Dark Knights, & City Lights [Vi]

[Tim Drake]

High above the Gotham skyline, two dark shapes moved at what some might call a leisurely pace, the combined air-speed of the two aircraft being a shade over five-hundred miles per hour, which was leisurely if one happened to be a United States Navy or Air Force fighter jock, then of course, twice that velocity would be a speed more to you're liking, but then the two dark, and cryptic shapes where in the employ of private citizens acting in the public interest, four people total moving along in the cooler upper atmosphere above Gotham, two in each craft, one behind the other, two males, two females, two humans, and two mutant's...

All of them, Darkened Knight's...



The flat black Bat-plane lead the slightly smaller, darkened burgundy and black Red-Bird in a circuit over Gotham, the combined sensor and communications power of the two craft formation rivaled that of a whole U.S. Navy carrier battle group, the intelligence they gathered vital to the current mission that the two youngest members where carrying out, thanks to a promise, and a sense of justice and mercy that was driving them onwards into the darker parts of humanity's underbelly.

The promise had been made almost a month ago, in the Jump City central mall, to a dying young man, to go and find a lab where children, young and older, where kept, and experimented on, the main target of this lab, children with powers or "talents" and given that Robin had already unearthed one such lab in Jump, and had found links to a new business in Jump, the Pax-Que Conglomerate headed by one Martian Christopher Taylor, a man of means, and of the world (not unlike one Bruce Wayne and others like him) questions had begun to spring up in the young detectives mind, and given information one of his newest ally's had uncovered in her own humble part in this dark, obscure web, dots started to form across the nation, dots that had few connections.

At least, until Blaze and Ferus had showed up, then Slade somehow ended up entering the picture, both shedding some dim light on on the matter, and adding to it's depth, and complexity. Still now, they flew over Gotham, looking for that one tell-tale sign they needed, the one clue that had been left in New York, at the main Lab Ferus had spoken of, the Tattoo artist that had done the cataloging and tracking marks on all the children in that lab, having been found dead in a back alley, that when carefully examined, had ended up being the back door to the lab, which in the height of irony, had been stumbled upon some Freelancing Independent Titans, namely Kid Flash, Jinx and Kid Devil, who had all been tracking some mysterious, and ominous thefts that then lead them to the lab, however, the men in-charge of said lab, where experts, and they managed to spirit away over half of the children and teens they had been testing, the ones left behind, sadly where "write offs" as Batman had so impersonally put it, children that had been pushed past their breaking point, most of the survivors that had been found where either close to death, emotionally destroyed or simply stark-raving mad, pushed, poked, prodded and twisted beyond anything that could be called human, and the few that would live past the end of the month would likely never be able to lead anywhere close to a normal life again, if any kind of life at all outside a carefully controlled environment.

The injustices Ferus had implied, where far worse than anyone save the Batman himself had expected.

As grotesque as the work being done was, it was done by men that where very good at what they did, however, as good as the men in charge of this holocaustict lab seemed to be, they where still men, and men where imperfect, they forgot things, over looked details, and made mistakes, and it would soon be clear that the biggest mistake they had made, was allowing Ferus to escape, and make contact with Robin.


And so the hidden rage that stemmed from all of this was both shared among the four that now flew above Gotham, and was almost as palatable as the light mist that hung low over the massive dark city, full of it's own horrors and secrets...


"Robin... I have a hit near the Narrows... Bearing 322 from our nose, heading 270 on the compass..."

"Roger, we just got it our self's... It's the same digital signal that the Leagues satellites picked up from the area around the Lab site in New York..."

Robin glanced back into the mirror that let him see Darkbrand behind him and he spoke on the intercom rather than the encrypted link between the two aircraft; "Darkbrand, can you get a match on the current signal and the archived signal the Green Arrow gave us?" he asked as he banked the Red-Bird to follow the Bat-Plane towards the most notorious area in all of Gotham, if not the East coast...

His gut tingled with that old instinctual, and trained feeling he always got before a fight or a big break in a case, and a slightly grim smile settled on his lips

[Violet Schultz]

It had been pretty terrible in some of the places that Violet had seen, but even she had never seen anything so terrible as what they had witnessed at that lab in New York. There were kids who didn't even look human, and more that acted subhuman. From what Ferus had said, most of these kids had been average normal children when they had come into the place, most of them orphans. The testing had destroyed them, either physical, mentally, or emotionally. She had seen children scared to death of their own shadow, twitching uncontrollably when exposed to the least variance of their environment. She couldn't believe that such terrible things were happening under the radar.

