The Darkest of Knights

"Come on Barb, you don't believe that. You and I both know that there isn't a prison in the world that could contain Metallo, and even if there was, with the sate of the world today, he wouldn't stay there for long." Roxie walked into the penthouse. It was nice, for a mob penthouse, marble fixtures, bellboys in tuxedos, three doormen each packing a semi automatic weapon. "Taking him out did the world a favor, and probably save more lives than putting the Joker back in Arkham for few months."

"You're right that I could have done the world a favor..." Barbara said trotting uneasily behind Roxie, she was still trying to get use to everyone knowing her identity as Batgirl. "But that's not the moral code that Bruce lived by. He said that if he kiled even one thug, he could never go back." Her voice cracked now grasping a full understanding of what he meant. "It would be easier just killing them."

"So, don't go back." The female mobster shrugged getting into the elevator and punching in the button for her floor. "Think about it. All the time you guys have been putting criminals in jail or in Arkham, and what real good has it done? They're still out there, threatening people hurting people, making more people like them... or like you." The doors closed around the pair and gentle elevator music began pumping into the opulent box. This wasn't the same elevator people rode to get to Thorne's office, this was a full class hotel elevator, reflective brass walls, faux gold railings for the old or frail to cling to, decadent gold and black tiles for people to ignore, walk over, bleed on, die on. It was a mob elevator after all. Though that did mean that the doors were entirely sound proof, bullet proof, and surveillance proof.

Barbara looked into the reflection of herself in one of the reflective brass walls and jumped at the sight, she hardly recognized herself, she lifted her hand to her face to make sure that woman in the reflection really was her. She almost couldn't believe it. "No I have to. I can't live as a murderer." She sighed lightly. "My associate and friend.. Alice Mau, she murdered before.. And we still accept her as our own." Barbara stated. "I'll do whatever it takes, even if I have to come with my head hanging and my tail between my legs."

"It's your choice of course... But I still think you could do more good with a single bullet than a dozen handcuffs." Roxie left it at that as the elevator stopped on her floor. She had an entire floor to herself, it was good to be the boss's right hand. Second floor from the top two bedrooms, though she used the second as an office, full bath and shower complete with hot-tub function on the bathtub, along with plenty of space for a living room, and kitchen with a sink, stove, refrigerator freeze, and half hall between the homey apartment for security purposes. To be fair there was a security camera outside the door and a channel on the television. Roxie had to unlock the door just outside the elevator, but after she did the dark haired woman simply pushed it open and stepped aside for her 'friend.' "Make yourself at home, there's a phone on the counter, and you're welcome to borrow some of my things if you want to get out of that costume."

Barbara looked around, still uneasy, feeling incredibly uncomfortable. "I think I just want to wash my face." She said slipping off the coat the thug placed over her and hung it on a nearby coat hanger. Barbara stepped into the bathroom and took of her gloves, she turned on the hot water and splashed it over her oily face, rinsing thoroughly. "God.. Oh god." She slurred retreating from the running water. Barbara rubbed some soap into her hands and cleansed her face. She looked up into the mirror, she was looking like her old self again. Surprisingly she couldn't take the sight and began to cry. Cleaning away her tears effectively she stepped out of the bathroom, upon finding Roxie, she didn't have the desire to get to the phone immediately as she felt when she first arrived. "Can we just take care of business before I call Dick? You brought me here for a reason."

Roxie sat on her couch, just sort of relaxing. Upon being confronted though she shrugged and stood up. "Honestly? I brought you hear because I thought you could use a friend. I mean its not like your usual crowd is going to be okay with you blowing Corben to pieces, and well, frankly I don't care." Roxie began slowly walking in a slow waving circle around Barbara while keeping from looking at her. "I mean... Metallo was a bad man, and I known some very bad men... sometimes there are people that just aren't people. Dictators, war criminals, metas... Something about them just isn't the same as the rest of us... I don't know if it's the things they do that make them that way or if they're born different than the rest of us, I just know that" The dark haired girl leaned against the back of her couch after coming full circle. "I mean, you should know that, better than anyone definitely better than me. I've met some bad men in my day, pimps, drug dealers, rapists, and murders. I've met them all, and truthfully, I've never really been afraid of any of them." She crossed her arms over her chest, and tossed her hair back over her shoulder. "But then there's people like, Scarecrow, Two-Face, or the Joker... those people scare me, and I don't think that's ever going to change."

