The Darkest of Knights

Batman was more confused than he was several posts ago, then bullets began raining from the skies and everyone averted their attention upward. They thought it was the SWAT team when down came Batgirl and Alice, her dual MP5ks drawn. "Damn good to see you two." Batman said in relief. "Don't mention it." Batgirl smirked. "What's going on here?" Alice asked.

Stairs....She hated stairs.

Mame climbed the last few steps to reach the lobby of Arkham, a few soiled bodies were laying about, mostly horribly disfigured, be it from the bulging features of a strangled victim, or the veiny green tinged corpses of poisoned men. Either way it was obvious who had done all this, Poison Ivy. Femme fatale and renowned flora conservationist. Mame never interacted with her much, but she had attended group therapy once, and the young blonde had been...Intimidated by the outspoken woman.

At this point however, physical changes were starting to drag Mame further into bright, alert and lucid thought...Well as lucid as a psychotic gangster could get. She licked her chapped lips excitedly, looking about frantically before her swiveling baby blues caught sight of the destroyed exit. Dangerous looking pods lined the vines that curled around the door frame, she wasn't too sure about leaving this way, but then she was never one to keep herself from the things she wanted. So with a literal hop and a skip she raced towards freedom, a large cheshire like grin splitting her pale face.

She'd make a nice noodle picture of a daisy for Poison Ivy, when they all got caught and sent back to the ruined asylum. Mame was suddenly nabbed by something, her wet stained pant leg snagged, forcing her to topple over onto the rubble covered floor. Her chin smacked into the hard ground, her bottom lip splitting and her teeth clenching into each other so hard the gums turned white. She rolled over weakly and looked down at her leg, a greenish twitching orderly gripping at her pants tightly, shaking his head back and forth and grimacing as his eyes began to fade.

Mame growled at him, baring her dull canines in a childish hiss, her foot lifted up, knee bending till the back of her thigh pressed into her chest, before coming down like a doom hammer on the dying mans face. She felt his teeth crunch under her heel, the cartilage of his nose bend then snap, and yet he still did not let go. So she sat up, lapping her tongue over her busted lip as she reached down and grabbed the edges of her pant leg, tearing it around the mans hand, even as he gurgled out his teeth and black tinted blood in protest.

The girl darted up the instant the cloth was ripped, heading towards the vine covered exit, a gleeful cry of joy burst from her mouth, coming out in a hoarse raspy yip.

Free! She Was Free! God Help Gotham City.

(Lol nice Mercy XD!!)

Jervis Tetch looked up from his book, his blond locks falling over his eyes. His cell door was.. open. "Oh how curious." he said to himself and set the book down to go have a look around. He knew the Asylum had been in lock down due to previous events in Gotham, so this surprised him. As he approached the door, he saw a patient run by. A human head was clutched tightly in his hands as he ran. "Oh how very curious indeed." he muttered. Straightening out his hospital clothes, he walked out into the chaos.

He calmly walked through the halls, ignoring the rioting patients. "Ho hum.." he walked past one of the doctors mangled bodies. "Falling to pieces aren't we?" he asked the body, obviously getting no response. Continuing down the halls, he headed for a special room. As he walked, he thought back to 2 years ago.

"Gotham is in peace once again!" the man on the TV screen announced. Jervis sat in his cell, watching the small screen. . "And its all thanks to the efforts of the Midnight Riders!" he spread his arms to the heroes. One of the members caught Jervis's eye, a young blond woman. "Their leader, Alice, has a few words to say." Jervis shot up to the screen. "Alice?" he asked the TV. She began a long speech and he watched intensely. "My.. Alice..." he touched the screen.

Mad Hatter walked out of the confiscation room and dusted off his old hat. His suit stood out brightly among the white hospital clothes of the patients. "We shall meet for tea Alice." he placed the hat on his head and walked away.

Cyrah looked won at Karmy. A lot longer than is healthy. If this si hwo your FRIENDS treat you, not sure I wanna see how your ENEMIES act." She said, trying to crack a joke but failing. "That was a big tub of fail..." Casius sighed, looking in the direction the two psycho-women had taken off in. "If they wre openly hostile when we didn't even use any seirous weapons [remember, the cannon is non-lethal unless he removes the safety] shows they are DEFINITELY up to no good." Casius pondered, and came to a conclusion. "The onyl thing I can think of: guilt. I think, just maybe, Bat might might have done it after all. Why else would anyone connected to him be repelling even YOU so strongly?" Casius proposed. He had seen it before in the service- when people had soemthing to hide, they changed, and never for the good.

