The Darkest of Knights

Poison Ivy's scowl grew. "Your riddles are more of a problem than you may think. You leave riddles, and that's how Batman always defeats you." The plant continued sprouting in her arms. "Have you ever not left a riddle behind, so you had an actual chance to succeed?"

The pill wore off but her headpiece was still on. Alice was happy that she could breath again, she was happy her face wasn't peeling off from the hot tea. She was now a puppet. Mindless, and yet something was bothering her. "Alice? Alice? Come in Alice; Batman to Alice. Do you read me? Come in Alice!" The communicator rung in her ear and she would scratch at it if she could. But she was far too lazy for that. She closed her eyes and hoped the nice bucked toothed man would give her something to eat. Also her stomach hurt. What was up with that? She could feel her skin peek under her suit. It was uncomfortable and unpleasant.

"Well..." The Riddler said raising a finger. "No I can't. Its just old habbit I suppose... I tried believe me... But that's not the point!" He said getting serious, "How about the Joker? He did the same thing! All I have to do is come up with... With better Riddles... Yeah! Just more convoluted riddles! He'll never figure out if I leave more difficult riddles behind. Haha! Yeah."

"Ooooh, a gun, on a man with solid steel skin. Remind me to be frightened later." Metallo hissed disdainfuly. "Location... Maybe I know, maybe I don't." Metallo said. He knew the answers, of course, but he wasn't exactly a generous guy. But the mention of a deal intruiged him. "A deal, hm?" He inquired.

Cyrah and Zero both watched the scene before them, watching it get increasingly more like a time bomb ticking to blow...

"Yeah a deal." Raven smirked. She whispered over to Batgirl, nodded and pointed the gun. "This gun is spring loaded, shoots a spear. Guess where that's pointed." She said at Metallo's open core. "You tell us what you want and we let you go."

Metallo didn't give two figs about the spear- the odds of it hiting anything that could actually kill him was slim at best.

But the offer of them letting him off the hook was too tempting to pass up. "Hmmm.... fine. I'll talk. What do you want to know?" He asked, trying his hardest to co-operate.

"Do you know anything about the murder of Commissioner Gordon? Does it have anything to do with you not wanting to go to Arkham?" She asked lowing the gun. She needed to know this, if it was just another false lead then she would have to go back to the drawing board. "If not," She asked assuringly, "what are you doing here and why did you try to attack the Current Riders?"

"Of COURSE I know about the murder- I was THERE, I set off the hookshot myself." Metallo said, not seeming to take the gravity of what he said seriously. "As for Arkahm- I'm doing this crap under orders. If they found out I failed to hit my designated target, this time the Riders, and compromised the plan, they'd come and get me for sure." Metallo explained.

(Lol I was trying to figure out want you meant by 'peek' for like 10 minutes XD!!)

The Mad Hatter set Alice on the bed the Scarecrow had brought into the room. "No darling I need to run and talk to my colegues a bit." he placed a few things on the bed. "I have brought your favorite dress!" he placed a light blue dress on the bed next to Alice. "There is some food on the bedside table. Please feel free to change and eat to your hearts desire." he smiled and pecked her cheek with a kiss. He headed for the door, "Oh." he called back. "Remove any gadgetry you have on you, you'll be more comfortable." and he walked out of the room, locking the door behind him. "So!" he walked over to the others. "Now what?"

---

Karmy stood up from the couch and stumbled over to the nearest restroom. She was coughing as she walked, her hand covering her mouth. reaching the room she slipped in quickly and locked the door, flipping on the lights as she walked up to the sink. Looking down at her hands, she found them to be speckled with blood. "Craaapp..." and she started coughing again, blood falling into the sink.

The gun fell from her hands in shock. She could feel her heard sink and hit the bottom of her stomach, Batgirl was hyperventilating. "Who..." she whispered shaking her head. "Who gave you those orders?" Batgirl asked then looking up to him. "You killed my father, then you're about to kill our partners?!" She knew she let it slip. Her identity as the daughter of the Commissioner was out and she regret saying it.

