Harley Quinn Romance 3

Chapter 16: Rivalry

The featureless walls suddenly moved as more concealed doors swung open, and black clad warriors rushed into the room with weapons in hand. The warriors were dressed all in black with only a narrow slit where their eyes showed through. They closed in from all sides, failing to form a complete ring but instead dividing into two sections. Some waited near Talia while others came and stood between Talia and Batman, their backs toward the caped crusader and their weapons pointed toward Talia and those standing with her.

"The League is divided," Batwoman whispered.

"Ra's al Ghul was our master," one of the assassins said without taking his eyes from Talia. "We follow his chosen champion, not traitors."

"Well then, Beloved," Talia offered. "My people are willing to kill and yours aren't, so we know how this is going to end."

"With you imprisoned," Batwoman snapped.

No signal was given, but everyone seemed to know the moment had come. The fight began.

The League, no matter which side of the conflict they were on, were savage. Those following Batman held back from killing, but they didn't hesitate to stab, slash, or maim. Despite the fierceness of the conflict, it surged and faded like waves upon a shoreline. Because all the assassins we dressed alike, only Batman, Batwoman, and Talia were identifiable by either side, so once an opponent was vanquished, combatants would withdraw toward their side before charging in at a new target standing with their foes.

Batman took on a supporting role, throwing batarangs and the occasional punch or kick to distract an opponent so one of his supporters could either land a hit of their own or dodge an attack coming toward them. He fired a grappling line to snare an enemy by the ankle and drag him over, the slide across the floor knocking over several assassins who didn't move out of the way fast enough. The downed foe was tied up and left immobile while Batman's supporters made good use of throwing stars and knives to neutralize the downed enemies' fighting ability or pin them before they could get back up.

Talia had tried to close in on Batman, but Batwoman was waiting for her. The sharpened blade-hooks on Batwoman's forearm sliced within an inch of her throat. Talia brought up her sword, but Batwoman produced a batarang in each hand, wielding them like knives, their sharpened edges flashing with every movement.

Talia was not overly aggressive in attacking Batwoman as her eyes kept darting toward Batman and the fight continuing around him. Batman's supporters had suffered more casualties, but they'd had the numerical advantage from the start as more had been willing to follow Ra's last instructions than the woman responsible for his downfall. Many of the assassins were evenly matched, but the interference of Batman quickly shifted the balance, and Talia's available forces were diminishing at an ever increasing rate.

With her attention diverted, Talia never saw Batwoman's boot coming until the heel slammed into her midsection and sent her tumbling backwards across the floor. Talia slammed into the far wall, but the trained assassin rolled back to her feet as if not bothered in the slightest. Seeing the last of her forces either taken down or surrounded, she dropped a smoke pellet, vanishing down a corridor as the rising cloud of white obscured her exit.

Batwoman took out after her fleeing opponent, the enhanced vision of her cowl's lenses activating automatically when she entered the smoke cloud to render her surroundings in translucent blue light. At the end of the hallway Talia had fled through, Batwoman found an elevator and a stairwell door. The elevator was already gone, dropping into the depths of the building with Talia aboard. Batwoman waited only long enough for the number on the floor indicator to stop moving before shouldering her way through the stairwell door.

A jump over the railing sent Batwoman plunging feet first through the open shaft in the center of the stairwell. Railings and the steps they guarded whipped past her in a blur, but she paid no attention to it, focusing as much of her mind as she could on the flaring of her cape to catch the air and keep her drop from being suicidal. She reached the lowest level, landing in a roll to shed whatever momentum the cape had failed to.

To her left was an elevator door, slowly closing as it had already released its occupant. Glancing to the right, Batwoman saw Talia and hurled a batarang after her. The sharpened metal caught her rival in the shoulder, causing a stumble and grunt of pain, but it failed to prevent Talia from departing through another door. Batwoman continued the chase.

More steps led down, but unlike the concrete of the modern building, these were cut from stone, ancient and showing all the wear of their long years of use. Overhead lights with exposed wires provided illumination, but brackets for torches still marked the walls.

At the base of the stairs was a thick slab of a metal door. It was open partway, and Batwoman slipped inside. The next chamber was a vast cavern with a high ceiling. A number of archways to her left revealed long corridors lined with shelves stocked to capacity with enough emergency rations sufficient to feed an army for years. Identical hallways to her right were filled with weapons, everything from blowpipe darts to machine guns.

In the center of the chamber was a large and circular pool. The phosphorescent green liquid within the pool cast ripples of emerald light across the ceiling. Talia pulled the batarang from her shoulder before scooping a handful of the liquid out of the pool and splashing it on the wound. As Batwoman approached, she saw the damaged flesh regenerate until the wound had vanished without even leaving a scar.

"This must be the lazarus pit Batman mentioned," Batwoman concluded aloud.

"When I kill you, I'll show you how it works by bringing you back, so I can kill you again," Talia suggested, dropping the batarang to the floor with an echo of ringing metal. "I wonder, how many times can I kill you before I get bored? Shall we find out?"

"I'm not that easy to kill," Batwoman countered, adopting a fighting stance of her own.