The Darkest of Knights

"Whoa whoa whoa chill man!" Robert jumped out of the seat and stepped between the two. "No need to call this in.. She hasn't done anything wrong right now." he turned his head towards Cyrah. "You're Karmy's sister?" he asked.

"Yeah, that one guy!" Karmy said. "And if you tie me up I swear I will set you on fire."

Cyrah didn't answer at first- she put Cannons in BOTH of the mens' faces. "Yeah, and you're on every drug on earth if you think I'm going to let you limp-d*cks do to her what you did to me." She said, showing them the scores on her back from the prods, her voice angry and unbreaking. The inner working of her cannons spiraled and hummed, giving an eeire 'I WILL shoot, don't test me.' air to her words.

Zero put himself between the girls. "Calm down here. Fighting and bickering like kids is the LAST thing we need right now. Let's take it down a notch, ok?" he reasoned.

11/12/31
02:00 pm
46º

Alice held her head and spun around, aggravated and tired of Karmy's constant troublemaking. She was getting really tired of it and she was on Karmy was on her last string before an inevitable fight that has been building up for the past few days. She shook her head. "Don't." Alice holding out a hand to Nicole. "Let her try me."

"See look at this sh*t! She's gonna kill the both of us cause you wouldn't let me act! This b*tch will fry our brains because of you now!" Sam panicked backing off trying to find the right moment to escape. Civilians only had to see the glowing green robot-girl to start evacuating the diner.

"Yes, I will be watching." Karmy said, crossing her arms. "As you slowly burn for tying me up."

"No you don't understand." Robert said frantically as he raised his hands. "I just want to talk to her, not about police biz or anything. And I'm sorry the police did that to you." he apologized. "I don't like that kinda stuff, I'm actually really surprised they did that.."

Cyrah was.... suprised. The cop was apologising? She lowered her cannon from RObert- he didn't SEEM like a threat. She wheeled aroudn to face his buddy. "I won't fry your brain- they taste much better toasted. With a little gravy." She said menacingly. She began to understand why dad enjoyed it so much. She looked back at Robert. "Why do you want to see her anyways? Puppy love?" She asked, some-but not all- of the edge out of her voice.

"He wants to screw her!" Sam blurted out.

Alice pushed Nicole away. "Don't Nicole. Don't." She growled. "You need to sober up Karmy, or you'll be short one best friend."

Barbara had powered down the laptop and heard the commotion outside. "What's going on out there?" She whimpered as loud as she could trying to crawl out of bed.

"Yeah see, that's why I hate you Bats." Karmy said pointing an accusing finger at Nicole. "You arrogant little f*s think you're all that, making us 'lower' heroes feel like sh*t just because y'all don't have any powers. The only good one's of you lot was Bruce and Babs I don't mind. But you and your 'dad' can just go suck it for all I care." she prepared to snap her fingers. "Fine with me, Malice. Haven't been much of a friend to me anyways, damn Bats dragged you up to their place anyways. Now I'm going to go join my family." she snapped her fingers and was gone. OF course she would regret this later, who wouldn't?

Robert turned around and socked Sam right in the face. "You dumbsh*t! I do NOT want to do that!"

Alice pulled her hair back and shook her head. Sweat rolled down her face and she was shaking violently. Squeezing her eyes tightly she stormed out of the living room into the kitchen, looking for alcohol. "Who does she think she is dammit?" She asked grabbing the first bottle of whiskey she found, and fumbling through shot glasses she picked up a normal sized cup. "Who the f*ck does she think she is?!" She continued to fume sitting at the table. Her face was flushed with anger, she grasped onto the whiskey, it most likely belonged to Cassius, Alice had her hand around it so tight her knuckles turned white. She was contemplating on evaporating the bottle or leaving it be. She kept shaking her head. Tears rolled from her eyes. "Bastard..."

Dick—half wet from the shower—walked into Luna's room, where Babs was trying to crawl out of her bed. "Whoa, whoa! Hold on!" He said coming to her side and positioning her back into bed. "What are you doing? You're in no shape to walk around yet." He said confused. "What's wrong?" Dick asked concerned. "Alice and Karmy... they're fighting. Outside." Barbara sniveled. "I only saw Alice, what's going on." He asked again. "I don't know." She whispered. "I'll go check, stay here."