She could understand why Ferus had been so determined to free them. According to some deleted logs that Batman had managed to pull up, Ferus had broken in no less than four times since his escape, trying to free others like himself, but he had never escaped with more than his life, and sometimes barely that. She didn't like to think of what was happening to the other half of the people who had been taken when the relocation had taken place.

So, here they had come, to the city where Tim had apparently been trained under Batman. Despite his grim and abrupt manner, Violet like the Caped Crusader. He was quiet, but he was direct and extremely intelligent. He was just as stolid as herself, and there was something about his menacing presence that made her glad that he was on their side. She had heard that he was a martial arts master beyond anyone she'd ever encountered, and she felt a grim satisfaction at the fact that he was with them on this mission. Of course, there was no way of knowing whether or not he would stay with them.

Her slender fingers moved over the keys in front of her, navigating the system that Robin had introduced her to the day before yesterday. She was learning that she had a natural way with computers, which was encouraging given the general lack of computers that she had experienced in the past. Isolating the signals in the area with the Red-Bird's sensors, she compared them to the frequency provided by the Justice League and after a few seconds, the results appeared on the screen.

"We've got a match," she reported into her headset. "I'm running a tighter search.... There. Sending the coordinates to your screen."

With a few keystrokes, she transmitted the results to Robin, looking at the red dot blinking on the superimposed map on her screen.

[Tim Drake]

Robin nodded slightly, as he looked back out of the front windscreen and replied; "Copy that, going partyline... Batman, Darkbrand says it's a match, are you pinging the same read?" He inquired as the two craft leveled out and closed on the area, the unmistakable grim glowing of older, and dirtier buildings and lights barely cutting through the thin Gotham fog.

"Batgirl's cross checking that now, but I think that we can get it confirmed in short order..."

"Roo-bin, I haave, looked at eeverything... It is... The same. We have a match." The almost childlike speech was not befitting the almost sultry soft rasp that uttered it, but then Cassandra Cain was recovering from being tazered in the throat a few nights ago, a rare instance where her instincts and skills had missed a chance to counter the assault.

"Copy that Batgirl, Knight one you should have the coordinates for our *POI, I'll take point for decent, then cover for landing... Going stealth in three... two... one..."

And with a soft beeping, all the lights save the screens went down to a barely there glow, the sounds of the engines dulling to a loud whisper, and the speed at which the Red-bird flew slowed, and if one was watching closely the color seemed to fade to a misty gray and blue with a hint of pastels, that made a truly perfect camouflage for the craft, making it blend with the night sky almost perfectly when viewed from the ground, and that was where their target would have most possibly viewed them from.


With less noise than one might think, both custom built aircraft landed on a wide rooftop a few blocks from the seemingly unobtrusive apartment building the digital signal was coming from, and as of yet, it was their one solid lead, all other details from the abandoned lab in New York still where either useless or damaged to the point of massive forensic nightmares, even for the most talented of scientists, which Robin and Darkbrand had, thanks in large part to the League, which had access to the top two percentile thanks to S.T.A.R. Labs and of course, they had the direct help of the great detective himself...


Stepping down out of the forward seat, which lowered down on a small platform from the streamlined body of the craft, the rear seat also attached to that same small platform, that being the one major departure from the over all design of the Red-bird when compared to the Bat-plane, which had a more traditional canopy that pivoted open.

Once all four of them where out of the craft, Robin walked to the edge of the roof and held his communicator open, a soft pulsing red dot over the map where the signal was coming from, only three blocks away.

"That building was recently purchased by a small business collective from New Jersey, everything checks out as legal at first glance, but after some digging things got suspect... I would say the logical thing is that the men we're after have a controlling interest in that place, much like the lab in New York, only this time they will have some kind of security."


With a slight nod, Tim then dug into a pocket and then reached towards his side at Darkbrand; "Here..." Robin said as he held out a large but flexible black textile mask, like his but this one was without the white lenses and instead had pale lavender tinted lenses that where as malleable as the rest of the item; "I know it's not your style, but given you're history with labs, I think it would be best if you where as anonymous as you could be."