Zero was about to disembark with the girls, but the pulses he detected were like a hammer to the face. "Excuse me, 1 sec." He said, turning to where he detected the scource. "You may as well come out- I could detect 'ya a mile away." He shouted.

"Dammit!" Karmy screamed. "I just-" she slammed her fist into the ground. Her ring was blood red now. "I just wanted to help them.."

Ivy hadn't left yet. "Huh?" she said in confusion, turning in the direction he had directed. "Great. Somebody's been tailing us." She murmured, annoyance clearly in her voice.
---
Poison Ivy watched with absolute happiness as familiar villains filtered out of the Asylum. She still didn't think they deserved to be free, but it was all part of the plan. All..
"Part of the plan." She kicked a nearby man, close to death, and left the Asylum on that sour note. She still had a lot to do before capturing the Bat.

Seab scowled, he knew hoping for dull senses was too much. Clearing his throat, he walked up to the man shouting for him to come out.
"Let me ask you, did you really need to do that?" Seab rasped, irritated and frowning, looking down on Zero and glaring at him with his cold eyes. Hac watched as Seab promptly gave up cover, he stayed watching them from the sky; no need showing both of them to the light of day. Besides, he was, what he hoped, simply an anonymous hawk.

"Look, kid, we all wanted to help, bet they've shown their colors." Casius said firmly. "And it is time we showed ours. I don't think the Batman is'nt as innocent as we thought he was if his allies are acting like THIS." Casius explained. You could often tell a lot about a man by the company he kept. And if his allies were tripping like THIS, it didn't leave a goos impression- at all.

"What's the deal? Triling us dosen't leave a good impression. I yell at you for having no class." Zero said in his usual sarcastic tone. [For a good comparison, Zero and Canderous have a lot of similarities.] "So whada'ya want? If you want to atack me and spill my guts, you gotta sign the list- Othe rvillains have dibs on either tearing out or disemboweling all of my vital organs, although my pancreas and appendix are wide open. If it is something else, sorry, but kinda busy." Zero told them. He knew better than to openly trust somebody trying to be sneaky liek that to be a good guy, much less in Gotham.

"I am 24 dammit!" Karmy said getting up. "And yeah. So if they're acting like this.." she pondered. "Wouldn't that mean that he IS guilty. I mean. If he was innocent, he would just go up to the police station and prove himself innocent.. We gotta stop them Cas.." she pulled out the GPS tracker. "We gotta bring them to justice."

"When you hit THIS age, everyone is a kid, kid." Casius joked. He noted the bitter irony of the situation- two years ago, he was hunted byt the heroes as a criminal. Now the same heroes were criminals and the criminals were out to fight for justice.

life didn't make sense to one Donovan Roper.

"Oh please..." Seab started, shaking his head.
"There is so many points I'd like to argue with you right now, but let me simplify it for you: If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead. If I wanted to come off decent to you, we wouldn't be having this conversation. And IF I actually had business with you the circumstances would be completely different, I assure you." Seab went on saying in an exhausted sounding tone.
"Oh and, I'm no villain." he added with a malevolent grin.

"Please, death dosen't BEGING to frighten me anymore." Zero said, picking his nose disrespectufly. It was true- he died once already, what did he have to be afraid of? After all, there were things SO much worse than death anyways, an image of the Black Hand waftng into his mind."Oh one other thing: Why ARE you following us, if you aren't a villain?" He asked, wanting to end the talk and get back to business. He had mixed feleings aboutthese new guys, so his hands drifted to his goggles- as a precaution.

"Yeah yeah yeah... But I'm still not a kid!" Karmy argued. She flipped on the GPS and now two blinking red dots showed on the screen. "I placed tackers on Mercy and Batgirl using Ghost glue. It's design to make the trackers invisible to the naked eye. They're untraceable and impossible to get off unless you have the remover, which I do." she said as a matter of factly. "Shall we move out?"

Mr. Freeze emerged among one of the many famous villains Batman had faced had. "Its going to get really chilly tonight Batman..." He said ominously, clenching his fists.

Batman, Batgirl, Alice, and Robin stuck together and were ready for combat, the SWAT came in on their location. One SWAT patted Jersey on the shoulder. "We can take it from here, thanks for your support." "Yeah," another said, "they're not superhumans or anything." The family came in closer together, "Alice... Lower your guns." Batman said as SWAT drew closer; she hesitantly dropped her arms and looked at Batman, he nodded to her. He threw his cape over his entire family, Alice dropped a Flash Grenade, Batgirl and Robin used their grapple hooks and shot it to the top building. The SWAT immediately opened fire blindly, the Vampires were stunned by the bright blinding light, it burned them a little. The next thing they knew, they were all gone.

