The Darkest of Knights

"Deal." Alice said tossing Karmy her Zippo and walking off to her room.

"Score!" Karmy shouted and pulled out a ton of fireworks. "Hehehehe never give a lighter to a pyromaniac."

"Excellent." Thorne smirked a little taking a long drag on his cigar before blowing the smoke out the window. "Do this job well and this could be the beginning of a long and, fruitful partnership." The crime lord motioned to his driver, and the limousine slowly pulled over to the side of the road. "You'll find the payment I mentioned in the trunk, as well as a significant of ammunition."

Astro had followed the others to Wayne Manor. This was where they were housed. Huh. He'd just have to get their attention somehow, he figured, floating invisibly in the dining room.
---
Ivy glanced into the kitchen."Karm! You and Batgirl made it back OK? What happened?" she inquired.

“It’s good to have you back, son.” Gordon told Robin as Batman leaped off the building. “Thanks, Captain Gordon.” Robin replied. “You take care of yourself out there, okay?” Gordon said to him. “I will. I promise.” Robin responded. Out of the door a young redhead wearing purple walked out from the top door of the roof calling for Jim. “Dad! Are you ready to go—“ She paused in mid-sentence as she starred at Robin, he was standing atop the building’s edge. “—Yet?” Gordon quickly threw his arm around his daughter and turning her around. “Be right there, sweetie. Why don’t you just wait in my office while I finish some police business?” Gordon said calmly leading his daughter back inside. He turned to Robin a stern look on his face. “Not on your life, Boy Wonder.” Gordon threatened as he closed the door. At least for Dick it was love at first sight, she even remembers thinking to herself that he looked like a dork.

Barbara grew up and and had began to work with Dick as Batgirl and Robin...

“Thank goodness for mirrored windows.” Barbara said changing into the Batgirl suit in the back seat. They were just two teens fighting crime. Nothing wrong with that, right? “Um… yeah… I, uh, agree…” Dick said putting on his mask in the front seat. “What are you looking at?” Barbara asked. “Nothing Babs, I—“ “Eyes front, Dick Grayson. You have to at least pay for dinner if you think you can get that far on the first date!” Barbara interrupted climbing into the passenger seat fully dressed. Dick was frowning. Arriving at a crime scene, Crazy Quilt mocked Batgirl and Robin. “He sends the Baby Heroes into battle with me? I’m offended!” “Me too, CQ! Especially that Day-Glo Party dress you’re wearing!” Robin shot back. “Perhaps I can get Batman’s attention by getting yours!” Crazy Quilt laughed shooting a beam of light from his helmet.

“Batgirl? Are you okay?” The voice of Robin asked. A small floodlight lit the room revealing the position they were in. “Do I look okay to you?” Batgirl asked, “Well yeah actually. Batman’s gonna kill me! I can’t believe we let Crazy Quilt lock us in this safe!” Robin exclaimed as they tried their hardest to push away from each other. Robin tried to get into a more comfortable position but his right foot ended up being next to Batgirl’s right ear, and his left arm behind her back. It was a small safe.
“I’ve always wondered: what’s with the Pixie Boots and the Short Pants?”
“It makes the bad guys think I’m just some goofy kid. Their underestimation gives me an extra element of surprise.”
“That’s weird.”
“Says the girl in the canary yellow go-go boots.”
Their faces were inches apart.
“Wow… you smell nice.”
“That better be your utility belt pushing against my leg.”
“What?! What are you talking about?”

Barbara woke up suddenly; her dreams had all been her memories of her past with Dick. She laughed at the past and thought more of the past, her hands behind her head.



Red X scrambled up and looked around. "Geez, how hard is it to find her and kick her ass? What are we supposed to do stay on the black squares or something?" He asked.

Batman was getting restless, "Okay thats it, I'm back going in." He said opening up the door and letting in the chilly air.

Alice was tired and jumped into her bed, she had changed into a red night gown and closed the curtains.

"Shut the hell up b*tch, we're trying to talk here!" Red X yelled at The Red Queen throwing an explosive at her.

"Hey, whats wrong with a little flash and bang?" Karmy said, flipping the zippo open and clicking it on. "This place could use a little more pizzazz anyways!" she laughed and lit a bottle rocket.

Astro glanced in the pantry, feeling lucky to find a sack of flour. He tried to push it, and failed. It took several more tries before he finally toppled it off from the shelf. It scattered white powder across the floor, he dove trying to scratch in words. A faint movement could be seen.

"What's that?!" Ivy screamed, a little scared. "This place haunted?"

"Hell if I know." Karmy said, watching the fuse to the bottle rocket slowly start to light. "This should cause quite a bang!" she lit about 3 more and waited for the show to start

A black force shielded the fire crackers as the all made silent pops. "That's not exactly the brightest thing to do indoors." Raven said.

"Don't worry toots, if this is just an illusion they can't really hurt us. Right? What did Batman always say?" He wondered. "Work through pain." Batman said behind him picking the two up. "Where's the Red Queen?" He asked.

Crude letters appeared in the flour.

Help

Astro tried to scratch in "Ernie" or "Bar" but found himself weakening with each movement. He stopped hovering, collapsing onto the flour. It caused a small, barely visible indention in the fine powder.

