S.T.A.R Labs Stairwell
"Nightwing! I need you up there, now!" Oracle ordered loudly in Dick's ear, the acrobat moving as fast as he could up the stairwell.
"I'm going as fast as I can, O!" Dick answered, clambering over another of the stair's railings. He then pivoted on the railing and fired his grapple up another ten flights. The device pulled him upwards with a slight jolt, all while Dick silently prayed to move faster. He wasn't going to let another Robin down. Two was already far too many.
"I know you are, but I need you to move faster! I don't know how long Robin is willing to wait! I think he's already turned off his comms!" Oracle pressed, the sound of her hands flying across her keyboard in the background.
"Damn it, Baby Bird!" Dick cursed.
"I've already hit the panic signal." Oracle continued.
"It's that bad?!" Dick questioned, his voice filled with surprise and disbelief.
"Dick," Oracle replied, breaking radio protocol and making the vigilante freeze in his climb over the second railing. "I don't know who this guy is, where he came from, or what he wants. I only know that his handiwork looks similar to Deathstroke's and he's slaughtering Harley and Freeze's men like they're nothing. If I had my way, Robin and you wouldn't be anywhere near him."
"Fuck!" Dick cursed again, firing his grapple upwards for a final time. "How long until B gets here?"
"B's thirty minutes out. Huntress and Black Canary are twenty, and Batwoman should be there in fifteen." Oracle listed off. "I also have the GCPD and a group of ambulances en route."
"I thought no one was out, and when did we start talking to Kate?" Dick questioned, confusedly. The redhead and Bruce had been on the outs recently. Mainly because of her use of guns. Even if she hadn't killed anyone yet.
"They weren't." Oracle huffed. "They're just closer than B is and I never stopped talking to her. Not everyone is as inflexible as B is."
With another click and flip, Dick rolled over the railing and rushed through the doorway, slamming the door into the wall behind it. He continued his run, the sound of his blood pumping filling his ears and nearly blocking out the sound of gunfire.
He skidded around a final corner and came upon Robin, who was crouched outside of a room with a double door. The teen seemed completely preoccupied with the screen in his grip, ignoring the world around him. Dick made his way down the hall in a rush, sliding in beside Robin and quickly going into "mother-hen" mode, as Tim had taken to calling it. His hands roamed around the teen's head, looking for any signs of injury.
"N! N! Stop! I'm fine!" Tim growled, batting away Dick's hands as they continued their search.
"Oh, good!" Dick huffed before leveling a light slap to the back of Tim's head. "What the fuck is wrong with you?! Why are your comms off?!"
"They're not off," Tim answered with a bit of bite, shifting so that he was free of Dick's probing and could focus on his job. Meanwhile, Dick immediately pulled his hand to his ear to try and radio Oracle.
"Oracle, do you read? Baby Bird says his comms are online."
The only response Dick heard was static. He tapped the comm a few times, figuring it may have a bit of water in it or that it might have been banged up in his climb. Yet still, the comm line was fuzzy.
"The hell?" Dick grumbled, pulling the comm from his ear and examining it suspiciously. Across from him, Tim was fiddling with his own comm, but he soon returned to his tablet after reaching some sort of conclusion.
"It's probably the storm." Tim voiced, sounding unconcerned with their lack of comms. "Combine that with being deep inside a building and Gotham's generally messed up atmospherics and I'm not surprised Oracle can't reach us."
"You shouldn't be so calm about this, Baby Bird. I know it's hard to tell, but you've freaked her out a bit." Dick explained while replacing the comm in his ear.
"I know. She's always more concerned whenever I'm out by myself… I understand, but still, I can handle myself." Tim defended.
"Robin." Dick chided, but the teen seemed nonplused.
"Besides," Tim interrupted, "We need to figure out a way to stop this guy. Unless you want to clean up whatever remains of Harley and Freeze with a shovel."
"We will!" Dick assured, "But we need backup, Robin. This guy isn't like the other rogues you faced. He actually seems closer to Deathstroke and trust me, you're not ready to face Deathstroke."