He waited for Batman to take the lead on this, since he knew that would happen anyway, and he watched Darkbrand for her reaction...


(*POI= Point Of Interest)

[Violet Schultz]

They landed quietly on the roof of a building a few blocks away, and Violet unfastened herself from the seat, coming out as soon as she had all of the gear that they would need. Traditionally, Violet didn't use a lot of gear, but this was a case in which they couldn't really do without some of it. It was Robin who would normally carry most of it, since he would be using it, but in this case, there was a distinct possibility that they would be split up at one point. In fact, they planned it that way. She would likely be causing some sort of distraction, considering that her abilities tended to be flashy and attract attention. She turned to Robin as he spoke to her.

Violet nodded once and placed the mask over her eyes, recognizing the necessity. She hated having to wear it, considering that it somewhat limited her peripheral vision, but it wouldn't go down well if she was recognized. It was entirely possible that some of the people from the lab that had taken her were at this facility, and if that was the case, they had reason to try to take her again. One thing was for certain. She wasn't going to let that happen. When she was asleep, her internal temperature was lower, closer to the temperature of a normal person. When she was awake, though, tranquilizers wouldn't work on her.

She couldn't sense a lot going on within the target building, but she could sense something from far underground. There was a few fires down there, but they were small. Violet would suspect that it was little more than cigarettes. Maybe a cigar. But the fact that it was underground was interesting, especially considering that it was far below the normal depth for a subway system. There had to be some structure down there, and that agreed with the idea that this apartment building was more than it seemed. It was probably the surface entrance to the lab complex.

"I'm sensing some cigarettes far below ground," she reported. "There's definitely something down there."

Her practiced eye mapped out a route which was generally unavailable to people. Like any genuine parkour expert, she could travel through a cityscape in a straight line, which was always the fastest route. That was the whole point of the training: to be able to find the fastest and simplest route somewhere and to be able to take it. In this case, she would have to jump a couple of rooftops, and climb down a fire escape and possibly a flagpole. Of course, the stairs were always preferable, but she didn't know how stealth they wanted to go here.

[Tim Drake]

Batman nodded once at Darkbrand then turned slightly to look at the other end of the street as Robin instinctively checked the opposing end, their gazes meeting back some where halfway between them, a silent few words spoken between them before Batman turned on his heel and all but grunted out; "Batgirl will take the roof, I'm taking the back door, you two check for any other way in, and then work you're way to the basement, this building was built over an old subway station, and I'd bet that there's some way into the old floor plan if you look for it."

And with that he walked off the edge of the building and swung down around the corner to street level and vanished from sight as Batgirl swung off and landed half way up the building in question, and then climbed up to the rooftop...


"Okay, let's check that side over there." Robin said as he pointed to an alley; "That looks like a service alley, so that's where we'll start." he then took a grapple off his belt and fired it off into the skyline then swung down and landed right in the middle of the alley in the dark, since the light was out here, which seemed awfully convenient considering the context of the moment, which worked both ways now.

As soon as Darkbrand arrived, Robin pointed to a large steel door that was ajar, and he walked over to it and checked the seams, and hinges for signs of triggers for alarms or traps, and finding none, he slowly pushed it open just enough for them to squeeze through.

Once inside, they followed the hallway that led through the lower levels of the building where all the pumps, plumbing, and the furnace was, which, of course, was broken and in disrepair, meaning the people here likely didn't get the luxury of heating in the wintertime, but that was something else for another day, for now Robin led the way to a door that looked about as good as the rest of the place and he again checked for anything out of the ordinary, but the only thing he could find was that other than looking like crap, the door was in perfect working order, and it opened almost silently...

"That's odd isn't it?" Robin said, as he moved the door a few times, open and shut, the only sound a soft almost muffled clicking as the catch slid into the door jam.

Shining a low output inferred light down into the dark stairwell, Robin's mask changed, the white lenses shifting to let him see with the inferred light like night vision, Darkbrand's mask doing the same automatically.
"See it?" he asked as he pointed at the large glowing door like object down at the end of the stairs, everything down this stair well looking rather nice for it's surroundings.

Holding his free hand to his ear, Robin pressed on the small ear-bud that he had, that they all had, and called Batman; "Knight one, this is Knight... Knights three and four, we've got it, it by-passes the basement totally, back of the service area on the ground floor, stair well leading down at a forty five slant..."