The raven haired woman sighed, and leaned back setting her hands on the top of her sofa as she watched her feet. "Some people... the just, aren't right." She rubbed softly over her arm and brushed back a lock of her dark hair. "Batman used to put them in prison, but that doesn't stop them... Now the city knows your Batgirl and do they even care that you and your friends were probably the only thing keeping it from being burned down to the ground? I might be a criminal honey but even I know you were good for this city." She looked back to Barbara, tilting her to one side and looking the red head in the eye.

Barbara couldn't stand that fact, the fact that her face was broadcast on the news, she felt belittled when Roxie circled her, but couldn't help but feel there were other connotations to that stride. Barbara caught herself looking too deeply in Roxie's eyes and broke the contact. "You're wrong. This city needs more things to look up to." Barbara nearly whispered. "Every time the Bat Signal shines in the Gotham skies it let's crooks know that they have a gaurdian. I'm not what this city needs but what it does need is what I represent." She said pointing to the bright yellow symbol on her chest. "Look, if this is just about a friend in need I don't think I need to be here. There are other pressing matters to attend to." She said promptly wanting to get out now and find a pay phone by the docks where someone is less likely to spot her.

Roxie put her hands up. "Alright, call your friends." She walked around the redhead once more, strutting over to her kitchen counter, and picking her cordless phone up from the receiver there. "But, before you do, ask yourself this... when's the next time your signal is going to shine?... you left the city, they denounced you for trying to help them, and now... who's left to inspire them? Who's left to keep the villains in check?" She offered Barbara the phone. "Who left to show us what we need?"

Barbara had to realize who she was dealing with. She set aside whatever Roxie told her, but she knew those words would burn into her later. She punched in Dick's number and looked away from Roxie when he picked up. "Dick I'm at-" "Rupert Thorne's penthouse I assume." Dick's voice came through. "I'm on my way now with Zero. We'll pick you up at the crack of dawn to keep a low profile. Can't say much, the lines are probably tapped. Just hold on for a while, I'm coming to get you. If anything happens..." He paused, Barbara clutched onto the phone tightly and accidently hit a number. "You don't have to even contact me." He hung up quickly. It was probably for the best.

Roxie stood back, far enough that she couldn't hear Barbara's conversation. It wasn't really interested in what Barb's friends had to say, though she hardly needed to. She could hear Barbara's end of the conversation, and from the moment she was cut off, it was a lot like many other conversations she had over heard. Controlling men were a dim a dozen in her line of work, and it wasn't the first time she'd been a third party to one telling his girl what to do. "He sounds... nice." And it wasn't the first time she'd showed her disdain for such men, she might have worked for Thorne, but that didn't mean she let him run her life. If anything she ran his, she certainly knew where all the bodies were buried.

Barbara coldly glared at Roxie, she could have swore she was hiding sarcasm. "You don't know him." She said resting the phone on the table and searching for a clock. Dawn. That's their bed time, and the sun usually rose around 6:30 am. Four more hours with no one but her.

"No, I don't. But he didn't seem to interested in making friends when I visited the manor." Roxie wasn't looking to Barbara, she wasn't really looking anywhere. She was just sort of playing with her hair while leaning against the back of her couch. "You know you don't have to be so hostile, it's not like I haven't been helpful." She hadn't exactly been honest either, but that was beside the point. "Not that I blame you for being doubtful of me. I'm not exactly a good little girl like you... then again, I guess you're not such a good girl either... not that that's entirely a bad thing." This time she looked to Barbara, only out of the corner of her eye as she smirked lightly and curled a bit of hair around her hand.

"Just shut up." Barbara said walking over to the couch and taking a seat. "Dick will understand, he'll understand." She burried her head in the arm of the couch and kept repeating that he will understand to herself. She wondered why she made herself so hard to track to begin with.