"Neither were you or B, and you faired ok." Tim pointed out in what could only be described as a pout. But the teen suddenly tensed, his grip tightening on his screen and instantly sending Dick's senses into high alert.
"Um… How long until backup gets here?" Tim asked hesitantly.
"About five minutes," Dick answered as he drew his Escrima sticks.
"I don't think Freeze has five minutes." Tim drew out tentatively.
The hallway was then filled with the sound of pained screams and the bending of metal.
XXXXXXXXXX
In The Lab - Three Minutes Ago
Grim had very quickly realized two things about his opponents:
One, the exosuits they wore were pitiful, not even worth the time of whoever had engineered them, because they did little to nothing to protect the user from his blows. If anything, it seemed that they were more of a hindrance, preventing the wearer from being able to easily dodge or roll away. On top of that, the Spartan's blows easily crumpled the metal inwards, meaning in addition to his punches and kicks, the goons also had their own equipment impaled into their bodies.
And two, neither the clowns nor the snowsuits could aim for shit. It was so bad, that Grim had barely even needed to dodge. He maybe could have given them a pass, as they were untrained and were trying to not hit their friends who had blindly tried to rush him. But he also knew he wasn't exactly a small target, none of the Spartan IIs were. So, he felt they didn't deserve a pass, especially not their leaders.
"Damn it, Freeze! Quit your gawking and ice the big bastard!" Harley ordered over the mayhem, the sound of her revolver firing punctuating her orders.
Freeze seemed to jerk in surprise, shaking off whatever shock he had been experiencing, before he moved to disentangle his ice canon from his back. With a hiss, the canon came loose from its housing and Freeze pulled it into his awaiting grip. Powering it on, its two accelerators began to slowly rotate, the central battery within slowly powering up and humming a bright cyan.
He hoisted the canon upwards, settling it against his hip as he lined up his first shot. His target was fast though, far faster than the Bat had ever been. The man moved as if gravity and the law of physics didn't apply, spinning down to a low crouch to let off a small burst of fire before turning on a dime and rising back upwards with an uppercut. He would then rush towards his next target, appearing as little more than a blur to the rest of them as he moved.
Freeze did his best to try and track the man, but he was simply too fast. So, he waited and was eventually rewarded when the man skidded to a stop before another group of their goons. A quick right hook followed by a left quickly ended the lives of two of their number, but their sacrifice wouldn't be in vain, as Freeze had finally zeroed in on his target. With a pull of the canon's trigger, a burst of super-condensed, hyper-chilled particles flew toward his target.
Grim nearly missed the flash of cyan out of the corner of his eye as he turned and fired another burst into a retreating goon. Activating his thrusters, the Spartan dove over his right shoulder and came up facing the scientist and his canon.
Freeze panned his beam toward Grim, creating an ever-growing iceberg as he moved. Goons threw themselves to the floor, trying to avoid the beam, but some were too slow, becoming encased in ice as the Spartan rushed by them.
Eventually, Freeze's canon ran out of charge, the beam dimming and sputtering out. The scientist moved to ready his next beam, once the canon had charged up again, but the Spartan was too fast. Grim pivoted on his right foot, tearing up pieces of tile and creating a little indent in the floor as he pushed off. He charged right at Freeze, uncaring of the shots Harley's goons were trying to land on him.
With a solid kick, Freeze's canon shattered and was sent flying out of his hands, a look of surprise plastered on the scientist's face. Only for it to contort in pain a second later when Grim had fully centered himself on the floor once more and turned back to Freeze with a savage strike to the kidney. Freeze sputtered and sank back, putting distance between the two of them as he curled in on himself. He never saw Grim move as the Spartan's armored knee slammed into his glass dome. The strike had the scientist seeing stars as his head bounced against the glass walls of the dome and his body spun with the force of the blow, making him roll over himself before landing in a sprawl on the ground.