He paused as a small hiss sounded, followed by a curt; "Copy, I'm close, don't move." and then two soft clicks following that, letting him and Darkbrand know that Batgirl had heard and was on her way as well.


"Now we wait." Robin said over his shoulder to Darkbrand only three short seconds before the large warm door below them opened with a low swoosh and a sharp clicking...

[Violet Schultz]

Violet nodded in understanding and followed. Grapples were something worth looking into. It was certainly easier than the way that she got around. Racing off of the edge of the building, she grabbed the fire escape and launched herself backward off of it, flipping and landing deftly on the ground before returning to Robin. Her brows furrowed as she saw the door ajar. Something was wrong here. There was no way that they would make it so easy to get in, considering the recent break-ins. Nonetheless, there wasn't another way in, and the simplest way to figure out what a trap was involved springing it. It was risky, though.

"I don't like this, Robin," she said, her voice a low whisper. "It's too easy, and too deserted."

She didn't need the infrared to see in infrared, but it was a nice feature all the same. She was far more attuned to the temperatures of things around her than most people, and she really didn't like this door. It was probably the secret entrance, but why a door would be warm was beyond her. It probably meant that there was actually heat installations that functioned past that door. All the same, she was alert for trouble as they waited for Batman. She thought it was vaguely ridiculous that he should expect anything other than trouble to come of waiting around in the den of the lion, run-down or not. Her suspicions were confirmed.

Suddenly, the door opened and two men armed with semi-automatic weapons came out, their weapons ready to fire. Violet's mind flitted over the possibilities of their detection, maybe pressure sensors, heat sensors, hidden camerars, but the more pressing issue was the armed guards coming for them. They had the high ground, but it seemed risky to leap in from above, and stupid to descend the stairs. Gritting her teeth, she disabled their weapons with her abilities and flipped over the rail, landing a heavy ax kick on the first guard and pinning the second with a crescent kick. She stayed with her knee on the guard's chest, the weapon in her hands.

"M16," she told Robin. "Hey, do you think this place might have contacts in the military? This is definitely military grade."

The second guard lay in a heap by the wall. Spotting his electronic keys, she took them and handed them to Robin, looking at the electronic lock to the right of the door. It seemed odd that they should only send two, but then it likely meant that they didn't have much data on the intruders, which suggested that their means of surveillance weren't very specific. Definitely not cameras, and probably not heat sensors, since her heat signature would be unnaturally high and they were used to dealing with metahumans.

[Tim Drake]

It wasn't that he couldn't react in time, its just that Darkbrand had been a half step faster, but that was fine, either way, it was fast apparent that the two guards had either been very careless in their duties or had simply not known that there would have been anyone at the top of the steps.

No matter, they where both now out cold, and a slightly crumpled package of cigarettes was laying between them now, the hint of tobacco waifing from the now closed door.

Stooping down Robin looked at it and spoke softly; "Maybe, but then sometimes the best place to hide is in plain sight... We might just have been set up..." he squinted at the package of paper rolled cancer in a box then, at the assault rifle that the other man had, then he expertly checked the clip and showed it to Darkbrand; "Plain lead hollow points in an old out-moded model of assault rifle... And look, that package of cigarettes is a Russian brand..."

Looking at the key card and the reader attached to the locking device, he held his hand up in signal to wait as he hear movement at the top of the stairs, his hand twitching for a moment before he stood again, and suddenly a shadow took shape and grew a pair of narrow white slit eyes, a curved yet matching companion shaping up next to it.

"What happened." Batman asked in his low rumble as he glided over to the door and looked at it for a moment before glancing at the key in Darkbrand's hand, Batgirl crouching down in the corner and melding with the shadows.


"I'm thinking either these guys where going for a smoke break upstairs or they have some kind of sensors to tell them when someone gets to the landing up there... Look, at all of this, old rifles, Russian cigarettes, cheap bullets, now badges or defining marks..." Robin was puzzled, where these men working for someone? Or where they working on their own, hence the poor security and almost brilliant but still useless camouflaging...


"Restrain them, Darkbrand, you and Batgirl will move in right after Robin and I breach and clear the door, use the smoke pellets to extend the cover I'll lay down, try not to let them damage any equipment or tear anything up yourself..." and with that, he moved to the door and waited for the younger heroes to move into place...

