Knight Errant--Tales of Batman (IC thread)

It had been a long night. It wasn't over, not by a long shot. But Batman had put down no less than nine petty thieves, a couple of pimps getting violent with their girls, a nutjob holding a woman at gunpoint, and a gang of drugrunners down by the docks. Now he perched on a gargoyle statue high above the city, looking out at it. The wind whipped his cape too and fro, as he surveyed what was supposed to be a mob boss turning himself and his information in in exchange for safety. He watched through a pair of night vision goggles as the scene unfolded. He spotted Detective Bullock getting out of the car to receive the Mafia don. Bullock was a good cop. Not as good as Jim Gordon, but better than some of the others out there. Unfortunately, Bullock hated Batman. If the detective had known the Caped Crusader was watching from above, he'd have called in the Air Force at the least.

Batman watched the area as well as he could. He'd placed telemetry sensors and remote alarms everywhere he could think of, tied in through the Batmobile. He hadn't given it that name, of course, but sometimes kids had a good way of looking at things. So when an elementary schooler had labelled it that, he'd taken it in stride. He smiled to himself, thinking of how the kid had looked up to him. Leave it to kids to find the Dark Knight a hero. He quickly sobered up as he surveyed the scene again. He frowned, looking through the goggles, then took them off and put them back in their pouch on his utility belt.

He grabbed a zipline launcher instead, and fired it at a lower building's overhanging statuary. He leaped, swinging expertly. After a few moments, he stood in the shadows on the ground. He had been right. It would have seemed this Mafioso's enemies had begun to move on him. So Batman started to take them out. Methodically he dispatched attackers before they even struck.

Question waited patiently as he watched the events unfold.

He had come to Gotham to find a local mafia don whom had being dealing weapons and the such with some gangs in Hub City, Star City and BludHaven. He was sure, there was someone higher up in all this, there always was.

And that person (or people) would be getting twitchy as the Don was now dealing with the cops. Which meant they would send people....People whom Question could get information from.

He knew batman would be watching, it was his city after all, and he knew the Bat would know that he was in Gotham. He knew everything....and he probably wasn't very happy about Q's appearance, after the heated argument months before that had caused Q to sever his connections with everyone in the superhero community.

As he watched he saw people converging on the scene from several directions, and sure that Batman would take care of the nearest lot, he moved in towards them, and then, before they realized what was happening, the faceless man had knocked out each of the 3 men, and promptly disarmed them.

Barbara sighed as she twirled her pencil in her hand. It was another boring day at the library. Another day of answering questions of where a book is, etc... She glanced outside, it didn't seem to be very exciting out in Gotham City either.

She twirled her red hair and debated on calling Bruce. He was probably busy, doing batly duties. She giggled to herself and some of the people gave her harsh glares.

Sorry, for actually trying to enjoy myself at work she thought bitterly. Hopefully, things would pick up soon...

Huntress

Swoosh! Crack!

The steel toed reinforced boot met her opponents face quickly and efficiently. The blow threw the thug back and out of the fight. His nose smashed and face bloodied.

One down, three to go.

Helena Bertinelli, or Huntress as her peers and adversaries knew her was in the thick of battle with a quartet of thugs under the light of a nearly full moon. Gotham was her home, for better or worse and she would do what she could to make it a bit more bearable.

Outnumbered as she was, a defensive posture at the moment was her her only choice. That had to change and quickly or it would get ugly. Within in her peripheral vision she saw another assailant raise his arm up. Moonlight gleamed of the polished metal barrel of a gun. Lightening quick she drew from her side her signature weapon, a hand crossbow.

Zitch! The thug cried out in terrible pain, the gun immediately dropped, with a bolt speared through his wrist.

Two down, two to go.

Unlike most of her peers, she took more satisfaction in disarming her opponents than apparently was seemly. She cared little what they thought however. If they didn't like her methods, then let's seem them do better! She couldn't recall Superman, or Green Lantern fighting the good fight amongst the rabble in dark alleyways.

Ever since returning to Gotham, now just over a year, she'd been fighting it seems. Be it to avenge the mob murder of her family or fighting Gotham's many criminals and miscreants. Thou shall not kill...her Catholic upbringing told her. Well, easier said than done sometimes. She was neither super strong nor super fast and rarely had the luxury of showing villians mercy. With blurring quickness however, she dispatched the two remaining opponents, knocking them senseless with brilliant martial art methods. These were street thugs with limited fighting skills. They had no idea what hit them. Just in time too as a trio of Gotham's finest roared up the alley, sirens blaring, wheels screeching.

