The Darkest Knight: Road Trippin'

Karmy moved away from the bus psycho and sat down near the people who knew what she was going through, plopping down in between Sarah and Luna. "Seriously, Lu. This is some messed up sh*t. I feel so.. Naked and vulnerable without my powers.." she admitted..

"What the heck do we do now guys?" Crimson asked. Karmy was right, having no powers anymore felt horrible. It felt humiliating, and worst of all, it was going to make fighting a thousand times more difficult for all the superpowered heroes. "Man, what a fine Cristmas present this is....and i was good all year too." Crimson said to himself. He slumped down into his chair and began to murmur curse words under his breath for the entire bus ride.

"I hope we can get them back.." Karmy said, scared in the fact that they may never get their powers back. She pulled out her cell phone, she sent a quick text to Robert. Babe, could you meet me at Wayne Manor? Somethings happened. and she flipped it closed, lying down on the bus seats. She, like everyone else was tired from the fight, especially the ones with, well now, without powers.

Ivy forced a smile at Zero when he asked how she was feeling, and gave a genuine one when Sarah was human again. It was what she wanted, right? Maybe this wasn't all bad.

After settling into the bus, she began to feel weaker. It was losing her powers, but there was something else she couldn't quite put her finger on. She felt like she was on fire, but her hands were cold and clammy. She took a slow calming breaths, but the burning didn't cease.
"Merry....Christmas..." She murmured between gasps, burying her head into her hands nervously.

Zero would've been the worlds worst fiance` if he didn't notice the state Ivy was in. "Hey, babe, what's wrong?" he asked worriedly. He noted her gasps for air and began to worry more....

Cy had spent most of her time on the bus just looking at her hands. The lines on her palm, fingernails, the bony tendons in her hand...... it all seemed so new and alien to her. She also noted the bigmouth at the start of the bus. There was only room for ONE bigmouth on this buth, and it wasn't him. She got up and trotted over to the man "Hey, You know what I love about a man that's not afraid to speak his mind?" Cy asked teasingly. You just KNEW what was coming next. Do I even need to mention the knee she sent reeling into his crotch? "Shutting them up and watching them writhe." She said. it wasn't as satisfying as a crome kneecap, but good for her first crotchkick overall.

"Whooooo!! That's how ya do it, Sissy!!" Karmy cheered her on, very happy that the blowhard had finally gone down in a sea of tears and loin pain. After high giving her surprisingly energetic sister, Karmy layer back down and decided to take a nap on the way to the Mansion.

Something in Karmys text worried Robert so he clocked out and headed towards his vehicle to go to Wayne Manor.

"On no... Sarah!" Batman screamed running up to the newly improved Sarah Roper. "This is exactly the thing I was trying to avoid! As if riding in a public transportation vehicle isn't bad enough, I didn't want to start a fight, you know how bad the media will get on this story!? Anything to make heroes look bad like this, they're going to milk it for everything its worth!" Batman scolded sitting Sarah back to her seat. Not that it mattered. They were in walking distance of Wayne Manor now.

"Psh, if I was CYRAH that would be one thing, but right now I'm jsut Sarah Roper. If the press in GOTHAM is going to trip over something THIS trivial- mee kicking a guys' crotch because he was beign a dumbass- then boy are THEIR priorities off. C'mon, this si gotham, there's bigger storries I'm sure." Sarah replied, not giving two cents about Batman's scolding. It really seemed like hypocritical paranoia coming from the guy that was obviously the genuine Batman, but she decided to just not voice that on Christmas of all days.

They got off the bus, and Batman wasn't feeling any less angry at Sarah, "That doesn't matter! You're trying to run for public office, and what will they say!? You don't care about the people! They're going to say: you kick black people in the nuts! You're a racist, a bigot, this, that, and everything! You have to learn to control your emotions! You're not going to make it if that story of Sarah Roper gets out, and gold like this will spread like wildfire! You want to fight crime at it's biggest states? You want to fight the government? You want people to respect the law? Just remember this: if you want people to respect the big laws, you got to enforce the small ones. That means don't start any fights with any punk with an attitude." Batman finished his scolding and stormed off to Wayne Manor.