Zero cringed at what had just transpired. But tensions would be expected- after all, this day had been nothing short of stressful on all of them. He rubbed his temples and let out a sigh. "What are we gonna do with them...." he asked Ivy about the Bats and Karmy. He turned to the gathering of Bats, Riders, and everyone else. "Come on now, let's all pretend to get along here, we've all had a-" Twoface piped up with the word "Crappy" "-Day, so everyone's gonna get stressed. Let's just take it easy and simmer down for a bit." he said, his hands raised defensiveley. He knew that Dad or Sarah could handle Karmy, so he wasn't TOO worried there. But if she wasn't back soon, he would check on her..... come to think of it, he hadn't seen Cassius since they got to the apartment....

Sarah shot a look at the other cop. "Hold tight, limpd*ck, I'll get some onion gravy for you yet." She said, keeping her cannon good and trained. She spun to Robert again. "The way you acted when the other cop mention screwing my sister ALMOST makes me want to think about hating you a little less. But I still don't see WHY I should take you to her in the first place- you know I don't have much love lost on you cops right now." She said to him, once more referencing the 'interrogation' earlier. Her voice was more inquisitive now then threatening, but she still kept a serious manor about her.

"Well you don't have to take me to her right now.." Robert said, leaning back slowly on his seat, hands still raised. "Why not just.. Tell me about her." he smiled. "Nothing like, criminal background or anything. I don't care about that stuff, just what she likes."

Dick just stepped out and looked at Zero trying to calm everyone down. "What happened here Zero?" He asked approaching him. "And... where's Nicole and Alice?" He asked.

Sam hit a silent distress button on his radio. Only a matter of time.

Cyrah suddenly felt the radio impulses senf off by Sam's Radio. "Ah sh*t." She mouthed. She could put Sam into a wall, but it wouldn't benefit anything. It would still take a minuite or two for the cops to get here, by which time she planend to be long gone. She hauled Bay into the kitchen, out of earshot. "You might be trustowrythy, and who knows, maybe I'll beleive you. Do something for me, and you'll earn my trust." She said. She procured the file she snagged earlier from a compartment in her leg- the one with the picture of the girl on it. "At 2330 tonight, meet me Gotham park with info on this case. Do this- WITHOUT your scary cop buddies- and hell, I'll even bring Karmy so you can find out about her yourself." She said in a to the point tone. "BREAK my trust, and I'll break your legs. Kepeice?" She said, and turned about, jetitng out the back door....

Zero sighed. "One snapped, the other snapped, everyone snapped. They're here, there and yonder. It's not a big apartment." He said with a sigh. "How does superman do this with JLA all the time?" He asked with a sigh.

"You're a good leader Zero, I don't know why I'm not with you all the time." Dick said crossing his arms, "I'm glad you're calm and under control." He sighed looking over past the kitchen and at Alice still clutching onto the booze. "Superman is..." He said. "Super."

"I dunno, I guess I'm just that awesome." Zero said, tooting his won horn to try and lighten the dark tone. "I never met the guy, but I wouldn't mind it. Any man that be in the business as long as he has doing the things he does MUST have something going for him." Zero said, referencing Superman. He secretly was glad to just be shootin' the breeze with Greyson again- he hadn't done this since the glory days when he was tutored by the Titans.

Robert didn't even hesitate to say, "Deal." and he took the folder and tipped his hat to Cyrah. "Better get outta here Miss, these guys will be on you like white on rice but before you go." he lightly punched her on the shoulder. "Can't have them getting all suspicious now can we? Hit me, hard." he gritted his teeth, opening himself up to her.

"Okay, but you asked for it." Cyrah said, winding up and punching, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically......

Robert's dentist, snapped awake with his mouth inexplicably sore....

Sarah, feeling she had given Bay just what he wanted, gave him a quick wave. "11:30, don't forget." She said, and bolted out the back door as quickly as possible.

"Yeah, he's a good guy." Dick sighed. "I'll see if I can hook you up on that. Didn't you say something about the earthquake weapon being in Metropolis?" He asked wanting to finish up with Zero so he could talk Alice out of drinking her heart out, by the looks of it, she already started. "Maybe he can help us out." he thought.