As they were leaving, Zero thought about the situation. 'Guys like Metallo don't come out of their way like this for nothing, he was here for a reason. Then there's the issue of his body, it would take nothing short of some heavy duty explosives to do that kind of damage to someone as sturdy as him.' Zero ebgan to come to a more grim and grim place in his mind. 'The Bats carry just the kind of explosives that could bring down Metallo, and we know Barbara was here. And he was conveniently fried by and EM device also. Could..... Barbara have done this to him?' He thought. But there was still the issue of the third party involved- Barbara didn't tote around any EM weapon that could do this sort of damage that he knew of. He knew they would have to find Barbara to get the answers they needed, But Zero was unsure if he wanted to hear that answer..............

Slade quickly backstepped Nicole's disk, but it left in vulnerable for a Cassius asswhuppin in the form of getting slugged into a wall. "We gotcha' now, you sonovabitch!" Cassius snorted, hefting his EMP cannon off his shoulders and aiming at Slade Elmer fudd style. "Give us the bag and I'll only zap you once." Cassius bargained. "And why would I do that? I frankly like th elittle hippie pest better like this. Because of you and your batch of friends, I spent TWO YEARS competing with rats and dogs for survival! THIS is payba-" Slade didn't get the sentence out before an EMP bolt shut him up right quick. His robotic body sparked spectacularly before ultimateley giving out and colapsing in a crumpled heap on the floor. Cyrah quickly releived the melevolent heap of steel of the bag quickly dashed it over to Karmy......

The Batship landed in an inconspicuous location away from Thorne's penthouse. Batman used cameras and sonar vision installed in the Batship and isolated Barbara and hostiles in the building. "Okay detective, let's corroborate information and see if I'm thinking what you're thinking." Batman said zooming in on Barbara, almost feeling like a peeping tom, although all they saw was a white blinking strobe in the silhouette of Barbara. "Thorne's goons had an Electro Magnetic Weapon of some sort and powered Metallo down. Most likely she then used C4 to blow the rest of him up judging by the chemical composition surrounding the body." Batman explained. "And look what I found by the blue sports car?" He tossed the detonator that Roxie threw away to Zero, confirming it was both an EM weapon and one of Thorne's goons. "Sloppy as usual. What else did you gather Zero?"

Alice turned on the radio contact a while ago and listened in on what was going on in the battlefield along with the other Titans, she realized that Rose wasn't with them. "Strange.." Alice thought, then beeped in. "Is Rose with you?" She asked, "Did she get to meet her father? I promised she'd have the chance. By the sound of it you blew his head off.." Alice said half heartily.

Caspian took the bag from Cyrah. "Thank's." he smiled at her and picked Karmy back up. "I'll drop her off at the tower and I gotta head back to Gotham. We have a gig coming up, y'all should stop by sometime. Free f charge." he waved goodbye to her and headed towards the tower. Eventually reaching the front entrance, he set Karmy down against the door and placed the bag on her lap. Knocking on the door as loud as he could, he waved up at where there probably was a camera. Once he was sure he got their attention, he pulled a pen from his pocket a knelt down next to Karmy, picking up her bandaged arm and writing something. "See you later, Sunshine."

Alice has spent the last hour and a half trying to wake Karmy up, shaking her, splashing cold water in her face. "C'mon Karmy, wake the hell up!"

Karmy spluttered when the cold water hit her face. "I'm awake!!" she coughed as she sat up, using one arm to support her as she wiped her face off. "You coulda ju-" she suddenly stopped. Underneath her hand was the feel of a familiar fabric. She looked down and gasped. It was her bag. Casey's bag. Their bag. She was speechless, completely and utterly speechless. It felt warm as she ran her fingers over it and her ring finally returned back to normal. In the blink of an eye she had snatched it up and crawled in, leaving Alice to stare at the bag, only half expecting that. In but a few minutes, Karmy jumped back out and landed, sitting, next to Alice. The bloody clothes were gone, she was clean as a whistle and the idiotic grin was back on her face as she bit into what appeared to be a candy bar. "Oh em gee, I've been dying for one of these! Chocolate tofu Al, you should really try some." she grinned.

