The Darkest of Knights

"Nothing, one great heaping pile of nothing. Gah, i should be down there jerking Riddler in a knot, not doing Recon!" He pouted. "Ignore him- he's in a mood." Cyrah said, mildly bored herself as she looked out over the city.

"Ha yeah I know how he gets. Poor lunk." Karmy laughed and jumped down. "Now that the others aren't around.. Cyrah." she looked at her. "I wanted to apologize for everything I said while thinking I was Quinn.. "

Cyrah wasn't sure what to say, so she did what came naturaly- she got up, and pulled Karmy into a big hug. "I should eb the apologising.... I shouldn't have let Poision Ivy ge tto you, please don't be sorry." She said, giving a quick squeze.

"But you didn't let her get me!" Karmy saidfacing her. "I went with her and knocked you out-which I'm terribly sorry for by the way! Are you ok? But yeah, do not blame yourself for anything. I was not in my right state of mind, well. I didn't have my mind. Or something... I don't know.. I wish I knew how I got amnesia.." she raised her hand to the gash on her head. "I don't even remember how I got this.. I mean, the last thing I remember was.." she closed her eyes and tried to remember. "I was in the water and.. I couldn't breath... A hand.."

"What wrong? Poision Ivy didn't do anything else to you, did she?" Cyrah asked, examining Karmy's injuries. "What is it?" She repeated with concern.

"Oh.." Karmy moved her hand away and looked down at it. "I'm not sure.. I can't remember. Oh well, nows not the time to be worrying about the past. Whatever happened is gone now." and she leaned on Cyrahs shoulder. "I'm with Casius on this one. Recon is booorrrring!

Wrath scuttled down the street, this way and that, untill he came upon his nemesis: the ferral alley cat behind the chineese restauraunt. The cat crouched on all fours, and Wrath raised his forelegs. "Come and get me, 'ya overgrown, number two special!" He gargled. THe cat pounced him, and happily devoured two of his eight legs. "Dammit! Those take forever to grow back!" Wrath cursed, and began to spit SOEMHTING at the cat, causing it to retreat.
"Begone, knavish fiend! I am wrath, WRATH!! Bwahahahaha!" he gargled, getting overtly melowdramatic about hsi victory over a kitty. He continued scuttling down the alley on his reduced number of legs, untill he saw someone else in the alley with him...

"Yeah, bo-ring!......Hey, let's arm wrestle!" Cyrah said to Karmy devilishly.

Mame had been distracted, it was true. She hadn't meant to stop preparing for her own plans, her own way to get Batman. But she had been, she had come to see what the Riddler was up to, she missed Eddie and his quick wit, even if her confusion with riddles upset him, he liked to call her a moron, she believed it was because it made him feel better about being in Arkham. He was too smart for Arkham in her opinion.

But there she was, sneaking in a high security part of town, inspecting the large tent from a street level she had snuck back into the alley ways, nervous about the roofs, she knew how the bat worked, always from above would he descend upon his criminal victims. She had wanted to go back to the dark to avoid being caught by him or the police, of course all the heroes that had gathered to catch him would be around too. Also she had been hungry and there had been a nifty convenient chinese restaurant.

Mame had ordered the number two special, it tasted like horse meat, but of course the little pale costumed criminal didn't expect excellent service in her current get up. The folks working in the kitchen and waitressing didn't seem all that concerned with her, they were still doing business while the Riddler was setting up big frightening machinations just across the street from them.

She had been kicked out though, she had asked for real meat and got into a tiff with the owner, they had threatened to go out side and start screaming for the police, she said she'd pay and go if they let her go out the back. They agreed in chinese and she had just shrugged.

The blond stumbled out into the alley after the owner had slammed the door behind her, she had dusted off her skirt and huffed, before a cat ran between her legs and almost made her fall into the sludge of the alley way. She cursed and snapped her head toward the feline as it scrambled into a trash can, that was until a delightful little jitter of delicate metallic noises filled her ears.

Her blue eyes widened, her head turned slowly, looking down at a strange limping thing, it gurgled and cackled, but stopped to look at her. Color her enchanted! It was beautiful! Mame moved forward slowly, gloved hands raised in a gesture of peace as she knelt down a few feet from the thing. The skin of her legs stretched and cracked, the coagulated blood that had begun scabbing under her bandages as she knelt down, but she was far to preoccupied with this lovely creature.