Damian slipped into his Red X suit and decided it was high time to start running amok again. The Batman Family were all away, they had no way of communicating with him, all he needed was to stick to the shadows. He ran downtown and picked off a few stores taking some cold hard cash on his way. He pocketed several hundred dollars. Not a lot but it would suffice for the moment. He sat in an alley way counting his profit. Red X would return as Damian and purchase some clothes that would fit.

Thorne sat back in his chair, a cigar in his hand and a cool glass of iced brandy on his desk. Across the room on a wide screen television some news anchor chattered on about the events of the city. The Grayson kid was up to his neck, Deathstroke had done his job, and the police had more than they could handle. Now if there was one thing Thorne knew, and knew well, it was that Gotham City never told the public half of what was really going on. Now normally Thorne liked this, normally he was the one pulling the strings, normally things were happening exactly the way he wanted them to, but as things were he didn't know nearly as much as he'd like, but he knew more than enough to move. The police were busy, the masks were on their way out, and if someone were to take advantage of the situation, there would be little that anyone could do about it.

Of course, that didn't mean it was time to get careless. In his line of business people who got careless got dead real fast, and with things as chaotic as they were now, he might have been able to get away with murder, but so could anyone else, and it was important to make sure that he was on the side of the murderer, and not the murdered. "Boy, I've got a proposition for you." The thugs sitting on Thorne's couch just in front of the television looked over to him. Roxie stood up from where she'd been filing her nails. "The city's crying boys, now what do you say we give it something to cry about?" The crime lord smirked, more to himself than to the mobsters across the room. He took a slow drag on his cigar and turned in his chair just enough to see the city through the window behind him. "There's something I've been thinkin' about for some time now." He blew the cigar smoke out through his teeth long and slow causing a soft gray cloud to hover just above him. "This new place. S.T.E.A.M. it's supposed to be working on cutting edge tech, real sci-fi stuff, energy weapons, plasma launchers, all that good stuff."

"You want us to see about getting some of that good stuff for you boss?" Roxie didn't even look up from her filing, she knew when her boss wanted to be asked a question, and when he needed to be asked a question. Thorne was old school, all about the presentation, it was why no one even thought to mess with him even now.

"Not on your life. Steal a weapon capable of taking down an army, and they'll send an army to get it back." Thorne took another slow drag on his cigar, letting the flavor of the smoke fill his lungs for a moment before blowing it out his nose. "No. I don't need to fight an army. I just need to kill one man. A very, very important man. But to do that, everything will have to go just right. There can't be a hair out of place to you hear me?!"

"We hear ya' boss, but, what'd you want us to do?" More drama, she had to respect it, Thorne knew how to make people follow him, but really he did tend to exaggerate when it suited him.

Thorne rose from his seat and walked the half a step to the window-wall behind him, looking out toward the edge of the city. "S.T.E.A.M. They're working on all kinds of stuff over by the river. One thing in particular's got my attention. Plasma, super hot gas. The stuff is so hot you can't even touch it, cuts right through just about everything, so they have to use magnetic fields to manipulate the stuff. Big ones too, big enough to cover an entire building, screws up electronics, cell phones, watches, portable TV's you name it. Thing like that could be indispensable to a man like me. I want it."

"Well then, we'll go get it for you boss." This seemed too easy, there was more to Thorne's request, she just had to wait for it.

"Nawh see, if you go get it, everyone'll know it's me what has it. Having something like that is only good if folks don't know you've got it. I want someone else to pick it up for us... someone... disposable." Throne took a long drag on his cigar, his mind rolling through the names of all the men he knew who could get the job done, and then be added to Gotham River without too much fuss. "Put the word out. I'll pay good money to anyone what can break into S.T.E.A.M. for me, only don't let 'em know what it is I'm looking to steal... We can't have the whole city knowing my business, now can we?"

Robert staggered out of the back room, the file tucked safely away for later and blood pouring down his mouth. Getting in earshot of his partner, he said, "That b*tch got the jump on me." he spat out some blood and a tooth. "Oh that's just not right."

The Joker walked right into Slade's hide out, not a care in the world, and a big bright smile upon his face. How did he know where Slade was? Well, he's the goddamn Joker!! "Good eeeeeevening Mr. Slade."

"Oh, yes, we're here." the illusion piped out. They had been walking through the city for a while now, and were approaching the manor. Of course, given that he had been focusing on the Queen for a good while now, he hadn't exactly noticed the recent news. Not that he would have noticed anyways. But anyway, he was approaching the manor, completely devoid of a plan apart from a vague idea of running rogue.
"You know the place?" he asked, looking sideways at the Queen.