Ivy elbowed Zero. "Picking your nose?" she whispered with disgust. Same old Zero. She turned her attention back to Seab. "If you're not a villain, you're....either a stalker or trying to get leads on the Bat. Either way, I'm not going to let you go easily."

Seab sighed.
"Barely known you for a few minutes and you're already hinting at your life." he rasped.
"As for you not letting me stay here, I'd love to object." he added, ready to dash at a moments notice, he was pretty sure he could outrun, or at least outfly, anyone here.
"But, what do you plan on doing, incapacitate me on an unsure idea that I might be doing something? Something that is most likely completely legal? I'll at least tell you I won't make such a feat easy. I wasn't even interested with you." he went on, clearly bored.

After noticing everyone vanishing, E-Lu promptly made his Robin clone vanish with one final maniacal laugh. Laying back in what was now a throne in his eyes, he wondered, still gleefully, at why he had done that. For once he was curious, he didn't even know who that was...

In the Wayne Enterprise Main Building Two-Face tapped his foot in the presence of The Batman family. He had his hand to the good side of his face, his other eye was exposed although he was closing his good eye. He wanted to help them as much as he could.

"Robin-"
"I'm Batman now.. And you're still Harvey Dent."
"I'm sorry. Batman.. You know what? Screw it. Dick."
"Yes Harvey?"
"I honestly don't know what I can do to help you. You have amnesia?"
"Yes Harvey."
"Dammit, if this can't get any harder..."
"The press will probably talk to you knowing that the last Batman owned this company."
"True. I'll be sure to be behind you on that. Didn't your apprentice Zero have his memory restored?"
"I haven't talked with him in a while. I guess we should locate him. Do you know where the murder happened?"
"Yeah, in this building on the south side of Greenwich. Its some Aerospace company we've been competeing with called S.T.E.A.M."
"What do the abbriviations stand for?"
"Hell if I know."
"How did he die?"
"From what I hear you used your Grappling Hook. Shot him straight in the chest. Left it there."
"So that's where that damn thing went."

Batman was looking at the empty spot where his Grappling Hook use to be. "Wait so there's a possibility that Dick actually killed my Father?" Batgirl asked, her voice quivering and breaking. "Its possible Barbara, but you know how close I was to him." He assured her. "I don't think I would, but if I did there must have been a reason." Batgirl hugged Batman, her face was burried in his chest. "Look, I'll prove he's innocent Babs. If its the last thing I do." Two-Face told Batgirl. "I'm here for you too. We always are." Alice told her. Robin joined in. "We're family. Nothing can tear us apart."

"So why is it that you didn't want to turn yourself into the police Dick?" Two-Face asked. "I thought you of all people would understand that." Alice said to him. "The Police would only want to convict Batman because he's Batman. They won't have a fair trial." Batgirl added. "On top of that they'll make him take off his cowl." Robin insisted. "You have to understand the corruption we're facing Harvey, if the commissioner died a new replacement will fill his spot. Do you know who that is?" It just then dawned on Two-Face. "Arnold Flass..."

Flass has never liked Gordon. Flass has never liked Batman.
Flass will do what he can to convict Batman, and he just found the pot of gold.

Blinking sevral times Sky changed back to human form. She had a WTH?! Look on her face. Jersey as mad as ever stormed over. "They get away?" Sky asked, knowing the answer. Jersey nodded, and glaced at Nickoli. "Forget sunscreen bud? You got that right in the face." Jersey smeirked. Nickoli was anything but smiling, "Just shut it you over grown, goat faced hot head. I got some infomation." Sky sighed, "Nick, you know I hate it when you use your powers like that, but today is a diffrent story. Anything useful?" Nick shook his head and Jersey facepalmed. He mumbled somthing about 'no f-ing help' and walked away. "J, chill. I bet we'll find them. Heck, I know we can..." She turned her nose into a werewolf's and sniffed the air. "Let's go boys." They ran off, after Batman and Robin's scents.

(Oh uhh.. Gee.. Um Music? I hope we won't have the same problem most of us had with picking up scents as a wolf like we did last time. Last RP everyone complained about Lupe using her scent to find anyone and everyone at any given time and it was just plain cheap. So yeah, I'm not depriving you of your powers, just don't go all out on us like Lupe did..)