E b
He continued scratching.
---
Ivy darted her eyes to the flames on the bottle rockets, about to extinguish them. "Hi Raven." she greeted, when the sorceress did so before she could.

"Actually," Karmy said. "It would have been the brightest thing to do!" and she fell to the ground, rolling around and laughing hystarically.

Batman sprinted over to the Red Queen and tackled her into a wall, still holding on to her he smacked her head against a window thoroughly breaking it in. Bringing her back out he kneed her in the face dropping her to the ground. "I'm sure you two won't have such a hard time cuffing her now would you?" He asked sarcastically.

Raven looked on the ground ignoring Karmy, though she wrapped her mouth with duct tape using her powers. "Don't ask me, I'm not a detective; but I do sense another presence in the room." She said coolly.

Karmys desperate cries to get the damn thing off were muffled as she clawed at the black strip. Obviously getting no where, she looked over at Raven, who in a way reminded her of Luna, her attitude anyways. And what did Luna dislike the most? That's right, Karmy ran up to Raven, and glomped her into a tight hug.

"Uhh... What are you doing?" Raven asked as she turned into a black raven and exited Karmy's hug.

Karmy facepalmed and gave Raven an odd look. "I can't answer you because you gagged me old lady!" she thought to herself. She pulled out a small knife and began to try and remove the black strip. Not a smart move really.

Raven looked at her confused. "Oh." She said with realization, nearly forgot she wrapped her mouth, and she let go of the black power tape.

Karmy suddenly realized something. "Hey wait Raven!" she jumped in front of her. "You're medically inclined right?" she asked. "Could you.. Do me a favor?" she showed her the old scar on the back of her neck. "Fourteen years ago, when I was 10 years old, those bastards at the institution implanted a chip on base of my cerebellum right above my spine. I've tried to take it out, but everytime I even get close to taking it out, an electric shock goes through it and knocks me into a coma for a good week. I've tried short circuiting it, breaking it, recalibrating it, pretty much everything. I can't even touch it without going into a coma." she looked up at Raven. "Do you think you could.. Help me? Please?"

[sorry, been busy l8ly. REAL busy. And frankly, it ain't gettin' better.]

Cyrah, not back to normal, had busied herself with raiding Wintergreen's pantry. Nothing hit the spot like milk flavored with fishpaste. yum-o. When she turned about, chugging the repulsive stuff, she noticed the odd green flame. Ha, she didn't need to be a hypnotist to see that this was some kind of spiritual voodoo. "Warning you right now, Whatever it is, it wasn't me, dammit." She said, and coolly walked by.

Cassius emerged from the Batmobile at WM. "Damn, what a night. Now if you don't mind, i'm going to go drink of this wretched day of the year, thank-you." He said, clopping back to wards town, his mind apparently not there with him.

Batman apprehended the Red Queen and set her in high level security in the Batbunker. He surfaced back to ground level and walked over to the Wayne Manor in his civilian outfit along side with Damian and Nicole. "Wow its so late." Dick yawned as he examined his watch. It displayed 07:12am. The mere numbers brought redness to his eyes. "How are you holding?" Dick asked. "Terribly." Damian whined. "I wasn't asking you." Dick said plainly.

Raven looked at Karmy, she smiled. "I dunno," she said, "don't you think I'm too old for that?" Raven winked at her.

"Crap, you can read minds too." Karmy said backing away slightly. "I'm sorry." she apologized. "You're not old! Just ya know, older than me.. Which I mean, probably isn't a lot and no wait I mean.. GAH! Please.."

"I suggest you do that now." Dick said leaning his head to the morning skies. "So what about me? Where do I sleep?" Damian asked pouting. "Where I slept last night."
"Where's that?"
"The couch."

"Fine turn around." Raven demanded and Karmy obeyed. Her hand turned black with energy as Raven yanked the chip out the back of her neck rather quickly. "Either you softened it up for me or they did a lousy job installing it, but its out." She proclaimed as she handed Karmy the discarded chip.

Zero peeled himself off the wall he ingloriously faceplanted into, and remembered that he needed to talk to Batman. Straightening himself up, he clopped about, finally finding Dick taunting Damian. "Hey, uh, not to interupt, but I need to talk to you when you finish with with him." He said, jabbing his thumb at Damian.

Karmy stared, completely bewildered, at the slightly bloodied chip in Ravens hand. "Yes.." she reached over and took the small device in her bandaged hands. "Hahaha yes!" she started to laugh as a smile spread wide across her face. Ecstatic, she jumped up on top of the table and cheered. "Its gone!" she danced around on the table. "Take that you f*cking government pigs!" she shouted up at ceiling. She continued to dance and laugh around on top of the table until her eye's rolled up into the back of her head and she fainted.

November 11. Daaaaaaaaaaaaamiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit. Cassius sloughed off down the road, ignoring the clearly suprised pedestrians. Couldn't today have just blown over- just gone from 11-10 to 11-12 without bothering with the day in between? He figured, jsut this once, he would go drink in a bar. He heard Ernie's old bar wasn't the same since Ernie flew the coop two years ago, but the place had just too many memories to not have it at the top of his list. However, as he approached, he noticed a crime scene. [I'd assume cops would have shown up about the dead barowner by now. If not, I can edit.] That, and a big CLOSED sign. Well shoot.