The Darkest of Knights

"Screw that, man." Robert copied Jason and then followed him out of the station. "If we don't get a raise, I'm moving to Alaska." he stuck his hands in his pockets.

"Why were we ever fighting in the first place?" Karmy looked up from the ground. "We haven't fought like.. This. At least not sense, ya know.." she remembered 6 years ago.

"Haha, speaking of Alaska... I should totally ask her out some time." Jason said walking out to the corner. "You sure you wanna pay for mine?" He asked checking around the Starsucks. Wait... Starsucks? Jason looked at the misplaced S where the B was supposed to be. "Huh, that's strange."

Alice helped Karmy up. "I don't know why were fighting Karmy. I mean, I guess its because of my engagement with the Bats. You don't really like them." She thought.

Red Robin kicked Robin in the upper chest area, luckily she blocked it just in time, but the force of the kick vibrated through her body and forced her back. "Hey now, first things first. Beware of your surroundings. Notice where we are and how you can utilize it to your advantage." Red Robin instructed. "For example..." He said leaning back and falling down the tower.

"Someone must have put that on by accident." Robert hoped. "Coffee's probably still good, c'mon." he went in and bought coffee and pastries for both of them. "You should ask her out man, she's a nice lady." he said, sipping his coffee.

"No." Karmy continued to not make eye contact. "I do not like them. Barbara.. Maybe. I think that whole kid incident changed things. I'd rather not talk about this... It'll just cause another fight."

Rose, deprived of someone to talk to, just sort of scurried off as Alice and Karmy had their heartfelt moment and kinda left her to watch awkwardly.

Corben tried to keep a poker face, but he was now concerned. If Thorne was on the wagon of hunting him, it was only more problems for him. "Yeah, you heard right. What's it to you, the big bad Rupert Thorne?" Corben asked, his voice betraying impatience. He knew, KNEW there was more here.......

Harvey Dent hauled his sorry carcass out of his office for the evening. His absence had left enough work behind, but pile up the zombie attacks and everything else, he hadn't had enough room to breathe these past few days, what with this and his OTHER job. He knew Greyson and all of the cities heroes- and Cassius- had left town for something important, but Dent had no intention of letting the city burn. He still had the BBatface suit, and he wasn't going to let it collect dust whent he citty needed a Batman. He arrived at his apartment, and quickly donned the red and black suit. Silently, he opened his windows, and vanished into the cold night.......

"Pshh, you don't think I know that? Reminds me of Babs actually.. What about that hippie?" Bard asked blowing his coffee before taking a small sip if it.

"Yeah, you're right." Alice said patting Karmy's back and walking off. "It will cause another fight." Alice felt offended, that symbol on her belt meant more to her than anything.

A hand reached out and grabbed Robin from behind. "That's what I'm talking about." Red Robin smiled.

Batman tapped on the dashboard of the Batship. He looked back at the door. He opened up a drawer that revealed a picture of his family. The Batman Family. Wintergreen, himself, next to Barbara and Alice, Nicole, was standing in front of him. It was taken when Nicole was first invited to the family. A sigh escaped him. "Been so long." He thought.

It was Cassius's turn to speak up as he noticed Batman admiring the pictur eof his family. "A man and his family, huh?" He said, looking over Batman's shoulder. "You're a lucky man to have a family like that- I never got nearly as close a smine as I woulda' liked." He said with a metalic sigh under his helmet.

Karmy was left standing in the kitchen, looking across the empty common room and she felt.. Alone. So very alone.

"I'm hoping to see her soon," Robert sighed as he bit into his crawler. "But no one has seen her nor any of the other heroes in the city for a while."

11/14/31
9:00pm Jump City
6:00pm Gotham City
8:00pm Colorado

Dick Grayson wrote:November 14, 2031 The Dark Knight Journals

Gotta find the Pit tomorrow morning, then we'll be on our way back to Jump City right after we heal Zero up. We'll finish up our week's rest and head over to Metropolis. I wonder how well the waters of the Lazarus Pit will heal Zero. I mean, I'm pretty sure the Pit even made Babs younger. She certainly looks younger than before, got rid of any wrinkles or blemishes she had. Either way I'd still love her. Looks don't matter to me, she does. Though she looks stunning...

