Chapter 26

Matt McGinnis fell asleep. Terry looked at his little brother sleeping.

He lifted Matt up and carried him to his bed.

He looked outside the window and saw the batsignal. The Batsignal is almost always on every night to remind criminals they're being watched. He neglected it for two nights because of his personal affairs.

Since he felt like he won't be able to sleep early, he decided to heed the call and become Batman.

He jumped up to their roof. Backing up for take off, he activated his suit. Then, he ran towards the ledge. He leaped with his arms behind his back. Once he spread his arms, his wings appeared and rockets shot out of his soles to propel him forward.

Zoooom

Batman was off to fight crime again.

In the end, he just scared away some minor thugs trying to pull a robbery. He didn't get them to the police because there was no harm done yet. Then, he went home when he got tired.

Waking up, he took another set of his exams and that concluded his school year as a college freshman. It was summer vacation. But he still has work.

"Good afternoon, Alfred." Terry said as he found him in the living area of Wayne Manor.

"Good afternoon, Terry." Alfred said as he took notice of him while he was watching TV.

Terry took off his jacket and went to the kitchen to make Alfred some afternoon tea like always before he gets started with other things.

Suddenly, he heard someone running towards him. When he turned around, he almost lost balance as someone jumped and clung on to him. It was his girlfriend, Rose Wilson. He smiled and hugged her. They looked at each other and shared a kiss. Terry gently let her down on the ground.

"You missed me that much?"

"Yeah." Rose smiled at him as she still has her arms around Terry's neck.

Terry kissed her forehead and removed her arms before proceeding to make tea.

"You want some too?" He asked.

"I'll have a cup." She said as she lifted her body up the kitchen table and sat on it.

She watched Terry making tea. Both of them were silent, but it wasn't an awkward silence. It was a peaceful kind of silence.

Two days went by casually like that.

Then, the moment they've been waiting for has come as Barbara called them into the batcave.

"Call Deathstroke now." she said.

Terry held the communication device reminiscent of an old cellular phone but only lines up to one device like it. Untraceable too.

-You finally called. I was beginning to think you wouldn't. (Slade)

"I'm busy too."

-Hahahaha. The new batman has a sense of humor. How is my daughter?

Terry looked at Rose before replying "She's safe."

-You didn't hurt her?

"Of course."

-Good. Meet me where we first met. Or is it the second time according to you?

"The warehouse."

-Exactly.

The call ended and the device sparked. A bit of smoke rose from it. It short-circuited itself after one use.

"Suit up." Barbara said as she disappeared. It was her hologram form.

Terry and Rose looked at each other and nodded.

Rose was already wearing her suit and only had to put on her cowl.

Terry pressed the button on his belt and the nanotech enveloped his body.

"Dick would really want one of those because I sure do." Rose said as she looked at Terry's suit.

"It's pretty cool, but I have never used that before." Terry pointed at the batmobile.

"Sucks to be you." Rose said as she somersaulted over to the batmobile that was opening up the hatch concurrently. Rose landed at the driver's seat. "Wooh! I always wanted to do that." She said as she reminisced seeing the previous Batman do that before when the Titans visited Gotham.

The new Batman, Terry McGinnis, only gave a wry smile.

"Let's go." He said as he flew up.

The hatch of the batmobile closed and began revving.

Vroom vroom vroooooom kiiiii

Zoooom

Both of them went out the batcave through the waterfall.

They sped through the streets of Gotham. The Wayne Estate is at the edge of Gotham and the docks are also at the edge but in the other end.

After just a few minutes, they burst into the warehouse.

Deathstroke was waiting for them. His back was facing them.

Slade turned around without his helmet.

"Daughter."

"Shut up!" Rose shouted. This has been a trend in their relationship as father and daughter. Every time she thinks her father is trying to mend their relationship, it always ends up like this. The people who are close to her end up getting hurt.

"You decided to ally yourself with the enemy again. Not surprising."

"You have to stop this father. Or I'll be gone in your life forever."

"Once again, I'm going to have to eliminate the person that put a wedge between us."

"No one here is ruining your relationship with your own daughter but you, Slade." Batman said.

"Yet here you are." Slade replied as he put on his helmet.

"I didn't come here just for my father this time. Your daughter is here. She wants you to make things right with her."

"And how do you propose I do that?"

"Surrender."

"Ah. You batboys sound so much alike. The one in Jump city is also preachy just like you."

"We just want to help and you know it."

"If you want to help," Deathstroke kicked the ground and sprinted towards them as he unsheathed his swords. "then please die for me!"

Batman and Ravager split up and ran to enclose deathstroke on both sides.

-Meanwhile, at a building owned by the Maroni family-

"This is a search warrant for this property." The police officer said.

The man that was guarding the outside of the building was taken aback but he kept his calm.

"One moment, officer. We'll go get the owner."

He signaled to the other men that was waiting outside to get inside the building.

"We have the liberty to search this place without the owner's permission. Let us through." The police officer said as he pointed to the police cars arriving. Commissioner Barbara Gordon stepped out of the vehicle she was on.