[Violet Schultz]

Violet nodded and tied the man's wrists with a plastic zip-tie pulled from the pouch on her belt, flipping him over and dragging him against the wall. She bound the second one's hands quickly as well, dismantling each of their radios just to make sure that even if they woke, they would be unable to contact their superiors. A tiny explosion in the inner workings did the trick. She stood and walked back to Robin, speaking to him expressly. Whatever Batman's reputation, Violet reported only to Robin, and whether Robin reported to Batman or not wasn't something that she cared about.

"I'll take out the guns as soon as you two breach the door, but since we don't know what all types of weapons they'll use, property damage may not be something we can contain," she said.

All the same, she hung back with Batgirl. They were roughly the same in proportions, but Batgirl had martial arts prowess that outmatched even Robin. Violet would've liked to go a round with her just to see how she compared, but now was definitely not the time. They watched as the older hero planned out how to break down the door, and as fine a strategy as shock and awe could be, Violet wasn't convinced that something more subtle wouldn't be more effective. Still, it seemed difficult to argue with the generally taciturn Batman who seemed to growl every other word.

She could sense a lot going on through that door, mostly the electrical currents which flowed through the place. In close proximity, she could feel the heat off of electric currents, and she would've hated to see the energy bill that these people wracked up, but something told her that money was no object to these people. From what she could feel of the power grid, the doors were all electrically controlled, and there were automated defenses which were concealed. It wasn't an exact science, given that she could only feel it vaguely, like being able to sense a staticky run of carpet. It was only really since they met Static that she had become aware of the sense.

Whatever was behind that door, she was sure she wouldn't want to remember it afterward, just as she had not liked the sight that had met them in New York. These were the kids that were still being actively experimented upon, and while she hadn't been conscious for her "stay", Robin had been struck by the sheer dehumanization that took place. It was clear that they didn't think of these kids as human, and they felt that they had the right to do whatever they wanted with them. Violet was only surprised that they hadn't been taken down before this.

[Tim Drake]

Robin nodded as he handed the key card Darkbrand had showed him to his mentor and then filled his hands with pellets and shock disks as Batman crouched by the door and waited for a few seconds, the swiped the card...


With a click and hiss, the door slid away into the wall, and the sounds of beeping monitors and the hum of other devices greeted them, as did more tobacco smoke, and a droning conversation between two people, a man and woman:

"Number 022-40-C is too unstable right now, we either need to pull the plug and move on, or cease all therapy for forty-eight hours so he can recuperate."

"No, we've gathered all the truly useful data we can, keep going I want to see if the over all tolerance levels are universal to this type of exposure for that strain of DNA mutations, or if the first two just had it due to common ancestry."

There was a pregnant pause before the man again spoke; "Fine, but then we'll have to re-fill and rebuild the emitter array, you've had it running almost constantly since we got here, and you put off the maintenance for over a week in New York, and I don't know about you, but I don't have an advanced healing factor or regenerative ability's like many of these kids do."

His response however was greeted with a hiss; "How many times do I have to tell you Hammond! These subjects are not to be referred to like that, you yourself said that once a base genetic code is changed past a certain point, it becomes a new sub-species, so they are NOT human, understand?"


"Yeah..."
As short and balding man's shoulders sagged, the air suddenly filled with acrid smoke that chocked both him and his tall but portly read headed female companion, who coughed out; "Guards!"

But said guards had been thinned out by spot on painful jolts of electricity contained in copper ringed disks painted black and yellow...


In moments Batman had taken down anyone who had survived Robin's volley of shock disks, or was foolish enough to try and put up a fight, and there was always at least two people who where.


"Down." Batgirl said simply as she pinned back the arm of a man twice her size, his face a mask of pain and shock as she kicked the backs of his knees and forced him to the ground, his wrists bound before he could even try and struggle.


"... Try it... Please..." Robin glowered at a third white coated doctor with a shock of blond hair and brown eyes, his hand reaching for a small pistol on a counter top suddenly pausing as the razor sharp "wings" of a red bird-a-rang clicked out into place...


"Who do you work for!" Batman roared as he lifted the bald man from earlier off the ground and crashed him into a large stack of wooden crates, the room a large expansive mess of stasis pods, crates, folding tables, computers and examination tables with heavy leather straps and chains attached to them...