Freeze struggled to breathe, his mouth opening and closing like a fish gasping for water. Distantly above him, he could hear the rattle of the Freaks' AKs firing along with the answering puff of the man's own weapon. Ordinarily, there'd also be the sound of men and women screaming in pain as they were shot, but such sounds were conspicuously absent in this engagement. Whether it was because neither side was hitting their targets, an unlikely prospect in the man's case based on his abilities so far, or because every shot the man sent downrange resulted in a kill, Freeze couldn't tell. But he was leaning towards the latter option at the moment.
Above him, Grim dipped low, his stance wide as he moved parallel to his attackers. His SMG snapped to each target the second they appeared, firing a burst of rounds into their forms as he raced across the room for cover. A few of the clowns' rounds managed to find him as he moved, making his shields flare in response, but he didn't care. His shields would hold for as long as he needed them to.
He slammed into the wall behind a cabinet and pulled the metal box in front of him, making a thin barrier between himself and the clowns. As expected, the clowns unloaded on the cabinet, knowing that such a thin piece of metal would do nothing against their bullets, but that wasn't what Grim needed it for. As soon as he had placed the cabinet in front of him, he activated his cloak and dove away. Silently, he rolled along the floor and came back up in a low crouch, moving toward the opposite side of the room. As he moved, he reloaded the SMG once more, the click of its magazine finding home being lost in the surrounding burst of gunfire.
"Hey! Stop yer shooting!" Harley called out over the rattle of gunfire, causing her people to slowly ease up on their triggers. "Can't ya see that the bastard isn't there anymores?"
"But we didn't see him move boss! He has to be over theres still!" One of her people defended weakly.
"Idiot! It's just like the Bat! Just because you didn't see him move, doesn't mean he's still there!... Now, spread out and watch your backs! And will someone please help the Snowman?!" Harley ordered, gesturing to the fallen man.
All around her, her and Freeze's people jumped into action, most assembling themselves into small groups. A few of the exosuit-wearing goons pried their boss off the floor and shoved one of the scientist's ice pistols into his grip.
"My thanks." Freeze struggled out with a nod, thanking the closest goon who returned the gesture and fell into formation. He then turned his attention back to the room. As one, the thugs scanned the room, finding nothing but overturned tables and furniture beside the many bodies of their once friends.
"Anyone got eyes?!" One of their number called out, his voice cracking.
"I ain't got shit, man! How the hell do they do this?!" Another of their number responded, sounding just as tense as all of them felt.
It was then that movement by the door had them all turning and firing uncontrollably, completely emptying their magazines towards the perceived threat. Even Freeze and Harley were affected, the clown emptying her revolver and Freeze using up his current charge on the pistol. The door and its attached wall practically exploded under the combined fire of their group, rendering whatever it had been that had moved to little more than pieces. Eventually, an uneasy silence fell over them as their guns ran dry and they all paused to examine their handiwork.
Something behind the wall then moved once more, this time far more slowly as a mop of black hair appeared over its shredded remains. It was soon joined by another matching set of hair as both Nightwing and Robin's heads peered over the wall, their eyes wide.
"Agh! It's just the Bat-brats!" Harley growled in frustration, but it seemed this declaration relaxed their men a bit. They knew how to deal with the Bats, it was familiar, comfortable even, they also weren't at risk of being killed as everyone knew the Bats didn't kill.
"Hey, Harley!" Nightwing called out, his voice hesitant. "Rough night?!"
Harley rolled her eyes dramatically and reached down to pull fresh rounds for her revolver. As she fed the rounds into the chamber, she decided to answer the vigilante.
"What do you want Nightbutt?! We're a bit busy at the moment! Also, your boss has been fucking slacking!" She called back.
"What are you talking about, Harley?!" Dick answered, shifting so that he and Tim could dive away should any of the goons decide to join their boss and reload. In the confusion, most of them hadn't realized they had run dry.
