The Batpoint Paradox

Collision

*Dick

Conner barreled into the warehouse followed closely by Donna, Roy and of course Wally, Damien and Jason immediately barred into the fight, but Tim was making hand motions at me. Thanks to Cass, we were all fluent in sign language, Tim was signing something along the lines of 'Luther is not the target, mission failed'.

Unfortunately that piece of information came just a tad too late so the only thing I could do with it was scream internally as I attempted to avoid engaging in combat with my not husband, husband. Though it soon became apparent that Wally was not on the same page as I was, I might have been the Goddamned Batman, but my mad vigilante skills couldn't do jack to keep a determined speedster from getting all up in my personal space.

Normally that's exactly where I wanted him to be, but nothing about this situation was normal and it was clear by the look on his face that this encounter was more likely to end with a sonic fist to my face than me getting some ginger lovin.

He slammed right into me before I had a chance to dodge (read hide behind Tim) together we went barreling into a wall, I barely managed to keep myself upright as I readied myself for his next attack.

"So you're going after the president himself now? Did you guys really think we wouldn't catch you? What's your plan? What do you want?" Wally grilled me while throwing speed punches. Thankfully I managed to sidestep his next punch and discreetly pull out my bat-taser.

"He's fine, he'll be back to stealing candy from children and penning his next chapter of 'The follicularly challenged megalomaniac's guide for achieving World Domination...Or whatever it is he's trying to pull here, really can't believe ya'll are buying his act." I quipped after dodging his next strike in an attempt to distract myself from from I was about to do.

Pushing down the guilt, I grit my teeth and tased the love of my life in the neck. He went down like a sack of potatoes, I knew he wouldn't stay that way for long though, we needed to move quickly. After that I moved quickly, didn't let myself dwell on the messed up reality of this situation, instead I moved  Wally out of the way of the fighting and took in the scene before me.

While I'd been busy with Wally, Tim had channeled his inner overachiever (not that the trait is all that deeply buried, but still) and made a beeline for the Amazon, though I'd have been willing to bet that his decision had at least as much to do with avoiding Kon as it did his superman complex (pun intended). Left with few other options, Jason had shoved Damien, (the only one of us who wasn't severely emotionally compromised) towards Roy, after growling out a warning against excessive force lest he wanted to experience death for the second time. With that settled Jason cracked his knuckles and smirked while making a come at me gesture at Conner.

Currently, two of my brothers were dodging super-blows while the other had somehow managed to set Roy's quiver on fire, thus causing the red head's face to match the color of his hair. A moment later Tim noticed me watching and caught my eye as he subtly flashed me a few quick hand motions, easily conveying to me the escape plan he'd somehow already managed to cook up. I acknowledged with an almost imperceptible nod and started making my way towards my other siblings so I could get their attention.

Three minutes, a couple smoke bombs and a hidden lead-lined, escape tunnel behind a soundproof hatch we'd had prepped and ready from the get-go, and before they even realized it we'd disappeared without a trace. Like Jim Gordon before he got used to Bruce's subpar social skills, always left scratching his head in baffled surprise every time B dipped out without a sound when he made the mistake of turning away for even half a second. I'm sure the old man would be proud of our abrupt ninja bat escape, one executed without the barest hint of social grace or common courtesy. Why give anyone else any more information than what they could see for themselves, I was never fond of the Bruce Wayne method of keeping pretty much everything he's not actively forced to share to himself, but I had to admit that in this case it was an unfortunate necessity. The longer we engaged them in battle, the more information they could gather on us and our plans, god forbid if they managed to capture any of us, both scenarios could pose an unacceptable threat to our mission.

God I needed to get out of this cowl, despite my best intentions the weight of it coupled with the stress and pain of our situation, was bringing out far more Bruce-esque qualities in me than I was c comfortable with. Yet with the knowledge of Luthor's shocking lack of involvement we were right back at square one with no promising leads and a growing sense of unease, everyday insidious doubt crept further into our subconscious, that nagging 'what if?' 

Because, what if we failed?