The Darkest of Knights

"Damn she's faster then I thought!" Rose THought to herself, using her speed to avoid the bullets, gritting her teeth as one embeded itself into her shoulder. She could worry about that later- the priority right now was either keeping Alice shooting untill she ran out of ammo or disarming her. Running in zig-zags and dashing back and forth to keep Alice from getting a secure shot, she closed the gap as quick as she could and slashed for her hands.

Slade contemplated finishing Red-X off- one less member of the batmob to worry about. But he was going to be out of comision for a bit anyways, Slade didn't need to waste the time or rescources on tripe like him. He took hold of the generator, and was about to make off with it untill he suddenly felt himself clearing the ground, rocketing into the roof-

It was truly one of Cassius's best punches. "Get back here so I can smack 'ya again!" Cassius said boastfuly. Granted, he didn't see that Slade had gained secure footing in the rafters of the building, and he certaintly didn't see it coming when Slade leapt down and planted his foot on top of Cassius's exposed head. Once Cassius had blacked out, Slade quickly took hold of the generator, and took off like no tommorow......

-a tad bit later-

Slade hunkered down in an alley with the generator next to him, and flipped open his comm to contact THorne. "I've got your little package, where do you want me to bring it?" He asked impatiently. He wanted to be done with this thing.

"Whoa!" Alice ducked out of the way and swept the ground with her body and hopped back to her feet, she discarded her remaining rounds and refreshed her clips. Rose was really quick, Alice had to keep on her toes; its been a while she fought someone with matching speed. At this rate I'll be out of live rounds in no time, I have to use these as tools and not handicaps... she thought. Rose was coming at her again, noticing she was going at her hands. Alice dropped a stun grenade and jumped out of the way.

Batman came to Red X's aide, "What the hell were you thinking, messing with Slade?" He asked picking him up. "Crud... He must be the buyer. Thorne said-" "You were messing with Thorne too?! What's the deal with kids these days?" Batman interrupted. "Cassius, I have to take Red X and Batgirl back to the Batcave. You want to still pursue Slade we have two batmobiles so you can do so."

"S-sure, no prblem. idiot." Cassius slurred, a throbbing red footprint on his head. he stumbled intot he car and began to follow where he beleived Slade went. Granted, he was driving like a drunk....

Rose saw the grenade, and dashed backwards as quickly as she could to avoid it. She's trying to keep me at bay- I can carve her like a cheap roast up close, and she knows it. But whereas my Katanas have no ammo, she has a finite number of grenades and bullets, so all I need to do is drain her ammo. Rose thought, not once taking her eyes off Alice as she dashed away from the grenade.......

Batman drove back to the batcave and rested the two in the medical bay. He noticed John, Wintergreen, and Zero, fast asleep from the effects of the antidote. He treated their wounds, kissed Barbara on her forehead and went up to the 5th floor to the Bat-Tank. "C'mon let's go save the city." He said to Robin, his arms crossed.

The grenade blew off and Alice began to spray at Rose again. As she shot automatic rounds at her she ran as fast as she could to her, when she got close enough she threw her guns into her holsters and swiped at Rose with her knife, letting out a loud battle cry as she executed her attack.

The bat-tank had a tankard linked to the back of it, carrying the hundreds of gallons of the antidote. The ramp let down and Batman drove out. "Get on the stun turret, if any crazies get near the tankard we're done for. We need to cut through the city to it reservoir." Batman said to Robin.

Close up. Really. Rose easily parried Alice's swipe with one Katana, and cut for her stomach next just to deliver a serious blow or at least force her to protect herself and go on the defensive.

Alice shrieked in surprise and looked at the direct hit that Rose inflicted on her, she was safe, the shock of the blade made her scream. "Maybe your blades are dull... That or my body armour is really damn good." Either way I have to be more careful. Alice smiled drawing her knife.

They drove out into he city and as soon as the got within city limits Batman already was ordering Robin around. "Hostiles coming in hot, 3 o' clock!"

Ivy paced back and forth through the Batcave, feeling restless and helpless. She had to do as Bats ordered and stay in the cave with the sleeping crazies that were her friends. Every so often she glanced at their bodies, seeing a slight twitch or turn as they slept. Her thoughts were interrupted by Astro.

"I-I think she spoke." he stammered, pointing to the slumped over figure of Luna.
"Lu? You with us?" Ivy asked, prodding her teammate gently.

"I'd prefer not thinking about it. We got some tangos at our six, take em out." Batman said trying his best to maneuver the Bat-Tank.

"Hey, hey! Use the turret! it takes them out quicker! We're getting surrounded, take em out!" Batman said panicking.