"The big fucker! Doesn't B-man have a rule about metas in Gotham or some shit?! It was a whole thing when Big Blue decided to show up and piss on everyone's parade!" Harley yelled back, her revolver clicking close and freeing her arm to gesture around wildly.
"Must you be so crass, Dr. Quinzel?" Freeze chided.
"Fuck you!"
Ignoring the two's side tangent, Dick called back. "I don't know what to tell you Harls. Batman's never heard of this guy before tonight. You sure you didn't piss off some high-tech mob or something?"
"No!" Harley shouted back indignantly, only to pause and consider the question again for a moment.
"No!" She repeated a second later, sounding far more confident about her answer.
"How about you, Freeze? Piss anyone off recently?" Nightwing asked, shifting his attention to the frozen scientist.
Freeze couldn't help but scoff. "Of course not! I've only recently gotten out of Arkham! This was supposed to be phase 1 of my next attempt at curing Nora!"
"Great! So, no one knows who this guy is or what he wants!" Dick grumbled in annoyance. Beside him, Tim's mask contorted as he raised an eyebrow towards the older man.
"Are you volunteering to ask?"
"That fucker's killed my people! We ain't asking shit!" Harley snarled in response, drawing their attention. Only for their eyes to narrow as the wall behind Harley appeared to flicker and distort slightly. It was so minor, that if they weren't actively looking they would have missed it.
Dick shared a meaningful glance with Tim, his jaw tightening. They didn't need to know who the guy was in order to recognize cloaking tech. Although, this tech was far and away the best they had ever seen.
"Harls..." Dick began cautiously, his voice dropping in volume but not in intensity, "You might want to tell your guys to regroup and stay really, really still."
Harley scoffed, spinning her revolver like a gunslinger. "Why? So, you and Big Daddy Bats can haul me back off to Arkham? No thanks! I haven't even watered Pammy's plants yet."
The flicker became a blur, moving faster than anyone could react. The next instant, Harley was pulled into the air by her ponytails as the sound of crushing metal and shattering bone filled the room. Harley's hand and revolver became little more than a jumbled pile of metal and flesh as the unseen hand of their attacker crushed the appendage. Harley only had enough time to register the pain of her completely decimated hand before the man reared back and drove her head forward, slamming her face first into the table below her and shattering it into splinters. Instantly, she was unconscious.
Grim then reappeared, his cloak now rendered useless by the blood covering his right hand. Said hand then dipped down to his hip and pulled his magnum free before leveling it on the closest group. His targets stood there dumbfounded, their minds working to reconcile the state of their leader with what had just occurred in a matter of seconds. Grim, on the other hand, hadn't needed to process and didn't hesitate. He pulled the trigger and dropped them quickly and cleanly, two to the chest, one to the head. His sights then turned to the final two groups of goons.
Freeze, shaking off his fear and shock, raised his pistol and unleased another stream of energy. Around him, the thugs worked to quickly reload but were struggling with a mess of frayed nerves and overcharged adrenaline.
Grim dove forward, his shields flaring slightly as the beam passed by harmlessly behind him. He came back up in a shooter's stance, unloading a burst at Freeze's head. But the bullets ricocheted off the man's dome. An impressive feat considering the glass had also withstood his earlier knee without any sign of cracking.
By now, some of the thugs had managed to reload their rifles with fresh magazines and were about to chamber their first rounds. So, Grim rushed forward, not bothering to reload just yet. He appeared before the closest goon, who raised his rifle toward the Spartan. Only to have the Spartan grab the barrel of his rifle and force it towards his two teammates as he pressed down on the trigger. The goon's rounds exploded out of the barrel and showered his two friends in white-hot lead. Their perforated bodies fell to the floor below as the man's face twisted in horror. But that horror was short-lived as Grim's right elbow slammed into the center of his face, caving in his skull and killing him instantly.
It was then that Phoebe decided to cut back in, "Grim, we should be able to breach the vault now. We just need a sufficient explosion."
"Understood," Grim replied, his eyes zeroing in on the bandolier of grenades draped across one thug's chest.
