Ablaze: Told Twice Book 2

The Girl With Dry Humor

Sakura finally found Batman fighting Bane. She heard Bane call out, "Didn't I bury you alive?"

Batman replied, "That's where you made your mistake."

"I won't repeat it."

Sakura watched as Bane grew to an alarming size. She wanted to jump into the fight and protect him, but Sakura knew better than that. Batman wouldn't be grateful for the interference, so she held back for a few moments to see if he could handle it on his own.

When Bane grabbed Batman by the cape and threw him into a crate, Sakura had enough of waiting; she wasn't going to let Bruce fight him alone if he didn't have to. That's why they were a team.

Bane proceeded to swing Batman around by his cape and throw him once more, but Batman landed on his feet. Angered by this, Bane picked up a crate that was next to the one that he'd previously shattered and tried to throw it at the bat, but Sakura, with a little stealth, slipped into his personal space and uppercut him causing him to drop his burden on his head. Sakura danced backward to Bruce's side.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." His tone was as curt as usual, but for some reason, she didn't feel the sting that she normally would. Foolishly, she directed her full attention at him and didn't see any of the frustration on his face that had been there previously.

"Watch out!" Batman said and shoved her out of the way of a blow that Bane intended for her. They fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs, but Batman was up and on his feet before she fully registered the fall.

She got to her feet, watching as Batman hit Bane several times in his abdomen with little effect. Having Batman that close made it easy for him to grab Batman and head butt him. Sakura ran around Bane, leaped into the air, and kicked the man in the back of the head. He stumbled forward, and his grip on Batman loosened. Sakura pulled out a kunai while Bane and Batman started trading blows once again. Since Bruce had the man distracted Sakura cut the tube of the venom that flowed in his veins watching as he decreased in size.

The ground rumbled again.

"You go this?" Sakura said once Bane was a manageable size again.

"Go," Batman assured her. "I got this." Sakura nodded and went to look for Superman but found Savage as he bellowed, "Welcome to the dawn of a new world." Sakura ran towards the man and hit him with as much force as she dared and watched as he crumpled to the ground distastefully. Then for good measure, she kicked him. She studied his body to make sure there were no further movements on his part before her mind moved on to the next problem.

Sakura looked up in the sky to see that Savage had launched his missile. She looked around wildly for Superman or Wonder Woman—even Green Lantern would have been useful at the moment. They needed a flyer sooner rather than later.

"Superman, I really need you right now!" Sakura shouted. As she stared up at the sound she heard a pop before seeing a small red and blue figure going after the missile. She let out a sigh of relief knowing that Clark was there.

Sakura felt a firm hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Wonder Woman above her. "Cheetah is down."

Sakura nodded. "So are Kaiyo and Bane."

"The others?"

Sakura shook her head. "I haven't seen GL or Cy, but Flash is fine. He helped me with Kaiyo."

"You left Flash alone with Kaiyo."

Sakura frowned, not seeing the problem. "I did."

"Did you not notice how soft he seemed on the creature? We don't know if she did anything to him when she had him alone. He could be compromised."

Sakura, who didn't think Flash was compromised at all, said blandly, "Oh no, what would we do if the Flash was compromised? It would be great if one of our members had a plan in place for just such an occasion."

Diana scowled at her.

Sakura sighed. That was probably too much too soon. "You should find GL. Superman may need back up. I'll look for Cyborg."

Sakura turned her back on Wonder Woman and walked away because she had a feeling that if she stayed an unnecessary fight would erupt between them and they still had work to do.

:::

Sakura hadn't found Cy yet when her earpiece crackled. "We have less than eight minutes before the solar flare hits." Superman's voice in her ear stated. Sakura bowed her head. They had been too late.

Green Lantern was the first to reply to the statement. "What do we do?"

"I don't know, but we've got less than eight minutes to decide."

"Maybe longer."

Sakura scowled at Hal's reply and touched her communicator. "GL, don't do anything stupid."

"I thought you knew Kunoichi I don't do stupid...only heroic."

"Lantern..." Sakura growled, but he ignored her and flew into space.

:::

Superman returned having swapped places with GL making Sakura more than a little uncomfortable.  "The flare is on its way. We've got seven minutes to come up with a solution." Sakura let her eyes roam over Superman looking for any injuries but finding none. The others had joined them, and she didn't see any pressing concerns on the others either. "Green Lantern is going to try and buy us some more time but we can't count on that."

Sakura closed her eyes briefly and hoped that Hal's plan didn't involve self-sacrifice.

"Maybe I could move the Earth out of the way."

Sakura's mouth dropped open incredulously, but before Sakura could gently shoot down his plan Batman retorted, "If I had a week, I couldn't list all the reasons that wouldn't work."

An irritated look crossed Superman's face. "Do you have a plan?"

"No, but Savage does. This place is going to be sun side when the flare gets here."

"The Legion wasn't worried about that." Flash mused.

"There must be some mechanism to protect them from the flare." Sakura theorized.

Savage who had regained consciousness was smirking at them all. Batman had enough. He grabbed the man by the color and menacingly demanded, "Start talking."

Sakura piped up, "Or I'll start breaking things."