Slade was teaching Mame basic training routines as the Joker made himself welcome. Although mame stopped to look at him, Slade's robotic body didn't even seem to react. "Good evening." Slade said, as if the Joker was just another guy. Slade wasn't afraid of the Joker- he simply wasn't. "I trust you came here for a reason?" Slade asked, breaking his stance and observing the Joker.

"Sweetness! Yeah, a guy that could get hit with a semi and just shrug it off would be a definite asset." Zero said, secretly fanboy-ing at the thought of meeting someone in Superman's leauge. Oh Batman was cool, to be sure, but this was SUPERMAN. Zero reached into his jacket and procured his notes. "Here's everything we know right now, might not hurt to take a peek." He offered.

Cyrah activated her phone funtion once she was sure she was far enough away. Cassius wasn't answering, so she tried Karmy....

"Too bad then." the illusion said, looking around.
"It's home to some really...nasty hero-types. People who I'd like not to live..." he muttered, running on his curious feeling that, if he wasn't tortured by the voices of citizens, wouldn't exist at all.
"Now, after you." it offered, rather mock-courteously, making a gesture.

Astro took the tea, scalding hot in his hands. He stifled a yelp at it, switching it from palm to palm with small movements. "Thank you." he murmured to Luna, blowing over the tea in an attempt to cool it.
---
Ivy watched everyone group into the apartment. She was in awe for a split second at how many people they managed to fit there, and it was this realization that worried her. The Riders didn't do the secret identity thing like the Bats. All it would take was a little detective work to find them here, and soon everyone would be caught. The thought of the police barging into her own home scared her, making her uneasy. She pocketed her com. With almost everyone there, no real point to it now.

The heroine began drumming her fingers on the table. Where can you cram about....fifteen heroes without the government finding you? she wondered.
---
Poison Ivy swerved out of the way, her right arm catching the worst of the blast. She gingerly fingered the burn it had left, stinging at her touch. She'd treat it later, but for now, she'd have to grit her teeth and deal with it. "Is that all, Tinman?" she hissed, the vines behind Cassius growing again but showing no intention to attack yet.

"I fought with Batman. What makes you think you have a chance?" she continued, taking small steps forward.

Dick took the notes from Zero, then he looked at Alice who started drinking. "I'll be sure to review them. Thanks for all the hard work Z." Dick smiled at him. "If you'll excuse me... I have a friend I need to talk to." He said stepping away.

Dick walked up to Alice who was still on her first cup of whiskey. "Cassius isn't gonna appreciate you drinking all his whiskey." Dick said sitting next to her, when she finally dumped the rest in a nearby sink and rested her head on the table. "What happened Alice? You okay?" Dick asked with concern. Still no response from his friend, he sighed and planted his elbows on the table. "You remember the first time we met?" Dick asked.

"You mean the first time I kicked your butt?"
"We were going easy on you. You were several years younger than Beast Boy."
"Looks are deceiving."
"Anyway! You remember the first comment Beast Boy made when you kicked his stomach in?"
"No what did he say?"
"Dude, she's shorter than all of us combined!"
Alice smiled, "That doesn't make any sense!"
"I think that was the point."
"So what's the point of telling me this?" She asked with red eyes and a pasty white face.
"Put a smile on your face."
Alice's face lit up.
"You're not hitting on me are you?"
"Oh god no! I'm dedicated! Just saying. We've known each other for years."
"We've fought each other for years. I've known you for two."
"Well, you're apart of my family now. I want you to feel better. So what's wrong?"
"My best friend is an idiot." She said taking the whiskey and bonking her head with it.
"There's not much we can do about that."
"Nope."
"Uhh.. why did you ask that?"
"Ask what?"
"Ask if I was hitting on you?"
"Uh..." Alice played around with the cold glass bottle around the table, her head still flat on the wooden surface.
"What?"
"I was sort of... in a weird crush with you since I first fought you I guess."
"You were?"
"Sort of."
"You are?"
"Kind of."
"Huh... I didn't know that."
"Yeah, well there's no chance. Bleh."
"You okay?"
"Just let me drink my heart out."

Dick felt extremely awkward. He got up slowly feeling hot and walking out.