With that, the Spartan shot across the room once more. As he moved, he swiftly ejected and replaced the empty mag in his magnum. A technique that he could have done in his sleep. That magnum was then returned to his hip as he needed both hands for his next move.
Lowering his upper body, he came in low, sweeping in underneath the man's arms. He the swept upwards while grabbing a fistful of the man's shirt and jacket, hoisting the man into the air with one arm. His opposite hand then shot out, moving quickly down the bandolier of grenades and pulling each of their pins in turn. Above him, the thug watched on panicked. He immediately started squirming in his hold, only to find that the grip was too tight. So, he then switched to trying to pull the grenades off the bandolier. Grim leveled a quick jab to the man's nose, distorting him, before hurling him across the room and into the beam of the ice drill. The man's body froze, a few inches off the ground as ice formed around him. A second later, all of the grenades detonated, punching a hole into the vault while simultaneously destroying the drill. But Grim was already moving.
He pulled his magnum back out and had to dodge another blast from Freeze's pistol. The Spartan dipped left, causing the beam to fly by his right shoulder before he pivoted and leapt. Freeze attempted to track his movement, panning his beam low. But Grim twisted in the air, his back mere inches away from the beam below him as he rolled over the blast. The Spartan landed on the opposite side of the beam and continued his charge, firing off a few rounds towards the remaining goons as he did. Dropping their now-dead bodies onto the floor below without much fanfare.
Freeze tried to fire another blast toward the encroaching Spartan, but the man was too close now. Grim ducked easily underneath the beam and pivoted his hips. Then, in one motion, he slammed his left hand across his body and into Freeze's chest, all while his left boot was strategically placed behind Freeze's legs. The scientist toppled over the Spartan's leg and had his back slam onto the floor once more. His vision was then filled with the darkened barrel of Grim's magnum.
Grim rapidly pulled the trigger, sending round after round downwards and into Freeze's dome. To the scientist's credit, whatever he had made the glass with managed to deflect about half of Grim's magazine. But all materials had their limits and the last three of Grim's rounds slammed into the glass with a resounding crack. Yet still, Freeze's dome held, with a spider web of newly formed cracks spreading across its surface.
Grim couldn't help but hum to himself, impressed by the scientist's engineering. Not even Mjolnir with its centuries of technological advancement had managed to weather more than three rounds to its visor. Perhaps Phoebe could analyze and synthesize a copy of the glass. But she'd first need a sample.
"Hey! How about you pick on someone your own size!" Nightwing's voice called out. Grim turned his head to quickly catch sight of the two vigilantes out of the corner of his eye, the duo rapidly advancing towards him. Robin had drawn his bo staff and Nightwing had his Escrima sticks, their ends pulsing with electricity. Turning back to Freeze, Grim stooped down and grabbed ahold of part of the scientist's armor.
"Wait! Wait! I have to!" Freeze pleaded as he dropped his pistol and wrapped his hands around Grim's gauntlet. Grim ignored the man and twisted, pulling Freeze upwards with little difficulty. Freeze screamed in terror as he was thrown bodily over the Spartan's head, only to be silenced a second later as he slammed, headfirst, onto the tile below. The scientist's dome, substantially weakened, shattered on impact, sending glass shards out in all directions. These shards were soon joined by pieces of Freeze's skull and brains as the scientist's head exploded upon impact. Both Robin and Nightwing nearly missed a step as the brutality on display washed over them.
Even at their worst, most of the rogues stuck to guns, knives, and bullets. Only Bane and Poison Ivy really deviated from that standard. Even the closest comparison that Dick could come up with to the man before him, Deathstroke, usually didn't resort to tearing people apart.
But he'd never have time to ponder further, as the giant man leveled a front kick to Freeze's corpse, sending the armor-clad body flying towards them. Dick reacted on instinct, shoving Tim away and to the ground as the white body crashed into him with a wet thunk. Instantly, he was sent tumbling backwards and onto the floor below him. Meanwhile, Freeze's corpse draped itself across his body, pinning himself and one of his arms to the ground underneath its bulk.
