CHAPTER 32: Part 4 - "The End Of Innocence"

Barbara (Batgirl), Gotham City Mall

SWOOSH SWOOSH... SWOOSH

Barbara flung three batarangs straight toward the Hound... or should she say Krios.

Krios merely waved his hand and redirected two of the batarangs away and the third came close to hitting a few inches from his chest before bouncing off.

'He has gotten better at shielding himself,' she thought annoyed.

Their fight if it could be called that, had been going on for a few minutes with Barbara not landing a single blow. Krios however had utilized his powers effectively by throwing random items and occasional concussive blasts to keep her at a distance. Try as she might she could not close the gap to engage him.

Fighting a meta like him requires multiple teammates attacking at once to divert attention while one goes in for a hit. On her own with the limited equipment she had, she was poorly equipped to win this fight.

Ivy gave a bored sigh, "Oh Krios darling stop playing and wrap this up will you."

Krios gave an eye roll, and muttered, "Why does she have to be so hot and yet so annoying."

He gave an apologetic look to Barbara, "I don't suppose you would be willing to call it quits for the day?"

"Would you?" she asked as she took out her last batarang.

"Probably not," he snorted as he raised his palm towards her.

'Think Barbs think! How can I...'

From the corner of her eye, she saw a possible solution. She could almost laugh, it was not likely to work. But at this point who cares.

With a quick flick of her wrist, the blade flew through the air past Krios and cut into the fire alarm. Perhaps there was a God because the next moment the alarm started blaring and the overhead sprinklers began spluttering.

Within seconds the floors had a thin layer of water and everywhere was soon soaking wet. Poison Ivy seemed to enjoy it, laughing at the surprise tactic.

Krios though did the best thing, he was startled by the alarms and looked away for a moment to watch the sprinklers release the water.

Exactly what she needed, a distraction.

Her perception of time seemed to slow as she pushed herself to the limit throwing herself across toward Krios. From her perspective she could see the side of his eye, widening at realization before his head turned back. Both his eyes were wide were sudden realization at her plan, his arm raised up to blast her away. But he was not quick enough.

Time seemed to resume its normal pace for her as she rammed her shoulder into his stomach tackling him to the ground.

She proceeded to punch him as hard as she could in his face, getting in at least two shots before he returned the favor with a punch to the gut, his though was powered by a blast that sent her up into the air and straight back down.

Krios rolled to the side to avoid her landing on him and slowly got up, shakily.

'Well, at least I got some hits in,' she morosely thought.

When he had blasted her off him she felt like she had been hit by a car, the wind was knocked out of her and her whole torso felt like wrecked. Landing back on the ground didn't help as she coughed in desperation for air.

"F&*k that hurt," Krios held a hand to his head.

"Did you really have hit so hard!"

Before she could come up with a snarky comeback she was hit again by a blast that sent her flying into one of the mall's columns. Tears sprang to her eyes from the pain, she could feel something had snapped and it was agonizing.

Krios stalked towards her both hands out as glass, mannequins, chairs, and anything else not bolted started swirling around him. His eyes blazed with fury and she knew that right now nothing was going to stop him.

It was sad to think of a day as pleasant as the one she had, this would also be her last one. Looking up at Krios she met his eyes, black swirling marbles that had no light, and definitely no mercy.

What she did not expect was for the stalking to stop and the whirlwind to slow a little. The black orbs that stared back at her green eyes flashed with something different.

His eyes blinked...

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*James (Krios), Gotham City Mall

His eyes blinked...

When the fight had started he was feeling particularly good. His training had paid off and he was more than confident in his abilities to defeat Batgirl. Heck, he was feeling good enough to take her and the other two Robins head on.

That is until she got the drop on him.

Credit where credit was due. Setting off the fire alarm had been a solid distraction and had startled him. That distraction had been enough for her to get the jump and land a few blows that really hurt.

He had sort of lost his temper at that and was preparing to crush her under a few hundred pounds of random junk he could grab.

Then their eyes met and something in him clicked.

Why were her eyes so familiar right now to him!?!

Before their little spar broke, he had come down to assist Ivy only to find her sitting on the third floor drinking water. He had walked over to her to ask what was going on before she shhh him.

"I am relaxing and taking time to appreciate this beauty darling, sit down, grab a drink, and relax. The heroes are plenty busy."

The beauty was some plant she was petting with a look that bordered on obsession. He had sat down with her and grabbed a few sodas which she had sniffed at but ignored. Then a grabbling hook shot up near them which got him out of his chair and hiding behind one of the mall columns.

The fight broke out after that.

'Those eyes, why are they so familiar right now?!? They weren't before when I fought her, why now?'

He could not explain it, but his anger dissipated and his instincts cautioned him against doing something rash. It was frustrating.

He felt a question forming on his lips before a roar to his left broke him from his thoughts.

Seemingly jumping from the bottom level was a teenager wearing a black shirt and jeans. His muscles were bulging and when he landed cracks appeared on the ground.

