The Darkest of Knights

"I know he did..." Batman said urging her to the door, "It looks like Damian could use a time out about now anyway." They walked out leaving Damian in seclusion. They observed him from the two way mirror. He looked at the door and waited. And waited.

As the Mad Hatter followed the rest of the villains to Poison Ivy's greenhouse hide out, he spotted two figures flying above them. "Hmm.. Curious.." he muttered and craned his head to get a better look at them. "Oh my.." he recognized the two heroes. Pulling out the newspaper clipping from 2 years ago he looked at the names. "Luna and Ivy.." a grin spread across his face. Quickly snatching up 2 beanies from Riddler, he told them he would meet them at the hideout and started to trail the two.

"I only plan to detain him until he starts talking. Until then we should get to our normal work night." Batman said activating more locks on the room. Traps set to deploy if he planned to escape. He looked at Robin who was obviously disturbed by the kiss. "Are you okay? How did it feel? Was that your first?" He asked concerned, he was expecting her first kiss with a boy would be more pleasant. Though he didn't really know what was going on when she was at Ryan's.

Alice hopped into the Batmobile and drove off. "Hey there!" Batgirl greeted booming down the streets. "Oh god, get me the hell out of here!" Alice yelled shivering. "Not a problem!" Batgirl smiled stepping on the gas.

Ivy frowned. "It'd make sense. With all this drama, and all the fear gas...she's hallucinating....Hmm." The brown eyed heroine contemplated this. "We'll tell Bats when we get there." She decided.
---
"Bye, Jervis." Poison Ivy grunted, leading the way back to her home.

Batman knew the feeling of surprising someone, he did the same. In mid-sentence too. He decided not to pursue the issue of the feeling itself. "He probably did that just to confuse you." Batman mused walking away. "He's probably trying to flatter you. Shock you. Damian is not someone to be messing around in relationships with. Seeing how he was trained in the League of Assassins, he killed many at a young age. He's a murderer Robin. You and I are not."

Karmy opened the door to the bathroom and stepped out, now completely doped up on painkillers. No pain, no worry right? Right! "Hiya Cy!" she smiled, she could feel Casey's hand on her shoulder. He would never leave her again, and if anyone ever tried to take him away, they would pay.

Batman stopped in the middle of the hallway. "I know... he wasn't raised by Bruce most of his life. I wanted to give him a chance. And I was about to make Tim Drake my Robin but I chose Damian because if anything Tim is better than me." He said giving Tim high regards. "But Damian was just so disrespectful, he didn't appreciate anything I did for him." He sighed. "If only Bruce saw what has become of him. Stealing the one thing I regret the most. I thought I destroyed all the Red X blue prints."

Batman sighed, groaned even. "That's not true Nicole." He said. "If I could do anything I would have saved Gordon. And I couldn't. I'll give Damian another chance. One more chance." He warned Robin. He remembers the last time he gave someone a chance. Terra betrayed them, and he learned one good lesson from that. You have to trust someone to be betrayed, he has to be careful with who he trusts. "He screws up one more time, gives up my suit, then we'll start talking."

"Well your room is a complete wreck at the moment." Batman mused. Just then Barbara and Alice drove in coming to a screech. They popped out greeting the two. "Hey I told you to wear hockey masks!" Batgirl said flipping out. "And great news Dick guess what we saw on driving back?" Alice asked. Batman and Robin were genuinely confused. "What?" he asked. "The Batsignal."

Batman and Robin looked at each other. "Well Hockey-Man can't answer the signal. Lets go!"

On arriving at the Batsignal's location they saw a very angry Arnold Flass with his hands in his pockets. The citizens of Gotham had something to look up to now. "You rang?" Batman asked, "So you're the real deal?" Flass asked tossing a cigarette to the floor and stepping on it. "I'm surprised you even came knowing that I want your head for 60 mil." Flass taunted. "What do you want?" Batman asked as Flass shut the signal off. "As you know ever since you left the streets the crime rate shot up in the past four days." "I'm aware of that commissioner. Whats the deal with calling us in at 4:00 am?" The Commissioner was taken aback. "I want you back on until the crime rate declines, then I want to talk to you." He said. "You talk to him you talk to all of us." Batgirl said, "I know the murderer and it makes perfect sense." She said.

Ivy nodded in agreement. "She really has...oh!" The elementalist had grown weak from plain weariness, plus the recent battle. She was losing power quickly, managing to slow her collapse from the sky with a faint breeze. She landed alright, if not roughly. "I'm OK!" she called to Luna, not knowing she had landed near Mad Hatter.

From out of the shadows, a hand slapped over Ivy's mouth and dragged her back. "Hello my little flower." he whispered softly in her ear as she struggled and quickly slipped a beanie onto Ivy's head. "Now.. Be a good little girl and call your friend down here, so she may join the party."

Ivy nodded slowly, to confirm she had understood what she was supposed to do. No! I shouldn't! she argued internally, not wanting to fall under the control of the psycho he had kidnapped Alice, and murdered bunnies to paint a portrait. No, she couldn't work for such a fiend!

Yet, nonetheless, she felt her feet move forward. Her hand waved at Luna. "Lu! I found something! Come and check it out!" she called, her free hand pointing frantically at something at the ground. No! Luna! Don't fall for it! It's a trap! she screamed. But her body wouldn't listen. "Hurry!"