THe fuuuuuuu**? Direct slash and she dosen't get a damn nick in her friggin' clothes? This is messed up. Rose thought as her slash did nothing at all, save startle Alice a teeny bit. To call it discouraging was the understatement of the hour. She simply shrugged off Alice's comment- she was in with the bats now, of course she'd have body armor of some kind. She instead returned her attention to Alice's hands- even if she couldn't CUT her, there were other ways to win. She swung wildly for her fingers and wrists, trying to keep her from getting into a decent stance to fight back.

Zero began to come to, his powers granted him quick recovery from things like tranquilizers and some poisions. He slowly opened his eyes, only to see nothing whatsoever. He figured the lights must have been out. He stumbled up and drifted to where he expected a wall to be, and fumbled with a switch, only for it to be on already. "Huh, weird, Greyson must have forgot to pay the electric or soemthing....." he mumbled, still tired, not yet realizing his gogles were gone and he was 100% blind now......

"There is a large unmarked truck waiting in an alley just off of Wayne Boulevard. There should be a couple of men waiting in the cab encase you need assistance." Thorne smiled and took a long slow drag on his fine cigar and letting the smoke gather behind his teeth before puffing it out in one large ring. "Once you've delivered it, take the door at the end of the alley. Rocky will show you to an elevator, take it and we can talk face to face." The crime lord took another slow drag on his cigar, contemplating hanging up then and there before returning the phone to his ear. "And feel free to grab a snack on your way up." Kitchens existed for more than just their back-alley doors, and no questions asked anytime of the day delivery trucks after all.

"Right, coming up." Salde said, complying with THorne and heading off. Lucky for him, he wasn't far from the street where THorne's boys were waiting, so he schleped the generator about as stealthily as he could to avoid any of the infected running rampant int eh city. A mob of clown zombies would make this the second worst day ever.

Sorry, but Terra dumping him in a volcano took the cake.

Needless to say, he found the men witht he truck and handed off the generator. "You boys either have some serious stones or no brains to be out with these swarms running rampant." Slade said grumpily. Hey, two beatings from Batman and being uppercutted into the atmosphere by a Mamoth among men led to a pretty crappy mood. When Slade got to the door, he didn't bother to knock- he le thimself in wether he was wanted or not. His hand resting on the bag, he approached Rocky and followed him into the elevator......

Alice couldn't believe how well the new update to her suit was, coupled with nomex, kevlar, and a special material that hardens as impact is dealt,her skin was impenetrable; though that didn't mean she was shocked when she was hit. Alice realized that when Metallo shot her, her suit dampened the blow by far and only left a large burn on her skin. Though that doesn't mean she didn't feel Rose's attack. She pulled her guns out and as Rose attacked her she blocked the blades with her guns and locked them in tight. "You're not going to win this fight. Why are you even wanting to fight me? I didn't kill Slade!" Alice reasoned with her.

Batman pulled by the Bat-Tank by the large resevoir and got out. "Good job Robin. We need to shut off the supply for a bit while I apply the antidote to the waters, do that now." Batman said taking a hose and attaching it to the tankard and taking the other end and placing it in the water.

11/13/31
03:55 am
Cool breeze

Barbara slapped her mask off and felt around her head with her good hand, tears swelled as she felt the damage dealt. She sucked air through her teeth feeling a tender part of her head. Her hand was throbbing, no idea why. She lifted it up to examine it and she screamed. Wounds were reopened and blood was spillin from her hand again. Noticing Zero waking up and walking about she desperately called for him. "Zero..." She whimpered, "Zero come here. You've healed me before.. I need your help."

"All we do is wait now Robin." Batman said as the antidote left the tank slowly. "All we do is wait."

The tankard finally emptied into the reservoir. "Let the pressure build for a while." Batman said ignoring Robin. He didn't want to tell her that she was both pregnant and on the edge of death. Too much for a youngster like Nicole to take.

Batman looked down at Robin, then away in the distance. "Batgirl is.... Fine." Batman said crossing his arms. "Its Barbara we need to worry about." He sighed. In his mind, they were two different people, the Batgirl name will and has lived on ever since Killer Moth coined the title, girls who had crappy lives and good fighting skills have been taking on the mantle until it finally returned to its rightful owner. "Barbara has been hospitalized."

"Slade." Batman said, as if that would help ease the pain any more. It was more like rubbing salt in a wound, then setting it on fire. A silence swept over the dynamic duo as the waited for pressure to build in the viaduct system. In the distance, Alice and Rose were fighting. "Why does life have to be so complicated Robin? Why is it that we're the heroes and they're the bad guys? What if we were villains? How do we know what we're doing isn't the work of the Devil and what the villains are doing is God's Will?" Batman asked her. "What makes us the good guys and them the bad guys? What makes us good? Why do we say that we do good, because we think its moral? How do you know what we think is true? After all... We're just humans." Batman mused mainly to himself, deeply depressed in thinking about Barbara in her current state. "Insignificant humans."

