The Darkest of Knights

"Naahhh I'm fine." Karmy said waving Cyrah off. "Besides, I wanna do something right quick." she walked over to Mr.Freeze and crached him.

11/11/31
4:00 pm
51º

"Way to beat a dead horse." Alice said over her shoulder when fire fighters finally broke through the doors. "Ah look, our heroes!" She continued to joke facetiously.

Raven Landed at the front doors, she looked at the enormous glass entrance, her figure reflecting brightly, as if her image were embedded into the doors itself. She felt stiff, getting bad vibes even setting foot there. "I'm pretty good at interrogation if that's what you're asking." Raven muttered, "Are your friends coming? Should we wait on them?

Batman and Red X took a secret route to avoid detection. "At least you're following me." Batman said to him. "What's that supposed to mean?" Red X asked. "Supposed to mean good job. You get a gold star."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You know in school when you do good, your teacher gives you a golden star."
"Maybe I'll call myself that."
"Gold Star?"
"Yeah."
"Damian, that's pretty gay."
"Shut up."

"Ahahaha yeah whatevers- achoo!!" Karmy sneezed again."Guh, hold up, I'll be right back." she ran into one of the shops real quick. Walking through theempty store, she stopped by one of the clothing racks. "When?" whispered a voice from inside the rack.

"Whenever man, not now though, when I'm with the two." Karmy whispered, looking around to make sure she wasn't followed.
"Payment?"
"After the deed is done, patience."
"Fine..."
"Dont hurt them too much"

Karmy ran back out of the store, a box of tissues in her hands. "ok let's go!"

"Yeah, they're on their way, but we should use every second productiveley- whe can fill the girls in when they get here." He said. Like Raven, he felt all kinds of spacial pulses telling him that this wasn't exactly Boyscout camp. But he was able to push them out of his mind as he recalled when the first one went off in Jump City. "Interrogation I'll leave to you. I had a more...... direct approach in mind." He said, the color fading from his body as he became transparent, bending light around his body like he had at the police station a week ago.

Cyrah clapped her hands. "Nice sis, real nice." She said.

"Whats that supposed to mean?" Karmy asked, really hoping that Cyrah had not used any of her tech to detect her or whatevers. The plan would be ruined then.

"We'll fly." Ivy said. She gave a nervous smile. "You've teleported us twice today. Sorry." She apologized sincerely. She turned to Astro. "Can you fly?"

"Not in my regular form." he admitted. Ivy rose an eyebrow, "Regular form?"
Astro nodded, "Yes. I sent you the message in my astral form."
The heroine slowly nodded, "Riiiight." She grinned, "That's actually kinda cool." Astro turned crimson for a split second. She surrounded him in an air orb. She'd have to carry him to S.T.E.A.M. like that.

Ivy started to exit. "Let's go!"

Ivy flew a good few feet above Astro, to keep an eye on him. When they had exited Wayne Manor, Astro had shut his eyes to show he respected the secrecy of the Batcave. It was redundant, considering he already knew who Batman was and had gone to Wayne Manor himself to get help.

"So," Ivy coughed, in an attempt to start some conversation, "How'd you get mixed up with those villains?"
"They told me they were the Midnight Riders. And I fell for it."
"Oh."

Cyrah knew Karmy was hiding something now- it was written all over her face. But Cyrah decided to play dumb and press that issue latter. "I meant the bit about kicking Freeze earlier. Now C'mon, we better get you some rest." She said, dusting herself off to head back.

"Different approach?" Raven asked walking to the doors, her hands on the knobs; "I was thinking about a head on attack. What did you have in mind?" She opened them and walked in. She could have been talking to herself for all she knew.

A team of SWAT came in and incarcerated Freeze, Firefighters gave blankets and such to the civilians and walked them out to warm up as much as they could in the already cold weather. News Broadcast reporters walked up to civilians and asked questions and interviewed as many witnesses as they could. Alice, Barbara, and Nicole sat at the edge of a firetruck with the doors swung open. "Is Karmy and Cyrah still in the mall?" Barbara asked. "I dunno," Alice responded clicking open her communicator, "you guys coming out or what?"

"Nah, K said she can still portal us out. She's not doin' too hot, and portaling will get us back quicker. Well meetcha' there." Cyrah replied, clicking her earknob to reply. "You set, Karms?" She asked, turning to face her.

"Quite the contrary, Do whatever you like. I'm going to go for a walk. I'll meet up in a bit." Zeor said, and he entered the building. 'If I was top secret evil information, where would I be....' Zero asked himself. He knew Raven just waltzing into STEAM HQ would cause a stir, so with more people over with her, sweating bullets to make sure she didn't find anything, Zero would take a free romp. Oddly, he felt a latent spacial pulse. Apparently, someone had been here recently with similar intentions a while back.... [Rose wilson is who he is sensing]

"Huh?. Karmy turned wearily and looked at Cyrah. "Uh yeah sure... Should I go and get the others?" she asked, she hadn't been paying attention to the conversation.

"Stay with me, now. They're already headin' back a different way. You sure you wouldn't rather use a cab or something?" Cyrah asked, wanting to make sure Karmy was up for portaling. She seemed distant, so she was either tired, or thinking about something.

"Uh, okay then, I'll see you at the manor shortly." Alice responded before powering the device down. "Okay are we set?" Barbara asked getting up and stretching. "I am, how about you Nicole?" Alice asked also getting up and walking slowly to Dick's car.

Raven was unnerved by the fact she was going in solo; unhooding herself she walked up to the front counter. The man at the desk eyed her suspiciously, that or he was checking her out. "Can I help you ma'am?" He asked her coyly. He was checking her out. "Yes, I want to speak to...." She said fumbling about for the card, "..Mr. Lector." she said, smiling. "Mr. Lector is not available at this moment, Ms..." he said waiting for a response. "You can call me Raven." she said her eyes glowing and sending the guard back with a forceful power attack.