Sarah could've unleashed the whole 'Our president murders his own people with superweapons' can on Batman, but she was frankly too steamed to even bother as the pointy headed pain in her ass stomped off like he owned the world. She was no president Roper yet, she didn't claim to be an expert on these things. Ah who cares, it was Christmas, she decided to jsut shrug it off for now.

Karmy clambered off the bus and followed everyone back to the Manor. By the time everyone arrived, it was well past midnight and the snow had their feet soaked. "Now what are we supposed to do?" Karmy asked as everyone relaxed in the living room, she herself faceplanting on the couch. "Where's Draino-O?"

Wiping her forehead despite the cold weather, Barbara worked hard on pinpointing his location. "I'm working on it right now Karmy, just hold on okay? Genius can't be rushed." Barbara said typing furiously on her laptop. "After all he has all your powers, and like you said he teleported like the way Matthew teleports so he could technically be anywhere. But once I find him I can assure you that no matter where he goes..." Barbara paused and continued typing. "He can't hide."

Dick had his arms crossed over his chest shaking his head. "We've got so many plans, we can't do some world wide Gran Tour just to find one man." He said contemplating. "Plus like I said before, most of the bat vehicles are in repair from last month."

"Well not ALL of them." Zero/ Matt couldn't help but say. "There's still ONE vehicle intact. Mostly." he said, referencing the old model Batmobile, perhaps the sexiest car on the planet.

"Sorry for asking, Babs, just that.. Ya know, it's our powers. If he has all of them, he's probably very dangerous.." Karmy drew up her legs so that Ivy and Zero could sit down. "I know where we could get a ride, though." she suggested. "Once we figure out where he-" as if by chance, a note fell out of a portal that opened above the heroes. While Batman picked up the note, Karmy had leaped up from her position on the couch and tried to jump through the portal. Too bad she wasn't tall enough and ended up falling and smashing her face into the coffee table. "Give me back my powers your sonovabitch!!" she yelled up at the ceiling where the portal had opened up while blood poured from her nose from the impact.

The note read:

Hey powerless fruitcakes, if you wanna try and get your powers back, I'll be in Oahu, Hawaii on New Years eve, a week from today. Meanwhile, I'll be off doing random bad guy stuff such as stealing candy from babies, MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH!!!

Yes I totally just wrote out my evil laughter... I'm that evil!!

Meanwhile, Robert had screeched to a halt at the gates of Wayne Manor, immediately jumping out and heading up the long and winding road at top speed.

"So much for genius." Barbara said closing her laptop. "Okay, well there's a crappy old Batmobile and there's my Batmobile. That only fits about four maybe five at the most." Dick explained. "I'm not going." He said.

"Hey hey hey, they need you Dick. He might have all your powers but I highly doubt he knows how to use them as well as you guys do." Barbara said to the heroes. "And they need a powerless super hero to help them get their powers back." She told Dick. "Why not Damian? I can't go, there's too many responsibilities. Plus there's only five spaces. Alice can go... where is she..?" Dick asked looking around. "Ms. Mau retired to her room early. She said something she ate didn't agree with her." Wintergreen reported.

"But," Barbara thought, "She hasn't eaten all day."

"Hey," Karmy popped up suddenly. " Y'all know what this means?!" obviously nobody did. "Road trip! And I know where we can get an awesome badass vehicle, too!" she pulled out her cell phone and made a quick phone call. "Oh, and Alice is coming whether she want's to or not." she told them while she waited for the other other person on the phone to pick up. "Caspian has an old 1960's VW Van that he bought from some old mystery crew or something. He's rigged it with the latest autotech with the help from Professor."

"Awesome!" Crimson Exclaimed. A road trip to Hawaii is probably just what everyone needed. white sandy beaches, awesome waves to surf, exotic food,....and most importaintly, a chance to get at that Fruitcake Drain-O and give him a good beatdown. "Hey Karmy, you got a picture of what we'll be riding in?" Crimson asked.

"This isn't some vacation you guys are going on, I don't want you guys to go site seeing, this is important and it's imperative that you get him and get out." Dick instructed opening up the door for Robert before he got the chance to knock. He's the World's Greatest Detective, what did you expect?