As well as a section if the brick wall marked off with bright yellow tape, and measurements, chains and more restraints and an oddly shaped device that looked like a dentists light attached to riding lawnmower with a computer server attached to that...



And a smaller boy with glassy like hair, ghostly transparent skin, and shockingly dark pure black eyes, writhing in pain on the wall, tears that looked like liquid mercury running down his face and pooling on the dirty concrete floor...

[Violet Schultz]

So, that's how they justify it, Violet thought, heading over to the machine. Tapping a few buttons, she shut it down while the others took care of the scientists. As soon as she was sure that it was off, she freed the child from the restraints, catching him as he fell forward. He didn't have the strength to stand up, and Violet laid him down on the floor, propping his upper body up so that she could see if he was okay. Her practiced hands wandered over his torso and lingered over his lungs, where she could feel that they were undamaged. With gentle fingers, she wiped away his silvery tears and looked at his panicked expression with compassionate eyes.

"It's okay," she said. "They can't hurt you any more."

She finished her examination, anger flaring in chest her as she saw that the skin on his wrists had been rubbed raw from his restraints. It was probably dangerous to be touching this kid, given that they didn't know what he had been exposed to, but then of the people present, she had the best natural defense against radiation, toxins, and infectious agents. She lifted her head as she felt something a few floors down. A flamethrower? Her eyebrows narrowed as she saw what was inside the flame. It was a human foot, child proportion. Why would someone be torching a kid's foot? An experiment? An obstacle course, maybe? It didn't really matter. The more she saw of this place, the less she liked it, and they had to hurry to save these kids' lives.

"What do we do with him?" she asked, looking up at Robin. "He's not fit to move."

Their stated mission was to infiltrate the lab, save the subjects, and take down whoever was responsible for it, but if they were to save the kids, they needed somewhere to put them where they would be safe. This kid needed medical attention, and they couldn't just leave him there in his condition. At this point, she didn't know if Batman would decide that they had to leave him, but she wouldn't accept that. The kid was near death, and whether or not it took up extra time, they needed to care for him, or at least get him in a situation where he would receive care.

She couldn't understand the rationale of these scientists. How could someone look at this child's face and the fact that he was obviously in pain and say that he wasn't human? He was a helpless child, and the fact that these men could dismiss that and do unspeakable things to him was an act of evil beyond what she cared to understand.

[Tim Drake]

Robin looked to Darkbrand for a moment then up at Batman as the scientist called Hammond writhed and stammered, the stench of urine and fecal matter starting to creep into the air as the slight and balled man gasped and sobbed a moment before the Dark Knight again shook him then tossed him to the side into a desk buried under papers and cardboard boxes, the crash sounding deafening and silencing all other sound save the soft whimpers of the translucent boy as his body slowly phased back, thanks to the lack of concentrated beta radiation and electromagnetic waves that had been bombarding him, a tingle of static electricity sparking in his now ashy blond hair as he looked up at Violet with mournful eyes...


"Who. Do. You. Work. For." Batman stated darkly, the off kilter Hammond now a sobbing wreck huddled in the middle of a mass of papers and folders gazing in utter stark fear at the dark vestige that was Batman; "I-I-I-I... I work for a group of people, I-I don't know their real names, or what they look like, but they call themselves the board... That's all I know, they deal with us through dummy e-mail addresses and masked couriers, and th-they have very d-deep pockets..."


Batman reached down and picked the man up again, holding him a good two or three inches off the ground, and yet still the villainous doctor wasn't yet at eye level with the white slits that stared at him with a chillingly blank and soulless gaze; "Why do this? What are you're directives?"

Hammond shuddered as the larger, almost demonic looking man spoke then squeaked out; "T-to find the r-roots of the current g-g-growth rates of m-meta-human and mu-mutant persons! There's been an over thirty percent ex-exponential growth rate in reported supers the last ten years, and nea-near-nearly eighty percent of them have been meta's, p-pa-pe-people b-born with the evolved DNA codes! The rest wh-where simply m-m-mutated by outside m-means! PLEASE! That's ALL I know, I--I swear!"