We've been to Ra's Al Ghoul's humble abode and yet we never get what we want and we never know what's going to happen. No doubt that his deceiving congeniality got the better of me over the phone. He broke into my ship and stole information we needed to keep a secret. The Man of Steel won't be happy with me. Must contact him before the sun rises, tell him what happened.

Anyway, we're looking at the mine shaft that the Lazarus pit is supposed to be in. It looks dangerous. That's why I brought Cassius along. Not really, we need a team to guide Zero; know that Ivy will do nothing more than do her best to protect him. Love can take one far places. She'll. Protect him more than I can. I'm sure that she will find new strength in the mission.

Tomorrow. Its going to be hell. I'm not sure if my father would be proud of my decisions. As Robin, I never wanted to be like Bruce. Not one bit. I suppose Nightwing was my stepping stone in dawning the cape and cowl. It matured me in ways unimaginable. I hope my father is proud. And that's all I can do. Hope.

Dick put the journal do as soon as Cassius entered the room. "Cassius? I thought you were close to Zero. I mean, I know you are close to your daughter. You traveled the world with her. Right?" Dick asked. "And your son..." Dick still couldn't believe what happened. Zero in a way was almost like a son to him. Cyborg and Beast Boy knew how much Zero meant to Dick, "I promise to get his sight back. No matter what."

Barbara Gordon wrote:November 14, 2031 Batgirl Journals

All you need is a kick. That's it. A kick. That's all that life is about. The kick. You feel the kick when you have that sense of falling, that startles you in your sleep; when you dream. The kick is what happens when you fight villains from succeeding, when you feel the rush of air shoot past you. You feel the kick when you're going down under, when they take advantage of your weaknesses, when they prevail, when you fail. You feel the kick of another life inside you. When you're alone. Again. I'm always feeling the kick, but the only time I ever want to feel it is when our child is trying to break free. She hasn't even developed brain waves yet. I'm still myself. I can still fight. No one can stop me. I'm feeling that certain kick.

Dick and I have decided on names, finally. Bruce Richard Grayson if its a boy and Alice Barbara Grayson if its a girl. Its a girl. I had a dream about it. We went to the movies and had ice cream. She looked beautiful. I can't say that's what our child actually looks like but Dick says our child, if it is a girl, will have to fight off all the boys. I'll let Dick do that. He hasn't called at all. I'm beginning to worry about him, there isn't much time when I don't worry. I seem to be worrying more because I don't want him to die before we have Alice Barbara Grayson. Its a girl.

He wants to be the man who falls. He wants to put the weight of the world upon his shoulders. He wants to fall alone, as he did as a child, as a Flying Grayson, as he will for the rest of his life. I want to be there with him. As he falls. I told him the night my father died by the hands of Metallo, I told him: We Will Fall Together.

"And when we roam, we will roam forever. No one will understand." Barbara whispered quietly to herself. She was wrapped in one of Dick's jackets. She was drowning herself in his scent that he left in the fibers of the coat, if she could bottle up his scent she would take it everywhere and open it up to release it in the room where she felt lonely. If her heart was a house, he would be home.

Alice Mau wrote: November 14, 2031 The White Knight Journals

Karmy is pissing me off. She doesn't understand the concept of trust. In order to trust me, you have to trust Dick. I put my trust in him as Karmy trusts me, she has to trust me trust him so we can trust each other. She says she has trust in me, but deep down inside she's fooling herself. There's literally nothing to do now but hope to go out on another crime-fighting mission. Babs wants alone time, Dick is away, I haven't seen Nicole around, Cyborg and Beast Boy are playing video games, Raven is... I don't know where Raven is. Rose is Rose. Someone is a boy named Charlie Brown and I don't know what I'm talking about anymore. I thought this was supposed to prevent me from going crazy, not support it. Anyway, I think I'm going to nap for a bit before the alarm inevitably sounds for some third rate criminal to rob a bank.

Alice fell back into the bed and watching the ceiling fan spin. She watched it until her eyes grew tired. And she fell asleep.


Red Robin didn't move, didn't budge from the punch. To him, he thought any pain was more of an annoyance than anything else. Like getting caught in the rain. "Hey, hey, calm down. If we were really fighting I would have kicked your back over the ledge. Anyway its getting late. Wanna head back in and we can train tomorrow morning?" He asked cheerfully.

