Chapter 18 – Call at Arms

A burly silhouette was running through the side alleys of the city, in hopes of getting rid of his pursuer. An expression of desperation was distorting his face as he thought of who was the one that was on his tail.

Suddenly, a bullwhip wrapped around one of his legs. The man lost his balance and crashed on the ground, tumbling. But his adrenaline-filled body barely felt the pain. He pushed with his hands against the ground, trying to lift himself up. But then, a slender leg kicked his hands from under him, making him collapse face-first into the asphalt again.

The man tried once again to lift himself up, but then, a sharp heel buried itself into his right hand.

"Aargh!"

A scream of pain broke the silence of the night. Then, a sassy voice followed by a seductive giggle were heard:

"Fufu. Have you not realized the futility of your actions, yet?"

Her words barely finished, when a dark-cloaked silhouette came into view.

"Good job, Catwoman." came his distorted voice.

"I told you to call me Kitty!" the woman pouted cutely and the newly-arrived man had to turn his eyes to the side, in order to not fall prey to her eyes.

Batman - he was the newly arrived man - came near the collapsed man and began to speak.

"Sean Johnson. 45 years old, divorced. No children. Having just finished 20 years in prison for murder and armed robbery... It seems that spending 20 years in prison was not enough to make a proper American citizen out of you...I wonder what would work..." Batman said and trailed off as he took off one of the two belts at his midsection, belt which straightened out upon being taken off and morphed into a sword.

The burly man who until then stood petrified, silent, suddenly began to scream for mercy.

"Please! No, please! That was supposed to be the last time! I swear to god, please don't do this! I'm begging you!"

Hearing the man's desperate pleas for mercy would move even the coldest hearts. And Batman and Catwoman would have faltered as well had this been the first time they witnessed a scene like that. Unfortunately for the murderer at their feet, though, they had been doing this together for the past two years. There was no room for mercy in their hearts anymore...not when it came to those that could not be redeemed.

"So this was supposed to be the last time you were going to kill people in order to get rich, heh? How convenient!" Catwoman spoke coldly. No hint of sassiness could be found in her voice this time around.

She turned toward Batman and asked:

"Whose turn is today?"

"My turn." Batman replied. "You crushed that rapist's genitals last night."

With that, Batman looked at the criminal that was now crying like a little schoolgirl on the ground. It was no secret how cruel Batman and his partner have become during the last 2 years. But even so, there still were some criminals that thought that they would manage to get away with their crimes. The burly man shaking and crying on the ground had been one of those people before.

The light of the lampposts glinted into the blade of the sword when it was brandished. Two stomach-churning sounds were heard and howls of agony followed. The criminal's two arms had been removed from his elbows.

Scene break

Batman rubbed at his eyes tiredly.

'Another sleepless night.' he thought.

He looked at his right, to the one that was clinging onto his arm as if it were a teddy bear. He brought his callused and heavy hand to her face and gently caressed her soft cheek.

"I don't think I could have done all these things without having you by my side.." Batman muttered softly and planted a kiss on the woman's forehead.

Long eyelashes fluttered open and a pair of green eyes met Bruce Wayne's blue ones.

"Can't sleep again?"

He didn't answer as it was obvious. Selina lifted herself up, above him. She cradled his head with her arms and pushed it into her voluminous chest. Bruce Wayne let his head drown in her softness and closed his eyes at the sensation of his lover's hands caressing his hair.

"Do you ever regret becoming my partner? Becoming mine?" Batman asked.

Selina's hands stopped. Only a few short seconds passed until she spoke again, but for Bruce, it felt like an eternity. Anxiety began to clench at his heart and he unconsciously gripped his arms tighter around her, burying his face deeper into her chest.

"Bruce, I can't breathe." Selina lightly admonished. She didn't tell him that he was actually hurting her. She had never seen him being so vulnerable before. It reminded her of the fact that he was Bruce Wayne...that she had fallen in love not just with his Batman persona, but with Bruce Wayne too.

Selina tightened her arms around his head and whispered:

"Remember when that boy Uzumaki almost killed you?"

Nobody likes being remembered of his failures, but Batman acknowledged her words with a soft grunt.

"Back then, I really thought you were going die...that he was going to kill you. I-.." Selina's voice quivered.

"You never know how much you cared about someone until you lose them... It was then that I realized that losing you would...it was then that I realized that I had fallen in love with you."

And it was true, when Batman confronted Naruto 3 years before and was stabbed into the spine with his bone dagger, it was only Catwoman's cries that stopped Naruto from killing him. It was her begging that convinced the bone user to spare Batman's life - at least that is what Batman thought.

"I'm not saying that what we've done for the past two years was an enjoyable thing... no sane man or woman would say that after maiming so many people."

"But I don't regret being with you, Bruce. I've never regretted it. Not even once."

For a few moments not a sound was heard.

"Why?" came Bruce's voice, choking with emotion.

A pure smile marred Selina's face, instead of the usual seductive one, when she said:

"Is it not obvious? Because I love you, dumbo!"

Bruce couldn't help himself. Stretching his neck to reach her, he clashed his lips against her in a kiss filled with passion and love. What his words failed to deliver, the kiss more than managed to do it instead.