"N!" Tim cried, immediately abandoning his attack and rushing to Dick's side. He placed his hands against Freeze's side and began to push as Dick tried to help from underneath the corpse, but it was useless. Freeze's armor and exosuit just weighed too much for them to be able to move it off him without help. A shadow then enveloped Tim as the giant man appeared above them, silent as the grave.
"Hey!" Tim snarled in both shock and anger, leaping to his feet while trying to pull a Batarang from his belt. Dick felt his blood run cold and a rock drop into his stomach as the giant blurred.
"No!" He cried, redoubling his efforts to free himself.
But it was all for not as a final thud echoed throughout the room. Tim immediately collapsed onto the floor in front of him as the stranger loomed over them. The giant then crouched and began messing with Tim's belt, unclasping it and pulling it free from his form. Straightening back up, he began to rifle through its various pouches. A surprise to Dick considering that all of their belts were programmed to administer a high-voltage shock should someone other than them attempt access. As if sensing his thoughts, the belt hummed above him, triggering a shock. But the stranger didn't so much as flinch, instead, he just paused his search for a second before continuing. After a few seconds, the man pulled their smoke pellets free and pocketed them before hurling the belt to the far side of the room.
The giant's golden gaze then turned down to him, completely apathetic to his existence. Its head tilted slightly to the left, as if in thought, before straightening once more. Stooping down, the giant started to reach towards Dick's side.
"What do you want?!" Dick snarled, mentally cataloging all the pain he'd deliver to the man for killing Tim once he got free.
The giant ignored him, pulling two pairs of Dick's handcuffs from his belt and some zip-ties. He then turned and reached behind him for the back of Tim's uniform. Dragging the body towards the two of them, he arranged it so that Tim's hands were placed behind him. But then he paused again as his grip ran down Tim's forearm. In a swift motion, the giant pulled off Tim's gloves and quickly searched them, finding the small lockpicking kit embedded in each arm. The aforementioned kits were then subsequently crushed and tossed across the room, only to be followed by the gloves a second later.
The giant then handcuffed Tim's arms behind him before zip-tying the teen to a random slot on Freeze's armor, essentially trapping him with the weight of Freeze's corpse. The stranger's attention then turned back to Dick.
"You better kill me now, because if you don't, there's no hole deep enough to hide you from me and Batman. Especially now that you've killed my little brother." Dick growled menacingly.
The giant's head tilted once more, silently judging the man trapped below him. After a few seconds of silence, he reached back and turned Tim towards him, revealing the slow rise and fall of Tim's chest. Instantly, relief washed over Dick. He hadn't lost another brother, Robin still lived. But that relief was swiftly washed away when he realized he was completely helpless and at the mercy of this stranger. He glared challengingly up at the golden visor, which had yet to break their small staring contest.
Hesitantly, Dick raised his free hand up above his head, appearing as if surrendering. Instantly, the giant moved and secured his hand with the handcuffs, before anchoring him to the same slot on Freeze's armor. He then stepped over the pile and secured his other trapped hand by lifting part of Freeze's corpse and zip-tying him to part of the armor. He then lowered the body back on top of him, trapping him once more. After that, Dick's belt was seized and subjected to the same search that Tim's had been, his smoke pellets joining Tim's in the giant's pockets. His belt was then unceremoniously tossed to the opposite side of the room, landing in the opposite corner to Tim's belt.
Satisfied with his work, the man then stood once more and strode away. Dick tracked him as he made his way across the room, only pausing to grab Freeze's pistol and a decent-sized sliver of his glass dome. The figure then disappeared into the vault before the hum of the pistol could be heard powering on. The air was then filled with the sound of ice forming before the room went silent once more, leaving Dick alone in the room, surrounded by his unconscious brother and the bodies of the fallen.
Hopefully, Kate and the others would get here soon. As it was, they were out of their depth.