Mame smiled softly and held out her hands to it, twitching her fingers as if to summon the arachnid forward. Her eyes were filled with such wanton abandon, adoration, love. It wasn't hard for things to earn these reactions from her, but it was so hard for her not to want to rush to it and pick it up.

" Hello little toy, are you lost? Are you hurt? Do you want a home?"

She wanted it, if it could speak, if it wasn't even alive, she wanted it, a speckling of blood began to seep through her white sock as she continued to crouch, enraptured by the very vision of this strange creature. Mame was lonely, she wanted something, this toy was perfect, it would replace this empty hole in her chest with something much greater. The little terror wanted this thing so badly, she began scooting closer to it, one knee after the other, the muck smudging the white make up on her knees off as she cooed at it.

" Quickly? Quickly? Please come to me?"

It was a frightened tone, so fearful of rejection, she didn't want to break the toy but she would if it said nothing, if it said no, she would destroy it and love it and hold it as if it was a cherished friend, bury it somewhere it deserved.

All these misguided diseased thoughts swirled through her wicked ruined brain, this was such an important thing to her, despite the simple actions and trivial things actually happening in reality. She wasn't mentally based in reality, she never had been, this was like a dream to her, all the stimulus of pain and wonder and being full, it just overwhelmed her with delicious neurotic electricity. She couldn't even be bothered to remember what she had been doing earlier, the lunch she had, her plans for Batman, temporarily lost in this one moment.

"Hmmm..." Nano said. "The house doesn't appear to be abandoned after all."
"But doors don't just fall off their hinges like that" Crimson said. "Something's not right".
The two continued to walk around the mansion, occasionally coming into some rooms and scouring through some papers to see what they could find.
After searching several rooms and finding no evidence or people, the two assumed that the current batman must've left to go into hiding. "Well, there hasn't been any traps or people, lets try and see if we can find the enterance to the batcave.
"Are you sure about this?" Crimson said. "What if we find the enterance and the bat comes out and attacks one of us?"
"Oh don't be such a baby" Nano said. ("Shesh, and i'm the youngest!")
"You look outside and i'll cover inside" Nano said. "If either me or you find the enterance or.....something else, you know what to do."
"Gotcha" , Crimson said as they both headed off to look for the dark knight's lair.

E-Lu had followed the group from the unknown mansion to the...large tarp. The Edward illusion was now fading in and out around the area, showing up in different places each time. It appeared everywhere from in a corner of the tent to behind, say, Batman himself, though it never did anything, yet, and vanished quickly enough to be dismissed as a trick of the eyes.

Wrath was ever so confused at first. He expected the usual scream of fear and getitng a shoe chucked at him, as usual. But Mame didn't- she didn't waste a second to walk at him and look at him like a lost kitten she was affraid to see run away. He would never admit it, but after Gluttony, Pride, Greed, and Sloth died and Lust and Envy went back to normal, he didn't have any company other than that goddamn cat either these past two years. He scurried over to Mame cautiously, and scrambled atop her head, examining her like a curius bauble at an antique store. She approached him despite his looks- she was either crazy, or brave. "Hm, Interesting." He said, remaining perched on her head. He pointed one of his forelegs at her injuries. "Live quite the colorful life, dontcha'?" He gargled.

"Can I help you?" The voice of an elderly man came from behind Nano. Standing six foot nine, the nearly bald butler Wintergreen towered over the younger brother who looked like he came right out of a japanese anime. "Visitors of the Wayne Mansion must first make an appointment, I've noticed you hesitated not to blow down our doors." He said in a stern and condemning voice. "I'm sure you won't have a hard time finding your way back to them. Did you come with another?" Wintergreen asked pointing to the way to the exit, expecting Nano to drop everything he had his hands on.

The skinny blond let out a soft squeal of delight as the toy skittered about her, she stood up slowly, arms out to either side as the metallic thing perched on her head. It was sentient! It was alive and moving, it knew she existed, that she was someone alive and breathing! Mame let out a soft sigh of relief as she rolled her eyes back to try and look at the spindly thing as it sat atop her head.

And when it spoke! She shuddered as goose bumps formed on her ghost white skin, her jaw clenching as it was like the most beautiful music she had ever heard, it was deep and menacing and masculine. It had been so long since she had heard 'manly' it really was such a nice change.