Luna! Don't!

As Luna landed, the Mad Hatter appeared from behind her and shoved a beanie on top of her head. "Like flies to honey." he smirked. "Come along ladies, there's much to be done." and he lead them to the greenhouse where Poison Ivy, Riddler, Astro and Scarecrow were already waiting. "And you say I don't pull my weight around here Edward." he sat down, grinning a buck tooth grin

Astro's eyes widened. The villainesses! Mad Hatter had captured the villainesses! He brought his hands together and began clapping feverishly. "Well done, Mr.Tetch!"
---
Poison Ivy eyed the two girls. Both on her death list. "Jervis, this is ingenious." She began, congratulating her friend, "But I want to let you know, as soon as this alliance is done..." Spiky vines overflowed from a particular pot, curling towards Ivy and Luna. It's scratched both of their arms, drawing a single drop of blood each.

"I want them dead."

The vines recoiled. Harvest sprouted upwards.

"By all means Pamela," The Mad Hatter bowed to her. "Take control of them! As far as I can see, these two are of the more powerful of the Riders and the Batclan. With their powers, we can easily defeat the others."

Zero, his powers depleted, had been plodding about the path back towards the Batcave after the girls, letting them go ahead as he chatted with his dad. "No way, they blew up Tokyo?" "Yup, the whole thing. Godzilla would be proud." Cassius said, his helmet under his arms. With it being dark as it was, Zero's goggles dangled around his neck. He liked to see things unaided now. As they got closer, they didn't see either Ivy or Luna. Odd, as they usually met up. Maybe then went ahead inside. he pressed the active key on his headpeice. "Yo, doll, Lu, you two go in already?" He asked.

Cyrah was suprised at Karmy's usdden change, but she had grown acustomed to it. "Hey, Karms, what say we walk back and rest for a bit? been a long day." She suggested. She figured some rest might do her good.

Poison Ivy heard Zero. Capture him, too?
Maybe. But not now.

"Answer you two have taken a walk. But will be seeing each other soon." The villainess ordered. Ivy hesitated, struggling from the mind control for a moment. "Now!" Poison Ivy snapped. The heroine nodded.

Slowly, Ivy pressed her communicator button to reply. "We're fine. Me and Lu just decided to go for a walk. We'll see you soon." She clicked it off. The redhead beside her grinned. "Right. And you will see each other soon. To battle." She turned her attention to the other villains. "Which of them do we attack first?"
---
Astro watched in awe. He had never killed, but there was a hero so determined to rid the world of evil, she stole lives. The Riddler, Scarecrow and Poison Ivy really were superb heroes.

Zero blinked. Ivy and Luna NEVER went anywhere without telling him beforehand, plus the tone in her voice gave away that something was up.

Not to mention he was getting this awful vibe from his spacial pulses. Oh yeah, he knew something was up, all right.

"Simple!" the Mad Hatter said as a matter of factly. "We need to get these other two caps on two of them and then we can go from there."


"Sure Cyrah." Karmy smiled and walked up next to her. "We really do need a break, I mean seriously. We've both been gassed by fear toxin, some more then others, and we're still standing!"

[Gah, sorry blud, I totally forgot to post as Slade x_x]

Slade had tried different approaches to rouse Mame out of her fit, but so far, nothing appeared to be working. Because it was Scarecrow's toxins that did this, he figured it would be prudent to find an antidote. But only Batman would have something like that. He despised the very thought, but he was going to have to get into the Bat-bunker as it was now called. From there, he was going to have to nab some of the anti-toxin. But big Slade couldn't do it undetected- no, Spiderslade had to do it to go without being caught. Making sure Mame was safe and hiding his metal body, his Spiderlike form scurried off intot he night, towards where he knew the previous Batman to live- Wayne manor. From there, he could find a way to the new location no doubt...

"Yeah, let's go." Cyrah said, casually walking off with Karmy. "Everything's ok? No like, serious injuries or anything?" She asked out of concern.

"Who do we snag, then? With these two we can lure practically any of them to us." Poison Ivy replied, clearly pondering who they should take in.

Astro rose his hand. "M-May I suggest....making more beanies? We don't have to just take four. Make more as we capture them. We'll have the ultimate fighting force..." His voice wavered as his shy demeanor overcame him.

"Oh no I'm perfectly fine!" Karmy lied, swallowing some of the blood in her mouth. Casey continued to whisper things to her as she walked with Cyrah. "Lie Karmy." "I am fine, don't worry Cyrah. How are you feeling? I mean, after that dude attacked you in the coffee shop and then this? I would go MENTAL if that happened to me."

Cyrah KNEW Karmy was lying through her teeth, but she wasn't going to FORCE her to say she wasn't feleing well. "Karms, if I was going to go mental, I would have done it ages ago." She said with a shrug. True, Coben's little encounter and the later fear toxin suprise weren't pleasant, but she could somehow pull out. "...You SURE you're ok?" She asked again, noticing the blood on Karmy's face."

"Oh this?" Karmy wiped the blood from her face. "Yeah no this is just a broken molar! Must have cracked in the last fight and it hurts but I'll manage. I've dealt with worse pain before." she laughed.