The Darkest of Knights

"Dammit!" Batman tore off a headset and tossed it to the ground, Alice caught it before it crashed against the floor. "What is it?" Alice asked "You can't find a trail?" Batman shook his head, "No," he sighed. "I found a strong trail; its just that.."
"Just that, what?"
"Karmy tried committing suicide. Now she's going after Slade."
"What..?"
"He's here."

It had taken some work, and if she could do it all again she'd probably try to make sure they had a working car waiting at the airfield. Or at least some distance from the airfield to keep it out of the path of destruction. Of course it wasn't like a pretty girl couldn't find a ride wherever she was going. It was the unconscious red head in the batgirl costume that was a little harder to transport. Again though, where there was a will, there was a way. The thugs who Thorne had hired to transport Metallo to the airfield had managed to, like most men with a talent for being thugs in the world, get out of the way before things started exploding, and once Roxie promised them an obscene amount of money for their trouble, they had agreed to help her get Batgirl out of harms way.

After that the trip could really be broken down into three major parts. First they found the nearest highway and while Roxie flashed some leg, the thugs hid with the unconscious Bat out of sight. There was a little discussion as to why they were putting effort into protecting someone who, for the better part of a decade had dedicated herself to putting people like them in prison, but that kind of talk ended after Roxie popped a round into the head of some poor well meaning, or possibly just horny and immoral, trucker with cold clinical precision. It wasn't the first time the raven haired mobster had killed, and the fact of the matter was, she didn't even keep count anymore.

Then there was the driving, easily the lion's share of the process. They couldn't speed or risk attracting attention, and when you're one girl, two thugs and an unconscious mask driving a stolen vehicle staying under the radar was easier said than done. Still, they weren't that far from Gotham, and once they were back in town the majority of the cops knew enough not to mess with Roxie, the thugs were another matter but the fact of it was Roxie didn't trust them as far as she could throw them, and was honestly probably going to have something sinister happen to them once she got back to Thorne.

---

Her boss wasn't however in the office at the moment. Rupert Thorne was doing something very out of character for him. The mob boss was standing, quiet obviously, outside an airplane terminal, hat and coat still in place and a half dozen thugs standing within ten feet of him. They were waiting for someone, someone rather special.

Gordon Godfrey stepped off the plane, white fedora hat on his head, heavy white faux-leather coat over his shoulders, and a nice blue suit with white undershirt on beneath that. He looked like the hard boiled well meaning but still tough as nails private detective just stepped out from TV land. And while he may not have well meaning, hard boiled or a detective in the strictest sense, he did have his own television show.

"Welcome to Gotham Mr.Godfrey. I can't thank you enough for coming." Thorne smirked lightly, tipping his hat to the visiting man. "I hope you had a pleasant enough flight."

"Your thanks are entirely unnecessary Mr. Thorne, your jet was adequately comfortable and I hear I have friends like you and Mr. Mannhiem to thank for getting my show back onto prime time." The blond man walked over an shook Thorne's hand not giving the thugs a single glance as he flashed bleached white teeth and smiled like a snake. "Now, tell me about this Richard Greyson."

"That woman is something else..... we better go find her before Slade does." Zero said, generating his energy wings. "And even without the tatoos, I am still Zero." he said, pointing to the big white zero sprayed onto the front of his outfit. He then shot into the air and headed for the city to find Karmy.

Cassius didn't have the luxury of flying and was cussing enough to chase off all the king's horses and all the king's men, as nobody was answering his call.

A gasp of air, sweat rolling past the mask and spilling into her eyes. The sting of the salty splash sprung Batgirl's hands to wipe her eyes. Hyperventalation. Never a good sign. Must have been a bad dream. Or blood on her hands. She scanned her surroundings and saw Roxie, the interior of a truck, the sound of the road moving underneath her. "Where am I?" She demanded.

Karmy was not so wet anymore, just damp, but it was still winter tine and she was cold. But did she care? Hell no. She had been walking around the city, keeping her head low and one eye on the ring and another for the other heroes. If she didn't want to be found, she wouldn't be. No trail to her was left nor any signs. The needle on her ring guided her along, getting warmer and warmer with each step closer she got to Slade. Once, she had seen Zero in the sky so she had to crawl into another airduct. From there, she portaled away to another part of the city. "So close.." she muttered to herself. Soon, the ring was almost burning her and she knew that he was close.

