't bother.

That's when Huntress noticed Katana running full steam ahead, on a path that took her running right by the purple-clad woman. Wanting to be helpful, she tossed the charging woman's sword up, which the Asian woman snatched right out of midair. Huntress turned her head to see Katana immediately cut down a couple more monsters. Once finished, she spun around and threw her sword like a javelin. Huntress followed the sword as she turned to keep her eyes on it, seeing it impale yet another monster.

Taking this as a cue, she darted towards the impaled monster, which was beginning to fall backwards. She reached out and grabbed the sword's hilt, pulling it out of its latest victim. This brought her right into conflict with…a quivering blob of God knows what. She immediately slashed the sword, nowhere near as controlled as Katana, but she didn't have to be when the blade sliced through the blob like a hot knife through butter.

Not seeing anything else eminent, she then spun back around and tossed the sword back to Katana, who neatly caught it and was on the attack again. Oh yeah, the two of them were going to get some use out of that sword, whatever it took to take these bastards down.


The buckle tightened, the weight of the sword and scabbard pressing against his back. Batman did a last minute check of his equipment before he felt he was ready.

On a nearby table was Batgirl, a blanket on top of her. She was still unconscious, another dose of antidote and sedative being administered the moment he drove them into the bunker they were in. This place would be secured, so he felt confident that his daughter would be safe here.

He had yet to hear back from Oracle about his request. There had been a mention of interference by the hacker on their last transmission, so that might have something to do with it. Regardless, he would be heading right for that giant crow construct. Scarecrow had to be close by it.

Heading for the exit, this one turned out to be an elevator shaft, one with a platform lying under it. Standing on it, he reached out to a small device that was hanging from a cord. There were three large buttons on it, and he pressed the top one. There was a groaning sound and the platform began to rise up.

Darkness washed over him as he ascended the elevator shaft. Eventually, he reached the top, which was the lobby of a condemned apartment building. He had been using the service elevator, which brought him to the back of the building. Leaving the elevator, he headed for a nearby door, one that opened out into a dock. This was where trucks would bring in ordered food and supplies for the complex.

And it was infested with Raven's constructs.

Closing the door behind him, Batman drew his black sword out. A couple monsters caught sight of him and snarled, rushing towards him on several legs each. Whipping the sword out, he cut them down, leaving their carcasses to dissolve in his wake.

A flying insect construct flew by his face, another one that he chopped down in an instant. The dock was open, small pillars comprising barriers that made for arched openings, ones meant for the trucks to park through. Seeing a larger, bear-like construct running towards him, mouth open and roaring, Batman quickly pulled out an explosive shuriken, his thumb pressing down on its body long enough for a red light to flash. With a flick of his wrist, he sent it flying towards the charging construct, the projectile flying right into the mouth. The creature stumbled as it looked as if it had swallowed something wrong, then its body promptly began to expand before it exploded from the inside out. There was no splatter of entrails and blood, seeing as it wasn't truly alive or anatomically correct.

A couple more tried to attack him in the docking area, but they were cut down just as quickly as they tried. Passing through one of the openings, Batman arrived on the street, where a colorful boa constructor, larger than any recorded one, came slithering towards him. It hissed as it opened its mouth wide.

Only for Batman to go into a spin before lashing out with his blade. He beheaded the creature, sending its head flying through the air, the rest of its long body collapsing onto the sidewalk before it began to dissolve.

Well, that was his warm-up, now to—

The sound of metal squealing filled his ears. Turning his head, he found a couple of gorilla-like constructs, one with a jaw that damn near detached from its head as it opened its mouth, the other with a serpentine lower body, hanging from a streetlight, their combined weight causing it to slowly bend over. The one with the serpentine lower body had it wrapped around the pole.

Both caught sight of him, causing them to snarl. Batman just raised his sword up, holding it in front of him, the tip pointed towards them.

The more gorilla of the two roared then and threw itself into the air, flying towards the Dark Knight. Batman darted out of the way, but didn't go too far. The gorilla landed right where he had been landing, immediately twisting around as it flung a massive arm up.

Only for the vigilante to swing his sword and cut the arm off. He was bending down as well to further ensure that if his slash hadn't worked, the arm would have flown over his head harmlessly. Because of this, his sword was now crossed over his chest, which allowed him to perform a reverse swing, the sword slicing right through the gorilla.