Bard sighed deeply, the steam from his coffee ran from him. He looked at his guava and cheese pastry, deciding to eat it later "Yeah, all the heroes seems to have disappeared. But so have the villains." Jason muttered. "I think there's been sightings of Catwoman and Clayface in the last couple of hours, but that's all. Though there is a guy we have to keep an eye on." Jason said getting a bit too serious. "This guy had a run in with Mr. Freeze one day, got frost bite, lost his nose, lips, even his ears. His skin is pale white. Been stirring up trouble in lower east sector of Gotham with a ton of shady deals. He's also filed his teeth, kinda like Killer Croc." Jason explained slipping a picture to Robert Bay under the table. "He calls himself The Great White Shark."

"Geez.....i've heard soo many rumors about this pit.....who knows how Zero will be when he comes out?" Seeing Zero go beserk and possibly killing someone of the team was not what Crimson wanted to think about at the moment. Crimson then sat up and began forming different energy shields.....just in case.

"Well, it's..... different. Whereas I could keep Sarah close, Matt, he grew up without me. I know you rised him like a son of your own, probably better then I could in my wildest dreams." Cassius said, his tone an break from the ruff 'n gruff norm. "But it's...... odd. When he was taken from me, he was bereley six. Now he's a grown man, off saving the world on a weekly basis, he's got a girl..... I regret that I had to miss all that. And it's why I'm grateful to you- you helped replace the tragedies in his life with positivity, and even now you're going to all this trouble to help him. I could never thank you enough." Cassius said with gratitude.

[Hey guys! Wanna do a time rift to move on to the next day, all in favor? In the next post or two?]

Batman nodded. "Please don't think about it. In ways I've failed him more than you have." He sighed. "But... When we find the pit.. I was wondering. Would Cyrah also like to go? She's still part cyborg. We could fix her."

(I'm game Merc)

Karmy walked to the room that had been assigned to her by someone, not knowing or caring who it had been. It must have been a guest room because it wasn't personalized at all. She stood over the bed, staring at it as if it were some sort of evil possessed bed of doom, and the crawled underneath it. Though bed's were a bit comfortable to her, she found the crevice underneath them to bring a sense of protection on her whenever she felt scared or alone. So, she curled up and proceeded to fall into a slumber.

"Yeah I think I've heard of him." Robert said, swirling the contents of his cup around. "Scare's little kid's with his face, maybe not as much as the Black Mask, but still. Not to mention his connections with the mob. I don't know if we'll ever get to see action anytime soon, though. Damn paperwork. I say we just dump it all on the rookies."

Ivy wrote:
The Lazarus Pit!

Finally went to see Ra's. The man's mansion is huge. Bigger than any house (Minus Titans Tower, of course.) I've ever been in combined. And, this totally gave me the creeps, guards everyone. I can understand why he'd need that many people guarding him, but it scared the crap out of me knowing how many people were watching and just how powerful he proved to be.

In the end, though, he stole our Nav. info on the earthquake generator, and threw us a map to the Lazarus Pit (Which was sneaky, but clever. Gotta respect him for that.) in Chicago. Chicago! If there's one here, I wonder just how many of those there are. The Pit is down this mine shaft. I don't even think I can do any tunneling, the earth seems loosely packed and sensitive. I'll try not to do anything too big, but when push comes to shove...Well, you never really know, do you?

Zero's fine so far, thank lord. If not guilty-looking. He probably feels bad we're going through all this trouble, but he's completely worth it. If this Pit thing works. But, if it's kept ancient looking Ra's alive for so long, who knows what wonders it'll do for Z. I can't imagine what I'd do if I lost him again. Not again.

Oh, everyone's talking. Looks like we're heading down to the Pit tomorrow. Wish us luck!

~Ivy

Ivy finished scribbling into her journal, snapping it shut and burrowing it deep under her clothes into her backpack. She leaned over to Zero beside her and hugged him, thinking of what she had written.
(Burying me here guys. I'm good with the time rift. )

[Okay, we just wait for Red then :V ]

"We can't do that to the rooks. Heh, rook." He laughed to himself amused by the name for some reason. "Anyway, we should get back to hitting the papers again." Bard said gulping the rest of his coffee and chucking it to the trash. "Score." He said getting up to push his chair in.

Robert also crumpled his trash and aimed for the bin. He threw it and it rebounded off the edge, bopped him on the forehead, hit another customer, hit the ceiling and the landed in the trash bin. He stood there for a minute, his mouth agape at what just happened. "Holy crap man, please tell me you saw that!!"