Robin turned back to Darkbrand and then pointed to his ear before he gently touched his own ear piece and spoke softly; "Robin calling Oracle..." after a moment, there was a soft beeping sound as the digital signals converged and the encrypted link began to lock down; "Robin and guest, codename purple-heart, call-sign Darkbrand, sync up code Titan zero-four-niner..."

A short heartbeat later, a kind and intelligent female voice that sounded to be in her mid to late twenty's greeted them in a soft even tone just above a loud whisper; "Oracle copy, sync locked, we're secure, Hi Robin, hello Darkbrand, how are you liking Gotham?"

Robin replied with a mild but even sense of urgency; "It's just like I remember, and on that note, pleasantries later, Oracle we have a medical emergency, code yellow three, are you tracking?"

"I am now, south end of the Narrows huh? What's the casualty status?" Oracle asked with a hint of reasonable concern.


Robin looked to Darkbrand and nodded, signaling her to speak up and fill in the superheroes greatest source, friend and alley, Barbra Gordon AKA the Oracle...

{{{OOC: Before you make ANY COMMENTS, Yes, I would LOVE the chance to write a series of Comic books for Batman, with a shade MORE emphasis on his "sidekicks" and the rest of the Batman family without totally ignoring Bats himself, like so many other comic books have strangely done... but then I'd also like to write an SG-1 Comic book xD After all, you can't kill Daniel Jackson too many times right?}}}

[Violet Schultz]

((Killing Daniel Jackson at all is too many times! ;_;))

"Oracle, this is Darkbrand," Violet said, touching her ear piece. "Subject is male, approximately seven years of age. He was being exposed to radiation and EM waves, and is now conscious but clearly emaciated and weak. His powers are unknown, but the presence of powers is confirmed."

The child looked utterly terrified and very sad, and Violet was hoping that he would be okay. His pulse was good, and Violet couldn't detect any hint of organ damage, but she didn't really know what effects radiation could have on the body. Smart as Violet was, she had virtually no schooling, and this kind of thing was out of her league. She only knew that radiation could cause death in large amounts, and when in the developmental stages, it could cause mutation. It was the reason that pregnant women avoided getting x-rays done. Beyond that, she had no idea. Based on how ill the kid looked, she knew that he needed emergency medical attention. Besides, he was well under the healthy body fat level.

She lifted the kid, carrying him to the entrance in her arms. His small voice spoke as they walked, and Violet pitied the rasping weakness in it. He sounded exhausted and like he was in pain. She was glad that he had the energy to speak, though.

"Who are you people?" he asked, his eyes wheeling.

"We're here to save you and the others," Violet answered. "Just relax, all right? We'll get everyone away safely."

"You are? At last..." the kid sighed. "I wish you'd have come sooner. My brothers are already dead..."

"Don't worry," Violet said. "We'll make sure no one can do that to any of you again."

She could hear an ambulance siren approaching rapidly, and looked back at Robin for a moment before handing the child off to the paramedic who came down for him. She didn't know how much a standard street paramedic knew about helping a child who had powers, but she had to trust that Oracle was overseeing all of it. She surely had plenty of experience in overseeing the recovery of metahumans, given that she was a member of the Justice League.

Returning to Robin's side, she waited for further instruction. It was time to get moving, and they would have to keep the ambulance on call in case they met another kid who needed emergency medical care, and that was a pretty likely scenario...

[Tim Drake]

"Okay, a specialist EMS unit isn't too far away, I'll send them to you. Wait one." Oracle replied the faint sound of a keyboard in the background was cut off along with the feed, for a few moments before there was another beep and she returned with news; "Robin, Cyborg just called the Watchtower, looking for you and Batman, he says that there was evidence that Slade was in Steel City and that the clues point to him heading east for Gotham, but that he and Titans East lost the trail outside of Newark New Jersey... Do you want me to contact the other Titans?"


Robin paused as Darkbrand carried the kid away, then he spoke; "No, but can you patch him in? I need to know what we might expect."

"Wait one."

"Yo Robin, hows the rescue mission going?"

"We're connected, Oracle standing by."

Robin hid a smile as he heard the sound of the large hybrid teen greet him, and he returned the greeting in kind; "It's going, not as soon or as well as we'd like but it's going, Cyborg, Darkbrand's on the line too, she's my interim second in command for the moment, I want her to hear what you have for us on Slade."