"Relax honey. You passed out. I'm taking you to my place, now lay back, you might have a concussion. You an' Corben went a few rounds before you blew his head off." She was leaning over the red headed hero, Batgirl laid out in the back of the 'borrowed' truck while the thugs drove. They were still a few blocks from Thorne's building, and thus Roxie's apartment, but there wasn't much traffic when you were a large semi truck on a small street. "Here." Roxie took a few small white pills from her purse. "Some pain killers, they ought to help clear you head... I might take just one, though... they're a little stronger than aspirin." It paid in her business to keep a handful of anything someone might ask for on hand, though this was probably the first time she'd given someone drugs who actually have needed them.

Slade approached the large warehouse he had visited with Mame days before. Sure enough, there were the crates with hsi army, practically begging for him to re-activate them. But he wasn't a stooge- he knew he was being stalked.

He had been helping himself to Karmy's bag, and across from re-uniting with the gun Thorne had graced him with, he had two additional guns clipped to his belt, a blasterstaff, and even a broadsword [I'm trying to ecoh his comic book look here.] so needless to say he was eager to make challenges. He spun around and looked out. "Might as well show yourself- I know you're there." He called out.

Zero had no luck finding Karmy, but he found something....... else. Metallo had done a good job of tearing up the abandoned airstrip, and a C4 blast wasn't exactly something that left a SMALL trail. He saw the damage from the air and flew over to investigate. Needless to say, finding Metallo's body and the R-cycle in the same place didn't bode well with him- nor the fact that they were both effectiveley destroyed. He took out his comm. "Hey, Zero to Batman...... Sensei, I found something you're gonna want to see. Meet me at that old airfeild outside of town." He reported.

"Gah, frikin'..... that....OOOH!!! She's going to KILL herself!" Cyrah said, partly angry and partly worried sick at the situation. She grabbed nicole's arm and took off running where Cassius had effectiveley and shamelessly Hotwired the T-car. Hey, he was just borrowing it, he was gonna give it back. Cyrah hopped in the car with Nicole and the car quickly tore off down the tunnel.*

*They never DO tell you how the titans get form the island to the mainland, I allways assumed a bridge or tunnel.

A figure stepped out of the darkness. It was Caspian and he had Karmy, unconsious, over his shoulder. "Hey man, I ain't here to fight." he said with a straight face. "Im getting my friend and leaving before she gets herself killed. You'll get your fight." he turned around and started to walk out. "You really shouldn't have taken her bag."

"Don't YOU lecture me." Slade scoffed. He didn't have to explain himself to some random punk, especially one siding with the hippie. Slade considered mowing him down then and there, but he had other concerns right now in the form of his own army again.

Cassius is blowing every stopsign and red light on plannet earth as he scours the city.

"I'm not lecturing you, I'm just telling you." Caspian shook his head and made his way outside. He didn't go that far until he was almost mowed down by Cassius. "Hey big guy." he waved. Besides the fact that Karmy had told him everything about Cassius and Cyrah, Caspian had met them once or twice on their travels. "I've got her," he indicated Karmy. "Slade's in there."

Casisus didn't take his foot off the gas or even slow down- he simply plowed the T-car into Slade and sent him flying into a wall. THEN he stopped. "I got that mother f*cker! Ha ha!" Cassius laughed. It had been too long since he had inflicted pain. Slade dragged himself to his robotic feet only to be answered by Cassius charging at him.....

"I guess that's the answer....." Cyrah said to Nicole, pointing to Caspian and Karmy as she got out of the car.

"Oh yeah, go ahead. Just hotwire the T-Car. I don't care about it. It's only got apart of my heart built into it, yeah I don't mind one bit. I didn't make it from scratch, in fact, it's so old I don't care if you ram it into any dangerous super villains. You know you could have asked to borrow my baby for a ride!" Cyborg's voice came from the car.

"Hey there!" Caspian said, throwing them the peace sign with his free hand. "Who's the little bonnet, Sarah?" he asked, nodding his head towards Nicole. "Karmy's resting for a while, so don't worry." he patted Karmy's sleeping form on his shoulder. "It took me a few days, but I finally managed to hitchhike all the way over here from Gotham."

"Oh, this is Robin, my victim of the hour." Cyrah said, pointing to Nicole. She knew better then to give out some's secret identity, so she just called her Robin in public. "You impress me on how you allways know just when to show up." Cyrah said, watching Casisus go to work......

Cassius wasn't letting up the gas, and neither was Slade- Slade kept dodging Casisus punches, but Cassius was fighting so feirceley Slade could get a shot in either........

Batman stopped in his tracks. "Did we bring any Bat-Pods on the Batship at all?" He asked Alice. "No I don't think we packed any." She responded in contemplation. "I'll just take the ship itself." Batman said striding back to the top of the tower. "The Airstrip should have enough space."