"Maybe you should keep an eye on them Dick." Barbara kept pursuing. Dick eyed his wife with a little frustration but knew he had to listen to her. He always accomplished more when he did.


"Only if I'm driving."

In her own lil' world Srah just barfed her most recent meal all over an imaginary floor. Batman, the world's greatest mouth, cramped up in a tiny vehicle with them? She couldn't stant it when her OWN father lectured her, hearing it from Batman like earlier was just pukeworthy.

And plus

She wasn't even sure she WANTED to go get her 'powers' back. She had a body now, flesh and blood. Did she want to jsut give that back? Sure she didn't those kinds of capabilities in the hands of some nutbag, but..... did she want to give up a majority of her humanity? When she was put in thsoe prosthetics the first time, she didn't have a choice- her body was TAKEN, not lost. And now that she DID have a choice........

The answer was starting to look a lot like a no.

Robert wasn't the only one that had come up to the Manor. One Donovan Roper got a text himself from Zero just telling him to come over, and he had nothing better to do you just yet. And just his luck, as he clopped up, he noticed Robert had already bolted to the door. He'd never met the boy except in passing. He was conent to loom eeirly over Robert without a proper introduction, the evil jackass he was...

"Alrighty, thank's Casp! I owe ya big tim- What? Oh ok, well yeah, I found a manual the last time. No, well yeah, I'm sure if anything happens, someone could help me read it. Otherwise, I got it all covered, don't worry." Karmy reassured Caspian over the phone. "Yeah I've got some tools in my bag. I helped you fix it the last time it broke down in Newport, remember? Haha no, yeah, Dick actually just said he would drive. Yeah, we're at the Manor now. Just come up the back wa-.. You're almost here?" she asked curiously. "How didja know? Oh right, Talia. Haha shoulda known. Well, we'll meet ya in the back, see ya then!" Hanging up the phone, Karmy turned to give everyone the news.

"So yeah, its an old 8 seater VW van. Plenty of room for us and I can keep everyone's luggage in my bag if y'all want." She suggested. "So the people who are going are, Luna, Ivy, Zero, Sissy, Crimson, Dick, Alice and me, right?"

Robert's fist was an inch or so from the door so he could knock when he suddenly saw the very large shadow of Cassius, which meant that the big guy was right behind him. With a rather loud gulp, he turned around, trying to maintain a sense of dignity. "So you must be, erm, Cassius." he greeted, knowing that he would have to eventually meet his girlfriends father figure eventually. "Nice to finally meet you, sir." he nervously held out his hand to shake Cassius'.

Dick crossed his arms, he wasn't sure about Alice, she hasn't really been up to even being around them as of late, even on the most festive of holidays. "Maybe we should pay Alice some respect and not force her to come." Dick suggested.

"Dick she's been moping around this house ever since she got home from the hospital." Karmy told him, sitting back down while they waited for their ride to arrive. "I think it would be good for her to get outta the house, maybe we'll see her smile.."

He shook his head in disapproval, "I already said this isn't a vacation, Karmy. The answer is no. Leave her alone." Dick ordered, "She really doesn't look like she's in the mood. Contrary to your beliefs, smiling the best medicine. And besides, what makes you think she's going to smile if you force her on?" he was only concerned with causing any sort of friction with Alice. He didn't want to upset her or agitate her in any way.

Karmy sighed and figured that Dick was right, he was most of the time, and she had gotten used to that by now. But still, one could say that Karmy wanted Alice to come for her own selfish reasons, because, well could you blame her? She missed her best friend. It had been a month since the Joker incident, and even though Karmy spent almost every day trying to get through to her friend, she could never accomplish much. And in the back of her mind, she was thinking, that maybe this was the last time she could go on an adventure with Alice, like in the old days. When they were a great team. When they would laugh together. When being around Alice made her feel hopeful and safe, instead of confused and depressed.

"Why don't we let her decide, it is her choice after all." Karmy told Dick, though, that didn't mean she wouldn't try to convince her.

"Well," Dick said in thought, scratching the back of his head. "I don't see what's wrong with that. But just don't expect her to say what you want. She hasn't been herself lately... If you haven't noticed."