"Well let's see here. I was taken captive by Two-Face, my father was dealing with several shady deals. Ended up owing him so much they killed him. Two-Face was about to kill me, when he saved me." Red Robin reminisced

"Saw what?" Bard asked from outside Starsucks..

NOOOO!!! Robert fell to his knees, in a 'porgue?!' sense. "Ah well." he shrugged and clopped off after Bard.

"Geez you act as if an invisible monkey just jumped on the counter and wrecked the shop." Jason said as they made their way back to the office. "Where do you think those heroes went?" He asked Robert. He was concerned with the increase in crime rate.

A tapping came to The Joker's door. "Hey new Joker. You got any fears?" Dr. Crane asked him. What was strange for one thing was that he was out of his cell, another thing was that the Joker's make up was all wiped off. "Tell me, why you put make-up on. You scared of something?"

"Yes'm, we went through a lot together. Bruce and I. Barbara, Dick, and Alfred were such good support. Y'know when Bruce past away Damian and I were fighting over who gets to be the new Robin. Though Dick had such high standards about me, he even went as far as to call me his equal. Then I dawned the Red Robin. Met Raven and Cyborg. We became a team." Red Robin said, a sense of sweetness hinted his voice.

"That would have been awesome man." Robert said, taking his time in walking. "Not sure, I hope they come back soon. Hell knows they're gonna be needed again.."

"You're a very curious little mongrel aren't you?" Joker tilted his head in speculation at Crane. "Makeup makes me feel like a pretty pretty princess when I'm chopping some guys limbs off. Get me an ax and I'll show you how it works." he grinned as he put his face up against the door.

"All hell knows you'll need nothing more than a miracle." A man said walking up to the officers. "Excuse me?" Jason asked tipping his hat to the odd man. "With the Batman gone, consider this a warning." He said shooting his arms out at the officers. The force of the punch was unusually strong, the laughter from the man was gurgling, as if he was choking on something. Jason realized he was covered in clay.

"Oh well, you have no sense of humor. Nothing like the original Joker." Scarecrow said flipping a card out. "All the gaurds on this island are going insane with their worst fears. Penguin and several others are going to leave right this moment. Give me a good reason why I should let you come with us. You better be quick, and already, you're not funny."

"I like play-doh better." Robert said, spitting out a mouthful of clay. "It taste's sooo much better then this bag of muck." he pulled out his gun and started firing off rounds, though he knew it wouldn't hurt him. He was just distracting him. "C'mon mush face!"

"Must a Joker be funny?" The Joker asked, staring right into Crane's eyes. "From what I've seen, a Joker must be deadly, cheesy, corny, and most important of all.. Insane! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHH!!!" he rolled on the floor laughing hysterically, banging his head against the hard floor.

"What's it to me?" Thorne smirked lightly, taking a short drag on his cigar before blowing the smoke up between the two of them. "Well I'm one of the people who want to make certain that doesn't happen." He took a light sip on his liquor and another drag on his cigar. "You see unlike these new kids in town, I've been in this business a long time... longer than most people remember, and I know that when someone does their job, and does it right. It's worth the investment to keep them around, rather than sink them in the river." The crime lord smiled blowing some smoke out his nose. "So, I'd like to invest in keeping you around. Provided you can do a, rather simple job for me first."

"Damian.. You mean he came back to kill you." Red Robin said rather astonished. "So why is that loser playing tongue tennis with each other? Didn't he completely ignore Barbara when she was getting beat up by Slade?"

"Hahahaha! That tickles!" Clayface crackled swiping at Bay, "Get down!" Jason screamed tackling Robert out of the way. "Where's the Batman when you need him? I'm not fit to be fighting these creeps!" He complained getting up. "C'mon coppers! Allow me to wring you like a towel!"

Crane looked at the mad man. Swiped the card. "You're nothing like the original that's for sure. C'mon. Before the guards get out of the illusions." He hurried.

Robert looked around in his belt arsenal for something to use. "Hell if I know man." he came up with pepper spray and a tazer. "Maybe if we combined these two.." he pondered outloud.

"Encore! Encore!" Joker jumped up and gave a sweeping bow. "Thank you, you're such a great audience! I wont be in Arkham anymore," he babbled as he ran through the halls towards the exit. "but don't fret my dear admirers.. I'll be in Gotham soon enough.