Inside he blasted off without Alice. "Yeah, I totally didn't want to come. That's the reason why I followed you Batman." Alice said to herself pissed off and walking away.

"It's all about timing, and a little help from Talia." Caspian winked. "And really, it's what friends do. Keeping our loved one's from getting themselves killed. Which happens too many times with this one." he sighed.

Cassius and Slade continued their high octane duel, neither being able to get a serious strike on the other. Trying to switch things up, Slade drew his blasterstaff and swung at Cassius, which he blocked with his armored wrist. "Give it up old man, you don't know what you're dealing with." Slade hissed. He still had the unihexium- his trump card if he needed it. "I'm not about to give in to YOU, Deathstroke." Cassius said, overwhelming Slade with his strength. But still, Slade was too elusive for Casisus to get a hit, and the two continued their stalemate.

Cyrah sighed. "Yeah, she does this a lot." She looked at the fight between Slade and Cassius. "I'd say we should heelp, but dad loves his fights...." Cyrah said.

The Batship landed on the airfield, and Batman sprung out immediately. "What the hell happened here?" Batman asked Zero looking around in his detective vision scanning around. "Barbara..." He whispered to himself as he found traces of her suit on the floor.

"You guys do what you do best." Caspian walked over to a near by tree and slid down in a sitting position, placing Karmy next to him so her head rested against his shoulder. "I'm not much of the fighting type, and I gotta keep her asleep. Go kick ass, even though it looks like Cassius is doing a bang up job." he looked on at the epic fight.

"I looked, but no blood, so I assume she's ok where ever she is." Zero said, still examining the area. "But I noticed something." Zero said, kneeling next to the R-cycle. "It's fried, like an EM weapon hit it. And whatever hit it also seemed to hit Metalo- what little of him was left seemed to have been shut down in a similar manner." Zero said, getting up and gesturing at Metallo's ghoulish remains. "There was a third player at work here, someone that wanted Barbara alive and Metallo dead." he said, shuffling through the altered truck Parts that dropped off Metallo when he was shocked. "But what was Metallo doing out here? And furthermore, how did Barbara know...." Zero thought out loud.

Batgirl sat up in her seat. "No..." She gasped. "I work through pain." Batgirl looked out the window, "I actually killed him?" Batgirl asked leaning her head against the cool glass. What happened to her oath she'd given Bruce when she first dawned the cape and cowl? Barbara began feeling more and more guilty with the thought of that.

"Well you blew his head off and dropped a good amount of metal on him... I'd assume he's dead, but who knows if that could really kill something like Corben... I mean the guy was hardly human anymore, of course that's assuming someone like Corben was ever really 'human' to start with." Roxie put the drugs back in her purse and wrapped her arms around herself. "I mean, what kind of guy lets someone do that to them? Take out their organs, replace your skin with metal..." She shivered lightly, the truck slowing to a stop in front of Thorne's penthouse.

The dark haired secretary paused for a moment, before looking to the thugs in the front seat. "Mark, be a dear and let a lady barrow you coat?" The man in the front just looked a her, taking off his dirty brown duster and handing it to her. She draped it lightly over Barbara's shoulders. "Can't exactly walk around town like that can you?" She smiled lightly, brushing a lock of hair back behind her ear.

"I didn't walk into town to begin with." Barbara sighed looking around. "I don't even know why I'm here." She clutched onto the coat tightly. "Whatever this is make it fast. I want a phone that works." Barbara nearly complained presenting her dead cellular.

"I don't know Zero." Batman said walking about the airfield, "But maybe this might get us a lead on who did this." he explained walking to a trashed sports car. "I'll investigate here, see if you can pick up on anymore clues." Batman gave a sigh of relief. He really did teach the boy a thing or two about detective work.

"I'm taking you to my place." The dark haired mobster hopped out of the truck, adjusting her skirt and jacket lightly before turning half way back to wait for Barbara to follow her. "You can get cleaned up and changed, an' then call anyone you like. I'm sure you'll want to tell people the good news." Roxie smiled lightly, offering Barbara a hand down out of the truck.

"Pull around back and wait for my call. You'll get your money when Thorne gets back."

"Right..." The thugs didn't seem to enthusiastic about this plan, but you didn't get very far in a career of thuggery if you complained about taking orders, so they just put the truck in gear and drove it around the block.

((Also thanks to Karma for finding this Image of Roxie She's on the left behind Thorne.))

"Good news? What good news Roxie? There's nothing good about murdering someone. I didn't mean to.. Dick is going to kill me when he finds out." Barbara asked pulling her mask off and examining it. "Don't deserve this." She muttered.