As he turned his body to compensate for his swinging sword, it turned out to be fortuitous as the other half-gorilla, half-serpentine had flung itself into the air, snarling as it sailed towards the dark-clad man. Maneuvering the sword in front of him, Batman held it straight out, horizontal to the ground. He then leapt towards the flying creature, thrusting the sword forward.

The black blade stabbed right into the monster's chest the moment they made contact. If physics were in full control, what should have happened is their bodies should have smashed into each other, and Batman would have been driven backwards because of the superior force of the construct. However, because of the magic involved, Batman instead drove right through it, the body giving away as he burst through it.

Landing back on his feet, he whipped back around, seeing the remains of both constructs fading into dust.

Then, as the dust was disappearing into the air, a small light appeared.

What the hell is this now?

The light started small, but then began to grow larger, forming an orb. There was a small symbol contained within it, but Batman didn't need to see it to know just what was going on now.

"Batman, I see you are well," the hollowed voice of Dr. Fate rang out.

"I wasn't expecting you, Fate," he replied, spinning around in time to cut down another construct that was trying to sneak up behind him. It squealed and howled as its face was gashed opened, falling onto its sides as its multiple limbs thrashed around. "As you can see, I'm quite busy."

"Then I shall be brief. I have located the source of the malevolent power infesting your city."

That got his attention. "You know where Raven is?"

There was only a pause, one he took to mean that Fate was surprised he knew as much about the source behind the crisis around them. "She is in the downtown area of your city. I am en route as we speak."

"Tell me what you know. I'll meet you there."


Morale boosting speeches could only do so much. This wasn't a movie where everything turns around and the good guys begin to win the day.

One of those end of the world, disaster, take your pick, apocalypse movies were more appropriate for this.

Nevertheless, Gordon was not about to give up one single city block.

Two shots were fired off from his gun, his aim true as each bullet struck two eyes that belonged to an approaching four-eyed creature. A big burly one with spikes at the obvious joints. The thing quickly brought a large, clawed hand to its face, shielding it while whipping its other arm defensively.

From beside him, law officers fired off their shots, aiming for the torso as their training taught them to do. It was standard; aiming for the extremities was discouraged due to how easy it was to miss them. With the torso as the largest target of the body, it made it easier to land a shot.

Practicing at the range had been a way for him to keep his skills sharp, but training himself to aim for the smallest of targets had been done on a whim. It was paying off here.

Unfortunately, he did not have all the ammo in the world to keep it up. Each bullet fired was one less he had to use. Conservation was needed, but only to a point. There were so many of these—wait.

Screeches from above had him ducking behind a car, him and the officers on either side of him. A bird-like monster nearly snatched one of them off, clawed talons clamping onto air. Only inches from behind cut into, that's how close it had been.

So, there were flying ones now? As if things weren't hectic enough.

The car shoved right into him and the other officers, pushing them back. With a hand placed on the vehicle's roof, the burly monster from before glared down with its two remaining eyes, its mouth opening.

Whipping his hand up and aiming his pistol, Gordon fired another shot right into the mouth, the back of the monster's neck blasting open. An odd choking sound uttered from that mouth, a clawed hand reaching for the injury as its body collapsed onto the car.

Casting his eyes around, he took a good look at the scene, held back a scowl though a grimace did slip out. These things were taking more bullets than any of them could afford to waste. Just for the last one, even when he was trying to conserve his firepower, it had still taken…three shots. That was two shots too many, especially when he didn't have all of his ammo on him. Damn, some of it was still in the car…

Briefly, he thought about making a run to get to what was left of the vehicle, then discarded it. He might as well sign his death warrant if he did that.

Nearby, an officer was shouting swears while firing off a shotgun. Hmm, he had heard all of those before—and then the man was snatched up by one of those flying creatures, screaming as he was carried away. Now the former commissioner's eyes were looking up where a flock flew overhead. One broke away from formation, dive bombing towards their location.

His eyes widened, his gun was held up, but he did not fire. It was too far away to guarantee a hit, but it was rapidly closing in. The officer next to him didn't have the same kind of hesitation as he began firing at the incoming threat.