Metallo rose a nonexistant eyebrow. "So, he was your father....." He muttered. "The orders came from my superiors at STEAM. When we beleived the Batman might possibly be dead a few days ago, we realized we needed another big media circus. They wanna build something- something BIG and BAD." Metallo said. Metallo was pretty bad himself, and to admit that STEAM's new device was such was saying something.

Raven rested a reassuring hand on Batgirl's shoulder. "It's going to be okay..." She told her. "What is it?" Batgirl asked Metallo standing up. "What are they making that they have to kill my dad and launch an attack on The Riders?"

"The thing? it's some big new toy that some big government sect is craving- it's called an Earthquake generator, but it's not like the small fry things the new titans faced six years ago, or the ones the Black lanters were coveting. No, this is a bigger, badder thing. After the Lanterns collected all the data on the generators, STEAM was able to pool enough info together to make the much more dangerous one they're making now." Metallo explained.

"What do you mean Now What? You've been stunting our development since you jumped onboard! When will you start pulling your loose ends?" The Riddler asked, "Of course that's a riddle I can't get an answer from. I might have to tie the loose ends myself." he said cocking a handgun with one hand by pushing it against the desk. "You got any problems with that Jon?" He asked Scarecrow who had his arms crossed and tilting his chair back away from the desk The Riddler used to cock his gun. "Jervis, its about time you start pulling your weight here." He said not answering The Riddler's question. "We talked it over and you're like a roommate who takes and doesn't return. What's the deal?"

"There will be a time when loud-mouthed, incompetent people seem to be getting the best of you. When that happens, you only have to be patient and wait for them to self destruct. It never fails." The Mad Hatter said folding his hands calmly. "I have only been here for one day Edward and you're already losing it. I must say, I am a tad offended. Do you think that I spend all my time fantasizing over - well ok never mind." he reached into his jacket pocket. "You see, I have been working on something." he pulled out 4 beanies. "You see gentlemen and my lady, these caps are fitted with mind control devices. Just slip one on someones head and they're under your control! Voice activated of course. All we need to do is to slap one of these on 4 of those miscreants and then we can take them out and capture Batman! Now who is the riddle... Who of the heroes is the most powerful?"

They looked at one another, The Riddler spoke first. "Yeah 24 hours and we did all the work for you." He said inspecting the hat. "We don't have a lot of time Hatter, we have to be on the move!" The Scarecrow stood up still looking at his hat, "Maybe these should go to the rest of The Batman Family, then the leader of the Riders..." He mused.

Batgirl looked at Raven, she let him go. "Go back to Metropolis." Batgirl said as they got into the Batmobile and drove away. In the Batmobile, Batman's face came onscreen. "I can't get a hold of Alice, I tried contacting her but she's not responding. Her communicator is working fine though, I can hear her breathing." He said.
"Batman, Metallo killed my father. He used the electronics in your grapple-hook and killed him."
"This isn't the time Barbara. We have to find Alice!"
"Well I'm sorry, I just figured out who killed my father! Couldn't you shed a bit of sympathy?"
"I'm afraid that The Mad Hatter has Alice!"
"What?"
"You heard me."
"Well crud! Now what? You have a tracker on her?"
"Its in the communicators but GPS navigation is down. Communication is all we have at the moment."
"Well have you checked that warehouse in the district before you left?"
"Empty."
"Fine meet up in the Batcave."
Batgirl flicked off the communicator. "Is everything okay Batgirl?" Raven asked. Batgirl slammed on the gas in anger.

"Well by all means, on wards men!" The Mad Hatter stood up and shifted his hat. "To Pamela's I imagine? And yes, I say that would be the perfect way to get under Batmans hat, or cowl in this matter." he sneered.

