"Good, you're back…Batgirl told me you said you cured Victor Fries and his family of their conditions, can you tell me why Victor would feel the need to attack Gotham when his entire motivation for donning a costume and attacking people for money was taken away?" Bruce asks me as soon as the Bat-cycle pulls to a stop in its parking spot.
"I don't know…maybe someone abducted his wife or daughter and threatened their safety…to get Freeze to do what they wanted…it seemed like to me he was done with the whole villainy thing, heck his wife Nora made him swear by it." I grunt out in annoyance as I slide off the batmobile that someone who I helped turned around and went back to villainy even after saying they wouldn't, I mean it's not so much that he decided to continue his life of crime, but I would have preferred her not lie to me to try and ingratiate himself with me.
"Freeze, said much the same…I'm still trying to locate both Victoria and Nora Fries, Nora was quickly recovered by Batgirl and Robin but I'm having a difficult time locating Victoria…" As Bruce says this I reach into my pocket and pull out the panic button Victoria gave me.
"Do you think if she has the receiver for this panic alarm on her that we can track her location through it?" I ask Bruce but he has already taken the panic button from my hand and started to take it apart, while hooking up cable jumpers to it.
Soon a massive map of Gotham is displaying three locations with a signal pang from the device, one is Victor Fries at Arkham, the other is Nora who is at Wayne General Hospitals, leaving the last to be Victoria who is down at the waterfront and with the detailed photos that popup I can see that it is a warehouse.
"Dispatching stealth drones to the possible location of Victoria Freeze." Bruce says and a drone's video feed shows the inside of the warehouse with a few mercenaries and one Victorian Fries bound to a chair and gagged, luckily her clothes seem undisturbed so the likelihood of her having been raped goes down considerably in my book.
'If I hadn't cured her and Freeze they would have been in their power armor and have easily taken down whoever tried to use them…' I think and feel angry at myself for not considering what would happen after helping them.
Bruce begins towards the Batmobile and I follow him, he stops just as he was about to jump into the batmobile, and looks at me but doesn't say anything against me coming with him, before settling into the driver's seat and I hop into the passenger seat, it doesn't take long for us to reach the warehouse.
'How was Victor even able to wear his power armor…and not become a Popsicle?' I wonder as I jump out of the Batmobile alongside Bruce.
"You're not ready for this!" Bruce grunts as he extends his arm into the air batgrappler in hand.
"It's my fault she's here in the first place, while I'm drawing the attention of the mercs you get Victoria to safety." I tell Bruce and am surprised when he doesn't retaliate but grapples to the roof of the building, while I walk in through front door, song on my lips and surprisingly the instrumentals start playing even though there's no band.
"I spoke to God today, and she said that she's ashamed!"
"What have I become?"
"What have I done?"
"I spoke to the Devil today, and he swears he's not to blame, and I understood, 'cause I feel the same!"
"Who the hell is that, shit he's seen our faces kill him!" Someone shouts at me and the sounds of automatic gunfire should be deafening to me, but they're not, the hot bullets slice through my flesh but the wounds heal before I can really feel them, I continue to sing the music increasing with the tempo of the song.
"Wh-what the hell is this freak and where is that damned music coming from!?"
"Arms wide open, I stand alone!"
"Fuck, Trapper use the grenade launcher!" I feel an impact and flash of heat at my feet and I'm thrown back fifteen or so feet, 'Huh, my legs weren't blown off!' I think as I look down at my legs and find that they're a charred disfigured mess that are quickly healing, and I feel like I should be crying out in agony but the next verses of the song pour out of me.
"I'm no hero, and I'm not made of stone!"
"Holy shit, this freak won't stay down, someone grab the girl and put a gun to her head, that'll stop the freak hero!" A commanding voice shouts.
"Right or wrong, I can hardly tell, I'm on the wrong side of Heaven, and the righteous side of Hell!"
"The wrong side of Heaven, and the righteous side, the righteous side of Hell!"
"I heard from God today, and she sounded just like me. What have I done and who have I become?"
"I saw the Devil today, and he looked a lot like me…I looked away, I turned away!"
"Shit, the girls gone boss, she's fucking gone!"
"Fuck it everyone bug out, jobs over!" The commanding voice from before shouts.
The mercs run around like chickens with their heads cut off one of them coming over to me when I was about to get back to my feet, he shoves the barrel of his rifle in my face, I grab it and put over my shoulder with my right hand while my left fist rockets forward smashing the guy square in the nuts, off balance between the rifle and the nut shot, I lever myself up twist him ark and get him down on the ground foot on the back of neck I twist against and feel his arm give out and lose tension he screams but I barely register it as I take his rife and hit him in the back if the head as I remove my foot.