Mame reached up atop her head and plucked the toy out of her blond locks, grasping it gently between her slender digits as she brought it down to her front, staring at it lovingly, affection radiating off her tiny frame.

" I could say the same for you, what ever are you doing in this dirty ally? Are you lost?"

The youth smiled even wider, eyes brimming with barely contained excitement, her fingers cupping under the device and boosting him up closer to her face. She had decided that the voice dictated it was a him, and he was injured, she'd have to take care of him! She looked about slowly, adjusting her position so that she was flushed against the greasy ally wall, pressed into the shadows so that no one else could discover her pretty little toy and take it from her.

" I'm Mame, what are you called?"

She grinned and slid down the wall, only stopping once her knees were bent up, pressed against her chest. She placed the arachnid on her knees and held her hands up on either side of him incase he fell down, he had seemingly just lost some limbs after all.

Slade began to blink his multitude of eyes. This child just heard him speak- looking like a giant tarantula, he would have expected normal people to run even if they could put up with his looks. It seldom happened, but wrath was mildly pleased to not have to dodge shoes. "Quite the contrary my dear, I call these alleyways home. My name is Slade, child." He said in introduction. Mame seemed even more pleased than wrath- he figured she probably wasn't one of the rich kids of gotham. "What of YOU, my dear? Tell me of you." He asked with a gargle.

Zero was nearly asleep. "Nu-thing, Lu. Not a thing." Zero said in a bored tone. He began to spin his Bat-quarter for lack of anything better to do.

"Oh, im sorry!" Nano said in responce to the old man's voice.
"Sence the original batman died me and my brother assumed that the wayne manor was abandoned." "And if your'e wondering about the door, it fell on it's own." "And im also not carrying anything that belongs in the manor. it wasn't my intention to steal anythhing from here!". Nano then fliped up his arm communicator and said "Crimson get out here.... we need to go!"
"Something wrong?" He replied.
"Just get out here!" Nano snapped.
Crimson soon came out of where the door used to be with the speed of a bullet. "Hey....aren't you wintergreen?" Crimson said. "I appologise but like my brother said we were looking through the manor on the assumption it was abandoned for evedance of this crazy murder!"
"You would'nt happen to know anything about it, you being the current batman's butler and everything?"

(Your grammar is way off and your characters happen to know...like everything; how does your characters know who Wintergreen is, much less who he's working for [the new Batman? Where did he get that information from?] Edit your post Corv. Batman's identity is exclusive, as well as who now resides in the Wayne Mansion.)

The Mad Hatter hummed as he worked. "A twist here and a turn there." he muttered, twirling a screwdriver in his hands. He was working underneath a control panel that rested underneath a large screen. The screen was black, showing that it was currently off. "Its so quiet." he said to himself as he worked. "As soon as I get- this - to - AHA!" the screen came to life and buttons lit up.

Mad Hatter quickly crawled out at looked up at the screen. "Alice my dear how are you?" Alice Maus image was upon the screen and the mad Hatter watched her every move. "Oh Alice, how good it is to see you again." he said looking at her from head to toe. "I've been so lonely without you! Its so quiet and I need someone to talk to and have tea with." Obviously she didn't answer or really hear him. Mad Hatter had not activated his plan. "Not just yet my darling." he ran his fingers along the buttons and dials on the console. "My pawn is in place, now just have patience my dear. As soon as everyones out of the way.. I will come for you." he took off his hat, sat down and laid his head down on top of it. He stared up at the screen, eyes still on his Alice.

"I seeeeeee you."

As Karmy and Cyrah continued to chat pleasantly [they had given up on arm wrestling], Cyrah took a peek out at the town. On the corner was a liquor store. Oh sure, harmless at first glance.

Then karmy saw what one person was walking out with.

She screamed and jumped behind Karmy. "Make it go away, sissy, make it go away!" She squealed and pointed at the offensive product like a frightened little girl, remembering the Tokyo incident all too vividly...

a bout a year ago, Tokyo:

Karmy, Ghost, Cyrah and Cassius[I realized that it is actually spelled with 2 S's] were in the heart of downtown Tokyo, and had just finishe dposing for a picture in front of a clothing shop. Everyone seemed to be havign a good time. However, Cassius ducked into a shop and purchased a bottle of Sake. Cyrah sighed when she saw this. "I thought you gave up drinking?" Cyrah scolded. "Oooooh, busteeeeeeed!" Karmy chimed in. "Buying booze and not telling me? Jackass." Ghost snorted off to the side. "Oh come on, this is Japan. You HAVE to try Sake at LEAST once in Japan." He insisted. "If it helps, I'll share- just not with you." He said pointing to Karmy, who crossed her arms and pouted, but she knew fell well it was ALMOST as bad as coffee. Not quite, but in that general magnitude. Casius and Ghost could have downed gallons of the stuff and not been phased, but this was Sarah's first drink.