Several shots were fired when abruptly the gun began clicking; out of bullets. The officer swore, the creature was so close and then Gordon fired once, twice, and three times, getting the wings. The monster gave a rapid flap and began veering off, miscalculating its trajectory and crashing into the street, bouncing off of the asphalt and slamming into another monster.

"The hell this is going to let up?" the officer beside him muttered, emptying the exhausted clip and putting in another. The man's hand went back down, and then he had another reason to swear. Probably was on the last clip, another bad sign.

"We need back up! Intersection of Kane and Finger!" another officer roared into his radio. It was hard to make out the response, but Gordon figured that back up was not in route. Unless proven otherwise, he had to assume they were on their own.

Doing a quick check of what he had left, Gordon resisted a sigh. Still too little. Time was running out for them.

Okay, old friend, he knew you were out there, and if you have any plan on turning this shitshow around, now was a very good time.

Turning his attention back to the fight at hand, Gordon picked out his next target and fired once more.


The wind screeched into his ears as Batman grappled his way up the side of the building. He shot over the ledge, his cape billowing out behind him as his rise reached its apex, the dark-clad man landing on the roof shortly after. The grapple claw disengaged and returned to the barrel of the grapple gun, clicking into place.

Immediately returning the gadget to its place on the back of his belt, Batman narrowed his eyes at the sight before him. There was some sort of thick mist covering the entire rooftop, rising no more than knee height. He didn't see any sign of Raven though, which was the entire point of coming here.

This was where Dr. Fate had claimed Raven was located. Aside from the strange mist, that seemed to be wrong. Then again, maybe she was underneath it? That was entirely possible. Taking a step forward, the vigilante ventured further across the rooftop, the mist swirling around his legs with every step he took. The area behind him would clear itself, revealing the physical roof for only a brief moment before the mist swept back in to cover it.

For a moment, he glanced upward, seeing the large crow construct above him. It seemed to have its attention elsewhere, which was just as well. Though he was confident the Black Sword of Mordred would do some damage, there was no telling how many times he had to attack it to put an end to it.

As he reached the center of the roof, the Dark Knight began to wonder if there was a better way to go about this. Searching the entire roof was a given, but doing so blind was not preferable. He was practically trying to step on the girl just to locate her.

"My, my, you seem lost, Batman."

His head perked up before he spun around. That voice, it was distorted, deep, and haunting. Yet, he knew that cadence. Immediately, he spotted an area where the mist rose high into the air, seemingly sucking up the mist at ground level into it.

Then a figure emerged from it. It was a towering figure, easily seven, perhaps even eight feet tall. Its clothes were in tatters, revealing the leathery skin of its arms and calves. Its torso was caved in, as if it had been starved, revealing ribs. Sores broke the leathery skin at random places.

Yet its head was completely covered. It was as if a burlap bag had been pulled on as tightly as it could physically be. Lines of stitches marred the burlap, giving it the impression that it had been stitched together, save for the eye and mouth holes. Strands of the sutures would cross over at random angles. It didn't do much for the eyes, but for the mouth, it gave off the impression of sharp, crooked teeth.

And from these orifices, a yellow light glowed out. "Welcome, my fellow creature of the night," the distorted voice of Johnathon Crane spoke. "How do you like my new look?"

Batman's cape swallowed up his body, hiding it from view. "What the hell did you do to yourself, Scarecrow?"

"Oh? This? Just a last minute makeover." The vigilante kept giving the man the once-over. He couldn't help but notice the vest that covered his torso seemed the most intact of his clothing, though it certainly revealed his emancipated chest and abdomen. There was something technological about it. "For the first time in my life, I am tasting true power, Batman. It's overwhelming, if I don't say so myself."

"Where did you get that power?"

"I am simply borrowing it from the girl—permanently."

If Scarecrow said anything else, Batman didn't bother listening to it. So this was his plan, to transfer Raven's powers to himself. No doubt the previous nights of unleashing Raven's constructs onto the city was Crane testing the girl's powers, testing the machines that Tetch was building for him to ensure he could use every bit of the demonic powers she possessed.

And with those powers, Crane had turned himself into a monstrous scarecrow, becoming his namesake literally.