"Bear is down I repeat bear is down." Someone shouts and a new wave of gunfire hits me as the guys try to retreat.
"Leave him!" The commanding voice shouts and I see it's a guy in the back of the group if mercs.
"Arms wide open, I stand alone
I'm no hero, and I'm not made of stone!"
"Right or wrong, I can hardly tell, I'm on the wrong side of Heaven, and the righteous side of Hell, The wrong side of heaven, and the righteous side, the righteous side of Hell!"
"I'm not defending, downward descending,
falling further and further away!" Batman times it just right and descends on the mass of mercs and starts dismantling them.
"Getting closer every day!"
"I'm getting closer every day, to the end…
to the end, the end, the end,
I'm getting closer every day!"
"Arms wide open, I stand alone, I'm no hero, and I'm not made of stone!"
"Right or wrong, I can hardly tell, I'm on the wrong side of Heaven, and the righteous side of Hell, The wrong side of Heaven, and the righteous side of Hell, The wrong side of Heaven, and the righteous side, the righteous side of Hell!!!" I finish off and the best of the music reaches its climax and tapers off at the same time Bruce finishes beating up the baddies, and tying them up.
I can feel his unhappiness as his gaze passes over me, the rifle still in my hand not being held in a way that can be used for more than a club…but still he's unhappy about it.
Setting the rifle down thankfully I wore gloves today though I'm not sure how that'll help with my blood being everywhere…looking behind me, I find a few stealth drones releasing concentrated streams of fire incinerating my blood.
"You need to be more careful!" Bruce says while glaring at me and I can tell that he's actually looking me over, the lens on his cowl changing color from white to go through many spectrums.
"Where's Victoria?" I ask, ignoring Bruce's obvious concern for me.
"In the Batmobile." Bruce grunts and we both leave the warehouse.
Before we reach the Batmobile Bruce rests his hand on my shoulder, "You did good today, helping out with those injured by Freeze and then tonight..." Bruce says to me and for some reason I feel a sense of pride at being recognized by The Batman.
"Uhh, thanks..." I mutter while feeling embarrassed, "Now I'm probably gonna duck up, I always fuck up after someone tells me I'm doing a good job." I grumble in acceptance of my fate to be a quintessential fuck up for the rest of my life when Bruce releases a chuckle.
"What are you laughing about?!" I ask while feeling annoyed and now I feel a little brother's plight...of having an annoying older brother know it all.
"You'll just have to train harder from now on to make sure you don't mess up!" Bruce says it like it's the most logical thing in the world.
"Fuck off!" I mutter while feeling my annoyance bubbling to a new peak, and this time Bruce let's out a real laugh and the canopy of the batmobile slides back revealing Victoria sleeping in the backseat.
Getting into the batmobile, "Robin, Kid Flash, Aqua Lad, had an excursion... yesterday while you were in damage control, they found a clone of superman...and they've decided to form a covert team...I want you on it as a mature force and to make sure that they all stay alive..." Bruce says to me as he starts driving to Wayne General Hospitals.
"I-uh, I'm not really into the whole hero thing, I mean sure I went out and helped people but that wasn't really being a hero not when it showed kid getting impaled by bebris from the fight on the news."
"What about going to rescues our passenger, that seemed pretty heroic, or how about diving into a dumpster to try and save the person inside...face it Shane you're more heroic than you want to admit." Bruce says to me and I let out a loud sigh and rest my chin on my fist as I look out the window to the passing scenery of Gotham.
'It would be nice to get out of the city, I miss the country air.'
"I brought it up to Harley before bringing it up to you she was rather enthusiastic about the idea...says it's what you need...to come to terms with your situation and start seeing yourself for who you are rather than who you think you are." Bruce continues and I can tell he's either really talked to Harley about this or he knows her well enough to know what she'd say because it sounds just like her.
'I bet if I ask to be paid some astronomical amount of money Bruce will change his mind and let me be."
"Fine, but I'm not doing it for free, this is a job, and I want my salary to be a million dollars a year plus Hazzard pay."
"The money will be deposited to your account tomorrow, and every mission where there is heavy combat and injuries you will be paid extra for your contributions and we'll call it hazard pay." Bruce says easily and I can't detect a hint of disappointment coming from him at all making my eyes widen in surprise.
"Uhh-thanks..." I mutter unintelligently.
"I would have paid you up to 100 million a year...you should learn to value yourself better." Batman says with a nod, leaving me blinking in shock.
'Fuck me and my inferiority complex.' I internally groan at the amount of money I just lost out on.
'Oh well at least I can do something nice for Harley...' I think as I happily go back to watching the buildings fly by.