Chapter 7: Own The Roads
Night had fallen on Gotham and the militia was out patrolling the city, waiting for the Bat to appear since it was his time to stalk the streets. Batman and Nightwing were presently standing on top of a penthouse in Chinatown which happened to be the same one Scarecrow set up his lab in last Halloween. They were waiting for Green Arrow who was doing a sweep of the city to report any suspicious militia activity. "How much longer do you think it'll be? We've been standing here for at least an hour?", Nightwing asked sounding impatient. "Give Arrow some more time, Dick. Gotham's a big city after all.", Batman said. "It is nice to be somewhere warmer compared to the cold nights in Bludhaven.", Nightwing said. "It's Summer. It's not warm in Bludhaven?", Batman asked. "Not as warm as it should be. It's just like how some places are always warm even during Winter.", Nightwing said. "What are you guys talking about?", a familiar voice said. They turned to see that Oliver Queen dressed in his Robin Hood esque costume with his bow in one hand and his quiver on his back. "Nothing. What do you have to report?", Batman asked. "Apparently, Slade's militia has set up various checkpoints throughout the city to keep an eye out for you. It was really hard to not get spotted by them.", Green Arrow said. "Okay. So, that's our first step. Take out those checkpoints.", Nightwing said. "FYI, we'll have to attack from above because they have steel walls surrounding each one.", Arrow said. "Where's the nearest one?", Batman asked. "The closest one is on Miagani Island in Kingston.", Arrow answered. "Alright. Let's go.", Nightwing said. All three heroes then made their way to Kingston. At the checkpoint there, the militia were standing around chit-chatting with their guns in their hands waiting for a fight. "You know, Batman was the reason I enlisted.", one soldier said. "No way.", another soldier said. "Yeah, way back, before the guy even had a name. It changed the way I looked at things, thought I could make a difference.", the first soldier said. "Then life slapped you in the face, huh?", the second soldier asked. "Hey, I was young.", the first guy said defensively. "Now you're back here trying to take him down.", the second guy said. "Yeah, it's funny how things work out.", he said. "Who would've thought of all people, Ol' Batsy is who made punks like you enlist in the army.", a voice said. The soldiers got their weapons ready as they saw that the voice was coming from above as they saw Green Arrow. "Who's that?", one soldier asked. "I don't know, but shoot him!", another instructed. Before they got a chance to shoot, Green Arrow fired a couple of arrows to knock out each one. The other soldiers began to fire which made Arrow jump out of the way and into the checkpoint. "You're up, boys!", Green Arrow called to his teammates. Batman and Nightwing appeared and joined the fight. "Kill them all!", a big guy dressed in gray armor with large blades on his wrists ordered as he began to attack. The soldiers ditched their guns and began to use their fists. They sure put up a fight much more than any normal thug did. All three of them could tell these men were definitely trained by Deathstroke. Once each of them were worn down enough, the normal ones were easy to knock out single-handedly. However, the big one put up more of a fight, especially because he kept changing the weapons on his hands. It took all three of them to take him down. There had to be about 20 soldiers in total lying unconscious before them. They thought they were done until a few nimble ones dressed in gray jumped onto the scene with swords. "Oh, goody. Love the sword-wielding guys.", Nightwing said sarcastically. "Time to slice and dice!", one sword guy said before they all charged at the heroes. Arrow used his bow almost like a sword of his own to clash with the militia's weapons. They were quick when the Bat was about to strike and easily evaded. But Batman used his REC to quick shock one of them to temporarily stun him. This was an easy shot to knock him out which is what happened. Nightwing did the same thing by using his escrima sticks to shock the one he was fighting to catch him off guard and take him down. Green Arrow used his own electric arrow to shock the last one and finished him off with one more arrow to the head. "Done and done! Now, how do we take these walls down?", Nightwing asked. "When I was out, I overheard them saying something about how each checkpoint has a commander and each commander has a device that controls the walls.", Arrow said. They then began to hear a soft beeping noise coming from inside the checkpoint. "Where's that noise coming from?", Nightwing asked. "It's coming from that guy's jacket.", Arrow said as he bent down and picked up a device from the soldier's pocket that was making the beeping. "Looks like this is it.", he said as he pulled one of the arrows from his quiver and poked it through the screen, disabling the checkpoint. The walls began to come down and the streets were visible once more. Batman began to get a call from his gauntlet and he pulled it up. It was Deathstroke himself calling who was now aware that he was dealing with not just Batman now. "So, I see you round up some help, Batman. What a coincidence it's two more of my rivals.", Deathstroke said. "It took me a long time to track you down, Wilson. Then, I got word that you were in Gotham after Batman with your boy band. Now, I'll finally be able to take you down.", Arrow said. "Always as sharp as ever, Oliver. I've been looking to settle the score I have with you for some time as well.", he said. "And I see your beloved protégé has returned to assist you too. I'm sure you told your mentor we have a history of our own.", Slade said to Nightwing. "You didn't think I wouldn't want to track you down after nearly killing my entire team, my family, you son of a bitch?!", Nightwing said angrily. "As I say to most of my prey, it's business and nothing personal. It's only personal when they make a fool out of me like all three of you did. Now, I have the opportunity to kill all of you at the same time. This will truly be an honor to take on three gifted warriors at once. As far as my men's checkpoints, That's just one of them. Let's see if you can tear down all of them. I'll be watching.", Slade said as he went off. Nightwing looked over to a table and picked up a map that had the locations of every checkpoint there is. "Here's where all the other checkpoints are. If we split up, it won't take too long to knock them all out.", Nightwing said. "Agreed. Nightwing, you take care of the rest of them here on Miagani. I'll take out all of them on Founder's. Ollie, I need you to get all the ones on Bleake.", Batman said. "Understood.", Arrow said. The three heroes parted ways to disable the rest of the militia's checkpoints.