The towering man took a step towards him. The gait was disjointed, his body jerking spastically. "Now, do be a good fellow and allow me to test these powers." Scarecrow raised one hand up, holding up a cruel-looking scythe. "Promise not to die on me too quickly."

Rolling his shoulders, Batman threw open his cape, whipping out his arms as he threw a series of bat-shaped shuriken. The projectiles whirled through the air as they closed in on their target.

With his free hand, Scarecrow swung it up, the mist at their feet responding instantly. The mist rushed upward, in time for the shuriken to collide with it. Incredibly, they didn't cut through the mist, and instead were swept up by the rushing visible moisture. A moment later and the mist fell back to the roof, taking the shuriken with it.

A chuckle came out of Scarecrow's hollow mouth. Then he shouted, "Raaaahh!" Drawing back his armed hand, he then swung this scythe, the blade disconnecting from the shaft as it went swinging through the air towards Batman. A chain followed behind the flying blade, covering the growing distance between weapon and owner, the chain rattling with every rushing link that appeared.

The vigilante immediately took off into a run, the scythe blade racing by where he had previously been standing. Arching his path, Batman began to close the distance between him and his foe. In one smooth move, as his arms were pumping up and down, it was during one downward swing of his arm that he removed two more shuriken from his belt, throwing them the first moment he could.

By then, Scarecrow had recalled his weapon, the curved blade being pulled back by the chain attached to it. It reconnected to the shaft just a moment before the shuriken reached him, allowing the transformed man to use the scythe to swat the projectiles right out of the air with one swing.

In response, Batman leapt the remaining distance between him and his foe. As he jumped, he drew out his black blade, swinging it over his head where he grabbed onto the hilt with both hands. Seeing this, Scarecrow moved his scythe to block his sword strike, the two metal weapons clashing against each other with a loud metallic sound.

His feet touching down an instant later, Batman rose his sword up before he arced it to his left, allowing him to perform a side slash. Scarecrow blocked this as well with a swipe of his scythe, but during the clash, Batman could feel just how loose the weapon was in his foe's grip. It was clear Scarecrow had little to no training in armed combat. He may have thought he was holding his weapon tightly, but if that were so, it would have reflected in the clash. The scythe visibly shifted in his grip.

Immediately, Batman pulled his sword back if only by an inch or two. He lowered it and drew it to his right before swinging it with all his might, much like a batter with a bat. Naturally, Scarecrow tried to block this as well. The force that his sword struck the scythe was greater than the towering man had expected though, and the scythe was sent flying out of his grasp, the long weapon flipping end over end through the air.

Pivoting one foot, the vigilante planted it on the roof as he put all of his weight on that one leg. His body twisting to one side, he raised up one leg and then kicked it out, landing a solid kick to his opponent's chest. The force of the kick forced the transformed man backwards, stumbling as he did so. For a moment, Batman could have sworn he felt his foot crack ribs.

This left Scarecrow wide open for another attack though. Had he wanted to, he could have thrust his sword right into the man's chest, killing him. That wasn't something he would do though, not even to Crane. Instead, he lunged towards his foe, raising his sword up and then swinging it in a downward diagonal slash.

His attack was successful too. The sword bit into Scarecrow's outer thigh, cutting through the skin and leaving a gash in its wake. Yellow light instantly erupted out of it, a black ooze seeping out instead of blood. Startled by this, Batman backed a few steps away, even as Scarecrow let out a howl of pain.

"Gyaaaaah! You miserable reprobate! Look at what you've done!" Scarecrow screamed at him, grabbing at his injured leg.

"Surrender yourself now, Scarecrow," Batman ordered in response. "Or that little cut will…be…"

He trailed off as he stared at the man's wound. Incredibly, the broken skin began to crawl back, the edges reaching out for each other. The yellow light vanished as the wound closed. A thread from one jagged end of his shredded pants pulled away and headed right for closed one. All by itself, it dug into the skin on one side of the wound, appearing out on the opposite side, crossing back over, and repeated the process. The thread stitched itself into Scarecrow's body until it had sealed the cut closed.

"Well, would you look at that," Scarecrow remarked in astonishment. "It healed itself; and I no longer feel pain. How extraordinary."