"The fire girl you signed up? Cool, how y'all doin' out there in New York? Gettin' those kids out alright?"

"Actually Cyborg, we're in Gotham with Batman and Batgirl, the lab in New York was trashed and abandoned, we found some kids there but couldn't save them all, that's partly why I want you're info on Slade, Oracle said the trail heads for here and you lost it in New Jersey." Robin watched as Darkbrand returned and then waited, like a good lieutenant, always looking for what was next, just like Cyborg or Raven, which was why he had picked Darkbrand to be his interim second when they had prepared for this mission.

"... Wow man, that is not what I wanted to hear..." Cyborg said with worry in his voice as the connection hissed slightly then cleared as he went on; "Slade is running four little test tube bang babies outta Dakota like hell hounds, they tore up almost half of Steel city before we managed to chase them out, elemental powers, water, earth, electricity and ice, and meaner than pack of wild dogs. How Slade controls or stands their cute little PVC covered butts is anyone's guess..."


Robin looked to Darkbrand, knowing she would have input, and he was eager to hear it, and to see if two of his most trusted friends and partners could offer up some compare and contrast to aid them in this mission, which suddenly felt like it was growing into something bigger and more complex then just stopping some crazies underground lab...

[Violet Schultz]

"Robin, we don't really have the time for this right now," Violet asserted. "Those kids in the lower levels are in immediate danger. They're torching one with a flamethrower as we speak. Luckily, he's withstanding it for now, somehow."

Her words were quick and urgent, delivered at the speed that was unique to Europeans and some Asian speakers. She usually spoke at the pace that was common to most Americans, that being a lot slower than other languages. But in this situation, time was of the essence. They didn't have time to shoot the breeze and debate Slade's next move because what was going on downstairs was putting kids in immediate danger, and getting them out was a higher priority than taking Slade down. She was wondering why they were doddling like this, but it was time that they got moving. This room was only the tip of the iceberg, and she could sense the electrical currents running through the sprawling complex.

She'd thought that they had sensors that would pick up the scope of the area, but apparently there was either something blocking their equipment or their equipment wasn't as technologically advanced as they had thought. She decided to tell them all that her extra sense was telling her, just in case they didn't know any of it. Still, her words were just as brisk as before, although it wasn't hard to understand, given that her distinct manner of speaking didn't have words running together. Instead, it simply added to the urgency of her tone, and emphasized the fact that they needed to get moving.

"There's eight levels below this at least, and it spreads out much farther than the width of this building on the surface. I can feel the warmth of the electrical current going through the entire structure, which suggests that they go on electric locks, and lots of them."

Her eyes flicked to the electronic key that they'd gotten off of the guard. Odds were that the key that they had only gave access to certain areas, given that these were only security personnel. They couldn't have an abundance of master keys floating around, for security reasons. Still, it was a good thing to have, even if using it once they were compromised would tell any administration exactly where they were. The more time went by, the more likely they were to get suspicious because they couldn't get in touch with those two guards...

[Tim Drake]

Robin had been looking over what he had thought was the whole Lab, but at Darkbrands insistence, he blinked behind his mask and looked over at her as Cyborg commented; "She did NOT just say what I think she said... Damm, eight sub-levels? Dude you need to get moving, I'll contact the Watch Tower and get you some backup, cause' we're already almost to Steel City now... Good luck and kick some bad-guy booty for me, Cyborg out."

Robin touched his ear-piece as Batman walked over and glared at Darkbrand; "You're sure?" he asked pointedly as Batgirl started sweeping the edges of the room for another door and Robin did a spot check of his gadgets and pulled his gloves tighter over his hands a sudden chill settling over the air around them all, which just made Darkbrands elevated body heat stand out more.


At that moment there was a low clanking sound in the wall and everyone turned to look at Batgirl as she stepped away from a large section of brick and mortar that moved in-wards to reveal another stairwell with dimmed orange lights that went downward.

Batman slowly glided past the door to where the doctors where bound together and groused out; "Darkbrand, take point, Batgirl cover her, Robin, you're Op, you lead, I'll stay with the doctor's here and coordinate with Oracle and the Watch Tower, go."

Robin nodded then walked to the doorway and paused as he pulled out a trio of stun disks and waited for Darkbrand to lead, since she had the best read of the situation.

Now it was up to her to get them down there as fast as possible...