Astro smiled. He hadn't even needed the Police Station. The whispers and shocked expressions mirrored on most citizens of Gotham told him everything. His target. The reward. The other heroes. The other villains. All he needed to know had seemed handed to him.

It was almost to easy, he thought. But best not to look a gift horse in the mouth. He'd save a city, yet again. He couldn't remember who he was, but he knew what he was doing. Fighting for justice.

"I'll find you Batman."

Mame burst into the outside, the asylum behind her buzzed and rocked with the tremors it took simply to birth her out into the world. The blond ran forward, over rocks and vines and people. Her mind started to register the pain in her hand, the pain in her feet, the throbbing in her lip. Her eyes nearly rolled from the pleasure of it, it felt SO good to feel pain again.

She noticed the other inmates heading towards the docks just passed the recently busted up main gates, her lithe frame rocketed through the courtyard/drop off yard. Slender legs pumping as her tongue lagged dully out of the corner of her mouth, saliva dribbling down her chin, mixing with he dried blood that had caked onto her from her split lip.

It wasn't until Mame had reached the docks and noticed the large disappointed group of inmates that she realized the ferry and other smaller motor boats used to get prisoners too and from Arkham as well as allowing the guards to patrol the water for escapees....Were gone, they had missed their ride off the island.

The small girl pushed her way through the crowd, punching a groping sexual deviant of a inmate in his spectacled face before managing to break the head of the crowd and walk ahead of them onto the empty dock, no one had bothered walking out onto the rocking wood platform once they realized that no boats would come. The blond girl lowered her head and looked over to the rock beach like terrain about the dock, she paused for a moment, her attention drawn to a pale rough looking thing in the water. Without a moments hesitation she dashed off the dock, landing hard on the sharp rock covered ground.

She clenched her fists, wincing as the glass began to dig into the bone of her knuckles. " Croc!? Croc!!!" She splashed into the lapping waves as her outburst caught the groups attention, she stopped upon reaching the pale figure like thing in the water....It was just a rock. Mame felt a wave of sadness and disappointment....How was she going to get off the island now?

It was then that the blond noticed something, farther out boats were fluttering about the chilled dark water. The girl looked behind her as a few men began approaching to see what she's looking at, she yowled at them, startling the mentally unstable men, clenching her fingers so that her hands formed into a claw like gesture, she'd beat them senseless and they...well they didn't know it....But they were easily scattered and she wasn't interested in fighting off a hoard of them.

So with a sigh the youth ran her pale slender digits through her tangled dirty hair, glass shards snagging on knots and blood staining the pale strands, and began to wade out into the water, eyes transfixed on Gotham.

Batman had his hand to his chin. They were standing atop a roof looking down on the city, Batman moving back and forth. "Greenwich isn't far from here. Should we investigate in S.T.E.A.M.?" Batman asked. "Well it's possibly the only move we have right now." Batgirl spoke up. "Aerospace." Alice pondered. "Should we all go in at once?" Batman asked. "Robin?"

Poison Ivy smiled in the darkness, off the Arkham island and back in the city. Her plan was short, and not as well thought out as she would've liked, but it was working. Escapees of Arkham would keep the Police busy, leaving Bats open for her to find. Less competition, more chances of getting the bounty on his cowled head. Even if it wasn't the original Bat, it'd be worth the trouble for the last two years. A sneer worked it's way onto her face.

She slipped in and out of the shadows, should anyone see her, it'd only be a flashing green glimpse. "Now...I just need..." She panted to herself as she ran, "A lead on where he is." And she knew just where she would find it. When a crime has been committed, who investigates? The police. Where did they record this information? In a file. And where was this file kept?

In the building that was so close, she could see the lights in it's windows. But more importantly, she could see the heroes before it.

Gotham City Police Station.

"I think the more ground we cover the better too." Batman said, "Alright, we'll have to make our way to Greenwich first. Then we have several entrances to the S.T.E.A.M. building. I'll be with Robin, and you two can cover the other to openings. I'm sure you two can handle yourselves.." Batman said waiting for them. "You got it, we can handle anything!" Batgirl said. "Okay lets get a move on.." Alice said, and they left immediately.

"You know what Casius, I have a better idea." Karmy said. "Since I can easily portal out of Mercy, I'll head over there right now to get them distracted." she looked down at the GPS. "They're due west of this position so you should be able to get there in like what? 30 minutes?" she tossed the GPS to Casius. "I'll see y'all then." and she snapped her fingers.

"Jeez Mercy." Karmy said falling from her back and standing up. "Why do you always gotta go for the neck?"