After swatting the imaginary faries that were swarming around her head, she simply began to walk out of the mall, oblivous.

[you know how it works- whoever needs control]

In the car, Barbara drove them back to the Batcave first, where they met up with Dick and Damian who were already out of costume and in civilian outfits. "Hey guys!" Dick greeted.


Several men came down the hall with assault rifles. This was odd, did this facility need that much protection? Raven hid in the shadows before they detected her, she would pick them. One by one. "Check the deskman." One man ordered. It looked like he was the boss. Raven portaled out and viewed them from the ceiling, they looked professional...

"He's fine Captain." The man responded about the deskman standing up, "He'll live." "What attacked him?" "A woman, called herself Raven, the camera picked it up." "Airwave, do a cross-reference on that name, secure the area, we're going on lockdown!" "Yes sir!" A swoop quickly came and went, a man half screamed and they were missing someone. "What was that..?" "We're being attacked!" "Get to cover! Get to cover!" "Keep your eyes peeled men!" Another swoop, another gone. "What the f*ck was that?! Get down!" "Screw that! Open fire!" Shots were being fired in no particular direction, but not at each other. "Where did it come from!?" "I said get down!" "We're getting picked off! We're sitting ducks here! We gotta move!" "Pop a smoke! Archer, Kestral, pop a goddamn smoke!" "Sir!" "Yes sir!"

Raven thought they were thoroughly freaked out about now, so she decided to make her way to The CEO's office. They called him the director or STEAM enterprises. All she needed was a route. Security was getting tight, guards with high cap mags and grenades came storming in every room. Hopefully Zero would be getting a good deal out of this, the security would be focusing on her instead of him, he was free to do what he willed. She crept into a room and locked the door, it looked like a file bank. She opened up files and found the Director of STEAM's profile. Max Lector, and Directions to his office. A crash of a window came in front of her, a grenade. It was cooked, and it set off.

"Yeah." Ivy agreed, landing beside Luna. Astro was gently released nearby. The heroine opened her communicator, about to contact Zero, when she heard a rumble come from the S.T.E.A.M. building. It was then she realized it was a partially on fire, not to mention emitting gunshots.

"Try to find Zero or Raven. And do not be seen." She ordered, a tad afraid of just what might be going on in there.

Raven fell on her back screaming in pain, numbness surrounded her. The shock from the grenade and the deafening sound rung in her ears. How many fingers did she lose? How much damage did the grenade do to her? Her forehead was stinging and she couldn't feel her hands. She must have lost at least four fingers judging by the feeling. Her eyes were shut tight and she tried her hardest to keep herself from screaming. Hyperventilating from the sudden shock, she tried to back away from the window before they would inevitable kick in the door and apprehend her. She didn't even get to see Mr. Lector yet.

Zero was having a grand ol' time of rooting through a nearby computer in a relativeley empty room and just ploping files into a flash drive.Anything that looked particularly incriminating was automatically fdropped in- he would root through and find which one ahd the location data when he got back. He had jsut yanked out the drive when he heard the explosion upstairs. He took off down the halls and manuvering the building to see if Raven was ok. Needless to say, she wasn't. "F*** it, Raven, you ok!?" He asked, dropping his invisibility. "Hold on, Gonna getcha' out of here." He said, and scooped her up. He jabbed the button on his headset. "Zero to anyone that cares, Raven just got blown up! We need help dammit!" He called, zooming for the exit, putting all of his effort into dodging whatever came his way and not jostling Raven too much at the same time.

Ivy heard the message. She turned to Luna, John and Astro. "Let's go!" the heroine urged, turning into a dancing flame and sprinting into the building. She struggled to find Zero and Raven, extinguishing fires as she went.

Astro ran in after Ivy. If she found them, he would heal Raven. If it was as bad as this "Zero" person seemed to be saying it was.

Raven opened her eyes as she felt Zero's arms wrap around her, she instantly looked at her hands to see the damage report. They were shaking violently but all her fingers were in tact and she wasn't bleeding at all. Confused, she looked around. "Huh.." she said her forehead still burning. "Stun grenade... rubber pellets." Raven said scoffing. "If you're going to carry me take a right turn, we're heading to Lector's office."

Zero zoomed down the coridors with the shaken, but relativeley unhurt, Raven still in his arms as he followed her directions towards Lector's office. He saw Ivy as he zoomed in that direction- and Astro behind her. "Look out, Ivy!" He called, and as he flew, directed his foot at Astro's face, blissfully unaware that Astro was good now.

"Huh?" Ivy ducked, wondering what could possibly be behind--Astro! She turned and watched as Astro doubled over from the hit to the face.

He's attacking! Must be an enemy! Astro speculated, bracing for any further battle. Ivy facepalmed, "He's on our side. Astro, are you alright?" she asked.
"I-I suppose. Thank you, miss Ivy." he squeaked, realizing this must be Zero. He had an almost instant dislike for him already.

"Where's Raven? We gotta get her out of here." Ivy continued, while Astro gave Zero a not too friendly look.

As Karmy walked aimlessly around town, fever wracking her brain, she passed by the STEAM building. Noticing loud noises coming from it, she stopped at looked up at it, seeing explosions and bright lights. "Hehehehe." she pointed at laughed at the building.

Zero's jaw dropped. "Hold up-" He said, letting Raven stand up. "He's GOOD? Are you two brainwash you again!?" He asked, totally dumbfounded, and his feelings none the better when he saw how blush-y and such he was aorund Ivy. He couldn't explain it, but in a similar way to how a snake despises Mongooses, he found himself despising Astro more by the minuite.