Alice looked at Karmy is disbelief, she coughed, the Titans were looking at Karmy as they first remembered her as an 18 year old happy-go-lucky vegan hippie. "Karmy!" Alice cried as she hugged her. "Oh my god!! You're back!" she happliy exclaimed. Karmy kept chewing her candy bar asking where she had gone to. "Oh great, now we have to worry about this Karmy." Raven complained sarcastically, facepalming.

"Dude! Toss me one of those!" Beast Man begged. Karmy laughed and threw a candy bar to him. "These things were a pain to get a hold of, but I've got boxes of them dude." she sat cross legged with her bag around her shoulders where it belonged. "How'd did I get here anyways?" she asked Alice who was squeezing the air out of here. "Last I remember I was going after ol' eye patchy."

"Look on your arm Karmy." Alice instructed pointing to the scribbles of black ink over it.

(auuugghhh! missing big fight scene! DX)

Crimson then zoomed out the front door of titans tower and used the same tactic he used last time to get to the tower to make it back to the mainland, only this time he was running like a bat outta hell. "I saw Cassius drive off twards the warehouse district.....hope im not too late!"

Crimson barely knew who that girl was, yet he was dashing off to help. Crimson finally made it to the warehouse district to see that Karmy was in good hands and to this he let out a sigh of releif and gave karmy a pat on the back. " Good to see your'e okay." He then turned to see Slade's robotic body on the floor.

"So is he...like dead?" Crimson asked Cassius as he walked about 3 feet from the crumpled heap to get a look.

[Crap, forgot about Rose for a second there >3> ]

Rose stomped up tot he group cursing liek a sailor. "Oh yeah, don't tell @#$% rose, she dosen't $%^& care....... #$%^&." She spewed. "DOn't worry, he's still alive. Ish. And Alice, since when did YOU have my frequency?" Cassius asked Alice. He shoould have expected no less, but it was creepy that she was spying on him.

Rose walked over to the creepy husk of the robot as SpiderSlade crawled out of the defunt robot, snarling and gargling. Rose picked it up by an indignant leg and looked at....... it. The little spider- like critter seemed suprised to no end to see Rose. "R-Rose? What in GOD'S name are you doing here with these...... people?" He gargled in suprise, pointing an indignant leg at the heroes. Rose shook the spider untill it calmed down. "They promised me I'd get to see you alive, and I suppose you're.... kind of alive. It's really all I needed." She said, plopping the creature on the ground like she didn't give a sh*t. The spider scurried on top of a crate. "Feeling sentimental, are we? Last time we met you nearly slit my neck." Slade gargled. "True. But you held an uzi at my head, so it's equall." Rose said. THen she thought of something. "Just what ARE you doing out here anyways? I was told you were haunting Gotham now." SHe aske dhim. Alice said Slade was in Gotham, so Jump city was a considerable distance for him to travel. The spider gave a nasty sneer. "So glad you asked. I came to pick up my toys." Slade hissed, and delved into one of the crates. It didn't take long for him to find a control device and activate his robots. They tore their ways out fo the crates with ease, their cold eyes searching for targets, like a predator for prey. Some were the hunchbacked gremlin drones, others were a more errect model, probably newer then the hunchbacked ones.

Cassius turned on his comm at the sight of a ocuple dozen robots tearing out of the warehouse. "Hey, could we get a bit of backup? Just a little bit?"

Zero thought for a second. "Well, I get this: Metallo came here for a reason, he didn't jsut pop here on a whim. Somehow, Barbara caught on to him- wether or not he was up to something or she went afte rhim for personal reasons, I can't say." Zeor said, unaware of why and how Barbara knew about Metallo and went after him. "The next part is obvious- they went to blows. THe next pafrt less so- somehow, all of the electronics died. No ide ahow, I'm guessing a third party was involved. Barbara finished Metallo off, and she was either carrie doff or fled." Zero relayed. "There's a lot more unkowns here, I suspect we'll fill in the blanks once we meet up with Barbara." Zero said, still pondering the scene he had saw.

"Sorry Cass." Karmy's voice sounded over the comm. "I had left my comm with her when I had run away so y'all couldn't find me. So, lemme guess, Slade's still alive?" she continued to talk to him as she examined her arm. Written on her arm was a pair of numbers, latitude and longitude, and a picture of a sun. Karmy smiled at Caspian's handy work.