---

Karmy turned off the faucet, which had cleared the sink of the blood. "You know your rib is probably puncturing something internally." Casey said from behind Karmy. "I know.." she wiped the bloody from the edges of her mouth. "I'd rather not bother the others about this though, I'll be fine. I always am." she leaned against the sink and looked up at Casey. "You won't be able to ignore the pain forever you know. You could always just-" "Morphine. I know." she reached into her bag and pulled out a morphine stick. "The only thing good, if even that, of the institute." and she stuck it into her leg. Soon she was sitting on the floor of the bathroom, laying in a drugged up daze.

[Dude, I TOTALLY forgot about Cassius and RoboSlade. Metallo is pretty much outta the RP for now- he used his Krytonite to transform and go into hiding.]

Cyrah stood outside the restroom Karmy had ducked into. She knocked lightly. "Hey, Karms, everything ok in there?" She asked with concern. However, she heard a familiar clopping of heavy armor as Casius trudged up to the group. "Figures- finished the damn fight before I could show up. Jerks." He said, huffing and puffing.

[I honestly don't remember where I left off with RoboSlade, I'll catch up and post with him tmmorow for sure >3>]

Alice took off her suit, she examined the burns on her skin, they were pretty bad, she lightly touched it and it began to peel off. Blood slowly formed around the wound on her abs, and further examination showed the wounds crawling on her chest and thighs. Looking around for something to treat the wound she went outside to ask for something, her eyes were half open and she wandered about. "No not yet, we should plan now before we exit civilization." A voice could be heard in the other room of the appartment. Maybe that voice knows where some proper bandages are. She opened the door. "Is there a band-aide I can use?" She asked in front of the villains, still without a suit.


Batgirl drove up and stopped at the Batcave. "Okay everyone out." She said as they all climbed out. Robin nearly fell out, Batgirl caught her and lifted her up. "Here... I'll take her to her room and you can meet up with Dick. He'll be on the first floor. I'll meet up with you in a bit." Batgirl said to Raven. She only nodded and flew away. Tucking in Nicole, still in her Robin costume because Barbara didn't want to go through too much buttoning and unbuttoning. It wasn't like this was the first time she went to sleep in it. She kissed her on the forehead. "You awake kiddo?" She asked her softly, "Just making sure if we have to get called back out..." She reassured Nicole.

Batgirl laughed a bit, "No, no, no, kiddo! Get some rest while you can.." She said patting Nicoles forehead and standing up. "Night Nicole." She said walking out and lightly closing the door. A minute passed by. Two. Ten. Twenty. A dagger was raised above Nicole's neck. "You took my spot...." Then the dagger came down like lightning bolt, crashing from the skies.

The Mad Hatter calmly walked over to Alice, slipped the coat over her body, handed her some bandages and pushed her back into the room. Locking the door tight, he straightened out his hat and sat back down. Somewhere in Texas, a girl was repeatedly slamming her head into her desk.

"X.." The teenager told her stepping out of the shadows of the terribly lit room, "Red X."

"I want you to do me a favor little girl," Red X said side stepping and withdrawing th Red Dagger that was in the shape of an X, "I want you to hit me as hard as you can. C'mon... X marks the spot." He said whipping into fighting stance.

Alice looked at the bandages, applied them and walked back to the room. Looking at the dress she decided she didn't like it too much, she tried to get back in her suit. The head band began to irritate her.

(Hope that works out for y'all)

Karmy was just coming out of her 'high' point when she heard Cyrah. "One sec Cy!" she groaned as she sat up. "You shouldn't be hanging around them Karmy, they're gonna call you crazy." Casey said, sitting on the edge of the sink. "But, they're my friends." she replied. "And I'm your brother."

Red X grabed the staff and twirled her in, he tore off her mask quickly and gazed into her eyes. "You've got pretty eyes." He said still ignoring Nicole. Then he lifted her closer to her as if he was about to kiss her but instead punched her face in. Nicole hit the ground and Red X cracked his knuckles.