The Lone Knight (Under The Cowl Book #1)

CHAPTER 24

     What Alec enjoyed most about being a speedster was what the average human eye would normally miss. The oversight of micro expressions many hide to keep even the tiniest bit of themselves to themselves.

Identifying joy, anger, sadness, and disgust was child's play. Whether its expressions many would show the world or hide from their closest of confidants, nothing ever got pass him. And as he watched the sparks and smoke blow pass the rim of the shotgun held in the hands of Bruce Wayne and aimed at Stephanie, he unexpectedly found a hint of relief on the face of Stephanie Brown.

Was this content? Acceptance of her end she knew she could not stop. New for sure, he began to wonder if this was one of the many feelings that go through the mind of an individual when faced with their own demises?

Impressed to find Stephanie without the expression of horror or wide-eye fear. Instead it was a face ready for anything, even if it meant putting her life on the line to save the defenseless. 

What makes you so fearless? A question that drew Alec's attention toward Stephanie's eyes and its subtle inch in his direction; Does she knows I'm here?

Alec heard stories of the many versions of Bruce Wayne throughout the Multiverse, those who dawn the cape and cowl of the Batman. Painted as intimidating, heroic, a killer, a fighter, and a father to those who lives he touched. The many descriptions that described Batman made it hard to believe he was just a man.

It started with the stories Cyborg had told him about his time before he joined the Collectors of the Fifty-Two and how he knew of a Robin.

The Robin's clear lack of a superpower would normally make him a detriment to those with extraordinary abilities. It's what irritated Cyborg about joining the Teen Titans. Many times he tried to get Robin thrown off the team because he was not only smaller in stature in comparison to him, but a young man without superpowers. 

But after a while it surprised Cyborg to learn Robin may have been the toughest one among their team of teenagers once out in the field of battle. A skilled hero trained by the legendary Batman, whose never give up attitude saved the lives of many including that of himself and his team until his dying breath. Every Robin and Batgirl in the Collectors index are considered leaders, lone heroes in their own right with a story that singlehandedly defied the odds against them.

Time I defy the odds.

Alec kicked up his speed, reaching deep to drive every muscle, grinding every joint to swerve in a direction his speed had not allowed before. No longer moving in one solid direction, Alec cut around and leaped over the furniture in his way.

Racing against the clock, but in this case, against the speed of the buckshot aimed towards Stephanie.

He nudge Stephanie out of the way of the shot gun blast. Come on, come on! he screamed at his body to keep up the pace, push a little bit further.

Face to face with Bruce Wayne and the Mask of Ruin, Alec did not hold back.

He stopped and drove his hands forward into Bruce's chest, sending him flying across the room and through the wall into the next.

Winded, Alec never exerted that much speed before.

"Took you long enough to get here." Stephanie said as she climbed up to her feet.

Puzzled, Alec didn't know what to say.

When freed from the shackles of his sound crippling prison he wanted to believe the cause was from Stephanie's faulty equipment.   

It was the moment he felt Cyborg hit the ground after Stephanie knock him back into the apartment. She pressed a button on her utility belt that turned off  the baterangs that kept him grounded. Groggy and a little out of it, his eyes met Stephanie's as she began to mouth something he could not hear. It wasn't till she threw out her flying baterang to create her hologram to fool Daria while she turned to take cover when he knew what he needed to do.

"Phase." her lips read.

Those few seconds gave Alec all the time he needed to race and shield Cyborg, phasing them both from the erupted explosion.

"Why did you tell me to phase?"

"You telling me you wouldn't have thought to do that on your own? Or maybe you don't want to believe I might be someone you and your team misjudged."

"You broke the law of interdimensional travel."

"Would you believe me if I told you I was kidnapped?"

"Where's your proof?"

"Self-repair complete."

"What was that?" Alec asked, turning to look down at Stephanie's cowl on the floor."

"About time." she picked up her mask.

Built with speakers where the ears are, a screen over the eyes at the push of a button behind the ears, and a voice Alec found familiar. "Who is that?" he asked.

"Velocity, meet Oracle. Oracle, meet Velocity, or should I say Alexander Rupert. Didn't think I knew your real name, huh?"

It didn't surprise him,  Stephanie being one of Batman's protégées and all. "Oracle?"

"On my Earth its the name Barbra took on after she gave up being Batgirl. This Oracle, programmed by me, is an artificial intelligence I've come to use to watch my back. The voice you hear is Barbra's." 

"Hello, Mr. Rupert."

"Status report?"

"Due to repeated high frequency shock a force shutdown was taken into effect. Currently operating on emergency power, expected lifespan thirty minutes."

"It took a lot of damage when I activated my staff to deal with Cyborg, a bit of a hard nut, that guy?"

"He'll be fine."

"Good. Now we just need to take care of him." Stephanie pointed back to the matter at hand.

Alec watched Bruce rise up from behind the wall he crashed through, the mask of Ruin covering his face entirely. "This was what you wanted. Force us to fight together."

Stephanie shrugged. "You can't deal with me until you deal with him, right. Besides, I don't think she doesn't mind."

Out the window the searing red glare of Daria's ignited heat vision burned bright, seeking to burrow a hole into the Mask of Ruin.

"So your plan is to use the both of us?"

"You're closest to Rachel. That's who he is after. I need you to take her and get out of here."

"And you?"

"Are you worried about me?" she teased.

Calculating his options, Stephanie's right. Alec could see he was Rachel's best chance at survival.

Off he went.

Alec raced to lift the unconscious Rachel up off the ground where he looked to escape out the window.

Ruin leaped forward and fast, reaching forward to stop the speedster.

The brush of Ruin's hand across the top of his shoulder was not that of human skin. Rough, jagged like a rock wall made for thrill seeking climbers. 

Quickly he got low. 

Alec scrapped his knee across the floor in order to avoid the bright beam of Daria's heat vision shot over his shoulder.

Ruin, nailed in the chest and pushed off his feet, Stephanie jumped and roll out of the way of the driving force followed by Daria's airborne tackle out the apartment and through the walls and doors across to the other side of the high rise where she took Ruin.