But suddenly, a startling sound of an alarm going off was heard.

A greatly annoyed Batman and Catwoman hurriedly jumped out of their bed. From the top of the bed, Batman took out an electric baton and, seemingly out of nowhere, Catwoman also grabbed an exquisite looking silver revolver.

"There is only one person that knows of this place." Batman said grimly. "Are the kryptonite bullets loaded?"

Catwoman nodded in agreement. She felt inwardly nervous but at the sight of the calm and composed Batman, she felt herself relax a little.

As if sensing her restless mood, Bruce turned towards her and placed a quick, comforting kiss on her cheek.

"Don't worry. Nothing will happen to you as long as I am with you. Even more than so while we are in this room." Batman said confidently.

That's because he had long prepared for the eventuality where Superman would try to bust into his home - his new home as he had stopped living at his manor 2 years before. Planted all over the walls of the room were small tubes that would expel large amounts of paralyzing gas at a simple voice command of his. Batman knew that Kryptonite and magic were not the only weaknesses of the Man of Steel - lethal gases were as well.

The door of their large bedroom was opened rather gently and a blue-clad muscular figure stepped in. Seeing the baton cackling with electricity in Bruce Wayne's hands and the revolver in Selina Kyle's hands pointed at him, he said:

"Is this how old friends greet each other?"

"I don't have friends." Batman stated flatly. "And friends don't break into each other's homes in the thick of the night."

A tense silence instilled between the three of them.

Ever since Batman left the Justice League two years before, the relationship between the Dark Knight and the rest of the League became tense, that being especially the case when it came to Superman.

"What are you here for, Superman? From our last confrontation you should have understood that even if I'm just a human, I have more than enough ways to hold my own against you."

Superman's face was scrunched by a frown at the memory. After the Uzumaki boy was imprisoned, Batman's behaviour changed radically...he became an extremist. Almost fanatic with cruelly punishing the criminals. And because of that, a serious conflict arose between the two of them. But the fact that Batman had yet to kill anyone and that many of the League's members were not against Batman's new methods - after all, in Gotham (of all the places in the world) the police department was facing the problem of not having anything to do due to there being no criminals anymore - all these things made their conflict remain unsolved. And although Superman managed, in the end, to corner Batman, Wonder Woman's intervention turned the tables.

'I guess I should have seen that coming back then.' Superman silently mused. Wonder Woman was an Amazon before anything else...and Amazons never showed mercy to their enemies. It was no wonder that the Princess of the Amazons would find Batman's new violent methods agreeable.

"I am not stupid enough to underestimate you, Bruce." Superman said. "Of all the people I've met until now, you're definitely the most dangerous."

"Cut the chase." Batman said sharply.

"May I use your computer?"

Batman nodded at Superman and followed him with his eyes as the red-cloaked hero went to the computer in the room and inserted a disc. The large screen was lit up and the image of an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean appeared.

"It's a footage that J'onn stumbled upon coincidentally while doing a routine check over the data gathered at the Watchtower. One of the satellites showed two disturbing images."

At first, there was nothing wrong with the image relayed on the screen: a rather ordinary island, covered by a tropical forest. But when the next picture appeared, 4/5 of island's appearance was completely changed. The previously green coloured island was now covered by a white colour.

"When he saw it, he thought that it was worth investigating...a tropical island doesn't just become white over night..."

"Green Lantern and Hawkwoman were on duty that day, so they were sent at the scene.."

The screen flickered and a new image appeared. At the sight in front of them, Batman's face became dark and Catwoman paled.

Tree-sized gigantic bones protruded from the ground and dozens of corpses were impaled on them. Arms, legs, blood and gore were splattered everywhere.

"It was a carnage..." Superman said grimly. "From the information J'onn managed to dig out, the island used to be a secret facility serving as a prison for metahumans..."

"Are those bones?" Batman asked, almost inwardly praying that his fears would not be proved to be true.

"Yes." Superman nodded. "And a simple DNA test confirmed the identity of the one that used them - Uzumaki Naruto."

Silence hung in the air.

"What does that have to do with me? Last time I checked, a torturer wasn't welcomed amongst the Leagues' ranks - your words, not mine."

Superman looked like he was having trouble finding the right words.

"Uzumaki Naruto...he had killed over 200 metahumans, presumably in an instant... I don't know anyone that's powerful enough to do such a deed. Most of them were, after all, very powerful, death-row metahumans. Not even someone like Darkseid would be able to pull off something like this in an instant."

"Again, what does that have to do with me?" Batman stressed.

"You know very well that Lex Luthor has always wanted to break the Justice League.." Superman said.

"Don't tell me-" Catwoman, who until then had been silent, asked with widened eyes.

"Yes. A street surveillance camera in Moscow, Russia, spotted Lex Luthor in the company of Uzumaki Naruto who, by the look of things, was acting as his bodyguard."

Batman fell deep in thought.

'Uzumaki was not the type that could be bought with money. Just what did Luther offer him to win him over?'

Superman's following words, however, brought his attention back to the discussion.

"We need you, Bruce! The Justice League needs Batman again!"