Turning to this new foe James was shocked that he knew this guy.

'Isn't that Conn..' he began to think before he dodged out of the way of the teen throwing a punch.

The thrown fist went past him into the ground and through the ceramic tiles.

James was surprised, 'A meta with superhuman strength!'

"Team go!" the familiar voice of the first Robin he fought yelled.

Running up the stairs he saw a group of vigilantes, one was a hooded green archer with blonde hair, the other was the Robin he first fought, and finally a black teenager...

Wait...

'What the f&^k thats Kaldur!' James thought.

Now looking at most of these vigilantes, he could see many similarities between them and Barbara's friends from earlier. The blond hair of Artemis, the red hair of Wally, and the height and voice of Dick, shit Kaldur and Connor looked exactly the same.

But wait, if they are all here does that means?

His eyes darted back to Batgirl...

'Well f&*k,' he thought.

His attention to this new discovery was diverted to Robin as he threw a batarang which bounced off his shield.

"It's been a while Hound," Robin said as he walked around him towards Batgirl who was still lying down against the column.

The rest of his team had engaged Poison Ivy, who had begun using her powers to cause the small bits of floral to lash out at the team. She kept flinging some sort of powder around and growing frustrated by the lack of reaction to it.

James at this point had given up enough of his concentration for the swirl of items he had floating to fall to the ground. The situation had changed and he was a little uncertain how to proceed.

He gathered his wits, "Actually, I go by Krios these days."

"Krios? What is that Latin," Robin frowned.

James just shrugged, in his mind he was still trying to deal with the fact that the girl who had asked him out was Batgirl!

The only positive he could think of the situation was that he felt certain she and they in turn did not know his identity. Otherwise, they would have arrested him immediately, and while he was a novice at relationships, even he could see there was something real between him and Barbs.

There was no con, or at least he didn't think there was.

Robin during James' musings had reached Batgirl and crouched down to check on her, what little could be seen from his mask showed concern.

The rest of the team meanwhile was showing some success battling Ivy, she seemed incredibly frustrated as her efforts to repel the team was losing ground.

Watching the fight James remarked, "Ivy said she had ensnared two of your members but I see that has failed, how did you break her control?"

Seeing her give up throwing some powder around he figured that's how she did it the first time.

"How are you guys fighting it off right now?" he asked curiously.

Robin stood up from checking Batgirl, "She underestimated that we would have something better..."

James was confused, "Something better?"

"Ya, you know..." Robin said as he walked slowly towards James.

James flicked his hand bringing broken shards of glass floating to his right, ready to fling should Robin try something.

"A telepath," Robin smirked.

From behind James, his senses warned him of something appearing out of nowhere behind him. And then he felt dainty hands lightly grip his head and suddenly felt very different, like tendrils were digging around inside his head. It was strange, not painful by any means but weird, it felt like someone was poking his brain yet what he knew should be agonizing was not.

It almost felt nice like he should relax and let go...

James' black eyes start glowing.

'NO!'

The tendrils sliding into his mind hesitated for a moment before renewing their effort, this time there was a growing discomfort. Soon his vision blurred to darkness and his hearing failed him. Before it became muted he thought he heard Robin talking with whoever was touching his head.

"M'gann do you have him?!?"

"I am trying he is strong though!"

"Watch out! His power is lashing out"

He could still feel the tendrils seep deeper into his mind as he found himself floating in an endless black space.

'Wait, where am I?'

'Why am I here?'

'I don't think I want to be here?'

'Ya, I really don't want to be here!'

'Let me go.'

The tendrils were really trying to dig deep now, where once it felt pleasant now it was just painful.

'LET...'

The black space around James began to shake, he thought he could hear some voices. They sounded like before, muffled and in a distance.

'ME...'

Light began cracking around the space and though tendrils kept digging they found no purchase and soon were being pushed back.

'GO!!!'

James found himself on one knee, the Martian had her hands gripping his head. He was not sure how much time passed, the experience felt like less then a second but a look around dissuade him of that thought.

A quick glance showed him that Robin had dragged Batgirl away from the battle. Ivy currently was being tied up by Artemis and Kaldur, not sure what happened there but either way, things were not looking great.

From his peripheral, he could see Connor walking up towards them.

"M'gann?" Connor asked concerned.

"Stay back!" She gasped, "His will is so strong, I can't hold him!"

"Enough of this," James muttered.

A table came flying overhead causing M'gann to let go of him to duck it. Unfortunately, that left her open for James to swing around and blast her away.

Seeing the perpetrator who tried to break into his mind getting a good smack felt good. What didn't feel good was the angry super-strength meta throwing a punch right into his chest.

He threw up his shield as quickly as he could to help dampen the attack but it was still like putting up a brick wall to stop a moving train.

James was sent flying into the mall wall breaking into its layers where it began to crumble around him, burying him completely from sight.