Then a sinister look appeared on his face as he turned his attention back to the vigilante. "It would seem our experience in hand-to-hand combat is overwhelmingly in your favor. That was an oversight on my part and one I will not be repeating." Slowly, he began raising his arms up at either side of himself until they reached shoulder-height. Mist at random parts of the roof began to rise into the air, appearing as columns. What would have been the heads of these columns began to transform and take shape, becoming crows the size of eagles. Their feathers turned black a moment later, four red eyes opening on their faces. It was like looking at several miniature versions of the crow construct overhead.

"Go, my children," Scarecrow commanded as he swung his arms forward and towards the Dark Knight. "Peck his eyes out!"

Shrill caws rang out as the crows did as they were ordered. Immediately, Batman assumed a stance, holding his sword in front of him, the tip pointed up towards the approaching constructs. As they closed in on him, it became apparent some were moving faster than others.

He could work with that.

Immediately, Batman lashed out with his sword, cutting one of the crows in half vertically as he swung the blade upwards. Holding the weapon high, he then slashed it downwards diagonally, slicing another one in half. Both damaged crows erupted into clouds of dust—or was it mist? He then ducked as a crow construct soared in, trying to use its talons to grab at him.

As it passed by, Batman was leaping up into the air, swinging his sword up as well. He cleaved another construct, causing it to lose form and erupt into another dark cloud. As he began to fall back down to the roof, he was slicing the sword down, striking another crow just as he landed.

Hearing a loud caw, he jerked his head to his right, seeing a crow closing in on him quickly. Grabbing onto the sword's hilt with both hands, he held the blade up horizontally, pointing the tip right at the approaching construct. Lunging forward, he thrust the blade forward, impaling it through the crow and causing it to die just like the others.

Alarms went off in his head, and Batman then dove to his side, going into a roll that ended up with him kneeling on one leg. Again, another crow construct flew by, trying to rake its talons on his head and shoulders again, missing obviously. This left its back to him as it flew away. Reaching a hand to his belt, Batman pulled out an explosive shuriken, activating it, and threw it after the retreating construct. His shuriken struck the crow on its back, immediately exploding into a ball of fire an instant later.

A quick glance around showed that there weren't other constructs around, which allowed Batman to return his attention back to Scarecrow. "Now that was spectacular. How you must have trained yourself to accomplish such feats," he remarked.

"Now, allow me to render them completely useless!"

Again, he raised his hands up, the mist responding to his will. He didn't raise his arms as high as he had the first time, instead shooing them out in front of him and towards his foe. In response, the mist rushed towards the vigilante, a growing tidal wave that rose higher and higher as it closed in on him. It crashed over the dark-clad man, causing him to cry as he was thrown backwards.


Okay, quick headcount. Make sure nobody had been separated or was too far away that help could not reach them. Wonder Girl was rocking it over there, using her red-flaring lasso to swing a construct around and around, hitting everything she possible could with it. Kid Flash was everywhere and nowhere, but maneuvering some of the constructs into Wonder Girl's way. When the speedster wasn't doing that, he was coming up with creative ways to take out each and every construct that had the misfortune to come across him.

Electricity flared over there, the source being the vigilante Bluebird. The voltage of each blast was high up there, but it took more than one hit for a construct to go down. Sometimes it was two, once it had gotten up to five. However, she wasn't alone though as she had help from her Batclan teammates. Spoiler tended to keep close to his part of the battlefield, kinda watching his six and arguing with Bluebird about crossing streams. Why the Ghostbusters reference, he had no clue. That left the last one, the short one, the kid who Bluebird kept calling S.O.B. and he wasn't sure if that was an appropriate crimefighting name. The munchkin was…loud. Very loud. Like shouting at the constructs were going to do anything.

He had informed Oracle about the development, kept a grimace to himself when he had difficulty hearing her response. Was Raven's powers beginning to affect the local radio frequencies? It hadn't happened last time, however they had managed to end the nightmare before it had gotten that far perhaps.