One
Sip.
Over the course of the next ten minutes... well, i'll let you judge:

OHMIGOD! It ook my soxks off wihtout removing my shoes!

It let all of the animals out of the zoo!

What the hell... is that godzilla!?

Dear god, now Gadzilla is boxing with King Kong!

A gundam! It has a gundam!

Karmy looked around at the Carnage Sarah was concocting, and swiped the sake bottle:

Dear lord, there's a second one!

And it's freeing all fo the fish from the sushi plant!

It's a glue tsunami! RUN!

They turned that building upside down! How do they DO that!?

Next day, KICKED OUT OF TOKYO AND ASKED TO NEVER COME BACK. EVER.

[Hope you don't mind, Karms.]

LMAO!!!!!!!! BAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAAHAHH!!!!! FREAKIN WIN RED!!!!

....

XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!

GAHAHAHAHHAHAAHHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

I don't mind at all Red!!! XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD AHAAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Mame watched the creature resting on her knees speak, articulating it with wild spindly gestures, he really was the prettiest little thing. She perked up slightly upon hearing his name, she grinned and leaned her head down a bit closer to the toy, tilting her head as she inspected him.

" Slade? That's a funny name"

The girl laughed softly and blew on him, a hand moving upwards to caress one of his limbs. She was fascinated by this creature, treating him like delicate china, as if even the slightest twitch would send him scuttling into some nook she couldn't reach. She looked around a bit, avoiding the question about herself, she never really paid herself much mind, sure she was a slave to stimulation but all in all she considered her body more of a tool, a temple for her gluttonous soul.

" Do you want to keep living here? Would you like to come with me? I'm going to kill Batman"

Mame smiled even bigger, the cheshire grin splitting her pale features once again, madness evident in her glinting eyes. Without waiting for an answer she grasped the creatures sides again, lifting him into the air and placing him on her shoulders, turning down the ally towards one of the fire escapes, they were her main transportation at this point, she couldn't access the roofs via a grappling hook, she wasn't lucky like some other people.

" I'm going to put this city at my mercy, get revenge and destroy as many lives as possible while I do it....Would...you like to do that to?"

She looked down at him, nervousness, reluctance to hear his answer, evident in the way she shifted from one foot to the other, ignoring the now full splotch of brilliant red that marred her white knee high sock. She wanted to hear his answer, wanted him to come with her willingly, but she realized all too late that perhaps this was not a evil toy, maybe it was a good guy toy.

And maybe toy wasn't the right way to describe him anymore, he could talk, he could think, he was a person now. He was family, mother, father, sister, brother. He could be her all consuming reason if he just said yes.

"Let me get this straight: You want to destroy the batman, put Gotham on it's knees, and cause mass mayhem in the process?" He asked. And then he grinned a devilish, toothy spidergrin. "And here I thought you were just a pretty face. I didn't expect you to be this.... ambitious." He said, his tone bordering admiration. Here was this little girl, wanting to do exactly what he was planing to do. A potential ally? A new student, possibly? One thing was for sure- she was the most interesting child he had stumbled upon to date. "I will help you, of course. But first things first, my dear, you are injured. You must heal." He said, slipping back into his old days of training his students, and making sure they were in their prime.... before they were sent out to cut their enemies to ribbons, that is. Which they did with flying colors.

Mame held in a squeal, climbing up the fire escape slowly, making sure not to topple her new family. She cooed as his words washed over her brain like iced water, dousing the fever that had racked her skinny frame, not from any physical sickness, but the sheer torment that she mentally forced her way through. All of it was gone in an instant, although with that stimulation gone she had mind enough to realize that traveling via roof might not be the smartest idea, after all the bat clan was probably gracing the roof tops.