"I'm afraid we can't let you do that." The man smiled at the officer.

"Then, we're going to have to use force." He was going to grab his gun but the man in front of him was faster. The officer took off his hand from the gun on his hip ans slowly backed away with his arms up in the air.

The mobster kept pointing the gun at him as he backed away into the building. The gates started to close.

-How the hell did they found out about this place!

-I don't know! Maybe someone still loyal to Maroni!

All of Maroni's men are now controlled by Derek Powers when he got deathstroke to kill him and took over the organization without letting anyone know that Maroni died.

Barbara grinned as she heard the conversation being transmitted to her ears.

"Commissioner. What do we do?" The subordinate said.

"Make sure to cover all their possible exits. You got the blueprint of the building, right?"

"Yes."

"Make the assault team bring out the battering rams and get ready. Give me the megaphone." She said as she hold out her hand to receive the megaphone.

She held the megaphone in front of her and started speaking.

-Derek Powers. We know you're in there. You are surrounded. Come out and surrender.

-This Bitch! Where's our backup?! (Derek Powers)

- We're trying to call them but they're not answering! (Mobster)

-Don't try and wait for back up. We already raided your base. (Barbara)

-F***!! Did they plant a microphone in here?! (Powers)

Barbar smiled and held herself back from laughing at Derek Powers panicking.

-What are you all doing?! Shoot them down and help me escape! (Powers)

Barbara furrowed her brows and handed back the megaphone to one of her subordinates. "Prepare for gunfire. Assume positions." She said calmly. It was the one thing she avoided the most. A shootout.

The glass windows of the building got shattered. The police prepared for the incoming attack.

----

Ravager slashed at her father with her sword. Deathstroke blocked it while simultaneously blocking Batman's attacks and countering both of them.

Although two of them were attacking him, Deathstroke gracefully evaded all of Ravager's attacks while also blocking and countering Batman. He is really showing that he is serious this time around unlike the time when they were on the rooftop.

Batman punched and kicked but gets blocked and cut.

-Defense systems at eighty-five percent (LUCIUS)

A normal sword would have dulled or get chipped by Batman's suit but Deathstroke's swords along with his skills made them an effective weapon against the current Batman.

Slade is very carefully countering Rose with non fatal attacks. He kicked her then turned around and slashed Batman with his two swords. Batman blocked it with his forearms. The blades on his forearms and Deathstroke's swords made sparks when they clashed.

Deathstroke's last attack pushed them back. He stood still and waited for them to attack again.

Both heroes were breathing heavily.

"I know that's not all you've got, is it?" Deathstroke taunted them.

Batman was the first to move. "Graaaaaah!!!" He ran and did a roundhouse kick. Deathstroke caught his leg.

"Isn't this familiar. I'm having deja vu right now." Deathstroke laughed as he cocked back his other arm to break Batman's leg again.

Boom!

Something exploded behind Deathstroke's leg. He glanced at his back and he saw his daughter in a post-throw pose. She threw an explosive aimed at his leg. His knee bended.

Zooooom

When he looked back towards Batman, his other foot was heading straight to his face. The rockets were turned on and it dealt a heavy blow to Deathstroke's head. He ended up falling to his back.

Batman flew up and turned off his rockets to freefall directly at Deathstroke.

Deathstroke quickly rolled to the side and successfully dodged Batman. Batman's fall created a crater where Deathstroke was once was. But there was no time for him to feel relieved. Ravager slashed at him on the ground but he successfully blocked it with his own swords.

Ravager pushed down. Deathstroke was in a bind. He had to fight Ravager's pushing force along with gravity. His double edged swords touched his armor.

He had to do something before Batman joins in the power struggle. He let go of his other sword and used his other arm to punch Ravager's leg.

"Urgh!" Ravager groaned.

Deathstroke used this opportunity to push her off and did a kip-up to stand back up. Just in time before Batman's stomp reached him. Now, he was the one panting. Even if he was serious, these two were skilled in their own right and taking them on alone was asking for too much.

He needed more information about his enemy to strategize and defeat them. He already knew about Rose but he didn't know anything about this new Batman other than him saying that Deathstroke killed his father.

"Can I at least know the identity of my opponent?" Deathstroke said.

"You don't need to know." Batman replied.

"Then, it would be pointless."

"Why is that?"

"Because I wouldn't be able to know the father who got avenged by his son." He started to walk around. "You won't give me something that would make me regret killing him. That would make me say 'I probably shouldn't have killed him then, his son wouldn't have come for me.' Or something like that." He smiled under his helmet.

Ravager held her hand on Batman's chest and said "Don't listen to him. He's probably just stalling time."

"I know." Batman replied.

Deathstroke widened his eye at the unexpected information he uncovered by the simple interaction he saw from them. It was the way Ravager touched Batman and Batman's affectionate reply to her. "Haha...Hahaha...Hahahahahahaha!!!" He laughed like he has gone mad.

Batman and Ravager furrowed their brows at him.

"So, that's how you got her to your side." Deathstroke threw a snide remark.