Momentarily, she was caught up in the glow of the policeman's headlights. She turned, still crouched in a fighting stance. She was masked of course. The dark purple and black she worse blended nicely in the shadows. While she didn't have a large 'S' on her chest, or a star-spangled bustier, her presence was sleek and sexy nevertheless.

Two of the policemen jumped out of their car, one pointed a gun her way.

Stop there! Freeze!

Helena's eyes narrowed, and then in a flash she was gone, leaping upward to a fire escape landing, and quickly leaped up to a rooftop. The policeman's partner stay the others gun with a hand.

I don't think I'll let you catch me, not tonight. She thought.

Helena quickly departed the alley by way of the iron wrought fire escape, and up to the rooftop. She left behind the commotion in the alley, figuring the police could piece together what happened and round up the thugs. In this part of town many of the older buildings were quite close together, making it easy to leap from one to the other. She was making her way back to her place by one of several different routes. She not only need to ensure any possible enemies weren't tracking her, but Batman too. Giving that one the slip was never an easy task. It was common knowledge he didn't approve of her free-lancing about Gotham.

About halfway to making it home, something caught her attention. There were a couple of Cadillacs parked, and several individuals running to and from the shadows of the nearby buildings. Her vision narrowed as she caught sight of what could only be the man himself, the Batman impressively dispatching a number of individuals. There was another also, who she had no hope of recognizing, also putting their opponents down. If she recognized those moves she could swear it was the Question, her on again, off again boyfriend.

While she was loathe to put her nose in where it wasn't wanted, and eager to return home, she thought she should at least check in with Barbara. She activated her personal comlink pinned to the inside of her cloak.

"Babs...what do you know about anything going down by the docks tonight? Babs?"

Barb snapped out of her daydream of Bruce and blinked a few times when she heard her nickname. "Oh, hello.." She frowned in confusion, "I um...nothing at the moment, why is something going on there?" And here she thought tonight was one of those boring nights in Gotham City.

Of course, if something was going on by the docks, Batman was sure to be there...and maybe she could get Batman's attention with her totally wicked fighting skills. "If so, I don't think Batgirl would want to miss out on all the fun..."

Barb smiled wickedly at Helena.

Batman's eyes narrowed as he took in the form of The Question joining in the fight. He didn't say anything, as a guy tried sneaking up on the Dark Knight. He just swing his fist up and back, suckerpunching the criminal. They were starting to realize something was wrong. That left little time. Suddenly, they heard shots ringing out. Batman ran past the faceless man and jumped in front of the mob man. The bullet stopped cold on the updated armor he now wore. He'd feel it in the morning, of course. Stopping a bullet wasn't the same as stopping the powerful shockwave that preceded it. But it gave his presence away to Bullock, as well as giving Bullock himself enough time to get the mob don in the squad car and take him to the station, with a "NEXT TIME, YOU MASKED WHACKJOB" shouted out.

Batman ignored the shouted warning, and then charged back into the fight, finding the ones responsible for the gunfire. Hopefully, none of the officers or their new friend got shot. Once they were done, he turned to the Question, and narrowed his eyes again. "I told you. I work alone. Stay out of my way." With that, he raised a hand, and a zipline shot out of the small launcher he pulled from his belt. Within seconds, he was gone, swinging up to the rooftops.

Question growled then yelled in answer, 'I'M NOT HERE TO PISS YOU OFF YOU UNGRATEFUL BASTARD, I WAS FOLLOWING MY OWN LEADS!'

Stupid idiot, wouldn't surprise me if he's being paid by the mob....no, he wouldn't be protecting the don....the government?....No, no, calm down, deep breaths, there no conspiracy here....none that i can see anyway.

He turned then slipped as he suddenly became aware of a pain in his leg. Grunting, and managing not to fall over, he glanced at his leg, noticing a knife which had being dug in during the fight by one of the goons.

He also noticed the large amount of blood coming from his leg. Too much blood.

He needed to go to a hospital, which was great, cos he hated hospitals. Grumbling, he began to head off in the direction of Gotham General, Pausing only to release the gas which would change the colour of his clothes, and also pulled off his mask, the gas having freed it from his face.

He tried to get his bearings....

Great, if i'm right its gonna be a good 30 minutes till i find the hospital.

Grumbling, he began to limp off.