"How do you know that saving them is the right thing to do? What if its best if we throw in the cape? I mean half the villains Bruce spawned was because of the Batman." Batman sighed. "The person I want to save is for selfish motives. So is it exactly good that I'm doing?"

Pleasing cool jazz was piped into the elevator. It smelled slightly of blood and fish, but the second may have been Rocky. For a bellhop he didn't much look the part, he looked like he should've been a fish monger on some fourteenth century dock, and his white smock was stained with a bit of pale red blood. Hard to say if it was aquatic or just half washed out human, but the mobster bellhop was at least intimidating enough to keep the riff raff out. He didn't say much though, and may not have showered that morning, or week. He did have a rather impressive cleaver tucked in the back of his pants, hidden, but not well enough that it wasn't perfectly visible to someone like Slade.

"I don't care- you abandoned him when he needed you the most. You might not have pulled the pin, but you're just as guilty for his death!" Rose said stubbornly, keeping locked with Alice- the last thing she needed was to be under fire again. She coldly knew this was pointless to no end- if she couldn't even get a scratch on Alice while she could spew f^ign machine gun rounds at her and was up to her neck in weapons, Rose knew her odds were piss poor at BEST. Plus, her left arm still had that bullet lodged in it, making that arm hard to move and burning like hell.

Handicapped, outgunned, and with useless weapons. God dammit.

"Yeah I know, but I have to SEE what I'm healing. Otherwise I could end up just making it worse." Zero said, still fumbling about. And it was true- if he tried to heal where there was no injury, he could very will end up giving Batgirl a tumor or something, as his healing involved enhancing the cell's reproduction ability to re-grow when had been damaged, his powers keeping it from having any adverse effect on the healed person's body. But if he tried to grow where there was no need, weird growths and tumors were bound to follow. "You got a flashlight or something?" Zero asked, still thinking the room was dark. [The truth is gonna suuuuuuuuuck]

"Maybe I should add epistimology to your courses so you know what I'm talking about." Batman pondered.

Alice looked at Rose with a face that looked like she would give right befote she would die. "Hypocrite!! You say I wasn't there when he needed me, where the hell were you when he needed you?! I didn't even know he had kids, and I've been working for him for thirteen years!" Alice screamed so loud their ears were hurting, she was pushing the lock to her and forcing her weight upon her foe. "You unbelieveable bi*ch!" Alice yelled at Rose, thoroghly pissed.

"A flashlight? What are you talking about Zero? The lights are-" Barbara got a good look at Zero's face. "Oh my god! Where are your goggles?!" She asked worried and sitting up. "You can't see me at all?!"

"No, they're ri-" Zero reached for his face- jack squat. No gogles.

Uh-oh.

The real gravity hit Zero and hit Zero like a truck. He fumbled backwards and sluped on the bed. His gogles, his one prized possesion, were gone. His eyes? fried, no good anymore. His powers relied on seeing his target, so he was now genuineley useless. No witty comment, no inner monolouge, Zero simply sat quietly, saying nothing.......

Rose locked eyes with Alice. "I'd tell you the sob-story, but would you care? Nah, you wouldn't give a rat's ass GI Jane, you'd counter with some self- richeous bullcrap about Justice.." Rose said to Alice.. She could re-count the story of Slade intially taking her in when nobody else would, then him chasing her off for showing mercy to an enemy, the story of their dicey relationsip, the story about her still slightly caring about her father, but in the end she knew it would get just crammed back down her throat. But she wasn't locked with Alice anymore, so she was prime quality meat for her guns. She prepared to dash away at the slightest sign of the triggers being pulled.....

Barbara tumbled out of bed. "Zero!" She called out to him crawling to the bent hero. "Zero, you can't fix your eyes? Can Luna do it? How can I help you she asked getting close enough to rest her hand on his shoulder.

Alice snapped, she threw her guns at Rose, one at a time, yelling four letter curse words. She ran over to Rose and kneed her in the stomach, and uppercut her chin. "He's Slade! Not some push over douche bag like Dr. Light! You can't just let Slade go! He's causing this town trouble enough!" Alice said with no knowledge that Rose didn't know that Slade, though dead, was still alive.

Rose swung her foot intoAlice's face to get her to back off. "Shut up. To you he's just some villain, but he was my father, regardless of what he did. You talking like he's still alive is only fueling your own fire." Rose hissed. She knew what her father had done, but she was just angry at the world for loosing one of the only people that had helped her when she needed it. Her swords as useless as they were, she sheathed them and went into a figting stance, her injured arm kept behind her only for balance.

"I can't heal them if I can't see the actual damage, and I doubt Luna can un-fry my corneas. I'm sorry barb, but....." Zero trailed off, muddled and rightfully in a total slump at this new development.