He did a quick check of what he had on his belt. This time he really did grimace. He was running low on everything. A handful of birdarangs, at least two of the explosive type, three with the electrical discharge, and one normal everyday type. He had some explosives on him, but the kind of force needed to effectively destroy one of these constructs required all of it. Still had the grapple, hadn't used the boosters in his boots, and his cape…

Well, maybe it was really time to double down on close quarters fighting. The harness he wore would keep the electric current running, but never had he been in such a demanding situation before. Could he keep the current running long enough until this otherworldly invasion was stopped?

Speaking of, how were Cyborg and Beast Boy doing? Hadn't found the errant Titans yet, and you could only spend so much time looking.

Noticing how the constructs were flanking them, particularly where the Batclan positioned itself, Red Robin knew that the time for headcounts and reflections were over. Now was the time to act.

Activating the electric current and hardening his cape, he leapt into action, first getting some altitude, then using a boost from his boots to give him some speed. Angling his flight path, he intersected with three constructs, flying close enough that he sliced through the necks of the monsters, nearly decapitating the third one in the process. A fourth construct was dead ahead, and the masked teen brought his arms closer together so that the sharpened ends impaled the head.

By now, all of the features of the constructs were blending in together. Horns, no horns, snouts, teeth, too many eyes, too little eyes, mammalian, reptilian, amphibious, and even some deep sea beasties, skin, fur, scales, claws, no claws, tentacles—why did there need to be tentacles?—it was becoming all nonfactors. Unless there was an immediate danger posed, then these bad boys were going down quickly.

But numbers turned all the effort into nothing.

He was pretty sure that phrase was on repeat this night, but it bore repeating. Unless they could stop the number of constructs falling from the sky, it didn't matter what awesome moves and tricks they did, even if it got multikills here. There would always be another to take the place of the fallen.

Either they took out more than could be made…and that was going to need a lot more hands to do that than what were on the ground, or they lucked out and found Raven. Hopefully someone had found her.

Turning around, Red Robin continued to glide through the air, resisting the impulse to throw out more birdarangs. Only had six of them, remember? So, who could he slice up and where was that needed most?

With his new view of the street they were currently fighting on, red and blue electricity lighting up what damaged street lights did not anymore, it gave him the chance to see that maybe writing off more boots on the ground had been premature.

A sizable group of men were leaping off of the rooftops, and were those swords in their hands? Regardless, they landed on asphalt with ease, or were striking down any constructs that happened to be in their way. Primarily clad in what looked like black bodysuits and goggles over their eyes, they were rapidly clearing the immediate area with ruthless efficiency.

They also looked familiar.

"The Order?!" the small loudmouth exclaimed. No sooner had he said that, when a sword blade stabbed through the thick torso of a snake-like construct, the bottom half completely snake while the upper half had a muscular torso and multiple snake heads writing from its neck. The sword blade pulled back in only to slice off an arm, cut through the torso, then finally decapitate several of the snake heads.

As the construct crumbled and fell to the street, it revealed behind the figure of a beautiful woman, black hair covering at least half of her face, and she was armed to the teeth with all sorts of weapons…that one strapped to her back looked like a battle ax.

She was also familiar.

Landing onto the street and positioning himself close to Spoiler and Bluebird, both of whom had stopped firing and had lowered their weapons, Red Robin regarded this newcomer. Bluebird tilted her head before she called out, "Hey S.O.B.! Isn't that your mom?"

There was something he was missing here.

The woman gave a coy smirk. "Perhaps you should learn some tact, 'Bluebird.'" Then to S.O.B., "Did you really think I would remain out of sight while your father's city is besieged? This is a challenge that goes beyond the normal crises that occur. All resources must be used."

Noticing the scowl on the pipsqueak's face, Red Robin figured that it would be best to stop some kind of argument from happening. They did not need something else to make this night worse.

"Are you sure you're up to this? These monsters aren't living things but they will do some real damage," he told the woman, taking a few steps closer to her and drawing the attention of a singular green eye. The other was hidden behind the hair, he realized.

"This is not my first occasion fighting such foes. Your concern is unnecessary," the woman dismissed. "We are fighting for the same cause. Shall we continue to do so, Red Robin?"

She knew his name. Why didn't he remember hers? Where had he seen her before? It was on the tip of his tongue…

That could come later. It looked like she had some skills, and brought some reinforcements with her, and that was sorely needed right now.