Robin

Young Dick Grayson was born on the first day of spring. His mother nicknamed him "little Robin". Little did she know how prophetic this term of endearment would be in her son's life. Dick Grayson the only child of John and Mary Grayson the famous circus acrobats the Flying Graysons took the rumbled black and white photograph out of his pocket and only tangible poof his parents had ever been alive... As he stared at the picture tears began streaming down his face as he silently vowed to kill the man that had killed his parents.

It had been what seemed like a lifetime ago but, the mere sound of a car backfiring brought back the horror of that night. The sound of footsteps coming out of a dark ally. The man approaching all three of them from behind and demanding has father's wallet and the few meager jewels his mother wore... When his mother refused to give up her wedding ring three shots rang out so quickly they sounded as one... The moans and thuds as all three fell bleeding in the street.

When Dick woke up sometime later he didn't know how long he had been out his first sensation was that he was laying in some foul smelling sticky goop and then he seen his mother and father laying face down side by side and suddenly remembered what had happened and came to the sickening realization he was laying in a pool of his parents own blood. His head buzzed with pain and throbbed as he lasped in and out of concoiusness. When he finally regained his awareness.

He screamed out, "Mom, Dad!"

When he reached out to them to shake his father has soon as he touched the body of his Dad it felt cold and stiff and Dick wept.... Knowing his mother and father had given their lives to protect him and Dick was now an orphan. Soon red and blue light where awash on the walls of tenaments lining the allyway and were accompanied by the squall of sirens the police arrived out of no where but, they arrived to late... Dick's memory of the event was shaky and blood oozed out a gash in his forehead where a bullet merely grazed his as his father tired to wrestle the gun form the hoodlum.

The police took Dick to the local hospital and the doctors and nurses patched up his superficial head wound and he was released the fallowing morning.... And even after endless questions by the police and several years had passed the man who murdered his parents was never found... Even though he would relive the memory of that night countless times with such reality he seemed as if he were reliving the memory not just remembering but, it happened years ago...

Dick came to idolize batman some would even say he worshiped the capedcrusader. It had been ten years since his parents had been killed and the teenage Grayson realized Batman was the only one that could solve his parents murder the only problem was no one who Batman was or where he came from he just seemed to appear out of no where and then vanish just as mysteriously...

Dick made it his quest to find Batman and beseech him for help... Each night he would scan the heavens in hopes of just a glimpse of his hero and low and behold tonight was his lucky night... Perched high atop a gargoyle was a silhouetted figure he was sure was the Batman... Now he only had to get Batman's attention... But how?

Danielle Moskovic

"Moskovic!" Came a voice, obviously yelling at the woman who was known as Danielle Moskovic. The woman's head snapped up. her straight, strawberry blonde hair flying with it, she had been looking out the window and daydreaming again. Well it couldn't exactly be called daydreaming. More like a dayterror. The memory of her parents death was brought back everytime she saw a black cat. She had to get over it but how could she? She considered getting a black cat but didn't have the courage to go to the animal shelter to get one. "Moskociv how many times do I have to tell you, this is not cloud 9 so your head better not go there either!" Danii, as the woman was known as, nodded her head "Sorry sir" she told him. Her green eyes were speckled with bits of gold and if one looked closely they would have seen that they were filled with pain. "Don't apologize, it's a sign of weakness" the man told her before walking away. Danii's freckled face turned a slight shade of red, as apposed to their usual fair color. She looked around her cubicle at the many news clips and photos of the one known as catwoman. She was in deep pursuit of Catwoman, borderline obsessive. She beleived that Catwoman killed her parents. All she knew was what she had in her memory. Sitting on a chair next to her mother's bed. Her strawberry blonde hair that she had passed on to Danii was plastered to her pale, sunken face. The doctors said it was tetnus, from something rusty scraping their skin. Her dad had died the day before, his green eyes had rolled back in his head. The doctors had told Danii that Catwoman had left her on the steps of the hospital and fled before she could be questioned, or captured. Danii beleived that it had been Catwoman's sharp clawlike nails that had poisoned her parents. In truth, Catwoman had rescued them from a well known criminal who was going to blackmail Danii into getting rid of all of the increminating evidence. The criminal was know dead, or behind bars, Danii wasn't sure which as she hadn't paid particular attention to the case, not knowing how vital it was to her life. Danii smoothed out her uniform which she hated having to wear, it made her 32C breasts seem all the larger and her stomach all the flatter. She knew that most woman would have loved this but she couldn't stand it. She much preffered oversized sweats. She looked out the window again before re-reading the same sentence she had read twenty times already on the paper in front of her. She sighed.