The blond paused in embarrassment and turned her eyes to her spidery father figure, glad the make up hid her flushed tone. In truth pain didn't effect her the same way it effected others, nature vs nurture had made sure of that, in her twisted brain it had flip flopped, pain was pleasure, pleasure was frightening. But Slade spoke with such confident authority, she was by nature a follower, a lost little girl desperately seeking out whatever love she could scrap up in this muck filled bucket of a city. She'd obey him without question, she would beat any adversary for him, all because he had said yes.


" Uhm, yes rest....I have a HQ near the harbor...We should go there for now...."

She paid her bleeding legs attention now, wondering how long she'd have to rest, how long he wanted her to take time to heal. It'd put her current plans on hold, but family took priority over everything, even the Batman. Mame'd have to brag to Slade when she took him to the ware house, she'd show him her arsenal she concocted from the other scourge of Gotham, from the police, she'd weave him the tale of her escape from Arkham. Hopefully the fact that she was a certified criminal whack job wouldn't scare him off, it usually put a damper on her relationships.

Once upon a time she had tried to live a normal life, working for the mob and what not. Ah those were the sweet halcyon days, just her a few thugs and an ice cream stand, sitting in a park talking about the hit they pulled the other night. She let out a sigh remembering the good times, climbing back down to the ally and looking about the side walk, the streets were littered with cops. Now was a time for her to show her stuff to Slade, she'd get them out of this and to the harbor without a bump in the road.

Karmy laughed, put an arm around Cyrah and pulled her in for a hug. "Don't worry Cy, I'm not gonna let the big bad sake get you ever ever again." she couldn't stop laughing at the memory. "Casius shouldn't have forced that on you anyways. Thats called child abuse Cas!" and she burst out laughing once again.

Slade grunted at the sight of the abundant number of police. If he had his human or shadow body, he could have moped them up tute-sweet, and been merrily along. As the insect he was now, he lacked that subtle strength. But with these lemons came lemonade- he would now see just what this girl was capable of. Would she sneak past, or engage the police? What weapons were at her disposal? How did she deal with these situations physically?

But Slade also noted that Mame had a slight diadvantage- across from her inuries, these police were most likely out for the batman- in other words, these men were armed and probably damn good at their jobs.

And it was amusing. Not for a second did he see Mame waver as they approached, and it pleased Slade heartily to see this. Yes, she DEFINITELEY had what it took to be a new apprentice. He observed eagerly, opening his pincers in case he had to step in and lend what little aid he could.

Mame watched the police covered side walk, her blue eyes swiveling back and forth before a small smile graced her soft features. She turned her head to look over at Slade and clicked her teeth slightly.

"Let's play a game"


The blond walked out, no hesitation, no trying to make herself look less conspicuous, she just marched out onto the street, looking back and forth before marching down the street towards a police officer, who looked over at her and frowned. Swinging his nite stick about and looking her up and down.

" Going to a convention sweet heart?"
" I'm here to support Batman"
"You do know that we're trying to arrest the Bat don't ya?"
"He didn't kill Commissioner Gordon! You cops are idiots!"
"Yeah yeah move along before I arrest you for obstruction of the law"
"Jerk!"

She scampered off down the street, the cop shaking his nite stick at her as she stuck her tongue out at him. If there was one thing Mame was good at doing, one little thing that made her so very unassuming and normal, she was Brilliant at playing pretend. She could act her way out of anything if she felt so inclined, though her lying skills weren't that great she was a method actor, if she could trick herself into being the person she was pretending to be she had it made.

She used to reenact the Godfather, for Big Boss McCorvic and his thugs. They loved it.

Mame proceeded to walk casually down the streets, getting strange looks from the police and pedestrians she passed. But they ignored her as she began to chant ' Batman not Guilty!' Eventually a police officer told her to leave or get arrested, much like the first cop she had run into, and had hailed her a taxi so she could 'get the hell outta everyones way dammit'

The whole time one delicate hand was resting on Slade, holding him to her protectively even more so when others would approach, at one point she had snarled at a homeless man for pointing at the spider, her canines snapping in irritation. He was her family! No one else's!! She'd be damned if some cop or hobo could take him from her!

After she had gotten into the taxi she had smiled down at the arachnid and winked, a giddy peel of laughter irrupting from her shaking skinny frame as the cab driver looked back to her and asked her where she wanted to go. She instructed him to the harbor, he skidded out into the street and began down the mostly empty streets towards the given address. Mame simply waited in silence as she beamed down at Slade.