Beside him, Kid Flash appeared, the speedster's arm placed casually on the teen vigilante's shoulder "What's the scoop, Red? We got help? Though cheerful he sounded, it was a way to figure out if the newcomers were a threat to them.

Keeping his eyes on the mystery woman, he said loudly, "We're not going to refuse them, so long as they try to protect any innocent bystanders they come across."

The smirk widened. "You've made a wise decision, child. Shall we save this city from its supernatural incursion?"


Pain erupted throughout Batman's shoulders and back as he crashed into…well, something. A torrent of mist washed over him, pulling on him with such a force that he thought he had been hit by an actual tidal wave.

Eventually, it receded and the Dark Knight found himself gasping for air, again, as if he had been drowned by the misty wave. Twisting his body so that he was on his stomach, he found himself with his arms on the ledge that formed a makeshift railing around the edge of the roof. He panted over and over, trying to catch his breath. He was vaguely aware that he was still holding his black sword, so that was something at least.

Movement in the corner of his eye alerted him to something being amiss. Tilting his head, he saw a small wave of mist closing in on him. Gritting his teeth, he shoved himself off of the ledge and crouched down on one knee. Grabbing his cape, he pulled it all around him, covering his entire body.

Then he felt the force of the wave. There was a surprising amount of force behind him, the man feeling as if he were being shoved to one side. It let up after several moments, only to be hit again, this time from the opposite side. He weathered this though, his hands clutching at his cape to hold it in place, his arms covering his head.

Then he felt what seemed to be a swelling of mist at his feet. Suddenly, he was thrown upward into the air, causing him to cry out. Throwing open his cape, he'd rather see what was going on instead of being blind to it. He found himself rising higher and higher into the air, a column of mist pushing him that way. Rolling to one side, he found himself falling off of the misty column, heading right back for the roof.

And there was Scarecrow, moving his arms up and down like an orchestra conductor. "Dance for me, Batman, dance!" he howled with mirth.

Sheathing his sword, Batman activated the electric current in his gauntlet and grabbed onto his cape, engaging glider mode. As he soared, he was able to see more columns of mists rising up towards him, all at the beck and call of its master.

Tilting to one side, he avoided the first one as it rushed right by him. He had to lean back the other as another tried to ram into him, narrowly dodging it.

Then came another one, this was passing through the air right in front of him. Unable to adjust, Batman just flew right into the column, passing through the mist surprisingly easily. In fact, it was as if he just flew through a cloud, leaving a gaping hole in his wake. The mist that was higher in the air lost its form and began to float back down to the roof lazily.

Flying out over the city streets, Batman angled his body so that he could get a look back at Scarecrow. He could see the man watching him, holding up a hand that called upon more mist to ready itself.

Alright, it was time to change this shift in the fight.

Letting go of his cape, Batman let it go limp behind him as he began to drop through the air. Pulling out his grapple, he fired it at the corner of the building, feeling it catch purchase. He fell past the ledge, going further and further down until the cable went taut. He then began swinging through the air and around the building, eventually going right back up.

Shooting up on a different side of the building, he saw Scarecrow's back as he faced the direction the vigilante initially disappeared. Disengaging the grapple claw, he retracted the line back into the grapple as quickly as he could. The moment it was returned, Batman took aim with the grapple and fired it again.

This time, his target was Scarecrow himself. The claw latched onto the man's back, causing him to cry out in surprise. Hitting the retraction button, two things then happened. One, Batman began pulling himself towards his foe; the second, Scarecrow was pulled backwards and towards the vigilante. The two men careened through the air, rapidly closing in on each other.

Leaning to one side, Batman braced himself for impact. His shoulder rammed into the back of Scarecrow an instant later, the taller man crying out as they both went tumbling back down towards the roof. They landed on it hard, Scarecrow on his stomach with Batman on top of him. Because of the force of their landing, the dark-clad man bounced off of his opponent, going into a roll across the roof until he was back on his feet.

Returning his grapple back to his belt, Batman then spun around, pulling out two bat-shaped shuriken in each hand. Without hesitation, he sprinted towards Scarecrow's last known location, the mist having swallowed his body up moments after their landing. Taking a blind chance, the vigilante leapt into the air, holding both shuriken up by his head.

Then he emerged. Rising up out of the mist head first, Scarecrow rose up to his full height. "Why you—" he began to growl.

Only for Batman to ram right into him. Jerking his arms down, he stabbed the shuriken right at the juncture of the chest and shoulders. The intent of this was to damage Scarecrow's arms, making it more difficult for him to move them. It seemed his powers were controlled by arm movement, so if he removed this, he made it more difficult for the man to use those powers.

And as it so happened, his shuriken stabbed right into the intact vest Scarecrow wore. There was a crackling of electricity, much to his surprise, followed by sparks suddenly erupting.

Both men cried out, one from surprise, the other from pain. Batman shoved himself away from Scarecrow, more sparks erupting from where the vest was damaged. "Do you have any idea what you've done?!" the man screamed.

The results of his actions began to reveal themselves an instant later. The mist around them began to recede, thinning out as it retreated to the corners of the roof. As for Scarecrow, his towering form began to shrink, the thin visage of Johnathon Crane returning.

If he were a guessing man, he'd have to say he cut off Crane's connection to Raven's power.

Striding back towards his foe, he watched as Crane tried to remove the shuriken from his vest, struggling mightily. He only stopped when he realized the Dark Knight was standing right in front of him. Slowly, he tilted his head back to stare at him.

Only to receive Batman's fist right to his face.

Crane cried out as he was knocked off of his feet, collapsing to the ground. The back of his head struck the roof hard, ending his cry abruptly as he went completely limp.

Kneeling down, Batman checked for a pulse and found one. Crane was definitely unconscious. Standing back up, the vigilante began looking around himself, searching the roof.

Where he immediately spotted Raven laying still, her body lying over her cloak.

In an instant, he rushed over to the girl, taking a knee next to her. Her eyes were squeezed tightly, light whimpering escaping her lips, as if she were suffering through a nightmare.

A hand shot to his belt and he pulled out his airgun, a vial of fear toxin antidote already loaded. He pressed the barrel against the girl's bare neck and injected her, a sharp gasp coming from her.

There, that should take care of this miserable night.

Placing the airgun back into his belt, he then raised a hand up to his cowl. "Oracle, I have Raven."

There was a brief moment before he received a response. "Oh, thank God. I'll alert the others."

Glancing upwards, a frown appeared on the large crow construct over his head. That had been a manifestation of Crane's use of Raven's powers. With the man knocked out, shouldn't that have resolved itself? Or was it still a symptom of Raven's out of control powers?

"Something isn't right."

The sudden voice startled him. It wasn't audible, so that meant… "Ace?" he called out.

"This isn't over."

"What are you talking about? What is it?"

"There's something else going on. I can sense it; it's dark and monstrous, like a demon."

Batman found his eyes dropping down to Raven. Though she seemed to be more relaxed, there was still that grimace on her face. "It's still affecting Raven, isn't it."

"It is."

There was a momentary flash in his mind. A small bat totem he had found back in Crane's lair under Arkham. Could it be…?

"Does it feel like Barbatos?" he couldn't help but ask.

"Possibly. It's hard to tell. It's familiar and not all at once," Ace told him.

That wasn't all that helpful, not that it changed much. Something was affecting Raven, keeping her trapped in whatever nightmare she was in. The antidote could only remove the toxin, but did nothing if the origin was of mystical means.

How did one put a stop to that?

If only he could go in Raven's head and see what she was seeing, maybe put a stop to it. If…

Wait, what did he mean by if?

"Ace, can you take me into Raven's mind?" he asked then. "If there's something else afoot, the only way we're going to stop it is by entering her mind."

"I can do that. Just open her eyes."

Reaching down, he placed his hands on either side of the girl's face. Using his thumbs and index fingers he pried open her eye lids, mostly seeing the sclera of her eyeballs, but some parts of her irises.

And then he found himself rushing into those eyes and only saw darkness.


Author's Note: If you haven't figured it out, Scarecrow's transformed state is based on his Injustice 2 variation. A couple tweaks were made, such as replacing the sickles with a scythe, but I hope such a nightmarish form was worth waiting for, as short as it was. However, this long night is far from over, and without Raven herself taking control of her out of control powers, it can still get so much worse. Until next time.